Bits Bucket for December 31, 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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Drill baby, drill. BP needs the profits.
By CHRIS KAHN
NEW YORK (AP) - For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world’s biggest gas guzzler, is - wait for it - fuel.
…the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels….”
We need $2 gas again so Lucky Ducky can afford to commute to his three jobs that pay 50% of what he was making at one job before getting laid off.
$2 gas? I’m not counting on it. Exporting all the surplus will prevent that.
That and the gas tax.
Gas tax revenues have fallen right along with falling gas consumption (funny how that is) so one should expect the gas tax rate to eventually rise to make up for the shortfall.
I say “eventually” because such a rise in a tax rate is a political decision as well as an economic decision.
Maybe after next year’s election. (I look for a lot of “interesting” things to happen after next year’s election).
Well … you don’t need to drill to refine. Importing crude, refining it and reexporting it as engine fuel is an activity where we actually add value, where we take a raw material (even if it’s imported) and “manufacture” it into a finished product.
I do suspect that this situation is temporary and that our “trading partners” were caught with their pants down and are furiously building their own refineries to meet their own surging demand for engine fuel.
Surplus refining capacity. Perma growth fell on its face.
There it is.
No money for gas consumption translates to surplus refining capacity.
True for gas, true for many things.
Deflation, baby.
They’ll just shut down some refineries once they can’t export the surplus, probably the older ones that require more upgrades and repairs. Or they might even dismantle them and ship them overseas.
FWIW, gas bottomed out here at $2.90, even with the surplus inventory. Take a few refineries offline and voila, gas will be back to around $4, if not higher.
“Deflation, baby.”
I believe you, I really do, but I’d like to see it translate at the pump and I’m not seeing it. Prices for things, especially essentials, are pretty much controlled anymore. Didn’t price fixing used to be a crime?
Let’s define the terms precisely and then you’ll see the “logic”.
Inflation is the increase in credit available in the system as determined by mark-to-market prices (the latter term is extraordinarily important so pay careful note.)
Deflation is the repudiation of past credit again as determined by mark-to-market.
Rising prices are a symptom of inflation. They are not inflation per-se. (Again, important point. Take note.)
Ditto with deflation.
And yes, you’re seeing deflation. House prices as measured as percentage of your income have collapsed, have they not?
“Prices for things, especially essentials, are pretty much controlled anymore.”
There is a steady demand for essentials (because, well, they are essential) so it makes sense that the price for essentials should not fall off.
Not ruling out your term “controlled”, which may be true in many cases, but the laws of Supply and Demand, because they are very powerful, generally hold sway over prices. Maybe not immediately but eventually.
Example: There was a post here just the other day about a pizza guy who doubled his prices to make up for the revenue shortfall due to decreased demand.
“I’m not seeing it”
Perhaps focused too close in. The price of credit based assets are steadily eroding globaly. This dwarfs the echo bubble in gasoline and peanut butter.
BTW, I commented years ago here that the price of single malt scotch was not reacting to the financial crisis. It is now.
IMO there is a bit of irony contained in the report of the pizza guy raising prices becuse of diminished demand:
In times of expansion the pizza guy would cut his prices in order to garner more customers - to add to his customer base. This would be a long-range plan of his that would translate to lower prices for his customers. Also, because the times were one of expansion, other pizza guys would arrive on the scene and, becuse of competition between them, prices would be kept low.
Low prices = lots of volume = lots of money going into the register. This works out well for the pizza guys in times of expansion.
But in times of contraction (where we are now) the pizza guy’s focus isn’t in attracting new customers; His focus is in economic survival. He is desperate to meet his expenses. And the only way to meet his expenses is to keep the revenue stream steady, and the only way he can keep his revenue stream steady when his customer base is dropping off is to raise his prices.
So, in this case, an economic contraction translates to higher prices.
But eventually the pizza guy will go out of business because his customer base will drop below the tipping point of economic survival. And after he goes out of business there will be one less pizza guy offering pizzas, which will help the remaining pizza guys keep their prices up.
Conceiveably this could go on until there is only one pizza guy left in town, which means he will have the pizza monopoly and will be able to charge any price that he likes, an it is very likely that that price would be a high one.
The price of parmigiano-reggiano has eroded almost continuously since the end of the bubble.
Priced in inflated dollars, it has all but collapsed.
Same for almost all top-end products (olive oil, serious anchovies, etc.)
Your story about my pizza guy serves to remind us why “same stores” sales continue to go up while the economy drifts down.
Has anyone else seen gas prices going down in at gas stations that are a little bit out of the way? I picked up some dumplings on Christmas Eve and the place is a little further out 355 than I usually get. Got gas for $3.10. It was always cheaper there than it is down here, but I think that the premium for getting gas close to home has gone up.
Groceries are definitely higher than they were, but I’m seeing the sale frequency come back (though the sale price is still higher than the sale prices used to be).
Warning, seems that the drought and farmers planting fewer peanuts because they thought they could make more off other crops means that peanut butter is expected to go way up.
“BTW, I commented years ago here that the price of single malt scotch was not reacting to the financial crisis. It is now.”
Data, please!
I know the world of higher-end wine has been HUGELY impacted by the downturn. Labels you simply could not get easily (e.g. sold to mailing-list only, and sold out) are now no longer selling out, and making it to the general public.
Do you understand the notion “budget constraint”?
I hate to point this to macro-economics kinda-thinkers but I’m a micro-economics kinda-guy stuck badly in a macro-economics kinda-world (something that has served me well but that’s neither here nor there.)
Unless incomes increase, the more squeeze on the “monthly nut” means more foreclosures not less. That spells deflation, baby! (read above.)
“House prices as measured as percentage of your income have collapsed, have they not?”
Unfortunately, yes in many areas, no where we want to live.
“There is a steady demand for essentials (because, well, they are essential) so it makes sense that the price for essentials should not fall off.”
What if many households’ budget constraints prevent them from buying as many ‘essentials’ as they used to (e.g. as much ‘housing’)? Shouldn’t prices drop off in that case?
“I hate to point this to macro-economics kinda-thinkers but I’m a micro-economics kinda-guy stuck badly in a macro-economics kinda-world…”
You my economist brotha from another motha!
The one thing I’ve noticed is that oj, and many of the fruits and veg that I buy haven’t changed in price. Grain and cereal have gone up. It again makes me suspect market manipulation, ie people are storing grain. A little harder to store fruit and veg for long periods of time.
You my economist brotha from another motha!
You’re too scared to use your “celebrity” (= logic.)
Among the right people (one more time that’s “micro” not “macro”), I’m like a demi-god within a small portion of India, Philippines, Thailand, etc.
Saving people from disaster delivers real results, you know?
Amazing food for a starter.
Gawr, I miss all of the food - India/Philippines/Thailand - I wish i could just live there all the time - impossible minus Star Trek “transporter”, I know!
‘You’re too scared to use your “celebrity” (= logic.)’
Maybe not so much scared as clueless. I tend to suffer the fate of perceiving many things that others miss, but lacking the strength of conviction to act on what seems obvious to me.
Unless incomes increase, the more squeeze on the “monthly nut” means more foreclosures not less. That spells deflation, baby! (read above.)
Would you say that will still be true if the FED is making lenders whole?
“I tend to suffer the fate of perceiving many things that others miss, but lacking the strength of conviction to act on what seems obvious to me.”
I tend to suffer from similar perception, but it is not for lack of strength of conviction that I do not act; it is more that the outcome is obvious, but the timing is less clear.
Would you say that will still be true if the FED is making lenders whole?
Did you fail Logic 101?
Unless the Fed is giving money to pay the “monthly nut”, what do you think, O Great Financial Genius?
Did you fail Logic 101?….what do you think, O Great Financial Genius?
IDK, but maybe being insulting is the way “real financial geniuses” from NYC answer questions nowadays.
