Bits Bucket for October 30, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
April 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y
I’ve had enough of this. Oh no you haven’t.
Even without costumes, Realtors are SCARY
What’s scary is the heavy handed tactics of the poh-leece in places like Denver on the Occupy folks. That’s what’s scary. In honor of Halloween, the Occupiers need to get a ton of pig masks and wear them proudly.
Don’t the poh-leece have anyone better to harrass, like drug dealers or something?
Oh, BTW, the MSM does not, of course, report on some of the funnier stuff that happens at these protests. My sis told me that Geraldo Rivera tried to report live from Zucotti Park and couldn’t because of the heckling. How did they heckle him? They just chanted “Fox News 5!” over and over.
Brilliant!
“They just chanted “Fox News 5!” over and over.”
I watched that on youtube, and I was sure they were chanting “Fox New Lies!”
Scary as well are the comments on the Denver Post article covering this police riot.
All the internet tough guys support unrestrained police violence against OWS. They have been well-conditioned by their corporate paymasters to hate OWS. They are fluffers of the 1%er pigmen.
All the internet tough guys support unrestrained police violence against OWS.
I’ll bet they would have cheered on Kristallnacht too.
Don’t the poh-leece have anyone better to harrass, like drug dealers or something?
Maybe because drug dealers aren’t a threat to the 1%’ers?
Aren’t there stories that drug dealers are not only not a threat to the 1%, they are *ahem* a supplier?
I think they’re employees of the 1%.
“I think they’re employees of the 1%.”
Narcotics habits are damned expensive — just ask 1%er Rush Limbaugh.
Does the 1% pay the poh-leece to crack down on the Occupy folks? I’m trying to think of why else they would be cracking down on American citizens exercising their rights to peaceably assemble and protest.
Indirectly. Occupy threatens corporatists, corporatists contribute to the local political machine, the local political machine is what keeps the mayor and city officials in office. Hence, cracking down on Occupy –> –> –> keeps local pols in office. This is especially valuable if they aspire to higher office.
Especially in WY, must rank #1 in lack of transparency.
“A clear trend in this month’s sales, which is indicative of the majority of sales during the last 12 months, are premium building sites selling after a significant amount of days (years in these cases) on market. Revealing sales prices on this web page is not permitted but discounts from the market’s highs were significant, even after notable reductions from original list prices”
http://www.jhpropertyguide.com/jackson-hole-real-estate/property-blog/blog-detail/459/
Realtors rank somewhere between medical waste and pedophiles.
Federal mortgage overhaul put on hold
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 9:39 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011
Jupiter homeowner Tony Tate wasted little time when a lower mortgage payment finally seemed within reach.
He was on the phone with his lender less than 48 hours after President Obama flew to Las Vegas to tout a makeover of his Home Affordable Refinance Program, which he opened to underwater borrowers regardless of how deep their property values have sunk.
“They didn’t know anything more than what they read in the news and couldn’t help me at all,” said the disappointed 81-year-old, whose refinance momentum hit a wall Wednesday.
Some lenders reported increases last week in refinance inquiries after Monday’s announcement but had few - and sometimes conflicting - answers for borrowers.
Quicken Loans said refinance applications for severely underwater borrowers won’t be accepted until the first quarter of 2012. SunTrust said the plan’s effective date is Dec. 1. Third Federal Savings & Loan, Tate’s lender, said it hasn’t evaluated its position on the program and won’t until it has all the details.
For eager Floridians making their loan payments on time through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the flashy rollout without a quick follow-through seems like another tease.
“Borrowers see this carrot out there and then there are no guarantees on anything yet,” said Bobby Bashwiner, a principal with Group One Mortgage in Jupiter. “I don’t know much about it and we don’t want to give false information.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/federal-mortgage-overhaul-put-on-hold-1940817.html?printArticle=y
When will people learn that ANYTHING Obama and his merry band says is a joke? Hellooo? Haven’t we seen this often enuf? The guy is a complete lowlife liar. Smile in your face and spit in your soup. Big smiles and fists full of vaseline.
“Big smiles and fists full of vaseline.”
I’m nominating this for best line of the week.
I’m not sure they are using vaseline anymore; it costs to much, they just push harder.
“They didn’t know anything more than what they read in the news and couldn’t help me at all,” said the disappointed 81-year-old, whose refinance momentum hit a wall
Eyes planned since 1997 not to have a personal-$helter mortgage when eyes reach age 81. Still have 27 years (Iffin’ eyes so fortunate!) to fail on that $it-u-Ation.
“For eager Floridians making their loan payments on time through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the flashy rollout without the quick follow-through seems like another tease.”
Do the FB keep on staying and keep on paying?
If the answer is “Yes” then the program is working just as it was designed to work.
Absolutely nof FB dollar shall be allowed to escape. Not one.
“Do the FB keep on staying and keep on paying?”
“Donovan said the plan came together now because it took nearly two years to determine what the problems were with the original 2009 program.”
“They didn’t know anything more than what they read in the news and couldn’t help me at all,” said the disappointed 81-year-old, whose refinance momentum hit a wall Wednesday.”
They had better hurry up and bail out this FB because I am not sure he has another 2 years. Just go ahead and give him that 40 year 0% interest Fannie Mae loan.
