Bits Bucket for October 7, 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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Anyone need a luxury property on the beach on Kauai? Too bad, they won’t just give these things away.
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/113579/hawaiian-paradise-ghost-town-kukuiula-marketwatch
Ambling into the warm embrace of Kukui’ula’s clubhouse on Kauai’s pristine south shore is to catch a fleeting glimpse into how the other half lives. Or, more accurately, the other 0.1%.
But with the global economy in turmoil and real-estate wounds still festering across the country, there’s trouble in paradise.
“We broke ground on the club in 2008 and a month later, Lehman Brothers went down,” said Brent Herrington, Kukui’ula president.
A golf course with sweeping ocean views, a world-class spa, a cascade of pools, a stunning $100-million clubhouse. The ice cubes even match the drink order. What the customer wants, the customer gets.
The draw was compelling enough to attract New Orleans Saints quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees to the club’s early membership ranks. His locker is prominently displayed inside the men’s locker room. The staff quips, “Would you like to use Mr. Brees’s bench?”
Then why does the resort feel like a vacant city-scape scene out of a zombie flick? While every corner of the property is equipped for a good time, there’s hardly anyone there to enjoy it. At least for now.
One Sale in a Year-and-a-Half
“I’m still a big believer in the property, and the people that bought for their own use are very happy,” said Becky Supon, Pacific Ocean Properties real-estate agent and former saleswoman at Kukui’ula. “The ones looking to flip for profit, of course, aren’t happy.”
Supon said she currently has eight listings from clients trying to unload their property. One customer who bought during the initial sales phase for $1 million just sold his piece of land for about $550,000.
“We believe the market recovery is still two or three years out, and it could be even longer than that. Nobody anticipated a downturn as deep and sustained as this one, but we’re prepared to be here,” Herrington said. “We are not going to have a fire sale. This is the last grand-scale luxury development in Hawaii in our lifetime. Maybe forever.”
“We are not going to have a fire sale. This is the last grand-scale luxury development in Hawaii in our lifetime. Maybe forever.”
But it will be one of many that will end in banruptcy…
“We are not going to have a fire sale.”
Wanna wager on that?
I remember sellers saying, “we are not going to give it away,” 3 years ago. How did that work out?
You can rent a 2 bedroom cottage for $8,400 per week.
A lot of new luxury resort properties are now vacation rentals.
“I’m still a big believer in the property, and the people that bought for their own use are very happy,” said Becky Supon, Pacific Ocean Properties real-estate agent and former saleswoman at Kukui’ula. “The ones looking to flip for profit, of course, aren’t happy.”
I’m not sure that believing in a property is a good thing.
Reminds me of those big Easter Island statues that were worshiped in another era. No one knows what happened to the worshiping civilization, but the statues are still there.
The only evidence of our construction that will show in a few centuries is sidewalks and countertops.
Reminds me of Hawai’i Ocean View Estates (HOVE). Look for it on the southwest side of the Big Island. Legacy of the 80’s property bubble that *still* is sitting relatively undeveloped.
…Reminds me of Hawai’i Ocean View Estates (HOVE)…
My dad bought 2 lots in that development in 1964/65.
As a small kid I remember 2 salesmen dressed in Aloha shirts coming to our house in Long Beach to make the pitch. I *think* the lots cost less than $2K (1965 dollars).
Here is the upshot:
We have some family photos with the metal lot number markers from a trip we did in 1966 to “view” the lots (actually a uncrossable thick jungle).
Found those photos and visited those identical lots a few years ago. Signs have long rusted into almost nothing. Jungle is still there. The few neighbors all have some really mean looking pit bulls. The “recreation center” is nothing more that a concrete slab with a corrugated roof and no walls.
Whats even funnier is that on our 1966 family trip, just a few miles down the road was steam escaping from some (inactive ??) volcano. I was excited as a kid to see that, because all the landscape looked just like it was out of a prehistoric dinosaur movie of some sort.
I can’t imagine those lots now selling for more than $2K (2011 dollars)…
What a disaster…
I’ve visited HOVE a couple of times during my vacations on the Big Island. It is fascinating! Some developed lots have electricity and water, but many still don’t. There are many lots that are still empty, with the occupied ones scattered about in no logical fashion.
For sewer/septic, you just punch a hole in the lava and, well, it disappears (at least, that’s how it used to be, not sure about new development requirements). There is no topsoil either.
There is a fair amount of property crime rate in the area as well (hence the pit bulls); it is one of the remaining “affordable” places to live on the island but it is remote to most of the jobs. So people’s homes are empty during the day and law enforcement is very sparse. There are no stores nearby either. Nor medical facilities (have to drive North to Kona).
And, as mentioned, it sits on the slopes of an ACTIVE volcano. What could possibly go wrong? You may want to google “VOG”, as they can get that at times as well.
HOVE has a shopping center and gas station. The info is even on Wikipedia. Many residents probably do work in Kona. Pitbulls and similar dogs are everywhere on the island, including in Hilo. People who live near HOVE who attended a classical concert I organized in 2009 were really grateful not to be ignored, as I put up posters on their shopping center bulletin board. That’s how news gets around out here. Aloha.
Bank of America offers up to $20,000 short sale incentive to struggling homeowners
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:12 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011
Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, is offering Florida homeowners up to $20,000 to short sale their homes rather than letting them linger in foreclosure.
The limited time offer has received little promotion from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, which sent emails to select Florida Realtors earlier this week outlining basic details of the plan.
Only homeowners whose short sales are submitted for approval to Bank of America before Nov. 30 will qualify. The homes must have no offers on them already and the closing must occur before Aug. 31 .
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/bank-of-america-offers-up-to-20-000-1899993.html - -
Bank of America offers up to $20,000 short sale incentive to struggling homeowners
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:12 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011
COMMENTS
Struggling? We have 7 in our developement. One put a paver patio in a couple of months ago. One is enjoying the extra money they are saving for the last three years while lounging at the pool talking on their cellphones. Another is renting it out pocketing the money. Two others are also enjoying their money with their new cars and fancy dogs while we pay their HOAs fees. As i I lost 40,000.00 on my last house and now are making my mortgage payments it must be nice to help them. I could use it.
jac
7:06 PM, 10/6/2011
Wow, I have already been offered 4,500. to do a deed in lieu by BofA. I have lived in my property for 1185 days(39 months) without a mortgage payment. Now, 20,000 to put the property up for a short sale. (I believe there is a catch). I would have to say to all you morons that told me to get out in the beginning and call me a deadbeat…. I am laughing at you now. I may be a deadbeat but I am going to come out on top……..So all you holier than thou’s can KMA
living lavida loco
2:18 AM, 10/7/2011
“So all you holier than thou’s can KMA
living lavida loco”
That about sums up the living large rent free attitude, brought to us by some of America’s largest banks.
