Bits Bucket for September 13, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Realtors Are Liars®
This should be graffiti scrawled on the smiling, lying REALTOR faces of every bus stop bench REALTOR advertisement.
Yeah. RAL bumper stickers pasted on yard signs too. That sounds great.
Suggestion: Change your name to Reators Are Intentional Liars. That way your acronym will spell LIAR when read backwards.
Nice.
No Hiding Place From Crisis Bigger Than Lehman: Economist
- CNBC
Carl Weinberg, the chief economist at High Frequency Economics is very worried about Europe. His central forecast is that the debt crisis will lead Europe into a depression that will mean soaring unemployment, deflation and zero interest rates for the foreseeable future.
After months of inaction, Weinberg believes the time to stop a Greek default has now passed. He believes that once it becomes clear that Greece has defaulted, the market will quickly come to the realization that other euro zone members like Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy will be allowed to fail as well.
With the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) sitting on 3 trillion euros in debt, Weinberg is assuming losses could ultimately hit 50 cents in the euro, leading to a 1.5 trillion euro hit to the financial system.
This will in Weinberg’s opinion force banks to stop lending. Governments will then be forced to bail them out, elevating debt-to-GDP ratios for national governments to “horrific levels”
“In comparison, Lehman’s bankruptcy left about 600 billion euros in assets to be resolved. The ultimate recovery rate is still unknown,” said Weinberg in a research note on Monday.
The true cost of a euro zone default is impossible to know beforehand due to the huge amount of CDS (credit default swaps) that have been written, according to Weinberg.
“This is a shock that easily spread around the world quickly, as did the hit from Lehman,” he said.
Having spent 2 years offering up solutions to the crisis that have fallen on deaf ears, Weinberg has been looking at how the European Central Bank and national governments can react at this point.
“The most important thing the ECB can do at this time is to use its repo facility to ensure that all banks have enough cash to operate regardless of their short-term solvency or longer-term prospects,” he said.
“The ECB will have to buy a dominant position in all PIIGS bond markets, sterilize those purchases by absorbing cash, and then return that cash to banks in long-term repos,” said Weinberg, who expects such a move to add 2 trillion euros to the ECB’s balance sheet.
So should I buy a house I plan to default on since after Greek like austerity measures are imposed here (by our creditors, not by own government) Americans will be defaulting en masse perhaps necessitating a Jubilee or possession is 9/10th of the law reality?
I say that in jest but sometimes I wonder if that’s the plan of some of the buyers out there.
“…possession is 9/10th of the law…”
Why can’t that eventually work for renters of homes as it does for millions of so-called buyers with defaulted mortgages (or was that your point?)…
I always figured in that situation we’d (renters) probably get kicked out and the place would be given to the homeless brother or jobless ex student w/enormous loan niece of the landlord.
Perhaps it would be better to be have a corporate landlord. (Ooooh, never thought I’d say that)
But why should renters who don’t pay get kicked out when homeowners who don’t pay are allowed to live for years without making payments?
As the number of U.S. renters increases over the coming years relative to the number of homeowners, you can expect arguments like the above to gain political traction.
“…should I buy a house I plan to default on…”
I’m guessing a large number of HBB posters have faced this same choice over the past half decade or so; has something changed to tip the balance of the equation in favor of buying now? Certainly the near-term prospect of another Lehmanesque collapse on the world financial stage isn’t a reason to buy?!
I find myself haunted more and more by the thought that if the collapse presents Greek austerity style tax increases and/or huge moves up in inflation, a gigantic portion of the homeowners that have been able to pay all their bills will soon be pushed into the red and then it will only be a matter of time until they too are FBs.
If there is forgiveness for debt, us savers will be very, very behind.
Carrie,
I don’t think you should waste much brain power worrying about a generalized debt jubilee. Seriously. There is no politician with a chance of getting elected these days who would ever say such a thing out loud.
We have a process for debt forgiveness. It is called bankruptcy. Nonrecourse secured debt has its own rules. Other than that, we are talking limited tax cuts and credits and that is about it. I don’t even think that another one of those “$300 checks for everyone” deals could get air time these days.
I don’t even think that another one of those “$300 checks for everyone” deals could get air time these days.
ISTR reading that, the last time such checks were sent out, most of the money was saved. Anyone else care to cite exact figures? Or correct me?
That why $3000 paydown on a credit card would work….most people today NEED to catch up on neglected items.
That why $3000 paydown on a credit card would work….most people today NEED to catch up on neglected items.
If I don’t carry a credit card balance, can I just have the cash? I need new glasses. A visit to a dentist might also be useful.
a debit card for slim…Bernake will thank you for spending the money in America……oh wait they could have done this with QE1 2 3 4 5 6 7……maybe we will finally see some of that QE $$$$$
I’m trying to figure out how a global financial crash would affect me personally. Let’s assume I keep my job with no reduction — or even a 10% — reduction in pay. If there’s a crash and credit shuts down, maybe it’s a good time to buy now. If the prospect is hyperinflation, it’s definitely a good time to buy before the rent skyrockets with everything else.
“I’m trying to figure out how a global financial crash would affect me personally.”
Here are some suggestions to help your thought process:
1) Do you own any stocks, bonds or other assets? Because their prices could be severely roiled in the event of another Lehman-type event.
2) Do you work for a living? Jobs could become even harder to get or to retain.
3) Do you ever borrow money? Because it could become harder to borrow money in the wake of a Greek debt default.
Other than those three ideas, I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head.
“Let’s assume I keep my job”
A worthy contingency plan does not start with the assumption that bad stuff only happens to everybody else.
I work for a company that is notorious for not laying people off.
I’ll grant you that!
I work for a company that is notorious for not laying people off.
===============
Bankruptcy liquadation == lay off
Here are some suggestions to help your thought process:
1) Do you own any stocks, bonds or other assets? Because their prices could be severely roiled in the event of another Lehman-type event.
2) Do you work for a living? Jobs could become even harder to get or to retain.
3) Do you ever borrow money? Because it could become harder to borrow money in the wake of a Greek debt default.”
4) choose to live in an area that won’t go”postal”
Ox-
For what it’s worth, I think the answer will be market turmoil for the near/medium term (1-2 years), but not the same kind of credit crunch as before in the US (the world is refusing to lend to European banks, instead they are sending money to the US), and slow REAL growth over the next decade +/- for the US.
Underlying that same decade will overall be inflation for most countries (including the US), and deflation for countries that can’t print their own money (European periphery anyone?). Hyperinflation may occur in some places, but such a thing would be limited to a few circumstances.
Of course I’ll be wrong, but that’s where my head is now. A bias toward turmoil and above average inflation (the UK’s most recent reading on inflation was 4.5% year on year).
“Americans will be defaulting en masse perhaps necessitating a Jubilee or possession is 9/10th of the law reality?”
I am considering moving in to a house that is owned by Bank of America and has been vacant for over a year. It needs to be cleaned up but besides that it is a nice house in a decent neighborhood. I had someone call the law office that was listed on the paperwork about 6 months ago to see if I could buy it. They said “we can not give you any information about this property” Since I am paying $1,700 a month and I got to live live there for 1 month, with moving expence and PITA factor I would be even. Every month after that would be a $1,700 after tax stimulus in my pocket. I am just getting waaaay to sick of all of this BS “To help responsible homeowners”.
Perhaps you could get some ‘robosigned’ documents to validate your ‘purchase’. When the time comes that you are challenged on your ‘purchase’, just blame the fake docs on some random realtor.
If they really lay off 30,000 people, Bank of America might have a hard time catching up with their back log. No guarantee because they might make the back log a priority over other work.
If you consider such a thing, you might want to factor in moving twice, not just once.
Here’s another thing to consider: When companies announce big layoffs, they lose the very people they want to keep.
Because those people are outta Big Layer-Offer and into new jobs elsewhere. Or they go into business for themselves. Or they do the math and figure that now would be a good time to take an extended trip. Or something like that.
Jeff–
Oh, do it! Just move in, have the electricity turned on in your cat’s name, (or install a small solar system,) clean up the yard, wave to the new neighbors, and let us know how it goes.
There’s a screenplay in here for sure.
Agree with ahansen!
You need to become a squatter, Jeff. For those of us with larger families, it’s too difficult to move, but if you can do it (not sure if you have a large family or are flying solo), it could definitely be worth your while, IMHO.
You’re right about renters being screwed this whole time. If irresponsibility is what they reward, then that’s what they’ll get.
Home-Shortage Myth Pits Blogs Versus Banks in Call Australia Set for Crash
By Nichola Saminather -
Sep 12, 2011 2:35 AM ET
Australia, where home prices are falling at the fastest rate in more than two years, may have a glut of properties and be set for a U.S.-style crash.
The warning from tax-reform advocate David Collyer, commentator Kris Sayce and academic Steve Keen contrast with banks and developers that say a shortage of about 200,000 homes will underpin prices. The housing bears say builders and lenders are pushing flawed government data to keep prices afloat in the English-speaking world’s costliest place to buy a home.
“It’s important for the government and banks to keep the myth of a shortage alive,” said Sayce, editor of Melbourne- based online newsletter Money Morning Australia. “Without it, prices drop, and negative equity results in housing repossessions and insolvent banks.”
More than two-thirds of the government’s shortage estimate arises by including people who can’t afford housing, such as the homeless or those living in trailer parks, Sayce said. Collyer at tax-reform lobby group Prosper Australia says there’s actually a surplus of more than 250,000 dwellings after 15 years of overbuilding, while Keen argues the shortage estimate is swollen by inflated demand from handouts to property buyers of as much as A$21,000 ($21,700).
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-11/housing-bears-say-shortage-myth-means-australia-set-for-crash.html - 132k -
“Home-Shortage Myth Pits Blogs Versus Banks”
Do Australian bankers hide shadow inventory elephants under the living room rug in the same way American bankers do?
It didn’t work here, and it won’t work there, either…
U.S. College Loan Defaults Highest Since 1997
By Bob Drummond -
Sep 12, 2011 5:03 PM ET
Borrowers defaulted on federal student loans at an 8.8 percent rate for fiscal 2009, up from 7 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Education Department said today.
The statistic covers borrowers whose first loan repayments were due during the year that ended Sept. 30, 2009, and who had defaulted by Sept. 30, 2010. About 320,000 out of 3.6 million borrowers in that group were in default, which the department defines as being at least 270 days late on a payment. The official 2009 rate fell slightly from an 8.9 percent estimate released in May.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-12/u-s-college-loan-defaults-highest-since-1997.html -
Between unaffordable tuition costs, an unaccommodating job market, and unforgivable student loan debt, it seems like young people just can’t win these days.
Chain’em to to the ground. Set it up so they’ll fail.Why not? They need to learn some discipline. /sarcasm off
The Lilliputians should chain a few bankers to the ground for a change and see how they like it.
Gulliver and the Lilliputians
Education loans are no longer discharged through bankruptcy. So what happens to this defaulted debt?
Wage garnishment
Wage garnishment, the most common type of garnishment, is the process of deducting money from an employee’s monetary compensation (including salary), sometimes as a result of a court order. Wage garnishments continue until the entire debt is paid or arrangements are made to pay off the debt.[2] Garnishments can be taken for any type of debt but common examples of debt that result in garnishments include:
child support
defaulted student loans
taxes
unpaid court fines
When served on an employer, garnishments are taken as part of the payroll process. When processing payroll, sometimes there is not enough money in the employee’s net pay to satisfy all of the garnishments. For example, in a case with federal tax, local tax, and credit card garnishments, the first garnishment taken would be the federal tax garnishments, then the local tax garnishments, and finally, garnishments for the credit card. Employers receive a notice telling them to withhold a certain amount of their employee’s wages for payment and cannot refuse to garnish wages.[3]
Wage garnishment can negatively affect credit, reputation, and the ability to receive a loan or open a bank account.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnishment
If the debtor has a job, you may be able to grab up to 25% of his or her wages.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/collect-court-judgment-wage-garnishment-30146.html
That’s why they are going to work under the table, cash-only gigs. Tend bar, wait tables, pocket the cash, report nothing.
