This One Is Different
The Gainesville Sun reports from Florida. “The Windmeadows Apartments complex is now the property of Comerica Bank after no one but an attorney for the bank showed up to bid on it at a foreclosure auction. The complex was built in 1972 by the late Clark Butler. Butler and partners sold it in 2006 for $26.6 million to a group of Kuwaiti-backed investors in New York. Florida South East Development Corporation of Tampa, owned by Ken Mamula, managed the property for the owners. Mamula said Windmeadows converted to condos but went back to rentals by 2008 because the ‘the market had already dried up.’”
“Mamula said the owners never missed a payment for four years and put $5 million into renovations, but the bank asked for a major paydown to renew the loan. ‘The argument from the investor was ‘You knew we were going to spend $5 million. If you wanted a paydown, you should have told us,’ Mamula said.”
The St Petersburg Times. “While other parts of Tampa Bay’s economy pick up steam, its construction industry just hit a new low. The recent numbers have startled veterans of an industry that used to pride itself as Florida’s chief growth engine. ‘Our industry has historically led out of recessions in years past,’ said Thorson of William Ryan Homes. ‘This one, obviously, is a lot different.’”
Florida Today. “Concrete mixing companies, as well as contractors who pour concrete, have seen up to a 75 percent decrease in business since the 2005-06 peak of the housing industry, which had collapsed by 2008. The construction shutdown has battered contractors, hauling companies and building supply dealers, who had grown used to rapid growth.”
“‘Every year for three years we’ve said this has to be the bottom, and every year we’re proven wrong,’ said Mike Murtha, president of the Florida Concrete and Products Association, which is based in Orlando.”
“‘We’re just surviving,’ Debbie Crusan, office manager at Absolute Concrete Pump in Melbourne, said. ‘Most of them still in business are accepting prices they haven’t been paid since the late 1990s. A lot of these guys out here are cutting each other’s throats.’”
The Ledger. “‘We at the Federal Reserve are moving vigorously to promote a stronger economic recovery,’ said Janet Yellin, the Fed’s vice chairman, in a speech in San Francisco this week. ‘However, monetary policy is not a panacea, and it is essential for other policy makers to also do their part. In particular, there is a strong case for additional measures to address the dysfunctional housing market.’”
“William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, laid out a housing agenda when he spoke at West Point last month. He said action was needed to make it easier for more people to qualify for mortgage loans, and also broached an idea for something that so far has gotten little political support but probably will be necessary: reducing the amount that many borrowers owe while letting them keep their homes.”
“To many Republicans, the answer is simply to let the markets sort it out. That prescription seems to be based more on ideology than on any actual analysis of how the housing market is functioning, and it seems to infuriate Fed officials. ‘Regardless of how we got here, we, as a nation, currently have a housing market that is so severely out of balance that it is hampering our economic recovery,’ said Elizabeth A. Duke, a Fed governor, in a speech in September.”
The Sun Sentinel. “Q: I filed bankruptcy and abandoned a home in 2008. Since then the bank has not foreclosed and the homeowner’s association keeps sending me bills. What can I do? A: While it may sound obvious, you own your home until you don’t anymore. By this I mean you can’t just walk away without being responsible to your association, the tax collector and your neighbors. You need to find someone to take the home from you.”
The Naples News. “A Southwest Florida lawmaker has revived a bill that could speed up foreclosures in Florida. State Rep. Kathleen Passidomo first filed a foreclosure bill last session in hopes of changing a judicial process that can drag out for years. That bill was never heard. Her goal is to get the distressed homes back on the market faster.”
“‘Most of the foreclosures that are sitting there and not going anywhere are abandoned homes,’ Passidomo said. ‘The borrower has already moved out. So we have these empty homes, where the borrower is not paying anything and the lender is not paying anything, creating problems in the neighborhoods. No one is mowing the lawn, no one is maintaining them.’”
“Matt Weidner, a foreclosure defense attorney in St. Petersburg who is running for a House seat, is one of the most vocal critics of the bill. Weidner said speeding up the foreclosure process may hurt, rather than help, the housing market. If a flood of homes come on the market at once, it could depress prices.”
“Alan Fields, executive director of the Florida Land Title Association in Tallahassee, said speeding up foreclosure is the right thing to do, causing less pain in the end. ‘It’s less painful to rip the Band-Aid off,’ he said.”
