Bits Bucket for October 19, 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
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Normally we could just laugh and ignore a candidate that proposed something like this and he would die a quick political death. But we have to again ask what’s the matter with Kansas given the fact that he is actually RISING in polls this week. Either the polls are rigged by the 1%-ers, or I predict (and hope) Cain’s numbers fall off precipitously in the next week. Otherwise, if he sticks in there, the “Kansans” are truly a delusional, lost cause.
84% would pay more under Cain’s 9-9-9 plan
“According to the Tax Policy Center, households with incomes below $30,000 would have, on average, between 16% and 20% less in after-tax income than they do today.”
Study: Cain tax plan raises taxes on 84 percent
“Among those in the middle, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see their taxes increase by an average of $4,400, the report said. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by an average of $4,326.”
Did anyone see Ron Paul tell the audience last night in Nevada that the home owners who purchased houses they could not afford were VICTIMS?
I had to gargle with a few shots tequila to get the taste of disappointment out of my mouth.
Ron Paul must be on the Bank America payroll now.
Did anyone see Ron Paul tell the audience last night in Nevada that the home owners who purchased houses they could not afford were VICTIMS?
Ron Paul never said that in that way. The context was that many middle-class people were victims of “this business cycle” and of banks criminality and fraud and if we had to give out money it should have been to Main Street and not Wall Street. Here’s everything Ron Paul said.
http://ronpaul2012.podbean.com/
And:
Vegas debate: Ron Paul rips Herman Cain over Occupy Wall Street
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-paul-cain-occupy-wall-street-20111018,0,2312176.story
Even Ron Paul is jumping on Herman Cain at the CNN debate in Las Vegas — this time over Cain’s comments about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
After Cain, who has been under siege for most of the night, doubled down on his previous comments that the protesters shouldn’t be blaming Wall Street for their woes, Paul accused the former pizza executive of having no sympathy for Americans who are down on their luck.
“I think Mr. Cain has blamed the victims,” the Texas Republican said. “There are a lot of people who are victims of this business cycle.”
And Paul delivered a veiled attack on Cain’s past as a member of a regional board of directors of the Federal Reserve, Paul’s favorite target. “They created the bubble,” he said.
I bet a lot of the victims voted either for either Republican or Democratic candidates for the past 10 years.
Yes, but geez, only Cheney-$hrub issued the peon-citizen/taxpaers $300.00 rebates & a 3/4 Trillion U$ Dollar$ drug plan with no revenue capture & tax-gifting the $uffering So’s while committing the Nation to a 4+ Trillion$ U$ Dollar x2 foreign Islamic-bomb$-you-into-converting-to-Democracy-today! Nation building WAR$. Good thing the $hadow Legacy Effect$ of those ideas are well behind the Nation today.
Either he truly doesn’t understand the housing bubble, or he’s demagoguing. People eat up that victim…stuff.
Either (Ron Paul) truly doesn’t understand the housing bubble, or he’s demagoguing.
Ron Paul gets it pretty well. Did you listen to what he said and in what context? I posted a link.
People eat up that victim…stuff
Most times the “I’m a victim” stuff is a crock. But not always. Sometimes it’s true. Middle-class Americans have been victims of looting by corporations and Wall street-our jobs, our pay, our liberties and our way of life.
he truly doesn’t understand the housing bubble,
More on Ron Paul’s understanding.
Paul defended the (OWS) protesters by stating, “Mr. Cain has blamed the victims. There are a lot of people who are victims of this business cycle.”
Paul, of course, traces a lot of the economic problems back to the Federal Reserve, the fractional banking apparatus of which Herman Cain was a member (of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank), and which allowed a number of banks and investors to make risky investments with criminal financial instruments (the credit-default swap), knowing full well that the Federal Reserve and the federal government would have no choice but to bail them out if toxic mortgage securities began to implode.
“[The Federal Reserve] creates the financial bubbles,” said Paul. “Who got stuck? The middle class got stuck. They lost their jobs and they lost their houses.”
And Paul said what so many politicians are unwilling to say, “We have to blame the business cycle and the economic polices that led to this disaster.”
Thank you, Dr. Paul, for defending the honorable protesters and middle class against Mr. Cain’s ignorant blustering on national television.
OWS needs to become a total movement and Rep. Paul’s acknowledgement is a great step toward this coalescence.
deathandtaxesmag dot com
Other than “Housewives of Beverly Hills,” this series of debates is the best “Survivor” type reality show currently on TV.
From the unsubtle scripting, to the cheesy-sparkly set design, to the derivative musical codas (!) bracketing the segments, we watch as the weekly front-runners take turns tearing each other to shreds in front of a live viewing audience. Heartache and hilarity ensue!
Will they remember their talking points in the face of group smack down? Who will throw the first folding chair? Shed the first sincere tear? Will the candidates mutiny and bum rush the interviewers? Will there be blood?
Tune in and find out. (Check your local listings; somewhere….)
victims of stupidity, yes - but,consider the policies that encouraged offshoring of our industrial/manufacturing base over the last 3 decades… the BC mandate for more subprime loans under the CRA… the repeal of Glass-Stegal… Fanny Mae and Freddie insurance… advertising programming each individual to subconsciously tie his/her own self-worth to his/her networth… GWB’s “ownership society” speech fueling that fire… poor/no documentation in many parts of the mortgage loan process on the part of many lenders… and that some folks were steered into subprime when they actually qualified for prime mortgages… in essence, systemic fraud. seems to me we are all victims of this mess, the international banking cartel that stands to win while citizens of the U.S. FAIL BIG TIME…
I’ll probably be voting for Ron Paul not because I agree with his policies, but because I think he’ll be one of the very rare politicians who will speak truth to power. And truth to the voters.
And that’s it.
First, we need the unvarnished reality placed before the public before reform can happen. Paul’s the only one who would do it I think.
A total 100 percent would pay more in taxes, and accept less in old age benefits, under any real plan to balance the budget.
Not just more taxes on the rich, or on the poor and middle class.
And not just reductions in old age benefits for those now age 54 and younger.
The pols are scum.
And here is the chart that makes the distribution stunningly clear:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/herman-cains-9-9-9-plan-in-one-table/2011/08/25/gIQAtjuFvL_blog.html
Who needs words when we have numbers. Enjoy.
Too many people pay no Federal taxes. This cannot go on much longer. We have a lot of bills coming due.
Soak the Poor. We have a lot of bills coming due.
Something is going to have to change tax wise, wither we like it or not. We cannot continue as we have been doing for the past 10 years. Everyone is going to have to pay more in taxes.
Or we do as Ron Paul wants and cut the Federal government. And that has never happened in the history of governments.
“Something is going to have to change tax wise, wither we like it or not. We cannot continue as we have been doing for the past 10 years. Everyone is going to have to pay more in taxes.”
I’d like to feel that I am getting something for my taxes, that they were really doing something for the good of our society.
We cannot continue as we have been doing for the past 10 years. Everyone is going to have to pay more in taxes.
Everyone does not have to pay more in taxes. That is a myth. We just need to go back to our tax structure of the 30s, 40’s 50s, 60s and 70s. (something the regressive-right wants us to forget)
income and wealth are now more concentrated than they’ve been in 70 years. The top 1 percent gets over 20 percent of total income and holds over 35 percent of national wealth; the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together.
And effective tax rates on the rich are lower than they’ve been in three decades.
We need to push for higher marginal taxes on the top, and more brackets. Incomes of more than $5 million should be subject to a 70 percent rate. (The top marginal rate was never below 70 percent between 1940 and 1980.) And they should apply to all income regardless of source, including capital gains.
This would allow for a bigger Earned Income Tax Credit (that is, a wage subsidy) for lower-income workers. And lower taxes on middle-income workers.
There should be a 2 percent annual surtax on all fortunes over $7 million. This would hit only half a percent of Americans at the very top of the heap. And would yield $70 billion a year – enough to improve our schools and make college affordable to everyone.
And a tax on financial transactions. Even a tiny one of one-half of one percent would generate $200 billion a year. That’s enough to make a major contribution toward early childhood education for every American toddler.
http://robertreich.org/post/11591880881#ixzz1bFGVCTZa
Tobin Transaction Tax.
I wrote about this proposal a couple of years ago and it was recently presented as the SOLE DEMAND of OWS.
Time to listen.
From the HBB article, ahansen, 12.07.09
A tax proposal now gaining momentum was first suggested in 1971 by Yale economist and Nobel Laureate, (1981) James Tobin, for whom it is named. The so-called Tobin Transaction Tax would levy a fee on every financial transaction that goes though any of the world’s markets, bourses, or exchanges, and the proceeds used to offset the imbalance between the influence of the financial industry and the public economy at large.
When British PM Gordon Brown resurrected this proposed global tax at last month’s G-20 meeting in Scotland, Timothy Geithner reportedly opposed it on the grounds that it would be too hard to implement internationally. “I have not seen a version of that kind of tax that I think would work, be effective, and would be appropriate for our country,” he later told a congressional hearing.
Unspoken, of course, was the effect such a transaction tax might have on trading houses such as Goldman Sachs, and how it might impact international currency manipulations by agencies such as the Federal Reserve. Nancy Pelosi also expressed reservations about the feasibility of its even-handed international application.
However, the idea is beginning to take hold in an election-conscious Congress increasingly besieged by outraged citizens of all political stripes who feel that the financial sector has grown too big and too powerful for the society it is supposed to serve.
Last Thursday, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) proposed a bill that would impose a .25% tax on all securities transactions. Obviously tied to Obama’s plan for a “jobs bill,” and aimed at Wall Street, not the small investor, the bill has the support of labor and an increasing number of grassroots taxpayer organizations.
Predictably, business and banking lobbyists sprang into action.
“Weakening our capital formation system is not a better outcome” says David Hirshchmann, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.
