Bits Bucket for September 5, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
May 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
I promise not to post too much today, and I also apologize to anyone who was offended by the many cantankerous remarks I made yesterday. Perhaps the problem was that I missed attending church yesterday morning.
I missed the drama.
It’s time for everyone to get tough. We’re about to the leave the bargaining phase of Kübler-Ross.
Expect everyone to act in their own self interest: banks, sellers, landlords, the fed, etc.
Housing Bubble bagholder identification end game is now in play.
Sept. 5, 2011, 6:42 a.m. EDT
Europe stocks sink, led by Clariant, RBS
German chancellor’s CDU party crushed in state elections
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) — European stock markets fell sharply Monday, with Deutsche Bank AG leading several banks lower after being named in a U.S. mortgage-related lawsuit,…
“We’re about to leave the bargaining phase of Kubler-Ross.”
I had to look that one up:
Phase 3: Bargaining phase.
Phase 4: Depression.
Yep, entering phase 4, right on schedule.
Wait a minute — didn’t you miss one that has yet to play out?
Phase 2: Anger phase
Anger was the 2010 election of Tea Party.
We did that. It’s called “Tea Party”, I think.
I said “Anger phase,” not “Stupid phase.”
There is such a thing as “Stupid Anger Phase” too.
That’s Phase 2a in the Kubler-Ross model.
Anger Phase 2b) Stop paying your mortgage.
‘“Stupid Anger Phase” too.’
The way I interpret the Tea Party movement is that it serves to divert the sheeples’ attention away from Wall Street’s high crimes and felonies and towards correctness on religious doctrine and other high priority Republican issues.
“Wall Street’s high crimes and felonies”
Made possible by progressives and others on the fringe who insisted that we open up the home loan flood gates to include the “disenfranchised” thereby giving implicit approval to all involved. Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Franklin Raines, Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon are not Republicans, they are fringe progressives just like our President. You could actually even call them Fascists given that they have presided over the Government Wall Street cabal currently sticking it to the poor and middle class.
Oh, knock it off, Nicky. Educate yourself and find a new, discredited meme to blather.
CRA loans have a higher repayment rate than non-CRA loans, in large part because CRA regulated institutions were less likely to make subprime loans, and when they did the interest rates were lower. CRA banks were also half as likely to resell the loans.
Keep hitting that progressive factual reset button.
you got it right, nickpapageorgio.
Right. Don’t believe silly little Wikipedia or the GAO. Glenn Beck had all the answers you’ll ever need.
Oh, and here’s a lengthy discussion of the issue by that bastion of progressivism, the FED:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/kroszner20081203a.html
ahansen is right. The GSEs and the CRA had very little to do with the credit/housing bubble.
Almost all of the most irresponsible loans were made by PRIVATE lenders. The GSEs only got involved when the PTB saw the failure rate of the PRIVATE MARKET loans and tried to off-load the risk onto the GSEs by increasing their portfolio limits and lowering standards.
The GSEs share of the mortgage market dropped dramatically during the bubble. Check your facts.
You don`t have to apologize to me, I enjoy your (and everyones) posts. As you know, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed and I have learned a lot reading this blog. I have probably learned more from people with different views than I have (RAL comes to mind) I found it when I was trying to find out why people earning less money than me were able to buy $450k houses that were $150k 4 years earlier at a time when I needed (and could afford) a $150k house. Anyway, as far as missing church yesterday you didn`t, niether did Faster Pussycat, Sell Sell.
Matthew 18:20
20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
“I was trying to find out why people earning less money than me were able to buy $450k houses that were $150k 4 years earlier at a time when I needed (and could afford) a $150k house.”
I believe that mystery drew a lot of us together here, and it was a great challenge to unravel it.
I live to read cantankerous remarks.
+1 Flame hardened over here.
I come here for the views and comments. I like the discussions. They both inform and entertain me.
I did not find any of your posts offensive. In fact, I find them quite informative. I would be disappointed if you change. I don’t know WTF Ol’ Bubba was nitty about.
Any injury from reading a discussion board is self inflicted.
+ 1
+10
Thanks. And many apologies for venting about religion yesterday. You can probably recognize a reaction formation when you see one.
You bring so much to this board Pbear…Nothing to apologize for….
+1,000!
CIBT….Don’t limit posting . Debate is good .
NO IT ISNT!!! -
Don’t be silly, Prof.
I found your exchange with SS engaging, vivid, and quite entertaining. Nicely done, the both of you!
Keep in mind that when we get lively here, we do so as representative entities, not as known individuals. And no matter how whacky we get, we still represent at least some obscure corner of the readership who may not care to jump into the fray, but still follows the conversation.
I like to imagine this forum as one large after-dinner conversation. As long as no one starts throwing the mashed potatoes or spilling brandy on the host, it’s all food for thought!
Check out the nose dive on the Global DOW: This sucker is going down!
Global DOW
Humph, this ship can’t sink!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU
Oh Lord, give you the peace of silence, but do not give it yet
Merry Labor Day….
QUINCY —
The commissioner of public works is recommending one of his employees be fired after the worker was allegedly caught on videotape with a missing city pump.
Michael Connolly, a laborer, has been suspended for five days pending a disciplinary hearing next week. Public works Commissioner Daniel Raymondi has recommended that Mayor Thomas Koch fire Connolly.
Under Quincy’s charter, only the mayor can fire a city employee. The stiffest discipline a department head can levy is a five-day suspension
Read more: http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x948303849/Quincy-DPW-head-wants-laborer-fired-over-missing-pump#ixzz1X4rNy5QS
The stiffest discipline a department head can levy is a five-day suspension ??
Another Union negotiated benefit….??
Let me generally explain how disciplinary actions work, under a union negotiated contract.
-Policy is spelled out in the contract/employee handbook. BOTH THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYEE KNOW THAT THEY ARE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. It spells what issues may be “subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination” In every contract I’ve ever seen, theft is considered grounds for “immediate termination”.
So, headline aside, it appears that the thief is at step one of the process. Of course, why let the facts interfere with a good Tea-bagger baiting headline?
As a foreman, I could “suspend” someone on my own authority, but I couldn’t terminate anyone. This was done thru the HR pukes, with the bargaining unit sitting in. One of the things that you find out is that the union guys won’t do much to defend thieves/slackers. They talk to their guys in the department involved. They know it makes them look bad when they defend a thief/loser/slacker against a valid termination.
As I’ve said before, the only people to blame for the existence of unions is bad/corrupt/idiot managers. The reasons these “regulations” exist is because people got tired of dumbazz managers terminating people for no cause and without due process……i.e., the 24 year old recent business school grad terminating somebody who had been with the company 20 years, because they didn’t like their attitude
(attitude = not sucking up/bending over to a 24yr old manager who’s daddy appointed him assistant boss)
I worked in a union environment for a few years. It was a soul-sucking, miserable existence, full of bureaucracy and animosity between management and staff. However, pay was good and there were better benefits than other places at the time.
One of the stranger “benefits” was the allowance of two physical transgressions before we were subject to disciplinary actions. As far as any of us could figure out, this meant we were allowed to punch our boss twice before getting turfed.
Of course, this never happened. What did happen is that the union stopped the firing of two employees. The first, because he was suffering from a recurring ilness and management wanted to get rid of him. The second, because an upper level manager took a dislike to the employee, even though he was recognized as one of the best and most productive in the group.
