Bits Bucket for November 10, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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The Economist has tried its hand at calling a housing market bottom, based in part on new research by Gollum. The basic argument seems to be that even though they have so-far been a dismal failure, the Fed’s efforts to use low interest rates coupled with other federally-sponsored hair-of-the-dog housing market stimulus programs will soon produce a virtuous cycle of rising prices soon followed by a return to the halcyon days of the housing bubble.
I wouldn’t waste any hopium on this fairy tale, which makes about as much sense as another Gollum theory that the Asian and U.S. stock markets are decoupled. Rising rents are unlikely to persist when millions of homes sit vacant, millions of others are owner-occupied by defaulted borrowers, and still more millions more are temporarily possessed by baby boomers whose plans to downsize are on hold until the economy comes back.
And then there is the ever-present eurozone debt panic, which bears no mention in this article, even though it threatens to spark a globally contagious recession which would drive still another nail into the heart of U.S. owner-occupied housing demand.
Housing and the economy
Rising from the ruins
The housing market still looks grim, but the rental side hints at recovery
Nov 5th 2011 | WASHINGTON, DC | from the print edition
…
Yet once the housing sector finds its footing it may quickly gain momentum. A switch from falling to rising prices should encourage banks to make more loans. Higher house values would chip away at negative equity, stanching the flow of defaults and foreclosures.
A new analysis by Goldman Sachs argues that housing can “punch above its weight” in recoveries. Rising house values boost confidence and spending, and home construction is more labour-intensive than other sectors. A housing recovery should also give monetary policy more traction; low interest rates do less to perk up the economy when housing markets are depressed. Indeed, the Federal Reserve is considering nudging recovery along by buying mortgage assets, which should ease the flow of credit to borrowers.
Such hopes for housing would smack of an effort to reanimate a corpse, had the bust not so far outpaced the boom. But a turnaround now seems probable on many measures. If it happens, the recovery should become much more vigorous.
from the print edition | United States
Note my comment on the article, recommended 61 times.
Younger generations can’t afford to pay as much for housing as older generations, because they are poorer.
Rising housing prices are good for older sellers and their lenders, not younger buyers. They aren’t a society-wide good because they don’t increase society-wide economic well being.
Younger generations of Americans, adjusting to their own diminished circumstances, are more likely to want to live in smaller housing units in walkable city centers where they won’t need cars. Multifamily development is increasing as a market response.
So what is the federal government doing? Borrowing (or printing) money younger generations will have to pay back, to push them to buy larger suburban houses they cannot afford, and will end up selling for less.
All the massive support has gone to existing one-family homes, not new multifamily development even though the private sector is pointing the other way.
Subsidizing older genrations, banks, and suburban sprawl.
and suburban sprawl ??
Not anymore…That game is over and the trend now in reversed with high density core development…Particularly around mass transit…
Suburban ghettoization is the new black.
By the way, the Midwest neighborhood where I grew up, and where my parents still reside, is a poster child for this trend.
Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs
Dustin Franz for The New York Times
The recession and the foreclosure crisis hit the suburbs of Cleveland, like Warrensville Heights, particularly hard.
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: October 24, 2011
PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations.
The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010.
“The growth has been stunning,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. “For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.”
As a result, suburban municipalities — once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads — are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years.
…
Since 2000, the poverty roll has increased by five million in the suburbs, with large rises in metropolitan areas as different as Colorado Springs and Greensboro, N.C. Over the decade, Midwestern suburbs ranked high; recently, the rise has been sharpest in communities the housing collapse hit the hardest, like Cape Coral, Fla., and Riverside, Calif., according to the Brookings analysis.
…
Half the workforce makes $500 week or less.
No surprise here except for those who don’t get out very often.
Section 8 vouchers have helped move the poor out to the suburbs.
Is Cleveland really a good example to use as a nationwide trend? Might as well use Detroit.
“Might as well use Detroit.”
Or Stockton, Vegas, Boise, Bend, Seattle, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Bakersfield, Tampa, Orlando, Birmingham, New Orleans, Denver, Portland, Seattle, etc, etc, etc…
So now the suburbs are going to have to deal with the things that led to white/middle class flight. Taxes going up services going down, or some combination of both.
It will generate a new, albeit smaller round of urban sprawl. When the burbs started turning blue collar in the 60s, the elite/creative class moved 10 miles down the road to their hobby farms/horse ranches.
Same thing will happen again. Those that can will move farther out in the sticks, to 40-50 acre pieces of property this time. Those that can’t will just have to deal.
IOW, you can run, but you can’t hide (unless you have the bucks)
yes Dave its always been that way in NYC, rents are higher if you are 1 block rather then 10 blocks from a subway stop.
in NYC, rents are higher if you are 1 block rather then 10 blocks from a subway stop.
Today in Rio we get free subway rides after 3pm because the Oil Workers Union is planning a surprise strike on Petrobras on November 16. ? (don’t ask me, it’s Brazil)
I cannot imagine living in NYC, and having to take a subway everywhere. It sounds absolutely dreadful to me. I cannot imagine how people live that sort of life. I like to look outside and see nothing but trees, and open space.
Before I left the NY/VT border territory, I thought the same thing. NYC and the lifestyle grows on you. It’s a way of life for alot of people who wouldn’t have it any other way.
“That game is over and the trend now in reversed with high density core development…Particularly around mass transit…”
I live in one of the top ten cities and there is no such animal here.
In fact, all the macro projects are more ‘burbs and more freeways.
We’ve been hearing this is the “trend” for how long now? I think it’s called wishcasting.
Yeah, where I live, they are currently building tons of new suburban housing 40 miles from downtown that theoretically people who work downtown will commute from daily. I think that building dies back when gas is above $4 a gallon, but it’s currently less than $3.25.
Inner core housing is only about $20k more, but I guess people will drive to get ‘brand new’.
I remember hearing not so long ago how all the aging boomers in the ‘burbs were going to sell the 4 bedroom house and relocate downtown to live in one of the hip new high rise condos. Which was one of the justification of the 25% annual appreciation for those hip new condos downtown.
How’d all that turn out?
“Inner core housing is only about $20k more, but I guess people will drive to get ‘brand new’”
Where I live downtown has some cool older houses. Some really nicely renovated. But there are 3 problems with the area.
1. Lots of not renovated houses in between. One street can have 3 or 4 amazing houses in a row. Then 2 pieces of junk that haven’t been restored and falling apart next door.
2. Lots of the old houses are now apartments.
2. Lots are very small. In general, downtown means no yard. And most houses also don’t have a garage.
For the same or just a little more money, you drive out 10-15 miles and you get the same sq, brand new or relatively new, a decent sized yard and a garage.
And even if there is “poverty” and crime in the suburbs, there’s “poverty” and then there’s downtown poverty. I have yet to see homeless shelter pop out in the suburbs or soup kitchens or hotels that rent rooms by the hour.
“In general, downtown means no yard”
Have you seen the cookie cutter new housing in the burbs? No yard there either. IMO you may as well live downtown and save yourself the commute and the vice-grip HOAs.
that’s true too, they build a huge house on a small lot. Huge to me meaning 3000 sf when you count a full finished basement. Why not a smaller house with some yard left over? oh no can’t have that…
I wonder if CA will ever build it’s high speed train route?
“Younger generations of Americans, adjusting to their own diminished circumstances, are more likely to want to live in smaller housing units in walkable city centers where they won’t need cars. ”
Until they have kids.
Raising kids in an urban area requires either a lot of money or an enormous amount of luck that can substitute for a lot of money (like inheriting a condo or co-op or rent controlled apartment in a good school district).
People with normal salaries can be within the urban area, but not in the urban core.
See, for example, this couple:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/your-money/first-time-homeownership-is-still-beyond-reach.html?ref=businessspecial5&pagewanted=all
Actually, I recommend this article a lot. They have not killed themselves with debt yet, but seem intent on trying to do so. Early on we see:
“From what I’ve been told from TV, you are supposed to get a house,” said Mr. Kinney, 27, referring to the progression of life after marriage. “And then I get to sit in a nice chair.”
I haven’t checked out the comments yet. Perhaps we could start a list of our own here? My first question is given that they can only save $1000 a month with two salaries, how do they plan to live when they start having kids? If one of them takes any time off, they won’t be able to afford to live. If they both continue to work, they won’t be able to afford day care.
From what I’ve been told from TV, you are supposed to get a house,” said Mr. Kinney, 27, referring to the progression of life after marriage. “And then I get to sit in a nice chair.”
Sounds like many of my co-workers his age, so eager to throw their lives away on mortgage debt slavery, drinking the kool-aid that renting is throwing money away.
Here’s the problem. Most urban neighborhoods were converted into economic, social and fiscal wastelands from 1950 to 2000.
Now more people want to live in viable urban areas than there are viable urban areas. As a result, the price of viable urban areas is ridiculously high. Remember, they are CHEAPER to produce.
So the market is trying to create more viable urban areas. But the government, as from 1950 to 2000, keeps pushing the other way.
You forget that White flight created those waste lands in the 50’s.
High property taxes, high costs to upgrade infrastrutuce and high fees for filings and inspections are the main reasons those prices are high.
The truth is that cities really don’t want to support the increased usage on infrastructure that shelter vs. commercial costs.
In a normal market, renting IS throwing money away. The propaganda was true… up until about 10 years ago, at least in most parts of the country.
At the end of 30 years of “debt slavery” you have a paid-off house. If there’s normal appreciation and you don’t trade up, you’ll still have a paid-off house even if you move a couple times.
At the end of 30 years of “landlord slavery” you have NOTHING. The only time that renting is advantageous is that the rent costs so much more than the PITI that 30 years of renting will allow you to save enough buy a house outright.
You forget that White flight created those waste lands in the 50’s.
I live in a neighborhood that, for many years, was one of the few places where African Americans could own property. Tucson’s red line, Grant Road, is our neighborhood’s northern boundary. If you were of color, you couldn’t buy north of Grant.
Well, that was then, this is now. During the housing bubble years, a lot of moderate income white people (myself included) found that we were priced out of most of the places in this city. So, guess where we ended up.
The interesting thing is, many of the longtime African American residents welcomed us newcomers with open arms. Why? Because we’re the house and neighborhood fixer-uppers. We’re not the crooks and gangstas from the ‘hood, which the longtimers have had enough of, TYVM.
Now, I know that more than a few of my white newcomer neighbors avoid the people of color like the plague. Their mistake, because those neighbors are some of the best I’ve ever had.
“The only time that renting is advantageous is that the rent costs so much more than the PITI that 30 years of renting will allow you to save enough buy a house outright.”
As in right now.
‘At the end of 30 years of “landlord slavery” you have NOTHING.’
