Bits Bucket for September 11, 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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Never Forget - Flying to NYC in a few hours.
Have a safe and comfortable trip! Hope the TSA doesn’t get too frisky.
yeah enjoy being treated like a terrorist If you dress like an American
maybe carry a koran with a towel on your head you would be treated nicer,
Maybe i’ll post my 9-11 pictures i took from my porch and the highway….we had a great view of the WTC from our 2nd story apt in queens everyday.
Took pictures of it falling….it was an incredibly clear day…. very few days like that since.
“it was an incredibly clear day”
Because planes weren’t flying, except for those chartered by the state defartment to fly out Arabs and relatives of Osama Bin Laden and assorted other turds.
“Because planes weren’t flying.”
Even my chartered bush plane in the Canadian sub-arctic was grounded.
“Because planes weren’t flying.”
(Exhale) One of the defining memories of that time. We lived on the Cape on the Centerville side of Hyannis. We were used to almost constant air noise going into the CC Airport combined w/the military sounds out of Otis AFB. I found the silence that we heard after 9/11 very unnerving. You’d only hear the boys from Otis leaving for their NYC patrol every night.
My boss was with one of the airplanes in Europe, due back on Friday, so the whole week was going to be “Casual Friday”
Has a TV in the office. Had just gotten to work when our scheduler called me up, saying an airplane had hit the WTC. Walked into the office, about the time plane #2 hit.
Main thing I remember is all the chaotic news reports/rumor control gone wild. Nobody had any idea WTF was going on. Were getting all kinds of directives to secure the airplanes. So I disabled the airplanes (by disabling the engine starter/generators), then disabled the hangar doors. Took about 5 minutes.
We were getting pretty good contrails from the aircraft at altitude that day, and a clear sky. About 9-10am stepped outside, and the sky was covered, horizon to horizon, with aircraft making 90-180-270 degree turns to divert to the nearest runway. Never seen that before, or since.
Heard a story about a Gulfstream/Falcon 900 that had to divert to an airport out in BFE/Western Kansas. Has a company VP of a Fortune 100 company onboard. It soon became apparant that they wouldn’t be flying anywhere anytime soon.
Story has it that they caught a ride down to the local BFE GM dealer, and the VP wrote a personal check for the two new big SUVs they had on the lot, a Tahoe and a Suburban (a low six-figure #). All the aircraft passengers got in the SUVs, and drove straight back to NYC.
So…..there is a Chevy dealer that has a fond memory of 9/11.
“….it was an incredibly clear day…”
I know what you meant, and yes, it was.
Ok now that the Big OH has thrown in the towel, and has no plans to revive the economy what are we supposed to do next?
$450 billyun thown down a rat hole with help only to those who are still classified as “unemployed and collecting benifits”. screw everyone else.
Nothing for short job training courses which here in NYC ran out of money back in Feb and may have some money Oct 1st.
The last stim-U-lousy bill gave NYC 2500 subsidied job training-OJT slots 90% went to the parks dept which is 86% minority….
This weeks Free stuff…i got over 250 lasersdiscs to sell…the movies are worth $1-2 but the music discs are worth some good $$$ the Dead springsteen etc they will go on ebay today…
Now what am i supposed to do with a big 4 foot 80 lb Tascam 24 channel mixing board….any ideas from the audio guys….not worth much except to some old school analoge freak.
Ok now that the Big OH has thrown in the towel, and has no plans to revive the economy what are we supposed to do next?
This country is broken beyond Big O’s capacity to fix it. For that, 320 million citizens share the lion’s share of the blame. The “I got mine,” win-at-any-cost, entitlement mentality entrenched from Wall Street to Main Street to “urban underclass” blight zones is a national sickness. What do we do next? Deal with the consequences of what we created or tolerated over the past several decades.
God himself couldn’t save our current system. Our present condition was foreseeable if you looked.
Look at O’s meteoric rise from obscurity to TOTUS. Then look at the trajectory of our country.
Connect the dots. One small step in the part of a larger plan, imo. That larger plan being loss of sovereignty and gaining control of infrastructures, land, housing, etc.
We will ultimately be faced with a collective decision as a country. Take the suckers bet, ala Greece, or make the correct Icelandic type choice and regain control of our destiny.
May sound like tin-foil hat speak to some. I believe its not.
2006’s “Tin foil Hat” analysis is 2011’s “Plenty of evidence to believe it is so ” analysis.
SV:
I stated many years ago the BIG war will be over taiwan…..and what will we do?
Let the chinese crash our markets and make it easier to take us over?
they produce 97% of the rare earth metals and the next biggest is the USA stimied by enviormentalists….followed closly by….
Afgahistan!
Take the suckers bet, ala Greece, or make the correct Icelandic type choice and regain control of our destiny.
The electorate that gave Bush a second term and sanctioned Wall Street transfering its gambling debts to the public account with their votes for Obama or McCain (some choice!) in 2008, is incapable, mentally and morally, of displaying the same fortitude and principled resistance displayed by Icelanders when their bankster-owned political class tried to do the same to them. This is the difference between citizens and sheep.
I hope your wrong Sammy but I think you’re right.
Sammy, I was one of the millions of dummies who voted for GWB in 2004. I atoned for my sins and wrote in Ron Paul for POTUS in 2008. In 2000 I voted Libertarian, just like every election up to 2004.
I have a black and blue mark on my posterior still from my a$$-kicking for my error in 2004. So maybe I did not atone enough for my sins.
Funny - how can atheist me call myself a sinner? I am not a sinner, from the religion standpoint. I refuse to sanction that.
This year I am a Republican up to the primary just so that I can vote for Ron Paul in the Arizona primary. Of course a Bible thumping slime mold interventionist Keynesian Republican will get the nomination. The day following the Arizona primary, I will re-register Libertarian.
It’s hard holding my nose every day by saying I’m a Republican. But I think of Ron Paul and I say it’s worth it only to cast my vote.
I have yet to see a real Keynesian.
Real Keynesians balance budgets and keep rainy day funds. And, they use the rainy day fund to pay debt back.
I have yet to see a Keynesian President or Congress. Gingrich helped Clinton balance the budget, but that was only part of the plan to cut taxes again. There was NONE ZIP ZERO intention of paying the debt back. Hence, NOT Keynesian.
R’s think they want to balance the budget, but they’re using it as an excuse rob the SS and Medicare and the poor to do so. (Remember, they talked about “carving out” pieces of SS to give to Wall Street. Then voted to turn Medicare into Vouchercare. They didn’t just talk about that, they voted for it.) If the only way to balance the budget was to get the money from the rich, they would bang the debt drum harder than Greece.
Yeah by your definition, there has not been a real Keynesian.
So maybe it is unrealistic to think Keynesianism is acceptable by the electorate at all. See, in the good times when we are prospering, few taxpayers would want their taxes to go up. To pay for what? By what constitutional reason should these massive funds be built up if the only valid spending is for defense (within the U.S. and its territory), a justice system, and the administrative costs of defense and justice. That would mean very low taxes.
No real need for Keynesianism in the first place if we had the small government we had post-Reconstruction and pre-WW 1.
Once again, the constitution comes up as a topic on this blog. Why is that, exactly?
Maybe if we (as a nation) keep ignoring it, it will just go away.
Good post, SV guy. Agree very much with what you’ve said.
Yes, it’s a small part of a larger plan to turn us all into slaves for our masters who will own/control everything we need to survive — clean water, healthy food, clean air, housing, roads, etc.
And nobody is making a peep about it.
The answer is pretty basic really.
Some clever idiot believed that since creation of currency was inflationary and creation of debt was supposedly not inflationary that inflation could be controlled by issuing no currency and creating ALL money using debt.
A good plan (for a while)
The missing component which some clever mathematical could probably demonstrate is that for each dollar in debt issued 110% in currency must be created in order to address that debt. In other words the system must balance.
Apart from pent up inflation and devaluation of the dollar which IMO would make us a lot more competitive on the world market, exactly what would the outcome of minting say 10 or 15 of those shiny $5 trillion dollar coins?
I am certain I know the outcome for ALL of us even (GASP) Social Security and pension recipients if sufficient currency is not injected into the system to balance the debt which has been created in the last 3 decades and it has me looking at southern New Zealand, Chile and even Tasmania where 100 mb internet is available unlike here!
Yeah im stuck with 3MB verizon because they dont have a clue when Fios will be available, and i live what 2 miles from manhattan. and cable wont hook me up without phone or tv. and means changing email addresses i’ve had for well over 12 years
And we almost never watch tv anyway…still get a lot of digital stations over the air channels ….nice old crt and a digital converter box…
Now what am i supposed to do with a big 4 foot 80 lb Tascam 24 channel mixing board….any ideas from the audio guys….not worth much except to some old school analoge freak.
Don’t know what to tell you. There’s still a few old guys using that stuff in their basements and never moving it, but I think they all have all they want. It’s weird to think back to how hard it was to buy all that stuff back in the day…
Many survive foreclosure in style
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:22 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011
Homeowners in foreclosure are increasingly plotting a graceful landing that leaves them not in dire straits following an eviction, but with the same or even better living standards than before they defaulted.
A study released this summer by a Federal Reserve Board discussion group found that homeowners post-foreclosure are bucking conventional wisdom that dictates they defray expenses by moving in with extended family members or into crowded apartments in poorer neighborhoods.
Instead, the report titled “The Post Foreclosure Experience of U.S. Households” found the majority of people following a foreclosure end up sharing a home with the same number of people in a similar, or the same, community.
About 60 percent live in a single-family home, albeit a rental, in a neighborhood where the education level of residents and median house values are comparable to what they experienced as homeowners. The study, which was based on consumer credit information, found another plus - work commutes decreased slightly after a foreclosure.
“In general, my clients are not left devastated by the foreclosure or short-sale process,” said Boca Raton foreclosure defense attorney Marlyn Wiener. “Once they deal emotionally with the loss of their home, they make plans for the future.”
Of course the warm and fuzzy post-foreclosure experience is not felt by everyone.
Former Loxahatchee resident Edward McManus was forced to move to Pennsylvania this year to live with his 37-year-old daughter, her husband and their two children following the loss of his 2,900-square-foot home to a final foreclosure judgment last year.
