Bits Bucket for November 16, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Realtors Are Liars®
Christmas commercials (and their close relatives, the “what is new and exciting this year” news segments) are annoying.
Seriously. How much stuff do people get for Christmas? I remember when I was little that the kids who had Christmas seemed to get almost all their toys and a significant percentage of their clothes for the year (including socks and underwear) for Christmas. In my family, your birthday was more likely to be the time of the “big present” like a bicycle. If you are buying boatloads of stuff for your immediate family and at least one thing for your entire extended family and most of your friends and/or their kids and doing extensive decorating and cooking, doesn’t that make the stress level go through the roof. How does anyone enjoy that?
My company is pressuring us to adopt “angels” and provide them with hundreds of $$$ of crap.
Who are the angels? Are they local kids? Is $100s of stuff really the recommendation?
Locale poor kids as identified by the Salvation Army.
125 kids x’s $150.
Has anyone played with a Furby? I mean really sat down with the manual it to figure it out? I did that some years ago. That little guy had enough capability to keep ME busy for a couple months straight. IMO, a parent could have bought a Furby as the kid’s ONLY Christmas present and it would have been enough, especially if the parent and kid blocked out some time each week to play with it.
Instead, the focus seems to be to buy the kids as many things as possible rather than focus on one quality item. I see that as lost capacity (lost $$) and a recipe for ADD. Of course, the parents are kinda forced to buy lots of goodies to keep up with the kids of the Joneses. Very sad.
oxide
I get the feeling you got some board games too, and had hours of entertainment. We were poor, and all 4 of us shared stuff. I think it made us better people. To this day, my husband and I love board games. He is 1 of 10.
$150 per kid? Hell, I don’t even get that much for Christmas!
$150 per kid may be all that the kid gets per year for coats, shoes, and other necessities. People are a soft touch at Christmas time. Not so much the rest of the year.
What’s really sad is watching spoiled kids like my nephews and niece tearing through nearly a grand worth of presents each, then casting them aside, getting in arguments, and then getting in trouble on Christmas. The whole thing is absolutely revolting. Since I don’t have kids, I used to like to spend Christmas with them, but it’s too depressing to witness anymore.
I had 2 nieces like that - my brother’s kids. Absolutely spoilt rotten.
Then his business went bust and their life changed forever. They are much nicer people now though. Funny old world eh?
Regarding charity giving and donation pressue. We once gave to charities, but the illegals started to suck them dry with gift demands, while the parents bought things they wanted with their money, like nicer cars and big TV’s.
One year, the SA giving tree was full of Spanish surnames (tags w/ last name, gender, and age-anchors), so we said the heck with it.
Intel was huge on the holiday time charity guilt trip. We left the giving to Andy Grove.
“illegals started to suck them dry with gift demands”
Talk about your Free Sh!t Army. I heard one story where the hijos were eligible for free lunch and mamá showed up at the school, thinking that free lunch was for her too.
oxide
I heard stories like that too. A friend who is a school nutritionist (heavy ESL population-all flavors)told me the trash is full of fresh fruit every day. Why not have a “I won’t eat this” box, and give it to the shelters. Waste bothers me. Or better yet, if you aren’t going to eat it, then don’t take it, so less is ordered.
Az Slim
loading the gifts into a brand-new pickup truck.”
Did they check the driver’s license to the vehicle registration, or just take their word for it?
Az Slim
loading the gifts into a brand-new pickup truck.”
Did they check the driver’s license to the vehicle registration, or just take their word for it?
If it was a news photographer, probably not. But I’ll bet that someone called the Star, in high dudgeon, and said, “That’s not Angel’s truck! It’s mine! Angel is my friend.”
Whether the Star followed up and actually checked on the license and registration is doubtful. That paper isn’t known for its investigative reporting.
Are they allowed to not give the kids the fruit? The lunches are required to meet certain nutritional guidelines.
I think the rules have changed quite a bit since I was a kid. We had a salad bar for a year. That was great, but it required one entire lunch worker to supervise during all the lunches and a lot of work in the back to keep it full. And honestly, only the girls ever used it.
I used to work for an organization that participated in the local Angel Tree. And my gift was the same every year: A kid’s bicycle helmet. This was before low-income kids got free bicycle helmets from a variety of sources.
Well, one fine year, there appeared a picture in our local fishwrap. Showed a picture of an Angel Tree recipient loading the gifts into a brand-new pickup truck.
To say that said image went over like a rock is putting it mildly. The readers of that paper were incensed. And even the paper’s follow-up saying that the truck belonged to a friend of the recipient did not dowse the flames.
I think that, after that photo appeared, a lot of people re-thought their participation in this event.
Oops!
And then there was the year I went to a DC social service agency to help out with the Christmas party on Christmas Day. And the 10 year old who thought her cheapo version of Chutes and Ladders was the most amazing present she had ever seen. Couldn’t wait to play. And the rest of the kids thought getting their faces painted was completely amazing great fun and waited in line for ages for a bunch of complete amatures (like me) to do it.
Until Santa brought the games, the only thing we had to do with them was face painting and a few sets of dominoes. Plus singing.
Polly:
I used to make lost of money at holiday parties paid off my credit cards put money into my IRA…worked for many years until this crash…
How much did I spend on gifts….. Zero……does that me be the biggest scrooge here?
in my family christmas presents are for the kids…in my wife’s family it’s a fiasco.
What do you mean by fiasco? Serioulsy. I can guess what it might mean, but what does it actually mean?
gifts for and from:
mother in law
father in law
sister in law
brother in law
grandmother
aunts
uncles
cousins
step cousins
i have a few things from last christmas still in boxes…and forget about the crap my son gets…and he is only two.
they have toned down a bit as far as the gifts for my son since my wife expressed my discontent…all of them that is except for my wife’s brother who still goes crazy. he just got married and when he has a child i am going to start giving him back all the crap he gave my son.
“when he has a child i am going to start giving him back all the crap he gave my son”
My sister-in-law put her foot down this year to me and my parents - no more than two gifts per kid for the holiday. I cheated. Put two books together for each kid. And I wrapped a piece of clothing together with the toy, so it is two packages, but 4 items. Yes, they are already wrapped. I think my mother was very upset at the restriction.
books and clothes are ok…it’s all the toys i can’t stand.
i tell people my son doesn’t have everything…he has two of everything.
the biggest problem is that he is the only grandchild on my wife’s side…and may end up being the only one.
ReaItors are Liars even on Christmas Day.
I’ve finally decided to try and buy Christmas presents before the Thanksgiving - Christmas rush. During that buying timeframe, prices go up and selection goes down. Right now I’ve noticed they seem to actually be offering lower prices to get people in the store.
This reminds me of an article that was commented on here a year or two ago regarding the woman who declared that “Christmas was canceled” due to losing her home - implying without the home equity to spend on crap that it wasn’t worth having.
I appreciated the comments from the HBB members reminding all that there is much more to Christmas than unaffordable crap from China.
‘Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.’
‘in a recent interview with the BBC,’ Oakland Mayor Jean Quan mentioned she was on a conference call just before the recent wave of crackdowns began. ‘I was recently on a conference call of 18 cities who had the same situation…’
http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies
All those cameras, law enforcement tanks; all that money spent to build up the Homeland Security thing doesn’t look so cuddly huh? The Patriot Act applies…
Ben
I wish the OWS crowd kept their eyes on the ball, had a structured agenda, and didn’t go down the path of rapes, property and person to person crimes, and make a mockery out of a great opportunity.
I agree that the constitution is DOA though. Govts always give totalitarianism a for your own good spin, and fools buy into it.
‘didn’t go down the path of rapes, property and person to person crimes’
What percentage of the protesters engaged in this sort of thing? When a protest is open, how could anyone keep bad people out? My point is, if a govt body wants to find a reason to shut down a protest, they always can.
‘the constitution is DOA’
We tend to throw around comments like this, but I hope this isn’t the case. I for one will continue to rally around the rule of law, because without it, ones choices become stark.
“…without it, ones choices become stark.”
… and dictated by jack-booted goon squads.
I’ll bet our “Goon Squad” doesn’t own a pair of jack boots.
More like a pair of Nikes, or penny loafers.
Wouldn’t you like to know
I’m amazed at how a bunch of young people peacably protesting were demonized. It really seems like a desperate campaign by those who don’t want certain things discussed.
I’m even read articles that said that the protesters were being IDed, with the info made available to future propsective employers. That sounds like something that would happen, in fact did happen, in the former Soviet Union.
That sounds like something that would happen, in fact did happen, in the former Soviet Union.
Be proud America. Forward this picture to your patriotic friends.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57325688/pregnant-woman-pepper-sprayed-at-occupy-seattle/
(Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest, Nov. 15, 2011 at Westlake Park in Seattle. (AP))
Pregnant woman pepper sprayed at Occupy Seattle
(AP)
SEATTLE - A downtown march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement turned briefly chaotic as police scattered a crowd of rowdy protesters — including a pregnant 19-year-old and an 84-year-old activist — with blasts of pepper spray.
Protest organizers denounced the use of force, saying that police indiscriminately sprayed the chemical irritant at peaceful protesters.
The Occupy Seattle movement released a written statement late Tuesday expressing support for “a 4-foot 10-inch, 84-year-old woman, a priest and a pregnant woman who as of this writing is still in the hospital.”
