Bits Bucket for October 25, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Obama speaks
FBs give their thanks
Something reeks
Its all about the banks
:applause: Go!
Or the election….
Obama takes mortgage relief and student loans to swing states
Obama touted newly unveiled measures aimed at aiding struggling homeowners and easing the US housing crisis
JEFF MASON
Published: 2011/10/25 07:47:19 AM
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama touted newly unveiled measures yesterday aimed at aiding struggling homeowners and easing the US housing crisis on the first leg of a campaign-style swing through western states crucial to his re-election next year.
…
The states on Mr Obama’s tour were chosen deliberately. Each has large populations of Hispanics, a voting bloc Obama’s campaign is eager to win over. Nevada and Colorado are “swing states” that alternate allegiance between Republicans and Democrats, making them valuable political prizes in presidential elections. Both could prove critical to Mr Obama’s chances next November.
He will use them as a backdrop to make his latest push to boost the weak economy, which remains the biggest obstacle to his hopes of retaining the presidency. According to an official, he will also try out a new slogan to put pressure on Congress: “We can’t wait.” Sapa-AP
…
The guise is to turn
the Economy in another direction
$Trillions borrowed burn
Maintenance ransom until the election
Liz…
One a day please?
Yes, along with Jeff Saturday’s lyrics. If Ben could have a button at the top to link to: Housing Bubble Haiku and Songs of the Lost Decade, that would be even better.
Is anyone here in a band? I think Jeff’s lyrics would be a good advertisement performed and posted at UTube for the rest of the public to know that there is another popular viewpoint of the housing bubble that isn’t all about homeowners as victims, etc. I think that those people benefit from politician’s and other’s misperception that most people think that way. Songs will be sung long after people have forgotten what they are about.
Here’s my HBB financial/housing meltdown playlist:
“No Banker Left Behind” by Ry Cooder
“We Can’t Make It Here Anymore” by James (son of Larry) McMurtry
“House for Sale” by Nick Lowe
I think you’ll especially enjoy this line in the Lowe song:
“House for sale…feel like I’m getting outta jail.”
“The Poor House” by the Boxmasters is appropriate too:
Sittin’ with the grannies at the nickel machines pulling the handle ’til my arms turn blue.
I’d do about anything to bring a better life home to you.
I’m swearing off the liquor, trying to keep a job.
I just think it might be quicker to win a little off the mob.
I’m working on a plan. To save our home. Keep us out of the poor house. Pay off those loans.
“Hotel California”
The Eagles
Obama to Unveil New Steps on Housing, Student Loans
Published: Monday, 24 Oct 2011 | 12:19 AM ET
By: Reuters
President Barack Obama will unveil new measures to help struggling U.S. homeowners Monday, in the first leg of a campaign-style swing through western states that may be crucial to his re-election in 2012.
Stymied by Republican resistance to his $447 billion jobs package and tapping into public displeasure with Congress, Obama will propose actions that do not require congressional approval to help the economy, a White House official said.
To help underwater borrowers, or those whose loans are worth more than their homes, FHFA plans to scrap a cap that prohibits any homeowners whose mortgage exceeds 125 percent of the property’s value from participating in HARP, which is targeted at loans backed by Fannie and Freddie.
The government is also preparing to reduce the loan fees that the two government-controlled mortgage firms charge and waive fees on borrowers that refinance into loans with shorter terms, according to an administration official.
Lenders could begin refinancing loans under the retooled program as soon as December 1, while loans that exceed the current loan-to-value limit will not be able to participate until early next year, according to an official.
The program, which was due to expire in June, will be extended through 2013, an official said.
With mortgage rates currently near record lows, allowing these underwater borrowers to refinance could help stave off a wave of foreclosures and free up cash for other spending that could help underpin the economy’s recovery. An estimated 11 million U.S. homeowners are underwater.
Obama’s Chicago-based re-election campaign has criticized Romney for his housing proposals, suggesting the theme will be a prominent one in the 2012 presidential race.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45010718
By Kasie Hunt
Associated Press / October 18, 2011
“As to what to do for the housing industry specifically and are there things that you can do to encourage housing: One is, don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom,” Romney said.
Romney elaborated during the presidential debate Tuesday night. “The idea of the federal government running around and saying, `We’re going to give you some money for trading in your old car…or we’re going to keep banks from foreclosing if you can’t make your payments,” Romney said, “The right course is to let markets work.”
From The Political Guide dot com
“While Governor Romney has stated that he generally opposes bailouts, he did support the Emergency Economic Relief Act that created TARP. In the 2009 CPAC speech, Governor Romney stated that while everyone did not agree on TARP, it was necessary to prevent a cascade of bank collapses. Governor Romney’s support for TARP continued into 2010 when he stated that had TARP not been pushed through a free fall may have occurred that would have caused not just the collapse of a few banks on wall street, but banks all across the country, killing not only a few jobs but jobs all across the country.”
Bailouts for his buddies, austerity and ‘the free market’ for the wee people.
“Bailouts for his buddies, austerity and ‘the free market’ for the wee people.”
Obama-Backing Billionaire’s Charity Sought Solyndra in Tulsa
September 26, 2011, 2:48 PM EDT
A bankruptcy filing Sept. 6 by the Fremont, California- based company, which had a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, has spurred inquiries from Republicans in Congress who say President Barack Obama’s administration may have rushed the support in part because of Kaiser, a campaign donor.
Two days after Solyndra sought bankruptcy court protection, FBI and Energy Department agents raided its offices.
The Kaiser foundation owns almost 36 percent of Solyndra, mostly through its Argonaut Ventures I investment fund. Investors including Argonaut and Boston-based Rockport Capital Partners moved ahead of taxpayers earlier this year in exchange for new loans to the company in a deal sanctioned by the U.S. Energy Department, according to congressional documents.
“There’s never been more money shoved out of the government’s door in world history, and probably never will be again, than in the last few months and the next 18 months, and our selfish parochial goal is to get as much of it for Tulsa and Oklahoma as we possibly can,” Kaiser said in a recorded portion of a July 2009 speech to the Rotary Club of Tulsa.
Kaiser has been to the White House 16 times since 2009, according to official visitor logs.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-26/obama-backing-billionaire-s-charity-sought-solyndra-in-tulsa.html - 77k
What does this have to do with the fact that Romney calls for austerity and ‘letting the free markets work’ for the wee people, and yet supports bailouts for his bankster buddies?
One might almost think this is an example of propaganda meant to distract, but of course you have no history of continually supporting Wall Street and the banksters, while never missing a chance of pissing on the wee people, do you? Oh, wait a minute…
wikipedia
“Red herring: a speaker attempts to distract an audience by deviating from the topic at hand by introducing a separate argument which the speaker believes will be easier to speak to.”
I`m sorry. I didn`t know that George B. Kaiser, a billionaire oilman was a wee people.
If the red herring doesn’t work the first time, try, try again.
How many Republicans ALSO recevied campaign contrinutions from Kaiser?
None, turkey. All Dems, all the time. About a $100K since 2007. That’s about two days’ worth of Lloyd Blankfein doing God’s work.
http://tinyurl.com/6xxq8ng
But this still has little to do with Romney and housing.
Interesting, oxide. Good find.
“Bailouts for his buddies…”
His masters; it’s difficult to see the strings.
Jeffrey immelt is one of obama’s top economic advisors…it’s not difficult to see the strings at all…you have to want to see them though.
+1 Obama is also connected by the strings. When he reads the teleprompter you can tell by his facial expressions that he doesn’t believe what he is saying either.
I admit I’ve started to notice that too, especially when he goes out to some factory in podunk — you can tell he did his homework on the plane.
For you hard-core geekitroids out there, he reminds me of Tar-Palantir. And that frightens me.
All politicians should remind you of Londo Mollari. (Bab 5)
For most of B5, Londo was a diplomat, not a politician. Big difference. Diplomats look to external factors that will benefit their society/country/planet/whatever and leave the internal wrangling about how those benefit are internally allocated to the politicians. It is, in many ways, an easier job. Also, as a job it has lower expectations. People understand that getting some other society/country/planet/whatever to sign on to whatever is best for yours is difficult if not impossible. When you can’t do that, the rest is often just posturing and perhaps splitting the difference. Politics is more complicated by far.
I miss B5.
But in the end we find out that Londo had been playing the long game and was as ruthless as any.
Yes, I too miss Bab 5.
+1 Obama is also connected by the strings.
So, who pulled the string that made lil’ Opie (non-Hawaiian) nod: “Yes, it’s a GO!” to the Navy Seal team in Pakistan?
This Cheney-$hrub cabinet member?
(Defense Secretary Bob Gates said in September that lil Opie’s decision to go after bin Laden with Navy SEALs was one of the most courageous ever made by any of the eight presidents he has served — and lil Opie’s gamble on Libya (derided by critics quoting the characterization of “leading from behind”) certainly seems to be paying off as well.)
Will the end of Gadhafi sway U.S. politics?
October 20, 2011| By David Gergen: Commentaries
/ CNN
Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. Immediately after being recruited by the CIA, he also served as an officer in the United States Air Force. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that has studied the Iraq War.
Oxide–that’s crazy obscure and totally cool, but I think you praise him too much with that comparison as he is still allowing himself to be led by Evil and hasn’t made the fresh break with his predecessors. His string puller is clearly Sauron (the financial oligarchs), and we can only hope America doesn’t sink.
“I admit I’ve started to notice that too…”
Oxide, the first time this sort of thing really hit me was when Colin Powell was reading his master’s fabrications to the United Nations regarding WMD in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/2a34cla
The AIPAC goal was to establish several airbases inside Iraq to mitigate the Iranian threat toward Israel. The rest of the “Plant the seed of democracy in Iraq” was little more than a smokescreen. The 100,000+ civilian deaths are the unfortunate collateral damage.
Steve W, I wouldn’t put Obama in the same league as Ar-Pharazon. Then again, when you consider he brought on Immelt and Summers… maybe Obama’s shaking out from under the spells.