Speak for yourself. Nothing stops anyone from investing monies saved by paying less in rent than they would for a mortgage on comparable housing into a diversified asset portfolio which has a higher return than a lumpy, falling-knife real estate asset.
The problem isn’t the idea that “renting is throwing away your money”. It’s the idea that renting money, i.e. getting a mortgage, is somehow better.
Get a mortgage, you’re throwing away money.
Maybe, under some market conditons very unlike today’s market conditions, the money you throw away by renting money is less than the money you throw away by renting directly.
Maybe.
The big problem is still that housing prices are too high.
Landlord slavery? I think not. Living in a professionally-managed building (building, not a complex) with a resident building manager, the landlord works for me, they are the employee of the renter.
I’ll throw away my money, and you can throw away your time (and money) doing all the things that I pay money to employ the landlord to do for me
At the end of 30 years of “landlord slavery” you have NOTHING. The only time that renting is advantageous is that the rent costs so much more than the PITI that 30 years of renting will allow you to save enough buy a house outright.
You sound more and more like a reaItor with each passing day.
Thanks for all of these follow-up comments. Great ways to look at it. Calling my LL to fix mah terlit right now! Seriously.
“Calling my LL to fix mah terlit right now!”
Real estate investors become accidental landlords are throwing away money on repairs. And I am ever so grateful to our landlords for sparing us from bearing the burden of these costs.
I just gave one the swirly-twirl….. and it looked just like a reaItor.
I raised two kids in NY easier than in the suburbs. I didn’t have to drive them everywhere. They walked to school. They walked to the park. Their playmates were on the block, or a short walk away. In he suburbs, that only happens in brand new developments where a whole bunch of families with children buy at the same time.
The only disadvantage of raising kids in the city is the schools. Which, once again, is the government.
And my brother and sister-in-law are doing it, but they don’t have a mortgage and are in one the very few fantastic school districts. Without that, they would have to be somewhere out in NJ. Even with that, with two of them working and both kids in pre-school, things are very, very tight.
All I know is that dodging jogging strollers is one of the bigger rigors of my daily commute. Back in the 70s, good luck finding a child within two miles of our CBD - today there are kids and dogs everywhere. So, somebody’s able to do it.
How they do it, however, is a mystery to me given my firsthand knowledge of the cost of living in the area even for DINKs.
I agree that raising kids can be easier in the city, at least in those parts that are walkable and safe and have public transit. The real question for many is finding decent schools. In NYC, there are plenty of good elementary schools, not nearly as many OK middle schools, and kids apparently (ours aren’t there yet!) face fierce competition to get into the dozen or so “good” high schools here. Our own plan has been to live in the right zone for the first two legs, and hope the young’ns find their way into at least the top 20% and can do OK for HS. If not, it’s probably time to pack up because we’re not sending them to school with the Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Trinitarios, etc. And private school is way out of our league.
“If not, it’s probably time to pack up because we’re not sending them to school with the Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Trinitarios, etc. And private school is way out of our league.”
Tsk, tsk, that’s racist. Don’t you know you’re supposed to support diversity? I’m reporting you to Napoleon Bloomberg. And Eric Holder. Shame on you.
Actually, schools are the place where the citizens have the most control, yet regularly and consistantly fail to exercise it.
You can raise kids in the city, of course. Although it’s easier in Eastern cities that are more designed for it, than in a city like LA.
I’m just saying that a heck of a lot of people still choose to move to the suburbs when the kids come- I’ve seen it in too many of my friends.
I do think we will see a shift to a more European style of wealthier people living in or near the city centers, and poorer people living in the exurbs.
Palmetto, the Westies must’ve moved to the burbs,or I’d have thrown them in!
People dont get it. They arent having kids. They cant afford to.
Why is it SO hard to convince people that house prices are a zero-sum game? For every dollar more that a seller gains, the buyer has one dollar less? Is it the fact that people are playing with borrowed money? Is it the tax deduction on the interest? Self interest of homeowners?
Even more complicated than that. For every increase in sales price the buyer gets about $0.94, and the realtors get about $0.06. And the buyers have at least $1.00 less, but if they are borrowing, it could be a lot more than a $1.00 over time with the rest going to some lender somewhere (bank, bond holder or whoever). Then, with more mortgage interest being paid, the government may be collecting less in taxes. In places where there is a real estate transfer tax, that has to be figured in somewhere.
Real estate is a complicated business. And lots of people want a piece of it. There is a lot of money to be made in moving money around.
“house prices are a zero-sum game?”
Not so much in the short term when the economy is based on debt and the anticipated future repayment of that debt. Falling prices liquidate the lenders.
Here’s why:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” — Upton Sinclair
“Rising housing prices are good for older sellers and their lenders, not younger buyers. They aren’t a society-wide good because they don’t increase society-wide economic well being.”
This is one of the best ways of describing the stupidity of keeping house prices high. Thank you. I gave your comment another recommendation.
“Younger generations of Americans, adjusting to their own diminished circumstances, are more likely to want to live in smaller housing units in walkable city centers where they won’t need cars.”
One of the big tech companies headquartered in San Jose recently built a office building here in MA because “they wanted to take advantage of the student population.” But they built it in the suburbs where there is almost no public transit and where new grads certainly don’t want to go. That’s for the oldsters.
Well, that is how corporations work. The facilities people were told to put the location near Boston or where ever, so they did that at the lowest cost possible by locating away from public transportation. The facilities people don’t get rewarded for making life easy for the recruiting people, just for making their numbers within the parameters provided and who cares about the reasons for being given those parameters. I’ve seen it over and over.
Nitwits.
They probably received a tax abatement.
Probably?
I don’t doubt that was part of it. The facilities people get their bonuses based on doing what they were told to do at minimal cost. Not doing what is actually good for the company.
I used to work with a guy whose job was to minimize that state taxes the company had to pay. But the managers of the groups he worked with got rewarded for their results pre-tax. So every time he suggested doing something, the managers refused because it took up their time and they didn’t get any credit toward their bonuses for helping him.
Why people think corporations are efficient is beyond me. I’ve never seen it. Maybe the corporations I’ve worked for are too big or I am too young, but I have literally never seen a well run one from the inside.
“Corporate efficiency” is an oxymoron.
I don’t think they care where the younglings decide to live, so long as they pay way too much for the privilege.
“All the massive support has gone to existing one-family homes, not new multifamily development even though the private sector is pointing the other way.”
WT, this is untrue. Fannie/Freddie have been subsidizing apartments for years to the tune of cheaper financing available at high levels of leverage. If Fannie/Freddie support were to go away from apartments tomorrow, cap rates would instantly rise by 100-150 bps, and rents would need to rise even more to justify new development.
If they can continue debauched lending, coupled with a massive continuing wealth transfer from the public treasury to the FIRE sector, then I see housing values increasing beyond the rate of inflation.
The goal of the FIRE sector is to hold bank deposits hostage so they can continue their rigged, fabulously profitable casino betting operations.
The Wall Street betting operations are just like any other kind of gambling: “The House Always Wins”
The goal of the FIRE sector is to hold bank deposits hostage so they can continue their rigged, fabulously profitable casino betting operations.
And here’s an article that describes the role of fraud in the above.
Ya gotta love a debate which exposes abysmal ignorance of the basic structure of American government on national teevee! I’m not sure if the Perry gaffe is any worse than Cain’s accidental admission that he is unaware China is a nuclear power? The level of ignorance among some folks who believe themselves personally qualified to run the country is quite alarming.
November 10, 2011 12:25 AM
Republican debate winners and losers: A disastrous night for Perry
By Brian Montopoli
Topics Campaign 2012
Rick Perry (Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Wednesday night’s CNBC presidential debate may well have given us the most memorable moment of any debate in quite a long time - Rick Perry’s potentially-calamitous inability to name the third federal agency he is vowing to abolish. It was like watching a car crash live on television. The game-changing moment has ramifications for all the presidential contenders, but it wasn’t the only takeaway from Wednesday night. Below, our take on who’s up and whose down in the wake of the debate:
…
Upon seeing Perry speak for the first time it became immediately clear to me he was not a bright man.
Nice hair though.
This week’s Rolling Stone had a great article on Perry; those of you who enjoyed the Bachmann article a few months ago will like this article even more.
(Link not provided so this gets through the spam filter).
Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas
The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder
By Matt Taibbi
October 26, 2011 8:00 AM ET
…
Thanks for posting. Even my father-in-law, upon seeing the issue of RS sitting on the coffee table this past weekend, picked it up, read it, and was frightened.
(I wouldn’t subscribe unless you got a monster deal at $3.99 a year like I did)….
You’re missing the point. He would’ve been a pliable Wall Street puppet. Like all the rest except Ron Paul.
Perry has never turned down money from anyone.
He has great hair and the demeanor of a a Texas rancher. And his voice is indistinguishable from W’s.
It’s too soon for another rancher/cowboy. What is this anyway, a giant episode of Bonanza?
More like “Deadwood.”
“I can’t quit you, Texas Dumbo.”
Johnson…..Bush …..Wright……Gramm……Delay…..Tower.
I’m seeing a trend……..
You can always tell a Texan, but you can’t tell ‘em much :-).
“Upon seeing Perry speak for the first time it became immediately clear to me he was not a bright man.”
No problem since Gawd is talking to him.
“Nice hair though.”
An illusion…like the rest of him.
Being a good public speaker and photogenic has become the number 1 qualification for being President.
That elimates a lot of good people.
They also have to be programmable by their Wall Street puppetmasters. Perry apparently has some shortcomings in that area.
The Perry thing made me think I had one too many drinks at dinner. I was watching the debate in the background and heard it start; watched the entire interaction, and then swore off drinking forever. Either I was drunk and starting to hallucinate, or, Perry was drunk and showing kids why they should say no to drugs. Either way, it was turning point in my life.
I do a lot of public speaking for work, and I know what it’s like to lose your train of thought. But, come on, everybody who’s done that kind of thing in the past with any regularity knows that you can get out of it much more smoothly than he did. “I’m sorry, I lost my train of thought, could we come back to that question”. I might have made that mistake 10 years ago when I first started public speaking, but.. A seasoned politician?
Of course, Ron Paul didn’t get the time of the other candidates . I don’t “hate” Romney, but, IMHO, he’s just a continuation of the Bush era “big government” status quo. Ron Paul is the only one up there that I feel would really “change things” if he gets into office.
“The Perry thing made me think I had one too many drinks at dinner.”
You probably hadn’t drunk enough, given that you were watching the Republican candidate debate.
Watched the debate online with several of the kids I once coached through Nationals in Lincoln Douglas debate. Perry’s drug-addled brain freeze was so cringe-worthy that these jaded twenty-something smartarses were momentarily stilled in their snarking.
We actually felt sorry for the poor little fella. (You read it here first….)
“…with several of the kids I once coached through Nationals in Lincoln Douglas debate.”
