Bits Bucket for August 1, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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America isn’t a country, it’s a game.
America’s been gamed.
America according to Scarface:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFvdpE3YUfM
Nah, Americas highly intelligent voting public is getting exactly what they voted for.
Winston Churchill: ‘the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter’
Never heard that one before, but it made me litereally LOL.
Hey I resemble that remark
and bin Ladin won.
Tony Montana said it best…
“America isn’t a country, it’s a game.”
AMERICATHON!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078766/
(a must see movie. still relevant today)
Here is the kind of thinking I can identify with. This guy spells out the debt problem we face with clarity and sincerity, something we should see in a President but for some strange reason we don’t:
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means ‘The buck stops here’. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” - Senator Barack Obama, 2006.
The larger point of those comments was that we can not afford the generous tax cuts of the last 30 years and the wars of the last ten years. One is free to disagree with that sentiment, but it is unfair to accuse him of hypocrisy.
“but it is unfair to accuse him of hypocrisy”.
No it’s plenty “fair” but whine on…
I saw nothing in those words that mentioned tax cuts or wars.
What I did see were words that indicated that America had a debt problem and a failure of leadership and that Americans deserve better.
“… it is unfair to accuse him of hypocrisy.”
These were his words, not mine.
I see nothing in those words that mentioned cutting Medicare or defense spending either.
Context, combo. Context. It’s what separates liberal (open-minded,) from conservative, (traditional.)
Why do the labels liberal or conservative have to be applied to everything? Why can’t reason prevail without becoming locked into some sort of ideaology?
Labels distract from the problem. If overspending is the problem then focus on the problem; Don’t spend energy on anything that doesn’t address the problem.
If fingers need to be pointed the point them AFTER the problem is solved.
If overspending is the problem then focus on the problem;
You assumed that overspending is the problem. But what if overspending ISN’T the problem? How many sheeple are open-minded enough to spot your logical fallacy?* I think we should be spending our energy addressing our REVENUE problem. As in, jobs where people spend their time creating (yes, creating) money with their labor instead of spending the days applying for jobs online.
—————
*which, by the way, is a mild form of “begging the question.”
“If overspending is the problem then focus on the problem”
If I lose my job, spending is not the problem. Income is.
If I cut spending without addressing my income problem, I am not fixing my deficit.
If I have to cut car maintenance and health insurance to pay for food, I can dig a deeper hole for myself when a bald tire causes an accident. If I have to decide whether to put $10 worth of gas in my car for the trip to the job interview or buy dinner for my family, I am in serious trouble. And don’t tell me I should take the bus, because the bus doesn’t go there.
“You assumed that overspending is the problem.”
Funny how I made that assumption since we seem to be spending more money than we are taking in. I do not know how to define such a problem other than using a term such as “overspending”.
If you are spending more than you are taking in then you are overspending. In you are not spending more than you are taking in then you are probably not overspending.
If revenues are increased to the point that they match your spending then you are probably not overspending. If spending is reduced to the point where they match revenues then you are probably not overspending.
Don’t allow words to get in the way.
Funny how I made that assumption since we seem to be spending more money than we are taking in.
Funny how I questioned that assumption since we seem to be taking in less money than we are spending.
Don’t allow word order to get in the way, combo.
“If revenues are increased to the point that they match your spending then you are probably not overspending. If spending is reduced to the point where they match revenues then you are probably not overspending.”
Oh good, then you agree that we need to increase revenue.
“Oh good, then you agree that we need to increase revenue.”
Absolutely.
If something is worth having then it should be worth paying for.
If each spending program initiated by Congress had attached to it an announcement about how much extra each taxpayer would be taxed to pay for that program - and these taxes were immediately stripped from the taxpayers - then Congress would soon learn that the taxpayers are really not all that keen on the spending for the program as Congress is.
But this is not how it is done.
Somehow the costs for the programs become disassociated with the actual funding - not the pretend fantasy funding - the ACTUAL funding.
And soooo … here we are.
“If each spending program initiated by Congress had attached to it an announcement about how much extra each taxpayer would be taxed to pay for that program “
You are an idealist. Do you expect that the true costs would be in that announcement?
Combo-
“…Why do the labels liberal or conservative have to be applied to everything?”
In, ahem, context, those were not ideological labels, they were dictionary (literally,) definitions of different approaches to conceptualization and analysis of any given data. Pinning an ideological interpretation on President Obama’s (out of context,) words is not, to my mind, open-minded.
Rather, it is propaganda.
Nor is it particularly helpful to the conversation at hand.
You can never argue with progressives, they will make your head spin until you question your own sound logic. Don’t waste your time, they want to keep the machine growing until the system collapses. They do not care if their past statements appear hypocritical, the ends justify the means.
Join me in calling them out and lampooning their twisted brand of politics, exposure is what will drive them back underground.
“but it is unfair to accuse him of hypocrisy.”
????????
What would you call it? An unfortunate teleprompter feed?
I call him as well as almost every other politician a hypocrite.
Where is the hypocrisy? If revenues were higher, we would not have a deficit.
As for hypocrisy, how about the republicans demagoguing Obama in 2010 for ’slashing’ medicare when he ended Medicare Advantage? And where is the jobs bill they ran on? We have had several pro-incandescent lightbulb bills, but no jobs bill.
“If revenues were higher, we would not have a deficit.”
WRONG! If revenues were higher, spending would be higher by at least an equal amount.
“…And where is the jobs bill they ran on? We have had several pro-incandescent lightbulb bills, but no jobs bill.”
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
Job$! Job$! Job$!.
“TruePathtoPro$perity™” + “TrueReduceTheDeficitNow!! Today!™” = “TrueAnger™” / “TrueObstructionist$™” /“TrueGridLok™” weeParty tea toadlers
Bill in Carolina, I agree. When our revenues were high and budget nearly balanced, instead of using the revenue to continue to pay principle, the R’s increased spending accordingly, generally on tax cuts.
When our revenues were high and budget nearly balanced, instead of using the revenue to continue to pay principle, the R’s increased spending accordingly, generally on tax cuts.
That is what I was expecting them to do, and then I watched with incredulous eyes as the deficits soared under the GOP’s watch. That was when I became convinced that the GOP was worse than the Dems. Tax and spend is bad, but borrow and spend is even worse.
So for now I am registered as an independent.
Republicans = Free lunch party
VAT is on the way folks…just a matter of time.
We are so truly screwed, and the really sad fact is that
so many don’t have a clue about how fast we’re being
flushed down the toilet.
Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.
No, instead the poor choices of yesterday are being put onto the backs of the poor and the middle class today. Where’s the shared sacrifice?
The poor choices of the middle class? Wow, the objectivists are really getting shirty these days. Got to keep the losers in line, I suppose.
Reread what I said. I did not say or intend to say the poor choices of the middle class, though there are some in the middle class that helped enable horrible choices.
The real problem is that we’ve off-shored our industrail base, are off-shoring intellectual jobs, have grown more and more dependant on ever increasing debt, wages have not kept up with inflation, and we are desperately attempting to hold onto a standard of living that the fundamentals of our economy simply do not support.
+1 Well said, Darrell.
What we have is a divided government, because we have a divided electorate.
And by divided electorate, I don’t just mean the fracturaed, polarized, partisan, dogmatic, demogoging, politics of personal destruction.
We have individual voters that are a house divided, turned against themselves.
You have people like my grandmother, father and in-laws that want 3 things. 1) Balanced budget, 2) lower taxes, 3) Do not even think of cutting my Social Security or Medicare, and do not cut defense.
You lay the numbers out in front of them, and they just get mad.
But, this is all just symptoms of a deeper problem. We all want the companies that we own stock in to grow profits to increase the value of our investment portfolios. However, the way they do that is by paying less, employing fewer people, moving operations off-shore, cutting costs… Basically, to get better return on our investments, we have to accept them paying us less and less until they eventually just fire us and hire a couple people in Chindia to replace us.
The American population has multiple personality disorder.
Check out this graph of the DOW from 1900 - present. During the middle class golden years of 1955-1980 or so, the stock market made few overall gains. The middle class didn’t care because they didn’t have 401k’s and didn’t need the DOW to retire. Companies could get away with low returns, so they could American workers.
After 1980 (that 1980 date keeps cropping up over and over again) the DOW skyrockets. Now companies depend on returns of 10-12% and they do accounting tricks and layoffs just to maintain that. I think, if we went back to smaller ROI — maybe 6-7% — companies could afford American workers. I’m not sure there’s ever a way to go back to that.
But, the 1980s are a reaction to the 1960s and 1970s.
The 1950s, the globe was mostly a smoking wasteland in the ruins of World War II. We didn’t need to compete in the global market becasue we were the market. By the 1960s the world had rebuilt from WWII and started to undercut us. By the 1970s, we became a net import nation, but had not yet figured out that you can’t be a saving nation and an import nation… stagflation.
In the 1980s we embraced our role as a declining power and decided to pretend everything was okay by deregulating banking and getting the debt flowing. For 30 years we’ve been living on debt and bubbles, while we off-shore more and more jobs.
Hey, it has been a great party, but it is ending.
We didn’t need to compete in the global market because we were the market.
Yes, and 750,000 ..per month…US Service members returning from overseas 1945 war duty laid the foundation for that particular $it-u-Ashun, and to think they accomplished that without: “TrueFinancialInnovation$!™” Wow!
(from “In the Loop”) Toby:
“The Boomers are coming! The Boomers are coming!”
Every conversation I have had with above 65′ers ends in shouting.
65 years of “property” has not prepared them for today’s reality.
Could you elaborate? Some I know get it, some don’t.
“You have people like my grandmother, father and in-laws that want 3 things. 1) Balanced budget, 2) lower taxes, 3) Do not even think of cutting my Social Security or Medicare, and do not cut defense.”
They have probably been sold the idea that we can just cut waste, fraud, and abuse and solve our problems.
we can just cut waste, fraud, and abuse and solve our problems.
while it might not solve our problems, it sure would be a nice start, no?
Drum, are you assuming that by decreasing the budget for SSI, food stamps, unemployment etc. that the fraud will be eradicated? it will not. If you have gov’t programs, you need to police those programs. Otherwise, the fraud will still be there and the needy do without.
@Krisdad - I’m not suggesting decreasing the budget will do anything. I’m suggesting that if we were to remove fraud, waste, and abuse, these programs would have less overhead. At that point, their budgets could be reduced without reducing their effectiveness.
I’m all for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse (WF&A), but it won’t make a dent in the budget deficit. Why? Because to root out WF&A you have to spend money on monitoring, investigations, and audits (MI&A), and those being monitored have to spend more money on record-keeping. So, whatever you save by reducing WF&A gets spent on MI&A&R. Indeed, you may lose money on the deal, because MI&A&R may cost more than WF&A.
Ever heard the saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?”
The costs of monitoring and enforcing the rules and regulations against fraud and corruption more than pays for itself and always has.
Hmm. Tell that to the communities impoverished by the War on Drugs.
As I said, I believe enforcement is a good thing. I for one don’t believe one should try to run a cost-benefit analysis on everything, because many goods are difficult to monetize. So, I’m for enforcement, just not the fantasy that it will eliminate (or even greatly reduce) the deficit.
IAT
“Leadership means ‘The buck stops here’. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.”
That’s a given. What is the alternative that has been proposed? Increase spending on today’s seniors, but cut senior benefits for those age 54 and younger.
And with the choice to keep borrowing, you can bet infrastructure investment was top of the list in spending cuts.
And the Ryan Plan has debt growing as % of GDP until 2049, even using his assumptions of 3-5% annual GDP growth. Basically, he’s using savings from the Boomers DIEING 40 years from now as cost savings too to justify lowering corporate tax rates now.
The Ryan plan is a joke.
Not 40 years from now. Very soon, especially when they convert Medicare to Voucher-noncare.
Which… would only be for those under 55. So, the first half of the boomers retire, increase Medicare spending from $500B to $800B, and keep it there for 30 years until the first half of Boomers die.
And Social Security gets very littel attention, so it explodes from $730B to $1.28T, then continues to climb, if more slowly, as the second half of Boomers retire, continueing to explode debt as % GDP until most of the Boomers are dead. Then in 2049, GDP growth (assuming 3-5% per year between now and then) finally begins to exceed the rate of government debt growth.
Yes.. this great plan to fixing our deficit is great justification for lowering corporate taxes now.
“Which… would only be for those under 55.”
That should take effect in about 10 years or so.
But we’d still have everyone that retires in those 10 years to pay for, for another 30 years beyond that.
Not 40 years from now. Very soon, especially when they convert Medicare to Voucher-noncare.
I was at a free health clinic this past Saturday. Quite a few of the people there looked to be in the same boat that I am — under-insured or uninsured. Only a few who looked to be of Medicare age.
Quite the contrast from the clinic I went to a couple of months ago. That one offered free blood tests (glucose, cholesterol, and PSA for the guys). And that clinic was very heavy on Medicare-eligible folks.
One more thing about these clinics: The June clinic was hosted by several local African American organizations. It was open to all and all were treated with great kindness. This past Saturday’s clinic was at the Islamic Center of Tucson, and once again, I was impressed with the kindness and compassion that was shown to all.
Makes me wonder where our community’s predominantly white evangelical churches are in all of this.
“increase Medicare spending from $500B to $800B, and keep it there for 30 years until the first half of Boomers die”
When Medicare payments level off, doctors will stop taking new Medicare patients. Boomers unlucky enough to need medical care will die sooner than 30 years.
Darrell’s right, I forgot the under-55 provision.
Makes me wonder where our community’s predominantly white evangelical churches are in all of this.