—————————————————————————-
For a long time, Fannie Mae would not buy mortgages with terms longer than 30 years. Fannie Mae stuck its toe in the 40-year mortgage pool a year and a half ago when it started a pilot program to buy the long loans from 22 credit unions. Now Fannie Mae has taken the plunge, and will buy conforming 40-year mortgages from any qualified lender.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20050602a1.asp - 74k
Went to a Halloween party last night. Spoke with one gentleman who had a friend with 15 rentals. His friend tried to get a mortgage workout 3 years ago but couldn`t so he stopped paying the mortgage on the 15 rentals. He has continued to collect the rent on the 15 units for the last 3 years. Deadbeats, Banks and Fannie and the sh#t don`t hit the fan.
“Deadbeats, Banks and Fannie and the sh#t don’t hit the fan.”
Patience.
Karma is a bitch and sometimes this bitch takes its time visiting all those who need a visit.
Just because deadbeats don’t pay doesn’t mean they don’t owe. The pile of deadbeat money is steadily growing, and the more money there is in the pile the more incentive there is for someone to dig into it.
Has anyone here ever considered that possibly these deadbeats are just being used? That their actions help along the policy of Expend and Pretend, and that when their usefulness to the PTB is over that they will be thrown under the bus?
This is my thinking.
I tend to agree. But until unaffordable houses begin to sell like hot cakes again Extend and Pretend will continue, which means it will be around for a loooooong time.
The smart deadbeats will hide it, so when the foreclosure finally happens they will just waltz away. And given the low interest rates the banks offer these days many will stuff it into a matress anyway.
Combo, we’ve been waiting four years. I’ve started to think by the time this thing finally adjusts to reflect reality I’ll be dead.
“Combo, we’ve been waiting four years …”
Only four? And - what? - this thing should be solved and settled after four years?
Lol. It took a generation of time for us to get here and it will take a generation of time for us to get somewhere else.
“Only four? And - what? - this thing should be solved and settled after four years?”
I started seriously looking to buy another house in the beginning of 2004. At that point my kids were 11, 9 and 5. I should have been looking 5 years earlier when the youngest was born but silly me didn`t want to spend $140k on a house when my income didn`t support that much of a payment. By the beginning of 2004 $140k didn`t buy squat so I figured I would wait until prices came down. Well I am still waiting for what seems like about 8 years and through fault of my own (yes fault of my own) about 13 years. The bright side being I have never put myself in a position where I have not been able to give any of my kids what they needed.
Well, combo, are we all them stuck renting for another generation?
The bright side being I have never put myself in a position where I have not been able to give any of my kids what they needed.
In the end that’s what really matters. Kids don’t need an McMansion or an Escalade in the driveway.
Only four? And - what? - this thing should be solved and settled after four years?
Maybe not “solved” but how about at least a step in the right direction instead of policies to keep housing unaffordable?”
You guys crack me up; You have absolutely no patience whatsoever.
Events are unfolding just as they should. Just because these events do not meet your schedule doesn’t mean the schedule is wrong. Maybe something is wrong with YOUR schedule.
The forces of deflation are at hand. Accept this or not, it is entirely up to you. If you chose to accept it then you should choose the method that best suits your position in order for you to cope with it. If you don’t then that’s on you.
Kids don’t need an McMansion or an Escalade in the driveway.
Geez, what will the neighbors think of Mr & Ms. Jones as provider$ then?
The forces of deflation are at hand.
And you accuse us of expecting things to happen right away? You’ve been beating on the deflation drum for years, insisting that it’s imminent.
“You’ve been beating on the deflation drum for years, insisting that it’s imminent.”
I was in the deflation camp four or five years ago, but I sure am not seeing much of it yet.
About the only segments that I see deflating are house prices and wages. Everything else the Fed seems to be succeeding at pumping ever upwards.
insisting that it’s imminent.
Given enough geological time, pert near anything’s po$$ible.
“You guys crack me up; You have absolutely no patience whatsoever.”
Please note that each month that I am “patient” is a month where I throw a significant chunk of change in the trashcan of my landlord. I see no reason to spend $60K waiting for house prices to drop $60K.
I see no reason to spend $60K waiting for house prices to drop $60K.
If you have the money to pay cash that makes a lot of sense. But if most of your payment was going to go to interest anyway…
Oxide, some of your remarks are interesting.
Well, combo, are we all them stuck renting for another generation?
Please note that each month that I am “patient” is a month where I throw a significant chunk of change in the trashcan of my landlord. I see no reason to spend $60K waiting for house prices to drop $60K.
On one hand, nearly all of us degree that, in most parts of this country, renting makes more sense than buying at this point. This is based on raw numbers. On the other hand, there is still a belief among many people than it’s better to be a homeowner and that paying rent to a landlord is like throwing money away. It doesn’t really make sense, especially if you consider the fact that large numbers of these landlords will face foreclosure in the coming years.
“Geez, what will the neighbors think of Mr & Ms. Jones as provider$ then?” (Regarding the lack of Escalades in the driveway)
Haha, I think about this often. While my wife owns a nice ‘07 Corolla, I own a piece of crap ‘88 Corolla. Crap paint, crap body, crap interior. Runs great though. Anyway, our 9-month old boy doesn’t care. Yet. I can’t wait until he does, cuz then I get to give him my first lecture on consumer economics, pride, peer pressure, etc. I have a few years to prepare this one, so it had better be good.
There’s no way the banksters are gonna eat their dogfood. The printing press and the taxpayer paid bank bailouts will continue while housing remains unaffordable.