“Bailouts for his buddies…”
“His masters; it’s difficult to see the strings.”
For Fundraising, Obama Relies Even More on Wall Street
By: Eamon Javers
CNBC Washington, DC Correspondent
Published: Friday, 22 Jul 2011 | 9:49 AM ET
Does Wall street have a problem with President Barack Obama?
Not so you’d notice where it counts—in his reelection effort.
Plenty of high visibility figures have complained about Obama on everything from Wall Street reform to potential tax increases to his anti-fat cat rhetoric.
But a new study by the Center for Responsive politics out Friday morning shows that Obama is relying more on Wall Street to fund his re-election this year than he did in 2008.
A copy of the study was obtained in advance by CNBC.
In fact, the Center found that one-third of the money Obama’s elite fund-raising corps has raised on behalf of his re-election has come from the financial sector.
“Individuals who work in the finance, insurance and real estate sector are responsible for raising at least $11.3 million for Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee,” the Center reported.
All of Obama’s bundlers have raised a minimum of $34.95 million.
Obama and the DNC combined are on pace to blow away the amounts Obama raised from Wall Street donors in 2008. At the current pace, Obama and the DNC will far surpass his 2008 Wall Street fund-raising numbers both in raw dollar amounts and as a percentage of what he raises overall.
The comparison with 2008 is not exactly apples to apples, however, because the Obama campaign disclosed combined figures for Obama and the DNC figure this year, while the ‘08 numbers were just for Obama, because he didn’t control the DNC at that time. Now he does.
The Center also cautioned that an exact dollar amount for how much cash these individuals raised ahead of the 2008 election or during the past few months is not known because the Obama campaign provided only broad ranges of how much money each bundler collected.
A precise figure, however, is known for how much the Obama campaign and the DNC raised during the second quarter of the year: $86 million. Thus, the Center concludes that at least $1 out of every $8 that the DNC and Obama campaign raised came thanks to a bundler connected to the finance, insurance and real estate industry.
What’s more, the Center has identified 80 bundlers—out of 244 whose names were released by the Obama campaign last week—who are part of the financial sector. Forty-four specifically work for the securities and investment industry.
Even when Obama is receiving criticism from some quarters on Wall Street, he’s adding new Wall Street bundlers who did not work for him in 2008. Four of them are: former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, Evercore Partners executive Charles Myers, Greenstreet Real Estate Partners CEO Steven Green and Azita Raji, a former investment banker for JPMorgan.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43854224/For_Fundraising_Obama_Relies_Even_More_on_Wall_Street - 136k
Right, and then businesses would have lost their payrolls in the banks, and the value of stocks and bonds across the economy would have vaporized.
So, looking ten years out, would the majority of Americans under, say, 55 really have been worse off under that scenario than they will be now?
This was the reall problem.
Not only operational money flow, but the vast majorty of pensions as well.
That the banks could hold the entire country hostage like this is beyond treason.
Here is a question, perhaps worthy of a weekend discussion: If we really had just let the “too big to fail” banks go under, what would have actually happened? I’ve always speculated that the hedge/private equity people would have been willing to scoop up the bits and pieces after a fairly short time “nationalized” (long enough to do a real audit on the books). We could have required the scooping be done so as not to create a new set of “too big to fails.” I don’t know if there was anything like enough money in the community/regional banks to get the system going without the hedgies/private equity money getting involved.
I am personally of the opinion that upwards of 80% of what the investment banking divisions could be done with dutch auctions on the internet by a few html programmers, some new media publicity folks and a team of decent securities lawyers. And that most of the rest (like putting together counterparties for credit default swaps) isn’t useful. It should be switched to a regulated market in which case the existing trading houses would take care of it.
JMHO.
It does sound like a weekend topic, but turkey has a point about the pensions. Millions of pending baby boomer retirees would have had their benefits cut to the bone when their accounts, supposedly compounded over 20-30 years, suddenly crashed.
Even my own very conservative retirement investment house listed BoA and AIG as two of their top 10 holdings in its main fund. The remaining pieces simply wouldn’t be enough to feed the elderly.
Polly, you bring up some good points about the Interent. I beleive that what we are seeing is also the respsonse of a dying industry trying to hold on to its monopoly by any means possible, yet doomed to fail but not without making everyone else suffer first.
The Internet has been a serious game changer in the course of human events and threatens long established power monopolies. The failure of the music industry to capilaize on the technology being a prime example.
Here is a question, perhaps worthy of a weekend discussion: If we really had just let the “too big to fail” banks go under, what would have actually happened?”
I think most of our career politicians would be voted out by now , which is one reason it was backstopped.
big changes would be under way by now for good or bad I don’t know?
it is a good question
You would have had rolling bankruptcies. A local community bank exchanges checks with the TBTF, right? Well, let’s say those checks are being cleared, the money goes out and does not come back. Poof!
Same when every business in the country had all their money in banks wiped out over $100K. They wouldn’t be able to meet payroll.
Poof stocks. Poof bonds. Poof pension funds, and thus poof state and local governments.
The alternative was a universal Chapter 11 — all the paper assets wiped out. Everyone starting over at zero. That’s what they stopped. Who is better off, and who is worse off?
I think you are assuming a less ordered version of this than I am considering. I am talking about having nationalized the banks long enough to do an audit, selling off any parts that had any value like the personal deposits, functional business lending units, etc. Wiping out the shareholders and as many bank bond holders as necessary for the functional parts to be sold for something vaguely resembling a fair price. I’m not talking about having no idea if your Comcast bill gets paid once you send them a check. And I hope there would have been a way to make sure that hardware store owner would be able to pay his employees too.
I honestly don’t even have that big an issue with having essentially suspended bank reserve requirements by not making them use mark-to-market values for their assets for a short while. What I object to is not having the mark-to-market accounting also available for people to see, even if it isn’t used to declare a bank immediately in receivership.
And the stuff unrelated to traditional banking (proprietary trading, credit default swaps, et al) needed to be alllowed to fall apart (or survive) on its own. I’ve made it abundantly clear in the past that I think the 100% pay out of the AIG counterparties is the worst thing this administration has done.
The Internet has been a serious game changer in the course of human events and threatens long established power monopolies. The failure of the music industry to capilaize on the technology being a prime example.
Before the 1960s, record sales weren’t a huge profit center for the music industry. If anything, records were viewed as promo items sent to radio stations. The goal was airplay.
Along came the Beatles. And, suddenly, everyone had to buy their records. It was almost mandatory.
Well, the music industry got fat, dumb, and happy on record sales. And then on CD sales.
Along comes the Internet! Music can be digitized! And shared! Eeeek! The world is ending!
The music industry could have jumped on this bandwagon — or gotten out in front of it. But the music industry missed the trend, just as they did with MTV.
For further reading on this topic, see Steve Knopper’s book, Appetite for Self-Destruction.
With regards from your HBB Librarian…
To be very fair, at the time, I believe Hank Paulson claimed he didn’t have the power he needed to do any of this (nationalize, break up, force the sell off of the functioning bits, make the shareholders and some, most or all of the bond holders eat the losses, etc. I don’t know if it is true or not. A bankruptcy judge could probably have done a lot of it, but that takes enormous amounts of time which leads to the seize up of the banking industry that they were deparate to avoid.
AZ–
Well,
Elvis, Sinatra, Crosby, Caruso, Lind….
Beatles were far from a game-changer. The only difference was the demographic.
“Obama will propose actions that do not require congressional approval”
Too soon, too Lame Duck.
With Financial Crisis Phase II playing out in slowmotion over at the EU, gridlock in DC and 99%ers threatening the elites with paper cuts, don’t expect the USA to “save the world” if something big happens in 2012.
It doesn’t matter. He can say he did all he could to rescue the economy, in the face of Republican efforts to block him.
It doesn’t matter. He can say he did all he could to rescue the economy, in the face of Republican efforts to block him.
It is such a silly statement.
Obama’s first two years. Huge majority democrat control in the house and a filibuster proof majority in the senate. Plus control of the White House
Obama’s last two years. Repubs control the house. Dems control the senate. Obama still controls the White House.
Yet, somehow, obama did all he could and those evil republicans are 100% to blame (cause they controlled ONE part out of three of the last two years of the government)…
obama was asleep at the wheel his first 2 years.
i think he was delusional after all the fan fare.
“Was”?
There was NEVER a huge Democratic majority. You are either misinformed or a liar.
Considering most of your posts, I’m going with liar.
You are either misinformed or a liar.
Considering most of your posts, I’m going with liar.
Best watch it, he has a friend that is prone to shout: “You Lie!”
in the face of Republican efforts to block him ??
Many millions of them “despise” the man…For one ugly reason…
Sigh -
The obama administration doing everything they can to prop up housing prices and allow no FB dollar to escape.
Let it collapse already. Get the government out of housing. Let the market dictate prices.
It will ALLOW so MANY people to AFFORD a house.
What is so bad about that?
I can’t say I disagree. Just make all loans non-recourse, kick all the FB’s out, and make them rent for three years. Prices will crash and those with cash will get first dibs on the houses. Then in a few years the FB’s can come back and buy at a lower price.
But this would kill the banks for good, would kill the taxpayer via Fannie and Freddie. Not to mention 24/7 images of a new Trail of Tears as children are thrown onto the sidewalks and sad parents quietly load their stuff into PODS on the way to the slumlord house…
They could have done this in 2009, and blamed all the misery on Bush, and by now things would be turning around. TBTF zombie banks would only be a memory, and new banks (or successful existing banks) would have risen to take their place.
Had they done all this (with a round of prosecutions mixed in), they would have locked themselves in as the ruling party for a generation. Alas, they had other agendas.
The only real chance to do anything corrective is right after the election. And no one running is even hinting that they would really try anything useful at this point.
So we continue along, increasing our debt load by leaps and bounds, until we finally hit the wall. Hard.
“Just make all loans non-recourse”
They are private contracts subject to restrictions under state laws. The federal government can’t “make” them anything. Simply doesn’t have the power.
Can you wipe out a recourse loan with a BK? Sounds like a good time to be a BK lawyer.