The Local’s reporter, who repeatedly identified himself to the police as a journalist while on the scene, complied with the order and walked north while filming protesters, however (as seen at the 2:11 mark in the video) his progress was stopped by a group of officers blocking the sidewalk at the intersection of Broadway and John Street. One of the officers arrested him using plastic Flexi-Cuffs, even as he continued to identify himself as a journalist and called attention to press credentials hanging from his neck.
http://m.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2011/11/a-reporters-footage-of-his-arrest-at-occupy-wall-street/248528/
This is amazing. The demonization of OWS is progressing apace in the media. I know rational people who are looking at the protestors like borderline violent goons. These are peaceful protestors occasionally being victimized by criminals and at other times by the state security forces.
I for one will continue to rally around the rule of law, because without it, ones choices become stark ??
As I Ben….Problem is the “rule of law” is applied in a selective way with the people that lack power both political & financial bearing the brunt of the police state…When that happens, then respect for the law starts to deteriorate starting on the fringes…I go back to what Ahansen said some time ago…You know we are there when you see the national guard…I think we are getting close…Detroit could be the first to go chaotic…
Applied in a selective way? Try “written” in a selective way. I still can’t get over that in 2009 I paid more taxes on my unemployment check than the entirety of GE.
Ben
I hear you loud and clear.I agree with you 90%, and the 10% we differ. Neither good or bad, just a different viewpoint here and there.
I wish our government leaders (congress) didn’t go down the path of rapes, property and person crimes, and make a mockery out of a great opportunity. Just saying.
I wish people would stop listening to MSM and visit for themselves.
A truncheon upside the head will set you straight on the agenda.
So I take it all of you would be OK with hundreds of people camping out in your backyard for 2 months, even after you repeatedly asked them to leave.
The National Guard airlifted food and medicine to Woodstock in 1969.
Now the counter culture is become the Wallstreet culture.
Bernanke and the government airlifted $$$$ to Wall Street and the banks circa 2007.
Ah yes, the “private property” talking point. The news comment boards are full of such comments written by paid interns. The rules of public property are different in New York. A company owns the property but it is required that it be used as public space — I don’t have the exact rules.
From what I’ve read, Occupy itself is evolving. There had apparently been deepending internal schisms between the campers, the serious protestors, and the rabble that simply showed up for the food. Occupy does not see the evictions of the tent city as a defeat. They succeeded in getting attention, and they succeeded in exposing the jackboot tactics and political coordination.
Now, they are organically growing into something else which is still taking shape, like shift protesting* and growing the movement away from mere physical occupation. I guess they’ll crystallize some demands soon, but jobs is the main focus.
Contrast this to the Tea Partiers, who did anything but grow and evolve. They were very good at showing up where they were told and holding pre-printed signs for the camera.
————–
*I really like the idea of shift protesting. Everyone who used public health as the basis of their complaints will have to ask Rush for better talking points.
Any of you Elois waddle on down to your OWS? Didn’t think so. Projecting some fantasy idealism onto a bunch of clueless kids and miscreants is a recipe for disappointment, but I’m sure disappointment and failure are nothing new to those who have an aversion to reality.
Any of you Elois waddle on down to your OWS? Didn’t think so.
I did. But I didn’t waddle. I sauntered. The median age was about 35 and most looked like our friends and family. There was very little waddling. Most of the commie signs said stuff like “We want our JOBS back”.
I did. But I didn’t waddle. I sauntered.
Me? I bicycled down. Saw people of all ages and had some very nice conversations.
i was there anout 6 times and been talking to this LA Dj….he will be on WBAI.org 9-10pm est Thursday night
call in with any questions
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=636745413
It’s not really their backyard. It is called “right of assembly” and is taking place mostly on PUBLIC PROPERTY.
With citizen facts like that yous might be distractin’ GEG from his GIG.
It’s private property. That park is owned by a private entity, not the city of NY. Pretty simple. And the judge agreed.
“and is taking place mostly on PUBLIC PROPERTY.”
Did he say mostly or entirely? Can you make such a distinction?
Umm no. While it may be owned by a private entity, they agreed to public access rights in exchange for (I believe)certain tax concessions, etc, effectively making it leased for public use and therefore open to any use that any other public space would be.
Cue “The more you know” banner…..
Sorry Hwy - I was responding to GEG but the postinator was slow in getting me up there.
I as a private citizen, would not be okay with it.
But I don’t think private citizens peaceably assembling and demonstrating should be attacked.
They’re tapping into a vein of current dissatisfaction utterly alien to those with jobs and comfortable existences.
I wish the OWS crowd kept their eyes on the ball, had a structured agenda, and didn’t go down the path of rapes, property and person to person crimes, and make a mockery out of a great opportunity.
rapes really? You believe that OWS as a whole was responsible for rape? Property crimes most likely drummed up or due to homeless people who took advantage of the protests. You buy all the propaganda don’t you. The central planners love people who accept garbage like this as fact and reality.
Not at all. I listen to “Red Eye Radio” during the night and McIntyre was disappointed in a few a-holes that give OWS a bad name. Doug is a political atheist himself, and promotes the concept of “Throw All The Bums Out”.
Ben has a point, that you have a collage of elements in a crowd this size.
I prefer not to attack people but rather discuss.
Usually true but accusing OWS of rape and property crime is a bit out there.
meatson
OK, gotcha. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us. LOL
We can all agree to throw all the bums out! We all need a dream.
Did you guys hear Fannie and Freddie Execs got paid $35M in bonuses in the last couple years.
Homebuilders Target In-Laws and Dogs
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/homebuilders-target-in-laws-and-dogs-as-extended-families-grow.html
ya’ll have a great day!
Homebuilders Target In-Laws and Dogs
The part about the doggie couch made my eyes roll. I mean, come on. It’s a dog. It doesn’t care whether it has a special couch or not.
Sheesh. My mother used to make dog beds out of commercial toilet paper cases — she got them from the custodians at the school where she taught — and some old towels.
And the dog didn’t have any issues with this setup. Matter of fact, he got a big kick out of chewing on his bed-box.
I guess it’s slightly less random than a designated “gift wrapping room.”
All those cameras, law enforcement tanks; all that money spent to build up the Homeland Security thing doesn’t look so cuddly huh?
Correct, there were many who foretold that this would happen, but they were shouted down. Meanwhile, our borders are as porous as ever.
In Colorado
You’re spot on about our borders being porous. Nothing will ever come of reversing this issue, imo.
Boy, housing inventory is dead in my area. Just a few price reductions on overpriced junk, and no new listings. Just 2 weeks ago, it looked as if the MLS was starting to wake up. Nope.
And not one Arab in the bunch, as near as I could tell.
Now we know why the TSA goes out of it’s way to frisk Grandma. For practice.
Your papers, please.
I was only following orders!
I’m just realizing all the young’ins that weren’t around for those remnant Nazis that were still get arrested into their late 70s and 80s in some obscure US town in the 1990s. We had one arrested that lived about 3 houses down from my best friend. Of course, he too, had just followed orders and was asking for sympathy because he was “too sick to attend trial” at his age. I guess we were supposed to forget when he allegedly committed those war crimes there was no mercy.
Polly are you familiar w/this story? This was in Norwood.
In Norwood? I remember Skokie, but that wasn’t in the 90’s.
The right should be irate about this happening because they profess to defend liberty and the constitution.
Police State Tactics: Signs Point to a Coordinated National Program to Try and Unoccupy Wall Street and Other Cities
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/900
The ugly hand of the federal government is becoming increasingly suspected behind what appears to be a nationwide attempt to repress and evict the Occupation Movement.
…The police attacks have had a lot in common. They have been “justified” based upon trumped up pre-textural claims that the occupiers are creating a health hazard, or a fire hazard, or a crime problem, generally on little or no evidence, or there has been a digging up of obscure and constitutionally questionable statutes, for example laws outlawing the homeless. Then the police come in, usually in dead of night, dressed in riot gear and heavily armed with mace weapons, batons, plastic cuffs and tear gas, or even assault rifles in some cases and so-called flash-bang stun grenades–all weapons to be used against peaceful demonstrators.
So violent has been the response that some returned veterans have condemned the police for using weapons and tactics that are not even permitted by occupying troops in war-torn countries.
“We definitely feel, especially in a movement like this that has arisen so quickly in a number of cities, that there will be a coordinated national effort to try and shut it down,” says Heidi Bogosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, which has been playing a key role providing legal services to the new movement.
“We see the scapegoating of these movements, the attacks at night, and in general tactics designed to terrorize and to scare protesters away. I can’t see this as anything other than centrally coordinated.”
The right should be irate about this happening because they profess to defend liberty and the constitution.
“TrueAnger™” + “TrueReducetheDeficitNow!,…Today!™” are still focu$ed on Job #1 in America: “Get lil’ Opie!”
‘And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.’
That answers one question which crossed my mind, which was whether these protests could be spontaneously disbanded without top-down intervention.
It kind of relates to the question of how so many local housing markets can simultaneously face an inventory shortage at a time when there should be lots of homes on the market.
To be very fair, “coordinated” could be as simple as giving them a heads up so they could pull out any undercover observers before the raid happened. Coordinated is government speak for someone talked to someone. It could mean a *heck* of a lot more, of course, but not necessarily.
It’s interesting how the oligarchs seemed bemused by the “Occupy” movement until the latter got behind a transaction tax on stock trading. Now the 1% wants the hippies banished forthwith.
Yep. At first, we were told they were spoiled rich kids with ipods having fun on summer vacation. Then, when the movement began coalescing around income inequality, they suddenly became TB-ridden rapists and murderers who needed to be removed for everyone else’s safety.