“That about sums up the living large rent free attitude, brought to us by some of America’s largest banks.”
Am I allowed to be pissed off at banks and deadbeats or do I have to pick one or the other? Because in my view these deadbeats are pointing the finger at the banks and saying they are criminal, which is true. On the other hand the deadbeats are saying because the banks are criminal I should not have to pay for the house I bought or refied at fantasy prices when I believed house prices only went up and I was going to make a fortune (just like the crooked bankers) and now that that has not happened, I should be able to live in the house for free.
And if I am allowed to be pissed off at both, if it`s not too much trouble. I would also like to be pissed off at every govt. program that has come down the pike to bail out both of these groups of snakes.
Respectfully submitted
jeff saturday
Jeff, well said. Sometimes in life, both sides are wrong. Just look at our political parties.
+1, Jeff. And let’s not give a pass to the morally and mentally defective electorate that keeps returning Wall Street’s water carriers to office and rewards bankster fraud with limitless bailouts.
Um, you could choose to be pissed off at the government for giving enough money for evey TBTF bank to enable such a policy that allows rent-free squatters to have the upper hand. If the banks needed the money to survive, the houses would be sold for whatever they would bring. Period.
You can thank Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and every POS congressman/senator who voted for TARP or any other bull$hit “rescue” plans. AND, they are still at it!!!
The whole thing is totally FUBAR. It makes the Dutch Tulip Bubble look like amatuer night.
In the end, it’s the Mortgage holder’s decision on whether or not to foreclose and evict. If they don’t and it becomes common knowledge, then why is ANYONE surprised that some will take advantage of that?
They would not have that luxury without all the FED/Bailout help.
This is a good sign. We all know this situation is unsustainable. The government sponsored accounting fraud and bailouts got the banks this far, but they must be running out of time if they offer incentives to get the short sale done. Odds are it is too little too late to save the bank. If these mortgages are bought in the BK sale by other loan sharks, they will be marked to below market and the foreclosures will happen fast. Welcome to the Great Unraveling.
If there’s going to be a panic - be the first to panic.
I think this is BofA’s position. They’re trying to get out before the rest of the banks.
“You can thank Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and every POS congressman/senator who voted for TARP or any other bull$hit “rescue” plans. AND, they are still at it!!!”
Hear, hear! Now tell me why the current street demonstrations aren’t under the umbrella name “Occupy Capitol Hill.”
Are there ANY demonstrations in D.C.?
Why demonstrate at the Servant’s Quarters?
I’m wondering if the banks are levering up with lawyers to go after the deadbeats at some point.
The Willy Sutton approach: Go to where the money is.
Because the debeats don’t pay doesn’t mean they don’t owe.
What are the amounts? Hundreds of billions? A trillion? More than that?
“Why demonstrate at the Servant’s Quarters?”
Did the banksters steal the TARP and other bailout money from the Treasury and Fed? No, the “servants” gave it to them. The scum on Capitol Hill are NOT servants; they are enablers. They’re worse than the WS banksters because they are (supposedly) in a position of trust. Yet many here seem to want to give them a pass.
“You can thank Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and every POS congressman/senator who voted for TARP or any other bull$hit “rescue” plans. AND, they are still at it!!!”
liz pendens
Abolutely. You’re right. The Prez is just a puppet, and the parties are a weapon of mass distraction.
“In the end, it’s the Mortgage holder’s decision on whether or not to foreclose and evict. If they don’t and it becomes common knowledge, then why is ANYONE surprised that some will take advantage of that?”
If that is the way you are going to look at the deadbeats situation then I guess you would have to extend the same courtesy to the Wall Street criminals.
In the end, if you are getting away with making huge amounts of money by loaning money to people who could never possibly pay it back and that you never expect to be paid back because you are going to chop it up and sell it as AAA to unsuspecting investors and it becomes common knowledge, then why is ANYONE surprised that some will take advantage of that.
I choose not to extend that courtesy to either group and I am suprised and I am PISSED! Both groups are dirtbags.
OCCUPY DEADBEAT
RENT ?
FEISTY DON’T PLAY DAT
This comment was not respectfully submitted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lszbzbQmJJw
A rant worth listening to (what is Gov’t credit score?). Warning: Foul language (but hilarious!)
The only thing that makes it less funny is wondering the whole time if that guy is getting a check every month from the government.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/8811158/Handbag-dogs-dumped-as-they-cease-to-be-a-fashion-item.html
Cutesy handbag dogs are being dumped as fashion accessories by the likes of Paris Hilton. However, Republicrat lapdogs still have a secure place inside Wall Street’s purse.
Goldman Sachs the #2 all time money briber to the obama administration…
www DOT opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638
TARP, HARP, Stimulus, etc. - yes - I can see why demcorats are not lapdogs…
Is this what America wants right now?
Dean of BSchool Joins Romney’s Campaign
R. Glenn Hubbard, the Dean of the BSchool, author of your Principles textbook, and Inside Job star, will lead the Economic Policy team of Mitt Romney, Spec reports. Hubbard has been advising Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts and candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, for a year.
Hubbard wrote the introduction to Romney’s plan for job growth, which was released yesterday. The plan proposes cutting corporate tax rates, reducing the power of labor unions, and reducing government spending (and is well-covered on Politico). This coming year, you can be sure to expect more politics on campus, as the 2012 election race gathers steam.
…
Note to Hubbard: Don’t mess with Matt Damon.
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/obama_top_fat_cat_strays_C9qcrURkB9L9JkImemgBwL
BOTH parties are on the make and on the take. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney is cozying up to Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, the Derivatives King, which should surprise no one.
Exactly. Maybe I will vote for Ron Paul or Ralph Nader.
There’s quite a marketing campaign pushing pet ownership on everyone. It emanates from the pet industry, which stands to make quite a bit of money from the sale of pet foods, pet accessories, etc.
However, pet ownership is not just some cool fashion trend. It’s a responsibility that a lot of people cannot handle.
I’m also of the mind that pet ownership is a right, not a privilege.
Not to mention medical care.
Our vet used to push the heartguard pills on us. They’re expensive and I figured that with the dogs being indoors 90%+ of the time anyway that the likelihood of getting heartworms is very small, so we don’t give them heart guard anymore.
Oops! I got that last sentence bass-ackwards. Here’s what I meant to say:
Pet ownership is a privilege, not a right.
Pet ownership is a privilege, not a right ??
