Bits Bucket for October 27, 2011
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So, we have our European “fix”…Dow up 400 tomorrow?
“To infinty and beyond!”
Make way for the stampeding bovine herd!
U.S. stock futures rally after EU debt deal
Equities maintain gains amid U.S. economic reports
By Kate Gibson and Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures jumped Thursday, joining a global rally, after euro-zone leaders agreed to a deal to reduce Greece’s debt burden and tackle the broader sovereign-debt crisis in the region.
Stock-index futures held strong gains as investors took in a slew of economic reports, which proved largely in line with Wall Street’s expectations. Signaling the U.S. was not in recession in the third quarter, the government reported the economy grew 2.5%.
One market strategist, Dan Greenhaus at BTIG LLC, pointed to consumer spending as a major supportive factor.
“Given the pace of deleveraging, the elevated unemployment rate and general nervousness about the economy and politics in Washington, one might think the consumer is eating spam by candlelight in a cave in the woods,” he noted in emailed comments.
“Far from it and the increase in spending in the quarter contributed 1.72 percentage points to GDP, the largest since the end of 2010,” he said.
…
What if the price of spam and candles goes up?
Balony?
Is that the new middle class version of let them east cake?
Meanwhile, more people than ever before are on food stamps. But back to the stampeding bovine herd…
Those Lucky Duckies need to step up and pay their fair share by paying a 9% sales tax and 9% VAT on everything they buy with money from the incomes they don’t have.
I am not aware of any VAT suggested by any presidential candidate. What is the source for this information?
Because the 9% corporate tax he suggested doesn’t allow for deduction of employee wages, commenters have suggested it is similar to a VAT. However, it is incorrect to say that the consumer is paying it. Similar to the way that economists “assume” that the employer half of the payroll tax is paid by employees (since the employer sees it as economically equivalent to additional wages and presumably reduces wages it could otherwise pay to employees), any tax paid by a corporation that does not allow for deduction of employee wages is seen as reducing empoyee pay and therefore economically imposed on the employee.
It is more correct to say that Cain’s 9% flat tax on individuals is really an 18% flat tax on individuals since they will bear the economic burden of the corporate 9%.
Hermans 9/9/9 plan is a sales tax, similar to a VAT but worse for US producers as they get hit just as hard as foreign producers. This must be why the GOP favors it. All workers must be crushed.
Well said, Polly. It can also be assumed that customer prices are set such that the customer bears the burden for normal revenue taxes (for companies who pay revenue taxes).
An end consumer has no way to set his price (on his labor), so in order to pay their own taxes they must cut somewhere else — or go into debt.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
They’ll get it eventually. When the last remaining threads of any social safety net this country has are shredded to give more tax cuts to the alleged ‘job creators’ and after another few decades of the greatest income disparity in this country’s history and the bread and circuses no longer pacify the unwashed rabble, they’ll get it.
They may “get it,” but they won’t get it the same way Marie got it. They will take their millions and their families and hide in a fortress behind private security. Today, they may have the mindset that there’s never enough $$$, but deep down they know they can get outta Dodge tomorrow if they have to.
A few years ago, the *ahem* liberal website comments often mentioned the rumor that George Bush was setting up a secret homestead in Paraguay. The homestead was rumored to have solar panels and to be situated over an aquifier, preparing for when the global biofuel hits the global wind turbine. I don’t know if such a homestead exists for the Bushes, but I expect that many of the 1% have similar plans all laid out.
They will take their millions and their families and hide in a fortress behind private security.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the minimum wage landscapers turn on them. Or the butler (who did it).
You guys are so cynical. The people in this country have a lot of power. You should join the movement. That way, you can take some of the credit in a few years ago when we’re finally back on track.
I mean “in a few years when we’re finally back on track”.
AZ slim — depends on how much they pay the private security. The guards may be loyal because “they are just glad to have a job.”
“They will take their millions and their families and hide in a fortress behind private security. ”
I think Marie Antoinette tried that, too.
…joining a global rally, after euro-zone leaders agreed to a deal to reduce Greece’s debt burden and tackle the broader sovereign-debt crisis in the region.
JIT = “Just-in-Time!”
Seems the Global Financial Indu$trial Complex has adopted a likewi$e $trategy:
JIT / UFA = “Urgent Financial Aid”
JIT / SNFA = “$overeign Nation Financial Aid”
JIT / ISNFA = “In$olvent Nation Financial Aid”
Producing digital coma’$ = “hard work”
The DOW, oil, gold, silver, copper, to the moon!
Short term thinking by the investor class, believing this “fix” is the end of the nightmare. Wait until they realise this same “fix” will be used by Italy, Spain, and sooooo many more.
Or better still, wait until Greece can’t make the payments on the 50% debt load.
Oh, I think they will bump into problems long before that. They still haven’t figured out how to get cash into the bail out fund. And the European banks are going to be required to “raise more capital.” No details. You want to know the easiest way to raise more capital? Stop lending anyone the capital you already have. Call back loans that are outstanding. That is awsome for the economy.
As my partner just put it…we now have an idea for a drug that needs to be created in order to treat the symptoms of a disease.
I 100% agree with that assessment. What this plan likely does ultimately is put Europe back on the path it was on before…slow painful decline (high pension costs, declining population, high government debt levels, etc.), as opposed to dramatic explosion into a fiery crash (Involuntary Greek default, CDS exposure in the worldwide banking system, banking collapse in Europe, Euro collapse, etc.).
My favorite part about the fix:
Banks take a “voluntary” 50% loss. Yeah. You have two choices, you can take 50% or 0%. Whatllitbe? “We volunteer to take 50!”.
Last night on the NewHour, Zanny Minton-Beddows(?) said that the losses had to be voluntary to prevent triggering even more credit default swaps.
Just the idea of credit default swaps is enough to give me a turn. Betting on the weather, betting on what Joe6P will hock at the pawn shop in order to pay his mortgage this month. Betting on whether the Greeks pay their electric bills. Betting on how many we-buy-gold sign spinners will bring in actual gold. Is this what the Masters of the Universe have been doing in those tall towers all these years? Whatever happened to good old fashioned goods and services?
At least CDS is actual insurance on actual debt (in theory of course).
The worst stuff was the side bets…the synthetic CDOs. Not even being directly a lender to a borrower, but betting on the performance of the borrower, and having someone take the other side of the bet.
For a single transaction (or group of transactions), you had 1 lender (or group of lenders) and 1 borrower (or group of borrowers), lending and borrowing, or the sake of argument $100.
Then you had 1 gambler betting another gambler on the performance of that $100 loan.
And another gambler betting another gambler on the performance of that $100 loan.
So, you ultimately had essentially one $100 loan being made (to buy a house, for instance), but more than $100 being at risk by lenders, and more than $100 potentially deadbeat borrowers.
The good news in all this? Who is going to want to buy CDS anymore, when it has been shown that when the SHTF, you are bullied into taking a write-down in a way that doesn’t allow you to collect on the insurance?
You do not have to own the underlying debt to buy the “insurance” side of a CDS. If that were true, the volume of CDSs would be much, much lower.
You’re right Polly. Silly me, falling into the trap of thinking the only people buying CDS actually had loans to protect…
“Dow up 400 tomorrow?”
Good call.
How about DJIA = 14K by December 31, 2011?
“How about DJIA = 14K by December 31, 2011?”
Eddie, is that you??
That did sound a bit like Eddie, didn’t it. Except I based it on fact, in the form of yesterday’s eurozone bailout announcement, rather than pure whimsy.
The stock market always goes up. Buy now, or get priced out forever.
Dow headed for best October ever
October 27, 2011, 11:48 AM
With a little more than two trading days left in the month, it is shaping up to be the best October ever for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And that is saying something, since the Dow has existed since 1896, 115 years ago.
As of mid-day trading on Thursday, the Dow INDU is ahead more than 11% for the month. The previous record for the month of October was held by 1982, when the Dow turned in a 10.7% return. That’s an auspicious historical precedent, since that month came very early in that decade’s spectacular bull market which, arguably, didn’t end until nearly 20 years later.
…
I think the stock market is going up because people are looking for the Santa Claus rally and investors realize that spend spend spend tax tax tax Obama will probably get his pink slip.
I’m not there. There could be a hangover tomorrow or Monday after people realize this is not a silver bullet, but potentially dodging a bullet while still being at war.
Perhaps Dow 13,000 by 12/31/02 if the European “solution” takes, we have some positive signs in the housing market and positive signs with some construction jobs coming back by then.
The most recent LPS Mortgage Monitor is supposed to come out any day now, and I expect it will show a continuation of the trend…fewer new delinquencies, continued slow digestion of the pig that is already in the python, which will be happening primarily in non-judicial states, etc.
Got Greek debt exposure?
Oct. 27, 2011, 1:48 p.m. EDT
A banner day for the 1% as bank stocks soar
Commentary: Don’t get used to it, because nothing’s been fixed
By David Callaway, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — As a stream of weary commuters passed the dormant Occupy San Francisco tent town this morning in the predawn darkness, heading to work in the Financial District, one of the protesters managed to wake up long enough to lift his head and shout from his tent: “That’s right, we’re still here.”
But on this 41st day of the global Occupy movement, I wondered if the protester realized what had happened to the 1% overnight while he and his hearty brethren slept.
They got even richer.
The European debt deal announced early Thursday in Brussels ignited a global rally in financial markets that spread from Asia to Europe to the U.S., where bank stocks soared and carried the rest of the stock market with them. See MarketWatch report on the global rally.