My observation was that management was restricted from ordering death marches to meet deadlines because of the requirement to pay overtime. This meant that most projects went over budget but whose fault was that? The union’s for requiring extra pay or management’s for being unable to estimate a project cost correctly?
Sorry for the diatribe but I am getting tired of seeing unions being blamed for the woes of the economy. It does the economy no good to have one extremely rich person and 99 poor ones. That is reminiscent of feudal economies and we all know how well those worked.
“full of bureaucracy and animosity between management and staff. ”
The management was full of animosity for the union because the union is the only thing standing between management and the profit that comes from slave labor.
Admittedly, some unions went overboard, but if the unions are broken, how long do you think it will be before workers go back down to slave labor?
Not all of us are as charming and valuable and powerful and able to command our own destiny as Bill the Nomad.
Great posts, x-GS and aragonzo.
Under Quincy’s charter, only the mayor can fire a city employee.
Another Union negotiated benefit….??
Would a union contract actually require a city to change its charter? It doesn’t seem likely.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bulletfest_in_big_apple_byw44m9cllNj7rhDXYEDXK
25 people shot in 24 hours in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg predictably blames guns rather than the thug culture.
Many years ago I read that 4,000 people per year were treated in NYC’s emergency rooms for bite wounds. Bites from “humans”.
I wonder how many were inflicted by young children.
probably 90% are minority and 90% cant read, write or speak English…..when will we admit there is a connection?
Because reading, writing, and speaking English lead to or are indicative of better impulse control?
well you never ever read anything about a PHD college professor doing a drive by injuring 8 people…did you? But a gagsta hood rat…everyday!
Uh, mathematics professor, Ted Kacznski, dj?
How about Ernesto Bustamonte, PhD?, Amy Bishop, PhD?, George Zinkhan, PhD?, Raphael Robb, PhD?….
“Would you be feel betta little girl, if they was pushed outa Windas?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzFWRPiNXOI
Ban guns, only the criminals own guns and you create a whole new profit center for criminal enterprise… and then people kill each oher with knives. Oh, then you have to start limiting how big knives can be.
Oh, then you have to start limiting how big knives can be…………
we already do. If you are caught with a pocket knife with a blade over 3″, then you are carrying a “concealed weapon”, a criminal offense.
Box cutters are considered “deadly weapons”.
Get with the program.
We’ve made progress though; I believe I am now allowed to carry nail clippers with that little hinged file on them! Of course i broke it off years ago to get through security.
Haha–A quote from All in the Family:
Gloria: Do you know that sixty percent of all deaths in America are caused by guns?
Archie Bunker: Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they was pushed out of windows?
Ah geez, sorry–Didn’t see that Darrell beat me to it!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/perry-s-friends-in-texas-discover-donations-dovetail-with-state-contracts.html
The Republicrat tradition of crony capitalism will continue unabated under Rick Perry.
I hope he gets the nomination…After the Palin fiasco it would only be fitting that they come back with this guy…
“I hope he gets the nomination”
+1
Palin-Perry Republican ticket — 2012.
“Demonstrate The Hate”, 2012 GOP campaign slogan
“Continue the Stealing” 2012 Democrat campaign slogan.
You’ll have to explain that one.
You’ll have to do better than that Diogenes. It doesn’t even rhyme.
““Demonstrate The Hate”, 2012 GOP campaign slogan”
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.” -Saul Alinsky
And when all else fails, wheel out the alternate user name.
Yeah, I think I prefer exeter.
Thanks for the info. Ben and I like this one so I’ll be sure to continue using it.
Mainstream Media Ridicule Ron Paul
They reflect their ignorance of U.S. money problems.
Writing as he does for the liberal Washington Post it’s understandable that Eugene Robinson would bash Republicans and boost President Obama’s prospects of goosing the jobs market.
He throws some legitimate challenges to GOP presidential hopefuls. . .until he gets to Ron Paul.
“Does Mitt Romney have anything to offer except the warmed over policies of tax cuts and deregulation that got us in this mess?
“How will Rick Perry explain his view that Social Security is an unconstitutional Ponzi scheme?
“Does Michelle Bachmann have an economic plan at all?
“Can Ron Paul convince Americans to carry satchels of gold dust to the malls?”
Robinson doesn’t have a clue about how a gold standard functions. Rep. Paul does. He was on Ronald Reagan’s Gold Commission in the early 1980s because of his knowledge of the money function and the role of gold as a reliable medium of exchange. Robinson smugly throws in with the majority of prominent scribes who have disturbing trust in the brilliance of politicians and bankers to manage a currency system that is based entirely on promises. We call it fiat currency. (”Fiat” = based merely on government decree. ie; “let this piece of paper be legal tender.”)
Ron Paul has never suggested Americans should “carry satchels of gold dust to the malls.” All he proposes is that the fiendishly destructive fiat currency system be phased out and replaced by money. That is, a defined unit of gold. It would require defining the U.S. dollar as something on the order of 1/2000th of a troy ounce of gold in order to soak up the dreadful effects of long years of inflation. In 1934, when the U.S. began its abandonment of a gold standard, a dollar was a fraction over 1/20th of a troy ounce of gold.
On a gold standard business would be conducted more or less like it is now except the dollar would be backed by gold. Anyone could take a bundle of paper gold certificates (currency) into a bank and trade them for gold coin anytime. Silver coins would likely reappear. You would no longer have to hide your money in a closet or under your mattress. You would deposit your precious metal in a bank - at interest - just like your great-grandfather did.
A useful historical note: No fiat currency has ever failed to become worthless. Thousands of attempts with money substitutes have been made through the ages. Only money of intrinsic value has survived.
Ron Paul knows all that. Eugene Robinson doesn’t.
Gold coins have always been hidden under one’s mattress. I have a ha-farthing that my Nana hid 100 years ago. Paper “backed by gold” can be inflated quite easily in a fractional reserve system. It’s like musical chairs.
I think one of my old high school chums had it about right. He owned ten 1-ounce gold coins which he kept in a safe place “just in case.”
I also once owned a stash, but ended up selling them the last time our household was in a financial pinch, after the tech stocks crashed in the early 2000s. It was the worst possible time to sell, but we needed the cash.
Experience keeps a dear school…
Useful factual correction.
Many, many fiat currencies have failed to become worthless. The US$ for one (although it may be heading there). The Yen, the pound, the Canadian, Australian and Singapore $s have all failed to become worthless. Some have been around for many hundreds of years.
How does the gold standard work if it becomes more expensive to mine? Does everything else stay at the same relative value to the cost of mining an ounce of gold?
Time to rethink the German bailout of Europe pipe dream…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DAX:IND
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=193551
Labor Day musings (on the failure of the fraud that is Keynesian economics).
When you conflate monetarism with Keynes, the oligarchs smile and give each other high-fives. Another sheeple fooled.
SHOW me the Keynesian economics. Don’t show me the spendy part. SHOW me where the government saved money in good times, and used it later to pay off debts. Then we can decide if it’s a fraud.
If you’re really interested go and look for it. Try google.
I tried Teh Google for Keynesian Economics Failure. The first five pages of results looked like a rehash of the same conservative article.
