Bits Bucket for November 13, 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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Been browsing the blog at late hours because it’s the only time both the wife and baby are sleeping. I’ve also been going through Khan Academy videos and relearning some old math courses. I’ve noticed that they have several videos in series’ titled “Credit Crisis”, “Paulson Bailout”, and “Geithner Plan”.
Anyone gone through these? Are they simple propaganda? Many of the video I’ve watched already were obviously put together in a rush by someone who wasn’t concerned with the quality of the presentation. I’m curious who they could get to cover these topics.
Hi Bink,
On your suggestion, I just watched the “Geithner Plan” series, (which I wrote about in a guest blog here a couple of years ago,) and can report that after his typical clear and concise explanation of the concepts behind the plan, Khan (who does the segments himself,) goes on to excoriate its likely effects. The man is absolutely right on in his skepticism. Non-recourse loan from Fed is risk/reward disproportionate to the upside– essentially a huge subsidy to hedge funds and the insolvent banks themselves- and gets the taxpayers to pick up the (inevitable,) downside.
In segment 2 Khan calls it the “Biggest travesty of capitalism… it’s got me pretty troubled.” He shows how the banks can form their own private investor components to set up the price they will pay for their own assets.
Finally he suggests making the banks recapitalize the money, wiping out the bank shareholders, and redistribute it to the American public.
This guy is an American treasure, imo. Highly recommend his online free university– on everything. But as for propaganda, nary a bit on this one.
Realtors Are Liars®
Hmmm…Friday was a federal holiday on a payday week. Normally, I’d see my direct deposit on Saturday morning, dated Friday. I think it is actually going to show up on Tuesday, dated Monday.
Government gets the float for three extra days. I’m trying to remember if it was always like that, but the number of times a holiday falls on a Friday is very limited.
Think of the horror those fed employees are going through if their mortgage is on auto payment and due today….nah lets have a drink and laugh our azzes off.
Here are some words to the wise, whether or not federally employed:
- Don’t live paycheck to paycheck.
- Keep your expenses safely below your income.
- Save money for a rainy day (like when your employer makes a late payment)
This is exactly why i have never auto paid anything, 1 screwup like this the overdraft the credit ding etc….
But somethimes shhhhhet happens all in the same week: cracked tooth, timing belt breaks, and a roomate ditched out on me 2 days before rent is due.
“…never auto paid anything…”
The reasons I never auto pay anything are
(1) it is much easier to stop a manual payment than an auto payment;
(2) if anything goes wrong with the auto payment, it is your credit rating that will take the hit, not the robot payer’s.
OOPS I lied I lied I lied Ebay auto pays your fees each month but they give you a 10 day notice an a 3 day window when they will do it….But then most months are low, a few times over $75 and when i had some really big sales months i paid over $200.
According to my plain-jane government-issued green calender, paydays are officially Tuesdays, so I count the Friday paydays as the employee getting the float from Friday to Tuesday, not the gov.
Is it? We don’t get calendars. So, speculating here, is the Friday receipt a left over “benefit” from when they were trying to get people to sign up for auto deposit? Sign up for this and get your check early?
Whatever the actual pay date, I bet a lot of people fail to juggle their automatic payments to account for a Tuesday payday when they are used to getting it by Saturday.
We don’t really “get” calendars; there are just a bunch of printouts of the single page in the supply room.
And yeah, I get pretty tired of stories of how people play the float and disparage the banks for charging overdraft fees. Are they seriously towing the line every month? Even in grad school making nearly minimum wage and living in my own 1-bed (no roommate), I was able to keep a buffer of about two rent payments in my checking account. I never bounced a check.
However, I save my anger until I find out why someone is close to bouncing. What if all their autopayments are set up fine, and then the health insurance goes up $200/month? Who’s to blame?
I think you have to really watch the auto payment thing. I don’t do it except in very limited circumstances. I have bill pay so I can instruct my bank to pay the bill when I tell them to. But I don’t let the bill sender tell the bank what to send them except in very limited cases and those bills don’t vary at all from month to month or even year to year.
I don’t keep that much in my checking account, but then I am old fashioned and actually use a check register so I can remember when an instruction to pay has gone out, but it the on-line account hasn’t gotten the message yet.
Really helped when my brother took over 2 months to cash a check.
Employers with unskilled labor issue paychecks on Fridays in order that their workforce has a few days to get-over being n* rich, and return Monday morning.
Does “n* rich” mean what I sincerely hope it doesn’t mean?
If so, you need to get your racism off this board and do it now. It is not welcome.
yes it does and i remember my father using that when i was a kid.
it wasnt about race it was about having a lot of cash and it hurt to just let it sit in your wallet.
I’ve seen a lot more overt racism since Obama was elected.
Grizz:
Yes it becuase we whites thought he would care about black people and talk to them like we want to, with out being called a rascist….he failed!
Stop the stupid ebonics, set a goal for black people to commit crimes at the same rate as white people….instead he sides with his slave masters
“it wasnt about race it was about having a lot of cash and it hurt to just let it sit in your wallet.”
I call BS on not about race. We called it money “burning a hole in your pocket”.
“set a goal for black people to commit crimes at the same rate as white people”
In a justice system that targets based on race, even when crime rates are the same, more of the targeted race would be tried and convicted of crimes. If the system simply targets areas where more black people live, the end result is more black people tried and convicted. If the system finds it easier to prosecute crimes committed by poor people and one race is more likely to be poor, then the poorer race is likely to show up more in the crime stats.