Spot on….Make it expensive to own and you will stop the abuse and be able to eliminate the Humane Society…At least as it relates to dogs & cats…
IMHO, eliminating the Humane Society would be a good thing. They are neither humane nor a society.
What we need is a widespread spaying and neutering program with some teeth in it. The “please fix your pet” ad campaigns aren’t even reaching the backyard breeders and the organized breeding industry.
A few years back, the CA legislature was considering a bill to make S/N mandatory. But the breeding industry lobby killed it.
More recently, the voters of Missouri approved a measure to clamp down on puppy mills. There are quite a few of those in the Show-Me State. Well, the puppy mill lobby got busy and got a state law passed that overrode the initiative.
The pet industry in action…
Spay & neutering would work slim but it would not do anything to stop abuse the most obvious one being to discard the animal…I would like to say discard the “Pet” but many millions treat them like trash so calling them a pet is a bit of a reach…Making a dog or cat expensive to own would solve much of it…
Make it expensive to own… now way. Then the only people who could afford a pet would be the likes of Britney and Paris — the very twits who are abandoning those pets now!
Making a dog or cat expensive to own would solve much of it…
In Switzerland, you have to take a responsible ownership course — at your own expense. After you’ve taken and passed the final exam, you can get a dog license.
That’s a barrier to entry that I approve of.
scdave
Make pet owning expensive? I personally don’t want to live in a society were love for a pet is means tested. It’s about the character of the human being. Some people can afford Science Diet, others Alpo. They both love their pets.
…That’s a barrier to entry that I approve of….
Which is harder: Dog License in Switzerland or Realtor license here in the USA?…
I am going with the dog license….
We’re looking into a rescue adoption when we close escrow (cross fingers and toes we find a home soon) and the apps are just way too intrusive. Add they are flipping dogs they get from the pound. We’ll save $200 if we network with our local pounds and have the microchip in the collar. I’ve read some bad these about internal microchips (i.e. tumors/cancer deaths)
I don’t want to see the government involved in the pet business, but certainly there should be a way to prevent reckless owners from owning animals ever again. Example: all the abandoned horses in the Ocala, FL area. City folk from Tampa/Orlando purchased second homes (horse farms) and then couldn’t afford the gas to go there and just let the animals starve to death. Or the people who abandon helpless animals inside a house as they leave in foreclosure.
Hmmm…A lot to respond to here;
who could afford a pet would be the likes of Britney and Paris ??
I did not say you needed to be wealthy. I said make it expensive…Right now its basically free…The biggest problem that we have is ease of entry and if its easy to enter then its probably easy to exit…
the very twits who are abandoning those pets now! ??
Oh please….Go hang around a shelter for awhile and see what kind of people are dumping their animals and those are the RESPONSIBLE ones…
In Switzerland, you have to take a responsible ownership course — at your own expense ??
Good start….That’s a form of making it expensive in that you must invest time & money…
live in a society were love for a pet is means tested. It’s about the character of the human being ??
Which is precisely why you need barriers to entry…To many people lack Character…
We’re looking into a rescue adoption ??
Both of our GS’s are adopted….
have the microchip in the collar ??
Microchip in the neck under the skin is where ours are…
I don’t want to see the government involved in the pet business ??
Isn’t that exactly what the Humane Society is…
Or the people who abandon helpless animals inside a house as they leave in foreclosure ??
There is that human Character flaw again…
Add they are flipping dogs they get from the pound.
I don’t even know where to start with this.
Rescues pull animals from the pound to save them from euthanization. They house them, feed them, and train them (keeping them in foster homes) without taxpayer support. They do checks on those who look to adopt and make sure the animal is going to a good, responsible home where the animal won’t end up back in a pound or back at the rescue.
Oh yeah, they also provide shots and spay and neuter the animal.
All this takes money. It’s not a money-making venture. Volunteers invest a ton of time AND their own money. When I fostered I always paid for my foster’s food and vet care out of my own pocket - I didn’t take it from the rescue.
If you really don’t see the value that rescues add, or understand why they charge an adoption fee greater than the municipal pound (== TAXPAYER FUNDED) then you really need to educate yourself.
Wow, my post didn’t make sense. I was redoing it, and evidently didn’t proof read my edit. Sorry guys.
scdave
I get your points, and not all of them I disagree with.
So, what kind of pooches do you have?
We have to get a hypo-allergenic one. (actually that’s a misnomer, they all have dander- some just a much lower amt)
scdave
$1,800 for a mix puppy of two well known breeds we’re looking at. That’s what I call a flip. I get your point, but in our area, stay at home moms are doing it to write off their SUV’s. 501(c)’s have benefits.
I get your points, and they are good ones, but people around my parts have different motivations. It’s a business to too many. It should be a personal passion, but it isn’t always.
$1,800 for a mix puppy of two well known breeds we’re looking at.
Dude, that’s not a rescue if they’re charging $1800. Adoption fees are normally $150 or so from a rescue, in my experience.
I also forgot to add that most rescues chip the dogs to ensure they’ll at least make it back to the rescue should they get loose or be abandoned.
It’s a business to too many ??
And therein lays the problem…
So, what kind of pooches do you have ??
GS’s….German Shorthair Pointers….They run like the wind….
So, how much will the completley unexpected loss in jobs be this morning? I’m betting -10000, which will be revised downarward in 2 weeks to account for striking telecom guys.
It is UP, Up UP…Is it doctored?
Well, are they lowballing the estimate so it looks better when it actualy comes out? Because saying we gained 10k more than the expected 60k sounds so much better than we gained 70k when we really need to be gaining 200K+ a month.
Or are they highballing the actua report, and will revise it back downawrd in 2 weeks to be less than expected, but you never hear about it?
Upp 100k, but those include the 40k verizon dudes back from striking. Now, I wonder, did they include them in the job loss numbers from the month before?
Are strikers able to collect unemployment?
Or how are they counted as unemployed?
I thought that the numbers only counted those receiving UE benefits… and those who exhaust UE are also no longer counted…
There are different numbers I believe.
The weekly 400K number is the number of those applying for first time UE, which is a real count.
The jobs gain/loss number is something else. It’s mostly BS as I doubt they actually count jobs add vs. lost (how could they?). IIRC they use “models” to estimate the actual net number.
I know several people who got new jobs in Sept. after some long term UE.
Surprised me.
My understanding is the 45K job loss from the strike was included in last month’s numbers. The real issue is the numbers looking forward. There were a lot of layoffs in the planning stages announced earlier in the week.