In one of the bizarre twists of fate that only markets can bestow, the Occupy movement’s burst to fame around the world this month has been accompanied by the biggest October for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +2.70% in its 115-year history, up more than 11% as of this writing. See details of the Dow’s historic October.
Shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM +7.61%), Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS +8.85%), Morgan Stanley (MS +15.75%) and even Bank of America Corp. (BAC +8.88%), whose leaders are the bogeymen of the Occupy movement, all roared on news of another European bailout.
The 1% will sleep well tonight — or, at least, they’d better.
…
Obama speeds student debt relief
By Laura Green Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:58 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011
WASHINGTON — When Adriana Vazquez began studying to become a pharmacist, the job placement rate was close to 100 percent.
“I thought there would be opportunity on every corner, literally. There’s a Walgreens next to a CVS next to a Walgreens,” said Vazquez, a Lake Worth High School graduate.
At a recent job fair, employers told her they had nothing in Florida, but she could apply for a job in South Dakota or Alabama.
Vazquez is now seven months away from graduating, with nearly $200,000 in debt and the realization that a degree does not make her indispensable. She estimates she’s facing monthly loan payments of $2,000.
“That’s more than most people’s mortgage,” she said. “If I don’t find something right away, my credit’s going down the drain. It’s pretty depressing.”
On Wednesday, President Obama announced measures to help college students graduating with an average of $24,000 in debt in one of bleakest economies in decades.
Obama’s debt plan is the first in a campaign allowing the public to lobby for action through the White House’s website, said Melody Barnes, the president’s domestic policy adviser.
More than 30,000 people signed a petition asking Obama to reduce the burden of student loans.
Obama’s plan focuses relief on current students.
“Most of the people that signed the petition and most of people in Occupy Wall Street graduated and they are having trouble repaying their loans because they’re underemployed or unemployed,” said Mark Kantrowitz, a student aid expert and publisher of FinAid and Fastweb. “They need help and this doesn’t provide relief.”
But Obama is also highlighting a current program that has the potential to reduce the monthly payments of millions with college debt, Kantrowitz said.
Although 36 million Americans have college debt, only 450,000 are taking advantage of the current income-based program, which isn’t as generous as the version Obama pitched Wednesday. Kantrowitz’s FinAid site offers a calculator to help people determine whether they qualify.
Anyone whose total federal education loans exceed annual income should look at the program, he said.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/obama-speeds-student-debt-relief-1935996.html - -
One thing that was pointed out on the Nightly News is that the new plan does offer immediate relief but under the new plan many of these students will only be finished paying off their current school loans about a year before their kids head off to college themselves meaning that nothing will be saved for that generation. It also means they probably won’t be paying high prices for houses as they struggle w/their educational debtload.
I hate to say it (and apologize if I insult anyone) but most pharmacist jobs are something that’s really best left to computers. Computers can check all a patients records in a fraction of a second (and never miss a possible interaction), they can dispense pills at lightning speed and can, in general, do 90% of a pharms job as well or better than they can. The other 10% is best left to humans, but it’s going to mean that there’s a whole lot fewer humans necessary to do the same job.
Everyone I’ve ever known who’s become a pharmacist both “hates it” because it’s so boring and also “went into it for the money”. When the big money comes out of those jobs, the supply of pharma majors will dry up and blow away. I don’t think there are many people out there who say “When I grow up, I want to give other people pills from behind a counter for 8 hours a day”. You have to be smart to major in pharma, it’s a hard major with lots of study and coursework. This is another field where we are “wasting” our best and brightest; become a Dr/nurse, not a glorified pill counter, you’ve got the intellect and skill to provide much more to the world.
Overtaxed
I agree with you, and I would assume many do.
I would have shame knowing the side effects to the under studied drugs from big pharma, and handing out pills like candy.
That is a hard major and I agree, becoming a doctor (east-west medicine MD) makes more sense.
yep, not to mention all the lowlife noncomplys who can’t afford the free diabetes meds, just the oxycontine please..
I had high blood sugar. I learned a healthier woe (already exercised) and reversed the issue. But then again, I didn’t blow out all my pancreas beta cells. I saw the train coming and took action.
‘healthier woe’
lol- Great Freudian slip.
alpha -funny stuff LOL
“most pharmacist jobs are something that’s really best left to computers”
I was reading an article in “Popular Mechanics” (it was a summer 2011 issue - sorry, I can’t remember the specific month) about a company that makes robots that count and distribute pills out of locked up compartments. These robots were sold to a handful of hospitals. Early tests had these robots saving each hospital around $100K/year, and I got the impression that the savings was not so much in salaries but in miscounted and/or stolen drugs.
The hospitals have pharmacist labs where special batches are prepared for particular cases — not all retail.
rms
Do you mean a compound pharmacy?
Do these hospitals that have an association with university medical centers?
Being healthy (fifty-five and no prescriptions) I don’t know much about the pharmacy business, but I know there are retail and laboratory positions. The retail is likely pill counting as suggested above whereas the hospital lab setting prepares IV drips, etc., and a good knowledge of drug interaction issues. Retail is likely lower pay too despite their powerful professional union.
rms
“a good knowledge of drug interaction issues”
Yeah, and it never is conveyed to the patient.
Same age group and ditto on no drugs yet. At lunch, I walked into Walgreen’s to buy Brach’s Assorted Halloween Mellowcremes (the maple and banana are too die for. Well almost. LOL) and they are pushing flu shots like made. Don’t do vaccines either, and the employee was a bit snippy and put off.
The Chinese are big on the compound pharmacy model. They skip the changing nature part (big pharma), and go direct to mother nature. Mind you, it’s just part of the puzzle. My new doc likes the concept.
former conventional doc= you could have cancer
new east-west doc = you could have food allergies. Tests my blood, there we 5 positives. Cut them out. Cured!
Same age group and ditto on no drugs yet.
Count me as another drug-free, flu shot refusenik of the same age group.
made=mad
Oops sorry, I stink at editing.
Az Slim- I knew you were on top of your health. Probably more so than most of us.
I take the annual flu shots, a job requirement.
I had a friend tell me this very thing back in the early 90s. I agreed with his and your analysis. But - for some reason - it seems that pharmacy work remains staffed by humans and still remains lucrative and necessary.
Have you ever seen a doctor’s handwriting?
When they make a robot that can read THAT chicken scratch, we will trully be in the golden age of robots.
And yet another doctor can read it. I’ve always found that odd.
I finally found a doc that gets to the bottom of symptoms, and doesn’t reach for his prescription pad. He really practices medicine. What a find!
My cousin is a pharmacist, just getting started, and he is currently getting massive overtime at his current job. Wherever he is there seems to be a shortage.
On the automated side, I understand such machines exist in Europe, allowing there to be more medicine dispensaries than pharmacists.
Let’s just invent a pill ATM while we’re at it.
Might be the only way to get actual Sudafed.
Vazquez is now seven months away from graduating, with nearly $200,000 in debt and the realization that a degree does not make her indispensable. She estimates she’s facing monthly loan payments of $2,000.
Debt slave for LIFE.
No Hope and Change for you…
Get government out of education and this bubble will pop.
Here’s your Hope and Change:
CBS News - “Joe the Plumber” announces congressional bid
“Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher was thrust into the political spotlight after questioning Barack Obama about his economic policies during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Wurzelbacher has become an icon for many anti-establishment conservatives and has traveled the country speaking at tea party rallies and conservative gatherings since becoming a household name.
“Americans deserve all kinds of people representing them,” he said. “Not just an elite, ruling class.”
Cue “community organizer who never had a real job” talking point in 4…3…2…
BTW, Tom Delay was an exterminator.
If he’s smart he will legally change his name to Joe the Plumber.
If someone else was smart they would change their name to Joe the Plumber and run against him.
lol…+1
Joe the Douche Bag
Or, the Joe the Walking Taint.
Or Joe the Serial HELOCer.
She says: “I thought there would be opportunity on every corner”.
Because: “There’s a Walgreens next to a CVS next to a Walgreens.”
There is a such a thing as overbuilt, something she saw as a enticement rather than as a warning. Now she gets to graduate into this overbuilt market with $200,000 of student debt.
Yikes!
Considering how over-medicated this society has become, I can’t blame anyone for thinking that being a pharmacy tech is a sure thing.
Cradle to grave Soma…er anti-depressants for all! File it under “the pursuit of happiness”.
I would be in favor of putting these kids in service to America..(instead of military) a pharmacist, nurse, teacher or really any type of useful job, on an Indian reservation or in Minot ND or at a medicaid rural clinic for 5 years and get at least 1/2 of that loan forgiven…
At a recent job fair, employers told her they had nothing in Florida, but she could apply for a job in South Dakota or Alabama.
+1 Some law schools have a program to pay back student loans if the students go into public service law.
More to the point, the pharmacist could easily get a job in China, and though the living conditions might be a little rough, they might be no rougher than her generation will face here.
They’ll be a good husband market over there, too, thanks to the uninteded side effect of the one child policy.
Basically that’s the only way out — help the cash rich developing countries develop the underdeveloped parts of their economy, such as health care.
“the pharmacist could easily get a job in China,”
Really?
And even if she could, would she make enough to pay back her loan?
Would you even bother paying it back if you were planning on staying in China?
The article doesn’t make sense in some ways. The article says that she can get a job in Alabama. I heard somewhere that the typical starting salary for pharmacists is something like $90,000. If that’s still true, she should be able to pay the student loan, given the low cost of living in Alabama.
It could be that the poor economy and the large number of people graduating with pharmacy degrees could be pushing down the salaries.
Why do you assume that pharmacists in low cost of living states get paid the “typical” starting salary?