Even the type of crime may be more a matter of opportunity and may be skewed by where someone lives and who he associates with. Prescription drug abuse is prevalent in suburban communities. Heroin may be more prevalent in cities. If deferred prosecution is offered to prescription drug abusers and heroin users are rountinely locked up, what does that do to crime stats? Fraud and robbery are committed by different groups of people with different resources - not necessarily by race, but by socioeconomic factors (income, city vs suburban vs rural, education, etc.).
Show me a study that compares racial crime rates based on socioeconomic factors and type of crime. Until then, stop the crap about blacks committing more crimes.
“Yes it becuase we whites”
Speak for yourself.
Happy:
ok i was a paralegal for a while, and I don’t buy the system is racist…but there is plenty of discrimination based on being seriously stupid.
—Prescription drug abuse is prevalent in suburban communities. Heroin may be more prevalent in cities—–
You make my point when people know heroin gets you locked up then you have to be seriously stupid to even try that crap. same with crack.
It’s all about stupid.
Everyone seems pretty over sensitive about race. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, similarities and differences. So be it.
“Oversensitive about race”??? Are you joking? We’re a country founded on racism, built on racism and operates on racism.
We bomb brown people. It’s what we do. In 2011. Jeez…. I’m just oversensitive right? Holy $hit….
“ok i was a paralegal for a while, and I don’t buy the system is racist”
My point was that the system does not have to be overtly racist to have a racist effect.
“You make my point when people know heroin gets you locked up then you have to be seriously stupid to even try that crap”
Heroin is a lot cheaper than oxycontin. For an addict, the math points to heroin. Becoming addicted to oxycontin is really easy and can be started due to an accident. Stupidity is not relevant to this pathway. There are people that are more prone to addiction than others and that is relevant.
Thats why possession of small amounts of drugs should be legalized.
Of course it would hurt lawyers in the pocketbook with far less clients to defend….
I mean a really bad effect of legalizing drugs would be to clear up the court calenders and maybe actually get a PI case to trial in less than a year instead of 5+ and that also would require a lot less employed people in the system.
I usually read through the day’s comments later at night so just now got to this thread. To the usual suspects all I have to say is “You’re better than this.”
To those who continue to call them out on their loutishness, my sincere thanks. Ben’s board deserves better.
Meanwhile, the continuing resolution ends on November 18th. What then?
Another continuing resolution. They won’t play games with a partial shut down until after the due date of the Super Committee. At least that is the way I am seeing it. If there are games being played at not doing the extension, they were drowned out last week because there was a heck of a lot of breaking news. Impending takes a back seat in that atmosphere.
Fresh concern over eurozone debt crisis
By Dario Thuburn (AFP) – 3 hours ago
ROME — Italy was to choose new leadership on Sunday to steer it through a debt crisis that toppled Silvio Berlusconi, amid fresh warnings that the eurozone’s woes are threatening the global economy.
Italians danced and shouted for joy in the streets as the flamboyant and controversial Berlusconi on Saturday quit the prime minister’s post that he has held for 10 of the past 17 years, becoming the latest European leader brought down by the debt crisis.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano began a marathon round of talks on Sunday to choose Berlusconi’s successor, with former EU commissioner Mario Monti widely expected to be tipped to head a new transition government.
The president is in a race against time to have a new cabinet in place before the markets open on Monday, when the eurozone’s third-largest economy will face its first bond auction test of the post-Berlusconi era.
Meanwhile concerns mounted that the eurozone’s woes were threatening the world economy, with US President Barack Obama warning that despite positive developments in Italy and debt-ridden Greece, much remained to be done to assure markets that countries like Italy could finance their debts.
“I think that we are not going to see massive growth out of Europe until the problem is resolved,” Obama said. “And that will have a dampening effect on the overall global economy.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao also warned that global economic recovery was “fraught with greater instability and uncertainty.”
Italy has a toxic mix of a 1.9 trillion euro (2.6 trillion dollar) debt, an extremely low growth rate and borrowing costs that are climbing ever higher — last week, long-term borrowing costs rose above 7.0 percent, a dangerous level that could make the nation’s debt unsustainable within months.
…
“Fresh” concern? When did it ever go away? I guess we need to see these sensational headlines every single day so the Wall St. casino can continue its rigged games.
Ditto. It took years of action by the collective country to get to this point in time. And we’re supposed to believe quickly installed new government leaders are going to just sweep all that away and the problem is solved?
Agreed, it’s a combination of the media wanting a neatly packaged sitcom-esque story (conflict + resolution neatly packaged in 30 minutes), and Wall Street taking advantage of the herd.
Tony Blair says eurozone breakup would be ‘catastrophic’
Former prime minister calls for ‘whole weight of Europe’ to stand behind single currency and resolve eurozone debt crisis
Allegra Stratton, politics correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 November 2011 08.39 EST
Tony Blair Appears On The Andrew Marr Show
Tony Blair says Europe’s leaders are in danger of being ‘behind the curve’ on the eurozone debt crisis. Photograph: Jeff Overs/Getty Images
Tony Blair has warned Europe’s leaders of the “catastrophic” consequences of the breakup of the eurozone, saying the current crisis was the most serious the European political project had ever faced.
The day after his former political ally Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Italy’s prime minister, Blair told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show there had “never been a tougher time to be a leader” but said Europe’s current cohort risked being “behind the curve”.
The former prime minister continued to hold out the possibility that in the “very long term”, Britain might still join the euro, should the single currency survive and stabilise.
He told Marr: “You’ve got to be careful of always being in a situation where you are just behind the curve of decision-making.
“What we could have done to stabilise this situation a few months back, you now have to do even more to stabilise it today.”