Unfortunately unless they turn to black market trades that’s gonna keep them in lower paying work. Talk about a dead end.
What a magnificent start the government has provided to get so many of its best and brightest on their way. Eventually that non-dischargable status is going to have to be reworked if they plan on ever tapping that talent pool. Perhaps employers will end up structuring pay packages specifically to help w/ debt overhang. Maybe offer some matching funds to the student loan pay reduction when taking on a new hire. Then again they could just hire foreigners who don’t have this same burden.
Lower paying work is all that’s going to be available anyway. Might as well make tips under the table instead of 12 bucks and hours with 25% of it garnished.
Just saw an article in Mechanical Engineering Magazine where they wondered “how can we get kids more interested in mechanical engineering?” The letters to the editor back were loud and clear: “When there are actual secure jobs for them, you idiots.”
Even sci-eng is having a tough time. Gov funds for basic research are drying up, and private sector no longer innovates, prefering instead to simply keep producing older-generation products in China.
The letters to the editor back were loud and clear: “When there are actual secure jobs for them, you idiots.”
lower the minimum wage and you can get more mechanical engineers working
Leaving the country is also an option. If I was $100k in debt for student loans, that would look pretty tempting.
“Lower the minumum wage……”
Or move to another country.
I can make a lot more money in the Far East that I can make here. Ask any pilot with an ATP. I’m giving it some serious thought.
If China was smart, they’d use all those US dollars they are sitting on to recruit our best/brightest. Most of them are so disgusted with the way things are, they’d go in a heartbeat.
I wonder how our government would react, if the Chinese hired/contracted with a bunch of our laid off engineering types to design and build prototypes for them?
I’ve thought of a lot of things I’d do with my dollars if I were China and wanted to spend them before they devalued further. Not sure why they don’t.
Leaving the country is also an option. If I was $100k in debt for student loans, that would look pretty tempting.
That’s already happening. It’s been discussed on the EduBubble blog.
China: We’ll pay off your student loans if you come work for a Chinese company (in a high demand area) for 5 years. They probably need the senior people more than the youngsters, but a youngster who had a few good summer jobs/internships and knows how US firms work wouldn’t be a bad investment.
“Leaving the country is also an option. If I was $100k in debt for student loans, that would look pretty tempting.”
The smart ones run up $100K in consumer debt while usig all available cash and credit to pay down the school loans—and then declare BK.
Cash is fungible.
+1 Prime.
pocket the cash, report nothing ??
Standard practice around here….
The student loans will never ,ever , ever go away by themselves .Earthquakes , storms , floods , whatever , they must be paid in some way .
There are hardship discharges available. I looked at a few cases here..it helps to be a minority with a drug/booze addiction, now in recovery. Just an ordinary unemployed white guy living with his parents does not fare as well.
What you think that there’s a person can fill out that includes race and that a minority will get a discharge that a white person won’t? That doesn’t sound likely. If it were true, a white person could pretend to be non-white. It might be worth trying if the balance was large enough.
CNNMoney.com
Obama’s housing scorecard
Friday September 9, 12:24 pm ET
By Les Christie
During his speech before Congress Thursday night, President Obama briefly referenced an initiative to help rescue the troubled housing market.
“To help responsible homeowners we’re going to work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4% - a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices,” he said.
Since when were these FB’s “responsible homeowners??!?!”
Why do they need an extra $2,000 a year? To afford tomorrow’s gasoline prices? To buy more at the big box? Certainly $2,000 wouldn’t go very far towards buying a house at today’s still high prices.
Both parties keep trying to resuscitate the hyper-coonsumer corpse. It’s like the whole nation is searching for quarters beneath the couch cushions.
Right now, I’m reading a Biblically-based book on improving one’s finances. Not that I’m terribly religious (I’m anything but), but the author’s take on debt (she’s against it), out of control spending (not in line with God’s plan), and coveting things you can’t afford (got a Commandment for that).
The author is a well-known financial columnist, and I imagine that her book is selling quite well I’m also noticing similar themes in other, more secular, financial books of recent vintage.
The above trends do not bode well for the debt-based consumer spending economy.
Hey Slim,
mind sharing the book title - i’m always on the lookout for some sensible advice - one can never get enough of it.
thanks.
The title is The Power to Prosper: 21 Days to Financial Freedom by Michelle Singletary. She’s a financial columnist for The Washington Post.
Ditto. It sounds good for entertainment value if nothing else.
AZSlim –
I read Ms. Singletary’s column when I lived in DC. While I approve of using religion as a means to an end (god knows I’d love it if they’d stop befouling the garden of which they are supposed to be the keepers), Ms. Singletary was a RE cheerleader and quite dense financially. Just MHO.
Is it the one by Michelle Singletary? I think she has a few out. Her column is in the Wash Post and she on-line “chats” a few times a month. I think some of her stuff is a little far out - pay off the smallest debts first even if they have the lowest interest rates because seeing the progress will motivate you to save more aggressively? Really? I would be better motivated by getting rid of the high interest rate, but I admit to being a bit of a weirdo when it comes to money. (Full disclosure - I did pay off my smallest student loan first, but that was because it was from a revolving fund and as soon as I paid it off, the money was available for another student to borrow. It had a fairly low interest rate, but I didn’t do it for the “motivation.” I did it so the money would be there for someone who needed it more.)
I think a lot of the personal finance advisors are aiming their advice at a much lower level than the average HBB poster. Not that you can’t get something out of it if you look hard enough. You can. If nothing else you can feel grateful that you aren’t as clueless as the people who populate the anecdotes in the book.
More than half of county’s fire-rescue employees earn more than $90,000
By Jennifer Sorentrue and Adam Playford
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Posted: 4:57 p.m. Saturday, July 9, 2011
More than half of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue’s employees were paid over $90,000 in the 2010 budget year, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the department’s payroll.
Twenty-eight of the county’s 50 highest-paid employees worked for the department, the analysis showed.
Six fire-rescue employees, including three special operation captains, were paid more in gross pay, which includes overtime and various allowances, than was Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Jerauld, whose gross pay totaled $180,724, The Post found.
One of those employees made more than $60,000 in overtime, and three made at least $30,000 through extra shifts.
The county’s top paid fire-rescue employee, Michael Southard, a former deputy chief of fleet maintenance, brought in $212,188 last budget year, but that was boosted by big payouts for unused vacation and sick time that he received because he was retiring after 30 years with the department.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/more-than-half-of-countys-fire-rescue-employees-1594849.html - 73k -
It`s easy to double or triple a budget based on fake property tax $ but hard to get them to give it back when the revenue falls. Maybe the Sheriff Ric could stop letting his dept. drive the patrol cars home or at least tell his officers not to drive them everyehere they go with free taxpayer gas and insurance on their own time. (Home Depot grocery store)
Palm Beach County Commission, sheriff face another budget showdown
September 07, 2011|By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and the County Commission are heading toward a budget standoff with just a week to go before a vote on increasing property-tax rates.
Even after back-to-back years of increases, the county faces a $40 million shortfall blamed on past spending and tax revenues declining amid a struggling economy.
To avoid or minimize another tax-rate increase, county officials want Bradshaw to shave at least another $5 million off his more than $400 million budget, which is the county’s biggest operating expense.
The cuts to the Sheriff’s Office would go along with county cutbacks that reach from parks to Palm Tran bus service.
But Bradshaw says he is “done” cutting, and that further reductions risk meeting public safety needs.
“If they don’t fund me properly, I will do what I have to do,” Bradshaw said.
County officials contend that the sheriff could cut from other areas — such limiting salaries or making cuts among civilian employees — without having to lose patrol deputies.
Marcus said she prefers to find ways to cut county spending deeper to avoid increasing the tax rate. That includes calling for the sheriff to cut $5 million, she said.
The County Commission approved a 9 percent tax-rate increase last year and nearly 15 percent the previous year.
For a home valued at $230,000 and eligible for a $50,000 homestead exemption, that generates about $855 in county property taxes — not including taxes for entities such as schools, libraries and cities.
To cut the Sheriff’s Office budget last year, Bradshaw eliminated parks patrols, ended the Drug Farm jail drug-treatment program and closed Eagle Academy, a military-style school for troubled teens.
“I’m not giving them back any more,” Bradshaw said.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-09-07/news/fl-sheriff-budget-fight-20110906_1_tax-rate-budget-cuts-budget-showdown - 39k -
The County Commission approved a 9 percent tax-rate increase last year and nearly 15 percent the previous year ??
Prop.#13 put a stop to this kind of crap in California…Government unions scream for more money…County Commission Solution; Raise the Property Taxes…
Twenty-eight of the county’s 50 highest-paid employees worked for the department ??
That tells the tale right there….
More than half of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue’s employees were paid over $90,000 in the 2010 budget year, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the department’s payroll. ”
Amateurs , in CA we pay our life guards more than that
They don’t want to hire staff, so people have to work overtime to cover the work.
Then they bitch about the overtime. So they try to whack the overtime pay/differential.
When they succeed, the next whining you hear is that they “can’t find qualified people to fill our open positions”
+1 And search and rescue is a highly skilled profession that frequently operates in dangerous situations.
“+1 And search and rescue is a highly skilled profession that frequently operates in dangerous situations.”
About 12 years ago my neighbor had a fire right behind the back fence of their yard. It was probably started by someone walking the road, anyway there was a telephone pole , a fence and a tree that went up pretty quick and it threatened my neighbors house. Myself, a couple of other neighbors and some other people who saw the flames used 5 gallon buckets to get water from their pool and fight the fire. We also took the hoses from my house and the neighbors house and kept the roof wet so the embers did not set the house on fire. After fighting this fire for about 20 minutes we heard the sirens coming our way, and then we heard the sirens going past the wrong way, and then we heard the sirens coming back our way, and then the sirens went another wrong way. Well, finally the fire-rescue employees made it. Had it not been for the people who came out to help their neighbor and in some cases a total stranger the Gold Plated Fire Dept. would have once again saved the slab. This was the second time that I had been a part of putting out a fire in Palm Beach County where the highly skilled professionals couldn`t make it.
I’m sure they are a little better about the address now that they have GPS.
Which is why they let the volunteers, like me, do it for free.
You’ve got it, x-GS.
I guess the global financial crisis must be easing up, now that stock markets are going up again?
Global Dow Realtime USD
DJI: GDOW
Market closed 1,764.21
Change +2.53 +0.14%
Volume 929.11m
Sep 13, 2011 7:51 a.m.
Previous close 1,761.68
Day low 1,752.17
Day high 1,771.35
Open: 1,761.88
52 week low 1,752.17
52 week high 2,270.47
P.S. The Global Dow Index seems headed down the path the Baltic Dry Index already went: Currently off from its 52 week high by
(1,764.21/2,270.47-1)*100 = -22.3%.
Mark Hulbert Archives | Email alerts
Sept. 13, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Insiders betting heavily on stocks
There is one longer-term indicator that is quite bullish right now, however — suggesting that, even if the Aug. 10 lows are broken in coming weeks, the market is nevertheless likely to be markedly higher than today in several months’ time. This indicator is based on the behavior of corporate insiders — a company’s officers, directors and largest shareholders.
When I last wrote about the insiders, on Aug. 9, I reported that they had responded to the stock market’s early-August plunge by stepping up to the plate “in a big way.” ( Read my. Aug. 9 column on insider behavior. )
The insiders are even more bullish today than then.
Consider a ratio of the total number of shares recently sold by insiders of all publicly traded corporations in the U.S., to the number of shares they purchased. According to the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, published by Argus Research, the average level of this ratio over the last four decades is between 2-to-1 and 2.5-to-1. They therefore consider it to be bullish whenever this ratio drops below that long-term average.