And yes, the jobs numbers are not the same as the UE numbers. The jobs numbers are put together with a survey (call on phone, quiz you on your status with lots of follow ups to make sure you didn’t have even an hour of compensated work and that you were actively looking) and some statistical modeling.
Headline: U.S. Payrolls Rise More-Than-Expected 103,000.
I read this morning before the release that 100,000 had been expected, due to 45,000 Verizon workers going back to work.
So it was more than expected by less than the margin of error in the survey.
Realtors Are Liars®
I think we should put together a top ten list of “things about the economic meltdown you need to know before you get in front of a camera at a protest rally”:
For instance…I think one should be – the repeal of glass-steagall.
What are some others we could add?
Michael-good one.
Basically:
*the players
*the chain of events
*who was bailed out and why?
* and if it did any good to solve the underlining insolvency? (tongue and cheek)
“I think one should be – the repeal of glass-steagall.”
It was repealed in 1999. How about a reinstatement?
i know it’s been repealed…it’s repeal is but one spoke in the wheel of this economic calamity.
gonna repost this in the weekend topic suggestions.
1. Utilize the US Marshal’s as auditors with handcuffs.
The Gov’t focus should be not on the American people on the OUTSIDE of Goldenman$ucksInc. et.al., but on the American people “doing God’s work on the INSIDE of Goldenman$ucksInc. et.al.
This might be a good start:
Gov’t Auditor’$ [with the a promise of a commission bonu$] should show up monthly & unannounced @ MegaCorpInc.$, escorted by Federal Marshal’s with multiple sets of hand-cuffs & (x100 quantity) bag of tie-wrap wrist straps, pillows, cots & sleeping bags, and x20 pencil sharpeners.
The clarion call from the“TrueReduceTheDeficitNow!! Today!™” / “TrueAnger™” / “TrueGridLocker’s™” Congress shouldn’t be:
“Cut it! or Shut it!” rather it ought to be: “Choose to Use ‘em!” and by “‘em” eyes mean these guys:
E as in, E-Verify: Immigrant workers & ledger Entrie$
E as in, Enforce
E as in, Examine CorpInc. Entrail$
E as in, enema
usmarshals gov / U.S. Federal Government, U.S. Department of Justice:
History - Broad Range of Authority
The offices of U.S. Marshals and Deputy Marshal were created by the first Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789, the same legislation that established the Federal judicial system. The Marshals were given extensive authority to support the federal courts within their judicial districts and to carry out all lawful orders issued by judges, Congress, or the president.
As a balance to this broad grant of authority, Congress imposed a time limit on the tenure of Marshals, the only office created by the Judiciary Act with an automatic expiration. Marshals were limited to four-year, renewable terms, serving at the pleasure of the president.
The Marshals took care of the details, thereby freeing the judges and attorneys to concentrate on the cases before them. They made sure the water pitchers were filled, the prisoners were present, the jurors were available and the witnesses were on time.
Their primary function was to support the federal courts. The Marshals and their Deputies served the subpoenas, summonses, writs, warrants and other process issued by the courts, made all the arrests and handled all the prisoners. They also disbursed the money. The Marshals paid the fees and expenses of the court clerks, U.S. Attorneys, jurors and witnesses. They rented the courtrooms and jail space and hired the bailiffs, criers, and janitors. In effect, they ensured that the courts functioned smoothly.
These diversified duties precluded the Marshals from developing any particular specialty. They were law enforcers, but also administrators. They needed to be adept in accounting procedures and pursuing outlaws. in quelling riots and arranging court sessions. The legacy of their history was the avoidance of specialization. Even today. in this age of experts, U.S. Marshals and their Deputies are the general practitioners within the law enforcement community. As the government’s generalists, they have proven invaluable in responding to rapidly changing conditions. Although other Federal agencies are restricted by legislation to specific well-defined duties and jurisdictions, the Marshals are not. Consequently, they arc called upon to uphold the government’s interests and policies in a wide variety of circumstances.
C’mon hwy, there already are such government auditors. They work for the IRS. (Ever undergone an IRS audit?)
How good a job they’re doing auditing the corporate side is subject to debate.
“(Ever undergone an IRS audit?)”
I have. They sent me a letter. I got some documents from the brokerage that has my IRA and photocopied a tax form from my files. I wrote a letter and sent it to them with the materials. They sent me a check a few weeks later.
Not a perfect model for what needs to happen to the banks that enabled this mess.
Polly, you must not have been self-employed at the time. An IRS audit can be just like the ad about the guy with no auto insurance and there’s a line of doctors that extends well out the door, all snapping their gloves.
As government employees, I’m sure the IRS is moving heaven and earth to ferret out all the illegal things those rascally corporations are doing.
It was a limited query about one item. They thought I did something that created income in year A. I actually did it in year A-1. Unfortunately, proving I did it in year A-1 (and paid the taxes) didn’t prove that I hadn’t done it in year A. Hence the need to get something from the IRA firm. Seriously, the whole thing took about 2 hours of my time. I was a little better prepared for it than average because my records are pretty good and I do my own taxes by hand, but most people on this board could have done the same in 3 or 4 hours.
No, I was not self-employed at the time. I was working for a multinational corporation at the time. My taxes are absurdly easy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Although their main concern is Wall Street practices and economic inequality, some demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. say politicians from both major parties are to blame for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the country’s middle class.
“At this point I don’t see any difference between George Bush and (Barack) Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was elected,” said John Penley, an unemployed legal worker from Brooklyn.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began last month with a small number of young people pitching a tent in front of the New York Stock Exchange, has expanded nationally and drawn a wide variety of activists, including retirees, union members and laid-off workers. As new groups continue to organize, demonstrators Thursday marched in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, carrying signs with slogans such as “Get money out of politics” and “I can’t afford a lobbyist.”
The protests are in some ways the liberal flip side of the tea party movement, which was launched in 2009 in a populist reaction against the bank and auto bailouts and the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
But while tea party activists eventually became a crucial part of the Republican coalition, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are cutting President Barack Obama little slack. They say Obama failed to crack down on the banks after the 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis.
About 85% of these asshats voted for Obama, which gives them no standing to complain about his toadying to Wall Street since he has presided over limitless bailouts and made Goldman Sachs the forth branch of government. The rest of these would-be Obama Zombies were probably too stoned to find the voting booth back in 2008.
So they aren’t allowed to learn from a mistake and try to fix it, because you want to hold a grudge. How helpful.
My thoughts exactly. So had McCain won we could then say “you losers voted for him, deal with it!”
If anything, this is encouraging as the protestors seem to understand that neither party is going to fix the problem.
ummm…me…me…me…i didn’t vote for either mccain or obama…what do i get?