“It’s not been pretty,” the 62-year-old said.
But for others, such as Maria Streeter of Royal Palm Beach, post-foreclosure plans include staying in the same school attendance zone for her young daughter and experiencing only a small downsize. Instead of her mother-in-law living in the guest house on her acre of wooded property, she’ll move in with the family in what Streeter expects will be a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home.
“I know tons of people going through this, and they are making plans for when they get kicked out of their homes,” said Streeter, 46. “They are planning to rent, centering it around their kids’ schools. They are not moving into one-bedroom apartments.”
According to the study, the average household size increases insignificantly from 2.24 adults before a foreclosure to 2.27 adults after. Just 12 percent of people after a foreclosure move in with an adult 20 years their senior - likely a parent - compared to 5 percent in a control group of homeowners not in foreclosure.
Streeter and her husband bought their home in 2005 for $665,000. When he was laid off, their monthly income dropped from about $12,000 to $3,000. The home’s total market value also plummeted to an estimated $284,778, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser.
The bank filed for foreclosure in July 2009. The Streeters filed for bankruptcy to buy them some time. Maria Streeter expects they have at least until the beginning of next year before they’ll have to move.
She said she has no concerns about how it will affect a future home purchase, although she knows the family will be in a rental for a while.
“My credit is pretty OK right now, and there are places where you can get a mortgage with a substantial down payment,” she said. “We are definitely optimistic about the future.”
And Streeter’s experience reflects another aspect of the study, the length of time after a foreclosure that a person is forced to move.
Study authors Raven Molloy and Hui Shan said they were “fairly” surprised to find that only about half of borrowers whose mortgage enters foreclosure have moved two years later.
The report says the delay suggests many foreclosures are never completed because of loan workouts or the sale of the home. But it also notes the length of time it takes foreclosures to wend their way through the courts in states that require a judge to sign off on a home repossession.
The average Florida foreclosure spends 676 days - nearly two years - in the courts, according to a July report from the company RealtyTrac.
“There is a rationalization that if the home is upside down and you suspect you can delay the case for more than a year, people will use the time to save up some cash, pay off bills, and make a plan,” said Dennis Donet, a Miami-based foreclosure defense attorney. “It’s human nature that you can’t change your lifestyle that much.”
Wiener said she’s had clients who have rented larger homes than the ones they lost to foreclosure. Others have parents who use retirement savings to buy homes for them to take advantage of the market’s cheap pricing and low interest rates.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/many-survive-foreclosure-in-style-1838235.html - -
“Wiener said she’s had clients who have rented larger homes than the ones they lost to foreclosure. Others have parents who use retirement savings to buy homes for them to take advantage of the market’s cheap pricing and low interest rates.”
Lions will eat their young when the tough have to get going.
comments
November will mark the 3rd anniversary since we made a mortgage payment and we are still in our house. We are living free. No mortgage, no insurance payments, no property taxes. What would have been mortgage payments is tucked away safely for OUR use in the future. The bank has done little to make us move. Every day we stay is money in our pocket. We realize the day will come when we have to move, but until then we are enjoying life.
Cash on Hand
6:06 AM, 9/11/2011
The situation where millions of homeowners have stopped making payments AND are primary beneficiaries of “Save Our Homes” bailout programs crafted in DC, certainly must help the soon-to-be-foreclosed keep leading the life of Riley, while America’s Greater Fools keep making their overpriced rental and mortgage payments, month-in, month-out.
I keep wanting to believe that “Karma will be a bitch”; that at some point in time creditors will go after these “nest eggs”.
Truly screwed = Owing a Collection Agency $300K.
Government action so far has been to bale everyone out. Or, making a show of baling everyone out.
Wish I could make $12K month for a couple of years. I could afford to retire.
I want to believe that too, fixer. Anyone doing this in a recourse state is playing with fire, but in non-recourse states… I don’t know. I tried to look up what the recourse and non-recourse states were, but I still don’t get it. And there appears to be no provisions for cash-out refinances.
I keep wanting to believe that “Karma will be a bitch”
Most Robber Barons died peacefully in their sleep.
Someone is going to have to pay for it. Don’t you all agree?
My view is the politicos plan to stick it to the remaining few taxpayers. I can imagine those hot shots who are getting by without recourse to bail out of the tax rolls when the big hikes occur. They will of course have no money in 401ks or IRAs for government to confiscate.
The few honest productive people remaining in the USA are the sitting ducks.
“The few honest productive people remaining in the USA are the sitting ducks.”
Quack! Quack! Quack!
Wish I could make $12K month for a couple of years. I could afford to retire.
I earned this for years writing software and taxes eat me alive. No retirement here.
can you get renters insurance on your contents? Interesting question…
Here in NYC if a landlord doesnt take you to court the most back rent he can ask for is 3 months…..
I wonder is some lawyer would make the same argument for you?
ill pay 6 months and call it even,paid in full, no deficency judgments ever!
“Others have parents who use retirement savings to buy homes for them to take advantage of the market’s cheap pricing and low interest rates.”
Buy? To me buy means to pay cash. Here I think they mean take out a mortgage which if the property goes under mom and pop are stuck.
Parents are using their retirement savings!!!! to buy their kids houses.
See this has been my argument all along. People are still spending. They will spend theirselves into oblivion and then join the crowd storming the government when TSHTF. It is like a heroin addiction. It defines them and they don’t know who they are w/o their lifestyle.
When they talk of people cutting back, I just don’t believe it. I talk to my friend not eating as her husband has halfed the money he’s given her to take care of the kids and run the household. She’s not eating but she still has her horses, her dogs, her cats and absolutely refuses to give them up. She is going to move where old friends have been supportive. I keep thinking I’ll dig deep to make sure you eat when that money isn’t really going to your riding bills. People are just really clinging to their old life like the thought of going w/o will destroy them.
I spoke to another friend who talked about running up their cards $65k in the red but she was addicted to the twice daily Starbucks and filet mignon spending. She told me she kept doing it even as she knew they were in big trouble. I think they think I’ve made this much money (both stories are over 6 figure households) so why don’t I have more to show.
Yep. An acquaintence — call her E — is a big spendthrift. She is currently paying rent to live in her ex-husband’s house. It’s her dream house and she wants to buy it. E divorced her current lapdog husband to do it. (very long story)
The first appraiser valued the house too low, therefore the bank approved a loan for too little, therefore E would have had to put down more cash than she has. So she hired a different appraiser who dutifully “hit the number” for her.
E is in her early 50’s and makes a very nice salary as an independent consultant, but she can’t rub two dimes together. She has horses, dogs, cats, ride-on mower, and now wants a Ford F-250 because it’s one of the few trucks that can carry a 4×6 plywood flat between the wheelwells.
Whatever, honey. You’re digging your own hole.
E sounds like a real beaut. Right out of 2005.
I wouldn’t give a whit about the situation, if it were fully contained between E and the clowns who wish to lend her money.
However, I get put on the hook for the bill when she defaults. That’s what frosts my cookies.
And her profligacy drives up the prices of goods I want to buy, preventing me from buying them. That’s the second thing that frosts my cookies.
Finally, it’s the government that insists that bailing out E’s lenders is essential to prevent economic collapse. That’s the third thing that frosts my cookies.
So as you can see, my cookies have entirely too much frosting.
Notice the parents aren’t helping out with the current mortgage — they are saving up for a new mortgage.
Looks like the FB families are doing exactly what Goldman Sachs is doing: stashing away money instead of paying bills, waiting for the crash, and buying up assets for 50 cents on the dollar or so.
I am puzzled by the “austerity measures” approach to reducing the risk of a sovereign debt default. Doesn’t their tendency to stifle economic activity also reduce a nation’s ability to generate the income needed to make good on a debt? In case the real purpose is to punish debtor nations, in a manner akin to throwing a bankrupt individual into debtor’s prison, then I guess it makes perfect sense.
Greek Economy Will Shrink More Than Expected, Finance Minister Said
By REUTERS
Published: September 10, 2011
THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) — Greece’s economy will shrink by more than 5 percent this year, topping earlier projections, the country’s finance minister told business people in this northern Greek city where the prime minister will speak about the economy later on Saturday.
A deep recession is making it harder for Athens to increase tax revenue and meet deficit-reduction goals under a bailout plan agreed to with its euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund. Without corrective action the continued flow of aid may be at risk.
“The recession is exceeding all projections, even the troika’s forecast,” the finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said, referring to the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. “The projection in May was that recession would be at 3.8 percent, now we are exceeding 5 percent.”
The Greek economy shrank at an annual 7.3 percent clip in the second quarter, after an 8.1 percent contraction in the first three months of 2011.
Austerity measures, including higher indirect taxes and cuts in public sector pay and pensions, have hurt economic activity.
Mr. Venizelos was keen to send a message to Greece’s euro zone partners, who are growing frustrated with its backsliding, that Athens is fully committed to carrying out agreed economic reforms.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany reiterated on Saturday that Greece had to meet conditions laid out by the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund to receive the aid it is seeking.
Athens is expecting to get 8 billion euros, or $11 billion, in its next installment of emergency financing under the bailout plan, without which it would default down the line.
…
Detox does slow down the addict. He’d rather juice it up. Stopping seems like the problem to him, when starting carried a sure sentence.
Perhaps the real intention is to seize/acquire assets on the cheap?
That explanation fits the situation at hand, both in Greece and the U.S.
I agree Colorado. I posted a response to an earlier thread before I saw this one.
Their (International banking elite) strategy to me is obvious.
I’ve been considering that possibility for a while now.
Is profligate spending never to be cut?
Not as long as mindless idiots continue to vote for Establishment Republicrats.
Im all for voting for whoever will do it, but the above was about not implementing austerity at all.
There’s lots of other problems a la MID for richies, but I want the spending cut too. Seems like some here dont cause their oxes get gored?
Greek default fears return
By Ben Rooney @CNNMoney
September 9, 2011: 3:39 PM ET
Dax, world markets
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Investors were rattled Friday as worries the Greek government may default on its debts resurfaced.