The ratio for insider transactions last week, according to the latest Vickers Weekly Insider Report, was 1.27-to-1. The eight-week average of this ratio, which smooths out the week-to-week volatility, is an even more bullish 1.03-to-1.
This is the lowest level for the eight-week ratio since late 2008 and early 2009. The bull market, of course, began in March 2009.
P.S. The Global Dow Index seems headed down the path the Baltic Dry Index already went: Currently off from its 52 week high by
(1,764.21/2,270.47-1)*100 = -22.3%.”
Looks like another recession no matter what bull government bankers spew
if we lose the middle class what good are all the middle class suburban homes we built ?
Dean Baker seems to think that a new US recession, at least, is unlikely. His arguement is that in order to have a recession according to the technical definition, you have to have actually negative growth, and that there has been so little recovery in growth since the last recession ended, that there isn’t a lot of room for pull backs that could lead to a recession. He points out that housing and car sales haven’t “bounced back” enough for a large enough cut back to go negative to make sense. In addion, he thinks that the government sector isn’t really large enough for the cuts there to actually cause a recession (I think he made an exception if an actual federal balanced budget requirement came into play).
None of this means that the economy won’t feel like a recession, but actual negative GDP for two consecutive quarters might not be in the cards.
and that there has been so little recovery in growth since the last recession ended, that there isn’t a lot of room for pull backs that could lead to a recession.”
I see his point but don’t buy it, home prices have gone down so much how can they fall further?
I see a generational recession lasting a long time here, but who knows?
Werid thought of the day, back in the old days the US government put indians on reservations in crappy areas just to manage them. fast forward 2011 the US government will put chronicly unemployeed poor people on reservations to manage them in crappy areas like Phoenix AZ
now I like Phoenix but look what happened to palmdale CA
I hope the markets begin to stabilize and that we see some growth up in this b..ch. That is the only way out if Americans want to keep the current level of services and not face higher taxes.
Higher taxes are exactly what we need. There are two things we need to do in order to increase revenues:
1. Bring our jobs back to the U.S. — that means fixing our tax and trade policies so that companies are rewarded for employing Americans, and punished for shipping jobs overseas. It also means tariffs.
2. Do away with the “tax cuts for the rich,” since it clearly is NOT helping our economy. All this has done is increase the wealth and income disparity in our country. They’ve had YEARS to prove that tax cuts create jobs, and they have FAILED to do so. Not only that, but the last time tax rates were this low was right before the Great Depression.
Who could have imagined last month’s vitriolic partisan wrangling over the debt ceiling would serve to throw a wrench into the Great American Jobs Creation Machine?
Sept. 13, 2011, 7:30 a.m. EDT
Small-business index declines in August: NFIB
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The National Federation of Independent Business’ small-business optimism index declined 1.8 points in August to 88.1, the sixth drop in a row. “The tumultuous debate over the nation’s debt ceiling and a dramatic 11th hour ‘rescue’ by lawmakers did nothing to improve the outlook of job-makers. In fact, hope for improvement in the economy faded even further throughout the month, proving that short-term fixes will not help,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. Sales remain the largest problem for small firms - a full quarter identifying “poor sales” as their top business problem, the NFIB said.
The Republicrat-faciliated shift from a productive economy to a speculative casino “economy” based on mostly fraudulent “shareholder value” is the real culprit for job losses.
+1,000,000, Sammy
Politics, not economics to blame for poor U.S. financial state
Marketplace Morning Report, Monday, September 12, 2011
The banking crisis, housing bubble and other financial meltdowns have caused our economy to spiral downward. But Fortune Magazine’s Allan Sloan says it’s the political acrimony now that’s dragging down the economy.
…
Sloan: Politics are making the economic problems much worse than they have to be. We’ve got what amounts to economic paralysis in Washington. And as a bonus, this debate — in which fanatics on the one hand and incompetence on the other are participating — almost got this country to default on its debts. And that whole thing is still destabilizing the world financial system.
Chiotakis: Alright, but can you really blame politicians completely, Allan? I mean, the crisis came from the mortgage mess and the credit crisis and the banking collapse — all of that, right?
Sloan: Right. But I’m not blaming politicians for the original problem.
Chiotakis: Yeah.
Sloan: What I’m blaming them for now is the continuing problem, the lack of confidence, and the sense I get — for the first time in 40 something years of writing about this stuff — that there is not a grown-up in power in Washington. And when stuff hits the fan, which I suspect it will, we’re going to have to really hope that someone saves us, because the politicians sure aren’t going to do it.
Chiotakis: Do you think it’s going to get worse, Allan? We’ve got what promises to be a pretty contentious battle for this Republican nomination, and the 2012 general election coming up itself. So, does it get better? Does it get worse?
Sloan: I think it gets worse until after the election. And maybe, after the election, whoever’s in power will come to their senses and do the obvious things which have been talked about endlessly, and begin to fix this problem. But I really do not look forward to this campaign — I’ve just resigned the Republican party. I’m hoping to start the grown-up party — are you willing to sign up Steve?
Chiotakis: I love being a grown-up, grown-ups are great!
“we’re going to have to really hope that someone saves us,”
Lol.
“after the election, whoever’s in power will come to their senses and do the obvious things which have been talked about endlessly”
ummm…who has been talking about these obvious things endlessly? certainly not the MSM.
We’ve had a generational mania, so let’s consider the probable outcome in that light. We won’t be “saved”. Noone did this to us. No one can “save” us. We will not have a different outcome until we do differently. We will not do differently until after we collapse, hit bottom, crash & burn, & etc.
I’m sure that people felt that way during the Weimar years. Then a guy with a funny mustache showed up…
My in-laws were kids in Germany when Hitler rose to power. He was seen as a Messiah that got Germany back on its feet. Then he started some wars …
Stupid republicans. If they had just gone along to get along, and quietly agreed to continue raising the debt ceiling forever, we’d be in much better economic shape than we are now.
Debt is wealth.
So if the Republicans win the White House and Congress in 2012, will they continue to cut spending to rein in the deficit or will they change their tune to goose the economy? Will they refuse to raise the debt ceiling when they own both houses of Congress and the White House?
If they succeed in cutting SS and Medicare for those under 55, how long will it be before the younger folks clamor for everyone to share their pain?
Will health insurance premiums drop when they repeal Obamacare?
How many jobs will be created when the corporate tax rates are reduced and offshore revenues are repatriated?
If the R’s cut SS and Medicare, that will get the young fired up in a hurry. All they need to do is elect one good Congress to reinstate anything and everything. (might even get a Public Option out of it.)
Lots of rumbling on the local electronic boards about retail prices rising. It’s just so weird as we ‘ve come here to discuss what’s going on to see just how little these people understand what’s happening. They’re actually blaming their particular store for being greedy. They don’t seem to have recognized yet or at least the ones posting don’t seem to understand this is going on across the board and it has nothing to do w/the retail establishments who have probably already shaved their margins razor thin hoping to not lose customers or routine purchases.
Lots of rumbling on the local electronic boards about retail prices rising.”
Whats a local electronic board ?
Telephone
I’m thinking local discussion boards like this one. Maybe the local fishwrap’s online version.
~ Good news like this should send the DOW up!
US working-age losing ground amid unemployment.
Census data expected to show US working-age losing ground in terms of poverty, insurance September 13, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurt by high unemployment, working-age Americans are expected to lose ground when new census figures on poverty and the uninsured are released.
The Census Bureau on Tuesday is releasing its annual report on United States economic well-being for 2010, when unemployment averaged 9.6 percent.
The figures also are expected to show a 10th year of decline in the share of people with employer-provided insurance, reaching a new low. Currently just over 55 percent of people receive health coverage through their work.
Congress passed a health overhaul last year to address the rising numbers of uninsured people, but its main provisions don’t take effect until 2014.
Analysts also predict that the U.S. poverty rate will increase from its current level of 14.3 percent, or 1 in 7.
The surprise is that the Tea Party has now matured and looks good . The Media tried for months to kill them off any way they could . And now they are sharing the limelight with CNN news as the debate sponsers. Wow.
RNC troll alert
DNC Troll Alert.
Sigh.
What happened to lunch at Katz Deli? I’m really looking forward to it.
Kasbah. 85th between B-way and West End.
Next week.
Looks good? I mean, they are amusing in that Simposns crazy cat lady sor of way, but kind of scary, as if someone gave her a machine gun and you arent out of range.
Are you kidding? The Media LOVES the Tea Party. For them it’s a free reality show, full of hot women,* good looking** guys, Texas shoot-em-ups, and all the internal spats and dysfunction of the Osbourne family. They are sharing the limelight because they bring in eyeballs so that CNN can charge extra high ad rates for corporate powerhouses like Chevron and Boeing.
—————
*Bachman and Palin.
**Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan are considered attractive — Ryan especially within the *ahem* less-conventional lifestyle. I don’t see the appeal, but there it is.
Campaign slogan for Perry:
Ladies, vote for Rick Perry. He cares about your pussy.
Vote for Perry the Pussy Prezident.
(somebody stop me!)
ooh, ooh, I’ve got a better one:
Perry and the Pussy Posse.
(somebody stop me!)
Who pulled the goalie?
Perry for Pussydent!
Having met Perry, he is very charismatic in person and the women are quite taken with him.
Now if he would just quit going to the barber college for his haircuts.
Or is his mom still doing it in the kitchen with the sheep shears?
How about “Perry the Peltmaster”?
Oh sorry, that’s “pArry”.
Now if he would just quit going to the barber college for his haircuts.
Or is his mom still doing it in the kitchen with the sheep shears?
Hey, watch it! You just insulted barber colleges, sheep, and Rick Perry’s mother.
Actually it sounded like the end of a game of Clue. It was the mom, in the kitchen, with the sheep shears.
I thought both Romney and Perry were channeling Pepe Le Pieu!
My favorite part of the TeaKoch debate? When Wolf asked if we should just let the hypothetical 30-year-old who didn’t buy health insurance but got sick die, members of the audience cheered and shouted ‘yes’.
Other than that, Romney did well, and Santorum and Bachmann did better than I expected- landing a lot of punches on Perry. Huntsman was a dud (although I liked his Nirvana allusion that, predictably, no one in the audience seemed to get), and I think Ron Paul lost some ground- the TeaKoch partiers want more anger from their candidates, and his explanation of Al Qaeda’s motivation sounded remarkably like he agreed with them- and therefore drew a nice round of boos.
Perry was attacked on all sides and looked flustered and confused at times, especially over his explanation of the HPV vaccinations he ordered for Texas’s pre-teens, and his defense of in-state college tuition for illegal aliens. Both issues are impossible to justify to an audience of TeaKochers, and I think his weak explanations (why didn’t he have some canned responses all ready for such obvious and predictable attacks?), didn’t win anyone over that wasn’t already for him, and may have turned some undecided Teadrinkers against him.
“…members of the audience cheered and shouted ‘yes’.”
Republican mobs are scary to behold. It must have felt much the same way to pre-WWII Germans witnessing the rise of Adolph Hitler.
CNN/Tea Party Debate Crowd Cheers Trying Fed Chair Ben Bernanke For Treason
by Tommy Christopher | 9:30 pm, September 12th, 2011
At Monday night’s CNN/Tea Party Debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Michele Bachmann if she agreed that fed chairman Ben Bernanke should be tried for treason. Bachmann passed on the question of Bernanke’s possible trial for his life. In a moment reminiscent of last week’s Death Penalty Ovation, the audience was unequivocal, cheering the suggestion loudly. Given the opportunity to recant, Gov. Rick Perry corrected Blitzer as to his original statement, and doubled down instead.
Blitzer actually framed his question to Bachmann inaccurately, saying that Governor Perry “suggested that Ben Bernanke potentially should be tried for treason for what he’s doing.”
While not way off base, it was at least a slight upsell from Perry’s actual statement, which was that “Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.”
