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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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The Wall Street Journal reports:
Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year.
Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived [in] households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years.
Means-tested programs, designed to help the needy, accounted for the largest share of recipients last year. Some 34.2% of Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid (the federal-state health care program for the poor).
Another 14.5% lived in homes where someone was on Medicare (the health care program for the elderly). Nearly 16% lived in households receiving Social Security.
High unemployment and increased reliance on government programs has also shrunk the nation’s share of taxpayers. Some 46.4% of households will pay no federal income tax this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That’s up from 39.9% in 2007, the year the recession began.
Most of those households will still be hit by payroll taxes. Just 18.1% of households pay neither payroll nor federal income taxes and they are predominantly the nation’s elderly and poorest families.
The tandem rise in government-benefits recipients and fall in taxpayers has been cause for alarm among some policymakers and presidential hopefuls.
Benefits programs have come under closer scrutiny as policymakers attempt to tame the federal government’s budget deficit. President Barack Obama and members of Congress considered changes to Social Security and Medicare as part of a grand bargain (that ultimately fell apart) to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year. Cuts to such programs could emerge again from the so-called “super committee,” tasked with releasing a plan to rein in the deficit.
Republican presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, have latched onto the fact that nearly half of households pay no federal income tax, saying too many Americans aren’t paying their fair share.
“46.4% of households pay no federal income tax…. just 18.1% of households pay neither payroll nor federal income taxes ”
Which means that 28.3 of the country is the working poor.
The 14.5% households with Medicare and the 16% households with SS are probably the same households.
I’d like to see a more detailed breakdown of the 34% of America on the dole. Does that include kids on free lunch?
This is a good article from the WSJ.
Does it include unemployment benefits, social security, Medicare?
“This is a good article from the WSJ”
Not when it leads readers to the kind of conclusions that you came to. Consider that there may be more than one person in a household. You can’t draw conclusions about % of population from this information.
in Oregon, once 75% of a school is eligible for free lunch cuz they are poor; nobody at the school gets to pay for lunch. Our school is 45% free lunch, so my wife charges $$ and can deny the older middle schoolers lunch for no $$ in their account. Little kids will get lunch even if their parents never square up, even though they maybe have not applied for free lunch.
My wife has several families hundreds of dollars in arrears. She does not really enjoy denying an eigth grader food cuz his folks are not managing his lunch account. Not his fault, but it usually does get results after a couple days.
The other school just uses a clicker, cuz nobody pays period.
So even if there are 24% filthy rich kids at a given (mostly poor)school; they may not be able to contribute to their cafeteria meal.
these same demographic $$ determine if certain schools students are eligible for free after school programming and more nutrition from the feds.
My kids tell me the free lunchers are all fat
they tell me the free lunchers throw away the fruit and go back for seconds of the chicken nuggets
I tell them this is what you get for accepting Government cheese
fat
OTOH, you could also conclude that the only thing that poor people can afford is junk food, and that the kids have been conditioned to eat it.
Then they have kids, and the cycle continues.
Sorta like the typical flyover “fried foods and potatoes” diet.
Have any of you actually seen what constitutes a “School lunch” lately? Mostly prepackaged garbage. And this is what a lot of kids get as their primary meal.
Lets use this weeks menu at my kids school district as an example: (my commentary in parenthesis)
Monday: Hot dog roll up, potato wedges, broccoli and cheese,
dammit, wrong button…….
Monday: Hot dog roll up (hot dog rolled up in a buscuit and baked, (frozen) potato wedges(the reheated), (unfrozen) broccoli/cheese, peaches (canned with sugar, not fresh)
Tuesday: (Frozen and reheated) Macaroni and cheese, Little Smokies (mystery meat with Liquid Smoke), combination salad, (frozen) strawberries and bananas, Cowboy bread (?)
Wednesday: Pork Tender sandwich (patty frozen and reheated), lettuce and tomato (the daily “vegetable”), (frozen and reheated)tater tots (frozen and reheated)corn and applesauce
Thursday: (Frozen and reheated) Ravioli, (frozen and reheated) green beans, (iceburg lettuce)salad, pears (canned in sugar). dinner roll
Friday: (government) Hot ham and (government) cheese sandwich, (frozen, then) cooked carrots, Cheez-its, Mandarin oranges and apples (probably from China).
When I grew up, the school cafeteria had it’s own cafeteria, that was run by a bunch of little old ladies, who know how to cook with basic materials. We has made from scratch bread every day…..at least until we got to high school.
Then, in the early 70s, in order to “save money” all the school districts went to giant central kitchens, and the food was trucked out to the schools.
Now, everything is frozen or canned, and all the school districts do is thaw stuff out.
Want to know why some of old people bitch about things? Because most of the stuff we see happening around isn’t an improvement over the way things used to be.
Corners are being cut everywhere we look, but where is the money going?
Well if you put the cheese on the potatoes and change the broccolee for mushrooms…so much better, oh and dont forget Emeril’s Hot mustard with horseradish….
Monday: Hot dog roll up, potato wedges, broccoli and cheese,
Have you ever seen a kid eat a mushroom or broccoli on his own?
There are different price packages for school lunches available by the district/institution. If schools have a certain amount of their students receiving aid or qualifying for lunch assistance they tend to chose the cheaper (and often less healthy) options.
My kids refused to eat school lunches in their last district and it just so happened that was a district that had defaulted to the cheaper program due to student make up. I used to sit w/them at their lunch tables and I couldn’t get down the few choices I took back to the table either. And I am NOT known to be a picky eater. But the offerings at their current district are enjoyed. So I don’t have to get up and make lunches every day like I used to. One good thing about going to a district with an only the best attitude.
Carrie and I’ll bet they force your kids to speak English too,,
One good thing about going to a district with an only the best attitude.
Going back for seconds???!??? How about this: you can ask for as many seconds on vegetables as you want, but you get ONE serving of chicken nuggets.