‘they suddenly became TB-ridden rapists and murderers’
I’ll point out that much the same thing happened to the Tea Party, just in a different form.
‘The right should be irate about this happening because they profess to defend liberty and the constitution’.
Right/left, liberal/conservative, red state/blue state are false constructs the PTB use to divide us. I watched the Rep. debates the other night; one “front runner” (ie establishment approved candidate) after another talked about torturing people, covert assassinations, war, etc. Under the system we have, the “right” isn’t given an alternative to vote for anymore than the “left”.
The only way out, IMO, is to refuse to take the false choice. At the root of this is to refuse to be divided. I know it’s hard because it’s what we’ve come to accept as politics. But it’s just theater, like professional wrestling.
Ben, you sure are upsetting a lot of your posters’ world view when you compare what happened to the Tea Party with what happened to OWS. You’re correct of course.
False constructs.
There are two ways to look at this. There is the demonization.
But there is also a problem with movements such as the Tea Party and OWS being inundated with crazies once they attract enough attention.
What bothers me is that most of the OWS protesters were young, and there were immediate fact free references that made it seem like a sex and drug parties. Sounds like Generation Greed writing about its own youth rather than observing what was in fact going on.
My education in these things started early. When Reagan was on the verge of being elected, he was close to being endorsed by NORML. A few years later and we got Just Say No. That’s just an example of how groups get sucked in.
I’ve explained it like this; it took Reagan to ’sell out’ what was then called the right like it took Clinton to ’sell out’ labor with NAFTA. This is because by definition, you can’t be sold out by your opposition, but only by your own side. The way to avoid this is to not be on a ’side’.
As far as I can remember, no TP rally ever had a member taking a crap in public or on a police car.
I don’t remember any rapes at TP rallies taking place.
I don’t remember anyone dying at a TP rally.
I don’t remember any crack dealers arrested at TP rallies.
I don’t remember anyone in a TP rally throwing blood and/or feces at the police at any TP rally.
All of these things happened at OWS and on multiple occasions.
Total arrests at TP rallies over the past 2 YEARS: 50. Total arrests at OWS rallies in 2 MONTHS: 1500.
All of these things happened at OWS and on multiple occasions.
Total arrests at TP rallies over the past 2 YEARS: 50. Total arrests at OWS rallies in 2 MONTHS: 1500. Section 53, paragraph 8, Koch Brothers Internet Blog Propaganda Unit Handbook (revised 5th edition, Nov, 16 2011)
I think you mean MSM didn’t report OWS and Tea Part the same.
no TP rally ever had a member taking a crap in public
They did this a lot, especially in Oklahoma but they were wearing Depends®.
They did this a lot, especially in Oklahoma
(You don’t have to take my word for it. Look at some of their faces during the speeches.)
Over 2,400 Tea Partiers Arrested
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/25/over-2400-tea-partiers-arrested/
Highlights from the article
Pair Living With Tea Party Protesters Arrested For Selling Heroin
Tea Party Protester Defecates on Police Car
More than 700 Arrested After Tea Party Blocks Traffic on Brooklyn Bridge
Police In Riot Gear Clear Tea Party Protesters in California City
130 Tea Party Arrests in Chicago
Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault of Teen at Tea Party
Tea Party Discourages Sexual Assault Victims From Contacting Police
Tea Party Protests Go Global; Riots in Rome
Muppet-Wielding Tea Partiers Occupy George Soros’ Speech
Florida Mom Abandons Family for Tea Party
Police Worry as Tea Party Pines for World Series Spotlight
Tea Partiers ‘Defecating on Our Doorsteps,’ NYC Residents Complain
Riot Police Arrest Tea Party Protesters
Tea Party Occupies GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s Connecticut Front Lawn
Tea Party Targets Phil Griffin’s House
Tea Party Takes On NYPD at Times Sq.; Then March to Washington Sq.: 74 Total Arrests
Repairing Tea Party Damage to City Hall Could Cost $400,000
Tea Party Killing Tax-Funded Grass at McPherson Square
Cincinnati Police Arrest More Than 20 Tea Partiers at Piatt Park
Tea Party Speaker: Violence Will Be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals
NYers to Tea Party: Lay Off the Drums
Tea Party Protesters Sing “F*** the USA”
98 Degrees Singer Among Tea Party Arrests
Protesters Accused of Hurting NYC Economy
Tea Party Gets ‘Getting Arrested’ App
Over 2,400 Tea Partiers Arrested
LOL,
From the Heritage blog - a bought-off, corporatist/fascist “think tank” bringing you American-Middle-Class destroying propaganda for the last 50 years.
Traitors.
‘a bought-off, corporatist/fascist “think tank” bringing you American-Middle-Class destroying propaganda’
I’m no fan of the think tank thing, but you might look into who’s behind the Pew group too.
but you might look into who’s behind the Pew group too.
The damage that the corporatist Heritage Foundation and AEI propaganda has inflicted on America makes Pew look like Boy Scouts.
The Tea Part didn’t need to be taken out from the outside with cops, they were taken out from the inside by money and propaganda and diversion of purpose.
I went to one of the first Tea Party rallies, it was down hill from there.
As far as I can recall, no Tea Party “rally” ever lasted longer than a Saturday afternoon. I’m not sure they could have sustained any rally longer than that.
Over 2,400 Tea Partiers Arrested
LOL,
From the Heritage blog - a bought-off, corporatist/fascist “think tank” bringing you American-Middle-Class destroying propaganda for the last 50 years. Traitors.
Maybe, but they did provide links to the various news articles covering each of the highlights I listed above.
“…another interesting survey that was released, put together by Accelerated Degree, statistics were found to show that 70% of Occupy Wall Street protesters have a job, compared to 56% of Tea Partiers.”
Maybe, but they did provide links to the various news articles covering each of the highlights I listed above.
It was a right-wing hack job that said nothing about the main OWS messages. I wonder why.
The main ows message…you mean aside from raping, rioting, throwing feces and urine at people? Was there one?
For you GEG? Nope.
That’s OK, Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
How much do the Koch brothers pay GEG to post here?
How much do the Koch brothers pay GEG to post here?
Yeah, how much?
I mean, come on. There are some pretty good writers on this board. And more than a few people who could stand to make some extra money.
So, how ’bout it, Kochies, pay us too!
GEG / GAG / GIG
“Eyes tryin’ to make a di$tinction,…I’m thinking, I’m thinking”
I got into a similar “debate” with someone at my gym. It had to do with that chart showing how much states get in federal spending vs. how much they pay in federal taxes.
The guy - who claims to be a business/economics professor - refused to believe me, so I pulled out my android and googled it for him on the spot. I can’t begin to tell you how satisfying that was, but I digress.
Anyway, we ended up exchanging emails and he wrote to me that he “never lost a debate with a liberal before.” I told him his reputation was safe as I take great offense at being called a liberal OR a conservative.
How can you even look at yourself in the mirror, GEG? Disgusting.
Also in the news
FEDS take out 15 pot shops legalized by the citizens and laws of the state of Washington and threaten many more.
Anyone who voted for TARP or the Patriot Act and the repeal of Glass Steagle should be removed from gov.
Obama said his administration wasn’t going to take action against medical marijuana clinics. How surprising: a politician lied.
All those cameras, law enforcement tanks; all that money spent to build up the Homeland Security thing doesn’t look so cuddly huh? The Patriot Act applies…
”
yes scary huh ?
SHADOW
Dec-2005 19694/1986 $379,000 WARRANTY DEED STEINOLFSON CARRIE L
Name: STEINOLFSON CARRIE L
Location: 17684 CINQUEZ PARK RD W
Mailing: 17684 CINQUEZ PARK RD W
JUPITER, FL 33458 3993
Type: MTG
Date/Time: 12/21/2005 08:39:23
CFN: 20050776917
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 19694/1987
Pages: 16
Consideration: $303,200.00
Party 1: STEINOLFSON CARRIE L
Party 2: MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC
AEGIS WHOLESALE CORPORATION
Legal: CINQUEZ PK L77 L
Type: LP
Date/Time: 3/19/2008 14:17:04
CFN: 20080102425
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 22514/1458
Pages: 1
Consideration: $0.00
Party 1: COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS INC
Party 2: STEINOLFSON CARRIE L
STEINOLFSON SPOUSE
DOE JOHN
DOE JANE
Legal: CINQUEZ PK L77 L
Type: JUD
Date/Time: 8/12/2010 14:55:07
CFN: 20100298523
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 24006/560
Pages: 5
Consideration: $0.00
Party 1: BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING LP
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS SERVICING LP
Party 2: STEINOLFSON CARRIE L
STEINOLFSON SPOUSE
DOE JOHN
DOE JANE
Legal: CINQUEZ PK L77 L
I went to 17684 CINQUEZ PARK RD W house Type: JUD Date/Time: 8/12/2010 14:55:07 yesterday. It has been empty (except for the mess inside from a hurried move) for about 2 years. Looked the same as it did when I last walked through about 4 or 5 months ago except for this taped to the front door.
———————————————————————————-
VACANCY POSTING NOTICE
This property has been determined to be vacant. This information will be reported to the mortgage servicer responsible for maintaining the property. The mortgage servicer intends to protect this property from deterioation. The property may have its locks replaced and/or plumbing systems winterized in the next few days. If this property is NOT VACANT please call BAC Field Services Corporation immediately at 866-515-9759. BAC Field Services Corporation does not own the property and should not be contacted regarding its sale. FOR SALE INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REALTOR OR BANK OF AMERICA AT (866) 781-0029. YOU MAY ALSO VISIT http://www.bankofamerica.reo.com.