My cousin is working in a tertiary market (low cost of living) as a pharmacist, just getting started, for a drugstore, working massive overtime, and doing quite well.
I think sometimes you need to go where the work is.
“Vazquez is now seven months away from graduating, with nearly $200,000 in debt and the realization that a degree does not make her indispensable. ”
What school did she attend to incur this amount of debt? Seems as if there may be more to this story.
$50K a year for four years. Or, increasingly, $40K a year for 5 years. Not uncommon, especially for tougher majors.
“$40k a year”
Wow. I assume that is tuition only?
I paid: $1600 (tuition) + $200 (books) + $500 (food) + $600 (rent) = $2900 per quarter * 3 quarters/year = $8700 * 5 years (Engineering school which required job co-op) = $43,500.
…this was in early 90s.
No, that’s usually the whole shebang.
$200 for books? Engineering books? That’s like one book now.
I believe pharmacists go for 5 years. It might even require a masters degree now. I’m pretty sure, in two years, you will need a doctorate to become a physical therapist. Gotta keep them higher learning institutions in bizness.
wherever it was…they obviously did not offer any classes on “cost/benefit” analysis.
“I thought there would be opportunity on every corner, literally. There’s a Walgreens next to a CVS next to a Walgreens,” said Vazquez, a Lake Worth High School graduate.
And here’s Slim with some major bad news: A lot of the big-selling drugs that have made pharma so much money are about to come off patent. Which means that all those pharmacies won’t have the cash cows that they once did.
What’s worse, the rest of the inventory in a CVS-greens can be had in a lot of other places. Think grocery stores. Or dollar stores.
200k to be a pharmacist? Oh my. They make OK money, but not great. That student loan will be what they pay for their whole lives instead of the house and cars they would have bought.
Slavery.
I always thought it was a little much for pharmacists to get $200,000/year. Guess that’s over with.
The $200K is how much debt she has, not the salary.
For $200,000 she could have gone to any medical school in the U.S. Far better return on the investment.
I was under the impression that pharmacists did go to medical school, but they decided to forgo the big bucks looking up the rectums of obese patients for the quiet life and *only* $200k/yr.
No. There is an undergraduate Pharmacy degree which is usually a 5 year program. Then there is the Pharm.D. (equivalent of a Ph.D. in Pharmacy, I think) which requires additional education. Most of those end up working in academic medical centers. Pharmacists do not have M.D. degrees.
I believe California requires the MD for their pharmacists, IIRC.
rms,
Nope.
The sugar rush is not going to last. Wait till all the Eastern European countries, not to mention the other PIIGS, start demanding the same concessions that Greece got.
I wonder how many tens of billions the IMF kicked in (US taxpayers fund 27% of the IMF’s budget, as I recall). Also wonder how many billions the Fed is printing to pass to the EU banks.
Indebted world saved yet again by more debt!
Those Europeans learned that from us. Thank you Turbo Timmay! If too much debt is the problem the obvious solution is to borrow more money. Worst case scenario your central bank prints whatever much money is needed and buys your treasuries. So far that has always worked. I wonder if there actually is a time when this scheme fails. As long as everybody is happy with paper wealth and promises and doesn’t try to cash out, this Ponzi scheme could continue indefinitely. Ponzi schemes tend to fail once too many participants are trying to cash out and too few are buying in, like pensioners or other entitlement recipients while young contributors are either unemployed or working for minimum wage. Another constraint is peak resource. Unfortunately you can’t run cars/economy/agriculture on paper oil or borrow future oil from your central bank.
Still, those potential spoilers are years away, so the party could continue longer than most think while more and more wealth is transferred bottom to top.
Yeah, but they’re not done getting down on one knee yet….
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he plans to call Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao today to discuss China contributing to Europe’s efforts to resolve the region’s debt crisis.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/euro-rescue-fund-chief-goes-to-china-as-europe-seeks-investors.html
Indebted world saved yet again by more debt!
Not really those holding Greek Debt just saw a lot of debt go poof.
“…start demanding the same concessions that Greece got.”
bearn sterns is to lehman what greece is to the other PIIGS.
And the IMF and the Fed are already bending over US taxpayers to the tune of billions to cover the banksters’ uncollectable debts. Thank you, Obama Zombies. Thank you, McCain mutants.
You seem to imply (”US taxpayers fund 27% of the IMF’s budget”) that the IMF is some kind of charity. No, it (rather its evil twin) is a bank. Don’t make it out as some kind of money sink. The IMF hands out loans at favourable rates, often as a conduit for lucrative sales/contracts that benefit its large depositors. And yes, the IMF does charge interest.
See also John Perkins’ book ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’ to learn what the IMF / World Bank’s real motivations are…
“The government’s allegations are totally baseless,” he said. “The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of any of these charges and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity.”
This guy has about as much integrity as my Deadbeat LL. But my Deadbeat LL wouldn`t have made the $10 million bail, he only steals $1,700 a month.
Westport’s Gupta indicted on insider trading charges
Updated 08:41 p.m., Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Westport resident Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs board member, was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of conspiracy and securities fraud, the highest-ranking executive to be charged in an insider-trading case that has led to more than two dozen convictions, which include Raj Rajaratnam, the co-founder of hedge fund Galleon Group facing 11 years in prison.
Gupta, 62, lives in a waterfront home on Beachside Avenue in the Green’s Farms section of Westport.
The case, built partially on the use of wiretaps for the first time in insider trading, stands to offer unprecedented insight into allegations of greed at the highest levels of Wall Street.
Gupta, who had surrendered early Wednesday at the FBI’s New York City office, pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and five counts of securities fraud, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 105 years in prison. He was freed on $10 million bail, and conditions call for him to remain in the continental United States. A trial date of April 9 was set. His lawyer called the allegations “totally baseless.”
The indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges Gupta shared confidential information about both Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, where he was also a board member, at the height of the financial crisis from 2008 through January 2009, knowing that Rajaratnam, the main focus of the probe, would use the secrets to buy and sell stock ahead of public announcements.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Gupta broke the trust of some of the nation’s top public companies and “became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta’s breach of duty.”
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk said Gupta’s arrest was the latest to occur in an initiative launched by the FBI in 2007 against hedge fund cheats.
Gupta’s lawyer, Gary P. Naftalis, said in a statement Wednesday that his client only had legitimate communications with Rajaratnam.
“The government’s allegations are totally baseless,” he said. “The facts in this case demonstrate that Mr. Gupta is innocent of any of these charges and that he has always acted with honesty and integrity. … We are confident that these accusations — which are based entirely on circumstantial evidence — cannot withstand scrutiny and that Mr. Gupta will be completely exonerated of any wrongdoing.”
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Westport-s-Gupta-indicted-on-insider-trading-2236890.php -
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=196618
Felonious assault by Oakland PD? You decide.
Video of NYPD brutality at Occupy Oakland solidarity march
RT - 1 hour ago
Watch video
Posted at 01:52 PM ET, 10/26/2011
Occupy Oakland: Did police use flashbangs and rubber bullets on protesters?
By Elizabeth Flock
This post has been updated.
Following the violent clashes that broke out between police and Occupy Oakland protesters last night, some have started to questions the level of force used.
…
Denninger just can’t get over the Tea Party “leaving” him…or him losing his perceived “control” over them
So now he is a big OWS supporter.
He was also a big obama supporter.
Wait until tomorrow and he will change again.
While I don’t agree with Denninger (or anyone else) on any issue, he is one of the good guys in my book. He’s no fan of The One.
Correction: I don’t agree with Denninger on EVERY issue. Pre-coffee typing….
Denninger has the gall to change his opinion as new facts become available.
Inconceivable!
Oakland PD are in BIG trouble you dont do that stuff aginst white people…..they should know better
’some have started to questions the level of force used’
What was the saying, first they came for the (fill in your group) and we did nothing.
I’m sad this is happening, but what kind of a world does everyone think we live in? Do you not see the cameras on every post and corner? Have you never noticed the police look like paramilitary group, even at a football game or county fair? Has no one been through an airport lately?
The bovine complacency of the American sheeple in the face of all these things is telling. We are so screwed.
They are there for your protection and security, Ben. Show some gratitude.
/Sarc off.
I’m not afraid of the police state. But it should be pointed out that when they tell you to disperse, they aren’t asking you.
‘A Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in far western China on Tuesday, the tenth ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest, an overseas advocacy group said. ‘I don’t know about this, and even if I did, I couldn’t be loose-lipped,’ said an official in the Ganzi county office.’
‘For the Chinese government, the protests are a small but destabilizing challenge to its regional policies, which it says have lifted Tibetans out of poverty and servitude. ‘Encouraging some people to use this kind of extreme and cruel means to injure themselves is a type of violent terrorist act,’ China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. ‘I think a few individuals inciting a few ignorant people to violate the law and damage local social stability cannot represent the broader desires of the local people,’ she said.’
I’m not afraid of the police state ??
Nor I, but I am terrified of individual police…
When you see some of the things that some have done with the badge and union as protection, you just need to extrapolate that only a little bit to include the ones who never get caught…I come to realize how corrupt it possibly could be…
But what should we expect..?? We send young teenagers off to boot camp and teach them how to kill…Then we send them over to some obscure part of the world to find the bad guys and kill them and anything in their way abecause our freedom is at stake…
They come home, with innocence long gone and there social skills in tatters…They have seen it all or done it all…Now we will make these 24 year olds, cops, prison guards, probation officers & DA’s…
Anyone who doesn’t shudder with fear at the thought of the criminal “justice” system bearing down on them is plain not paying attention or lives a sheltered life or both. From the 21 year old kid with a sidearm, badge and cruiser to the zealous prosecutor….. they have tremendous power over everyone and frequently abuse it.