Message from Diogenes:
There is no such thing as a “free lunch”. Americans better start to learn that sucking off their fellow Americans for free stuff is going to end up in a complete collapse of this Country.
This is one of the big magnets for illegal aliens. They get to drop their kids off at public schools where they get “free” breakfast, lunch and medical care. They didn’t get all this free stuff back home.
Who wouldn’t want to live in a Country where everything is paid for by someone else?
We need some real serious turn-abouts.
Hope and Change comes to America…
Four more years…
From what i have seen it should be manditory for all FS people to take a week course in shopping.
people paying $3.49 lb for hamburger, yet the day old $1.99 lb managers specials they leave for me.
Buying brand name items not on sale while i buy the store brands
Buying a dozen cans of spagetti-ohs instead of cooking your own pasta.
Americans lived in a household that received benefits such as food stamps
Someone should tell these folks that they have been protesting in the wrong place. They need to pack up and head down to D.C. that’s where the rules makers are. Wall Street could not care less about what a few thousand squatters think. If they seriuosly want “change” they should start at the voting booth. Should have a long,long time ago.
ITEM: Possible Showdown Looms Between City, Protesters Ahead Of Zuccotti Park Cleaning
‘Occupy Wall Street’ To Fight ‘Eviction Notice,’ But Apparently Has Backup Plan
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Friday morning could be the beginning of the end of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration.
On Thursday, Brookfield Office Management employees were passing out notices to protesters, who have been camped out for 26 days, saying that tarps, sleeping bags and tents are all prohibited in the park, as is lying on the ground and on benches when it becomes an interference for others.
CBS 2 learned late Thursday night the protestors are preparing in case they cannot base their operations out of Zuccotti Park anymore. They are now encouraging people to occupy Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.
“They might as well as just said ‘You’re done,’” one protester told CBS 2′s Ann Mercogliano earlier Thursday.
“This is an eviction notice,” said another.
In relentless solidarity, members of Occupy Wall Street marched to City Hall delivering thousands of petitions to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg from plowing through Zuccotti with the NYPD and a clean-up crew Friday morning.
Wall Street controls Washington D.C., not the other way around.
The protestors are right on target. They know that it’s the Wall Street/corporate crowd who created the tax and trade policies that have decimated the middle class in America. The politicians in D.C. are just their puppets.
+1. Protest the organ grinder, not the monkey.
“+1. Protest the organ grinder, not the monkey.”
Funny thing is the monkey is saying “God Bless” those people protesting the organ grinder.
“+1. Protest the organ grinder, not the monkey.”
Funny thing is the monkey is saying “God Bless” those people protesting the organ grinder.
After reading this I think I had a Hank Wiliams Jr. moment. I was talking about what Pilosi said but it kinda came out wrong and might have looked like it was meant for the president. I guess there goes my shot at next years Monday Night Football opening.
Pelosi: ‘God bless’ protesters
By: Seung Min Kim, Politico
October 6, 2011 05:06 PM EDT
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday praised the thousands of “Occupy Wall Street” protesters crowding New York City and other cities across the nation.
“God bless them for their spontaneity,” Pelosi told reporters. “It’s young, it’s spontaneous, it’s focused and it’s going to be effective.”
The comments from Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House, came after President Barack Obama embraced the protesters in a nationally televised news conference, saying their furor would “express itself politically in 2012 and beyond.”
I guess there goes my shot at next years Monday Night Football opening.
The Packers and the Steelers are ready to go
Lord, you aint paid your mortgage in three years or so.
I got girls that can cook, I got girls that can clean,
I got girls that can tell bill collectors you aint been seen,
I gotta get ready, make everything right,
‘cause all my Deadbeat friends are comin’ over tonight.
Do you wanna drink, hey, do ya wanna party,
Hey, this is ole jeff ready to get Your foreclosure started.
I cooked a pig in the ground, we got some beer on ice,
And all my Deadbeat friends are coming over tonight.
There will be no criticism of our dear leader…
At least from the OWS crowd…
Kinda of ironic - isn’t it?
—————————————
Occupy Wall Street protesters should aim their wrath at Fundraiser-in-Chief Obama
nydailynews.com - October 14th, 2011
A better question? When do they head to Washington and start yelling about a President who often looks like the Fundraiser-in-Chief, trying to keep his job backed by what might become the richest campaign in history, in a jobless country going broke.
It’s why you wonder if there will come a day when the house that Occupy Wall Street is standing in front of isn’t Jamie Dimon’s on Park Ave., it is the White House.
Say this about the state of the country nearly three years into the Obama administration: If this President didn’t create this economic mess, he hasn’t done very much to get us out of it.
At a time when there is this amazing shout from the streets - and even as those on the right sneer about “these people” down in Zuccotti Park as if their dissent is a form of dirty terrorism - Obama and his people will raise a billion dollars if they have to so they can keep him in office.
In a country with 14 million unemployed, in a country where 15% of the people live below the poverty line, in a country where people take to the streets now to yell about how much trouble we’re in, the real plan for the President is to win reelection by money-whipping the opposition.
The alternative of course, being to elect a Republican who actually believes all this “trickle down/supply side” BS.
They should really be targeting those Bilderburg meetings over in Europe. But we’ve already seen photos of what happens to people who try to get close to them. Pretty telling if you ask me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_attendees
Huey P. Long, truly an inspiration to our current leader.
Huey P. Long, truly an inspiration to our current leader.
If not, he should be even if it’s just a political move. 54% of Americans “support” the OWS. (more than support Obama)
A plan: After Pres. Obama collects big money he goes populist on the GOP nominee and I mean goes Huey Long on his oligarchic case. As a final term candidate, Obama declares “class-war” big time, energizes the dejected base and woos disenfranchised, OWS type independents back.