The News Chief. “Being in debt seems to be a way of life in America, but according to Janet Folkerts, Executive Director of Spectrum Resource and Development Center, Inc. dba Spectrum Resources, our lives don’t have to be this way. ‘Spectrum Resources was also in place to guide families during the bubble burst in the real estate market, and to assist families facing foreclosure,’ she said.”
“Folkert said anybody who has a plan and works the plan, is going to get out of debt, but until that bubble bursts, people can’t talk about it. ‘They can talk about their sex lives, their drug addiction, but talking about money is taboo. Discussing the fact you can’t make it month to month, was taboo, but with the global melt down of the economy, debt is coming out of the closet,’ she said.”
The Destin Log. “If you really care about the community and about people, you’ve got to want to do something about the economy and about the housing market. I am convinced personally that there is no one cause for our housing misery, and there is no one answer. While it’s hard to be optimistic, within the general advice that you simply never give up, I offer the following baby steps that may help.”
“We may all find that we must get by with less income. Get serious about budgeting within the income you have. Work to modify mortgages. Don’t assume that this problem will go away by itself. Sell properties that are a drain. Their values are not likely to improve significantly quickly enough to help.”
“Remember the adage represented by the question, ‘how do you eat an elephant’? The answer: ‘one bite at a time.’”
The Tampa Tribune. “It appears Barry Cohen, one of Tampa’s legal giants, hasn’t done as well in real estate as in high-profile court cases. The criminal defense lawyer is facing foreclosure on a Redington Shores condo and has lost millions on a Tierra Verde mansion, which he handed back to the bank last year.”
“Pinellas County records show he handed over his beachfront Tierra Verde mansion to an entity affiliated with the Bank of Tampa last December in a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Cohen bought it in 2000 for about $1.7 million, county records show, but said he put as much as $10 million into the property over the years. He let the property go because he was making $20,000 in monthly payments on a home that had lost much in value.”
“‘In a firm like us, you go way up and then you have valleys,’ Cohen said. ‘You have to sustain yourself during those valleys.’”
The University of Florida. “Real estate experts have been looking forward to Florida’s housing marketing hitting bottom as a sign that things will start improving. But the University of Florida’s latest quarterly survey on real estate in the Sunshine State shows most experts remain as depressed as the housing market.”
“Timothy Becker/UF real estate researcher: ‘It’s going to be down in doldrums for a long period of time. I mean we have foreclosure issues that are going to go on for the next 2, 3, maybe even 4 years. They’re going to keep that market really depressed I think.’”
“‘Regardless of how we got here, we, as a nation, currently have a housing market that is so severely out of balance that it is hampering our economic recovery,’ said Elizabeth A. Duke, a Fed governor…”
No, we are not disregarding how we got here. Severly irresponsible policies of the Fed and their GSE cronies have unbalanced our housing market and entire economy. We can’t possibly have a recovery until you are restrained.
Top Fed officials are still pretending the housing bust is some kind of Act of God, admitting no culpability through perpetual easy money policy.
Yes, it is truly amazing. These FED people think they can control the entire universe by money printing and lowering interest rates.
Remember Greenspan/Bernanke’s “great moderation”, how flooding the world with money led to massive “growth” in the markets.
It wasn’t so. It was just money chasing assets and higher prices and inventories, all on CREDIT>….
then came the bust and so we LOWERED rates, and standards and collateral requirements to get everyone on a feeding frenzy for real estate……….. then bust,
but the FED, the people who try to “orchestrate” the business cycle, they are never really responsible. No. But they need more authority and power to “fix” the world they have destroyed.
If they don’t get it by congressional consent, then Ben B. just goes behind the backs of our leaders and does things in “secret”, after all, he is “independent”, to fix things for our own good.
we MUST End the FED. and the World Bank and the IMF.
They are all just scam artists for inside traders. You know to whom I refer. By the way, when is Jon Corzine going to prison?
‘Remember Greenspan/Bernanke’s “great moderation”, how flooding the world with money led to massive “growth” in the markets.’
Through the lens of the rear view mirror, it appears the recurring doses of excess liquidity used to smooth over any fundamentally-driven declines in asset prices served to build up a massive tsunami wave of overvalued malinvestment which is too big to smooth.