I have been told by Evangs and Fundies that charity is pointless and that the only mandate of the church is Missionary work. The amounts of money they allocate for missionaries is staggering.
How many times do I have to say this?
Gen X & Y OUTNUMBER the boomers and are already in the workforce.
Leadership?? When is the last time this country had leadership?
So, what did you want him to do as leader?
Shut the governemtn down until Republicans agreed to $ trillions in new revenues and a 50% cut to defense?
“So, what do you want him to do as a leader?’
Uh, lead, maybe?
Do we have a problem? Yes or no?
If the answer is yes then what is it we should do to solve this problem? A true leader would:
1. Identify the problem (which has already been done for him)
2. Work out solutions to solve the problem.
Not doing so does nothing toward solving the problem because the problem will not solve itself.
Nice non-answer. How about a real answer?
What is the problem?
Spending? Okay, so tell me that you’d like to cut 45% across the board including defense and SS/MC/MC. Okay, so you want a greator recession and grandma rioting in the street. I’m down with that.
Jobs? Slicing spending isn’t going to get there. Raising taxes isn’t going to get there? So, what? Give Wall Street the green light to inflate yet another bubble, create a few million jobs for a couple years, see more malinvestment and bad debt, then watch all those jobs and more go away and another governemtn when the bubble pops in a few years?
Trade war to plug the trade deficit and try to rebuilid our industrial base, soaring inflation and crashing scock markets for years until maybe, just maybe some jobs might appear.
Just keep running $1.5T a year deficits to maintain our flat economy until we Greece?
Spend even more, get some growth, but Greece even sooner?
What exactly is the problem, what is the solution, and how the heck are you going to get the rest of the elected officials and the voting public to go along when they all have a vested interest in maintaing the status quo as long as possible?
What EXACTLY is it you would want him to do as leader?
It is so much easier to complain about the lack of a solution that to actually present a possible solution yourself.
“What EXACTLY is it you would want him to do as a leader?”
I want him to announce to the American people that we are in a spending crisis that will end up destroying this country unless it is dealt with, and that he, as President, will take the lead in solving this crisis and this means there will be enough pain to go around for everyone.
And if this means that he will not be re-elected than so be it.
A huge across the board cut would lead to the Great Depression II.
“A huge across the board cut would lead to the Great Depression II.”
Yeah? So where do you think all this out of control spending will lead us to? Prosperity, maybe?
What EXACTLY is it you would want him to do as leader?
Darrell, you seem focused on the short-term consequences of any solution.
There’s no good/easy answer. No one seems willing to admit that. We have to undo 50 years of bad decisions and malinvestment. It’s not going to be a quick fix, nor a painless one.
1) Freeze spending. Now. First step to getting out of a whole is to stop digging
2) Start making cuts. Bring the military home. Protect our borders. No more foreign entanglements. No more imperialism. Yes, that means lots of newly unemployed soldiers. That will be a problem.
3) Rather than laying all the soldiers off, perhaps put them to work on infrastructure projects. Rather than spending the money blowing stuff up across the world (and building up long-term health care liabilities for the troops — note we’re still paying a ton for all the vietnam vets), spend it producing infrastructure that can help create wealth at home.
4) tariffs.
etc…
“we are in a spending crisis”
Couldn’t he announce that we are in a revenue crisis as well? Or is that a fatuous question?
Thanks drumminj, for providing something specific. In this whole thread, any time Darrel asked Combo for something precise, combo provided the usual vague phrases
lead
work out
deal with
take the lead in solving
So we’re gonna solve our problems by taking the lead in solving out problems. Very helpful. Throw in some arm-twisting and bully pulpit and, by gum, the problem will solve itself!
I very much agree that our military should be nation-building HERE in the US. Obama said this on TV a while ago, but it’s very easy to say not so easy to do. Ahansen in right. OBL won. The overseas countries say they don’t want to be occupied, but I don’t see them objecting to the nation-building. Just threaten a few bombs, and whoomp! Free roads and schools and military training!
Drumminj-
I like your ideas.
The problem is that the GOP will obstruct each and every one of them.
Rather than laying all the soldiers off, perhaps put them to work on infrastructure projects. ”
I don’t know if you would have to lay any of them off its the private contract soldiers that are costing big money the ones replacing regular soldiers in Iraq
thats what I hear not in the MSM either
How do you lead when the not so loyal opposition controls the house and does everything they possibly can do to obstruct you?
What do you do when a large portion of the electorate hates you so much that they are willing to see the country go down in flames if that’s what it takes to get you out of the White House?
Start a war and cast them as unpatriotic.
How do you lead when the not so loyal opposition controls the house and does everything they possibly can do to obstruct you?
Have integrity and say and do what is right. You can only control yourself and your own words and actions. What you’re making here is an excuse - none of those things block his ability to act like a true leader.
What do you do when a large portion of the electorate hates you so much that they are willing to see the country go down in flames if that’s what it takes to get you out of the White House?
Care to back that one up? Sounds like one hell of a straw man if you ask me.
Didn’t the guy who looks like an old turtle actually say that his goal is to get Obama out? Mitch McConnell? Does that ring a bell with anyone else?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/10/mcconnell-stopping-obamas-re-election-still-single-most-important-goal/
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told National Journal’s Major Garrett in October.
Fox News’ Bret Baier asked McConnell Sunday if that was still his major objective.
“Well, that is true,” McConnell replied. “That’s my single most important political goal, along with every active Republican in the country.”
As for the country going down in flames, I don’t think they really analyze that before they do it.
What you’re making here is an excuse - none of those things block his ability to act like a true leader.
oh see, now you’ve gone vague too! Opposition in the House, or a Senate filibuster, is EXACTLY the thing that blocks Obama’s ability to do ANYTHING.*
Constitutionally, the President is third in line on legislation. He isn’t supposed to LEAD on legislation, or at least his leadership has no material effect. What’s he gonna do? He can yell at them, but he can’t send them to their rooms and do their voting for them.
————
*I notice that in the one area where Congress doesn’t have much of a say — foreign policy — Obama is doing pretty well.
“Care to back that one up? Sounds like one hell of a straw man if you ask me.”
I believe that a certain Rush Limbaugh said something along those lines, and that his dittoheads all nodded in agreement.
Didn’t the guy who looks like an old turtle actually say that his goal is to get Obama out? Mitch McConnell?
Looks like McConnell did say that. However, I’m not sure how one person = “a large portion of the electorate”, and how wanting Obama to be a one-term president equates to “hating him so much they are willing to see the country go down in flames if that’s what it takes”.
I notice that in the one area where Congress doesn’t have much of a say — foreign policy — Obama is doing pretty well.
1. Afghanistan
2. Libya
3. Pakistan
4. Egypt
Just a few areas he asserted himself. Not sure what you consider a failure.
The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told National Journal’s Major Garrett in October.
Why is that a big deal? Politicians saying political things. You probably don’t realize that the single most important thing for Obama is get re-elected as well. Kind of provides a counter balance, doesn’t it?
With the deal last night, Omaba may have very well secured the second term presidency. Tea party has no chance, the plan always was to re-elect Obama. That’s how the banisters wanted and it settled yesterday.
“However, I’m not sure how one person = “a large portion of the electorate””
Doesn’t McConnell have a special position in Congress, like “leader” of something? I would think that that position helps to shape policy of whatever party he is in and that they speak for the electorate. Maybe I’m unclear as to how these things work. I am just a caveman.
“and how wanting Obama to be a one-term president equates to “hating him so much they are willing to see the country go down in flames if that’s what it takes”
Perhaps you can’t imagine that amount of hatred? It’s pretty obvious if you talk to half of the people in the country. They are easy to spot, usually driving big/expensive cars and threatening tree-huggers. Just ask them what they’d do to get Obama out.
Maybe I’m unclear as to how these things work. I am just a caveman.
Honestly I see no point in engaging with someone who chooses to be so condescending. Have a nice day.
What gets me the most about the Obama hatred is that the guy is no commie. He’s pretty middle of the road, a la Bob Dole. So why the hatred? I can only draw one conclusion …
Yes I agree he is a WUSSIE not a Leader….is that the conclusion you were looking for?
Biden calls tea partiers terrorists.
Oh, the love and compassionate these people have…..
I can only draw one conclusion …
Again the race thing. You forgot the 90’s and also you forgot the last 10 years. Obama hasn’t seen half the hatred Clinton and Bush got while they were presidents.
“Honestly I see no point in engaging with someone who chooses to be so condescending. Have a nice day.”
WHAAAAAAAA!!! Pot, meet kettle….
No, He should have called their bluff, use any technical way possible to raise the limit and wait for Congress to try impeach him.
It seems like he doesn’t understand the purpose of the debt ceiling, which is to enable the spending of monies the Congress has already budgeted.
Two words: “Political Theater”
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “[The debt limit debate] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
One Quote:
“A debt-crisi$ is only a problem until the bailout.” liz pendens™
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “[The debt limit debate] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
I thought that was the stock market ?
Let’s also note that when Obama said this the economy was booming. ie Keynes would suggest that taxes not be cut and gov spending should not be increased. Let’s also note that when he said this the elite were controlling a bigger and bigger slice of the economic pie and this regarded more tax cuts for the elite.
In the same speech, he said, “Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending. As a result, tax breaks have not been paid for by reductions in Federal spending, and thus the only way to pay for them has been to increase our deficit to historically high levels and borrow more and more money. Now we have to pay for those tax breaks plus the cost of borrowing for them. ”
But nobody quotes that, because it doesn’t fit with their ideology.
Full text of his comments.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/debtlimit.asp
So, when he says “extend the cuts for everyone under $250K a year income”, what $300B in spending cuts is he proposing to pay for them. Thopse tax cuts are reduciong revenue by $370B, with $300B for those under $250K a year and only $70K for those over $250K.
“Both parties gave more ground than they wanted to. And neither side got as much as it had hoped. But that is the essence of compromise.”
~Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid
Spoken like a true buffoon, but a buffoon that is deeply admired by his followers.
“Spoken like a true buffoon, but a buffoon that is deeply admired by his followers.”
You don’t actually know any Democrats, do you? Most don’t like Reid very much, and blame him for a lot of the problems the Democrats have had over the last few years.
That’s a cheap shot, wmbz. Do you have your own definition for the essence of compromise?
wmbz,
You are clearly more aligned with the Republican party than most here seem to be, so I will ask you.
What is your solution to $1.5T a year deficits? Specifics please. Take the budget.. the $2.1T in revenues and the $3.6T (or maybe $3.8T), then factor in 70% increase in those over 65 as the first half of Boomers retire.
What would your budget look like.
Everyone is in favor of a balanced budget, but few are willing to actually make the 50% cuts to defense, Medicare/caid and Social Security that would be required to get there.
I am in the camp that wants the balanced budget, and I have accepted that to get there “retirement” as it has been promised for 70 years, just isn’t going to happen.
But I’d like to know what others that seem to be aligned with the Republican party think.
“You are clearly more aligned with the Republican party than most here seem to be…”
Democrat = wants poor to live better
Republican = wants rich to live better
Libertarian = happy being naked
TEA = wants misery for everyone
All of the above = think they can squeeze the shrunken middle class a bit more to pay for it
“All of the above = think they can squeeze the shrunken middle class a bit more to pay for it”
Yeah, I’ve pretty much given up on politics. Everyone is at the table stuffing their faces except us. Thank you to whoever resurrected the George Carlin quote (unedited/vulgar language!):
“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying . . . lobbying, to get what they want . . . Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want . . . they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin’ retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin’ place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you . . . they don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . .”
George Carlin,= a cussin’ Will Rogers.
Will Rogers was a staunch Democrat.
Tankxs for that lead in:
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”
“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”
“Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.”
“Always drink upstream from the herd.”
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
“I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat. ”
“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”
And all of them are still true!
Re the George Carlin video
I was youtube would post what year those vids are from. Because I’m thinking some of those videos are at least 10 years old and he was already telling us they were coming for our Social Security.
Bush EXPRESSLY tried to get Congress to give SS to Wall St.
If you dare, YouTube hosts an equally provocative rant about religion by the incisive critically-thinking Carlin.
“And we sure could use — a — man — like — George D P Carlin again.”
Libertarian = happy being naked [while owning x3 corsets]
“Democrat = wants poor to live better”
BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
That is why you make them dependent on government assistance and cage them like animals in the worst crime infested housing projects you could ever imagine. 40+ years of progressives and democrats “helping” the poor, the only “help” they got was with losing their dignity. The democrats and progressives should be ashamed of what has become of our inner cities and the bleak future they have created for minority youths…But thanks for the laugh.
Everyone is in favor of a balanced budget, but few are willing to actually make the 50% cuts to defense, Medicare/caid and Social Security that would be required to get there.
Why cut SS 50%? It has its own dedicated funding (the payroll) tax. If the payroll tax isn’t enough to cover SS payments then make adjustments to those payouts or raise the payroll tax (or a combination)
I just don’t understand why we should ransack SS to pay for wars.
“I just don’t understand why we should ransack SS to pay for wars.”
In a word, Israel.
The one word is oil.
There’s not much accessible oil in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel or Pakistan. Realize that oil also requires the infrastructure to deliver it to port. The real goal behind the two wars is to sandwich Iran between US airbases, and our feeble attempt to contain the spread of fissile materials within Pakistan.
I beleive they have been spending the SS surplus for years now and probably see it as a source of income to spend on whatever they want to
so they will raise the SS tax until they get a surplus again to spend on whatever they want to
raise the CAP ( the limit from 106K of income to unlimited ) and then the wealthy will pay more than they will get back out and maybe then things will change, raise the retirement age affecting the middle and poor class and things will never change, poor and middle class have almost no pull in Washington.
wmbz,
“You are clearly more aligned with the Republican party”
No but think what you will, means nothing to me.