So, I tried Teh Google for Keynesian Economics Success, and got some more in-depth analysis. For example, Keynes seems to work VERY well after the Great Depression. Money was expanded to pay for World War II, money was contracted back in the 1950’s:
——-
“The success of Keynesian economics was so resounding that almost all capitalist governments around the world adopted its policies. And the result seems to be nothing less than the extinction of the economic depression! Before World War II, eight U.S. recessions worsened into depressions (as happened in 1807, 1837, 1873, 1882, 1893, 1920, 1933, and 1937). Since World War II, under Keynesian policies, there have been nine recessions (1945-46, 1949, 1954, 1956, 1960-61, 1″970, 1973-75, 1980-83, 1990-92 ), and not one has turned into a depression. The success of Keynesian economics was such that even Richard Nixon once declared, “We are all Keynesians now.”
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Keynesianism.htm
———-
Doesn’t look like a fraud to me.
However, there is a fatal flaw in Kenesianism: Even this review says repeatedly that the flow of money is circular. Keynes designed the ebb and flow to apply to a circular economy. Since about 1980, our economy opened the circle so that money flows to other countries, and the money never comes back; i.e. trade imbalances.
Kenyes is not a failure; it’s just no longer applicable.
+1 Great analysis.
No circular economy. No reciprocity because of the huge disconnect amongst incomes. Why do we still try to compete?
Apple, Caterpillar, John Deere, Mac Donald’s, Coke, Pepsi, and others like Yum! Brands. Barriers to entry, scale of business.
Poor folks can’t buy a tractor, and poor folks can buy a Coke.
Rich folks can buy whatever they want. Evident in SoCal.
Sourcing is the key. America was built on critical thinking - invention and innovation. Making a better, more effective product using fewer resources. Or, at a lower cost.
Quality also goes a long way in ensuring customer loyalty.
Wanna buy some Chinese drywall? Thought not!
SHOW me where the government saved money in good times,
no one knows when the good times are until they’re history, and show up on a chart.
IMO, arguing over Monetarism vs. Keynesian is like arguing over what the exact crystalline structure was of the iceberg that just ripped our hull in two.
For the record I don’t think we have seen true Keynesian policies in play.
Wont make a bit of difference to me during judgement day.
The problem is trade imbalances. If money kept moving theough the system, then printing and spending a little extra would be okay.
Unfortuantly, as fast as we spend it, it is drained out of our economy via international trade defiicits and the rich just getting richer.
From those who owes to thems that has.
Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE September 4, 2011
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.
“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.
As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.
At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the agency’s predicament on Tuesday. So far, feuding Democrats and Republicans in Congress, still smarting from the brawl over the federal debt ceiling, have failed to agree on any solutions. It doesn’t help that many of the options for saving the postal service are politically unpalatable.
“The situation is dire,” said Thomas R. Carper, the Delaware Democrat who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the postal service. “If we do nothing, if we don’t react in a smart, appropriate way, the postal service could literally close later this year. That’s not the kind of development we need to inject into a weak, uneven economic recovery.”
Missing the $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30, intended to finance retirees’ future health care, won’t cause immediate disaster. But sometime early next year, the agency will run out of money to pay its employees and gas up its trucks, officials warn, forcing it to stop delivering the roughly three billion pieces of mail it handles weekly.
The causes of the crisis are well known and immensely difficult to overcome.
Mail volume has plummeted with the rise of e-mail, electronic bill-paying and a Web that makes everything from fashion catalogs to news instantly available. The system will handle an estimated 167 billion pieces of mail this fiscal year, down 22 percent from five years ago.
The loss of junk mail customers has really hurt the Post Office. It will need to adapt to stay in business, as in reduce costs since that source of revenue won’t be coming back.
Congress will need to allow the Post Office to be run as a business or they will have to subsidize it.
Worse that junk mail, is online banking. The bulk “current resident” stuff is delivered for cheap.
When your credit card company, mortgage servicer, utilities providers, etc. mailed you a bill, then you mailed back a check, the post office was making a much higher fee coming and going.
Now, more and more people are viewing statements online and making payments via electronic payments.
I see no option but to drop to 3 day delivery (M, W, F) with a more expensive “express mail” only delivery Tue, Thur, Sat and no delivery on Sunday.
Shutting down some of the post offices would be another option.
I live withing 1/2 mile of two post offices.
I favor Mon< Wed, Frid delivery in half the areas with Tues,Thurs, Sat in the others.
I was thinking the smaller number of employees could sort mail every other day and deliver mail on the days in between. And take Sundays off.
The Canadians have figured out the rural delivery thing. There is a row of steel lockers on the main road and everyone picks up their own mail. If you need to actually go to a post office, it is in the pharmacy.
You should spend some time in Rural USA, maybe even drive through Wyoming.
You will find that half the roads are simply called “ranch raod” and all the mail boxes are on the main road with the actual ranches upto 20 miles down that road.
Is “Ranch Road” a private road? We have that in rural NY too, but only at the heads of private roads, as far as I know. Anyone with a front on a public road gets delivery to their individual mailbox in front of their house.
decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses ??
You just can’t make this stuff up…How the hell did they make this union request and still keep a straight face…
They traded the “no-layoff” clause for a “no strike” clause.
When was the last time you got anything in the mail that you really wanted to get and were really glad it didn’t come via UPS or FedEx? Generally the USPS only brings me stuff I don’t want. If I were them I’d go to M/W/F delivery NOW and lay off everybody that becomes redundant due to that.
Congress sets the postal rates so this was planned to happen this way. It will never make a profit if it can’t charge market rates.
That probably made sense when they were a monopoly, but you’re right…that should be the first thing to go.
Many companies are now telling me to switch to online payment or they will add a service fee. I generally do because it saves $. But it kills the USPS, which has really shitty service in my area. Evolution. Fewer trees dying. It’s all good! (Unless you work for the government/private??? USPS).
Forever Stamps. Hmmmmm?
California Employment at Record Low
By Christopher Palmeri - Bloomberg
The percentage of working-age Californians with jobs has fallen to a record low, and employment may not return to pre-recession levels until the second half of the decade, according to a research group.
Just 55.4 percent of working-age Californians, defined as those 16 or older, had a job in July, down from 56.2 percent a year earlier and the lowest level since 1976, the Sacramento- based California Budget Project said in a report released late yesterday.
California’s 12 percent unemployment rate in July, the nation’s second-highest after Nevada, compared with 9.1 percent nationwide. The most-populous state lost 1.4 million jobs during the recession that began three years ago, and has gained back only 226,800, or about 17 percent, according to the report.
Alissa Anderson, deputy director of the research group, which concentrates on issues facing low- and middle-class Californians, said women have disproportionately trailed men in regaining jobs.
“Women represent nearly half of the workforce,” Anderson said in a telephone interview. “They gained just one of the 10 jobs added.”
Job losses in local government, health care and other industries where women make up a large portion of the workforce contributed to the weak employment picture. Women have lost jobs in industries such as retail and financial services, while men in those fields gained.
“As businesses cut costs, the first thing to go is administrative support positions where women tend to work,” Anderson said.
Well at least California housing is going up again, despite the dearth of jobs. It’s different out here on the Coast.
