Bits Bucket for December 12, 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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Oversight an issue with housing program
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:00 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011
Lax oversight - sometimes no oversight - of the multibillion-dollar federal HOME program has for years been a top concern of fraud investigators at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Lightly watched by federal officials, almost all monitoring responsibility for the program that builds homes in poor neighborhoods is placed on state and local governments.
“HUD’s current ‘trust but don’t verify’ approach is unacceptable,” said U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., during a congressional hearing last month on fraud in the HOME program.
Easy to game system?
Former city housing employee Jerry Kelly, who administered much of the program with Redemptive Life, said that current city staff might interpret some of HUD’s rules differently from past staffers. Even HUD, he said, is constantly changing its interpretations.
“They’ll interpret them differently from one year to the next ; they are that cloudy,” Kelly said.
Driven by “opportunity, desperation and greed,” HUD acting Deputy Inspector General John McCarty told members of the House Financial Services Committee during a Nov. 2 hearing that program insiders can quickly learn to dodge monitoring systems and manipulate results for their own gain.
Problems outlined in reports include:
•Because grants are automatically awarded based on economic conditions in an area, and are not competitive, recipients know they are guaranteed the money while facing limited monitoring.
•The same developers are getting grants every year, a double-edged sword in that learning the system increases efficiency, but also makes people aware of weaknesses that can be exploited.
•Developers are being hired that don’t have the ability or experience to complete projects.
•Grantees and sub-recipients can update the computerized monitoring system on the status of projects on their own. HUD officials say this isn’t true, and that federal clearance is needed to access the system.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/oversight-an-issue-with-housing-program-2024619.html - 95k
In case anyone tries to blame this on Obama as usual, a bit more from the article:
“Still, it wasn’t until November, and following 51 fraud investigations nationwide since 2008, that tougher management regulations were proposed… That’s supported in HUD’s 2007 performance review, in which one of the concerns noted is the city had been notified on several occasions of its lax reporting on projects.”
Taking advantage of gov programs has been a national sport for centuries, probably millenia.
“In case anyone tries to blame this on Obama…”
lol
A “pre-emptive strike.”
A lot of brain-dead Republican voters - as opposed to citizens with Republican principles - reflexively blame Obama for most of the systemic fraud and fiscal recklessness in the US banking system, and the bubbles that has spawned. They ignore the role of Bush in turning the economy over to the likes of Henry Paulson and his “former” Goldman Sachs coterie who, working hand-in-glove with the Federal Reserve and Treasury, blew incredible asset bubbles by massive gifts of near-free liquidity to the banksters so they could indulge in an orgy of speculative excess. Losses, of course, could be moved to the public account (Thank you, Obama voters. Thank you, McCain voters). And don’t forget the role of the Clinton-era push to force lenders to underwrite mortgage loans to subprime borrowers, especially in minority communities, who were manifestly unlikely to keep the houses they were artificially enabled to “buy”.
Bottom line: BOTH parties (Dems and Establishment GOP) suck.
Reason #1 why there will never be a MegaBankerInc’$/MedicalInc’$. cri$i$ in $audi Arabia:
You lie, charge a fee, you die!
Saudi Arabia executes woman convicted of ’sorcery’:
AP – 1 hr 14 mins ago
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.
The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement the execution took place Monday, but gave no details on the woman’s crime.
The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session.
The paper said a female investigator followed up, and the woman was arrested in April, 2009, and later convicted in a Saudi court.
It did not give the woman’s name, but said she was in her 60s.
The execution brings the total to 76 this year in Saudi Arabia, according to an Associated Press count. At least three have been women.
as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session.
So was she a sorceress or not? Sounds more like a case of fraud, which under Sharia law is punished by what, disembowelment?
Sounds like she was a politician.
+1. If she had truly been practicing sorcery and magic, then her treatments should have worked, right?
she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session……………
This sounds like a typical American member of the A.M.A.
What was the crime?
We don’t punish “doctors” here for tricking people into thinking they can treat illnesses, and certainly not for charging them exhorbitant fees.
“And don’t forget the role of the Clinton-era push to force lenders to underwrite mortgage loans to subprime borrowers, especially in minority communities,”
Only 7% of those loans defaulted. Prime loans led in defaults earlier this year and continue to do so.
This is a non-issue.
Minorities were not the ones going hog wild in Vegas:
At the peak of the boom in 2006 and 2007, about 35 percent of U.S. new-purchase mortgage loan dollars were going to people who already owned at least one house. In Nevada and the three other hard-hit states, that percentage was about 45 – up from about 25 percent in 2000.
http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/dec/11/study-confirms-role-home-flippers-nevada-housing-p/
Minorities were not the ones going hog wild in Vegas:
True, dat. Except for its Hispanic population, Vegas is a pretty white city.
I lived in LV during the bubble….I didn’t need a study to tell me this. It was insane!
One of my favorite comments:
Its sad really, the vermin who occupied leadership, oversight and enforcement authority during the “Bubble” did nothing and rode the wave until it crashed own on all of us. I am speaking of the rats and lowlifes at GLVAR, the Nevada Bankers Association and the State and Federal regulatory authorities. Where are these vermin now? Why are none of these enablers not in orange jumpsuits dong a perp walk? We know their names and who they are! Yes even the promoters, shills and so call MSM at the Review and Sun who touted the run up and ignored every sign and warning of these real estate business travesty. I can name them all but what’s the use. There should have been a Federal and State RICCO investigation of GLVAR and the other so called “professional” real estate companies, title companies, lenders and developers. Many got away with millions in ill gotten gains during this time. Justice would be served if they all got brain cancer and died a long miserable death for their wrongdoing and greed. But you know the truth. They are already back. The vulture “investors”. The “Flip Las Vegas” promoters you saw on TV this summer. There will be an eventual payback. Many are just waiting for the klaxen call to sound and then the people will seek their own retribution. It not far off now, we are waiting for the right moment and like the saying goes, “What goes around will come around and the payback will be a SOB!”
Now, don’t hold back Sir, tell us what you really think.
Sammy
Well said. We’ve been political atheists for a while now. As some HBBer said last night “torches and pitch forks” a new business awaits.
That was me
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I don’t blame Obama for the 2008 market declines and fraudulent bailouts. I know full well that the Bush Team was in front of all the fraud. But Obama got elected in 2008. He was running his mouth about the need for “stimulus” (i.e. a crony slush fund) before he took office.
It takes time to uncover FRAUD. After all this crap started hitting the papers and CONgress and all the FED boys stepped in for the coverups, it was OBAMA, not Bush who has been in charge.
I am STILL waiting for the prosecutions. I am still waiting for all that transparency we were told was coming.
There has been NONE. Obama is a simpleton and a stooge for the Banksters. His approach is to say, we’ll that’s all in the past and it’s Bush’s fault, as if, CRIMES committed during one administration get a Presidential Pardon, when we get a new one.
The “big” promotion of the Obama campaign was “hope and change”. Where is the “change”? Where are the investigations?
Where are the prosecutions? Oh. That’s past history. That’s Old news. That’s all Bush’s fault. WE need to work together to fix it all now. REally? So forget that the Banksters and Wallstreet fundraisers for Obama committed fraud. He needs their support for the next election cycle. He’s not about to get his Attorney General to look into REAL criminals, he’s busy trying to undermine the second amendment by making up sting operations with fake gun-runners. What a sham!
At least under the REpublicans, ENRON and Worldcom people who committed fraud were prosecuted and jailed. Lot’s of them.
There’s a PAPER TRAIL of FRaud. No one will follow it under Obama. Why? Because they’ve got their hands all over the paperwork and it leads to political payoffs.
All hail Goldman Sachs!!
Wrong on so many points it isn’t even funny.
Obama wasn’t even thinking of running for president when the fraud occurred.
Most of the Enron and Worldcom execs got off or have since had their sentences reduced and now OUT of prison.
The Repubs have done their BEST to block Obama’s appointment to the Consumer Watchdog agency as well as weaken it’s powers… and have succeeded.
They also defeated a bill to end tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
Every single red state turned down BILLIONS in Federal money to build a high speed rail system, just to spite Obama.
That’s TWO major, national jobs programs shot down by the Repubs.
Obama also raised more money from PRIVATE, ON-LINE contributions that all the corporate sponsors COMBINED.
…and it was a heavily weighted REPUB Supreme Court that ruled corps were persons that could also pay as much as they like for politicians election campaigns.
Facts. Learn them.
Congressional gridlock, Diogenes. Oh, and the that pesky filibuster thingy.
If we’re going to blame Clinton let’s stick to the real problems he caused by signing the repeal of Glass Steagle.
Leverage, Gambling, securitization were the problem not CRA.
If you look 30 years back going forward, and blame both parties, you have clarity. We once held Reagan in high regard, and now can’t do so. We’re recovered Repukes. It’s all of the PTB. The blame game doesn’t lead to solutions that can fix the the problems. It’s too late. (sad to say)
Measton,
I wholeheartedly agree on the disaster that the repeal of Glass-Steagle brought about. The sooner it is re-enacted, the better.
In case anyone tries to blame this on Obama as usual, a bit more from the article:
Yeah - cause why would anyone want to blame those in power who did nothing to change/stop the fraud and abuse….
More from the article:
“But in the past three years, 21 people nationwide have been criminally convicted of misusing money from the nearly $2 billion that HOME programs have received annually since at least 2004
A HUD crackdown on unfinished projects began in June 2010, including an automatic cancellation policy that began in January. Since then, more than 2,700 HOME projects worth $475 million have been canceled.”
———–
Turning around a behomoth like HUD in less than 18 months is an Olympian performance in government change. It’s not “doing nothing.” Canceling 2700 projects less than 18 months after that is not “doing nothing.”
Writing program regulations which were easily circumvented by the fraudsters, and then not closing those loopholes, is doing nothing. Allowing the fraud and abuse to continue apace up to and including 2007, when the unfavorable performance review was issued, is doing nothing.
Obama is having to clean up 12 years of criminal, no, TRAITOROUS, problems left behind by the Repubs, while facing a hurricane headwind from the same traitors.
But we all know that it only takes 3 years to fix 12 years of disaster so is he obviously a failure.
They can scream and blame and tear their hair all they want, but he’s going to win a second term, given the pathetic alternatives the GOP is considering. (No, they aren’t considering Ron Paul).
The fact that Gingrich and Romney are the GOP front-runners testifies to the mental retardation of the GOP base.
Yeah - cause why would anyone want to blame those in power who did nothing to change/stop the fraud and abuse….
Au contraire. Obama REWARDED the fraud, abuse, and bankster recklessness by presiding over limitless bailouts and money-printing, and making Goldman Sachs the 4th branch of government. Bush’s War on Savers has been escalated into an all-out War on the Responsible.
“Taking advantage of gov programs has been a national sport for centuries, probably millenia.”
And that is the problem with making the solution to EVERY problem a government program.