In any case, while Bachmann twice declined to agree with the stronger language (saying only that she would not re-appoint Bernanke), the audience ate it up, cheering loudly. It’s unclear at this time whether those cheering were from the CNN half of the audience, or the Tea Party half.
Blitzer then put the question to Perry, who corrected Blitzer’s paraphrase, and called it a “statement of fact. I am not a fan of the current chairman allowing that Federal Reserve to cover up bad fiscal policy by this administration.”
Fair enough. While “not a fan” means not shelling out the dough for a CD to some people, to others, it means accusing them of near-treason.
…
“Republican mobs are scary to behold.”
They truly are. Plan your exit strategy before it’s too late.
Because they want to leave someone alone they are scary? LOL.
Huh?
How is forcing teens to get HPV vaccines and trying to control a woman’s body “leaving someone alone”?
“Republican mobs are scary to behold. It must have felt much the same way to pre-WWII Germans witnessing the rise of Adolph Hitler.”
Kind of like what we have seen from your Union Brothers up in Washington State and the Rent-a-mob protesters they bussed in to Wisconsin.
Wait — who let the RNC trolls back into the conversation?
They were defending their rights and their contracts. How in the world can you equate that with the Tea Partiers’ desire to watch people die in the streets because they couldn’t afford health insurance?
And where in the world did you get the insane notion that they had “Rent a mob” protesters in Wisconsin? Who paid whom? I was involved in protests in California and never saw anyone who was paid to be there. The only ones who were bussed into Wisconsin (and paid?) were the pathetic handful of Tea Party protesters.
When Wolf asked if we should just let the hypothetical 30-year-old who didn’t buy health insurance but got sick die, members of the audience cheered and shouted ‘yes’.
OK, how would the posters here answer that question?
I certainly wouldn’t answer by cheering. That is just sick, and it is also sick that the RNC panders to American society’s basest instincts.
And also sick that CNN allowed audiences to cheer and boo. I thought audiences were supposed to be silent and serious at these things. It’s the Roman Circus all over again.
starting with the columns obama used as the backdrop during his acceptance speech.
I certainly wouldn’t answer by cheering. That is just sick
And I’m sure most of these folks will insist that they have a “personal relationship” with a certain Jesus of Nazareth and also claim to be full of the Holy Spirit.
Yep. It’s all part of the Hitler impersonation act.
Oh, you know, just handle it like every other civilized country on the damn planet does. Not too hard.
RNC and “civilized” don’t mix.
DNC troll alert!
Unimaginative copy cat alert!
Didn’t or couldnt?? Because the main problem with health insurance is PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD IT.
During the health care debate there was a talking point meme that Americans were “refusing” to pay for insurance.
Interestingly enough, governments can’t afford it either.. NHS in England is having serious funding problems…
Luckily, the UK had plenty of money to bail out their bankers.
The British NHS may be the most cost-effective health care system in the world. They probably spend less than half of what we spend per capita with barely any measurable difference in health outcomes.
Or course, the while experience could be made more pleasant if the government decided to spend more, but they haven’t done that. It’s policy to keep costs down.
Meanwhile, just like the American taxpayer, the British taxpayer is probably paying to build shools and clinics in Afghanistan.
Since most insurance companies will automatically deny coverage for just about anything, the 30 year old would just die anyhow, after years of paying $1,500/mo. premiums for the insurance scam. The money wasted on paying premiums for worthless insurance could have been used for something productive.
When Wolf asked if we should just let the hypothetical 30-year-old who didn’t buy health insurance but got sick die, members of the audience cheered and shouted ‘yes’.
OK, how would the posters here answer that question?
Pretend you are an illegal and get free medical care?
Doesn’t quite work that way here in Tucson.
Matter of fact, one of our biggest local hospitals (University Medical Center) got so tired of all the uncompensated care that it was providing for illegal immigrants that it very publicly said that it was going to start reporting them to what’s now called Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
UMC is very close to where I live. When I go over that way, I usually see at least one Border Patrol vehicle parked out front.
So, if the illegals are looking for free care, they probably won’t find it at UMC. But they will find la migra.
Hallelujah! (SoCalEnvy)
Second that…Hallelujah!
I assume anybody can get the same free medical care as an illegal if they stop worrying about their credit rating.
Only if we’re going to let 67 year olds that can’t pay die also.
The double standard is astounding.
I really liked RP’s answer to that. (loose quote) ” When I worked in the hospital in the 60’s we had no medicare or medicaid. We never turned anyone away”.
If someone has to decide if healthcare needs to be rationed, I’d like it to be the doctors themselves deciding who gets it and who doesn’t. That seems more efficient than either an insurance company or gov’t paper pusher deciding.
Also, if the guy gets sick and the hospital takes care of him, can’t he pay the bill when he’s recovered? If it takes him all his life to pay, is it worth it? Would you pay for the rest of your life to have your life saved? Seems like a fair trade to me… He has plenty of time to ask for charity after his life is saved. And maybe he will a) buy insurance, and if he pays off his debt in a few years b) donate to others who are unfortunate.
And maybe he will a) buy insurance, and if he pays off his debt in a few years b) donate to others who are unfortunate.
After his life is saved, an insurance company will probably find some “pre-existing condition” that will bar him from coverage. Or, if they write him a policy, it will cost an arm and a leg.
I thought Obamacare would/will preclude any discrimination for a pre-existing condition.
“If it takes him all his life to pay, is it worth it?”
Debt slavery or death? Or maybe bankruptcy, until medical debt is made non-dischargeable.
If you are unconscious when brought in to the ER, you have no choice. Someone else makes it for you.
Better I get to pay off my medical bills as a debt slave than a politician redirect my medical trust fund to start a war in Iraq.
“Better I get to pay off my medical bills as a debt slave than a politician redirect my medical trust fund to start a war in Iraq.”
As if those are the only 2 choices.
Are doctors not allowed to do charity work? Of course they are.
The doctors are already deciding who amongst the uninsured they’ll work on for free. Not many, apparently.
The individual, unincorporated docs can do charity work, but the labs, radiologists, nurses, billing staff, pharmacies, social services, janitorial, equipment, advertising, PR, HR, OR, ER, et al staffs sure as $&%$ won’t.
A resounding no. But then I favor Medicare for everyone.
As in no, you do not let the 30 year old die.
I agree. But I can see under the current system how the people killing themselves to remain insured would be testy about freebies for others.
I would think that those who are killing themselves paying for insurance would welcome the opportunity to not kill themselves and pay for some actual care instead of insurance.
Won’t ER take him?
And present him with a bill for $20,000 (or more or less) after he is discharged. ER is not free unless you qualify for 100% charity care under that hospital’s policy and they approve you and they have enough left in that year’s charity care budget for your bill.
Six months in ICU? More like $2 Million.
well OHBahhh mah made my choice…..use the emergency room and damnnn the cost they cant turn you away….not that i have done it yet and claim i have illegal parents and ….they shacked up never got married so i am a Bas***d will that keep the bill collectors away?
It would have been so easy to just cover the people who were too rich for welfare but too poor to have ther own health insurance…
Citizenship has responsibilities.
If this hypothetical person can’t be bothered to support our country’s medical system, he shouldn’t expect to be treated by it when (not “if,”) he needs it.
I don’t agree with America’s military-industrial oligarchy and resent being taxed to support it, but I still pay my fair share as a cost of the intrinsic (though dubious,) benefits I passively receive from it.
Similarly, I maintain a private-payer health insurance policy at significant financial sacrifice despite the fact that it is essentially useless.
Whether the insurance industry is equitable, moral, or even necessary is not what’s in question here. Our country needs a single-payer public health system to ensure that free-loaders like this hypothetical individual (and rapacious “health” insurance corporations,) don’t game the system at the expense of the responsible citizenry who struggle to pay for it.
the TeaKoch partiers want more anger ??
Thats all they have…
There certainly isn’t much compassion there… or Christianity for that matter. How is that that the evangelicals and TeaTrash are on the same team?
They believe getting sick is a charactor flaw. Much like getting laid off.
There is a difference between compassion and taxation. There is no compassion in taxation. Pay or go to jail.
If that were true then the all the wealthy elite would be in jail.
Great assessment, alpha. Completely agree.
Too-big-to-fail isn’t quite the Article of Faith over in the Eurozone which it appears to be among America’s financial leaders.
Signs show Greece inching closer to debt default
By David Brancaccio Marketplace Index, Monday, September 12, 2011
While the U.S. holds little of that debt, an increasingly linked global banking system puts us at risk.
The Greek flag and the U.S. Capitol Building. (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images & Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Today, as we read up on Greece’s growing debt crisis, we noticed this sentence in the Wall Street Journal:
That’s right, an interest rate of more than 65 percent for anyone who is willing to take the risk of lending Greece money, in this case on a two-year bond. In other words, it’s a bond that nobody would ever want.
…
Can Bank of America CEO salvage the company?
Marketplace Morning Report, Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Bank of America announced massive layoffs this week, but it isn’t the same situation as Lehman Brothers a few years ago. Still, CEO Brian Moynihan faces tough challenges ahead.
…
Can Bank of America CEO salvage the company?
No, he can’t. Time to shut the bad parts down and sell off the good parts. I seem to recall that’s what the RTC did after the S&Ls went ker-flewie.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2707598
We’re all Greece - and on fire. CDSs on the PIIGS up an astounding 60% today as the logical end-state of socialist/Keynesian economics hits home.
‘We can no longer borrow dollars. U.S. money-market funds are not lending to us anymore,” a bank executive for BNP Paribas, who declines to be named, told me last week. “Since we don’t have access to dollars anymore, we’re creating a market in euros. This is a first. . . . We hope it will work, otherwise the downward spiral will be hell. We will no longer be trusted at all and no one will lend to us anymore.”
Buckle-Up…..
Trade imbalances man.
The people on the surplus side LOVE them, right up until the people on the deficit side can’t actually make good on the IOUs.
~So TTT is going over to meet. This should work out very well for the great American taxpayer.
ITEM: Merkel warns on Greece, Obama voices U.S. alarm
BERLIN/ROME (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought on Tuesday to quash talk of an imminent Greek default as the United States voiced fresh concern at the euro zone’s inability to master its debt crisis.
Merkel said in radio interview that Europe was doing everything in its power to avoid a Greek default and urged politicians in her own coalition to weigh their words carefully to avoid creating turmoil on financial markets.
Asked by RBB inforadio whether a Greek default would doom the euro, she answered: “We are using all the tools we have to prevent this. We need to avoid all disorderly processes with regards to the euro.”
Calling Europe’s challenge “historic,” Merkel added that everything must be done to keep the euro zone intact “because we would see domino effects very quickly.”
President Barack Obama expressed his concern in an interview with Spanish journalists published on Tuesday. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will take the unprecedented step of attending a meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland on Friday.
It will be Geithner’s second trip to Europe in a week after he met his main EU counterparts at a G7 meeting in Marseille — a measure of growing alarm in Washington about the crisis.
Obama was quoted as saying euro zone leaders need to show markets they are taking responsibility for the debt crisis and work out how to tally monetary union with budget policy.
Greece is the immediate concern, but an even bigger problem is what may happen should markets take another run at the larger economies of Spain and Italy, he said.
“It is difficult to coordinate and agree a common path when you have so many countries with different policies and economic situations,” Obama said, according to El Mundo newspaper’s website.(www.elmundo.es)
“In the end the big countries in Europe, the leaders in Europe must meet and take a decision on how to coordinate monetary integration with more effective co-ordinated fiscal policy,” the news agency EFE quoted him as saying.
“This should work out very well for the great American taxpayer.”
Is the U.S. proposing to pinch hit for Germany?
No word on that yet, but TTT has never done this before, and everyone knows that he & BB lied about the depth of our involvement with the euro bank bailouts. So it stands to reason in my mind that these liars are as usual up to no good, of course they will never admit to it.
+1. US future taxpayers being put on the hook for trillions more in bankster liabilities. Thank you, Obama voters. Thank you, McCain voters.