You have to make an allowance for that contingency by pursuing parallel financial plans: In other words, if you are still considering becoming a homeowner at some point in the future, pursue a current diversification strategy which will keep your household financial security intact, whether or not you ever again buy a home.
Yes, it’s OK for him to be a deadbeat, but can you imagine how quickly he would bounce those tenants if THEY missed a payment? Lowlife is right.
I’m having a “Ford pardons Nixon” moment…
I am not picking on jeff but I see too much apathy in general at all levels of society. This blog is filled with people with strong opinions and 99% of thinks that this ’scamming the system’ needs to stop before the RE market can ever stabilize. So my question is: When you find a injustice like this why not expose it? Who is this person and can you collect any facts of evidence that could be assembled into a prosecutable legal action? Collect the data, publish it here and then we (the League of Extraordinary HBB Vigilantes) can use the power of the internet to stuff in in-boxes of public officials and journalist with compelling reasons to expose and fix these problems.
I need more coffee.
PS: Jeff, I would really appreciate if you could give us a follow up someday when this guy hits the wall and how it turns out.
Prosecutable how?
Person owns property. Person rents out property. Person stops paying mortgage on property. Well, whether it is fair or not, until someone with a right to foreclose steps up, that person is still the owner and has the right to charge and collect rent.
Fair? Of course not. But unless the renter managed to sneak something into the lease so that they don’t have to pay the rent if the mortgage isn’t being paid, there is nothing to do. And as long as no one forecloses, the owner is providing the property for the renter to posess.
Don’t like it? Try to change the lease, but don’t expect anyone to accept your new terms.
You have some valid points. How would you fill out his tax return and account for this stream of income and no offsetting expense of debt repayment? I’m not looking to the renters to reject their responsibilities as tenants because there maybe a dummy middle man doing the renting and collecting so the renters may not know this landlord is scamming the system. I bet that if someone sent them (the renters) the details of how their landlord is pocketing their rent this issue would move much quicker to a just solution. Remember this landlord is subjecting his renters to being suddenly evicted when the courts finally get around to foreclosing on the property.
No connection. LL has right of enjoyment until he his foreclosed. That includes renting out.
It would be interesting to know if he’s deducting the mortgage interest that he’s not paying. But that’s an IRS matter.
“When you find a injustice like this why not expose it?”
I don`t personally know the guy I was told about last night. I think it was Bob in WPB who posted about a guy who was doing the same thing with about 10 houses. The gentleman Bob described paid a lawyer a certain amount of money every month to keep the banks at bay. He said the difference between what he paid the lawyer to keep the banks from foreclosing and what he collected in rent turned out to be about $10k in his pocket every month. Bob called it a cottage industry in Florida.
I do personally know of about 10 people collecting rent on houses they have not paid the mortgage on in several years and too many to count that are FB or serial refinance owner occupied.
The only thing I am planning on doing is sending the rat form in to the IRS on the 2 LLs that I have paid along with a copy of every rent check I have sent to them since Oct. 2005 when I finally get out of this place. Besides that, I don`t know of anything else to do. I would like to say hopefully but I had better not because that does sound spiteful, as suggested by some pretty smart people on this blog when this is over there will be an industry that sprouts up to chase down people who have gained large sums of money in an unethical / tax free way.
I salute you for at least trying jeff. I would hope the IRS will follow through and connect the dots. I admit my social circle will probably never bring me into contact with these crooks so I must place my faith in people like you who at least have some direct knowledge of these scams.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857533/This-was-the-week-that-European-democracy-died.html
This was the week that European democracy died. The people have no say in taxing and spending decisions, which renders their votes meaningless. Whether they will remain docile sheep like their US counterparts, or take to the streets, remains to be seen.
I thought their US counterparts HAVE taken to the streets.
.00013 of them, maybe. Many of whom are in the ever-growing Free Sh*t Army, demanding the gub’mint give them a free ride through college, provide “affordable housing,” etc.
Free ride???? I attended a state school in the early 90’s where in-state tuition was $800 a semester. That’s 8 weeks of a summer job at minimum wage. Couple that with a beater car or bus pass and living at home, and college was darn near a free ride.
Now, in-state tuition is what a private school used to cost, summer jobs are nowhere to be had, and you’d be lucky to get a job coming out. Sci-eng are not immune.
In the last ten years, which has gone up more- health care or higher education costs? I’m guessing health care, but the “keepers of the knowledge” who run higher education are doing their best to keep up.
Higher education’s recruiting plans and business plans are remarkably similar to the way Scientology operates.
Congratulations, Europe. Now you know what we felt like at the time our Congress approved TARP despite a 70%+ disapproval rate and then again when we discovered our leaders were using the citizens’ future labor to guarantee European banks and agencies. At least Germans have been told the truth about which countries their labor is benefitting.
But wait…your plan’s details are murky too. Might as well prepare yourself for other unsavory revelations.
Despite the 70% disapproval rate for TARP, 95% of the electorate voted for Republicrat candidates who made clear their intention to backstop Wall Street’s bad debts with taxpayer money. The sheeple can always be counted on coming through for the oligarchs, despite their grumbling.
Wow, I didn’t realize that republican candidates got NINETY-FIVE PERCENT of the votes in the last election!
Oops, my bad. Trying to read the screen w/o my glasses. Sammy said republicrats, not republicans. Sorry.
I’ve almost made the same mistake a couple of times…
Obama and McCain got 95% of the vote between them. Since Democrats and Republicans are like Coke & Pepsi on the issues that matter, especially economic policy, I call them the Republicrats. BOTH parties are on the make and on the take, and both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Wall Street.
