Bits Bucket for July 12, 2011
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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Just shows how twisted and way off track our system has become. When congress is asking the un-federal reserve what is it doing to “create” jobs? My guess is that type of question doesn’t seem unusual to the vast majority. Yet strict constitutionalists are crazy. Lunatics running the asylum.
Fed chief to face grilling after weak jobs report
Congress is expected to grill Fed chief Bernanke about rising unemployment, high oil prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may feel surrounded when he testifies before Congress this week.
From his left, Democrats will demand to know what the Fed can do to create jobs, especially after the government reported last week that unemployment rose to 9.2 percent in June and the economy generated just 18,000 net new jobs.
From his right, Republicans will likely question the Fed’s complicity in high energy and food prices.
“The Fed has become a very convenient whipping post for members of Congress,” says Sarah Binder, a George Washington University political scientist who has studied the Fed’s relations with Congress.
But Bernanke won’t just play defense.
He’s expected to issue a strong warning to lawmakers to raise the nation’s debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline. On that day, the government won’t have enough money to pay all its bills and could default on its debt. “We believe he will be very harsh and direct when it comes to the issue of a U.S. default,” says David Kotok, chairman of the investment firm Cumberland Advisors. “He will ask the Congress not to play games with the debt limit.”
Negotiations have bogged down. Republicans reject Democratic proposals to include any tax increases in any deal to slash the federal government’s deficits in exchange for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit. Economists fear the threat of default will send interest rates soaring and risk tipping the economy back into recession.
Bernanke is also expected to once again urge Congress to postpone deep spending cuts as part of any deficit-reduction plan. He believes big cuts right away would jeopardize the economy, still fragile two years after economists say the Great Recession officially ended.
“He’s expected to issue a strong warning to lawmakers to raise the nation’s debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline.”
Feh. Just print more money, Bernanke. It’s that simple!
“Feh. Just print more money, Bernanke. It’s that simple”!
Correct! As you know that is exactly what will happen. Problem solved.
Hold on there just a minute. The Fed has no reservation about cooking up some more dollars, but they want to laon it to us at interest. It’s is afterall, their currency, not ours.
Money: We invent it and let you rent it.
That’s why Bernanke wants the debt ceiling raised, of course. It’s that simple. Which is why we should be issuing our own debt-free money.
you know…when you put it that way…it really is crazy.
It is insane. We let the Fed create fiats out of thin air, which they loan to us expecting interest payments. And if we default the banksters seize real world collateral: highways, powerplants, real estate, factories, the works.
Is it any wonder they and their proxies will end up with all the hard assets?
That’s the crux of it: Those printing press dollars can be used to buy hard assets.
What’s harder: Making hard assets, or printing monopoly money that is, by fiat, the only legal currency to buy said assets?
“That’s the crux of it: Those printing press dollars can be used to buy hard assets.”
Which is precisely what wealthy pigmen are doing on their way to owning everything of value.
That’s monetarism, the fed’s creed.
Bernanke is also expected to once again urge Congress to postpone deep spending cuts as part of any deficit-reduction plan. He believes big cuts right away would jeopardize the economy, still fragile two years after economists say the Great Recession officially ended…….
Do you really care what this moron has to say about anything? He has been dead wrong on every pronouncement, starting with “the subprimed credit crisis is “contained” and “we’ve never seen a nation=wide housing decline, so it’s very unlikely. Prices are elevated but supported by “fundamentals”.
He is a shill for his masters and buddies in the banks. You guys have it right. The only purpose the FED serves is to provide paper “money” to pass out to the BANKSTERS to buy up all the real assets with paper, while getting the working class into deeper debt.
They’ve been doing it since 1913 and have completely robbed the working American of his savings and wealth.
Obama is a firm supporter of the Banks and the FED. Congress gets “free money” from the FED. It won’t end till it collapses and this idiot will say the “things are getting better thanks to our hard work at giving away Trillions of dollars to our member banks.
We desperately need a revolution.
Wouldn’t if be funny if Bernanke just answered them by explaing that it’s not his job to create jobs because that’s their job? I’d laugh.
Wouldn’t if be funny if Bernanke just answered them by explaing that it’s not his job to create jobs because that’s their job? I’d laugh.
I’d be laughing too.
Because outside of having some sort of approval authority for creating positions at the Federal Reserve of which he is the chair, Bernanke can’t create jobs.
He should ask them how many people they want him to hire.
Drought Spreads Pain From Florida to Arizona
Grant Blankenship for The New York Times
COLQUITT, Ga. — The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.
Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days.
“It’s horrible so far,” said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on a thousand acres. “There is no description for what we’ve been through since we started planting corn in March.”
The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida, where severe water restrictions are in place, to Arizona, where ranchers could be forced to sell off entire herds of cattle because they simply cannot feed them.
In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. City dwellers and ranchers have been tormented by excessive heat and high winds. In the Southwest, wildfires are chewing through millions of acres.
Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture designated all 254 counties in Texas natural disaster areas, qualifying them for varying levels of federal relief. More than 30 percent of the state’s wheat fields might be lost, adding pressure to a crop in short supply globally.
Even if weather patterns shift and relief-giving rain comes, losses will surely head past $3 billion in Texas alone, state agricultural officials said.
Most troubling is that the drought, which could go down as one of the nation’s worst, has come on extra hot and extra early. It has its roots in 2010 and continued through the winter. The five months from this February to June, for example, were so dry that they shattered a Texas record set in 1917, said Don Conlee, the acting state climatologist.
Oklahoma has had only 28 percent of its normal summer rainfall, and the heat has blasted past 90 degrees for a month.
“We’ve had a two- or three-week start on what is likely to be a disastrous summer,” said Kevin Kloesel, director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.
The question, of course, becomes why. In a spring and summer in which weather news has been dominated by epic floods and tornadoes, it is hard to imagine that more than a quarter of the country is facing an equally daunting but very different kind of natural disaster.
From a meteorological standpoint, the answer is fairly simple. “A strong La Niña shut off the southern pipeline of moisture,” said David Miskus, who monitors drought for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The weather pattern called La Niña is an abnormal cooling of Pacific waters. It usually follows El Niño, which is an abnormal warming of those same waters.
Meanwhile, other parts of the country have been soaked. Here in the Ohio River valley, we’ve had more rain this year than just about any year on record (going back to 1830s). We had so much rain (and continue to, based on storms last night) that a lot of farmers could not get their crop in the field before the cut-off date (something the state sets, which is based on how late you can reasonably harverst, but probably has more to do with subsidies moneys).
Exactly. I watched all the media hand-wringing (Grace, get those boots and a slicker on and go stand in front of the camera in that flooded parking lot with the roof in the background just peeking up above the water) and it dawned on me that all that wasted stimulus money could have gone into a massive “water relocation” program.
Or heck plamy what about a job retraining…….or better yet bring Americans up to speed by teaching them English…..
Imagine kids being so smart with a HS diploma we can eliminate all remedial programs to get into college or tech schools.
it dawned on me that all that wasted stimulus money could have gone into a massive “water relocation” program.
But that would be socialism. Perrier or Evian in a partnership with FedEx would be my first choice.
Not to mention infringement on the “TrueAnger’s!™” State$ Right$!
What’s Texas going to give back to Minnesota for all of their relief drought water$, a Molly Ivins statue?
At the start of July the gov’t was predicting a large corn crop of some 92 B bushels. We were visiting my girfriend’s dad who is himself a farmer. He dismissed the gov’t prediction as an attempt to lower corn prices - which had reached a record a few weeks earlier. (interesting theory when viewed in concert with the SPR release - could the PTB be dabbling with prices?)
Anyway, the man knows his stuff - large portions of ND are offline due to the flooding, which is working its way down the Missouri River valley and taking even more corn out of the picture. In drive to MN he observed they planted late, as did IN OH and parts IL - due to a very cool and wet spring. Now there’s this drought, which from the sound of it is walloping the south.
Fascinating stuff. Almost as interesting as real estate.
The corn around here is doing fine. Better than fine, actually. We’ve had enough rain around here to keep it from getting that dry, sun baked look it usually starts to get in July-August.
I shouldn’t say all of the corn…….Some of it is sitting under six feet of water in bottom land around the Missouri river.
“…could the PTB be dabbling with prices?”
Are you asking if markets are gamed, rigged and cheated?
Is this a trick question?
A couple of years ago, when the last drought hit, it turned out the biggest water user in Austin was Lance Armstrong and his Olympic size pools.
Don’t get me started on Lance Armstrong. Having worked in a bike shop, I’ve dealt with more than a few of his ilk.
Around the shops, we refer to such people with words that rhyme with “ick.” And it goes downhill from there.
“Slick”?
“Mick”? (Got somethin’ against the Irish?)
So far, our monsoon season resembles an older gent with a prostate problem. It keeps getting up the clouds and trying to go, but it just can’t.
Phoenix got a pretty good soaking 2 nights ago. Still no major rain this season, but we still have a ways to go.
Best metaphor of the week, right there, Slim.
This is why ecologists have been warning about global warming. This issue scares me more than any other.
Why worry about drought when people have all that water from… De Nile?
I thought global warming increased the moisture in the air and that is why we had more snow. Of course, a few days ago we had a report that pollution in China is why the global temperatures have not gone up in 13 years which leads to the question did cleaning the air in the U.S. cause global warming in the first place. This is so confusing.
Seriously, seems to the the PDO and sunspots fits the data far better than the Co2 levels which have continued to increase without an increase in temperatures. Have to run miss reading and posting but too busy at work and my home computer will not post.
“I thought global warming increased the moisture in the air and that is why we had more snow.”
Not sure this is correct. Global warming makes conditions more extreme, both cold snaps, warm snaps and wet periods. And dry periods– Mother Nature is always trying to reach an equilibrium, which is what gives us low pressure cells, high pressure domes, storm fronts, etc. With the overall global temp warming, she’s still trying to find that equilibrium, but now there’s more overcorrection involved in all directions. It’s alot like the economy.
One of the things our scientists are pondering is how to ‘make more clouds’. It’s not too hard, think jet trails condensing into clouds. And cloud cover does prevent warming. It also would have some bad side effects, but they’re pondering it anyway.
The effects of global warming are NOT linear.
And that’s the biggest part of the problem. The wild swings in weather are what makes it so dangerous.
“…could rival the Dust Bowl days.”
Could?! IS!!
In Texas, it’s worse than that.
Realtors Are Liars
From discussions held here the past few days I see two employment trends that have emerged:
1. Wage earners get their hours cut to something below forty hours a week thus employers don’t have to pay them benifits. To make up the difference the wage earners have to get more than one part-time job. But getting more than one part-time job doesn’t fully solve their problem because there is still the matter of no benifits, something that has to be made up somehow from the wage earners combined wages from his two part-time jobs.
2. Salaried employes aren’t paid by the hour, they are paid by expectations. They are expected to produce a certain amount of output and if it takes them more than forty hours a week to produce this output then, well, that’s their problem.
Produce or be replaced. And since there are many in the ranks of the employeed who would jump at the chance to replace a salaried “slacker” the pressure to produce is unrelenting.
And the pressure is not only unrelenting, it is growing. More and more is expected of salaried employees as more and more work is piled onto them.
So either way the American worker is screwed.
I’ve been working on a project for almost a year now (and it has gone way past its expiration, actually) that brings me into contact with both the general public and businesses, big box retail and small operations. This “part time” crap is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. What’s strange is how people just expect part timers to be on call, as if people didn’t have to do other gigs as well to make ends meet. Not to mention the phone calls and emails and stuff that’s “expected” outside of working hours.
“Produce or be replaced” Ha-ha. Depends on what you’re expected to produce. I’ve seen productive workers (people who generate business) treated like complete crap. It really boggles the mind.
There are certain things that not everyone can do, one of which is generating business. It takes a certain mindset and attitude and ability to approach and communicate with others. As an associate of mine mentioned, all this silliness over “social media” is just a way of avoiding the inevitable, which is actual contact with a customer or client who will buy. Nobody really wants to have to do that and there are many companies that think “social media” can replace the normal sales cycle. I can tell you it ain’t happenin’. All these folks who thought some SEO/SocMed genius could replace boots on the ground have really been hosed big time.
“There are certain things that not everyone can do, one of which is generating business.”
But the bean-counting mentality that is behind business decisions do not see things this way: The folks at the ground level may see it but the bean-counters in their lofts do not.
What bean-counters see are numbers, and to them all numbers are equal. By this I’m not saying that a one is equal to a two, but I am saying that to them a one is equal to any other one.
Numbers matter in that they can be measured. To them if something cannot be measured then it must not matter.
Depends on who is counting the beans. If that person is responsible for keeping an operation going, there does come a point when push comes to shove and I’ve seen it. They will, of course, see how far they can push the envelope in terms of abuse/general jacking others around, but the closer the unit is to the actual sales cycle, the greater the realization by Mr. Bean that Mr. Glad Hand actually has something to do with Mr. Bean’s ability to feed Mrs. Bean and the little Beans.
“Depends on who is counting the beans.”
And it depends on how the beans are counted. You see all the time revenue projections that fall short because the human element is not taken into account.
Raise prices or raise taxes and revenues may drop off because people may change their behavior.
Or maybe not. Raise the price of stocks and people buy more shares. Drop the price and people not only do not buy more shares, they sell the shares they already own.
I have also come into contact with a handful of people who have been “downsized” out of corporate management and I have to say, not all of them are mouth-breathers. One guy I really admire worked for the same corporation in upper middle management for 20 years and found himself out of a job in his early 50s. Took him a year to find another job, only to have the company eliminate the program he was hired for within months. A local dealer for the company picked him up. It’s a whole different ball game for him, working on a local level, but I have to say, he’s really rolled with the punches and been quite cheerful and philosophical about the whole thing. Told me he’s just grateful to be working.
But, I can tell you it’s a whole other mode of operation for him. Full weekends off are a thing of the past, among other things.
“Full weekends off are a thing of the past, among other things.”
Weekends are for closers.
Not all bean counters are witless fools. I have seen the trend however, over the past decade at least, to expect more results for less money from said producers. It has been easy for them to just let wages stagnate as the cost of living soared. In this regard, inflation was business’s friend. Profits at my firm were ploughed into physical plant investment. The owners believed that Real Estate acquisition was the true path to future wealth. Now these “producers” are expected to make up for the real estate losses.
I have seen the trend however, over the past decade at least, to expect more results for less money from said producers.
Cost cutting is job #1 in Corporate America. I learned in biz school that there is a fancy name for it: “Operational Excellence”. Which is just a euphenism for “fire people and make those remaining work harder and longfer hours”.
And yes, the pressure to “produce more or be replaced” is definitely there.
Unless the cost is CEO pay.
Interesting. My corporate masters’ motto in their teevee commercials is “Excellence is all around you”. Now I know what that really means, in bean-counter code. And they are all about counting the beans.
We used to have a friend who was a high-ranking bean counter at Motorola. He was very, very smart, and a nice guy (although I wouldn’t want to face off with him in a negotiation). Despite this, he believed that one should buy as much house as possible and never pay off the mortgage. He didn’t understand our choice to live in a modest home, and we didn’t understand why he didn’t understand.
I’ll explain it to you. Your friend, having worked with finance for many years understands the basic metric of “economic expansion” and “compounding interest”. As long as the trend remains intact, then you need to be on the leverage side of the investment ledger. The higher your leverage, the higher your gains. That is what real estate “Investment” has meant for most of the prior generation in the 60’s through the 90’s, up till the “big boom” starting in 1998.
the Banksters play by the same metric. more leverage, more gains. Until the trade goes against you and the market falls, then the losses overtake you and you drown in debt…….unless, of course, you are a priviledged “to big to fail” crony…..then you get a “bailout” for the good of the country.
Palmy:
Ive been thinking the same way lately…been putting time in on facebook, and others and it seems like fun, but not really very productive for generating gigs.
And look just this morning a radio personality wants you to work for Free…and you know she making 5 figures and maybe a couple of them…..
————-
All these folks who thought some SEO/SocMed genius could replace boots on the ground have really been hosed big time
————-
Looking for bloggers/interns for CherryOnTop.com, a sophisticated online lifestyle/entertainment blog that is the brainchild of NYC’s Power 105.1 FM personality, Cherry Martinez. We want bloggers who are on top of the latest music, styles, people, places, and things. We want bloggers who are well versed on everyone from Lil Wayne to Adele, from Christian Louboutins to Air Jordans. As a blogger, you will be expected to submit 3 - 4 blog posts per week that focus on the ever changing world of entertainment & celebrity news, as well as hip-pop culture phenoms (ie sneaker releases, technology, etc). Our bloggers are responsible for keeping up with breaking celebrity news, gossip, and hip-pop culture phenom as it happens each day. Whether it’s a new music video, special event, news, etc., we want our readers to see it on COT first.
Please submit a resume and writing samples if interested.
Location: NYC
Compensation: no pay
“Compensation: no pay”
Ah, but they are auditioning.
Because hope springs eternal and many of the hopeful want to be famous and will DO ANYTHING for the opportunity to sample just a wee taste of fame they will willingly pay the price - any price.
So in a way there is some compensation offered.
The bad thing about going into a prestigious field is you are competing against those whose goal is not money but prestige. And because the seekers of prestige number in the millions the competition is extraordinarly stiff.
Yeah…I would work for free if the person was paying for their own airtime…..but she is easily making 6 figures and probably a couple of them.
So to me it crosses the line into abuse and probably labor law violations.
It does. Report her to the EEOC.
Now.
This social media thing is one of the biggest hose-jobs in terms of online sales. Like you, I’ve been selling stuff on line since 2002. When it was just about sales, it actually worked. People would go to ebay or amazon or a niche site to get what they wanted, done deal. Sure, there were problems and bugs related to the process, but really no more so than traditional mail order. Except for the confusions and unique problems caused by the entry of Asians into the process.
But enter social media into the mix and what a clusterfark. I tried one new site that popped up with much fanfare and it ended up being a bunch of sellers staring at each other’s crap and soliciting each other and “fave-ing” each other. Major circle jerk. Buncha losers.
True but i still like Myspace for the reason of the music…i find so many obscure and great songs that are not on the mainstream pandora slacker last etc.
But now myspace screwed up again, before my playlists were right out front on my page and you could see all 10 songs and easily click to other playlists now you see 5 songs and you have to clcik to see the full list and find all the other lists…plus they have now a box for the top hit songs…i dont care…but you cant get rid of it…
MySpace has the worst user interface I’ve EVER seen.
Bar none.
I will NEVER understand how it became so popular.
Facebook runs a close second.