My overall response to the article is that there should not be a HUD.
Period. Government has not business building houses for people or providing “support services”. The concept of “public housing” should have been reserved for the USSR, which failed.
Even now, the apartments aren’t owned by the people. They have sort of a condo arrangement where the “unit” is titled to the individual, but the government is responsible for the building upkeep.
It’s why you can walk into a unit, see the faucet leaking large amounts of water and no one does anything about it. It’s the governments responsibility to fix it.
Destroy HUD. STop the “grants” and give all the graft back to the people of the States where it came from. simple. no more fraud.
Dio:
i agree there should be no HUD, but we do need some public housing in America…but it should be to people who didn’t cause their own problems.
the blind disabled wheelchair bound, those who could be really helped by a handicap accessible home…..
But drug addicts women with 5 kids by 5 fathers,criminals, no help…
Just like mortgage modifications You should be in a 12 step program admit where and how you blew the $150K Heloc, and embarrass yourself in Public…then apply for help.
They can live with their relatives or in a group home run by a charity. How did we do all these things before all the government programs? Yes, there are always poor and displaced people everywhere on earth, but When you get a government agency started with “entitlements”, you stretch the limits further and further. The “cutoff” point gets re-assessed constantly upward.
There’s never is an end to it. The only end to it is to cut off funding. Abuse is always rampant and the people who decide who should get “service” and who should not should probably be somewhere else. Perhaps they can provide a real service somewhere else.
“How did we do all these things before all the government programs? ”
Go to your local library, to the classical fiction section. Check out any book by a guy named Charles Dickens. He talks all about it.
I don’t disagree that the programs hand out larger and larger amounts. However, I’m pretty sure that landlords and purveyors of peanut butter will raise their rates/prices to what the “market” will bear, knowing full well that gov will eventually make up the difference, be it by food stamps or Section 8 or other CPI inflation raises in welfare. Effectively, they trick the government into directly giving them profit via these social program checks. This is why I tend to favor government, even soviet, distribution of housing or food. If there are no middlemen, there are no cheating middlemen either. But that would entail firing a whole lot of contractors and hiring a whole lot of government worker bees.
btw drumminj, I enjoy your posts. Even though we disagree on a lot, our reasoning process appears to be similar.
In a group home run by a charity? Where do you think those charities get the money to run group homes? These days they get it from government programs - Medicare (not much), Medicaid, local school budgets (until at least 21), and whatever other disability programs there are. Before those programs existed, do you know what happened to those people? They died. Yes, they probably lived with relatives in the time between being unable to live on their own and getting infected bed sores, or pnumonia or whatever, but after that, they died. My friend who is taking care of two disabled parents has almost no ability to progress into better paying or even full time jobs. She has to be at home every few hours to deal with her mother’s toileting needs.
Letting the severly disabled live at home is great idea for a society in which nearly every adult is part of a couple, all those couples have several children, no couple has more than one adult member working, and a single blue collar job pays enough for the family plus the extra disabled members (if any) to live. At least it is a great idea if you don’t expect them to live very long. And it still won’t work for a certain subset. There are some people who need full time care by professionals, or at least by people who are a lot stronger than they are. Not all families can provide those skills.
Thank you polly.
“They can live with their relatives or in a group home run by a charity. How did we do all these things before all the government programs?”
In the movie, Soylent Green, they had a place to go when you were at the end of your productive life; you could check-out peacefully, high on a lethal cocktail, lots of pretty ladies to make you comfortable, enjoy a widescreen video, etc., rather than wilt away in the fetal position. The technique resembled a refinement of the Kevorkian method, and I don’t recall them charging anything either.
Sol goes home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQNjJZFdLU
Polly,
I am also concerned about what people “need” especially those who are disabled. The problem is, managing what we can afford vs what are “needs” of our citizenry. If our budget were in balance right now, I might go easier on people who say we can afford to take care of everyone like we currently are with our medicare/medicaid/SS programs. The president has veto power… why doesn’t he veto these out of control budgets and force balanced spending and taxing?
I suspect that on our current path, we will have a collapse of our currency within the next 6-10 years.. or at least a highly inflationary spiral. Aside - What do you call it when prices stay the same but the average wage of the worker decreases? At the point where we have a devalued currency, how will these government programs continue to provide workers to care for the disabled when the money they are paying them is becoming worthless?
“The president has veto power… why doesn’t he veto these out of control budgets and force balanced spending and taxing? ”
Because those “out-of-control” budgets are generally paying for the old and sick? Look at the proportion of the budget that is Medicare and Medicaid and SS. Balancing the budget will KILL people, as Polly says.
And on the taxing end, anytime Obama tries to tax, or close a tax loophole, he’s publicly flogged in the media. Haven’t you watched ANY news at all???
Do you really think we are on our way to a worthless currency? Really? When the government can borrow at 2%? The market seems to disagree with you.
Look besides just dying at home, we know what happened when the programs didn’t exist. Parents were encouraged to institutionalize very disabled infants, not visit them and have another baby quickly to “replace” the lost child. They were warehoused in state run facilities until they died. Or mentally disabled children that became too big to be controlled by their parents were put into the state mental institutions (that are now all closed) and drugged up so they would be controllable. Before that there was Bedlam. Before that I think a lot of the disabled probably got killed as possessed or marked by the devil.
Either as a society we take care of those who can’t take care of themselves, or we don’t. And that doesn’t mean we have to spend $100K a year to try to “educate” a severly disabled 15 year old who doesn’t have the capacity to ever recognize his own name. There is no reason to spend that much money to assuage the feelings of parents who want to say their child is at “school” not in a long term care facility, but leaving it all to the parents isn’t going to work either. They may simply not be able to do it. And you can’t just get rid of the programs and pretend charities are going to take over. That isn’t the way the world works,
So yes, we may have to find something in between what we have now and tying people to beds, lying in their own filth and dying very, very young. But you aren’t going to find that that compromise by just cutting funding and not addressing the laws that set the standards of care. You have to try a bunch of different things and figure out which ones work best and most efficiently. Guess how you do that? You have to spend some money. And elect a few politicians who are willing to stand up to the parents of the 15 year old who doesn’t recognize his own name to change the rules. Either that or hope The Gates Foundation decides to take it on as a side project.
And, in the end, while the individual stories sound like a lot of money is being wasted, it isn’t all that much in the big scheme of things. Not in comparison with the advanced weapons systems even the military leaders don’t want (but get put in the budget because the reps from the district the factory is in won’t let it go) and treating prostate cancer in 80 year olds who would have to live to 100 for the cancer to have any effect on their life span and herculean measures taken for people with clearly marked DNR’s on their medical charts and paying whatever the drug companies feel like charging because Medicare is forbidden from even trying to get lower rates. Oh, and the tax expenditures from the Bush tax cuts are pretty huge too.
““The president has veto power… why doesn’t he veto these out of control budgets and force balanced spending and taxing? ”
Because his economic advisors aren’t telling him the same thing your brain is telling you about the expected effects of our currently unbalanced budgets.
Because his definition of balanced taxing is almost certainly not the same as yours.
Because he was a community organizer and knows what would happen to vulnerable communities if there was a government shut down which is what a veto of the budget unless he got exactly what he wanted would certainly bring.
Do I need to go on?
If you want to see government shut downs based on presidential vetos, I suggest you work as hard as possible to elect someone who promises to deliver one. Good luck finding a candidate who will admit it.
Polly, there IS such a candidate: Ron Paul.
And whats wrong with that?
Why do we torture our parents and grandparents by keeping them “alive” in nursing homes?
When is enough ….enough?
And how much money is diverted to mainstreaming handicapped kids while eliminating programs for the Gifted….to me that is a real crime against our country.
———-
Balancing the budget will KILL people, as Polly says…..And elect a few politicians who are willing to stand up to the parents of the 15 year old who doesn’t recognize his own name
I think even Ron Paul would find it necessary to compromise if he actually got elected. Maybe he wouldn’t care, but if he wanted to protect his ideas, he would have to. Because the effects of everything going kaboom with no budget would be very, very ugly.
Polly is right. I lived through the riots of 60s. Cities were burning.
Not buildings. Not parts of neighborhoods. Not just one or 2 cities, but entire city blocks in many cities were burning.
I also remember the American made terrorists. Black Panthers. Weather Underground. Just to name a couple.
And ALL of it was related to inequality and out-of-control corporate empire building.
You DO NOT want to ever see that again. Because if it does happen again, it’s going to be a lot worse. The poor neighborhoods have had 20 years of “gangsta” programming that didn’t exists back then.
Only, it will happen again. Because the PTB never seem to learn their lesson.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
And that sucks.
What if it’s a blind, disabled, wheelchair-bound addict woman with 5 kids by 5 fathers? Does SHE get help?
You don’t want predestined ghetto projects, especially on a grand scale?
The banks have done a better job of creating them than HUD could ever DREAM of doing.
HUD is the corrupt of the corrupt and has been since the 1960s.
Interesting factoid: Mitt Romney’s dad was HUD Secretary under Nixon.
whoa
That it IS interesting.
Where did you think the Mittster got his money…?
From the WSJ: No Vacation or Bonus? Workers Say OK
“Workers will go to great lengths to hold onto their jobs, according to a new survey.
Worried about their professional future in the current economic climate, two-thirds of workers surveyed by staffing company Randstad US said they would make sacrifices such as working longer hours or losing vacation time to hold onto their current jobs.
Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed said they would give up the shot at an annual bonus to keep their job; another 24% would work longer hours without a pay increase, and 23% would accept a reduction in benefits.
“Employees have become very realistic about the job market,” says Joanie Ruge, senior vice president and chief employment analyst at Randstad. Workers would rather cut some perks than be out of a job altogether, she says. The survey looked at 3,022 workers, currently in full-time jobs.
Ms. Ruge says employees shouldn’t outright volunteer to take a pay cut or lower bonus, but instead should show enthusiasm about their existing position and take on extra assignments. By proving their value to the company, she says, employees may find they’re actually able to keep the benefits that, at least privately, they would have been willing to give up.”
“By proving their
value to the companywillingness to take a de facto pay cut…”Fixed it. Pretty soon employees in positions which require a college degree will work for minimum wage, which is how corporations like it. They would like it even better if the employees default on the college loans. That way, the government will have effectively taken on the burden for employee training (since the corp doesn’t have to pay back college loans via higher paycheck). Throw in a bit of lobbying so the corp doesn’t have to pay the taxes to backstop the defaulted student loans, and voilá! Higher-ed job training scot free!
Demand your right to work…. for less.
Welcome back to the 19th century!
Shut up and get back to work! You OWE me for your job!
It’s going to get very ugly next year, with lots of backstabbing (don’t lay me off, lay off Bob, I overheard him once say that the company sucks) as people try to protect their jobs.
Supply and demand.