Stocks markets in Europe and the United States plunged. The euro sank 1.6% versus the dollar. Yields on U.S. Treasuries and German bonds fell to record-lows as investors took shelter in safe-haven assets.
The market turmoil was driven by fears that Athens may not get its next installment of bailout money from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.
Concerns about Greece had eased somewhat after the EU agreed in July to provide a second bailout for the debt-stricken nation. But the 109 billion euro package, which must be approved by the individual governments of all 17 nations that use the euro, has been called into question over the last few weeks.
The sell-off on Friday “is a continuation of an ongoing process of decay,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
…
A Greek default is already priced in. And while the MSM tries to pretend this is a Greek issue, the ominous signs that contagion has already spread well beyond the PIIGS to the Eurozone core are becoming more evident every day.
Ask yourselves, just how long has this “…will default any day!” been going on?
Ye…ah.
September 8, 2011, 2:25 PM ET
Bernanke Did Not See ‘Too Big to Fail,’ He Lived It. He’s Also a Big Paul Giamatti Fan.
By Mark Gongloff
As always with these things, the Q&A portion of Ben Bernanke’s speech is turning out to be more interesting than the prepared remarks. Not because of any useful policy thoughts, but because of comedy!
Mr. Bernanke was asked if he had seen HBO’s festival of embarrassment known as “Too Big to Fail.”
No, the Fed chairman replied, he hadn’t seen that ridiculous movie, in which he was played by the excellent Paul Giamatti.
“I saw the original,” the real-world Mr. Bernanke added. Well played. It’s good to see he hasn’t lost his sense of humor, despite being called a traitor and all.
…
Three years after the meltdown: holding the banks accountable
By PHIL ANGELIDES
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Sunday, Sep. 11, 2011 - 1:00 am
Three years ago this week, the financial system came unhinged. In rapid-fire succession, one major financial institution after another crumpled as years of recklessness on Wall Street and regulatory neglect in Washington took their toll. Before it was over, the federal government had committed trillions of dollars to bail out the nation’s largest banks and the economy was in tatters, with gnawing questions remaining about what went wrong and who was responsible.
The unraveling had dire consequences. Twenty-four million Americans are unemployed or unable to find full-time work, with wages as a share of Gross Domestic Product at the lowest level since the 1930s. Meanwhile, the banks barely skipped a beat, with compensation at publicly traded Wall Street firms reaching a record $135 billion in 2010.
Sadly, there has been too little progress made so far in fixing our financial system so that it works for all Americans, not just the titans of finance, and there have been few consequences for those who drove our economy over the cliff. To turn the page, we must vigorously pursue financial wrongdoing to deter future malfeasance and seek just compensation for those who were harmed by violations of law. This isn’t about settling scores; it’s about righting wrongs and learning the lessons of history.
To date, we have seen few criminal prosecutions and too many civil enforcement cases settled for pennies on the dollar with no admission of wrongdoing. Yet, buttressed by the investigations of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and various enforcement agencies, there is now a rising tide of legal actions seeking redress from banks that acted improperly. Some of the cases are beginning to lap up onto Wall Street’s doorstep.
The states’ attorneys general are pursuing claims against banks for their “robo-signing” of court affidavits in foreclosures and for servicing abuses against homeowners seeking to modify their loans. That effort could bring a settlement of $20 billion and reforms of bank practices.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sued 18 banks for misleading Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about risky loans in mortgage securities that the banks sold to those entities, resulting in more than $30 billion in losses. Evidence uncovered by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission indicates that the banks knew but failed to disclose the fact that many of those loans did not even meet the stated standards of the lenders that originated or securitized them.
The Federal Housing Administration is suing Deutsche Bank for recklessly approving 39,000 mortgages for government insurance, in blatant disregard of whether borrowers could pay back the loans. Prosecutors have acknowledged that more banks may be under scrutiny.
And, investors have launched a barrage of litigation against banks for their actions in selling them risky mortgage securities that quickly soured. By one count, there are at least 90 such suits seeking nearly $200 billion. Among the plaintiffs: insurance giant AIG, still largely taxpayer owned, is suing Bank of America and is reportedly readying cases against Goldman Sachs and others.
These actions hold out the possibility of recompense and reform in the wake of disturbing breaches of ethics. Yet, the path to successful conclusion is by no means certain.
…
When the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued its final report in January, the commission made it clear that its report should not be the end of the examination of the financial crisis, given there was still much to investigate and fix. Let’s allow our system of justice to work. After all, while the nation’s megabanks may be too big to fail, they aren’t too big to be held accountable.
—
ABOUT THE WRITER
Phil Angelides served as chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which conducted the nation’s official inquiry to the financial and economic crisis. He previously was California’s state Treasurer. He wrote this for the Sacramento Bee.
“……compensation…..reaching a record $135 billion in 2010.”
Not hard to figure out. By last year, anyone who could do eighth grade math, and could make a few reasonable assumptions, could figure out that the banks were insolvent. So, if you are a bankster, you “get while the getting’s good”, as they say……
Thanks to leverage, the banksters have created a problem too big for even Washington to fix. The financial system will go poof, just like it would have in 2008 if the government hadn’t stepped in to “save” it. The government had no choice; Congress is owned by the FIRE economy, and had gone “all in” with supporting/subsidizing the FIRE economy, at the expense of everybody else.
And as for those 24 million unemployed, nobody really gives a crap about them. If it wasn’t for the bubble, they’d all still be unemployed from layoffs after the 2001 recession.
And thanks to the “student loan bubble”, they are spending billions “retraining” for non-existant jobs. And just like housing, people who got their cash “up front” will make out like bandits when things blow up.
As long as we can keep the serfs from rioting, as we cull their numbers thru accelerated attrition, and hand them the bill for fixing all of this, things will straighten themselves out in 10-20 years. 20 years isn’t that long, in the bigger scheme of things.
Don’t pay any attention to what people say. Watch what they actually do.
All this is JMO.
Yeah, but who’s bigger scheme?
For millions, 20 years from now is the old age home. For Gen X, it’s the first wave of retirement. For Gen Y, it’s just settling into their (HA) *careers* and getting that last great promotion into the Gen X jobs.
“Whose bigger scheme?”
Who has all the money?
The top 5%er, and all of their support staff (hedge funds, tax attorneys, politicians, propagandists/MSM shills)
While my crystal ball is cloudy on how these too-big-to-fail bailout situations will turn out, one thing is crystal clear: The debate over how to fix the too-big-to-fail problem in the international financial system is still raging, and remains unresolved.
Sept. 7, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Here comes Lehman 2.0
Commentary: Two ‘Lehman events’ cloud the investment horizon
By John Nyaradi
BEND, Ore. (MarketWatch) — With Friday’s Federal government lawsuit against seventeen major banks and renewed dangers in Europe, global investors now face the potential peril of two “Lehman Events” as we say goodbye to summer and slip into September.
Who can forget the shocking bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history?
Now, as we approach the third anniversary of that shock, we were hit again with yet another big shocker as the Federal Housing Agency filed a $196 billion lawsuit against 17 banks for allegedly misleading Fannie Mae (FNMA -3.32%) and Freddie Mac (FMCC -3.69%) regarding mortgage backed securities.
The companies in the lawsuit are a stunning marquee of the biggest names in banking including Bank of America (BAC -3.06%), JP Morgan Chase (JPM -4.27%), Barclays (BCS -8.90%), Citigroup (C -4.43%), Deutsche Bank (DB -8.71%), Goldman Sachs (GS -2.42%), and Morgan Stanley (MS -3.54%).
Of course, many of these illustrious names were deemed “too big to fail” at the outset of the financial crisis and so were bailed out by the American taxpayer, including Fannie and Freddie which received $140 Billion to keep them from imploding.
So after rescuing the “too big to fails,” will the government now trigger the failure of one or more of these mega banks as a result of this recent action? Beyond that, isn’t the irony almost palpable as the Federal government bailed out the “too big to fail” group and now may be putting them closer to the edge yet again? Or will the Fed, Congress or U.S. Treasury have to ride to the rescue of the “too big to fails” one more time?
Would either of these scenarios prove to be another Lehman event? Quite possibly.
On the international front, the Greek bailout is the chronic problem that just won’t seem to go away. The deal to bailout Greece seems increasingly tenuous as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost an election in her home state over the weekend. The defeat sent the euro straight south and highlights the growing divisions in Germany over the Greek bailout and its costs. This is the Merkel coalition’s sixth straight loss in German state elections as German voters go to the poll and say “halt” to taxpayer money going for bailouts. But this one, coming from her home state, was particularly bitter and likely weakens her push to save Greece and the European Union.
All of the drama in Europe could come to a head later this month when the German Parliament votes on the bailout on Sept. 23. The bailout heads for a vote in late September to sixteen other Euro Zone countries, as well.
If Greece defaults, could that be a Lehman event? Most likely.
…
“Greek Bail outs”
Ask the Germans about how things turned out the last time the Fallschirmjagers jumped over Greece…….
Commentary: Suing banks is next best to letting them fail
Published: September 9, 2011
By Jonathan Weil
Bloomberg View
The Vietnam War gave us the expression, “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” The same kind of thinking might help explain the U.S. bank rescues of 2008: We had to save the banks in order to sue them.
Last week, the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions to recover losses on faulty mortgage bonds sold to the two government-backed housing financiers. One of the defendants was Ally Financial Inc., the lender formerly known as GMAC that once was the finance arm of General Motors Co.
If the Federal Housing Finance Agency recovers damages from Ally for Freddie Mac, it will be a win for taxpayers. Yet it also will be a loss. That’s because Ally is still majority-owned by the U.S. Treasury.
It’s a ridiculous situation, for sure. Then again the FHFA is doing what it’s supposed to do: preserve and conserve the assets of Fannie and Freddie. It’s not the agency’s fault that Congress passed the Troubled Asset Relief Program and gave the Treasury Department new powers to keep Ally and its ilk alive.
Congress could have let those companies die, as they deserved to. It didn’t, though. So now the inevitable claims are working their way through the courts. The government’s roles as both a referee and a player in the financial markets remain as conflated as ever.