‘A Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in far western China on Tuesday,…’
That’s one way to avoid confrontations with the police.
“I’m not afraid of the police state. But it should be pointed out that when they tell you to disperse, they aren’t asking you.”
But the guy lying on the ground unconscious couldn’t really disperse under his own power, could he?
It was people going back to help him that were targeted for this attack.
I found that to be despicable and outrageous.
You only have to go as far as the Stanford Prison Experiment to see what a badge and power can do to an otherwise “normal” person.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to fight against this stuff. When some of us voiced concerns about the police state/surveillance state years ago, we got called a lot of names and were dismissed as paranoid. Now it’s ingrained in our society and someone butts heads with the PTB and look what they’re up against!
This isn’t the same country it was 20 years ago, so I keep a low profile and go out of my way not to give the system a reason to mess with me. It’s not what I’d prefer in a society, but I didn’t make these laws.
so I keep a low profile and go out of my way not to give the system a reason to mess with me ??
Ditto here….
…….. it’s going to require risk. Even just a little bit.
I guess I’m not as jaded. My father-in-law is a retired judge (worker’s comp), and in getting to know him over the past 10+ years, I see that there can be good people in a position of power. Likewise, an old family friend who was a cop in SF, at one point gave his police boots to a homeless guy and helped turn the guys life around completely (the now ex-homeless guy gave a eulogy at the police officer’s untimely funeral).
There are still good people in law enforcement. However, I don’t underestimate the ability for power to corrupt good, nor will I ever go out of my way to, as scdave put it, give the system a reason to mess with me.
But Ben, these are our “Heroes!”
I think that guy that they shot at point blank range in the head with a tear gas gun was the marine I posted about yesterday. That Cop should be going to jail, no doubt about it that guy was targeted. I thought maybe it got lobbed onto him, but that was a point blank shot. Then when they go to help the guy who was just shot in the head they throw another gas canister at the group. F’n criminals.
This is our future and htere will be more of it.
Back in 2001, the University of Arizona men’s basketball team lost the national championship game. A riot broke out on 4th Avenue, which is about a mile west of campus.
One of the college kids leaving the scene was shot by police. It was a rubber bullet, but it still left him blind in one eye.
While it was never clear that this young man was participating in the riot, he did win quite a hefty settlement from the City of Tucson.
he did win quite a hefty settlement from the City of Tucson ??
Exactly my point slim when I say:
“When you see some of the things that some have done with the badge and union as protection”…..
Settlement ?? Why not criminal prosecution ??
You or I would have a federal charge for minimum of 10 for that act PLUS the civil settlement cost…
” Then when they go to help the guy who was just shot in the head they throw another gas canister at the group.”
More than criminal. This sounds remarkably like some of the terrorist stories we heard. The terrorist plants two bombs: one to cause the initial explosion, and a second one timed to blow up the first responders when they arrive on the scene.
More than criminal. This sounds remarkably like some of the terrorist stories we heard. The terrorist plants two bombs: one to cause the initial explosion, and a second one timed to blow up the first responders when they arrive on the scene.
Exactly. When I took citizen emergency responder classes, I frequently heard about this scenario.
Fooking bastard Oakland police. They should quit and work for BART police, so they can shoot people in the back.
Oh, wait… they already did that.
The banner ad today at the top of HBB is for Tool Brothers.
Really, weren’t these things supposed to fall apart after 5 years?
Karma is like one of those women who takes two hours of hair and makeup just to leave the house.
The Troll Brothers are doing what they do best. Trolling for suckers. Don’t be a sucker for The Housing Crime Syndicate.
Realtors Are Liars®
The Ponzi can continue as long as the dollar is the world’s reserve currency and Zimbabwe Ben can print as many trillions as he pleases to cover the bad bets of the corporate cartels and banks. Of course this is going to cause a new surge of commodity inflation, which is going to hit countries like China particularly hard. This is why Russia’s Putin recently described Bernanke as a “hooligan.”
Get ready for a new and intensified round of global unrest once the resultant food inflation hits the Third World (not to mention your grocery and utility bills).
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/futures/
Home Prices in U.S. Cities Fall More-Than-Forecast 3.8%, Case-Shiller Says
By Shobhana Chandra
Oct 25, 2011 10:02 AM ET
‘Serious Impediment’
Falling home prices pose “a serious impediment to a stronger economic recovery,” Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in remarks at Fordham University in the Bronx yesterday. He predicted “continued modest growth” for the U.S.
“Continued house price declines could lead to even more defaults, foreclosures and distress sales, undermining wealth, confidence and spending,” Dudley said. “Breaking this vicious cycle is one of the most pressing issues facing policy makers.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/home-prices-in-u-s-cities-fall-more-than-forecast-3-8-case-shiller-says.html - 147k -
‘“Continued house price declines could lead to even more defaults, foreclosures and distress sales, undermining wealth, confidence and spending,” Dudley said. “Breaking this vicious cycle is one of the most pressing issues facing policy makers.”’
The best way to break it is to step back and allow home prices to settle down to affordable equilibrium levels.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/26/priory-hall-ireland-raises-safety-fears-about-boom-developers
Looks like the Irish lemmings of 2005-2006 who bought into the “real estate only goes up” mantra are having severe buyers remorse. I can summon no pity. These idiots drove up prices for everyone. Thanks to the Obama & McCain voters who bent over and spread their cheeks for the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate, my kids and their generation are going to be in debt servitude for life paying the bills for deadbeats and the banks who recklessly lent to them.
The principal developer of Priory Hall is Tom McFeely, a former Provisional IRA Maze hunger striker convicted of attempted murder in Northern Ireland in 1976.
A Provisional IRA Maze hunger striker goes to Dublin to build over-priced and poorly built condos… (stop me if you have heard this one before).
Sharon Cunningham queued for hours in the rain with €20,000 (£17,420) in her pocket to secure her dream home at Priory Hall on the northern edge of Dublin.
So this single mom’s “dream” was to be a debt slave trapped in a shoddily built condo. What a pathetic speciman of humanity.
The irony is just too funny.
Hey - these “professional homeless” are part of the 99%ers too!
Socialism works until you run out of other people’s roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad…
————————-
Occupy Wall Street kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders
NY Post | 10/27/11 | SELIM ALGAR and BOB FREDERICKS
The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday — because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.
For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.
They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.
A lot of idealistic kids who gravitated to these various “Occupy” protests are no doubt getting a real-world education on the deadbeats of the ever-growing Free Sh*t Army - the DNC’s core voting bloc - who will never miss a chance to freeload at the expense (usually involuntary) of others.
These kids could do a lot more good by joining the Ron Paul campaign and/or liberty movement and actually DOING SOMETHING about the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate, than they can by occupying public space and acting as velcro for freeloaders and dirtbags.
Noting like like a street education to teach you the real difference betweeen the map and the terrain and who’s the real lazy bum and who is just unfortunate.
It’s never too late for the lazy bum to become Horatio Alger, right? If they can just kick heroin or overcome alcoholism, get a shoeshine and a shave, then pick themselves up by their bootstraps and start their own curbside consulting firm then they’ll all be rich someday too. But only with tax cuts to create a more business-friendly can this American Dream be realized…
Some people really are lazy bums. Whether they have a job or not or other personal problems is irrelevant.
Nothing like a street education to teach you the real difference betweeen the map and the terrain and who’s the real lazy bum and who is just unfortunate.
And this article is from the NY Post (owned by Murdoch) and SURPRISE!!! linked from the Drudge Report…
There certainly are people who have been hardworking and would love a job who l are homeless.
One bad medical bill
One layoff and bad investment losses.
Expect to see a lot more homeless people with college degrees.
Would you put that on a resume?
Let’s see it says here that you are a professional homeless person Mr. Johnson.
Yes I am and I have 34 years experience.
Well we are not hiring right now but if you head over to the protest I hear they are serving brown rice.
Public unions are some of the top political money donors in elections. And they give from 99-100% to democrats.
You can do the math from there…
———————————
Obama to nonunion Americans: Get lost
Washington Times | 10/26/11
Here is a message for those nonunion folks who are looking for jobs: Don’t expect any help from President Obama. If there is any doubt about this, just examine the record.
Starting with the president’s pending $447 billion “jobs” bill, Mr. Obama himself has repeatedly stated that his plan is to keep teachers, policemen and firefighters on the job and to provide money to put construction people to work. Now just what do these folks have in common? If you have not guessed it, they are all union members. As noted by The Washington Times in an Oct. 18 editorial titled, “Obama’s jobs bill mulligan,” there is no provision whatever for helping nonunion, private-sector workers. Mr. Obama does not try to hide this fact.
Of the $825 billion stimulus package, more then half went to state and local governments to keep those unionized teachers, policemen and firefighters on the job.
I thought the “jobs” bill had a lot of “tax cuts.”
Why is it okay for R’s to demand tax cuts, but when a D actually proposes legislation with tax cuts, the R’s vote it down?
you do realize legislation is not that simple?
unless it’s hank paulson’s tarp proposal…pow…rim shot!
Because “D” tax cuts are mostly more welfare EIC type tax cuts…?
Life must be pretty good for the Lucky Ducky single parents earning the $17000/year sweet spot income that qualifies for the maximum EIC amount, right?
i do not have any problem with the EIC as it is intended.
it’s the immense fraud within the program that is frustrating. i don’t even think the IRS reports the amount of fraud anymore it’s so bad.
everytime i point out the fraud and provide older facts reporting it democrats get all pissy about it.
this “sacred cow” shit on both sides of isle must go.