…
‘The former prime minister continued to hold out the possibility that in the ‘very long term’
He says this even as the decision to stay out of the currency looks to be very wise. These guys never give up. Blair should be in prison for war crimes, and he’s still lecturing the public on his globalist agenda.
An example of the world wide wrestling show that is politics was last nights Republican presidential debate. The “front runners” went on about how they would attack Iran, torture and kill anyone they wanted, all over the world, never leave Afghanistan. No mention of the rule of law, public opinion, the lessons of Iraq, how we would pay for it, or what attacking Iran would do to oil prices. It’s all war all the time, no matter which party gets in power.
‘On November 11, 1918, the world finally had enough of the irrational killing spree known as World War I. Fifteen million individual human beings had perished in what was the largest military conflict the world had yet seen. Armistice Day, marking the end of the war, was declared a holiday by the Allied nations. Some countries still observe it every November 11.’
‘Although the day was memorialized by governments whose integrity in the whole matter we can question, there is no doubt that there was much to celebrate in the end of hostilities. World War I convinced much of the world of the insanity of war.’
‘At the end of the Korean War, President Eisenhower signed a bill in 1954 that changed the name of the national holiday to Veteran’s Day. Perhaps it made no sense any more to honor an Armistice that had been overshadowed by World War II and the beginnings of the Cold War. Whereas after World War I, the United States brought its armed forces home, the war against Communism guaranteed that the United States would henceforth have little interest in armistice, in truce, in peace.’
‘And our country’s been at war ever since, with more and more veterans to observe every November.’
http://blog.independent.org/2011/11/11/armistice-day/
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Volunteering in the time of involvement when our shores are not being attacked is sheer folly.
But then our educational systems produce millions who are clueless and make great fodder.
Volunteering in the time of involvement when our shores are not being attacked is sheer folly.
No. It’s the last blue collar job with a pension.
An example of the world wide wrestling show that is politics was last nights Republican presidential debate. The “front runners” went on about how they would attack Iran, torture and kill anyone they wanted, all over the world, never leave Afghanistan
If that isn’t proof that we are becoming a fascist nation, I don’t know what is.
It is no accident that all of the Oligarchy-appointed, media-annointed GOP front-runners are committed neo-cons.
Blair should be in prison for war crimes
Cheney-$hrub $hadow Legacy Effect: # 32
Enjoining your Allie$:
Tell your allies you going take ‘em on a MilitaryIndu$trialComplexCorp.Inc’$ Hummer of a joy ride, $hort but $weet, around the block twice. “Hop in fella’s and let’s see what this new equipment can do!”
It’s all war all the time, no matter which party gets in power.
To be fair to the Dems, while they have been dragging their feet:
1) They have been slowly bringing troops home
2) They don’t saber rattle quite like the GOP does.
But yes, permawars do seem to be an “American Value” and saying that we shouldn’t be doing that will often get you labelled as “unAmerican”.
We heap adulation on our soldiers, proclaiming them as selfless “freedom fighters”. While many politicians decry the evil SS “ponzi scheme” I have yet to hear one say that soldiers shouldn’t get a pension even though we have to borrow to provide them.
We are war mongers and someday we will pay the price for it.
The problem is that there is a mentality alive in the land which says that Democratic presidents are wimps who can’t be trusted to protect the country. So what we get as a result is Clinton’s frequent missile striked against Iraq during the the interwar sanctions period and Obama’s fondness for assasinations carried out by drone.
“The “front runners” went on about how they would attack Iran…”
Sucking up to the Jewish lobby machine.
“It’s all war all the time, no matter which party gets in power.”
The secret is out of the bag now: War-time presidents get to do whatever they please, as the rule-of-law is suspended.
War-time presidents get to do whatever they please, as the rule-of-law is suspended.
CONgre$$ gave themselves a vasectomy, must’a been heavily $edated.
Obviously a large part of the problem is that the folks who fight are generally 99%ers, while the deciders, whose children are typically exempt from high-risk military service, are 1%ers.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Fr6xvleDmg/TkeW4Jf6P4I/AAAAAAAACbY/KJxvAgX2WZw/s1600/Foghorn_Leghorn2.jpg
“Obviously a large part of the problem is that the folks who fight are generally 99%ers, while the deciders, whose children are typically exempt from high-risk military service, are 1%ers.”
It ain’t me, it ain’t me…
“…the deciders, whose children are typically exempt from high-risk military service, are 1%ers.”
??? Has the draft been re-instituted?
No mention of the rule of law? There was an explicit discussion of it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=igxgegOSniY
Proves my point. Gingrich says ‘he was found guilty’ Moderator says not by a court, Gingrich says ‘he was found guilty by a panel that looked at it and reported to the President.’
That’s what we’ve come to. A secret ‘panel’ can give anyone a death sentence. Where’s the rule of law in that? I realize the moderator tried to insert the law into the debate, but the fact it was brushed off so easily shows where we are today. Nothing stands in the way of the executive when there is a war on. Nothing. And there is always a war now, even if it’s the ‘war on terror.’
And BTW, they killed the guys teenage son a few days later, who hadn’t done a damn thing. No biggie, huh? For those that like this legal barbarism by the state, I expect you’ll rue the day we went down this slippery slope.
“For those that like this legal barbarism by the state, I expect you’ll rue the day we went down this slippery slope.”
If you can, get that foreign passport. It might be the only way to get out of Dodge when we land at the bottom of the slippery slope.