Unions = “Evil”
Global CorpInc.’$ = “$uffering $o’s”
In America “they”‘ have accumulated x2TRILLION$ in Ca$H (Gathering intere$t outside the US x50 States) and yet, they whine, whine, whine!
“…if you tax them le$$, they can hire more people!”
Hurry! reduce/eliminate their taxe$, hurry,… Cinder$ & Ashe$…Schemer$ & Scammmer$…Agonie$ & Pain$, help ‘em…help ‘em.
Qantas infuriated unions in August when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline with its own name and brand. The five-year restructure plan will cost 1,000 jobs.
Qantas is among the most profitable airlines in the world
Aussie court hears Qantas case as fliers scramble
By ROD McGUIRK - Associated Press | AP
Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Katie Oyan in Phoenix and Alex Kennedy in Singapore and AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Tens of thousands of stranded Qantas Airways passengers scrambled to reach their destinations Sunday as the airline, its unions and the Australian government argued in a lengthy arbitration hearing over the abrupt grounding of its entire fleet.
The airline demanded a permanent ruling against more union strikes
About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers this weekend were stuck at home, hotels, airports or even had to suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations Saturday.
Qantas had reduced and rescheduled flights for weeks as union workers struck and refused to work overtime out of worries that a restructuring plan would move some of Qantas’ 35,000 jobs overseas.
“It’s not our place to start allocating responsibility, but what I also know is there is a better way to resolve these matters … than locking your customers out,” Australian Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten told reporters Sunday in the southern city of Melbourne. “We want more common sense than that.”
“True
PatriotGLOBALCEO’$™” plead, plead, plead: “give u$ a tax repatriation holiday and we’ll bring the money back and start creating Job$! Job$! Job$!…”AS it focuses on patterns of behavior
IT focuses on patterns of behavior
FOCUSE$ on patterns of behavior
ON patterns of behavior
PATTERN$ of behavior
patterns of behavior
patterns of behavior
patterns of behavior
patterns
OF
BEHAVIOR
Straighten up and fly right
Straighten up and stay right
Straighten up and fly right
Rain Man Airport Scene Qantas Never Crashed - YouTube
19 Jul 2007 … Charlie Babbit tries to get Raymond on a flight to LA but …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZQkslDBjM - 114k -
when it said it would improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based airline with its own name and brand.
The “new” Qantus/Countonus™ Corp.Inc motto:
“Countonus to never crash due to low-wage worker$/Plane$/Material$”
heheeeheeeheehaahaaahaaheeehaahaaa… (Hwy50™)
In a statement, Qantas pilots slammed the airline’s chief executive, Alan Joyce, for grounding the entire fleet, saying it is unfair to passengers, shareholders and workers.
Joyce “obviously thinks Qantas is his personal plaything to use in his high-stakes game against pilots and other workers,” said Richard Woodward, the president of the Australian and International Pilots Association.
Qantas ordered to end labor dispute:
From Hugh Williams, CNN/ Sun October 30, 2011
Sydney (CNN) — An Australian workplace relations tribunal on Sunday ordered Qantas to end a labor dispute that has left tens of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide.
The labor dispute involves three unions representing air and ground staff of Australia’s largest domestic and international airline.
Union officials have accused the airline of planning to outsource ground jobs at a cost of thousands of Australian jobs, and putting profits first. Pay and working conditions have also been at the center of the disputes.
Joyce has come under fire for grounding the fleet, which was preceded by weeks of tension between the airline and its workers.
It’s “a maniacal overreaction,” said Richard Woodward, vice president of the Australian and International Pilots’ Union.
The decision to ground the Qantas fleet, stranding thousands of passengers around the world, was unnecessary and grossly irresponsible, he said in a statement.
In a statement, the Transport Workers Union of Australia described the cancellations as “disgraceful” and aimed at destroying the airline.
Qantas, which has its headquarters in Sydney, is the second oldest airline in the world, and marked its 90th anniversary last year.
“It makes me wonder whether I would book with Qantas again,” said Isabelle Storer, who was stuck at the airport with her husband after a visit to the United States.
Their connection to Adelaide was canceled, leaving her frustrated because her husband needed medical treatment, she said.
What’s different, and why everyone from opinion columnists to “The Daily Show” is paying attention is who is behind the study.
One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation, whose founder is a major funder of skeptic groups and the tea party. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, run a large privately held company involved in oil and other industries, producing sizable greenhouse gas emissions.
Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
[Muller wrote recently in The Wall Street Jaundice editorial pages, a place friendly to skeptics. (E$pecially to one's who defend the $uffeing $o's!)]
Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real
By SETH BORENSTEIN - AP Science Writer | AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly.
The study of the world’s surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers. He pursued long-held skeptic theories in analyzing the data. He was spurred to action because of “Climategate,” a British scandal involving hacked emails of scientists.
Yet he found that the land is 1.6 degrees warmer than in the 1950s. Those numbers from Muller, who works at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, match those by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
He said he went even further back, studying readings from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His ultimate finding of a warming world, to be presented at a conference Monday, is no different from what mainstream climate scientists have been saying for decades.
What’s different, and why everyone from opinion columnists to “The Daily Show” is paying attention is who is behind the study.