You and my mom’s dad have something in common, as one of his debate protegees won the American Legion national debate competition half a century ago.
I saw that this morning…I really don’t care if he stumbled. Its none of them seems to have anything better to offer then the guy we have now. Just change the D to R and its status quo time.
Ron Paul seems to be the default choice for change, not exactly a ringing endorsement, but a lot better then what we have now.
Actually Romney is even worse. I always thought Obama was Bush2.0. Romney is going to Bushbama1.0, the totally new hybrid.
Romney or Obama, one thing is for sure though, the collapse is much nearer than you realize.
Perry says that “of course corporations are people; they’re made up of people”.
IMO, that is a good example of cognitive dissonance. If you have four people sitting around the table, then do you have five people now because the fifth person is the one that is made up of the other five? That’s a little dumb.
I meant to say Romney, not Perry.
Of course occasional pedant that I am, I also noticed that those “agencies” were actually “departments.”
FYI the 3rd department that he forgot he wanted to eliminate is the Department of Energy.
If he can’t remember, does he really want to eliminate it that bad?
If he’s decided to unilaterally shut down the DOE, then you’d would expect he had a long list of strong reasons to do so. Shutting down the DOE would eliminate many jobs. Important (to some) research would halt. DOE research centers would be shut down. Potential paths to our future energy independence would be put at risk. There would be impact to our nuclear weapons strategy.
The decision to shut the DOE down should have been reached through a thorough analysis of the costs and benefits, risks and rewards, looking at the impact to our strategic energy plan.
I don’t fault him for not being able to remember “DOE”. But if he’d done ANY sort of analysis/assessment of the costs and benefits, it should not have been hard to think back to one of the decision factors, one of the benefits, one of the costs, one of the risks, SOMETHING- recall that it was energy related, and lead himself back to “DOE”.
The fact that he couldn’t do that- leads me to believe that “shutting down the DOE”, is nothing short of knee-jerk pandering to his political base. No real thought given to it at all. The fact that he’d make a decision like that is frightening to me.
I think he just neede to get to three. Didn’t Ron Paul suggest three departments to shut down a long time ago? And my guess is that Perry didn’t want to list Agriculture since it must pass out subsidies to people in states that are important to his strategy.
Same thing with Department of the Interior. Aren’t they the ones in charge of passing out grazing rights at absurdly low levels given the damage done by the cattle?
Trying to find three departments to eliminate while not threatening large sources of corporate welfare is a tough job.
“And my guess is that Perry didn’t want to list Agriculture since it must pass out subsidies to people in states that are important to his strategy.”
Not to mention that he is a farmer.
Which reminds me of something my dad told me about the farming community where he grew up: The smart kids went away to prep school when they were 11 years old or so, as a stepping stone to higher education. The rest stuck around to become the next generation of farmers — not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, one of the left-behinds who worked alongside dad at a major agribusiness firm when both were teenagers eventually rose to VP, and made lotsa dough.
Polly,
Cattle can and do play an essential role in fire control in federal grasslands and hill country. They CAN be managed thoughtfully– and usually are, as over-grazing, water pollution, etc., is detrimental to the herd– especially in the western states where grass is sparse.
But all that valuable real estate, you know…?
Developers need water rights. And access roads, and scenic vistas that can be gated off. Consider the timing of all the fussing over “the ecosystem.”
That said, cattle are putrid.
DoE contractor here, the Department’s budget is about $30 billion, much of which is for the nukes.
Solyndra has turned the Amerikan sheeple against renewable energy research and development. Also the Rush Limbaugh talking points that renewable energy is for sissies. Energy efficiency, whether through integrating renewables into the existing grid, eliminating incandescent light bulbs, or hybrid vehicles, is part of the militant homosexual agenda, because Real Men drive F-350’s.
…and love the smell of coal and the taste of arsenic in their water and big electric bills because that means they’re livin’ large, by god!
That’s right, it’s that whole American exceptionalism, sense of entitlement. Remember how the Hummer H2 got popular around the start of the Iraq war? USA! USA! USA!
“Also the Rush Limbaugh talking points that renewable energy is for sissies.”
Take it from a narcotics addict…
Little known fact: the Dept of Energy owns all of the countries nuclear bombs and *loans* them to the Dept of Defense.
So eliminating the DoE means that you would have to hire a huge number of their employees as civilian DoD employees? And have the DoD take over running their storage/etc. facilities? Same for the DoD taking over a bunch of contractor contracts?
Yup. Sounds great. The military is looking for more work for the general officer corps to do. This sounds like their solution.
You bet - from wikipedia the DOE has a mess of contractors:
Employees:
16,000 federal (2009)
93,094 contract (2008)
That contractor number is probably a bit low since it’s from from 2008. The tidal wave of Recovery Act Obamabux that flooded through here in 2009-2010 resulted in a lot of contractor hiring.
Ha ha … the private contractors Uncle Sam would hire if the Republican’s “privatize everything” movement took hold would make the government go broker faster, as private contractors charge a lot more for the same work as their full-time federal government counterparts cost.
And this is precisely why Republican talk about “eliminating the Department of (fill in the blank)” is such crap.
Like all of their other “eliminate fraud and waste” plan, when you actually do the work/research, you find that there really isn’t that much “waste”, unless you consider any kind of government law enforcement/regulatory duty as “waste and abuse”
After all, spending a million bucks on law enforcement and the judicial system personnel to put a guy in jail for stealing $500K is “waste and abuse”, right?
Think of all the money we’d save, if we didn’t put anyone in jail for anything.
“…and *loans* them to the Dept of Defense.”
Who then tried to loan 6 of them to someone else a few years ago.
Or maybe that was just Cheney?
“looking at the impact to our strategic energy plan”
We have one? Could have fooled me.
Strategic energy plan: pretend global warming doesn’t exist, rely on 19th century fuel sources because they feed the bottomless maw demanding next quarter’s earnings, eliminate pollution from the equation because it’s only an economic externality, and most importantly keep on breeding (way to go Duggan child #20) because 7 billion aren’t enough.
That’s about it. Oh wait, we also have to create a transportation “system” around this energy that has 1% efficiency (well-to-wheel), kills and maims thousands every year, requires a large amount of tax payer money to survive, facilitates suburban sprawl (which increases energy consumption in housing, transmission, fuel), forces us into multiple “foreign adventures” and dealings with otherwise odious regimes around the globe.
See ya at the drive-thru! Yeehaw!
My stream of consciousness with the presidential candidates:
Cain is finished. Too many women coming forward.
Romney doesn’t satisfy the base because his governorship and his religion.
Bachmann is submissive to her husband, per her religion. The lead dog of the US must come across as the pack leader.
Perry: Intellectual lightweight prettyboy.
Gingrich: Intellectual heavyweight, lots of interesting ideas. But of very questionable character per his behavior with his ex.
Huntsman: Has gravitas, has interesting ideas, pretty clean, but again, a Mormon, which the fundies won’t go for.
Ron Paul: Has some interesting ideas but also plenty of ideas that do not appeal to the base, such as open borders. And he can’t win in the primary because of his strongly anti-regulation stance.
Obama: First tier intelligence, in line with Gingrich, Romney, Huntsman, Paul. Killed Bin Laden, drawing down the wars. Ineffectual with the economy.
Ineffectual with the economy?
The DOW is back over 11,000. This is all that is important to the PTB.
Neuromance, I’d say that you nailed it.
As for Obama being ineffectual with the economy, I’d have to agree. The guy’s very weak on business, economics, and finance. That’s the only reason I can think of for why he’s been so enthralled by people like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers.
Republicans = the party without a candidate
November 10, 2011, 4:26 PM ET
Poll: Cain and Romney Run Closely in 3 Key States
By Mary Lu Carnevale
Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are running closely in GOP presidential primary races in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a new series of Quinnipiac University polls finds.
And the three key battleground states – the big predictors of who wins the White House – President Barack Obama and Mr. Romney are essentially tied. The survey – Quinnipiac’s first swing state polls of the 2012 election — showed that voters, including Democrats, Republicans and independents, are more at ease with the idea of a President Romney than a President Cain.
Still, the allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Cain while he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s “haven’t derailed his candidacy so far, and he remains strong among Republicans,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “While the immediate effect hasn’t been catastrophic, it’s unclear whether the story will have legs that will make a larger dent in the ‘Cain Train’ as we get closer to the actual primaries.”
Mr. Brown noted the controversy has hurt the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza among non-Republicans and women.
As for the GOP primary contest, here’s the breakdown: In Florida, Mr. Cain leads the primary race with 27%; Mr. Romney is in second, with 21%, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 17%, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 5%. Mr. Cain beats Mr. Romney 45% to 39% in a one-on-one contest. The error margin is 4.3 percentage points.
…
“Too many women coming…”
That never seemed to hurt Clinton all that much. Is it different for Cain?
That just goes to show that these people are not running. They are being run.
Keep thinking these presidential pukes are going to change everything. They’re not because they can’t or won’t. Did BO delivered on national health insurance? Nope. Did Bush deliver privatized SS, end of abortion, etc? Nope. Did they deliver for the entrenched interests? YUP.
Irrespective of my opinions on those specific issues, both of those useless turds failed to deliver. And they will fail again regardless who is elected.
Fawkin’ wake up folks.
Toxically contagious global stock market debt spiral continues to strengthen:
Markets
Asian Markets Extend Wall Street’s Selloff
Published November 10, 2011| Reuters
World stocks hit a three-week low and the euro tumbled across the board while top-rated government bonds rallied on Thursday as fears of a break-up of the euro zone gathered pace ahead of a key debt sale in Italy.
Italy, which has for now replaced Greece as the biggest source of investor concern, will offer up to 5 billion euros of short-term Treasury bills, maturing November 2012 in a key test to Rome’s ability to fund itself.
The two-year-old euro zone debt crisis has spurred fears of a split in the euro zone, which can’t afford to bailout Italy.
EU officials told Reuters that French and German officials had held talks on splitting the zone.
“The T-Bill auction will be a big test of sentiment given the way Italian paper traded yesterday,” a euro zone bond trader said.
“I’m expecting more of the same today in terms of sentiment, especially after the reports overnight of a smaller euro zone being discussed by France and Germany.”
…
Italian paper. I think there may be a joke in there somewhere, tied up with the Alabama sewer scandal.
This debate seems destined to play out over decades to come.
What caused the financial crisis? The Big Lie goes viral.
View Photo Gallery — A look back at the financial chaos in 2008 and the $700 billion bank bailout that followed.
By Barry Ritholtz, Published: November 5
…
Wall Street has its own version: Its Big Lie is that banks and investment houses are merely victims of the crash. You see, the entire boom and bust was caused by misguided government policies. It was not irresponsible lending or derivative or excess leverage or misguided compensation packages, but rather long-standing housing policies that were at fault.