Michael McMahon (D-N.Y.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) all representing districts rife with wealthy banking and investment interests circulated a letter which read in part, “…A $150 billion tax on financial transactions will fall on millions of hardworking Americans who are saving for their future through their 401k plans, mutual funds, pensions and other savings vehicles,…”
European banking interests have taken an even more cynical red-meat approach, tying support for the tax to “helping poor nations like Africa” or “funding those who care about climate change.” In coming weeks, one expects to see similar obfuscating tactics from the American banking industry.
Timothy Geithner, no doubt chastened by President Obama’s recent remarks on the economy (see below,) met with House Speaker Pelosi on Thursday. Of Geithner’s G-20 remarks in opposition to the tax, House Financial Services Committee chair, Barney Frank, who was present at the meeting, reported, “She said that Geithner felt he had been misrepresented.” Further clarification was not immediately forthcoming, but apparently Mr. Geithner has now taken a more nuanced stance on this issue.
Government can’t help but use the tax code to influence behavior. Like the mortgage deduction. Taxes on things you want to stop, like cigarette and alcohol taxes.
Seems to me like we have too many financial transactions for our own good. So why not tax them? Might even throw in J6Ps credit card transactions, just to make it “fair”.
“And a tax on financial transactions. Even a tiny one of one-half of one percent would generate $200 billion a year. That’s enough to make a major contribution toward early childhood education for every American toddler.”
The toddler’s early childhood education expense is a parent’s responsibility, not Wall street. Reich unfortunately is a socialist.
The toddler’s early childhood education expense is a parent’s responsibility, not Wall street. Reich unfortunately is a socialist.
Let’s look at this in the big picture we are living in. I don’t think toddler’s education is a big issue to pay for with taxes either but let say it really was important. Heck, maybe it is. I know education is important in our global competition.
Now you say it’s parent’s responsibility and not societies to educate. I would say you would be more correct in this observation if our economic system was more protected and closed but it isn’t. We are now globalized and we are now told that we have to compete with every other country, including those countries who “socialize” their industries, healthcare and education much more than us. China does not subsidize their industry? Europe not their healthcare?
We’ve seen the results of 30 years of globalization and it isn’t pretty for the average American who has gotten poorer. So how can the average American afford the education needed more now than ever to compete with the countries who subsidize their education, healthcare and industries?
These countries who “socialized” their industries are eating our lunch. And now we American workers are to be the only one in this global competition going it on our own? We are left on our own after our jobs have been taken by countries who essentially socialize their industries and education? So now we can’t invest in our population’s education because it would make us “socialists”? Even as we are loosing the competition badly to those countries who do socialize industries, healthcare and education? Really? Why?
I think you would find financial transactions would fall dramatically yielding very little money. In the US that is.
Don’t forget the loop holes and tax shelters from the 50’s-70’s. No one paid those rates back then.
Don’t forget the loop holes and tax shelters from the 50’s-70’s. No one paid those rates back then.
Of course they didn’t. But they paid way more as a percentage of their income than they do now.
I think you would find financial transactions would fall dramatically yielding very little money. In the US that is.
The “Tobin tax” is so small I don’t think transactions would fall so much as to not bring in a lot of money. Laws and regulations could also keep the transactions domestic. For example, when I buy a United Airlines ticket traveling from Brazil, it costs more than if I were to buy it in America. Why? Taxes, rules and regulation here make sure Brazil gets it’s cut no matter the carrier is American. I’m sure the same type of thing could make sure USA got their cut with the Tobin tax.
“So now we can’t invest in our population’s education because it would make us “socialists”?
Early childhood education shouldn’t be a daycare service for a working mother, and any programs for toddlers shouldn’t run longer than four hours per day. Mothers and their children need bonding time, and it takes time, lots of it. Fathers need to man-up and pay their family’s bills, or face jail, loss of the drivers license, etc., until it sinks-in.
Early childhood education shouldn’t be a daycare service for a working mother,
Agreed. My point really wasn’t about all that.
And? So? Therefore?
Cain has been lying about his plan. He has said over and over that the poor and middle class won’t pay more and he has been proven wrong. And if he were to shift stuff around so that the poor and middle class don’t pay a lot more, then it will cease to be revenue neutral (right now it seems to be close to that).
The top $0.1% will get get an average reduction on their tax liability of $1.356 million per year under Cain’s plan.
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/
By the way, I am firmly of the opinion that all of the charts and things that show what percentage of the federal income taxes are paid by the top (or bottom) percentage of households by income should be adjusted so that they only take into account income above some minimal level of income. Federal poverty level would be better than nothing, though it isn’t good since it is not adjusted for cost of living except in Alaska and Hawaii. It certainly isn’t a living wage in large parts of the country.
If the claim is that 53% of the country pay close to 100% of the federal income tax, then lets know how much of the country’s disposable income they have.
I expect this analysis would be very difficult because the current numbers don’t back out current taxes and may not record the number of people in a household and the living wage requirement of where they live, but I bet someone has the data to do it.
I think some of the elites are seizing on this proposal because they’ve been wanting a national VAT for years.
The proposed tax would apply only to equity transactions on the financial markets, indexes, bourses, and exchanges; NOT to everyday consumer transactions involving the sale of physical goods and services.
The repercussions for the average consumer would be negligible, but it would sure put a crimp on high frequency and high volume trading.
The VAT is a regressive tax on middle and poorer class individuals, this is a tax on financial corporations and hedge funds.
Fraze it like diz:
Unkle Ohbahhmia needz yor Benjaminz mor den da liquor store do.
God help this country if we elect a guy like Cain. He is hell-bent on destroying what’s left of the middle class.
“Among those in the middle, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 would see their taxes increase by an average of $4,400, the report said. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by an average of $4,326.”
so would this be inflationary? As people have less money after taxes to spend? no
when you owe alot of money its hard to buy new stuff and when your government owes alot of money and spends even more they tend to go looking for more money.. can’t get it from the 1% they are the government .
Everyone would try to buy “used” stuff. Loopholes.
Nassim Taleb (author of “Black Swan”) had some memorable quotes in a recent interview:
OBAMA
“[Obama] administration seems to be completely impervious to any rational behavior concerning the crisis”
BANKING
“Banks have made 2.2T past 5 years. It is a business that doesn’t make money. And projected 5T next 10 years….It is tax on citizens”
“You make money, you keep it. You lose money, society backs you up. It doesn’t exist in any other world.”
“You need something to break the bank cartel for the sake of the financial industry”
“Banks have been able to hide their real economic P&L…Banks are in a busines of hiding risk”
“We are serving them [banks], rather than them serving us”
“Banks have never made money in the history of banking”
“They themselves don’t know what risks they have”
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
“The system we have now is not a normal economic system”
“We are not living in capitalism, we are not living in socialism, we are living in some weird combination with a cartel”
“Capitalism is about incentives, but also disincentives”
FED
“Federal Reserve policy is there to help the banks.”
BANK BONUSES
“They caused the crisis, we know that. Last year, they had a record bonus. This is not something that is rational”
“They are hijacking the American economy then saying that you need to pay us bonuses’”
“The core of this situation is a problem concerning bank compensation”
“The only information you get from bank earnings is the compensation. Only valuable information you can get from [bank earnings] is how much they pay themselves”
“Anything above zero is too much money….if we bail you out, you should not be paid a bonus”
“If you are a banker, and we will bail you someday, then you cannot earn more than a civil servant of a corresponding rank”
GREECE
“European banks don’t mark Greece at what it should be marked at”
I’ve got to tell ya Sammy, after banging my drum in the lonely wilderness for what seemed an eternity, it warms my heart to see this story of corruption go mainstream.
Sammy, for years I have believed that Adam Smith’s theory the Invisible Hand (which he never actually wrote) is wrong. What he described as capitalism only exists in textbooks. Darwin’s theory of natural selection fits the data, Adam Smith’s doesn’t. Can we use Darwin’s ideas to predict tipping points in economics? Or is it more like a steady march to some quasi stable relationship that resembles some kind of cast system like India? I wonder what Nassim Taleb (who I have read) would think about this…
Re-post from late last night.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-frank-darwin-economics-20111018,0,5949996.story
“Darwin also recognized that individual and group interests often conflict sharply and that, in those cases, individual interests generally trump group interests.”
I would add that Darwin’s theories maps closely onto the era integrated circuits and even the explosive growth of the internet and the Dot Com boom/bust that it spawned.
Those statements while true, are completely neglecting the fact that things could be so much worse. If the banks had not been bailed out and all the bonuses paid, we would be facing Armageddon. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds pretty bad. Henry Paulson said it would be a better idea to do whatever bailouts were necessary and to do exactly as the banks said and nobody gets hurt. I fully trust my government when it comes to my best interests and you people should be more grateful to your leaders and banking executives for steering us safely through these difficult times. I am making a gift-basket with a thank you letter for my bank offfice later today and you should think about making one too.
Liz, do you moonlight for the Daily Show?
“I fully trust my government when it comes to my best interests and you people should be more grateful to your leaders”
Iraq? Katrina? Seriously?
BlueStar, I think you need more caffeine. Even I saw liz’s sarcasm for what it was.
Yeah I know where her sympathy lies. In fact there is only 1% of the population that receives the kind of loving attention she expressed, and it ain’t us. LOL.
Every one on here is at least a 10%’er, if you look at it from the world’s population perspective. Probably most are 5%’ers.
Bernanke makes like 193K a year. The heads of other banks make that in a week. The Bernank is a human not a robot. I gotta wonder about tit-for-tat, quid-pro-quo, you scratch my back I scratch yours, etc.
He’ll make it up on the lecture circuit when he retires/quits/gets fired.
Unbeknownst to douche bag Retardican presidential candidates, Bernanke cannot be fired. His term ends in 2014, and I would guess that unless the political climate changes considerably by then, he will most likely identify a successor to endure the political scorn currently heaped on the unfortunate occupant of the Fed Chair position, before leaving Dodge.