Used to be you waited until you could afford to have kids instead of becoming a single parent on $17,000 using EIC credits…
Such was a time in America before we became an entitlement nation…
Ps - this also applies to bankers…
Used to be you waited until you could afford to have kids instead of becoming a single parent on $17,000 using EIC credits…
And maybe they used to earn $40,000 before getting laid off and $17,000 is the only job available now. See also Barbara Ehrenreich’s book ‘Nickled And Dimed’ to learn about how some people have to live outside of your country club gated community.
why can’t both be true?
+1 goon. “It used to be” that you could get a decent job right out of high school when you were 18, or could get a really good job out right out of college. Couples “waited” until the grand old age of 25 or 26. They might not have a McMansion or an Escalade, but they could raise the kids, especially if junior didn’t go to college, or could go to a state school at $800 per semester.
“Waiting to afford kids” was well-covered at the beginning of Idiocracy. (yes I finally saw that.)
You guys must not get out much.
My daughters will be waiting until 40 before they can afford to have kids. This assumes that the middle class screw job stops where it is right now.
Nothing I’m seeing says anything other than “The beatings will continue, until morale improves”
…and the other top political donors are Fortune 500 and Wall St.
Your point?
There is no point beyond the socially acceptable attitude to HATE the poor. It’s I got mine and f* the rest of you, it’s the belief that getting sick without health insurance is a character flaw, it’s excusing the gross excesses of the very wealthy under the delusion that they themselves will join that club too someday.
It’s I got mine and f* the rest of you ??
Isn’t that pretty much the attitude of most public unions when it comes down to crunch time ?? Just read Michael Lewis essay in Vanity on California Bust regarding Vallejo & San Jose California then you will see…
And, its particularly acute with the older ones in this group…Our local Chief was asked to lead the way with a small pay cut so the remainder of the force would follow suit…The 52 year old resigned the next day, taking his $225,000. pension with him…He was quite open about why he did it…He did not want to lower his pay thereby lowering his pension when he retired so he went out on top…
Oh, by the way, he immediatly went and got another job paying $175,000. per year…What a guy…
Hail to the chief.
Sounds like he followed the lead of our CEO class.
Every public employee is probably saying “Why should I take a pay cut, to give a tax cut to billionaires?”
Read history. Doesn’t matter how many “pay cuts” J6P takes, it’s never enough. You always get screwed in the end.
You are better off taking a layoff at 100% pay at age 40, than to give back 40% of your salary over 20 years, and still get the boot at age 55.
Of course, unlike the bankster/predator class, we are supposed to “sacrifice for the common good”.
I’m of the opinion the sooner that J6P/labor worldwide can get themselves into a financial position to become predators themselves, the sooner we’ll all be better off. Payback will be a real bi#ch
I’m of the opinion the sooner that J6P/labor worldwide can get themselves into a financial position to become predators themselves
Don’t pay your property taxes on your house - another union goon with a gun will come to throw you out of it.
Don’t pay your property taxes on your house - another lackey for the super rich/PTB
union goon<strikewith a gun will come to throw you out of it.Fixed it!
…and the other top political donors are Fortune 500 and Wall St.
Your point?
Corporations give about 50/50 between dems and repubs (except for GS which gave heavily to obama)
Unions give 100% to dems in huge kick-back schemes like the “Jobs Bill”
Your point?
No, they don’t. Repubs get more donations from corproate America.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Forget it he’s on a roll.
Forget it he’s on a roll.
My trained monkey can re-post articles linked from the Drudge Report faster than your trained monkey can re-post articles linked from the Drudge Report.
They also protect the PTB (and their property) from the wretched refuse.
Bribe to the unions, or another example of “welfare for the rich”?
BTW, there are a lot of cops and firefighters who are NOT union members. Will they miss out on this gravy train? I think not.
In moments of dark humor, we used to jest here about waiting “until there is blood in the streets” to buy a home. Sadly, the prospect now seems frighteningly realistic.
Occupy Wall Street protesters support injured war vet
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 7:32 AM EST, Thu October 27, 2011
Occupy Oakland protesters tend to Scott Olsen — who was injured in a Tuesday night protest.
(CNN) — More Occupy Wall Street protests were scheduled in New York on Thursday, a day after demonstrators marched to support an Iraq war veteran who was hurt in California.
Hundreds packed the streets near Manhattan’s Union Square on Wednesday in a march in support of veteran Scott Olsen. At least 10 people were arrested in clashes with officers, a New York police spokesman said.
Olsen suffered a skull fracture Tuesday night after allegedly being shot in the head with a police projectile in Oakland, California, according to Iraq Veterans Against the War.
The former Marine has become another rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street protests spreading throughout the country.
Demonstrators have typically railed against what they describe as corporate greed, arrogance and power, as well as repeatedly stated their assertion that the nation’s wealthiest 1% hold inordinate sway over the remaining 99% of the population.
The movement seems to be growing despite a recent crackdown in several cities.
Authorities made a series of arrests at protests in Oakland, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
…
Occupy Oakland is calling for a citywide general strike on November 2 - next Wednesday.
Yeah, like someone on right-to-work is going to go on strike. This ain’t Greece.
The average J6P isn’t going to go out on strike for a bunch of flea party activists. For that matter, the average J6P would just yawn if the Constitution and Bill of Rights were suspended. As long as he gets his paycheck and cable, all is well in the world.
“left a Marine veteran who completed two Iraq tours in critical condition Wednesday after he was struck by a police projectile”
Given the recent HR employment personnel of hiring mainly from the military for “Serve & Protect”, one can chalk it up to “Friendly-fire” :-/
In moments of dark humor, we used to jest here about waiting “until there is blood in the streets” to buy a home. Sadly, the prospect now seems frighteningly realistic.
And we thought surely by the time there was blood in the streets that they would have to stop artificially supporting housing prices. I’m thinking we (or just me?) were wrong…
Today’s Houses:
House 1: move your crap so I can see the garish HGTV paint
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2906-Fenimore-Rd-Silver-Spring-MD-20902/37295413_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
1954 5/2 rambler on 0.2 acre in Spanish-by-immersion land. Obvious mattress house. Looks to be in good condition, but there’s so much junk around it’s hard to tell. Yard is good, house needs cosmetic help. The wishing price is likely due to all the bedrooms.
Dec 2001: Zestimated $180K
Mar 2004: Sold $275K
Jul 2011: Listed $309K
Oct 2011: re-listed $259K
House 2: Two-boob update: now PENDING!
Remember this house?
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/18510-New-Hampshire-Ave-Ashton-MD-20861/37206011_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
1976 3/3 entertainment house in the woods, wrapped around a pool. Abbreviated price history:
Sep 2000: Sold $375K
Nov 2007: Listed $700K
EIGHT price changes later…
Apr 2011: Listed $480
Oct 2011: PENDING $375K. (short sale)
$100K haircut and suddenly somebody is interested, you betcha. Golly gee whiz, and who says that nobody is buying houses.
If the house is short-selling for the same price as it was bought in 2000, someone must have refied in the middle. Wonder what they did with the money…
OK, correction, if you take out a refi on an obvious party house like this, you don’t really need to ask what they did with the money.
The 2boob house is still my favorite of all you’ve shown. Maybe you should make a higher offer. Otherwise you’ll end up in some characterless little rambler, wondering what you’d be doing right then if you’d just bought the groovy swinger house with the pool
Plus it looks woodsy.
2Boob house has a floor to ceiling brick fireplace.Get rid of the excess brick, add a nice white mantel with sides to frame it, and class it up.
Is that green patio-looking thing a pool?
So we think. Either that or a very plain patio.
I previewed a few homes a while ago, where you could not go into the yard due to the mosquito invasion (1,000’s) and the pool water was green. I called vector control on the listing agents and owners. Yenta or not, it was dangerous.
They certainly didn’t buy flash bulbs!
If this goes through, it should help economists convince the masses on the veracity of their “green shoots” fairy tales.
Threats to the Economic Census
9/13/2011
Tight budgets for our statistical agencies were expected, but the House mark for the Census Bureau came as a complete surprise. A $294 million cut, which would put fiscal year 2012 funding 25 percent below fiscal 2011, would leave the Census Bureau only one alternative—eliminate the 2012 Economic Census to save $124 million in FY 2012.
The last time the Economic Census wasn’t funded was during the Eisenhower Administration. The outcry from business and other data users led the Secretary of Commerce to form an Intensive Review Committee to study the issue. The committee’s report prompted Congress to pass Title 13 of the U.S. Code in 1954 requiring an Economic Census every five years.
Screw them. The Economic Census is nothing more than taxpayer funded market research. Make it so these guys have to pay for their own research.
I heartily disagree. Census data is a public good which benefits anyone who cares about what is happening in the national economy. It will not be produced by the private sector, as it is in nobody’s private interest to produce it.
Yeah? Well these guys that rely upon this census data sure use the word “unexpectedly” a lot.
I suppose with no data, we wouldn’t have to worry much about GDP turning out “worse than expected”…
Owning a second home is not a federal entitlement. Unless you have money to burn, just don’t buy one, and don’t expect the U.S. taxpayer to help finance the purchase if you do.
And eliminating a lucrative tax giveaway to the wealthy is not tantamount to raising taxes; please make the 1%er propaganda stop!
Second home tax break could be first casualty of deficit wars
Advisers say mortgage interest deduction makes for an easy target for politicians; could hurt middle class more than rich, though
By Jeff Benjamin
October 26, 2011 3:03 pm ET
As Congress mulls over new ways to increase revenue, the mortgage interest deduction on second homes is seen as a likely target for elimination.