Star Chamber-esque:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber
In all the wars up to WWI, battles were fought entirely by regiments, brigades and divisions of many thousands of men. Starting in WWII you saw some battles fought where the opposing sides had just dozens to hundreds of men. Korea was an anachronism because the Chinese had manpower aplenty to waste. Vietnam saw firefights between platoons (remember that movie?) and even squads. Afghanistan doesn’t even see many platoon-sized engagements. Good or bad, drone war- the taking out of a single important leader- is the logical extension of the direction that warfare has taken.
‘drone war- the taking out of a single important leader- is the logical extension of the direction that warfare has taken’
Sounds kinda like the terrorist method. Or maybe an empire that has run it’s course.
“…the Chinese had manpower aplenty to waste.”
Same situation still exists today…in a war of attrition with kill rates on the same order of magnitude, the Chinese win.
“Or maybe an empire that has run it’s course.”
If we could just get past the denial phase, this might not be that bad of a development. Let some other nation bear the cost of serving as global supercop for a while.
As long as our economy is weapons-based, there will be war.
As long as we hail war-makers as “heroes,” there will be war.
As long as our young are paid to have no other option, there will be war.
As long as Americans blandly accept its inevitability and refuse to hold its war-makers to account, there will be war.
War-making is not “service.” It is a shame of the highest order.
Blessed be the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Children of God.
-J. Christ
All options are on the table to stop the eurozone contagion from spreading
by: Matthew Campbell
From: The Times
November 13, 2011 2:36PM
AFTER years of turning Italy into a laughing stock, Silvio Berlusconi was the butt of the last joke.
Not long after he announced he was resigning as prime minister, a truck stopped outside Mr Berlusconi’s mansion in Rome and delivered a giant golden model of an anteater. The anteater, for reasons that are unclear, is doled out by a satirical television program to personalities who have made big blunders.
The police ordered the truck to leave; but the show’s presenter daubed bright red lipstick on the anteater’s mouth and placed a large blonde wig on its head, claiming that it was now an “anteater escort” - a reference to some of the female guests who have so often been welcomed at Mr Berlusconi’s famous parties.
To compound the embarrassment, the program that delivered the anteater was broadcast on a TV station owned by the Italian premier. It was a suitably absurd end to Mr Berlusconi’s reign, which had brought Italy and Europe to the brink.
Free trial
After months of trouble in the eurozone’s periphery, the debt crisis had spread like a fast-growing cancer to more vital organs. Moving beyond the humiliation of Greece, which many experts believe will be the first country to leave the eurozone, Italy was last week flirting with financial disaster as markets feared it would be unable to repay its towering euros 1.9 trillion ($A2.5 trillion) debt.
The Italian parliament yesterday approved an austerity package that the EU and International Monetary Fund regard as crucial to averting the need for an huge bailout; a temporary cabinet of economists led by Mario Monti, a distinguished academic and former EU commissioner, is set to take over tomorrow.
…
daubed bright red lipstick on the anteater’s mouth and placed a large blonde wig on its head, claiming that it was now an “anteater escort”
Quit pickin’ on the anteaters! It’s all the sneaky Aardvark’$ doing the damage!
The aardvark is not closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance.The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant $hrew$.
Who loosened their rein$? Now they’ve gone Global: $tomp!, $tomp!, $tomp!
Comment: It appears that “too-big-to-fail” is alive and well on the European continent.
JIT = “Just-in-Time!”
Seems the Global Financial Indu$trial Complex has adopted a u$eful $trategy:
JIT / UFA = “Urgent Financial Aid”
JIT / SNFA = “$overeign Nation Financial Aid”
JIT / ISNFA = “In$olvent Nation Financial Aid”
Producing digital coma’$ = “hard work”
All of the above = Guaranteed Investment Banker Bonuses
Lucky Ducky occupies houndsville:
http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2011/10/28
Mr. Hound threatens ro resign because of rising taxes.
http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2011/11/11
Hi. Pretty day here in New England. Local market observation for Arlington, MA. Stuff is moving (I guess since money is still so cheap and while the cost or RE is high for some places the rent / buy ratio for others is not too out of wack. More inventory added this past week in the ~$500K range. None of those worth it. It looks so much like colusion. Fore example three new listings all at or near the same price as if to justify the price.
Oxide. Enjoy your posts. But be patient, patient, paitent. Waiting longer might not get you a place for less money but you’ll get a better place.
Polly yesterday you posted the following. It’s a good example of the twisted mind of tax and tax and tax politicians. Someone buying a house has not avoided an expense. They simply have prepaid it by buying the house. So you have paid taxes on the income used the buy the house and the tax happy politians what to tax you on the using the house.
Polly
2011-11-12 16:33:59
There is already a subsidy for home ownership inherent in the system that my income tax prof used to mention occasionally.
If you buy stock, you have to pay taxes on the dividends and capital gains. Not that much these days, but you have to pay.
If you buy a house, it relieves you of the expense of paying rent, but you don’t pay tax on that imputed income.
It took quite a while for most of us to even get what he was talking about, but there is a point there. You can live in a house. This relieves you of a major expense. And you don’t pay any tax on that benefit. A stock certificate doesn’t have the same benefit. Neither does an interest bearing bank account.
“… but you don’t pay tax on that imputed income.”
1. Which means your housing expenses drop way down,
2.Which means you don’t need to earn much money,
3. Which puts you in a low tax bracket.
But you will still enjoy the same standard of living as those who must earn a lot of money to pay for housing and hence must pay a lot in taxes.
I remember the days when equity in your house was seen as a very unsopisticated way to manage money
how things change
The lemmings that choose to go over the cliff leave a clear field for the lemmings that choose to stay behind.
You bring to mind that classic Far Side cartoon:
http://www.michaelmusgrove.com/tech/why-arent-you-better/attachment/lemmings/
I remember the days when equity in your house was seen as a very unsopisticated way to manage money
Ah yes, those were the days. Heh. Heheh.