I would have allowed a default. We can not now or will we ever be able to repay our debt. We will default at some point, period.
“We can not now or will we ever be able to repay our debt. We will default at some point, period.”
In that case it makes sense to kick the can as far down the road as possible. If you’re gonna default on 13 trillion, why not default on 50 trillion?
Ha! The Crash-It-Now party.
As long as the value of our dollar has not dropped to zero already, doesn’t it make more sense to push out the day of reckoning as far as possible?
People who think now is the time to pull the plug might reason thusly:
“See that thar airlplane? It’s gonna have to come down to the ground eventually. How’s about if I use this shoulder-launched missile to get the inevitable over with sooner?”
The majority of those in here havent the faintest idea of what lies in wait for them one year from now. Only one person truly perceived what has come to pass and what is soon to transpire. He took his bag of wealth, acted on his convictions and became invisible well over a year ago; hopefully I’ll soon follow. Much here is dueling with windmills.
Right on, carlos. And one notes that his antagonist (an employee of the banking lobby,) isn’t around all that much anymore either.
Wonder if they planned meet up in Bali?
Me thinks you aren’t too saavy on the art of negotiations. This deal wasn’t supposed to make ANYONE happy, it was supposed to allow us to pay our bills.
“it was supposed to allow us to pay our bills”.
Wow! Really, so how do you propose we do that?
KOCH (?) BROTHERS CORNERED THE MARKET, CONGRESS, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES… THIS IS THE WAY DEMOCRACY WORKS WITH CAPITALISM… YOU JUST BUY YOUR WAY TO RICHES …
Sadly, I liked the outlines of the “big deal” that they were working on earlier: A combination of higher taxes on the wealthy and cuts to major entitlement programs. In the long term, there’s no way to get out of our pickle without both of these. Sure, it didn’t sound like it was enough of either, but it was a REAL start. Instead we’ve just kicked the can down the road yet again as a way to avoid the intransigence of both ends of the political spectrum.
Maybe, Jim, that super-duper gang of 12* will go back to that plan when they have more time. There have been so many deals flying around I can’t keep track. But that first deal sounded too complex to rush through.
————-
*gang of 6 gang of 12 gang of 14… We’re running out of gang numbers.
I’ve always wondered that about sports teams. If they retire a number everytime a really good player leaves, then won’t they eventually run out of numbers?
higher taxes on the wealthy
I don’t know the details of the plan, so please excuse the question. Is it higher taxes on the wealthy, or higher taxes on high wage income-earners.
The two groups are virtually disjoint.
If they retire a number everytime a really good player leaves, then won’t they eventually run out of numbers?”
“A combination of higher taxes on the wealthy…”
Would the outline still appeal to you if you are included in the higher taxes bullseye?
Yes.
Same here, yes.
(but this does not mean that I’m going to write out a check right now, oK?
)
Wouldn’t eliminating the MID mean a higher tax on the wealthy?
And guise it as if you have to ask how much…then you cant afford it….but the rich don’t ask… they just BUY!
Perhaps it would be a good idea to let all Bush tax cut provisions affecting income tax expire when the time comes; go back to square 2000 for all income levels. This would reduce the class warfare mantra and create a shared sacrifice approach.
“Perhaps it would be a good idea to let all Bush tax cut provisions affecting income tax expire “
I agree completely. This will go a long way toward deficit reduction.
We also need to forget about the under-55 generational warfare proposals (which I have only heard from Republicans). If we cut Medicare and Social Security, it has to be done for everyone. If we can’t muster support for it from the over-55 set, then it is a bad deal.
The elephant in the room is medical care. Costs have increased beyond any age group’s ability to pay. Obama tried to tackle it, but we ended up with a bad solution. Entrenched interests weren’t having their share of the pie cut.
i would have preferred that the tax cut was let to expire at the start of the year. the major worry today would have been how to grow the economy not how to grow the economy and cut the deficit.
“Perhaps it would be a good idea to let all Bush tax cut provisions affecting income tax expire when the time comes; go back to square 2000 for all income levels. This would reduce the class warfare mantra and create a shared sacrifice approach.”
Wow, this is a target rich environment today…too bad I decided to go play poker instead of reading the blog.
Cracker, it would be nice if that were the case, but we are dealing with progressives, they will never stop the class warfare. You could tax the rich 95% and you would still hear the same arguments. They do not like the constitution and our republic, that is all you need to know, they believe our system to be unfair by its nature and that only a new system will suffice. Most of all they do not care how many good people or good communities they take down on the path to achieving their goals.
how about raise taxes now and cut spending later
much later
HSBC to cut 30,000 jobs in global overhaul
August 1, 2011, 7:54 am
LONDON (AP) — British banking group HSBC said Monday it will cut 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 and sell almost half its retail bank branches in the U.S., part of a new strategy to focus on fast-growing emerging markets.
The bank, which reported a better-than-expected 3 percent increase in pretax profits to $11.5 billion in the six months to June, has already cut 5,000 jobs this year. Another 25,000 will be slashed by 2013, bank spokesman Patrick Humphris said.
HSBC currently employs around 296,000 people worldwide.
Humphris declined to give details of where the job cuts would be but said the group is still hiring in emerging economies such as Brazil and Mexico.
The move echoes similar announcements by other global banks, such as Credit Suisse, UBS and Goldman Sachs, who in recent weeks said they needed to trim payrolls to adjust to tougher market conditions.
As part of its restructuring, HSBC will sell 195 retail banking branches in the United States to First Niagara Bank for around $1 billion. Most of the branches to be sold are in upstate New York, while six are in Connecticut. Four more are northern Westchester County, and two in Putnam County.
Can’t push more debt into America, so let’s move to places where we can push more debt.
“part of a new strategy to focus on fast-growing emerging markets”
I guess they figured out that the first world has been sucked dry. Time to find new victims. Individually they won’t rack up as much CC debt as Joe6Pack, but there’s billions of them.
If you watch any television at all then you have probably seen the ads for “J.K. Harris”, the guys that will fight the IRS on your behalf.
Lol. Go to google and type in the words “j k harris scam” and you will have access to tens of thousands of entrys. This is not all that hard to do.
But apparantly tens of thousands of people did not bother to do this, instead they decided to call J.K. Harris and listen to their BS and allowed themselves to become convinced that they should send to J.K. Harris whatever money they could get ahold of. And to keep on sending to J.K. Harris whatever money they could get ahold of.
But eventually they realize they have been scammed and IT IS AT THIS POINT that they finally get on the net and spend time to complain about how they have been victimized.
P.T. Barnum’s numbers were way too low.
And don’t forget those commercials promising to eliminate or reduce credit card debt. People are so afraid of the BK boogieman that they fall for such scams. Funny how its OK for Donald Trump to be a serial BK filer, but its shameful if J6P does it.
Yep.
I just now typed “care one scams” into google and received 31,900,000 entries.
Well seems like we are heading for a streamlined central planning committee. Under the new master plan budget a group of ’super’ senators will dictate economic policy(worked really well for Russia).
Obama is finished because nobody respects him.
No. We are heading for economic collapse because no one wants to face the reality of our true economic situation. Everyone just wants to delay and deny and “hope”.
Obama can’t lead because the American people themselves are divided. The only thing they know is that they do not want to have to face reality.
So, we delay and deny reality.
I think I like Darrell’s point of view and he’s right on target about a divided nation. Scary isn’t it.
No, its not scary to those who have foreseen the train wreck; Ben has attracted a number of clear thinkers who, like himself, have opened a lot of our eyes to what should be obvious, not just with housing, but with the entire house of cards. Many of us are cutting ties, trying to get ready for that day when kicking the can down the road ends. Those with too much skin in the game will never be able to jump off the train.
obama is a failure because it was always about the economy stupid.
took him two years to realize that.
Hurry, hurry!, lil’ Opie… re-assemble it NOW! Today! We need to get to grandma’s house before the Big Bad Wolf!
http://image.internetautoguide.com/f/auto-news/2010-hyundai-genesis-sedan-disassembled-on-its-new-interactive-website/27465436/2010-hyundai-genesis-sedan-disassembled.jpg
The “eCONomy”, like Lincoln’s McClellan, seems to be suffering from a running battle with the middle-body “Slow$” aka: 2nd “Mola$$es”
“obama is a failure because it was always about the economy stupid. took him two years to realize that.”
He still doesn’t realize it. If he gets the latest budget deal, unemployment will almost certainly be higher next year than when he took office, though most likely we won’t be hemorrhaging jobs at the rate we were when he took office. How will that play if/when he’s running for reelection? He will get much more grief for not focusing on jobs versus any credit he gets for working on the deficit. That his opponents ran on a campaign of “where are the jobs?” and yet did nothing to create them and much to destroy the remaining ones will not matter.
How will that play if/when he’s running for reelection? He will get much more grief for not focusing on jobs versus any credit he gets for working on the deficit.
I can remember back in ‘09 when Obama was asked about the high rate of unemployment. I think it was during a press conference, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, his answer came in a very dismissive tone of voice. About unemployment, he said, “That’s a lagging indicator.”
Something tells me that his dismissiveness — and his words — are going to come back and bite. Very hard.
here were some of my predicitions during the last presidential election:
1. obama will be the second worst president in history…no fault of his on (i am re-thinking the last part…at least to some exent).
2. mccain would have been just as bad…no fault of his on.
2. bush will be the worst president in history.
3. hillary will run against obama again.
here were some of my predicitions during the last presidential election:
1. obama will be the second worst president in history…no fault of his on (i am re-thinking the last part…at least to some exent).
I’m part of a local storytelling event next month. The story I’ll be sharing is a family story about my aunt and her 1932 encounter with President Hoover.
While doing background research, I was amazed to learn about Hoover’s popularity. During the 1928 election, he carried 40 states, including opponent Al Smith’s home state of New York. And Al Smith wasn’t an unknown — he was the governor of New York.
Hoover gained a good bit of his popularity from his work on Belgian relief during WWI. That’s how my aunt came to meet him. He was visiting the next-door neighbors, with whom he’d worked on Belgian relief.
They really wanted to get healthcare for the poor and figured 2008-2010 was their ONLY chance.
The Republicnas fought an excellent delaying action that watered down the plan to the point of irrelivance and got to paint the Democrats as the baby Boomers worst enemies that wants to slash SS and MC to pay for welfare and healthcare for the poor.
“They really wanted to get healthcare for the poor “
I disagree with this. The cost of medical care has been rising faster than inflation for decades. It is at the root of the impending Medicare and Medicaid crisis. Employment based insurance is hamstringing new business formation and worldwide competitiveness. They really wanted a solution that would solve these issues.
It is a real shame that we didn’t get it.
Employment based insurance is hamstringing new business formation and worldwide competitiveness.
Far be it from me to disagree. Not to mention the crappy choices for those of us who are outside of this system. The individual health insurance market sucks big rocks.
They really wanted a solution that would solve these issues.
It is a real shame that we didn’t get it.
We still can get it. Have you signed up with groups like Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan? Or Healthcare-NOW? Or California OneCare?
This game is far from over.
I’d better brace myself for the Bachmann administration.
“I’d better brace myself for the Bachmann administration.”
I was thinking the same thing, unfortunately.
I read Matt Taibbi’s article about Bachmann. The woman reminds me of my deranged sister, who like Bachmann receives messages from God on how to manage her personal life.
The thought of that nutjob as commander in chief scares me. What if “God” (I suspect Bachmann’s a paranoid schizophrenic) tells her to nuke the Islamic world?
I read Matt Taibbi’s article about Bachmann. The woman reminds me of my deranged sister, who like Bachmann receives messages from God on how to manage her personal life.
I had a schizophrenic uncle who was quite religious. He used to send my parents the newspaper from his church. Which my mother would stuff into the recycle bin within moments of receiving it.
I could never understand why my mother was so hostile about my uncle’s choice of churches. Heck, Uncle Jim wasn’t even a blood relative of hers. He was my dad’s younger brother.
Sad part about this story is that my Aunt Jean, his older sister, was home visiting the family while she was a college student. There came a knock on the door, and Aunt Jean answered.
Jean was met at the door by a very concerned nurse who begged her, pleaded with her, to get her brother into treatment.
Alas, that wasn’t Jean’s decision. It was my grandmother’s. And she refused to let my uncle get treatment.
Perhaps my mother’s anger about my uncle’s over-religious-ness was due to what could have been done for him. He could have been treated and could have led a better life than the one he had.
The Islamic world god is always telling Islamic followers to nuke us.
The difference is that Ayatollah Bachmann would actually have a nuclear arsenal at her disposal should she be elected.
“The difference is that Ayatollah Bachmann would actually have a nuclear arsenal at her disposal should she be elected.”
Revelations - perhaps the Mayans will be proven right.
I’m looking forward to a Republican Senate and President. If the R’s are in power, then the Democrats could filibuster everything, and hold The People hostage at every deadline. You want to pass a budget? We want carbon credits. You want to raise the debt ceiling again? We’ll filibuster until you give us a Public Option — and if you don’t, it will be YOUR fault when the SS checks don’t go out and the DOW crashes. You want to extend the Bush tax cuts? We’ll filibuster that outright with no compromise.
This could get entertaining. Assuming the Dems have a spine for wall-to-wall filibuster, which I doubt they will.
What Dems are you talking about? Bernie Sanders is the only one who would and he’s a socialist. We are heading for a GOP landslide simply because the Dems don’t have a base anymore (except for Hollywood maybe). Look at Obama’s poll numbers and you will see a collapse in support from the left. He (and congress) are on their own.