One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation, whose founder is a major funder of skeptic groups and the tea party. The Koch brothers, Charles and David, run a large privately held company involved in oil and other industries, producing sizable greenhouse gas emissions.
Muller’s research team carefully examined two chief criticisms by skeptics. One is that weather stations are unreliable; the other is that cities, which create heat islands, were skewing the temperature analysis.
“The skeptics raised valid points and everybody should have been a skeptic two years ago,” Muller said in a telephone interview. “And now we have confidence that the temperature rise that had previously been reported had been done without bias.”
Muller said that he came into the study “with a proper skepticism,” something scientists “should always have. I was somewhat bothered by the fact that there was not enough skepticism” before.
There is no reason now to be a skeptic about steadily increasing temperatures, Muller wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages, a place friendly to skeptics. Muller did not address in his research the cause of global warming. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists say it’s man-made from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Nor did his study look at ocean warming, future warming and how much of a threat to mankind climate change might be.
Still, Muller said it makes sense to reduce the carbon dioxide created by fossil fuels.
“Greenhouse gases could have a disastrous impact on the world,”
So Muller = Benedict Arnold.
You want to see how vicious skeptics can be when one of their own crosses the line about religion. There is this blogger, Willis Eschenbach
(http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/24/what-the-best-data-actually-says/), who frequently savages climate scientists over at wattsupwiththat.com has revealed he’s an atheist. Well that sure struck a nerve with the majority of the skeptics a royal food fight has erupted.
Go have a look,
http://judithcurry.com/2011/10/28/is-there-any-good-news-for-the-environment-among-evangelicals/
“…global warming is real…”
Does this oft-repeated, though seemingly vapid, political statement have any scientific content whatever?
Those numbers from Muller, who works at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, match those by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
Let’s get an 2nd opinion from $cientology.
“Does this oft-repeated, though seemingly vapid, political statement have any scientific content whatever?”
Why don’t you ask one of the vast majority of climate scientists who believe it to be so?
Or if you prefer, delve into the works of the skeptics, and while you do so, be sure to check out who sponsors their research. And see if maybe there’s a conflict of interest.
There are conflicts of interest on all sides of the discussion of global warming and separately whether mankind’s activities have any appreciable effect on the issue. Many want to conflate the two issues for political reasons.
“Why don’t you ask one of the vast majority of climate scientists who believe it to be so?”
Who believe what? I guess it depends on what the definition of ‘real’ is.
Higher by 1.6 degrees…..+/- what?
No serious scientist is convinced by data showing a change less than measurement accuracy. I’ll be ole Benjamin wasn’t using a thermometer certified to +/- 0.01 degree. No one on either side of this political/science debate speaks like a scientist.
BTW, the 50s were pretty severly cold and snowy in Buffalo. I remember.
There is a scene in the movie Jesus Camp where a rabid evangelical kid (”Ah got saved whin ah was fahve years ode.”) was being home-schooled to parrot that precise talking point, that 1.6° wasn’t considered warming.
Great docu
As is The Most Hated Family in America.
On the econ side, The Ascent of Money is good.
BTW, the 50s were pretty severly cold and snowy in Buffalo. I remember.
All Global weather is local. (that and also that a butterfly flapped it’s wings somewhere in Papua New Guinea this a.m.)
“No serious scientist is convinced by data showing a change less than measurement accuracy.”
I guess NASA and NOAA are full of non-serious scientists. Maybe you should volunteer to set them straight.
“…+/- what?”
I’m guessing +/- more than 1.6 degrees.
Hi.
Warning long rante: several topics:
Not much snow here in suburban Boston about 4 inches.
I keep reading about this food inflation and I don’t see it. My sister in Virginia said yes OMG! I eat healthy meaning usually simple - make stuff myself and shop the specials. The market has rotissere (spelling?) chicken for $5 every Friday. There always some other specials yesterday tuna 10 for $10. Yes there has been down sizing in the size of packages tuna from 6 oz to 5 oz. And ice cream, too. But those happened quite a few years back, I thought?? So yes a cost increase in that regards but still don’t see this terrible terribe food inflation. Even though I said I eat healthy I did get frozen dinners 4 / $10. They’re quick for lunch. But I could make lunch for a bit less. More healthful would be PBJ sandwich my guesstimate less than a $1.
My thoughts on OWS:
Apparently they have put out a list of demands (Heard this on The McLaughlin Group.) They basically are Utopian / socialists. Eliminate everyones’ debt, free healthcare, ect… Though I suspect there is a mixed group and probaly includes people from the other viewpoints. Which leads me to the healthcare. A crisis created by the Dems. to wrest more money and control. Insurance is cheap. I am 50 years old. Was last year between jobs and got a Blue Cross / Blue Shield polilcy for about $120 per month. This was in Wash, DC.
I think people are confusing insurance with healthcare. Let me explain. You just need a policy like the above mentioned one for a catastrophic events car wreck, ect… What the Dems and their constiuency are promoting it that anyone should be able to go get the run of the mill health free (e.g. paid for by someone else.) Or that you should pay for insurance at the above rate and have all you can eat healthcare. You’re old and did not save money for it. Yes let the taxper pay for your high blood pressure medicine. You get the sob stories in news about Mary or Sue or whoever a “single” mom who is 23 works retail has has 4 kids and thinks she should be able to take them to the doctor for every sore throat, scapped knee, etc.. on someone else’s dime. I feel sorry for people who make poor life decisions but am not interested in paying for their mistakes. Doing just so encourages more of the same. The very first thing that should have been done for insurance / health care would be legal reform. My brother is a GP. He says that he and everyone else even doctors at HMOs do so so so many tests / procudures due avoid legal liablity.