JC is too big to jail. The FED was/is a PONZI and B. MADOFF knew it. Lives like a king and goes to jail at 72. Hell. IN my book he’s a winner. If Bernie dropped some dimes might be a lot of people going to jail or taking a long walk on a short pier.
It’s trying as hard as it can to get back into balance. Why are you trying to stop it?
Jeff Saturday,
Please read this one a few times:
The Sun Sentinel. “Q: I filed bankruptcy and abandoned a home in 2008. Since then the bank has not foreclosed and the homeowner’s association keeps sending me bills. What can I do? A: While it may sound obvious, you own your home until you don’t anymore. By this I mean you can’t just walk away without being responsible to your association, the tax collector and your neighbors. You need to find someone to take the home from you.”
He/she stopped paying. He/she declared bankruptcy. He/she moved out. And after all that, STILL owns the property.
I get the feeling that you don’t believe me when I tell you that people who don’t pay their mortgages actually own the property. Just another little confirmation that they do.
So if the title is not transferred then the last one who held the title owns the property? Is this the bottom line?
The lender, who holds the title, is really the owner of the property until the mortgage is paid off, no? It is after the mortgage is paid off that the title is transferred to the buyer, is it not?
What state are you talking about? Is it a title theory state or a lien theory state? What sort of ownership are you talking about - legal or equitable?
All you need to control the property (live on it, rent it out, etc.) is equitable title and even in title theory states (where the mortgage is an actual transfer of legal title) the holder of a mortgage doesn’t have the equitable title. Unless they properly foreclose. In which case they get equitable title through that process so they can kick out the former equitable owner.
In lien theory states, the mortgage holder never has even the legal title, though they can get it through a proper foreclosure process.
Wrong. Florida is a Title theory state, not a Lien Theory State.
You need to understand the difference. The Bank doesn’t own the property. The DEED is in the owner’s name and he is responsible for the property. The Bank holds a note as a lien on the property.
In a Title theory state the owner is the person on the title.
In a lien theory state you have effective ownership under the lien is settled.
People who want to dabble in real estate need to know what the real issues involving ownership entail.
Florida is also a deficiency judgement State, which means that when you take out a loan, the mortgage is a personal debt. The real estate is used as collateral, however, if the selling price doesn’t cover the debt, then the lender can go after your personal assets to cover the “deficiency”.
This is an excellent law. It keeps people from stripping and wrecking the house they abandon, just because they are mad at the lender for their foolishness. To some people on this site, it’s always the banks fault for loaning them money they couldn’t afford to pay back. I’ve always disagreed. The bank only knows the current circumstances, many of which are a lie. You may be expecting a big pay raise next year. The BUYER is responsible for determining whether they can reasonable afford to be indebted for some many thousands of dollars.
I guess this sucker will think a lot harder before he jumps into a booming Condo market next time. And yes, he is still responsible for the maintenance and taxes.
My research shows most sources saying Florida is a lien theory state.
you may be right. I may have the titles reversed. but the rest is correct. The banks hold a lien. The title rests with Deed holder.
Here in MT the seller on contract for deed retains title until paid off, but in any other kind of mortgage the buyer has the title subject to the lender’s lien.
polly
You got that through my thick skull (although having a thick skull saved me a few times) a while back. I posted about a house that I would love to buy about a month ago that has a final judgement on it from a couple of years ago and has been vacant for about the same amount of time. When I called the B of A servicer they said they couldn`t tell me anything I would have to talk to the homeowner who is not listed in any phone records I could find around here and has not been seen in that hood in a couple of years. It was originally a Countrywide loan. The whole thing is a joke. But thank you for knowing me well enough to say “Please read this one a few times:” with me that`s usually what it takes.
But as far as…
“I get the feeling that you don’t believe me when I tell you that people who don’t pay their mortgages actually own the property”
I believe you but I would rather put it like this….
TPTB don`t want to flood the market with the millions of houses that people who don’t pay their mortgages have either abandoned or are living in or renting out. So they can not take these properties back from the Deadbeats or FBs as the case may be or they will crash the world financial markets, which would be fine with me because they have just about crashed my own personal finacial world. Leaving me much more prepared than a 1%er or a Deadbeat.