I agree. But like DJ says, it catered to musicians in a way that nothing else ever has. Trying to make a song available on FB is a pain, it’s easier to turn it into a video and share it that way.
Haha, they want some of those blog thingies, but don’t know what to say in ‘em. Content, content, content!
“responsible for keeping up with breaking celebrity news, gossip, and hip-pop culture phenom ”
“Compensation: no pay”
Seems to me like a fair market price for the specified skill set. Nothing to bitch about here.
I’m inclined to agree. However, I have a friend who’s a citizen journalist (read: unpaid blogger) here in Tucson.
Her reporting deserves to be read far beyond here, but that would involve getting paid. Right now, she isn’t.
So, I’ve been encouraging her to pitch stories to Mother Jones, The Nation, and other publications on the left side of the airplane.
I know this is not easy, but it can be done. Heck, I’m trying to sell my photography to Mother Jones, and so far, total silence from Mom. It takes time.
As an associate of mine mentioned, all this silliness over “social media” is just a way of avoiding the inevitable, which is actual contact with a customer or client who will buy. Nobody really wants to have to do that and there are many companies that think “social media” can replace the normal sales cycle. I can tell you it ain’t happenin’. All these folks who thought some SEO/SocMed genius could replace boots on the ground have really been hosed big time.
Preach it, palmetto!
I was just on the phone with a young lass that was trying to help me get a database restored. (It’s back, TYVM.)
She mentioned that part of her company’s marketing services includes telemarketing and sending direct mail on my behalf. Well, I got my slender back up and informed her that I do those things mine own self.
After all, if *I* am the one looking for the work, why in the Sam Hill should I pay someone else to make calls on my behalf? I’ve been cold calling for a hair over four years, and no one’s reached through the phone and bitten me yet.
And, yes, that’s just the initial calling. You wanna make the sale? Well, toots, you have to keep calling. And calling. And e-mailing. Not to mention sending something cool and clever looking through the postal mail. And then making even more follow-up contacts by phone and e-mail.
People who think that social media and SEO work better than the above are just fooling themselves.
“People who think that social media and SEO work better than the above are just fooling themselves.”
And god knows there is no lack of them.
(Slim, it sounds like you’re getting decent ROI from your marketing. I had to drop mine. My ROI was zilch.)
(Slim, it sounds like you’re getting decent ROI from your marketing. I had to drop mine. My ROI was zilch.)
One of the things I do is make time for prospecting. Every work day, that’s how I start the day. Nothing like getting those no’s out of the way early.
This is not to say that I’ve had great success during the past year or so. It’s been tough. But I don’t use that as an excuse to stop prospecting.
‘Scuse me while I get back to finishing my e-mail newsletter. It’s to go out to prospects and clients tomorrow.
There. I’m back.
Now it’s on to working on the hardcopy version of my photography portfolio. That needs to get done before summer’s end.
As my daughter is fond of saying, “If you start the day by swallowing a frog, things have to get better.”
3. Public Union Goons. Great salaries, gold plated benefits and insane benefits. Work as little as you want. You can’t be fired for any reason. Increases in pay have no relationship to your work ethic anyways. Spike your pension in the last few years of work. Expect city/county/state governments to keep raising taxes to fund you. Any talk by any politician for any public union to pick up more of their costly pensions or health care will be meet with violent demonstrations and threats of violence. Recession? What recession?
Is it really a trend? Are there more and more overpaid gov’t employees every year, or are they getting laid off as the funding dries up? Because if its a trend, we should all jump on that band wagon, kind of like how “everyone” is jumping onto the healthcare bandwagon.
Where do you live bananaboy? I’m guessing some public union strong hold. Anyway, as much you are annoyed with the “goons” they aren’t the norm across the country.
Some of what he says is true in any place on earth.
Put a sock in it, cabana boy.
https://motherjones.com/files/images/share-wage-salary-workers-unions-300.gif
“Salaried employes aren’t paid by the hour, they are paid by expectations.”
During a recession, when employees have no labor market alternatives, expectations, and the work hours needed to fulfill them, are ever rising, while pay is stagnant.
P.S. The bogus productivity numbers, that seem to always rise during recessions, do not properly reflect two biases:
1) Unproductive workers are unemployed, creating an instant increase in average productivity.
2) Employed workers are scared, leading them to work longer hours in a desperation effort to stay employed. The extent to which longer work hours account for increased production should not be confused with a productivity gain.
+1 Two good points, Bear.
#2 comes back to bite the company in the butt when they decide to outsource those positions and fail to see the expected cost savings.
1. Wage earners get their hours cut to something below forty hours a week thus employers don’t have to pay them benifits. To make up the difference the wage earners have to get more than one part-time job. But getting more than one part-time job doesn’t fully solve their problem because there is still the matter of no benifits, something that has to be made up somehow from the wage earners combined wages from his two part-time jobs.
My college daughter was telling us this morning that at her retail job any one who doesn’t meet their quota of store credit card applications will be “written up”. “What am I supposed to do, force customers at gunpoint to apply for a store credit card?” She asked us.
And good luck with syncronizing the schedules of 2 or more part time jobs.
My college daughter was telling us this morning that at her retail job any one who doesn’t meet their quota of store credit card applications will be “written up”. “What am I supposed to do, force customers at gunpoint to apply for a store credit card?” She asked us.
I’d say that the store just got “written up.” On the Housing Bubble Blog.
And good luck with syncronizing the schedules of 2 or more part time jobs. that are youth magent$ for enthusiasm & morale!
What about the guy with 3 part time jobs because he wants to work 3 part time, low-paying, on call jobs with no benefits? It’s his choice. And what about the gal who doesn’t want health-insurance for herself or her family? What about her?
And how about the person who chooses to work 70 hours a week for a low salary because they don’t want to work 3 part time jobs with no benefits? It’s choice people.
If we don’t like the American corporatism we are all free to move to Mexico then sneak back over the border and do the jobs Americans won’t do.
Exactly! And children are better coal miners because they simply fit better. If we ban kids working in mines, we distort the workings of the free market, and that path leads to communism.
‘And the pressure is not only unrelenting, it is growing. More and more is expected of salaried employees as more and more work is piled onto them. ‘
Mr. Smiley’s Manager: I don’t think you’d fit in here.
Lester Burnham: I have fast food experience.
Mr. Smiley’s Manager: Yeah, like twenty years ago!
Lester Burnham: Well, I’m sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program. It seems unfair to presume I won’t be able to learn.
Been that way for the last thirty years.
You also left out gutted labor rights.
A day or two ago it was 5000…
Cisco May Cut as Many as 10,000 Jobs (Bloomberg)
Cisco Systems Inc. the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The cuts include as many as 7,000 jobs that would be eliminated by the end of August, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t final. Cisco is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers who accepted buyouts, the people said.
Cisco Chief Executive Officer John Chambers is slashing jobs and exiting less-profitable businesses as competitors such as Juniper Networks Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. take market share in Cisco’s main businesses with lower-priced, simpler products. Sales of Cisco’s switches and routers, which made up more than half of revenue last year, will continue to slip, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co.
Eliminating jobs will help Cisco wring $1 billion in savings in fiscal 2012, the company said in May. Cisco expects costs of $500 million to $1.1 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter as a result of the voluntary early retirement program, it said in a quarterly filing.
Cisco Systems Inc. the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive short termprofit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Fixed that. What will they be selling in a couple of years? What ever they can OEM from China Inc. I guess.
I wonder how long until a Chinese router maker buys out Cisco just to use their name on its products?
“……exiting less profitable businesses……”
Note that they aren’t saying “money losing”. I’ve seen this countless times…….businesses dumping “less profitable”(but still making a profit) businesses, to either offshore the business, or to chase a new pot of gold under some Far East rainbow.
“Less profitable” = “money losing” (to the CEO/MBA Wall Street Bankster crowd).
In this case, it really is “money losing”.
Remember all those commercials for that video conference system with the chick from Juno movie? What’s her name?
You know the commercials. She goes to her dock who is vacationing in Copenhagen but still seeing patients in the US. She goes to a grade school and they are video conferencing with kids in China (but it is middle of the day in both locations).
TONS of money spent on development and promotion… but no one buying.
Then there is the flip video camera. Crappy quality, worse than most smart phones, and at a hefty price. In this case, a crud ton of money spent to buy a company that had an unprofitable product that would be out of date within weeks.
I am reminded of my own company. In our core business, our product was the best at doing one thing. It took data from multiple sources and linked them into a single view (customer, patient, group, etc). Easy to penetrate a new market when you are the best. Problem is, as we got larger and larger market share, it becomes harder and harder to maintain revenue growth.
Our CEO kept saying, give me new products to sell. We kept trying to bolt mare accessories onto our product, but customers could see right away that they were unneeded junk.
Once you are top dog in your market, if you want to keep growing revenue, you have to branch out into new areas. Most of these attempts to branch out will be failures, so your bottom line suffers. Pretty soon you’re more concerned with bottom line than top line and the cuts come.
Flip cameras were profitable and much loved by thier users.
And this 10%/year growth thing is effing ridiculous.
It’s a hell of a lot easier to achieve 10% growth with a company that has $100K/ year in sales, than it is with one having $10 billion.
Doesn’t matter to the dipwads running the show. 10% a year to infinity.
Can’t achieve it? You are just a effing loser.
In my old shop, the Masters of the Universe at the Corporate HQ expected 8% a year. Even with every floor spot in the shop occupied 24/7/365, and everybody working 56 hour weeks for 48 out of 52 weeks.
Anyone who pointed out that this would only be achievable by overbilling/ripping off our customers was considered a “pessimist/not a team player/ bearer of a negative attitude” etc.
I remember one invoice I processed where I reviewed the billing, and sent it to accounting. Four weeks later, customer calls my boss and raises hell. Of course, it was “my problem”
Turns out my boss’s boss had gone in behind me and tacked on an additional 20% labor on every line item in the invoice
Anyone who pointed out that this would only be achievable by overbilling/ripping off our customers was considered a “pessimist/not a team player/ bearer of a negative attitude” etc.
Oh yes, the “negative/not a team player” thing.
Turns out my boss’s boss had gone in behind me and tacked on an additional 20% labor on every line item in the invoice
Isn’t it sad and scary how corrupt and immoral we have become? Sometimes it feels like we are one step away from the abyss.
We ARE.
“Less profitable” = “money losing”
Yup, and they want ever increasing sales and profits in a world of low income customers.
I am reminded of a story I read a few years ago that described how a big conglomerate (Unilever I believe) sells shampoo to impoverished customers in the 3rd world: In small packets like those in which ketchup is dispensed in fast food joints.
Turns out that Joe Slave only bathes once a week anyway, so he buys he shampoo packet for his weekly wash up.
I also read that he can buy single cigarettes, as a pack would be prohibitely expensive.
Anyway, this is our bright beautiful tomorrow (to quote Walt Disney).
Years ago, early 90’s, we drove through an Indian reservation, somewhere in the southwest, sorry can’t remember the state. Anyway we stopped at a little store for some refreshments and they had single cigarettes for sale at the counter for 11 cents each. Guy behind the counter said the same thing, towards the end of the month most folks could not afford a whole pack.
I know a woman who is in about that situation. She puts a few dollars on a prepaid car, so that she can buy beer and cigarettes all months. I know nicotine is addicitive. That’s why I quit smoking in college. She can’t afford her habits and needs to quit.
I know a woman who is in about that situation. She puts a few dollars on a prepaid car, so that she can buy beer and cigarettes all months. I know nicotine is addicitive. That’s why I quit smoking in college. She can’t afford her habits and needs to quit.
Back when I was in my late twenties and early thirties, I dated a fellow who had heavy drinking and smoking habits. It wasn’t a lovely, happy relationship, and we broke up after about a year.
Any-hoo, he went on to have numerous other women in his life, including a second wife. (His first marriage had gone blewie. Although he never came out and said so, I think his aforementioned habits had a lot to do with the breakup.)
Back in 2004, I heard that he died of a heart attack at the age of 61. The full story was that he’d gone to the hospital because he was having breathing problems. They were a complication of emphysema. (Guess where that came from.)
While he was in the hospital, his heart gave out.
Moral of the story: Quit smoking. Or don’t start.
Moral of the story: Quit smoking.
Or don’t start.or keep drinking.My FIL’s smoking habit contributed to his wife’s very serious health problems.
They are big time in the Chinese market. That Great Firewall of China didn’t build itself.
“I wonder how long until a Chinese router maker buys out Cisco just to use their name on its products?
Why would they since they already make the gear in the first place?
I just talked to some friends who still talk some of their friends that still work for HP in my region. (still with me?)
The deflation in wages continues: when I left 3years ago, factory workers’ pay was being cut from $14 to $11hr.
It’s now $9hr.
Guess what they build there? Their top of line servers and racks.
I wonder what that QC is like? Not. Will I ever recommend HP equip? What do you think?
How can all this be happening? I thought that untethered debt based fiat currencies was the way to prosperity for all. How to fix the problems?
Euro zone shifts to accepting possible Greek default
(Reuters) - The euro zone acknowledged for the first time some form of Greek default may be needed to cut Athens’ debts, but markets seized on the lack of a deadline for action and a lukewarm response from the IMF to heap pressure on Italy and Spain.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said on Tuesday euro zone finance ministers had effectively accepted that if they wanted to have the private sector involved in a second bailout of Greece, a selective debt default was likely, despite the European Central Bank’s vehement opposition to such a move.
“We have managed to break the knot, a very difficult knot,” he told reporters as he arrived for a second day of talks.
Asked about whether a selective default was now likely, he replied: “It is not excluded any more. Obviously the European Central Bank has stated in the statement that it did stick to its position, but the 17 (euro zone) ministers did not exclude it any more so we have more options, a broader scope.”
There is only one thing on the menu, regardless how you serve it.
It begins with “S” and it isn’t “Spam.”
By the time we get around to defaulting, I guess we can just forgive everyone else’s debt, and they can forgive ours, and we hit the reset button? How will this work out?
It won’t.
“The deficit is much higher than what we were told” - Now that’s funny…
Spain’s Castilla Has ‘Extremely Serious’ Deficit, Leader Says
(Bloomberg)
Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha region requested an urgent meeting with the Finance Ministry about its “extremely serious” fiscal situation as the nation’s borrowing costs reached a record on concern about debt-crisis contagion.
“The deficit is much higher than what we were told, the situation is extremely serious,” the region’s president, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, told Onda Cero radio in an interview today. “In the first quarter alone, the deficit reached 1.7 percent of gross domestic product compared with an annual target of 1.3 percent,” said Cospedal, elected on May 22 when the opposition People’s Party ended three decades of local Socialist rule.
Cospedal said she sent a letter to Finance Minister Elena Salgado seeking talks to find out “if the government knew about the reality of Castilla La Mancha’s fiscal situation.”
Dolores, isn’t that Spanish for not feeling well?
Dolores mean pains (as in plural). I always thought that was a strange name.
Probably as in labor.
“In the first quarter alone, the deficit reached 1.7 percent of gross domestic product…”
Ummmm, that doesn’t sound like much at all. We’re WAY higher than that. USA! USA! USA!
Hard to take a Bone from a Dog
by John Browne
Most people, provided they have a minimum of experience, know that taking a bone from a dog is a risky proposition. In terms of political power, few dogs are bigger than the American voting public. Taking away, or even threatening to take away, the major entitlements to which they have become accustomed could expose politicians to a mauling at election time. As the American leadership begins to grapple with very large issues of entitlement reform in “sacred” programs such as Medicare and Social Security, many may recoil from the task once the fangs begin flashing.
According to polls, 77% of Americans feel the U.S. Government must cut spending. But when it comes to specifics, the support melts away very fast. Until recently, the strongly Republican 26th District of upstate New York had elected only three Democrats since the Civil War. But in a special election held this month (to replace the resigned Republican Chris Lee) the district fell to the Democratic column for the fourth time in 150 years. Many have theorized that the political upset was based on fears that the budget plan put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would restrict entitlements, particularly Medicare.
http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/guestcommentaryview?art_id=10548
Not to worry. The Pubs are hosed and are completely oblivious. Obama gets another term and Democrats will be back in the saddle.
obama doesn’t know what to do.
the republicans ran on knowing what to do…yet are slowly realizing…they don’t know what to do either.
Nope. They all know what to do. It’s what to say they are going to do that they do not know.
I know what to do, and so does everyone else in this country. STOP ALLOWING US COMPANIES TO OFFSHORE THEIR LABOR WITH IMPUNITY. Is it really that difficult?
Yes. Yes it is. As long as we keep electing the bozos that allow it, then yes, it’s more than difficult. It’s impossible.
Republicans blocked ending tax breaks for offshoring jobs last Sept, and were promptly given more power in Congress in November by the voters .
You can’t fix that kind of stupid.
But in a special election held this month (to replace the resigned Republican Chris Lee) the district fell to the Democratic column for the fourth time in 150 years.
That - or you had a 3rd party siphon enough votes away.
And that is exactly what happened.
It is interesting that most democrats (including “The One”) are sounding more and more like fiscal republicans lately…
Does the term “fiscal republican” imply that republicans are more fiscally responsible and that democrats are starting to become more fiscally responsible? The only difference between the 2 parties fiscally are who pays the taxes and what the money gets spent on. Both are fiscally irresponsible to roughly equal degrees.
All of a sudden everyone in DC is against running deficits and yet we’ve run a deficit basically every year since shortly after WWII regardless of which party holds a majority. It’s just words at this point and both parties seem to be focused on out years rather than making any real changes today. I’ll pay attention when the talk turns to action. Until then it’s all a waste of time.
WHAT major entitlements?
SS? Came out of OUR paychecks.
Medicare? Practically gutted during Bush.
SNAP? Limited. Besides, staving people overthrow governments.
What does that leave? Oh yeah…. nothing.
Warrant for S.F. woman accused of bilking renters
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer SF Gate
SAN FRANCISCO –
An arrest warrant has been issued for a San Francisco woman who failed to show up in court on charges that she bilked would-be apartment renters of thousands of dollars apiece, authorities said Monday.
Rachael Marie Smith, 30, allegedly accepted would-be tenants’ money for her Inner Richmond District apartment, then told them they couldn’t move in immediately because her mother had cancer.
Smith is being sought on a $200,000 bench warrant after missing two court dates on numerous charges of grand theft and obtaining money under false pretenses, said Seth Steward, a spokesman for San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.
Smith recruited victims by posting ads on Craigslist that offered to rent her apartment on the 5600 block of California Street near 18th Avenue, police said. In fact, authorities said, she was a tenant there.