K, but maybe being insulting is the way “real financial geniuses” from NYC answer questions nowadays.
It’s the Socratic method, b!tch!
Sorry to be so far down here, but this is directed to Puss–
“…Inflation is the increase in credit available in the system as determined by mark-to-market prices….”
It would appear that virtually unlimited credit is available to the banking system (mark-to-market notwithstanding,) yet very little of that is reaching the consumer. Which would you say is actually driving the economy?
ahansen,
But you answered your own question!
Unlimited credit may be available but it’s not accessible. You need credible collateral for that.
There is none. Everything from future job income to grandma’s jewels have been pawned.
Unless you tell me what the source of future credit growth is, I stand by my logic.
ahansen,
Oooops! I didn’t answer your real question. I answered the question you imagined you asked instead of what you did ask (assuming I understood it all.)
Let’s start at the beginning (a very good place to start, as they said in “The Sound of Music”.)
There are always basic needs, and we do the ol’ swaperoo for that. You are good at making shoes and I’m a shoo-in for making bread so we swap.
It’s always convenient to have an intermediary since you need bread all the time but I only need shoes once a year, and that’s how money arises. It’s a medium to do intra-temporal transfers of “stuff”.
Still with me?
Now, it doesn’t take too long before everyone goes Wimpy on the stuff (”I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”.)
That’s called credit.
But there’s a price to credit - that’s the interest rate.
What the FED is doing is driving the interest rate below what the free market would support and that’s the problem. The problem is not banking. It’s that the funding of banking is not free-market but rigged. (Yeah, there’s the problem of bailouts but that’s a symptom not a cause if you think through it all the way.)
Ergo, to answer a question the very long way, the current economy is actually being driven by what it should be driven by anyway. Real wants not credit and wish-me wants.
We will always need the basics, and we will pay for it.
“You need credible collateral for that.
There is none.”
Wouldn’t a real housing bottom, as opposed to a fake, government-stabilized temporarily high plateau, be just the ticket for making collateral once again credible?
“What the FED is doing is driving the interest rate below what the free market would support and that’s the problem.”
Aside from bailing out Megabank, Inc by offering them loans on a discriminatory basis at an interest rate below what the (bailout-free) free market would want, what is the advantage of driving the interest rate so low? Doesn’t it largely shut down the private market for loanable funds, but making it more attractive to leave money under the mattress than to loan it out?
“…it is more that the outcome is obvious, but the timing is less clear.”
That’s where explicit and covert market-distorting bailouts can really muck things up. When greater fools who made epically inane financial investments are made whole due to their crony capitalist connections, somebody else has to pay the price. If you aren’t on the inside of the crony capitalist club, that somebody is most likely you.
“It’s the Socratic method, b!tch!”
Socrates taught by asking questions, but I never got the impression that he asked insulting questions…
Socrates taught by asking questions, but I never got the impression that he asked insulting questions…
Firstly, any info about Socrates is, at best, dubious so that’s just your opinion, dude/dudette!
Secondly, this is the FPSS™ update on the Socratic method. One should always strive to do better.
Thirdly, I note that you didn’t refute the questions or even the logic of the questions themselves just the tone. So there’s a problem right there.
Finally, I was being snarky to “Brazil Bubble Boy” not trying to be insulting to the original questioner (although that might have been lost in translation!)
I shall try and be nicer. Maybe that can be my New Year’s resolution.
Re: (1) dude.
Re: (2)
Re: (3) “Did you fail logic” doesn’t really take one down an interesting exploratory avenue, which was generally Socrates goal. I thought drummin’s question was a reasonable one; I would restate it as “is the deflationary for cited larger or smaller than the inflationary force of the Fed shoveling cash into the system by propping up the banks?”
“I shall try and be nicer. Maybe that can be my New Year’s resolution.”
We can’t have a puddy-tat that’s de-clawed; how would it defend itself!? And more importantly, how would it continue to entertain me so thoroughly???
Finally, I was being snarky to “Brazil Bubble Boy”
Your logic is flawed. Listing 12 unchallenged facts pertaining to the Brazilian economy (as opposed to your unsupported, inane vulgarity) does not make one a bubble blower.
What time did you start drinking today?
It’s good to see a few people on this site have a brain. I saw a comment posted about a week back about how America had plenty of oil because we “exported” gas….not OIL, gas. I almost fell over.
We have some of the VERY expensive refineries. Folks in other countries don’t. WE make the gas and send it back refined.
Give the do-gooders in the Obama administration a little more time and they will shut down some of these refineries because the discharge vapors into the atmosphere.
Remember, Obama favors expensive gasoline. Just wait and watch.
I would like a cite that “Obama favors expensive gasoline”.
I’m normally apolitical but this is some serious bullsh!t of the very worst kind.
Cite me. I want documentation, baby!
this is a FACT and goes to the very heart of what Obama thinks……here’s a short (less than minute) clip of OBama being interviewed as prices are rising.
He has always said he prefers higher prices to help reduce fuel consumption and force the world onto “green energy” alternatives.
Since he is an imbecile and knows nothing about physics, economics, environment or life in general, except how to use government to extort money from one group to give to another, you can expect no other “ideas”, but we need to “fix it”. He doesn’t know how. He never will.
LINK:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M1WlV7vafk&feature=related
A Utube video. How quickly we forget.
oBAMA ENERGY POLICY is make gas cost more. you buy prius.
Obama also wants higher taxes on everyone. I remember one election stop. He said he wanted businesses such as oil companies like Exxon Mobile to pay higher taxes. Naturally he did not explain to the audience that taxes are overhead and get added to the price every gallon of gas. But he’s either ignorant of business or intentionally deceptive. Reminds of realtors who say they don’t cost buyers anything. Who brings the money to the table?
At time of the election the oil companies were enjoying record profits. Ane he does not understand the oil is one of those very cyclical industries that go through booms and busts. Typical free spending political that knows all about spending money and little or nothing about how it’s created or earned. But hey, he can “organize” communites.
Remember, Obama favors expensive gasoline.
So does big oil.
BP was Obama’s biggest single campaign contributor. Goldman Sachs was #2. Their investments have paid off handsomely. For the small-donor hope ‘n change lemmings, not so much.
…and total dollar amount of individual contributions outnumbered the corporate ones combined.
Hey faster how about OHbahnma hates black people?
There are lots more in jail and on parole since he took office. and not a peep on solving the Ebonics problem, or the lack of baby daddies taking care of their kids, or knifing people and stealing their air jordans
If one compares other countries, including China & India the cost of gas is more like $6/gallon. The taxes are quite high. And in Scandinavian countries gas is more than $8/gal. Turkey was the highest in 2010 (I can’t find the data for 2011) at almost $11/gal.
US’s days of cheap gas is over - when about 1.5 years ago the $4 barrier was tested - the tolerance level was quite high. In the end it means changing driving habits and making a living offering services (those that generally cruise for offering services at the margin). Personally, I think this is a good sign.
It’s not drill baby drill it’s refine baby refine. We’re still importing massive amounts of oil and we are still a net importer of petroleum products by a large margin.
Never forget that “supply and demand” affecting prices in the oil and gas industry is bullcrap.
…as with most industries.
“stabilize” = weasel word…
Housing’s New Hope
Published: Thursday, 29 Dec 2011 | 11:52 AM ET
By: Diana Olick
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
I’m not sure if it’s that usual New Year’s Eve optimism evoked by the generic philosophy that the grass is always greener on the other side of the calendar year, or perhaps the emotional need to dig ourselves out of what has surely been one of the more lugubrious periods in the U.S. economy, but there is some hope in housing.