Indeed, the arguments these folks make fail to withstand even casual scrutiny. But that has not stopped people who should know better from repeating them.
The Big Lie made a surprise appearance Tuesday when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, responding to a question about Occupy Wall Street, stunned observers by exonerating Wall Street: “It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.”
…
But the Big Lie just feels so right, it has to be true. Facts be damned. And if you repeat it enough, it almost becomes the Truth.
from the article
“Why are people trying to rewrite the history of the crisis? Some are simply trying to save face. Interest groups who advocate for deregulation of the finance sector would prefer that deregulation not receive any blame for the crisis.
Some stand to profit from the status quo: Banks present a systemic risk to the economy, and reducing that risk by lowering their leverage and increasing capital requirements also lowers profitability. Others are hired guns, doing the bidding of bosses on Wall Street.
They all suffer cognitive dissonance — the intellectual crisis that occurs when a failed belief system or philosophy is confronted with proof of its implausibility.”
You know alpha-sloth, I could respond at length to this, but it’s pointless to go back and forth with someone who uses every opportunity just to grind an ax. As for me, I get it; bankers caused every problem in the world. And they are capitalists too, the dogs! Greedy dog capitalists banksters that cause every problem known to man. Why oh why can’t we just have more regulation to defend us from this scourge? The world would then be perfect!
Every problem? Hardly. And we NEED a dynamic market for investments. It has always been one of our economic strengths. But over the last 30 years, the financial sector has grown out of proportion to the rest of the economy. And of that extra money sent to Wall Street, an ever smaller fraction has been put to productive uses, researching new products, investing in new plants, hiring people to make stuff. Instead it has funded a series of speculative bubbles, in equities, in real estate, in commercial and credit card lending. At every turn the titans of the street have taken their cut and promised that THIS time it’s REAL and if we give them our money they’ll give us high returns.
I don’t want to eliminate Wall Street anymore than I think amputation is the answer for a turned ankle. But I DO think that we need to shrink the swelling.
‘the arguments these folks make fail to withstand even casual scrutiny. But that has not stopped people who should know better from repeating them’
OK, which of these bubble participants are/were banks?
Countrywide, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, all the dozens of subprime outfits like Ameriquest, HUD/FHA/VA.
Answer; none.
Remember when the CEO of Countrywide was on the cover of the WSJ back near the peak of housing prices? He was praised as a savior of common people for providing ‘affordability products.’ The fact that is being hidden these days is, most of this happened in plain sight, and was celebrated as a joyous bonanza.
Plenty of blame to go around, including the failure of regulators to regulate, alpha. But the problem with putting all of the blame here or there is it is basically using this situation to advance political goals, instead of fixing what’s wrong with our system. And I think that stinks.
“Plenty of blame to go around.” On THAT you’ll find lots of agreement. But to go off topic a bit, the question isn’t so much “whose fault was it?” but “what can we do to prevent this from happening again?” And while borrowers who were some mix of greedy/stupid were a SIGNIFICANT part of the problem, it’s difficult to see how punishing them is a real part of the solution. I mean, sure foreclose on them because they simply don’t have the means to pay what they owe. Perhaps give them a little key money but forgive them their unpaid balance. Because there will ALWAYS be sufficiency of people willing to borrow their way to the poor house. Born every minute. But big lenders willing to WRITE those idiot loans? They are a bit rarer and more easily dissuaded from doing something that stupid.
“what can we do to prevent this from happening again?”
Yes. The presence of a virtual community of like-minded thinkers willing to repeatedly address this question is what keeps me coming back here.
“what can we do to prevent this from happening again?”
Simple
1. Banks have to hold a high percent of loans to maturation plus Glass Steagle
2. CEO’s compensation has to be tied to long term performance of those loans or it get’s taxed at 50%.
3. Break up large banks, we want a lot of players not 4-5 that can sit down at dinner adn decide how they are going to manipulate gov in order to screw the average American.
4. Regulators that are forbidden from working in finance for 10 years after they leave their job.
5. Campaign finance reform.
I don’t know what can legally be done about CEO compensation. Perhaps lawsuits by shareholders may dissuade CEOs from acting outside the interests of the company. Are CEOs currently held legally culpable for failures that can be deemed negligent? Is there a way for shareholders to prove something like that?
“what can we do to prevent this from happening again?”
loan money to regular people so they can buy as many homes as possible , pay only if the price of the home goes up, and bail out the banks
on wait
OK, which of these bubble participants are/were banks?
Countrywide, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, all the dozens of subprime outfits like Ameriquest, HUD/FHA/VA.
Answer; none.
Why are we trying to simplify the financial crisis and distill it down to the housing specific entities? The reason the financial system was bailed out, via the banks, was because confidence had been lost in the balance sheets of those same banks.The banks made a bunch of bad bets via derivatives of mortgage paper. The government made good on the bad bets to prevent the entire financial system from collapsing (AIG anyone?). That is a very different beast than how/why housing prices were allowed to appreciate to the levels they did (government policies supporting housing, loose monetary policy, lack of regulation).
The housing bubble was just another asset bubble that Wall St. used to make money on, until they couldn’t… when the music stopped, the government stepped in. How is that any different than the tech bubble? How is it any different than the commodity bubble?
‘The reason the financial system was bailed out, via the banks, was because confidence had been lost in the balance sheets of those same banks.’
Weren’t Fannie and Freddie taken over by the govt? Hasn’t the govt said they will honor their paper? How much have just those two entities cost the govt so far? They are still bleeding billions every quarter. Just these two corporations will cost much more than TARP. And they aren’t banks. They are quasi govt organizations set up to help keep houses affordable among other things. No one in the govt did a thing when the GSEs went on a rampage, helping to drive up prices and bankrupting themselves in the process.
It’s not like their problems were unknown. Neither could produce financials in 2005, even though they were 2 of the 5 biggest corporations in the world at the time. Fannie had a criminal investigation opened on it in 2004 by the Justice dept, that mysteriously went away. And somehow, the regulators didn’t see fit to have them delisted for failure to produce financials. Just that one act would have stopped the housing bubble in its tracks in 2005. And the regulators blew it. Imagine how much money would’ve been saved and suffering could have been prevented if the GSEs stopped guaranteeing loans in 2005. That’s govt failure there, in a major way.
And they are out there making loans today. Who do we blame for that?
“And somehow, the regulators didn’t see fit to have them delisted for failure to produce financials. Just that one act would have stopped the housing bubble in its tracks in 2005.”
I recall discussions from back in 2005/2006 about _why_ the regulators were not stepping in to do anything.
IIRC, my take-away from that discussion was that they probably weren’t doing anything, because doing something would pull off the scab and reveal the pain, and the fact that they had done so would cause them to be blamed for the by-then-unavoidable downturn.
“They are quasi govt organizations set up to help keep houses affordable among other things.”
FAIL!
‘would cause them to be blamed’
What good are regulations if they aren’t applied? Why are we to expect more regulation to produce a different result?
you one percenter you!
“it’s pointless to go back and forth with someone who uses every opportunity just to grind an ax”
Well, what caused the housing bubble? CREs that have been around for many decades? Or the repeal of Glass-Steagall, Greenspan keeping interest rates at historic lows as asset prices skyrocketed, ratings agencies passing trash MBSs as Triple A, the unregulated derivatives market that allowed AIG to write 3 trillion dollars worth with no reserve against them, the removal of leverage limits on the big Wall Street financial firms, etc etc.
Like the article’s author writes, “The previous Big Lie — the discredited belief that free markets require no adult supervision — is the reason people have created a new false narrative.
Now it’s time for the Big Truth.”
Or is it just a coincidence that we deregulated Wall Street and then we had a huge credit bubble and massive crash, the likes of which we haven’t seen in the 60 years when we kept Wall Street on a relatively short regulatory leash?
it really is like beating your head against a wall.
we are not saying the banksters should get no blame…we are saying they should not get all the blame.
banksters are to blame…congress is to blame…the american people are to blame…hell…i’m to blame (sold my condo to some greater fool at the height of the market and rented).
“We are not saying the banksters should get no blame…we are saying they should not get all the blame.”
Then you, I, and I suspect the author of the article agree. Obviously, someone who lied on their loan application deserves little sympathy. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
But how to stop it? Greed is a constant in human history- read any bible. So we can either seek to outlaw greed- which is impossible, or we can regulate our financial system- which is both possible and has worked quite well before. Regulation of Wall Street prevented any major crash for sixty years. We removed it, and promptly had a huge crash- just like the kind we used to regularly have before we regulated them.
It’s not a morality play. It’s a question of how we prevent it from happening again.
Regulation of Wall Street worked. Deregulation didn’t. Only cognitive dissonance could make one blind to this obvious fact.
And yes, we can still hate on the FBs. Hey, it’s fun. But it’s no solution to the problem.
LOL, it was a global mania. Regulations were relaxed because most people believed, really believed, that everything was different this time. The rest of the people robbed this group of rubes blind.
Mania doesn’t respect rules.
Regulation of Wall Street worked. Deregulation didn’t. Only cognitive dissonance could make one blind to this obvious fact.
According to William K. Black, deregulation was criminogenic, which is his way of saying that it acted like a disease pathogen. And the disease in question was (and still is) widespread control fraud.
In essence, a control fraudster gains control of a company for the purpose of looting it. See Enron, Countrywide, and the S&Ls as cases in point.
For more on control fraud, read Black’s book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.
With regards from your HBB Librarian…
“LOL, it was a global mania. ”
That didn’t occur in countries that had stronger financial regulation- like Sweden and Germany.
The German people are only manic when they are instructed to be so by voices of authority. As for their financial regulation, that didn’t keep them from betting the farm on loans to the subprime Euro countries that now can’t be paid back.
“Regulations were relaxed because most people believed, really believed, that everything was different this time.”
Also due to financial sector lobbyist activities…
+1 Blue Skye
“…sold my condo to some greater fool at the height of the market and rented…”
Ditto. Then, to add insult to injury, I told everyone who would listen to me that we were in an unsustainable bubble and that housing was destined to crash. I caused the housing bubble to pop. I even have the T-shirt to prove it (Caption: “I caused the housing bubble to pop and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”)
Mr. Bloomberg is a champ, omg!
How nice of JPM to help out the little guy.
Jefferson County Alabama Files Biggest Municipal Bankruptcy
The county’s bankruptcy attorney, Kenneth Klee, said the filing was necessary because talks with creditors and the receiver in charge of the sewer system built by the bonds broke down.
“There was an impasse reached,” Klee said in an interview today. “None of the creditors — zero — signed up to the deal that we have been negotiating for six weeks.”