“Henry Paulson said it would be a better idea to do whatever bailouts were necessary and to do exactly as the banks said and nobody gets hurt.”
Sources on other blogs reported that AIPAC has two primary benefactors, and that both were direct recipients of Henry Paulson’s bailout. Some folks really are above taking losses.
Brilliant mock trolling, Liz. But really, you should’ve stated your earnest belief that our political elites are the best and brightest and are working tirelessly on our behalf.
“They are hijacking the American economy then saying that you need to pay us bonuses”
My inner conspiracy theorist wonders to what extent the banks are controlled by foreign interests, as their behavior suggests that destroying America may be among Megabank, Inc’s primary objectives.
Is there any way to gauge this?
Your inner voice speaks loudly. The power that the citizenry has/had is a threat to MegaBankGovCorp. Diminishing that power is their primary goal.
I don’t believe the destruction of the US is a goal, just a side effect. Looting does tend to be destructive.
Either way, jailing bankers and seizing their assets is well justified. Are you listening Eric Holder and Sheila Bair?
destroying America may be among Megabank, Inc’s primary objectives. Is there any way to gauge this?
With a pitchfork.
Realtors Are Liars®
Yes Virginia…… a 30 year mortgage really *is* enslavement
Don’t Be Suckered Into Buying a House Now
Let’s face it, that 5-bedroom McMansion with the marble countertops is the albatross that keeps people toiling-away in the cube-farms until the day they get carted off to Potter’s Field. A 30-year mortgage is a 30-year prison sentence.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29444.htm
Debt is slavery!
Refudiate Slavery!
I am Sparticus!
I am Gone Jault!
Refudiate Slavery!
United States never had slavery. It was only a State’s Rights kind of thing or something I saw in Gone with the Wind.
The US beat Brazil by 23 years…
—————-
Slavery in Brazil shaped the country’s social structure and ethnic landscape. During the colonial epoch and for over six decades after the 1822 independence, slavery[1] was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy, especially in mining, cotton, and sugar cane production.
Brazil obtained an estimated 35% of all enslaved Africans traded in the Atlantic slave trade.
Although Portuguese Prime Minister Marquês de Pombal abolished slavery in mainland Portugal on February 12, 1761, slavery continued in Portugal’s overseas colonies, particularly in Brazil, until its final abolition in 1888.
en dot wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil
The US beat Brazil by 23 years…
Thank God and General Grant.
One thing seems certain after last night’s debate: If a Republican is elected to the White House in 2012, the never-ending federal foreclosure rescue attempts would abruptly cease.
October 18, 2011
Reid Rips Romney For Understanding Free Markets
By Alexander Bolton, The Hill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday took a rare swipe at a Republican presidential candidate, criticizing Mitt Romney for campaigning against foreclosure relief.
“He would just let [homeowners] hit rock bottom,” Reid told reporters. “I don’t know what’s more graphic than that in how we have different views of what the world should be like than our Republican friends.”
…
Romney says Obama has ‘slow-walked’ foreclosures
October 18, 2011, 3:37 PM
Mitt Romney, ahead of a Republican presidential debate, told the market hardest hit by foreclosures that the Obama administration was making that process “too slow.”
“Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The Obama administration has slow-walked the foreclosure process that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.”
…
‘Let my trust fund buddies ’snap them up’ at wholesale giveaway prices, and we’ll rent them back to the ex-middle class proletariat.’
Somebody has to snap up the homes at fire sale prices, or they will simply crumble into desuetude.
Alpha, nobody will be stopping you from buying one or more. Go ahead, take the risk.
Or….We could just let deadbeat FBs live in them indefinitely for free. That is the current plan apparently.
“Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, ”
I just find it curious that this option gets mentioned before selling the houses to individual buyers- an option which didn’t get mentioned at all, you might note.
Consumers are not individuals.
The Wall Street piglets are not going to let go of that teat until their cold dead teeth are pried off of it.
Forget justice, we’ll be waiting a long time before our politicians allow that. My taxes will be subsidizing Wall Street executives and politicians for a long time. In the shorter term, I’ll accept a looser rental market.
I think their assumption is that there are not enough qualified buyers out there or that it would take too long.
The worst part of that quote is further on. It is the let it come “back up” part. He sems to have missed the fact that it was a bubble. How close to “back” has the NASDAQ come?
“I think their assumption is that there are not enough qualified buyers out there or that it would take too long.”
But that assumption is predicated, in turn, on the false presumption that if the government gets out of the housing price support business, that the free market will not be able to find a stable equilibrium bottom. Right now prices are generally propped up at levels where the market cannot clear; hence the ginormous shadow inventory of homes going to waste. I have to presume that given how central home ownership is to the American Dream, that many who are now renters would return to the Ownership Society if the price was right.
“Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, ”
I just find it curious that this option gets mentioned before selling the houses to individual buyers- an option which didn’t get mentioned at all, you might note.
”
if you have to sell them cheap might as well be to your banker friends.
Don’t be too hard on him.
I posted an article by a former Obama official who took a high paying job in banking, that the gov should give tax breaks to Hedge Funds so they would buy up the inventory. Just another way to push losses onto the tax payer.
That is just a way to try to hide the market clearing price as an investment. If they sold the darn things for little enough money, the hedge funds would buy them without a tax break. They certainly don’t want the market clearing price to go on the county records.
The market clearing prices would really tank property tax revenues in local and state governments. I suspect this has something to do with propping up prices.
Only in places where they can’t raise the mil rate enough to make up for the lost value.
Whatever comes of this kerfuffle, I see it as a healthy sign that Romney has opened up a debate on how to resolve the foreclosure crisis. So far, the foreclosure policy has been pretty much limited to “We are the Democrats, and we are here to help.” And it’s noteworthy what Romney is not proposing, which is to turn Uncle Sam into a slumlord.
Reid: Romney must apologize for foreclosure comment
Posted: Oct 18, 2011 3:40 PM PDT Updated: Oct 18, 2011 3:40 PM Posted By Jason R. Latham, Continuous News Manager
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid ripped GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday after the latter said homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t get any relief.
“Mitt Romney owes the thousands of Nevada families struggling to keep a roof over their heads an apology,” Reid said. “Once again, Mitt Romney is demonstrating he’s more concerned with big Wall Street banks than middle-class families.”
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Romney accused the Obama administration of slowing the foreclosure process, saying it should “run its course.”
After hitting bottom, Romney said investors would be able to buy the homes and find renters.
…
Hey, ya gotta get those stump speeches in whenever you can. His perceived audience was hardly a national one.
The Mod Squad: Why are conservatives backing government help for homeowners?
By Zachary Roth & Daniel Gross | The Lookout / Yahoo News
It’s hard to remember now, but Rick Santelli’s famous February 2009 rant, credited with launching the Tea Party movement, was an attack on the idea of using mortgage modifications to help struggling homeowners. “In terms of modifications,” Santelli asked, “how many people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgages that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?”
The rest is history.
So why is it that, 32 months later, a growing list of prominent conservatives are touting the idea of large-scale, taxpayer-funded modifications? An ancient journalistic rule holds that three instances of a given occurrence constitutes a trend. If so, we’ve definitely got a trend of right-leaning economists pushing for borrowers who got in way over their heads to be bailed out.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet The Mod Squad.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mod-squad-why-conservatives-backing-government-help-homeowners-210644097.html
“As anyone with a functioning memory should know, the Republicans under the leadership of Armey and his cronies Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay proceeded to rack up excesses in spending and boodling that made the old Democratic Congressional leaders look quite stingy. When he was asked once why he and his GOP comrades were chomping so much more federal pork than the Democrats ever did, he replied bluntly: “To the victors go the spoils.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/16/obamas_cup_of_tea_96007.html
Romney is right on this one. The political wackjobs in the media created a feeding frenzy. Now he’ll be forced to backup on it and will no longer get rational attention and discussion.
I find Romney more right than wrong when it comes to matters of the economy.
The other was his comment 2 debates ago that Dodd Frank won’t be a problem for the big banks (and big investment firms), since they have armies of lawyers and accountants to work through the regulations. It does however, impact the small banks (and small investment firms), who will have a hard time paying for compliance.
Those small banks (and small investment firms) are the ones who provide capital to small businesses. The dollars that they spend on compliance, are dollars they can’t invest. They were never too big to fail. They might now simply be too small to survive.
So the solution is easy. Apply Dodd-Frank to the “too big to fail”, and let the small fry off the hook. After all, they actually run the risk of death when they screw up.
The lawmakers however didn’t make the law apply only to TBTF (and they could have…they explicitly drew in small businesses). Our business is approximately 0.02% the size of Lehman (without leverage). We are being told that it is highly likely that we will need to register with the SEC as an RIA, hire a chief compliance officer (or that will be another of my tasks), and a third-party custodian (which is a silly idea given our investments)–among other things, yet to be determined.
And there wasn’t even a newspaper article written when some of our larger competitors who failed during the downturn.
In addition to size, types of investment are being brought into the mix that were not intended to be regulated by Dodd Frank.
Bureaucrats who wrote the law didn’t spell out the exact implementation, and then handed it over to the lawyers (the SEC) to write the rules, who ask the public to opine on the proposed rules. Ultimately the rules will not perfectly reflect the intent of the lawmakers, since neither the bureaucrats nor the lawyers are as familiar with the industries they are trying to regulate as they would need to be.
Example:
Dodd Frank was supposed to exempt Venture Capital (highly risky investments with no government involvement or backstop). When the SEC lawyers proposed one of the rules, in their attempt to exempt the Venture Capital world (as prescribed by the law), they tried to define a Venture Capital investor as one who does not lend money, but invests as equity only.
Big problem there…VCs frequently invest as convertible debt to protect their downside…so, unless the SEC can appropriately define what a Venture Capital fund is, they will also be roped into the regulations, which was not an intent of the law.