Now, how will the broken-record “tax cuts for the rich” GOP counter this? Why with more “tax cuts for the rich” stuff. It seems to me that besides the 30% of the “conservative” population that listens to this broken record, many Americans are agreeing with much of what the OWS is standing for and will start to see the GOP more for what it is in light of the recent narrative that the OWS movement has started.
keep dreaming. he seems to be doing that now and it is not getting anywhere. what made you think that congress will ever listen to the us people instead of *that people*.
Wall Street controls Washington D.C., not the other way around.
Poor little obama…can’t do nuthin.
What leadership we have. What hope. What change.
And the fact that most OWS types are hard core leftists who supported obama in the last election…
And I really hope Republicans take all 3 houses, because then when they too fail to fix the economy since we’re not in a cyclical downturn but a structural dead-end of the debt ased economy…. After both parties have had a turn and failed, THEN we can finally start making some real changes.
Then we can end free trade, revert to a 1950s style tax code, strengthen unions again, re-regulating banking and investment, slash the heck out of the military, bring back manufacturing jobs, etc.
Because, the only thing I hear from the Republicans is BS that will push us into depression.
I absolutely hate Democrats and think Obama is a horrid president, but the Republicans are even worse now.
Awesome post, Darrell!
If President Obama (that’s capital “O” hon, he is your President, after all; or are you one of those faux patriots…?) “can’t do nuthin,’” pray tell why you are on this blog whining about his administration’s actions and policies everyday?
While it can’t come quickly enough for me, it seems that 30 years of Reaganite cronyism– particularly as regards America’s military opportunism, is *changing* rather a lot. KBR isn’t getting all those no-bid contracts anymore. Neither are Boeing and Lockheed.
Various mid-eastern governments are no longer dictating America’s foreign policy. Leon Panetta is all over the press screaming about the “dangers” of de-funding the military. Arab Spring is spreading. And although the damage from their predation has been horrendous, the Lords of Wall Street are on their best behavior these days. People are watching now, you see….
I *hope* we continue to do so.
As anyone who reads my posts can tell you, I’m far from the man’s biggest supporter, and he lost me the day he appointed Summers and Geithner to yes-man the Fed. Nonetheless, I think he’s doing a credible, if thankless job of steering a centrist course down the river that’s slowly being diverted to wash 30+ years of muck from America’s Stygian Stables.
Stings, doesn’t it, nan?
“Why are you on this blog whining about his administration’,s
actions and policies everyday?”
It hurts to hear the truth, plus ever hear of the first amendment?
Your pandering is quite useful although you need a new play book.
PS- The first amendment applies to the government not Ben Jones. If he wants to shut your dumb ass down, he’ll do it. But we’re accustomed to you tossing around concepts you know nothing of.
PS- The first amendment applies to the government not Ben Jones. If he wants to shut your dumb ass down, he’ll do it. But we’re accustomed to you tossing around concepts you know nothing of.
+1000
“PS- The first amendment applies to the government not Ben Jones.” or his blog anyway
But there is nothing like a good old fasioned bitc# slapping from Ben. Always puts a smile on my face.
We gotta get your head right boy!
“You got your mind right Luke?”
If we all thought about if for a minute the problem is not Washington or wall street….its financing the elections
Public financing and all people on the ballot get the same amount of money would mean no more Pacs fund raising dinners at $25,000 a plate…None of that…
No need for lobbyists either…..Its our only salvation
Yes the commies socialists, right to life, the rent is too damn high party would be included, but how far will they go past the first round of debates?
And the fact that most OWS types are hard core leftists who supported obama in the last election…
27%* of Americans approve of the Tea party.
54%* percent of Americans approve of the OWS. Therefore, according to your observation, most Americans are “hard-core leftists. (Be afraid, very afraid)
*Yesterday’s Time poll
“Time Magazine”, like that isn’t a left wing rag!!! HAHAHA.
“Time Magazine”, like that isn’t a left wing rag!!! HAHAHA.
There it is folks….a very typical but meaningless, programed response by the right these days. You see it everywhere. Facebook, blogs, etc.
Any body knows that’s what FOX, Limbaugh et all program. The “FOX Rule”: Any result that goes against our agendized ideology must be disparaged by disparaging the source even if the results reflect reality. Now if Time told you 2 + 2 = 4 would they not be correct? Or would 2+2 now equal 5 because Time* was “a left wing rag”?
But if it makes you feel any more unsure unc, The Wall Street Journal poll (owned by the FOX owner) and the Rasmussen poll (very conservative) of Oct. 5 showed that many more Americans support OWS than support the Tea Party.
*Owned by one of the largest media corporations in the world.
Boy are you delusional. Fox is hiring every left winger they can find from the other MSM outlets lately.
A “poll” can have the desired results if the questions are asked
in such a way as to get the desired answer.
Fox is hiring every left winger they can find from the other MSM outlets lately.
See? Twice as many Americans support OWS over the Tea Party, Obama is a “socialist” and Fox is going left wing.
Just relax and enjoy the ride. (or keep posting un-backed, American middle-class looter apologist, one-liner AM-radio talking points for our amusement)
Obama made a joke yesterday to Ed Henry about his jumping to
FOX.
Fox Rule 2:
A “poll” can…
have the desired results if the questions are asked in such a way as to get the desired answer.…be disparaged if the results differ from our crony-capitalist supporting propaganda. (The Koch Bros info ministry)
keep posting un-backed, American middle-class looter apologist, one-liner AM-radio talking points for our amusement
The tea-trash toddler tantrums are rather amusing, aren’t they? They’ll sound even better after Obama is re-elected next year
They’ll sound even better after Obama is re-elected next year
Other than the fact that means that none of the right wing religious nut jobs or fascist corporatists will be the next prez, there really isn’t all that much to celebrate. Obama’s campaign motto might as well be: “Vote for me, I really suck, but I suck less than the other guys”
BUT - we - the voting public - can change DC. Corporate desire for control of government is like a roach infestation. It never goes away, but with diligence, it can be kept under control.