A few positive readings in home sales and housing starts recently, topped off by today’s 7.4 percent monthly jump in contracts to buy existing homes, are fueling what I dare say is a spark, albeit not a fire. They are also managing to trump what was a particularly opposing reading in home prices from the number crunchers at S&P/Case-Shiller this week.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to dump a bunch of coal on the numbers and claim they’re all spurious in some way; I’m all prepared to be munificent, while chary (did I mention my new year’s resolution is to improve my family’s vocabulary, as well as banish “like” from my kids’ lexicon.) I will note that even the Realtors, while touting affordability and pent-up demand, note that many of these new signed contracts are the result of delayed transactions.
“Contract failures have been running unusually high,” notes National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Some of the increase in pending home sales appears to be from buyers recommitting after an initial contract ran into problems, often with the mortgage,” he said.
Then there is a big story in the Wall Street Journal today of hedge funds putting their money back in housing, suggesting that while the numbers aren’t all there for a big win, these funds are usually ahead of big market shifts, so the housing surge must be on its way. I’ve spoken to some of these hedge fund types as well, and they seem to be playing on the surging rental market for now, getting the bargains but not expecting any big “flipping” returns any time soon.
“Bottom line, whether due to even lower prices, historically low mortgage rates, falling inventory and a better tone to the labor market or a combination of all, the housing market is showing signs of stabilizing,” says Peter Boockvar at Miller Tabak. “I say stabilize instead of bottom, as its too early to make that claim just yet with still a huge amount of foreclosures that hasn’t worked its way through the judicial system and prices that haven’t likely stopped going down as a result.”
…
Hope for dopes!
Always works.
Maybe perhaps it’ll stabilize and maybe perhaps the unicorn will cr@p rainbow-colored candy.
Incidentally, he said “stabilize instead of bottom.” I really want to know what the difference is. Anybody? Anybody?
stabilize: controlled descent.
A “descent” is “stable”?!?
Since when?
Forgive my exceedingly literal mind but if the first derivative is negative, it doesn’t exactly strike me as “stable”.
“Stabilize” is the Housing Crime Syndicates favorite word to diminish the publics fear of falling housing prices and to get suckers to buy into a falling market.
Watch your wallet and look for a Iying reaItor when you hear the word.
Stability is where you find it, even if it’s in the second derivative.
Is it like the end of an epic dump when it’s almost all emptied out but there’s still quite a bit left?
The second derivative is slowing down but it’s still coming down the p00p-chute, and it’s gonna be epic!
Is that how that word “stabilize” works?
I need a metaphor to accompany my math.
How about something to do with a flaming red hot poker in the asymptote?
You’re so crude! How about some subtlety, buddy?
Sorry, I got excited.
Point to Blue Skye!
Sorry, I got excited.
You got excited about a red-hot poker in the asymptote?!?
Wow, just wow.
Oh, sheesh, give it up, Puss. You lost that round.
You win some, you lose most. Alas!
HAH! You may be a vicious winner, but you ARE a gracious loser. Hat’s off to ya!
“You’re so crude! How about some subtlety, buddy?”
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAA (tm: fpss)
Too funny! FPSS, has someone hacked your account???
“I need a metaphor to accompany my math.”
Here’s one for you: an airplace, upon losing its engine, becomes a glider. However, it can still make a nice, well-stabilized approach to landing.
I was always funny (if subtle.)
Your Prime is not quite contained. It’s totally exposed, you know!
“I was always funny (if subtle.)”
Too true! But your schadenfreude was so exuberant that I would have expected you to approve of the poker comment!
“Your Prime is not quite contained. It’s totally exposed, you know!”
LOL!!! Whoops! (zippering sounds)
“Stability is where you find it, even if it’s in the second derivative.”
I predict the second derivative will ‘destabilize’ towards the negative direction at some point before we are out of the woods (e.g. between 2012-2016).
Incidentally, he said “stabilize instead of bottom.” I really want to know what the difference is. Anybody? Anybody?
I’m guessing that “stabilize” == “controlled descent” as opposed to a crash. They know they can’t stop the descent, so now they’re aiming for a “soft landing” (or any landing where the plane does not burst into flames)
‘“stabilize instead of bottom.” I really want to know what the difference is.’
Weasel words = same concept, disguised by different terms…
“Incidentally, he said “stabilize instead of bottom.” I really want to know what the difference is.”
It’s like the above example of the oil industry. Keep prices high by any means necessary even though demand is less and less and inventory is increasing.
I’m interested in the following condo in downtown Austin, but inventory is very low and prices have gone up quite a bit in the last year :-/
54 Rainey ST # 1111, Austin, TX 78701, MLS# 5267264
1br/1ba condo…756 sq ft
Listed in March 09 for $250k
Price changed to $210k in May 09
Listed removed in August 09 - Unsold
Unit #1111 was re-listed for $240k in Nov 11
FYI
Unit #1011 was foreclosed and sold for $177k in Sept 10… Same floor plan, just one floor down
There is saying used south of the border: “El que quiera azul celeste, que le cueste”
Loosely translated it means: “He who wants sky blue, will have to pay for it.”
Sounds like Texas yuppies all want to live in downtown Austin, instead of a having a McMansion with a Suburban and an F-350 in the driveway.
Downtown Austin is party central.
The place is hopping even on Sunday nights.
Just right for vain arrogant yuppies.
I’m interested in the following condo in downtown Austin, but inventory is very low and prices have gone up quite a bit in the last year :-/
What ever happened to Brett? He was looking at/renting downtown condos. Haven’t seen him around in a while.
Imagine there’s no Deadbeats
It’s easy if you try
No loan applications
Where it`s OK to lie
Imagine all those people were not living free
Imagine there was no First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
It isn’t hard to do
No reason to keep house prices artificially inflated
And no Bernanke too
Imagine all the people putting 20% down
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And this cr@p will all be done
Imagine no Robo signers
I wonder if you can
No need for victim`s stories
Or another workout plan
Imagine all the people paying all their bills
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I still do hope to see
Banksters jailed and the Deadbeats all
Paying rent just like you and me
Bravo!
Imagine all the people putting 20% down
Imagine people having a real job without the need for a Masters Degree
Imagine not working 3 menial, no benefits part time jobs while the President grins his approval and calls your desperate situation “Uniquely American”.
Imagine a nation where half the population isn’t living in or near poverty.
Imagine a nation where we don’t have 80 million people eligible for foodstamps and almost 50 million collecting them.
It must be nice to live in Colorado where everyone pays their mortgage or is evicted in 90 days and everyone who is living in or near poverty got there through no fault of their own.
When I have more time I will tell you about the townhouse me and my guys cleaned out yesterday after the people who were food stamp eligible were evicted and the story their neighbor told us. Until then…
Imagine a place in the United States where stuff like this happens every day.
DUI suspect in Christmas Eve crash never had license
By Toni-Ann Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:27 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, 2011
A 23-year-old man involved in a fatal Christmas Eve crash in suburban West Palm Beach told authorities that he has never had a driver license - a statement that is backed up by three traffic citations since 2006, records show.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies arrested Edson Ramirez-Jaimes at about 9:30 a.m. last Saturday on charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, DUI causing serious bodily injury and driving without a license.
The fatal crash left Phyllis Lamar-Cheema, 53, dead and sent Ramirez-Jaimes’ passenger, Angel Rodriguez, to the hospital.
Ramirez-Jaimes, of suburban West Palm Beach, sits in the Palm Beach County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Records show that in 2006, he was cited for not having a license, having an improper license or having a license that has been expired for more than four months. He made a plea agreement and a ruling was withheld.
In 2009 and again last year, Ramirez-Jaimes was cited for driving without a license. He was found guilty of the violations in court and paid a $200-plus fine in each case. But it also became clear he had never been issued a license.
Despite those run-ins with the law, the Red Lobster cook never bothered to get a license and continued to get behind the wheel.
That’s where he was Christmas Eve morning, allegedly after a night of drinking.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Ramirez-Jaimes was driving a red Toyota Corolla south in the 3300 block of North Military Trail, near Community Drive, when he struck the back of a Toyota SUV, which also was travelling south.