Soon after I started a new job at a tech company in the late 1990’s, the company started a recruitment campaign to bring in new employees. The campaign involved paying a bonus to any current employee who brought in a new person as long as that newbie was performing adequately 90 days after hire. In addition, the names of the bonus recipients all went into a hat and one name was drawn at the end of the year. That person was given a prepaid 2-year lease on a very fancy car.
Less than two years later the tech bubble burst and the layoffs began. I was included.
Supply and demand. When supply finally begins to increase, employers will once again have to start giving raises and improving benefits to hold onto their employees and compete for new ones.
How can supply (jobs) be increased? How can demand (unemployed people wanting jobs) be decreased? Everything else, such as trying to keep people in houses they can’t afford, doesn’t address the imbalance of supply and demand.
The problem is that the PTB can manipulate supply (jobs) by offshoring and demand (competition for jobs) by bringing in H1-B’s and L1’s.
Leave out the word “can” and your statement is far more correct.
The government can easily change the unemployment rates by tweaking the rules for work visas.
The change last month removes the caps on the number of Indians/Chinese allowed H1-b visas. This will have a very negative effect on unemployment rate in the IT industry.
Do you have details on this, skroodle?
It’s not impossible that they did this just to keep the JOBS in the US, regardless of who works the job. Which is better: giving the job to a foreigner but keeping the job in the US, or giving the job to a foreigner in a foreign land?
I agree, the best is neither. I though H1-B was supposed to be a temp program for companies who needed workers faster than our school system could train them. H1-B’s come in for a couple years and then they have to go home. Believe me, if the word got out that a bunch of jobs would be opening up in 2-3 years, kids and adults would FLOCK to training — this is precisely what happened in the 90’s.
You should commend Bob for his honesty, not fire him.
You’d think, but a lot of bosses see that as “subversion”
Try the same survey in the executive suite.
Exactly.
Are you questioning the “talent?”
Why the nerve!
Yeah, housing prices have definitely not bottomed out when employees feel so insecure in their jobs.
Right. Unless someone was independently wealthy, wouldn’t buying now be a high-risk gamble, as you risk losing the ‘forced savings’ benefit of home ownership if your job gets swept away in the tsunami tide of high unemployment, forcing you to add your home to the inventory flood at a time when prices are still falling?
Question, what was that same percentage pre-bubble bursting? In 2003?
Willing to give up some pay/vacation to keep a job is nothing new, but I’m sure the percentage is rarely this high.
It might be the number of Boomers in the work force. Lot of us in late 50s and early 60s are in a holding pattern and have been for several years. Not the time to make demands.
It’s the prefect time to make demands.
…before it’s too late.
Foreclosure fees pad Colorado counties’ funds while counseling services scrape by
Posted: 12/11/2011 01:00:00 AM
By David Migoya
The Denver Post
Colorado counties for years have sat atop a pile of cash largely generated on the backs of homeowners, banks and businesses plowed over by the state’s foreclosure tidal wave.
The public trustee system has generated huge profits by charging the public more than what’s needed to actually run its offices, according to financial documents provided by several counties and reviewed by The Denver Post.
What’s more, each trustee office has generated so much money that it has a bank account set aside with enough funds to maintain the office for a whole year — salaries included — in the unlikely event that not a single foreclosure gets filed.
The money — likely reaching into the tens of millions of dollars statewide each year
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19514906?source=rss - 172k
This should make both sides of the political spectrum leap for joy.
The left because the government has reaped in huge amounts of money.
The right because we are seeing government run like a ‘business’.
From the Financial Times: Can America regain most dynamic labour market mantle?
“America used to be exceptional. Postwar, it maintained lower unemployment than the Europeans and a higher rate of jobs turnover, enabling it to get away with more meagre benefits; “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay” was within the grasp of most. That gave America a booming middle class that until recently was the most important engine of global demand.
The middle-skilled jobs that once formed the ballast of the world’s wealthiest middle class are disappearing. They are being supplanted by relatively low-skilled (and low-paid) jobs that cannot be replaced either by new technology or by offshoring – such as home nursing and landscape gardening. Jobs are also being created for the highly skilled, notably in science, engineering and management.
For the remainder of the workforce, including college graduates, it is both increasingly hard to find a secure job and tougher for those who do find jobs to be paid in line with inflation. Most people know that median US income has declined sharply since the late 1990s. Fewer are aware that real incomes also fell sharply in the same period for those with degrees.
“I know companies that employ senior engineers whose only job is to find ways to reduce the headcount,” says Carl Camden, chief executive of Kelly Services, a booming staffing agency based in Michigan. “The name of the game everywhere is to reduce permanent headcount and we are still only at the early stages of this trend.”
If there is an explanation as to why middle-class incomes have stagnated in the past generation, this is it: whatever jobs the US is able to create are in the least efficient sectors – the types that neither computers nor China have yet found a way of eliminating. That trend is starting to lap at the feet of more highly educated American workers.”
“The name of the game everywhere is to reduce permanent headcount and we are still only at the early stages of this trend.”
Yep, this trend is going on full force where I work. They want us oldsters to retire, but not all at once; Instead the company wants to meter us out at a rate it is comfortable with.
There are many who want to go, to retire, but I’m not one of them. In these precarious times, IMHO, a job is a terrible thing to waste.
Enter the investment advisors into the mix, the ones who promise retirees a ten-percent return on their retirement funds, and combine them with company incentives to get people off the payroll and there will be a herd rushing the door.
Sheeple: First shear them as much as you can, then skin them.
“First shear them as much as you can, then skin them.”
Why stop there? Keep on going until you crack the bones and suck the marrow out.
And here’s a quote from John Derbyshire, from an article at Takimag:
“Then, in the 1960s, at about the same time as their American cousins, British socialists and love-the-world globalists realized that mass Third World immigration was a marvelous weapon to wield against both their native working class, who were getting ideas above their station, and domestic conservatives and traditionalists of all kinds, whom the globalists needed to delegitimize so that Davos Man could take over.”
“… native working class, who were getting ideas above their station …”
Lol. You’ve got to love the British and their ideas about economic and social mobility - the bottom line being there is no way it should ever happen.
Those were not 3rd world countries, those were countries ruled by Great Britain.
I think the operative word is “permanent” employees, especially since the quote comes from the CEO of a “booming” temp agency. Temp has come a long way since needing a clerk for a couple weeks. Now it’s a way to way to “lay off” someone during a slow period. When business picks back up… just get a new guy until it slows again. And, of course, no bennies.
Doing consulting work, I get to see many companies in action. Many of them, by my estimate, could lose up to 30% of their workforce without any decline in productivity. Too many employees are engaged in water cooler talk, gossip, and political gamesmanship that reduces productivity and creates division within teams. There’s also always a few on the phone, breakroom, smoking all day. Not to mention the few people who don’t have any skills who got jobs because they know someone, or have been working there so long, etc.
Yup, because no one ever learned anything talking to one of their fellow employees. Never chatted about the best way to start a task or finish it. Never learned about the best place to do research on certain topics. Never borrowed a memo that is the perfect example for what they are doing now. Never found out exactly who to call in another office who is the perfect person to talk to about something. Never helped an older co-worker with a trick for doing a computer task more efficiently. Nope. Never.
Stop TALKING to each other, people. Work and talking is only for managers that get to have meetings,with coffee and snacks and stuff.
I heard stories from acquaintances who worked in the private sector chemical industry. You were allowed only a set time to find a favorite piece of glassware. After that time, you had to go to the company store and buy a new one, because you were spending more money in looking time than you were in buying new. You were not allowed to wash glassware. You put your dirty glassware in a bin and a some low-cost company washed it for you. In a few cases, items which were too hard to wash were simply thrown out (NMR tubes).
I’ve heard stories of engineers who were not allowed to make copies or go to libraries for academic papers — that was work a cheaper secretary could do. You had a PhD and you had to work 480 minutes/day doing only PhD stuff, or else you were harming the company.
I heard one story where employees had to account for their time to the 0.1 hour (every 6 minutes). I heard another where there was a project code for using the restroom (6 minutes), and if there were too many or too few of those on your time sheet, they yelled at you.
In my own experience, they told me, if you don’t know something, ask! Lots of expertise in our wonderful company, don’t be afraid to ask, they said. However, if you did ask, that expert expected you to give them the project number so they could use a billable hour from your project. Then you got dinged for not having enough billable hours for your project.
Now, this sort of nickel and diming may be profitable in an industry where tasks are established and repetitive — flipping burgers or repairing brakes (even that’s dicey). But I was in R&D. How can you innovate if you’re so bogged down by 6-minute time sheets or stressed about being yelled for misplacing six minutes?
I’m pretty sure the human brain was not developed to handle this sort of stress.
Timesheets. I had forgotten about them. Talk about a PITA! In my case, they were more prevalent early in my career than they were toward the end.
And take a look at Google…20% time has essentially created a small venture business within a big company.
Most important is to hire smart, driven people, and given them an environment in which to thrive.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that they have lots of things on-campus to make your life easier so you can work those 18-hour days…
“they were more prevalent early in my career than they were toward the end.”
Which tells me you never had to struggle to keep a real job.
Rental Watch, the premier example of this is 3M, where they allowed 10% of your time to play around in the lab. Out of this playing and chatting came Post-It notes.
Out of this playing and chatting came Post-It notes.
Which were created by a guy who sang in a church choir. He needed something to mark his hymnal so he could quickly get where he needed to go during a rehearsal or a service.
Turns out that the lowly Post-It note worked like a charm. It stuck to the page, but didn’t damage it.
Google Finance came out of 20% time. According to what I heard, when the founders heard that someone was working on a finance interface, they said “Yahoo does a pretty darn good job, are we really improving user experience by doing this?”
Apparently they were convinced after seeing what they put forth…I never use Yahoo Finance anymore.
What people in management often fail to realize is that people like to do what they are good at, and are good at what they like to do. So, if you let really smart, driven people do their own thing, they will gravitate toward what they are best at and most interested in, and, as long as the company pays attention, such people can make a company stronger regardless of what the top down direction is supposed to be.
gmail came from 20% time…
Well yes. Of course the problem is that it won’t be the well connected but worthless that will be shed. Likewise, continual rounds of job cutting tends to increase water cooler talk, gossip and political gamesmanship, as everybody tries to figure out whether they’re going to have a job next month.
” Many of them, by my estimate, could lose up to 30% of their workforce without any decline in productivity. ”
That must be why US workers:
Put in more time than any other 1st world nation
Are the most productive
And take the least number of vacation days.
Beat me to it.
Oh… and the least amount of benefits.
Damn unions!
Too many employees are engaged in water cooler talk, gossip, and political gamesmanship that reduces productivity and creates division within teams. There’s also always a few on the phone, breakroom, smoking all day. Not to mention the few people who don’t have any skills who got jobs because they know someone, or have been working there so long, etc.
Reminds me of my last full-time job.