…
If you buy a second home, it could be argued that you’re not middle class. I guess I have a skewed idea of middle class. By the current metrics: car for each kid, nice house, second home, I have never been and never will be middle class.
oxide
I lived in that type of neighborhood. The brat parents produced brat offspring. We weren’t middle class back then, we were upper. I agree. (I miss those days $$$$, but not the neighbors.)
Before you were born, before the real estate mania, having a cottage get-away was not such an expensive proposition. It took more time than money, and it was often a legacy cottage.
And the cottage was often an actual cottage: 1-2 bedrooom 600-700 sq ft on the lake or in the woods with studio-apartment type appliances. More like a camp.
Now, just look on the cover of Log Home Living to see what passes for a cottage.
There is a scenario in which middle class people own second homes. It’s called city living. You have a very small apartment in a dense city, and a small cottage elsewhere, instead of a McMansion in the suburbs. The square footage combined is less or the same.
Many of those living in metro Stockholm, for example, have country cottages. It’s common in metro Prague as well. And it is somewhat common in NYC.
In fact, I had considered buying a small apartment and a cottage elsewhere during the 1980s housing bubble, before the price for a rowhouse came down. It would have been a mistake — we would never have had time to go there.
One of my wife’s college friends from NYC had two teachers for parents. They spent summers on Cape Cod.
“They spent summers on Cape Cod.”
Catskills is another summer colony that comes to mind. Also some of the cottage colonies in the mountains of Western North Carolina. And many moons ago, I was summering on the coast of Rhode Island and came across a ramshackle cottage colony on the beach between Charlestown and Narragansett.
There were colonies in Montauk on Long Island as well. Not a bad deal if you didn’t mind going to the same place every year for vacation.
The time share is just a variation on this concept.
Where I grew up in Michigan, it was common for middle-class families to have a summer cottage on one of the many inland lakes. Most of them were not winterized and were quite basic, but the idea was to spend your summer outdoors.
“two teachers for parents. They spent summers on Cape Cod.”
Similar story here. The four of us lived in about 400 sq ft. of un-winterized cottage. Sucked when it rained, but otherwise it was fun. My brother and I both worked nights and saved 90% of our money for school. We didn’t even have a phone for years.
MrBubble
Michael Winship: Oh, What a Lovely Class War!
As the recently poorer multibillionaire Warren Buffet said a couple of years ago, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/03/michael_winship_oh_what_a_love.html
Original “my class is winning” quote from Warren Buffet:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
What are we talking about here? A couple thousand a year? If that’s a hardship I’d say you’re hanging onto that house by the skin of your teeth and the way things are going will lose it eventually anyway.
Gheesh I spend more than that on my kids’ braces.
“…please make the 1%er propaganda stop!”
I want the “millionaires and billionaires” propaganda to stop. How can you even include those two together. Does anyone say the “thousandaires and millionaires”?
Politics and economics breed unpleasant bedfellows.
Mortgage Stimulus Is No Slam Dunk: The Ticker
Ticker: Mortgage-Refinance Plan
By Mark Whitehouse Oct 25, 2011 2:14 PM PT
President Barack Obama’s new mortgage-refinancing plan might help some struggling homeowners, but don’t expect it to have much effect on the economy.
The plan, announced Monday, would modify the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program to make refinancing at current low interest rates easier for borrowers who owe more than their houses are worth. In a speech, President Obama said it could save homeowners thousands of dollars a year in mortgage payments.
There are a lot of reasons to doubt it will do much to boost peoples’ spending, and hence economic growth. First, not everyone will take advantage of the program. Second, for those that do, a smaller tax deduction will offset part of the interest savings. Third, people won’t necessarily spend all the money they save. Finally, the borrowers’ gains translate into less interest income for mortgage investors, a large portion of whom are actual people living in the U.S.
Consultancy Macroeconomic Advisors crunched the numbers and estimated that in a best-case scenario — a 30 percent take-up rate, spending of every dollar saved and no reduction in investors’ consumption — the refinancing program might boost consumer spending by about $15 billion in the first year. That would add somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage point to annual economic growth.
In a worst-case scenario, the added spending could amount to only $2.9 billion, a rounding error.
…
“That would add somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2 percentage point to annual economic growth.”
That’s actually a pretty decent-sized stimulus. And like I’ve said, mostly going towards joe6packs who are ‘trying to do the right thing’ and honor their contracts.
Interesting final paragraph in the piece:
“As the Bloomberg View editors have pointed out, if the Obama administration really wants to have an impact on housing and the economy, reducing mortgage principal would be a better idea.”
Abolish the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage!
By Felix Salmon
Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:03pm EDT
File under “Republican ideas which are actually rather good”:
That’s just one reason why the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is a bad idea, and it’s not even the strongest one. The real reason this product should be abolished is that it simply doesn’t exist in any free-market system. In order to create it, you need to invent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and just about everybody agrees that those two entities, which have cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars of late, and will probably cost even more going forwards, need to be radically downsized.
…
foollow-up question:
mr. willen…and why are those adjustable rates so low?
Federal Reserve zero interest rate.
that and they are literally creating money to buy long-term treasuries to maintain low rates.
“That’s just one reason why the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is a bad idea, ”
I call BS.
30-year fixed-rate worked JUST FINE for decades.. until the I/O and the ARMS and the neg-ams and the balloons came along to drive up the PRICES to where fixed rate can no longer compete. Adjustable rates may be more stable NOW, but wait five years, or until interest rates go up, as they inevitably will. (or does the Boston Fed think interest rates will be 4% for 30 years?) The ARMS will default as surely as the fixed will.
The problem isn’t the boring responsible fixed morts, it’s the ninja exotics. Get rid of the easy money, crash prices, and suddenly the 30-year fixed rate on a resonably priced home will work just fine again, exactly as it did in the past.
And yes, I believe that there is public interest in an incentive for a starter home for first time buyers. Leaving aside the touchy-feely stuff, a constant house price means you’re not subject to constant rent increases (or constant moves), there is some money leftover to feed the kids well and educate them, and the big reason: a paid-off house at retirement. But there’s that pesky long-term again. The Boston Fed sounds more interested in “hitting the numbers” short-term, as much as Jeff Skilling ever was.
i think it’s the government guarantee that is really the subject here.
if a bank wants to assume the risk on a fixed mortgage alone…go for it.
One way to hold down interest rates is to provide a “free” government guarantee with a mortgage; otherwise, the lender needs to either require the homeowner to purchase PMI, or else charge a higher interest rate that includes a risk premium to cover the default contingency.
Ok then the US should do away with long term treasuries as well for the same reason??
People can always refinance if rates drop enough, this is just an attempt to drive people to ARMS just in time for rising rates. NOte this is not around the corner in my opinion.
Without the government backstopping the mortgage market, interest rate risk premiums will go sky high leading to a pretty stiff increase in the 30 year interest rate.
Yeah, rates may skyrocket to 7% and banks will need 20% down, but so what. 20% down on a crashed priced is savable. 7% mortgage on a low price is payable. If the FB defaults, bank sells the house for 80% of mortgage, bank breaks even. It all comes down to pricing. This worked for 70 years!
+1
The whole system worked fine, when responsible people borrowed money from responsible banks.
The banks had a fiduciary duty to lend out money responsibly, and were paid ridiculously well to do it. They had the tools to determine if a loan was going to be paid back.
Instead. the decided to make money thru securitization, commissions, and management fees. Offloading the risk onto J6Ps pension funds, and keeping the profits. Basically another subsidy for the 1% crowd.
Chickens (banksters) came before eggs (subprime/criminal borrowers).
Instead. the decided to make money thru securitization, commissions, and management fees. Offloading the risk onto J6Ps pension funds, and keeping the profits. Basically another subsidy for the 1% crowd.
So what changed?
Government got involved.
The CRA
Fannie and Freddie lowering their standards
The government back stopping these mortgage
Quotas for mortgages in “high risk” areas
etc.
What ever the government subsidizes (housing, medicine, college, etc.) GETS MORE EXPENSIVE…
Stop it with the CRA. CRA was underwritten like any other loan.
What happened was a “regulation holiday” brought to us by Gramm, Leach, Bliley, and Clinton. And a mealy-mouth head of the Fed who spent too much time fantasizing about Ayn Rand. And now companies want another regulation holiday. F’em.
+1 2banana
I wonder why house prices are even higher in countries that don’t have subsidized 30-year mortgages.
One of the aspects of mania is lack of insight into the potential consequences of risky behavior.
The fixed mortgage provides stability in what is a constantly fluctuating market, much like farm subsidies provide stabilty against nature and speculators.
There are many situaitons in which “free market” creates disaster. These are just 2 examples.
You’ve failed to provide a teeter-totter $olution Professor Bear? :-/
Oct. 27, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
TARP housing programs still need fix: watchdog
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The housing support programs funded by the Troubled Asset Relief Program still are in need of improvements with just a year left for new mortgage modifications, a watchdog said Thursday.
Acting Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program Christy Romero, in her quarterly report to Congress, said the housing programs and notably the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, still need improvement to force banks to help remaining eligible homeowners stay in their homes.
HAMP — not to be confused with the Home Affordable Refinance Program that the Obama administration on Monday loosened to attract more eligible homeowners — reduces mortgages for delinquent borrowers in danger of foreclosure.
The Treasury has barely spent any of the $50 billion initially allocated toward housing relief through TARP — just $2.5 billion at the end of September.