Home prices notch third straight monthly gain
…
Nineteen of the 20 regions measured by the Case-Shiller index were up in June over May, according to the data released Tuesday. Eight cities remain above their April 2009 bottom, including all of the metro areas in California: San Diego, San Francisco and the Los Angeles region, which also covers Orange County.
Home prices in the California cities are considered relatively healthy, despite the state’s high unemployment rate, because they are markets that are close to job centers and near the ocean — where overbuilding was relatively constrained and demand remains healthy. The index does not track prices in California’s Central Valley or the Inland Empire, where housing is still weak.
Maybe contrary to Ben’s advice, I am still interested in Forest Highlands up in Flagstaff. For now I think the prices are $100,000, maybe $200,000 too high still. But 7,000 feet up and it has all the recreational activities I like in winter nearby as well as cool summer (and master swimming at NAU nearby).
I had a fixation on the area for several years.
I get it. It’s the only place I’d consider living in AZ due to my incompatibility with heat.
33 days over 110 this summer. A new record. We win!
Forget the heat. I have incomptability with lack of rainfall. (But Seattle is overdoing it a little bit.)
How could Darrell have any unfried brain cells left??
Oh, wait….. -
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=GBTPGR2:IND
Italy 2-year bond going parabolic. This can’t be good. While the MSM focuses on Greece, they neglect to mention that Spain and Italy are too big to be bailed out.
For X-GSfixr:
Private plane traffic plunges
Operations, fuel sales at Jackson Hole Airport are way down from 2006.
Perhaps a better measure of the decline in general aviation is the drop in fuel deliveries to the airport’s fixed base operator, Jackson Hole Aviation, airport officials say.
The operator received 2,392,692 gallons of fuel in 2006 and 1,303,329 in 2009, a decline of 46 percent. Last year, the operator received 1,339,813 gallons, down 44 percent from 2006.
Jackson Hole Aviation officials did not return calls for comment.
“General aviation is way down,” said Ray Bishop, the airport’s director. “It’s gotten to be very difficult.
Not all bad news:
Within the aviation industry, experts say the rich can still afford private aircraft, Bishop said
“The corporate jets at $10 million a pop, they’re doing quite well,” Bishop said. “They’re supporting the industry right now.”
“Are the little guys still coming? The answer is no,” Bishop said.
http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=7678
More proof that small business owners are not members of the “Club” and that GOP candidates don’t represent their interests. The Davos crowd considers them to be serfs, no different from the rest of us.
I’m still waiting on Cessna 185 Skywagon prices to drop.
They aren’t making any more C-180/C185s…..and the Alaska bush pilots are still culling the herd of what’s left. Especially the ones you would actually want to own.
Low, non-replaceable supply vs high demand = Buy now, or be priced out forever.
I’m running into that right now with 2006 EVOs. It’s the only year I (and plenty of other people) want, they ain’t making any more, and market forces are keeping all used cars artificially expensive. They should be 10k and instead they’re over 20k…almost what they cost new. It’s ridiculous.
This news should be music to the big ears of the Annointed One in the White House. With such contempt of private plane owners, he should be displaying a huge grin when he goes on TV on Thursday to propose spending 2 Trillion dollars of addition funds begotten from nowhere to “stimulate” the economy.
“…….they’re doing quite well”.
Not neccesarily.
-The average age of the “little guy” pilot is about 60 right now. The local Cessna shop tell me his business is losing customers, because his customers are losing their medicals.
-Jet sales in the “mid-side” and smaller classes still suck. The only thing that’s really selling now are those aircraft with intercontinental capability/range longer than 4000 miles, or thereabouts. The stuff that is really selling are the ones capable of flying NYC/LA to Shangai non-stop.
A lot of people want/need to buy a bigger airplane, but can’t sell their current one unless they take a real bloodletting. Sound familiar?
-A lot of jets built before 1995-2000 are becoming unsellable. The banks are sitting on a lot of “shadow inventory”…….some banks are storing them correctly, but a lot of them aren’t. The aircraft and engine OEMs are watching this.
If the engine OEMS find out that an aircraft has been parked and stored incorrectly, those engines go on the “crash list”, and are declared unairworthy. Takes big, expensive inspections to get an engine off the list.
At current prices, it would cost more to put them back in service than they are worth……just like houses, they are carried on the books at 2007 prices, but may only be worth scrap value currently. And there’s always fuel prices…..older airplanes/engines burn more fuel.
Only time will tell if demand picks up enough for prices to appreciate, and it becomes a break even/profitable proposition to spend the bucks to put these airplanes back in service.
Crap…so much for the idea that maybe they’d get cheap. Planes or houses.
As the Realtors say: “All markets are different”
The aircraft manufacturers try to separate the legit buyers from the “How much a month” crowd by requiring big deposits, progress payments, etc. Most of them learned their lessons about too much inventory back in 1981-82.
Cessna, Hawker Beech, Bombardier/Learjet, Gulfstream, Dassault Falcon, and Embraer control about 95% of the worldwide corporate jet market. Honda is starting to build one, but it remains to be seen how successful they are. (They have the highest priced product in their price range……..the Cessna is a lot cheaper, and the Embraer is bigger)
Well…I meant the used ones :-).
Happy Labor Day HBB!
Wiki says the purpose Labor Day is ” to celibrate the economics and social contribution of workers”.
So workers do this celebrating by taking a day off from work.
Some amusing irony here somewhere.
“So workers do this celebrating by taking a day off from work.”
Judging from wmbz’s post above, lots of Californians are taking a lot more days off these days than just today.
Work is a blessing.
Work sets you free.
No, borrowing sets you free.
Buy one, get one free
I just pity those poor rich guys who don’t know the blessings of labor and its higher tax rates, but instead know only the lonely sorrow of capital gains and their much lower tax rates.
Let’s remember them on this Labor Day.
“Work sets you free.”
Arbeit macht frei.
Barbed wire, loaded with death
is drawn around our world.
Above a sky without mercy
sends frost and sunburn.
Far from us are all joys,
far away our homeland, far away our women,
when we march to work in silence
thousands of us at the break of day.
But we have learned the solution of Dachau
and became as hard as steel:
Be a man, comrade,
stay a human being, comrade,
do a good job, get to it, comrade,
for work, work makes you free!
I was fortunate to be able to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau last fall. Something I think everyone should see. Black and white photos from high school history books just can’t do these places justice.
I was just there a few weeks ago. Kind of a long hike to go all the way around…it’s a big place. My brain can process what I saw, but I can’t seem to process that’s where it actually happened. My brain wants to treat it as some sort of reproduction created as a museum.
Labor Day celebrates the bloody conflict between the Rail unions and the government, over grievances which were the result of a depression, which was the result of a huge credit expansion and investment bubble crash.
100 years + later and here we are again! Our grandchildren can have FB Day off work and have no clue why.
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/history-purpose/2011/sep/5/labor-days-painful-origins/
“Angering the labor movement and spouting economic policies too conservative for the Democratic Party, the Democrats refused to support a bid for re-election. The real irony is that Grover Cleveland ran against Benjamin Harrison in 1892 truly determined to reverse the economic problems that he claimed Harrison instigated.”
Maybe a cautionary tale for Obama.
Hoffa Threatens GOP At Obama Event: “Take These Son Of Bitches Out”
It would appear that the President is taking a different route.
Is it human nature, that we must first tear each other to shreds, before we can fix anything? It’s just me, but I think we are only beginning the Anger phase.