And, wouldn’t ya know it, for the last three months I was there, I worked a part-time schedule. I was amazed at how easily the tasks of the job could be accomplished in half the time.
Scott Adams, creater of Dilbert, told a legend of somebody who held two full 9-5 jobs in the same building, and switch off between the two. When he was at one job, he would be “away from his desk” at his other job. It was a long time before anyone found out.
Of course the reverse can be done when you’re SUPPOSED to be splitting your time between two offices. What one boss called the “two hat” solution. You have a hat and jacket hanging up in both offices. That way it always looks like you’ve “just stepped out for a minute.” at both sites and you don’t actually have to be at either site.
This goes to the technology that has allowed the corporate world to manufacture all that a fully employed population in Europe and the US could consume and then some with a fraction of the workers. Manufacturing distribution (amazon,itunes et etc), customer service, …. need a fraction of the employees they needed 20 years ago.
They have been able to prevent the consequences of this via
1. Debt
2. New products that people need and want - ie iphones computers etc but in my view the rate of must have innovations is slowing. See 3d TV flop, price of laptops, sporting good technology has peaked in my view, Pfizer cutting R and D spending 40% as are others ie they see no upcoming blockbusters? etc.
3. Trying to get the rest of the world to consume more - Eventually you run into the same problem.
So when there are no jobs who will purchase products. If someone developes robots that can manufacture everything, and artificial intelligence that can handle 80% of interactions with customers who will have money to buy anything?? It’s a downward ride from here, unless there is some way to spread the wealth to stimulate demand.
Almost, but not quite. Of course there’s never “enough.” We consume vastly more than our grandparents did. We are the targets of the most pervasive propaganda effort that the world has ever seen, aimed at convincing us that “buying stuff will make us happy.” So in the midst of plenty, most people are convinced that they need more, more, more. So the “problem” is that the wages of those who produce all the stuff (both here and abroad) haven’t gone up in proportion to our ability to produce it. THAT’S the real problem with the increasing concentration of wealth. Rich people buy less stuff with their money, instead the invest it. Either in ways to produce stuff with ever fewer employees or in lending it to people to buy the stuff.
Thank god this country has the most modern infrastructure in the world that needs no updating whatsoever or we might have trouble filling the jobs created!
Oh wait…
Every, single, red, state, turned down BILLION in federal money to build high speed rail. You know, like they have in China, Japan and Europe.
The Repubs DEFEATED a bill to end tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
Do not take your eye off the ball and forget who the REAL enemies are and where the real problems lie.
How many people do you think are going to be using HS rail to travel across flyover country - that’s why we invented the airplane!
I would LOVE to travel by high speed rail. I hate airplanes.
Yep, this trend is going on full force where I work. They want us oldsters to retire, but not all at once; Instead the company wants to meter us out at a rate it is comfortable with.
My dad was in a company that was downsizing. When word came down from on high that his research lab staff would be cut by a third, he threw his resignation into the mix.
Well, the company wasn’t expecting Dad to react that way. They begged and pleaded for him to stay on. He didn’t.
A few years later, Dad and I were talking about that company. As in, whatever happened to it. According to Dad, the place had shrunken to the point that it was just a shadow of its former self.
The name of the game everywhere is to reduce permanent headcount and we are still only at the early stages of this trend
And replace those workers with skilled 3rd worlders who will work for less than 1000 USD per month.
And then wonder why worldwide demand for goods and services is tanking.
Yep. Pretty much.
I would refer back ecofeco’s post from this weekend:
“It’s good to save money in business but you can also save yourself right out of business.”
Indeed. We all took pay cuts to be able to hire a guy who came available following the Lehman debacle. We will emerge a better business for it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/eu-banks-taking-government-cash-seen-sparking-vicious-cycle-.html
Chickens coming home to roost for European banks that like our own, recklessly lent trillions into the property bubble and are now forced to turn to governments (and of course the IMF and Fed, meaning US taxpayers) to raise liquidity and plug the ever-growing number of holes in the dike. This could get very ugly, very soon, despite the best efforts of politicians, central banks, and the Fed to print away all their massive liabilities.
Realtors Are Liars®
Congress Are Whores®
Politicians Are Feces
Voters are imbeciles.
But what can you do about it? Round them up and put them in work-camps? Exterminate them? We need answers Sammy. Perhaps you know of super-hero who would make a good dictator?
I’m personally on a mission to try to educate those who seem to think that the coming Social Security/Medicare financial disasters are real, and not propaganda.
I noted to one such person that under the current circumstances, SS would only be able to pay 76% of benefits when it’s time for me to retire…she demanded that I quote my source.
That was easy…the Social Security Administration.
educate those who seem to think that the coming Social Security/Medicare financial disasters are real, and not propaganda.
I don’t understand, if they think it’s real, why would you have to “educate” them? Seems like preaching to the choir.
Eliminate the SS cap of $106K and SS problems are GONE.
Institute a Medicare for All single payer plan, where the young and healthy pay for the old and sick directly* and Medicare problems are GONE.
———-
*right now, the young and healthy pay for insurance twice: first they pay Medicare for Mom and Dad, then they pay for-profit companies for their own care. Ridiculous. Why not just have everybody pay for everybody? Larger risk pool, no middlemen. And shedding the nightmare of forms and changing doctors alone will reduce stress to make us healthier.
Montana…I misspoke. The folks I often speak to seem to think that all the discussion of Medicare/SS insolvency is overblown in the media and not really a problem.
They go on to say that Medicare is just great.
You are right with SS, although I prefer the Simpson/Bowles method. Within their proposal:
1. Minimum payments to lower income workers (to keep them above poverty line);
2. Additional payments to those over 85 (who are more likely to have run through their other retirement savings);
3. Increase retirement ages (to 69 by 2075);
4. Hardship exemption for those who can’t work past 62 (and don’t qualify for disability benefits);
5. Cover new State and Local workers who start after 2020;
6. Promote personal retirement savings.
They fund this substantially by raising the cap faster than currently anticipated, and making the benefit received more progressive (slows benefit growth for higher earners). Taxing those who are making more by increasing what they pay, and reducing what they get.
SS was never intended to be a retirement plan, but a safety net. Simpson/Bowles actually works to strengthen the program as a safety net and funds it substantially from those more fortunate. Simply removing the cap is an easy, but doesn’t improve the safety net at all.
Minor consolation here: Washington Post - Gallup poll shows anti-incumbent sentiment at all-time high
“A new Gallup survey shows that more than three-quarters of registered voters think most members of Congress do not deserve to be reelected – the highest such number in the 19 years that Gallup has asked the question.”
But will the vegetables translate sentiment into action at the ballot box?
No. Because they believe it’s the “other” peoples Congressmen that are bad. Their Congressman is a good guy and got them all kinds of neat stuff for their district:” a new hospital, airport, freeway expansion, pipeline to nowhere, boondoggle employment programs. No. Their guy is a good guy. He does things that help the local “community”. It’s those other guys that need to get voted out.
I mean really, look at the slate:
Barney Frank? Would you vote for him? RE-elected constantly.
Nancy Pelosi? Ditto.
Right your own list. I don’t have the time. I sure you can come up with about 100 names without trying.
So, no.
WE had a BIG sweep this last election when the Rep’s took back the house. They are supposed to be reigning in spending and putting an end to endless government wasteful spending. The Obama gang and Senate is trying to push for more of it. “jobs program” my butt. What do we get? Gridlock.
We need ONE side to have control. What do you want?
More spending? More bailouts?
I guess it depends on whether you are on the paying or receiving side of the ledger. Right now it’s about 50/50.
What’s the solution………………….Bankruptcy.
“Because they believe it’s the “other” peoples Congressmen that are bad. Their Congressman is a good guy”
Bingo. Every media report about how low the congressional approval rating is really pisses me off. OK, it’s low, and it should be. But a Minnesota congressman does not represent the people of Nevada, and he/she really doesn’t care what someone from another state thinks. I know, this is common sense, but the media reports imply and stress how important these poll numbers are. I’d love to oust Michele Bachman from the HOR, but I’m in California.
And oh boy I’d love to oust Boxer and Feinstein.
They need to be indicted, convicted and serve time for the crimes.
We need answers Sammy. Perhaps you know of super-hero who would make a good dictator?
C’mon alpha, you’re better than that. America desperately needs conscientious, thinking, active citizens, not sheep. It’s as simple as that.
there is no need to state the obvious.
Most Americans are stupid
AWhat $ubject do you have in mind?
By definition, 50% of the population has an IQ of less than 100.
That said, I’d prefer to be governed by 100 people picked at random than the knuckleheads we have running the show currently.
And you are American; therefore are you stupid (vs. ignorant, a nuance I taught my over 4,000 ESL students).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU
Our national descent into IDIOCRACY is well advanced.
From Politico - Poll: Congress ethically challenged
“A record 64 percent of Americans rate the honesty and ethical standards of members of Congress as low or very low - even worse than telemarketers and lobbyists, according to a new Gallup poll Monday.
The only other time another group of professionals received that low a rating – since the public opinion firm first began surveying the issue in 1976 — were lobbyists in 2008. In 2002 and 1988, 63 percent of people said telemarketers and car salespeople, respectively, were ethically challenged.
In this year’s poll, lobbyists had the second-worst reputation after members of Congress – 62 percent of people said they would rate lobbyists’ honesty and ethical standards as low or very low. Telemarketers were next at 53 percent, followed by car salespeople at 47 percent.
Journalists were also in the mix, receiving a low or very low honesty and ethical standards rating from 27 percent of people.
This year, just 7 percent of people gave members of Congress, lobbyists and car salespeople a high or very high rating in honesty and ethical standards.”
Corrupt criminals.
“Corrupt criminals.”
Well, if you’re going to be a criminal, corruptibility is a desirable trait.
The caliber of elected officials we have is a direct reflection on the voters who elected them.
‘Nuff said.
People are waking up to the fact that it’s “government of the highest bidder, by the highest bidder, for the highest bidder.”
People are waking up to the fact that the politicians’ primary task is putting on political theater and getting re-elected.
I don’t expect saints or the altruistic to go into politics. Those creatures are probably mythical beasts. So the system was created to take into account it would be highly competitive alpha males who were willing to bend the rules to suit them, that would be taking office. However, the office holders have bent the system back into a form where they have less and less accountability and responsibility, and more and more power and job security and wealth.
This morning on the radio, the big discussion was… was Romney’s 10,000 dollar bet and how it showed he was too rich. I was half expecting to hear an ad for Brawndo.
“government of the highest bidder, by the highest bidder, for the highest bidder.”
Say it again….. and again…. and again…
Recession will be much worse, say economists
Britain will suffer a much worse recession than previously imagined but it will not be as bad as in Europe, leading economists forecast today.