…
“…to force banks to help remaining eligible homeowners stay in their homes.”
That sounds very coercive. Was this really part of the purpose of TARP?
Neighbors: Husband found dead in suburban Lake Worth bathtub not seen in months
By Cynthia Roldan
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:33 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s investigators say the body they found in the tub on Monday is likely that of 64-year-old John McCann. His body “appears to have been there for several months,” said sheriff’s office spokesman Deputy Eric Davis in a written release this afternoon. He added that McCann’s identification will not be official until the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office confirms it.
Davis added that on Tuesday, as deputies executed a search warrant in the home, they found McCann’s wife, Sharon. She’s been taken into custody under a Baker Act and transported to JFK Medical Center where she will remain at least until the culmination of the required 72 hours.
Michael Ingraham, 30, who lives across the street, says he hasn’t seen John McCann since before the summer. But it never crossed his mind that something was wrong, especially since he saw Sharon McCann almost every morning sweeping outside the home and doing yard work.
“I wouldn’t have thought that she was crazy,” he said. “I would say that she just kept to herself.”
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s detectives say, however, that John had been lying in a tub inside of the home dead since at least May.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/authorities-locate-wife-whose-husband-was-found-decomposing-1934468.html - 65k -
Let me guess… she wanted to keep cashing his social security checks.
Wouldn’t the wife be eligible for his social security anyway?
And does NOBODY have a sense of smell anymore?
But it never crossed his mind that something was wrong, especially since he saw Sharon McCann almost every morning sweeping outside the home and doing yard work.
Jimmay Buffett singin’:
Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost
These are the things that terrify me the most
No aliens, psychopaths or MTV hosts
Scares me like vampires, mummies and the Holy Ghost
I was never ever frightened
By the murderer on our block
He nurtured orchids and raised hamsters
The neighborhood is still in shock
La, la, la, la, la…
So many dragons lurking out in the fog
So many crazy people mumblin’ monologues
It’s not the tales of Stephen King that I’ve read
I need protection from the
things in my head[folks at the FED!]Does anyone remember Little Feat
These Lyrics are untouched
Fat Man In The Bathtub Lyrics
Little Feat
Spotcheck Billy got down on his hands and knees
He said “Hey mama, hey let me check your oil all right?”
She said “No, no honey, not tonight.
Come back Monday, come back Tuesday, and then I might”
I said Juanita, my sweet Jaunita, what are you up to?
My Juanita
I said Jaunita, my sweet chiquita, what are you up to?
My Juanita
Don’t want nobody who won’t dive for dimes
Don’t want no speedballs ’cause I might die trying
Throw me a line, throw me a line
‘Cause there’s a fat man in the bathtub with the blues
I hear you moan, I hear you moan, I hear you moan
Billy got so sad, dejected, put on his hat and start to run
Runnin’ down the street yelling at the top of his lungs
“All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun”
“All I want in this life and time is some hit and run”
I said Juanita, my sweet Jaunita, what are you up to?
My Jaunita
I said Jaunita, my sweet chiquita, what are you up to?
My Juanita
Put my money in your meter baby so it won’t run down
But you caught me in the squeeze play on the cheesy side of town
Throw me a dime, throw me a line
‘Cause there’s a fat man in the bathtub with the blues
I hear you moan, I hear you moan, I hear you moan
At least the last few months of being together was probably pretty peaceful with little arguing.
Three doors down from my parents is the former residence of Mrs. L, aka the neighborhood crazy lady. She went around the bend after her husband died in the 1970s.
One fine day, she informed my mother that there was a VW that was bothering her. So, she threatened to shoot it.
Since my dad drove a VW Beetle at the time, Mom told him to take a different route to and from work. He did.
Mom was also careful not to walk the dogs on Mrs. L’s side of the street. She was that volatile. The other side of the street was slippery ground and full of tree roots — Mom even fell and broke her arm there, but that’s what you had to do to steer clear of Mrs. L.
She wasn’t just a problem for my family. She also threw fits at just about everyone else in the nabe. Someone called the Catholic church where she was a parishioner and you’ll love this, the church didn’t want to get involved. You don’t want to hear what my mother has to say about this church, trust me on that.
Then came Christmas 2001. I was visiting my parents and was shocked to go on a dog walk as Mom walked on Mrs. L’s side of the street. Apparently, she was gone.
Well, she was. Literally.
On New Year’s Eve, there was a veritable public safety extravaganza at Mrs. L’s place. Cops. Firefighters. Including one who was vomiting in the driveway.
Apparently, Mrs. L had died sometime in mid-December, and the mailman got curious. He went up to the house, peered in a window, and there was her decomposing body in a chair.
The house was fixed up and sold. But the new owners didn’t live there for very long.
The subsequent owners keep very much to themselves. My mother, who’s quite the neighborhood schmoozer, doesn’t even know their name.
Az Slim
What a great story. Thank you.
I feel sorry for the mailman. Not a pretty sight. So did haunted house stories come up in the neighborhood?
Is there a disclosure of death on property law in AZ?
(In Ca if it’s in the last 3 years it must be disclosed to the perspective buyer.)
I use to love Casper as a kid.
Can you imagine the stench of human death coming from that bathroom?
Someone in my mother’s complex died in their unit, and boy, they had fans in the hallway for days. 3 days unit the discovery and the smell was
distinguishable.
Dear Major League Baseball,
When the World Series is still going on while Halloween decorations are hugely discounted because the season is almost over, colleges are running their homecoming weekends, and reporters are crowing about the outstanding start of the home team’s hockey season (go Caps), your season is too long. Please stop it.
-Polly
Only 3 months until Spring Training!
At least they are finishing up before November. They are talking about adding more teams to the playoffs. Nooooo!
As for the basketball lock out, so many teams make the playoffs that it’s basically “pre-season” until April anyway.
huh whats a world series? is it still on? like who cares anymore
I watched DWTS for the first time this year only because i know Nancy Grace…from the old court tv
Spoken like a true Yankee/Red Sox fan.
If their team isn’t playing, it isn’t a World Series
Every pro sport season is now too long.
Football ends at about the right time, but it starts far too early. In a way I can’t blame the owners for wanting to chuck the pre-season in hot and muggy August.
They don’t call it Moneyball for nothin’…
well… its the I eye I eye I eye got mine for years….whoops
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/nyregion/10-arrested-in-1-billion-lirr-disability-scheme.html
LUV public unions…
The Times articles reported that virtually every career employee of the railroad was applying for and receiving disability payments, giving the Long Island Rail Road a disability rate of three to four times that of the average railroad. The Times found that retired railroad employees who had successfully claimed disability were regularly playing golf at a state-owned course without charge — another perquisite of their disability.
“The Times found that retired railroad employees who had successfully claimed disability were regularly playing golf at a state-owned course without charge — another perquisite of their disability.”
That`s probably what got them busted.
Can I get a tee time?
Sorry, we are all filled up with disabled railroad employees.
So where were the non-union managers?
Taking kickbacks for approving disability requests, and filing disability claims themselves.
Check all the links on the Long Island Railroad Wiki page.
Management was in on it too. Management and labor. The corruption at that agency goes back to when it was a private railroad, I have heard.
The doctors that created the injuries out of their imaginations, created the false documents, billed for the treatments never received, got reimbursed for the paperwork related to the treatments never received, etc. also have something to do with it. A few orthopedists with lively imaginations and no ethics. I’m guessing they were the actual instigators. How would anyone else even know where to start?
Public unions game the system nearly everywhere they infest.
Spiking pensions with OT
Turning in 20 years of “sick time”
The DROP program
Retiring on “disability”
etc.
the list is endless…when you have BILLIONs in union money to throw around and the best bribed politicians on your side…
Then elect better politicians. Money is used to run campaigns, but only people actually get to vote. If you want better politicians, go talk to voters.
Here is a little info for you.
“Non-union” managers - managing the public union goons get the same generous contracts as the people they are managing.
NO ONE looks out for the taxpayers - everyone is in on the gravy train.
The LIRR conductors retire under the Federal railroad retirement act. Someone told me recently, that our Washington d.c. politicos retire under the same railroad act. I don’t know if it’s true or not. Also, these disability pensions are federal tax-free. Why? there should be an income cap on disability pensions.
Realtors Are Liars®
Did you oversleep today? This post needs to be in the first 5 every day, lest anyone forget…
….. meetings.
Would it be possible for you to set up an early-morning robo-post?
Great idea. I refuse to allow people to forget that……… Realtors Are Liars®
There are currently 22,400 results on a google search for “realtors are liars”, and the 8th result is a HBB post from earlier this month.
Lealtors are Riars! (Japanese version) -
See Spot.
See Spot run.
See the Realtor.
What`s that Jane?
Realtors Are Liars.
And the devil is in the details.
The banks are not going to lay back and “think of England” while taking a 50% loss.
Europe Bolsters Crisis-Fighting Tools, Pledging Details to Come
By James G. Neuger and Simon Kennedy - Oct 27, 2011 11:35 AM ET
“It remains a deal long on intentions and short on details,” said Jens Larsen, chief European economist at RBC Capital Markets in London. “Until we know how the mechanisms will work, it will be hard to judge whether this will be sufficient to entice investors to provide support to European governments.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/europe-bolsters-crisis-fighting-tools-pledging-to-provide-details-later.html
I don’t understand how bondholders losing 50% on their Greek investments is cause for wild celebration in the stock market. That’s a huge haircut.
Maybe one reason is that it’s not technically a default, so swaps and derivative bombs don’t get triggered.