Date inspected 10/29
———————————————————————————-
I called (866) 781-0029 as well as the phone # to the Law Office on the JUD on the County Records. Same sh#t We can not discuss this with you it is still in the foreclosure process. You will have to contact the owner. The people who answer the phone do not care and have a programed answer.
Interesting story, Jeff. That’s a nice area you live in, makes me wonder if “Carrie” is one of the New Yorkers who bought sight-unseen to flip their way to riches. Reminds me of the stories from the 1920s how people from NY bought investment property in Florida that turned out to be swamps. Some things don’t change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida
Here’s the story about buyers (recently) who purchase and can’t even access their land as it’s a swamp:
http://www2.orlandoweekly.com/util/printready.asp?id=1600
Why is the JUD consideration for $0? Does this just mean that the owner receives $0, or is that the amount that the bank sued for (and presumably won)?
“Why is the JUD consideration for $0?”
They all say that on the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller site as they appear above, when you click get immage The Final Judgement comes up.
Final Judgement of Motgage Foreclosure
Unpais pricipal $319,982.04
Interest 8/1/07 - 10/21/09 $14,815.84
Taxes $7,272.93
Hazzard Ins. $1,962
Pre acceleration late charge $104.89
Title search $325.00
Filing fee $270.00
Subtotal $388,244.59
Plantiff Attorney Fees $1,200
Total $389,444.59
European Central Bank steps in to counter bond rout
By James Mackenzie and Gareth Jones
ROME/ATHENS | Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:41am EST
(Reuters) - The European Central Bank stepped in to stem an accelerating sell-off of euro zone government bonds on Wednesday, traders said, after the United States called for more decisive action to halt a spreading sovereign debt crisis.
…
MARKETS SCEPTICAL
With financial markets skeptical that unelected technocrats will have the political clout to impose unpopular reforms, the two-year-old debt crisis risks engulfing the entire currency bloc and hurting global growth.
Wednesday’s respite may be short-lived. U.S. policymakers have voiced alarm at growing signs of strain in the money market, the plumbing of the international financial system.
Banks in the euro zone face increasing difficulties in obtaining dollar funding, and while the stresses are nowhere near as acute as they were in the 2008 financial crisis, they have continued to mount despite ECB moves to provide unlimited liquidity to banks.
Asian shares and the euro fell earlier on Wednesday as signs that rising borrowing costs were affecting France stirred concern that the debt crisis has spread to the region’s core.
“Markets are clearly expecting a circuit breaker to alleviate pressure on periphery bond yields,” said David Scutt, a trader at Arab Bank Australia in Sydney. “If no announcement is forthcoming in the days ahead, one suspects that the situation could unravel fairly quickly.”
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe had a difficult task in boosting the creditworthiness of some of its economies while also boosting growth.
With a Brussels-based think-tank warning that France’s economy should be “ringing alarm bells,” Finance Minister Francois Baroin sought to calm fears about public finances.
“We have the necessary room to maneuver within the budget to meet our 2012 deficit target even if the economy slows more than expected,” he said in an interview in Wednesday’s edition of Les Echos. “Even with growth of 0.5 percent we can cope.”
Baroin said the government was not working on a third savings package after announcing a second round of belt-tightening in three months last week in order to keep its deficit targets within reach, despite slowing growth.
Data on Tuesday showed the economy of the 17-nation euro zone barely grew in the third quarter. ECB President Mario Draghi has predicted the currency bloc will be in a mild recession by the end of the year.
Baroin told Les Echos he believed the ECB had an important role to play in calming the debt crisis, but he acknowledged, as did Geithner, that Germany had deep reservations.
Many analysts believe the only way to stem the contagion for now is for the European Central Bank to buy large amounts of bonds — effectively the sort of quantitative easing undertaken by the U.S. and British central banks.
This has been anathema in Germany. But on Tuesday Peter Bofinger, a member of the group of economists that advises the German government, said the ECB should indeed become the euro zone’s lender of last resort if the bloc’s debt woes risked tearing apart the financial system.
“If politics can’t do it, then the ECB must do all it can to bring interest rates down to more reasonable levels,” Bofinger said at Euro Finance Week.
Yesterday there was a bit on NPR about income inequality and what the “right wing” (which is a divisive term and tactic, IMO) could get behind. The guy being interviewed said that equality of wealth wasn’t a goal, but rather equality of opportunity. These constant interventions of central banks are an example of why the rich are getting so rich; they win if they win, and the govts make sure they win if they lose.
Recall ‘don’t fight the Fed’ investing?
When Goldman Sachs stood to lose a bunch of money for their clients with Mexico bonds, what happened? The US govt paid them. And this was done to ’save the financial system’.
When various entities stood to lose a bunch of money with mortgage backed securities, some of them went under, some were given a fortune. Again, to ’save the financial system.’
This happens so regularly now, and on such a large scale, we hardly notice. IMO, this is a big part of your inequality of income, packaged as saving the economy.
Totally agreed; bailouts primarily exist to enrich the 1% with money from the U.S. Treasury’s coffers (privative profits / socialize losses). They also serve to make those who made foolish investing decisions whole on their gambling losses, and prevent more prudent, though less (initially) wealthy market participants from reaping the rewards of better financial decisions.
‘They also serve to make those who made foolish investing decisions whole on their gambling losses’
Sort of like using govt money to pay mortgages for FBs, as I posted about yesterday. I saw someone here saying ‘if banks got bailed out they should bail out the little people.’
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
“Two wrongs….”
Yeah, maybe, but the fact that the first wrong was done means the second one was practically inevitable.
Imagine a Washington politician standing in front of voters and saying “We had to save our bankster buddies from themselves, even if we have to sacrifice you to do it.”
‘the fact that the first wrong was done means the second one was practically inevitable’
A guy who had worked for the KGB and fled Russia once told me, ‘the only way to keep from being demoralized is to stay moral’.
His English wasn’t that great, but you get the idea.
ONe difference is that most of the bailouts for homeowners are really nothing more than a way to keep them making payments and to keep them from leaving. I doubt many are getting rich. The same can’t be said for WS and banking CEO’s.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“re$entment” + human nerve center x 322 million non-bailout peons = Move-yer-money, today!
Function: noun
: a feeling of angry displeasure at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury
Totally agreed; bailouts primarily exist to enrich the 1% with money from the U.S. Treasury’s coffers (privative profits / socialize losses). ‘
it could turn out to ruin our currency so everything we work for and manage to save will turn to paper.
The guy being interviewed said that equality of wealth wasn’t a goal…
I see this straw man “equality of wealth” thing all the time. Americans are not in favor of “equality of wealth” so to argue against “equality of wealth” is to argue against a straw man. Americans, rather, are against the growing inequality of wealth and the expanding and the extent of the difference in wealth inequality.
Here’s how it goes:
Guy #1: “Growing wealth inequality is ruining our Democracy and middle-class”.
Guy #2: “The constitution does not guarantee equal outcomes”
Guy #1: (thinking) (What’s wrong with this guy? I never said anything to imply that)
Guy #2: (thinking) (I love my American Enterprise Inst. B.S. talking points)
No one ever said that the Conservative political machine isn’t good at rhetoric. Their candidates may not always be able to produce the talking points in the appropriate places, but the words meant to disctract from the real issues are there.
You can’t have essentially all of the economic advances over several decades go to the top quintile and the overwhelming majority of it to the top 1%. It leaves most people with no hope of doing better.
Except many times, the comment from Guy #1 is shortly followed by a discussion of taxing the rich more, not a discussion about ending bailouts, reforming laws around the independence of corporate boards, ability for shareholders to have a more significant say on pay, re-instatement of Glass-Steagall, making it harder for the Fed to tax the poor vis-a-vis inflation, etc.
I also wonder what effect globalization has had on wealth inequality…it is much easier for a person to start a multi-billion dollar company than ever before in our history because of globalization and the internet…not all the growing wealth inequality has to do with government policy.
Except many times, the comment from Guy #1 is shortly followed by a discussion of taxing the rich more, not a discussion about ending bailouts, reforming laws around the independence of corporate boards, ability for shareholders to have a more significant say on pay, re-instatement of Glass-Steagall,
Ahh but they have that covered in Section 4, paragraph 3.
Guy #1: “We need to have a discussion about ending bailouts, reforming laws around the independence of corporate boards, ability for shareholders to have a more significant say on pay, and the re-instatement of Glass-Steagall.”
Guy # 2: “I don’t believe in Socialism.”
“The guy being interviewed said that equality of wealth wasn’t a goal, but rather equality of opportunity.”
That disappeared 30 years ago, after only being around for 30 years before that.
“hey win if they win, and the govts make sure they win if they lose.”
+1, Ben.
Many people don’t realize that saying they are working to keep bond yields _down_ at reasonable levels is just another say of saying that they are working to keep bond _values_ up at reasonable levels. They are one and the same.
‘they are working to keep bond _values_ up’
And discourage saving. Herd people into the stock market, etc.
Good thing the U.S. has a plunge protection team to prevent market routs.
Nov. 16, 2011, 3:11 a.m. EST
Asia stocks extend drop on Europe fears
By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Asian stock markets took a second straight day of losses Wednesday on worries over Europe’s fiscal health, with low volumes leading to choppy action.
…
Oh, you mean God’s work?
Gold and the Dot-Coms: Comparing the Bubbles
Sept. 20, 2011
Investor enthusiasm is particularly keen on the yellow metal, around $1,800 an ounce. How does gold’s rise compare to the rise of the Nasdaq Composite Index during the 1990s? Mark Hulbert does the charting, and comes away with compelling findings. Laura Mandaro reports.