If we keep voting in venal kleptocrats, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
It is true also that a highly organized minority will defeat a disorganized majority. Wall Street knows this.
However - a society cannot be ignorant and free.
we? i don’t think so. the stoopid majority decides the result of voting.
Thousands of extra people showed up, and the city backed off plans.
Hundreds of cops showed up and arrested dozens as they tried to march down Wall St.. The cops are well paid to protect their masters. Someone quoted a story about how one of the big banks ‘donated’ hundreds of thousands of dollars to the NYPD. Don’t worry stock holders, they will write it off as charity.
http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/article/ny-13.htm
Actually, JP Morgan donated $4.6 million to the NYPD. That buys a lot of “cooperation.”
OWS is running their protest better than some governments run countries. To be honest, I don’t think that the Tea Party, even with Korchporate backing, could have stayed there this long.
—————
New York (CNN) — A cleaning planned for the Manhattan park where “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have camped out for weeks has been postponed, a move that averts a showdown between demonstrators and police….
… The city had ordered the protesters to leave by 7 a.m. so crews could clean the park…
But the protesters mopped, collected trash and scrubbed the pavement in the dead of the night as the Friday deadline neared for them to leave the premises for a cleanup. When the word of the postponed cleaning filtered through the more than 1,000 protesters who filled the park, they were elated.
————
I don’t think that the Tea Party, even with Korchporate backing, could have stayed there this long.
Sucks when you have a job and can’t hang out for weeks at a time…
“…Sucks when you have a job and can’t hang out for weeks at a time…”.
Sucks when you don’t. Maybe that’s the point, nan.
Comment: I don’t think that the Tea Party, even with Korchporate backing, could have stayed there this long.
Retort: Sucks when you have a job and can’t hang out for weeks at a time…
To be fair to the Tea Party, many of them are over 65 and even though they are vehemently against government involvement in their Social Security and Medicare, they are not up to long camp outs.
Here are some enlightening reader comments on the Denver Post story: Colorado State Patrol, Denver Police clear out Occupy Denver camp site
“There are going to be problems down in that area for days from these anarchists. Any Tea Party Members with a concealed carry permit should head down and show support for the cops.”
“Well I’m so happy all the welfare queens and kings got to protest on my dime. Your welcome.”
“Free food and free clinic. Who is paying for them? Any bets it is Soros and a public union?”
“A jobs fair in the middle of tent city would have sent them scattering too!”
Proof that people do not get it.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
I’m heading down to the Occupy Phoenix protest tomorrow. I’ve never been without a job for more than about 2 weeks since I turned 16, 28 years ago.
Proof that people do not get it.
You mean the numbskulls. Other people “get it” just fine. OWS is gathering steam and the PTB are starting to get nervous, very nervous.
Someone should tell these folks that they have been protesting in the wrong place.
But tell which folks they’re protesting in the wrong place?
The ones in NY? DC? KC? LA? SF? Denver? Dallas? Houston? Lawrence? Madison? St Lou? Florida? Penn? NJ? Or the ones in the dozens of foreign countries around the world?
Occupy Phoenix starting tomorrow.
WMBZ - Someone should tell these folks that they have been protesting in the wrong place. They need to pack up and head down to D.C. that’s where the rules makers are.
Response - You’re kidding right??
The protesters are exactly in the right place. The problem is not gov, the problem is that gov has been taken over by the elite. Gov is being used by the elite to extract wealth from the few remaining middle and upper middle class Americans.
Exactly. The masters of the universe want OWS to pack their bags and head off to DC, protest and then put the “other guys” into office who will continue to do the bidding of the 1%’ers.
Bingo.
Glad to know that the OWS folks “get it.” It seems there has been an awakening. People are finally starting to understand what we are up against, and they are beginning to understand that it won’t magically get better…we have to make it better. Every single one of us.
O/T: We don’t often go to the movies, but saw “Dolphin Tale” last night. For those who are tired of all the violence, snark, sexual innuendo (even in kids’ “G-rated” movies!), etc., that is so prevalent in today’s movies and TV shows, this is a breath of fresh air.
It’s a true feel-good movie that will have you in tears. We can’t recommend it highly enough.
http://dolphintalemovie.warnerbros.com/index.html
The kids talked me into watching “Bandslam” on DVD last night. Thought it would be a vapid Disney-style tweener flick but it turned out to be surprisingly good. I’m surprised it wasn’t a sleeper hit when it came out back in 2009.
Foreclosures are booming,
There are no buyers,
Lower prices are looming,
Realtors Are Liars.
End the Fed!
Then what? Do we want the government, who I’m told messes up everything it gets its hands on, to have more control over our monetary policy and banking system? Why?
Is there another alternative? No central bank at all? How would that work?
“How would that work?”
Presidential
Sep 10, 1833:
Andrew Jackson shuts down Second Bank of the U.S.
On this day in 1833, President Andrew Jackson announces that the government will no longer use the Second Bank of the United States, the country’s national bank. He then used his executive power to remove all federal funds from the bank, in the final salvo of what is referred to as the “Bank War.”
A national bank had first been created by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton in 1791 to serve as a central repository for federal funds. The Second Bank of the United States was founded in 1816; five years after this first bank’s charter had expired. Traditionally, the bank had been run by a board of directors with ties to industry and manufacturing, and therefore was biased toward the urban and industrial northern states. Jackson, the epitome of the frontiersman, resented the bank’s lack of funding for expansion into the unsettled Western territories. Jackson also objected to the bank’s unusual political and economic power and to the lack of congressional oversight over its business dealings.
…
So Jackson put the gov’s deposits into state banks. And then I guess the Treasury printed the money and set interest rates and controlled the money supply?
So the worthless gov is in charge of everything. That’s what the End-the-Feders want?
The End-the-Fed’ers want to end the Fed that is sucking the life out of America.
Not having every last detail reconciled shouldn’t detract from the greater goal here.
Jesus Alpha, if you were around during the colonial days you would be arguing against the revolution.