More than a dozen would-be tenants signed leases with Smith, and each gave her a $5,600 check for the deposit, authorities said.
Smith then told them that they wouldn’t be able to move in on their scheduled dates because her mother was sick and needed care, police said.
The alleged scam came to light when one woman signed her lease, then complained to a co-worker that she couldn’t get ahold of Smith. The co-worker told her that Smith had taken her deposit on the same apartment and had given her the same story about a cancer-stricken mother, police said.
Their money is history.
DANG!
$5,000 deposit?
How do so many stupid people have so much money?
Realty trade group overreported Chicago home prices
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Tribune reporter
7:26 p.m. CDT, July 11, 2011
The Illinois Association of Realtors said Monday that the median price it reported for home sales within the city of Chicago was inflated in May and mistakes in its reports may go back more than three years.
Errors in the reports can wrongly inflate consumer confidence in a housing market that has been struggling to recover for the past 4 1/2 years. It also can undermine the credibility of the real estate organizations that compile and disseminate the statistics. The Tribune and other media outlets report that data as part of regular coverage of the housing industry because it provides a pulse of the market.
The size of the Realtors’ errors is statistically significant, at least based on the May median price for condo sales wtihin the city. In its official report that has now been discredited, the trade group previously said that the median price of an existing condo sold in Chicago in May was $299,000, compared with $271,150 recorded in May 2010. In fact, the median price was $243,000, compared to a year-ago price of $265,000, according to data from Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, the multiple listing service for the Chicago area.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-realty-trade-group-overreported-chicago-home-prices-20110711,0,7597129.story - -
“Realty trade group overreported Chicago home prices”
SHOCKER!
LOL, but in case anyone hasn’t noticed, “overreporting” stuff is NOT limited to realtors. It’s everywhere you look. Case in point: The Atlanta school system. People are all up in arms about it, but why should it surprise anyone? The example is set from the top. The teachers and administrators see Washington and Wall Street reporting false statistics all the time and getting bonuses or contributions based on lies, so they figure that’s the way to go. Much as I wanted to excoriate the teachers for this, I can’t say as I blame them.
Doctor to patient: “You’re cured. Pay me!”
Just another record proving realtors and their corrupt trade organization NAR is an ongoing Crime Syndicate.
“Realty trade group overreported Chicago home prices”
what is that about realtors again?
i keep forgetting.
Allow me POB Michael……
Realtors Are Liars
It`s a Liars market.
In a few weeks I hope to share my firsthand account of what it’s like to sell a condo in Chicago in the spring/summer of 2011. For now, be content to know that based on what is going on around me - this story is entirely the truth. Brothers and sisters, the race to the bottom is on here.
Oh, and coming fresh off the 4th of July bbq circuit and one wedding - I have learned of even more friends and acquaintances that are taking the accidental landlord route. Each and every one was appalled when they learned my chosen to course (to sell due to family circumstances). “Why don’t you just rent it out?” echoes in my head.
How many of them have successfully found tennants? Or are they as prone to wishful thinking when attempting to set rental rates as they are when attempting to set a sales price?
One of the four has been renting out his unsold condo for five years now, after initially intending to rent it for two or three. Over the weekend he crowed that he just raised the rent by $50 with no problem whatsoever. But he seldom tells the whole story all at once - one has to be patient to get all the details…
Like the two burst pipes that necessitated extensive repairs, or that his loan is interest only, or that the building is essentially blacklisted by lenders, or that current comps suggest a 65% loss.
The others are relative newbies, but they all share the belief that their journey into accidental landlordium will be a short one. They have yet to provide details though.
We had some young realtor guys running for office here in 2006, and I was so impressed because they had rental properties. I had no idea….LOL!
We had some young realtor guys running for office here in 2006, and I was so impressed because they had rental properties. I had no idea….LOL!
Over the weekend, I was at lunch.
Sitting across the table was a very self-assured sounding lady. I asked what she did for a living.
“Property management.”
Turns out that it was her own house, and I didn’t have the heart to ask if she’d bought it to flip five years ago. There’s a lot of that around here.
I think you have to have more than just one property under management before you can call yourself a property manager.
I think you have to have more than just one property under management before you can call yourself a property manager.
That was my impression as well.
And, yes, I do know people in the property management business. They’re builders and managers of rental properties here in Tucson and in other cities. They’re an order of magnitude more savvy than the lady I met on Saturday.
Here in Long Beach CA some of the realtors post a higher closing price in the MLS than what is recorded with the County. This brings up the comps in the neighborhood
toast
That’s why you get the info from the County Recorder’s Office or the County Assessor’s Office. They also like to be selective to be effective on the comps. (Fib through omission.) The sq ft is another area they embelish. Thanks for the post. I’m in east Ventura County.
Trade Deficit of U.S. Unexpectedly Surges on Increase in Crude-Oil Imports. (Bloomberg)
The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in May to the highest level in almost three years, reflecting a surge in crude oil imports.
The gap grew 15 percent to $50.2 billion, exceeding all forecasts of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the biggest since October 2008, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Exports held near April’s record.
A weaker U.S. dollar and growing economies overseas may keep bolstering demand for American-made goods, benefiting companies like Smithfield Foods Inc. At the same time, the recent drop in oil costs and a slowdown in consumer spending may curb imports, indicating trade will help prop up the world’s largest economy.
“Some of our major trading partners, particularly ones in Asia, are growing faster than we are, which bodes pretty well for export growth,” Jay Bryson, a global economist at Wells Fargo Securities Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report. “Over the next few quarters, we do see a small boost to GDP growth.”
Some of our major trading partners, particularly ones in Asia, are growing faster than we are, which bodes pretty well for export growth
No it won’t. Unlike us, they aren’t stupid and will try to be self sufficient, even if it costs more than buying from us. They only buy from us when their is no other choice.
I recall Paul Craid Roberts in his column some years ago mentioned that we now export far more raw materials than finished goods.
their -> there
They also protect their home market far more rigidly than we do ours.
“Today’s young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view home ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance.”
~Robert Bridges (USC Marshall School of Business)
“Today’s young people would be foolish to
imitate their parentsinitiate $tudent loan$ and viewhome ownershipan over-paid college degree as the cornerstone of personal finance.”Dr. Craven Moore (IOU Evermore School of Business)
It’s certainly true that many of today’s youth already have mortgage-sized student loan debt. Back in the day, it was usually only those with MDs or JDs who graduated with six figure student loan debt.
It doesn’t have to be that way if you attend a State U and live at home. You might end up with a car loan sized student loan, which is still plenty, especially if you have to keep your P/T job at The Gap after you graduate.
When I graduated from med school, my debt was among the highest in my class because I borrowed every penny needed for tuition and living expenses. Believe me, there was no comfort in knowing the financial aid office considered me a “high roller” (their term, not mine!). It took me until age 40 to pay it all off.
Fast forward to 20 years post-graduation: my new car cost as much as my entire student debt, and it wasn’t a Porsche either. The power of inflation had shrunk my once-daunting school loans into a small SUV-sized package. I wonder if there will come a time when a six-figure educational debt will equal the cost of a midrange car? That would be some major inflation at work. I have to say that such a scenario really concerns me.
live at home before college
live at home during college
live at home after college
Hwy $en$e$ a trend…
I wonder if there will come a time when a six-figure educational debt will equal the cost of a midrange car? That would be some major inflation at work
Anyone know what folks do to off-set inflation in Argentina?
These days debt is a very risky proposition. At some point in the future there may be inflation, but it is unlikely to be wage inflation and more likely wages will continue to equalize with the rest of the third world. Thus even a car loan taken today could land you in really big trouble if things keep going south, much less a huge student loan.
Personally I would not do it!
When I lived in Mexico City in the late 70’s and early 80’s inflation was pretty high (about 50% IIRC) and loan interest rates were also sky high.
In order to sell cars to those who could not pay cash, VW came up with what they called “El Plan Automatico”.
The way it worked was that you signed up at the VW dealer. Say you wanted a Golf GL on the 40 month plan. VW would pool 40 other VW Golf GL buyers until the pool was complete, which maybe took a day or two.
Once the pool was complete VW would divide the current price of a VW Golf GL by 40. Everyone would pay that amount and a Golf GL would roll off the assembly line in Puebla. One of the 40 would be picked at random to take delivery.
Next month: the price has gone up. Again, it’s divided by 40 and everbody (including those who already took delivery) pay up.
This is repeated for 40 months until everyone has taken delivery. And if you are the last one, your car is paid for when you take delivery.
The amazing thing about this approach (which I believe is called a credit circle) is that if you saved the monthly payments in the bank you wounldn’t have enough cash to buy a new VW Golf GL at the end of 40 months.
live at home before college
live at home during college
live at home after college
While still working at the GAP. But now that you have a college degree you can become a “shift manager” and make $9/hr!
“El Plan Automatico”
Good anecdote In Colorado.
Good anecdote In Colorado.
At the height of the inflation days, most cars were sold this way in Mexico and other brands were quick to follow. I did my first 2 years of college down there and more than a few of my classmates aquired their cars that way, or were drving a clunker while waiting to picked for delivery.
Oh and another thing, back then Mexican VW’s were garbage! I had a Golf L and everything broke on that sucker. To this day I am still jaded against VW.
I believe Joseph Goebels originally came up with the idea in the late 30’s to sell Volkswagons(the people’s car).
Of course, very few actually ended up with a car.
From Wiki:
Hitler required a basic vehicle capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph). The “People’s Car” would be available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme, or Sparkarte (savings booklet),[12] at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle (an average income being around 32RM a week).[13]
They still made and sold the beetle in Mexico until not too many years ago.
It too was a piece of junk, but was quick, easy and cheap to fix. The engines had short life spans and there were shops that specialized in swapping out the air cooled engines for rebuilt engines while you waited.
Today’s young people would be foolish to take “business school” seriously. What do they teach you at business school anyway? How to get an entry-level job as a “project management intern”? I really don’t think you need college for that.
But employers come to colleges to recruit. And some jobs definitly don’t require a degree. A good example is Enterprise rent a car. They hire tons of biz grads every year as “trainees”. At the end of the year they fire most of them, promote the survivors to assistant manager and hire more victims.
I’ve seen that sort of thing happening at the University of Arizona business school. And, truth be told, a lot of the kids coming out of that school aren’t what could be termed the best and the brightest.
The great, shining exceptions are the kids coming out of the entrepreneurship program, who are some of the sharpest and most innovative on the UA campus. And here’s why: They don’t have to come from the business school. They can come from any school on campus, and oh, do they ever.
Some really crackerjack ones come in from the College of Optical Sciences, and oh, do they kick out some fabulous ideas.
College of Optical Sciences- Thanks Az Slim. I looked it up and that’s an interesting curriculum.
High School Student Inventors Dream Up A Better Wheelchair:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10388
“But employers come to colleges to recruit.”
I’ve heard that recruiting is WAY down.
“Today’s young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view home ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance.”
Ditto:
Stock market investing.
Jobs.
Entrepreneurship.
College.
Did I leave anything out?
So I’m afraid to ask what the new cornerstones are…?
You tell me and we’ll both know.
JULY 11, 2011.
A Home Is a Lousy Investment
By ROBERT BRIDGES
Today’s young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance
Home values may gain value over time, but home equity is locked-in until the house is sold.
Housing markets may be forever doomed to cyclicality for many reasons, but public policies that stimulate new construction or home purchases by tax and financing subsidies, reduction of qualifying incomes, buyer credits, mortgage backstopping, and preferential zoning and permitting, only intensify these cycles. Efforts to reduce loan balances and to create special rescue programs have reduced the security of loans, challenged the enforceability of contracts, and driven up real borrowing costs. Nearly a third of our states do not allow lenders the recourse provisions necessary to go after a borrower’s personal assets in case of default on a residential mortgage. The sanctity of mortgage obligations has become the rough moral equivalent of the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576375323652341888.html - 184k -
a house (i hate using that word home…i rent…and it is just as much my home as any money renters place is) is a lousy investment when interest rates are really really low.
they are a good investment when interest rates are really really high.
they are a place to live when interest rates are moderate.
The word “home” used in lieu of the word house is a marketing ploy by NAR.
Your home can be;
A hotel room
A mansion
A condo
A refrigerator box
A park bench
An apartment
An RV
A tent
…. or a HOUSE.
A house is just another structure. And there are millions of empty,excess, unused houses in the US.
“Home is where you wear your hat, I feel so broke up I wanna go home.” Doctor Emilio Lizardo.
A house you live in is not an investment any more than a pound of hamburger that you are going to eat for dinner. It’s an expense, and if you are paying interest it is a debtor’s prison.
And the cost of borrowing merely magnifies the loss.
Yes and no. BUYING a house IS an investment. But the dividends (housing) are paid in kind and consumed in their entirety. Buying more house just means that you are consuming more housing, not getting more returns that can be used for something else. But the central buy vs rent decision for housing is similar to any investment decision. It is a risk and time weighted decision balancing current price with anticipated future returns. The mistake people make is using housing as a SPECULATIVE investment: Anticipating not only that buying will return housing but also future appreciation. And usually, appreciation is low enough over time to make speculation in housing a bad bet.
The mistake people make is using housing as a SPECULATIVE investment: Anticipating not only that buying will return housing but also future appreciation.
I agree with your post but even buying housing as a speculative investment has not always been a mistake.
Of course. Many people gamble and win. But not even realizing that you’re gambling is often a path to ruin. Because many of the flippers who were making out real well for themselves simply kept doubling down until they were broke. When you go to Vegas, nobody cares how much you were “up” by. Just how much you came home with.
Ponzi schemes are great investments, if you get out.
I went to Vegas and won enough money for two people to eat ALL THEY WANTED at Taco Bell. That was awesome.
We already knew that a home was a lousy investment, but is it the WORST investment yet?
It depends on the woman.
LOL!
Suzanne smacks Blue Skye with a 20# trout…stuffed with cement.
Or the man.
Hey Blue:
I think I know why she left you. If you had been a better husband, then you’d be better off today.
Lighten up Ms. V. She had an incurable disease. I took good care of her regardless. But I will always be a wise ass.
Wise asses are fun.You just have to be able to tell when they’re being silly. Trouble is, it’s not the same for each one.
“Efforts to reduce loan balances and to create special rescue programs have… challenged the enforceability of contracts…”
” Nearly a third of our states do not allow lenders the recourse provisions necessary to go after a borrower’s personal assets in case of default on a residential mortgage.”
But non-recourse was in the contract, no? Or should the sanctity of contracts only exist when it benefits the banksters? (Considering that this article comes from the Murdoch-owned WSJ, I’m guessing the answer is ‘yes’).
When will the idea of walking away become common enough that mortgage rates will differ significantly for recourse and non-recourse loans. For all that banks have been complaining about jingle mail, they have yet to discount recourse loans siginficantly compared to non-recourse loans. ISTM that their actions speak louder than their words.
It is indeed odd that there is no significant difference in mortgage rates between recourse and non-recourse states. Especially at this stage of the game.
Evidence that lenders are NOT pricing default judgements into their “severity of losses” risk models. And, I would argue evidence that they don’t actually think that all the walkaways are REALLY “ruthless defaulters,” who could choose to pay.
I guess people still see house as an investment because they might actually pay it off someday. Of course it isn’t an investment in the sense of generating an income flow or because it is anticipated to apprecetiate more than a savings account.
A house could still be considered an investment even if you don’t make any money on it. You need shelter whether you rent it or you buy it. If the overall cost of owning is cheaper than renting a comparable property then you’ve made a wise investment by owning. It’s sort of like arguing that there’s no point in buying a stove because you’ll probably have to sell it someday for less than you bought it for. That ignores the fact that you have to eat everyday and if you can’t cook at home then you have to eat at a restaurant which will likely cost more per meal.
I realize it isn’t a perfect analogy, but you get the idea. And yes, the trick is to find a situation where all the costs of owning (including reduced flexibility) are less than the costs of renting. That isn’t easy to find.
U.S. Tackles Housing Slump
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584404576440033488980192.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
More housing price inflating insanity under considernatio as NAR and NAHB bribe corrupt public servants and public servants peddle influence.
epic fail.
that article made me want to throw up.
BINGO
Projectile vomit in the direction of a local housing fraudster or those influence peddlers in DC before just before I tie the noose around their neck.
“What’s good for
GMhousing is good for America.”Exactly. And we see how well that excuse worked out for GM. And America.
“What’s good for GM is good for America”
Exactly. And we see how well that excuse worked out for GM. And America.
The excuse would have worked out for America in the “protect American jobs, markets and industrial base” way if the excuse would have been followed in the way it was first intended IMO- to promote American manufacturing.
GM is manufacturing which should be separated from the finance/banking sphere of the economy when we think about “what is good for America”. Even if we didn’t know this before we should sure see it now as we’re 40 years into this experiment.
We’ve thrown our manufacturing base to the wolves in favor of the finance sector and in part, shareholders. We’ve done “what’s good for Goldman Sachs” at the expense of the GM type manufacturing base of our economy. If we had really done “what’s good for GM” we would have implemented:
1. Universal health coverage lowering the production cost of GM Ford an Dodge cars.
2. Fair trade policies with GM’s foreign competitors.
3. Tariffs in place to protect the entire manufacturing base of the American economy.
Then “what’s good for GM” would have been “good for America” (just not as good for the finance/Banking sector and some shareholders as our current globalized, crony-capitalism system)
If we had really done “what’s good for GM” we would have implemented:
4. Nationalized “Right to Work” for all workers
5. Tort Reform
6. Roll back of 70% of government bureaucracy
7. Lowering the corporate tax rate
8. Tax Dividends the same as debt
9. Allow the bankruptcy laws to not to be perverted to save political donors
4. Until it’s your job subject to 50% wage cut
5. Until it’s your missing limbs you want to be compensated for.
6. Unless it’s military
7. Unless it’s your taxes that will surely go up.
8. See #7.
9. Speaking of legal perversion.
You seem to know what’s good for everyone else….. except yourself.
4. Nationalized “Right to Work” for all workers
If we did my points 1-3 this would not be necessary but fine. Let’s do it in exchange for nationalized laws making union formation easier for the workers who want to form them.
5. Tort Reform Agreed
6. Roll back of 70% of government bureaucracy
Too broad of a statement to know what you are meaning.
7. Lowering the corporate tax rate
No. This is a proven a non-factor. We’ve been lowering effective corporate tax rates for 40 years. Corporate tax receipts as a percent of American GDP is at a 60 year low and much lower than many of our Eurozone and Asia competitors. It is not “high corporate taxes” putting US manufacturing at a disadvantage. Why? Because the effective corporate tax after all the loopholes is very low.