We are heading for a GOP landslide simply because
The Repubicans have Perry, Palin, Bachmann & OurEvangelicaldemiGod at the top of their party tickets self-applied motto:
“TruePathtoPro$perity!™”
Look at Obama’s poll numbers and you will see a collapse in support from the left. He (and congress) are on their own.
His left-side polling numbers have been plummeting since the mid-2009 removal of the public option from the health care reform bill. And they took a further dump after he allowed the Bush tax cuts to continue.
In short, that’s two years of losing support from people who worked very hard to get him elected back in ‘08.
I don’t recall Bush bailing on his base the way Obama has.
The wars. Don’t forget about the wars. Or is it war, singular? I don’t remember.
Here is the thing. The far left may be losing faith in Obama (continued Bush wars, dropped public option on healthcare, hasn’t pushed amnesty, extended Bush tax cut, has agreed to large cuts in SS/MC in principal, etc. Wait, is he a Dem or Rep? Sometimes it is hard to remember.) but who are they going to vote for?
Okay, they could stay home. But, once the Dems start their scare tactics against whomever is the Reop nominee, they’ll come out and vote.
But, once the Dems start their scare tactics against whomever is the Reop nominee, they’ll come out and vote.
I bought into those scare tactics back in 1980. Friends told me that a vote for John Anderson was the same as a vote for Reagan. So I held my nose and voted for Carter.
To this day, I regret not voting for Anderson.
It would be interesting except I agree that the Dems would fold quickly.
From Wikipedia:
‘ The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (also called Bowles-Simpson) is a Presidential Commission created in 2010 by President Barack Obama to identify “…policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run.” ‘
How many of their recommendations, released in early 2011, were adopted? Were there even any congressional hearings about the report? No.
Yeah I know, this time we’re serious.
We are saved.
The debt deal was done. The DOW is up 130 points.
Party on.
Until ISM showed a massive decline…. there goes that bounce. Dow down 75 and still falling.
Why should draft recommendations be adopted? This was a bipartisan panel, and one side published their draft (weeks ahead of schedule) and then blocked the full panel from issuing an official set of recommendations. How bipartisan of them!
The agreement was that final recommendations had to get a vote in the House. There was no basis to have hearings or a vote since one side blocked the panel from issuing a final set of recommendations.
What side was that, again?
“Why should draft recommendations be adopted?”
Shouldn’t they at least be looked at? Mulled over a bit? Discussed?
Why is it that such issues have to reach the point of crisis before they are acknowledged?
I would suggest directing that question to the persons in charge of scheduling committees and legislation in the House of Representatives.
Or just blame Obama. Much simpler, that.
“Or just blame Obama.”
Hey, it was Obama’s commision, was it not?
Bowles-Simpson was DoA, as declared by both parties.
Bowles-Simpson delt with reality, and no politician can win election running on a platform of reality.
We get the government we deserve. As long as we think we can balance the budget on $2.1T revnue and $2.8T of the budget off the table to even think of cutting… well….nothing can get done.
Oh, no… we can balance the budget by just getting rid of welfare? Really? Because anything that even smells of welfare is $500B and the deficit is $1500B.
Oh, no… we can balance the budget by just getting rid of welfare? Really? Because anything that even smells of welfare is $500B and the deficit is $1500B.
But the Tea Partiers will high five each other, call it a day and go home.
How many of their recommendations, released in early 2011, were adopted?
Actually, the commission made no recommendations. Mr. Simpson and Mr. Bowles came up with a plan, but the full commission never voted on it. So the commission did not actually recommend anything to Congress.
Can’t be much worse than Bernake dictating economic policy.
Any Babylon 5 fans?
“There was a time, when this whole quadrant belonged to us! What are we now? Twelve worlds and a thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and stories, selling trinkets.”
“my god, we’ve become a tourist attraction. See the Great Fallen Centauri Republic, open nine to five…Earth Time.”
For some reason I never got into that show
That was so good
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Yeah, good show. Way ahead of its time.
Miami condo bubble- buy now or be priced out forever.
‘ And yet much of Miami is gripped by a housing mania as the oversupply of distressed homes dries up and foreigners and investors swoon.
‘ “The Brazilians walk in, they don’t even negotiate,” said Dezer, who said he would announce two new projects by the end of the year. “It’s a no-brainer for them.” ‘
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110801/ARTICLE/110729495/2413/BUSINESS?Title=A-new-mania-grips-Miami-home-market
“It’s a no-brainer for them.”
So, are they bringing money with them?
Ummmm, the U.S. could use this sort of no-brainer thinking, especially when it is backed by their own money.
If you see any of these no-brainer money-guys tell them to forget Florida. Instead tell them that Southern California is ripe for the pickings.
And when they come to So Cal they should be encouraged to bring lots of money with them.
We buy cheap disposable junk from China. China, desperate to get out of $s before they become worth less, is buying commodities and resources from Brazil. Brazil is taking that money and using it to buy Miami condos to keep the exchange rates favorable to keep China buying their resources?
Me thinks China is getting the best deal and Brazil the worst.
Do people in Miami think that this is a postive development? If there are tens of thousands of condos in downtown Miami sitting empty, is it a good thing for foreigners to come in and buy them? Or would it be a better for the better for the people of Miami for the prices of the condos to continue to fall so that an ordinary J6P could buy a luxurious condo with ocean views for $100,000?
Is it a good thing for money to start to flow into Miami or is it a better thing for money to continue to flow out of Miami?
Suck money out of a city and you end up with Cleveland.
If foreigners with money come into a city do they take their own food with them or do they buy food in the city? Do they pay for transportation of do they walk everywhere they go?
RE isn’t the only place where out of towner’s money ends up being spent.
But, is the money going to Miami? Or is it going directly to the people that laoned the money to build those towers that everyone wanted to flip, but no one actually wanted to live in?
Me thinks the money is going to Wall Street and other holders of MBS.
These condos will sit unoccupied most of the time, except for a few weeks each year their owners are in town.
Nevertheless they will still pay HOA fees, taxes and upkeep (someone has to keep it clean while the master is gone).
Sounds like the old slave-sugar-rum triangle of Colonial times.
In my opinion we would be more intelligent if we charged a penalty for taking money out of America. For a USA Corporation for every job they outsource they should pay a fee for what that costs America . In addition ,all imports that are manufactured in foreign lands gets a stiff
tax put on it for what it costs America in terms of job base and tax base .
In addition the cost of Health care can be done at 50% of current costs and that in itself will reduce the debt . In other words to mantain a price fixing monopoly like health care when those costs are a great deal of the problem with the debt budget is crazy . We all know that the Halth care Bill didn’t address costs .
Just like the bogus real estate prices had to come down ,
likewise the price fixing monopoly costs need to come down. Lets face it that the Majority cannot afford the health care costs at current levels and Industry can’t afford the costs either at current kevels and every increasing future bogus increases .
As it stands now Indutry is just benefiting in terms of profit from this assult on capitalism and balanced markets .
If you really want to get a productive Society you have to go back to the period of time when America was productive and the balance of power was more balanced and duplicate those policies .
Everything in America in terms of it’s long term structures would of gone along nicely had it not been for the change in GLoblalism and trade balances and welfare for
the elite in terms of tax breaks . You combine all these
forces and it simply was like a A-bomb to the USA long term structures . We didnt need Wall Street needing to make more money or banks in the position of creating absurd bubbles based on Ponzi Schemes .
You can’t have a economic World in which the Power Brokers take advantage of the differences and cost of living in any given place . Wall street just wants their hands on all the money they can get and it’s not for the
purpose of correct allocation of funds ,but for quick gains ,or betting on a quick fall .
It just a rigged ecomomic World in which the USA tax revenue is used to enhance corrupted intent that
doesn’t really benefit the majority of Americans .The World should not revolve around the corrupted Wall Street ,along with the price fixing monopolies ,and many multi-national companies
should be copnsidered Foreign companies ,not American Companies anymore .If Wall Street and USA Companies want to treat the World as their oyster ,than they should pay taxes and tariffs according to the degree of how much they are traitors to the American job base and tax base ,and that includes all the Middle men .
The only thing I like about spending from taxes in America is that at least it’s spent in America and creates jobs .
The answer is to go back to the past because the new set up is designed to screw the Majority of Americans
“In my opinion we would be more intelligent if we charged a penalty for taking money out of America. For a USA Corporation for every job they outsource they should pay a fee for what that costs America .”
I’m not sure what I think of your scheme, but the equation would be fascinating. OK, lets say you figure in how much the worker was making and extrapolate out what he would have spent on this and that. Now that he’s unemployed, he isn’t just putting less into the American economy, he’s buying less Chinese crap, and presumably less gas, so they’re affected too.
I’d be interested in seeing a decent analysis of what the net effect of your idea would be in 2011, as compared to, say, 1970, when an American worker spent money on American goods, that kept American workers employed, etc.
CarrieAnn, I saw your message from the other day — I appreciate the offer, but we’re off to Rochester again in a few hours. I guess we’ll have to shoot for next year, you too, Blue.
At some point… maybe when my kids are under voice command. LOl.
Next year, let’s do an upstate get together. We’ll have to meet someplace where the kids can romp and play.
Pretty soon the “Oil City Plan” will be “Any City Plan.”
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/707-Turtle-St-Syracuse-NY-13208/31654054_zpid/
“$31/sq ft”
It’s enough to make a California renter drool!
I agree with many here who have said that some of these will go for back taxes. Many of the old Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse homes have plumbing and electrical issues, but if you can swing that…
Ox:
But what if you don’t like 100+ inches of snow a year? Or starting a car at 20 below to get to work?
NYC is about as far north as I want to go…..Unless i really don’t NEED to go to work outside the home.
The nasty stuff is all north of the thruway, more than an hour away.
I know about the massive snow in the Tug hill region….and i like snow mobiles.
But i had to deal with Manchester NH winter when I was in college.
Cars live in garages. NYS has plows.
But I wouldn’t do an Oil City plan in snow regions. Too much work to get to the McJob.
I used to ride to work on a bike in the snow and cold, but I was 26 and stupid. No way would I do that in my 40’s.
Hmm, you may be right…
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7179-Manlius-Center-Rd-East-Syracuse-NY-13057/31750027_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
$85K Older cape on an acre — with apple trees.
However, the taxes on this property doubled in the past year, to $3417.
What if hydro-fracking turns into an ecological disaster? Can you imagine PA and Upstate, NY? Crushed.
Hey! We know that burning fossil fuels makes much more sense than hippie, granola munching renewables.
Renewable energy = don’t be economic girly-man. Real men drive F-350’s. Prius driver = euro-weenie, cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
To be a true Euroweenie, you need to drive a diesel powered sedan, preferably one with a stick shift and not an automatic.
To be a true Euroweenie, you need to drive a diesel powered sedan, preferably one with a stick shift and not an automatic.
My 85-year-old mother would probably qualify. She drives a stick.
“What if hydro-fracking turns into an ecological disaster? Can you imagine PA and Upstate, NY? Crushed.”
I know people in the industry. They’re pretty confident they’re here to stay.
Today’s Houses:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17404-Onax-Dr-Germantown-MD-20874/37151456_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
1962 3/1 on a half-acre. Handyman special. Sold as-is. There are pictures of the outside, but no pix of the inside. Bad sign. The “numerous storage sheds” all need to be ripped down.
No past sales info — maybe it was a toe-tag house for an old lady.
Zestimate: $290K <– probably on account of the land and the very commutable location.
Listed: $190K. <– on account of whatever is inside.
I realize I’ve been showing wrecked houses, because any SFH in my price range ARE wrecked. Here’s a nicer one:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1807-Bonifant-Rd-Silver-Spring-MD-20906/37277610_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
Nice 1960 3/2 rambler on a half acre, in a cummutable location. No pix.
Sold 2003: $320K
Peak Zestimate 2005: $450K
Listed now: $270K
Market Pulse Archives
Aug. 1, 2011, 10:04 a.m. EDT
July ISM manufacturing index slumps to 50.9%
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge in July dropped 4.4 points to 50.9%, barely staying above the 50% no-change line and coming in below a MarketWatch-compiled economist poll of 54.3%. The new orders index fell into contractionary territory, and indexes for prices and employment in particular saw big drops.
With the relentless offshoring I think its amazing that the index stays above 50% at all. I would expect it to be shrinking, not holding steady.
“Timothy Halter’s breakthrough was to spread the tactic to China.”
Halter’s deals sometimes use a dizzying array of shells. His firm arranged a reverse merger in 2010 for Long Fortune Valley Tourism, a Chinese company that describes itself as focused on “cave tourism.” The merger involved shell companies in Texas, Delaware, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The original shell used in the deal was created years earlier by Halter to buy up a bankrupt chain of nursing homes.
“…But deals birthed by Halter and his imitators are now blowing up.”
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
“TrueBamboozelmentLiar$™” + “TrueFinancialInnovation$!™” =
Special report: China’s shortcut to Wall Street:
On Monday August 1, 2011 / Reuters
(SHELL GAMES: A Reuters Investigation: Articles in this series are exploring the impact of corporate secrecy in the United States.)
The Chinese reverse-merger boom and bust offer insight into a little-understood corner of American business: the widespread use of shell companies, which can offer their owners a way to minimize regulatory scrutiny. The U.S. in recent years has called for much greater transparency in global business transactions. But on American shores, opaque shell companies are rife.
[Hwy wonders if Byron's had lunch with Crissy Cox (Shrub's SEC watchdog) over at Fasci$t Island in "The OC!"...(I know, I know, "you can Bank on it!" hardy har har...)]