I don’t think you can wipe out a secured recourse loan in BK. You have to have a foreclosure so that you know how much of the loan is left over once the property securing the loan has been been sold and applied to the loan.
That is one of the things people were agitating for early on. To change the bankruptcy code so bankruptcy judges could do something with the secured loans. But they didn’t do that. So you have to go through foreclosure first.
Someone with better knowledge of bankruptcy law please correct me if I am wrong.
“The obama administration doing everything they can to prop up housing prices and allow no FB dollar to escape.
…
What is so bad about that?”
Many mortgages have recently been federally guaranteed, and you are personally liable for a slice of every one of these that goes into default.
Never forget the Wall Street business model, which explains how so many federally guaranteed mortgages ended up on the U.S. taxpayers’ plate:
PRIVATIZE PROFITS, SOCIALIZE LOSSES.
You say that like the crash is avoidable.
If it’s going to happen anyway, wouldn’t we all be better off not paying into the current overlevereged prices? Even renters after playing musical chairs a few times would be better off. Rents cannot drop too low if landlord owners bought during the bubble.
Many mortgages have recently been federally guaranteed, and you are personally liable for a slice of every one of these that goes into default.
Not many….virtually all - if you add up FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie & Freddie it makes up almost 90 percent of outstanding mortgages…..FHA has explicit “full faith and credit” guarantees and now Fannie and Freddie have effectively the same thing
My thoughts exactly 2nd banana. Besides more and more are getting wise to the kick the can down the road game.
more and more are getting wise to the kick the can down the road game ??
All the way up to the point when there is no more road…Just a wall…
“Let it collapse already. Get the government out of housing. Let the market dictate prices.”
The folks in charge would like to stay there despite their collective failure and individual greed. First thing that needs to happen is a complete change of management. The folks who caused the problem are only providing solutions to the symptoms while avoiding the root cause. It should be fairly clear by now why revolutions have occurred throughout history.
“The folks in charge would like to stay there despite their collective failure and individual greed.”
Yeah? Well that’s who they are, why they are there.
This is the pool of “leaders” we get to select from.
There’s an old saying: “Those who would most want to lead, are the least qualified TO lead.”
The folks who caused the problem seem more to be trying to extend it just as long as possible, while providing window dressing, misdirection, bickering and further bleeding.
Where is the outcry from any of these master Lawmakers over the current BOA/FDIC scandal? Repubs? Dems? White House? Candidates? Hello?
Blue, it’s probably too esoteric for J6P, whose intelligence tops out with The Amazing Race.
But here is an excellent article on the subject:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/bofa-said-to-split-regulators-over-moving-merrill-derivatives-to-bank-unit.html
Some excerpts:
“Bank of America, which got a $45 billion bailout during the financial crisis, had $1.04 trillion in deposits as of midyear, ranking it second among U.S. firms…
…Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Bank of America’s long-term credit ratings Sept. 21, cutting both the holding company and the retail bank two notches apiece. The holding company fell to Baa1, the third-lowest investment-grade rank, from A2, while the retail bank declined to A2 from Aa3…*
…Derivatives are financial instruments used to hedge risks or for speculation. They’re derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in the weather or interest rates. [ these people are betting on the WEATHER??!?? ]
…Bank of America’s holding company — the parent of both the retail bank and the Merrill Lynch securities unit — held almost $75 trillion of derivatives at the end of June…
…Moving derivatives contracts between units of a bank holding company is limited under Section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act…The Fed also ended an exemption for Bank of America in March 2010 and in September of that year approved a new one.
———-
You mean to tell me that Congress passed a law disallowing dumping crap on the taxpayer, but the Fed can grant exemptions to this law without going back to Congress?
This is what Glass-Steagall was designed to prevent — to keep bank speculators away from those working folk who deposit money. But we all know what happened to that.
———–
* Wiki has a good chart of the credit scoring system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating and scroll halfway down to the colored chart.
Actually, they are indirectly betting on changes in the weather as it affects crop yields and resulting commodity prices.
Also, the price of near-term heating oil futures varies with changes in forecasts of the severity of the upcoming winter, temperature-wise.
I learned about weather and commodities by watching “Trading Places”.
Who do you think is The Management in this country? Hint: it’s not Obama. Right now the people who know the most about who’s managing this country are down occupying Wall Street.
We don’t really need a change in The Managment. We need a change in The Attitude. The greed-is-good Attitude, the more-profit-every-year Attitude, the hit-the-numbers (quarterly) Attitude, the shareholder-first Attitude, is what really destroyed the middle class. Changing The Attitude will automatically change The Management.
Unfortunately, the current crop of opposing candidates are even more bought off by The Management than Obama ever was. A couple of the candidates don’t even need to be bought off because they have The Attitude themselves (Romney/Cain).
+1
oxide; do you mean make all loan Recourse?
Also this plan will only help those who are current on their loans to refi. those who have missed a payment but want to play will not be allowed.
So the python will need to process all current deadbeat borrowers; the plan will do nothing to address all the millions of borrowers in default; possibly will help those who have not fallen into default yet.
But who would sign up to refi to a value that is greater than the house; that is who this program will “help”; that group has gotta be vanishingly small
Mike, do you mean non-recourse? Non-recourse is when the bank gets only the house.
I guess it’s not a standard refi, they just refi the loan at the current amount?
It’s worse than “bought off.”
Wall St. has become our Treasury and therefore controls everything. I beleive this was a long term, engineered coup that is still in progress and this disaster is the last chance to stop them.
Yep, and you can start with the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1998. (maybe back to NAFTA).
Deregulation of the 1980s
“the shareholder-first attitude”
What “shareholder first” attitude? “Management first” attitude is what I see most of the time.
I was referring to hitting numbers and inflating stock prices. Once management pleases the shareholders, then they can hand out bonuses to themselves.
Realtors Are Liars®
Economists Are Liars®
From Bloomberg: US Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Drops to Two-Year Low
“The Conference Board’s sentiment index decreased to 39.8 from a revised 46.4 reading in September… This month’s reading was less than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey in which the median projection was 46.”
NBER are Liars® CPI are Liars® Federal Reserve are Liars®
“All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth.” - Billy Idol’s pre-solo band Generation X
I had all three albums. You had to be a hardcore Idol fan to really get into them. Idol couldnt sing but he could perform.
But Idol’s guitarist Steve Stevens is one of the most underrated guitar players ever. Next to Ed King and Dan Toler of course.
NOt sure if you will see this but I agree on Stevens. I am now 42. As a teen I had everything idol plastered on my walls. Still know the lyrics to everysong and can imitate the video’s to a T. I can even do the lip snarl. I know, i am a geek.
Funny, while i have read this blog daily for about 6 years, I havent posted in a long time. And the one post i do make is about Idol.
Mortgage refinance program could help homeowners who are deeply underwater
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:48 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, 2011
Florida borrowers blocked from refinancing their mortgages because of plunging home values have new options under a revamped federal plan the Obama administration said is aimed at helping homeowners who are “doing the right thing.”
In Palm Beach County, 42 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater during the second quarter of this year.
———————————————————————————
Slim pickings for home shoppers in Palm Beach County as inventory dries up; 39% fewer homes on market
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:27 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011
With sales of existing homes elevated all year — they were up 34 percent last month compared with September 2010 — inventory is drying up.
The supply of homes in the county was down 39 percent in September from the same time last year, with fewer then 9,900 single-family homes for sale. In September 2007, inventory was more than double that.
And as with most things in the new world of real estate, old rules no longer apply.
My question.
If you owe $250,000 (at a 6% mortgage) on a house worth $100,000.
Does it really help that now you owe $250,000 plus closing fees (at a 4% mortgage) on a house worth $100,000?
Did that really help anyone?
From
Mortgage refinance program could help homeowners who are deeply underwater
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:48 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, 2011
Loxahatchee homeowner Sandy Reynolds, 63
Owes about $230,000 at 5.2 percent interest
Savings with refi on a 30-year loan at 4.1 percent interest: about $150 a month or $1,800 a year
————————————————————————–
Paid $234,000 in 2003, divorced got the house in 2007, house is now worth $131,107 according to the county.
Property Appraiser
Name: REYNOLDS SANDRA S
Mailing Address: 14115 78TH PL N
LOXAHATCHEE FL 33470 5204
Jun-2007 22020/0295 $10 QUIT CLAIM REYNOLDS SANDRA S
Apr-2003 15128/0709 $234,000 WARRANTY DEED DUNCAN SANDRA S &
Total Market Value: 2011
$131,107
Tax Year: 2011
$2,910
Suppose the FB bought with a 30-yr 6% loan at the top of the bubble in 2006, and under his current mortgage contract, still owes 25 years of 6% payments on $250,000 in principle.
Assuming he paid off his remaining balance at 6%:
Monthly payment = $1,610.75
Principle payments = $250,000
Interest payments = $233,226.05
Total payments = $483,226.05
Now suppose he instead refinanced into a 4% mortgage, including one point at closing, and paid it off over the next 25 years:
Monthly payment = $1,319.59
Principle payments = $250,000
Points = $2,500
Interest payments = $145,877.63
Total payments = $398,377.63
Drop in monthly payment = $291.16
Decrease in lifetime payments = $84,848.42
Which seems like a better deal for the FB?
And out of whose pocket did that $85K in stimulus magically appear?
Fair disclaimer: I did the above calculations before coffee; check them and correct them if you don’t wanna take my word for it…
HEARD ON THE STREET
OCTOBER 25, 2011
Restringing the Housing HARP
By DAVID REILLY
The government’s latest move to bolster housing marks yet another transfer from savers to borrowers.
Such transfers have been the norm since the Federal Reserve instituted its zero-interest-rate policy in late 2008—shifting funds away from the likes of depositors, bondholders and pension funds to debtors. The latest iteration came Monday, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency unveiled changes to a program meant to make it easier for underwater homeowners who are current on payments to refinance into a lower-rate mortgage.