“Not having every last detail reconciled”
Given the paucity of responses to my question, I’m starting to think ‘End the Fed’ is just an empty slogan. No one’s even offered the most simple overview as to how to do it, much less filled in ‘every last detail’.
Democratic cartoon shows Jackson fighting the monster Bank. “The Bank”, Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!”
I predict a system will eventually emerge that uses energy as a base unit of measure. BTUs or KWHs credits will be traded electronically with a debit cards, checks, wire transfers etc.. Other fiat paper currencies will still be available but will be peged to the price of energy.
That’ll really burn a hole in your pocket.
In a scifi novel called “The Forever War” calories were the currency used. And while calories are a measure of energy, it was about food, not hydrocarbons.
Is Meredeth Whitney right?
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania now has the distinction of becoming the second U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection this year.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/
She knew that even printing presses run out of ink.
Well, she predicted “There will be between 50 and 100 ’significant’ municipal bond defaults in 2011, totaling ‘hundreds of billions’ of dollars.”
So, no. She was not correct.
She may have been early, or perhaps there will be no 12 month period with this level of default and loss.
Well, she predicted “There will be between 50 and 100 ’significant’ municipal bond defaults in 2011, totaling ‘hundreds of billions’ of dollars.”
The 2009 obama $800 billion stimulus was just a bailout to cities/counties/states. Most of that money went into the daily day-to-day budgets (not “shovel ready jobs”) and much of that went to pay insane public union contracts.
The 2009 obama stimulus runs out of time/money when 2011 ends.
There won’t be a Stimulus II (ie - obama’s “job bill” that just failed the senate) with Republicans controlling the house.
These cities/counties/states now need to make some hard decisions without the free obama money failing from the sky.
Expect more public worker layoffs.
Expect a few give backs by public unions.
Expect quite a few more bankruptcies.
She is right but she did not calculate that municipal governments have saved for rainy days but some hidden schemes. So these goverments were able to keep things going another year.
I give her credit for the call and she just did not know about the hidden funds goverments can use for a while.
Harrisburg finally ran out of gimics and so did that town in Alabama.
The money was handed out in 2009 and 2010. You know, 2 year stimulus starting Spring-summer 2009.
This is why the government employment numbers have been dragging down the total for the last 6 months.
And, it is why she thought the municipal bankruptcies would be in 2011.
Correct. And while Perry is loathe to admit it, the stim money played a big part in making Texas look good until recently.
Is the double-dip recession outside the realm of possibility at this point? I guess the answer depends heavily upon whom you ask.
However, this statement is patently lame, which did not prevent the writer of the linked article from posting it as a plausible counterpoint to Nouriel Roubini’s carefully reasoned arguments:
“If we were going to have another recession, it would have been in the summer,” when Congress was debating the debt ceiling amid the growing Greek debt crisis and market effects from Japan’s earthquake, she said. In fact, that might be exactly what happened. “They may revise figures and say we had a decline in the summer,” Ms. Rossell said.
The problem, Ms. Rossell, is the labor market is an oil tanker, and oil tankers don’t exactly turn on a dime, as you suggest they do. And which “they” is it she thinks causes recessions to either happen or not happen in the past?
Economist says if double-dip hit, it has come and gone
Cites baby steps of slowly improving jobless numbers, rising GDP
By Lavonne Kuykendall
October 11, 2011 2:32 pm ET
If there were any chance of a double-dip recession in the U.S., it has already happened and is over now, according to Marci Rossell, the former chief economist for CNBC.
“I am not in the double-dip camp,” she said at the IMCA Advanced Wealth Management Conference in Chicago today. She spoke as a last-minute replacement for far more bearish economist Nouriel Roubini.
Mr. Roubini, head of Roubini Global Economics, has a different opinion, which he shared in an interview today at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. “The question is not whether or if there is going to be a double dip, but whether it’s going to be mild or severe with another financial crisis,” Mr. Roubini told CNBC from the sidelines of the conference. “The answer on that depends on the eurozone.”
Ms. Rossell’s comments in Chicago provided a sharp contrast. “If we were going to have another recession, it would have been in the summer,” when Congress was debating the debt ceiling amid the growing Greek debt crisis and market effects from Japan’s earthquake, she said. In fact, that might be exactly what happened. “They may revise figures and say we had a decline in the summer,” Ms. Rossell said.
…
Economists like to ignore the bottom line of the ledger.
The economy is flatlined at best according to the Ministry of Truth. Debt continues to mount. The wealth of the nation continues to drop. Is there a limit to debt? Anywhere? The next financial “crisis” will be when some significant entity somewhere refuses to issue or accept more debt. It will be “unexpected”.
Pelosi was right about saving life as we know it through debt. If the US Gov stops accumulating debt, or even stops accelerating, it’s Game Over.
Off topic as regards my double dip question…
If you recognize that the primary decline never ended, but was only masked by debt, then the question of “will there be another decline” is kind of like asking if a burning house will catch fire again.
Totally agree with you there. In fact, I made this exact point earlier this evening in discussion, during the intermission of a concert on which I performed, with a guitarist ironically named John Law. I told him he should look up the historical figure whose name he shares.
The rise and fall of the Mississippi Company became known as the Mississippi Bubble. Indeed, Law is most famous, or perhaps infamous, for his involvement in this prominent financial disaster. A “bubble” in the world of finance is a term applied to an unusually rapid increase in stock prices or the value of some other asset such as real estate. The increase is then followed by an equally rapid collapse in prices. The wild fluctuations in prices are usually viewed as irrational and the product of uncontrolled speculation rather than sensible investment practices. The dramatic increase in the NASDAQ stock index, primarily technology stocks, in 1999-2000 and its subsequent collapse in 2000-2004 is sometimes presented as a recent example of a bubble.