Hoffa Threatens
Man that Palin and her hateful language……
IIRC, outside of Canada,the USA and a few other English speaking countries Labor Day is celebrated May 1st.
The USA is an English speaking country? I thought it was a press 1 for English country.
We’re number 1!
“I thought it was a press 1 for English country.”
Close enough. Just pointing out that 99% of the world’s nations celebrate Labor Day on May 1st.
Canada, too? I always thought it was only USA that celebrated Labor day in September.
USPS wants a taxpayer bailout for their union…
————————————-
Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount
NY Times | 9/4/2011 | steven greenhouse
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.
“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.
As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.
At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.
And this is how pensions go poof! If the entity paying out the pensions dissolves, there goes the so do the pensions, I guess. (Not really sure how that works, are pensions insured?) Sheesh, imagine you’re some postal worker who stuck it out with a crappy job for decades because of the pension and then it’s gone.
I envision the same thing happening to the US debt. If the US breaks up into five different countries, who pays China?
“there goes the so do the pensions”
Jeebus. More cawfee. “There goes the pensions.”
“There goes the pensions.”
This message will not be lost on other employers.
If employers get to see other employers slide on their pension obligations then they will look for ways to do the same.
First-class mail volume decline since 2001 peak: 19%. Standard mail volume decline since 2007 peak: 20%. Source: Government Accountability Office.
These are as of March 2010. A 20% decrease in standard mail volume in just three years. Yikes!
Combo, some private employers already saw the airlines pass off their pensions on the government.
Other private employers just got rid of them and replaced them with 401K.
Civilian federal government went off full pensions over 20 years ago. There are only a few dinosaurs left on the old system. The rest are on a small-pension + 401K-ish plan — I still can’t figure it out.
I don’t know about military.
Here’s what I would do — find some minimum cost-of-living amount (30K?) and cut pensions 50% after that. Throw them into Medicare.
The comparison with Fedex and UPS is misleading. How much would it cost Fedex or UPS to send a Christmas card to rural Kansas? Oh, that’s right, Fedex and UPS don’t like to do that kind of high-cost but necessary work. Like any private industry, they will pass the unprofitable stuff off on the government.
If employers get to see other employers slide on their pension obligations then they will look for ways to do the same.
If? Most private employers have already done away with their pension programs. Today you’re lucky if your 401K has an employer match.
“If? Most private employers have already done away with their pension programs.”
But the ones who haven’t (yet) are luring their future - and current - retirees into a false sense of security. A lot of people depend on pension payouts - their whole retirement plans largely depend on these payouts - and if the payouts are not forthcoming then they are screwed.
BTW, this is one of the results of a DEFLATING economy in case anyone here on this message board does not yet get it.
The comparison with Fedex and UPS is misleading. How much would it cost Fedex or UPS to send a Christmas card to rural Kansas? Oh, that’s right, Fedex and UPS don’t like to do that kind of high-cost but necessary work.
But that’s precisely the point. No business would charge a flat fee independent of where the destination is. The model is busted and has always been busted.
Would an airline charge a flat fee to go to Chicago and Juneau?
Is that what you’re arguing? Seriously?!?
Ummm….FEDEX has flat rate fees.
“No business would charge……”
But that’s just it. GOVERNMENT IS NOT A BUSINESS. And shouldn’t be.
Take my word for it, if BFE/Flyover residents have to start paying the full freight to haul mail and build roads out to lonely outposts like Goodland, Kansas, the price of living out there is going to skyrocket. Those costs will be passed on to someone.
User fees for trucking companies/railroads/airlines? “Export” taxes on wheat, corn, soybeans, beef? Depletion taxes on crude oil/natural gas sold out of state?. Taxes on the electricity generated by wind turbines?
He who has the gold/food/fuel, makes the rules…. if push comes to shove.
“if BFE/Flyover residents have to start paying the full freight to haul mail and build roads out to lonely outposts like Goodland, Kansas, the price of living out there is going to skyrocket.”
Will rural farmland prices plummet as a result? Will more rural children abandon their hometowns for a better life in the city?
But that’s precisely the point. No business would charge a flat fee independent of where the destination is. The model is busted and has always been busted.
But that is what the post office is legally mandated to do. They have no say in the matter. Heck, they can’t even raise their flat rate without the gov’ts permission.
It’s amazing that they do what do given the restrictions placed on them. Unfortunately the death of junk mail has clobbered them.
“Ummm….FEDEX has flat rate fees.”
But they don’t congress’s permission to change their rates.
And they certainly won’t deliver a letter anywhere in the USA for 44 cents.
Don’t look at the Post Office as a business. Look at it as infrastructure.
That is having a “back-door” privatization being performed.
Don’t expect a first class letter to stay 44 cents when Fedex and UPS end op with the duopoly. Hell, we’ll be luck if it stays under two bucks, assuming they will even deliver it to BFE.
In 1882, Laura Ingalls (not-yet-Wilder) taught five students in a one-room schoolhouse twelve miles away from De Smet, South Dakota.* FIVE students! Yet, the state and the government felt that those five students, as American citizens, were entitled to a public education at least until eighth grade.
This is what our country has come to. We were able to send a schoolteacher to a tiny school 140 years ago in the middle nowhere, miles away from a barely-established town. These days, we’re barely able to send a Christmas card there.
———
* Population of De Smet, SD: 1089… in 2010. The town itself was established only in 1880, yet they still put a school 12 miles away.
In 1881, Laura Ingalls taught five students in a one-room schoolhouse 12 miles outside of DeSmet, South Dakota, in the middle of winter.
The state and the government paid Laura, and local citizens erected a schoolhouse, because they believed that even FIVE students deserved a free public education, even if there were only five of them, and even if they were 12 miles from what is still a very small town.
Just think: in 1880, we sent a schoolteacher to rural areas on the edge of a rural area. In 2011, we won’t even send a letter there.
The pension fund would be taken over by the US government and under standard rules for the Government Pension Oversight (forgot the name), benefits could be reduced to levels more in line with the typical pension fund based on years of service and industry standards.
HOwever, as usual, we can expect this government to protect Government employees at the expense of us, the taxpayer. Why not just at a few more hundred billion onto the deficits?
The USPS pension fund is OVERFUNDED by 5.7 Billion USD. When it is taken over by the PGF, that money will go to Congress to reapportion.
My SIL falls in this catagory. I’d like to ask her but don’t think it would be a good idea. Her retirement must be generous though. She keeps a house that is far bigger than she needs and includes and upstairs that she can use because of health issues, drives a large recent modle car, and drives her two grandchildren everywhere even though gas is much higher fthan she budgeted for. Oh, yes, she also shops all the time, almost everyday. I would go nuts if I had to do as uch needless shopping as she does.
‘
Easy fix: pay the pensions in stamps.
No mention of the added expenses to the USPS due to the anthrax scare. ISTR that congress gets ALL of their mail “micro-screened” prior to delivery.
From the CDC website:
After the anthrax attacks, the USPS began irradiating mail pieces to destroy pathogenic bacteria and viruses that could be present in the mail. Shortly thereafter, federal workers began reporting health symptoms they believed were related to handling irradiated mail. These reports came to RDRP attention by way of HHE requests from the USPS, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate, and the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. In response to these requests, RDRP conducted three HHEs on handling of irradiated mail by postal employees, federal workers, and Congressional employees. Teams of RDRP investigators, including industrial hygienists and occupational medical physicians surveyed employees about their symptoms and monitored the air for chemical by-products that could be released from the mail.