“Although the United States has the second highest statutory corporate tax, the background paper reports that U.S. corporate income tax revenue (federal and state) as a percentage of GDP paradoxically is much lower than the OECD average — 2.2 percent in the United States versus an OECD average of 3.4 percent”
http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/FE9DCA58402875D7852573680064DA50?OpenDocument
8. Tax Dividends the same as debt
I’m not sure what you mean but OK if we also tax capital gains the same as income.
9. Allow the bankruptcy laws to not to be perverted to save political donors
OK
Then “what’s good for GM” would have been “good for America” (just not as good for the finance/Banking sector and some shareholders as our current globalized, crony-capitalism system)
“What’s good for GM is good for America” just takes me back to the bad old days of horrible GM management. What’s good for America is to flush out the BS artists in all areas and reward management competence. Except we keep allowing the BS artists to have a voice in defining what’s good for America, and they don’t want to be flushed out.
“8. Tax Dividends the same as debt
I’m not sure what you mean but OK if we also tax capital gains the same as income.”
i think he means dividend income should be taxed the same as interest income. i agree the the favorable divinend rate should be eqaul to the ordinary income rate.
only after that would i be open to any reduction in the corporate income tax rate.
decreasing the corporate rate while leaving the current dividend rate alone will just help the ruling classa and super rich fleece more money from middle class.
“U.S. Tackles Housing Slump”
Great comments too.
It seems that most of the responders “get-it” these days, but the bankers, brokers and realtors insist on government help under the guise of helping homeowners.
lots of good comments…this is one of the bad ones…i bet the NAR would love this idiot’s idea…and i’m surprised they are not lobbying for it (he must be a realtor).
“Here’s an idea: Let people pull money directly out of their IRA/401K (tax/penalty free) to buy/refinance their primary residence. When they eventually sell the property, this money will need to be put back into their IRA/401K. This should incentivize first time buyers by allowing them to reduce the size of the mortgage they will need. Likewise, it should incentivize current owners by allowing them to refinance with a smaller mortgage amount. Of course, the downside here is that the liquidity of the retirement account is decreased as a percentage of the assets will be tied up in real estate.”
Thing is, many 401(k) plans DO allow you to borrow against your balance. That’s where much of my greater than 20% down payment came from when I bought in 1999. It’s kind of like a second mortgage, but it ISN’T secured by a lein on the house, but by the balance in the 401(k). It worked out very well for me, I paid it back when I refinanced in 2003.
If you quite or get laid off it becomes a taxable event.
Oh, it’s not without risk. And the risk of a taxable distribution just when you need to husbund your resources is one of ‘em. But I looked around, played the odds, rolled my dice and didn’t crap out. Since I effectively took some money out of the stock market in 1999 and put it back in 2003 it worked out better than I could have reasonably hoped. With the benefit of nearly 20/20 hindsight, I would have come out ahead if I HAD bought a bit more home. A dining room and a garage would have been nice. But I’m mostly satisfied with my mostly paid off house, and that puts me ahead of the crowd these days, so I count myself a winner.
Jim A
I admire anyone with a goal of living in a paid off home. Good for you. You are a great strategic planner.
The FHA 3.5%ers with the 203K fix up loans, are our competition for 1970 ranchers, and we’re paying cash. It’s just debt to them to fix up the house. For us it’s cold cash.
My SIL has a paid off house. Unfortunately her father did all the repairs and maintance until he got too sick (about 7 years). Her husband died 18 years ago. Now her health is beginning to show signs of failing. She does have a bad ankle but is overweight and will neither exercise or lose weight. Oh, she says sthat she needs to, but that’s as far as she goes.
The house is naturally far too big for just her. fortunately the layout lets her completely ignore the upstairs. I think it’s mainly a huge play room. She spends most of the day taking the grandkids to appointments and activities since two incomes are needed sto pay her daughter’s bills. The big problem in that area is that the 5 year old is autisic and has to be taken to therapy regularly. Unfortunately at 67 I don’t see her continuing to be able to do this many more years. Especially since Sat she was telling that she is currently have as much trouble getting aroun now as her faather did at 80.
Why can’t the daughter and grandkids move in with her?
Kind of hard to exercise with a bum ankle. Especially when you are older.
Tore my Achillies tendon a few years back. Doc says to stay off of it for six weeks. Yeah, right.
Healed (sorta) after six months, using the “Pain is weakness leaving the body” plan.
Been through a few of those “self-physical therapy” courses myself.
The daughter would never give up her big house and big acreage in the country. A slightly more workable solution would be for the mother to move in with the daughter’s family. I don’t see that happening either.
Sharing the home is a good solution. My gsrandmother lived with us while I was growing up. It made a huge difference in the way things functions. Grandmother did almost all the cooking and a lot of the cleaning. Mother made clothes for the 3 females and some stuff for my brothers and did most of the gardening after my father planted. Everyone helped snao beans, shell peas and such for canning.
The house was always neat and clean. toys stayed in bedrooms. It may not have been ideal for my parents, but it was a workable solution. I think we will see more of it if the economy does not show major improvement.
“i bet the NAR would love this idiot’s idea”
NAR would love it, but it won’t happen since that would mean less money in which Wall Street could dip its fingers.
What idiot would borrow from a fund which is protected by BK law in order to buy an asset which is NOT protected by BK law?
Likely the same FB’s who didn’t look at what they were signing.
10 years ago I had no idea that ANY funds were protected by BK law. Where should I have learned that growing up?
High school… if they had taught it.
But they don’t.
Personal finances cannot be found as part of ANY curriculum of ANY public school.
Want to guess why?
Can I use my IRA to buy crack? That will help to support poor crack dealers and the all the little industries that depend on crack.
Time just keeps ticking away. Another spring gone, and soon another summer. When’s the bottom? 2011? 2012? who cares. They’re just miffed because they can’t make this event conform to the demands of the election cycle.
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said
raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were “not enough,
raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were “not enough,
raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were “not enough,
we’re going back to the drawing board.”
we’re going back to the drawing board.”
we’re going back to the drawing board.”
we’re going back to the drawing board.”
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said at a White House town hall last week. Mr. Obama said housing remained the “most stubborn” problem facing the country and conceded that a raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were “not enough, and so we’re going back to the drawing board.”
What part of “…people who make $500 or less a week can’t buy houses” do they effing not get?!
Real estate investors behind two-thirds of Jacksonville’s foreclosures
By Kevin Turner
Posted: July 3, 2011 - 12:00am
While only 25% of Duval homes are owned by investors, they are responsible for 75% of foreclosures.
“Money was easy come, easy go in the mid-2000s,” said Jacksonville foreclosure attorney Chip Parker. “There were a lot of middle-class families taking their savings out, figuring they could make more money in the real estate market than on the stock market.”
Many did, until the real estate bubble burst and the market reversed. They then found themselves unable to sell properties or get financing to fix them up. And they watched helplessly as they steadily lost value. Many fell below their mortgaged value, or “underwater.”
That was when some people began to choose to walk away from mortgages on homes that were losing value, Parker said. That decision is a lot easier to make when it comes to an investment property, Parker said, because there’s less sentimentality for those than there is for family homes.
“Once you take the emotion part away, you see more walkaways. That is an absolute certainty,” he said.
Parker said it wasn’t unusual two or three years ago for him to hear from people who owned five or six properties and didn’t know what to do about the mortgages on them. Many of those landlords initially got adjustable-rate mortgages with zero down payments — loans designed for people who live in their homes, he said. Adjustable-rate mortgages started with payments based on low interest rates, but if properties weren’t resold within a time period, a higher payment kicked in. And when the boom ended and sales dried up, those higher payments pushed many toward foreclosure.
http://jacksonville.com/business/real-estate/2011-07-03/story/real-estate-investors-behind-two-thirds-jacksonvilles - 110k -
Anybody remember old penis-head Hank, our former Treasury Secretary, getting all stern about how he was talking to some of his buddies on Wall Street and “I understand there are people out there not paying their mortgages.”
Tsk-tsk.
p-h Hank I like that. Did you see the guy in the “online reputation” ad on the right bar of the main site today? Reminds me of p-h Hank kinda.
While only 25% of Duval homes are owned by investors, they are responsible for 75% of foreclosures.
Same appears to be the case here in Tucson. Matter of fact, I can point to five empty houses within easy walking distance of the Arizona Slim Ranch. All were purchased by investors.
2/3s.
Wow.
Lawsuit: Chase Bank Declared Florida Woman Dead
- Associated Press
SANFORD, Florida– A Florida woman says she’s having numerous financial troubles because of a bank error that caused Chase Bank USA to declare her dead last November.
Wrenella Pierre has filed a lawsuit and Chase officials said Monday they’re investigating how the mistake happened.
When Pierre and her husband built their home in 2007, they got two mortgages through Chase.
According to the lawsuit, the bank notified credit-reporting agencies last year that Pierre had died. They sent a letter of condolence to the family, saying someone from the bank would be in touch about the mortgage.
Pierre says she notified bank officials that she was alive and also went to a local branch to correct the mistake.
A month later, the lawsuit alleges, credit agencies still reported her dead.
How long until the banks officially claim to own us? Maybe when the SCOTUS finally declares that only corporations and not humans are people.
About 30 years ago.
Would have been a great time for her to walk away from that mortgage.
She should file an insurance claim.
Wasn’t it Chase that had a man arrested for trying to deposit HIS OWN money into his own Chase account with a check written by… Chase?
(rhetorical question)
I wish to hell I could get my parents to close their Chase account.
Hope and Change - We can do it - Four more years
—————
Obama’s coal tax: New EPA rules mean 1.4 mm fewer jobs, higher electric bills
Wash Times | 7/12/11
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday finalized “cross-state air pollution” regulations designed to drive coal-plant operators out of business. This noxious rule will choke job creation and ensure that consumers are stricken with higher utility bills every time they switch on the mercury-filled curlicue light bulbs they also will be forced to buy.
Beginning Jan. 1, industrial facilities in 28 Eastern and Central states will be subject to draconian restrictions on emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, pollutants that potentially can cross borders. It’s all being done in the name of promoting health, but an overzealous and unaccountable bureaucracy is ignoring the devastating toll on the economy’s wellness.
Coal plants will be forced to install new scrubber equipment that provides marginal improvement in air quality at tremendous expense. This cost will be passed along to the consumer in the form of higher electricity costs. NERA Economic Consulting studied the impact of a pair of EPA rules affecting coal and estimated the extra cost would total $184 billion through the year 2030. This includes $72 billion in capital costs that coal companies will have to pay right now to comply. Electric bills will jump 12 percent by 2016 with areas such as Kentucky and Tennessee seeing a 24 percent increase. Employment will drop by a net 1.4 million jobs.
some promises obama does keep
“Employment will drop by a net 1.4 million jobs”.
Assuming this number is accurate, ’tis but a flesh wound compared to the 8-16 million jobs killed by Bushco.
Somebody is going to have to design, manufacture and install all those new scrubbers. Sounds like a nice infrastructure building program to me.
What were those electric companies going to do with that $72 billion anyway? Probably invest it in Chinese powerplants or coal mines.
You really have drunk too much kool aid…
Better than the Fox News crack you’ve been smoking.
Good point
“Somebody is going to have to design, manufacture and install all those new scrubbers”
Michael Douglas in the “King of California”
Charlie: “Yeah, really,…their finding Chinese men running naked on the beach, it’s on the radio, really,… just google it”
Somebody is going to have to design, manufacture and install all those new scrubbers. Sounds like a nice infrastructure building program to me.
At least they’ll do something useful, unlike the banksters.
Funny, how spending 72B will kill a million jobs, but spending an order of magnitide more on “defense” is A-OK.
These numbers are not accurate. There are only 172K jobs in coal total. (I posted a source, it’ll show up in a minute.)
The Washington Times just took 72 billion and divided by $50K and automatically assumed it was “jobs lost.”
Thanks for the excerpt from the Wash Times funny pages.
“Wash Times funny pages”
Exactly what I was thinking. Penthouse Forum letters have more veracity than the Washington Times (and no, it’s not because they don’t reinforce my ideology… the Times that is).
At what point will power plants simply shut down the coalfired plants? My father worked at one that also had a nuclear plant. Both of my f
grandfathers were associated with the coal mines of Va and KY, including Harlan County. One ran the company store and committed suicide during the Depression. The other worked on the trains taking the coal out of the mines. He died in a mining accident. I never learned many of the details. My father was out of the country at the time. Overall he was not a big Union supporter in the 1970’s but he was always bery much in favor pf the United Mine Workers Union. To this day I found ming news especially coal mine disasters.
found=follow
Typical right wing BS. Any dollar amount is automatically converted to “jobs lost. Except
“There are approximately 174,000 blue-collar, full-time, permanent jobs related to coal in the U.S.: mining (83,000), transportation (31,000), and power plant employment (60,000).”
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_and_jobs_in_the_United_States#Total_coal-related_jobs
So how is the coal industry going to fire 1.4 million people if they only have 172000 of them to begin with?
Because Faux News says so! That’s why you damn commie!
Stop with the facts, you’re getting in the way of the spin.
NOW this is REAL hope and change
—————————-
Wisconsin’s Controversial Budget Law Begins to Pay Off
Townhall.com | July 12, 2011 | Byron York
“This is a disaster,” Mark Miller, the Wisconsin Senate Democratic leader, said in February after Republican Gov. Scott Walker proposed a budget bill that would curtail the collective-bargaining powers of some public employees. Miller predicted catastrophe if the bill were to become law — a charge repeated thousands of times by his fellow Democrats, union officials and protesters in the streets.
Now the bill is law, and we have some early evidence of how it is working. And for one beleaguered Wisconsin school district, it’s a godsend, not a disaster.
The Kaukauna Area School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect at 12:01 a.m. June 29, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it’s all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous.
Now the collective-bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. “With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and, lo and behold, WEA Trust said, ‘We can match the lowest bid,’” says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust but saving substantial amounts of money.
Then there are work rules. “In the collective-bargaining agreement, high-school teachers had to teach only five periods a day out of seven,” says Arnoldussen. “Now they’re going to teach six.” In addition, the collective-bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37-1/2 hours a week. Now it will be 40 hours.
The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes — from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining.
Teachers’ salaries will stay “relatively the same,” Arnoldussen says, except for higher pension and health care payments. (The top salary is about $80,000 per year, with about $35,000 in additional benefits, for 184 days of work per year — summers off.) Finally, the money saved will be used to hire a few more teachers and institute merit pay.
It is impossible to overstate how bitter and ugly the Wisconsin fight has been, and that bitterness and ugliness continues to this day with efforts to recall senators and an unseemly battle inside the state Supreme Court. But the new law is now a reality, and Gov. Walker recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the measure would gain acceptance “with every day, week and month that goes by that the world doesn’t fall apart.”
In the Kaukauna schools, the world is definitely not falling apart — it’s getting better.
“Byron York”
’nuff said.
“In addition, the collective-bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37-1/2 hours a week. Now it will be 40 hours.”
So, do they no longer have to take home papers to grade? (Most teachers I’ve known spend a significant number of non-classroom hours on grading papers, preparing lessons, etc.)
While I understand that there are significant problems in our educational system, I’m not sure anyone is really taking a step back and gain some real perspective on what the goal is (or should be): educating students enough that they can become productive members of society.
I do think that teachers should be held accountable, but no teacher can overcome the handicaps of a child who comes to school without eating breakfast, having a full nights sleep and some real parental guidance.
While I understand that there are significant problems in our educational system, I’m not sure anyone is really taking a step back and gain some real perspective on what the goal is (or should be): educating students enough that they can become productive members of society.
You actually expect politicians to step back, gather facts, analyze and then propose non trivial solutions, as opposed to spewing soundbites like “union goons” or “we aren’t spending enough money”?
Politicians, probably not.
Perhaps educators, parents and taxpayers might speak out?
“…..37.5 hours a week……higher pension and health care payments…..”
aka as More work for less pay. We used to have a term for this. we used to call it a “pay cut”.
Yeah, cutting J6P pay, the Republican formula for all our ills. Ask all the local businesses that sell stuff to the teachers how this is going to work out for them.
And what, pray tell, is going to happen to this $1.5 mil/year “surplus”. Tax cuts for the Top 1%ers?
Here’s the deal. According the the Republitards, it’s all wine and roses. I say “Check back again in 5 years, and see how this works out for you”.
Your forgetting that out of the 37.5 hours, 10 were not in the class room.
27.5 hours makes for a short week in any industry.
it’s all wine and roses
It’s an “eat our peas” …vs…”drink our wine” mud wrasslin’ contest!
Jeb: “Don’t put the hurt on Jethro to much Elly May…”
Yeah, cutting J6P pay, the Repubican “TruePathtoPro$perity!™” formula for all our ill$.
Stay focused America, get angry!:
“Linda The Lunch Lady Lives Lavi$hly!”
Your forgetting that out of the 37.5 hours, 10 were not in the class room.
5.5 hours a day? I know my sister spends more time than that in the classroom.
Also, the school days out here run about 8 hours.
Five 1 hour classes = 5 hrs + 5 mins between classes.
When do they have to show up to work? When do they get to leave?
That’s pretty much how I define “hours worked”
Of course, in the bright new “Independent Contractor World” that the PTB are pushing, you won’t get paid for time between classes, or grading papers, or breaking up fights.
Let’s have our police under the same incentive program. Pay them per arrest/traffic ticket. $25K for a murderer. Or $100 bucks/ticket.
Of course, catching murderers is usually a lot harder than writing tickets.
Join the Debate
104 Comments So Far
http://townhall.com/columnists/byronyork/2011/07/12/wisconsins_controversial_budget_law_begins_to_pay_off - -
Jib-Jab / ping-pong / teeter-totter:
Will this “TrueAnger!™” guy be an$wering question$?
Feinberg, an economist by training, was even more appalled when the table ordered a second bottle. She quickly did the math and figured out that the $700 in wine the trio consumed over the course of 90 minutes amounted to more than the entire weekly income of a couple making minimum wage.
Susan Feinberg, an associate business professor at Rutgers, was at Bistro Bis celebrating her birthday with her husband that night. When she saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan’s table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one other with the same pricetag.
(Even Professor Bear admits performing this dinner table weakness):
“I was an economist so I started doing the envelope calculations and quickly figured out that those two bottles of wine was more than two-income working family making minimum wage earned in a week.”
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath:
Susan Crabtree | July 8, 2011
Feinberg knew if the men were lobbyists, or worked for a firm or company that employs lobbyists, then paying for such expensive wine would be a violation of Congressional ethics rules barring members from accepting anything of value from lobbyists.