In the meantime, VCs need to spend money and effort trying to figure out how to comply with Dodd-Frank, AND they still don’t know how/if they will be regulated…one-year later. While there is uncertainty regarding the rules, the investment community is trying to figure out whether they should change how they invest, or simply decide to comply with Dodd-Frank…except they don’t know what “complying” means, since the rules are still being written.
The uncertainty is slowing down capital formation, and impacting small businesses, at a time when capital is desperately needed. As my wife (an attorney) put it, Dodd Frank will likely apply to nearly all investment companies, the question is whether it will be a brief examination, or a thorough inspection, complete with rubber glove.
At best, Dodd Frank as currently written will cause increased cost burden on all investment, which will necessarily cause smaller investment firms to try to increase the size of their investments on average (marginally reducing the amount of capital available to small businesses).
At worst, well, worse than that. Small businesses will be slowly starved of capital until large financial institutions bring the small capital investment in-house, which will make us more dependent on them for capital, and even bigger and even harder to let fail.
Bang up job there Washington.
If Mitt would point out that his free market approach to the foreclosure crisis would soon result in housing price adjustment to affordable levels, where young and middle-class families could once more become financially stable home owners, he could strike a political coup de grace against Democrat-sponsored “affordable housing policy.”
“where young and middle-class families could once more become financially stable home owners”
Do you think there are more potential voters from the renters than from the ‘homeowners’?
I bet homeowners vote more. Just like the oldsters, with whom I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap.
Could be a good wedge issue, though, to take some of the youth vote away from the dems.
Young renters do not impress me as being in much distress over their rentership status. It is obvious to them that prices are falling and for now, it is still cheaper to rent in most places. What’s the rush, who’s got a downpayment, who can qualify for a mortgage, who will have a job in two years, what will the crooks in DC do next & etc.
It’s the mortgaged “owners” that are on the bloody edge of the knife. This is a big block with focused and urgent incentive to see price declines halted. Housing market collapse scares the crap out of these people. Obama told us everything would be better in a year or two. That’s the political message that had traction. Most people were in Denial. The transition to expect is from Denial to Anger.
“It’s the mortgaged “owners” that are on the bloody edge of the knife. This is a big block with focused and urgent incentive to see price declines halted. ”
And they vote.
I think a lot of the young, potential homeowners are more worried about student loans than about buying a house.
…and jobs.
“I bet homeowners vote more.”
And I bet there are more renters now than there were in the 2008 election year.
RE: Mitt vs. Newt on healthcare.
Do you think it will ever sink in to the Tea Party that the single most hated part of the Affordable Health Care Act, the insurance mandate, was hatched from that cesspool Heritage Foundation and fully embraced by the GOP.
Shssssss….
That’s because it’s the only way to provide healthcare access to the masses through the existing insurance company organization and NOT creating a single-payer, government sponsored program.
If you are a conservative looking to provide healthcare access to people, the mandate is the ONLY way forward. I haven’t seen (nor can think of) any other option.
Or you can simply go the other direction and turn people away at emergency rooms who don’t have insurance, or cold-hard cash. That’ll focus people’s attention quickly on the problem…
Sssssshh, indeed.
Wait until people also figure out that having “death panels” is the same as reducing costs for end-of-life care (which is a major source of our deviation from the rest of the world in terms of cost).
“If you are a conservative looking to provide healthcare access to people, the mandate is the ONLY way forward.”
I’m not convinced that it is so simple. It is really difficult to be Conservative in the extreme and have all the puzzle pieces fit. It is difficult enough trying to have a balanced view. Anyway, I have health insurance, still provided by my employer. I presume my plan qualifies under whatever the new or soon to be rules are. This year the insurance company jacked the deductables sky high. I could be faced with $10K out of pocket per year in deductables. If I weren’t such a paranoid frugal antisocial packrat, I wouldn’t have a fraction of that burried under the boat. That kind of insurance is not going to provide everybody with health care.
It is really difficult to be Conservative in the extreme and have all the puzzle pieces fit.
That’s because you seem like a Conservative who thinks about stuff.
If you are a conservative looking to provide healthcare access to people, the mandate is the ONLY way forward.
I consider myself conservative. And I think the “conservative” solution is probably to say that if you can’t pay, you don’t get services. Since I don’t believe in that, I’m not conservative on this issue. I think that the countries that are getting equal or better results for half the money must have a better solution than any conservative solution I can come up with. And I’m open to that no matter what you call it.
The increased level of entrepreneurship that you’d get from disconnecting corporate jobs from health care would just be an added bonus.
will not make me vote for romney…but does provide even more (not that we needed any) evidence that harry reid is a complete moron.
3rd party.
The contrast between Democrats and Republicans on “foreclosure relief” is stark, as Democrats resolve to provide foreclosure relief after a multi-year progression of spectacular policy failures. Before getting so angry, perhaps they should analyze the reasons every single foreclosure relief effort to date has been a road to nowhere.
Angry Democrats
Oct. 12, 2011 | Kitty Felde
The news conference featured more than a dozen California Democrats mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. The target of their ire: not their GOP colleagues. They were furious with the man at the top of their own party: President Obama.
One in three Californians owes more than their house is worth. Members of Congress say they’re hearing from those constituents.
Congressman Dennis Cardoza of Modesto accused the administration of not doing “a darned thing” to help homeowners floundering in the housing crisis, saying the Obama administration has “not gotten it right over and over and over.”
Jackie Speier of San Mateo demanded, “Do something real, Mr. President!”
Jim Costa of Fresno said he doesn’t want “to hear about tweaks” to federal rescue programs. He’s looking for the White House plan to solve the housing crisis.
…
Hey you Congress Critters and blame shifters, it’s not the President who is supposed to legislate such plans, it’s you morons.
A nice bout of high Inflation would sure help out those California mortgage holders.
only if it was wage inflation
Before getting so angry, perhaps they should analyze the reasons every single foreclosure relief effort to date has been a road to nowhere.
“You bought to much $tucco, deal with it.”
Alright, any & all politicians that will Yell/Shout/Holler this continually to your local/State/Federal constituents and expect to be thanked with their vote to re-elect you please line up on the green center line. Oh, and when lining up, being y’all going to be a mixed lot and all, please be civil.
How about this Jimmy boi:
Prove you used your hecloc to save your spouse or sons life and we will forgive the loan…prove you built an addition to your house because the wifey was having quadruplets and we will forgive the loan……prove you spent the money on his and hers SUV’s botox a man cave and a booob job….and you are evicted sucker!
Jim Costa of Fresno said he doesn’t want “to hear about tweaks” to federal rescue programs. He’s looking for the White House plan to solve the housing crisis.
For a second I thought that said SUV, man boobs, and a cave.
Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early retirement, thus creating jobs and reducing unemployment.
This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).
Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Congress to be considered for the SHAFT program (Special Help After Forced Termination).
Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers).
A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).
Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Congress.
Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much S.H.I.T., (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Congress has always prided themselves on the amount of S.H.I.T., they give our citizens.
Should you feel that you do not receive enough S.H.I.T., please bring this to the attention of your Congressman, who has been trained to give you all the S.H.I.T., you can handle.
Sincerely,
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)
PS - - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
Happy holidays, teens! Your jobs have been ’snapped-up’ by your elders.
New Wrinkle in Hiring: Older Workers Taking Kids’ Temp Jobs
By ALAN FARNHAM | Good Morning America
This Halloween, there’s an extra supply of gray hair and wrinkles at Party City, a costume and novelty store on Route 4 in Paramus, N.J. They don’t belong to costumes but to the store’s work force — seasonal hires whom manager Paul Buccola calls his “career people” — older workers with impressive resumes who are desperate for work.
Holiday retail jobs that used to go to high school kids are being snapped up by job-seekers in their 40s and 50s. Guys with master’s degrees are selling rubber noses, and counting themselves lucky to be employed, says Buccola.
Buccola says he has five such career people working for him now. How many did he have this time last year? “Zero.” He calls it “a direct reflection of the economy.”
Employers nationwide say they are seeing the same phenomenon: Older people, some of whom have been out of work for two years or more, are swallowing their pride and foraging any kind of jobs that they can get, part-time, seasonal or otherwise.
Before she was laid off, Tammy McCune, 50, of Fort Worth, earned $75,000 a year as an HR manager for Computer Science Corp. She now makes $7.63 an hour selling jewelry nights and weekends in a Kohl’s department store. She got hired the week before Thanksgiving — two years ago.
To hell with that. The kids are made MUCH worse off in the long run by the elders who stop working and start living off them sooner.
There are a few good things about the culture of Generation Greed. One of them is that they work. Not enough to pay for everything they feel entitled to, but in higher percents than had been the case before.
Keep it up! Let Andy Rooney be your guide. Or, if your health fails, Steve Jobs.
“This Halloween, there’s an extra supply of gray hair and wrinkles at Party City, a costume and novelty store on Route 4 in Paramus, N.J. They don’t belong to costumes but to the store’s work force”
gotta love the intro.
That’s funny because my former company in Fort Worth outsourced their HR function to IBM…in the Philipines.
Surge in apartment construction heralds the arrival of America’s Rentership Society
Oct. 19, 2011, 8:50 a.m. EDT
U.S. housing starts jump 15%, hit 17-month high
Apartments lead September gain; single-family starts rise 1.7%
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Housing starts surged 15% in September to the highest level in 1 1/2 years, according to government data released Wednesday, as increased demand for rental stock as well as rebuilding after Hurricane Irene contributed to the upturn.
The Commerce Department said starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 658,000, which also is 10.2% above the September 2010 reading and the best level since April 2010 — the month the homebuyer tax credit expired. The figures were well ahead of the 590,000 forecast in a MarketWatch-compiled economist poll.