The county’s major creditors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., signed tentative agreements in September to reorganize the sewer debt to avoid bankruptcy. County officials said at the time that JPMorgan would provide $750 million of about $1.1 billion in concessions.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-10/jefferson-county-alabama-files-biggest-municipal-bankruptcy.html
Oh wait…
JPMorgan Loses Bid to Have Suits Dropped in Alabama County Sewer-Bond Case
JPMorgan Chase & Co. lost a bid to have almost $800 million in legal claims from Syncora Guarantee Inc. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. dismissed in a case that revolves around defaulted Jefferson County, Alabama, sewer bonds.
Syncora and Assured took JPMorgan to court after a $3 billion refinancing of the sewer debt in 2002 and 2003, which involved derivatives, collapsed during the credit crisis and almost bankrupted the county. JPMorgan concealed that it won the refinancing transaction with “bribes” of about $3 million funneled to county commissioners through friends, the insurers said. They also claimed the bank didn’t disclose a report saying the sewer system wouldn’t be able to pay its debt.
“Plaintiff insurer could have reasonably concluded that defendants’ alleged bribery practices were indicators that the county’s affairs were being mismanaged if decisions were made on this illegal basis,” Yates said in his decision.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/jpmorgan-loses-bid-to-have-suit-on-alabama-county-debt-dropped.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-main-street-20100331
JP Morgan, working with corrupt local officials, foisted a predatory-financing scheme unto the rubes of East A$$hole, Alabama. I don’t doubt that similar schemes are festering elsewhere in flyover country, with the TBTF banks assuming their Republicrat hirelings will ensure the taxpayers cover any and all deals that blow up in their face.
Lets see how many secretaries and janitors will have their pensions sliced and diced to help pay for this…
What pensions?
What secretaries?
Aren’t the janitors outsourced?
“Aren’t the janitors outsourced?”
Illegals…
“I don’t doubt that similar schemes are festering elsewhere in flyover country,”
But I thought the unions were to blame for local gov budget problems?!
dang
Banksters built the sewer here, so when you flush, don’t shout and cheer.
They insured their bets; they thought they’d won, but now here comes onother one.
Syncora and Insured Guarantee, have come to fight and will not flee.
So flush and flush and get it down, ’cause failure swamps this stinking town.
And next time you see Mr.Chase, riding down the street at noon, just tell him I said “It’s the case, that you are a dumb buffoon”.
Horse/Barn
UBS to shut U.S. asset-backed securities unit: report
Writedowns on the bank’s huge exposure to mortgage- and asset-backed securities pushed UBS to the biggest corporate loss in Swiss history in 2008 and forced it to accept a state bailout.
The HandelsZeitung report comes just a few days ahead of a key investor day in New York, at which UBS is expected to reveal a major overhaul of its beleaguered investment bank.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubs-shut-u-asset-backed-100808111.html
Realtors Are Liars®
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203537304577028483092673276.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
I love it when plutocrats turn on each other.
“I love it when plutocrats turn on each other.”
Me, too. It’s one of the few pleasures available in the “public discourse”.
Smart people do not make hiring decisions based on personal friendships.
Nothing left to steal….
From Taki Theodoracopulous’ column at Takimag:
“As I speak to Athens daily, I am constantly reminded of the lambent line a fat politico uttered 65 years or so ago when asked why he was giving up power: “Because there’s nothing left to steal.”
(if anyone knows Greece, he does)
From Brandon Smith: “Those of us who have supported Ron Paul since his presidential run in 2008 (and some who supported him long before that) have come to expect an astonishing array of mainstream media tricks, lies, and censorship when it comes to the “journalistic” examination of the good doctor. This doesn’t mean, however, that we have ever or will ever come to ACCEPT this consistent trend of deception and disinformation as a forgone conclusion of our political lives. We will never throw up our hands and walk away from the mess the MSM has deliberately created, because that is exactly what they would like us to do; give up, shut up, go home, vote for Romney (an establishment crony with the creepy grin of a pedophile), and watch him lose to Obama (yet another establishment crony) in 2012. With this stated up front, it was brought to my attention that CNBC was running a poll asking readers who they thought won the recent Republican Presidential Debates in Michigan. Now, as in many polls in 2008, the name “Ron Paul” has been rising to the top of the charts in 2011 despite all efforts by media lapdogs to dissuade the public from even considering such a candidate. CNBC did not fail to play its roll this time around either. Ron Paul won by a substantial margin, and of course, their response was to take the poll down!”
“Romney…an establishment crony with the creepy grin of a pedophile”
Gosh, if only the MSM was as fair in their comments about Ron Paul.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/sexual-assault/prayers-from-joe-paterno-647903
Joe Paterno vows to “pray” for the boys who were sexually assaulted by one of his pervert underlings. This was brought to his attention a decade ago and he did nothing.
This guy is the moral equivilant of the boomers who installed Obama and his ilk in power and let them make Goldman Sachs the forth branch of government, looting the productive economy and saddling future generations with unpayable debts.
Yeah, seems like the “mainstream perversion” movement didn’t move fast enough to make sex with minors legal. Not to mention protecting the rights of pedophiles and showing how they’re “so misunderstood” by bigots.
The Joseph Duncan case taught me all I need to know about that subject. He claimed that the constant supervision he was forced to live with made him angry and caused him to act out.
In my area, a 35 year old college professor was recently arrested after taking delivery of kp. A search of his house yielded more material. His attorney came up with the defense that the material he possessed was related to his work researching the sexual development of autistic children.
Kind of like Pete Townsend’s research.
I wonder what ever happened to that?
Reminds me of the ol’ Onion picture of Pete with the headline “Pete Townsend Can’t Explain”
Fired! Over the phone. Well-deserved.
And yet, apparently there was some sort of student riot at Penn over Paterno’s firing.
Talk about a lost generation.
Hmmm, a Tale of Two Cities, eh? OWS and Happy Valley.
Palmy, did you ever get up to the Asheville/Greenville area this year?
No, dang it. Work intervened, sigh.
You should see the comments on the press conference post at black shoe diaries. “I’ve never seen a crisis handled so badly!” Really? How about the way the crisis of a kid being raped in the locker room shower was handled? Paterno’s kid said his dad never even asked Sandusky about the incident. Kicked it up the chain and forgot about it.
I mean, I get it. Paterno did a lot for the school. He genuinely influenced thousands of young men who played on his teams. He brought in a lot of cash that benefited the school as a whole. He dropped the ball, though, and we all know the old saying about the effect of a single “Oh, crap!”
If he cared so much about PSU he would have retired yesterday afternoon instead of forcing the administration to fire him.
Speaking as the offspring of two University of Michigan alumni, and one who was born and raised in PA, I got quite a dose of “Penn State’s not all it’s cracked up to be!” from a very early age.
For many years, my mother has ranted about the Cult of JoePa. She didn’t think he deserved that adulation.
And, to be fair, she didn’t go on and on about Bo Schembechler either. When I was a student, the campus consensus was that he was a bit of a low-intellect buffoon, but that’s the U-M for you. We take braininess very seriously.
Still, I fail to understand, why in 2002, that graduate assistant who witnessed the molester in action didn’t duck around the corner, pull out a cell phone, and call 911. If he didn’t want to confront the guy, that’s the least he should have done.
Instead, he called his father.
From what I understand, he had a 2nd hand account of the report of a colleagues actions. He had no direct knowledge of the events, and he forwarded the report up the chain to the athletic director. The eye witness apparently didn’t go to the police, so why would the outrage be directed at Joe? The witness could have been slandering the guy after a bad argument, if he wasn’t, then he should have reported it to the police.
Also, from everything I (haven’t) heard, there were not repeated reports or appeals to Joe to do anything about this, just the single report of abuse. If someone one time reported to you that they saw co-worker X beating their child, and you told your boss about the report, then he did nothing, and the eyewitness didn’t go to the police, would you expect to be fired 10 years later for not reporting the abuse?
Long story short, I think this falls well short of Joe being complicit in the abuse, and even further short of it being a fireable offense. Why the HELL didn’t the eyewitness file a police report? Paterno probably could have been a hero and dug into the report and got to the bottom of it, but so could probably 25 other people.
The outrage should be directed at the abuser, not the periphery people. That said, I wish Joe had followed up, even if he was 74 at the time. Child abuse (especially sexual) is a terrible thing.
I have to amend my story as I didn’t know the reporting person was Joe’s own child. He should have counseled his own offspring to call the cops. People call their dad when they want to know what to do.
If that was one of my kids they wouldn’t call it “Happy Valley” when I was through with them.
At least Israel has a justice system, so far.
“Ex-Israeli president to serve 7 years for rape”
http://tinyurl.com/bsecl55
Rape of a 10 year old boy is not the morale equivalent of voting for Obama (or Bush).
No Sammy, it’s not even close.
“The-More-Perfect-World!” quite a $truggle to manifest it
(Eyes myself trys to vi$ualize it nows & again…)
tomorrowany day now is involved there Sammy.William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard said, “We now have a society that’s lost the notion that there are objective rights and wrongs. And on the other hand we have all this scientific progress. I think the two together are quite dangerous. ” Paul Krugman, Princeton’s winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for economics and New York Times columnist began: “The worst thing about today’s world is that there is actually a fourth world; countries where there is no hope at all, nothing is moving forward, and where no-one is participating in economic progress.”
Of course, all the leaders went on to explain that their perfect world would be one without the dire problems they described. But, as Pinker pointed out, a negative approach to thinking about a perfect world cannot work in a visual medium: “Concepts like the absence of something are impossible to draw unambiguously,” he explained. “A room with no giraffe in it is identical to a room with no elephant in it, or no cockroaches in it. ” So to describe a perfect world using paint, you have to depict something positive.
This underlines the truth Marshall McLuhan preached so long ago: medium matters. Each medium conveys its own category of understanding in its own vocabulary, with its own endemic set of weaknesses and strengths. Surely, it’s important to know what our leaders really value, what their notion of a perfect world is, and where they truly want to take us. Important enough that we should insist on seeing how they describe those things in more than just words.
“A Perfect World: Words and Paintings from Over 50 of America’s Most Powerful People”
The full range of verbally and visually described perfect worlds are collected in Debra Trione’s book.
Visions of a Perfect World:
Debra Trione encourages American leaders to make their visions of utopia real.
The idea of ‘America’ is the idea of a perpetually perfectible world: “a more perfect union,” states the US Constitution; “a system approaching near to perfection” announced Benjamin Franklin; “the world’s best hope,” according to Henry Cabot Lodge.
Perfectibility isn’t an idea Americans invented, of course, just one we brought down to earth. If Heaven is reachable, it’s only after death. The Garden of Eden is ancient mythology; the Peaceable Kingdom and Never-Never Land are literary con structs; and when Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516, the name he chose for his imaginary ideal island is Greek for ‘no place’. But Americans made the perfect-world idea pragmatic, and over centuries have built a national identity around it. While the citizens of other countries share a common ethnicity, race or religion, Americans define themselves through their distinctions. We do not look like each other, speak the same language, or pray to the same God. But until recently at least, from sea to shining sea we have shared one rarefied presumption: that within these borders the best of what is will closely resemble the best that could be.