One of the leading banks in the game was Roth Capital Partners of Newport Beach, California. Led by Chairman Byron Roth, its specialty is to provide financing to Chinese clients after a reverse merger. Roth says it has raised more than $3 billion for U.S.-listed Chinese companies. Such deals accounted for nearly half of the $1.9 billion in capital Roth raised for clients in 2009. Roth’s heady success was reflected in the glitzy conferences it threw for the industry. In March, more than 3,000 hedge-fund managers, accountants, lawyers, bankers and financial advisers flocked to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dana Point, southern California.
$hrub gives his $eal of approval! Woohooo!
HALTER’S REVERSAL
Last year in Shanghai, where he had built up a staff of 40, Halter staged his own answer to rival Roth Capital’s gatherings. His firm brought in former President George W. Bush and former Shrub Treasury secretary John Snow as featured speakers on the global economy. Spokespeople for Bush and Snow declined to comment.
This year, the boom turned bust. Last summer, short sellers, who bet that a share will decline in price, began targeting Chinese reverse merger stocks. Those stocks started crumbling, regulators began opening probes, and a host of auditors resigned, often citing concerns about cash balances and management integrity.
Definite sign that the bubble has popped:
Unlike re-al-TORS, the U-Haul index doesn’t lie.
Cleveland to Phoenix: $1195
Phoenix to Cleveland: $1195 (I checked this twice)
DC to Phoenix: $1303
Phoenix to DC: $1459
(17-foot truck)
like.
From the NYT Sunday Magazine article about El Paso and Juarez:
“Foxconn’s secure facility, which produces desktops and laptops for Dell, is like ‘a prison with a campus,’ Uranga said. Its landscaped grounds are surrounded by walls and razor wire. Managers stay in adjacent dormitories while workers come in from surrounding areas on white school buses. Uranga said the pay at the plant was around the average for the maquiladora industry, about $80 a week.”
about $80 a week.
Now now, Mexico has a National Gov’t with a Labor Relations Division, or perhaps they all could organize and go on strike. Right? :-/
(Perhaps, Iraq & Afghanistan are not democraptically this far along in Cheney-Shrub’s Trillion$ Dollar$ Nation Building Project$, just need more Seabee’s, time & US citizen-taxpayer$ monie$ to finish their Policies$…)
In theory they can go on strike, and if they do they shut down the plant and replacement workers are illegal.
The way the maquilas get around that is that they keep their workforce under temp status. Only “trabajadores de planta” can unionize.
Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years
English.news.cn 2011-07-30 01:42:14
SHENZHEN, July 29 (Xinhua) — Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will replace some of its workers with 1 million robots in three years to cut rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, said Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, late Friday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/30/c_131018764.htm
I guess 50 cents an hour is “lavish”.
Speaking of El Paso and Juarez, Tucson-based author Charles Bowden has written several books about the area.
Warning: You’d better have a strong stomach, as he minces no words about the brutality of the killers on the Mexican side. Read Murder City and you’ll see what I mean.
With regards from your HBB Librarian…
Guys, I need help: this trip has put the wifey on full tilt. She’s going Suzanne on me and it’s not pleasant.
I want a house.
I feel your pain. We are moving, and every singletime we ask friends if they know of a house for rent, we get “why don’t you buy?”. Over and over and over. So then the wife gets spun up on buying for a day or so until I remind her that prices are always dropping, and that we don’t really want to be tied to this area after 2 years from now. Then we get back into the rental groove. But those days she is spun up = no fun. That “nesting , want to paint the walls and put in granite kitchen” instinct must be strong in her.
I’ve never really understood the “nesting instinct”. As far as I’m concerned either a house or apartament is just a place with a lot stuff, most of which I could do without. I’ve finallly gotten my hsband to realize that too much stuff is a burden. stuff you actually use is fine. It’s the stuff that jusst sits around that I don’t like.
“That “nesting , want to paint the walls and put in granite kitchen” instinct must be strong in her.”
It’s more that she thinks it means we’ll be “settled.” I have no idea what “settled” means, but yes, we’d have a harder time moving.
This wouldn’t be an issue if we, uh, didn’t have a housing bubble.
I think you’re right. People don’t want a “house” so much as a “not move.” And let’s face it, in America rental –> moving. Women hate to uproot.
Moving is a pain. But it does keep the level of stuff accumulation down.
We have been renting the same house for 15 years. I need to do some serious stuff removal. We really don’t need the toys that even the grand kids have outgrown.
especially women w/2 small children like Mrs. Muggy.
It’s the price, dummy…or the joy of price discovery.
A homeowner no more, I’ll have to change my moniker having sold my hole-in-the-wall last week.
It went fast, about seven weeks from listing to closing. That’s in sharp contrast to the competition - two identical units (albeit lower floors but they were more updated) - which have market times of 200 and 500 days. The latter was bank owned and had already been reduced at least once. In absolute terms the delta between my unit and those was actually quite small - especially in the context of the carrying costs. I estimate that a year of carrying costs was what it came down to in the end.
The buyer was out of state - CA believe it or not. The buyer’s friend accompanied the buyer’s agent to a showing and they hit my number later that same day. Foot traffic was decent, but not at all unmanageable. Only one prospective buyer was a “first timer” (despite my place being a “starter home”) - all the rest were “investors” and all offers, including the accepted offer, were cash. From offer to closing was only two and a half weeks and the paperwork (title, etc.) was ready well ahead of time.
At the closing I asked what, besides the price, led to the purchase. The response was the extraordinarily large balcony (and view) for such a small place and its proximity to the lakefront bike trail (two important factors for me as well eight years ago). When the dust settled and the ink dried the price was down almost 50% from eight years ago - and interestingly enough was almost the exact same price as my first purchase back in 1998. Things sort of went full circle.
Now it’s time to rebuild, starting out with a plan that’s already underway. Now, not to sound cavalier about such a loss, in hindsight I really can’t say I would have done this very much different. This is especially since my carrying costs remained far enough below the equivalent rent the entire time. Plus, because up until recently the place suited my needs to a tee, I’m quite convinced that I extracted a commensurate amount of use value from it.
Going forward it will be most interesting to see what happens. I’ll be sure to monitor future sales. For now, the overwhelming sentiment that surrounds my decision amongst my peers is that I should have held on and rented it out. I’ve been assured that prices will rise in “two or three years”. To be fair, to an outsider that may indeed appear the most sound plan but there are other factors in this decision that came into play. Suffice it to say, I have no interest in being a landlord and the illiquidity of such an asset would run afoul of both my plans and lifestyle.
Cheers, & Good Will Hunting!
Thanks, hwy! The best part, my new place has a view of a very busy rail line.
Bless you, now go buy a rail ticket to someplace you ain’t never been to!
(PS, don’t watch “Source Code”)
Well good for you. Happy it went so smoothly for you.
Thanks WoMBatZ!
“Now, not to sound cavalier about such a loss, in hindsight I really can’t say I would have done this very much different. This is especially since my carrying costs remained far enough below the equivalent rent the entire time.”
Would this be true even if you included the capital loss amortized over the last four years? It seems to me that knowing what you knew (because I know you’ve been here a long time), you would have come out far ahead if you had sold four years ago and and rented, even if renting were more expensive.
I’ve thought about that a lot. The high water mark occurred in the fall of 2007 when a unit ten floors below me sold for $126,000. No one had since come close to that. The next comp was in the low 90s and that was last summer - this year the bottom fell out.
Yes, it did occur to me to sell after that 2007 sale (the owner is a friend of mine) but back then I had no where else to be/go. That seller, by the way, bought another place in short order and so is realizing his loss at another location. Given the then prefect fit of location and features, my monthly costs could not have been any lower and maximizing cash flow took on added importance. In a sense I gave myself a writedown in order to concentrate on building my reserves. But yes, in hindsight even the increased cost of rent would have been much less than the realized loss and also would have exceeded what extra I was able to save (although not by much).
All the same, in 2003 I went ahead and signed and even though at the time it seemed justifiable the price was too darn high!
Edgewater….. where was the place located?
Chicago’s lakefront, north side in the neighborhod of Edgewater.
A strange and interesting place Edgewater is, too bad you all can’t see it with your own eyes. The mix of housing stock and people is extrodinary - high rises and SFH, food stamps and fine wines, Southeast Asia to East Africa - making all stops in between. Luckily, I saved some photos taken at the height of the boom in 2005-6.
Realtors Are Liars®
Retired realtors actually lie less. We found one this weekend that is retiring at 81 and will do side-work as a buyer’s agent from here on out. She sold her house in 2 days. She knew to price it aggressively and it worked for her. She said she was 81, was done travelling, didn’t need to make a million dollars. She just wanted it sold so she could move into a 55+ community with her sister. We kept her details, as she still has access to the MLS for a while and can give a lot of good advice.
No disrespect to you at all but let me guess….. she found religion? Or is it that she realized that she was in fact a liar *after* she harmed how many people?
No sarcasm but keep in touch with this one as I’d like to hear her advice.
The top producer in my office has cost her clients millions of dollars in loses.
The funny thing even after losing all the money they call her back to list the homes as a short sale.
“Who could has seen this coming”
Obama’s Deficit Bargain Lost Out to 2012 Politics With Shifting Priorities
Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) - As late as last week, President Barack Obama was still calling for one, broad debt agreement that included cuts, entitlements and taxes.
That’s not what will go before Congress this week, and Obama’s strategic positioning contributed to the missed opportunity for a potentially historic bipartisan deal, said Democrats, retired lawmakers and former White House advisers with experience in bipartisan negotiations.
Obama came months late to the negotiations, allowed 2012 election concerns to shape his timing and willingness to advocate Social Security and Medicare reductions, and undermined his position by shifting his priorities, they said.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said Obama was unwilling to press the argument that the wealthiest should pay more in taxes to increase government revenues, causing many Democrats to view the deal with “a lot of unease,” he said.
“I just don’t think the president has been willing to really fight hard for revenues,” he said.
This might explain it:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/matt-stoller-what-presidency.html
A must read for everyone.
“A must read for everyone.”
Prologue
Act I, Scene 2:
“Increasing America’s debt weakens us dome$tically and internationally…Instead, Washington’s Cheney-$hrub is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the back$ of our children and grandchildren”
A Country in Denial About Taxes:
Investing / Forbes / Jul. 12 2011 /Leonard Burman The Impertinent Economist
“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.”
$1.5 Trillion$+ …$700 Billion$…per year!…$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Cheney-$hrub 8 year Amex Charge$: Mi$$ion Accompli$hed!
Jib-Jab / ping-pong / teeter-totter…
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said Obama was unwilling to press the argument that the wealthiest should pay more in taxes to increase government revenues, causing many Democrats to view the deal with “a lot of unease,” he said.
“I just don’t think the president has been willing to really fight hard for revenues,” he said.
Ummm, Carl, let me have a word with you. The phrase “willing to fight” and “Barack Obama” just don’t travel in the same sentence, okay?
If you want “willing to fight” in a President, think Lyndon Johnson. Or Harry Truman. Or Franklin Roosevelt.
Or, in the literal sense, Andrew Jackson. Heck, that guy even killed people.
Dem Congressman: Debt Deal A “Satan Sandwich”
~ MSNBC
“I am concerned about this because we don’t know the details. And until we see the details, we’re going to be extremely non-committed but on the surface it looks like a Satan sandwich,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri) said on MSNBC.
Hey bud….. you’ve made 6 offtopic posts today and 0 housing posts. Forget the meds again?
FWIW, this [is] the Bits Bucket.
Sounds like middle class voters will be getting what they asked for.
ITEM: Middle classes to be hit by tax increase by the back door: Obama and Boehner face furious backlash from their own parties as last minute debt deal is slammed a ‘fudge’ - 1st August 2011 Daily Mail UK
President Barack Obama awoke today to furious reaction to his last-minute debt deal, with experts slamming the agreement as a cruel means of hitting middle classes with tax hikes ‘through the back door’.
The President and congressional leaders last night finally announced an agreement on emergency legislation to avert the nation’s first-ever financial default.
But while the dramatic resolution briefly lifted a cloud that had threatened the still-fragile economic recovery, critics said in the long run the middle classes would bear the brunt of the country’s massive debt, with increased taxes set to cover for the White House’s reluctance to cut public spending.
Scroll down for video
At last: President Barack Obama’s deal to raise the U.S. the debt ceiling gave a brief boost to the UK stock market before an afternoon plunge
At last: President Barack Obama’s deal to raise the U.S. the debt ceiling gave a brief boost to the UK stock market before an afternoon plunge
The agreement, slammed as a ’sugar-coated Satan sandwich’ by one congressman, is set to slice at least $2.4 trillion from federal spending over a decade, a price which is seen as too steep for many Democrats and too little for many Republicans.
According to President Obama, the deal, which came with scant time remaining before Tuesday’s deadline for paying government bills, ‘will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America.’
Experts, however, insist the crisis may still hit middle America the hardest, with the very real possibility that a 12-person bipartisan committee, which will meet in the aftermath of the agreement, could still opt to impose a hard-hitting tax hike.
ITEM: Middle classes to be hit by tax increase by the back door:
the very real possibility that a 12-person bipartisan committee, which will meet in the aftermath of the agreement, could still opt to impose a hard-hitting tax hike.
Aren’t they supposed to report the news that actually happens, not what they think is possible to happen?
‘by the backdoor’, ‘fudge’. I see what you did there!
hitting middle classes with tax hikes ‘through the back door’.
what does this mean ? in plain English anyone know ?
It means bend over.
U.S. Auto Sales Stall, Casting Doubt on Rebound
(Bloomberg)
U.S. auto sales have stalled, casting doubt on a rebound this year as persistent unemployment and tighter lending deter buyers.
Light-vehicle deliveries in July, to be released tomorrow, may have run at an 11.8 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would trail the 12.5 million rate in the first half.