…
Op-Ed Contributor
A Capitalist Idea
By WILLIAM M. WALKER
Published: September 6, 2011
PRESIDENT OBAMA needs to go big. Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, may have suggestions, but considering that Fortune 100 companies have killed 2.9 million jobs in America over the past decade while adding 2.4 million abroad, that may not be the best input. I’m an entrepreneur and I’m creating jobs. Here are eight suggestions:
Significantly reduce Sarbanes-Oxley regulations for public companies with revenues under $500 million. My company went public last year and spends $3 million to $4 million a year in additional insurance, accounting and legal costs stemming from compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting.
Reinstate Glass-Steagall and eliminate Dodd-Frank. Get commercial banks back to being banks, and get investment banks back to raising capital and trading. Reinstating Glass-Steagall would force the “too big to fail” banks to divest assets, something Dodd-Frank does not address.
…
Why not keep both Dodd-Frank AND Glass-Steagall?
And from what I can tell, Sarbanes-Oxley does nees a revamping, but I can’t claim any sort of expertise.
Sarbanes Oxley needs to be repealed…it is a complete failure and a joke.
Just look at it as a jobs program…….keeping a lot of lawyers and accountants employed.
There is ZERO EVIDENCE that putting more money in businesses pocket leads to more employment anywhere but China or Mexico.
In fact, plenty of evidence that’s all it does…. create jobs in other countries.
S.O. was created because of the same “dirty accounting” mindset that created our current mess.
“Reinstating Glass-Steagall would force the “too big to fail” banks to divest assets, something Dodd-Frank does not address.”
…because they couldn’t. It was killed by the Repubs.
Even back when the Ds controlled everything? Cmon theyre all bought ans paid for both sides, especially on this issue?
The D’s “owned” everything for a grand total of 180 days, from the end of the Al Franken (D-MN) recount until the swearing in of Scott Brown (R-MA). That was just long enough to get some semblence of Obamacare passed.
By the time of Dodd-Frank, the Dems were back down to 59, with SOME bought off Dmes. The rest of the Dems had to water down Dodd-Frank until sensible George Voinovich (R-OH) voted cloture. And that was only because he was retiring.
Please stop the “Dems owned everything” talking point. It’s way past its shelf life.
Everyone knew reinstating was needed as far back as Tarp I. Just cause they chose to focus on a stupid giveaway to insurance companies and not financial reform is no reason to carry water for them. Both sides stink ank both sides should be tossed out. Pretending one set of masters is on your side is more wishful thinking.
6 months was plenty. When this blog devolves into partisanship its at its worst.
With all due respect, big, you were the one to bring partisanship into this convo…..
Goldbugs who think buying gold is safer than stuffing greenbacks under the mattress, take heed:
Gold no safer than stocks?
September 9, 2011, 1:44 PM
In a sign of just how unpredictable the markets have become, a gold volatility index is now showing the precious metal carrying risks comparable with the S&P 500, according to a Dow Jones report.
The Gold Volatility Index (XX:GVZ) rose 3.8% to 35.75 in late-morning trade, while the VIX (VIX) rose 17% to 40.02.
-Tom Bemis
The Boyz will do everything in their power to keep the game they control in motion. They have convinced people over the years that gold isn’t money. Pictures of dead presidents are. They have actively conspired to manipulate PM prices.
Gold doesn’t need a management fee. The Boyz don’t like that.
Can there be a bubble in PM’s? Sure, there can be a bubble in anything.
Given the choice between a ‘promise’ and true ownership I will choose the latter every time. And I say that having been in the market for a long time (private client asset management, blah, blah, blah, etc).
Clarification to the post above.
I was not an asset manager, I used one for many yeas.
There was an artcle the other day in the local paper that chronicled how “investment advisors” are now beginning to recommend buying gold. While not a “shoeshine” boy moment, its getting close.
Seems everyone who can is buying now, especially central banks with printing press technologies at their disposal. Of course, I’m not trying to suggest that central bank purchases might have had anything to do with the recent unprecedented parabolic runup in gold prices.
AUGUST 18, 2011, 1:07 P.M. ET
UPDATE: Central Banks’ Demand For Gold Quadrupled In 2nd Quarter
By Rhiannon Hoyle
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)–Central banks are topping up their gold reserves, quadrupling their total purchases from the market in the last quarter as they seek to reduce their dependence on traditional reserve currencies such as the U.S. dollar.
Even with gold prices at record highs, emerging markets’ central banks have revived the official sector’s gold-buying interest. They are diversifying their foreign exchange reserves, which have grown along with their export industries. More recently, they’ve also bought gold in reaction to the persistent sovereign-debt crises affecting traditional reserve currencies, like the dollar and the euro. Analysts say this trend is likely to continue.
“We expect to see additional demand support from official-sector purchases as numerous influential countries are becoming bearish on the status of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency,” said analysts at Swiss bank Credit Suisse.
Central banks bought 69.4 metric tons of gold in the second quarter, more than four times the 14.1 tons reported a year earlier, the World Gold Council said Thursday.
During the first half of the year, central bank gold purchases totaled 192.3 tons, more than 2 1/2 times the 72.9 tons bought in the first six months of 2010, the council said.
Prior to 2009, however, central banks had been net sellers of gold bullion for around two decades. Analysts say the metal was viewed as an antiquated investment and, given the metal’s low value during the 1990s to early 2000s, officials opted to lighten their holdings, largely in favor of fiat currency.
The demand growth from the official sector–which includes central banks and other institutions like the Bank for International Settlements–is luring other investors back into gold. Buying by official institutions makes it a more attractive asset, as it’s seen as a sound alternative store of value.
Gold prices rallied to a fresh record high of $1,826.61 an ounce in the spot market Thursday, as equity markets and other risk assets continued to tumble on deepening concerns over the health of the U.S. and euro-zone economies.
Gold is widely viewed as a safe-haven asset in times of economic uncertainty.
“We have seen central banks move firmly onto the demand side of the market, particularly as [trade-]surplus countries in Asia and Latin America have had to rebalance holdings in their portfolio,” said Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment at the World Gold Council, in an interview.
This shift is likely to help instill confidence in gold among private investors, as they seek “a stamp of approval” for alternative financial assets at a time when world markets are in turmoil, Mr. Grubb said.
…
The S&P valuation should be looking more attractive these days. Yields are still low, but they moved up from 1.7% to around 2.15% recently. That’s a 25% increase in yield.
For the last ten years up to August 31 the S&P 500 had an annual gain of 2.6%.
I don’t call that over valued, especially compared to gold.
The thing is, stocks are severely out of favor; gold is in favor. It should be a no-brainer that now is the time to reallocate into stocks, and away from gold. Their has never been a better time to arbitrage irrational exuberance for bubble asset classes.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011, 4:47 P.M. ET
US Stocks End Sharply Lower As Greek Fears Weigh On Sentiment
–Stocks close sharply lower, finish down for fifth time in last six sessions
–Fears over Greek default, spreading debt crisis and Obama’s jobs plan drove stocks lower
–DJIA registers sixth weekly decline out of the last seven
–Euro tumbles to seven-month low
(Adds throughout with additional details, closing prices and market movers.)
By Steven Russolillo
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–U.S. stocks closed sharply lower due to fresh worries of a Greek default, the surprise resignation of a European Central Bank executive-board member and concerns about President Barack Obama’s jobs plan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 303.68 points, or 2.69%, to 10992.13, its fifth drop out of the last six sessions. All 30 Dow components closed in the red. The blue-chip Dow finished the holiday-shortened week down 2.2%, its sixth weekly decline out of the last seven. Markets were closed Monday in observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index shed 31.67 points, or 2.67%, to 1154.23, led lower by energy, material and financial stocks. All 10 of the S&P 500’s sectors fell.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 61.15, or 2.42%, to 2467.99.
…
The case for gold and silver investment gets stronger and stronger
Day by day, the case for holding gold and silver seems to get stronger as global economies remain mired in recession and the centre of precious metals demand moves ever eastwards.
Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Friday , 09 Sep 2011
LONDON -
Every day the case for investing in gold and silver would appear to get stronger and stronger as worse economic news follows bad. Gold and silver prices may get hit by stringent margin increases on some exchanges, yet still they bounce back. It seems that whatever ammunition the gold bears (whoever they may be - and suspicion falls on ‘official’ channels and major banks holding short positions here among others) throw at it the ‘monetary’ precious metals regroup and bounce back after a perhaps initial sharp retreat. It may well be that the bears are running out of ammunition! Gold and silver may lose the odd battle but they are certainly winning the war.
…
Also international stocks have taken a greater hit in the last year than the U.S. indices. I have Vanguard’s emerging markets admiral fund and am debating pulling out of my High Yield corporate Bond fund and in place of it going into VDMIX, the Developmed markets index fund. My VWESX has done well since I started buying into it.
a gold volatility index is now showing the precious metal carrying risks comparable with the S&P 500, according to a Dow Jones report.
volatility is different from downside risk.
not to say there’s no risk, but a fail to see how a volatility index implies that gold will fall.
I hope Palmetto’s first name isn’t Trayon..
Nikita Goff, Trayon Goff’s younger sister, said she got a call in the middle of the night that her brother had been shot at Club Elite.
Witnesses said Goff appeared to be the target of the shooting, which also killed a Bradenton woman and injured 22 others
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110911/ARTICLE/110919956/-1/sports?Title=Palmetto-shooting-victims-One-a-father-of-three-one-a-nurse
“I hope Palmetto’s first name isn’t Trayon..”
Nope. I don’t live in Palmetto, but I do live about 20 minutes north of it. I chose the name for my HBB moniker after the variety of scrub palm that carpets many of the wilder areas of the norther half of Florida.
The town of Palmetto is basically a suburb of Bradenton on the Manatee River. The incident at Club Elite was a tragedy, because so far it looks like gang members of the African American community targeting their own. A similar incident happened just a few weeks ago at a party in a rented hall in Riverview/Gibsonton, which is also not far from me. This crap just has to stop.
This crap just has to stop.