In his book A Visionary Nation (2001), Zachary Karabell presents the sweep of American history as a series of national efforts to chase after one, then another, perfect-world vision, as framed by a succession of idealistic leaders, including 17th century Puritans, the Founding Fathers, the Great Triumvirate, robber barons, 20th Century Progressives, on to a bevy of harbingers in our own time. “The quest for perfection has been a hallmark of American culture since a group of settlers embarked from the old world to create a City on a Hill, ” concludes Karabell.
What You See Is What You Create
It may be hard to see how such a quest animates the nation today. When I first set out to interview American leaders on their visions of an ideal world, I ran into resistance everywhere I turned. Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr, the owner and publisher of The New York Times, declined my interview request through the mail: “I’m afraid the idea of a perfect world is disturbing to me,” he wrote. “For one, I’m not sure I’d have a place in a perfect world. Secondly, I’m not sure what the role of newspapers would be if everything was going swimmingly. Everyone Wins Lotto, Again – I don’t think so.” Sulzberger’s letter was unusually frank and funny, but the sentiment it expressed was common: a perfect world? What a weird and unsettling topic!
Maybe the current discomfort with the notion of a perfect world grows from the fact that the recent past contains the most malevolent efforts ever to manufacture ideal societies at any cost – Hitler’s satanic Third Reich, Stalin’s collectivization through mass terror, and other human-rights failures of communist social engineering worldwide. Visions of utopia have so recently produced the dystopic obverse that conventional wisdom is now solidly laissez-faire: the best of all possible worlds can never be prescribed. If a more-or-less perfect world is possible at all, we can only imagine that it might emerge slowly over time, in the messy push and pull of conflicting self-interests chasing private gains in incremental ways.
Still, by asking powerful or influential individuals in politics, business and publishing to describe their perfect worlds, I hoped to get a perspective on their big-picture agendas and ideals – the most important focus of any leader, after all. I wanted even more that the bigwigs I chose would express their big-picture ideals in an uncommonly candid way. So I had to use a unique – even peculiar – interview technique.
Who Invented Utopia
The word Utopia was coined by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), the English writer, statesman and Lord Chancellor executed for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. Utopia was the title of a book which he wrote in 1516. It is a novel in which a traveller discovers an island where society is arranged in a perfectly ordered and reasonable way. There is no private property and there is a great measure of religious toleration (though this toleration doesn’t extend to atheists). Society on the island is very hierarchical and is based on a kind of Biblical communalism. By drawing contrasts with the ‘ideal society’ of Utopia, More was able to safely criticise the European nations of his own day, He was very influenced by Plato’s Republic, to which he refers a number of times in the novel. The name More invented for the island was a Greek pun – it comes from both ou-topos (‘no place’) and eu-topos (‘good place’) Some see the whole book as a satire.
Poor Sir Thomas. He had the misfortune to live in a time when anyone considered an enemy, i.e. dangerous to the status quo, was executed in one of several horrible ways.
Who says humankind hasn’t made any progress?
It wasn’t exactly Obama who did that though.
Bankster cronies to the rescue!
Former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos has been named as Greece’s new prime minister
BBC
Mr Papademos, 64, said he was taking over at a “critical point” for Greece.
Leaders of the three main parties making up a new government of national unity had been meeting the Greek president to try to reach a deal.
Greeks will hope the news will provide the stability to get them through their debt crisis, correspondents say.
Mr Papademos will head an interim government being formed to make sure debt-laden Greece gets its latest bailout payment, and to approve a new 130bn euro ($177bn; £111bn) international rescue package from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.
L-Pap sounds worse than G-Pap.
Of course the New L is worse than the OG. The New L was installed by members of the elite “class” of Corporatist Banksterette Tea Partiers, as opposed to being elected by the actual people.
Funny how the mainstream media keep referring to the elite political-corporatists in Greece as being “the Greeks”. Those are not the Greeks. They are the biggest thieves in the EU and nothing more.
Papageno next?
Now that Berkeley has joined the Occupy movement, watch out for the fireworks.
UC Berkeley Riot Police Use Batons to Clear Students from Sproul Plaza
By Conor Friedersdorf
Nov 10 2011, 2:50 AM ET
The unarmed ‘Occupy Cal’ protesters were ousted from their encampment late Wednesday, but regrouped for a mass rally and sit-in
In iconic Sproul Plaza, many hundreds or perhaps thousands of UC Berkeley students and Occupy Oakland activists clashed with university police late into the night Wednesday, after officers carried out instructions from administrators to clear Occupy Cal protesters from their makeshift encampment. “We formed a human barricade around our tents, and they just beat their way through it with batons,” said one student. “It really, really hurt - I got the wind knocked out of me,” another protester, doctoral student Shane Boyle, told the San Francisco Chronicle, showing the reporter a red welt on his chest. “I was lucky I only got hit twice,” he added.
“After warning protesters that camping at the university is illegal, officers moved in and shoved demonstrators out of the way as they pushed toward the camp,” the Contra Costa Times reported. “Six UC Berkeley students and an associate professor were arrested; charges included resisting officers and failing to disperse.” The police succeeded in clearing away tents, but protesters refused to leave the plaza, insisting that they’d camp there with or without equipment. Protesters with smartphones took turns webcasting video from the scene, and ultimately voted around 1 am to approve a University of California-wide general strike to be held Tuesday of next week.
…
It’s been, what, weeks since there was a riot or strike in Berkeley?
Sounds to me that it was the cops who were doing all the “rioting”.
Now compare this to Penn State
What are the students there thinking?
I doubt that thinking entered into the equation.
Those are the white, educated people that are about to rule this country. The police really do not know who they’re working for, do they? Dam, time to send another donation too.
You haven’t been to a UC campus in a while.
Nov. 10, 2011, 5:17 a.m. EST
EU warns of ‘deep, prolonged recession’
By Matthew Dalton
BRUSSELS — The European Union Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the 27-nation bloc in the coming year and said it can’t exclude the possibility of a deep, prolonged recession.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in its semiannual forecast the economy is struggling with weak confidence, financial turmoil, government austerity packages and a slowdown in Europe’s main trading partners.
…
“The probability of a more protracted period of stagnation is high,” said Marco Buti, head of the EU’s economics division. “And, given the unusually high uncertainty around key policy decisions, a deep and prolonged recession complemented by continued market turmoil cannot be excluded.”
Filed under: Ho ho, hah hah, hehehehehehe, BwaHaHaAhHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb-thrower™)
Bankers Boycott Batali for Comparing Them to Hitler:
By Adam Martin | The Atlantic Wire – 16 hrs ago
“Used to frequent this place but Mario will never see a dime of my money again. I’d rather eat at a hot dog cart,” one wrote about Del Posto, according to Bloomberg critic Ryan Sutton. “Screw this jerk. Plenty of great Italian places in NYC. No need to support him. Ecco on Chambers Street blows his food out of the water anyway,” said another. Sutton also tweeted this one: “Credit derivatives trader calls me: ‘I spent $4,000 on a white truffle dinner on Monday at Babbo. This is sh!tty. I feel used.’ ” Another trader from ICE futures told Sutton (per his Twitter), “Occupy Babbo … I’m calling for a Wall St.-Wide Boycott.” Eater reports that “one large bank has canceled all Batali restaurant reservations while another bank sent out a memo today to all staffers saying they wouldn’t reimburse receipts from Babbo and others in the group.”
Poor Hitler — the guy lies six feet under and decomposed, with no way to defend himself.
Eyes thoughts he left a body of demonstrable achievements as his legacy of “TrueEvidence™” to survive his lusus naturae ego even beyond 100+ years?
Hitler RIP: 24,284+ days, (does not include possible DNA remnants)
res ipsa loquitur
He has gone on to apologize it seems, evdiently for concerns for his business.
Dunno what’s scarier today, that this guy’s opinion was muted or that the PSU students’ opinions were so amplified?
Batali was out of line. Hitler? He should have more accurately compared bankers to Meyer Lansky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky
See how immature these banksters really are? It’s like they’ve never lived in the real world, and they do not realize that they are not smallish gods. I guarantee that this restauranteer can make a living without brown-nosing to criminal banksters. Really. Besides, who is foolish enough to buy white truffles, anyway? What a bunch of turdlies.
“I guarantee that this restauranteer can make a living without brown-nosing to criminal banksters.”
Not with his location and prices. But he could always open up a joint in Brooklyn and get my patronage.
Is this $4k for one guy? Is it $6k on Saturdays? WTF?
The Vegas housing market is at risk of losing its foreclosure capital reputation.
Nov. 10, 2011, 9:20 a.m. EST
Vegas is no longer #1 - in foreclosures
Foreclosure activity heated up in October, as notices increased by 7%. And the hottest foreclosure hotspot changed for the first time in nearly two years. RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio explains why.
RealtyTrac sez there were 1/4 million (= 230,000+) foreclosures in October — down 31% from October 2010. Note that 12 X 230,000 = 2,760,000 / year — almost 3 million a year current rate. And RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio says the rate of foreclosures is increasing, as the robo-signing slowdown ends. So long as foreclosures are occurring anywhere near a 3m/year rate, there is no end in sight to the foreclosure crisis.
Saccacio also mentioned that Vegas lost its top spot in foreclosures due to government intervention requiring lenders to sign a foreclosure affidavit attesting paperwork is correct that enters the public record.
New #1 foreclosure capital: Stockton, CA
Given the cascading collapse in Europe, how would you feel about having a chunk of change in HSBC about now? Not a huge amount in my case, but cheap used-car’s worth that I wouldn’t want to see get tied up. Might be moving it shortly to a smaller local institution. Would you walk, or jog to the bank?
With the U.S. printing money I had suggested diversifying out of U.S. dollars, as Alan Greenspan put it on 60 minutes. My wife said absolutely not, and she was right.
We’re the least dirty shirt.
We’re too sexy for our dirty shirt.
Z Originale Housing Bubble Blog Poem (from Feb ‘09)
Lovely poem!
Let’s keep a very close eye on this one.
‘High house prices not sustainable’
By: JO-MARÉ DUDDY
HOT PROPERTY … House prices continued to climb in June, increasing 17 per cent in real terms.
http://www.namibian.com.na/news/marketplace/full-story/archive/2011/november/article/high-house-prices-not-sustainable/
PROPERTY prices are set to drop as Namibians don’t earn enough to continue paying for expensive houses, FNB Namibia economist Namene Kalili has said. House prices continued climbing in June, increasing by more than 17 per cent in real terms. National income, on the other hand, grew by a mere 0,5 per cent last year.