A trader holds his head in his hands as markets tumble Photo: REUTERS
By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent
6:15AM GMT 12 Dec 2011
Experts from Standard Chartered Bank are warning that the UK’s economy has already begun to shrink, as companies are laying off workers and household spending is under pressure.
The bank’s financial forecasters believe Britain’s economy will continue to falter until at least half way through next year, reducing by 1.3 per cent overall in 2012.
However, they predict that economies of eurozone countries, including France and Germany, are likely to see a worse drop of 1.5 per cent as they struggle with the area’s debt problems.
While Britain and Europe find it hard to make their economies grow, they will be left behind by countries like China and India.
Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, predicts there will be a “two-speed world where a fragile West contrasts with a resilient East”.
…
Ouch! That’s gonna leave mark.
While Britain and Europe find it hard to make their economies grow, they will be left behind by countries like China and India.
I seem to recall reading an article about how India’s poor are getting left behind, while India is poised to zoom past China as the world’s most populous nation.
Meanwhile, purchase orders at the “world’s factory” ain’t what they used to be and there is concern that unemployed masses in China might prove to be problematic.
Same problem in India. Their workers will put up with almost anything expect being laid off. Then they make our unions look like the cowards they are.
A while back, I watched a documentary about an American man who traveled to India to get his outsourced job back. He ended up working an overnight shift in a call center.
While he had that job, the center went on a high security alert. Outside, riots were breaking out. As they were throughout India.
The cause of these riots? A major movie star had just died. To put it mildly, this guy’s fans were UP-set. The unrest went on for several days.
Now, back to America: When was the last time this country erupted in riots over the death of a movie star?
Movie stars, no.
But in support of pedophile coaches?
Hmmmm, seems to me I just heard something about that.
Oh, and sports teams.
Yes, but those examples are local.
They weren’t rioting over the downfall of Joe Paterno over in Tyrone, PA. Or in Altoona. They were rioting in State College. That’s it. Nothing amiss in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
Likewise, any sports riot. Tends to take place in the city where the winners or losers are located. That’s it.
I came across a video last night of Ron Paul’s. There was a reference to foreign aid. He worded it something like we take money that we would have been able to use to help our poor and give it to rich people over in other countries. I never did sit down and watch his videos before. He really doesn’t pull any punches. He is fearless. I really can’t imagine he doesn’t get get death threats.
“Foreign aid” is a favorite whipping boy for those who like to use such things. It’s made to sound as if it’s a bad thing. Like we are sending OUR money to THOSE people.
On an international level, the United States’ level of foreign aid is relatively small. Something like 3% of the federal budget. Or less. As compared to the Scandinavian countries, we’re real skinflints.
And some of it is a direct pass through to defense contractors in this country.
“He worded it something like we take money that we would have been able to use to help our poor and give it to rich people over in other countries”
It’s a fair point, but I’m not sure he believes in taking that money and actually using it to help poor people–he was just using them to make a point, imo.
Money quote from that debate came from Ron Paul…
“We take money from the poor people in our rich country and give it to the rich people in poor countries.”
So sadly true.
ECRI Renews U.S. Recession Call Clashing with Wall Street
EconMatters | Dec. 12, 2011, 5:49 AM
The U.S. economy is showing signs of life with good economic numbers after the ECRI (Economic Cycle Research Institute) declared on 30 Sep. that the U.S. has already or is about to dip into recession.
WSJ Market Beat noted that even ECRI’s own weekly leading index (WLI) came in at 122.5 with the latest reading, the highest since early September. However, ECRI said it relies on the longer-term WLI (See Chart Below) when it made the dreaded ‘R’ call over two months ago.
…
Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of ECRI said in a Bloomberg TV interview (Clip Below) on 8 Dec. that “This one [downturn] is persisting. Give us a year, and you’ll see if we are right on our recession call.”
The grass would probably look greener on the other side of the fence, if not for all the snow covering it.
Canada Escapes Recession’s Grip
by Brian Mann
Weekend Edition Sunday
[3 min 50 sec]
December 11, 2011
America’s biggest trade partner, Canada, sailed through the economic downturn almost unscathed, with low unemployment, no mortgage crisis and not a single major bank failure. As part of WBEZ’s Front and Center series, Brian Mann reports on how Canada emerged as one of the world’s most stable and prosperous economies.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: As Europe works to solve its financial problems, closer to home and with a little less fanfare, America’s biggest trading partner is thriving. Canada has built an impressive track record throughout the recession. It’s got low unemployment, little government debt and some of the healthiest economic growth in the industrialized world. Brian Mann traveled to Toronto for WBEZ’s Chicago’s Front and Center project and has this story.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: It’s early morning and Toronto’s central business district is in high gear with people crowding into street cars, heading to work.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
MANN: This city of five million people sits just a few hours’ drive from America’s rust belt - from Buffalo and Detroit. While those cities have shed population and are struggling to reinvent themselves, Toronto is on fire. Matthew Mendelson heads the Mowat Center for Policy Innovation.
MATTHEW MENDELSON: Our financial sector, our financial institutions are the healthiest in the world. And so that creates enormous opportunities.
MANN: Canada has some of the strictest banking rules in the world. While hundreds of banks failed in the U.S. during the recession, this country hasn’t seen a single major bank failure - not one. In fact, banks here are posting record profits. There’s also no mortgage crisis in Canada. And while U.S. politicians feud over government spending, Mendelson says political parties on this side of the border have done the hard work of balancing budgets.
MENDELSON: The last decade has been one of Canada paying down debt, while it’s been one of the United States ratcheting up debt. And so that creates much more flexibility for Canada to invest and make choices when a recession arises.
MANN: It’s a huge turnabout for a country that in the 1990s was an economic basket case. In those days, the Canadian dollar was so weak that it was known as the northern peso. Now, Canada’s dollar trades on par with American greenbacks and economic growth here is a third higher than in the U.S. Unemployment remained relatively low during the recession and people who do lose their jobs in Canada can expect to be out of work for half as long, compared with jobless workers in the U.S. Economists credit Canada’s prosperity to a wide range of factors, including the rapid expansion of the country’s oil industry and a very different approach to immigration.
MARIO CALA: We’ve instituted a managed, point-based immigration system.
…
Damn socialist commies with their universal health care!
The last decade has been one of Canada paying down debt
I was under the impression that the average Canadian had more personal debt that than the average American, in large part courtesy of their housing bubble.
It is coming to Canada…
Massive housing bubble is already popping
Massive commodities bubble is just about to pop
Articles like the one I posted above are reminiscent of the infamous
Home $weet Home Time Magazine cover which appeared just before the U.S. housing bubble popped.
“Home $weet Home Time Magazine cover”
Well, I had to read the article. Here’s an interesting snippet with two opposing viewpoints at the time:
This is the $64 billion question of the 21st century’s first boom: Are today’s real estate revelers partying like it’s 1999–just before the stock-market bubble burst? To Edward Leamer, economist and director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, the housing market, especially in hot coastal areas, is a bubble just as ripe for popping. “We’ve had a more than doubling of housing prices in the past three years here in Southern California, for instance, and there’s no fundamental driving it,” he says. “There isn’t some big crush of people coming to California. That’s ridiculous.”
Instead, say Leamer and other bubbleologists, what’s driving the market is low interest rates, herd psychology, speculation and the expectation of unending price increases. (One study found that Los Angeles homeowners expect their home values to grow 22% every year for a decade.) Meanwhile, promiscuous lenders are throwing money at buyers like beads during Mardi Gras. “Anybody who can crawl in off the street can get a loan with 0% down at three or four times their income,” Leamer says.
It’s tempting to call real estate NASDAQ 2.0, but there are key differences. David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, predicts another record year for real estate in 2005, with a 9% jump in prices nationwide. Lereah says the run-up in house prices is not built on the kind of hot air that promised that theglobe.com would be the next General Electric. Rather, he says, it is based on fundamentals that include tight housing supply–especially in places where it is tough or expensive to build, like New York City and San Francisco–such population factors as immigration, foreign buyers (snapping up properties cheap because of a weak dollar) and baby boomers’ demand for second homes. “It’s the demographics, stupid,” he says.
Stocks, he adds, are more readily sold and thus more volatile. “Stocks are pieces of paper,” Lereah says. “People can get in and out very quickly. Real estate is different. It’s tangible. It’s secure. So even if the price of the home next door may go down, it doesn’t always mean yours will go down too. It doesn’t mean you’re going to sell. You’re not going to react the way IBM’s shares would react if there’s a big sell-off.”
“Real estate is different. It’s tangible. It’s secure. So even if the price of the home next door may go down, it doesn’t always mean yours will go down too.”
All real estate is local — very, very local!
Also liked his choice of the word “always”: “if the price of the home next door may go down, it doesn’t always mean yours will go down too.”
True– it might only happen 99% of the time.
Zbanana
Agree. And I don’t think we have been such geniuses either. Plant a few hundred billion barrels of oil in anybody’s back yard and they had better be well off !
Housing bubble is popping - in Toronto it is still popping upwards ! Vancouver has started it’s decline. So too the prairies (except Saskatoon) and Halifax is still upward. Everything else is down.
Low unemployment? What a joke. I have seen mid northern towns with up to 80% unemployment !
Alberta and Saskatchewan are doing great with their energy. All other provinces suck.
Our bankers are also not as they are painted. Five major banks control the country’s finances. When one of them didn’t want to lend to manufacturing anymore the rest of them quickly stopped as well. American banks fail because they have to compete - ours don’t know the meaning of the word.
The comment about commie socialism is so very incorrect. We may have socialist tendencies with our medicare, but none of the rest. But I am proud of our medicare and it’s abilities.
There is no “$” in:
Vancouver
Toronto
Quebec
Montreal
Well, there is an $ in $askatchewan,…oh wait, they have oil & grain commoditie$…never mind.
Cheney-$hrub: “There is no i in “our team”"
$hrub: “Hey now, i thought i was “The Decider!”"
Cheney: “No i am, (coughs) …i mean “we” are.”
$hrub: “i can’t say to the American people: “We’re the Decider’$”"!
Cheney: “yous say “i”, but you really mean: “we”"
$hrub: “yous & Rummy been together to long Dick, heheeheeeheee”
From Counterpunch: Europe’s Deadly Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy
“What banks want is for the economic surplus to be paid out as interest, not used for rising living standards, public social spending or even for new capital investment. Research and development takes too long. Finance lives in the short run. This short-termism is self-defeating, yet it is presented as science. The alternative, voters are told, is the road to serfdom: interfering with the “free market” by financial regulation and even progressive taxation.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/09/europe%E2%80%99s-deadly-transition-from-social-democracy-to-oligarchy/
To quote from above:
“… native working class, who were getting ideas above their station …”
Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 21:21
China Econs Warn On Recession As Euro Crisis Drags On: Press
BEIJING (MNI) - Chinese government economists have joined the ranks of sceptics arguing that the latest efforts by European leaders to resolve the single currency union’s debt crisis are inadequate, and that China needs to prepare for another recession in the advanced economies.