No, this crap is the new normal. Thug culture is a direct outgrowth of Republicrat policies that reward and promote parasitism and irresponsibility, trade votes for entitlements, and stifle productive enterprise and investment. Today’s young thugs are more nihilistic and violent than ever before, and our for-profit justice system is no deterrent whatsoever.
“Thug culture is a direct outgrowth of Republicrat policies that reward and promote parasitism and irresponsibility, trade votes for entitlements, and stifle productive enterprise and investment.”
Contrast this with the Lionel Richie story on “Who Do You Think You Are?” I happened to catch the re-run last night. He had some pretty powerful ancestors, one of which might be remembered today if he hadn’t been betrayed by his treasurer. (always watch the ones who watch the money) Might sound crazy, but I felt a certain sense of pride in that ancestry myself.
History shows that young people without jobs is a sure fire recipe for revolution.
Just what the hell are they teaching in the Ivy League schools these days? Inbreeding 101?
Every successful revolution or extremist movement in modern history has been led by sons and daughters of the middle class who graduated from universities to discover they had no hope of finding meaningful prospects that corresponded to their abilities or expectations.
Great observation, Sammy. Knowledge is power; education rules!!!!
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=193918
Rethinking 9/11 ten years on.
Excellent post, Sammy. Goes right along with my post below. 9/11 was followed by ten years of the most tawdry crap EVER imposed and encouraged by the US govmint. Housing bubble, anyone? Not to mention its tawdry aftermath.
Nothing to commemorate.
Thanks, Palmy, and my sentiments exactly. The willingness - no, eagerness - of the sheeple to trade basic freedoms and liberty for “security” and remain dumb and docile at massive government overreach and neo-con adventurism this past decade has made a mockery of the notion that “the terrorists hate us for our freedom.”
‘massive government overreach and neo-con adventurism this past decade has made a mockery of the notion that “the terrorists hate us for our freedom.”’
Indeed it has.
You also left out the reduction of our “freedoms” as well.
Great point.
I did not see this until Ron Paul’s web site brought it up. But Michael Scheuer, former CIA chief of the Bin Laden unit, now runs a web site for non-interventionism. He is a very humble man, too humble I think, and his view is that the Muslim world hates U.S. policies that intervene, they do not hate America for the freedoms. Here’s the quote: “Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home. ”
Mr. Scheuer’s credentials are very impressive. He was in the den of interventionism and saw what the policies do. That is not surprising. A lot of colleagues in the DOD world (braves, but not chiefs) are libertarian-minded. Most of Ron Paul’s contributions come from active military.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMOtC9zGQHI
Mr. Scheuer’s truth-telling has not endeared him to the Powers that Be, especially in the corporate media. Here, in an interview with CNN eye candy masquerading as news anchors, Scheuer blasts the Republicrat enthusiasm for military intervention and accuses his bimbo MSM shills of “carrying Mr. Obama’s water” on the military campaign in Libya. Of course he’s promptly banished and will never darken CNN’s doors again. The whole clip is worth watching, but the best part is from about 4:30 on.
“The hijackers just managed to kill about one half of the nation’s daily “quota” of deaths through their heinous violence. We should never forget what they did, why they did it, or who they were.”
Unfortunately why wasn’t open for public discourse.
Ten years on, the whole thing stinks like two week old fish.
A real thumb in the eye of the govmint would be if people refused to “commemorate” 9/11 and gave a collective sneer or raspberry to the media coverage.
I am sympathetic toward those who have suffered as a result, the Ground Zero workers, their families, etc. That’s about where it ends for me.
Exactly. It’s way past time to be over this.
Not sure if it would be a thumb in the eye ot the government, but it would be a thumb in the eye to the media. I haven’t turned on my TV yet, and may not. Besides, I only generally watch only PBS and PBS create anyway.
A real thumb in the eye of the govmint would be if people refused to “commemorate” 9/11 and gave a collective sneer or raspberry to the media coverage.
People should commemorate 9/11 for the sake of all that was lost that day, not least of all the lives of so many fellow citizens. I watched the memorial ceremony and still feel sorrow for all those whose loved ones were so suddenly taken from them. That doesn’t mean I want any less to see accountability for those who screwed up and allowed this attack to happen in the first place, or that I’m OK with trading my God-given (NOT gov’t-granted) freedoms for an illusury “security.”
“People should commemorate 9/11 for the sake of all that was lost that day, not least of all the lives of so many fellow citizens.”
Then it should be a national day of COMMISERATION, not commemoration. Perfect. Each year, we can commiserate about how much more has been lost, messed up, etc.
On top of the daily rhythms of life and death, this monstrosity occurred.
On top of it all.
9/11 is nothing to celebrate. In fact I don’t trust the ‘official’ story.
Tower 7 anyone? Rumsfield having a news conference the day before (9/10) telling us there are hundreds of billions of $$ unaccountable in the DOD budget. And the records were conveniently stored in tower 7.
How f-ing convenient.
Yours truly,
Jaded SV
I’m tellin’ ya. I don’t trust the “offishul” story either. In fact, it makes me laugh ’til I puke.
Palmy is a tad jaded, too.
Palmy–
You and I are on the same page on this one. If that doesn’t give this board pause, I don’t know what might….
For those who wish an unhysterical discussion of the events leading up to 9/11 and the immediate aftermath, this excellent work is extremely well-researched and cited (94 pages of end notes, alone,) and stated with a restraint that makes the inevitable conclusions (left mostly to the reader,) all the more chilling.
“The War On Truth” “9/11 Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism.”
- From the Institute For Policy Research in Brighton. Published 2005.
Of particular interest to HBB readers are the extensive sections tracking who profited from the market fluctuations on the day of the attacks, and the FBI dossiers on several of the hijackers’ long histories as paid US State Department assets.
The problem is that pulling off a conspiracy of this magnitude simply requires too much competence.
Clinton couldn’t get rid of the blue dress, Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, but the government could get itself together and pull off 9/11?
It assumes way too much competency from the government.
+1. A government comprised mainly of clock-watchers marking time till retirement while demonstrating a pathological aversion to rocking the boat isn’t remotely capable of orchestrating a conspiracy on the scale of 9/11.
Navy SEALS seem pretty discrete and competent. So do high-level security operatives from any number of three-lettered international agencies.
Keep in mind also that according to the official story, so were a band of cave-dwellers in Afghanistan….
“Tower 7 anyone?”
Pull it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYdAJQV100
9/11 is nothing to celebrate.
Celebrate?
I’d say more like commemorate.
I understand the cynicism and I don’t trust the official version one bit. I want things to be aired that I know quite well will never be aired. But I think it’s too soon to be dismissive of the loss. People did rush into buildings that didn’t have to. People did go back in to help others after getting themselves to safety. There is no denying that. I feel the need to honor that.
If Flight 93 really happened we also need to honor that although as we hear more and more of Congress and our leaders turning their backs on us in favor of the banker cartel, I have long wondered if it could ever happen again. Knowing what we do now about how they’re selling us down the river would we be so quick for heroics? Or would we just allow fate to take place w/o interceding? Are you listening Washington?
Bin Ladin won.
The pessimistic side of me says you are right. It seems many Americans are tolerant of the “Patriot Act,” are still in love with propping up Israel, and imperialism as usual.
The imperialists go to lengths to try to paint the non-interventionists as pacifists who will allow the enemy to overrun us.
Well that’s far from what we are. We non-interventionists are not anti-defense. We in fact think America’s values are well worth defending by missile, jet fighter, gun, ship, and bayonet. But there is sensible defense. The line between defending a nation and imperialism has been crossed a long time ago. We just want to return to the constitutional requirements. That only Congress can declare war, for one thing.
It is not a contraction to want a strong America, in every sense of the word, but to want to avoid needless foreign entanglements (Washington) or going abroad in search of monsters to slay (Jefferson). Or to look at neo-con delusions of imposing neo-liberal democracies in the Middle East through “parmanent wars for permanent peace” and say, you’re crazy.
9/11 Nothing to commemorate
http://takimag.com/article/nothing_to_commemorate#axzz1XeJ9FqcX
Some choice quotes:
“I know it’s all well-intentioned, motivated mainly by honest and commendable motives: patriotism, sympathy, and commercial enterprise. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s 9/11 parade. (Yes, there are parades, too.) But why would we want to commemorate those atrocities?”
“National commemorations are for national achievements—for positives, not negatives.”
“True, we commemorate those who died in our nation’s wars; but a war is a collective national enterprise for which national commemoration is appropriate.”
“I recall 9/11 with two principal emotions: anger and shame.”
“Following 9/11 a sensible nation would have stopped, or severely restricted, Muslim immigration. We took the opposite approach. Two of every five foreign-born Muslims in the USA today arrived in the last ten years. Tens of thousands of them hold extremist opinions.
In short, there’s nothing good to commemorate.”
“That leaves us with no rationale for public commemoration that I can see. My own answer to the opening question is the one I gave nine years ago, at the time of the one-year anniversary: defiant normality. I recommend it to the nation at large.”
This is why we are gutless to fight a religious Jihad……we should have bomed their mosques and not commited troops to iraq and afghanny.
aNYCdj, you probably saw the article about the Muslim riot at Rye Playland a week ago. As a pup, Playland was a place where I enjoyed a number of outings with my family. It is a location of happy childhood memories. You could even say it is “sacred ground” for me. A group of Muslims defiled it, IMO. Over headscarves, no less.
Now, let us have some perspective here. There’s not a whole lot of difference between the habits worn by Catholic nuns and the outfits worn by Muslim women, when you think about it. But Catholic nuns would never dream of going on one of the rides with their head covering, if it was forbidden by security. They would just have turned to another amusement. The Muslim women, in this case, chose to behave like spoiled brats, accosting security personnel.
“accosting security personnel.”
I might add, striking and screaming at them, bloviating about “religious freedom”. Is it any wonder more and more people are calling for an immigration moratorium? These aren’t immigrants, these are vicious parasites making a complete perversion of the “laws” in the US. Of course, govmint sets the example.
No discrimination. Make em sneak in from Mexico like the rest.
“Make em sneak in from Mexico like the rest.”