I think it is a little more simple than TPTB trying to prevent the housing market from crashing. I think it is just the way the servicing agreements were drafted. I can’t confirm this because I don’t have a “typical” one to review, but it comes down to the same thing. Stuff isn’t moving. Yet. It will eventually. That doesn’t mean you will get your chance, but someone will.
Let’s see here. Half the people don’t pay any taxes. Half the people don’t pay their mortages. 25% of the people are retired. 25% of the people are unemployed.
Stuff isn’t moving. Yet. It will eventually. It will move at the right (probably lower) price.
Let’s see here. Half the people don’t pay any taxes.
You mean they pay no income tax. They do pay all sort of other taxes: payroll tax, sales tax plus all the hidden and sort of hidden taxes.
Half the people don’t pay their mortages
Do you really believe that? I believe that there might be small pockets in places like Florida where that might be true, but nationwide? No way.
Own or responsible ??
If you have a mortgage - your part may be that of a toilet bowl
“To many Republicans, the answer is simply to let the markets sort it out. That prescription seems to be based more on ideology than on any actual analysis of how the housing market is functioning, and it seems to infuriate Fed officials. ‘Regardless of how we got here, we, as a nation, currently have a housing market that is so severely out of balance that it is hampering our economic recovery,’ said Elizabeth A. Duke, a Fed governor, in a speech in September.”
Any fool should be able to figure out that if the U.S. housing market is severely overbuilt and U.S. households are financially overextended, the remedy does not lie in pouring more subsidies down the housing market rat hole. Neither supply side nor demand side stimulus will serve to improve the situation.
Agreed
The “markets” probably would sort it out. The “markets” probably would have prevented the bubble from happening.
Too bad that “the markets” were not Fed policy the last decade.
“manipulating the markets”
Fixed it.
“Alan Fields, executive director of the Florida Land Title Association in Tallahassee, said speeding up foreclosure is the right thing to do, causing less pain in the end. ‘It’s less painful to rip the Band-Aid off,’ he said.”
Sounds like Alan prefers the American way to the Japanese way. Go Alan!
We are quickly approaching the Japanese lost decade. In many aspects, the last 10 years have been a wash. The next decade doesn’t bode well either, as 50 million baby boomers will retire and say “oops” when it comes to the lack of savings and mounting expenses.
I think the coming retirements and need for “government subsidies” is the reason Obama got into the Whitehouse. USA was approaching the European model, where everyone thought they could retire at 50 with full benefits and live a luxurious lifestyle. That’s what credit bubbles do. Goldman Suchs was instrumental in making the models for hiding money and swindling people with derivative trades to say all this money-swapping was the road to an easy life.
(so long as they got to rake off fees and graft from every transaction).
The European Socialist model is imploding. Standing in front of the Brandenberg gate to tell the world the US is going to be more like Europe was a selling point before the DEBT collapse began. Yes, we too, could have a great socialist nation.
The fraud in Europe is now being revealed. It is drowning in bad promises.
I think that USA is just beginning to see this fraud for what it is.
Still, Obama is pushing for more government handouts and more “benefit” programs. It will be interesting to see if the sales pitch works out this time. WE can’t afford to have half the country getting “free” healthcare” and retirement benefits and expect to have any value to our money. It’s all going to collapse if we try to push the limits any further.
WE can’t afford to have half the country getting “free” healthcare” and retirement benefits and expect to have any value to our money.
Correction: We can’t afford to have half the country DEMANDING and getting free “anything” while the other half pays for it. And those doing the demanding blatantly say they deserve it while denying it to those doing the paying.
say “oops” when it comes to the lack of savings and mounting expenses ??
Maybe for some but for many even a well planned retirement may not be enough if the program of medical care are gutted…
Oh yes, if Medicare goes away we might see an exodus of seniors to cheaper countries.
Note that a great deal of that “oops” was generated by the Bottomless Stockholder Maw. GE jobs go to China, jobs are oopsed. Rent goes up, salaries don’t budge, that’s an oops. 401Ks were created to draw middle-class money into the rich man’s game of the stock market, while pensions were oopsed. Middle class was oopsed in housing two ways: either they got stuck buying an overpriced house, or they got stuck throwing away rent. It wasn’t all McMansions and Escalades.
This set of articles does not include a quote from HBB arch-nemesis Sean Snaith, who must be hibernating because I haven’t seen him quoted in my local paper either.