The SUV caught fire and began to flip and roll. Both vehicles crossed the median and came to rest in the northbound lanes - with the SUV upside down.
When deputies arrived at the scene, Ramirez-Jaimes was behind the steering wheel of the Corolla and a passenger was lying on the grass. The SUV was engulfed in flames.
A witness later told deputies that he saw Ramirez-Jaimes’ Corolla speeding through the intersection of Shiloh Drive and Military, just north of the crash site.
Lamar-Cheema, director of nursing services at Cresthaven East in West Palm Beach, died at the scene.
Ramirez-Jaimes, meanwhile, was uninjured and refused treatment. Deputies said he appeared intoxicated and agreed to give two samples of blood for testing.
According to the affidavit, as Ramirez-Jaimes walked to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue truck, he had to stop several times to regain his balance. He told deputies that he went to two clubs and had drinks and could not remember anything about driving.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/dui-suspect-in-christmas-eve-crash-never-had-2069469.html -
HAH! User comments are not being accepted on this article. Gee, I wonder why?
OK, illegal or anchor baby? My vote’s for anchor baby, given the first name of “Edson”. Illegal sows who can’t even speak English themselves like to give their kids “English” or “American” names. I was in a local mart a few weeks ago and one of these sows was chasing after her hyperactive kid and kept grunting “B’dyuhn, B’dyuhn” and I finally figured out she was saying “Brian”. L.M.A.O.!!
However, if he is in fact first generation illegal, I hope the victim’s family sues the daylights out of Red Lobster.
One of my buddies was nearly killed by one of these sows recently. He said he was just lucky there was no one in the lane next to him or he would have been dead. They both pulled into the parking lot of Walgreens, where he proceeded to scream at her every epithet in the book. People just sort of walked by with embarassed looks on their faces. She had no English, South Carolina plates and three kids in the car.
Actually, you’d be surprised at the fair amount of halfway American-sounding names I’ve run into in Latin America such as Wilson, Davey, etc.
Yeah, I read Michael Lewis’s article in Vanity Fair about Cuban baseball, and one player had a name (first and last)like one of the English poets of old, and yet spoke hardly a word of English himself.
We’ve been invaded, one womb at a time. I see it everyday I work at our County Hospital expansion. They are just pawns in this game imo. We could secure our border tonight if the PTB wanted it. They don’t.
“They are just pawns in this game imo.”
True. The blood of this woman is on the hands of various members of Congree, the executive and judicial branches of government.
“everyone who is living in or near poverty got there through no fault of their own”
Did I ever say that? Of course many are poor through their own fault.
Are you denying that we have offshored millions of good paying middle class jobs? Are you denying that this is the real root cause of our national predicament?
You seem to imply that we are where we are because half the populace are lazy, crooked bums who just need to get off their butts and find a middle class job. Never mind those jobs don’t exist. I still remember when the local Embassy Suites opened for business and they had a job fair, for mostly menial under $10/hr jobs. Over 2000 people showed up.
“When I have more time I will tell you about the townhouse me and my guys cleaned out yesterday after the people who were food stamp eligible were evicted and the story their neighbor told us. Until then…”
TEASE! Eagerly awaiting…
That’s just class-warfare crazy talk…
BTW is it crazy windy up in Fort Collins today like it is down here?
Oh yes. At least the snow is pretty much gone now.
Which is nice, because I’m headed back down from Wyoming today. The drive up a week ago was nasty between Cheyenne and Casper.
“Imagine there was no First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit”
That’s great! I’m imagining John Lennon trying to make that fit the meter. Good stuff.
I bet a lot of my 20-something co-workers who got their $8000 from Uncle Sugar last year and are now $20000+ underwater are imagining the same thing. Enjoy the sh*tshack and mortgage albatross, loosers…
looser = antonym of tighter
loser = antonym of winner
Gonna have a New Year’s Party. As always, probably a bit decadent but we need some of that around here (otherwise it all gets a little too woe-is-me-i-dont-have-an-anchor-around-me-neck-and-I-want-one around here.)
The menu:
Cheese platter (Stilton, Delice de Jura)
Figs w. Almonds, Rosemary & Sea-Salt
Spicy Pickled Mushrooms
Walnuts w. Rosemary & Sea-Salt
Olives
Figs w. Prosciutto
Plenty of Champagne, of course!
(The trick with figs - works with dates too - is to plump them in tea. Gives them a lot more “structure” because of the tannins and cuts down on the sweetness.)
Happy New Year, everyone!
“Cheese platter (Stilton, Delice de Jura)
Figs w. Almonds, Rosemary & Sea-Salt
Spicy Pickled Mushrooms
Walnuts w. Rosemary & Sea-Salt
Olives
Figs w. Prosciutto”
I am SO there. I’m not kidding, either. I love all of the above, although I’ve never had figs with prosciutto, sounds heavenly. Like that rosemary and sea salt combo, too.
Next time you’re in town.
I’m happy to give food tours of New York. You can eat here like a Roman emperor for next to nothing as long as you’re armed with a subway pass, and have no inhibitions anywhere and everywhere.
What beverages will you be serving?
Grüner Veltliner (white)
Dolcetto d’Alba (red)
Champagne
I tend to let these parties run free-form. There are the bottles. Serve yourself, etc.
Also, for riotous (or semi-riotous anyway) affairs, it’s not like a dinner party. Your job has been done. Now get out of the way!
The correct question is what music will I be playing!
“The correct question is what music will I be playing!”
What music will you be playing?
Not sure. (You walked into that trap!)
Last time, it was music from the 20’s and 30’s and before you knew it, my living-room floor had been cleared and everyone was swing-dancing and jitterbugging the night away.
(The neighbors were neutralized by being invited to the bash.)
So you never know…
OK, do the eighties this year. Drag out The Lexicon of Love, etc.
I lived through the 80’s!
Do I really wanna hear Duran Duran and Dire Straits again?
Well, maybe. Who knows?
(Not that nostalgic.)
“Do I really wanna hear Duran Duran and Dire Straits again?”
Feh, no. ABC, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, Japan, Prince, that sort of thing. Probably too late for this, but you could call your invitees and tell them to cobble together some 80s garb. Martin Fry gives some excellent 80s fashion tips on line.
I personally hate pleated pants, but ah, those shoulders!
If my daughter gets into NYU (albeit a long shot), and we pay NYC a visit, you can expect us to come a calling…
Sounds like a plan.
Yours won’t be the first daughter that I’ve “disenchanted” but once she is “reoriented”, she’ll understand what New York has to offer, and she’ll drag you to unknown places!
LOL
BTW, I will drag you to Juillard down the street so you can see hipsters play Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez in their sleep.
I hope to depress you over musical technique!
“I hope to depress you over musical technique!”
No worries about that — I have been around the block quite a few times in my life. I play music regularly with people who are much better than me and others who are far worse than me.
If I were delusional about my skills, then I would have long ago joined the army of greater fools who struggle to make a living by playing music.
No gallons of Ripple?
I hate to toot my horn but it’s the end of the year so what the heck?
Never drank p1ss even when I was a student. Had figured out tons of arbitrage strategies around wine back then. (They are far fewer now but they still exist!)
My brains (+ car) and my buddies’ muscle and willingness to trust me financially meant that we never drank plonk.
Knowledge is power.
If there are fireworks in the park outside my window after 9pm this evening, I will call the police. In Phoenix, Chandler, and Tempe it is illegal to set them off. I have to wake early Sunday to head back to Florida. Last year the idiots were in the park for over a couple hours. They will anticipate no cops this year then. Ha!
Try to enjoy your money. You can’t take it with you!
(Something that Oly tried to explain to you but you clearly didn’t register the message.)
PS :- I’m vastly richer than you but if I were you, I’d buy a crapload of fireworks, grab the kids (and their parents), head to the Hudson Pier and set off all of them. The sheer joy of doing something fun for its own bloody sake is not to be missed. It would be a pathetic life without it!