As long as central banks continue to conjure money out of thin air and lend it to “prime” customers (Banks and Gov’ts) at near 0% interest rates, the precious will be desireable.
Why don’t pundits ask the same question about the Fed?
How Long Can the ECB Continue Buying Bonds?
Nov. 16, 2011
Euro-zone peripheral bonds fell back after the European Central Bank stepped back into the market to provide support. But how long can the ECB continue doing this and will it continue working? And is it all too late for Greece?
That is he 64,000 drachma question. The ECB knows the consequences of running the printing press, but they are more afraid of the near term consequences of stopping the printing press.
Ollie to Stanley: That’s another fine mess you got us into!
I wonder if causing inflation is the path of least resistance in response to a debt crisis. As in, “human nature can’t help it.”
Because the FED and the ECB can buy bonds forever.
ECB can’t print money.
But they can borrow it from the FedRes at 0%
Nov. 16, 2011, 7:06 a.m. EST
Europe stocks fall on gloomy BOE comments
Shares of staffing firms gain after bullish broker note
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stocks turned lower on Wednesday after the Bank of England said the growth outlook for the global economy has worsened since August due to the euro-zone debt crisis.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (XX:SXXP -0.41%) dropped 0.5% to 235.9 in midday trade, erasing gains. It fell 1.6% over the previous two days.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX -0.75%) sank 0.9% to 5,467.1.
The losses came after the Bank of England said the prospects for the U.K. economy have worsened and activity could be broadly flat until around the middle of next year. “Concerns about the sustainability of the euro area have intensified, and continue to affect market sentiment, asset prices and bond yields,” said BOE Gov. Mervyn King.
…
Nov. 16, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
Congressional insider trading: The story sticks
Commentary: Bringing an old story to light
By Justin Rohrlich
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Recently “60 Minutes” featured an interview with Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution, who discussed corruption in Washington, D.C.
Namely, insider trading by the congressmen and senators who wrote the laws prohibiting the practice in the first place.
…
What does one expect with Tim Geithner as King of the World. The man has been given the power to corruptly manipulate markets and whole countries as necessary to keep the status quo. Who really gives a shit about known corrupt congressmen and their greedy scams?
Treasury doesn’t enforce insider trading rules.
Even if it did, Congress is exempt.
They are the 1%, AND they work in government, for firms which have thrown over $100bn in bailout money down the U.S. housing market rat hole!
Fannie and Freddie execs enjoy $100m post-bailout payday… and it’s all funded by U.S. taxpayers
Top five Fannie executives raked in $33.3m in 2009/2010
Mortgage giant Freddie’s top five received $28.1m
Both set pay targets of $17m for top dogs this year
By Mark Duell
Last updated at 10:11 PM on 15th November 2011
Fat cat executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received huge taxpayer-funded pay packets of $100million since they were bailed out.
The top five executives at Fannie raked in $33.3million in 2009 and 2010 and the top five at Freddie received $28.1million, following the 2008 crash.
The government-controlled mortgage giants have both set pay targets of up to $17million for their top managers this year, which totals $95.4million.
…
It’s all a game.
It’s all a game. (Louis XVI, 1791)
…and it’s rigged.
The only way to win is not to play?
Nice one, WOPR.
If only that were true. We’ve refused to play for years and we’ve LOST ground: lost job security, lost benefits, lost rent payments, lost the election money game, lost the inflation game…
The typical response is that this is necessary to keep talent.
I’m thinking, if high talent is what is required to take the economy hostage through intertwining bank deposits with the Wall Street casinos, leading to the situation we’re in now, perhaps we the people could do well with a little less “talent” at these organizations.
Euro Debt Contagion Fears Send Stock Futures Sliding
Written By Adam Samson
Published November 16, 2011
FOXBusiness
FOX Business: The Power to Prosper
Stock-index futures fell on Wednesday after a report from England added to fears that Europe’s debt crisis is beginning to strike countries far from the continent’s highly-indebted periphery and traders weighed an unexpected fall in U.S. consumer prices.
Today’s Markets
As of 8:35 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 85 points to 11,954, S&P 500 futures slid 11.5 points to 1,243 and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 11.5 points to 2,348.
Evidence has been mounting that the European Union’s debt crisis that was once confined to countries with enormous public debt like Greece may materially impact larger economies.
…
Time for the Fed to sound the deflationary pressure alarm bells, as broke American consumers’ dollar may go just a tiny bit further this month than last.
Consumer Prices Fall for First Time in 4 Months
Published November 16, 2011
U.S. consumer prices fell in October for the first time in four months as Americans paid less for new cars and gasoline, although prices outside of food and energy posted a slight increase, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.
The Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1 percent during the month.
…
Yep. And more is on its way.
There is a shortage of cash you know, ask anybody, and pay attention as to what various governments all over the globe are howling about.
Pshaw!
Who actually trusts the consumer price index anyway? For the past few years they’ve been telling us that inflation has been “tame” while our checkbooks have been screaming the opposite. I guess the official CPI index dropping 0.1% (isn’t that little more than noise anyway?) means that real world prices are rising slower than before.
inflation in needs for a while deflation in wants
Rents for businesses are down I have a friend who owns a business he has seen advertising rates and rental rates plummet in the last couple of years. House prices continue to fall as would rents If housing was being released to the market.
My guess is that you might soon see a collapse in commodities as well. Seriously look at how the European class and American middle class are being destroyed. I’m sorry but China is not taking their place. When we die they die.
My guess is that you might soon see a collapse in commodities as well. Seriously look at how the European class and American middle class are being destroyed. I’m sorry but China is not taking their place. When we die they die.
But commodity prices are based on “stuff” selling. Much “stuff” is cheaper now than ever except for food and oil which has a slightly inelastic demand. Europe and USA are not “dying”-just getting jacked. The world is growing faster than we’re getting jacked. Brazil alone gained 40 million into their middle class the past 12 years. (buying food and stuff) China is buying a lot more “stuff” and China has 1.3 billion consumers. It’s a huge world buying stuff. I don’t see a long term collapse in commodities.
Chinese J6Ps might not buy a car, but will buy a motor bike and put gas in it, and there are many of them.
“Rents for businesses are down I have a friend who owns a business he has seen advertising rates and rental rates plummet in the last couple of years.”
I have a friend who just re-negotiated his lease on the commercial space for his business, at roughly a 33% reduction from his old rate. And his LL threw in $5K for improvements as well. This was on a 5yr lease, and he has been in the space for roughly 5yrs.
He hired a broker, and they had found a couple of suitable properties that made proposals for him to move, so his LL was smart to be flexible.
By Joseph Lazzaro, U.S. Editor
Under Hoenig, Will ‘Too Big To Fail’ Banks Become Too Big?
October 21, 2011 12:26 PM EDT
Is the era of big banks about to come to an end?
It may be too soon to suggest that, but one thing is clear: now that Thomas Hoenig, retired chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has been nominated by the White House to become the new vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the role of big banks in the U.S. economic system will be under review.
Hoenig has said that financial institutions that are so big that their failure could jeopardize the financial system are “fundamentally inconsistent with capitalism.”
…
If Fisher and Hoenig can pull this off, it will be a major policy coup.
NOVEMBER 15, 2011, 12:41 P.M. ET
UPDATE:Fed’s Fisher:End Too Big To Fail And Apparatus Of Bailouts
By Anusha Shrivastava
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK(Dow Jones)–Too big to fail banks need to be curbed because maintaining them is “counterproductive, expensive and socially questionable,” said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Tuesday.
Fisher was speaking before Columbia University’s Politics and Business Club in New York City.
Pointing to the concentration in the banking industry, Fisher said half of the entire banking industry’s assets are now on the books of five institutions and their combined assets equate to roughly 58% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“This problem of supersized and hypercomplex banks is not unique to the United States,” Fisher said, noting Europe is “struggling today with how to cushion its megabanks from excessive exposure to intra-European sovereign debt.”
Japan is also still feeling “the negative impacts of not successfully resolving the financial difficulties at its megabanks two decades ago,” he said.
…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016775556_migration16m.html
“Fewer of us moving in recession, census says
Waylaid by high unemployment and the housing crisis, Americans over the last year have mostly stayed put, resulting in the lowest rate of state-to-state migration in more than six decades, census estimates show.
In Washington state, the numbers of people moving on as well as those moving in were at the lowest levels in at least five years.
“Migration has something to do with getting your life going again,” said Bill Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit public policy organization. “A lack of movement represents people putting their lives on hold.”
Moving is expensive.
If the U.S. economy ever recovers, the thawing of the housing market’s iced up liquidity could provide a major spring inventory flood.
Upshot: Prices aren’t coming back any time soon.
1991 prices are.
Well yes if you love to have a lot of stuff….. With flat screen tv’s hard drives laptops smart phones you need a whole lot less space then you did before…
Buy Ikea instead of Ethan Allen and you can give the furniture away instead of moving it.
So those McMansions have no choice but to be used for college housing, possible half way houses…maybe not for seniors unless you install that motorized seat to get to the second floor…
Even if you leave everything behind, you still have first month, last month, and a deposit to cover. And then the cost of replacing the stuff you left behind.
The only reason people move is if they can get a significant raise in pay.
Like you said, moving is expensive. And moving to a new place where you don’t know anyone, and don’t have a family/social/business network is even more expensive.