What’s remarkable about this recession is that the response, while obvious, is not acceptable. No one in a position of leadership has stepped forward and stated that our state’s economy is going to have to move away from real estate development, construction and sprawl. With reality so toxic, fantasies become more and more enticing.
Here’s a weekend discussion topic: what’s Florida going to look like in the year 2035? No prediction, no matter how tinfoil hat, will be dismissed.
“what’s Florida going to look like in the year 2035? No prediction, no matter how tinfoil hat, will be dismissed.”
A seething mass of people wilting in the heat. Either that, or the southern half of the state will empty out. I don’t see how it couldn’t, actually. The aquifer is in a sorry state and quality of life has deteriorated markedly. I see south Florida becoming pretty much unlivable. It’ll be like Cuba, but without the mountains.
If the grid becomes unreliable, much of Florida will become a living hell for six months of the year.
LOL, look for the Burmese pythons to come slithering out of their lairs in the Everglades, looking for food. Pets, little children, the frail elderly, all will be fair game.
I’ve read a prediction that the pythons eventually will displace the alligator. And they aren’t edible, because the flesh contains high concentrations of mercury.
For the sake of those of us who choose to remain, let’s just hope there isn’t a breeding population of cobras.
And no, I am not a snake charmer in real life. Just want to get that out there.
Hey I am waiting for the idiots to let some the King Cobras loose in Florida.
I wonder if the pythons are putting a lid on people camping out? Little Johnny goes behind a tree to pee and doesn’t come back.
John MacDonald, the writer of the Travis McGee novels predicted in the early 1970’s that Florida would continue to attract people to the state until we reached about 30 million people. The the roads would be overcrowded, the water would run out, the infrastructure would be falling apart and no one would want to live here anymore.
When I was in Middle-school, we studied state geography. Florida had about 7 million people, around 1970. We are now approaching 20 million. and though we have slowed the ‘growing’, people still come here. All of the reasons for being here have been disappearing for decades.
We I was a kid, you could go camping just about anywhere. We used to have bonfires on the Courtney Campbell Causeway between Tampa and Clearwater, where high-school kids would meet and party and drink.
Occasionally, the sheriff would come out and break it up. Now, it’s a four-lane road with barricades on both shoulders. No parking. No stopping. NO place to go. The DOT has posted signs for conservation easements over the remaining grounds. There’s no place left to go.
In the 60’s and 70’s you could go down to the Keys and park your van under a mangrove and sleep out under the stars. Drive to town the next morning for breakfast and go back to your make-shift campground. Cheap and easy living. Try it now and you go to jail. Vagrants.
Florida still has great beaches, but you trip over all the bodies trying to find a place to park yourself. OH, and you need to pay $1 an hour or more to park you car. It used to be free. They wanted business. Now they have plenty, and the cost go up. It’s rapidly becoming NY or NJ with all the loudmouths and schemers from up north migrating here to try out their latest Con. I miss old Florida. I had a great youth. It’s no longer a simple tourist state, its a destination. A final resting place for the aged and degenerate. Will they leave? God, I hope so.
That reminds me of what the Gasparilla parade has become. In the early 1990s I enjoyed myself tremendously — I basically guzzled a few beers, walked down Bayshore Boulevard, and said hello to people I knew before watching a modest parade in a crowd that was four-deep everywhere but the Davis Islands bridge. It was a local event, not a tourist attraction.
Now the parade (rebranded as a “fest”) has metastasized into something distasteful. Crowds fifteen deep, corporate tent areas and reserved seats everywhere, and a parade that is endless and therefore boring. Message for Florida in general: making something twice as big does not automatically mean it will be twice as good. It is just as likely to be half as good.
You mean “Gestoporilla”.
I would never go again after the police started arresting people for drinking beer in their own front yards.
The local news was interviewing the cops for a story, and they happened to catch a guy coming outside his house with a beer in his hand, to meet some friends on the sidewalk. The cop said “Here’s an arrest”, walked over the the guy, told him to put his hands behind his back he was under arrest. The guy said “What is going on”, and the cop yelled “Don’t you resist me or I’ll put you on the ground!”. Big macho show for the news.
After that I resolved to never go again.
I think the phrase “Florida is a geriatric ghetto” was a J.D. McDonald quote.
By virtue of luck I was forced to leave Tampa. Now that I have the blinders off, I fear that what once was a charming southern “ubran” town has decayed to the point of no return.