I am glad to rant more. Taxes: So much of the trouble with the US and other developed ecomonies this gloabalization. There’s global labor glut, always has been. The Republican candiates for president talk about cutting taxes. They are too high and regulation is too much. But even if you could fix that problem (think Solyndra and all the other government waste) it would not mitigate the fact that an auto worker in Mexico earns $10 - $15 per day vs. a US auto worker in S. Carolina who makes that much per hour.
The Dems. are even worse. You could tax all “the rich” at 90% and still would not be enought money for they way they want to spend it.
So back to OWS and others. Life does not come with guarantees. As other posters here have noted US middle class post WWII was a histoical / economic anomoly. Americans still live better than most people. Hard to see that having fewer materals things is such a great tragedy. It might even do some good for people to concetrate on something besides consuption.
(think Solyndra and all the other government wa$te)
Jib-Jab / ping-pong / teeter-totter:
Rant-On!
(You might find these logic tool$ useful: Compare / Contrast / Prioritize!)
$528 million$ x1…verses…$700 Billion$…per year!
When the GOP has “Angry” tea-party’$ & wannabe POTUS “I’m-the-Decider-now!” candidates advocating this: “Audit-the-Pentagon!”, you’ll have a citizen/taxpayer true Hope & Change roadmap.
GOP’s Boehner Demands $2 Billion for Ohio Plant After Solyndra
By Brian Wingfield - Oct 27, 2011
House Speaker John Boehner attacked the Obama administration for financing failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, saying government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. That hasn’t stopped him from demanding that the U.S. make a winner of a nuclear-fuel plant in Ohio, his home state.
GOP’s Hatch urged $20M in earmarks for bankrupt clean energy firm
By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Sen. Orrin Hatch, a vocal critic of the Obama administration’s backing of a Department of Energy loan guarantee to solar manufacturer Solyndra, pushed for more than $20 million in government funding for a bankrupt clean energy firm in his home state of Utah.
Broadband company’s demise puts taxpayers on hook for $74 million loan:
By Cecilia Kang, Published: October 26:
Like Solyndra, Open Range aimed to use cutting-edge technology with a fragile business model, some analysts said.
The federal loan given to Open Range was part of a long-standing policy
objective, pushed by both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, to extend high-speed Internet service to the most isolated parts of the country.
It might even do some good for people to concetrate on something besides consuption.
Its one thing to have your near 6 figure salary stagnate or even shrink a bit, and its quite another to go from 50K to 25K income, or to graduate from college with student loans just to find out all the jobs are being offshored.
I don’t go through one day without empathizing with hapless recent college grads who lack job prospects, despite their glowing resumes.
Most of the people under age 25 are truly f*d. Gen X had it easy compared to what they are and will be facing…
Yep, I do feel sorry for these kids. Where do you draw the line from sensible spending for school and silly spending? I was accepted into an Ivy. I thought the debt would be too much so opted for state U. Was talking with a neighbor who works in higher ed. A lot of these people who have so much student debt are ones who borrowed as much for the lifestyle for years at school with semesters abroad or abroad holidays and did not work at all during the fours years. Borrowing to live high just like many of their parents. That kind of college experience will once again be reserved for the truly rich.
“That kind of college experience will once again be reserved for the truly rich.”
I’m thinking that is what most 1%ers have in mind: If only their children attend the Ivies and schools of similar caliber, it will make it far easier for the next generation of 1%ers to maintain control of the 99% Lilliputians who surround them.
A lot of these people who have so much student debt are ones who borrowed as much for the lifestyle for years at school with semesters abroad or abroad holidays and did not work at all during the fours years.
The cost of a college education, even at state universities, is now so high that it’s possible to rack up huge debt without enjoying any such luxuries.
Here’s another point. When I was an undergraduate in the early 1980s I worked 10 - 20 hours per week in a college cafeteria. It helped pay for textbooks and whatnot. These days, the cost of tuition is so high that jobs like that provide only a tiny percentage of the money needed to pay for a degree.
And here’s a third point to keep in mind. When you made a decision to attend a state university instead of an Ivy League school, you saved money by having the taxpayers of the state pick up a huge portion of the cost of your education.
Anon, your first mistake is to put a label on OWS. Nice try but from where I stand (on the picket line) the #1 demand is GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!. All these other issues can be addressed once you remove the distortion of money. What label goes with Get the Money Out of Politics? Socialist, Communist, Anarchist?
BTW, Did you know the US Constitution allows amendments to the constitution by ratification by 2/3 of the States WITHOUT the amendment originating in Congress? Look up the history of the 18th amendment and see how close that came to happening when congress refused support legislation to have senators elected instead of appointed by the States. Now just imagine if one could draft an amendment that radically reformed the process of elections that prevented money from corrupting the candidates? Tear down the wall the two party system has erected and open the system to more political groups.
“I am 50 years old. Was last year between jobs and got a Blue Cross / Blue Shield polilcy for about $120 per month. This was in Wash, DC.”
Absolutely no frickin’ way.
Why is it that people who support our current health care rapesystem are able to find these amazingly low rates- far lower than anyone I know pays? Is there some secret word you say to let them know you’re one of them, and deserving of a 60% employee discount?