Those damn mail carriers. Now I’m not sure which one is responsible for the collapsing economy…. is it the $10/hr janitors? The $12/hr streetsweepers? Or is it really those evil mail carriers?
Please tell me which one.
Tuesday is going to be a down day for the US Markets…
————————–
Global Stocks Post Steep Declines
NY Times | DAVID JOLLY AND BETTINA WASSENER | 9/5/11
PARIS — Global stocks picked up Monday where they left off last week — posting steep declines amid worries about the health of the U.S. economy and Europe’s sovereign debt woes.
Investors continue to fret about the euro zone’s ability to respond to its debt crisis, after talks between Greece and its foreign creditors were put on hold last week and the head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, warned Italy to stick to its austerity program.
There is always a silver lining to every dark cloud that threatens global stocks.
Sept. 5, 2011, 7:10 a.m. EDT
Dollar gains as investors seek safer assets
By William L. Watts and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The dollar remained higher versus most major rivals Monday, extending gains as European equity markets tanked and investors continued to turn to the U.S. currency for its perceived safe-haven appeal.
…
Dollar = safer assets.
Cash rules.
Really? When the Euro started out it was about on par with the US dollar. A few years ago it was 1.30 dollars per Euro.
Today it is 1.41 dollars per Euro. The dollar is worth 40% less.
Yea, dollars have been a great store of wealth, thanks to Berstanke and Greenspasm.
I guess, since the dollar is so beat up, most folks figure it can’t get devalued that much more, relative to the EURO.
We’ll see. What happens if the CONgress gets bamboozled into more Obama spending fiascos? Will the dollar hold up against the Euro? Who can say?
“Yea, dollars have been a great store of wealth, thanks to Bernanke and Greenspan.”
I never said they were always a great store of wealth. What I said is during times of deflation they are a great store of wealth.
Now is a time of deflation, which means now is a time that dollars are a great store of wealth.
It won’t always be so. And when it stops being so then that is the time that one should move out of dollars and into assets.
Let’s see…
Our trade deficit dwarfs all others
Our budget deficit is staying stubbornly above 1 trillion
And we’re the safe haven?
Go figure.
“Go figure.”
I did:
1. The global economy is deflating. Prices of assets, as measured in dollars, are losing their value.
2. If assets are losing their value as measured in dollars then dollars must be gaining value as measured in assets.
During times of inflation assets is where one should store their wealth. During times of deflation cash is where one should store their wealth.
So the answer is: we suck less than they do.
Kind of hard to believe given our trade and budget deficits. We have ‘default’ wriiten all over us.
Why do these guys always warn on stuff after it already has happened? Kinda dumb, no?
Sept. 5, 2011, 11:19 a.m. EDT
UBS sees drop ahead for global equities
By Polya Lesova
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Analysts at UBS initiated a tactical underweight on global equities, writing in a research report Monday that assets perceived as risky have come under pressure from weak economic data and a re-escalation of the euro-zone sovereign-debt crisis. “Given the deterioration in economic and policy fundamentals, we find it difficult to see why equity markets should trade at more elevated levels than their summer lows,” UBS analysts, including Larry Hatheway, wrote in a note to clients.
They get to be right.
Betty White ROCKS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7-31Cxc2I - 98k -
I like Betty Page better, for some reason.
No link, since this is a family oriented blog.
Compare this to what $160K buys in the D.C. area, or your area for that matter. This one’s 11 to 20 years old, 1800-2000 SF, 3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2-car garage. No granite, but not a “fixer-upper” either. Satellite view shows it’s an interior lot, so no highway or commercial/industrial complex in its back yard.
http://www.eddykicker.com/idx/residential/1227972/details.html
This is what about $190K will get you in the DC area.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1502-Gleason-St-Silver-Spring-MD-20902/37298746_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
1949 rambler under 1000 sq ft. “Unfinished basement with possibilities” sounds ominous, but doable.
May 1977: Sold $49K
Sep 2005: Sold $369
Aug 2011: Listed $195K (2002 price)
I’ve found dozens of houses almost exactly like this on Zillow, of this size, age, and price point.
One of the better properties you’ve highlighted, oxide. Not far outside the Beltway. In MoCo. Been gone too long to know if that’s a Spanish-by-Immersion area. Are you considering making an offer?
No, at the moment I’m just persing Zillow. I don’t want to make an offer on anything for at least another 5 months or so (long story).
This house appears to be borderline Spanish-by-immersion. The slummier houses are on the main roadways. Better stuff is a couple blocks in.
Zillow appears to be dreadfully out of date and incomplete. Selection is dismal. And the “recently sold” gives me the impression that these are are wishing prices. If that’s the case, then $220K will buy something a little better than a half-trashed cottage from the Eisenhower era.
As much as Realtors are Liars, I will need one.
Contrary to popular belief, they’re _not_ all liars. And you’ll know when you’ve found the right house.
Correct. Only 95% of them are corrupt charlatans.
Village People
Y. M. C. A. lyrics
Deadbeat, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, Deadbeat, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, Deadbeat, there`s no need to leave town
There’s no need to be unhappy.
Deadbeat, there’s no reason to go.
I said, Deadbeat, when you’re short on your dough.
You can stay there, cause I’m sure they won`t find
A chain of title that`s been signed.
You`ve got a mortgage you DON`T HAVE TO PAY
Or you can live at the Y. M. C. A.
You have everything for deadbeats to enjoy,
You can hang out with all your toys…
You`ve got a mortgage you DON`T HAVE TO PAY
Or you move into the Y. M. C. A.
You can get yourself cleaned, you can have a good meal,
You can do whatever you feel…
Deadbeat, are you listening to me?
I said, Deadbeat, what do you want to be?
I said, Deadbeat, you can make real your dreams.
But you got to know this one thing!
No man does it all by himself.
I said, Deadbeat, put your pride on the shelf,
And just stay there, where you don`t have to pay
Your wife won`t love you an-y-way.
You`ve got a mortgage you DON`T HAVE TO PAY
Or you will live at the Y. M. C. A.
Deadbeat Deadbeat what do you want to be
You just live in that house for free
You`ve got a mortgage you DON`T HAVE TO PAY
Or you move into the Y. M. C. A.
You say you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I beg to differ. Your lyrics are priceless and thanks for the funnies.
Whenever I hear a Village People tune, I think of all the over the hill, over weight slobs dressed up in their village people costumes and riding their Hardly Ablesons.
“Whenever I hear a Village People tune, I think of all the over the hill, over weight slobs dressed up in their village people costumes and riding their Hardly Ablesons.”
Now you have a new visual. Those lyrics describe Eric down the street who is about 32, Izod shirts on weekends, big parties with BMW friends nice boat and about $300k in cash out refi money with no mortgage payment for over 3 years. Does that help?
PS
Eric and Ashley moved out about 2 months ago and Ashley filed for divorce.
Are you “comforting” her?
“Are you “comforting” her?”
No I am not :), but I am sure somebody is. Ashley possessed many of the qualities coveted by the superficial male.