1. The main principle activity for under 35ers is drinking and practicing procreation.
2. The city’s lack of zoning laws means that neighborhoods abut slimy slummy strip malls.
3. Town and Country/Temple Terrace. Both used to be nice, middle class neighborhoods. Now they are homes for gangs and deadbeats.
4. Regarding #3, the middle class has been pushed out to Westchase, and more likely Wesley Chapel, Land ‘o Lakes, and Brandon. All three have suffered from major sprwal, and none had any growth plans. Thus there are multiple neighborhoods off two lane roads, segreated with nothing around but trashy trailers on 1/2 acre plots that have been there since 1975.
5. Regarding #4, gas over $3/gallon makes the communte to the work centers uneconomical. Hence the drawdown of these neighborhoods as owners are forced out, all too often heading north in a Uhaul in search of greener pastures.
One of the dumbest things was the competition between Clearwater, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. If they all worked together on common problems with common solutions the entire region would be better off. Sings of hope spring eternal.
All my friends have left the town. Some have went to Atlanta, some to North Carolina, some back to the places where they came from (DC, CA, NY, Chicago, Detroit). We all agree that we had a great time while we were there and we all agree that the region has not changed for the better.
Oh, I used to LOVE going to the state parks and tent camping until they raised the rates to $35/night.
I love trashy women. Florida is calling me.
Go to Key West and check out some of the locals. I recommend the Green Parrot.
Yep, and look for the green flash as the sun
sets while everybody goes Oooh and Aaaah…
“I love trashy women. Florida is calling me.”
You’d be mopping up here. Second only to to carjacking, dirty sex is the state sport.
Bring lots of antibiotics.
can’t wait for obama care to get her. antibiotics for everybody. I wonder if I can get a free cell phone to call my medical providers.
Concrete mixing companies, as well as contractors who pour concrete, have seen up to a 75 percent decrease in business since the 2005-06 peak of the housing industry, which had collapsed by 2008.
————
That’s because everyone has switched to diy quikcrete. “OK, for this 2′X2′ square, the quikcrete calculator says…..: 100 80lb bags. Come on back, it’s time to get to work.”
So let’s pour billions and billions in taxpayer money to prop-up housing prices?
“To many Republicans, the answer is simply to let the markets sort it out. That prescription seems to be based more on ideology than on any actual analysis of how the housing market is functioning, and it seems to infuriate Fed officials. ‘Regardless of how we got here, we, as a nation, currently have a housing market that is so severely out of balance that it is hampering our economic recovery,’ said Elizabeth A. Duke, a Fed governor, in a speech in September.”
As long as it goes through Goldman Sachs. NO PROBLEM is too big to solve using OPM.
You fool!!!!
You could have lived there rent free for the last 3 years!
Ok - who wants this house?
The homeowner - no
The bank - no
The HOA - no
The city - no
The Sun Sentinel. “Q: I filed bankruptcy and abandoned a home in 2008. Since then the bank has not foreclosed and the homeowner’s association keeps sending me bills. What can I do? A: While it may sound obvious, you own your home until you don’t anymore. By this I mean you can’t just walk away without being responsible to your association, the tax collector and your neighbors. You need to find someone to take the home from you.”
Sweep all meaniful issues if possible under the rug to after the election, wow that is going to be one big lump?
To many Republicans, the answer is simply to let the markets sort it out.
Well republicans….. didn’t you recently vote to raise loan limits to $729k? Yes you did. Just like the other bought and paid for congressional whores.
Yup. Neither R nor D actually does the “market” thing.
“It appears Barry Cohen, one of Tampa’s legal giants, hasn’t done as well in real estate as in high-profile court cases. The criminal defense lawyer is facing foreclosure on a Redington Shores condo…”
My ‘hood.
You know, it did occur to me the other day, while I was at the park with my kids, that the guy driving by in the yellow Lambo might actually have a lower net worth than me.
Maybe when everyone’s “accounts settle” we’ll see who has clothes…
the FED is working overtime to prevent any account settlements. They will allow massive corruption and stealing until the party ends, though.
so, party on dudes.
I think that every time I see someone driving the Porsche SUV. I really believe that just about everyone here is nervous, struggling, or drugged. It doesn’t bode well for the future, when we’ll have bigger problems to solve.