State Information Center economist Zhang Monan said the agreements finalized at last week’s contentious European summit won’t fundamentally resolve the crisis and warned that a wave of sovereign downgrades is inevitable in the coming year.
She said the imposition of overly-aggressive austerity packages on European economies will trigger greater social and political turmoil in the region.
“Solving the European debt crisis may have become more difficult than we can imagine,” Zhang said.
…
China needs to prepare for another recession in the advanced economies
Now who’s gonna buy all those flat panel TVs?
Me I’ve been saving cash. I’ll by them at 50% off,
Now we just need to find millions of other customers who saved cash, watched their 12 year old box set when everyone was buying flat screens and are willing to part with a little cash.
Just how many people don’t already have a flat panel in the family room? It must be a minority.
We finally replaced our 12 year old projection set with a 40″ LCD that cost $320. I think we are done “consuming” for a while.
The 27 inch Sony CRT is going great even though I got it used off Craigs list for $25, dropped it while getting it out of the car and into my old apartment, and moved it to the new apartment. I just find it hard to switch when the current one is just fine.
I only bought a new TV when the switch to digital made my old one obsolete. I spent a little more to get the onboard DVD player. Good decision… I’m minimalist and I don’t like lots of wires.
Someone just gave me a used 37″ LCD. Didn’t pay a dime. There are enough of them around that they aren’t worth what they used to be. This thing was close to $2500 new…
This article does a fine job of laying out the stark choice between paying off a principle balance level which might never again be matched by the market value of the underlying collateral versus walking away from a mortgage.
Don’t miss the astonishing sidebar graphic, which shows, among other tidbits, that a higher percentage of homeowners are underwater in St. Louis, MO than in San Diego. It depicts an astonishing array of places where over 50 percent of the mortgages are currently underwater, including Sacramento (50.9%), Riverside (51.4%), Tampa (56.5%), Atlanta (58.7%) and Phoenix (66.2%). Curiously missing from the graphic: Las Vegas.
Underwater: Walking away from your mortgage
Published: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 11:03 p.m. MST
By Michael De Groote, Deseret News
WEST JORDAN — If being underwater in a home mortgage were literal, Alan Smith would be stranded on the roof by the flood, water lapping around his ankles. And if the whop-whop-whop of a rescue helicopter’s spinning blades hovered above him, Smith would just wave them off.
Come heck or high water, Smith and his family are staying put.
Fortunately being underwater in a home isn’t literal. Being underwater simply means you owe more on your home mortgage than the house is worth — what realtors call “negative equity.”
At least Smith, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential, is not alone in his pain.
CoreLogic, a business analytics website, released second quarter 2011 data that showed 10.9 million residential properties were underwater. And of those underwater, nearly three-quarters paid above-market interest on their mortgages. By the third quarter Zillow, a website for real estate statistics, estimated that 28.6 percent of all single-family homes were underwater.
Dave Anderton, a spokesman for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said about 20 percent of homes in Utah are underwater. One in five, whether they know it or not. And that doesn’t even touch the worst states’ figures. CoreLogic reported Arizona mortgages at 49 percent underwater, Florida was at 45 percent, Michigan at 36 percent and California at 30 percent. The worst was Nevada at 60 percent. A study by the Nevada Association of Realtors found that 23 percent of the state’s foreclosures were from people who just walked away from their underwater homes. And the impact of negative equity across the country threatens property values in neighborhoods and contributes to the sluggishness of a recovering economy.
For individuals in that situation, it can destroy retirement and education plans. It makes it appear options are limited and shakes moral certainty. Should you keep your promise to the bank and stick it out? Or should you look to your own financial interests and walk away?
…
It’s really about HOW FAR underwater you are. If you’re only 5-20k underwater, walking away is probably a losing game if you can afford the payments and have otherwise reasonable credit. But when you have people who are underwater by their annual income or more, they probably SHOULD walk away. And then there are those who simply can’t afford to make the payments that they agreed to. For them, it’s not so much a matter of IF they default, but when and how (walkaway, foreclosure, shortsale or “workout” are all forms of default).
It also depends on what your cost would be to rent the same place. In some of these markets, even if you are 30% underwater, it could be more expensive on a monthly basis to pay rent for the same house you are currently living in…
True. After all, “owner equivalant rent” is the reason to purchase a house in the first place.
lmao…. read the entire article. Some classic bubble (il)logic in there.
second quarter 2011 data that showed 10.9 million residential properties were underwater.
“What goe$ down! must go up!” ( World Renowned Physicist “Expert!” consultant hired by the Federal Re$erve Inc. & most of the elected Gov’t officials who are currently renting apartments in the DC beltway.)
Cau$e & Effect Hwy50 style:
Easy: http://tinyurl.com/7jrhmz2
Peasy: http://tinyurl.com/76ndxs3
Lemon: http://tinyurl.com/29kknyn
Squeezy: http://tinyurl.com/6w8we6e
From “In the Loop”:
Toby Wright: “No, it’s difficult, difficult, lemon,…difficult!”
“A va$tly over-$old debacle…” Ben Jones “The Flag” AZ
The ‘Cliffs” places developed by Jim Anthony here out of upstate SC , are slowly winding down . We no longer see all those slick Brochures touting that particular lifestyle of the Rich. If they survive the winter , they are lucky .
Jim Anthony is a great guy in every way , And I would about bet he has put every dime he has into these projects ,nice guys always do that , and end up penniless.
It is harder to feel sorry for all the retired lawyers and such that bought into his projects , and then even raised 60+ millions last summer to help out . Fleece’em all . we say, They are paying a good bit of the property taxes too.
I’m surprised he’s managed to hang on this long. The concept he created was innovative: buy a property in one community and you had privileges (golf, etc.) in all the other (ten or so) Cliffs communities. But it was only viable in an extended period of good times.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198985
Whee! We go down the bowl last!
I love the last sentence:
“Well Larry, in this case mommy sucked down a drink full of arsenic, the milk is poisonous, and mommy is writhing on the floor in agony as she draws her last breath.”
Also from Counterpunch: Dumbest Reasons Not to Support the Occupy Movement
“*We could alienate the very people who might be our supporters.
Reality check: That’s the kind of people you want to suck up to—people who would be offended by a peaceful occupation of a park? With friends like these…
*It’s divisive. It sets up a separation between some kinds of human beings and others, between the 99% and the 1%. It’s not Buddhist enough. It’s not Zen. It’s not spiritual.
Reality Check: The super rich don’t want you. They don’t like you. They don’t need your sympathy. They’ve hired guys to beat you up. They’re not impressed by your attempt at brotherhood. You have lice. That limo coming at you? It isn’t going to slow down.
*The Occupiers don’t have clear demands that a capitalist society can enter in a concise capitalist-style checklist and present on TV.
Reality check: Yeah. And yet there they are. Kind of unnerving, isn’t it?
*Dirty hippies. Who’s going to pay the costs of throwing out the personal belongings of the Occupiers? Hazmat suit deployment isn’t cheap.
Reality check: Nazi eugenicists shared your pain in the 1920’s. Obsession with cleanliness, ja. Racial hygiene, check. Nordic purity, check. Dirty Jews, jawohl. Everyone’s dirty who isn’t on our team.
*Supposed to get a permit. Supposed to tell your Congressperson. Supposed to get approval. Supposed to think about votes. Supposed to do it the way it’s always been done. Supposed to have leaders.
Reality check: Daddy said no. Now what, little boy?
*Occupying land as an expression of free speech is a non-starter in the courts.
Reality check: Occupying a seat in the front of the bus was a non-starter in white courts. And yet we have all these black people in the fronts of buses now. Funny thing happened on the way to the front of the bus. The most important point about leaders and people who think they’re allowed to judge others is that they’ll follow when they have to. We occupy the space because it’s ethical, not because some rich judge surrounded by lackeys or because some politician surrounded by suitcases of cash from K Street gives permission. You think your soft-palate little democracy ga-ga goo-goo arrangement is the only arrangement of human affairs that exists? We didn’t sign on to yours.”
‘the kind of people you want to suck up to’
This is a lot different than organizing politically. One of the hardest things I ever did volunteering in politics was going door to door. Get up early on my day off, drive to street after street and knock on doors, never knowing who was going to answer. I’d get the door slammed in my face before they even knew what I was there for, that kind of thing. Then walk next door and try it again. If someone did hear me out, I had to be on my best behavior and explain, listen, answer.
I never felt like I was sucking up to anyone. It’s just how you reach people when you are on a limited budget. And there is something effective about a real person showing they care about a candidate or issue, even if it was tough work.
I remember a few weeks ago I was talking with an occupy supporter. I was given the impression that this movement was unstoppable. I mentioned that IMO this group should reach out and broaden their base, as it was no certainty that this was going to accomplish anything.
I’m glad the OWS people are confident. If they come up short, that confidence is going to be looked back on as arrogance. I do know this; the publicity and goodwill this movement generated at the beginning cannot be bought for any price. But it can be squandered cheaply.
I do know this; the publicity and goodwill this movement generated at the beginning cannot be bought for any price. But it can be squandered cheaply.
+1 Mr. Ben!
Filed under: Wisdom speaketh!
Note #6:
(it can also be easily “legally” pepper-sprayed into dispersion)
Either side of the lunatic fringe could easily sabotage the progress the OWS Movement has made thus far.
This is an unfortunate consequence of collectively denying identifiable leadership with well-defined talking points.
Guess that’s why it’s a movement, not a party.
And give us back our illegal surveillance drone and stop trying to get nuclear weapons like we allowed India and Pakistan to have!
Grrrrr…….
I remember a few weeks ago I was talking with an occupy supporter. I was given the impression that this movement was unstoppable. I mentioned that IMO this group should reach out and broaden their base, as it was no certainty that this was going to accomplish anything.
I’m of the mind that it’s time for the Occupy movement to get beyond its fixation on urban camping trips. Because camping is but one of many ways to protest. There are other things like teach-ins, sit-ins, die-ins, you-name-it-ins. And there’s guerrilla theater. Concerts. Marches. Heck, even presenting skits.
And those are just a few of the things that can be done off the Internet. There’s a whole host of things that can happen online.
even presenting skits.
They even have templates for such antic$!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OITkDaFe9BE
Read a report on Syracuse OWS this morning. It’s only 10-15 people and so they haven’t been kicked out of anything. It sounds like they have a nice relationship w/the mayor and the codes officer. They’ll probably be allowed to stay the winter, reported the newspaper.
Buried deep w/in a paragraph that appeared late in the article, the reporter referenced two uniformed officers that kept vigil on the protesters—-hired by the nearby Morgan Stanley brokerage.
To understand why Congress will go to any lengths, no matter how absurd, to buoy real estate prices and protect the FIRE sector, taking a look at the totality of congressional investments might provide an explanation.