Feinberg said all three men were “droning on loudly during the evening that liberals think that if you’re a millionaire, you have done something wrong.”
Ryan said the discussion focused on monetary policy and QE2, the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing, i.e. efforts to bolster the economy through the purchase of $600 billion in long-term U.S. Treasury bonds.
Ryan said his two “friends” are economists, not lobbyists…
He said one of the men is an economist “he reads a lot” and the two have conversed before so he invited him to Washington so they could meet.
“I read a lot about this economist. I’ve enjoyed what he’s written. I wanted to pick his
brain … so that’s what we did,” Ryan explained.
In further explaining his side of the story, Ryan said he only had one glass of wine out of the two bottles but decided when it came time to pay the bill that he should pay for one of the bottles of wine out of an abundance of caution. He even produced the receipt for the meal, which you can view here. The receipt shows a charge to Ryan’s credit card for $472 — $392 for his meal and the bottle of wine and a generous $80 tip.
“I didn’t order - they ordered,” Ryan told TPM. “I had one glass, uh, with my water, and when [Feinberg] was talking about how expensive it was, I didn’t even know [the price].”
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
“Tricky-Dick” Nixon + “TrueDeceiver’s™” + Moldy Cheese = New WisCON-sin lunch special “club” sandwich: The “Don’t-recall-me!” includes “Faked-Baked” democrapt chips & 32 oz of “him-not-me” “TruePurity™” water.
The state Republican Party orchestrated the placement of the fake Democrats on the ballot, thereby delaying the general election until Aug. 9 and giving the incumbents an additional month to campaign.
Six Republicans and three Democrats face recall. If the Democrats gain three seats, they will take majority control away from the Republicans and be in a position to stop Walker and the GOP’s agenda.
6 fake Democrats force Wis. primaries in recalls:
By: SCOTT BAUER | Associated Press | 07/12/11
Republicans can vote in the Democratic races because Wisconsin has an open primary, raising the possibility of further mischief in the elections. State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said he was concerned Republicans would attempt to vote for the fake Democrats Tuesday, but he was confident the real ones would prevail.
Hey now, these folks must really stand out in a young repubicans
cult-gatheringrally meeting.2nd District:
Otto Junkermann, an 82-year-old protest candidate who served as a Brown County supervisor in the 1980s and one year as a Republican in the state Assembly.
8th District:
Gladys Huber, 80, a protest candidate who has been an active member of the Ozaukee County Republican Party
18th District:
John Buckstaff, 81, a retired furniture business owner.
You do realize that teaching requires copious amounts of non-class work time, right? They have to prepare for the classes and grade the homework/tests. If you make them teach seven periods/day, then you are making them work overtime.
“And for one beleaguered Wisconsin school district, it’s a godsend, not a disaster. “</I.
You do know that “one” does NOT make a trend, right?
Right?
“We had to destroy the village to save it.”
Boynton looking at police and fire to plug $1.2 million budget hole
By Erika Pesantes, Sun Sentinel
10:19 p.m. EDT, July 11, 2011
Commissioners discussed the city’s $67.1 million operating budget on Monday and grappled with making cuts in the most expensive city departments, police and fire, which total almost 70 percent of the city’s operating expenses.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/boynton-beach/fl-boynton-budget-workshop-20110711,0,1230071.story - -
Gotta pay those $150k 2 day on 3 day off fire fighters and we wouldn’t want that Sheriff`s Dept. who have doubled their budget since 2005 to cut much, for gods sake they might have to drive their own cars to and from work and pay for the gas.
Split Palm Beach County commission raises property tax rate by 2.6 percent; will try to cut it before budget adopted
By Jennifer Sorentrue
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 4:59 p.m. Monday, July 11, 2011
A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners today agreed to raise the countywide property tax rate by 2.6 percent, but said they would spend the next two months looking for ways to cut it.
The commission voted 4-3 to set the maximum property tax rate at $4.88 for every $1,000 of taxable value, up from this year’s rate of $4.75. Commissioners Karen Marcus, Steven Abrams and Paulette Burdick voted against the increase.
The $4.88 rate is generally the maximum the county can charge when tax bills arrive in the mail later this year. Local officials can lower the proposed rates with a simple vote before finalizing their budgets in September, but can raise the rate only if they first notify all county taxpayers by first-class mail.
At the $4.88 rate, the county would generate $607 million in property taxes next year, roughly as much as it collected this year.
It “is a starting point,” Commissioner Burt Aaronson said. “We now know where we are. We have much information. We can go back and pare it down. Everything is on the table.”
Today’s decision was a turning point for commissioners, who have said since January they planned to hold the tax rate flat at this year’s level.
Commissioners gave no indication of what items they might cut to reduce the tentative rate. They also did not say whether they planned to ask Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to cut more from his $482.6 million budget proposal.
County Administrator Bob Weisman had been bracing for a $40 million shortfall if commissioners keep the tax rate flat at $4.75.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/split-palm-beach-county-commission-raises-property-tax-1600301.html?printArticle=y - -
Do you live in Palm Beach? If you do, then perhaps you should refocus your actions there, perhaps at city hall.
“Do you live in Palm Beach?”
I live in Palm Beach County. I guess Palm Beach, Martin and Broward counties were the only places that property taxes and local budgets grew at proportionate rates with house prices during the housing bubble. Our county commissioners spent money building new police stations, fire stations etc. allowed budgets and salaries of county employees and services to balloon to levels that could only be sustained by property tax revenues that come from a median house value of $421k. Now that the median price and taxable value of a house has dropped to about $200k (so far) watching them scramble to try to make up the difference and listen to the different departments argue that their budgets that were based on nothing but fantasy house values and corruption should be left alone.
But I guess it only happened in SE Florida and not where you live. If house prices had not gotten insane then property taxes would not have gotten insane then these budgets and salaries would not have gotten insane and there never would have been a reason for me to even look for this blog much less post anything on it. I would have bought the house I needed in 2003 or 2004.
“Do you live in Palm Beach?”
Yes but I grew up in Greenwich Connecticut.
Prison guards: Layoffs would result in riots, violence
PAT EATON-ROBB,
Associated Press
Published 11:29 a.m.,
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
NEW BRITAIN — Unionized prison guards are warning of inmate riots and other violence inside Connecticut’s lockups if the government goes ahead with planned budget cuts.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has asked the Department of Correction to cut the equivalent of 1,019 positions and trim $62.9 million from its budget in the current fiscal year and $78 million in the next. The state plans to close the Bergin in Mansfield this summer and the Enfield Correctional Institution by October.
The presidents of the three prison employee union locals tell The Associated Press that the cuts pose an imminent safety threat.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Prison-guards-Layoffs-would-result-in-riots-1462458.php -
“Unfortunately, I think, without a doubt, we will have a riot by the end of the year in these prisons,” said Luke Leone, president of AFSCME Local 1565 of the Connecticut Correction Employees Union.
Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett called those comments “irresponsible and unprofessional speculation.” He said the state can absorb the 1,300 inmates from Bergin and Enfield because the prison population has declined by about 2,300 inmates since 2008 to a 10-year low of about 17,600.
“Gotta pay those $150k 2 day on 3 day off fire fighters and we wouldn’t want that Sheriff`s Dept. who have doubled their budget since 2005 to cut much, for gods sake they might have to drive their own cars to and from work and pay for the gas.”
Damn overpaid firefighters!
Oh wait…
Palm Beach County politics’ history of corruption
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/palm-beach-county-politics-history-of-corruption-838799.html
I didn’t think there was a treatment center for that.
Anthony Weiner escapes to Miami with Huma
By Lesley Abravanel
Posted on Tuesday, 07.12.11
Shamed former NY congressman Anthony Weiner escaped to Miami with pregnant wife Huma to celebrate their anniversary. The Weiners, who married a year ago on Long Island, didn’t try to fly under the radar as they dined with another couple Saturday at Prime 112. For a little more privacy, however, the group sat in the private wine room with the curtains partially closed. Wife Huma, we’re told, “was sporting her baby bump and looked very happy.”
When the couple entered they went mostly unnoticed, but when it came time to leave they stood in front of the restaurant while their friends waited for their car. People noticed the former congressman and started going up to him to say hello, says our source, who added that after their friends left, “Anthony and Huma decided to go for a nice late-night stroll holding hands down Ocean Drive.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/ - 159k -
Well, I “guess” you could call divorce discussions, “celebrating.”
There was a similar “real” deadline announced with respect to agreeing on the continuing resolution back in April. The “deadline” passed with no agreement, but then an 11th hour, post-”deadline” deal pushed the continuing resolution through.
Rule Numero Uno of politics circa 2011:
We are in a New Era, and the old rules don’t apply. (Not sure there are any rules that govern the government, in fact…all seems discretionary.)
Jul 12, 2011
Obama, GOP, debt — what’s the real deadline?
By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 55m ago
Washington likes to work right up to the deadline, but when it comes to the ongoing debt ceiling talks it’s hard to know when the deadline is.
The Treasury Department talks about Aug. 2. But that’s the day it would actually bump up against the nation’s $14.3 trillion ceiling, and would be unable to borrow more money to pay the government’s bill, risking a default with very bad consequences for the financial system.
But before Congress can approve an increase in the debt ceiling, Obama and party leaders must first reach an agreement — then write legislation — then get it passed by both the House and the Senate — and then reconcile any differences between the chambers.
That’s going to take some time. That’s some members of Congress say the real deadline is July 22, a week from Friday.
And that’s why, when a reporter asked President Obama on Sunday if the parties could get something done within the next ten days, Obama replied: “We need to.”
…
July 11, 2011, 11:45 a.m. EDT
D.C. math: $800 billion is more than $3.2 trillion
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There may be a few causes to the breakdown between top Republicans and Democrats over a deal to increase the debt ceiling and cut the deficit this week, but mostly it came down to a single calculation: that $800 billion is worth more than $3.2 trillion.
The former number is the projected tax increase, over a decade, from measures including lifting the tax rate for families that earn more than $250,000 and also closing a variety of loopholes for companies. The $3.2 trillion figure represents total spending cuts that in theory, if not practice, the two sides were willing to contemplate.
…
We all know that raising taxes on the rich will be far more burdensome for them than cutting foodstamps, medicaid, etc. will affect the poor, right?
How can we expect the billionaires to inflate another bubble… one bigger than the tech bubble and housing bubble combined, as needed to paper over the losses from those bubbles, if we’re going to force money to be siphoned away from that bubble to do things like buy tanks for the army, pay doctors for grandma’s pacemaker, or send out those pesky Social Security checks?
To the folks enjoying the Joshua Tree Extension for Firefox:
Since it’s a fundraising week, please send a donation Ben’s way if you enjoy the software. I don’t ask for any money for my efforts, but would like to see this blog to continue (and the extension is useless without it
Thanks.
Check’s in the mail (well PayPal) Many thanks to you and Ben.
Done via PayPal!
i tried your download with chrome and firefox but just get the code echo’d to the screen.
i tried your download with chrome and firefox but just get the code echo’d to the screen.
It’s designed not to work well for liberals.
Au contraire. It works like a charm for me.
Groan :-). I think it says this somewhere in the instructions, but you need to do a “Save As…” to save it into a file rather than displaying the code on the screen.
I think it says this somewhere in the instructions, but you need to do a “Save As…” to save it into a file rather than displaying the code on the screen.
Yes, which is due to my lousy web host. My old host actually had tech support I could get hold of, and modified their web servers to host the file appropriately.
Sadly, I just get bounced around when I try to call Verizon (now Frontier). Sorry.
If someone wants to host it for me on a server they can configure themselves (or with competent admins) I’m open to that
Riskier Loans Make a Comeback, as Private Firms Take the Field
- WSJ -by AnnaMaria Andriotis July 12, 2011
After years as the lending market’s undesirables, aspiring home buyers with less-than-stellar credit are being offered home loans again—with some of the same conditions and catches critics say tripped up subprime borrowers five years ago.
According to analysts, a handful of private investment firms have started making home loans to borrowers who fail to meet banks’ requirements, which got tighter post-crash and have largely stayed that way. And for now they are holding them on their books, which is novel. At least two, Athas Capital Group, of California, and New Penn Financial, which is owned by Shellpoint Partners, of New York, are also making jumbo loans, or loans in most parts of the country that exceed $417,000, as the federal government appears to be scaling its support of that market.
The loans are designed to include borrowers with credit scores deemed low by banks’ standards; they also have more-flexible requirements for proof of income. Banks have been too slow to extend credit to such people, the firms say, leaving otherwise responsible borrowers out in the cold—and potential profits on the table. “It’s often a minor detail, why banks won’t approve them,” says Brian O’Shaughnessy, chief executive at Athas Capital.
Banks are following standards set by the market and reinforced by regulators, which focus on avoiding risk and losses with the uncertainty that exists now, says Bob Davis, executive vice president at the American Bankers Association.
ARRRRRGH!!!! The stupidity, it BURNS!!!!!
the American Bankers Association.
These lender$ are not going to sleep well at night, they’ll have nightmares involving the U$ Gov’t & the Fed Inc’$. saying: “sorry we can’t help ya…” :-/
tl;dr version:
Sub-prime lending when house prices are so low that the monthly payment from buying is half the cost of rent is NOT the same thing as sub-prime lending when prices are so high that the payment from buying is twice the price of rent.
Long version:
Take my neighborhood for example.
Rents on the street were about $1300 in 2003-2006.
We bought in 2003 for $140K. Payment of about $950 PITI. Sure, up from $120K 5-years prior, be clearly in line with rents, incomes, and reasonible supply/demand fundamentals.
House across the street from me, slightly smaller, no pool, went at the top of the market in 2006 for $270K. $1900 PITI, give or take, for something you could rent for $1300.
$950 a month and on the hook for maintenance and repairs is reasonible compared to $1300 rent. However, paying more than rent so that you can be on the hook for repairs??? Not so smart.
So, the sub-prime borrower looks at his payment, sees he could rent for half the monthly cost of owning. He sees he is never going to get back the money they are paying. He runs, rather than walks from the loan.
Well, that house across the street went through foreclsoure and now has been sitting empty for over a year. It is on the market for… drum roll….. $77K.
I haven’t checked rents lately, but I’d bet that they are still somewhere near $1000. You could buy that house and have PI of $400 a month at 5% or $500 a month 7%. Add tax and insurance and the payment is still somewhere around 2/3rds the cost of rent.
I do not think people will be as quick to walk, nor is the lender likely to lose half the purchase price should they have to foreclose.
Exactly. In markets that have corrected significantly and it is cheaper to own than rent, I’d be much more comfortable loaning money secured by real estate. I realize banks don’t think this way, but in the worst case scenario I could foreclose on the house and earn a reasonable return renting it out.
Bank’s Deal Means More Will Lose Their Homes
nytimes
Tens of thousands of Bank of America’s most distressed borrowers could be evicted and lose their homes more quickly as a result of a proposed settlement between the bank, which is the country’s largest mortgage servicer, and investors in its troubled mortgage securities.
For struggling borrowers in better financial shape, the outcome could be more positive: the deal would include incentives for mortgage servicers to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their payments and whose homes are worth less than they borrowed.
“The goal is to reinstate as many borrowers in a modification that performs well,” said Tony Meola, a servicing executive with Bank of America. “It also is likely to lead to faster resolution in those unfortunate situations where foreclosure is inevitable. While not a desirable outcome, the recovery of the housing markets depends on moving through the foreclosure process as quickly and fairly as possible.”
While powerful investors stand to benefit from the $8.5 billion settlement over the bank’s bundling of shoddy mortgages as securities, the fallout for the nearly 275,000 borrowers who took out those loans depends greatly on how deep they are in the foreclosure process and whether they earn enough money to dig themselves out.
While no exact income qualification has been set as part of the agreement, which was announced last month, many servicers use a formula in which borrowers can qualify for a modification as long as the new monthly payment does not exceed 31 percent of their monthly gross income. For borrowers who are unemployed or lack the income to cover even reduced mortgage payments, foreclosure and eviction could be much more immediate.
With 1.3 million borrowers at risk of foreclosure, Bank of America has been overwhelmed by the surge in defaults, and the accord has raised hopes that this logjam will finally begin to ease. But skeptics say that previous arrangements, like another multibillion-dollar settlement by Bank of America in 2008, have barely made a dent in the problem.
“The mortgage servicers have repeatedly promised to do things and then not done them,” said Michael S. Barr, a former assistant Treasury secretary who now teaches law at the University of Michigan. “I think it’s positive in general, but I don’t expect it to be transformative of what we’ve witnessed from the mortgage servicers over the last four years.”
Matthew Weidner, a Florida lawyer who represents borrowers facing foreclosure, said he was skeptical of promises by the deal’s architects that lower monthly payments would be easier to obtain.
“It’s like giving aspirin to someone with cancer,” he said of the proposed assistance. “You had all the big players at the top of the pyramid negotiating but nobody was speaking for the homeowners who have far more at stake at the ground level.”
Victims! Victims! Victims! So many victims. Oh, the inhumanity!
Housing “hasn’t bottomed out as quickly as we expected,” President Barack Obama said at a White House town hall last week. Mr. Obama said housing remained the “most stubborn” problem facing the country and conceded that a raft of federal mortgage-aid programs were “not enough, and so we’re going back to the drawing board.”
Phoenix and East Valley real estate Deal of the Century!
July 8, 2011 By Kristin LaVanway
My partner Kristin LaVanway did a video about the Phoenix real estate market. This is a follow up video talking about the three biggest myths in today’s East Valley housing market.
Myth number 1: This is a buyers market. This one could not be further from the truth. With an active inventory of roughly two months, and no signs of growing, this is very much a seller’s market. If you are a buyer be ready to come with highest and best and do not be surprised if that full price offer is not accepted because you were beat out by three other offers, two of which were cash investors.
Myth number 2: Shadow inventory will drive prices down again. Yea, yea, yea. I can remember clearly the first time I heard about the tsunami of shadow inventory coming. Was over two years ago. While there has been a steady flood of homes hitting the market, in no way were we hit nor will we be hit with this shadow inventory. Even if there was a huge supply of houses, there are plenty of buyers out here who would be more than willing to snatch them up.
http://eastvalleyteam.com/category/phoenix-market-conditions/ - 28k -
What does this mean for buyers?
1) It is going to be hard to find a house
2) Prices are not going down
3) The second bottom of the market has come and gone
Gosh, I guess it is different there. This team of real estate professionals have their finger on the pulse of that market and know what is going on. If I was shopping that market, I would buy now or be priced out forever!