The rise was led by a 53% surge in starts of buildings with five or more units to 227,000, the best reading in three years; single-family starts rose a more modest 1.7% to 425,000, which is only a two-month high.
Rental demand is booming, as buyers struggle to get the credit needed to purchase homes even with mortgage rates near record lows and as some show a reluctance to re-enter the housing market over fears of declining prices.
The starts data can be highly volatile, with September’s data having a margin of error of plus or minus 13.7%.
The less-volatile building permits figures declined 5% to 594,000, and single-family permits eased 0.2%.
August’s reading on housing starts was revised modestly higher, to 572,000 from 571,000, and August’s reading on permits was revised higher to 625,000 from an initial reading of 620,000.
In any case, the data still show that housing has a long way to go to recover — at the peak, there were 2.07 million units started in 2005.
The glut of foreclosed and soon-to-be-foreclosed homes, the number of underwater mortgage owners, high unemployment and tough credit standards all have contributed to weakness in housing.
…
A 33 story apartment tower just broke ground outside my window. There are already two large buildings by the same builder that the doorman says are 90% occupied. He says that they are seeing brisk business in short term corporate rentals - some as short as a day. Those are mixed in with more traditional leases. (call this an accidental condotel)
He insists the two towers he works in were conceived as apartments from the get go - I’m not sure I believe that due to their vintage. At any rate there’s enough demand to start the third tower right down the street. More projects are beginning to stir nearby - some quite large - and they are ALL apartments. Meanwhile the condo inventory remains enormous.
October 19, 2011, 6:00 AM ET
What Percent Are You?
By Phil Izzo
The Occupy Wall Street movement seeks to speak for the bottom 99% of the population by income, which includes pretty much everyone who makes less than $500,000 a year.
According to the protesters’ unofficial website, “Occupy Wall Street” is a leaderless movement of people from many different backgrounds. “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” the website says. A related site called We Are the 99% records stories from people around the country.
The calculator above shows where your income stands on the wide range of the 99%. An annual salary above $506,000 puts you in the top 1%, while you need to make less than $2,500 a year to be in the bottom 1%. Where do you stand?
…
Where ever you are on the scale, you can wager you’re going lower on it, not higher.
“Where ever you are on the scale, you can wager you’re going lower on it, not higher.”
Not so. The regression effect suggests that those who are now below average on the scale are more likely than not to go higher, and conversely.
And if the average is moving lower?
“Not so. The regression effect suggests that those who are now below average on the scale are more likely than not to go higher, and conversely.”
PB, do you really believe that regression toward the mean applies to earnings over time?
You must be joking. We’re not picking sample data-points out of a data-set here…
Yes, I do believe the regression effect applies to earnings over time, at least if you factor in the persistent earnings downtrend into your residual calculation.
“We’re not picking sample data-points out of a data-set here…”
All the world is a data set if you measure it the right way.
In case anyone else in a family with two workers with graduate degrees is wondering, that is household income over $500,000 not individual earnings.
My response is that I’m surprised that many people earn that much.
Only 1% of households do, though. And that presumably includes the investment earning of trust fund babies. Not that shocking, really…
There are photos on MSNBC of riot police in Greece being hit by Molotov cocktails. It’s one thing to throw rocks, but flaming gasoline? When do the police start shooting?
Police are much more restrained in Europe.
When the police start shooting in Greece is when the revolution starts and the military takes over.
/police don’t see themselves as heros in Europe
Real question is how long will the police stay loyal to the government? I know that they are customers of Lockheed (F-16s) so our influence is significant. Which way will the military go?
There are no sides in Greece.
Where do you stand?
If Native America’s in Pine-Ridge,SD are to the right, eyes just to their left.
EARNINGS
OCTOBER 19, 2011
Pain Spreads to Biggest Banks
Goldman Posts a Rare Loss; BofA Falls From No. 1 Spot
BY LIZ RAPPAPORT AND DAN FITZPATRICK
In a sign of the pain rippling through the financial system from Wall Street to Main Street, investment-banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday posted a rare quarterly loss while Bank of America Corp. lost its title as the nation’s biggest bank as it pared back its struggling consumer empire.
Results at Goldman were hammered by falling stock and bond prices and soft merger activity. The slowdown starved its once-roaring trading engine and sent Goldman to its sixth straight year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue.
…
Does this mean to say that Ponzi schemes only work during the upswing phase? Nawwww.. who knew?
Maybe a sign that the squid has sucked all the blood from the turnips.
“Peak Plasma”
This obsession with retirement is truly lame.
Well, if you quit believing in heaven, then you need something here to look forward to, other than selling teen shoes at Kohls on weekends and holidays.
It’s also truly profitable! Just call a rep at your friendly neighborhood 401k to learn more!
Yes… Call Wells Fargo…. theyll help you with your retirement.
Wow, exactly what we’ve been talking about all these years…
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44956234
The Fourth Turning at work.
I thought granite always goes up?
People just had the wrong idea about value, looking to a foundationless future capital return upon sale rather than income. Same thing with stocks.
The value of your home is the ability to live in it without paying rent, and eventually (if you are responsible) without paying a mortgage. Is it worth it at that price? How much rent would you not be paying every month, and how much would you be paying on the house?
The value of a stock is the dividend payments, minus any losses when companies go bankrupt.
No matter what the current price, you can keep the stock and get the dividends, and live in the house and not pay rent. Unless you paid too much to start with.
“Unless you paid too much to start with.”
This is the key; Buy at fire sale prices else stay in cash.
Whatever the cost of staying in cash it will be more than made up with the purchase at the fire sale discount.
The Markeys’ FICO score is probably in the mid 500s now that they have screwed the bank (taxpayers) for for half a million dollars in a short sale and two cars repo’d by the lender.
Now is certainly not a time to enter into a financial obligation.
“For two years I kept thinking that things would get better,” Markey, 51, said as he stood in his empty store on a recent weekday.
As a businessman what did Markey base his positive belief on?
This is a classic case of a bubble business.
His business boomed because of the credit bubble that hid the real problems produced by our trade policy and regulation of WS.
The bubble burst and he is now seeing reality. He doesn’t understand the problem and so it is unlikely that he will vote in someone who will fix the problem.
“The couple moved to Orlando 12 years ago from central Massachusetts in search of opportunities. The business Markey created, Stone Giant, grew to include two factories and 60 employees, and it installed granite countertops in up to 15 new kitchens every day.”
That kind of puts the bubble in perspective. And granite lasts a really, really long time, so he had to know the party would end at some point.
The sad part, is that I don’t think he ever thought it would end.
Very few did…and most of them seem to be here, along with a couple of other sites.
These few lines are pure BS
The United States has a confidence problem: a nation long defined by irrational exuberance has turned gloomy about tomorrow. Consumers are holding back, businesses are suffering and the economy is barely growing.
There are good reasons for gloom — incomes have declined, many people cannot find jobs, few trust the government to make things better — but as Federal Reserve [cnbc explains] chairman, Ben Bernanke, noted earlier this year, those problems are not sufficient to explain the depth of the funk.
That has led a growing number of economists to argue that the collapse of housing prices, a defining feature of this downturn, is also a critical and underappreciated impediment to recovery. Americans have lost a vast amount of wealth, and they have lost faith in housing as an investment. They lack money, and they lack the confidence that they will have more money tomorrow.
We don’t have a confidence problem, we have a reality problem. Reality has been hidden from the average citizen using massive leverage and bubbles. The reality is that our gov which has been taken over by WS and MegaCorp has sold out the citizens of this country for some campaign contributions and high priced junkets and of course the high paid lobbying jobs that come after the whore politician has performed it’s act. The bursting of the credit bubble has revealed the truth. This is why fixing real estate isn’t the solution. Fixing the jobs problem is the solution.
1. VAT and energy Tax use all revenue to eliminate payroll tax, this makes labor cheaper and imports more expensive.
2. Big increase in tax on short term trading gains, and a financial transaction tax, and of course make the elite pay the same tax rate as well the upper middle class. Use the money to rebuild infrastructure and energy efficiency of this country.
3. Rework our trade agreements.
4. Single payer health care system for the basics and things that meet cost effectiveness goals, the rest you can get if you pay cash or join a study etc. ie cut the cost of employing Americans.
5. Prosecute financial fraud
6. Windfall profit tax on WS CEO’s
7. Campaign finance reform, only individual donations. I might let corporations donate an amount equal to the amount their employees can give nothing more.
8. Break up monopolies/oligopolies or regulate them.
Pumping gov money into housing is just helping bankers.
There are good reasons for gloom — incomes have declined, many people cannot find jobs, few trust the government to make things better — but as Federal Reserve [cnbc explains] chairman, Ben Bernanke, noted earlier this year, those problems are not sufficient to explain the depth of the funk.
I don’t think they understand the psychologically corrosive effects of heavy debt. Or they pretend not to.
“The Markeys have since patched together a semblance of their old life, opening a new stone-cutting shop. But they do not expect that they will ever recover financially from the loss of equity in their old home.”
Elton John Harmony
Available on the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Equity and me
Were pretty good company
Looking for an island
For our house under the sea
Equity , gee I really loved you
And I want to love you forever
And dream of the never, never, never losing equity
Hello, baby hello
Open up your house and let the granite flow
You’re not unlucky knowing me
Keeping the price real low
In any case I set my own price
By selling real low, say hello, hello
Equity and me
Were pretty good company
Looking for an island
For our house under the sea
Equity , gee I really loved you
And I want to love you forever
And dream of the never, never, never losing equity
Harmony was also the B side to Bitch is Back 45, I believe.
Now you’ve gone and done it…….
OWS has changed the narrative. Not dissing OWS and Coburn saying new tax code should still be “slightly progressive”? Coburn? If nothing, it IS a change in the narrative.