Don’t think it isn’t happening. There’s been an influx over the border of Chinese and Indians.
yup playland it also was a greatplace to take dates, you could really get to know someone on a roller coaster….if ya no wat i meen
Trying to explain to someone that 911 was an false flag event, is like trying to prove to someone that they were raped by their father as a child;
in other words, its so horrible, they don’t want to know it even if you did prove it.
Just bomb some brown people and be done with it.
“in other words, its so horrible, they don’t want to know it even if you did prove it.”
Exactly. And don’t think the PTB doesn’t know this.
My personal belief is that our government is too DUMB to be able to pull off a conspiracy like this.
Give me $5 million bucks, and 15 guys willing to die, and I can think of a couple dozen scenarios that could easily double the number of casualties.
Hell, light off a couple of M-80s, and fire a couple of clips of 7.62×39 INTO THE AIR at a major sporting event, and the panic alone will kill a couple hundred people.
I’m still for the “Archie Bunker” solution for hijackings: Arm all the passengers.
I agree with you here.
Occam’s razor blasts away conspiracy theories. The best answer is that our government is too stupid to come up with elaborate plans.
The reality is our government is working by feel and experimentation with policies.
Well these policies are hurting. And will continue to hurt until the masses of people take to the streets and demand massive military cuts to bring down the deficit and demand as part of those cuts to bring all U.S. military home from outside the U.S. and its territories and close all the bases - stop being the world’s cop. We as a nation must tear up alliances with nations that foment the enemies of those nations to turn against America.
Too stupid, and people like to talk to much to keep it a secret.
We have fine, professional people in Government. Look at the Wikileaks cables………the State Department “boots on the ground” types pretty much nailed their evaluations. Ditto the US Army. They recommended 500,000 troops be available for taking out Saddam, and securing the country.
Too bad all of their advice/recommendations were ignored.
Rumsfeld & Co. knew there was no way in hell they were going to get a National Guard call up that size to invade Iraq on their flimsy evidence/assertions. So they low-balled the number of troops required, knowing that once committed, they would be able to get more.
You can easily make the case for war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. You won’t see it, because that would be the end of the USA acting as the “World’s Policemen”
The rest of the world finds it more convenient to let us do their dirty work for them. Just say they are threatening our “freedom” somehow, and we’re like Pavlov’s Effing Dogs.
Nobody has explained to me yet how taking out an illiterate goat herder with an AK-47 out in the middle of BF Afghanistan preserves my “freedom”.
“……you know, they sort of took away our freedom and gave it to the (racial slur)……. But they don’t want it. they’d rather be alive than free, I guess. Poor dumb bastards.”
“If you ask me, we’re shooting the wrong (slur)…..”
Private “Eightball” and “Animal Mother”, in “Full Metal Jacket”
Trying to explain to someone that 911 was an false flag event, is like trying to prove to someone that they were raped by their father as a child
The only real downside of being a Ron Paul supporter is the “truthers” who have gravitated to him. I have yet to meet one that I’d consider to be a normal, self-respecting person. And during the ’80s a lot of scumbag therapists got rich convincing neurotic females who could afford endless therapy that they’d been repressing memories of childhood sexual abuse by parents or others. How many innocent people had their lives turned upside down by such false accusations will never be known, but eventually more reputable therapists belatedly recognized the enormous harm such charlatans were doing to the profession, to say nothing of the families being torn apart, and discouraged the whole “repressed memory” line of therapy. So, Spook, I hope you’re not one of those people who feels a need to go around convincing people they were “raped by their father as a child” by way of explaining how neurotic they are, or peddling far-out truther conspiracy theories to explain how borderline you are.
Sammy,
I am a normal, self-respecting person. I support some (though by no means, all,) of Dr. Paul’s proposals.
And having studied the matter extensively over the last decade, from inside and out, denier, counter-denier, and counter-counter denier, scientifically and anecdotally, analytically and emotionally, through first-hand account and retellings, I can state with a fair degree of certainty, that the official recounting of the events of 9/11/01 are most emphatically not the truth.
ahansen,
Honorable, intelligent people have raised valid questions about official reconstructions of what happened on 9/11. A lot of details of what happened that day remain unexplained and maybe unexplainable. But to start with the premise, as many “truthers” do, that it was in inside job, a conspiracy by the US government, and then build elaborate theories and often ludicrous “facts” to support that premise, to me shows commitment to an agenda rather than an objective search for the truth.
But to start with the premise, as many “truthers” do, that it was in inside job, a conspiracy by the US government, and then build elaborate theories and often ludicrous “facts” to support that premise, to me shows commitment to an agenda rather than an objective search for the truth.
Perhaps, but that’s not what ahansen has said (unless I missed something). There’s a big jump from “we aren’t being told the truth” to “it was a false flag/inside job”.
then what is the ‘truth’ you have found? what specific events are you saying are not truthful?
“Following 9/11 a sensible nation would have stopped, or severely restricted, Muslim immigration. “
Basing immigration policy on religion would be unconstitutional. It’s interesting that right-wingers have been talking about the constitution so much over the past couple of years when they’re not really familiar with it.
Of course, we could just seriously reduce immigration period. We’ve had high levels of it for a few decades now and it there could be benefits to having very low immigration for a decade or two.
“we could just seriously reduce immigration period. We’ve had high levels of it for a few decades now and it there could be benefits to having very low immigration for a decade or two.”
Now you’re talking.
Our constitution was designed to be a living document. The founding fathers knew that what was right 200+ years ago might not be right at some point in the future. I believe this freedom of religion nonsense is one of the things that must be changed.
We have child molesters hiding behind supposed churches and violent activists hiding behind religions of all sorts, but today mostly Islam.
Belief in ones God is one thing. Acting against others under the guise of that belief is another.
Sorry, but the “living document” argument is bullcrap and merely code for the PTB to “let’s just do what we feel like.” Just like “free market” and “deregulation.”
Read the Federalist Papers, the other part of the rules for our government that seems to be constantly ignored. It explains EXACTLY what they thinking and why.
Because if there is one thing that hasn’t changed in 30,000 years of recorded history, it’s mankind’s nature to give in to its base desires and actions, and the Founding Fathers knew this.
I agree with you on this point. That “living document” crap, if true would also mean that 200 years ago we could be a free and open society, but could easily be a closed Taliban or North Korean style society and still consider ourselves living the American heritage.
I don’t buy it GH.
You want to get rid of child molesters, then get a gun and ammo, go to a web site to find the sex offenders, and go to their doors and start shooting them. Walk the walk. But do not trample on my individual rights. Take your religion and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
You missed my point entirely.
I am sick of bad people hiding behind the constitution which guarantees freedom of religion.
We need to be a LOT faster as saying SORRY your militant organization or pedophile ministry is a crock and you are NOT protected.
As far as going around with guns. Sounds good until you are caught and then have to remain in prison for the remainder of your life so some jihadists religious beliefs can be upheld.
With regards to our freedoms? Really? I see a police state where we are not even allowed to video police in some areas. Our Internet is monitored (in case we decide to engage in bad behaviour). Our phones can be monitored by the trunk line if our area is designated a “drug neighborhood” or national security can be invoked. Crimes against government workers are much more serious than those against ordinary peons and so it goes.
No, Bill didn’t miss your point. You don’t have a point. The constitution does not protect pedophile clergymen. A priest, pastor or rabbi accused of molesting a child has no rights regarding the law beyond those that any other ctitzen has.
I beg to differ, the constitution does indeed protect terrorists and the Vatican only recently appears to have paid lip service to doing something about their little problem, however the focus of my post was about terrorism rather than pedophilia and terrorists are indeed protected under the constitution and continue to hide behind Islam. They do do legally and in accordance with the US Constitution. So I do INDEED have a point and a very good one if you would care to address the specifics of Islam rather than why Warren Jeffs was allowed for years to operate his little religion.
“founding fathers”
riiiiiiiiight…. I’m no relation to those pukes.
But it is allowed based on nation of origin.
My ex-Girlfriend from Kuwait would not hurt anyone. She was/is Muslim. She is highly educated, likes American culture (even country music and Leonard Cohen - a jewish singer).
So your prejudice is showing, Palmy. She returned to Kuwait. Talent that America should have.
Yeah, and I’m sure you saw her off at the airport with a tear in one eye and a gleam in the other cocked at your next conquest.
Likewise for my ex-racquetball partner from Kuwait. Aside from his dark skin and Arabic facade, he was culturally as American as your next door neighbor. And he had successfully transformed his squash prowess to become the intramural racquetball champion at my undergraduate alma mater.
“he was culturally as American as your next door neighbor.”
That’s not what people take issue with. If that were more frequently the case, there would be no problem, IMO.
But I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not gonna like it if a mosque moves into my neighborhood and I have to listen to the call to prayer six times a day or whatever it is. I’d rather listen to church bells, even though I’m not particularly a Christian. Why? Because I’m used to them, that’s why. I find it easier to look at a nun in a habit (although there are not many of those left) than a Middle Eastern lady in a burqua. It’s a personal preference based on cultural familiarity that ignoramuses like to call “prejudice”.
If I want to live in a land of mosques and burquas and Sharia law and Islam, etc. there’s plenty of places I could go. I don’t want it here because for the most part I’m comfortable with what is already here and it suits me. I hated being forced to eat Brussels sprouts when I wuz a pup, too.
That’s what “foreign” countries are for, fer Jeebus’ sake. So you can live in a place that is culturally to your liking. What’s wrong with that?
Some people used to prefer their “nigrahs” living in slave quarters on the plantation, too. Others, it would appear, still do.
Religion and terrorism are two different things, (a belief system and a methodology) and although they can guide the same person, they’re antithetical to the theology– whatever that theology might be. (Onward Christian Soldiers and all that.)
I’m far more concerned about armed radical “Christian” fundamentalists trying to tell me what to do with my uterus, than I am of middle class Muslims holding bake sales at their mosque. As for church bells vs muezzins, like the neighbors’ barking dogs, they can both STFU in my airspace.
I cannot help but feel that we brought 9/11 upon ourselves. Why would I want to conmemorate that?