To be fair, they are probably talking about Scottsdale and Tempe, 2 of the most desirable areas of the valley. Mesa is also considered “east valley”, but the jobs are in Scottsdale and Tempe and the commute can be ugly. Not to mention, Mesa can be pretty “slummy” in places.
Also, prices have taken a pretty hard dive there. House prices first crashed in the exurbs. Then it moved into the west valley where I live, south, and south west. The north and central west valley (Scottsdale, Tempe) held on the longest, but finally got their blood bath.
So, when they talk about “full asking price offer”, they are probably talking about something like “10-15% below pre-bubble prices”… or put anohter way, 50-55% below peak.
Now that Bank of America has resumed its foreclosure process, the shadow inventory will be getting back on track.
“With an active inventory of roughly two months, and no signs of growing, this is very much a seller’s market.”
I didn’t know Baghdad Bob had a step daughter in Arizona.
That guy has kids everywhere.
Inventory numbers for the Phoenix metro area are in the table below. I pulled these from www dot deptofnumbers dot com (formerly Housing Tracker). According to this site, inventory peaked in late 2007 at over 48k units, but today is under 22k units. For comparison, it was 31k in early 2006, the oldest data available on the site.
This obviously only includes MLS inventory, but inventory dropped over 50% from the peak. So how big is the remaining shadow inventory? AZ is a “no recourse” state and foreclosures occur via trustee sales rather than judicial means. Based on anecdotal evidence, they’re taking about 9 months if the “owner” cooperates so in most cases, houses seem to be coming to market relatively quickly.
Anyone know of a source that can actually quantify the shadow inventory by market (current and historical)?
Apr-06 31,068
May-06 33,372
Jun-06 35,998
Jul-06 37,951
Aug-06 38,886
Sep-06 39,430
Oct-06 39,784
Nov-06 39,257
Dec-06 37,548
Jan-07 36,125
Feb-07 38,550
Mar-07 40,058
Apr-07 42,914
May-07 44,429
Jun-07 44,822
Jul-07 45,173
Aug-07 46,003
Sep-07 47,262
Oct-07 47,959
Nov-07 48,340
Dec-07 47,284
Jan-08 45,455
Feb-08 47,604
Mar-08 48,129
Apr-08 47,519
May-08 46,541
Jun-08 44,970
Jul-08 44,398
Aug-08 45,347
Sep-08 44,942
Oct-08 46,839
Nov-08 45,462
Dec-08 46,167
Jan-09 45,682
Feb-09 45,242
Mar-09 44,428
Apr-09 41,554
May-09 36,927
Jun-09 33,977
Jul-09 32,189
Aug-09 32,549
Sep-09 32,450
Oct-09 31,163
Nov-09 32,024
Dec-09 32,092
Jan-10 32,287
Feb-10 33,336
Mar-10 33,753
Apr-10 34,736
May-10 31,933
Jun-10 32,076
Jul-10 33,164
Aug-10 33,923
Sep-10 34,425
Oct-10 34,917
Nov-10 34,797
Dec-10 34,065
Jan-11 32,329
Feb-11 31,462
Mar-11 29,656
Apr-11 27,733
May-11 25,226
Jun-11 22,932
Jul-11 21,980
Down here in Tucson, we’ve also had quite the inventory drop since ‘07. I think this is for two reasons:
Reason #1: “Oh, screw it!” This reason includes those who tried to sell, but couldn’t. So, now they’re renting the house out “until the market improves.” Which means when prices start spiraling upward again. (Good luck with that.) Or, if they’re not renting the place, they’re just hunkering down until the backlog of inventory that’s still on the market goes away. (Good luck with that too.)
Reason #2: “Let it go back to the bank!” Some of the people who couldn’t sell, or can’t keep up the payments on the exploding ARM, are just giving up. I see a lot of this happening with in-VEST-ment properties. And, as we all know, banks are taking their sweet old time on foreclosing.
Thanks for the thoughts Slim.
#1 seems plausable. Except that vacancy rates have dropped in Phoenix as well. If that “for sale” supply has just shifted to “for rent” supply, shouldn’t vacancy rates and rents be dropping? It appears supply is tightening on both the “for sale” side AND the “for rent” side.
#2 has been going on in AZ for at least 3 years. And I’ll have to dig up the numbers to verify, but I thought I’ve been reading that new foreclosure filings have been dropping for the past year? And the slow foreclosures only seem to be happening in states where judicial foreclosure is required. Every foreclosure that I’m aware of (granted, anecdotal observations) has occurred in less than a year. I know of one that has dragged out for over 2 years, but the owner is doing everything he can to drag his feet. He even goes so far as to make payments occasionally! =)
I know I’ll be relentlessly mocked and ridiculed for suggesting this, but if additional inventory doesn’t hit the market soon, supply is actually going to start getting tight in Phoenix. I’m sure there is some shadow inventory out there, but I spend a fair amount of time on the county website looking up houses I’m familiar with and I’ve yet to find a single example of one. Has anyone seen anywhere that the shadow inventory is quantified by market?
“…shouldn’t vacancy rates and rents be dropping?”
should read
“…shouldn’t vacancy rates be increasing and rents dropping?”
Bofa has a foreclosure arm, recontrust dot com.
Maricopa county has 7000 scheduled for the auction block. Drive around and find the properties listed that are vacant; this is the most obvious shadow inv. from one lender. 7000 may not sound like much; but these are homes that will be hitting the market later than sooner(Bofa has given my wife 18 months so far in OR).
Some also may be for sale on the MLS, sold short, modified, or made good by the owner. So it is not so easy to spot what is in the shadows(hence the name), especially with 7000 props to research.
Also lots of rentals may be occupied by non-paying landlords; some may be occupied by the owner while they wait for the ax to fall. These will be harder to pinpoint; lurking in the shadows nevertheless.
Wife’s home is not for sale, short or otherwise, but it is on the auction list in OR, has been for a year and 1/2 now, and will be hitting the market when the sun finally shines on it.(i.e. when BofA is good and ready for us to leave).
For a sense of magnitude of the problem in various states or metros, I look at the Census dot gov numbers on rental vacancy rates and homeowner vacancy rates.
This, combined with some of the state non-current data from LPS Mortgage Monitor (they used to provide this each month, now less frequently) can give you a sense of the amount of pain to come in any particular state.
High vacancy PLUS high rate of non-current loans EQUALS lots of pain to come.
Low vacancy PLUS low rate of non-current loans EQUALS less pain to come.
Directionality counts (are things getting worse, or better).
Specific numbers on shadow inventory is difficult to come by, and harder to confirm.
The two numbers I note above can give you a sense of excess inventory, and the foreclosure pipeline.
Lots of distressed sellers into a market where there is a lot of supply of empty housing units is not good…
Newest Line of Business for Big Banks: Slumlording
By Dan Radovsky Economy, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co, Real Estate
The nation’s biggest bailed-out banks have unintentionally entered a new line of work: slumlording. In some cases, major banks have created whole neighborhoods of abandoned and deteriorating foreclosure properties — and a blight on local municipalities.
Now, Los Angeles has decided to do something about it, by naming the German banking giant Deutsche Bank (DB) the city’s biggest slumlord.
L.A. is suing the lender, claiming that it has illegally evicted tenants and allowed foreclosed homes to deteriorate. The city’s also considering suing US Bancorp (USB), BNY Mellon (BK), and HSBC (HBC) for not keeping up their own foreclosed properties.
There Goes the Macro-Neighborhood
Foreclosure squalor is not just a local problem. Already lower-than-low housing prices around the country will remain depressed as long as these semi-abandoned houses can’t sell. The squatters and drug dealers who take over the empty properties only make this problem worse, as attendant crime makes the neighborhoods even less attractive to prospective buyers.
In the meantime, banks are blaming loan servicers, who they claim should be maintaining the properties. However, many of the largest loan-servicing companies are owned by the big banks themselves.
Last month, the Treasury Department announced that it will withhold payments to Bank of America (BAC), J. P. Morgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC) for failing to properly service home loans under the Making Home Affordable program. Ocwen Financial Services (OCN) is also failing to meet that program’s requirements.
“That’s Not My Mess”
Deutsche and other banks argue that having their names on these properties’ titles doesn’t make them the true owners. The banks say they merely distribute proceeds to the actual owners: investors in the mortgage-backed securities that represent those abandoned homes.
If that’s the case, then I’d better get out my lawn mower and weed whacker, because I’m one of the investors receiving such distributions.
Just about the only thing clear here is that the securitization of home loans — the bundling of thousands of mortgages into investment instruments — has created one heck of a mess. If the banks don’t start taking responsibility, Los Angeles’ legal feud with Deutsche Bank will not be the last suit filed against our newest class of slumlords.
Interesting that they are suing DB and thinking about suing USB, BNY, and HSBC. Why not sue FNM, FRE, C, BAC, JPM, and WFC. Those guys have the largest servicing portfolios by far. The big boys have probably contributed 10-20X more blighted homes to LA as BAC, JPM, and WFC bought Countrwide, WAMU, and Wachovia, who did tons of crappy subprime, alt-a, and option ARMs. I guess they figure the real big boys don’t have the money to actually maintain the properties and will tie the county up in court for eternity. Whereas, if you pick on the smaller players, at least in terms of US mortgage servicing portfolios, who are actually flush with cash, the county has a better chance at collecting a settlement. Funny how the reckless banks appear to be getting off scott free and the prudent banks are being penalized. Same thing that’s happening to home debtors today. The prudent have to keep paying and the irresponsible get principal reductions.
“In the meantime, banks are blaming loan servicers, who they claim should be maintaining the properties. However, many of the largest loan-servicing companies are owned by the big banks themselves.”
A psychopath never thinks it’s their fault.
And psychopaths are very good at portraying themselves as the victim. Even when they’re the perpetrator.
Looks like Hwy is gonna go through another bag of Neil’s All Natural Popcorn! today…
UK government to back motion opposing Murdoch’s BSkyB bid:
Government will back Labour party’s motion to oppose bid to gain full control of company
msnbc.com news services
Britain’s Competition Commission now must hold a full-scale inquiry into whether the takeover would break anti-monopoly laws. These inquiries usually take six months
LONDON — News Corp.’s bid to take over British Sky Broadcasting looked in doubt Tuesday after the U.K. government said it will back the opposition Labour party’s motion to urge Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid to gain full control of the company.
Loading stock quotes…
A final decision on Rupert Murdoch’s biggest takeover battle was delayed for several months Monday after the British government referred the bid to competition authorities, as a phone hacking scandal showed no sign of abating.
So when does Glen Beck move to London?
Right after he bids farewell to his family in Frogballs, Arkansas.
Hey, watch it there, buddy! You just insulted London!
Right after Rush Limbaugh moves out of the US. Rush threatened to leave if healthcare was passed.
What’s stopping him? Or did Costa Rica decide to finally tighten up certain laws?
Failure? What you a-holes are doing is not success for America, may be for you and your crowd, but not for the rest on the country. TTT needs a strong, swift knee to the groin, just for sport!
Geithner wants debt limit deal by next week.
“Failure is not an option.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said that time is running out for a deal to raise the debt limit, and wants a broad agreement with Congress in place by the end of next week at the latest.
Speaking at a finance symposium at the Treasury Department, Geithner vowed that Congress would raise the debt limit ahead of an August 2 deadline when the government will risk default, adding, “Failure is not an option.”
He said President Barack Obama will keep meeting with congressional leaders until a deal to raise the debt limit and slash future deficits is reached.
“We know we don’t have a lot of time,” Geithner said. “I think the leaders understand we don’t have a lot of time, and we want to wrap up the broad outlines of an agreement by the end of this week — certainly by the end of next week — so that we have time to legislate it and put it in place.”
He told the Women in Finance Investment — a group whose members manage some $700 billion in U.S. savings assets — that it was important for investors to know that “the U.S. will act in advance of the limit that we face when our borrowing runs out on August 2.”
Thus far, Treasury yields have reflected little concern about default among investors and have benefited from safe-haven capital flows amid continuing financial turmoil in Europe and weak economic data. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was well below 3 percent, dipping to its lowest point since early December early on Tuesday.
That could change as the August 2 deadline approaches if no deal is in place.
Thus far, Treasury yields have reflected little concern about default among investors and have benefited from safe-haven capital flows amid continuing financial turmoil in Europe and weak economic data.
That is because owners of Treasuries will be paid first (American still takes in about 50% of its revenue in taxes).
Entitlements and the military will be next in line.
Roads, NASA, parks, etc. Last in line.
Entitlements and military are more than our receipts. All that stuff you call “last in line” is less than 20% of the budget.
There isn’t enough money to get all the cuts they would need even if they eliminated 100% of non-military discretionary spending.
In fairness, no one in DC is talking about actually eliminating the current deficit, just making it marginally smaller at some point in the future. Based on how the current round of “negotiations” are going, I see zero chance of ever having a balanced budget without massive increases in revenue resulting from massive increases in economic activity.
They’re currently struggling to get to $4 trillion over 10 years. That’s $400 billion a year or roughly 25% of the deficit. And even when the savings mostly come in future years we still can’t get that done. No one’s even talking about the other 75% of the deficit.
Just a question…
How would you fix our debt problems?
How about first spend money on Legal Americans who live in America…
a Novel Idea…eliminate the Korea-US agreed force level: 28,500, and all the other troops around the world.
OR make these countries pay all the cost of them being there or bring them home and put them on mehikos borders….our troops will spend money in America.
Make being an “intern” subject to Equal Opportunity and age
discrimination laws.
No Kidding why should someone older be told they are OVERQUALIFIED? That is just mean and nasty to someone willing to work for little or no pay to keep a recent job in their field at the top of their resume.
Eliminate all extended unemployment after 26 weeks UNLESS you are in an Intern job or in job training. Again if some employer says you are TOO OLD to be an intern well the UI office can make it hard for them to do business.
What to do to sound tough on getting government help???????
Force welfare recipients to Read,Write and Speak ENGLISH..so many of they will drop out on their own..they will not give up their ghetto Ebonics…
Eliminate all parole and probation..If you want to get out early read the New York Times in front of a parole board. If you can do that, then why not give you a second chance.Tough Love and give the prisoner a CHOICE to change or not.
If we use debt to invest in our country first then it shouldn’t take long to make a profit and start paying it down.
PS…our leaders are so dumb to eliminate the space program that has the highest ROI of anything we spend money on.
If we don’t continue to borrow our nation into oblivion, it wouldn’t be fair to other countries. Just wouldn’t be fair.
If this low-life tax-cheat was in jail, where he belongs, rather than sitting as “treasury secretary”, then we wouldn’t have to listen to his stupid comments regularly. Of course, he wants us to raise the debt ceiling. If we didn’t, he might need to work out a real budget. It’s easier to just write more checks for whatever “bills” come across his desk. No need to bother doing any accounting that way. Who needs a balance sheet? There’s always more money to cover any overages.
What a great life for a tax-cheat on huge government pay.
A real budget….
Let’s see. We’re collecting $2 trillion in Revenues and spending about $3.5 trillion. So, we need to cut $1.5 trillion.
High level summation of current baseline:
Social Security: $750B
DoD: $700B
Medicare: $500B
Medicaid: $260B
Interest on the Debt: $200B
So, the big 5 eat up $2.5B vs. $2B in receipts. That is 70% of the total budget.
Everything else combined is $1B.
Where does that go?
Unemployment: $132B
Retirement (Govt workers, Military): $128B
VA: $120B
Food stamps, School lunches: $100B
Transportation: $90B (Airports: $20B, Coast Guard $10B, Roads $60B)
Internation Affairs $70B
Education: $50B
DoJ: $50B
Natural Resources, Environment (National Parks, Forests, EPA cleanups, etc.): $40B
Science, Space, Tech: $30B
$200B in all the other tiny things…..
So, let’s propose some cuts…..
50% cut to DoD. Savings. $350 billion.
Result: There are an estimated 10 million people employed in the defence industry in the United States. A 50% cut in spending would likely be focused at new weapons and high tech projects which has a higher than average salary rather than the boots on the ground. So, this may translate to only 3 million people being laid off rather than a full 5 million. 3 million people laid off would add 3% to our unemployment rate. I assume we’d have to put an extra $50 billion into unemployment benefits for those 3 million laid off workers.
50% cut to Social Secuity
Everybody’s check, 50% smaller. Savings $350B. No immediate job cuts, though I assume there would be massive household deformation as elderly moved in with thier kids and grandkids. Certainly there would be less spending by the elderly, and that would echo through as job losses to the retail and food service industries.
Medicare and Medicaid are going to be tough. For Medicare let’s say we remove Part-D drug coverage ($65B savings) and make the elderly pay 40% vs. 20% of expenses. That would be a savings of about $125B. Let’s just do a 50% cut to Medicaid and dump that burden on the states. Total savings: $325B
We can’t cut the interest, so we’re done with the “big 5″.
Total Savings: $300B DoD, $350B SS, $325B Medicare/caid.
Let’s call it an even $1T for grins.
That means we only need a 50% cut to everything else.
Oh, well, there are some things we can’t cut, like $120B to pensions for already retired federal workers and military. Things that if we cut, we cut offsetting receipts like national crop insurance, national flood insurance, national parks, post office, FAA(air traffic controllers). There are some things we probably don’t want a full 50% cut to, like courts and prisons, the CDC and FDA, TSA, Coast Guard, and even the VA.
So, basically, we’d need to cut…. 80% of everything not listed here. Like orphanages and foster care. Like NASA, education including grants and student loan insurance.
Now, what would the echo effects of all these cuts be? How much are tax receipts going to fall if we lay off 3-4 million people, force 50 million elderly to move in with their kids, let old people die rather than do everything we can to extend their lives’ a few months?
It is the government’s $1.5T a year deficits that are keeping the econmic implosion at bay. Cut government spending drastically, and we’ll be right back in full collapse mode.
It is a sad state of affairs. And on the other side of the coin we’d need roughly another $5,000 from every man, woman and child every year to keep all this spending going without continuing to add to the debt. If you suck that out of the economy I think we’re also back in full collapse mode.
So here we sit. Forced to wait for the mess we’ve made to collapse under it’s own weight rather than dismantling it intelligently ourselves.
That’s because you can’t fix stupid.
But you can fire stupid people. We’ve got one group of dolts that blindly votes for any republican you put in front of them and another that blindly votes for any democrat you put in front of them. I vote 3rd party only unless a major party candidate has proven via a voting record that he/she isn’t going to just toe the party line once in office.
Only in theory.
I’d like to fire some idealogues, but they don’t represent my district or state.
Great Post. Thanks.
Again harkens back to my mind of Roger Altman (former Sec. Treas. under Clinton).