A sucker?
Wow?
I was thinking this was encouraging but you’re right these guys are A##hats???? What do you think they could do to remove that stigma??? Obviously protesting and telling the world they think Obama has served WS directly or via inaction doesn’t cut it for you. Maybe they should get on a blog and call people names??
“which gives them no standing to complain”
I couldn’t disagree more. If the same asshats who voted for Bush would’ve done the same instead of “staying the course” or calling out dissenters as unpatriotic we might not have the mess we do.
I applaud any voter who takes to task the person they helped put into office, when said person isn’t fulfilling promises laid on the campaign trail. In fact, I see it as their responsibility.
ISTR hearing Obama telling his supporters to hold him accountable.
“If the same asshats who voted for Bush would’ve done the same”
ummm…tea party?
Understood, but too little too late, IMO, and they only came about when their OPPOSITION was doing things they disagreed with.
And by the way, I don’t mean this as a “GWB supporters bad, BO supporters good” screed. It was just my first experience on the subject, as my interest in politics and disinterest in partisan politics came about in the 2000s, at the same time friends and co-workers told me to hush my complaining about paying for the war and get in line.
It was all fun and games while their guy was doing the same things, though.
It’s all Rah Rah Rah until the other team gets the ball.
And what was the alternative Sammy ?? Offering Palin as a candidate was insulting to your intelligence…
I was at the Occupy Dallas event and I from what I saw was these people are just flat out disgusted with the current political system. The only political activist I saw were some guys wearing Ron Paul T-shirts trying to pass out some Ron Paul flyers. So by that measure at least it would appear at least one Republican presidential candidate is trying to co-opt this movement.
Although their main concern is Wall Street practices and economic inequality, some demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. say politicians from both major parties are to blame for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the country’s middle class.
So the masses are waking up.
Put they don’t know what to do about it.
1) Forget votes and forget the President. Learn how to organize to collect signatures to get challengers on the ballot for the House and state legislators, where incumbents generally run unopposed in one-party districts.
2) Buy shares of stock, and show up and annual meetings and demand that executive pay be cut with the savings used for dividends. If anyone objects that high pay is needed to attract the best executives, respond that it won’t be a problem if executive pay is cut across the board.
(Note: in Japan they pay mobster NOT to speak at annual shareholders meetings).
But they don’t know what to do about it.
Every journey begins with a single step.
They are practicing the art of demonstration lite. Demonstration is pretty much a lost art here since the Boomers all got careers and stuff. General frustration will focus like a laser on upcoming events. Events will present themselves when it’s time for a mania. They always do.
The problem of course is that the masses own stock in the form of Mutural funds who then supposedly vote their interest, I’m personally not too sure of this.
Buy shares of stock, and show up and annual meetings
The environmental movement started using this tactic about five years ago for environmentally unfriendly companies. It’s starting to work.
, has expanded nationally and drawn a wide variety of activists, including retirees, union members and laid-off workers. As new groups continue to organize, demonstrators Thursday marched in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, carrying signs with slogans such as “Get money out of politics” and “I can’t afford a lobbyist.”
So does how does this work anyways???
Unions are 8 out of the 10 TOP political donors of ALL TIME (1989-2012)
www opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?order=A
80%…of the top donors. And the fools next to them think they are for the people…
“The protests are in some ways the liberal flip side of the tea party movement…”
It bothers me that (a) the media is describing it this way and (b) conservative talk show hosts (heard Rush demonizing it as such this week) are spinning it this way. The complaints leading up to the protests are the same as those uttered by TPers, although perhaps some of the ire has shifted from government to WS.
Could it be that Rush and other hosts are part of the 1% club? Why can’t their listeners see that they, themselves, are not?
And I AM concerned that Dems and unions will co-opt this movement, leading to further demonization.
Dems co-opt this movement at their considerable peril. Think “riding the tiger.”
Until Cain’s comments this week, I thought we finally had something that left and right could agree on. That appears to be at risk at this point.
…and a lot of my opinion on this matter comes from what I read on this blog. There is a level-headedness here that I can’t find anywhere else as I think most of us here are watching this unfold with interest (and cautious support), considering the complaints parallel what we’ve been saying for 7 years. I guess I just expected the general population to get it.
But I guess if they did, this blog wouldn’t exist.
Some of my hardcore Republican friends are totally mocking the Occupy Wall Street movement. The latest one was a Facebook link mocking all the “Corporations are Evil” protesters by pointing out everything made by corporations that the protesters were using…ie cameras, phones, clothes, makeup, etc.
Me, too. Reminds me of how I saw the WTO protests in Seattle back in the 90s or whenever that was.
I’ve done all that I can, though. I’ve posted a ton of stuff on FB over the years to show everybody who’s screwing them and how badly. If they choose Stockholm Syndrome in spite of all the evidence, I can’t help them.
“……failed to crack down…..”
Technically, his first mistake was failing to let the banks die, in the gruesome, ugly way they so richly deserved.
Maybe they will get it right when they get a second chance in a few weeks/months.
As much as we would all like to see the bankstas take their medicine, the problem was that millions of pensions/401s/health plans for J6P were tied up in their well being.
It’s the Mutual Assured Destruction of the finance world.
The other part was of the problem was that there was so much deregulation over the last 15 year that a lot of they did really wasn’t illegal, even though it obviously should have been and even WAS at one time.
Not that it makes it any more palatable. Just brutal realpolitic.
Seems that most people I know have had their 401Ks trashed anyway.
This might have been worth something in the long run, had the bankster class been allowed to reap the whirlwind they created.
So now, J6P is dead, and the banksters are still standing. Basically, a neutron bomb targeted at Middle Class America.
Pretty much.
“Seems that most people I know have had their 401Ks trashed anyway.”
Except those who chose the cash-equivilent option; Their 401K money seems to be doing just fine.
I haven’t made much in the last 3 years but I haven’t lost any. And if they’d let nature take its course I wouldn’t lose much there either unless short term treasuries and money markets somehow got trashed. The only problem is that I’m not keeping up with inflation while I wait…
BofA bought my wife’s home….finally. They have 500 more to work through in our market, but they have taken back 30 just yesterday, so the wheels are turning, but is the bus racing downhill, what with all this new inventory?
As for our personal options; We can either boot our tenant in my home or find a rental (in our present school district; only school in the area rated excellent) or move into our travel trailer. Don’t know how many days we have left here but it ain’t that many.