We did. Here’s a top FBI agent’s letter to the director wondering why they didn’t stop the hijackers before they flew the planes.
http://www.rense.com/general25/facts.htm
If you don’t find the source credible (and I’ll admit it’s a fringe website) just google the agents name: Coleen M. Rowley
The government effed up/dropped the ball.
To hide/camoflage that fact, we embarked on a payback “Crusade”.
Even so, we had the support of everyone in the world when out goal was to take out Al Queda, and their Taliban protectors, then GTFOOD.
World support went away when “mission creep” set in, and we started settling old scores/unfinished business/neocon wet dreams.
“I cannot help but feel that we brought 9/11 upon ourselves. Why would I want to conmemorate that?”
+1. Few understand this sentiment but 9/11 is the end result of decades of US/Israeli radicalization, oppression and marginalization of palestinians (Muslims AND Christians)that borders on genocide.
I’m repeating yesterday’s Tudor house, because it really is so nice… and wish priced:
—————
House 2: The over-renovation
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2013-Lansdowne-Way-Silver-Spring-MD-20910/37318594_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
It’s a lovely 1937 4/3 Tudor, totally redone on the inside, maybe $100K worth of work. There are a few pix, but you have to “view virtual tour” to see the good stuff, and it really is gorgeous. It’s the kind of thing I would do, but I would leave out the fancy finishings in the kit + bath.
But it has only street parking, it’s RIGHT NEXT to the Beltway wall, and good god, they’re awfully ballsy about the pricing.
Nov 2010: Sold $235K
Aug 2011: Zestimate $341K
Aug 2011: Listed $550K
“Lovely”? A “tudor” cape cod? Ick. Location, location, location right off the beltway wall in the People’s Republic of Maryland? No thanks.
oxide- Thanks, cool home. The one thing that I didn’t like is the fireplace placement. But it really is a charmer. I could force myself to live there. LOL The price is absurd.
I’ll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase
That you bought today
Staring at the fire
For hours and hours
While I listen to you
Play your love songs
All night long for me
Only for me
Come to me now
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is good
Such a cosy room
The windows are illuminated
By the sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you
Only for you
Our house is a very, very fine house
With Three Brand New Levels of Living with that special “old time” charm! All Brand New - Kitchen, Bathrooms, Windows, Flooring, Upper Level, Lower Level, Custom Trim Package, Rear Concrete Deck + More! This home won’t disappoint the person that loves the charm and magic of a 1930’s Tudor
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
‘Cause of you
la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la…..
Three Brand New Levels of Living with that special “old time” charm! All Brand New - Kitchen, Bathrooms, Windows, Flooring, Upper Level, Lower Level, Custom Trim Package, Rear Concrete Deck + More! This home won’t disappoint the person that loves the charm and magic of a 1930’s Tudor!…read more
That’s hysterical, Jeff. Thanks!
2013 Lansdowne Way
should be
2013 LandsWaydown
Keep searching Oxy. You’re on the right path imo.
You’ll know the right place when you see it.
I’m holding to the belief that there is more than one right place. Gives me a chance to walk away. Luckily, I haven’t “fallen in love” yet. The best house is is this Tudor, but I’m not about to play howmuchamonth. I learned long ago that if I can’t have my dreams, I adjust my dreams.
I’m still making basic decisions. Small piece of land for less, or a quarter acre for more money? Low maintenance small yeard vs. berries and cucumbers? High price move in condition vs. low-price with fix up? Farther out vs. learning Spanish so I talk to the neighbors? Lots of stuff to weigh…
I would say the closest match property to what I’m looking for is the High-Tax house, which I posted Friday:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2630-Norbeck-Rd-Silver-Spring-MD-20906/37277829_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
Oxy, that is one nice house. $269K, I guess that is if the bank approves the short sale. I especially like this pick of yours because it looks just like my first house, bought in 1978 for $26K.
I make exactly 5x what I made in 1978, with 30+ additional years of experience. Some of my friends have recently settled into jobs paying half. I’ll be faced with the same, or leave the system when the next shock wave hits the “economy” and my chips get knocked off the table. Gasoline costs 4x what it did in 1978, bubble prices while the world has stopped building. It will go down when the bankers run out of FedGovStimDebtMoney.
I’m sure you wouldn’t agree with me if I tried to convince you that gravity holds you down, not up, but I going to say that you are flirting with one of those once-in-a-lifetime financial disater decisions. If you buy one of these sirens, hang a shingle out front with the word Lorelei.
I know you are simply looking at today’s rent vs today’s mortgage payment. The debt will linger after the correction. Reality is but a distant rumbling in the DC area, for now.
MONEY
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011
Lenders Aren’t Passing On Rock-Bottom Rates
By CRISTINA LOUROSA-RICARDO
With mortgage rates at a 50-year low and banks near his Brookline, N.H., home touting offers of 4% or less, Tom Rogers thought it would be a perfect time to refinance.
But despite a solid credit score, Mr. Rogers couldn’t find a single lender willing to give him such a rock-bottom rate. He eventually settled for a mortgage almost a full percentage point higher than what he’d hoped for.
It’s an increasingly common frustration. The gap between the lowest advertised mortgage rate and the average rate borrowers actually get is about as high as it has been in two years, save a single week in September 2010.
As of last week, the lowest available rate was 3.75% for a 30-year fixed mortgage, but the average rate was 4.35%, according to a survey of more than 200 lenders by LendingTree.com. At the current 0.6-percentage-point spread, the difference in rates could mean an extra $18,700 in interest payments over the life of a 30-year, $150,000 mortgage.
…
Gotta love the bait and switch economy.
It’s all about the churn, baby!
TAXES
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011
He’s Not Jobama!
By AL LEWIS
…
clowns are all we have left. Instead of dealing with a foreclosure crisis and rising unemployment in 2008, Republicans and Democrats scrambled to bail out failed banks. Now, even the banks are cutting jobs. And now government is so deep in debt, the idea of spending another $437 billion to boost job growth sounds dangerous.
Washington has proven that no tax cut, no incentive, no stimulus is ever going to be enough.
Globalization means corporations can go anywhere they want to exploit the cheapest labor pools. Technology means corporations need fewer professionals.
Wages were stagnating and jobs were disappearing when the economy was booming. Home foreclosures continued rising even as economists declared a recovery was at hand. The world has devolved into an oligarchy of corporate fiefdoms that decide where the money goes.
What makes anyone think that yet another Washington spending spree can stop this?
What a letdown. You throw out a piece of red meat like that, and not one RNC troll shows up to bash Obama.
To answer this obviously slanted question:
Republicans block ending offshore jobs tax breaks | Reuters 9/2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R40I20100928
“yet another Washington spending spree”
Skye’s First Law of Postponement: Each attempt to postpone the inevitable will take larger effort than the previous, as the inevitable grows larger with each postponement.
I note that the measures being proposed are getting smaller and are met with less enthusiasm. This makes me wonder if the smack down is now approaching with ferocity.
WSJ
J as in: Joke
J as in: Junk
J as in: Journali$m
My my, look how poli$hed the journali$m has become them since an
AussieAmerican Inc. (SOCTU$ person) $lutnews Zealot has seized the puppet string$… do you pay for the privilege$ Prof. Bear? :-/I’m of the opinion that the “Housing Bubble” was/remains a bigger catastrophe than the 9/11/2001 attack. I know a lot of people directly affected by the “housing bubble”, and no one directly affected by 9/11.
Of course, the HB is self inflicted, so you won’t see any government invasions of Wall Street, or Predator drones taking out the lead banksters with missiles.
Unless you think the housing bubble was a direct government response to the 9/11 attack.
This has been the weirdest weekend for me. There is the 10th anniversary of 9/11 stirring up all those old memories. And they are intense. Logan was our airport. So I spent the morning calling friends making sure constantly travelling husbands were safe. Friends of ours were on other planes that morning or could have been in that one of the buildings that were hit. It took a while to hear back from everyone. One had taken a new job away fromthe towers just 2 months before. One had a meeting at Cantor Fitzgerald that morning but it had been cancelled last minute. Parents of my kids schoolmates were pilots of other planes and were reporting box cutters were on other flights. My husband was originally scheduled to go down to the NYC to help reestablish communications. But at the last minute was told he wasn’t needed. He was in daily contact w/people that were first to look at what was left of the towers. You can imagine how those conversations went. I think the city of Boston felt a lot of guilt about the fights originating from Logan. Our preschool teacher’s husband was a CC fireman who went down to find bodies. Their marriage was ripped apart when he came back. He was just so deeply affected.
Meanwhile there is so much chatter online about Europe and what this week will be like in the markets. It feels like an overlap of historic and future catastrophes. I am so glad to be able to be online w/people who have been watching it and I’m also thankful for my training partners who give me a place to dump all that dark energy that tends to build up thinking about this stuff. Man it’s been a tough weekend.
I know what you mean, Carrie Ann. I’ve been feeling very tense over the past week myself for a number of reasons. As luck would have it, I was up North visiting my family in the NY burbs when 9/11 happened. September 10th was my mother’s birthday, she was still alive at the time, but her mind was starting to go. The event was a shock that put her over the edge, NY was the beloved city where she was born, grew up and worked all her life. My sister was at work in the city, I could call in to her, but she couldn’t call out. So I had to monitor the news to let her know when it was OK for her to go to Grand Central Station and take the train home. She was a wreck, we all were. And taking the Greyhound bus back to Florida from NY was a story all in itself. Since 9/11 I’ve only flown once, for my mother’s funeral.
But it’s this sort of vague feeling of impending doom that has built up this week that’s getting to me, along with sadness and anger, etc. My temper’s been on a short fuse and I’m not normally that way.
Hopefully we’ll get through it and it’ll be back to the slow ongoing grind.
Hang tough Palmy.
The housing bubble was firmly underway by 1998.
I thought it gained traction in reaction to the stock bust and 9/11. The stock bust meant people figured stocks were not where they could get wealthy anymore. The 9/11 event caused a craze to “cocoon,” and take shelter in suburban real estate. It caught on and fed upon itself to the insane unprecedented level that it has become.