Business owners don’t want to pay for moves. Lots of adds for jobs now say “local candidates only”. They would rather outsource than pay someone to relocate.
You had better like where you are living now, because its probably where you are going to be stuck for the forseeable future
And moving to a new place where you don’t know anyone, and don’t have a family/social/business network is even more expensive.
Not to mention a real pain in the butt. We moved in 1995, employer paid, and it was still a pain. I can only imagine how much fun it must be to pack, load and drive a big azz UHaul truck and unload it by yourself when you arrive at your destination, with small kids in tow.
And then for all you know you’ll be laid off in 2-3 years. With no local network you’d better hope the local job market is hot when that happens.
One nice thing about a divorce, if you are a guy…..
It relieves you of the problem of having a bunch of stuff to pack and move
“Not to mention a real pain in the butt.”
Testify. We are still unpacking and hanging stuff from our move. Forget the yard sale before the next move. For every thing that comes in, I want two going out!
“I can only imagine how much fun it must be to pack, load and drive a big azz UHaul truck and unload it by yourself when you arrive at your destination, with small kids in tow.”
Been there, done that - sometimes with a cat or two.
“And then for all you know you’ll be laid off in 2-3 years. With no local network you’d better hope the local job market is hot when that happens.”
In 2-3 years, you can build a local network. 6 months, not so much. Location helps. At one point we chose New Jersey because of the relatively easy access to the large job markets from Boston to DC. Once, my husband took a short contract in Connecticut and commuted on a weekly basis.
“The only reason people move is if they can get a significant raise in pay.”
That’s part of it. By no means the only reason. Lots of people move for family reasons; be closer to parents, closer to grown kids, closer to sick relatives. After my wife and I had our second kid, we moved to the PNW to be closer to family. We wanted our kids to grow up close to their grandparents (also nice to have on demand babysitters whenever you need them).
Yeah, but why did they move away from their parents/family to begin with?
For the money.
I moved away from my family to get away from my family.
I moved away from my family to get away from my family.
Me too!
“Yeah, but why did they move away from their parents/family to begin with? For the money.”
Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not.
The reason people move away from parents is usually college.
I went 1500 miles away.
The reason people move away from parents is usually college. I went 1500 miles away. GEG
You went to college? You should have taken a persuasive writing course. You sure could use it.
So-called (neo) “conservative” Newt, like his fellow Republicrat Bwarney Fwank, was a whore for Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/gingrich-said-to-be-paid-at-least-1-6-million-by-freddie-mac.html
Yep. He served as a conduit to distribute $300k to congressmen who were ready to shutdown FraudieMac.
Everybody works for Fannie and Freddie. (At least they do now and will for a long time). Get back to work, slave.
I loved when he was asked what he did for the money and he said he acted as a historian. Then he said he told them they shouldn’t make loans to people who couldn’t pay it back?? How long did that take 15min. I doubt he told them anything.
I suspect on a hourly basis he may be the highest paid historian of all times.
“Well, let’s see. We could hire an accountant or underwriters to evaluate our loans.. nah, let’s hire a former congressman.”
Might not be the best idea, bink.
Case in point: Not long ago, I was reading a book about Lehman. At one point, former President Ford was on their board of directors. During one meeting, he stopped the proceedings to ask about the difference between assets and revenue.
“On 16 July 2008 The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had “taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.”. Also, in an editorial on August 27, 2008 titled “Tough Decision Coming”, the Washington Post editorial staff wrote that “Two members of Mr. Obama’s political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae.”
And your point is what?
They wanted to know where the “skeletons” were buried.
Raines almost single-handedly destroyed Fanie Mae and made millions doing it.
GEG can’t criticize the right it makes his throat swell up. He is only capable of criticizing the left and anyone who protests the elite. My guess is GEG works for such people.
Meason,
When you’ve finished with the ad hominem attacks, how about you address the Raines issue. Gingrich got a couple of bucks for lobbying on behalf of Freddie. Raines got tens of milliions for running it into the ground. Yet your focus is on the former while ignoring the latter.
Par for the course.
Looks now like Newt got more than $1.5 million.
He’s a serial liar. Has he ever been truthful? Ever?
“When you’ve finished with the ad hominem attacks…”
The troll really gave himself away with that line…
See that’s where we differ
Raines is a scum bag. It’s easy for me to say because it is true. Gingrich is also a scum bag.
Has Raines ever been truthful? Ever?
Has Raines ever been truthful? Ever?
When Raines explains
It so insults our brains
“Has Raines ever been truthful? Ever?”
Lying while black is acceptable. So is lying while white, provided you are a successful politician.
That’s easy GEG
Raines is scum bag no more so or less so than any of the other WS banking CEO’s. It’s easy for me to say because it is true. Having them influencing policy is bad in my opinion and I’ve bashed Obama many times about such things.
This is the part you won’t get
Gingrich is also a scum bag.
Try and say it but keep someone around to do a heimlick when you start choking.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8846201/Debt-crisis-live.html
Merkel (and every other globalist head of state) is ready to cede “some” sovereignty to unaccountable supra-national bodies, ignoring objections from her own citizens.
She must be getting paid quite a bit to betray the Fatherland.
Wow I didn’t realize that none of the new italian leaders in the cabinet were elected officials. The bankers have more power than I thought. They don’t even need to control elections anymore just threaten and overthrow gov from within. I wonder if the Italian riots will be any more effective than the Greek riots. When will the police stop supporting the criminals at the top.
Amazing.
“When will the police stop supporting the criminals at the top.”
When their paychecks stop.
Or become worthless.
Merkel was elected by the same sort of Walking Dead electorate that voted for Obama and McCain. Even as these globalists’ willingness to throw their own taxpayers under the bus to ensure the banksters get their money has become clear, the sheeple slumber on. We truly do deserve the governments we get.
Suspect in White House shooting part of OWS. I love how that is buried in the last paragraph of the report. Had this guy even passed by a Tea Party event on his way to work, CNN, ABC et all would be headlining TEA PARTY MEMBER SHOOTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
ABC News:
“Police believe the suspect, 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho, is mentally ill. Ortega has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega has a fixation on the White House.
Authorities suspect Ortega has been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters.”
I don’t think a 21 year old Hispanic could blend in at a Tea Part function.
I think the leader of the San Antonio TP, George Rodriguez might disagree.
Some hispanics look “European” (because they are). Case in point: me.
Some (most) hispanics are mestizos. They don’t look European.
After a quick looksie in google, George Rodriguez looks like group 1 (European). He could pass for a Spaniard.
One of my former bosses was full-blooded Italian. And she had blonde hair and blue eyes. ISTR her saying that the family came from northern Italy, where such appearances were not uncommon.
He looks like Arab or light (northern) Indians.
Suspect in White House shooting part of OWS. I love how that is buried in the last paragraph of the report.
Of course it’s buried. Because the MSM is corporate owned and the corporate talking point on OWS is that OWS should be protesting the White House and not Wall Street. Right?
“U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters” to “Suspect in White House shooting part of OWS”?
That’s quite a leap. Amazing what a little confirmation bias can do.
“Had this guy even passed by a Tea Party event on his way to work, CNN, ABC et all would be headlining TEA PARTY MEMBER SHOOTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE”
That may be the most absurd thing you have ever posted on this board, GEG. And that is really saying something. Would you like to provide some actual example of the media doing this (headlining that a person who happened to do something illegal after he had passed by a Tea Party event was a Tea Party member)? Or are you claiming that no one who has ever passed through the general vicinity of Tea Party event has committed a crime after that pass by and that is why there aren’t any examples?
Absurd.
That may be the most absurd thing you have ever posted on this board, GEG
I don’t disagree with you, Polly, but I wish you’d hold all posters to the same standard of intellectual honesty. This kind of straw man “if it was XXX they would have YYYY” is pervasive here from all sides.
Why call out GEG, now, after it’s been going on so long?
Curious that you’re calling out Polly, but not folks from another political persuasion- NOT.
“Would you like to provide some actual example of the media doing this (headlining that a person who happened to do something illegal after he had passed by a Tea Party event was a Tea Party member)? ”
The nut that shot Gabby Gifford. All Pallins fault for using “cross hairs” to “target”.
Yeah, except he wasn’t part of OWS. Read the stories again.
Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-tv-host-says-regime-nearly-bankrupt-141214.html
I guess we’ll going to find out how well that “throw our US market and employees under the bus, because the growth markets are in China” strategy is going to work out.
No brainer.
China’s economy goes TU and they take over all foreign corporate operations and stiff a lot of foreign creditors.
New Poll from Public Policy Polling (self identified Democrat Party polling company) released today.
“The Occupy Wall Street movement is not wearing well with voters across the country. Only 33% now say that they are supportive of its goals, compared to 45% who say they oppose them.
Voters don’t care for the Tea Party either, with 42% saying they support its goals to 45% opposed. But asked whether they have a higher opinion of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street movement the Tea Party wins out 43-37″
So the “dirty hippies” campaign worked?
Which is amazing condering hippies haven’t even existed for 30 years.
New Poll from Public Policy Polling
You think too small GEG and you appear a bit frantic. Even if OWS were to go away tomorrow, the reason for its existence would not, and maybe that’s why you appear so frantic. You can’t put this cat back in your neo-con, failed-policy bag. It might be just a matter of time now. (so you might feel the need to get more frantic)
Rasmussen: 85 percent “think most members of Congress are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people.” theatlanticwire dot com
Harvard/Duke Study: Most Americans want wealth distribution similar to Sweden. 92 percent prefer Swedish model to US model when given a choice….Americans generally underestimate the degree of income inequality in the United States, and if given a choice, would distribute wealth in a similar way to the social democracies of Scandinavia, a new study finds. rawstory dot com
Times/cbsThe economic grievances articulated by the Occupy Wall Street movement may represent the views of not just the fringe, but a large majority of Americans, a new poll suggests.