His comment…there are not enough rich to tax to solve the problem, so cuts will need to be combined with increased revenues through broadening the tax base. He thought the way forward would be through a VAT.
Again, I challenge anyone to reduce the deficit to manageable levels in a way that allows them to be re-elected. The Republicans put themselves in an untenable position. To get to the $4T number, they either break their promise on taxes, or they cut the knees out from under the military and retirees.
Their response came from McConnell tonight. Here, Mr. Pres., just spend what you want so we can blame you for not controlling spending.
Cowards.
The problem is the our leader won’t have the balls to veto that suggested plan. He should continue to demand a $4T plan. But instead we’ll have the mother of all punts.
question:
isn’t it immoral to borrow money ( vast sums ) when you don’t have the means ( or intention ) to pay it back?
seems there are 2 schools of thought and both intend to screw the lender
1) default is inevitable
2) print mo money
There are 4 million job that no longer exist in this country because of offshoring. That’s 4 MILLION paychecks that can’t be taxed.
Big corporations get HUGE tax breaks.
- for making money
- for sending our jobs offshore
Nope. No possible correlation here!
When opportunity knocks…
Hookers Know Way to San Jose:
Elimination of Vice unit apparently opens flood gate for ladies of the night. - NBC
Prostitutes are taking over downtown San Jose, and there’s little police can do about it.
advertisement
San Jose budget cuts aren’t hurting all businesses, and in fact, one group in particular seems to be cashing in on the city’s economic woes: prostitutes.
Prostitution has made a rapid comeback to San Jose street corners in the past few weeks, according to NBC Bay Area sources.
After police budgets were slashed July 1, San Jose PD’s Vice Unit was disbanded, said San Jose Police Department spokesman Jose Garcia. This meant that part of their job responsibility – cracking down on prostitution and brothels – was reassigned to the police department’s Covert Response Unit.
The CRU was originally responsible for narcotics busts in the area and despite the newly added responsibilities, the unit’s size increased by one officer. It now totals 14. Sources say the result has been an increase in illegal prostitution.
Two police sources told NBC Bay Area that prostitutes have even been traveling from as far as Oakland and Fresno to take advantage of San Jose’s less scrutinized street corners.
Much nicer corners than in Vallejo.
I wonder what will happen to all those luxury condo towers in downtown San Jose?
HUD could buy them, and build a three-squares kitchen downstairs, and maybe a nurse’s station for minor injuries and diaper changing services; all social services of course.
Bordellos??
Legalize it, tax it. Done, next?
“tax it”
So that the “TrueHypocrite’s™” can advocate Congre$$ for “TruePurity™” exemption$?
Catch-22’s abound.
In an attempt to correct “global trade imbalances” (the USA imports too much and doesn’t export enough), we try to devalue our currency by printing cash out of thin air. The hope is to reduce our imports by making them more expensive while increasing our exports by making them cheaper to foreigners.
The result is, all that extra cash is used by speculators to drive up oil prices, INCREASING our imports not reducing them. And, of course, since goods made in the USA are 300% more expensive than those imports, we keep right on buying foreign goods, just pay more for the transportation cost.
So, attempts to shrink global trade imbalances by devaluing the dollar, end up having the exact opposite effect.
We let the rich get richer because the Republicans say that is the only way to get more jobs. Unfortunalty, most of the jobs created are created in Chindia.
Catch-22
Raise taxes on the rich, they fire US workers. Don’t raise taxes on them, they create jobs in Chindia.
In neither case are they looking to create jobs in the USA where wages are too high and customers have no money now that they can’t keep spending 110% of their income through MEW.
Government raises taxes, we lose jobs. Government cuts spending, we lose jobs. Government does neither, we continue the train ride toward insolvancy and total financial collapse.
Chindia, they produce way more than they consume. USA and Western Europe we consume way more than we produce. THAT is the imbalance. There are not nearly enough resources available to raise the standard of Chindia to that of the “west”.
So, how do we fix the imbalance in a way that does NOT result in a falling standard of living in the west?
Regan’s solution was brilliant. DEBT. Ever more debt issued at ever lower rates, with ever looser lending standards. Perfect solution… right?
We let the rich get richer because the Republicans say that is the only way to get more jobs. Unfortunalty, most of the jobs created are created in Chindia.
Regan’s solution was brilliant. DEBT. Ever more debt issued at ever lower rates, with ever looser lending standards. Perfect solution… right?
Yes - if only we didn’t have Republicans or Reagan - these problems would have never existed!
You are brilliant!
Please, please - give us more and more and bigger and bigger government. It is the only way to prosperity. Only the government knows exactly how to redistribute wealth for the common good.
You must be one of those small minded “If you are not with us, you are against us” type people.
You know, there are options other than Republican or Democrat… Right?
In the words of Carlos Mencia, “I’m not a Republican or Democrat because I don’t want to be wrong half the time”.
Pretending that “trade deficits don’t matter” may have allowed us to maintain our standard of living at an exceptionally high level for an extra 3 decades… but we’re going to pay for it.
I’m of the camp that we should not have done a bailout in 2008. What we have is a massive house of cards that we’re trying to, not only hold up but, keep growing larger at a rate of 3-5% a year.
The bigger you make the house of cards, the worse the wreckage will be when it comes crashing down.
I think we need to let it crash, then rebuild a fundamentally sound economy on the ruins.
Only the government knows exactly how to redistribute wealth for the common good.
So, $plitbanana…your…1st x3 choices are:
1. Fed Inc.
2. a Scotu$ “person” Inc.
3. MegaBidne$$es any type Inc.
“Who in America de$ires endle$$ly/relentle$$ly for “privatized”,”unregulated” liberty to keep taking care of them$elve$, who?”
The MegaInc.$ & Wealthie$,…they’re $uffering $o!…hurry! reduce/eliminate their taxe$, hurry,… Cinder$ & Ashe$…Schemer$ & Scammmer$…Agonie$ & Pain$, help ‘em.
“TruePatriotCEO’$™” plead, plead, plead: “give u$ a tax repatriation holiday and we’ll bring the money back and start creating Job$! Job$! Job$!…”
My solution: Tariffs. That’s what we had when they worked.
Tariffs may be the only way to fix global trade imbalances. However, the side effect is going to be a lower standard of living. We’ve been able to consume more than we produce because of cheap imports.
I think the first step in fixing our economy is to accept that EVERYONE is going to have a much lower standard of living.
Slash Social Security and have old people move in with their kids as happened from the dawn of civilization until the 1930s. Slash Medicare spending. We (tax payers) spent a hundred thousand dollars keeping my graps alive an extra year or maybe two… wasted money.
Let the house of cards that is our debt and equity markets come crashing down. Reinstate FASB157. Tighten margin requirements on stocks and commodities. Tighten lending standards and leverage restrictions.
Then add teriffs to imported goods to bring jobs back on shore and reduce our trade deficits.
Burn it down and start over on the ashes.
Tariffs may be the only way to fix global trade imbalances. However, the side effect is going to be a lower standard of living.
It depends on what the definition of “is” is. lol
But it does depend on one’s definition of “lower standard of living” is. Life or stuff?
Tariffs would not have to be that much higher to defend American jobs. I’ve read the average savings now on products made in China instead of America is about 20% when shipping is included. (it varies widely but that’s about it) This is something the 1%ers don’t tell us. We’ve sold our souls for 20%.
Now let’s say we paid 20% more for our products but we had more domestic job opportunities, much less worry and more time. I’d make that trade any day and I’d consider my standard of living much improved even if I had 20% less stuff. I personally see this trade lived every day in Brazil.
The margin may be smaller that. There are extra administrative and overseeing costs to manufacturing half way around the world. It may not be such a factor these days, but the quality problems used to really chew into the profits as well. I expect/hope the tide to shift soon.
Tariff’s?
Just end the damn tax breaks for offshoring jobs!
Either Hwy’s going over $chadenfreude fall$, or today is goin’ be a “4th day”
Really, Hwy doesn’t know where to start for a lead quote, pick …your… favorite:
1.The Bengals’ Mr. Blackburn says that residents were “an informed and engaged electorate.”
2.Cincinnati’s deal, like many of similar vintage, was crafted as a way to keep sports franchises in place. In the 1990s, many pro teams threatened to relocate unless their local governments could offer subsidies.
3.Teams were given public land and rent abatements. Some received new stadiums worth upwards of half a billion dollars, paid for in large part with government bonds.
4.The tax hit is just the latest in a string of unforeseen consequences from what has turned into one of the worst professional sports deals ever struck by a local government—soaking up unprecedented tax dollars and county resources while returning little economic benefit.
5.To help finance its stadiums, Hamilton County assumed more than $1 billion in debt by issuing its own bonds without any help from the surrounding counties or the state.
6.“If you make a decision to fund something, you can’t try to hold somebody else responsible for that decision,” says Mr. Blackburn.
A Stadium’s Costly Legacy Throws Taxpayers for a Loss:
WSJ / eCON-ohmy! / By REED ALBERGOTTI and CAMERON MCWHIRTER
“It’s the monster that ate the public sector,” says Mark Reed, Hamilton County’s juvenile court administrator.
On top of paying for the stadium, Hamilton County granted the Bengals generous lease terms. It agreed to pick up nearly all operating and capital improvement costs—and to foot the bill for high-tech bells and whistles that have yet to be invented, like a “holographic replay machine.” No team had snared such concessions in addition to huge sums of public money,
The stadium’s annual tab continues to escalate, according to the county’s website. In 2008, the Bengals’ stadium cost to taxpayers was $29.9 million, an amount equivalent to 11% of the county’s general fund.
Last year, it rose to $34.6 million—a sum equal to 16.4% of the county budget. That’s a huge multiple compared to other football stadiums of the era that similarly relied on county bonds for financing.
Like many other items in the budget, the juvenile court has seen its funding slashed—by $13.4 million from 2008 to 2010. It was forced to nix funding for programs like Youth, Inc., which worked with troubled adolescents.
I am always amazed at what people and governments will pay so they can watch 22 men who make millions of dollars per year chase a ball up and down a field.
Ditto. Instead of hating on the dope dealers (banks, corporations, landlords, ticket pricing, etc), I’m starting to hate the addicts (renters, buyers, fans, etc) who almost universally think they have to pay asking prices and, in the case of houses and sporting events, fall all over themselves for the opportunity to pay MORE than asking…
“fall all over themselves for the opportunity to pay MORE than asking”…
A fellow I know has a cousin that paid $6000.00 dollars for 2 super bowl tickets last year. To me that is complete insanity, but it was his money to do what he wanted with. I still have a hard time believing someone would pay that much to see a ball game, but he swears it’s true.
Hope they were fantastic seats!
Yeah, I used to be one of those “it’s his money…” folks, myself. Our society’s access, and subsequent addiction, to credit/financing has changed all that for me.
Stupid impulse buying drives our economy.
This is why our public education will NEVER be as good as other countries. Educated people don’t impulse buy near as much as uneducated ones.
Fact.
When you got nothing left, you go for the scare the old folks play. Old and worn out, Barrys playing it and it will work. You see this caring prez. is only looking for the old peoples.
ITEM: Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on
President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.
“I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.
WHAT AN INTERESTING THREAT! This implies the Social Security system can’t send out next month’s checks unless Congress can borrow money by raising the public debt ceiling. What became of all the money piled up in the Trust Fund?
What an admission by President Obama. Social Security is broke!!
Well, the fact is the Trust Fund is loaded…with government IOUs. Congress spent the money. Almost all of it, and left behind those paper promises to cough up the cash at some future date.
Resorting to a threat like this is clear evidence the White House is desperate. The threat may backfire.
But that’s precisely what you want. You want SS gone. Will you ever be happy? Ever?
Just give it a rest already, I never said I wanted SS gone,ever! It is broke however, so pray tell how does it keep going in it’s present state? Since you are the one with all the answers?
P.S. I am plenty happy, think I’ll open a cold one and go for a swim.
Just remember…buzzed swimming IS drunk swimming, wmbz.
” think I’ll open a cold one and go for a swim”
Have one for me, I can`t drink anymore. I had my share by the time I was 28.
I guess it’s a less effective strategy to threaten the military that THEY might not be receiving a paycheck…
What a stinking lie. There’s plenty of money. You just have to prioritize the “spending”. Perhaps you eliminate some of those federal grants for pimple research and the like.
You could eliminate whole Federal Agencies and we would all be better off for the work……the Departments of Energy, Education and Housing and Urban destruction all come to mind. The dept of defense could be cut by about 1/3 and probably be a big help.
Notice he makes no proposal of his own, except to criticize the “rich” and go after trivial tax code items. As always. A big spectator, with a big mouth. Always criticizing the opposition and saying whatever they propose is “unacceptable”. How about some BIG cuts to spending??
What HAPPENED to the lock box????
Oh - it was ALL a lie.
All the money has been spent!
I am sure glad the government did allow me to invest some of my SS money, in my own name and in my own account.
“All the money has been spent”!
I will guarantee you that most citizens sincerely can’t grasp, don’t understand, don’t care that SS has no money, it has been spent. It does have IOU’s though. Backed by the full “faith” of the U.S. government.
My question has long been, is there any circumstance that the lets keep spending money we don’t have crowd believes that a nation/government should live within it’s means? I think the answer has to be no, there is never a good time to tighten the purse strings.Pass off the bad debt to the next guy, screw him, I got mine.
Wrong. SS is not and will never be broke. Not within our lifetimes at any rate.
When you got nothing left, you go for the scare the old folks play.
If you have the “scare the old folks play” you obviously do not have “nothing left”.
AARP:
Angry! Angry! Retired-Peoples…who will vote in 2012.
Hwy missed the memo. AARP is now saying they support some changes to SS, such as the formula that determines how much a retiree gets based on his “contributions” over his work history.
Hwy mi$$ed the memo.
$$ as in: $ocial $ecurity recipients
$$ as in: my poor parents payments were $uddenly $topped
$$ as in: my poor parents 2012 vote is going to $crew $omebody!
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
Obama: Can’t Guarantee Social Security Checks After August 2nd
by Jennifer Suzara | July 12, 2011
“…Congress is to blame for pushing these things up to the very last minute. Comparing the current stalemate to the Continuing Resolution debate which dragged on for months, Carney said this situation is even more inconvenient because if Congress does not act in time, it “could have an effect on markets that…would be damaging to the economy.”
Read more: ‘Fairinsanity and UnBalanced News!’ /politics / blogs fauxnews Inc. / com
Obama: Can’t Guarantee Social Security Checks After August 2nd
This is the part where we get entertained by their hot potato passes. I’m taking notes of their favorite plays for when things get more serious later.
“ITEM: Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on”
Does this mean I don`t have to make my monthly payroll tax deposit this month?
LOL! Yea try that and see!
Sorry Mitch, you guys can’t reach a “real” solution no matter who’s ass in the chair in the oval office. None of you clowns in D.C. are serious about an extremely serious problem. Not one of you guys have the balls to tackle the problems, because the voting public will hate what needs to be done, to get our fiscal house in order. So keep on this same track and I assure you default is in the future, not a damn thing you guys are willing to do about it, you sad bunch of self severing bastards!
ITEM: McConnell Says ‘Real Deal’ Not Possible With Obama ~ WSJ
WASHINGTON—A “real solution” to U.S. fiscal problems isn’t possible as long as President Barack Obama remains in office, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, heightening the rhetoric surrounding the debt-ceiling debate.
Mr. McConnell said he had gone into negotiations in good faith over how to formulate a deficit-reduction package to accompany an increase in the statutory borrowing limit. The Treasury has said the limit must be raised by Aug. 2 to avoid the potential of a U.S. default on its debts, while Mr. Obama has said he wants a deal by July 22.
Messrs. McConnell and Boehner said it was the White House’s responsibility to ensure policy makers are able to raise the deadline. “This debt-limit increase is his problem,” Mr. Boehner said. “The President talks a good game, but when it comes time to actually putting these issues on the table, making decisions, they can’t quite pull the trigger,” Mr. Boehner said.
Mr. McConnell said he concluded after the latest negotiations that the administration had “expressed a fundamental unwillingness” to agree to significant spending cuts.
“But after years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable,” Mr. McConnell said in a Senate floor speech.
McConnell has become my personal public enemy #1. Don’t know what it is, but every time he opens his mouth, I want to kick him in the nutz.
sleepless, I feel that way about Harry Reid, who hasn’t proposed a federal budget in either of the last two fiscal years. Why? Because he knows that doing “continuing resolutions” is the only way to keep expenditures at their current high levels.
“The President talks a good game, but when it comes time to actually putting these issues on the table, making decisions, they can’t quite pull the trigger
…because the repubicans keep turning their backs and walking away.
Don’t shoot ‘em the back lil’ Opie, they’ll just use it against ya,…just keep lookin’ at ‘em with that Eastwood “angry-eyes” squint!
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
Boehner Assures Repubicans He Won’t Cave on Tax Hikes:
By Corbett B. Daly, Brian Montopoli / Topics / Economy
According to a source in the room, Boehner said he initially sought a larger deal that included reform to entitlement programs. Mr. Obama agreed, he said — on the condition that the deal include revenue increases.
In Boehner’s telling, he refused to consider tax increases but said he would discuss tax reform — lowering tax rates while closing tax loopholes in a way that was revenue neutral. Mr. Obama countered that he would consider corporate tax reform but not personal tax reform.
Boehner, the source said, told his caucus he wanted both, arguing that such an approach is necessary because some small business owners claim earnings as personal income. Mr. Obama agreed, on the condition that the Bush-era tax cuts for low earners be made permanent — presumably while the tax cuts for high earners are allowed to expire. In Boehner’s telling, that’s when talks began to break down.
Mr. McConnell said he had gone into negotiations in good faith over how to formulate a deficit-reduction package to accompany an increase in the statutory borrowing limit.
There is nothing “good faith” about the current Republicans.
From the Economist: (not a liberal publication)
Shame on them
The Republicans are playing a cynical political game with hugely high economic stakes
http://www.economist.com/node/18928600
…”the Republicans are pushing things too far. Talks with the administration ground to a halt last month, despite an offer from the Democrats to cut at least $2 trillion and possibly much more out of the budget over the next ten years….
…the vast majority of Republicans, driven on by the wilder-eyed members of their party and the cacophony of conservative media, are clinging to the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from a higher tax take. This is economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical….
…this newspaper has a strong dislike of big government; we have long argued that the main way to right America’s finances is through spending cuts. But you cannot get there without any tax rises. In Britain, for instance, the coalition government aims to tame its deficit with a 3:1 ratio of cuts to hikes. America’s tax take is at its lowest level for decades: even Ronald Reagan raised taxes when he needed to do so.”