The auto industry may lose 1.5 million in projected sales in 2011, according to consultant AlixPartners LLP. The economy isn’t picking up as fast as anticipated, and the drag may continue beyond this year, AlixPartners said. That may put a return to average annual sales of 16.8 million vehicles from 2000 to 2007 out of reach. Unemployment reached the highest level this year in June.
“This curve of unemployment looks like it’s got a lot of legs,” Mark Wakefield, an AlixPartners director in Southfield, Michigan, said in a telephone interview. “This is one of the first recent cycles where demand is not going to go back above its prior peak, because there are just so many structural things that are different this time around.”
Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) deliveries will drop from a year earlier through at least August, said Bob Carter, group vice president for U.S. sales, citing weak consumer confidence.
“That’s the most important thing for us, and right now the consumer doesn’t seem to be that confident about jobs and the overall economy,” Carter said in a July 27 interview in Cle Elum, Washington.
So much for “pent up” demand driving sales into the 19 million range this year. At least they aren’t bloviating that it’ll be next year when auto sales come roaring back.
The under 500/wk crowd can’t afford to buy a new car. And their number continues to grow.
“The under 500/wk crowd can’t afford to buy a new car.”
+1 The automobile lending business has been writing loans with a huge balloon due at the end of the loan period to keep the “How much a month?” crowd happy, and the federal reserve has been quietly buying this low-grade paper. It’s like the stars in the night sky, burned out long ago, but you can still see the light.
“The under 500/wk crowd can’t afford to buy a new car. And their number continues to grow.”
Careful, you are beginning to sound like that Cash is King deflationist guy that posts here now and then.
LOL! New car sales have tumbled, but prices are up, up and away! Detroit has finally accepted that they won’t make it up in volume. They sell fewer cars, but at a price where they are profitable.
What’s that called again? Oh yeah … stagflation.
Here’s a fun email I just received:
A service appointment for your 2005 ABC is scheduled for
Tuesday, August 02, 2011 at 07:00am
Services requested are:
01GCZ1LOF *BASIC OIL CHANGE
81GCZ1 BETTER OIL CHANGE
01GCZM1 MAINT. ONE
01GCZM2 MAINT. TWO
From the Service Department at:
XYZ Dealership
———
I never made this appointment. I wonder how many people fall for this and just bring the car in for the pricey maintenance service?
You think that’s annoying, I get calls from guys that claim I have a virus on my PC and they have my IP address and phone number matched (my full name too). They say they are from Microsoft and the caller ID shows a strange 9 digit number. When I called ATT they claimed they had nothing to do with it but clearly these guys have access to their network. It’s a dangerous world out there.
I have taken the car to the dealership for warranty work, so its not like they don’t know me. I think that the service manager just decided to schedule bogus appointments and see if anyone showed up.
As for the appointment at the dealership, which you did not make, will you be charged a fee if you don’t show? If so, I’d be screaming bloody murder. And taking my car servicing business elsewhere.
I called them and told them they made a “mistake.”
There isn’t a “no show” fee, but I don’t think I’ll ever darken their door again.
They are one of the local dealers that moved out of their old and humble (and I’m guessing paid for) facilities to move into a Taj Mahal at the new “Auto mall”. One of the first tenants of the Automall, the Chrysler dealership, went out of business within a couple of years of moving. Something tells me these guys are next.
They are one of the local dealers that moved out of their old and humble (and I’m guessing paid for) facilities to move into a Taj Mahal at the new “Auto mall”. One of the first tenants of the Automall, the Chrysler dealership, went out of business within a couple of years of moving. Something tells me these guys are next.
Methinks these people are hurtin’ for revenue. Something about debt service on the new Taj Mahal.
Of that I have no doubt. I recently took a car in for warranty work there on a Saturday, and the place was a ghost town.
This comes as no surprise…
D.C. Adults Top Alcohol Abusers in Country
Also frequent marijuana, cocaine users
Monday, Aug 1, 2011 |
District adults had the highest rate of alcohol abuse in the country, according to a new survey.
advertisement
A new report says that adults in Washington D.C. abuse alcohol more than anyone else in the country.
According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 8.1 percent of adults age 26 or older in D.C. are alcohol dependent. Looking at a long-term sampling, alcohol abuse rate is on the rise for the District, according to the survey.
The Washington Examiner first reported the story, noting that alcohol abuse has been a chronic issue in the District, affecting residents from the city’s streets to former First Lady Betty Ford in the White House.
D.C. was also among the 10 states where residents most frequently reported smoking marijuana within the last month. Alaskan residents inhale the most, according to the survey, with 11.5 percent of residents saying the lit up with four weeks of the survey.
Cocaine use in the District was also high. The survey says that while D.C. residents age 17 and under reported some of the lowest cocaine use in the country, District adults were among the top coke users in the United States, with 3.78 percent of residents saying they had used over a one year period.
The Examiner reported that overall, D.C.’s combined alcohol and drug dependence rate was 11.3 percent of residents age 12 and older. Virginia’s rate for the same age group was 9.4 percent, and in Maryland, the abuse rate in Virginia was 9.4 percent.
A new report says that adults in Washington D.C. abuse alcohol more than anyone else in the country.
I’m not surprised.
And this isn’t a new problem, folks. Back during the post-Revolutionary days of the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia’s taverns did a very brisk business. Those Founding Fathers really knew how to raise a glass.
Those Founding Fathers really knew how to raise a glass.
Is it true they nailed the windows shut during those Philadelphia summer meetings to control Homeland Security “leaks”?
did they lock the out houses too…………….oooh that smell, cant you smell that smell
I think that they did that during the summer of 1776.
Reason: They didn’t want to tip anyone off. What was going on in the PA State House was to be kept secret. And it was.
But then came July 4…
Well Mr. “Diz all the gubmint’s fault!“, seems that the CSA Congress in Richmond during the civil war suffered a similar type Sit-U-Ashun.
I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to sip whiskey, eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving. General Lee
* Remark to his son, G. W. Custis Lee (March 1865), as quoted in South Atlantic Quarterly [Durham, North Carolina] (July 1927)
In other news, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords just returned to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Got it, here’s the YouTube. I’ll post it again in the morning if I can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1DhPegbbz0
DOW holding 12,000 by the skin of it’s teeth. Gonna need more free money.
Its the Corps and the Rich who get all the “Free Stuff”. The 100B a year we spend on foodstamps and school lunches is chicken feed by comparison.
The 100B a year we spend on foodstamps and school lunches is chicken feed by comparison.
and schooling for children, and infrastructure (roads, mass-transit, etc), parks, libraries, etc etc
But taxpayers benefit from (and pay for) those amenities, unlike food stamp recipients and the rich who get bailouts and other forms of gov’t cheese.
Colorado, your point was that only the rich benefit from the “Free stuff”. I was simply pointing out there is much more that the “less than $500/week” crowd, as you put it, benefits from.
I’m not sure why any city or state is worried about it’s finances. Just raise taxes and get a hand-out from uncle sugar.
ITEM: Rahm Emanuel: Chicago Finances Are Even Worse Than Everyone Thought Grace Wyler | Jul. 29, 2011- BI
While his former boss struggles with the national deficit in Washington, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is dealing with his own fiscal crisis in the nation’s third-largest city.
Chicago faces an estimated budget gap of $635.7 million next year, and the deficit could approach $800 million by 2014, Emanuel said today, revealing his initial budget projections for fiscal year 2012.
The shortfall is nearly $50 million bigger than the city estimated when Emanuel took office in May.
A big portion of the deficit comes from union contracts with locked-in raises for the city workers, rising employee healthcare costs, and growing municipal debt. The budget projections don’t include Chicago’s staggering $14.6 billion pension liability.
“We have a structural problem, and the moment of truth has arrived,” Emanuel said at a news conference today, noting that Chicago has faced a budget shortfall since 2001. “An economic recovery will not solve this problem for us.”
Emanuel, who will release his fiscal plan in October, reiterated his pledge not to raise taxes and promised not to solve the problem using one-time fiscal solutions.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Emanuel told city council chairmen this morning that he has asked city department heads to come up with proposals to plug the budget hole. He is also seeking work-rule changes from Chicago’s employees, and has threatened to lay off 625 workers if unions don’t agree to cut costs.
Labor leaders have so far opposed the proposed work-rule changes. Instead, unions submitted an alternative cost-cutting proposal earlier this week that they say will save the city $242 million a year.
Their three-part plan includes lowering the number of private contractors the city hires, reducing managerial positions in city agencies, and improving government efficiency.
“I welcome the report and agree there are savings to be found in middle management. That doesn’t take away from every other part of the budget that needs to be scrutinized,” Emanuel told the Tribune, adding that “every specter of the city budget is open for review.”
I think the real solition is obvious. Give pension holder sthe option of accepting $.50 on the $1, or risk losing the entire pension in a city bankruptcy. Then ban public untions and slice employee pay and benifits.
Makle everyone poorer, so everyone can be richer.
While his former boss struggles with the national deficit in Washington, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is dealing with his own fiscal crisis in the nation’s third-largest city.
I hate to say this, but from what I’ve been reading on this blog, and in other places, Chicago is very close to erupting in riots that will rival those of the major cities during the 1960s.
Why? Because people without jobs — or hope of finding them — have a way of getting angry. Very angry.
“Their three-part plan includes lowering the number of private contractors the city hires, reducing managerial positions in city agencies, and improving government efficiency.”
And without managers to make them, would the unions work harder to do the work that the contractors used to do? Or stop working entirely — no services for the same money?
Hey Professor Bear, I told you that’s where the deal between the unions and the rich was going. How much in pay and benefits would you require if you were basically allowed to stop teaching?
Wmbz I’ll bet ya Rahm will be the Dem pres candidate in 2016…with 5 years of tough love under his belt..if he succeeds
PS this is the biggest waste of money there is…Union rules..and the 3rd rail I said this a few years ago…we have to demand better from union workers…you all cant go to lunch at the same time if you have a room full of clients to see (DMV)
And why can there be time shifting of work, i know lots of people would like to work 11-7 and actually get a seat on the bus or subway.
Or why does it take years to rebulid a roadway? have city inspectors there 24/7 and get it done….all work rules related.
——–He is also seeking work-rule changes from Chicago’s employees,
Banks have a new remedy to America’s ailing housing market: Bulldozers.
There are nearly 1.7 million homes in the U.S. in some state of foreclosure. Banks already own some of these homes and will soon have repossessed many more. Many housing economists worry that near constant stream of home sales from banks could keep housing prices down for years to come. But what if some of those homes never hit the market.
Increasingly, it appears banks are turning to demolition teams instead of realtors to rid them of their least valuable repossessed homes. Last month, Bank of American announced plans to demolish 100 foreclosed homes in the Cleveland area. The land is then going to be donated back to the local government authorities. BofA says the recent donations in Cleveland are part of a larger plan to rid itself of its least saleable properties, many of which, according to a company spokesperson, are worth less than $10,000. BofA has already donated 100 homes in Detroit and 150 in Chicago, and may add as many as nine more cities by the end of the year.
You can guarantee that this is yet another way for tax payers to take some of the pain from banks. Charitable donations, I suspect the tax code will allow for a tax credit far in excess of the true value of the homes.
You can guarantee that this is yet another way for tax payers to take some of the pain from banks. Charitable donations, I suspect the tax code will allow for a tax credit far in excess of the true value of the homes.
I can remember similar shenanigans when I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. That place got all sorts of donations from, shall we say, not the most reputable parts of our local REIC.
But, oh, it was a donation to Habitat. So that made it all good.
Slim I have a question: Does Habitat have any plans to switch from building new home to renovating old houses? That seems to be a better use of time and money, especially for inner city lots. Even if they havd to demolish, they could save the untility hookups and foundation. They could call it Rehabitat for Humanity.
I worked on one Habitat for Humanity house many years ago and it was a renovation of a run down inner city home. Basically gutted it, but would have been much cheaper than building a new home on a scraped lot.
Slim I have a question: Does Habitat have any plans to switch from building new home to renovating old houses?
Not yet in Tucson. And, yes, they have been criticized for their “new crackerboxes only” approach.
Will need to increase layoffs to boost their bottom lines…
Worst European Earnings Hitting Industrial Stocks as Stoxx 600 Falls 8.9%
(Bloomberg)
Profits at European companies are trailing analyst estimates by the most in at least five years, dragged down by manufacturing shares that had been forecast to lead a rally in the second half of the year.
About 53 percent of companies in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index that have reported earnings since July 11 missed analysts’ projections. That’s the most in data compiled by Bloomberg since 2006. The benchmark gauge lost 3.1 percent in the period, the largest decline to start an earnings season since April 2010.
Investors have been relying on manufacturers in Germany and Scandinavia to buoy stocks after Europe’s debt crisis forced Greece to accept a second bailout and cut projections for bank earnings. As commodities costs rise and currencies in Switzerland and the Nordic region strengthen, companies from Atlas Copco AB (ATCOA) in Stockholm to Paris-based PSA Peugeot Citroen and Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF SE (BAS) have disappointed, sending their shares down more than 5 percent.
“We were coming into an earnings season where expectations were quite high,” said Ben Ritchie, an investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, which oversees $290 billion. “When you look into financials, results have been weak but in line with estimates. Investors have been more optimistic about certain areas within the industrial space and where they have disappointed, shares have reacted strongly.”
“We were coming into an earnings season where expectations were quite high,”
And that’s the problem.
Just caught a ad on FOX news for The Creationism Museum! Looks like fun for the whole family. Let’s put that one on the list for a future meet-up! Think of it like a zoo or like a dolphin swim! They make lots of strange noises but only True Believers can understand them.