Thank you for brightening my day.
Evidently, it still is, by some:
Retiring Without a Home Loan
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/realestate/mortgages-retiring-without-a-home-loan.html?src=rechp
Ask me about it. Less income is needed when there’s no mortgage or rent to pay. Less income means you’re in a lower tax bracket, you can take the standard deduction, and you sleep well at night.
Our local fishwrap lists foreclosures among other county legal notices. One caught my attention because it was in my ‘hood. Checked out the property records and these retirees bought here in 1991 (20 years ago). They did not have a mortgage until 2005 (14 years later) and it’s a HELOC-type note. I just can’t help wondering if they didn’t take it out in order to buy a speculative flip somewhere and they’re now FBs, probably in their 80’s, who are about to move in with the kids if they’re lucky.
“In some cases, homeowners might receive a better return by investing the money they would have used to retire the mortgage. “Why pay off a mortgage and save maybe 3 percent after tax when you could be putting that money into a muni bond earning 4.5 percent after tax right now?” Mr. Nicholas said.”
When Mr. Nicholas is elderly, retired and trusting I hope that he has a cannibal for a financial adviser.
In theory owning stock implies ownership in an income generating asset. Of course that is “old school”. Today stock ownership is speculative by nature, and income flow (dividends) are virtually irrelevant.
With the Obama Administration’s War on the Responsible and Zimbabwe Ben’s mad debasement of the currency, people feel like they’re forced to “invest” in Wall Street’s rigged casino market since their savings are being relentlessly eroded by rising inflation. Wall Street firms can dissemble and defraud with impunity, since the SEC is either asleep at the switch or actively in league with the swindlers. Companies can dilute shareholder stakes by issuing more stock as an endless means of gaining new funding. In short, it’s a banana republic market and a lot of small “investors” are going to get burned when the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down.
“… and a lot of small ‘investors’ are going to get burned when the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down.”
And this is what the Bear Market low will look like.
Why are you ever so pessimistic? Can’t you see the ECB bailout of Italian debt already underway, even as the Fed keeps trying to float its QE3 program against the backdrop of a steadily improving economic picture?
“Why are you ever so pessimistic?”
I am not at all pessismistic. In fact my optimism grows daily.
Wall Street is destined to host a clearance sale and I want to be ready.
Why are you ever so pessimistic? Can’t you see the ECB bailout of Italian debt already underway
EFSF is a fraud. And Italy is too big to be bailed out, unless/until Zimbabwe Ben and the ECB crank out the printing presses and create yet another trillion-dollar bailout out of thin air.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=197458
“And Italy is too big to be bailed out, unless/until Zimbabwe Ben and the ECB crank out the printing presses and create yet another trillion-dollar bailout out of thin air.”
unless/untilBen is not in any way debasing our currency. The currency WAS debased in the past when loans which could not be repaid (GIFTS) were issued.
I am unclear as to the logic of printing sufficient money to allow the loans to be made good or allowing them to default. The problem so far is that when the loans do default the bond holders are not taking a haircut along with the rest of us (see pension funds)
“It’s a good example of the twisted mind of tax and tax and tax politicians.”
Except I have never heard a politician even mention it. Not once. It is only mentioned in academia and possibly very obscure papers by economic think tanks. It is an economic construct by people who are honestly trying to determine what advantage the tax code gives to people who own a home vs. people who own income creating investments and rent a home.
In one scenario, you invest $100K and are relieved of paying rent (though you still need to pay insurance and property taxes). Though you have purchased a valuable asset that relieves you of the necessity of paying money every month (this is the economic equivalent of receiving income), there is no tax on that amount.
In the next scenario, you invest $100K in CD’s or dividend paying stock or whatever and rent a house. You receive income from your investment and pay taxes on it. You can then use whatever is left over to pay your rent. There is a clear advantage inherent in the tax system (not recognizing being relieved of an economic burden as income) to owning.
You could probably say the same thing about owning anything, except most people don’t think about cars or clothes or such as an investment where they often do think of real estate that way.
Now, the idea of actually taxing the imputed income is absurd. How the heck is the federal government ever supposed to be able to come up with an equivalent rent number of every owner occupied dwelling in the country? Things that can’t be implemented, won’t be. Even beyond that , it would be a political disaster. No poliician would survive saying it out loud.
And, of course, in a situtation where the rental value of a house is less than the property taxes, insuarance and basic repair/maintenance, the imputed income would be $0.
But the mortgage interest and property tax deductions and the capital gains exclusion are in no way the only economic advantage the tax system gives to owners. Not by a long shot.
If you own your home outright then your housing expenses are small. Having small housing expenses means your income can be small. Having a small income means the tax man will not get much from you in the way of taxes.
With the exception of such things as property taxes there are no taxes levied on stored wealth but there are hefty taxes levied on income. So the trick to thwart the tax man is to heap up a lot of stored wealth and at the same time minimize income.
A paid-for house is a type of stored wealth and this stored wealth generates a type of income - imputed income - that is tax free. So even though one gets to enjoy the benifits of imputed income that is generated by stored wealth he doesn’t have to pay taxes on it.
But this is not true of income that is not imputed, such as income generated by a CD.
But the mortgage interest and property tax deductions and the capital gains exclusion are in no way the only economic advantage the tax system gives to owners. Not by a long shot.”
IMO Its always better to own than pay interest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZDdWf3fIg
Ron Paul gets 89 seconds in 1.5 hour CBS GOP debate. Although it probably doesn’t matter, since ‘Mercans are too stupid to support someone who tells them the truth.