Thank you, Obama voters. McCain voters just ‘threw their votes away.’
“…that he & BB lied about the depth of our involvement with the euro bank bailouts.”
we knew TTT was a liar before he ever even stepped foot in the office.
he was made head of the IRS by obama…yet would never had been eligible for a low level IRS agent position for cheating on his taxes.
unbelievable.
someone the other day was making fun of cliched leadership phrases and even questioned the meaning of leadership.
appointing a tax cheat as head of the IRS in violation of a basic standard applied to all levels within that agency is very, very, poor leadership.
“We are the people we’ve been waiting for!”
Reading over the postings and comments here on the HBB, I realize that the current system, legal and financial, globally and nationally, has utterly failed and is no longer workable. I don’t think this has really dawned on anyone, it really just dawned on me. I guess there needs to be some sort of “event” to make it official, and that event hasn’t happened yet.
“…unbelievable.”
Too disappointing to stomach, really…
Reading over the postings and comments here on the HBB, I realize that the current system, legal and financial, globally and nationally, has utterly failed and is no longer workable. I don’t think this has really dawned on anyone, it really just dawned on me. </i.
The same thought has crossed my mind. The current system doesn’t work anymore. The only outcome I can see is global poverty as consumers worldwide cannot afford the goods and services that are being produced.
Just as what the Soviets called “Communism” collapsed, what we call “Capitalism” (which is the concentration of all wealth into the hands of the very few while expecting the masses and governments to get further and further into debt so that they may continue to “consume”) is on its death throes and our worldwide collective collapse will happen as suddenly as the Soviet empire fell.
As for what will replace it, I have no idea.
I realize that the current system, legal and financial, globally and nationally, has utterly failed and is no longer workable. I don’t think this has really dawned on anyone, it really just dawned on me.
I think the Armageddon types are way ahead of you.
“appointing a tax cheat ”
Another RNC meme… Rush especially loved this one.
The same thought has crossed my mind. The current system doesn’t work anymore. The only outcome I can see is global poverty as consumers worldwide cannot afford the goods and services that are being produced.
Just as what the Soviets called “Communism” collapsed, what we call “Capitalism” (which is the concentration of all wealth into the hands of the very few while expecting the masses and governments to get further and further into debt so that they may continue to “consume”) is on its death throes and our worldwide collective collapse will happen as suddenly as the Soviet empire fell.
——————-
Excellent post, Colorado. I especially liked the bolded part. Very succinct and spot-on.
Sounds like they created a moral hazard problem for themselves. Now other countries may expect the Fed to step up as bailout agency of last resort, especially if the alternative looks bad for Wall Street Megabanks.
Whom do you think insured up to 50% of the Eurozone’s 70% liability here? Hmmmm?
I’ll give you a clue…. It starts with AIG.
Euro crisis reaching a crescendo
Marketplace, Monday, September 12, 2011
The euro could collapse or Germany could bail out debt-ridden eurozone nations. Europe correspondent Stephen Beard discusses the eurozone’s options.
A general view of Athens with the Acropolis
A general view of Athens with the Acropolis Hill in the background. (Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images)
Kai Ryssdal: Today’s update on the European debt crisis goes a little something like this: Greece is in trouble, and the Germans don’t really want to pay for another bailout. That’s an oversimplification, to be sure, but not much of one. The slightly longer version goes like this: People are slowly coming to grips with the fact that Athens might actually default, sooner rather than later. And that big banks in France, Germany, and right here, are dangerously exposed to it.
…
“Ryssdal: Let me see, though, if I can put it in more black and white terms. Which one is more expensive? Is it more expensive to let the euro collapse or is it more expensive to bail out five to six small- to medium-sized European economies?”
for who?
the banksters?
or the citizens of germany?
“Greece is in trouble”
I solve my problems and I see the light
We got a bailout thing, we gotta feed it right
There ain’t no danger we can go to far
We start believing now that we can be what we are
Greece is the word
They think our debt is just a growing pain
Why don’t they understand, It’s just a crying shame
Their lips are lying only real is real
We stop the fight right now, we got to be what feel
Greece is the word
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
We take the bailout and we throw away
Conventionalitly belongs to yesterday
There is no chance that we can make it far
We start believing now but we can be who we are
Greece is the word
It’s got debt through the ceiling
Greece is the time, is the place is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
This is the life of illusion
Right trouble laced with confusion
What are we doing?
Greece is the word
It’s got groove it’s got meaning
Greece is the time, is the place is the motion
Greece is the way we are feeling
Alright jeff, come clean. How many tracks available on iTunes have you written the lyrics for?
Yikes, my old English teacher is rolling over in her grave!
If reports are correct it sounds like Italy’s on default’s doorstep too. Just to put a little more pressure on the Germans.
Yet Another Sane Voice In The MSM
Is the truth gaining currency or is this the patient with lung cancer facing up to the fact that when coughing up half your lung in the morning into the sink you really are screwed?
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.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=193987
Who would take possession of the homes? Would they all go to REO?
This is going to sound weird, but I’d rather buy a house BEFORE the FB’s all walk. When the biofuel hits the wind turbine, FB’s generally swing a sledgehammer while they walk.
I see no reason to wait for a house to drop $30K if the FB is going to leave $30K of damage behind.
Are you too lazy or incapable to hire an inspector before you buy a home? Nobody is going to put a gun to your head and force you to pay $30,000 too much for a damaged home.
How about we kick our addiction to imports and make our own stuff? Or is saving $5 on a Chinese vacuum cleaner that will fall apart too important?
Testify, brothah! I had some piece of Chinese crap fall apart on me recently, I even forget what the heck it was.
Repudiate the debt for everyone, the system no longer works, let’s acknowledge that now and get it over with. Unhook from the global system, that could be the second American revolution.
What you say is possible, but there’s two hurdles:
1. It will be perceived (resisted) by many to be a reduction in their standard of living
2. It will seriously challenge a long-entrenched PTB status quo
Ah-ha! VERY interesting. Because this was Palmy’s suggestion starting a couple of years ago. Repudiate the debt. Wipe the board and re-set. Of course, this was seen as completely naive and ridiculous by a number of posters here at the HBB.
As Ben has pointed out, none of this is going to be repaid, so why prolong the misery? Have done with it now.
Wht default on $15T when you can default later on $50T. Kick the can baby!
good one.
If this happens I hope there is time to max out my credit … I owe no one as of today. If I do not then once again I will have to pay for those who make poor decisions or are criminals. Sucks to be an American living within our means!!
I hear you on that one.
What about the renters and savers who are NOT in debt?
“Default. A national Chapter 11 bankruptcy.”
Is he saying we force everyone into bankruptcy whether they like it or not? Or that many people should file for BK, and start over.
The first option seems kind of unconstitutional. The second is available to anyone who chooses to take it, and many will- that they will do it spread out over a longer period rather than all at once is probably a good thing.
“Is he saying we force everyone into bankruptcy whether they like it or not?”
????????? Where the heck did you get that from?
I don’t understand what, specifically, he is calling for.
I got that he was saying to allow it, make it a national policy without fear of retribution, just wipe the slate and let the banksters take it on the chin, like they should have in the first place.
Of course, if people WANT to keep paying their debts, I don’t think anyone would argue or haul them to court. But there are people who are, right now, carrying tremendous burdens who would take that opportunity, not just because of the debt, but for other reasons.
For example, the misery is compounded by having bought into a HOA now inhabited by folks who paid half what many original buyers paid, renters, Section 8, even squatters. Some folks, if they were in a good living situation, would continue to somewhat cheerfully pay if they could afford it. But it becomes more onerous if you’re living next door or across the street from thugs or whatever. I saw that happen in the condo complex where I used to rent.
Why would anyone pay their debts if they could get their slate wiped clean without retribution (I assume you mean no bad mark to your credit, no seizing of assets)? Wouldn’t the FBs who were living in the most heavily heloced houses, with the highest credit card balances, benefit the most from such a program?
Wouldn’t the FBs who were living in the most heavily heloced houses, with the highest credit card balances, benefit the most from such a program?
That’s my take on it which is why I’ve started having feelings that being a saver and having no debt might in the end be the losing side of the bet.
Well….I seem to be able to entertain that train of thought but taking action is a whole other ball wax. My need to not be beholden to the credit monster runs deep.
So how can we determine how this will play out? Are they seizing homes in Greece? Did they seize homes in Iceland? How about Japan? Weimar Germany? What is the historic model that best fits this situation?
Depends on what you mean by “benefit.” If you can’t afford to heat it, cool it, pay the property taxes and commute from/to it, no house is a bargain.
And I still think you are all overreacting. The possiblility of this happening is zero. Nada. Zilch. A few op-eds don’t make this a national policy or even a proposal.
“The possiblility of this happening is zero.”
I’m still not sure what ‘this’ is. He calls for a national Chapter 11, but I still can’t tell if it’s voluntary and up to each individual- which is what we already have- or it’s nationwide and done all at once for everyone and all debts, and that’s that.
Is the Jubilee a-coming?
I think he might be talking about setting up the infrastructure to allow it to happen (hire thousands of new bankruptcy judges, completely overhaul the procedures for doing it so people can represent themselves, etc. - a massive streamlining of the process) coupled with the leaders telling people that this is what they ought to do and that it is really OK and not a bad thing at all. Not that he says so, but that is what would be required for millions of people to default and declare bankruptcy. Oh, and you would have to set up new bank rules to force them to hire the people needed to process the paperwork.
Yeah, right. Like the financial industry is going to allow that. And all those defaulted upon loans have a home - pension fund, mutual fund, insurance company or bank reserves, hedge fund, university endowment, private foundation, etc. Someone will take the hit and they will fight not to have it happen. And where will the credit default swaps hit? No one even knows that one.
Which is why credit default swaps should not exist…or if they do exist, they should be highly regulated, fully transparent, and sold only by well-capitalized entities.
This was the climax of the move Fight Club.
Sort of like Control-Alt-Delete for the American economy?
Seems like it might be difficult to reboot the economy without rebooting everything else as well.
Today’s houses:
House 1: The nice family home…
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3406-May-St-Silver-Spring-MD-20906/37307802_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
1955 3/2 split. It says it’s 1069 sq ft, but that does not include the half-basement, which are almost always finished in split levels, as it is here. Nice hardwood floors, good family yard… and the most badly laid out kitchen I have ever seen.
Sep 1998: Sold $77K (low for the time)
Jan 2002: Zestimated $195K
Apr 2005: Sold $377K
Jul 2011: Listed $250K <— $40K too high.
House 2: the nice multifamily commune
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1500-Ednor-Rd-Silver-Spring-MD-20905/37200817_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
1948 6/3 rambler on 0.8 of an acre! The listing says “single family” but bah, plenty of bedrooms for all your brothers and their families. Basement. Additions off the back. Plenty of driveway space and yard for all your vehicles. Separate entryways too…
Too bad there’s only the one picture. I wonder what the inside looks like. They say there’s a 2-car garage, but I’m not so sure…
Feb 2002: Zestimated $247K
Feb 2007: Sold $535K
Jan 2009: Listed $315K
Jan 2011: Listed $215K
sep 2011: Listed $275K
Don’t know what’s up with the hanky-panky pricing…
6 bedrooms in a 1428 sq foot house? Hmmmmm. Gotta be NYC studio size BRs.
sq footage does not include basement and garage.
I suspect that those walls have not heard English spoken in th past 10-15 years.
These numbers are meaningless. The main floor of my house is below grade in one place (about three feet of the perimeter) and therefore the entire floor does not count in the square footage (it’s considered “basement”). That gives me similar nonsensical values.
The second house raises a lot of flags. It’s being sold as-is, and the listing says “DON’T GO OUT WITHOUT APPOINTMENT.” What, we’re not allowed to drive by? What are they hiding?
They’re waiting for the SWAT team to clear out the meth lab first…
SWAT teams don’t do that.