Let’s put that one on the list for a future meet-up!
I’ll have a hard time controlling The Troublemaker (aka my mouth) in this place.
lmao….. I can’t wait to see Bill Maher cover this one. Think Religulous.
Don’t laugh, but my crazy sister is planning on including this “Museum” as a stop on her vacation.
RAL laughs.
I’m certain my end timer brother and his cast of fearfuls has already planned a visit.
Pardon a few random comments. Truth is every family has its own skeletons, freaks, borderline mentally ill etc. Noone is exempt. I have an aunt who is an old maid, stayed home her whole live thru the deaths of my grandparents. She is to this day a dumpster diver by trade; all she ever did other than taking some care of gma and gpa. Mentally ill to be sure but sure not seeking help, having lived 75 yrs with herself and it don’t seem broke to her.
Brainwashing example from my family. My sis has a chronic fatigue condition that she has treated by a naturopath(herbs, chi, accupuncture, rolfing, etc). Limited relief from the chronic fatigue plus migranes yet no trips to the conventional medical establishment as of yet. She is exhausted and trying to run a busy vet practice. And she is a vet with very low iron in her blood; who practices medicine on animals but refuses to subject herself to the same type of medicine and is suffering from it; IMO (I also think that red meat may help her iron levels more than an herb or an iron pill; but she is another anemic vegetarian veterinarian)
Or like the friend who’s wife had a natural birth at home turn into an emergency run to the hospital when the midwife could not cope with a baby (who could not come out cuz she “wasn’t pushing hard enough”); and only since the hubby stood up to her and said “we gotta get to a hospital, see ya” and saved his son’s life. Baby was NOT coming out except via C-section and I do not believe home births plan for doing those!
Long live established doctors care; “Immunize it”
(sung to the tune Legalize it”) The immunized allow non-conformist anti-immunization crew safe to go to school.
Please note:my opinions, and I like our healthcare but not the insurance companies that rob us collectively, or ambulance chasers who cause more malpractice suits which raise rates for insurance to pay out. sorry for the incomprehensible run around. Gotta take the kids to the pool!
Have not been there yet, only a 3 hour drive, but where else can you see cavemen coexisting with dinosaurs?
Adult (ages 13–59) $24.95
Senior (age 60 and up) $19.95
Children (ages 5–12) $14.95
Children (under age 5) FREE
Hmm, that’ll keep out the mockers. My suggestion is to go up Route 71 for a few hours to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame instead. Ticket prices are about the same, and the costume room alone is worth the price of admission.
I was living in Cincinnati when the plans for this museum were announced. SW Ohio is an unfortunate place where people capable of critical thinking are far outnumbered by the citizens of Idiocracy. This region has given us Marge Schott (nazi/KKK), US Rep Jean Schmidt (”marines don’t cut and run”) and John “Ol’ Weepy-eyes” Boehner.
The teabagger types I met while living there were the most supportive people of the Iraq criminal invasion and occupation than in any of the other 35 states I’ve been to. They are the slack-jawed yokel demographic that justifies the phrase about fascism in America draped in a flag and carrying a cross.
Mark Twain: “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it’s always twenty years behind the times”
What is “Over the Rhine” looking like these days?
Signed,
UC graduate
Ron Paul Exposes The Deficit “Plan” Lies: “Cuts Are Illusory, Not From Current Amounts Spent But From Projected Spending Increases”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/01/2011
Ron Paul slams it right out of the ballpark.
When a Cut is Not a Cut
One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.
No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the “cuts” being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases. This is akin to a family “saving” $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda. But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.
The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith and credit of the United States is being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever, in spite of stagnant revenues. If your family’s income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer? That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other.
In reality, bringing our fiscal house into order is not that complicated or excruciatingly painful at all. If we simply kept spending at current levels, by their definition of “cuts” that would save nearly $400 billion in the next few years, versus the $25 billion the Budget Control Act claims to “cut”. It would only take us 5 years to “cut” $1 trillion, in Washington math, just by holding the line on spending. That is hardly austere or catastrophic.
A balanced budget is similarly simple and within reach if Washington had just a tiny amount of fiscal common sense. Our revenues currently stand at approximately $2.2 trillion a year and are likely to remain stagnant as the recession continues. Our outlays are $3.7 trillion and projected to grow every year. Yet we only have to go back to 2004 for federal outlays of $2.2 trillion, and the government was far from small that year. If we simply returned to that year’s spending levels, which would hardly be austere, we would have a balanced budget right now. If we held the line on spending, and the economy actually did grow as estimated, the budget would balance on its own by 2015 with no cuts whatsoever.
We pay 35 percent more for our military today than we did 10 years ago, for the exact same capabilities. The same could be said for the rest of the government. Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn’t have double the population, or double the land area, or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.
In Washington terms, a simple freeze in spending would be a much bigger “cut” than any plan being discussed. If politicians simply cannot bear to implement actual cuts to actual spending, just freezing the budget would give the economy the best chance to catch its breath, recover and grow.
“Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn’t have double the population, or double the land area, or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.”
Good question. And the answer is …?
(Three hints: Promises, promises, promises.)
Let’s see …
1) We started two expensive forever wars
2) Inflation. You could buy a loaded, full size sedan for 20K 10 years ago, now it will cost 30K, if not more.
I think between those two you’ve got it covered.
2) Inflation. You could buy a loaded, full size sedan for 20K 10 years ago, now it will cost 30K, if not more.
Valid point on inflation, but this is a misleading example. The car of today is very different than that of 10 years ago, with very different regulatory and safety requirements.
“….very different regulatory and safety requirements.”
Yeah……basically airbags out the azz.
Great if you are worried about getting run into. Not so great when J6P has to pay for all of these stealth taxes (call mandated safety equipment what it is……a “safety tax”.)
Not mentioning, of course, the added weight and complexity.
Interesting. Where is the money going. CPI claims something that cost $1 then is $1.20 now. We were in the wars then, right? Oh, but we were running them off budget in suppliments. I think that was like $100B that won’t be in the base.
Defense: 455B, 768B = 69% increase
Defence added $100B for off budget wars: 555B, 768B = 38% increase
Health: 240B, 387B = 61% increase
(Medicaid is in here, but I can’t figure out how much was the federal share in 2004)
Medicare: 270B, 494B = 83% increase
Something like $55B is Medicare part-D… subtracting that
Medicare not Part-D = 62% increase
Income Security: 333B, 622B = 86% ( A big chunk of this is unemployment and another big chunk is food stamps, but still)
Social Security: 495B, 748B = 51%
VA: 60B, 141B = 135% (a lot of this is extending benifits, like job training and allowing spouse to use service member’s GI Bill college tuition benifit)
Interest $160B, $206B
That is 3.4T of out expected 3.8T… the rest I do not feel like doing.
I understand we have more people collecting SS and MC, but wholly schmolly. HUGE increases across the board.
You don’t think we’re being lied to about inflation, do you?
I wonder how much we could trim from the federal budget with a hard-core, cost-cutting, medical care cost reform…
I do know we spend twice as much per person, as any other country in the world. So, if we could cut 50% from federal medical costs that would be.. what? $375B from Medicare and Medicaid? It isn’t a huge chunk of our deficits, but it would help.
“We pay 35 percent more for our military today than we did 10 years ago, for the exact same capabilities.”
It doesn’t say that this figure is adjusted for inflation, so I assume it isn’t. So, isn’t that basically a 3.5% per year increase? A bit higher than the inflation average over the last ten years, but not by much. Don’t get me wrong, our military budget isn’t sustainable. But they have to buy stuff like everyone else (especially fuel), so the cost of doing business is going to go up. Which likely helps explain the “projected spending increases” that Ron Paul derides.
Allstate Posts $620 Million Loss on Storms
(Bloomberg)
Allstate Corp. the second-largest U.S. home and auto insurer, posted its first quarterly loss in more than two years as tornadoes led to a surge in claims costs. The stock gained as results beat estimates.
The second-quarter net loss of $620 million, or $1.19 a share, compares with profit of $145 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer said today in a statement. The operating loss, which excludes some investment results, was $1.23 a share, beating by 35 cents the average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Wilson, 53, added auto customers in most states excluding New York and Florida, where the firm has scaled back to boost profitabilty. He’s also raising rates for homeowners’ coverage after storms caused catastrophe costs in the second quarter to balloon to $2.34 billion, an expense the insurer had previously disclosed.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel” if they can reduce their homeowners exposure and increase the number of auto-insurance customers, said Tom Lewandowski, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co., in an interview. “There’s a lot of pessimism priced into these shares.” He advises clients to buy the stock.
The Tent City of New Jersey: Desperate victims of the economic slump forced to live in makeshift homes in forest
By Daily Mail Reporter
In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression these are the ramshackle homes of the desperate and destitute U.S. families who have set up their own ‘Tent City’ only an hour from Manhattan.
More than 50 homeless people have joined the community within New Jersey’s forests as the economic crisis has wrecked their American dream.
And as politicians in Washington trade blows over their country’s £8.8 trillion debt, the prospect of more souls joining this rag tag group grows by the day.
Building their own tarpaulin tents, Native American teepees and makeshift balsa wood homes, every one of the Tent City residents has lost their job.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021173/Americas-city-broken-dreams-50-jobless-destitute-people-set-forest-community-New-Yorks-doorstep.html#ixzz1Tnl75iYE
I notice this was covered by a foreign newspaper and now one of our own.
Hoovervilles redux.
…every one of the Tent City residents has lost their job.
How much Gov’t monie$ will be $pent fighting fires & post property damage Insurance claim$? :-/
“Coming Soon”
Apparently this (tent cities) is happening in Japan as well.
Gretchen Morgenson Is Right: Bankers Have No Shame
Sunday, 31 July 2011 - cepr.net
Following the collapse of the housing bubble and the resulting financial meltdown, there was widespread agreement that securitzers should be forced to keep “skin in the game,” meaning a stake in the mortgages they issued. Dodd-Frank included a requirement to this effect.
While many were arguing for a 10 or even 20 percent stake, the rules that came out from regulators is that they have to keep just 5 percent. Furthermore, the regulators exempted traditional 20-percent-down mortgages that have low risk of the fault. Banks need keep no skin in the game on those.
Naturally the banks are acting like this 5 percent stake will be the end of the world. They are yelling that this will exclude large numbers of people from the market. If bankers could do arithmetic (the evidence suggests otherwise), then they would know that this claim is absurd on its face.
The bank will still be getting a return on the 5 percent stake. They will just get a slightly lower return than if they could sell it. Let’s assume that the return on this 5 percent stake is 40 basis points less than if they could sell it. That comes to 2 basis points or 0.02 percentage points for the mortgage as a whole. Is this going to result in large numbers of people being frozen out of the housing market?
Give me a break, this is garbage and Gretchen Morgensen was right to call them on it.
WHIP COUNT: House leaders in both parties seek votes to pass debt-limit deal By The Hill Staff - 08/01/11
The debt-limit deal announced on Sunday night is expected to attract more than 60 votes in the Senate, but its outlook in the House is much more cloudy.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will need Democratic votes to clear the bill through the lower chamber. How many remains unclear. A total of 216 lawmakers must vote in favor of the package for it to clear the House, and Boehner will need to rely on members from both parties.
Mrs. RAL and I visited a wells fargo dump in DE and we both like it alot. The home-debtors are long gone. They paid $480k in 2005 for a 3/2 ranch, inground, large structure with gambrel roof with high bays, slab and loft(walls half studded), all new .
Wells has it listed as “coming soon” but we were able to pull up a link that showed a 161k price tag. We clicked “have an agent call me on this property” and entered my work cell. Less than 3 minutes elapse before Century21Realt-Liar call centered rang us. This is 830pm Sunday evening mind you. He wasn’t much help other than passing our info onto a “home town” realt-liar. But get this…. he asked me “how much do you want to spend”. I burst out laughing and said sorry, that’s not gonna happen and told him to have his “hometown” realtliar email me. Well I just got the email and they “can’t find the listing showing the 161k price” so I mailed them the link. Silence….
Realtors are such pathetic liars.
Wells has it listed as “coming soon” but we were able to pull up a link that showed a 161k price tag.
Would’ve been fun to take a screenshot showing that price.
I don’t understand why these douchebags feel the need to get all “black bag” when it comes to pricing. Just sell the frickin house at market and move on.
More money to the upper class just puts more money into the hands of Wall street for misallocation of funds and bubbles where more money to the middle class produces more consumer spending and more jobs .
It all goes back to how much funds should go to the investment sector and how much funds should go to the production /consumer sector .Middle class spends a great deal of their income while elite
class invests a great deal of excess funds .
It’s very important how money is spent and to what degree it creates jobs verses creating bogus investments .
But as long as we have these massive trade deficits, putting money into the hands of the middle class stimulates China and OPEC’s economies far more than our own.
There it is.
In a consumer-based economy money flows from the coffers of consumers and ends up in the coffers of producers. Until this is fixed we will always be broke.
Rhode Island’s Central Falls files for bankruptcy
CENTRAL FALLS, Rhode Island | Mon Aug 1, 2011
(Reuters) - Central Falls, Rhode Island, one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession, filed for a rare Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Monday.
The bankruptcy filing — a risky and potentially expensive move that could freeze the city out of the U.S. municipal bond market — marks a symbolic blow as state and local governments struggle to pull themselves out of the recession.
The smallest city in the smallest U.S. state made the filing as it grappled with an $80 million unfunded pension and retiree health benefit liability that is nearly quadruple its annual budget of $17 million.
“The current situation is dire and it necessitates decisive steps to put the city back on a path to solid financial footing and future prosperity,” Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said in a statement.