Will be interesting to see how long it sits vacant before they sell it for what it’s worth. Went back to the beneficiary at around 350k, and it would sell for around 200k max. “Book that loss BofA!”, we are also cancelling our checking account. So many must feel the same way about becoming dependent on debit cards then being told its reasonable for consumers to now pay for this alternative to the paper check. After that mean old bank bill made profits harder to come by for the bank (after relaxing accounting rules to some sort of mark to fantasy). I am not buying their feel sorry for us line. Thank you for enabling the worst financial decision we have made thus far in life, see ya BofA.
At least the 18 months “free rent” helped ease the blow a bit.
“So many must feel the same way about becoming dependent on debit cards then being told its reasonable for consumers to now pay for this alternative to the paper check.”
Our credit union doesn’t charge us. I wonder how long until that changes?
It’s getting harder to use checks as most non-chain merchants (and many others) refuse to accept them (I wonder why?). A box of checks now lasts me a loooong time.
One wonders what will happen when we go back to paying cash in a big way. Retail workers will have to rediscover the lost art of making change.
Cashiers are surprised when I hand them an amount of cash that (to them) seems completely unrelated to my total bill and the register tells them the change is something like $5.50. I want that $5 bill and I have never been able to break the habit of collecting quarters (though the laundry at this building uses a prepaid card, not coins). A little math is good for the brain.
Well, the computer does tell them how much the change is.
It also scans your product wrong.
Math in your head, even close-enough guesstimation is a good skill to have.
Of course. Just saying that cashiers don’t need to know how to calculate change.
I think my check still have a New Jersey address on them. I haven’t lived there since early 2005.
There is one reason to be careful about that, polly. I got a letter from the USPS dead mail office the other day, because someone who used to rent the house I am renting sent a check in a poorly-addressed envelope, and the check had his old (now my) address on it.
When they couldn’t deliver it as addressed or to the return address, the USPS opened it and mailed me (a complete stranger) a facismile of the check inside.
Downsides: some complete stranger might end up with your check, your routing codes, etc etc.
In this case, being an upstanding citizen and all around nice guy, I went to the trouble of contacting the poor guy via an address my LL had for him, and let him know that the IRS never received his estimated payment for TY 2010.
Good point, Prime.
Why, just last week, I got a Wells Fargo credit card in my streetside box. It wasn’t for me. It was addressed to someone who must have lived here before I moved in back in ‘04.
So, let’s think for a minute. I’ve been here for almost seven years. Yet WF thinks that this guy is still here.
I wrote “not at this address” on the outside of the unopened letter and sent it back to WF. Let’s hope they get the hint.
Thanks for the heads up, Prime. I will at least be extra careful with addresses if a check is in the mail.
I had a check deposited in my USAA account a few months ago that was most assuredly not mine. Called them up to report it and they figured out the elderly gentleman had put his USAA number on the check, not his account number. I had to stay on the phone while they fixed it which was a pain, but given how low his member number was, I think he was a WWII Vet. I didn’t want him to miss the money.
I use my bank card as a Visa always. I get rewards back. I remember when gas stations gave a discount for cash.
I remember when gas stations gave a discount for cash.
Many still do.
There are a couple of gas stations that give cash discounts around here.
It tough to not use a debit card. I can live a cash only life if I’m just buying food and paper towels. But if I need new sneakers, I don’t want to carry around $400 in cash.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that I spend $400 on sneakers. I mean, if I get a haircut, a pair of sneakers, some socks, and whey powder for the smoothies, it’s very easy to rack up $200 in one day. I guess I’ll just plan in advance for it…
Mortgage Rates, Mortgage Demand and Home Prices All Fall -Diana Olick
No fan, but sharing. Diana is the purse dog (not looks-functionality) of r e reporting, imo.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44802552?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS
Push that string.
I get the feeling that the big picture is not about selling houses or private re-fis. The ultra-low interest rates so sacred to the Fed and our government are more about allowing the Megabanks to Re-fi all their debt at zero percent and keep the status quo alive. That is the root cause of all the upsetting stuff you are hearing about indefinite shadow inventory and rent-free squatting until eternity. Its criminal.
Yes — extend-and-pretend is sustained by the Fed’s extended low rate environment.
Plus it allows the FedGov to finance their debt at low rates, inflation be damned.
It’s a “financed inflation” rather than a monetized inflation. We pay coming and going. Genius!
Not surprising as the casino is always rigged in the house’s favor.
“Not surprising as the casino is always rigged in the house’s favor.”
Yet people still yearn to go there.
From everything I have read, this is their only option. Start cutting now and you have higher unemployment, less spending, slower economy, death spiral….
Arizona real estate facts, courtesy of the Census Bureau:
WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau on Thursday confirmed what many Arizonans already knew: Over the last decade, the state built too many houses and didn’t fill enough of them.
The bureau said the increase in the percent of vacant and rented homes in Arizona was among the highest in the nation.
Vacant housing grew by 61 percent and rentals increased 33 percent in the state between 2000 and 2010.
By 2010, more than 16 percent of Arizona’s houses were vacant, according to bureau data. Of the 10 most populated counties in the country, Maricopa had the largest percentage increase in the number of vacant houses between 2000 and 2010, the Census said. It also had the highest vacancy rate at 13.9 percent.
Slim’s takeaway: Those all-cash investors who are buying properties to rent will find that they have *a lot* of competition.
I am renting a house in AZ for a few months over the winter. There is no shortage of supply. The market has been pretty competitive in the nicer areas while in the southeast valley there is no shortage of homes for sale or rent. I would guess that PHX is overbuilt by 30%. Never mind the people who moved to PHX to escape high housing prices who now go back because it’s quite a bit more affordable (relatively speaking).
While I was looking, I found that there are still many people trying to buy homes to rent out. I can’t get my head around the math; use this example:
Purchase price: $125,000 (monthly payment of $726 @ 4% 30 years)
Average rental is $900 for this property. So that leaves $174 a month for profit. Just being empty two months per year would wipe out all profits, not including the repairs, etc. The math just doesn’t work.
I’ll look foward to updating everyone on my experiences here, as now I’ll have experienced renting in both major boom states (FL/AZ). Just trading ocean for some mountains for a while.
You may need to check your mortage calculator. A loan for $125k at 4% ammortized over 30 years comes out to $597 a month. And $180 of that is principal so you’re only paying $417 a month in interest. Add another $150 for property taxes and insurance and you’re looking at $567 a month. Even if you include the principal as part of the monthly expense that’s $747 a month.
So buying a $125k house with no money down could net you $1,836 in annual cash flow not including approx $2,200 in principal that your tenant is paying for you. And that will increase as you move along the ammortization schedule. And don’t forget you get to depreciate the asset as well, but I’ll exclude that since it has to be recaptured someday anyway. You put no money in so you’re essentially getting an infinite return on your investment. And even if it’s empty for 2 months out of every year you’re still not writing a check.