You know now that I think about it, I am sure $20k worth of one of their early refis went to enhancing Ashley`s appearance. And I am sure that drives Eric batsh#t. He is probably saying….
“I borrowed the money to pay for those things and that guy is playing with them without the judgement that goes along with them!”
qualities coveted by the superficial male
Or most females. Let’s not forget most women do what they do to impress other women. The competition is within their own group first…..
OK the big OH jobs speech…..just another waste of time?
You know i want ALL jobs covered under EEOC even the intern no pay ones……I want stricter enforcement of wage and hour laws….. so companies cannot demand you buy your own equipment and expensive software just to work for free at a NYSE company….
Also hire triple the employees to make sure you get 90% of the complaints settled in 90 days….justice delayed is justice denied.
I would like to see the end of the corporate income tax…so companies cannot be used for thier tax losses…and to pay for this end the MID on homes above say $200K
Install strict standards in education……English, and basic math… its embarassing 1/2 the people cant pass a math test at Target….. manditory financial courses to graduate HS and college, so nobody can ever say again, we didnt know it was a scam.
But we know OH will wussie out on us….and we are doomed!
There are standards in education. Part of “No Child Left Behind” was that states had to impliment basic standards tests to get teh federal cheese.
The problem is, some people are just stupd. You can’t regulate intelligence. Then, there is the problem that people will just drop out of high school and become criminals.
People didn’t need to be able to read or do math to slaughter chickens, butcher cows, mow lawns, clean house, etc. etc. Too bad we imported illegal immigrants to do those jobs.
Now there are no jobs for stupid or illeterate Americans.
There are standards in education
Not that I can tell……or bare minimum…
drop out of high school and become criminals……then we nail them in prison….full max sentences untill you can read the NYT in front of the parole board…
“……no jobs for stupid or illiterate Americans.”
Or those with high school educations. Or Associates degrees. Or with degrees in anything other than a very-few in demand specialties. Or technical training. Or anyone with an IQ below 125.
With “NCLB”, schools were given an incentive to encourage under-achievers to drop out. If they aren’t in school, they can’t affect their “NCLB” testing scores.
Now there are no jobs for stupid or illeterate Americans.
Don’t you hate when this happens?
LOL
You are clearly a fascist.
The government has no business mandating all the things you think it should. You should move to Cuba.
They have all those government benefits down there.
Fascist??? What if it saves trillons in unecessary crime, housing bubbles and medical expenses?
Being stupid is expensive to this country, so maybe being smart is cheaper?
Just thinking outside the box.
Maybe if they can learn English, the gov will give them $3000-$4000 to pay off their credit cards.
How is speaking proper English going to help? There are millions of people who have jobs in this country who speak NO English at all!
Let’s say a criminal reads the New York Times to the parole board. They let him out of prison where he does… what, exactly? There are no jobs for him. And the only jobs he COULD be hired for are already taken… by people who speak NO English!
Stop beating the horse; it’s dead.
For someone who harps so much on the deficient educational level of “those” people, you’re remarkably glib about your own. I counted 25 spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in this post alone.
I just put up a bunch of family photos all over the house with drywall anchors. I’m over being a ultra low-impact renter.
Once you accept you aren’t getting your security deposit back anyway, renting can be very liberatiing.
When I was yong and dumb I cleaned the heck out of apartments before leaving, plugged every nail hole, shampooed carpets.. . hoping this would help me get my security depoist back. Nope. they always find something to nail you with.
Couple years back my daughet was renting a house with really ugly pain in the kitchen. She was concerned about painting and not getting her deposit back. So, I asked, how many places have given your secority deposit back anyway… Hmmmm you’re right.
Right. When you move it, just write off your security deposit, and then treat the place pretty much however you want.
Mueggy, drywall screws are the best. When you move, gust give em all another turn and they are gone.
As a tenant, I prefer to use 3/4″ galvanized lags. They offer much more shear than a screw.
For hanging a photo???
Absolutely. In the case a larger wall hanging, I prefer to retrofit the wall with a 4″ sq HSS column.
and I thought I was a redneck.
Cmon now. Out of the hundreds of eng’s I’ve worked with, I’ve only known one to be a true redneck. And he was the most resourceful eng ever.
And we think our government is disfunctional.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/09/05/international/i084739D40.DTL
”
Belgium hit a new milestone Monday — 450 days without a government — but still no one appears to be in any big hurry to resolve the situation.
Europe’s financial crisis and feeble economic growth may scare governments from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Sea, but in Belgium it is a sideshow. Talks on a new Belgian government, which have been going on since the June 13, 2010 election, were at a standstill Monday for a third day running.
Why? Because Green Party negotiator Jean-Michel Javaux — also the mayor of Amay, a small eastern town — had to attend a town meeting to vote on, among other things, a new police car and a computer.
Prime Minister Yves Leterme, meanwhile, was on a visit Sunday to Israel, assuring its leaders that all’s well in Belgium.
But that’s not really true — intractable divisions between Belgium’s Dutch and French-speaking camps are looming over the nation. And because anything can become a linguistic spat, Belgium has had 45 governments in 67 years.
Francophone Socialist Elio di Rupo is the latest politician trying to form a new government — and he has had 10 predecessors since the 2010 election.
After 15 months of impasse, most Belgians seem resigned to Leterme’s government of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists staying on as a “caretaker” cabinet handling routine business.
“
I have thought at times that the parliamentary system is better at giving voice to minority parties. Maybe that is not such a good thing?
Anybody else having problems with Firefox 6.0.1? What a joke.
Still using 3.6 here. Works fine for my needs.
Not here. Just got it a couple of days ago. No problems yet.
I am running a Mac though.
No problems here, other than the fact that I don’t like the layout at all.
I’ve had problems since 5.0 thought 6.0 solved them but got the 6.0.1 update a couple days later and they started again. Mostly trouble opening multiple windows/tabs at a time.
Back from the Vegas wedding.
All I can say is, if you want to see what life in a “User fee” world is like, visit Vegas for a few days. The have raised the “nickel and dime-ing” people to death to an art form.
Call me old fashioned…..but to me, if you are spending $400/night for a hotel room, the water/soda should be complimentary (not 5 freaking bucks/bottle).
$400/night?
I hope you slept with the lights on and the water running.
The plan was to stay in the hotel/casino closest to the places we needed/wanted to be, and forgo the ground transportation as much as possible. Especially the rental car; I’ve tried driving on the strip before. During the evening, walking is faster.
I like Vegas, because everything is just so “over the top” compared to boring, red state, Flyover BFE. My main problem is going/enjoying Las Vegas with a Red State budget.
If you stayed clear of the bridesmaids, you got off cheap.
It was a big disappointment, as far as that was concerned.
BTW, what’s the story with all the 16-24 year old women/wanna-be hookers/strippers that were all over the place? Outnumbered the 16-24 year old guys about 4 to 1 (of which, from my informal polling, were there mainly for bachelor parties).
My 18 year old was with me……says a bunch of guy came up and (genuinely) talked with/complimented her. Mainly because she was wearing jeans or shorts, with her “Nine-Inch-Nails” T-shirts. Told her I suspected that because she looked “normal”, guys considered her much more approachable.
“BTW, what’s the story with all the 16-24 year old women/wanna-be hookers/strippers ”
Only job they could get? I’m not joking.