What you need is a crime scene cleanup company, and, yes, they do exist. I’m told that the work is pretty gross, but the pay can be very sweet.
Both homes are too expensive for anyone raising a family.
Any other family size dwelling (3-bed townhouse or small SFH) would RENT for more than the mortgage payments on these houses.
There aren’t a lot of housing options in this area.
Which is why so many people get those “Serve the Country” goosebumps and then tamp ‘em down. The housing situation in the DC area is that big of a deterrent.
“There aren’t a lot of housing options in this area.”
I know the situation too well being born and raised in California, but I also know my limitations. I’d say it’s time to weigh anchor. It’s better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven, and 30-yrs of digging out of a $275k mortgage can be hell on earth particularly given our threadbare employment scene.
OMG! That house on Ednor Road — I actually tried to get an appointment to view that house much earlier this year, I want to say March-ish. The listing agent told me the house had already sold in an all-cash deal. My recollection is that he was curt and not at all forthcoming. The house disappeared from the listings and I never gave it another thought until now. I wonder what happened? That neighborhood is actually very nice and most houses sell for considerably more. There are several horse farms in the area.
That may explain why the $215K listing was “removed.” Maybe it was sold but not properly recorded? Now what are they trying to do? Flip it for a group home?
Maybe 215K was the auction reserve?
The 10 Most Depressing States
http://tinyurl.com/3ra8ym4 (weather.com)
High rates of mental illness play a major role in these rankings.
The Nevada picture is enough to depress me.
I have lived in West Virginia for nine years, and I can honestly say that my family, and my neighbors, are a damn sight less depressed than we were in South Florida.
Walking out my front door this morning in the 67 degree air and seeing deer and bluebirds, as compared to walking out into 88 degree, 90% humidity and seeing mostly superheated asphalt, has a lot to do with it I’m sure.
Aren’t most of those places “right to work for less pay” states?
I think Michigan is a “right to burn on your break” state.
Interesting question Colorado…Texas is and they are not on the list…Maybe because of all that oil money sloshing around…
This survey doesn’t have any info about the rates or weighting of mental health problems that they are using to rate the states, so it could mean that those states are better at identifying mental heath problems than others, or that they are worse at solving diagnosed mental health problems.
I’m thinking that SS disability to those state’s citizens for mental problems is where they obtained their cursory numbers.
I’m thinking that SS disability to those state’s citizens for mental problems is where they obtained their cursory numbers.
”
that has to do with Judges and how they decide who gets SSI
Maybe some states have judges who tend to be less sympatheic about permanate disability than others ?
“Maybe some states have judges who tend to be less sympatheic about permanate disability than others ?”
And states want to shift the expense to the federal government since it is the feds who spec-out the entitlements, but only supply a portion of the funding, which places an unfair burden on the inbred states.
Just saying that the list was disproportionately populated by “right to work” states. Whether or not there is a correlation …
I second the motion for Michigan. Even during the 1970s, it was a tough place for keeping one’s spirits up.
And Oklahoma? My parents lived there right after they got married. They only lasted two years before they bailed out and moved to PA.
I think perhaps this speaks more to personal weakness than mental illness- too many people want to be victims anymore, rather than take responsibility for their choices. How many times did they mention obesity as a contributing factor? These people would be miserable anywhere…………
Best Buy Net Drops 30%
By MATT JARZEMSKY
NEW YORK—Best Buy Co.’s fiscal second-quarter profit fell 30% as the consumer-electronics retailer continues to battle a weak economy and competition from online marketplaces.
The Minneapolis-based company’s sales were virtually flat despite continued efforts to boost them using promotions. Weakness in television and gaming sales offset strength in tablets, appliances and e-readers. Best Buy faces heated price competition from rivals such as Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The results “reflect continued macro challenges to overall consumer spending and lower consumer electronics industry sales,” Chief Executive Brian Dunn said.
Too bad Circuit City can’t go bankrupt again.
I was thinking they dropped 30% even after a major competitor dropped out of the market. Can you imaging if CC was still in the game? This is ugly, although I suspect the flatscreen market is also reaching maturity stage where sales would be leveling out anyway. Besides if a large proportion of us are ditching cable why bother w/the upgraded TV?
Besides if a large proportion of us are ditching cable why bother w/the upgraded TV?
netflix/DVDs. At least that’s what I use mine for.
Oh, and porn
Can’t say I’ve been to Best Buy in a while. But isn’t this the place where they try super-hard to sell you extended warranties?
Does this mean they are going to have some good deals on Black Friday? Polly needs a new computer….
Shortages could hit more than 500 drugs
Garner, N.C.(WRAL) — Drug shortages potentially affecting more than 500 medications in the United States this year have left some patients without access to life-saving medicine.
The U.S. saw a record high 180 drug shortages in the first half of 2010. More than 360 drugs could experience shortages in the rest of the year.
Delmas Williams, 83, of Garner, first learned of the drug shortages when he went to refill his prescription for Mytomycin. The drug has kept his bladder cancer until control for six years, but was on back order at the Person Street pharmacy.
“Now we don’t know. We’re waiting to see when it will come in or if we can get it,” Williams said.
Person Street pharmacist Mike James said he’s seen many surprised and nervous patients like Williams. “They’ve been like, ‘What do you mean I can’t get my medicine?’” he said.
Patients then have to consider changes that could disrupt their care, James said.
“Now then, you’ve got to fall back to something else. And does the patient get as good results with that?” he said.
New regulations from the Food and Drug Administration are partly to blame, James said.
Many older drugs weren’t subject to FDA testing for safety and effectiveness until a new crackdown. Some manufacturers chose not to invest in the costs of satisfying FDA regulations and to leave it to generic drug makers to meet the demand, often at higher costs to consumers.
“I think they’ve got to go back, and I think the FDA has got to make a decision on how expediently people need to be able to get their medication,” James said.
Commonly used drugs affected by the shortages include mental health medications such as Thiopixine, Prolix and Deconoate. Deconoate is a once-a-month injection, and without it, patients might have to fall back on taking multiple tablets a day. Click for a list of the drugs identified as being in short supply by the FDA
The shortages have also hit medications regularly used for sedation in hospitals, forcing doctors to postpone planned procedures.
Pharmacists recommend that when a doctor prescribes a drug, patients ask if the doctor knows if the drug is available and, if not, what alternative drugs might work.
Williams’ wife Bessie said she can’t understand why her husband can’t get the medication that might extend his life.
“I’m startled that in our country, we’re not really paying more attention to the lives of our people. Why can’t we get the medicine?” Bessie Williams said.
Shortages could hit more than 500 drugs ??
The canary in the coal mine….Ration health care ??
The wealthy get the best ?? The rest get the cemetery….
It’s always been rationed.
Those that can afford to pay, gets……
Those that can afford to pay, gets…… ??
Some of the best health care you can receive in our valley is free at the county hospital…Damm place stacks up with Stanford almost…Hell, all the private hospitals send their burn patients to county because it has one of the best burn units in the country…All free…
I need to add; Its free as long as you cannot afford to pay…
The private hospitals send their burn patients to county because burn units don’t make money. They are overwhelming money losers for hospitals. The patients need lots of care and they get infections very easily. Bet all the other hospitals never had burn units or closed them years ago.
I keep reading “right to work”, what does this mean in practice and in theory?
No minimum wage requirement…
Also, no prevailing wage requirement….
No minimum wage requirement…
that’s BS. There is a federal minimum wage in effect. Many states have a higher minimum wage than the federal.
I’m not an expert but there are different descriptions -right to work and at-will employment states. My understanding is in right-to-work states there’s no closed union shops and non-compete agreements aren’t valid. I could be wrong though.
Right-to-work laws are statutes enforced in twenty-two U.S. states, mostly in the southern or western U.S., allowed under provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibit agreements between labor unions and employers that make membership, payment of union dues, or fees a condition of employment, either before or after hiring, thus requiring the workplace to be a closed shop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
Not that it’s the end all, be all but you can wiki just about anything these days.
Right to work means that people don’t have to join a union in order to work at a specific business- ie it prohibits ‘closed shops’.
I don’t think it has anything to do with minimum or prevailing wages. Minimum wage is national- it can be higher if a state or municipality so chooses, but not lower.
It means you can be let go without cause at any time, without the employer being required to provide a reason.
The flip side is that you may leave your job at any time, without providing a reason. Not that too many individuals exercise that option.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. It simply means that if there’s a union representing some or all of your employer’s workers you are not required to join that union. You have a “right to work” without belonging to the union.
In practice it makes it very hard for unions to organize employees, since they can opt out.
Thank you for the responses, makes everything much clearer to me.
“….makes it hard for unions to organize…..”
Not when the management of the company is screwed up, it’s not.
In practice it makes it very hard for unions to organize employees, since they can opt out.
Which leads to lower wages and benefits.
Thanks Bill, I was thinking of “At-will”. My bad for posting before the coffee hit my brain.
It means you can be let go without cause at any time, without the employer being required to provide a reason.
No, that’s “at-will employment” state.
Then end result of “right to work” is lower wages and benefits for YOU.
That’s why in AZ, we call it a “right to work (for peanuts)” state.
Intresting article from the BBC’s Economics Editor
France held hostage by its banks
“French bankers are among the brainiest, most ruthless bankers I have met.
And, without naming names, they are also among the rudest individuals I have encountered (I speak with some authority - and painful memories - as a former banking editor of the Financial Times). ”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14896685
Damn banking goons. They’re all alike.
Large US banks must show how they would wind down
By MARCY GORDON The Associated Press
September 13, 2011 11:12 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — The largest U.S. banks will be required to show regulators how they would break up and sell off their assets if they are in danger of failing.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. voted 3-0 Tuesday to approve the rules, which were mandated under the financial overhaul passed by Congress last year. They are designed to reduce the chances of another government bailout of Wall Street banks in the event of another financial crisis.
The rules require banks with $50 billion or more in assets to submit so-called living wills to the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the Financial Stability Oversight Council and send revised plans annually.
Among the banks affected are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The biggest banks of the group would have to start filing their plans next July. The others wouldn’t be due until 2013.
The FDIC says that 124 financial firms plus 37 federally insured banks and thrifts will be subject to the requirements. Twenty-six of the institutions are U.S. banks or financial firms. The rest are U.S. subsidiaries of banks based in foreign countries.
Regulators would have the power to seize and dismantle those banks that threaten the broader financial system. They also have the power to designate other firms as potentially threatening the financial system and require them to submit plans.
The plans must include detailed information on a bank’s businesses and operations, structure, assets and liabilities, capital cushion held against risk, and how much they owe other big financial institutions.
If their operations change, the banks would have to submit revised plans within 45 days.
Based on their review of the plans, the regulators are empowered to order banks to make changes to their operations, such as selling assets or divisions. They also can reject the plans and order banks back to the drawing board.
If this going to shine light on the shadow lurking derivatives structure?
This is the best idea I’ve seen yet. You can’t claim you are too big to fail if there is a clear failure plan in place to spin off assets. They can always say the plan won’t work for some reason, but at least the political opponent to that play can point to the plan and wave their hands about following emergency procedures…
Middle class is history
“Among other companies, Procter & Gamble is adopting an “hourglass” marketing strategy, with products aimed at high- and low-end consumers, but not much in the middle.
In a marked shift from P&G’s historic focus on middle-class households, “the world’s largest maker of consumer products is now betting that the squeeze on middle America will be long lasting,” The WSJ reports.
Nice post cactus…
Cactus and Vannila Fudge are essentially the same band.
Vannila Fudge ??
Saw them in the late sixties along with Jimmy Hendrix…From what I remember anyway…
Such a shift is going to make reading Consumer Reports very interesting. They often find the middle of the road products as good as or better than the higher end products. And sometimes they will find a low end product that beats out all the competition. What will happen when there are no middle of the road products, only high end and low end? Will it actually result in better quality for the high end products, or only fancier bottles/tubes/other packaging/marketing campaigns?