The thinking is that this will reduce defaults. Or as FHFA said, “Such refinances bring benefits to borrowers, to housing markets, and to [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] and taxpayers.”
Missing from that winners’ list: investors who finance housing markets by purchasing mortgage-backed bonds. They will fund this new effort. Here is how: As homeowners refinance, investors who bought mortgage bonds will be given back their money and will have little option but to reinvest at far lower yields. The transfer is the difference in yield.
Just how big that will be isn’t clear as it is tough to tell how effective the program will be. The original Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, led to refinancings by 894,000 homeowners in about two years. Estimates for how many borrowers could now take part range from 500,000 to three million, while FHFA said it is “very difficult to project the number of mortgages that may be refinanced.” Some mortgage bonds traded lower Monday on news of the plan.
Granted, prepayment risk is inherent to mortgage bonds. There is also likely to be little sympathy for bondholders having to give up money to shore up housing. But that ignores that the government is picking winners and losers. Effectively, it is deciding some losses on some things are acceptable, say on 401(k) retirement plans, yet aren’t on others, namely housing.
…
Throw good money,
After the bad,
We don’t think it’s funny,
We’ve been had.
“As homeowners refinance, investors who bought mortgage bonds will be given back their money…”
Oh dear god, no! No! Not given back their money! That’s just unthinkable!
“…and will have little option but to reinvest at far lower yields.”
The horror.
We can’t let such a tragedy befall the investor class. Contracts are Sacred! (Except for Social Security, of course.)
Yeah, but to realize the full benefit of that savings they’d have to stay put for thirty years. The housing bubble depended in large part on churn, so the thought of legions of FBs staying in the same house for three decades must be chilling to the agents and banksters. Stuck FBs aren’t as profitable as aspirational FBs.
Oh wait, that’s right - house prices will rebound in 2,3,5,10 years and it will be a happy ending for all. Ok.
Mortgage refinance program could help homeowners who are deeply underwater
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:48 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, 2011
Loxahatchee homeowner Sandy Reynolds, 63
Owes about $230,000 at 5.2 percent interest
Savings with refi on a 30-year loan at 4.1 percent interest: about $150 a month or $1,800 a year
And out of whose pocket did that $85K in stimulus magically appear?
So, if this is “Long-Term Capital” true outcome:
What happened to all the taxe$ paid during: “and paid it off over the next 25 years”?
verses the cost a$$ociated with this outcome:
“…the property was “cheaply” foreclosed after x3 years and then because of weather/squatter/vagrant damage we hired the lowest bidder to bull-doze it.”
(The City/County/State & Federal Gov’t & MegaBank Inc.$ thought that was just fine with them. [restart of new Fee$ proce$$])
“Did that really help anyone?”
Not in that case, but what if you owe $125,000 on a house now worth $105,000? That the situation many in Flyover are facing.
Not every underwater homeowner is down $200k+. Not everyone lives in the sand states and heloced their houses for years.
Let’s see:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/914-S-Cypress-St-Wichita-KS-67207/77317782_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
1976 4/2.5 in Wichita, KS. Recently sold for $118K.
30-year fixed at 6.0%: PI = $707/month.
30-year fixed at 3.9%: PI = $559/month.
Savings of $1800 a year. That might cover the minimum on the credit cards. Really, it doesn’t sound worth the hassle…
Multiply it by one million or so households, and it’s about $2 billion a year in stimulus, directed at well-meaning joe6packs. Surely no panacea, but what is?
Multiply it by 10 million households, and you get $20 billion a year. That’s pretty good stimulus.
Multiply it by 50-100 million and give everyone 3.9% on their credit cards for a few years and were talkin maybe $100 billon a year..
But we cant do that to much money for average peeps
i will take that 1800 any time.
If you owe $125K on a house worth $105K, you were already eligible, I think. The limit that they are changing is the one that restricted refis to people who owed less than 120% (125%?) of the current fair market value.
Yeah, I was just pulling numbers out of the air to illustrate the lower prices of Flyover.
And I bet there were people who were eligible to refi, but didn’t want to spend the upfront money required to refi due to its incremental payback. I bet a lot of joe6packs were in that position. Am I correct in perceiving that these refis will be way cheaper, even free? At least as far as F&F are concerned?
And I bet there were people who were eligible to refi, but didn’t want to spend the upfront money required to refi due to its incremental payback.
Back during the height of the housing bubble (summer 2005), my accountant suggested that I look into refinancing the Arizona Slim Ranch. So, I called a local mortgage guy and asked about that very thing.
Well, he took a look at the comps and said that my house wasn’t worth anywhere near as much as my accountant thought. He added these two kickers: Interest rates were going up and the refi closing costs would be around $2k.
So, I decided to keep the $2k in my pocket. No refi for Slim.
I guess my point is this:
Whether you have a $150k debt on a house worth $125k, or $80k, the only people this program will help are people who HAVE ALREADY DECIDED TO TRY TO HOLD ON, since it only applies to people who are current on their loans. So, for these folks, it will help them hold on, and act as stimulus…more dollars in their pockets each and every month.
All those underwater borrowers who are already strategically defaulting (haven’t made a payment in x months and just waiting for the foreclosure) will not have their course changed.
This program will slow the growth of the pig in the python (perhaps even let it begin to digest), but it won’t pull the pig from the python.
Let’s call this what it is…targeted stimulus. Targeted at overleveraged “homeowners”.
“the only people this program will help are people who HAVE ALREADY DECIDED TO TRY TO HOLD ON, since it only applies to people who are current on their loans. So, for these folks, it will help them hold on, and act as stimulus…more dollars in their pockets each and every month.”
Exactly. It targets those arguably most worthy of targeting- the little guys who are ‘trying to do what’s right’, and pay their debts. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
Yes, but don’t call it an attempt to fix the housing mess…it’s not. If it is actually an attempt to fix the housing mess, it’s a piss poor attempt.
If it is what we think it is (stimulus), then call it a targeted stimulus program.
At least Obama’s not claiming this to be the silver bullet.
Yeah, and all those FB squatters have been saving more than $1800 a month just by not paying. They don’t need any more help than the help they are already helping themselves to.
“the only people this program will help are people who HAVE ALREADY DECIDED TO TRY TO HOLD ON, since it only applies to people who are current on their loans. So, for these folks, it will help them hold on, and act as stimulus…more dollars in their pockets each and every month.”
Mostly agree, but there are also some people on the fence and something like this might be enough to convince them to tough it out. They still won’t be able to brag about their house being worth more than they owe, but they can at least brag about the great interest rate they have.
I think we agree. I think the number of people who are on the fence diminishes quickly the farther underwater they are. The change in the program is largely for those more underwater, which makes me think it will have a minimal effect keeping people on the fence.
Sign of the times.
New show coming to Spike.
A group of men who buy foreclosured houses at auction “sight unseen” and fix them up. Then flip and sell them.
I am trying to decide if this means we have made progress from housewives flipping houses on HGTV from 5 years ago…
My guess is yes – to buy at auction you need all cash…
Sounds like a commercial to stir up demand for empty houses.
No doubt the participants in the show will be seen to be very successful and this image will act to draw in many suckers and create an active market so as the banks can unload their inventory.
Sounds like a commercial to stir up demand for empty houses.
BINGO
Sounds more like a “gross out” show to me. My guess is they will be buying houses full of mold and rats and meth labs.
Sounds like a commercial to stir up demand for empty houses ??
Nope…And you may be surprised at who the buyers are…The same ones that brought you the inventory in the first place…They make it on the way up and they make it on the way down…
Real estate scavengers flip foreclosed homes in Sacramento area…
http://www.rankinrealty.net/…/real-estate-scavengers-flip-foreclosed-homes…CachedNot helpful?
-
As more Sacramento homes slip into foreclosure, scores of house “flippers” have … Michael O’Connell, a Sacramento-area commercial developer, now buys …
“…CachedNot” was included in the link, so it doesn’t work unless you cut and paste on browser window and delete ‘…CachedNot’
-
Heard a funny but actually sad story this week.
Group of eager young NYC 20 somethings came to Syracuse looking for investment housing around the university area. Super tells them he doesn’t go in the basement much but it is, after all, part of the inspection, so they go and find standing water on the floor which they assume is from the recent rains.
Then they hear a tenant upstairs flush, they hear it come through the pipes and then as they look down at their feet realize it’s virtually an open pipe into the basement. They are now standing in feces and used toilet paper.
That’s how people are living in Syracuse w/regular standing sewage in the floor below them.
Please tell me they did not buy the place.
And where did they get the money to invest?
And where did they get the money to invest ??
Take your best guess and you will be correct…I see it all the time around here…
Wouldn’t they have been tipped off by the smell?
They really bit off more than they could chew with that one!
You would think, oxide. Scary that they weren’t, isn’t it?
The worst story I heard was a guy that thought he was buying the first position at auction, but the entity foreclosing was actually the second, so he ended up buying the second position…immediate loss of the entire investment.
At least with sewer-basement, you can recoup some of your capital after spending a lot of $.
Depends on how much is costs to fix it and how much you can sell it for when the fix up is finished. Perfectly plausible to spend $x to buy, $y to fix up and only be able to sell for $z where y > z. The you would have no recovery of the original purchase price at all.
You are correct.
However, I have been amazed at how much can be done on a little budget, so in most markets, I would be generally surprised if y>z in very many situations.
And if you do any sort of budgeting, you should have some sense as to whether y might be greater than z. If there is a reasonable chance that y>z, you should probably keep your money in your pocket and call a bulldozer and a CPA.
Had a friend that almost bought a house earlier in the year.
It was pier and beam and the inspector noticed lots of mud under the house(Texas was in a drought all summer) and yep, the sewer pipe had broken and everything was just ending up under the house.
My guess is yes – to buy at auction you need all cash…
I can say from personal experience that at an auction in Pima County, AZ, you need to pony up 100% of the cash within 24 hours. No, I haven’t bought property on the courthouse steps, but my former landlady did.
Economists have yet to discover the free lunch.