Coburn Links Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party to Lack of Washington Leadership
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/coburn-links-occupy-wall-street-tea-party-to-lack-of-washington-leadership-20111019
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said on Wednesday that he sees a “big difference” between the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street protests, but that both groups share a common anxiety: lack of leadership in Washington.
The fact is, everybody in America’s anxious because there’s no leadership,” Coburn said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Everybody’s looking for some certainty and some clarification about the future, but there’s no leadership from either party. Nobody will put out a vision that says: we can come together in this country and we can solve our problems.”
In comparing Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party, Coburn said that “one is kind of an organized group of people that are highly frustrated,” and “the other has been a groundswell that has been building for a long time.” He then clarified: the group that represents a “groundswell” is the Tea Party.
Coburn said that Congress must reform the tax code. He suggested that Congress should eliminate the current code altogether, and give itself four months to come up with a plan that’s “simulative to the economy, still slightly progressive” and “fair.”
“Everybody’s looking for some certainty and some clarification about the future, but there’s no leadership from either party. Nobody will put out a vision that says: we can come together in this country and we can solve our problems.”
Sounds kinda dangerous…all that hunger for someone to step in and fix everything.
No Tom
Everyone is looking for F’n justice.
Everyone is Pissed off at the WS bailouts. How did Tom Vote on those?
Everyone is pissed off at tax policy that let’s the top 0.1% pay a lower tax rate than many in the middle and upper middle income levels.
Everyone is pissed off at trade policy.
Everyone is pissed off about lac of regulation.
Everyone is pissed off that all of our politicians are bought and paid for and that our supreme court equates corporate money with free speech and there are 100 ways corporations can hide their donations.
Nice little summary.
OWS is organized? Whattv station is he watching the news on?
Buyers’ Unions
What if the taxpayers were able to organize groups and boycott products until lower prices could be negotiated? Fighting corporate corruption with a version of the same. Just an Idea that ran through my head…
Sounds like some are going to make a run at that on November 5th with BAC.
I guess this isn’t our daddy’s generation’s type of a movement. Maybe that’s why MSM isn’t up to understanding it.
Occupy Wall Street Hackathons Produce Digital Tools and New Activists
http://mashable.com/2011/10/19/occupy-wall-street-hackathons-2/
Groups of programmers gathered in three cities this weekend to build digital tools for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Several of those tools have already launched, and in many cases they’re being maintained by activists who’ve never held a sign in a park.
“I was waiting to see how I should be involved,” says Jake Levitas, who attended the San Francisco hackathon. “In the last week, I thought, ‘I know I’m going to dedicate a lot of time to this movement. I don’t know how, but I know I want to be involved.’”
says Jake Levitas, who attended the San Francisco hackathon
It’s a good thing that the DHS & NSA are unable to connect the dots to such behavior.
He is probably working for the NSA.
Dang Steve, you’re quick…
“Steve’s on our team!”
Everyday people get wackier…..and dangerous things can happen:
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/10/19/zanesville-mayor-talks-about-escaped-wild-animals/
Wow, some of those deputies got the hunt of their lives. That’s insane. I heard a giraffe was in the mix.
Remember 1998 and Long Term Capital Management? I thought the quote below was kind of amusing, in light of current events:
“Some industry officials said that Federal Reserve Bank of New York involvement in the rescue, however benign, would encourage large financial institutions to assume more risk, in the belief that the Federal Reserve would intervene on their behalf in the event of trouble. Federal Reserve Bank of New York actions raised concerns among some market observers that it could create moral hazard.[28]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management#1998_bailout
Reward destructive behavior*, and you get more of it. It’s. Just. That. Simple.
* Did the executive teams make big money? In the immortal words of the former Alaska governor, “You betcha.”
Reward destructive behavior*, and you get more of it. It’s. Just. That. Simple.
+
“OK, but now listen carefully, you’re all gonna look like pure Capitali$tic pig$ in the eyes of millions upon millions of peon citizen/taxpayers, you understand that right? OK then, that’s it, that’s you’re punishment.”
Reid says government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs
By Pete Kasperowicz - 10/19/11 - The Hill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.
“It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about,” Reid said on the Senate floor.
Reid was responding to recent comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill, S. 1723, so that Republicans would oppose it. McConnell said the bill was meant to fail in order to give Democrats an issue to run on in the 2012 election, but Reid said the Republicans are simply trying to defeat President Obama any way they can.
The legislation Reid is defending is part of Obama’s jobs package. Vice President Biden was in Pennsylvania, an important election state, on Tuesday to push for the administration’s plan on increasing the number of teachers.
Reid reiterated his emphasis on creating government jobs by saying Democrats are looking to “put hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching children, have more police patrolling our streets, firefighters fighting our fires, doing the rescue work that they do so well … that’s our priority.” He said Republicans are calling the bill a “failure” because they are “using a different benchmark for success than we are.”
Private-sector jobs have increased over the last 19 months, while government jobs have lagged. They’ve also seen cuts in several states that are struggling to balanced their books.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.
TRANSLATION:
These are public union jobs. Public union employees pay dues to the public unions. These public unions give 99% of their political multi-million dollar campaign donations to democrats.
It is a giant kick-back plan to fund democrat candidates and the democrat party.
We need it now. We want it now. 2012 is going to be tough with obama on top of the ticket.
PS - Since when are LOCAL police and LOCAL firemen and LOCAL teacher jobs the duty of the FEDERAL government?
“PS - Since when are LOCAL police and LOCAL firemen and LOCAL teacher jobs the duty of the FEDERAL government?”
When the democrats need to buy votes?
Ever since the started accepting Federal dollars.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs,”
Thank you sir, may I have another?
Nice work if you can get it…
————————————–
Top Income in U.S. Is…Gasp!…Wash. D.C. Area
Bloomberg - October 19th, 2011
Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June.
Attorneys drive up the average in DC. 1 in 12 workers in DC are attorneys. The average falls to $55k/yr without them.
I will repeat my post. Nothing about lawyers in it…
But the government is not bloated, public unions are your friends and we all need to pay more in taxes…
Now think of all the federal workers you know - and put a $126k/year as their price tag on each of them…
But they are “public servants!”
—————–
Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June.
——
And I’ll repeat because you’re posting half truths.
Attorneys drive up the average in DC. 1 in 12 workers in DC are attorneys. The average falls to $55k/yr without them.
“And I’ll repeat because you’re posting half truths.”
Half truths = RNC troll modus operandi
To put a fine point on RAL’s post, many DC government employees are attorneys. Just look around Congress, the Supreme Court or the Presidential administration for myriad examples.
None of the Lucky Duckies on our subcontractor task order get paid that much. However, we do get over fifty days of PTO/holiday per year
And the real Feds get even more than that!
Get back to spinning your hamster wheel, slave, while we’re out enjoying the sunshine
How do the federal employees get more than 50 days of paid time off per year? Seriously. What is your break down?
Probably includes annual and sick leave combined with holidays.
Federal employees get the following holidays as paid days off:
New Year’s Day
MLK Day
Presidents Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving (but not the Friday after)
Christmas
That is 10. Federal employees in the first 3 years of service get 13 vacation days (4 hours earned per pay period). In years 4 through 15 they get 20 vacation days (6 hours per pay period plus an extra 4 hours to get the 19 1/2 up to 20). Federal employees with more than 15 years of service get 26 days (8 hours earned per pay period).
Sick leave is only if you are sick or taking care of a sick child. If you claim to be sick and you aren’t, you are going to be in trouble. For more than two days out in a row, your boss can ask for doctor’s note.
No personal days which I got at other work places, though perhaps private companies don’t do it anymore.
So, if you are legitimately sick for 13 days in the year and you have worked for the government for more than 15 years and there is a natural disaster that closes your office for a day, you could get to 50 (26 plus 13 plus 10 plus 1).
How is that “real Feds” get “more” than “over 50″?
AWS alternative work schedule = 26 weekdays off per year
The AWS schedule you are talking about requires you work your full 40 hour work week in 4 days. It isn’t a “day off.”
GoonSquad….. I want to cop one of those gigs! Is there room for a big goon like me?
Retirement Insecurity
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016546177_apusretirementsurveydeepeningskepticism.html
“Worker skepticism about having enough money to retire comfortably has taken a nosedive in a new national survey. Just 23 percent say they’re very confident about being able to pay basic living expenses in retirement. That’s down from 46 percent in 2008.
The survey by Sun Life Financial Inc., which has conducted its Unretirement Index survey since 2008, shows persistent economic uncertainty and a volatile stock market have workers increasingly doubtful they’ll be able to retire when they had hoped.”
…
“A key finding is that a growing number of workers don’t see themselves as ever fully retiring. Some 20 percent say they think they will always work in some capacity. The majority of respondents, 54 percent, plan to work beyond age 65. Within that group, 11 percent plan to stop working sometime from age 66 to 69, and 16 percent are shooting for a retirement age of 70.”
…
“Intensifying pressure this year to cut government spending makes it appear that Medicare and Social Security won’t be there at current levels, pulling at least a portion of the traditional security blanket out from under millions.
Those changes come at the same time the first wave of baby boomers turns 65 this year and they’re finding how little they’ve accumulated in their savings accounts.
“They realize that they can’t afford to retire, which is a radical change mentally from where they were just five years ago when owning a 401(k) looked great,” Thompson said.”
For most boomers - no pensions, 201Ks, low return on savings, SS and Medicare to be downsized if the current edition of the Republican Party gains power, no house piggybank, inflation fears of a generation that experienced the 70s early in their careers - all add up to postpone retirement. And that is those who are still working. Those forceably retired early will burn through their savings early.
For those that follow the boomers, less job opportunity as the boomers hang onto their jobs.
How to screw the ENTIRE family…
This bubble HAS to pop soon…
———————————–
Unpaid student loans top $1 trillion
Politico | 19 Oct 2011 | TIM MAK
Giving validation to Occupy Wall Street protests over the increasing burdens of student debt, a new report indicates that the amount of total amount of outstanding student loans will exceed $1 trillion for the first time ever this year.