I am thinking fancier packaging.
How much better can dish soap be? They took the phosphates out of all of them.
Besides the fact that “a marketing strategy” of aiming only at high and low end consumers is basically impossible (ex: Even base model Mercedes are fancy cars in the US, but used as taxis elsewhere), it’ll be comical to see what factors of a product made by P&G define it as high end vs low end.
They’re (the base models) fancy in the USA because they’re loaded with options. The don’t sell them with vinyl seats and 1.8 liter diesel engines here.
It seems to me that the entire world is trying to pretend that trade imbalances do not matter.
We’ve forgotten what money is. Hint, it is an YouOweMe… the flip side of an IOU.
Money has value bacause the person with the IOU needs it to repay their debt. This of course, rewuires the person with the IOU to spend the money so the person that needs it has a chance of getting it.
We should view money as something that needs to keep moving.
Instead, we have come to worship it as the be-all, end-all of a life time spent in persuit of power. After all, money is power.
Well, there is way too freakin’ much money, and it is concentrated into way too few hands, giving those few too much power.
A few weeks ago in response to a comment about Chavez, a question was posited as to why all South American leaders are douch bags. The answer is, you have to be a douch bag to do the things necessary to get power.
Well, the same can be said for money. You have to be willing to lie, cheat, and do great harm to others in order to get money.
Bill Gates stole the idea of Basic, then pretty much stole DOS by being in the right place at the right time and willing to screw over others.
Warren Buffet is a cut throat businessman that does a pretty good job of pretending he’s just a lovable old man.
Steve Jobs had little regard for the widows and retirement funds that were invested in IBM. He doesn’t price his products at an affordability point for the masses. He prices them very high, which makes them a status symbol, which causes the “want to be cool” to pay whatever he asks. Combine with very effective product placement trying to convince people that their lives are shallow and empty unless they have his latest gadget…
People with large sums of money are douche bags.. it is how you get large sums of money. And yet we are shocked when they are only concerned with themselves? Really?
It seems to me that the entire world is trying to pretend that trade imbalances do not matter.
Well of course, who wouldn’t pretend if they’re running a trade surplus with the USA (which is just about everyone) and taking our job base from us?
It is not just international. Domsetic trade imbalances in the form of widening wealth disparity is really what I was lamenting.
Under Reagan, we lowered taxes on the rich (lowered top marginal income tax rates) and raised taxes on the poor and middle-class (higher payroll tax). This should have crushed demand.
However, we also deregulated banking to get the debt flowing.
The result was internal trade imbalance. The rich got richer by lending thier money to everyone else so those “everyone else” could buy what the rich were selling.
It is long-term unsustainable. However, it created a false religion of “lower taxes on the rich = good for everyone”. Lower taxes on the rich is good for the rich, for as long as they have the government ensuring they get paid back even if the people they loaned money to can’t repay.
Now everyone worships at the alter of Reagan believing that trade imbalances and the money they create are the be-all-end-all of economic activity.
WRONG!!!! Money is someone elses debt. The same trade imbalance that created the money will prevent the debt from being repaid, which will eventually lead to default and mass poofage of both money and debt.
A money supply growing faster than sustainable is the path to eventual collaspe and depression, yet we bow down and worship money.
which will eventually lead to default and mass poofage of both money and debt.”
or permanent poverty for all thoses in deep debt. Mass poofage is really not desired by Banks and Banks control government which controls the means to enforce debt collection.
FNMA owns alot of mortgage debt government owns FNMA I would be suprised if the government lets people walk away from debt, restruture yes but walk away ? I don’t know? they have been letting them walk but the worm can turn.
I advised my co-worker in AZ if you are going to walk do it soon before they change the rules.
Great post, Darrell.
Interesting, I was thinking something similar while reading a thread from the weekend…
A large percentage of people who rich and/or powerful are deluded and believe that they “deserve” to have all the money and power because they are “smarter” or “better” than everyone else. But the truth is that they are just more sociopathic and narcissistic than everyone else.
Sad but true.
more sociopathic and narcissistic than everyone else. ”
yes and getting richer make’s this behavior worse.
I think thats nonsense. I doubt if the average drug dealer/criminal is any less sociopathic or narcissitic than the rich/powerful. I think it just comes down to the rich/powerful having certain “skill sets” that they are able to utilize in more socially acceptable (albeit at times destructive) ways. This whole demonization of anyone who has something you don’t is out of control, and I admit I have it from time to time myself, but not to the extant that I need to whine about it on some blog.
Sometimes mo money = mo problems. Good example is a high end mountain bike. These things go for 3-5K, which used to be the price of a decent used car, and you have to do all this maintenance. Same goes for cars. If I spend lots of money on something, I don’t want to have to take care of it more than some beater. Money should buy laziness!!
I think thats nonsense. I doubt if the average drug dealer/criminal is any less sociopathic or narcissitic than the rich/powerful.
Well if you will notice, I said a large percentage, I never said all of them. And you are correct, the same is probably true in the lower classes for people who steal and deal drugs, etc., as well.
However, those people aren’t powerful enough to bring down the whole economy because they refuse to accept the consequences of their own actions. These a-holes have totally skewed the playing field and gotten congress to pass laws that screw the public to their benefit and think that it is ok because they “earned” it. Well that doesn’t sit with me.
If they want to take risks to make money, that is perfectly fine, but if they fail they fail, they got rich by taking risks and they can go poor because of it too. I am livid that they want the rest of us to cover their risky bets for them, as far as I am concerned they can go pound sand.
I am for personal responsibility for all classes, be it the drug dealer or the stock dealer. Period.
CBO Sees Slower Growth, Continued Unemployment
September 13, 2011 | Reuters
The U.S. economy will grow slower than anticipated and joblessness will stay high as the fallout of the deepest recession since the Great Depression takes its toll, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
In testimony to a “super committee” of Congress weighing deficit-reduction steps, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said the non-partisan agency sees economic growth of around 1.5 percent this year and 2.5 percent in 2012. That’s down from CBO’s August estimate of 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
The U.S. unemployment rate, CBO said, now at 9.1 percent, will remain “close to 9 percent through the end of 2012,” Elmendorf said. Last month, CBO estimated joblessness at 8.9 percent this year, falling to 8.5 percent in 2012.
Credit Card Debt Soars as Americans Borrow Like It’s 2006
By Sheryl Nance-Nash Economy, Credit, Debt, Credit Cards. ~ Daily Finance
Just when you think you’re firmly in control, you backslide again. Such may be the case with Americans debt addiction.
According to CardHub.com’s, Q2 2011 Credit Card Debt Study, U.S. consumers accumulated a staggering $18.4 billion in credit card debt in the second quarter — 66% more than they accumulated in the same quarter a year ago, and 368% more than in the second quarter of 2009. Based on the study, Americans will end 2011 with around $54 billion more in credit card debt than they began the year with.
“A debt increase of $18.4 billion during a single quarter is mind boggling, especially when you consider that this increase is 368% higher than what we witnessed in the same quarter two years ago,” says Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of CardHub.com.com. The study focused on consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve’s G19 report in conjunction with quarterly charge-off data to determine how much consumer debt actually increased when you consider the amount of bad debt written off the books.
The upside is that consumers ended the first quarter of this year with a significant net decrease in credit card debt — as they had in the first quarter of 2010. However, in subsequent quarters last year, they proceeded to wipe out that reduction.
“There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of consumers are reverting back to pre-recession habits and that this is why we are witnessing such a dramatic increase in credit card debt (net of charge-offs). Anyone whose income was tied to the housing boom — either directly or indirectly — should realize that those years aren’t coming back unless we find ourselves in another bubble,” says Papadimitriou. Also troubling, say the folks at CardHub.com, is that in 2011, people seem to be spending up their debt at a faster rate than ever. Last year ended with a net increase in debt of $9.1 billion, which practically erased the net decrease of $10 billion in 2009. In contrast, 2011’s projected $54 billion increase in debt is hair raising.
Could it be that they’ve come to pin their hopes on a jubilee? Otherwise with consumer confidence at 2009 lows, it’s quite confounding.
Denniger is right, repair of household balance sheets is a sham.
I expect that using the card is the only way to buy food and gas and get the car fixed.
Arizona is #1 AGAIN!! Woot woot!!!
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/09/12/20110912arizona-student-loan-default-highest.html
“Arizona had the nation’s highest number of people in default on their federal student loans in fiscal 2009, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Education.”
“The report showed that for-profit colleges had the highest borrower default rate at 15 percent in fiscal 2009, compared to 7.2 percent for public institutions and 4.6 percent for private schools.”
There is that invisable hand of the market again. Make it profitable to recruit homeless people into college so they can get government guaranteed loans, and poof…. Privatize the profit and socialize the loss.
As stated repeated on CNBC this morning, “the market is really smart.” Yeah, really smart at making a few immoral scumbags very rich at everyone elses expense.
The government causing inflation by making money availible for school loans.
Creating money through debt , like it’s the cure for outsourcing we can all have college degrees and work in secure jobs like criminal justice.
lets see if they get paid back ? I think debt dies hard and whole industies will spring up in debt collection, maybe they should teach that at the University of Phoenix?
a degree in “extreme debt collection” learn how to buy debt cheap from banks and make millions, hire ex-convicts to use as front men, crooked laywers, bad judges, its all yours with a masters in debt collection at the UOP.
I think there is a reality show like this repo man or somthing they ask you three questions and if you answer right you don’t get your car repossed? never seen it but my kids tell me about it.
Question 1 who invented the light bulb? answer jimmy Cater wrong we are taking your car
I was flipping channels and happened upon the show.
They hook up your car, then offer to pay it off for you if you get 3 of 5 questions correct.
Once was more than enough for me.
Here is my concern. If they actually try to make people pay back their debt, then it becomes like trying to make public transportation pay for itself.
For the bus or light rail, they jack up the price, fewer people ride. Keep jacking up the price up to break even and soon everyone is just buying scooters or POS cars and not even taking public transportation.
Try to make people repay their debt, they have less money to spend on other things. Less money to spend = less demand = lower profits.
Let’s face it. The only way the debt can be repaid is if the people with money spend it. People with big money don’t spend it unless it will acheive a positive RoI. It becomes impossible to acheive a positive RoI if everyone with debt is spending less than their income becasue they are paying down debt.
So? Huge tax on cash and cash equivilants, have the government spend the money so the people with debt can get it?
how is that better than letting the debt and money poofage?
ROI is for investements, not spending.
101-Year-Old Detroit Woman Evicted In Foreclosure
September 13, 2011
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A 101-year-old woman has been evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay taxes on the home.
Texana Hollis was evicted Monday and her belongings placed outside the home. Hollis’ son Warren told WXYZ-TV he didn’t pay the taxes for several years and he had received several eviction notices earlier, but didn’t tell his mother about them.
Hollis has lived at the home for 58 years. Her son lived with her.
Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski told The Associated Press that the Hollises took out an adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002. A default and foreclosure notice was filed in November.
A neighbor is letting them live in a rental house, and her belongings were being moved there. Others are working to get Hollis back into her home.
On Monday night, she was taken to a hospital for evaluation after she became disoriented.
“A 101-year-old woman has been evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay taxes on the home.”
No one actually owns a home in this country—they simply rent them from the state for a relatively affordable rent.
wmbz might have this one in the pipeline but just in case….
Huge Surge in Bank of America Foreclosures
Mortgage and housing analyst and strategist Mark Hanson alerted me to unusually high legal default filing activity, and his research points to Bank of America [BAC 7.05 --- UNCH (0) ] as the primary driver. I contacted a Bank of America spokesman, who responded:
“It appears the numbers you noted to me this afternoon generally track with our own numbers for key categories. It should be noted it’s driven more in key states like California and Nevada than overall, and certainly the progress we’re seeing is limited to non-judicial states. Judicial states continue to move very slowly, with key states like New Jersey only beginning to start processing foreclosures again this month.”