Yah, to he’ll with disturbing the peace of other neighbors. Why worry about them anyway? I get you.
YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!
Better yet, plump them in a smoky cognac and serve them with those black walnuts and some chevre from your cheese tray. Gllllllaaaaaaaccccggggg…fiiiiiiiigggggsss.
Why are you tormenting me with competing ideas?
It’s bad enough to commit to a menu and execute it.
You are making me second-guess.
There’s a special circle in hell (Dante notwithstanding) for people like you!
“…There’s a special circle in hell….”
Burp. Yes. There is. We call it the McDonald’s Ring….
I will be celebrating (if you can call it that given the gastronomic austerity,) with a group of PETA vegans–even their dog-children are enforced vegetarian. Fortunately they understand the vine and bring lovely central coastal reds with them. I’m grilling a plump little pheasant for myself and will enjoy it pre-party along with a nice Tattinger my father sent as a Christmas present. For them? I’m bringing white beans with garden thyme, olive oil, garlic, and sea salt to eat on their stone-milled pita bread.
Munch a few nuts for me, Puss. And HAPPY NEW YEAR’s EVE!
Madre de dios!
You had to mention white beans, didn’t you, you little tart?
I must be descended from the mangia-fagioli. I have a Tuscan soul.
Gawr, I want some beans now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a good thing I’m headed to India in a few weeks.
“The McDonalds Ring”
Oh I gotta remember that one.
Love it!
The figs, not the children.
Well. THAT thread got discombobulated….
Sounds like a great party and excellent food.
Happy New Year FPSS.
Oh does that sound good! Happy New Year!
Happy New Year all. 2012 looks like a great year for the Blue Skye. Plans are underway for the Trent Severne/North Bay cruise, a big dream adventure for me and my crew.
Wells F accepted my cheap cheap offer on a shortsale little building in the village and the next couple months will be spent getting my shop out of storage and setting up my studio. Low cost digs and celebration of living without “obligations”. Urban camping in the winter and cruising in the summer. Pass the popcorn.
Congrats on the purchase!
Hey Blue, was this the house you had mentioned sometime back that someone had already gutted, and that both you and your son could use as studio space?
Congrats on your purchase!
It’s good to see some good deals finally coming to those who waited…
Yes, that is the one. I think it will work out fine for both of us.
Awesome!
YAY!
(Does happy dance for Blue)
This is from April 2010, would you smart people say it has gone up or down from $10 Billion a Month Freed up Each Month from People not paying their Mortgage since then?
..$10 Billion a Month Freed up Each Month from People not paying their Mortgage. $1.9 Billion of That is in California so People can continue Leasing their SUV Mercedes and Getting Tans. Thanks Bailouts!
22 Apr 2010 …
Source: Census, MBA
The latest data tells us that over 14 percent of all U.S. mortgages are either 30+ days late or in some stage of foreclosure. In other words, 7.2 million people are not paying their mortgages. Yet banks are turning out record profits even though they are bleeding in their real estate cash-flow. Now let us run a hypothetical here. The median mortgage payment of those 51 million mortgages is $1,514. This is actual stimulus for people if you don’t pay that each month. If you aren’t paying your mortgage you just relieved yourself of your biggest monthly commitment. So let us run a rough number:
$1,514 x 7.2 million = $ 10,931,916,697
So this frees up some $10 billion each month (this is a rough number). This seems close to what Mark Zandi has calculated:
$10 billion a month freed up from not paying mortgages. No wonder why retail spending has jumped up recently.
http://www.mybudget360.com/mortgages-non-payment-10-billion-dollars-month-free-thanks-bailouts/ - 103k -
Uh … don’t you need sterling credit to lease a car? And if you don’t pay your mortgage your credit will get dinged big time. If it’s any consolation once the lease expires on their Benz and they turn it in they won’t be getting another one. More likely they will have to take out a high interest car loan to buy a Kia. And perhaps by then they will have been evicted and will have to pay rent as well. And the bad credit will haunt them in other ways (auto insurance, job background checks).
So of the $10 billion in non-payer stimulus, California receives roughly 20 percent of the cut. And what are people doing with this money?
“(CNBC) The person had an $1,880.00 monthly mortgage payment on which they’d defaulted, but said person’s monthly bank statement showed payments to a tanning salon, nail spa, liquor stores, DirecTV bill with premium charges, and $1,700.00 in retail purchases from The Gap, Old Navy, Home Depot, Sears, etc.”
“And if you don’t pay your mortgage your credit will get dinged big time.”
Someone I know who strategic-defaulted still gets pre-approved credit-card offers in the mail.
Strange world.
The market is booming(?),
But where are the buyers?,
Inventory is looming,
ReaItors Are Liars.
Poetry for the New Year as opposed to the just the bare unadorned phrase?
It’s not that I care for rhyming but prosody demands that you at least take into account, the role of metre into making it work.
A little assonance and metre (dum-um-da-dee-da-da) make your message go a lot further!
The market may be booming,
But where are all the buyers?
Inventory’s looming,
Realtors are Liars.
Beautiful. Is that a hai ku?
It’s beautiful. It’s truthful.
Thank you for the reminder Ahansen.
You’re surrounded by inflationistas. They are robbing you blind. They want more.
“You’re surrounded by inflationistas. They are robbing you blind. They want more.”
There’s no time to worry about that now. I’ve got to get ready to watch Dick Clark drool all over himself while the ball drops in Times Square.
Let Freedom Ring!
sarcoff
A rather remarkable article. I’m not always in agreement with Stiglitz, but I have to admit, he does a very good analysis of the paralells between the Depression and the present, causes and possible cures. Much as I hate to admit it, he won me over to the idea of government having a role to play, instead of fiddling while the country burns.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/stiglitz-depression-201201
$15 Trillion in total government debt…
40% of every government dollar spent is borrowed…
The 2012 US budget is equal to 100% of GDP…
How much more fiddling do you want?
he won me over to the idea of government having a role to play, instead of fiddling while the country burns.
So, you drank the Koolaid. Government is the reason for all the problems. They didn’t do their primary job..enforce the law.
They have spent the last 4 decades increasing social spending and stealing from working people, while “creating” jobs in the war industry and support structures. and providing free health care, food and lodging to millions. That is not their “job”.
KILL THE FED, and we could get the economy working again.
They are creating a DEBT problem that will plague the nation and the world for decades.
But, i guess that’s okay. The majority of the population will all be “equally” poor.
Read something by Lew Rockwell, instead.
So, you drank the Koolaid. Government is the reason for all the problems.
TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich and our wars will account for over half of our public debt by 2019. The weakening of our jobs base and our declining wages (which has benefited the super-rich) have also lowered our tax base which has added substantially to the public debt.
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/the-best-of-cbpp-graphics/
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cb61.png
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cb7.png
TheBushTaxCutsForTheRich? Oh yes, you mean the taxpayers who pay a disproportiately high share of the taxes.
So lower taxes contribute to pubic debt? Silly me. I thought borrowing caused debt. Spending needs to match the already high amount of taxes paid by all taxpayers.
For years I never could understand (some) of the left’s hated for religious types. It occured to me why a couple of years ago. Churches typcially want 10% of one’s income. God can get by on 10%. So it really highlights the greed of the bleeding heart spendthrifts.
So lower taxes contribute to pubic debt? Silly me.
Yes. Silly you.
BushTaxCutsforTheRich and Bush’s Wars account for nearly half the public debt by 2019.
Budgets have two components in every world but the Republican’s world. Why is that?
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cb7.png
Sorry to bring up taxes and politics so much on our housing blog - of course they’re inter-related. But I just don’t get this mentality of gee someone else has more money then me. Let’s just help ourselves to it.