“There is very little national income to sustain these price levels,…
….House prices in central Namibia continued to fall in June.
The median price for a house in the lower-income segment in the central area was N$263 633, nearly two per cent up from May. A house in the middle-income segment cost N$509 500 in June, about six per cent less than the month before.
In the upper-income bracket, prices jumped by 6,3 per cent in June, with a median house going for N$1,4 million.
Is this a global conspiracy or what? Namibia has a bubble now? Where next? Somalia? Afghanistan?
Yes, it’s the global conspiracy known as “globalization”, which is really just a euphemism for corporatism. I’m sure when their bubble pops, there will be Namibian politicians everywhere taking a tough stance against the people, demanding that the international lenders be bailed out at all costs. To save everyone, of course.
Namibia?
Wow. This thing really IS global.
Link roundup from Tucson:
Median sales figure still $20,000 below level seen a year ago
Tucson home prices rose 2 percent in Oct.
Story comments aren’t exactly of the REIC cheerleading variety.
Job Creation in Tucson: Building a Sustainable Future
Key quote:
With the local unemployment rate shrinking and the total workforce also shrinking, this begs the question: Are more people employed locally or did the unemployment rate go down because people left town or dropped out of the workforce?
A recent article in the Arizona Daily Star gives us a hint: One in eight apartments or homes in Pima County is vacant. In 2000, 9.4% of housing units in the county were vacant, compared with 12% in 2010.
In a preview of a likely strategy to link Democratic candidates with the Occupy Wall Street movement, the conservative group Crossroads GPS released an attack ad Thursday taking aim at Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. The spot quotes Warren–a longtime consumer advocate who helped create a new federal agency to oversee consumer lending policy–voicing support for Occupy Wall Street. It then goes on to explain that such backing equates to support for people who advocate drugs, violence, trashing public spaces and radical policies.
In the new Crossroads ad, Warren is heard saying of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, “I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do” and “I support what they do.”
You have to love groups like Crossroads GPS (I believe this is a Carl Rove super PAC see Steven Colbert)
But the majority of registered voters agree with OWS.
OWS Polls past 10 days:
Rasmussen (33% approval)
Quinnipiac (35% approval)
UMass (30% approval)
WSJ/NBC (41% approval)
Maybe my definition of majority is different than yours.
Your opinion is actually meaningless, since you’re a troll, but you have to remove the undecided people. All the polls I’ve seen show twice as much approval as disapproval. When you only poll registered voters, you get like 70% approval.
I still want to get a tee shirt with “Socialist Whore” printed on it.
Slim will you go out on a date with me
What kind of bicycle do you ride? Mountain or road? Fixie or geared?
Old school 10 speed Panasonic Sport 500, this is mostly an around-town bike, although it has been above 14,000′ elevation to the top of Mt Evans. Considering replacing it with a Giant Defy, that needs to be discussed here in weekend topics.
AZ — love your criterion! I was so pleased that my wife owned her own buck knife before we met. Having a tougher time with the bike…
I was so pleased that my wife owned her own buck knife before we met.
Okay, so that’s how to impress the guys. I’ll just have to show them my Leatherman. And prove that I know how to use it. (The needlenose pliers that come with it are really nice.)
And resourceful with the Leatherman tool, very nice
The squad found itself with a flat tire at a remote trailhead near Creede, CO this summer and without proper jack tools was able to twist the scissor jack using the Leatherman pliers to lift the squadmobile and change the flat to return to civilization without a $X00 tow charge.
Is this the same group that blamed the burning of black churches and the truck dragging death of a gay man on Bush?
Your soul brethren in hysterical finger pointing?
Do your homework. The black man in Texas got dragged to death behind a truck by Bush voters. The gay man in Wyoming got tied to a fence and beaten to death by Bush voters. And they were Tea Party teabaggers before they even knew there was a Tea Party. If there was a Tea Party teabagger television studio audience present they would have cheered both events. USA! USA! USA!
Those obsessed with the sex lives of others are “conservatives”.
Barney Frank is out of the closet and Bill Clinton had an affair with a consenting adult. Meanwhile the puritan hypocrites elected Larry Craig and Mark Foley as family values candidates, with spiritual guidance from Ted Haggard of course
And that hypocrisy is what makes them so offensive.
You have access to their party registration and votes cast? Any links?
Your sarcasm meter must be broken. But the part about the audience cheering is probably true
This of course is protected by free speech.
Money is free speech and corporations are people.
This of course is protected free speech.
Money is free speech and corporations are people.
How will the U.S. economy behave at the point when denial of this emerging story gives way to acceptance?
EUROPE NEWS
NOVEMBER 10, 2011, 12:31 P.M. ET
EU Could Face ‘Deep, Prolonged Recession’
By MATTHEW DALTON
BRUSSELS—The European Union on Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the 27-nation bloc in the coming year and said it can’t exclude the possibility of a “deep and prolonged” recession.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in its semiannual forecast that the economy is struggling against weak confidence, financial turmoil, government austerity packages and a slowdown in Europe’s main trading partners.
The EU’s gross domestic product in 2012, adjusted for inflation, is expected to grow just 0.6%, the commission said, sharply down from its forecast only six months ago of 1.9%. The commission’s forecast for the 17-nation euro zone is 0.5% growth in 2012, also falling short of the May outlook of 1.8% growth.
…
Imagine what they are saying behind closed doors.
Oh to be a fly on the wall.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/business/how-a-financial-pro-lost-his-house.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Note the final paragraphs - they just stiffed a couple banks for almost $300,000 (in Aug 2010) but they find it hard to forego vacations.
There is not one single thing this man or his book could advise me on that would offer any benefit.
He was a moron and chances are he still is a moron.
You took the words right out of my skull.
Mine too.
And, sorry to say, he’s all too typical of the people I’ve met who call themselves financial planners or advisers. I wouldn’t even ask them for advice on which movie to see.
Isn’t ECB purchase of Italian debt to suppress yields tantamount to a de facto eurozone bailout? Please enlighten me if you have an opinion.
Bloomberg
Italian Bonds Rise on ECB Debt Purchases; French Spread Widens
November 10, 2011, 1:30 PM EST
By Paul Dobson
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — Italian government bonds rose as the European Central Bank was said to purchase the securities and after the nation sold the maximum amount of one-year bills on offer at an auction.
The advance pushed yields on Italian debt lower after they reached euro-era records yesterday. Italy’s senate is set to vote tomorrow on a package of austerity measures to clear the way for a new government. Yields on five- and 10-year securities stayed near 7 percent amid a clash between Germany and France over Europe’s permanent rescue fund and ECB comments that its intervention in the market is temporary. The French yield premium over German bonds reached a euro-era record as Standard & Poor’s said it erroneously sent a message suggesting the nation’s top credit rating had been lowered.
“The auction results should be interpreted within the context of the extreme pressure that has been brought to bear on Italian debt,” said Luca Jellinek, head of European interest- rate strategy at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London. “Together with reported ECB buying, this auction result should support further Italy outperformance.”
…
What stops the ECB from buying enough Italian debt to hammer yields back down to whatever number they like?
Europe’s Debt Crisis
Italian bonds on ECB life support
By Aaron Smith November 10, 2011: 2:07 PM ET
Yields on Italian bonds remain perilously close to the 7% mark despite some ECB buying and decent aution results.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Italian borrowing costs remained stubbornly high Thursday, even as the European Central Bank stepped in ahead of a decent Italian bond auction.
“After [Wednesday's] volatility it looks unlikely that ECB buying or any new government action will be enough turn investor confidence in Italy,” said Evolution Securities strategist Gary Jenkins, in a client note. “That moment has passed.”
The yield on the 10-year Italian bond eased to 6.89% Thursday, retreating from a record high of 7.48% hit just a day earlier. But yields are still closer to 7% than 6% and that’s troublesome.
The 7% level is a psychological trigger because that was the mark that Greece, Ireland and Portugal first crossed shortly before receiving bailouts.
Italy is too big for a bailout. But it might not need one. The Mediterranean country is more solvent than its dysfunctional politics would suggest, said Brown Brothers Harriman analyst Marc Chandier.
“People are overreacting to Italy,” he said. “It has plenty of wealth, it’s just not in the government pockets. It’s in household pockets, corporate pockets. The problem in Italy is one of political credibility, not so much insolvency.”
…
It has plenty of wealth, it’s just not in the government pockets.
Somebody should do something about that…
Marc should be an OWS leader. America has too much wealth. Problem is not enough of it is in the government’s pocket.
Who is paying you to troll the anti-OWS posts here?
Who is paying you to troll the anti-OWS posts here?
Yeah, cut us in on some of that gravy. After all, we’re spending time on responding.
Hmmm, Slim contemplates a new career as a paid troll…
Why buy a house today when you can buy later for 70% less?
Better buy now, prices will never be this high again.
Look who’s downsizing now. From Tucson’s leading fishwrap:
Dr. Weil sells ranch property near Tucson
Sotto voce: One of my longtime friends used to work for a University of Arizona research who actually studied medicinal plants, found that some were effective, and, get this, published her results in peer-reviewed journals.
OTOH, many on campus thought that Weil was a flake and a publicity hound. They probably still do.
It’s also well-known that Weil’s Center for Integrative Medicine isn’t exactly busting a gut to do research and publish results. It’s more of a clinic and training program than anything else.
I’m as pro-holistic health as anyone, but I was hoping to see the Center for Integrative Medicine show some leadership on proving the effectiveness of what they’re promoting.
Bank gives man foreclosed Jacksonville house for free
By Roger Bull jacksonville.com
April 10, 2011 - 12:00am
Bank gives man foreclosed Jacksonville house for free
Perry Laspina was in the middle of foreclosure with the possibility of losing the house he owned in Jacksonville. Then the mail came one day in late January telling him that the house was his.
Despite the $72,000 mortgage that he barely paid anything on, despite the foreclosure … the house was his.
In the middle of foreclosures gone wild, of a system overloaded by sheer volume, judicial investigations and allegations of corners cut, Laspina ended up with the house.
Despite the fact that he didn’t have an attorney in the foreclosure proceedings, the mortgage holder simply gave up and walked away.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” he said.
It’s a tale populated with many of the major players in the national foreclosure drama: The law firm of David Stern, the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (better known as MERS) and a mortgage packaged with others and sold into a securitized trust.
Here’s how it happened.
Back in 2006, Laspina, a used-car dealer based in South Florida, had some extra money and decided to buy some real estate that he could resell quickly at a profit. It was, after all, the height of the housing boom with prices skyrocketing and mortgage money easily available.
“Since everyone else was making money flipping houses, I figured I would, too,” he said.
He wasn’t familiar with Jacksonville, but his brother owned a house in Fernandina Beach and found the house on Oakwood Street in the Panama Gardens neighborhood of Jacksonville off North Main Street.