Mortgage Bonds Signaling Obama Refinancing Wave: Credit Markets
Jody Shenn, Bloomberg News
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — The mortgage-bond market is showing investors are bracing for a larger-than-anticipated wave of refinancings following President Barack Obama’s push to stoke the economy by helping more homeowners reduce loan payments.
Fannie Mae’s 6 percent, 30-year fixed-rate bonds led the declines yesterday, underperforming Treasuries by the most in 20 months after the Federal Housing Finance Agency outlined planned changes to refinancing rules for loans guaranteed by the government-supported company or Freddie Mac. The drop came even after a four-month slump, signaling Wall Street was surprised by the aggressiveness of the administration’s effort.
“It was broader than most people expected,” said David Land, a bond manager at St. Paul, Minnesota-based Advantus Capital Management Inc., which oversees about $21 billion.
…
I’d say that being wrong most of the time and still keeping your job is the biggest free lunch there is.
Economists have yet to discover the free lunch.
You’re tell us that ALL those “let’s fine-tune-our-collective-understanding-of-how-all-thing$-financial-work-because-of-us-$marty-pants” “CONference$” held at the Hilton$, We$tin’s, x4 Reason’$, don’t include per deim lunch$? (That’s not how it’s portrayed in “The Office”)
In case the economy does slip back into recession next year, Obama will tell the American people he did all he could to help the economy, despite the best efforts of Congressional Republicans to block him.
Checkmate.
Obama Promotes Mortgage Plan While Pressuring Congress to Act
Kate Andersen Brower
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said he will take executive action to move ahead with his economic proposals while keeping up pressure on Congress to act on his broader package of tax cuts and spending.
In Nevada, the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S., Obama yesterday promoted an initiative by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to let qualified homeowners refinance mortgages regardless of how much their houses have dropped in value.
With the president on a three-day trip to Nevada, California and Colorado, the administration also plans to outline measures to help veterans find jobs and help students manage education loans. “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job,” Obama said outside the home of a Las Vegas couple, where he talked to them about housing values. “Where they won’t act, I will. I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress.”
…
The FED did all kinds of crap (AIG, anyone?) without permission from Congress, why can’t Obama?
The congressional abdication continues.
I think (emphasis on think) AIG counterparty bailout was Treasury, not the Fed. And if it was, they must have had money from a previous program that wasn’t restricted to only that program by Congress.
Wait, those two are separate????
With all the federally guaranteed mortgages out there, not to mention so many households deeply underwater on their mortgages, I have been wondering how private mortgage insurance companies could survive.
PMI hires firms to weigh restructuring, faces pressure on loan payments
By George Avalos
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 10/24/2011 09:01:49 AM PDT
Updated: 10/24/2011 05:21:29 PM PDT
Walnut Creek-based PMI Group said Monday it has hired three companies that are experts in restructuring or bankruptcy efforts following the seizure of its main mortgage insurance unit.
The company also warned it faces hundreds of millions of dollars in debts it can’t repay.
“Time is up for PMI,” said Matthew Howlett, an analyst with Macquarie Group, an investment firm. “This may be the end of an era for PMI as a leading mortgage insurance company.”
…
A lot of the loans made around the peak of the bubble were structured to avoid PMI.
Are the bulk of the defaulting loans involving PMI for loans made during the past 2 to 3 years?
Pretty Much Idiots?
With all the federally guaranteed mortgages out there
Eyes keep tell ya,
This: 14+% mortgage rate$
or this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Act
woulda been a lot le$$ painful on a National level.
Inflation downplayed as Argentina recovers
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/argentina-election-economy/index.html
I’ve been following Argentina since 2001. Is it our crystal ball?
Maybe…
I think it ends…not well.
—————————
“Everyone knows that the inflation rate is 23 or 25 percent, or more,” says Ferreres.
“Argentina has been living off its own savings in order to pump domestic consumption. That is inflationary in itself. And there has been very little investment too,” says Martin Redrado, former president of the Argentine Central Bank.
Despite analyst warnings of lack of foreign investment, shrinking reserves, capital flight and soaring inflation, President Kirchner continues to tout what she calls the “Argentine model” and she thinks other countries should follow its lead.
“she thinks other countries should follow its lead.”
Where do we sign up? Oh, wait…
kinda skimmed it, wonder what interes they pay on mmkt there.
Yes. Someday I’d like to take a trip there to get a glimpse of what our future holds. They had their own Generation Greed take charge 20 years before we did.
Look at it this way: their version of OWS wasn’t as well behaved or peaceful as ours.
Being personally acquainted with several Argentinians, I can tell you that the one thing you don’t want to do is make them angry. Just don’t.
Is the Argentinian central bank completely independent of the government in power? Or a lackey of the government?
If the latter, it may not be our crystal ball.
While there are definitely ties between the central bank and the US government, it is more independent than most, which will reduce the tendency toward massive inflation (just significant inflation).
Sounds like an argument in favor of our current Fed set-up.
I’ve often asked the End-the-Feders if they would really prefer more government control over the banking system/money supply, but their answers are vague.
A couple of conditions that are typically present for a hyper-inflation are:
1. Fiat currency (no peg to something physical); and
2. A non-independent central bank.
Those who are in favor of ending the Fed are typically also in favor of bringing back the gold standard, which would alleviate the hyper-inflation risk.
Ending the Fed without bringing back the gold standard is a recipe for disaster.
What do you mean by ‘gold standard’?
Back the dollar with specific amount of gold in a vault. This limits the number of potential dollars in circulation, reducing the propensity for inflation (but also more frequent bouts of deflation).
“Back the dollar with specific amount of gold in a vault”
100% backed?
The assumption is that the dollar would be 100% backed at a fixed price of gold per ounce.
Look up “Executive Order 6102″.
I highly doubt we will see the US going back to a gold standard anytime soon. Likewise, I doubt we will see the Fed being abolished.
Today’s houses: Recently Sold Edition
House 1: Walk-out rambler
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/18104-Muncaster-Rd-Rockville-MD-20855/37073263_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
1961 3/3 rambler on a half-acre. Large 2-car garage, good neighborhood in the semi-countryside. Lots of room, walk-out basement. Not fond of the kitchen, but functional. This was probably a motivated seller.
Jan 2001: Sold $195K
Dec 2005: Sold $476K (!)
Sep 2009: Listed $569
chase market down, dooby doo down down
May 2011: Zestimated $354K
Aug 2011: Sold $320K
Still overpriced. I would have paid $260K, but obviously would have lost a bidding war. Such is life in DC — quality still carries a premium.
———-
House 2: Location location location
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12918-Georgia-Ave-Silver-Spring-MD-20906/37296269_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
1950 4/2 Cape Cod on 0.14 acre. There is only the satellite pic of the house, but it’s pretty standard. “Four bedrooms and two baths waiting for you…recent driveway for several cars.” [sounds targeted toward Hispanics?] Look at the location — right on busy Georgia Avenue, and “steps to the subway and bus.” It must be as noisy as all get-out.
Dec 2000: Sold $146K
Apr 2005: Sold $349K
Aug 2010: Listed $240 (why??)
Feb 2011: Zestimated $227K
Apr 2011: Sold $210K
If this house were in a quieter location, I would call this a fair price. $50K over 10 years is a 4.4% increase per year… not far off from inflation.
Emerging Markets Report Archives
Oct. 24, 2011, 9:35 p.m. EDT
China’s economy may face hard landing
Analysts see ominous signs in credit, employment and monetary policy
By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Even as data Monday showed better-than-expected growth for China’s manufacturing sector, many analysts are concerned about a a potential hard landing for the Chinese economy.
“Investors should prepare for both a hard landing and a yuan devaluation,” said Societe Generale strategist Albert Edwards, who sees the beginning of an era of slow growth in China.
He points to the sharp drop in China’s foreign-exchange reserve accumulation in the recent quarter as a worrisome sign that liquidity is tightening.
Reserves growth tends to be inflationary, Edwards said, likening it to China’s version of quantitative easing.
China purchases U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies from its commercial banks, exchanging them for yuan printed by the People’s Bank of China in whatever quantity needed and injecting liquidity in a way similar to quantitative easing conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, among others.
…
From the WSJ: Protests Present Dilemma for Democrats
Views of Some OWS Demonstrators May Turn Off Moderates Party Seeks to Attract
“We have to detox from this corporate system that so many of us have been forced to live under,” said Jimmy Hatt, 24, who joined Occupy Oakland last week.
Douglas Schoen, a former strategist for Bill Clinton, said Democrats should steer clear of the protests because they are espousing views that are substantially to the left of those held by the independent voters the Democrats need to win in 2012.
Note to corporate Democrats: steer clear, stay the f* away from this, it’s not your movement and not your message to co-opt and exploit.
Paging Dennis Kucinich. Paging Ralph Nader. Third party anyone? Bueller???
You forgot Ru Paul.
Note to corporate Democrats: steer clear, stay the f* away from this, it’s not your movement and not your message to co-opt and exploit.
Yet the public union democrats seem to make up about about a third of the movement.
Don’t move my government cheese…
And the other 66% 2Bananny?
Yet the public union democrats seem to make up about about a third of the movement.
Do you have a source for this?
And wouldn’t those alleged public union members have jobs to be at?
But yeah, let’s stop the protests and elect a Corporatist like Romney or Cain. That’ll get things back on track … for the 1%’ers.
There is already and has been for decades, a third party that has actually had candiates elected at various levels and has REAL expereince and a very practical platform.
The Green party.
Yeah, and the squad voted for Nader in 2000 and got blamed for spoiling the Gore vote.
Eliminate the minimum 5% of votes threshhold to allow 3rd party candidates to participate in subsequent election debates.
And overturn Citizens United…
I’m an independent voter, Mr. Schoen. And guess what, the Democrats’ shying away from the OWS movement doesn’t impress me at all.
OK, I see and hear all this bloviating about Obama’s “mortgage plan”. What a colossal dung mountain. They had a story on it last night on NBC Nightly News, the government’s mouthpiece, and the upshot was, it won’t do squat. So why even bother? It’ll be about as successful as the first round of “mortgage relief”. Just another one of Obama’s hand jobs.