If the above example doesn’t meet the criteria for a good cash flow investment (excluding house price and rent risk), I don’t know what is. If you’re looking to become a landlord, the numbers work quite well in Phoenix. Heck even if you pay cash you’re still making over 7% return on your money.
While I was looking, I found that there are still many people trying to buy homes to rent out.
Same thing’s happening down here in Tucson. And I can’t wrap my noggin around the math either.
Progressive Front Groups, Move-on.org, The American Dream, etc… are now spearheading a campaign to hijack this Populist OWS Movement to be used as a Democratic Platform on which Obama and the fake Progressive Democrats can counteract the rising tide of the Patriot and Libertarian/Anarchist movements.Hows that hope/change working out for you.
according to who????
Call me when we see evidence of this.
Even if they want to let’s see if they are able to.
Plenty of politicians want to capitalize on the anger.
Even Ron Paul’s people were there according to posters above.
Doesn’t mean they’ve high jacked the movement.
I suspect that the PTB really want to discredit this if they can’t co-opt it. What better way then the right wing pr machine declaring it a communist Obama movement.
Just imagine if the Tea Party people walked in and joined the OWS people with the common goal of getting WS’s tenacles off our gov and allowing a few of these big banks to fail. We all agree on this right and left, so you can bet that the WS elite will do everything they can to have us at each others throats.
Truth.
I participated in some MoveOn.org-orchestrated rallies here in Tucson. That was back in the summer of 2009, and we were out there in the late afternoon heat to support a public option in the health care reform bill.
Mind you, the public option had been compromised away, many months before. But there we were, demonstrating in favor of it.
I can recall being admonished to only the use the words “public option” rather than “single payer.” And this wasn’t just directed at me. It was something that the entire group of demonstrators heard.
Nonetheless, when the chant was “What do we want?” I replied by shouting “Single payer!”
No one stopped me.
However, since that time, I’ve had my doubts about the effectiveness of MoveOn.org. And I’m no longer on their e-mail list.
Move on is George Soros. do you know who he really is?
It is kinda funny seeing an out-of-work 20 something with $200,000 in college loans next an over paid public union goon with a $200,000 spiked pension…protesting the “man”
How long is that team going to last…?
Until somebody comes along an offers to help one of them by screwing the other one?
Somehow I doubt the wealthy public union goons, living the life of luxury, being fed grapes by concubines and drinking champagne out of slippers, could be arsed to go to a protest.*
Getting people out in the streets means turning off the tube, and the computer, and getting in the face of the powers that be. So, the average person has to be pushed pretty far I think to go to a protest.
* I did mean the first paragraph with some sarcasm. I do know of at least one useless individual whom I despise who collects a hefty state pension. And I think public unions need somehow to be on adversarial terms with politicians or else the system invites abuse. But seriously? Are salaries for public employees really the cause of our current financial crisis? Or is that a sideshow designed to divert our attention?Or is that a sideshow designed to divert our attention?
Gee, that’s a tough one.
What percentage of public employees have a $200K per year pension waiting for them? It has to be something like 0.0001% or less.
But I guess it works to demonize anyone with a pension into a fictional “union goon” with a 200K pension.
The fact that does remain is that there are no jobs for the millions of recent colllege grads and those to follow in the coming years. They have and will move back in with mom and dad, work a menial job to pay the student loans and put gas in their clunker. They are be legion and they are and will be angry. And it doesn’t matter who is the next president, their situation won’t change.
And the overwhelming majority of gov’t employees are neither union nor well paid, but will lose their jobs nonetheless while the Wall St. boyz n girlz sneer at the protesters, bragging that the are the “1%’ers”.
Those bus drivers, cops, and unemployed college grads have PLENTY in common.
Black swans? Based on human nature, I wonder how these austerity / debt paydown programs will work. I have a suspicion that these countries, like the US, will push what works in the short run, until the system breaks. Politicians generally don’t get re-elected by promising belt-tightening.
(Reuters) - Fitch on Friday cut Italy’s sovereign credit rating by one notch and Spain’s by two, citing a worsening of the euro zone debt crisis and a risk of fiscal slippage in both countries.
Fitch cut Italy’s rating to A+ from AA- and lowered Spain to AA- from AA+.
It kept both countries, respectively the third and fourth largest in the euro zone, on a negative outlook suggesting further downgrades could come in future.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/07/us-spain-ratings-fitch-idUSTRE7964HC20111007
State business insurer laying off up to 1,800 employees
~ SACBEE.COM
The quasi-public State Compensation Insurance Fund is planning to lay off between 1,500 and 1,800 employees in jobs that officials say have been crowded out by evolving technology and business practices as the insurer battles for market share and to hold down its expenses.
State Fund estimates it will save $150 million per year in employee costs. It’s the first time the organization has announced layoffs since the Great Depression.
The fund’s 7,300 employees around the state received word in an e-mail today from State Fund President and CEO Tom Rowe.
“We don’t have all the details yet,” Rowe said in the e-mail, “but we anticipate layoffs being effective by the 2nd Quarter of 2012.”
Fund spokeswoman Jennifer Vargen said that officials aren’t ready to announce which facilities or counties would see the biggest staffing cutbacks.
According to a a layoff Q&A , the job classifications that will be hardest hit include auditors who examine payroll records to make sure that a business’s insurance is sufficient to cover its liabilities. Other jobs on the cut list include program technicians, office technicians and other office staff. Officials will probably add more job classes as they finalize the layoff plan.
Lawmakers established State Fund in 1914. Today it is California’s largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance, taking on clients that private-sector insurers often dismiss.
That unique origin and role as California’s “insurer of last resort” forces State Fund to operate with one foot in the private sector and the other in the public sector: It competes with private insurers and operates solely on investment returns and client premiums, but its employees are state workers.
The fund has struggled to contain costs. State Fund spends 90 cents for every dollar of premium it writes. The industry average is 40 cents. It “spends more operating the company than it does paying benefits to injured workers, which is extremely unusual in the insurance industry,” according to a fund fact sheet that explains the rationale for the layoffs.
Chicago will look like liberal utopia of Detroit in a few years.
Tax the workers/slaves into oblivion in order to keep insane public union salaries/benefits and pensions.
The public union goons give 99% of all their money to democrats. Democrats support the public unions NO MATTER WHAT. Quite a feed-back cycle.
The only thing a non-public union goon worker can do is to leave the city.
How do you think this affect housing prices?