“Only job they could get? I’m not joking.”
Uh, this is Vegas, right?
There is a selection process going on here. If it were Hollywood then the same selection process would be at work.
My daughter was embarrased by them. Was glad she wasn’t one of them.
Our old friend, the Baltic Dry Index, is in the news again.
HEARD ON THE STREET
SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
China’s Wave of Overcapacity
By TOM ORLIK
Is China’s titanic economy finally running into the iceberg of overcapacity?
Problems at China Cosco Holdings Co. Ltd. suggest trouble ahead. Cosco, a giant state-owned shipping company, is locked into long-term contracts for chartering vessels that haul iron ore, coal and grain around the world. Many of those contracts were signed in the commodities boom, when the price for chartering a giant Capesize vessel peaked at around $200,000 a day. The price now is $10,000 a day. The consequences of that collapse are showing up in Cosco’s bottom line; the firm posted a loss of $420 million in the first half of the year.
The irony is that the painful collapse in shipping rates is partly of China’s own making. From 2003 to 2008, growth in China’s import volumes for iron ore averaged 26% a year. Johnson Leung, an expert on shipping at Jefferies, says that a total of 550 Capesize ships, with around 50 added each year, was inadequate to cope with demand. As a result, charter rates rose sharply. The Baltic Dry Index, which tracks world-wide shipping costs, rose to a peak of 11,600 in June 2008.
Shipping companies, assuming the upward trend would remain unbroken, placed orders for new vessels or signed long-term contracts to charter ships at high prices. They were wrong. China’s iron-ore import volumes actually shrank in 2010, and in 2011, growth is languishing at 8% year-to-year. The number of Capesize vessels, meanwhile, had risen to 1,150 by the end of 2010, with 200 more coming on line each year, according to Mr. Leung. A huge increase in shipping capacity and a marked slowdown in demand growth have resulted in a collapse in prices.
The Baltic Dry Index is now around 1,500. Shipping companies that assumed an unbroken upward trajectory for demand have a taste of what excess capacity looks like.
…
…in shipping, aluminum and renewable energy, the iceberg of overcapacity is already breaching the hull. Investors should prepare to man the lifeboats.
For the arithmetically curious, the drop in the Baltic Dry Index from it’s peak was (1,500/11,600-1)*100 = -87% — a pretty good haircut (could even say “buzz cut”…).
“……assuming the upward trend would remain unbroken……”
Man…….where have I heard that before?
It’s the mantra of true believers in every bubble known to man.
How many bicycles can be made from a recycled cargo container?
One of the best investment I have made lately was when I bought a 40′ aluminum container(no rusting or repainting needed) 4 years ago about the time the freight index hit bottom. I Paid $1500 + $175 delivery. On today eBay the lowest price for a used 40′ steel box is now over 2,500 + delivery and they don’t even have used aluminum ones anymore.
Was $200K a day, not $10K a day.
Hmmm… Is that inflationary or deflationary?
World markets savaged by US recession fears
By CARLO PIOVANO -
AP Business Writer | AP – 1 hr 13 mins ago..
LONDON (AP) — Wall Street braced for losses on Tuesday after world stock markets took a beating over fears that the U.S. economy was heading back into recession.
Any troubles in the world’s largest economy cast a long shadow over the markets, and a report Friday that the U.S. economy failed to add any new jobs in August caused European and Asian stock markets to sink sharply Monday.
That jobs figure was far below economists’ already tepid expectations for 93,000 new U.S. jobs and renewed concerns that the U.S. recovery is not only slowing but actually unwinding. U.S. hiring figures for June and July were also revised lower, only adding to the gloom.
The full impact of the jobs report will hit U.S. markets on Tuesday, since trading there was closed Monday for the U.S. Labor Day holiday.
The jobs crisis has prompted President Barack Obama to schedule a major speech Thursday night to propose steps to stimulate hiring.
Until then, however, traders coming back from the U.S. holiday weekend will have little to hold onto. The uncertainty has already pushed many to pull out of any risky investments — such as stocks, particularly financial ones, the euro and emerging market currencies — and pile into safe havens: U.S. Treasuries, the dollar, the Japanese yen and gold.
With Wall Street closed, investors focused their selling drive in Asia and Europe, where the equity losses Monday were some of the heaviest this year.
http://news.yahoo.com/world-markets-savaged-us-recession-fears-164026156.html - -
I think I’ve noticed a pattern: When our markets are closed the world markets act the way I’d expect them to. When are markets are open suddenly everything magically calms down and gets much much better. Why is that?
You are may be on to something here.
I think it is so because the Fed also buys Europe
World markets savaged by US recession fears
That’s funny because last month or so all the talking heads in TV blamed Europe for the fall in US markets.
Y’all need to poor some Ry Cooder in yer’ ears. His new album : Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down” has 14 songs with titles like ‘No Banker Left Behind’, “John Lee Hooker For President” and ‘Lord Tell Me Why (”a white man ain’t worth nothing in this land no more”)’. It’s like the guy did a mind-meld with Jimmy Rodgers, Bob Dylan with a dash of Los Lobos & Hank Williams. This is really good stuff and perfect for the times we live in today.
Free listen here…
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/08/23/ry_cooder_s_pull_up_some_dust_and_sit_down_listen_to_an_exclusiv.html
And the race for the CA vote is on! May the best man, and the candidate most likely to put bankers who commited felonies in exchange for gargantuan profits behind bars, win.
At this point, I have next-to-zero interest in ever buying a home. I just want the satisfaction of seeing those who wrecked the U.S. mortgage banking system brought to justice.
Obama strongly leads GOP candidates in California poll
The president’s standing slips but is still high. Among Republicans, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney share a clear lead over other rivals for the nomination.
By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times
September 4, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
President Obama’s standing has slumped among California voters, but he holds an expansive lead over potential Republican opponents, including two who have leaped ahead of the GOP presidential pack in California, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were tied at 22% among Republican voters. Two others, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, were barely in double digits, and a parade of other candidates fell well behind.
The poll by The Times and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences underscored the abrupt alterations in the Republican contest. Romney has been campaigning for the presidency for years; Perry had been in the race for mere days before vaulting into the shared lead in California.
But the survey also showed that Obama’s strength in California has endured despite deep dissatisfaction among voters with the economy. In hypothetical matchups, Obama led Romney by 19 points, Perry by 24 points and Bachmann by 26 points.
By 50% to 43%, voters approved of Obama’s handling of the presidency, down from a high of 60% a year after his election. But the state’s three most potent voter groups — women, nonpartisan voters and Latinos — remained firmly in his corner. Fifty-five percent of women and nonpartisan voters were satisfied with the job the president is doing, a judgment shared by 59% of Latinos.
“Californians have growing concerns about the state of the economy and the president’s performance on economic matters, but they don’t see anyone on the Republican side who they are willing to support,” said poll director Dan Schnur, head of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.
Perry and Romney, whose new rivalry is expected to be a focus of Wednesday’s presidential debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, were splitting the GOP’s ideological wings. Among moderate Republican voters, Romney led Perry 26% to 13%. Among conservative Republicans, Perry led 28% to 22%.
…
Oh my word. check out http://www.sleazyrealtors.com
WTF?
http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/
Shipping container houses for all!