In addition, the amount of student loans taken out last year was greater than $100 billion, another new record, according to USA Today, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The $1 trillion of outstanding loans means that Americans now owe more on student loans than on their credit cards. While students have been racking up educational loans, American consumers have been paying down credit cards and home loans.
The average full-time undergraduate student borrowed $4,963 in 2010, up 63 percent from a decade earlier, even after adjusting for inflation, the report says.
Meanwhile, with a greater loan burden, the percentage of borrowers that defaulted on their student debts also rose - from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 8.8 percent in 2009.
The Occupy Wall Street protests have been driven by many frustrations, originating from across American society. But perhaps one of the most common complaints has been that of overwhelming student loan burdens.
“I have ~$75k in student loans. I will default soon. My cosigner, my father, will be forced to take my loans. He will default as well. I’ve ruined my family because I tried to rise above my class,” writes one testimonial on the 99 percent website on Wednesday.
Unless you have no income there is no “default” with student loans. The FedGov will garnish your wages if necessary.
Since he/she doesn’t seem to know that, it appears that the $75K loan was wasted on this individual.
+1
But I’ll confess I’m torn on the student loan issue. Its terrible what these debts are doing to the young and their families. On the other hand, make them dischargable, defaults will skyrocket (the default rate is already over 8%), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see student loan rates for future students go as high as credit card rates: 20% or more. The banks can take back a house, but they can’t take back a degree.
“The banks can take back a house, but they can’t take back a degree.”
That’s why you can’t just walk away from your student loan.
If there is no collateral to take back and if the loan was something one could just walk away from then the risk to those making the loans would be enormous and hence so would the interest rate of the loans. So to keep the interest rates down the risk has to be kept down. And the only way to keep the risk down (since there is no collaterial involved) is to make sure the borrower is legally required to pay back the loan.
Let me do some really tough rocket science math: $486 billion fo create 1.9 million jobs would cost $255,000 per job. That’s pretty much how much the failed Stmulus Part 1 cost all of us and he wants to do it again? 13 months left for this clown,and he will be back to making motivational speeches, not economic policy……..
13 months left for this clown,and he will be back to making motivational speeches, not economic policy……..
Just as any 2nd term lame duck President does?
Let me do some really tough rocket science math: $486 billion fo create 1.9 million jobs would cost $255,000 per job.
Not jobs “created”
Jobs “saved”
Hope and change boyz…
I think most of us here (even the so called “liberals”) agree that he has been a mediocre president.
The problem is that the GOP is going to nominate someone who is even worse (and no, they won’t nominate Ron Paul) and who will probably be unelectable.
Obama has been Bush’s third term, no changes.
Ron Paul gets it, but yes, too old to be elected.
I feel sorry for those who truly, with all their brain power, think Obama is completely responsible for this mess. Then they believe someone like Romney will fix everything.
Only Ron Paul gets it.
100,000 men and women home from Iraq doesn’t count???
Would you like it better if it was spun differently?
Romney will save us. lol!
Go lil’ Opie! Go NATO! Go Africa!
$135 million is about 4.5 hours in Cheney-$hrubs “$hock & Awe$ome”
“heheeheeheeee…”
Libyans close to total victory over Gadhafi forces
By KIM GAMEL and RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI - Associated Press | AP
In Tripoli, Clinton met with Libya’s acting prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, and offered about $11 million in additional aid. The fresh aid boosts Washington’s contribution since the uprising against Gadhafi began in February to roughly $135 million.
I know someone who just got a great deal on a Home Path 1,800 sq. ft. CBS house in Lake Worth built in 2005. He bought it for $54k. He walked out of his house the other day and the mirrors on his truck were broken, about a month ago someone in his hood killed his wife and today the headline is…..
Suburban Lake Worth man gets 15 years for killing cross-dressing lover
By Daphne Duret Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:28 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — A 25-year-old suburban Lake Worth janitor was sentenced to 15 years in prison this morning after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2008 stabbing death of a cross-dressing waiter who was one of his lovers.
Deputies arrested Juan Carlos Atenco Camacho in July 2010 after they say he confessed to killing 33-year-old Naum Rafael Mendez before dumping his body west of Palm Beach Gardens.
At the time of the killings, according to authorities, Camacho was married but also was having an affair with a 16-year-old girl with whom he’d been involved since the girl was 14.
Mendez was last seen Feb. 1, 2008, wearing a red dress and blond wig and carrying a silver purse at Matteo’s Restaurant in Boca Raton, where he was a waiter. Mendez also worked part time at a Greenacres club where he danced under the name “Gaviota,” Boca Raton police said.
Camacho led authorities to the scene of where he said he dumped the body after he confessed, but Mendez’s body was not recovered.
Camacho could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of second degree murder, but received the 15-year sentence on the lesser charge of manslaughter with a deadly weapon.
Not.quite.sure.the.point.you.are.making.
except that is one crazy hood.
“Not.quite.sure.the.point.you.are.making.”
House prices in less desirable areas have dropped to or below pre-bubble levels was the point I was trying to make. More deirable neighborhoods are sticking at much higher prices. For example, to the best of my knowledge the neighborhhod I am renting in Tequesta has never had anyone arrested for killing their cross-dressing lover. But the house prices are still about $100k too high.
None of this in Tequesta either. But if you want a gerat buy on a Home Path house Lake Worth is the place.
Lake Worth mother charged with keeping 10 kids live amid filth, feces and rotted meat
By Alexandra Seltzer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:29 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011
After sheriff’s deputies found her 10 kids living in unsanitary conditions, a 32-year-old mom was arrested and the Department of Children and Families took custody of the kids.
Bernaca Newton, of Lake Worth, was arrested on 10 counts of child neglect. On Tuesday, she was being held in Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies and a DCF case worker went to Newton’s house, on Latona Avenue, Monday in reference to child neglect allegations, a sheriff’s probable cause affidavit says.
Once they arrived, they found numerous clothes, shoes and trash on the floor. They also found “dried feces” stuck on the ground and a large pot with dried food inside that appeared to have been there for several days.
The sink was full of dirty dishes and beer cans, and the kitchen cabinets were empty. The only edible food was nine cans of “porkin beans,” the affidavit says.
Inside the oven was a tray of rotten meat. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom, and the toilet was backed up with feces in it.
Newton, who is on probation for child neglect, told deputies she is not employed so she can stay home and take care of her kids. The children, between the ages of 2 months and 12 years old, were placed into a foster home.
I wonder how many of these trailer trash 6th grade educated wimmin with 10 kids and no baby daddy’s around exist in Sweden???? or New Zealand? or Japan? Or China?
Or Is this just an American abomination?
I used to think Jerry Springer and Maury were made for TV bullchit.
Then I became a supervisor. And, after hearing some of the crazy stuff people on my crew got involved with, Jerry and Maury don’t even scratch the surface.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=196201
Beginnings of a coherent platform for OWS & “99%”ers?
Beginnings of a coherent platform for OWS & “99%”ers?
Woa. Even some semblance of 1-4 becoming reality would help restore our democracy.
The narrative has changed in the past month.
Wow
A massive increase in the size of government
A massive increase in the scope of government
A massive increase in the cost of government
A massive increase in the power of government
This is going to save us?
This is just pushing the accelerator down to the floor…
A massive increase in the size of government
Wrong. It need not increase size, scope, cost and power of government. It seems for everything they are adding, they are taking away something, ie better healthcare for less military and agriculture and corporate welfare. Changing our priorities need not make government bigger, just better for the people. “Power to the people” lol (I knew you’d like that 2bannana)
The biggest and most important thing I see is 1-4. Eliminating corporate control of our campaign financing. This is why corporations try to get folks like you to make posts like you do.
I also see healthcare costs coming down with the OWS Medicare plan. Governments do health care better than the USA’s system. Canada spends 10% of their GDP on healthcare and covers everyone. USA spends 18% of our GDP on healthcare and 50 million are uncovered and 50 million with joke coverage.
Anyway you look at it, the narrative has changed.
I saw their ideas recently and liked some and disliked others. This seems like a pretty good analysis to me.
Louisiana bans the use of cash in buying 2nd hand goods:
http://m.klfy.com/default.aspx?pid=2705&wnfeedurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.klfy.com%2fstory%2f15717759%2fsecond-hand-dealer-law%3fclienttype%3drssstory
Word of the Day
dead·beat noun \ˈded-ˌbēt\
Definition of DEADBEAT
1: loafer
2: one who persistently fails to pay personal debts or expenses
Examples of DEADBEAT
His friends are just a bunch of deadbeats.
He was accused of being a deadbeat.
First Known Use of DEADBEAT
1863
Related to DEADBEAT
Synonyms: couch potato, lazybones, do-nothing, drone, idler, layabout, loafer, lotus-eater, slouch, slug, slugabed, sluggard
Antonyms: doer, go-ahead, go-getter, hummer, hustler, rustler, self-starter
Learn More About DEADBEAT
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for “deadbeat”
Spanish-English Dictionary: Translation of “deadbeat”
¿Qué te llevó a buscar la palabra deadbeat? Por favor, dinos donde la leíste u oíste (incluyendo la cita, si es posible).
“Did anyone see Ron Paul tell the audience last night in Nevada that the home owners who purchased houses they could not afford were VICTIMS?”
I didn’t see it but my disappointment grew after reading this article:
Ron Paul proposes saving $1T by scrapping five federal departments
Some of that I’m okay with but the following was especially distasteful:
“Like most other Republicans, Paul wants to lower the corporate tax rate (he proposes to 15 percent), extend the Bush-era tax cuts and end taxes on capital gains and dividends.”
I do like this:
“Paul also proposes reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent, slashing congressional pay and bringing down the president’s salary to $39,336 — “approximately equal to the median personal income of the American worker,” his campaign says.