In Detroit you can buy a house for pocket change…
———————————————————
Property tax bills anger Cook County homeowners
Yahoo News - October 7th, 2011
CHICAGO (CBS) — It’s sticker shock in the mail. Tax bills went out to Cook County homeowners this week and the big jump in the amount due to many homeowners has some wondering if they can keep their house.
According to the Cook County Clerk’s office, tax rates are up for schools, park districts, municipalities and other government bodies. Some of those tax levies have made double-digit increases in tax rates.
The property tax reality was setting in with Markham homeowner Patricia Taylor on Wednesday.
Asked if she can keep her house after receiving an $8,100 property tax bill, Taylor said, “I don’t know right now. It’s bad right now, it’s really bad.”
That’s because her property tax bill for her three bedroom, one bathroom house shot up from $6,400 last year to $8,100 this year — a whopping 27 percent jump.
There is a difference between Chicago and Detroit. Chicago isn’t a one industry town.
That said, those property tax rates are insane.
That said, those property tax rates are insane.
Homework: What happens to housing prices when property taxes become insane?
Hint: Property taxes are part of the overall cost of owning a house, along with P/I, insurance, upkeep, etc.
You’d think that Chicagoans would be stampeding out of town and even out of state. I’m certain many have thought of it but balked when they realized that a similar job at the branch office in Podunk pays A LOT LESS.
I saw this first hand when I worked for a Denver subsidiary of a Boston based company. We had an engineer come out to visit us from the “mother ship” and he fell in love with Denver. He applied for a transfer to our outfit, until he learned that it would have meant a 40% PAY CUT.
Needless to say, he stayed in the Boston area.
The best thing for the Florida economy has been the increase in Illinois tax rates. Politcos just don’t get that higher tax rates lead to lower overall revenues, especially when one can move to Iowa, MO, Indiana, or just straight down to Florida.
Yeah, cause the Florida economy is flying REALLY high nowadays………
Yes they are.
When we were house-shopping over 20 years ago, we went through several lovely old houses that were on the market because their elderly owners could no longer afford the taxes.
And now it’s happening all over again.
Elanor
I remember the same thing prior to Prop 13 in Calif. Elderly folks with paid off homes, taxed out of the only security they had. It made me sick.
In Calif., commercial properties need to pay their fair share, period. They got a sweet deal and now the gig is up.
“I remember the same thing prior to Prop 13 in Calif. Elderly folks with paid off homes, taxed out of the only security they had.”
Perhaps they don’t need quite so big a place with the kids gone.
Of course the problem in NYC is that preferential property tax treatment for homeowners means that if we decide to downsize to a condo after the kids are gone, instead of gaining more security through lower costs we’ll end up having less due to much higher taxes.
So we may be taxed into our home, a home some other young family could have used as only 1/3 of the housing units in NYC have 3+ bedrooms.
WT Economist
A small 3+2 one-story rancher isn’t a huge place. If they want it to be their toe-tag home, so be it. They paid all their lives. Let the commercial property tax owners pay their fair share in Ca. They’ve gotten away without paying their fair share for way too long.
We’re paying cash for our 4 bdrm tow-tag home. We’ll have a higher tax base than our neighbors (long term homeowner neighborhoods are our target). That’s the way life works. We’ll just be happy to have a home again. We miss it. We thought Thanksgiving would be in our home this year. Disappointed, to say the least.
“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances, but to act calmly to this and to do the right thing.” ~Sir Mervyn King, Bank of England Governor.
King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a United Kingdom recession. It’s another test of the effectiveness of Quantitative Easing. Financial Crisis
King is the Ben Bernanke of England’s central bank. Imagine Bernanke announcing the Federal Reserve’s intentions in such blunt language!
“Financial experts said the committee’s actions would be a “Titanic” disaster for pensioners, savers and workers approaching retirement. Sir Mervyn suggested that was a price worth paying to save the economy from recession.”
And what sacrifice will you bear? Plus, no admission of personal error or wrongdoing. Pol Pot would know exactly what to do with, Sir Mervyn.
Cool! A Pol Pot admirer. Why don’t you check him out on wikipedia. Here’s a paragraph.
“Pol Pot became leader of Cambodia in mid-1975.[4] During his time in power he imposed a version of agrarian socialism, forcing urban dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labour projects, toward a goal of “restarting civilization” in “Year Zero.” The combined effects of forced labour, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions resulted in the deaths of approximately 21 percent of the Cambodian population.[5] In all, an estimated 1,700,000–2,500,000 people died under his leadership.”
The Wall Street protesters are finally getting the attention they have been seeking, it seems. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, denounced the Occupy Wall Street protests Friday as “mobs,” and Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, charged demonstrators with “trying to take away the jobs of people working in this city.”
Cantor, the House majority leader and a Republican from Virginia, told a gathering of conservative activists in Washington that he’s “increasingly concerned” by the “growing mobs” at the protests,
Looks like the GOP has decided to demonize those that protest the bank bailouts.
Cantor’s expression of alarm was echoed by Bloomberg. “You can’t have it both ways,” the mayor said during a radio appearance. “If you want jobs you have to assist companies and give them confidence to go and hire people.”
Yes if you want to save the economy you have to save the banks with TARP and let the CEO”s off with MASSIVE pay packages.
The protests that are trying to destroy the jobs of working people in this city aren’t productive,” said Bloomberg
What I don’t think they are protesting the workers on WS they are protesting the fact that WS has taken over our gov and all of our wealth. Big difference Bloomy
Reminds me of this cartoon:
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu33/laurenagnoni/cartoon_0916_01.jpg
You will never have the the confidence to hire people as long as this
misfit stays in power.
Banks closed in Minn, Mo; makes 76 failures in ‘11
The Associated Press
Posted: 7:41 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
WASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday closed a small bank in Minnesota and one in Missouri, increasing to 76 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.
The number of closures has fallen sharply this year as banks have worked their way through the bad debt accumulated in the recession. By this time last year, regulators had shuttered 129 banks.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Riverbank, based in Wyoming, Minn., with $417.4 million in assets and $379.3 million in deposits; and Sun Security Bank of Ellington, Mo., with $355.9 million in assets and $290.4 million in deposits.
Central Bank, based in Stillwater, Minn., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Riverbank. Great Southern Bank, based in Springfield, Mo., is assuming the assets and deposits of Sun Security Bank.
In addition, the FDIC and Central Bank agreed to share losses on $339.3 million of Riverbank’s loans and other assets. The agency and Great Southern Bank agreed to share losses on $351.9 million of Sun Security Bank’s assets.
The failure of Riverbank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $71.4 million; that of Security Bank is expected to cost $118.3 million.