Still, dire predictions of mass municipal defaults made late last year by Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney have not come to pass. A string of failures could rattle the $2.9 trillion U.S. municipal debt market.
The Central Falls filing was not the start of a “huge nation-wide trend”, said Adam Stern, a vice president at Boston-based Breckinridge Capital Advisors, a municipal bond investment firm.
“A bankruptcy filing is sort of an endgame over years and years of economic distress, so it’s not something your typical U.S. town or city is likely to experience anytime soon,” he said.
There have been only 624 municipal bankruptcies under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code since 1937, with five occurring last year, according to James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy expert at the law firm Chapman and Cutler.
Poof.
Get ready to see lots of these. Even states like AZ that have a balanced budget ammendment, don’t have to fully fund retirement.
The tax hikes that are on the way, will not be on the super rich, of that you can be sure.
Deal’s Big Secret: Tax Hikes Possible AP
Bipartisan committee to be formed in debt deal would be free to look at anything to find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts — including tax revenue — contradicting claims by House Speaker Boehner that tax increases are ‘impossible’ under plan.
Didn’t you just cover this a little upthread?
They will eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, lower IRA contribution caps, reduce student loan deduction.. and other things that will hit the middle class harder than the rich.
Of course, we don’t want the richies to suffer, do we? Imagine having to keep the Gulfstream one more year before getting a new one because of higher taxes. Oh the humanity!
Tax Hikes Possible
Fear! Fear! Fear! + Extend Shrub$ tax gift$ to the “TrueWealthie$™” Now! They’re $uffering $o! = wmbz’s $oup du jour
Little W(mbz) loves his Wall Street barons. That’s why he’s here defending them every day.
Judge says Section 8 funds should pay off HOA dues rather than go to delinquent owner of West Palm Beach home
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:05 p.m. Monday, Aug. 1, 2011
A Palm Beach County homeowner renting to Section 8 tenants will lose the federal housing supplement after a court ruled the money should be used to pay his delinquent HOA fees.
Circuit Court Judge John Hoy ordered the West Palm Beach Housing Authority on July 19 to divert future rent payments from the owner of the suburban Lake Worth home to the Willoughby Estates Homeowners’ Association, Inc., until late dues and legal fees are paid.
Attorneys for the association say the ruling gives guidance for future cases on how federal housing money should be used to settle homeowner debt.
“State statute doesn’t specifically address how the (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) should handle this kind of situation,” said attorney Michael Bender, whose Pompano Beach-based firm Kaye & Bender represents the association. “Hopefully this will assist the housing authority in going forward and they will no longer challenge these cases.”
A message left at the housing authority was not returned.
A new Florida law allows homeowner associations to collect rent directly from tenants who are living in homes where the owner is not paying dues. The law also allows associations to evict those tenants.
In the Willoughby case, the association filed for foreclosure against the 2,100-square-foot home in May after the homeowner, who lives in New York, amassed late payments and fees of more than $2,900. According to the lawsuit the homeowner stopped making payments in August 2010.
The owner receives $1,509-a-month in Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher money, while the tenant pays $275-a-month.
Bender said the renter was willing to pay her supplement to the association, but that HUD said it would need a court order to do so.
The home also had a foreclosure filed against it by the bank in June. According to the Palm Beach County Appraiser’s office, the home was purchased in 2006 for $392,000. Its total market value last year was $181,313.
Who pays the greens fees?
Maybe we need George W Bush to look into his eyes to remind him we’re mutual friends:
(Reuters) today - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means “like a parasite” on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.
“They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy,” Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi while touring its lakeside summer camp some five hours drive north of Moscow.
“They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar,” Putin said at the open-air meeting with admiring young Russians in what looked like early campaigning before parliamentary and presidential polls.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced sweeping new guidelines for women’s health care which will change everything from distribution of birth control pills to administration of breast exams — and will mean insured women will no longer pay anything out of their own pocket.
Beginning Aug. 1, 2012, all private insurance plans will be required to cover women’s preventive services without a co-pay or deductible. The move is intended to help women have the chance to stop health problems before they start.
Thank you Obama. Can’t wait for our insurance costs to go up yet again. Please tell me what is wrong w/a co pay?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced sweeping new guidelines for women’s health care which will change everything from distribution of birth control pills to administration of breast exams — and will mean insured women will no longer pay anything out of their own pocket.
Beginning Aug. 1, 2012, all private insurance plans will be required to cover women’s preventive services without a co-pay or deductible. The move is intended to help women have the chance to stop health problems before they start.
Good! Maybe I’ll be able to afford an exam now. Haven’t had one in three years.
“Please tell me what is wrong w/a co pay?”
Nothing wrong with the concept of co-payments. They are assessed to control expenses that would be frittered away by wanton consumption when a third party is providing coverage. The difficulty is that the poor cannot manage their priorities, so a co-pay becomes a barrier to services. Recall that being poor isn’t about the lack of money.
First of all this is about women w/insurance coverage so this isn’t a story about people paying for everything themselves. We are talking about $25-to maybe $50. I understand in some homes this is a hurdle and I do invite help for the poor or underinsured but we’re talking about providing it for everyone regardless of income. Most of them will just buy their friends a grande at Starbucks w/the savings. This for starters is a gift to big pharma.
This is not about any great concern for women. If they were really concerned about our health, they’d get the crap out of our food/environment that’s causing large numbers of 30-40 year olds to have all sorts of female oriented cancers. The irony here is that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn birth control is responsible for that.
“Beginning Aug. 1, 2012, all private insurance plans will be required to cover women’s preventive services without a co-pay or deductible.”
This is a big step forward, especially in that there will be coverage of a full range of reproductive services. Women have been significantly short-changed in the health plans that cover federal employees and members of Congress in the area of reproductive services thanks to provisions by Republicans greatly limiting such coverage.
I expect the low/no deductible provision will be extended to preventive care generally, not care in general, with the intent to get people treatment when it’s cheaper.
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1902:statement-on-the-budget-control-act&catid=15:floor-statements&Itemid=1
Ron Paul statement on the Budget Control Act. The other Republicrat and MSM comments can be summarized as “blah blah blah.”
I’m not shocked, but I am disgusted.
OTOH, Alan Greenspan was shocked, but not disgusted.
Focus Turns Back to Fed on Economy
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and CATHERINE RAMPELL
Published: August 1, 2011
WASHINGTON — Even as Congress escapes from its brush with default, political divisions have all but immobilized the levers of fiscal policy, raising pressure on the Federal Reserve to address the nation’s economic lethargy.
With the debt-ceiling standoff nearing its end, attention to Ben S. Bernanke and the Fed’s role in the economy has been renewed.
Failing to raise the debt ceiling could lead to an economic catastrophe. But even if the Senate on Tuesday joins the House in agreeing to let the government borrow more money, there is mounting evidence that the political turmoil has made a bad economic situation worse.
Manufacturing activity declined in July, a trade group reported Monday. Unemployment is climbing. So is inflation. And the high pitch of partisan rancor in Congress makes it difficult for either party to advance their incompatible economic agendas.
The deal to raise the debt ceiling would reduce federal spending this year by billions of dollars, exacerbating a broader downturn in federal aid as the stimulus peters out. A payroll tax cut and extended benefits for the unemployed are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said in the spring that it was time to see whether the economy could stand on its own. Last month he said the Fed would consider new steps if conditions deteriorated significantly. As the Fed’s policy-making committee prepares to meet Aug. 9, the drums are beating louder.
“I don’t think they can do anything until we see how much was lost and how much we can recoup,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “But if we have persistent weakness, and stagnant employment growth through the third quarter, I just don’t see how they can’t step back into the game.”
The Fed already is engaged in a vast and unprecedented effort to bolster economic growth. It has held short-term interest rates near zero for almost three years, and amassed more than $2 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage bonds to hold down long-term rates. But since the end of June, when it completed its most recent round of asset purchases, the Fed has chosen to stand pat.
…
Was it “flaws” or “fraud” that were targeted?
AG targets mortgage flaws
Says banks may have broken property laws, put buyers at risk
By Jerry Kronenberg
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley slammed a private network used by lenders for loan trading as she launched a far-reaching probe into whether banks violated state property-recording laws during the housing boom — and broke foreclosure rules during the bust that followed.
“From predatory loans to ‘robo-signing’ to servicing fraud, the banks continue to go merrily on their way while consumers, the real estate industry and the commonwealth of Massachusetts are being cheated,” Coakley told the Herald yesterday.
“The inability to get a handle on the instability in the real estate market continues to affect Massachusetts and the entire national economy,” she said.
…
RPT-Behind foreclosure corner-cutting, troves of missing documents
Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:00pm EDT
By Scot J. Paltrow
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Why have sketchy mortgage procedures been so difficult to root out? Some lawyers blame misguided efforts to cut costs. Most foreclosures are uncontested, they note. And so servicers save money by avoiding costly searches for missing original documents or hiring additional staff to deal with the surge in foreclosures.
There are signs, however, that servicers resort to doubtful documents because they have no choice if they are determined to foreclose: To a great extent, originals simply don’t exist.
It’s one of the overlooked legacies of the housing boom.
In the rush to make new home loans and sell them off as fast as possible to investors on Wall Street, the original lenders –big banks as well as now defunct makers of subprime loans –destroyed original documents, or never turned them over as required to the ownership pools that scooped them up. From 2004 through the end of the housing boom in 2006, more than half of all new mortgages were securitized and sold to such pools, known as mortgage-securitization trusts, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
So, banks and intermediaries in many cases never turned over the two essential documents underpinning a home loan — promissory notes and mortgages — that would convey ownership to the investor trusts. That means many pension funds, insurance companies and hedge funds that invested in the trusts never got formal title to mortgages they had paid for.
One example: Public records in foreclosure cases indicate that New Century Mortgage, the nation’s second-largest subprime lender until it collapsed in 2007, almost never endorsed promissory notes or assigned mortgages to trusts that bought its mortgages.
A Reuters sampling of 50 foreclosure cases filed in Duval County, Florida, involving New Century mortgages found that none of the promissory notes filed in the cases had any endorsements at all on them. Records show that similar large-scale lapses occurred with other big lenders.
The result is that trusts may be out many billions of dollars, says Matthew Weidner, a lawyer who specializes in mortgage litigation. If proper procedures are followed now, foreclosures could slow to a trickle. And a cloud would hang over title to millions of homes, potentially further depressing the housing market.
…
If the practice is truly illegal, why don’t we read about anyone serving hard prison time for perpetrating it?
Associated Press
How ‘robo-signing’ occurs in the mortgage industry
By The Associated Press, 07.18.11, 06:02 PM EDT
The robo signing scandal virtually shut down the nation’s entire foreclosure machine last fall. County officials in at least three states say the illegal practice continues. Here are some ways that robo signing can work:
_An entry-level employee with no banking experience signs off on mortgage-related affidavits without verifying whether the bank owns the loan or whether the homeowner owes the debt.
_A notary stamps the document even though the notary wasn’t present at the time the document was signed. The notary signature might also be different that the one on file with the agency that licensed the notary.
_A qualified bank employee signs his name using numerous titles on behalf of more than a dozen different financial institutions.
_In all of these cases, robo-signing involves people signing documents and swearing to their accuracy without verifying any of the information.
Letting Wankers Balk?!
Oh…never mind. B!tch.
Op-Ed Columnist
Letting Bankers Walk
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: July 17, 2011
Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the bankers.
This principle was on display during the final months of the Bush administration, when a huge lifeline for the banks was made available with few strings attached. It was equally on display in the early months of the Obama administration, when President Obama reneged on his campaign pledge to “change our bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to stay in their homes.” And the principle is still operating right now, as federal officials press state attorneys general to accept a very modest settlement from banks that engaged in abusive mortgage practices.
Why the kid-gloves treatment? Money and influence no doubt play their part; Wall Street is a huge source of campaign donations, and agencies that are supposed to regulate banks often end up serving them instead. But officials have also argued at each point of the process that letting banks off the hook serves the interests of the economy as a whole.
It doesn’t. The failure to seek real mortgage relief early in the Obama administration is one reason we still have 9 percent unemployment. And right now, the arguments that officials are reportedly making for a quick, bank-friendly settlement of the mortgage-abuse scandal don’t make sense.
Before I get to that, a word about the current state of the mortgage mess.
Last fall, we learned that many mortgage lenders were engaging in illegal foreclosures. Most conspicuously, “robo-signers” were attesting that banks had the required documentation to seize homes without checking to see whether they actually had the right to do so — and in many cases they didn’t.
How widespread and serious were the abuses? The answer is that we don’t know. Nine months have passed since the robo-signing scandal broke, yet there still hasn’t been a serious investigation of its reach. That’s because states, suffering from severe budget troubles, lack the resources for a full investigation — and federal officials, who do have the resources, have chosen not to use them.
Instead, these officials are pushing for a settlement with mortgage companies that, reports Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post, “would broadly absolve the firms of wrongdoing in exchange for penalties reaching $30 billion and assurances that the firms will adhere to better practices.”
Why the rush to settle? As far as I can tell, there are two principal arguments being made for letting the banks off easy. The first is the claim that resolving the mortgage mess quickly is the key to getting the housing market back on its feet. The second, less explicitly stated, is the claim that getting tough with the banks would undermine broader prospects for recovery.
Neither of these arguments makes much sense.
…
Economic policy is supposed to influence behavior. Rewarding destructive behavior just yields more of it.
Perp-walking the executive teams from these destructive financial institutions is not going to damage the economy. It will make it stronger and less corrupt.
Can you un-pave roads and sell the pavement back to the contractors?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-spending-fight-may-hit-highways-next-2011-08-02?link=MW_home_latest_news
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::lol::