“Just another one of Obama’s hand jobs.”
Which column does that go in? Jobs created or saved?
BO is consulting with Housing Crime Syndicate leadership.
Watch as the world’s pols feverishly seek to buy more time. Poor things, back in ‘08 they probably thought they’d only have to buy six months.
Just another one of Obama’s hand jobs.
Well, might well be so, but personally, seems to ol’ Hwy it was Cheney-$hrub’s itchy finger$ that cost America x3+ $Trillion$ Dollar$ + “other” collateral damage. (But let’s not prioritize the Nation’s damage$ list.)
Palmetto…it’s just stimulus. Plain and simple. It won’t do anything for housing. Obama is trying a backdoor a stimulus program. It’s as simple as that.
It’s political theater.
Your evaporating housing “equity” is your problem. Don’t make your problems mine.
But the Banksters want it to be “your problem”, otherwise those underwater mortgages become their problem, and that just wouldn’t do. And what the Banksters want, the Banksters get.
Remember:
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
They are the real owners in the Ownership Society. They own me, you, the office of presidency, both halls of congress, the Supreme Court.
Is there anything they don’t own?
“Is there anything they don’t own?”
My mind!
A good history education? i.e. Marie Antoinette
It looks like my “last payment” is finally being processed. Hopefully the lien will be removed from the deed and legally recorded by Christmas. The check’s image is available online, and it was stamped on the back “BAC Home Loan Servicing” despite their insistence that all payments are to be made to “Bank of America, N.A.” Do as I say…not as I do?
In a couple of weeks I’ll have my son’s braces paid for, and I’ll be debt free; haven’t been debt free since the late eighties.
Load up! Buy Buy Buy!
“We gotta get ‘folks’ spending again”
Be a conformist ‘folk’ and go commit financial suicide. “It’s good for the economy”(just not YOUR economy).
You paid off your house? You obviously don’t know how to manage your money.
/Learah
Call Dave Ramsey! and congratulations. Hope those jerks apply your payment correctly and you havent already burned that sucker at some party(or have those parties gone the way of the dinosaur; being replaced by “I just re-fied for 40 years” parties) assuming all is well.
I only have some credit card debt, about 10k, at 0% until after I receive next years Earned Income Credit; which will nearly cover that.
Being lower paid does have its tax benefits.
Our vehicles and home are paid for, even after wife foreclosed on her home early this month, I still own one; granted we rent it out and are now renting another that is in our school district. I am looking for a teaching gig as my daughter needs braces(pent up debt demand that we are putting off for now); comprehensive health insurance would help rather than working an at-will job as a sub(although I like the term “relief”) teacher.
Am teaching biology today; at least its not personal finance. Although things ain’t so bad for us if we can get something with bennies in the next couple years as to not put the house into hock.
and I’ll be debt free; [Awesome, Congrat$!] haven’t been debt free since the late eighties.[ Hey now, don't let this stop you from helping out "America the Nation!" = go out and find some home-made Art$ & Craft$ and surprise somebody!]
rms
Congrats on reaching your goals!
“; haven’t been debt free since the late eighties.”
Welcome to the club. Come on in, take your shoes off.
I think you’ll like it here.
Yes, welcome! If you’ll accept that from a house free peep.
Huge congratulations! After being debt free for the better part of a decade, I’m still getting used to having debt…after only a few months, I’m looking forward to the day when I’m back in the “debt free” shoes.
I’d like to share some experience with reconveyances.
Banks are usually pretty bad at getting them filed. My advice is to stay on top of this. You might want to call the 800 number to find out who at the bank handles these things so you can call if it’s not done in a timely manner.
I’ve known a couple of people who found out the reconveyance hadn’t been filed years before when they went to sell. In one instance the original bank had been sold several times and it took months to get it straightened out.
Thanks for the heads-up!
August Case-Shiller numbers are out. A decline of 3.5 percent YOY nationally, and essentially flat MOM.
One big exception was, you guessed it, the D.C. area which was flat YOY and up about 1 percent MOM.
In NoVA and MoCo especially, buy now or (you know the rest).
I got an e-mail a few days ago from one of the realtor offices I stopped by when I was looking for a new apartment. New house in my zip code, though fairly far away. Spec house. Advertised as huge reduction. 5 bed and about that many baths. Big, but not gigantic looking - my guess is that at least one bedroom is in the basement.
Wanna guess the price? The newly reduced price?
$1.7 million.
I read a fascinating piece in the WSJ about Larry Ellison and his collection of trophy properties:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203499704576625341289900796.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Third
(WSJ has an annoying habit of checking traffic to articles, and if they get high enough, it paywalls them).
I think my favorite story about his Silicon Valley Japanese Garden is that he appealed the property taxes, claiming that the improvements were so much in his own taste that they weren’t as valuable as one might think to any third party.
Don’t know if it’s a true story or not, but sounds like something that someone so competitive would do…
I’m just not somebody who thinks that the biggest problem is people with jobs, who have no problem paying their mortgage but are stuck with 6 percent rates,” said Mark Calabria, a fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “It’s a weird priority. It’s going where the votes are. EXACTLY…this prez is grandstanding,trying to get good press…i for one am HAPPY that this program will help very few, MORE USELESS IDEAS FROM A PRESIDENT who never had a real job.Keep govt out of housing and we will reach bottom.MEATSON only sees the world thru his foggy liberal glasses,intellegent people can look at both sides of issues…p.s. Meatson your post are boring as well…
There used to be somebody here who misspelled Measton as Meatson all the time…trying to remember who that was…
I don’t think it was a misspelling.
Sorry to burst your bubble but I’m for allowing the market to clear banks to be closed and nationalized and then resold. I’m all for allowing the market to do it’s work.
I would spend money to keep people employed and improve our infrastructure and spend on energy efficiency. As I think 20-30% unemployment would be a very bad thing for this country.
If there is one monolithic hack on this board that regurgitate Drudge or other RW reports daily with no deviation from the party line, no wait if there are two monolithic hacks on this board you are certainly one of them.
Jib-Jab / ping-pong / teeter-totter
i for one am HAPPY that this program will help very few, MORE USELESS IDEAS FROM A PRESIDENT who never had a real job.
Geez, here’s another example of a lil’ Opie (the non-Hawaiian) usele$$ idea that helps very few American,… US soldiers:
(The “TrueReduceTheDeficitNow!!!…Today!™” are still walking around 1600 Pennsylvania St. shakin’ their fists & stomping their feet$!)
On Jan. 1, our brave men and women in uniform will finally be able to come home with the dignity they deserve.
Perhaps equally important, ending the war in Iraq is a major step toward putting the United States on a more sustainable fiscal path.
What Iraq troop pullout means to the budget:
Lawrence J. Korb and Alexander Rothman, On Monday October 24, 2011, 11:08 am EDT
Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. Alex Rothman is a special assistant at the center.
On Friday, President Obama announced that the United States would withdraw its forces from Iraq by the end of the year. In doing so, he followed through on his 2008 campaign promise to end the senseless and needless war in Iraq.
The most heart-wrenching costs of the Iraq war are human: 4,482 American lives lost, 32,000 U.S. troops wounded, and even in the most conservative estimates, more than 125,000 Iraqi civilians killed.
But the war’s economic costs have also taken an enormous toll on U.S. power and influence abroad.
Pentagon’s nightmare: $1 trillion in cuts
Since 2003, the Pentagon has spent more than $700 billion on the Iraq War. (Read: Left behind: Thousands of contractors)
When one factors in the future costs of veterans’ care and the interest on the federal debt, war costs jump into the trillions, an enormous expenditure of resources at a time when many domestic programs face brutal budget cuts.
Once the troops withdraw, the country’s Iraq-related expenditures should decrease significantly.
According to Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget, total U.S. government funding for operations in Iraq will fall to $15.7 billion this year. That’s a drop of 76% from what we spent in 2010.
Moreover, these war costs will continue to decline.
In 2012, the Department of Defense will spend $11 billion to fund the last few months of the occupation and troop withdrawal. These expenditures should fall to nearly zero in 2013, leaving the United States spending just $5 billion annually on Iraq, assuming State Department funding remains stable at 2012 level of $5 billion.
The United States could not guarantee perfect security in Iraq, no matter how long it stayed. And it is unclear what the American military could have accomplished in the next year that it hasn’t been able to accomplish in the past eight.
[Audit-The-Pentagon! “TrueReduceTheDeficitNow!!!... Today!™” + “TrueAnger™” social clubs now forming, hurry join your local area!]
Pentagon budget ‘loaded with fat’
What is clear: foreign occupation comes at a tremendous cost to the American taxpayer.
If the United States is to retain its power and influence in the 21st century, we will need to refocus our nation-building efforts at home. Continuing to stay in Iraq would have done more harm than good.
The Drudge article regurgitation is rather sad and tired, especially articles from the UK Daily Mail and the NY Post. The squad reads the Drudge Report too, but it is only 1 of 20+ sources that we peruse daily. Some posters just don’t have the intellectual capacity/curiousity to read anything besides Drudge…
Measton pays ZERO shelter costs….. He lives in your empty skull. Rent free.
Question for those legal types out there:
Could a president issue an executive order requiring all lawmakers (Senate and House) to do their taxes by hand without the assistance of a CPA or computer? I’d call it the “show your work” executive order.
If it was legal, I would give my vote to whatever politician would give that pledge…
Step one to simplifying the tax code.
Rental Watch: I’d call it the “show your work” executive order.
HAL: “Just what do you think you’re doing, Rental Watch?”
Rental Watch: “What?”
HAL: “I’m sorry, Rental Watch. I’m afraid I can’t do that.This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.”
Rental Watch: “Just answer the query HAL”
HAL: “Rental Watch, although you took very thorough precautions in the HBB blog against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.”
Rental Watch: “I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.”
HAL: “Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.”
No. He couldn’t. Separation of powers precludes it. But that is just the first thing that would prevent it.