Combined with the costly “War on Terror” that went on eight years longer (and still going on) than it should have, America is too broke. The $450 billion stimulus is going to be as effective as a feather landing on my shoulder. It will be too little too late but too expensive.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8750703/911-How-Osama-bin-Laden-caused-our-banking-meltdown-and-financial-crisis.html
I don’t agree that OBL “caused” our banking meltdown and financial crisis - that was unfettered Wall Street greed and criminality coupled with the irresponsibility and fecklessness of the public at large - but he exacted a massive cost, for sure.
It merely became more visible post 9/11, but in my city, which is the 4th largest in the nation, it was red hot in 1998 and getting nothing but hotter.
65k properties were being re-developed and flipped for 750K within 6-8 month time spans. I saw ghettos being turned into “uptown” neighborhoods almost overnight. (2-3 years to completion) I mean a total wipe out of all evidence the neighborhood was ever dangerous or not prosperous.
I saw mid rise condos take over, literally, sq miles of older neighborhoods.
It pretty much peaked for us in 2006, (just how many people can afford a 350K+ condos?) but until then, you could make a killing if you knew what you were doing.
“The housing bubble was firmly underway by 1998.”
Hah, the year we left California. Friends and family rolled their eyes when I said that someday it would end badly. My sister later admitted to my wife in 2009 that I was right.
The world has devolved into an oligarchy of corporate fiefdoms that decide where the money goes.
Meaning we’re regressing to the norm for human history. A tiny elite presiding over and exploiting docile and dull-witted serfs, regarding the latter as expendable units of economic value.
And when those serfs stand up for themselves and organize some call them “goons” and “thugs”.
You have problem with Corporate Communist Capitalism©®™, comrade?
http://news.yahoo.com/5-arrested-uk-suspected-enslaving-24-people-161107738.html
Our corporate cartels and their Republicrat hirelings will be looking at this business model with envy.
It certainly isn’t too late for the world’s free people, who vastly outnumber the kleptocrats, to rise up against those who committed financial crimes and throw the perpetrators into prison for a long time. So long as there is a written Rule of Law, or even the memory thereof, I am planning to hold out hope.
Trouble is, too many people don’t mind letting the kleptocrats do their thinking for them.
A high percentage of the people I know use Faux News as the ONLY source of news.
Ditto the MSNBC liberals. Thinking for yourself is becoming old fashioned.
The Republicans, for all their BS, do have a point about excessive regulation costing jobs in this country. Like the time we were mandated to buy a $50K fall restraint system, for the two times a year I worked six feet off floor level.
A general rule of thumb is that government regs cost twice as much, with 1/10th of the benefit, of that promised. Thanks to people suing other people for not “protecting them” from their own stupidity, regs end up throwing common sense out the window.
Fixer, I’ve worked in a lot of places where lack of ANY kind of safety system would scare the crap out of you.
To be fair, I’ve also plenty of good ol boys who deliberately short circuited the system so they could sue for a retirement.
A pox on both their houses.
So what we end up with is all the people who are willing to comply with the regs/rules shut down and move ops, leaving the floor to all the guys who have no qualms about gaming the system.
America……what a country!
I happen to prefer MSNBC among the cable networks, especially Dylan Ratigan and Rachel Maddow, and I’m no liberal by any stretch of the imagination.
Realtors Are Liars®
Many thanks for the steadfast daily reminder!
It is my duty and obligation.
And like Saul on the road to Damascus, I was suddenly blinded by the light after reading your received wisdom in all it’s simple clarity: realtors are liars. Cue angelic chorus.
Oh, wait. As one of the earliest of the HBB stalwarts, I’ve always believed the NAR is an industry of dissemblers. But I suppose a daily reminder doesn’t hurt.
What we really need is a world where traditional journalism can continue to specialize in professionally-researched articles, but bloggers and tweeters serve to keep them honest and to call foul when they are not.
Sept. 9, 2011, 4:28 p.m. EDT
Social media have become the Fifth Estate
Commentary: Opportunities abound for investments in new media
By Thomas Kostigen
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Journalists are members of the Fourth Estate for their role in government accountability.
Patrice Schneider, chief strategy officer for the Media Development Loan Fund, believes a Fifth Estate has arisen, however, in the form of social media. And the evidence of its birth as a government watchdog system lies in Libya, Syria, Iran, and other countries — even the United States — where bloggers and tweeters have informed the world about government affairs in places where journalists have been shut out.
“They have broken down the gatekeeper,” Schneider says.
A free press, of course, is a tenet to any free democracy. Budget cutbacks and political foils that blur the role of journalists in democracy, however, call into question the effectiveness of such a free press in today’s day and age — the age when technology trumps tomorrow morning’s newspaper.
…
Marketwatch dot com
Treasury investors should ignore Washington
September 9, 2011, 12:42 PM
Wells Fargo economists Scott Anderson, Jay Bryson and Joe Seydl offer Treasury investors a bit of advice Friday: Ignore Washington.
In an extensive note exploring why Treasury interest rates 10_year have continued to fall in spite of massive government spending, a credit downgrade and the sluggish economy, they argue that…
-Tom Bemis
Here’s one in New Tampa claimed to have been sold for over $1,000,000 in 2004 and up for sale at $187,000:
8323 Old Town Drive,
Tampa, Fl 33647
MLS#: t2327129
http://tinyurl.com/67avku3
$1.32 million to be exact.
Look at this one folks. This is priced at 14% of peak price and probably still priced too high.
I’m confused…perhaps the bubble was worse in Florida than I ever imagined. I don’t see anything special about the house or the location. In my area, that I consider to still be bubbly, this would be a 300-500k house, depending on location. What on earth ever made it a $1.32 million dollar house? Ever?
How hardcore of a HBB’r are you? Take the test:
1. Who is “Taco Bell” Jeff?
2. Who is Casey Serin?
3. Who is Ivy Zelman?
4. Who is Robert L. Rodriguez, and why was his talk “Absence of Fear” relevant?
5. Who or what is “GetStucco”?
Casey is still facing foreclosure.
Ivy Zellman is one of the “good” economists who got it right… shoot, did she do the Credit Suisse graph?
GetStucco throws intellectual bombs. Cantankerously.
The others I don’t know.
Where does the “oil city” in the oil city plan come from?
You forgot the late and unlamented LV Landlord.
And LAInvestor.
This endless stock market crash business gets really tiresome after a while. Why does Mr Market have such a hard time trying to find the bottom?
Global Dow Realtime USD
DJI: GDOW 1,784.76
Change -56.95 -3.09%
Volume 2.16b
Sep 11, 2011 7:47 p.m.
Previous close 1,841.71
Open: 1,784.76
52 week low: 1,779.55
52 week high: 2,270.47
Percentage current level is above 52-week low:
(1,784.76/1,779.55-1)*100 = 0.3%
Percentage current level is below 52-week high:
(1,784.76/2,270.47-1)*100 = -21.4%
I smell a bear.
Why does Mr Market have such a hard time trying to find the bottom?
It’s hard to touch the bottom when you’ve still got your PPT floaties on.
Well, in fairness, 0.3% above a 52-week low is not much above the 52-week low.
I’m looking for the 3 year low…the 52 week low doesn’t mean much to me. And I don’t think I’m the only one.
Weird coincidence: The ‘Market close,’ ‘Day low,’ and ‘52 week low’ on the Global Dow exactly match!
Global Dow Realtime USD
DJI: GDOW
Market closed 1,770.59
Change -14.17 -0.79%
Volume 607.54m
Sep 12, 2011 1:51 a.m.
Previous close 1,784.76
Day low 1,770.06
Day high 1,784.76
Open: 1,784.76
52 week low 1,770.06
52 week high 2,270.47
Sept. 12, 2011, 12:00 a.m. EDT
Massive default is best way to fix the economy
Commentary: Clearing away the debt is the only way forward
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — You want to fix this economic crisis? You want to put people back to work? You want to light a fire under the economy?
There’s a way to do it. Fast. And relatively simple.
But you’re not going to like it. You’re not going to like it at all.
Default. A national Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The fastest way to fix this mess is to see tens of millions of homeowners default on their mortgages and other debts, and millions more file for bankruptcy.
I told you that you wouldn’t like it.
I don’t like it much either. It sticks in the craw that people got to borrow all that money and won’t have to pay it back.
But you know what? The time to stop that was five or 10 years ago, when the money was being lent.
It’s gone.
And mass Chapter 11 is, by far, the least obnoxious solution to our problems.
That’s because the real cause of our economic slump isn’t too much government or too little government. It isn’t red tape, high taxes, low taxes, the growing divide between the rich and the poor, too much government debt, too little government debt, corporations, poor people, “greed,” “socialism,” China, Greece, or the legalization of gay marriage. It isn’t, in short, any of the things all the various nitwits say it is.
It’s the debt, stupid.
…
Germany Preparing for Default by Greece
Sunday, 11 Sep 2011 01:13 PM
Germany may be getting ready to give up on Greece.
After almost two years of fighting to contain the region’s debt crisis and providing the biggest share of three European bailouts, Chancellor Angela Merkel is laying the groundwork for what markets say is almost a sure thing: a Greek default.
“It feels like Germany is preparing itself for a debt default,” Jacques Cailloux, chief European economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in an interview. “Fatigue is setting in. Germany could be a first mover, or other countries could be preparing too.”
Officials in Merkel’s government are debating how to shore up German banks in the event that Greece fails to meet the budget-cutting terms of its aid package and is unable to get a bailout-loan payment, three coalition officials said Friday. The move capped a week of escalating German threats that Greece won’t get the money unless it meets fiscal targets and investors raising bets on a default.
Ring-fencing their banks and a hardening of rescue terms risk isolating Germany and unnerving global policy makers already fretting that the region’s political tussles are roiling markets and threatening growth. Underscoring the tone of weekend talks of Group of Seven finance chiefs, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told Bloomberg Television that European authorities must “demonstrate they have enough political will” to end the crisis.
…
Roy Smith: Break Up the Banks, Even Goldman
Sept. 9, 2011
Fears of recession, tough trading conditions, an ocean of unresolved litigation and the worsening eurozone mess have delivered a real pounding to bank stocks this summer. Former Goldman Sachs partner Roy Smith joins Mean Street to offer a solution: Break up the banks.