Sure life has inequities but that’s life. Additionally really rich people besides paying millions in taxes also do lots of charity work. Look at the Gates Foundation. What do you think will have more impact? The work the GF does or if the money was taxed and dropped into the federal treasury for the politicians and bureaucrats to spend?
Rio, you, Warren Buffett, and anyone else is welcome to pay more taxes and donate to treasury. Start putting your money where your mouths are and stop trying to pick other peoples’ pockets. You and Buffett are all about yes, taxes are great for someone else to pay.
But I just don’t get this mentality of gee someone else has more money then me. Let’s just help ourselves to it.
Rio, you, Warren Buffett, and anyone else is welcome to pay more taxes and donate to treasury.
Not only are you consistently wrong on most of your talking-point opinions (which I enjoy countering with raw facts that you can’t counter) but you sound like an AM radio parrot. I’m serious, it’s so predictable. (And totally unsupported by the facts of the real world)
But dittos dude!
Report from my week long ski trip in Vermont. Drove through alot of the state.
Vermont is still in a bubble.
Nothing fancy newer 3 bd/2 bath SFH in the middle of no-where going for $300k.
Older homes with some land that needs lots of work = $500,000.
No jobs ANYWHERE except for service positions on the slopes, antique stores, candle shops and outlet malls.
Where do the people get the money? Is it all “from NYC?”
I have no idea on the property taxes.
Taxes in the slopes were 17% on lodging and lift tickets…
Snow was OK – lift lines were short.
Expensive sport. I do not see it “recovering” any time soon.
Where you anywhere near Okemo?
“And, if you were unsure before your arrival in this quintessential New England town, you now fervently agree that the Village of Woodstock, Vermont is indeed “The Prettiest Small Town in America”.
For over 200 years, the focal point of Woodstock Village has been the famed site of what is now known as the Woodstock Inn. The original structure was built in 1792, and in 1874 tourists were inspired to flock to the area via “The Woodstock Car” - a rail car that departed nightly from Grand Central Station in New York City. In 1969, after being approached to renovate the then existing structure, Laurance S. Rockefeller (grandson of John D. Rockefeller) deemed the old inn unsalvageable and replaced it with the current, stately structure.
The Rockefellers have been friends of Woodstock for generations, and in 1998, Lady Bird Johnson and Laurance S. Rockefeller attended the dedication ceremony of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park - a 550-acre forest surrounding the M-B-R Mansion, with interpretive tours denoting the history of conservation and the evolving nature of land stewardship. Similarly, the nearby Vermont Institute of Natural Science offers a Raptor Center, with its goal being to protect Vermont’s natural heritage through education, research, and the active care of our environment.”
http://www.vtliving.com/towns/woodstock/wonders.shtml
Austin Peay is playing Morehead State today.
Let`s go Peay!
I attended Austin Peay for 3 semesters after graduating from the 101st ABN. I recall one of the frat guy cheers being “Show your Peay-ness!”.
Capital Steps – New Year’s Eve Special
Help us ring-in 2012 by making fun of 2011 with The Capitol Steps and their annual year-in-review awards ceremony called “Politics Takes a Holiday!” This year will feature all new awards, such as: “Biggest Clueless Middle Eastern Dictator Who Thought ‘Arab Spring’ Was Just a Trending Fashion,” “Best Not Just Any Committee But a SUPER Committee,” “Most GOP Debates Ever Held Ever,” and “Worst Place to Hide Your Mistress While Serving as Governor of California.”
This show was most enjoyable. It raised my hopes that Herman Cain will enter another presidential race at some future point, as the humor potential is immense!
Comment by bill in Phoenix and Tampa
2011-12-30 17:39:31
Don’t mind the peanut gallery b-hamster. They hate self-made wealth and want only the unearned.
bill, I found your comment a bit ironic, considering that my impression is you eventually hope to be financially-independent and live on the “unearned” income from your investments.
Me too, btw.
‘“unearned” income from your investments.’
If he worked and saved all his life, how is this income ‘unearned’?
That’s what the IRS calls it…
If the IRS calls it ‘unearned,’ wouldn’t that be a fairly strong indication that it was actually ‘earned’?
Praise Gawd I am feeling so enjoyably cantankerous today! It’s a healthy sign the New Year will be a happy one.
LOL! Good point, PB!
Unless of course you inherited the capital that generated the “unearned” income.
Maybe what we need is different tax treatment of gains on earned (e.g. worked for, saved, and invested) vs unearned (e.g. inherited) income.
“Maybe what we need is different tax treatment of gains on earned (e.g. worked for, saved, and invested) vs unearned (e.g. inherited) income.”
So, you want to…at a guess…double the number of IRS agents so they can do lots of extra audits to determine whether interest income is tied to money that was saved, vs. gifted? Will they give priority to “gifted” over “earned” so that If my parents paid $20K to my education after I turned 18 and I have more than $20K then at least $20K is automatically attributed to a gift and a proportional amount of my interest income is unearned? Or is it the other way around so that it is assumed that you stop owning your gifts first? What about the income on the gifts if the person paid a financial adviser to make money off it? Does that make it earned?
And you want to have to keep financial records back to your birth of all gifts and expenditures so you can prove whether you earned your savings or not? And you want everyone in the country to have to do this?
I hope you plan to call the law the Full Employment for Tax Accountants Act. Seriously. And let me know if you think you can get it passed. I want to buy stock in companies that make pitchforks.
Seriously, we couldn’t pass a bill where Treasury would be able to ID businesses that reported less in gross receipts than they received in payments from credit cards sponsored by a few huge banks. You think anyone would even look twice at a proposal like that?
polly, I never said we could get such an idea _passed_ as legislation. Many good ideas won’t make that bar.
The far simpler idea is to just tax all capital gains as income; it’s stupid simple to do that, but it will never pass either.
This more complex idea would also not be as impractical as you make it sound. We could simply create a new type of IRA, an inheritance IRA; we already do something similar with IRAs that are in fact inherited, and remain as IRAs.
If inheritance taxes can be avoided, and are punitive enough, people would jump at the chance to create and own the new type of account.
Regarding taxes, all we would need is a new flavor of 1099. The bigger challenge would be creating punitive enough inheritance taxes that the new accounts actually are advantageous. People will put up with some record-keeping and complexity for sufficient tax advantage.
The key is that the accounts actually have to be advantageous to their holders.
“Imputed rent” is a form of unearned income the tax man doesn’t see, doesn’t get his hands on.
IMO this is something a long-term homeowner should have set as a goal rather than cashing out equity and sharing the cash-out with the IRS.
Cashed-out equity nails the homeowner in sort of a hidden way in that it forces him to earn more money in order to maintain the standard of living he enjoyed before the cash-out.
If the homeowner gets to live for free (or almost free) in his paid-for home then he doesn’t need to earn as much money to have the same lifestyle as the guy who has to earn a lot of money so as to make the monthly house payment. And this is AFTER TAX money we are talking about.
If the extra money the guy needs to earn to pay for housing pushes him up into a higher tax bracket then it is not just the extra money for housing that needs to be earned, it’s also the extra money he’ll need for the higher taxes that he’ll need to earn.
The secret, IMHO, is to somehow keep one’s expenses low so that one’s earnings can be low. If one’s earnings can be low then he can enjoy a low tax bracket.
It’s not about not living well, it’s about not being forced to earn a lot to live well.
The is what Warren Buffet does. As far as the IRS is concerned he earns a hundred-thousand dollar a year, and this is what he pays taxes on.
50% of the time since 2000 I took advantage of legal ways for my earnings to appear low. Key word is “legal.”
He was born with seventeen gold bars in his @ss, and his mother extruded twenty-nine after him!
I feel sorry for you being a very disgusting individual.
Bingo!
“I hate to toot my horn but it’s the end of the year so what the heck?”…”My brains meant that we never drank plonk”…..”I’m like a demi-god”…. “I was always funny”….. “Yours won’t be the first daughter that I’ve “disenchanted”….”I’m vastly richer than you”…”I’m like a demi-god…” “PS :- I’m vastly richer than you” FasterPussycatSellSell
You must really rock.