You’re right no frickin way - I just checked. It was $145 per month. What I was really insuring was my savings if I had gotten in a car wreck, gone the to emergency room with a heart attack, etc… . It had a high deductible. This exactly my point. It was insurance which is still quite affordable for most people.
What is really no longer available is let me pay a two or three hundre hundred dollars a month and have on demand all I can eat health care. That is what people are griping about not being able to get anymore.
I understand what you’re saying about catastrophic coverage versus everything coverage but I’d still like to know where you got decent catastrophic coverage that cheap. And how high WAS the deductible on it?
“but I’d still like to know where you got decent catastrophic coverage that cheap. And how high WAS the deductible on it?”
+1 I still say there’s no plan that meets those numbers, unless you can find one with a $50,000 deductible.
I’m a 44 year-old male, in good health, have no chronic illnesses, take no prescription meds, and I pay Blue Cross $220 a month, with a pretty high deductible ($2000 IIRC). And if I bumped it to the $5000 deductible, the highest I’ve been offered, I would only save about $30 a month. I chose this plan after comparing it to those of numerous other companies, all of which were nearly the same or higher.
I’ve discussed this with many other people, and no one ever said they had a plan anywhere near as cheap as yours. Most report numbers similar to- or much higher- than mine.
I’m 52, female, no adverse medical history and live in the DC area. My Blue Cross with a $5,000 deductible is $335 a month. I’ve been on the plan for 3 years and have never seen any medical professional for anything.
Anon,
Get back to us after you try to make a claim on that $120/month insurance policy, kay?
Why should it be U.S. taxpayers’ burden to help the quasi-private GSEs get back on their feet?
Regulator rebuts critics on housing help
Acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Edward DeMarco delivers testimony on robo-signing and foreclosures at a hearing of the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Service Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 18, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
By Margaret Chadbourn
WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 29, 2011 10:34pm EDT
(Reuters) - Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator on Saturday rejected criticism he was obstructing a housing recovery by taking too narrow a view of his mission to protect the financial health of the two massive, taxpayer-supported mortgage firms.
Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, argued the $141 billion in taxpayer funds Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had received since they were seized by the government in 2008 were meant to get the companies back on their feet, not to provide “broad relief” to the housing market.
“FHFA has been aggressively trying to assist the housing market to ensure that the country continues to have a liquid and stable and functioning secondary mortgage market,” DeMarco said in an interview with C-SPAN public affairs television that was set to air on Sunday.
“Some of those things that are being advocated for us to do really go beyond what Congress has given us the authority to do and the funds that have been provided,” he said.
…
I post this article not because I necessarily agree with it, but because it offers a prevalent and oft-repeated viewpoint which seems worth discussing.
Thursday, Oct 27, 2011 5:09 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Make the banks pay
Obama and the AGs still balk at the only solution to the housing-driven recession
By Adam Levitin
There is $700 billion in negative equity in the U.S. housing market. That means Americans owe $700 billion more than their homes are worth. Any plan for the housing sector or the U.S. economy, that doesn’t take a serious bite out of negative equity isn’t serious.
Yet un-serious is what we continue to get from elected officials. This week the Obama Administration announced a new plan to help underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages to lower rates. The plan, really an expansion of an existing program, is the latest in a series of programs designed to deal with the moribund housing market. Each has proven a more dismal disappointment than the next.
So too with the latest version of the proposed settlement between the state Attorneys General, led by Iowa’s Tom Miller, and the mortgage servicing industry. Yes, the deal has been sweetened by the addition of some interest rate reductions for underwater homeowners who are current on their payments. But that’s small potatoes.
These approaches haven’t worked and won’t work because they fail to acknowledge that negative equity is the critical problem in the U.S. economy. We’re in a “balance sheet recession” caused by people pulling back on their spending because they’re concerned about their households’ net financial position. The central reason for this concern is that houses—historically the major asset of most households—are worth much less than they were. In many cases, they are worth less than the debt they secure.
…
I’m missing the problem with enterprising investors taking advantage of affordable buying programs to purchase homes and rent them out to low-income renters. Isn’t this in line with the purpose for such programs?
CalHFA wants to foreclose on owners renting out homes
Los Angeles Business from bizjournals by Michael Shaw, Staff Writer
Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 6:52am PDT
A California Senate panel claimed Monday that the California Housing Finance Agency is forcing some borrowers who have rented out their homes into foreclosure even when they are current on their payments.
As if California’s foreclosure problems weren’t enough, a state Senate panel claimed Monday that the California Housing Finance Agency is forcing some borrowers who have rented out their homes into foreclosure even when they are current on their payments.
The agency is considered the state’s “affordable housing bank.”
Its officials claim the agency has no choice because its federally backed programs, which give borrowers lower mortgage rates than they get on the open market, are designed to help lower income individuals get housing, not rent out their homes.
…
No it was not supposed to be state sponsored capitalism for people that falsify loan applications.
Next
I was just funnin’ ya…I often like to play the Devil’s Advocate to avoid becoming too entrenched in any particular view.
There has never been a better time to buy in Sarasota.
The Time to Buy is Now
In 2007, it was sellers who stubbornly held onto their asking price. Now it could be that buyers who wait for the great shadow inventory fall out will find themselves empty handed in Sarasota.
Real estate is local. So local in fact that a near beach property in Englewood will fetch about half the dollars of its counterpart in Sarasota.
Property bargain hunters who pitch low offers at sellers and continue to hold onto the national statistics will probably be priced out of the market by this time next year.