Two-thirds of Americans said they oppose tax cuts for corporations, support increasing income taxes for millionaires, and believe that wealth should be distributed more evenly across the country, according to New York Times/CBS poll results released on Tuesday.
Judicial Watch/Zogby Poll: 81.7% of Americans Say Political Corruption Played a “Major Role” in Financial Crisis. Judicial Watch dot org
I got “push polled” yesterday on the “fair tax” (national sales tax). Such balanced questions as “Would you like to be able to decide how much you pay in taxes?” I gave all the wrong answers, because it was easy to ID, but I suspect a lot of people don’t get it.
So they identify people who think it would be fun to set their own tax rate (0%!) as in favor of a 23% national sales tax. You can’t trust any of them unless you know the exact text of the poll.
Hey GEG, as long as we are on the topic of polls, how come most of the candidates the RNC comes up with are so sucky, and the only ones who make sense for the general electorate to consider are passed over again and again for unsavory demagogues?
I think the leader of the San Antonio TP, George Rodriguez might disagree.
“According to a poll commissioned by Generation Opportunity- a new non-profit, non-partisan organization that’s interested in reaching 18-29 year old Americans on the nation’s economic issues- young Hispanics want to see an across-the-board reduction in the federal government’s interference in the economy.
Given the specific issues noted in this survey, this could indicate that these young minorities are open to becoming fiscal libertarians. Issues highlighted in surveying young Hispanic preferences on economic policy include less government interference, lower taxes on business profits, reduced federal spending, and specifically effecting more cuts in federal spending rather than raising taxes to address the economic crisis. Noteworthy is that attitudes regarding limiting the government’s role is supported by a strong majority of young Hispanics.
By a 3:1 ratio, young Hispanic adults prefer “reducing federal spending” (69%) to “raising taxes on individuals” (27%) as a way to balance the federal budget. 70% of Hispanic adults would like to decrease federal spending as a top priority in the nation’s fiscal plan.”
Hmmm, 3:1 young Hispanics want to cut spending instead of raising taxes. Yeah, nothing in common with the TP. Not at all.
Is that why hispanics overwhelmingly vote democrat? Methinks this poll is iimited to Republican Hispanics.
Is that why hispanics overwhelmingly vote democrat?
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=127
I’m starting to think GEG might be working for George Soros to make the Koch Brothers look bad. And if so, he’s damn good.
Pew Research: Two-thirds (65%) of Latino registered voters say they plan to support the Democratic candidate in their local congressional district, while just 22% support the Republican candidate, according to a nationwide survey of Latinos.
“I’m starting to think GEG might be working for George Soros to make the Koch Brothers look bad”
…pot, meet kettle.
“I’m starting to think GEG might be working for George Soros to make the Koch Brothers look bad”
…pot, meet kettle.
The difference being of course if I were working for Soros, I and many on this blog, could be accused of making Koch look bad because we use logic and cite articles, facts, figures and studies countering the Koch self-serving, lying points.
If GEG works for Soros to make Koch look bad, he does it by parroting Koch talking points in the manner of a buffoon.
Now if you think differently Dale I always welcome you to challenge my posts with your own logic, articles, facts, figures and studies. In fact I look forward to it.
Since most the “interference” and “spending” have gone toward bailing out fats cats and corporation, I could do with a little less of both myself.
This Heritage Foundation? What ever happened to the rule of law? What ever happened to this story? Should this be legal? Was it? Does is all just go away if one is rich and connected? This is the kind of crap OWS is against and why the corrupt fascists who are ruining America are against the OWS.
By Debra Cassens Weiss
ABA Journal | January 24, 2011
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/justice_thomas_accused_of_failing_to_report_686k_in_wifes_income/
A liberal watchdog group says Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report on financial disclosure forms more than $686,000 in income his wife earned while working for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Common Cause analyzed the Heritage Foundation’s tax records and learned that the organization paid Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, $686,589 between 2003 and 2007, the Los Angeles Times reports. Common Cause also cites published reports indicating Virginia Thomas earned a salary in 2009 from the conservative group she founded, Liberty Central. Justice Thomas indicated his spouse earned no income for the years in question.
Common Cause says in a press release that the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (PDF) requires justices and other federal officials to report spousal income.
Clarence Thomas is the single wosrt thing to happen to the Supreme Court in a long time.
May he rot in hell.
What section of our Constitution allows the Legislative/Executive branches to pass any law that forces the Judicial branch to do anything.
It is one thing to refuse to fill out a form on Constitutional grounds. It is quite another to fill it out and lie on it.
The 3 branches were created to act as checks and balances AGAINST each other.
In other words, strictly adversarial.
eyes channelin’ “Clarice” Thomas right now,…(indistinct muttering)…(loud cacklin’)…oh, eyes thinks eys gots it:
“Clarice” says: “Why $huts my mouth!”
This MF Global thing is getting scary. Hey Combo, where do you “have” your cash? In a mattress?
Fron the Detroit News (updated 11-14-2011)
U.S. boosts estimate of auto bailout losses to $23.6B
David Shepardson/ Detroit News Washington Bureau
The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.’s steep stock decline.
In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.
The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no longer includes $5 billion it set aside to guarantee payments to auto suppliers in 2009.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111114/AUTO01/111140434/U.S.-boosts-estimate-of-auto-bailout-losses-to-23.6B#ixzz1dtTnSh4u
U.S. boosts estimate of auto bailout losses to $23.6B
Wow 23 Billion to save one of the last remaining industrial bases we have left. An industrial base that is important for millions of jobs, technology development and our national security itself. 23 Billion. But I know how to pay for it.
Cost of air conditioning in US wars: $20 billion (per year)
http://www.salon.com/2011/06/27/wars_air_conditioning/
Or 40 times the annual federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Generation Greed politicians have diverted money to bail out the auto-oriented suburbs and the auto companies.
Meanwhile younger generations have been moving to cities, and transit ridership is soaring in the fact of drastic service cuts and fare increases.
YMMV. What you describe (young hipsters moving into the city and riding the bus) might be true on the east coast, but west of the Mississippi it’s still pretty tough to get around on public transport.
Word.
There’s a Tucson musician named Al Perry. One of his more popular songs is called “We Got Cactus.”
Part of the song marvels about the Tucson bus system, but adds the caveat that you have to be home by 10 p.m.
While I haven’t been watching the debates (afraid my head might explode), I was very disturbed by hearing that Perry wants to shut down the Department of Education.
If knowledge is power, wouldn’t it be advantageous for the PTB to have an undereducated population under it?
“While I haven’t been watching the debates (afraid my head might explode),”
Then you better not, you know what happened to Mr Creosote when he ate that thin mint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLpBiy07cso - 90k -
I believe Ron Paul also wants to get rid of the Dept of Education which he believes is just another layer of bureaucracy. I think the counterargument to your undereducated population comment is that the dept is wasteful and inefficient and that education decisions are better left in the hands of the state and local authorities.
Teachers will be the first to tell you the teaching to the tests paradigm they’ve have been stuck with isn’t working.
And the performance measuring to tests is causing teachers to cheat (ie. boosting kids scores)…heard the Freakonomics guy speak to this–he even offered services to help ferret out the cheating teachers, and couldn’t get traction with the schools.
That may not have been the department that he meant.
Not that I support Rick Perry, but shutting down the department of education does not mean that no education will occur. That is a false choice. Again, I certainly don’t support Rick Perry, but if he is suggesting that the current education system has failed and we need to come up with something more effective then I could certainly agree with that.
We have to socialize the educational system and take the insurance companies out of it. Only that way, the education and especially college education would be cheaper & better.
“shutting down the department of education does not mean that no education will occur.”
Of course, but ED forces equity.
Are you one of those people that claim “the market” will magically appear and teach poor minorities a stoichiometry lesson?
“the current education system has failed”
Did it fail you?
NO but it probably means many students will be learning creationism and that evolution will be banned. It means that there will be no standards that entire schools might be left to fail and the poor and middle class stuck there will fail as well.
“…wouldn’t it be advantageous for the PTB to have an undereducated population under it?”
You’ve just described the last 30 years.
Remember when I used to come on this board and say I didn’t know anyone in my immediate circle who’d been laid off?
Well that’s over now. DH’s HS buddy called to say between he and his boss one of them had to go and the two of them could decide which it was going to be. So yeah, you can imagine how that one ended. That was in medical sales in Cali. Then I was told by someone local in IT they lost their job 2 weeks ago. The local fishwrap’s headline today is how difficult it is for workers over 45 to rebound from a lay-off. Both of these gentlemen are over 45.
I know several people whose kids work for BofA so I’m kind of holding my breath waiting to see how the next few weeks shake out for them.
In New York state supposedly the Medicare cuts are starting to rear their ugly head. I have not heard of many hospital layoffs in this particular area yet although other states including NH saw many layoffs earlier in the year.
Next stop, North Dakota.
The latest real estate news from Tucson. From our leading local fishwrap:
1. Strategic defaulters are a business opportunity. (Who knew?)
Developments target folks who defaulted or are leery of market
Builders bank on high-end rentals
2. One of our hoity-toity resorts is facing foreclosure. Needless to say, travel and tourism have taken a real hit during this depression, er, Great Recession.