Economists are divided on how to interpret Law’s scheme. Charles Kindleberger, an economic historian at Yale University, believes Law’s intentions were legitimate and that the Mississippi Company was intended to be a real enterprise. Law’s financial arrangements, however, were misguided. Others have noted that Law did help straighten out the convoluted system of French taxation and finance. And, the economist Peter Garber believes that Law’s system had more potential than is often believed.
The story of John Law and the Mississippi Company is as intriguing as any modern financial disaster. In the end, many of the new millionaires were financially destroyed. So was France. It would be eighty years before France would again introduce paper money into its economy.
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Will this blowout U.S. stock market rally play well into Obama’s reelection prospects?
Oct. 14, 2011, 8:04 a.m. EDT
U.S. stock futures rise as Google beats estimates
Data on retail sales, import prices, consumer sentiment are due
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures climbed Friday after Google Inc. reported stellar quarterly earnings and as investors awaited a string of economic data, including retail sales and consumer sentiment.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJ1Z +1.07%) rallied 92 points to 11,484 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index (SP1Z +1.27%) advanced 10.80 points to 1,208.70.
Nasdaq 100 futures (ND1Z +1.14%) rose 17 points to 2,343.
In premarket trading, shares of Google Inc. GOOG +8.19% rose 7% after the Internet search firm reported late Thursday earnings that were well above Wall Street’s estimates. Read more on Google’s results.
Also in the technology sector, shares of iPhone and iPad maker Apple Inc. (AAPL +2.11%) gained 2% in premarket trading.
Several U.S. economic reports will be released Friday. Data on September import prices and retail sales are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
After the stock market opens, the preliminary reading of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumers for October is due at 9:55 a.m. Eastern. And data on August business inventories will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Meanwhile, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 leading industrialized and developing economies will meet in Paris, with the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis firmly in the spotlight, as worries grow over possible contagion to bigger nations such as Italy and Spain.
…
Stock crashes and rallies are being measured in days, and we’re wondering if the most recent will effect an election that is 13 months off?
Really?
Ask me again this time next week.
Is the housing market recovering? If not now, when will it?
Grumpy, the Housing Bear
By Logan Mohtashami
Benzinga Columnist
October 12, 2011 5:14 PM
My long term outlook on housing has been consistently negative. But even the grumpiest of bears stands up to stretch his limbs.
So, I decided to poke my nose out beyond my cozy den, and look around for signs of spring. I figured one place to start was to ask for weather reports from other professionals in the housing industry.
The question I posed to which they responded was, “What do you think the main problems in housing are, and what ideas do you have to help the housing market get out of its current malaise?”
Some of the comments are reported below.
(From Alex Charfen, A regular CNBC TV Contributor and CEO of Certified Distressed Property Experts from Austin, Texas.)
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Is the foreclosure gridlock finally ending?
And does the rate of one U.S. household in 213 entering some stage of foreclosure in the third quarter seem unusually low by historic standards? What am I missing here?
Real Estate
Foreclosure Gridlock May Be Ending
By Jeanine Skowronski, MainStreet Staff Writer
10/13/11 - 12:58 PM EDT
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Foreclosure activity increased by just less than 1% in the third quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac. But the firm says a higher rate of default notices indicates lenders may be finally taking the brakes off of foreclosure proceedings.
“We’re seeing the numbers go up after three straight months of quarterly decreases,” says James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac.
A spike in new delinquencies implies lenders are taking the brakes off of foreclosure proceedings.
According to the data, one in every 213 U.S. housing units entered some stage of foreclosure — default notice, auctions or bank repossessions — during the third quarter. Foreclosure filings were reported on 214,855 U.S. properties in September, a 6% decrease from August and a 38% decrease from September 2010.
But Saccacio says there is “evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up.” He points to default notices — the first stage in the foreclosure process — which were up 14% from the first quarter of 2011, as banks finally begin to push through the shadow inventory that accumulated as a result of low housing prices and the robo-signing controversy of 2010.
“U.S. foreclosure activity has been mired down since October of last year, when the robo-signing controversy sparked a flurry of investigations into lender foreclosure procedures and paperwork,” Saccacio says. “It’s time to press play again.”
…
October 14, 2011, 4:30 PM ET
Housing Inventories Hit Four-Year Low
By Nick Timiraos
The number of homes listed for sale in September fell to the lowest level in more than four years, offering a mixed signal about the health of the U.S. housing market.
The 2.19 million homes listed for sale was down by 3.3% from August, which had been the previous low for the year, and about 20% from the year-earlier period, according to data compiled by Realtor.com. It is also the lowest level since Realtor.com began its count in January 2007.
Falling inventories are typically a sign of health because that leads to less downward pressure on home prices. But real-estate agents and home buyers across the country have increasingly voiced frustration with what many say are slim pickings. As a result, the latest inventory declines may point instead to the housing market’s continued disrepair.
Banks have slowed down their foreclosure processes over the last year, which could lead to lower volumes of bank-owned properties hitting the market. Meanwhile, sellers, frustrated with lowball offers, could be taking their homes off the market to wait for a sign that prices have stopped falling.
The decline in inventory is also troubling because it suggests that there are fewer opportunities for buyers and sellers to strike deals and engage in price discovery. That can further chill sales as buyers become afraid to overpay while sellers are similarly cautious about under-pricing their home.
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http://news.yahoo.com/eu-considering-massive-cuts-food-aid-poor-110155873.html
EU considering a 75% cut in food aid to the very poor. Gotta repay the bankers, after all. Remember this, EU: When people have nothing more to lose, they tend to lose it.
This is a farm subsidy program, which seeks to keep the price of food up by buying up specific surplus and giving it away. Government Cheese programs do not help the poor overall, any more than our government subsidy of house prices. Let the price collapse and everyone except the leaching producers are helped. I doubt it would lead to rebellion.
So the EU will finally allow cheap farm products from Africa and Asia after all? I don’t think French farmers are going to like it……
Blue:
How about feeding all that excess food to prisoners?