The inventory of distressed sales in Sarasota has only risen 3 percent in the past 12 months, nowhere near the numbers predicted by the general national reports.
Sarasota is a naturally affluent town and has multiple extraordinary beaches and an international population, all factors that are likely to be contributing to the low number of distressed property sales.
In fact, since the start of October, only 273 new listings have come on the market while 255 listings have gone under contract. Numbers like this show that there is not only equilibrium between sellers and buyers, but also stability in prices across the board. Stabilization has been noted in the under $300,000 properties, and the numbers continue to creep upwards.
…
Somebody PLEASE listen to this man!
Republican candidate Buddy Roemer speaks on Money in Politics this Sunday morning, 10/30/2011.
His #1 issue is GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.
Watch where he points out how the debates have excluded him by changing the rules to always end up excluding him. Every time he reaches the point where he should get a spot on the stage the debate committees raise the bar. Now they require that qualified candidates must have raised at least $500,000 in the last 90 days. Of course Roemer doesn’t have the big money so we won’t get to hear his ideas.
C-SPAN | Washington Journal
Former Governor Roemer spoke about his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and the 2012 presidential election campaign. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications.
30 minutes
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/Cmp
I would note this link looks temporary but the full interview is on their website.
Storm Update-
Hudson Valley looks like a war zone. Roads impassable due to trees until this afternoon. Trees everywhere. NO power, scattered cell service, nobody knows anything as far as making an efficient plan because communications are down. 13 counties in NY declared disaster zones.
Decided leave NY and head to project location in RI and CT. Same thing. Oddly my RV park is fully lit and with net connections but we are the exception. The damage is the same here. FAR worse than Irene. Gov. Malloy is attempting to get Feds to declare state of CT a disaster zone. It is in my opinion.
It’s suppose to get down to 20degrees F. tonite. I heard on the radio that NJ is an unmitigated disaster.
All tolled there are 3 million houses and biz without power.
Exeter
Who Dat?
Didn`t that used to be a small e RAL?
Talked to my mom in Old Greenwich, she said there were a bunch of trees down in the hood but they still have power.
Well….. you know how it is in the high brow district. j/k
Realtors Are Liars®
This is woth a looc.
Street painters misspell school street sign, in school zone
By Danielle Alvarez and Ishovani Rodriguez
Sun Sentinel
Posted: 4:23 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011
LAUDERHILL — This could spell trouble for a group of pavement painters.
Just a block away from an elementary school subcontractors goofed and stenciled the pavement with the letters “scohol.” Yep, you read that right; “scohol” instead of “school.”
The crew, working near the corner of 50th Street and Pine Island Road, seemingly failed to spell check its work with the nearby signs for Banyan Elementary School.
The stenciling happened earlier this week by a subcontractor hired by a Broward County’s contractor, M. Vila & Associates, according to Brad Terrier, assistant director for the county’s Highway Construction and Engineering Division.
“We do review the work, unfortunately it seems like we may have not gotten to that review as of yet,” Terrier said on Friday afternoon, just hours after he was alerted to the error from news reports.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/street-painters-misspell-school-street-sign-in-school-1941783.html -
The Eagles
Take it to the limit
All alone at the end of the evening
And the bright lights have faded to blue
I signed for Three-Hundred and sixty payments
But I only made two
You know I’ve always been a Deadbeat
(spent my life running ’round)
And it’s so hard to change
(Can’t seem to settle down)
But the dreams I’ve seen lately
Keep on turning out and burning out
And turning out the same
So put me on a Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is opened to underwater borrowers regardless of how deep their property values have sunk
Show me where to sign
And take it to the limit one more time
You can spend all your time making money
You can stiff all the people you owe
If it all fell to pieces tomorrow
I`d have no place to go
So when you’re looking for your free ride
(Nobody seems to care)
And you can’t find the last mortgage payment you made 3 years ago
(Can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back, you’re running back,
your come’n back for more
So put me on a Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is opened to underwater borrowers regardless of how deep their property values have sunk
Show me where to sign
And take it to the limit one more time
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit one more time
When is your album coming out?
thinking about medical costs today, and I remembered something!
I am 88 years old, had my first dental work done at the age of 7, went to the doctor first at 5 to be circumsized, then saw a doctor at age 9 when I had chicken pox and was kept at home for 2 weeks, and then didn’t see a doctor until I was 18 and that was when I joined the Navy.
Now I was an active child, why did I see the doctor so seldom?
My mother took care of my wounds and troubles, and there was no need to go to the doctor.
Didn’t have a family doctor until 1966 and kept him for 40 years or so.
And he would make home calls , if necessary.
It must be that the public today is insecure!
my wife and I were driving to the gas station today, ($51) and on the way she commented on the fact that it looked like all of the children were being driven to school or taking buses, and she thought it was because the mothers are scared of their children being kidnapped!
Strange.
It is funny how people think about the cost of things, It is always too high today, but when I look a back at times when things were cheaper , they were more expensive than today , based upon the salaries then.
On graduation from high school wages were $.25 and hour, and a hair cut was $1.00 and a glass of beer 10 cent.
Now wages are, here, $8.25 and a hair cut is $20, and a glass of beer $2.50.
But we didn’t think the costs way back then were excessive!
And in 1940 it would take you 2 years salary to buy a house
In 1966 I bought my home for twice my yearly income, and today it would take 3 times my yearly income to buy the same house.
Nothing like good old housing inflation is there.