From the Bloomberg link above:
“Still to be worked out in negotiations, which may fall prey to fresh bouts of political infighting and investor revolt, is just how the firepower of the 440 billion-euro rescue facility will be leveraged and what banks will get in return for accepting the Greek haircut.”
and
““The announcement is enough to buy some time,” said Charles Diebel, head of market strategy at Lloyds Banking Group Plc in London. “Officials have certainly come up with a comprehensive list of actions, but we are certainly still a long way from all the process parts being in place.”
They’ve 14 “crisis summits” in 21 months. Each one was supposed to have contained the crisis. They’re talking about “an agreement in principle” - which really doesn’t mean anything in reality.
With the debt crisis, someone is going to have to lose money. Taking money from the taxpayer, via government payments is the path of least resistance at this time.
Financial companies have threatened, Sampson-esque, to pull the walls down if they aren’t Paid In Full ™. It is with increasing awe that I realize the power these companies have over the governments of the world.
‘They’re talking about “an agreement in principle” - which really doesn’t mean anything in reality.’
In reality, that they’re still talking means something.
“…if they aren’t Paid In Full ™.”
How about a 50 percent haircut instead?
Fighting leverage with more leverage.
That should work out well……
“I don’t understand how bondholders losing 50% on their Greek investments is cause for wild celebration in the stock market. That’s a huge haircut.”
Bondholders are implicitly funding the bull party…
“Bondholders are implicitly funding the bull party…”
Maybe that’s CalSTRS taking the haircut?
“That’s a huge haircut.”
One investor’s haircut is another investor’s reprieve.
The bondholders are getting a 50% haircut, but if the bondholders are banks they are getting a bailout. This is bailout 2.0.
The next big stock market rally will come from a bailout financed by the Chinese.
Then what?
Sanity has been suspended.
““most pharmacist jobs are something that’s really best left to computers”
There a Pharmacists and Clinical Pharmacists. Clinical Pharmacists go on rounds with the MD’s and are part of the team. They will acquaint MD’s on which drugs to use for a given patient. Some drugs need to be formulated separately. Pharmacist’s are also taking over clinics as well.
There are pharmacy jobs all over the country going unfilled and most here in CA start in the $70K to $120K range.
Co-worker of mine wants to buy a house. She found one she likes. $149,900. She offered $155,000 with a $5,000 seller assist. She planned to put 5% down (and was borrowing from her 401k to do so).
Bank came back and denied the loan ($155,000 with 5% down). Said they want to see 20% down. How about that?
She said she could probably get the 20% from her 401k, but decided against it. (Thank God for that decision…what on earth is she thinking?!)
So what have others seen/heard? Is 20% down becoming the norm?
20% USED to be the norm. For almost everyone.
If “your friend” can’t save even a 5% down payment without raiding her 401k - she is not ready for a house.
What happens when the roof leaks or the hot water tank blows-up two months after closing…
A lot of things used to be the “Norm”……
Like stable jobs that paid enough to allow someone to save 20% down payments.
Like health insurance that didn’t cost $1000-1500/month.
Like sales tax rates of 9-10%
Like 19 cent a gallon gas.
Like Government spending as a percent of GDP
Obama = 40%
Truman = 20%
More people = More Gov’t
When has it ever been otherwise?
July 1, 1945 139,928,165 = Truman
July 1, 2010 311,690,813 = lil’ Opie
Hmmm - do you understand how percentages work?
(Hint - it take out population growth so you can compare apples to apples)
Spending is not 40% of GDP. GDP was 14.5T in 2010. 40% of that is 5.8T. The Federal budget in 2011 was 3.46T. That’s 25%.
Where did you get that 40%? The Drudge report?
Yes - it is true. Under obama, the US Government now spends 40% of the net GDP of America. A record.
But bigger government is the only solution to our nation’s problems…and higher taxes. Go OWS.
Spending As Percent Of GDP
www dot usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1900_2010&units=p&title=Spending%20as%20percent%20of%20GDP
Do you roughly know the salary of this co-worker? Does she have high CC debt or other issues? If she has to borrow from her 401K to come up with $8000, my suspicion says she’s not serious about a house. She should have been saving up for at least two years and have that in her checking account already.
In the DC area, the “recently sold” on Zillow shows dozens of houses sold in the $230-280K range (that’s as high as I look). I highly doubt there that many people with $50K cash lying around.
I want an FHA loan for first-time buyers.
Check my math, but isn’t 20% of $150k equal to $30k?
That’s quite a chunk of change for someone to save up. Especially these days.
Yes. Bank wanted her to put $30K down. She wanted to put $8K down, and she had trouble even with that. They probably saw her inability to pony up $8K and saw her as a credit risk.
“Is 20% down becoming the norm?”
I hope so. It would make the 549K house on the corner (assessed at 500K!) more affordable by shrinking further the buyer pool. Not many people with > 100K laying about. Other than on this blog, of course!
I wouldn’t spend $500K on a house on a bet. Not at this salary. The amount of debt I’m willing to take on is my limiting resource, not the downpayment. As of this point, I consider the extra savings I sock away each month to be direct deductions on the amount I will eventually borrow or pay, assuming I ever buy anything at all.
My realtor told me in the late spring that if buyers had to put down 20% that would take a lot of her buyers out of the market. So I’d say at least then they were managing to buy w/less. Sales were up this year. Lots of new kids in my kids’ school. Paper reported the county came up w/3900 additional jobs in 2011.
20% is really only hard for the intro and 30 something crowd. If you’re 50 or older and were already in a house before the bubble you’re still bringing a lot of money forward from the last one. I didn’t make much on my last house but didn’t lose any of the principle from the doubling of the equity we got from the 2 years we owned the house before it.
Cue the sound of yet another shoe dropping. There’s trouble in the mortgage insurance market. With more to come.
Story:
Mortgage Guaranty Insurance — Market Collapsing, Insurers Next?
Nice catch, slim. Even larger downpayment requirements on the way?
Insurers are another part of the current casino market problems.
It’s nice to know that the insurance companies are facing the same problem as granny and gramps, ie i can’t get any return on my money without gambling on what hte FED will do next.
For California residents, is this too good to be true?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/brown-proposes-overhaul-of-ca-pension-programs.html
Brown would raise the retirement age for full benefits to 67 from 55 for most, curb abuses known as “pension spiking” and “double dipping,” and revamp the board overseeing the $225 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System. ”
I heard on the radio this does not apply to CA public safety workers.
God Bless Jerry (fearless and old and wise) Brown!
Yes, I also saw that in the article. However, my understanding is that the ONLY thing that doesn’t apply to safety workers is the higher retirement age for full benefits. I don’t believe the safety workers will still be allowed to pension spike. Here is the quote from the article:
“New public-safety workers, such as police and firefighters, would have to wait longer to retire with full benefits, though not as late as 67. Their new age limits weren’t specified today.”
…. frankly I’ve had it with the fukin’ whining, pandering and playing nicey nice… I care less about all the media driven crap, pseudo-politics, electioneering and campaigns more than I ever have. It doesn’t matter any more. The lies and obfuscation must end. END. I won’t be here another 6 years from now debating which evil choice to make.
You’ve just summed up OWS.
Thats why a publicly financed elections are the only way to save our country….each person on the ballot gets the same amount of money and no one can donate a dime not you, not me, not Exxon!
States’ Medicaid Costs to Surge 29% This Year
~ Bloomberg
State spending in the U.S. on Medicaid will surge 29 percent this year, even as governors slash the health program’s benefits and payments to hospitals and doctors, a survey showed.
States will have to spend more on the health program for the poor to offset the loss of $100 billion in U.S. funds authorized by the 2009 economic stimulus law and to accommodate higher enrollment due to the flagging economy, according to an annual survey of Medicaid officials released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Unemployment remains high with increasing numbers of poor and uninsured keeping pressure on state budgets and Medicaid programs to meet growing needs,” said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Menlo Park, California-based health-policy research group, in a statement.
The foundation’s estimate of a 29 percent increase in state spending is based on projections provided by state Medicaid officials. The survey didn’t ask how much states expect to spend in dollar figures.
States are “cannibalizing from education, transportation, corrections, everywhere else” in their budgets to pay for Medicaid, Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors in Washington, said today in a telephone interview. “In any given state, literally every dollar of new revenue that’s coming in is all going to Medicaid.”
Medicaid is a joint state-federal program. States and the U.S. government were expected to spend about $442 billion combined on the health plan in 2011, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with the federal government paying about 61 percent of the total.
Maybe they’ll work a little harder to crack down on the billions in fraud.
As in the Medicaid mills?
And yet they wont cover basic dental care when our Corporations are so insistent on hiring those with good looks….
Try and get even a retail job with a couple of missing teeth.
In Cautious Times, Banks Flooded With Cash
By ERIC DASH and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: October 24, 2011
“If you had more money than you knew what to do with, would you want more?” asks Don Sturm, a bank owner in Colorado.
Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
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.
Others are finding more subtle ways to stem the flow. Besides paying next to nothing on consumer checking accounts and certificates of deposit, some giants — like JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo — are passing along part of the cost of federal deposit insurance to some of their small-business customers.
Even some community banks, vaunted for their little-guy orientation, no longer seem to mind if you take your money somewhere else.
“We just don’t need it anymore,” said Don Sturm, the owner of American National Bank and Premier Bank, community lenders with 43 branches in Colorado and three other states. “If you had more money than you knew what to do with, would you want more?”
…
And yet payday loan stores are popping up everywere.
Banks will loan you all the money you need as long as you don’t need any.
If you do need money then you’ll have to go elsewhere and pay a hefty price.
Strange times.