Starr Pass resort owner defaults on loan, faces foreclosure, auction
Doug McIntyre, Red Eye Radio talks about the line is gone between the two parties. It’s about issues. Both the Tea Party and OWS want to abolish the Federal Reserve. You’ll like him.
http://www.redeyeradio.com/video.php
NYC voted 85% for Obama. Even in this bluest of blue cities, the people have had enough of the OWS stupidity.
NY POST:
“In the weeks before the NYPD finally cleared Zuccotti Park, the Downtown Community Coalition formed to demand action. For some in the group, the last straw was the incessant drumming, which some call psychological abuse. For others, it was the defecating in bags and improper disposal of medical waste — the general public-health crisis caused by the protesters’ prolonged stay in the park.
More than anything else, though, the reason for the Downtown Community Coalition’s existence is the complete failure of their elected officials to act on this very real attack on their quality of life.
“We’ve been calling 311, attending Community Board meetings and town halls and nothing had been done,” says Gerstman. “Our goal is only to compel our elected officials to enforce the laws in order to protect the public health and safety.”
Who is paying the troll to post here?
Yeah, who? ‘Cause Slim could use some extra money too.
And how ’bout the rest of you? Need some extra money? I’ll bet you do.
Who is paying (GEG) troll to post here?
Yeah, who? ‘Cause Slim could use some extra money too.
You could write rings around GEG but you wouldn’t work for his suspected bosses. Why? Because his suspected bosses are liars, neo-fascists and damn near traitors to their country.
It’s funny how the trolls all appear 1-by-1 and use almost identical formulas. Crap floods of talking points instead of normal conversational posting. It’s almost as if it’s the same guy over and over.
any one hear from 2banana recently ?
2ban had to re-up as GEG after 2ban let the “jack” comment slip. They’re all NYCityBoy, who used to be cool, but then got all mental when the going got tough.
“It’s almost as if it’s the same guy over and over.”
$pilt per$onality
BananaSplit.
I’m amazed at how many people are unclear on the concept of “protesting.”
It’s NOT supposed to be a picinic and 4th of July parade.
the general public-health crisis caused by the MegaBanker’$ prolonged stay in 1% “Club”.
+1
Not saying the left isn’t bought and paid for too, but how is this not the exact same thing that Jack Abramoff ended up in prison for.
His hiring by Freddie Mac was a small — but because of his name, important — piece of a much larger initiative by the company.
Government-sponsored Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have long been embraced by Democratic politicians in Washington as champions of affordable housing, but they have had few supporters on the political right.
Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin sought to remedy that by hiring conservative consultants, including Gingrich.
Before Gingrich was hired, Freddie Mac paid $2 million to a Republican consulting firm in hopes of killing legislation that would have regulated and trimmed both companies. The legislation died without coming to a vote in the Senate. But the danger of regulation wasn’t dead, so Freddie Mac hired more consultants, Gingrich among them.
Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006, all of them former Republican lawmakers and ex-GOP staffers. Besides Gingrich, the hires included former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York, former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota and Susan Hirschmann, the former chief of staff to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
Now Abramoff
bramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon (a former Tom DeLay aide) conspired to bilk Indian casino gambling interests out of an estimated $85 million in fees. The lobbyists also orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services. These practices were the subject both of long-running criminal prosecution and hearings by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. On November 21, 2005, Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.
Use gov to strong arm a corporation and then get said corporation to pay you millions to get the gov off your back.
I think it was in Gretchen Morgenson’s latest book, Reckless Endangerment, and correct me if I’m wrong, but F&F have really proven to be quite good at lobbying. She went into great detail on this point.
Doesn’t matter which party. If there’s any threat to their gravy train, the F&F lobbying corps is on it. Oh, is it ever.
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” -Karl Rove, 2004
Karl will really hate to hear this, but creating your own reality is one of those things that’s often talked about in the New Age realm. I’ll bet he didn’t know that he was copping a New Age talking point.
Well, it should be noted that this is from a doughboy with absolutely NO dance moves. OK, OK, the “robot” is a dance move. Eyes reckon he has mastered: “Danger Will Robinson, Danger!” (hand flying erratically)
TAMPA — The car that arrived at a Tampa police office Tuesday with a body in the trunk belongs to a Hillsborough County man reported missing a day earlier. Tampa police said Tuesday the missing man is Hilliard Shell, 79, of near Carrollwood.
Shell is a real estate developer and insurance executive.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/tampa-authorities-developer-reported-missing-owns-car-that-showed-up-with/1202016
“We had to take the issue seriously because of the way we had been threatened by the sergeant at the Seventh Precinct, who warned us before our release that if “I returned to my friends, the protesters,” a second arrest would be treated far more seriously: our information would be fed into a federal database, to follow us forever. I recall speaking to him through the cell bars: “But officer, if I checked the law this time in order to obey it and still got arrested, how do I avoid getting arrested again?” He acknowledged that I had not disobeyed the law but pointed out that if police cite “safety concerns,” they can arrest anyone anywhere, no matter what the law says. Of course, nothing we had done — walking peacefully on a sidewalk in single file, not blocking traffic — had posed a safety threat.”
http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/16/the-straw-man-comes-to-zuccotti-park/?xid=newsletter-daily
Is GEG really just Eddie, back under a new moniker?
How are your real estate and stock market investments working out for you these days, GEG?
All the MSM pundits are blaming the record-low U.S. move rate on the recession, neglecting to factor in Uncle Sam’s “Save Our Homes” efforts to prop up housing prices on a permanently-high unaffordable plateau.
Why aren’t Americans moving anymore?
Posted by Brad Plumer at 04:03 PM ET, 11/15/2011
A new Census report finds that the percentage of Americans who are changing residences has dropped to an all-time low. Just 11.6 percent of Americans moved last year, down from 12.5 percent in 2009 and way down from 18.6 percent in 1987. In fact, the Census tables show that geographic mobility has been declining steadily since the end of World War II, when one-fifth of all Americans regularly moved. Why is this?
There are a couple of things going on here. As Catherine Rampell observes, much of the current drop has been driven by a decline in people switching homes within counties. For that, blame the housing bust. Foreclosures and falling prices have caused home sales to plummet. Notice that many of the states that have historically seen the most churn — such as Florida, California, Arizona, and Nevada — were the states that were hammered by the subprime crisis:
But that’s not the only reason. There’s also been a marked drop in Americans who move long distances — and across state lines — to seek out new jobs. A huge part of the story is that there just aren’t as many new jobs available these days. But it’s also possible that people are locked into their homes. The Census found that people living in rental units were 4.7 times more likely to move than those who owned homes.
As UCLA economist Hernan Winkler has found, the transaction costs associated with selling a house can be a big barrier to mobility. There’s also the fact that roughly a quarter of Americans now have underwater mortgages — owing more than the market value of their homes — which can prevent them from moving (though Adam Ozimek argues that falling home prices probably aren’t holding back employment).
…
If China is not in a position to bail out the eurozone, who is?
Analysis - China’s FX firepower is no euro zone bailout bazooka
A 100 Yuan note is surrounded by other 100 Yuan notes in this picture illustration in Beijing March 22, 2011. REUTERS/Jason Lee
By Kevin Yao
BEIJING | Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:51am EST
(Reuters) - Europeans searching for a bazooka to blast away euro zone debt problems might well eye China’s $3.2 trillion foreign exchange arsenal with envy, but Beijing has far less firepower available than many assume.
Most of money in the world’s biggest store of FX reserves is prudently kept in near-cash instruments to fund import and debt service bills in the event of an unforeseen domestic emergency, or invested in long-term assets that, if sold in size to help Europe, would spark panic on global financial markets.
In fact, analysts reckon China’s armory has only about $100 billion to spare.
“The sheer size of China’s foreign exchange reserves is massive, but the actual amount of money available for investing in Europe each year isn’t that big,” said Wang Jun, an economist at CCIEE, a top government think-tank in Beijing.
A crucial constraint is China’s existing holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. Beijing is by far the biggest foreign owner, with an estimated 70 percent of the nation’s reserves held in U.S. government bills, bonds and other dollar assets.
Turn outright seller and the market value of the remaining holdings is likely to plunge.
That’s not a great investment strategy given the Chinese public’s unhappiness about the roughly 38 percent decline in the nominal value of the dollar in the last 10 years.
The government also may have to set aside some FX reserves to bailout the banking system if piles of loans to local governments and the property sector turn sour.
China injected nearly $80 billion in reserves into its big state banks from 2003 to 2008 to help them clean up their balance sheets so they could float shares.
…
Got fear?
The Financial Times dot com
Last updated: November 16, 2011 10:03 pm
Eurozone contagion fears drive US bank sell off
By Ajay Makan and Jason Abbruzzese in New York
A warning from Fitch Ratings that US banks are vulnerable to contagion from the eurozone debt crisis trigerred a late sell-off on Wall Street.
“Unless the eurozone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad outlook for US banks will darken,” Fitch analyst Joseph Scott wrote.
The financial sector of the S&P 500 tumbled 2.5 per cent, led down by Morgan Stanley , which fell 8 per cent to $14.66.
Goldman Sachs fell 4.2 per cent to $95.60, Citigroup was off 4.1 per cent to $26.86, Bank of America fell 3.8 per cent to $5.90, and JPMorgan fell 3.8 per cent to $31.47.
In another sign of rising financial contagion, the two year interest rate swap spread over Treasuries, which is seen as a proxy for US bank counterparty risk, rose above 50 basis points for the first time since May 2010.
…