…”the Republicans are pushing things too far. Talks with the administration ground to a halt last month, despite an offer from the Democrats to cut at least $2 trillion and possibly much more out of the budget over the next ten years….
Wow - a whole $200 Billion a year. It does NOT EVEN MOVE THE NEEDLE on our debt. It does not even pay back the Obama $1 trillion Stimulus debt bomb until 8 years after he is out of office
. It is a farce.
…the vast majority of Republicans, driven on by the wilder-eyed members of their party and the cacophony of conservative media, are clinging to the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from a higher tax take. This is economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical….
I always find it amusing that anyone who wants government to live within it means somehow morphs into wild-eyed right wing militia member to the left leaning press…
…this newspaper has a strong dislike of big government; we have long argued that the main way to right America’s finances is through spending cuts. But you cannot get there without any tax rises. In Britain, for instance, the coalition government aims to tame its deficit with a 3:1 ratio of cuts to hikes. America’s tax take is at its lowest level for decades: even Ronald Reagan raised taxes when he needed to do so.”
You know - I can’t keep it straight. Some on the left equate Reagan to a brain dead debt dealing fool and then others on the left hold him up as the example we should all follow. Can I get a program, please!
PS - JFK, the left liberal icon, had the largest tax cuts in the history of the United States (until Reagan).
You know - I can’t keep it straight
Utilizing “TrueFi$calCon$ervative™” Flip$-n-Flop$… x a Trillion doses of lethal injection$, can lead to: “Mi$$ion Accomplished” amnesia!
Wow - a whole $200 Billion a year. It does NOT EVEN MOVE THE NEEDLE on our debt.
Then that’s why reverting taxes on the rich and corporations to something resembling historical norms should not be taken off the table. Especially when the above said groups have been the only beneficiaries from and the destructors of the economy the past 30 years, and they have inordinate political power.
I always find it amusing that anyone who wants government to live within it means somehow morphs into wild-eyed right wing militia member
They don’t want gov to live within it’s means. If they did, tax increases on the rich would also be on the table. They just want to get richer.
I can’t keep it straight. Some on the left equate Reagan to a brain dead debt dealing fool and then others on the left hold him up as the example we should all follow.
But that’s the whole point 2bannana. Even a brain dead fool such as Reagan knew that tax increases on the rich are sometimes necessary to do what is best for a country. The current Republicans running the show are just wackjob tools. That’s the “program” you refuse to understand but it’s not complicated.
I can’t keep it straight
Sometimes I agree with you.
Our office, filled with some very fiscally conservative Republicans, voted yes immediately on the Simpson/Bowles plan. It include both revenue increases, and spending cuts and would have cost us all in higher taxes.
This was worth it to us in order to have a realistic plan of getting our fiscal house in order.
These R’s in office don’t represent the fiscal conservatives that I know.
+14.3 trillion…
Does anyone at all seriously doubt that there will be a QE-3 or 4? Of course there will be, it’s a dire emergency they’ll say, America will fold up without it. Even if it’s done in stealth mode behind closed doors so the serfs don’t know what they are paying for. Just goes to show what a terrible predicament we are in.
ITEM: U.S. Stocks Gain as Fed Hasn’t Ruled Out Stimulus
U.S. stocks gained, rebounding from the worst two-day drop for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since March, as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed policy makers had not ruled out further stimulus efforts.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent to 1,323.82 at 2:12 p.m. in New York after slumping 2.4 percent over the previous two sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 44.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,550.49.
Benchmark indexes swung between gains and losses before the release of the Fed report. Equities rallied after the minutes showed policy makers have not completely ruled out additional monetary stimulus.
“A few members noted that, depending on how economic conditions evolve, the committee might have to consider providing additional monetary stimulus, especially if economic growth remained too slow to meaningfully reduce the unemployment rate in the medium run,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in the minutes of its June 21-22 meeting, released today in Washington.
And of course NONE of that money will come to me…even something like drop all CC interest rates to 0% for 5 years if you pay on time no overages late payments etc. Like that’s going to happen…
Does anyone at all seriously doubt that there will be a QE-3 or 4? Of course there will be
Then what Mitch? That won’t fix a damn thing, just a forward move on the calendar to another increase. Good lord you guys are completely dis-attached from the mess we are in.
McConnell Offers 3-Stage Debt-Limit Option
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a “last choice option” for increasing the U.S. debt limit in three stages in case President Barack Obama and Congress can’t agree on a deficit-reduction plan.
McConnell’s plan would let the president raise the limit, while accompanying it with a larger amount of spending cuts, unless Congress disapproved his plan with a two-thirds majority, the aide said.
The proposal is “not my first choice,” McConnell said, adding that he wanted to show the financial markets that the U.S. will not default on its debts.
The increases would come in three amounts: by $700 billion, by $900 billion and by $900 billion, McConnell said.
previously:
“This is the United States of America, and we don’t manage our affairs in three-month increments,”
Looks like lil’ Opie did a predator rip out of wingnut’s “titanium spine”.
Nice balmy day here in central S.C. temp. right at 100, heat index at 115. Plenty of humidity, kind of makes you feel like going for a nice jog on a black top road.
I do see folks out running in this weather during the noon day sun, and think they are surely nutz.
A few weeks back, Tucson’s weekly Meet Me at Maynards walk/run around Downtown happened during 112 degree heat. Needless to say, the attendance was well below its usual 300-400 participants.
However, I noticed an amazing thing. People actually cared about each other. As in, do you have enough water? How are you doing? Are you going to run the whole three miles? (Some people did.)
I noticed one lady with a couple of dogs who were absolutely miserable. Sidewalks to hot for paw pads. Or to sit down on. She took them back to the start after walking less than a half mile. From there, I presume that they went home.
As for me, I had a blast! Plenty of water in the hydration pack, long sleeves and long tights, and sunscreen on the face. Oh, and thanks to Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails for serving ice cold water. Much appreciated.
Sounds great, I do have a sneaking feeling the your humidity level is a tad lower than ours though.
It was during that walk. The monsoons rolled in a few days later and man, did that kick up the humidity.
It’s a little better than that in the upstate SC. But I have no desire to jog today.
U.S. default would slam financial system: NYC mayor Bloomberg
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. debt default would have a catastrophic effect on the U.S. financial system and deal a huge setback to New York City’s recovering economy, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday.
Bloomberg, mentioned among possible successors toTreasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said the federal government must avoid damaging the nation’s economy and its credibility around the world with a first-ever U.S. default.
“America’s good name and credit are just too important to be held hostage to Washington gridlock, and I hope that in the end cooler heads will prevail and an agreement will be reached quickly,” Bloomberg, a political independent, said in a statement.
Congress and the President Barack Obama are squabbling over a compromise that would raise the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Republican House leaders oppose tax increases; Democratic Senate leaders are fending off cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The battle must be resolved by August 2 or the country will run out of money.
Repubican House leaders oppose tax increases…for the… The MegaInc.$ & Wealthie$,…they’re $uffering $o!…hurry! reduce/eliminate their taxe$, hurry,… Cinder$ & Ashe$…Schemer$ & Scammmer$…Agonie$ & Pain$, help ‘em.;
Back in the olden days, we acknowledged that wars cost money and didn’t think that our children should pay the entire cost, with interest. (Imagine that!) There were huge tax increases to finance World War II and the Korean War, and fairly significant ones to pay for Vietnam.
A Country in Denial About Taxes:
Leonard Burman / The Impertinent Economist / Forbes
Here’s a picture of a nation in denial about taxes. Almost all of the Republicans in Congress have signed a pledge to never, ever raise taxes. And, over the last decade, we’ve been in a tax cutting frenzy. Significant tax cuts have been enacted almost every year since 2001. There have been no tax increases.
The biggest tax cut–in terms of immediate impact–was the bill President Obama signed last fall to extend the Bush tax cuts. Combined with the effect of the economic slowdown, this decade long tax-cutting binge has decimated federal revenues, which currently stand at less than 15% of GDP. The last time they were this low, the first baby boomers were riding tricycles. Now, they’re collecting Social Security and Medicare.
Yes, we will surely have to slow the rate of growth of entitlement spending, but we’ll also have to raise taxes.
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
“U.S. default would slam financial system: NYC mayor Bloomberg”
DON’T TEASE ME LIKE THIS!
This is as good a way as any for R.Paul to retire from politics. He will never be nominated and after 24 years of swimming in the D.C. cesspool I would think he would want to get out and wash off.
Rep. Ron Paul Won’t Seek Congressional Seat in 2012
July 12, 2011| FoxNews.com
Rep. Ron Paul announced Tuesday that he won’t seek re-election to the Texas U.S. House seat he’s presented for nearly 24 years, and instead will concentrate on getting the Republican nomination for president to run against President Obama in 2012.
“Dr. Paul will not seek re-election in the Texas-14 and will focus his efforts on winning the presidency,” Jesse Benton, a Paul campaign aide, told Fox News.
Paul made the announcement via Twitter, and linked to a local Texas newspaper to share the details.
“I felt it was better that I concentrate on one election,” Paul told The Facts, a news service covering Brazoria County, Texas, a portion of which Paul represents. “It’s about that time when I should change tactics.”
Paul, 75, has run for the presidency three times, and cultivated a substantial following in the 2008 primary race running on the themes of limited government and less federal spending as well as personal liberties and a limited role in international conflicts.
Paul generally falls somewhere in the middle of the presidential pack in GOP polling. The latest Fox News poll, taken June 26-28, showed Paul with 7 percent among 912 primary voters. That put him behind Republican hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, but ahead of Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum and Gary Johnson.
This is as good a way as any for R.Paul to retire from politics. He will never be nominated and after 24 years of swimming in the D.C. cesspool I would think he would want to get out and wash off.
Not to mention that he’s 75 years old. If I were in his shoes, I’d think of having a nice retirement back in the heart of Texas.
I honestly don’t know if his ideas are workable, but he is just too old for the job now.
Dang ya beat me to it. I’m not partial to all of his ideals, but it is a pretty sad state when those names are in front of his…
He was gerrymandered out of his old district by Gov Perry.
His new district will contain a majority of minorities(maybe enough to
swing the seat to the Dems, but maybe not).
Like I said previously, I think he should run against Perry just to return the favor.
(Reuters) - Republican Ron Paul said on Tuesday he will not seek re-election to the House of Representatives in order to focus on his uphill presidential bid.
Paul, 75, who has served more than 20 years in the House, told his hometown Texas newspaper “The Facts” that he would step down from Congress to devote all his attention to winning the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
“I felt it was better that I concentrate on one election,” Paul said. “It’s about that time when I should change tactics.”
Who doesn’t just love loopholes…
Lobbyists give to lawmakers through honorary fees
Washington Examiner:
Federal law limits how much corporate political action committees (PACs) can give to members of Congress, but high-powered K Street lobbysts have found a loophole that enables them to give an estimated $50 million to senators and representatives.
The gifts are in the form of dinners honoring the congressmen, according to the Sunlight Foundation, which released a report today describing how lobbysts are using the loophole to direct millions of dollars to influential members of Congress. Executive branch officials, including the president, can also be honored by such events.
But it’s not just honoring dinners that are used by lobbyists to circumvent campaign contribution limits, according to Sunlight:
They also cover underwriting a conference or retreat held by officials, donating to a lawmaker’s charity and even giving to a nonprofit where a lawmaker sits on the board of directors. These situations, and some others, all fall under what the rule-makers—the Senate secretary and House clerk—call honorary and meeting expenses.
The biggest spenders were Chevron and Wal-Mart, which donated $2.9 million and $2.2 million respectively. And the biggest recipients were the Congressional Black Caucus with over $6 million, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus with over $4 million and President Barack Obama with over $1 million.
Nine of the top 10 recipients were Democrats, or in the case of the two ethnic caucus groups, heavily oriented to the Democratic Party. The lone top 10 recipient not associated with Democrats is Gen. David Petraus, recently appointed by President Obama as director of the CIA.
“Of the over $50 million in these reports, firms employing lobbyists spent $36.3 million honoring members of Congress and $11 million honoring executive branch officials in 2009 and 2010 In addition, nearly $645,000 went to legislative branch employees—mostly congressional staffers—the reports showed,” Sunlight said in a news release describing the study.
Ireland gets the blame today, I was hoping the blame would be on a resurgence of the Somali pirates.
Stocks plunge in late trading, erase gains after Moody’s sends Ireland’s debt into junk status
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing lower after Moody’s knocked Ireland’s bond rating to junk, saying the country would likely need another rescue. Moody’s already has junk ratings on Greece and Portugal.
Ireland is again the focus of investor fears that a heavily-indebted European country will default. That could cause disruptions on financial markets and a slowdown in lending.
Italy last night. Ireland late today….
Wait until it is the USA debt…
Matt Taibbi reported a couple of weeks ago that Iowa Attorney General, Tom Miller, “has raised $261,445 from finance, insurance and real estate contributors since he announced that he was going to be coordinating the investigation into improper foreclosure practices.”
Now, it comes to light that Miller made cold calls to the very law firms representing the nation’s largest banks to ask for campaign contributions.
TIME reports:
Miller says he does not believe his fundraising efforts among lawyers representing potential targets of his investigations give the impression of impropriety. Nor does he believe that negotiating with the lawyer who gave him $5,000, Meyer Koplow of New York’s Wachtell Lipton, now representing Bank of America, presents a conflict of interest. “All of this is just so much of a stretch,” Miller says.
That Miller sees no impropriety in all this is precisely the problem. As George Carlin has said, “It’s a big club…and you ain’t in it.”
~ Clipped from The Daily Bail
Now I get it. The whole anti business, us against them is nothing but a fundraising tactict. I had simliar thoughts few weeks ago when O denounced the cooporate jets and the fat cats in the afternoon but at night he was partying with the same people at 38000 per person dinner.
“Workers and unions cannot afford lower salaries because housing prices have been inflated to 44% of personal consumption expenditure. In China, for example, housing is 14% of PCE. As long as housing price maintenance via mortgage credit subsidies exists in the US, our labor will remain uncompetitive.” - eric janszen, http://www.itulip.com
Well just tell the Chinese that real estate “only goes up” and that they should leverage as much as possible!
5 out of the 6 profiled are now underemployed. Seems like one found equivalent work.
Hope: A Precious Commodity In This Job Market
“When NPR started its Road Back to Work series in January, the six people we were profiling were unemployed and searching for work. Today they are all working. But these are not unqualified success stories. Four of them are in temporary or contract jobs. And one, Howland, is in a permanent position that leaves him yearning for more.
Today they are all working. But these are not unqualified success stories. Four of them are in temporary or contract jobs.
It is an unqualified success story……for the corporations.
Is this not close to a zero sum game?
Bank’s Deal Means More Will Lose Their Homes
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: July 11, 2011
Tens of thousands of Bank of America’s most distressed borrowers could be evicted and lose their homes more quickly as a result of a proposed settlement between the bank, which is the country’s largest mortgage servicer, and investors in its troubled mortgage securities.
For struggling borrowers in better financial shape, the outcome could be more positive: the deal would include incentives for mortgage servicers to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their payments and whose homes are worth less than they borrowed.
“The goal is to reinstate as many borrowers in a modification that performs well,” said Tony Meola, a servicing executive with Bank of America. “It also is likely to lead to faster resolution in those unfortunate situations where foreclosure is inevitable. While not a desirable outcome, the recovery of the housing markets depends on moving through the foreclosure process as quickly and fairly as possible.”
While powerful investors stand to benefit from the $8.5 billion settlement over the bank’s bundling of shoddy mortgages as securities, the fallout for the nearly 275,000 borrowers who took out those loans depends greatly on how deep they are in the foreclosure process and whether they earn enough money to dig themselves out.
While no exact income qualification has been set as part of the agreement, which was announced last month, many servicers use a formula in which borrowers can qualify for a modification as long as the new monthly payment does not exceed 31 percent of their monthly gross income. For borrowers who are unemployed or lack the income to cover even reduced mortgage payments, foreclosure and eviction could be much more immediate.
With 1.3 million borrowers at risk of foreclosure, Bank of America has been overwhelmed by the surge in defaults, and the accord has raised hopes that this logjam will finally begin to ease. But skeptics say that previous arrangements, like another multibillion-dollar settlement by Bank of America in 2008, have barely made a dent in the problem.
…
Tens of thousands of Bank of America’s most distressed borrowers could be evicted and lose their homes more quickly as a result of
a proposed settlement between the bank,not paying their mortgages.Thanks for fixing that…
Obama and Congress Agree To Raise Debt Ceiling to $120 Trillion
by NickFun
Complicated graphs and charts prove the country is now just fine.
President Obama and Congress breathed a collective sigh of relief today as Obama signed into law a budget agreement that would raise the federal debt ceiling from it’s current $12 trillion to $120 trillion.
“The country’s finances are now in excellent shape”, an upbeat Obama said in a prepared statement. “We now have plenty of money for education, health care, social security, NPR and funding for the wars”.
House Republicans were initially against raising the debt ceiling until Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, reminded congress that without the removal of the debt ceiling congress would have to be shut down and they would be unable to vote themselves pay raises.
The President said he has a plan to have the country fiscally sound by the time the $120 trillion debt limit has been reached, which will probably be in about 10 years.
“We will start slowly paying our bills”, Obama stated. “We will find ways to reduce the deficit as time goes on but let’s enjoy the economic prosperity we have now found!”
…
AHEAD OF THE TAPE
JULY 13, 2011
An Empty Toolbox at the Federal Reserve
By KELLY EVANS
These days, the phrase “divided government” could just as easily apply to the Federal Reserve.
Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting, released Tuesday, seem to leave the door open to further extraordinary actions by the central bank should the economy continue to weaken. Some Fed members seem to feel this would be warranted if growth isn’t strong enough to bring down unemployment and should deflation concerns resurface. Others, though, remain steadfastly opposed.
Even if doubters change their minds, though, just what exactly could—and should—the Fed do at this point? Its target lending rate is already parked at zero. The Fed just completed a second round of buying government bonds in hope of providing additional stimulus to the economy.
And the punch bowl isn’t totally empty: the Federal Reserve continues buying Treasurys to keep the size of its balance sheet steady rather than allowing it to contract as mortgage holdings mature.
Yet the results of these extraordinary efforts have been mixed. Deflation fears might have receded but were replaced by a spike in food and gasoline prices that has also undermined domestic growth. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has actually risen of late, to 9.2% in June from 8.8% in March.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will have to answer for this when he appears before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday to deliver his semiannual report on monetary policy.
…
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