Take away their weight rooms and if you want early release you must be at least 50lbs overweight and flabby.
Might lower the recidivism rate for a while…
Imagine the ACLU suing because the cons are overfed!!
LOL dj! Let them eat corn.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gm-gets-back-into-the-subprime-loan-business-2010-07-22
Government Motors back in the subprime loan business. Awesome. How long before the ever-dwindling number of taxpayers get stuck with a massive new bailout of deadbeats who stop making their car payments?
US taxpayers are still paying off bad GMAC loans.
Now they want to stick us again?
The Goldman Sacks and the JP Morgue should buy a US automotive division or a trucking company or two. It would give them a big measure of immunity from protests against further bailouts!
Why, car company bailout was tiny compared to WS, they will go where the money is. Plus as we all know when the middle class dies so do the car companies. You can bet GS understands this better than anyone else.
The car companies between the Chinese and Koreans (who will make cars for the 99%)
And the Germans/Italians (and maybe Buick and Cadillac), who will make the rides for the 1% bunch.
Hey! I just saw my first late model Caddie here in Rio. Silver, 2 door and it looked cool! (but I’d be scared to drive it here)
I’m not sure I like the “stealth fighter” styling, with all the facets/hard edges. They have kept some of the old Cadillac styling cues (stacked headlights). At least you know it is a Cadillac when you see one.
The CTV wagon is pretty slick too. Old station wagons are getting customized around here, mainly because they are not minivans or SUV/CUVs.
(one of my favorite cars was the 1973 Plymouth Satellite wagon I used to own. A big block/4bbl car, pastel yellow with peeling plastic wood on the side, and the aft facing third seat. It was a real terror to all those 180hp Mustang GTs back in the early eighties. Nothing funnier than blowing the doors off a 18-21 year old Mustang Boy-racer, while your three year old is laughing at him from the rear facing seat.
Back in the day, old cop cars were fun too. Mid-sized sedans with giant motors, usually with decent suspensions and brakes. Whats not to like?
The thing that was great about all these cars beside being dirt cheap) were the numerous stories that started out like: “Me and a couple of my buddies went out drinking one night….” and ended with the car rolled up in a ball in the roadside ditch. But everyone walked away.
Must have had something to do with the ACRES of interior room they had, and you bounced around in there, instead of hitting anything solid, like the steering wheel or the dashboard.)
Once again, I digress…..
What’s with this repeating of every word in the OWS protests? Went to one nearby my place last Sunday. WTF? The group parrots every freaking word any speaker says. Kind of gave me a wrong vibe. If you want a broader support you have to drop this indoctrination $hit….
I supported the tea partiers. I support the OWS. Hope the OWS crowd doesn’t sell out for immediate power gain, but doesn’t look good as far as I can tell.
WTF? The group parrots every freaking word any speaker says. Kind of gave me a wrong vibe.
They do not want to use a “microphone” or “speakers” for that would be helping a corporation, uses electicity, etc. So they repeat everything so that everyone can hear.
Of course - the all have iphones in their pockets and slave made high end sneakers on their feet…
Of course - the all have iphones in their pockets and slave made high end sneakers on their feet…
Saw that too. There were quite a few chanting and at the same time in cellphones updating their blogs or facebook status.
They do not want to use a “microphone” or “speakers”
A protest I want to was not allowed a P/A.
Of course - the all have iphones in their pockets
Of course, they’re employer has to be able to contact them at all times. Or maybe they are looking for a callback interview so they can work and stuff.
A protest I
wantto was not allowed a P/A.Gosh…
A protest I went to……
(of course I wanted to went to it)
I heard the other day on N.P.R. that the NYPD wouldn’t allow loudspeakers or bullhorns in the park, so the protesters have resorted to repeating everything, to be heard clearly by all.
I do not know what it is specifically called, but this practice has been used for centuries in many religious and social environments - where the person speaks and the audence repeats what was said.
I do not know what it is specifically called
Brainwashing/indoctrination?
Human megaphone, butters. No electronic amplification allowed, so the message is repeated outward in ever-widening concentric rings.
Kinda metaphoric, when you think about it. And unnerving to the uninitiated.
“And unnerving to the uninitiated.”
Sounds like it’s freaking out the billionaires and their toadies. So I like it.
To summarize:
3 weeks vacation after first year, 4 1/2 days ‘personal holidays’, 9 paid holidays, and 16.25 days of sick pay each year, of which they can ‘bank’ any unused sick days until they retire, at which time they can get paid thosedays at their wage at time of retirement or use the money for health care (allowed to retire at 55 so have to wait 10 years before they can suck off Medicare).
Adding all the time off for vacation, sick time, ‘personal holidays’, and paid holidays and you get after ONE Year 44.75 days paid for doing nothing. That is equivalent to almost 9 weeks time off.
Don’t worry boyz - there is more taxpayer money where that came from…
And yes - banker are parasites on society too.
————————————–
www dot dhs.wisconsin.gov/jobopps/BENEFITS.HTM
———————————
Retiring State Workers Converted Average of 43 Weeks Unused Sick Leave This Year
Magiver Institute | 10/14/2011 |
For this investigation, MacIver examined data provided by the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF). Nearly 2,700 new retirees had an average of 1,716.65 sick hours banked, the equivalent of nearly 43 40-hour work weeks, each.
Every state worker is enrolled in ASLCC (Accumulated Sick Leave Conversion Credit Program). That program takes the number of unused sick hours an employee has and multiplies it by their highest basic hourly pay rate.
Other than carrying sick to sell back, I don’t see an issue with these benifits. In fact, I think we should try to get an many people as possible, these or similar.
Other than carrying sick to sell back, I don’t see an issue with these benifits. In fact, I think we should try to get an many people as possible, these or similar.
In a private corporation - Go for it. Nothing wrong with it. I would love to have them too.