Gheesh! That means NY is still not part of this either.
…”RealtyTrac, a widely followed foreclosure sale and data site, is also confirming a surge in overall notices of default in its August numbers, to be released later this week. They do not cite Bank of America specifically, which bought Countrywide Financial, taking on millions of troubled loans.
“We’ve been seeing REO [bank-owned property] sales, and processing of loans through foreclosure. This increase may simply be the lenders and servicers starting the next cycle. August traditionally is a high month for foreclosure actions, so part of the increase might be seasonal,” says RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga. “Could be any number of reasons - but with 3.5 million delinquent loans, this had to happen sooner or later.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44503938
It will be interesting to see the next couple of LPS Mortgage Monitors. The big difference appears to continue to be between non-judicial and judicial states. It is interesting that the biggest flushing sound is coming from CA/NV…these are two states that appeared to already be moving through their foreclosures faster than most states.
I hope this is a sign of what is to come as opposed to a blip. Time to rip the band aid off…
I’m starting a new political party. The name says it all:
“Pragmatic Social Former-Republicans”
What are some of your planks?
-Single payer Health insurance…….because what we have sure ain’t working for the vast majority.
-Basic plan for everyone (everyone meaning citizens here legally). ….if the insurance companies want to sell policies to extend/gold-plate the coverage, let them knock themselves out.
Yeah, there will be “death panels” (I prefer “Review Boards”). When spending taxpayer money, the taxpayer has a say on how much to spend on the treatment. No more spending $250,000 keeping someone alive for two weeks, so all the family can fly in and say goodbye. Don’t like that idea? Pay extra for supplemental coverage.
“Free choice” means we get our choice of overpriced coverage. We’re paying twice as much, for a system that only works half as well as any other first world country. Small business should be cheering Single payer, even if it is the government.
Relieves them of the problem. Contractors/self employed will like it, because they can actually worry about their businesses. People will have job portability, which means they can leave for a better job without worrying about pre-existing conditions.
Business is always whining about how much they pay for health care. Taxpayers will pay for this system. In exchange for being relieved of the obligation, business will be required to pay their former employees what they claimed they spent on their health insurance. (my employer claims my policy costs $15,000). Tax alcohol and sugar (especially corn sweeteners). Legalize marijuana, and tax it. Put draconian/medieval penalties for sellers of all other kinds of drugs.
-Transaction tax on Wall Street. Call it “Single Payer insurance for the Too Big to Fail”
-Send a bill to any company outsourcing/offshoring, for the government paid-for R&D they are shipping off, and the “economic impact”
-Clarify what “defending our freedom” means. To me, this doesn’t include bombing Tin-pot dictators who piss off Goldman Sachs. Multi National Corps want to keep their profits overseas to avoid US taxes, but want Uncle Sugar’s military and court system to protect/defend their gains. Sorry. Not part of the job description anymore. Go talk to Blackwater. Who, BTW, will be considered a MNC also. Put up a few of our guys on War Crimes charges, and maybe some of “gung-ho” attitude will go away.
-Forget the friggin’ fence. “Get Medieval” with anyone/everyone who hire illegals,and start fining the crap out of them. Let US citizens sue companies/people who hire illegals for damages. Especially if some uninsured, drunk illegal T-bones your kid’s car.
That’s for starters……being a Pragmatist, I’ll listen to other opinions, and implement them if they have “merit”. “Merit” meaning it serves the greater good.
Like 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, I’d call this plan a good start.
X-GS, if you were running for prez, or any public office for that matter, I’d vote fer ya. Hell, I’d campaign for you.
Awesome post.
A quote from Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, on the myth of the “law abiding” (excuse me, I just laughed so hard I got a hernia) illegal immigrant:
“…two-thirds of the illegal population snuck across the border, which is a crime; the other third overstayed their visas, which is merely a civil infraction, like a traffic ticket. But both visa overstayers and border-jumpers commit identity fraud and identity theft, perjury (if they submitted false information for employment), tax fraud, false claims of U.S. citizenship, failure to register for the draft, various kinds of conspiracy and so on. In the end, almost every illegal alien has committed multiple felonies.”
In the end, almost every illegal alien has committed multiple felonies.”
Ha, and Wealthie$ citizen’s children seem to bond with the illegal nanny’s in spite of their daily low-pay vicious criminality.
what’s the greater good?
if it’s sugurplum dreams and candy crapping unicorns…i’m in!
Excellent start.
“Put draconian/medieval penalties for sellers of all other kinds of drugs.”
Why? Why not equality for all illicit drugs?
“Let US citizens sue companies/people who hire illegals for damages.”
I especially like this one. The illegals like to disappear, but if you can find out where they work…
I’m a perennial pragmatist. You’ve got my vote.
Awesome, X-GS! I’ll vote for you!
We’ll need a party symbol
Democrats = Jackasses
Republicans = Elephants carrying Bibles
PragSoFoReps = Incontinent Puppies (cuz they pizz on everybody)
LOL…
Perhaps we should go more generic…. Not exclude former Dems.
Just call it the Pragmatist party. No philosphical arguments, just results!
Healthcare:
Free market vs. socialized vs. mixed
Free market = old and poor dieing in the streets. Rejected.
Mixed = costs are 2x any other country in the world and total result is less than optimal.
Socialized = The worst option except all other options.
Solution: Everyone receives a government voucher based on their demographic determined probable preventative + catostrophic care cost (Age based). Non-profit health funds are set up that can accept these vouchers. If you want to pay in more than the minimum, then your plan can provide more than the minimum.
The plans can use panels of doctors to determine what is and what is not covered under the plan based on cost/benefit analysis and avialable funds. The panels establish “standard of care” for each condition. Signing up with a plan is consent to the standards of care used by the plan. The plans can then bulk negotiate for better drug prices and other cost points.
Rewrite medical malpractice to exclude claims based on quality of care in the case the standard of care was followed.
Make it illegal for anyone to lobby or provide anything of benefit to any member on the standard of care panel af any fund that accepts vouchers. It is freedom of speach for mega crop to lobby politicians, but we can make it illegal to accept items of calue if you are on one of these boards.
This way, we don’t have politicians setting covereages, and minimize lobbying.
Cut our healthcare costs from 2x the rest of the world to “only twice as much” as the rest of the world.
While we’re at it, let’s attack Pell grants and college student loan guarantees.
Secondary Education:
Country decides how many of each degree it is going to pay for. We need x number of pre-meds and y number of computer sci grads. We don’t need any “xxx studies” (replace xxx with whatever minorty group you want).
People then have to apply to one of those degrees.
Sure, some people can apply to “general education” for upto 2 years, but by the end of 2 years they need to apply to one of teh degree programs.
Select people for the programs like other scholorships. Test scores, high school grades, aptitude… I’ll even add a few bonus points for low income of your parents.
Every year, based on college GPA, standardized test scores and progress toward your degree, you have to reapply to continue to receive grants and government guarantees for your student loans.
No more paying homeless people to go to college or for people to take underwater basket weaving classes.
If we pay the majority of doctors’ college costs, then they’ll have to be willing to work for lower wages. If the existing doctors aren’t willing to work for the lower wages, then we’ll crank up the quota for pre-med and med school education assistance slots until more really smart people are willing to go to school to become a doctor.
You don’t have the IQ to be a doctor or computer programmer? No problem. We’ll have some trade school quota too.
I like it, but what happens to every one else? The ones that dont meet a quota? You know, the problem we have now.
NCDOT begins layoffs, will cut more than 400 positions
Submitted by Bruce Siceloff - Crosstown Traffic | NCDOT
The N.C. state Department of Transportation will eliminate more than 400 positions in the coming months, DOT Secretary Gene Conti told employees today.
“Those positions will no longer exist in this department as of June 30, 2012,” Conti announced by email. “We are notifying staff as soon as we are certain their positions will be eliminated.”
Conti cited budget cuts that have required all state government departments to reduce spending.
“We were not immune, although we were given time to decide how to make the necessary workforce reductions,” he said. “We are making every effort to give as much notice as possible so that those impacted have time to digest the news, investigate [Reduction in Force] options wihtin the Department and State Government, search for other employment, and make plans for their changing future.”
Conti spokeswoman Greer Beaty said she did not have exact numbers yet on how many people will lose their jobs, and how many vacant positions will be cut.
“There are more than 400 positions, and they cut across all job classifications,” Beaty said. “Our business unit managers are notifying people over the next week.”
Budget cuts this year have eliminated filled and vacant 13,403 state positions so far — including 6,455 employees who have been laid off, according to estimates provided last week by the legislature’s fiscal research staff.
They include:
* 1,762 positions eliminated (438 employees terminated) in state agencies and departments,
* 814 positions (567 employees) at community colleges,
* 6,308 positions (2,418 employees) in public schools, and
* 4,519 positions (3,032 employees) in the UNC system.
This little prick jets all over the world for private meetings with the rest of the paper hangers on the taxpayers dime, but will not comment on what was discussed. I’m sure it’s “our” best interest.
ITEM: (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner makes a one-day trip to Poland this week for an unprecedented meeting with euro zone finance ministers as growing fears of a potential Greek debt default rip into Europe’s banking sector.
The trip comes as a surprise since Geithner returned only on Saturday from a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers in Marseilles, France, where he said Europe’s strongest economies must offer “unequivocal” backing to the weakest.
Geithner is expected to attend the euro zone meeting on Friday and then return to Washington. The Treasury said on Monday only that he will discuss efforts to boost global recovery and cooperate on financial regulation, but U.S. attention is focused on risks posed by potential European debt contagion.
The danger that a Greek debt default could roil bigger European economies was underlined on Monday as heavily exposed French banks’ shares plunged and investor confidence in the euro zone’s ability to surmount a sovereign debt crisis ebbed.
Underscoring concerns by the United States about the global economic dangers from Europe’s debt troubles, the Treasury Department said Geithner would meet with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Tuesday.
Geithner’s trip to Europe marks the first time a U.S. Treasury secretary will attend a meeting of euro zone finance ministers. But it is not the first time he has tried to push Europe into acting more decisively to cope with its debts.
In March, he made a quick one-day trip to Germany just days ahead of a Europe Union summit to meet his counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and to urge European countries to step up their efforts to handle the crisis.
He held a one-on-one session with Schaeuble again in Marseilles on Friday, but neither side would talk about what was discussed in that session.
Citizen, patriotism means NO QUESTIONS.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll207/kandregg/propaganda_silence.jpg
Come on Arizona, we can do better. 6th poorest? Really? Come on, we can do better than that when it comes to being poor, can’t we?
“By state, Mississippi had the highest share of poor people, at 22.7 percent, according to rough calculations by the Census Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona.”
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/09/13/20110913arizona-among-poorest-states-census-says.html
Maybe if we trim back student loans we can put some homless studnet recruiters out of work… No, wait… then we’d probably lose our status as having the highest student loan default rate.
Come on Arizona, we can do better. 6th poorest? Really? Come on, we can do better than that when it comes to being poor, can’t we?
Darn tootin’!
I know it’s been a hot, dry summer, but jeez louise. We need to step it up in the poverty department.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8761077/Number-of-Americans-living-in-poverty-at-record-high.html
Gotta love that hope ‘n change.
Amazing amount of damage done by O in less than 2 years!!
I think I hate my realtor.
Also:
“Comment by Doghouse Riley
2011-09-13 07:21:43
I have lived in West Virginia for nine years, and I can honestly say that my family, and my neighbors, are a damn sight less depressed than we were in South Florida.
Walking out my front door this morning in the 67 degree air and seeing deer and bluebirds, as compared to walking out into 88 degree, 90% humidity and seeing mostly superheated asphalt, has a lot to do with it I’m sure.”
You’re killin’ me, dude. Is anyone hiring outside of Florida? Nice family willing to relocate. Will work for
foodhouse.