And unexpectedly, investments in the FIRE sector outweigh other sectors by at least 2 to 1.
House and Senate Investment Rankings:
1 - Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
2 - Misc Business
3 - Communications/Electronics
4 - Agribusiness
5 - Energy & Natural Resources
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=S&year=2010
I fail to see where “Audit-the-Pentagon!” will have any influence on those x5
(le$$en #2 is the $tealth MilitaryIndustrialComplexInc’$ expenditure$)
From the why are we friends with this country desk
— Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.
The chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, said she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session.
Seriously they live in the middle ages. They never left.
Unlike in the U.S., where all you have to do is convince people they will never get old an the government gives you $billion in Medicare dollars.
Are you inferring that the Pharmaceptical Inc.$ $pend monie$ on marketing their poi$on to critical thinking US citizens? Well, are you?
Too bad we don’t have similar penalties for “Financial Sorcery”
Say what you will about the Saudis, the penalties for transgressors don’t screw around. But then, I think that the penalty for stealing 5 billion dollars should be higher than stealing $500.
The fundies are alive in well in Arabia as they are here in the US.
Seriously they live in the middle ages. They never left.
They didn’t. And I think that a big part of the reason why has to do with how long Islam has been around. Something like 15 centuries now, right?
Anybody want to go back to a society like the European societies dominated by the Christian church of the 1400s? I didn’t think so.
Yes, there was a Protestant Reformation. And a Renaissance. An Enlightenment. Not to mention parallel trends toward secularism.
Similar things are starting to rumble below the surface in the Islamic world. We don’t hear much about them in the West, but they’re coming.
” Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich”
N. Bonaparte
Also from sleeping w/their wives.
How is this that much different from parents and people being charged with manslaughter for trying to “pray” their children better insted of getting them medical treatment?
“why are we friends with this country ”
I have a one word answer for you. It’s a really short little word too. 2/3 vowels.
OWS protestors are busy trying to shut down West Coast ports. This will help improve the economic picture for the 99% how?
OWS Paul Revere of MA:
“One if by Sea, two if by rail.”
I think that the idea is that they are “protesting”, and that usually involves acts that could be considered “disruptive”.
Because the 99% won’t be burdened by the imported goods that they have been forced to buy and enjoy.
Isn’t it obvious?
“…won’t be burdened by the imported goods that they have been forced to buy and enjoy…”
The Grinch who Stole Christmas would approve of that logic.
This will help improve the economic picture for the 99% how?
1. Make imports more expensive over the long run
2. Raise awareness of the massive financial theft perpetrated on the middle class by the corporate class and change voting patterns.
3. Get them to move their money out of megabank inc.
4. Get the gov to crack down on WS and banks
How will complaining about OWS help the 99%??
Banks, CU’s no difference. Our CU is fee happy and is still in a lending orgy. Maybe a regional bank would be OK.
If they belong to an Association of any kind, a portion of their dues goes to a lobbyist.
1. Make imports more expensive over the long run
That’s bad for anyone who consumes imports (especially 99%ers).
2. Raise awareness of the massive financial theft perpetrated on the middle class by the corporate class and change voting patterns.
How is importing goods tantamount to stealing?
3. Get them to move their money out of Megabank Inc.
Don’t see the connection here to imports.
4. Get the gov to crack down on WS and banks
Again, missing the connection. But I do know that lots of union labor is employed at ports, and our economic prosperity is driven in part by the availability of imports.
1. But it’s good for people in this country who manufacture said goods.
2. See comment on the Boston Tea Party. Headlines = getting your point of view across to the majority of people. People sitting on the sideline who see that this group has the abillity to shut down ports might question the msm downgrading the #’s and might decide to take a look at what OWS is saying and even to get involved.
3. See point #2
4. See point #2, Gov may decide that it’s time to do something for the population instead of taking all orders from megabank inc. Assuming we still have a democracy.
Shutting down the ports shows that there is a large # of people willing to get off the couch, potentially risk their job, risk getting arrested all in an attempt to better the country.
“1. But it’s good for people in this country who manufacture said goods.”
Unless they can figure out another avenue of occupation that enables them to produce something else more cheaply and profitably, which could be sold (traded) in exchange for an imported version of whatever they used to manufacture at higher cost than their foreign competitors.
BTW, did you ever hear of David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage?
How did the Boston Tea Party help the US?? Not by lowering the price of Tea.
This is my sister’s story, except the woman in the story is not my sister.
Dec. 12, 2011, 11:48 a.m. EST
The story of the accidental landlord
And why many of them can’t wait until they’re able to sell
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Jeannette Boccini thought she had found a great renter, someone who would take extra-good care of her town house. Then the nightmare began.
The tenant repeatedly harassed the neighbors, complained that the wood chips in the community playground were toxic, and informed Boccini on Christmas morning that someone was playing Christmas carols too loudly.
But the final straw was the night the tenant showed up at Boccini’s door to report there was dust all over the mailbox. “I absolutely flipped,” Boccini said. “I was like, ‘You don’t like it? Get the hell out of my house.’ ”
Like many people these days, Boccini became a landlord not by choice but because of circumstances beyond her control: namely, the real-estate crash.
In 2008, she bought a second home in an East Coast town, planning to sell her old house and move into the new place at roughly the same time. But when housing prices tanked, she was suddenly faced with a choice: sell for $100,000 less than what she’d paid, or hold on and hope that prices recover.
No one should decide too quickly to become a landlord, a job that brings with it legal responsibilities, a steady parade of expenses, and unforeseen headaches. It might bring in extra cash, or it might be a sinkhole if the home sits empty or costs exceed the rent.
Becoming a landlord when a property proves difficult to sell is also a gamble that housing prices will rebound fairly soon, and that the ultimate sale price will more than cover expenses incurred in the meantime.
Nevertheless, “I think we will see a lot more owners becoming landlords,” mainly because the economy hasn’t recovered, said Lisa Eckert, a property manager for Coldwell Banker Bain in Kirkland, Wash. “They’re turning to renting out as the last-ditch effort.”
…
“I was like, ‘You don’t like it? Get the hell out of my house.’ ”
+
“I think we will see a lot more owners becoming
landlordsposse$$ive like a junk-yard dog,”It takes a special type person to be a repo-person.
(something about 1st impressions, attitude, & 18″ crow-bar)
Becoming a landlord when a property proves difficult to sell is also a gamble that housing prices will rebound fairly soon, and that the ultimate sale price will more than cover expenses incurred in the meantime.
There’s a lot of this type of thinking here in Tucson. And, sad to say, a lot of our local acci-landlords are having to deal with tenants as least as bad as Jeannette Boccini’s.
Moves in the value of the dollar seem to be the tail wagging both the U.S. stock market and gold price dogs.
Dec. 12, 2011, 11:34 a.m. EST
U.S. stocks fall sharply on Moody’s warning
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell hard on Monday, retreating after a second week of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after Moody’s Investors Service said it would review the ratings of countries in the euro area and Intel Corp. trimmed its fourth-quarter revenue outlook.
Europe “is moving in the right direction, but it’s going to take longer to fix and probably is not going to happen without a European recession,” said Art Hogan, a strategist at Lazard Capital.
Markets across Europe were lower following the euro-zone crisis summit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.82% fell 162.95 points, or 1.3%, to 12,021.31, with semiconductor maker Intel (INTC -5.16%) off 3.6% after it cut projected revenue in the final quarter, saying supply shortages for hard drives had computer makers cutting back on orders for other parts.
The S&P 500 Index (SPX -2.06%) shed 20.84 points, or 2.5%, to 1,234.35, with financials leading the losses among its 10 industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite (COMP -1.94%) dropped 47.42 points, or 1.8%, to 2,599.42.
For every stock rising nearly eight fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 175 million shares traded hands as of 11 a.m. Eastern time.
Gold futures (GC2G -2.77%) fell sharply, lately down $50.60 to $1,666.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude-oil futures declined $1.44 to $97.97 a barrel.
…
Gold down 50 at the moment too. Now I don’t feel so bad for selling Friday, to pay off my car. Usually it heads in the other direction..
And for your general amusement and knowledge:
Diogenes, living on savings for the past year (unemployment expired), has been shuffling his paltry savings around to help stimulate the economy by paying his bills….i.e. gas/electric/water/insurance/etc.etc.
Having run his savings balances down a little, he was shopping for other funds that may be available. Bingo. A brokerage trading account he converted to cash last year. The money was put into Money Market awaiting a less volatile trading environment.
Current balance: A little over $5000. Not a lot, but a rainy day fund.
Interest for current quarter: $0.02. That’s right. They credited me 0.02.
Oh! Rapture! Joy! I made 2 cents interest!
What can I spend it on?
Oh, yea, my ISP raised my monthly rate $10.00. How much would I need to save to cover the difference…..let’s see $10/0.02 =
$.02/quarter == $.08/yr
On $5K, I get a yield of .0016%.
Wow, that is impressively paltry! And here I thought that the .10% at my credit-union was low…
Yea. And that’s the Money Market account, not the cash account.
Companies are competing to see who can pay the least amount possible. It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone. Cash disappearing into a money vortex leading to Goldman Sachs and an inter-connected money laundering machine.
$.02/quarter == $.08/yr
…and pretty soon you’re talking real money!
“Current balance: A little over $5000. Not a lot, but a rainy day fund.
Interest for current quarter: $0.02. That’s right. They credited me 0.02. Oh! Rapture! Joy! I made 2 cents interest!”
+1 We have ~$13k in rainy day CDs, and the quarterly interest won’t even buy us lunch at McDonalds. Amazing times!
I get more from my Bank of America savings account (.32 a month or so) and my Vanguard Mutual Funds account (about .80 a month).
I recommend Vanguard, but BoA is kinda whatever.
Diogenes, I’m sorry, I thought you had found a new job.
“They credited me 0.02.”
Let me guess…then they charged you a $5 Interest Payout Transaction Fee, correct?
A fascinating piece on Dubai, one of the biggest of all the bubbles. It’s long, but well worth reading end to end:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html
“The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems,” Karen says at last. “Nothing. This isn’t a city, it’s a con-job. They lure you in telling you it’s one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it’s a medieval dictatorship.”
Dubai just sounds to me like it is about 50 years or so culturally behind the US. I personally don’t want to live there, but only because a shopping paradise doesn’t sound very pleasant to me. But judging by the number of people in the malls and at actual Disneyland (what a dreadful place) plenty of other people disagree with me.
I’m also not sure a country can learn the lessons of culture from another country. The US certainly never has.
And at least Dubai is compact, even if the towers are all empty. Just imagine the stories you’d see if it was nothing but urban sprawl for 1000 sq miles like a US midwestern city.
“The thing you have to understand about
DubaiWall $t. is – nothing is what it seems,” Karen says at last. “Nothing. This isn’t a city street with a name, it’s a con-job.aGREED!