I actually tuned in to catch Ron Paul. It is obvious the mainstream Republican Party and Israel lobby continue to bulldoze over any idea to pay off our debt by severe and necessary cuts in our overseas presence. Huntsman also wants to pull completely out of Afghanistan. “Me Too” Perry babbled some “start from zero” stuff and almost wanted to say stop foreign aid to Israel, but seemed to hold Israel as the exception. I am not anti-Semitic one bit but consider official US coddling of Israel is only done so because of fundamentalist social conservatives.
official US coddling of Israel is only done so because of fundamentalist social conservatives.”
I wonder if it’s because most aid to Israel goes right back to major US defense companies?
Bingo. I think a lot of it is actually required to be used for arms purchases. Without it, Israel vastly expands its own defense industry (possibly with India as they are natural allies) and sells to countries that may not be on the US approved list.
Santorum said it straight out; that the aid comes back to us for arms deals and ‘creates jobs’. There was a time when the death merchants were a little more sly about their dealings.
Alas, good point. You folks have made it sobering, but clear. Sad state of the USA these days.
I profit from the military industrial complex. As a former (over ten years) federal employee and current (fifteen years) as a private employee and CON-W2 contractor. But if you think about it, the pool of jobs in this country since Reagan had millions of public sector or contractors to public sector jobs.
I am not under the delusion that we have a capitalist economy. It’s a mixed economy. And all the bad stuff is blamed on the capitalist portion of the mixed economy of course, when it’s really the distortions caused by the whims of the planned side. “Somebody” is going to work on the public side if they feel their current best interest is there. If person a refuses to do so, person b will gladly take her place.
I repeat that I hope you people vote to get rid of my job. I am tired of traveling all the time for lucrative work. If I can be normal and earn perhaps $65,000 per year like many white collar people, I can manage, and I would be happy in that case because it would mean we cut our government down to the size preceding Woodrow Wilson.
P.S. By “voting” to get rid of my job, of course that means voting and making sure Ron Paul becomes POTUS. If not 2012 then his son Rand in 2016.
Excellent point Cactus. Now you have me thinking!
http://www.debka.com/
Meanwhile….
Who really cares? I voted last week and I was one of the 5% of the total eligible voters in Texas that bothered to show up.
Prop. #1 was to give widows of veterans more tax exemptions. It passed but I voted against it as a way to show my disapproval of the military industrial complex. If I can’t punish the corporations or politicians that pushed these stupid wars then don’t expect me to feel sorry for the veteran’s or their families. They are now the professional warrior cast and it’s us against them now.
They are now the professional warrior cast and it’s us against them now.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.
Unfortunately the masses have been brainwashed into worshipping our new mercenary class, who they believe fights around the globe for “freedom”.
CA $elf-Indulgence/medical therapy taxes: (Mi$$ing: Wacky Tabaccy)
Taxes on wine, beer, booze help fuel state:
November 13th, 2011, by Teri Sforza, OC Register staff
Note to self: It’s cheaper to drink beer and wine in California than it is to slam back a scotch.
At least from an excise tax perspective.
The excise tax is what the state charges the producer/retailer of a product — and you can be sure that the cost is built in to what you pay at the grocery checkout.
For beer and wine, it’s 20 cents a gallon.
For sparkling wine, it’s 30 cents a gallon.
For spirits, its $3.30 a gallon.
Smokes are 87 cents per pack.
We’re quite fond of this rather simple list of the different types of taxes that fuel the Golden State, put out by the Legislative Analyst.
Makes you wonder. Might there be a better way?
Definately a better way. It always makes me wonder about pols who want to tax soft drinks in the name of health. Guess it could help. But would taxing the bad (if used in excessive amounts) substance be the way to go? So you tax cola but someone who eats candy bars by the score or ice cream by the gallon escapes the tax.
With the alcohol tax I see some this reasoning. Spirits have a much higher alcohol content and are being taxed higher at higher rate (though disproportionately) per potenial drunk episode.
Certainly taxing the bad substance is the way to go. In this case, CORN, which is the offending ingredient in most of what you mentioned. Tax corn. In fact, you don’t need to tax it at all. Just knock out the subsidy, which will be the same as a tax. Then they could convert all that soil in Iowa to something useful, like veggies.
Yesterday in the store, I turned over a bag of expensive organic Cascadian Farm broccoli. Last time I did that, it said “product of China” and I almost threw a hissy. This time it said “product of Mexico.” Is that any better? Are we really incapable of growing our own broccoli? And this was frozen broccoli, so it’s not a seasonal issue.
Ox:
What about OJ from China? we cut down what a million acres in FL to build houses on.
Oh that really frosted me. There’s plenty of land on which to grow broccoli and other vegetables, especially in the East, and it takes a year, maybe two at most, to grow a veggie crop. But citrus takes a special climate and at least 5 years to bring up to speed. It will be a LONG time before the US recovers from lost citrus.
Unfortunately, non-grain food is labor intensive, and nobody wants to pay what it really costs to use American citizens as laborers. Maybe that’s what the subsidies should be for. (The hard part is to get farmers to use a subsidy to actually pay legal workers, instead of using illegals and pocketing the difference.)
Average foreclosure wait grows 10 percent in Florida
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:03 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, 2011
The average time for a Florida foreclosure to wend its way through the system is 749 days - a little more than two years - according to the latest data from analysts at RealtyTrac.