It’s an old neighborhood where most of the houses are still well-maintained.
Laspina bought the house for $80,000, putting $8,000 down and taking out an adjustable rate mortgage with EquiFirst for the remaining $72,000 with an interest rate of 9.5 percent.
EquiFirst, based in Charlotte, N.C., was one of the nation’s leading sub-prime lenders in 2006. But it soon fell victim to the housing and mortgage industry collapse and it closed in 2009.
EquiFirst kept few of the mortgages it wrote; most were packaged and sold to securitized trusts which were owned by investors.
Laspina wasn’t worried about the interest rate.
“It didn’t matter,” he said. “I figured I’m going to flip this house within six months, maybe three months.”
He also figured he’d get about $120,000 for it after he did a bit of work on it, mostly tearing up the carpet and stripping the paint that covered the hardwood floors.
“But right after I put it on the market, the crash came,” he said. “I couldn’t sell it, I couldn’t rent it.”
By 2008, the increases on his payments kicked in, going from an initial payment of $605 to $894 and then $1,058 in less than a year. He quit making payments, and in September of that year, a foreclosure notice was filed against him. The plaintiff was the U.S. Bank National Association, which was simply acting as the trustee for an unnamed trust that now owned the mortgage.
The court file says that Laspina lost his foreclosure case in February 2009. A sale date was set, then postponed and then cancelled, all at the plaintiff’s request, later that year.
But the next year, the plaintiff requested that it all be vacated - the suit, the judgment, all of it. In October, Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace signed the order.
In December, officials for MERS, which acted as the mortgage holder, signed and filed the documents saying it “has received full payment and satisfaction … and does hereby cancel and discharge said mortgage.”
Laspina had paid less than $1,000 toward the principal on his $72,000 loan.
That’s what happened. But there are questions about why.
“This is crazy,” attorney David Goldman said as he looked over the files at the Times-Union’s request.
“They won,” he said referring to the mortgage holder. “They’re standing at the goal line, and they just need to sell the house.”
“One possibility is that they did it by mistake,” said Chip Parker, an attorney who specializes in foreclosure defense. “There are just so many cases out there.”
One issue possibly complicating the case is that the plaintiff’s attorney was David Stern, whose Southeast Florida law firm became the poster child for foreclosure mills. In 2009 alone, it handled 70,000 foreclosure cases, according to news reports, and employed more than 1,000 people.
But after questions were raised about the practice, the Florida attorney general announced an investigation of possibly fraudulent paperwork at Stern and two other firms. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with many banks, dropped him as their primary foreclosure attorney.
Stern’s firm quit its foreclosure work at the end of March.
MERS itself has been the subject of plenty of controversy. The electronic registration and tracking system helps banks package, buy and sell mortgages without the time and money that used to be required to record each transaction.
MERS is named the nominee on these loans, but it now faces lawsuits across the country seeking unpaid recording fees that normally go to local governments, and several courts have rejected MERS’ role in bringing foreclosures.
Parker also theorized that the mortgage owner simply made a business decision.
“The lender was faced with retaining new counsel,” Parker said. “Maybe it looked at the value of the property, realized it’s way, way underwater and simply not worth it.”
That appears to be the case, though the mortgage holder provided few details when contacted.
The loan was being serviced by America’s Servicing Co., a subsidiary of Wells Fargo.
“The investor on the loan, the bondholder on the trust, decided to write off the loan balance,” said a Wells Fargo spokesman, “because of the significant decreased value of the property.”
He declined to give more details or further explanation.
The home — two bedrooms, one bath and 1,120 square feet — is structurally solid, Laspina said. But many of the interior walls are covered with mold ever since the coils were stolen from the air conditioner.
It’s appraised at $46,000 by the Duval County appraiser’s office in a neighborhood that has inconsistent values.
The house next door sold for $65,000 in January after selling for $91,000 in 2003. A house across the street sold for $153,500 in 2008. But another a couple of houses away was purchased from a bank for $23,000 a year ago after selling for $140,000 in 2006.
“It’s a good neighborhood,” said Jackie Painter, whose family first moved to Panama Gardens in 1958. She spent most of the past decade in Michigan, but when she wanted to move back south, she moved to the neighborhood where her younger sister and 99-year-old mother still live.
“Some of the houses were in really bad shape for awhile,” she said. “But people have come in and fixed them up. They’re good neighbors. We get a little riff raff, a few prostitutes will walk down the street, but when they see us watching, they scatter.”
Goldman cautioned about anyone expecting to duplicate Laspina’s good luck.
“I don’t think it’s representative,” he said. “Someone won the lottery here. There’s a lot of people out there saying they can get you your house free, but they’re just selling you something. It’s a one-in-a-million thing.”
As for Laspina, he plans to clean the mold, mow the lawn and try to sell the house.
“I could certainly use the money,” he said.
http://jacksonville.com/business/2011-04-10/story/bank-gives-man-foreclosed-jacksonville-house-free - 189k
“Someone won the lottery here. There’s a lot of people out there saying they can get you your house free, but they’re just selling you something. It’s a one-in-a-million thing.”
Everyone who seriously doubts their ability to pay their mortgage should just default and squat, in case they turn out to be the next lucky foreclosure lottery winner.
My often repeated, often scoffed-at prediction has come true.
That people would get “free houses”
As this case illustrates, property prices are so low in most of BFE. it will cost more to complete a foreclosure than the property is worth.
Of course the new owner has to deal with selling the place, or renting it out. Bet he can rent it out cheap, if all he has to pay for is property tax. Time to reset those local “rental comps”.
I wonder if he’s going to get a 1099?
“Someone won the lottery here. There’s a lot of people out there saying they can get you your house free, but they’re just selling you something. It’s a one-in-a-million thing.”
C’est la vie say the Deadbeats, it goes to show you never can tell
I don’t mind this sort of thing going on between a borrower and a lender. But the game is currently rigged so that I’m confident that the taxpayer is going to pick up the tab on this some way, somehow.
This is what our new “financial/service” economy will be like.
Everybody trying to screw everybody else (preferably “legally”), going for the big score.
All that stuff about “responsibilities” and “paying what you owe” are old paradigm thinking.
I want to be a General in the “Free $##t Army”
Sounds to me as though MBS investors and taxpayers (through F&F loss payments) will foot the bill for this mortgage stimulus plan.
The FT dot com
November 10, 2011 10:01 pm
US officials consider options on mortgages
By Shahien Nasiripour in New York and Robin Harding in Washington
US policymakers are considering ways to buy troubled government-guaranteed mortgages from a new refinancing programme in case investors balk, according to people familiar with the matter.
The initiative, known as the home affordable refinance programme (Harp), was changed last month so it can refinance mortgages that amount to more than 125 per cent of the value of a home. Such loans are currently not eligible for inclusion in standard mortgage-backed securities.
Officials are considering three main options to support the new effort. Their first preference is for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US-controlled mortgage financiers, to package these mortgages into a new class of mortgage-backed securities for sale to private investors, if the pricing is reasonable.
If this fails, Fannie and Freddie could acquire the loans and keep them on their balance sheets. A third idea mooted in Washington is for the Federal Reserve to act as a back-up buyer for these mortgage securities. Such a move is not under active consideration at the central bank.
The concern about investor demand for these mortgages highlights a potential problem with the changes to Harp, which the Obama administration hopes will boost the economy by potentially helping millions of struggling homeowners to refinance their underwater mortgages at lower interest rates.
…
In Florida, foreclosure lull ends
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 12:04 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011
A year after the robo-signing scandal brought the foreclosure industry to a standstill, signs of a ramp-up were seen in October as new filings spiked 28 percent in Florida from the previous month.
The increase brought initial foreclosure filings to a 12-month high statewide and boosted Florida to the No. 4 spot for foreclosure activity nationwide, according to a RealtyTrac report to be released today.
Florida has not held a spot in the top five since November 2010.
Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for the Irvine, Calif-based RealtyTrac, said the days of year-over-year increases have likely ended as paperwork problems, court backlogs and efforts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure spread-out activity.
Initially, RealtyTrac predicted all foreclosure filings - initial notices, sale notices and bank repossessions - would reach 3 million this year. The company has revised that projection to between 2 million and 2.5 million.
Still, Blomquist said states where foreclosures must go through the court system, such as Florida, experienced a 16 percent increase in new filings in October from September.
“We saw increases begin a few months ago in non-judicial states and it appears that in Florida and other judicial states we are starting to see those increases in earnest,” Blomquist said.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ronald Dresnick said he is frustrated by the number of dismissals that occur because of case inactivity.
“My bailiff weeds through the dead wood every month and the cases are just dismissed,” Dresnick said last week during a conference in Fort Lauderdale. “Who is supposed to be moving these cases?”
In May 2009, Richard and Gladys Jacobs were the target of a foreclosure filed on their Jupiter area home. In January, the case was voluntarily dismissed and the lis pendens - the initial foreclosure filing - removed. They have no idea why.
The couple hope to get a loan modification.
“We were happy they did it,” Richard Jacobs said about the dismissal. “We thought we were free and clear, but we still don’t have a modification.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/ - 95k
I’m so glad I haven’t bought a house.
Yeah, it’s kinda nice being a renter and being able to sit back and watch this giant C/F.
Guy I know needs to sell his house and relocate. Thought he had it sold in August to a “pre-approved” buyer with a big cash down. Guy was in a hurry, wanted to close in late August, move in on September 1. Guy signed the sales docs, put a small deposit down. Mad rush to pack up and move by end of August begins…
End of August……stuff is packed up, and stored, some moved to new town 700 miles away. Has been commuting by airline, neither airport is a “hub”, so a minimum of one plane change is involved.
Day before closing, guy get a call. Seems that the buyer is not “pre-approved” after all. His “large down payment” went away, when the buyer’s had to cough up $45K to complete the short sale of his previous place. Guy wants to rent the place “temporarily”, but has no money to put down for a deposit. Negotiations on this consumed most of September.
House went back on the market in October.
Guess I should have used “buyer” and “seller” for more clarity.
Margaret Kelly, CEO of REmax and Kansas City Federal Reserve board member is a Liar.
Beware and watch your wallet.
Every Realtor is a LIAR. Thank you for naming names so this one can be avoided.
You guys will love this. A few days ago I emailed my realtor a link to a house he just sold and said, “nice sell!”
His reply, “I have to keep my neighborhood values up!”
You’re welcome. My pleasure.
Realtors Are Liars®
Since when is buying a house at 4.7 times income affordable?
LA Times article
Where are my good friends;
Lawrence Yun Is A Liar® or Ben Bernanke Is A Liar®? What about ReaItor Is A Fraud®? Congressmen Are Liars®?
Where are you guys? You’re all my long lost ballsy friends with simple catchy names. I hope to see you on all corners of the net.