Working for a city/county/state paid for by taxes? In city/county/state that are going broke? By taxpayers that have not had a real raise in 20 years if they are lucky to still have a job? No. These “public servants” need to understand the reality of their situation. They are not entitled to ANYTHING. Especially insane benefits/pensions while their “employers” are going broke.
The employeers are going broke because of falling demand because people are going broke because wages aren’t keeping up with inflation because of……
JOB OFF-SHORING and widening wealth disparity.
End free-trade, revert back to a 1950s tax code with low to no payroll tax and steep income tax with 90% top marginal rate. Bring back jobs, drastically increase wages plug the internal and international trade imbalances, allow most of the current debt to default and be wiped out….
Then we wouldn’t all be going broke because we’d have jobs and wages keeping up with inflation, not to mention bargaining power to get better benefits.
Note that they don’t have a “Pension Plan”. They have what amounts to a 401K.
Yeah, who needs vacation? Next thing you know we’ll become like those commie, sissy Europeans and actually mandate five weeks of paid vacations. Family time is so overrated. We need to work, work, work. Keep the economy and GDP growing while our wages continue to drop. Serve your master.
I remember working in Pittsburgh where the one bank had employees working six 6-hour days so they didn’t need to pay benefits. That’s real progress.
Read my post again.
These union goons get 9 WEEKS OFF in their FIRST year of work.
Who do you think is paying for that comrade?
And don’t pay your taxes? Another union goon comes with a gun to either take your house or put you in jail.
Well these posts just indicate how low our nation has sunk socioeconomically.
When I did my internship with the PA Dept of the Auditor General in ’87 and ’88, I was offered a job as an auditor union goon. I declined, because everyone knew back then that the pay sucked working for the state, but at least the benefits were great.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the wages in the private sector have steadily decreased to the point where there are no longer vacations, pensions, etc. offered to most entry-level employees. Suddenly these once undesirable government jobs become desirable. I’ve read recently where wages for non-management employees in the private sector for the first time ever lag the public sector. And that excludes benefits.
So yeah, the last vestige of workers’ rights, collective bargaining, etc. is being chipped away at by the controlling class creating a mob mentality through the MSM directed against unions. Fundamentally, I am opposed to the current form of unions in this country with their strong-arm tactics, self-interests, etc.
But to indiscriminately throw around the union goon term sounds quite ignorant (or elitist) - especially relative to the caliber and intellectual level of contributors found on this site (I rarely post, but have been reading daily on-and-off since 2005 or 2006).
And I can’t help adding that your posts remind me of my friend living back in Pennsylvania that hates unions with a passion. His reasoning is when he was/is on workman’s comp and got in trouble for working on his (and friends’, and others that would pay him) Harleys , the union wouldn’t back him.
We can learn a lot from unions. Germany has a 90+% union participation, the highest wages in the world, yet is one of the world’s largest exporters – only recently surpassed by China. On the other hand, you have the U.S. with its ever-decreasing wages and increased work week (we work the most of any industrialized nation). If you consider that progress, then I guess we have differing values.
It’s a sad state of our nation’s employment base when we need to relentlessly target the lowly municipal worker.
Read the ‘The Overworked American’ by Juliet Schor. In 1990, the average American factory worker worked 320 hours more per year than the avg German worker., the equivalent of two months. American corporations have been profiting off this for decades. Time is money, for both labor and management.
And once again, don’t confuse yourself with the facts…..
-The EXEMPTS get three weeks/year of vacation. Exempts usually means “supervisor” or “manager” not “union goon”
-They accrue sick leave at 5 hours/pay period….10 hours/month…120 hour/year. The idea being that you accrue it until you need it. And if you are dedicated/lucky enough not to need it, you have an incentive to save it, not “use it or lose it”
Which brings us to…….
Unmentioned of course, is the Wisconsin Retirement System. No “Defined benefit” plan, a 5% “employee contribution” with a 5-10% “employer match”. IOW, a 401K. And I’m betting the “union goons don’t get the 10% “Employer Match”
Get back to spinning your hamster wheel to pay for my Fifty-One paid days off per year. And I’m only a contractor, you should see how good the real Gov employees have it here
Well I ‘d rather pay for your 51 days off over the many other things I am opposed to (700+military bases in 125+ countries, agribusiness subsidies, …), but that’s another story.
That was directed at the poster just prior to you, Mr.Hamster.
While he is hiding under the bed from the scary ‘union goons’, the squad is not working, out enjoying the sunshine
Actually, those PTO bennies are close to the ones I get at my private sector employer. Except that I in theory get unlimited sick days (ok, if I’m sick for more the two weeks then short term disability kicks in)
I suggest we conduct public trials.
Docket 1) Fed Reserve Board Governors
Docket 2) Members of Congress
Docket 3) Bank Management
We in NY have alot of work to do. The rest of you have your work cut out too. After we finish the first three groups, we can work our way down the food chain to Housing Crime Syndicate leaders.
+ 99
Housing recovery in 2015?
Housing watchers pin hopes on 2015
What it will take to reduce oversupply of new homes
By Steve Bergsman, Friday, October 14, 2011.
Inman News™
Economists are like ancient soothsayers; they, metaphorically speaking, throw a bunch of crazy stuff into a big cauldron, heat it all up over a roaring fire, and then divine the future by reading the bubbling contents.
The trouble is, no two soothsayers use the same secretive ingredients. I mean, do you throw in one eye of a toad or two, or one or three cups of crushed mandrake?
Looking over a couple of midsummer data reports, it appears the soothsayers have decidedly contrasting views of where the U.S. housing market is headed. Some have opted for the optimistic viewpoint, but others fall into the camp of the cautious. Who knows? Maybe they are both right.
At the beginning of August, the Wall Street Journal reported the number of homes listed for sale in U.S. cities declined during the second quarter. The Journal story focused on Realtor.com numbers that showed by the end June, nearly 2.34 million homes were listed for sale by multiple listing services in more than 900 metro areas, the lowest level for that time of year since 2007.
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