10 COMMENTS
Hey Jim, I did sign a contract and the contract states that the lienholder can file for foreclosure if I do not maintain the monthly payments. Well, 40 months later they have dismissed the foreclosure. So guess what, they will have to refile and with the average time stated in article I have another 24 months……. So 5+ years without a mortgage payment. Why do you care so much what I am doing and focus on your own life……..You might find it will make you happier.
diver4life
4:52 PM, 11/12/2011
“So 5+ years without a mortgage payment. Why do you care so much what I am doing and focus on your own life”
Maybe he wants to buy a house at a price that is not inflated by banks, GSEs and Deadbeats. You know like the prices people like diver4life paid and refied up to during the bubble years B4 they became victims. We pay a LOT more for rent because of you. So the quicker you are kicked out and the banks and GSEs put the shadow inventory on the market. The better for RESPONSIBLE people.
jeff saturday
10:00 AM, 11/13/2011
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/average-foreclosure-wait-grows-10-percent-in-florida-1963521.html - 81k
Jeff,
It seems this diver4life is doing some serious baiting. Is s/he selling something? A lawyer maybe? It’s almost as though this person is daring the banks, tax authorities, et al, to come get them.
Rather reckless behavior considering the resentment factor out there. The comeuppance on this one is going to be mega.
Please continue the updates? LOVE your response to this creep. See if you can taunt them enough to get them to disclose something incriminating….
13860 Christian Barrett DrMoorpark, CA 93021
For Sale: $499,000
Price cut:-$20,000(Aug 28)
Zestimate®: $428,200
Last sold: March 15 2007 for $635,000
Future walkaway? Then some realtor will buy it for 335K cash from their brother at the bank and flip it for 475K and it will bid up to 500K
this is what happens around here
I’ve been working on plan-b in case my primary goal of San Luis Obispo doesn’t materialize. I need a place for my children to live while attending college, and later use it for retirement.
Here’s a plan-b example on Redfin in Tempe, AZ.
http://tinyurl.com/d9l9ald
$175K for that type of property approaches DC pricing — in other words, way too high for Tempe. If you aren’t tied to an office location, you can go cheaper out of town, or pick any town you want. (Hey, there homes in Detroit for a buck!
)
Are you talking about kids living at home during classes, or just for Christmas and summers?
The Tempe place is listed for $95k, and even that will likely fall as I think Phoenix has another leg down.
The kids would be living there while attending college while I continue my employment up north in Washington. In retirement I couldn’t stand Phoenix year round, so I’d be a snowbird, AZ & WA.
My first choice would be San Luis Obispo, CA as permanent resident since the climate is great year round. FWIW, the plan is buying a local home rather than paying for out of state tuition. It’s a timing thing too, as I intend to buy at or below the mean trend line.
With 2 kids, you could easily save $95K in tuition by buying a $95K house, thus sucking money from the state. The states HAVE to know about this, so be careful.
Check the residency requirements — do you need to live there year-round? Or live there for some number of years before kids are allowed in-state tuition?
NYC condo sellers face a new dilemma. 421a property tax exemptions initiated to encourage development of low-use properties throughout the city, are starting to expire.
From the article:
“…Mr. Abrams, who has relocated to Los Angeles to be closer to his son and for work, has already slashed the price three times, to $1.575 million. He is hoping to sell the apartment in part because his monthly real estate taxes are poised to surge by more than 400 percent over the next several years.
When Mr. Abrams bought the brand-new apartment in 2007, his taxes were just $35 a month; he now pays $374 a month. When the exemption runs its course, in 2018, the monthly tax bill will be an estimated $1,629.
…buyers realize there are only a few years left on these exemptions and so they say to the seller, ‘You had much lower monthly charges than we will have, so it only makes sense that we pay less than you did.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/realestate/the-421a-tax-exemption-dont-say-you-didnt-know.html?_r=1&hp
But the real crime was in How much a month?
The advertising for all these luzzury kondozes was immense. Everyone had the big hoopla over the 421a charts on how much it would cost per month…sales pitches dj bands gourmet meals at open houses….builders were frantic, construction jobs were all over CL plenty of OT work 7 days a week make $4000+ a week…all because they had to get the foundation done and pass inspection by a cut off date…..
Lots of them still 1/2 built those that are finished almost no one lives in them…they put out fake furniture on the balconies and have lights on in some apartments….either that or the lucky buyer is working 3 jobs to keep up with the payments and only crashes for a few hours a day.
The net result it was adding $100-200K+ to the final price…and now these folks are so so screwed…
“Low-use properties?” What do they mean by that?
forgotten areas all the way west on the hudson river….poorer areas bodegas small business, single story warehouses in greenpoint, long island city, usually populated by low rise semi dilapidated old buildings…not close to a subway…car repair shops strip joints….even asphalt parking lots…but the zoning is for 20 stories.
Only 75 posts instead of the normal 200+ makes me wonder if my computer’s trojan attack hit other HBB regulars?
Weekends are generally slow, pbear. Weekdays are a more active.
I’ve been wondering about the cause of the massive drop-off in posts, too.
You want posts? Just put down some partisan talking points on a Tuesday morning at about 7:30 am.
Looking for the “like” button :-).
Yeah, lately weekends have been extremely slow.
Thanks to the efforts of UNIONS, we have weekends. Enjoy weekends? Thank unions.
People do stuff around the house and get out of the house on weekends. They don’t spend that much time on the computer. During the week they sit at their desks, and have lots of time to type multiple posts and do other stuff on the internet throughout the day!
I often wonder what high-volume posters do for a living that they can post in such high volume almost every weekday.
Maybe ’cause daytime is fun time and nightime is for working?????