Many see these as too “radical” in spite of checks that would keep some programs from being eliminated. But IMO, he is just scaring people off. If he simply stuck to the platform of immediately ending the occupation of Afghanistan and whatever’s left in Iraq and auditing the Fed he’d be getting a lot more traction right now.
I feel those are two of our most glaring issues. To my knowledge, they’ve largely been ignored as irrelevant by the other candidates.
I wish I could sit own with Paul and get a better understanding of his education platform. It seems that some of the very things I mentioned here have been removed from his website.
I agree with him on homeschooling; the part of the libertarian platform that bothers me is that, for many children, there would be no “market” for education if they did not have public education.
Agreed. Education is not part of the “some of that I’m okay with.”
Can you elaborate on what’s been removed from his website?
Connecting education and illegal immigration issues. In other words, he’s not harping on educating illegals - someone must have laid out Plyler v. Doe again for him.
Also, he’s dropped advocacy of “market education” and is now focusing on equity for homeschoolers (cool with me).
I also don’t like that he mixes equity (Title I) with states rights and welfare. These are three separate issues, IMHO.
The thing we agree on, is all the “strings attached” federal programs, like NCLB.
I`ll be right back officer
Martin deputies find $1 million worth of marijuana in parked van
October 19th, 2011 by TCPalm.com
INDIANTOWN — Martin County Sheriff’s deputies turned up more than half a ton of marijuana valued at more than $1 million in a van that was parked Tuesday night on Southwest Warfield Boulevard, the sheriff’s office stated in a release Wednesday.
The 1,110 pounds of pot was in 12 boxes in a white rental van. A deputy on routine patrol about 7 p.m. noticed a man standing outside the cargo van, which was parked on the road “during inclement weather and was causing a traffic hazard,” the sheriff’s office stated.
The man said he was going to get help for a mechanical failure with the van, and then left.
“The deputy, as a matter of standard practice, called for a tow vehicle to remove the van from the roadway and a vehicle inventory was conducted,” the sheriff’s office states.
The marijuana, which has an estimated street value of $1.11 million, was in a dozen boxes and was seized.
Preliminary investigation shows the van was a rental. The man standing outside the van wasn’t the lessee.
Sheriff’s officials are investigating, and no arrests have been made.
Rhonda Irons, sheriff’s spokeswoman, had no further information Wednesday afternoon.
http://www.tcoasttalk.com/ - 66k -
BWAHAHAHicHAHAHicHAHAHAHAHicHAHAHic* (DennisN™)
TASTE TEST: Herman Cain Turned Godfather’s Into Cheap And Crappy Pizza
Godfather’s pizza apparently sucks.
At least that was the overwhelming conclusion from Politico’s recent blind taste test.
They lined up five pizza brands — Godfather’s, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, zpizza and Ledo Pizza — in front of Republican strategist and restaurant writer Doug Heye, Democratic commentator Karen Finney and foodie Nycci Nellis, publisher of TheListAreYouOnIt.com.
All three of them rated Godfather’s dead last. Here are their comments from before they knew which slice was which, from Politico:
“It’s the most unappetizing,” said Nellis after just one bite. “The cheese is really sour! The crust is like a sponge.”
“That is so bad,” said Finney.
“The crust is trying to be thin crust and thick crust, it can’t make up what it is,” said Heye. “Not good.”
Was it always this crappy?
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain made a lot of changes to turn the company around when he bought it back in 1986, by revamping its marketing and cutting costs.
But it looks like somewhere along the line, the product itself suffered.
(In case you’re wondering, a medium 11″ Godfather’s single-topping pizza costs $9.99).
businessinsider/herman-cain-godfathers-pizza
The birthers turn on Marco Rubio:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/article1197628.ece
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
So, the “TrueInstigator’s ™” / “TrueProvoker’s™” are targeting “one-of-their-own” now, today,…who’s current position is not a target of such an inquiry, right?
gobble, gobble, chomp, chomp…
Eyes not list them all, just the 1st two that apply:
14 Propaganda Techniques Fox “News” Uses to Brainwash Americans
Saturday 2 July 2011
by: Dr. Cynthia Boaz, Truthout | News Analysis
1. Panic Mongering. This goes one step beyond simple fear mongering. With panic mongering, there is never a break from the fear. The idea is to terrify and terrorize the audience during every waking moment. From Muslims to swine flu to recession to homosexuals to immigrants to the rapture itself, the belief over at Fox seems to be that if your fight-or-flight reflexes aren’t activated, you aren’t alive. This of course raises the question: why terrorize your own audience? Because it is the fastest way to bypasses the rational brain. In other words, when people are afraid, they don’t think rationally. And when they can’t think rationally, they’ll believe anything.
2. Character Assassination/Ad Hominem. Fox does not like to waste time debating the idea. Instead, they prefer a quicker route to dispensing with their opponents: go after the person’s credibility, motives, intelligence, character, or, if necessary, sanity. No category of character assassination is off the table and no offense is beneath them. Fox and like-minded media figures also use ad hominem attacks not just against individuals, but entire categories of people in an effort to discredit the ideas of every person who is seen to fall into that category, e.g. “liberals,” “hippies,” “progressives” etc. This form of argument - if it can be called that - leaves no room for genuine debate over ideas, so by definition, it is undemocratic. Not to mention just plain crass.
Rave on, maniac!
RNC troll alert
Nathan Vardi, Forbes Staff
10/19/2011 @ 9:48PM
Federal Judge Grabs Bank Of America’s $8.5 Billion Settlement
I spend most of my time digging into Wall Street, hedge funds and private equity firms, looking for both the good and the bad. I also focus on the intersection of business and the law. I have worked at Forbes since 2000, where I have helped expose everything from hedge fund scams to LBO home runs, Yasser Arafat’s corruption and the liquidity crisis at Harvard University’s endowment.
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the approval process for Bank of America’s $8.5 billion mortgage put-back settlement should be moved to federal court, making it more vulnerable to attack from investors and public officials.
William Pauley, a federal judge in Manhattan, said the case must be heard in federal court because it “implicates core federal interests in the integrity of nationally chartered banks and the vitality of the national securities markets.”
Bank of America in late June struck the $8.5 billion deal with 22 big institutions like BlackRock that had invested in Countrywide’s mortgage-backed securities and claimed that Bank of America had to make good on allegedly breached representations and warranties Countrywide made in connection with the quality of the underlying mortgage loans. Bank of New York Mellon, serving as the trustee for many of these deals, moved to get a New York state judge to rule it was acting reasonably in entering into the settlement on behalf of mortgage-bond investors.
But other investors in a relatively small number of these mortgage bonds sought more money by organizing as Walnut Place and intervened in the settlement. It is these investors that removed the case to federal court and for now have won a big battle by convincing Pauley it should remain there. The decision is a setback for Kathy Patrick and her big group of investors who hope to extend the Bank of America settlement to other big banks that underwrote soured mortgage-backed securities.
“This Court recognizes the procedural difficulty inherent in continuing this action in federal court,” Judge Pauley wrote. “But procedural complexity is not a ground for remanding an otherwise removable case.”
Austerity, American style:
Gasoline, food prices lead August inflation
By Christopher S. Rugaber
The Associated Press
Posted: 10/20/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
WASHINGTON — Consumers paid more for food and gas last month, although inflation outside those volatile categories was tame.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in September, after a 0.4 percent rise in August. Excluding food and energy, so-called core prices increased 0.1 percent, the smallest rise since March.
Inflation has worsened this year after oil, grains and other commodities spiked in the spring. Economists say price increases will moderate in coming months as weak growth lowers commodity prices.
A small amount of inflation is good for the economy. It encourages businesses and consumers to spend and invest money sooner, before inflation erodes its value.
Still, Americans are facing higher food and gas prices at a difficult time. Unemployment has been roughly 9 percent for more than two years. Hiring is slow, and few people are seeing much in the way of raises. Steeper prices for basic necessities have forced many to cut back on more discretionary purchases. That has slowed overall growth.
Food prices rose 0.4 percent in September, pushed up by big increases in dairy, cereals and fruits and vegetables. Gas prices rose 2.9 percent.
…
Oct. 20, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Defined benefit pension plans at risk
What sponsors and participants can do to safeguard benefits
By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Fewer and fewer workers are covered by a traditional defined benefit pension plan these days. But those who do have that type of plan might have good reason to be very worried about the future financial health of their benefits.
Pension plans sponsored by the S&P 1500 companies have an aggregate deficit of $512 billion and a funded ratio, again in the aggregate, of just 72%, according to consulting firm Mercer. And that funded ratio, as of month end September, represents a post-World War II low.
By way of recent history, the aggregate funded ratio was 79% at Aug. 31, 2011 and 81% at Dec. 31, 2010. The funded ratio measures the degree to which a plan has enough assets in its defined benefits plan to meets its liabilities or its obligations to current and future plan beneficiaries. A plan that has a funded ratio of 72% could meet only 72% of its obligations.
To be fair, the recent decline in funded status was driven by a 7% drop in equities, and a fall in yields on high-quality corporate bonds during the month of September, according to Mercer. But the funded ratio at the end of September marks the “largest deficit since we have been tracking this information,” Jonathan Barry, a partner in Mercer’s retirement risk and finance business, said in a release. “Over the past three months, we have seen nearly $300 billion of funded status erode. This will have significant consequences for plan sponsors. It will be particularly painful for organizations with September 30 fiscal and/or plan year ends.”
Indeed, there is much cause for concern, not just for sponsors of defined benefit plans, but for the three in 10 workers who have what those in the business call a DB plan these days. By the way, Mercer isn’t alone in spotting this worrisome trend. A host of organizations including Legal & General Investment Management America, BNY Mellon Asset Management, and UBS Global Asset Management have all separately released reports showing that corporate funding is on the decline.
…