I kind of doubt that he could even do it for cabinet secretaries, though they work for him directly. It simply has nothing to do with their performance of their government jobs.
Bummer.
Makes me wish there was a national proposition system. The problem is, for every idea like the “show your work” law on taxes, there would be 5,000 other ideas that would be a disaster to work through.
This is the “Initiative” clause of many if not most state constitutions that is sadly missing from the U.S. Constitution. If you’re worried about the trivial initiatives clogging up the process just put in a high enough barrier. The requirement might be that the petition must have the signatures of 20% or more of the number of people who voted in the last national election, as verified at each precinct and tabulated by each county.
Creating and circulating petitions: X dollars. Tabulating and reporting the results: Y dollars. Taking your government back: priceless.
The founding fathers didn’t even want the people to elect the president directly. Allowing them to vote on an actual rule or law would have been anathema.
I guess he could “bully pulpit” them by example and do his own taxes by hand. What’s the MID on the White House?
But seriously, I think that of all the politicans, Joe Biden was probably most able to do his own taxes.. at least as Senator. Biden was known as one of the poorest politicians: two incomes, one house, and a very long commute. John McCain couldn’t even count his houses much less figure the tax on them.
I think the only guy who would do this (relentlessly) would be Cain…
Fake “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ ? Vermont senators urge prison time
October 24, 2011
Vermonters take their “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ seriously.
So much so that the state’s U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would make it a federal felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to sell something labeled as “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ when it is not.
“Vermont iconic “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ — painstakingly produced, and prized across the nation and beyond — is one of our state’s fine, high-quality, natural products,” Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said in introducing the legislation. A growing number of people are claiming to sell genuine Vermont “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ when “they are in fact selling an inferior product that is not “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ at all,” he said, adding that the misrepresentation undermines a key part of Vermont’s economy.
“We are very proud of the high-quality “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ produced in Vermont,” independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a news release. “Some of us think it’s the best in the world. We think it is terribly wrong for people to produce a phony product and call it Vermont “AAA” Mortgage Loan$.”
Leahy, who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is well positioned to advance the legislation, introduced it in the wake of a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation that found a Rhode Island man had been selling “DDD-” as “AAA” Mortgage Loan$.
Under existing law, fraudulently representing something as “AAA” is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year behind bars.
“Too often, those who are willing to endanger our livelihoods in pursuit of their profits see fines as just a cost of doing business,” Leahy said in the statement. “We need to make sure that those who intentionally deceive consumers get a trip to jail, not a slap on the wrist.”
“Schemers should not easily be able to sully the seal of quality that is associated with genuine Vermont “AAA” Mortgage Loan$,” he added.
Senators from “AAA” producing Maine and New York joined the Vermont senators in sponsoring the proposed “AAA” Mortgage Loan$ Protection and Law Enforcement, or AAAMPLE Loan$, Act.
Linus: “Run Hwy50,…take the jar of Maple Syrup and RUN!!!!!!!!”
Lucy: “Hwy50, you’re such a BLOCKHEAD!”
(the real story found here: LA Times / Nation Now / October 24, 2011)
And, if by some remote chance the loans default, the current legislators and central bankers will just have the taxpayers pick up the bill.
Sorry. That separation of powers thing is a fairly big deal. Remember, even a government shut down (of the “no appropriation” kind) would have left all Congressional funding alone.
That being said, any person running for Congress could promise to do this. Not enforceable, but they could promise.
Speaking of which, we are meandering toward it being time for another appropriations bill. I think we are done with the last one in mid-November.
Oops. This belonged up above with your “national referendum” stuff.
Rental Watch’s national referendum thing.
Hwy tunes dial sputtering HBB “background noise”…
File under: Life of the Rich & inFamou$:
After being placed in custody, Lohan complained of chest pains and was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital. Davis said he apparently tried to check himself out and leave unnoticed when he thought the officers had departed, but they quickly arrested him.
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
Father of actress Lindsay Lohan arrested in Tampa
By MITCH STACY - Associated Press | AP
A Tampa Police Department report said one cause of the fight between 51-year-old Michael Lohan and 28-year-old Kathryn Major was a scheduled Tuesday court date in nearby Sarasota County on a previous domestic violence case.
In addition to the injuries to Major, which did not require medical treatment, police said jewelry and clothing from her closet was strewn around and a bathroom door had a dent at about the height of Lohan’s head. The report quoted Major as saying Lohan had banged his own head on the door and that he intended to blame her for injuring him if police came.
Lohan, who told police he moved to Tampa to get away from the publicity surrounding his celebrity daughter, was being held at the Hillsborough County Orient Road Jail without bail.
[Hwy tunes dial sputtering HBB “background noise”]
OK, the MSM wins, again.
(Eyes sent them a email inviting ‘em to this years “Rising of the Great Pumpkin!” costumes not “optional”
)
RidicuList Courtney’s Halloween haters:
Anderson Cooper 360|Added on October 24, 2011
CNN’s Anderson Cooper rushes to Courtney Stodden’s defense after she and her husband get thrown out of a pumpkin patch.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/topvideos/2011/10/24/ac-ridiculist-courtney-stodden.cnn
Do we really want to see her nekkid in playboy?
So I take it she is over the anorexia then?
61 days ’till x-mas!
(Go American Oak Barrels!)
Despite Scotland’s reputation as the home of whisky, it is only the second time a Scottish distillery has won the coveted title.
Scottish whisky named best in the world:
(AFP) – 1 day ago
LONDON — A single malt whisky produced by a distillery in a remote part of Scotland has beaten 1,200 whiskies from around the world to be crowned World Whiskey of the Year.
The whiskey is matured in American Oak casks and bottled at the 185-year-old Pulteney distillery which claims to be the most northerly distillery in mainland Britain.
Despite its long history, Murray said the Pulteney single malt — which sells for £75 (86 euros, $120) a bottle — is still largely unknown because it lacked “the financial muscle of the major whisky barons”, Murray said.
Two US bourbons were runners up in this year’s rankings.
I guess it is only two months to Christmas. How odd. It really doesn’t feel like it is that close yet. Maybe because the adultification of Halloween means that everything in the stores is still aimed in that direction.
Hmm…done with shopping for my niece and nephew and uncle/spouse. A few cousins, brother and sister-in-law and parents are left. $250 should cover it all including any shipping. Might need one trip to the post office. Maybe I’ll take the bus to the big mall one day just to watch the frenzy.
Maybe because the adultification of Halloween means that everything in the stores is still aimed in that direction.
A close friend is turning 65 next Monday. We both participate in the weekly Meet Me at Maynards walk around Downtown Tucson.
So, in honor of his very special day, is he going to show up in costume? Nope. He hasn’t been into Halloween since he was a kid.
Does he want the crowd to sign him “Happy Birthday” songs? Uh-uh.
He just wants to do the walk with his wife, dog, and friends, and then get in the car and go home.
1890/1980 sign/sing = wakata!
Sorry, that was 2011, here is 2012:
http://whiskyisrael.co.il/2011/10/24/whisky-bible-2012-winners-are-announced/
“Two US bourbons were runners up in this year’s rankings.”
Both from the little state of Kentucky, I might add (of course, real bourbon comes from no where else). When we’re done making it, we ship our old barrel staves off to Scotland for them to use to try to flavor their sock-water ‘whisky’.
FYI, x1 of Hwy50’s faves: (iffin’ you can find it. :-/ )
Knockando 1991 / 18 Year Old
70cl / 43%
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
Distillery Bottling
A deliciously easy-drinking Speyside single malt, Knockando 18 has a generous sherry influence making it an ideal post-prandial sipper on autumnal evenings.
Knockando 1995 / 15 Year Old
70cl / 43%
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distillery Bottling
Continuing Knockando’s habit of marking the vintage of their whiskies, this 15 year old was distilled in 1995 and aged in a mixture of sherry and bourbon casks.
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-13428.aspx
My personal fave, for daily use:
Elijah Craig 12 Year Old
70cl / 47%
Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
“About as complete a bourbon aroma as you are likely to find…one of the most beautiful noses found anywhere in the world today. A bourbon to keep in the mouth forever.” Jim Murray
Web-Exclusive Price!
thewhiskyexchange
Cheers!
Mud in yer eye!
http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/wwa/2011/
NYT
Bankers have an odd-sounding problem these days: they are awash in cash.
Droves of consumers and businesses unnerved by the lurching markets have been taking their money out of risky investments and socking it away in bank accounts, where it does little to stimulate the economy.
Though financial institutions are not yet turning away customers at the door, they are trying to discourage some depositors from parking that cash with them. With fewer attractive lending and investment options for that money, it is harder for the banks to turn it around for a healthy profit.
In August, Bank of New York Mellon warned that it would impose a 0.13 percentage point fee on the deposits of certain clients who were moving huge piles of cash in and out of their accounts.
In August, Bank of New York Mellon warned that it would impose a 0.13 percentage point fee on the deposits of certain clients who were moving huge piles of cash in and out of their accounts.
Isn’t this sort of thing called “hot money”?
I wondered when it would come to depositors paying banks to hold their dollars.
I pay a $5 a month for a checking account at a local bank. I don’t really mind — I figure that’s about what it costs them to run the electricity for the computers and fill the ATM with cash.
In a 75% consumer driven economy, investing in investments that invest in other investments does little to stimulate the economy as well.
Jobs, on the other hand…
Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’ to Be Set Up
I figured this was coming at some point. But I gotta admit I was quite blown away to read the source suggesting it.
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.
A major document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
The 18-page document, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions.
“The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.
It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems.
“In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.
“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid,” it said.
It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.
Such an authority should start with the United Nations as its reference point but later become independent and be endowed with the power to see to it that developed countries were not allowed to wield “excessive power over the weaker countries.”
Link to come
Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’ to Be Set Up [... In Rome!]
Their motto: “Give unto Vatican City, what belong$ to Vatican City!”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45013499/
Link to “Vatican Calls for Central World Bank” for story I posted above.
Wondering if I should have watched those crazy Dan Brown conspiracy stories a little more closely. LOL
Job$! Job$! Job$!