This is the point of contention which will decide the fate of the eurozone, IMO. Mr Weidmann’s question gets straight to the heart of the matter: It is impossible to inspire trust in a financial system which routinely violates its putative rule-of-law, which is exactly how too-big-to-fail bailout insurance is rigged to operate.
The FT dot Com
Last updated: November 13, 2011 3:26 pm
Bundesbank warns against intervention
By Ralph Atkins and Martin Sandbu in Frankfurt
Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann criticised actions taken by eurozone governments as ‘inconsistent’
The president of Germany’s powerful Bundesbank has firmly rebuffed international demands for decisive intervention in the bond markets by the European Central Bank to combat the eurozone debt crisis, warning that such steps would add to instability by violating European law.
Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann told the Financial Times that only politicians could resolve the crisis, and he rejected the idea of using the ECB as “lender of last resort” to governments.
He also criticised actions taken by eurozone governments as “inconsistent”, and warned that their plans to involve private sector banks in rescue plans for Greece could add to the eurozone’s woes. Such private sector involvement, he said, could undermine market confidence in the eurozone’s crisis-fighting tools such as the rescue fund, the European financial stability facility.
The forthright comments by Mr Weidmann, who is one of the most influential voices on the 23-strong ECB governing council, come at a decisive moment for Europe’s 13-year-old monetary union, which in recent days has seen Italy’s borrowing costs soaring dangerously and the prime ministers of both Italy and Greece resigning.
To prevent the crisis erupting into a global economic shock, the ECB has been urged to intervene directly by economists and politicians around the world, including at the weekend by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Mr Weidmann highlighted the stance being taken by the Bundesbank by arguing governments, not central banks, were mainly responsible for ensuring financial stability. Mario Draghi, the ECB’s new president, has said it is not the ECB’s job to act as lender of last resort, but Mr Weidmann went further, saying such a step would breach Europe’s ban on “monetary financing” – central bank funding of governments.
“I cannot see how you can ensure the stability of a monetary union by violating its legal provisions,” Mr Weidmann argued. “I don’t see how you can build trust in a system that violates laws.”
…
The PIIGS have a serious demographic problem, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Two world wars have culled their best genetic stock, and left the rest dependent on a socialist safety net that dulls innovation. Things will eventually turn around, but it’s going to happen way down the road, not in ten years.
“Two world wars have culled their best genetic stock, and left the rest dependent on a socialist safety net that dulls innovation.”
Yeah, right. That’s why:
1) Our cars (Big 3) are the laughing stock of automotive world, while European cars are seen as top of the heap (in innovation and performance). Heck, we still make cars with pushrod engines. Sometimes it’s painful to watch Top Gear, because we have so few cars that are worthy of being profiled on that show.
2) Airbus has overtaken Boeing in sales.
3) R&D and IP are being offshored as we speak.
I’ve lived overseas and the perception outside the USA is that the Japanese and the Germans are the innovators and that Americans make cheap junk. In fact, the only “innovation” we have is in finance, and we all know how that turned out.
“I’ve lived overseas and the perception outside the USA is that the Japanese and the Germans are the innovators and that Americans make cheap junk.”
The Japanese and the Germans are not in the PIIGS list, and you’re correct about American cars. The latest calculators from HP seem to follow this cheap philosophy too.
True, the Germans are not “PIIGS” but they still suffer from “socialism” while we Cowboiy Americans can’t seem to make anything anyone wants to buy.
The Germans make quite a bit of junk insofar as cars are concerned. Anybody who has ever owned or knows somebody who has owned a Volkswagen knows this.
The new North American cars are a considerable improvement over the past. I just got a CTS that gets 39/25 mpg - my old one never past a gas station. My German made SL500 hardly ever leaves the repair shop. My daughter’s new BMW (Bring my wallet) absolutely never has passed a tow truck ! My son’s Mustang grudgingly goes into the shop only for planned maintenance.
You should try out these new American cars - what an improvement !
Whenever someone extols “German Engineering”, I think of the Volkswagen. They make fantastic commercials, but their cars are very problem-prone. I’ve gotten this data from three places: 1) personal experience from others with VWs; 2) Consumer Reports; 3) Internet discussion groups.
We had a rabbit for a very short while when I was a kid. One of the two engine mount bolts just fell out of the car as were driving. My mother thought we must have gone over a branch. Dad was driving and knew better.
A few months later he traded in both cars (the other one was planned, the rabbit was much too “young” but he didn’t trust it anymore) and got two Corollas. Got a fantastic price when he convinced the sales guy he really was buying two new cars. One was brown and other was red. I named them Rhett and Scarlett
Lets add some levity today:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Meet-the-Guinness-World-Record-Holder-for-Largest-Afro/133710438
Next eurozone debt crisis casualty: France?
France ‘could be next victim of eurozone crisis’, Osborne warns after Berlusconi quits
Chancellor says Sarkozy must answer doubts about his nation’s debt
Disgraced Italian PM threatens to stand at next election due within 18 months
By Tim Shipman and Nick Pisa
Last updated at 1:07 AM on 14th November 2011
George Osborne warned last night that France is being drawn into the same economic chaos as Italy.
As the curtain fell on Silvio Berlusconi’s premiership, the Chancellor said his EU counterparts were ‘terrified’ by the debt crisis which is dragging major eurozone economies down the same path as bankrupt Greece.
Former EU commissioner Mario Monti was parachuted in to run the Italian government yesterday, with a cabinet primarily made up of technocrats and academics rather than elected politicians, in an attempt to prevent the euro sliding further into the abyss.
Mr Osborne made clear the crisis will not be over until France too has answered doubts about its debts and the rising costs of borrowing on the markets which effectively ended Mr Berlusconi’s premiership.
…