This article gives a pretty interesting account of the MF Global crash under Corzine:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/romance-risk-brought-panic-135508106.html
There were some common threads with the MBS debacle: lax regulatory oversight, combined with bogus supportive opinions from the ratings agencies that shifted dramatically overnight.
In the end, his positions appear not to have taken a beating, but it appears that he over-levered the firm and had a confidence-related liquidity squeeze. Classic.
This article must be a Republican propaganda piece. It says that Jon Corzine, a Democrat, friend of Bill Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, former head of Goldman-Suchs is a High-leverage GREEDY Wallstreet parasite. It obviously is mis-information, because it’s the Republicans that are greedy, wallstreet, rich, lousy, low-life bastards.
So, the information about the “honorable” Jon Corzine must be wrong.
This shows him as an inside trader with a gambling addiction and a free ticket to trade on massive “leverage”. Making big bets with others money.
because it’s the Repubicans that are greedy, wallstreet, rich, lousy, low-life bastards.
(Eyes try to make the distinction between: “Being a “something”" as opposed to, “Enabling a $omething”")
Fancy that, how things morph over time:
“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Republican.”
Will Rogers
“…is a High-leverage GREEDY Wallstreet parasite”
Because he is?
Other people’s money is addictive. Once the big guys stop lending it to you, you’re forced to steal it from the “little” guys.
Ok, this story is always on the state farm news. Can someone tell me why farmers and ranchers would keep money in a hedge fund? Is it because of the money mkt return being so bad? I’m not seeing the big attraction here.
Oh, so it’s not a hedge fund. Never hoid of it before.
Definitely not a hedge fund. Lots of farmers hedge their risk using futures. And MF Global was a huge futures broken. Unfortunately, they were apparently doing proprietary trading (e.g. for their own account), perhaps using rehypothecated client funds as collateral.
Un-freaking-believable.
BREAKING NEWS!
The National Association of Realtors will revise all home price data from 2007 onward downward!
(Presumably to get it low enough to create an upward trend going forward).
Kind of like executive pay. Use dicey accounting to defer costs to create large profits leading to CEO bonuses. Then revise the past downward by shifting costs backward, leading to future CEO bonsues.
My mistake, it is the number of sales that is being revised downwards, not the price.
I guess all their lying about home sales got too hard to believe.
Lying is a State of Mind
Just ask Eric Holder.
Cant tell if you are kidding or not.
Oh so when the bank takes the property they’re not going to hang a SOLD sign out front anymore?
From the article:
” The NAR said the “up-drift in sales projections developed over time between the fixed model for calculating sales rates and the actual marketplace, including growth in multiple listing service coverage areas, geographic population shifts, a decline in for-sale-by-owner transactions, some new-home sales trickling into MLS data and some individual sales being recorded in more than one MLS.”
I don’t even recognize where 1/2 the places are in our local MLS. When I do a google search they’re including places near the Canadian border, towns in the Catskills and the Adirondacks, on the south side of the Finger Lakes, and towns closer to Elmira (near the PA border) than Syracuse. Most of these are not commutable in winter unless you’re into two hour commutes which is not why people move to CNY. I also don’t think those sales (or lack thereof) really reflect activity here in the greater Syracuse region.
On a different note, I have noticed a severe decline in FSBO activity in this area. Anyone have an idea what the cause is behind that? Do you think it has to do w/where the homeowners are in the foreclosure/underwater cycle?
Have you noticed NY State NARscum is withholding sales data from a good dozen counties? It’s true.
Congress is going to have to step up and just work harder to keep those home prices high and affordable!
As I posted earlier, to understand why Congress does what it does, have a look-see at what they’re invested in:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=S&year=2010
When he spoke to this father for the first time the boy proudly said, “I did it on my own, Dad, they didn’t release me, I did it,” family friend Jean Gowen told ABC News.
This past summer, Lunsmann was vacationing in the Philippines with his Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, and his cousin Romnick Jakaria. On July 12 the relatives were on an island near Zamboanga City when they were snatched and taken by boat to Basilan.
Filed under: “Good role model for the youth of America” (-Oct-o-Mom)
Teen, 14, Escapes After Being Held Hostage for Five Months
ABC NewsBy ALICIA TEJADA | ABC News – 6 hrs ago
An American teenage boy outsmarted the members of a suspected al Qaeda-linked militants, escaping after five months of being held hostage in a jungle in the Philippines.
Kevin Lunsmann, 14, was lost for nearly two days, roaming without shoes, before he was found by villagers, his father said.
Kevin Lunsmann said he convinced his four armed captors that he was going to take a bath at a nearby stream, but then he decided to make a run for it. He followed a river down a mountain in Basilan province before being found with bruises on his arms and feet late the next day by villagers.
Gowen said Lunsmann’s father ran to neighbors last night, excited to share the miraculous update on his son.
“He banged on my door and broke down crying when he told me,” Gowen said. “I cried and screamed, too. It was at the point where we all feared they were going to kill him, we’ve all just been devastated.”
Heiko Lunsmann said he has been in contact with both his wife and son, and that they’ve been reunited and are currently at a hospital in Manila, Gowen said.
Dec. 12, 2011, 2:25 p.m. EST
Treasurys gain after auction, driven by EU worries
Government sells $32 billion in 3-year notes to strong demand
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices gained on Monday, pushing 10-year yields under 2%, as rising doubts that measures announced by European Union leaders last week will address the region’s short-term debt problems sent investors back toward the relative safety of U.S. bonds.
“The honeymoon from the EU summit is shorter than that of a Kardashian,” said Bill O’Donnell, head of Treasury strategy at RBS Securities.
…
RIMSHOT!
Combotechie perhaps you would like to comment on the following graph.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=CRY:IND
Can I comment?
My take is that this is some sort of signal to open box wine, pour into a cheap, plastic cup, and drink you some.
Banks `Uninvestable’ on Sovereign-Debt Exposure - Video …
10 Nov 2011 … Neil Dwane, chief investment officer at Allianz Global Investors’ RCM unit, … Dwane Says Banks `Uninvestable’ on Sovereign Exposure (Video) …
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/79915568/ - 103k - Cached - Similar pages
Stocks Surge As Bernanke, ECB Throw More Dollars At Europe’s …
30 Nov 2011 … Stocks surge after central banks extend currency swaps to bolster liquidity. … from the Fed was matched by corresponding actions from the Bank of …. risky investments or over-extended themselves get bailed out with these …
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaefer/2011/11/30/bernanke-ecb-throw-more-dollars-at-europes-crisis/ - 120k - Cached - Similar pages
Letter from Bernanke to ECB 25 Nov 2011
You burden me with your questions
You have me tell those lies
You’re always asking what it’s all about
Don’t listen to my replies
You say to me I don’t talk enough
But when I do I’m a fool
These times I’ve spent, I’ve realized
To shoot through and leave you
The things you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things you say
You’re uninvestable
You burden me with your problems
By telling me more than mine
I’m always so concerned
With the way you say
You’ve always at stop to think of us
Being what is not that I ever know
But this time I realise
To shoot through and leave you
The things you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things you say
You’re uninvestable
Seemingly last don’t mean can ask us
Pushing down the relative bringing out your higher self
Think of the fine times pushing down the better few
Instead of bringing out the clues to what the world
Everything you asked to
Brace yourself with the grace of ease
I know this world ain’t what it seems
It’s uninvestable
You burden me with your questions
You have me tell those lies
You’re always asking what it’s all about
But don’t listen to my replies
You say to me I don’t talk enough
But when I do I’m a fool
These times I’ve spent, I’ve realized
I’m going to shoot through and leave you
The things you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things you say
Is what I love you more
The things you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things you say
You’re uninvestable
You’re so uninvestable
You’re uninvestable
It’s uninvestable
You’re uninvestable
Losing sleep over a big meeting on Thursday… either everything is cool or I am going to be totally blindsided.
Big company meeting ?
Do you have strange people hanging out at the HR office ? Hired guns to help with paper work ?
Uh, well, I am at HQ so police and HR are onsite.
Likely scenario: I will receive some of the workload of someone that just “retired.”
A little worse and plausible: my position is eliminated and I am re-assigned to a lower paying position.
Worse but unlikely: they fold my dept. and I have to float until a long-term position opens up.
Doomsday: they fold my entire dept. and, uh, I don’t know.
“Uh, well, I am at HQ so police and HR are onsite.”
What are the police doing there?
Thank god you’re still renting…
A part of me wants to be released for reasons beyond my control so I have an excuse to pack my family up and move back to upstate NY.
I’m resourceful and entrepreneurial enough to make a go of whatever happens. I’m also tired of the two-income trap. No matter what, I’m ready.
My wife is not prepared to deal with all of this, which will strain our relationship, but she’s never been, “called to order,” so she can learn to deal with less if need be.
“A part of me wants to be released for reasons beyond my control…”
Been there. On the bright side, you already seem to be through the acceptance phase and grief hasn’t even hit yet.
And I’m guessing that positioning yourself defensively has earned you that distinction, relative to others…
“I’m also tired of the two-income trap.”
+1 We never fell for that one.
Hmm, sounds like a “money’s tight” budget meeting?
Anyone else think that it is convenient timing that the NAR is going to release the revised sales data on Dec 21st? In other words, just in time to get buried by the holidays…
Of course that’s their intent. Bury it so;
1) They don’t have to answer for their crime
2) So they can continue their criminal enterprise
When will NAR ever get honest and tell the truth?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/morgan-stanley-blocked-from-singapore-lawsuit-by-u-s-judge.html
After defrauding Singapore investors, Morgan Stanley tries to block their lawsuit and gets the attempt shot down by a judge who appears to take the law seriously. O Happy Day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRdqGKA782A&feature=youtu.be
Newt Gingrich: Selling Access.
Dec. 12, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST
Is there opportunity in the Euro crisis?
By Kurt Brouwer
There is a specter haunting Europe and it will not go away. The national debt crisis and likely bankruptcy unfolding in Greece and other peripheral European countries has made the news on a daily or even hourly basis. And, the news is not good.
The European Union is tottering and European banks are at risk for all the government debt they hold. In fact, this crisis has even brought down one U.S. firm, MF Global Holding Ltd., which was run by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs Chairman, Jon Corzine.
In other words, most would agree that the European crisis is far from over. I think that is true. So, how could that possibly translate into an opportunity?
Baron Rothschild & blood in the streets
In 1894, a Chicago newspaper related investment advice from the fabled Baron Rothschild. The advice was originally given by him to an investor in 1871 during a period of unrest in Paris:
It is related that in the old days of the Commune in Paris a panic-stricken investor turned up in the office of M. de Rothschild and exclaimed: “You advise me to buy securities now. You are my enemy. The streets of Paris run with blood.”
And Rothschild’s answer was this: “My dear friend, if the streets of Paris were not running with blood do you think you would be able to buy at the present prices?”
…
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