Aw, come on, Rio. We all enjoy Pussycat. And “Bill who lives in Tampa but pretends to live in Phoenix so he can deduct most of his living expenses” has all but published his net worth on the blog. It isn’t hard to know whether you have more or less money than he does.
We all enjoy Pussycat.
But I thought you were a lawyer.
“It depends on what the meaning of the word
‘is’‘all’ is.”–Bill ClintonRioAmericanInBrasil“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”
Rodney King
You must really rock.
My friends think so.
(Oh! and I’m sooooooooooo counting out all the change that I made in the BRIC markets before the crash.)
Ooooooooooooh!!!! I think I just had an orgasm based on the Brazil market.
You must really rock….
“My friends think so.”
“Ooooooooooooh!!!! I think I just had an orgasm based on the Brazil market.”
Destructive Narcissism: An unrealistic sense of superiority…lacks normal inhibitions…Concerns limited to expressing socially appropriate response when convenient; devalues and exploits others without remorse…(feeling) that he/she doesn’t need to be considerate of others…wiki
Love it.
Gonna email my mother with the pseudo-psychology. She’s gonna have a hoot!
Gonna email my mother with the pseudo-psychology.
Why? For what purpose? Do foul-mouthed NYC “masters of the universe” now have a time machine too?
Destructive Narcissism-Foundation: Traumatic childhood undercutting true sense of self-esteem and/or learning that he/she doesn’t need to be considerate of others. wiki
You are SUCH a brat.
And your mother should spank you more often.
But don’t you just like me a little, a tittle?
Isn’t that a smile I saw there?
I knew it!
“And your mother should spank you more often.”
Don’t encourage his fantasies.
BTW, polly, I appreciate your generally positive statement, and in the spirit of the season, I will replace it by an even more positive one.
I know people all the way from net worth $50K to $500 MM, and there is ZERO correlation between “net worth” and “happiness”.
I know miserable people all over the spectrum and equally happy people all over the spectrum.
My un-asked-for advice?
Invest in experiences not “stuff”. “Experiences” and “doing things” makes you happy not stuff.
Happy New Year to you too, Rio! (and Brazil is still gonna crash!!!)
‘…there is ZERO correlation between “net worth” and “happiness”.’
So then you understand why I care more about keeping my mediocre violin technique alive than moving to a higher net worth percentile…
I could’ve told you that when I first met you (except I was a lot more delusional then.)
Time fixes everything (even housing!)
Polly school marm. You claim to know all about me. Okay, what was my income this year? Did you see the SRP bills I paid? You did not see them but saw inly the TECO bills I paid? I can write anything but you prefer to believe in only your fantasies and you therefore are broadcasting your own stupidity to the rest of HBB. How pitiful.
Polly you also enjoy FPSS vulgarity I see.
You can always use the Joshua Tree Extension to skip FPSS’s posts.
Of course, the drawback is that you would miss out on the snarky things he says in response to your posts.
He really needs the Joshua Tree, me thinks.
There is this poetic beauty in pre-ordering these baguettes for the NYE party.
It’s particularly beautiful when you get to waltz past all these women (and they’re all female, mostly Jewish since its New York) and you get to say, “All those baguettes are mine.”
Should’ve pre-ordered, sweetheart!
Some party music for you guys to bring along tonight.
Happy New Year!
SISTER SLEDGE
“We Are Family”
Deadbeat family
We live in our houses for free
Deadbeat family
Get up everybody and sing
Everyone can see we’re together
As we walk on by
And (Fly) and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won’t tell no lie
(All) all of the people around us they say
In that new car they look so fine
Just let me state for the record
That we were all Robo signed
Deadbeat family
We live in our houses for free
Deadbeat family
Get up everybody and sing
Living life is fun and we’ve just begun
To get our share of the world’s delights
(High) high hopes we have for the future
A free house in sight
(We) no we don’t get depressed
Here’s what we call our golden rule
Don`t pay that mortgage no matter what you do
You won’t go wrong, oh-no
This is our family Jewel
Deadbeat family
We live in our houses for free
Deadbeat family
Get up everybody and sing
haha…
“In 2007, when I began following the Teton County Multiple Listing Service Hotsheet on a daily basis, there were few Jackson Hole homes listed for less than $300,000. By 2008 they were nonexistent, with not a single reported sale during that year below $300,000.
As the recession that began in 2008 deepened, the options below $300,000 slowly returned. In 2009, the number hit double digits. By 2010 there were 24. Today there are 39, a total probably not seen for almost 10 years. To put the slide in context, today’s least-expensive option, a 2-bed condo in West Jackson listed for $102,500, sold for $370,000 in 2008.
Another example of the reset in Jackson Hole home values is that there were two residential sales in 2011 in in the valley below $100,000, the first such reported sales since January 2000″
http://www.jhpropertyguide.com/jackson-hole-real-estate/property-blog/blog-detail/464/
Happy New Year Everyone.
Bila,
With all due respect, you really, REALLY shouldn’t taunt Polly. No, really. Just don’t. You’ll thank me someday.
Anyway, that’s all I’m gonna say.
Oh my, now I am “skeered!”
If by this you mean Polly will use her lawyer skills to harass me because she hates my viewpoint, bring it on! It will only reveal more of her stupidity since I put all my cards face up on the table and she only believes what she wants to believe. I have to go through background investigations regularly for my work, so I have to be honest, unlike the average person, including most HBBers. School marm, if she goes through background checks herself, is well aware of that and won’t be able to pin anything on me. Lay people such as yourself, do not realize this. I bet Polly is very honest, but she jut is vindictive since she is for a nanny state and I am not.
By background investigations, the Feds do not want to see any arrests, no tax evasion, no drug problem, no bankruptcies, no gambling habits, no messing with ex spouses, no romantic interludes with commies. I reported an incident to my local SSO when a foreign girlfriend almost got me in trouble with the US BP. You are supposed to do things like that. The Feds are more interested in if you try to hide those things, less if you did them.
Years back on AOL some bulletin board person who did not likely views knew a person in common and threatened to use his powers to hamper my career. I reported that to AOL and have not been bothered since.
I have only one power that school marm is powerless to counter, and you ref about it above: What I have posted all these years about myself is true.
No bill, she means that will be missing out on some very good advice from a very smart person.
But go ahead and cut off your nose off to spite to your face. It’s the American way, after all.
“But go ahead and cut off your nose off to spite to your face.”
You just don`t see that many people walking around without a nose.
Has anyone actually ever cut off their nose to spite their face?
Now here is someone who cut something off to spite something.
Incident
During the night of June 23, 1993, John Wayne Bobbitt arrived at the couple’s apartment in Manassas, Virginia, highly intoxicated after a night of partying. According to testimony given by Lorena Bobbitt in a 1994 court hearing, he then raped her. (In 1994 he was tried for and acquitted of spousal rape, prosecuted by the same district attorney who prosecuted Lorena for attacking her husband.) Afterwards, Lorena Bobbitt got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. According to an article in the National Women’s Studies Association Journal, while in the kitchen she noticed a carving knife on the counter and “memories of past domestic abuses raced through her head.” Grabbing the knife, Lorena Bobbitt entered the bedroom where John was sleeping and proceeded to cut off nearly half of his penis.[1]
After assaulting her husband, Lorena left the apartment with the severed penis, drove a short while, then rolled down the car window and threw the penis into a field. Realizing the severity of the incident, she stopped and called 911. After an exhaustive search, the penis was located, packed in ice, and taken to the hospital where John Bobbitt was being treated.