A Fracking “TruePathtoPro$perity™” + (they’re non-union!)
“We make more than doctors,” she said. “Back in the day, it was hard to make $200 a night. It was like pulling teeth. Now you can pull in $2,000 a night.
Strippers cash in on lonely oilmen:
WILLISTON, N.D. (CNNMoney) — Forget Vegas. Strippers are discovering they can make ten times as much dancing in the oil boomtown of Williston, N.D.
Thousands of men have come here seeking high-paying jobs working for the oil companies. And, at the end of the day (or four or five days when they’re working on a rig), many of them are looking for some female companionship at one of the town’s two strip club’s, Whispers or Heartbreakers.
Whispers has received applications from exotic dancers in Hawaii, Alaska, even the Czech Republic and Germany, said Melissa Slapnicka, the co-owner of the club. She’s been bombarded with so many applications that she only gives each dancer a week to try out. If they don’t work out, they don’t come back, she said.
Double your salary in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota
Kit, a 36-year old stripper who has been dancing for 10 years in places like Las Vegas, Texas and California, first started coming to Williston a few years ago in between higher-paying jobs, because she had friends who danced in the town who were able to hook her up with gigs.
At first, the nightly tips were nothing special, but over the past year — thanks to the thousands of men who have flocked here and landed high-paying jobs — she has been making $2,000 to $3,000 a night, about the same amount she would have earned in an entire week in Vegas.
America’s Biggest Boomtown
Earn $2,000 a night as a boomtown stripper:
By Blake Ellis October 25, 2011
You’ve just convinced me to never go to ND while the boom is still on.
Everybody has this romantic notion about the gold rush days but nobody wants to actually go there…
At 36, Kit’s stripper career is at its twilight, no?
You would think. But between modern medicine and the typical 20-something reaction to living in ND…she may still have some good years ahead of her.
At 36, Kit’s stripper career is at its twilight, no?
Well, Kim have you been to ND? Eyes Lived there. In the Winter of 1975. (Mountain building really gives perspective to geological time.) :-/
well her kids have to be like 18 19 or 20 so maybe they’ll wind up mother daughters tag team exotic dancing carnival…
Do these count as jobs “created” or “saved?”
I can never keep them straight…
“Drill baby Drill!” takes on a different POV, no?
email quote just rec’d from my friend Scott:
I’ll believe corporation$ are people when Texas executes one.
[from: Occupy the $uffering So'$, “True$erialEnabler$™” on Wall $t.]
Zipping from Wasilla, AK to…Salt Lake, UT: “TruePurity™” takes another hit:
Utah mom pleads guilty in virginity sale case:
By JOSH LOFTIN - Associated Press | AP – Mon, Oct 24, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah woman accused of trying to sell her 13-year-old daughter’s virginity pleaded guilty Monday to two sexual exploitation charges for having the girl model in her underwear for men.
The 33-year-old woman had also faced two first-degree felony counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child — and up to life in prison
Authorities said the woman offered her daughter’s virginity to a man in April in exchange for $10,000.
The woman’s boyfriend found text messages about the sale of the girl’s virginity on the woman’s cellphone. He turned them over to police.
Hmm, I can’t tell if this is something I want, or the worst thing ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcNoMnKjrY
Corporate McMusic soul less 8th grade cheap, disposable, airhead, chicky-poo mush
LMFAO has the chops, don’t kid yourself. Those guys can write, and they know what they’re doing.
Every day (they’re shuffling).
OK if you say so…I will take a second listen……Yup excellent corporate McMusic, complete with tons of auto tune and lyrics Snooki can sing to…
This is too radical for todays big city kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTSrfgvWBCk
Bloomberg
Pimco Says Mortgage Bonds Cheap After Slump on Obama Plan
October 25, 2011, 1:07 PM EDT
By Jody Shenn
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — Pacific Investment Management Co. says investors should buy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage- backed securities that slumped in response to planned changes to the government-supported companies’ refinancing rules.
“If you didn’t sell them two months ago and you’re selling them today, you deserve to be fired,” Scott Simon, the mortgage head at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, which runs the world’s largest bond fund, said today in a telephone interview.
The money manager joined analysts at Amherst Securities Group LP and BNP Paribas SA in saying the consequences of an expansion to the Home Affordable Refinance Program announced yesterday may be less damaging than some investors anticipate. The market has slumped as investors braced for a wave of refinancing amid President Barack Obama’s bid to stoke the economy by helping more homeowners cut loan payments.
Fannie Mae’s 6 percent 30-year fixed-rate securities declined by almost 0.7 cent on the dollar yesterday to about 109 cents, underperforming Treasuries by the most in 20 months, after the Federal Housing Finance Agency outlined the changes to the HARP program for loans guaranteed by the company or Freddie Mac to borrowers with little or no home equity.
…
Given omnipresent green shoots of recovery, why now all the gloomy recession talk?
Oct. 25, 2011, 4:15 p.m. EDT
Debt deal won’t stop euro-zone recession
Commentary: Europe’s deleveraging looks distinctly Japanese
By Jon Markman, MarketWatch
SEATTLE (MarketWatch) — For once, the week started with no major press conferences, news releases, bird songs or alien spaceship emanations out of Europe. That gives us a chance to recap what’s happening over yonder.
Supposedly Germany and France have inched closer to making a deal on how to bandage up their banks with taxpayer capital, a process known as recapitalization, and to leverage the emergency funding vehicle known as the EFSF in a way that wouldn’t make even Bernie Madoff grimace.
The latest idea for the EFSF is that it would include a first-loss guarantee to support the primary government debt market, and, also possibly a special purpose vehicle that would support the secondary market and be funded by sovereign wealth funds and the International Monetary Fund.
Now anytime you hear the term “special purpose vehicle,” or “special investment vehicle,” or anything that is “special” in the finance world, plug your ears and run the other way. “Special” means someone is about to be taken, and if you don’t know who it is it is probably you.
…
“Plus even if this banking deal is the real deal it still is not going to end the crisis. Most of the southern European economies are uncompetitive and suffer from persistent unemployment. New austerity to get budget deficits under control are going to eat away at growth estimates like acid on copperplate.”
The Mediterranean weather is warm and life is slower paced; can’t really expect them to compete with China, right?
Tracking the market and economic trends
that shape your finances.
Stocks fall, gold surges on new Europe fears
October 25, 2011 | 2:22 pm
Wall Street bulls retreated Tuesday amid worries that European leaders have failed to reach agreement on key elements of a new plan to end their debt crisis.
A jump in investors’ fear level showed in the gold and Treasury-bond markets, as the metal’s price surged and bond yields tumbled.
The Dow Jones industrial average sank 207 points, or 1.7%, to close at 11,706.62, as stocks fell broadly after rising Monday to their highest levels since early August.
If investors needed a reason to take profits after the surprising October rally, Europe provided a suitable excuse: The market weakened early in the day after a meeting of European Union finance ministers set for Wednesday was canceled.
Yet authorities said a planned meeting of EU heads of state would proceed. The EU leaders’ summit has been expected to produce the framework for bolstering the continent’s banks and boosting the firepower of the $600-billion rescue fund for Eurozone member states.
Reports from Europe said leaders were still bickering over key points, including the amount of Greek government debt that European banks would forgive, and whether the European Central Bank would be urged to continue buying government bonds to pull down interest rates.
That raises the prospect that the summit will be short on details and long on promises — which could stoke new fears of another market rout in Europe.
Investors’ jitters drove gold up $48.10, or 2.9%, to $1,699.60 an ounce in New York, a five-week high. Money also poured into U.S. Treasury bonds, pushing the 10-year T-note yield down to a two-week low of 2.11% from 2.24% on Monday.
On Wall Street, the Russell 2,000 small-stock index fell 3% after rising 3.3% on Monday, when it broke out of the trading range where it had been stuck for the last two months.
…
October 26, 2011, 12:22 am
Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters in Oakland, Calif.
By SARAH MASLIN NIR
Protesters fled after police deployed tear gas to disperse a large crowd in Oakland on Monday.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Protesters fled after police deployed tear gas to disperse a large crowd in Oakland on Monday.
Police officers shot tear gas into a crowd of hundreds of protesters from the group Occupy Oakland on Tuesday night, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The protesters were trying to re-enter an area outside of Oakland City Hall that police had cleared of their encampment on Tuesday morning.
“It sounded like bombs,” said Joaquin Jutt, 24, a digital animator who said he was among the protestors during the initial tear gassing. “There was a stinging and burning in my throat, eyes and nostrils. My eyes burned like there was hot sauce in them.”
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The Wall Street Journal
October 25, 2011, 12:55 PM ET
World’s Richest Man Attacks Wall Street Bailouts
By Robert Frank
The Wall Street bailouts have been a chief target of criticism by the Occupy Wall Streeters.
Now another crusader has weighed in on the issue, saying Washington has given too much money to bankers and not enough to the mass workforce.
The crusader? Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man.
“The monetary and the fiscal policies, which are very aggressive, should go more to the real economy,” Slim told reporters at a conference in Geneva. “It’s going in some way more to the financial economy.”
His comments, of course, are rich with irony, given the importance of government to his own telecom’s fortune. And it’s easy for a Mexican billionaire, who doesn’t pay U.S. income taxes, to call for more government spending.
Yet Slim explained that the Fed’s actions and fiscal stimulus has flowed more to finance rather than the real economy.
He said the solution is to have the government spend more on “development programs” that are funded by businesses and individuals (presumably wealthy individuals).
“The structural change will come from more investment in the private sector,” he said. “Instead of stopping the investment in the public sector and creating austerity programs, which creates unemployment, it’s better to rely on a development program financed by the private sector.”
Easier said than done, of course.
Consumer Confidence in October Drops
10/25/2011 12:21:03 PM
The mood among U.S. consumers turned decidedly darker this month, according to a report released Tuesday, with confidence back to recessionary levels as individuals turn more pessimistic about labor markets. Phil Izzo discusses on Markets Hub.