The penis was reattached
by Drs. James T. Sehn and David Berman during a nine-and-a-half-hour operation.[2]
And afterwards John Wayne Bobbitt stared in a porno movie that had the title “John Wayne Bobbitt, Uncut”.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57350360-503544/newt-gingrich-hints-he-would-consider-picking-sarah-palin-for-vp/
Newt Gingrich, reeling after Ron Paul’s TV ads exposed him as a serial influence-peddler, says he’d consider picking fame whore extraordinaire Sarah Palin as his veep. This is just perfect. Of course, the same mutants who voted for McCain/Palin would vote for a sleazeball a$$hat like Newt just as readily. Our national descent into IDIOCRACY is complete. We are so screwed.
So I got a nice and not nice New’s Eve Surprise in the mail: a royalty check, but direct from the performance rights organization, and not my publisher. Usually I get the publisher cut first.
This means that either 1. my publisher doesn’t have the money to cover their operating costs and my cut, or 2. they’re intentionally screwing me.
These are from SOCAN and therefore international plays. Maybe they thought I wouldn’t see that?
I’m not going to overreact. I’ll give it a few weeks since there may be some holiday mail issues.
Question for FPSS or other foodie:
Is there a good way to ferment sauerkraut in your home without subjecting family members to the smells as it ages? I made a most delicious batch of sauerkraut last spring which lasted several months in the refrigerator, but it nearly led to a divorce (just kidding, I think!). I solved the storage problem by purchasing some Mason jars, which prevented the odor from attaching to everything else in the refrigerator. But I have yet to figure out how to carry out the fermentation process in an odor-proof container.
Thanks for any suggestions you can offer; one of my New Year’s resolutions is to figure out how to carry out this production process in a non-offensive manner. (In case nobody who posts here can solve this, I recall a colleague at work who may be able to help, as she is very experienced in macrobiotic food preparation techniques.)
“But I have yet to figure out how to carry out the fermentation process in an odor-proof container.”
I don’t think that’s possible. Odor-proof implies well sealed, and acetobacter (the bacteria that produces vinegar) is an aerobic bacteria. If it doesn’t get enough oxygen (due to being too well sealed), I think that you might not get good results. Not to mention that fermentation of any kind produces gases—e.g. you can’t do it in a totally sealed container without risking exploding it.
My impression is that most people try to do it in an area where no one will be offended by the smell, such as a shed, garage, basement, etc. YMMV, being a lowly renter.
Think I demonstrated some ignorance above. Acetobacters are generally aerobic, but apparently kraut-making variants take the preferred biological pathway (glycolytic pathway) under limited oxygen environments:
“5.2.1 Lactic acid fermentation
The lactic acid bacteria belong to two main groups – the homofermenters and the heterofermenters. The pathways of lactic acid production differ for the two. Homofermenters produce mainly lactic acid, via the glycolytic (Embden–Meyerhof) pathway). Heterofermenters produce lactic acid plus appreciable amounts of ethanol, acetate and carbon dioxide, via the 6-phosphoglucanate/phosphoketolase pathway. The glycolytic pathway is used by all lactic acid bacteria except leuconostocs, group III lactobacilli, oenococci and weissellas. Normal conditions required for this pathway are excess sugar and limited oxygen. Axelsson (1998) gives an in-depth account of the biochemical pathways for both homo- and hetero-fermenters.
“
I’m not a sauerkraut kinda guy but I understand why people love it.
I do make Moroccan preserved lemons, and you need to burp them regularly like a baby. Ultimately that stops, and you can pretty much store them forever at that point, and even keep replenishing by adding more lemons and lemon juice.
I also make a Haitian pickle which works via layering (probably this is the closest to sauerkraut.) Also needs the above mentioned burping.
I use Mason jars, and I’ve never had a problem with the smell.
Of course, I love anchovy paste so my standards of “stinky” are quite liberal.
“Moroccan preserved lemons”
That might appeal to me.
“I use Mason jars, and I’ve never had a problem with the smell.”
For sauerkraut, the standard recipe is to put it in a large enough container to accommodate placing a plate on top of the cabbage as it ferments. This apparently helps foster the right environment for the anaerobic bacteria which ferment the cabbage.
“whey”
Maybe. But I must confess to a personal fascination over the success I had last time making it with no other ingredients than red cabbage and salt. Mother nature threw in the lactobacillus free of charge.
I heard an NPR interview with a guy who wrote a book that describes natural fermentation processes. He claimed that every corner of the world has its own native bacterial culture which can be accessed free of charge to give your naturally cultured food a local flavor. I plan to buy the book when I get around to it:
The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]
Ken Albala (Author), Rosanna Nafziger (Author)
Thanks—two more things I need to try!
Never tasted either, though… 
Is there a good way to ferment sauerkraut in your home without subjecting family members to the smells as it ages?
Google making it with whey - only a few days
This works because whey contains the same lactobacillus that is needed for the fermentation. (Lactobacillus is what converts milk into yogurt.)
You are basically spiking the culture to help the fermentation proceed along.
Entirely logical.
You might try fermenting it in a closed vessel with a gas trap (like the kind used for home brewing beer) and vent the gas trap out a window. I am thinking a five gallon plastic pail with a gas trap in the lid. The “old folks” used to always use a crock but I am not sure why…maybe temperature did not fluctuate as much.
I also don’t remember them making it in the fridge. Wouldn’t that slow down the fermentation considerably?
I don’t think it would work to make sauerkraut in a fridge. I just stored it there (in Mason jars) after fermentation was over.
The fermentation process took a week, but perhaps you can speed that up using whey?
The fermentation process took a week, but perhaps you can speed that up using whey?
Way.
“You might try fermenting it in a closed vessel with a gas trap (like the kind used for home brewing beer) and vent the gas trap out a window.”
Thanks for the excellent suggestion. This may be the ticket for a blissful year of eating home-made sauerkraut without encouraging my family members to evict me. If I tell my wife it costs $5 for a small jar of naturally-cultured sauerkraut at Ralph’s, she may actively encourage my efforts.
A parting, prescient thought from the greatest Frog who ever lived, Alexis de Tocqueville, who in 1840 foretold the rise of the Obama Zombies & McCain Mutants in his timeless classic, “Democracy in America”:
“I readily admit that public tranquility is a great good; but at the same time I cannot forget that all nations have been enslaved by being kept in good order. Certainly it is not to be inferred that nations ought to despise public tranquility; but that state ought not to content them. A nation which asks nothing of its government but the maintenance of order is already a slave at heart – the slave of its own well-being, awaiting but the hand that will bind it.
“By such a nation the despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual. When the bulk of the community is engrossed by private concerns, the smallest parties need not despair of getting the upper hand in public affairs. At such times it is not rare to see upon the great stage of the world, as we see at our theatres, a multitude represented by a few players, who alone speak in the name of an absent or inattentive crowd: they alone are in action whilst all are stationary; they regulate everything by their own caprice; they change the laws, and tyrannize at will over the manners of the country; and then men wonder to see into how small a number of weak and worthless hands a great people may fall.”
Yep.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-12-22/news/fl-craiglist-attempted-murder-20111222_1_craigslist-marine-shot-necklace
For anyone tempted to sell jewelry or similar valuables on Craigslist, you might want to reconsider.
Ron Paul’s latest money bomb campaign is happening now and it’s garnered over $5,300,000. Sorry Muggy!
No need to apologize. If I can survive Rick Scott I can survive Ron Paul.
And whats you’re bright idea when RP fails to get the nomination?
Re-register Libertarian and vote for the Libertarian Party candidate. Next question?
Each vote in favor of a third-party Libertarian Party candidate is one more vote for Obama not countered by a vote for the Republican party candidate.
But go right ahead and do the right thing in order to stand up for your libertarian values. The Committee to Reelect Obama will thank you for your sincerity.
Time to join 2 million of my closest friends on Copacabana Beach for the “Biggest New Year’s party and fireworks display in the World”
(But they won’t be playing John Philip Sousa)
Happy New Year!