The Housing Bubble

Comment by X-GSfixr

I have a friend whose son is a football player going into university and has been asked for by all of Canada’s major schools. Problem is he wants to go to a small school with a great football program - even though a great medical school in his hometown has invited him. He is an honour student.

Do you know where I can get information on the lack of success that football players “enjoy” eg academia?

I think colleges receive a lot of money from pro teams for students that “graduate” to pro teams from a particular school.

I always thought university was to get an education ! !

If he is an honors student who wants to be a doctor and wants to play football in college he should be looking at the ivy league and patriot league schools. There may be other places where he could play and not be expected to give up all hope of academic success, but these groups (they often play each other as well as league rivals) will not require a complete sacrifice of academics to participate in their programs.

Whether they are “good” football programs is a matter of some question. When we went to our first football game my freshman year, one of the girls from the room next door took one look at the team and said that her Iowa high school team could beat them, based purely on size. I don’t think any of the varsity players weighed more than 220 pounds.

Ask the bursar’s office.

In the olden days, outstanding kids could excel scholastically AND on the field, but since since Big Sports has taken over as a de facto industry within an industry, that’s no longer possible. There’s simply not enough time to do both and excel at either.

If the boy is indeed medical school material, ask him which is more important to him. Getting laid now, or getting laid for the rest of his life? Either way, he’ll suffer irreparable brain injury.

Good article on what a raw deal student athletes get:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-athletes.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=College%20players%20get%20paid&st=cse

Polly — we weren’t big, but there were some hard hitters!!

During the season, even in the leagues that you mentioned, you were wise to take a light course load and even in the off-season it was “advanced conditioning” three mornings a week and 7, lifting 4 days a week, meetings and film whenever the mood struck the coaches. Also, there was the added fun of “if you’re not early, you’re late” to all of these fun events.

Thank you all. I have read the article and am very surprised at how student / athletes are treated.

He is a 90 plus student, top rank football and hockey player who wants to be a doctor of sports medicine.

The top university for medicine in Canada has tried to recruit him but he is caught up in the marketing from a small (but good) school. I am going to pass on to him this article.

Thank you all again.

True dat, true dat! I don’t want to borrow. Too scarey!

I can’t image why any institution would lend to some of these small businesses I see:

“dog bone stores”
“green dry cleaning” (already lots of them around)
“massage and spa”
“cold slab ice cream place, or similar”

Half these places don’t have a working business model, or it only works if capital is free and government is backing it.

Frankly, while it would hurt the economy in the short run, we should have a rationalization of capital markets.

Private, outsourced government contract workers outnumber regular federal employees.

So basically, you’re saying that privatizing government is a failure… only you don’t realize it.

WRT feds and contractors, so many stories I could tell were it not for my confidentiality agreement…

And I’m on the civilian side, where we’re talking only thousands and millions (although they tried to amplify Solyndra by using the phrase “half a billion”)

Can only imagine the scale of corruption inside the DoD… channeling Carl Sagan “billions and billions and billions”

“Let’s all work for the government! That’s the solution.”

Belgium is apparently leading the way, with 39% of the workforce working for the govt. That’s even with having little or no military, and a small prison-industrial complex. What the heck do they all do?

And possibly his fourth…

OK, so now for my disagreement with your point.

Bush was like the guy riding the elephant, and Obama was like the fellow whose job was to follow behind the elephant and scrape up the poop. Despite W’s Treasury Secretary’s best efforts to hide it, the Great Recession started in December 2007 and its effects dominated the duration of Obama’s first term in office. Fortunately for Obama, recovery appears to finally be taking hold, just as his GOP opponents are trying their best to stick the blame for W’s Great Recession on Obama.

Good luck with that plan, GOP candidates!

I came in here for the special offer
The bankster said it was free mo-ney.

I’m all tuned in
I see all the programs
I stay glued to HGTV
I have my third foreclosure notice
My empty bottle
I feel a bit free

Hey Jeff, how about giving “It’s a small world after all” a go.

Nah — I just found that by randomly Googling “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have played the piece at many a wedding…

Fear….. the favorite tool used by the PTB to silence dissent.

The Chinese version of “listening to that Satanic Rock and Roll music will corrupt our kids”.

Just finished Niall Ferguson’s Civilization: The West and the Rest in which he asserts that blue jeans and rock’n'roll greatly helped the demise of Soviet communism and the Eastern Bloc.

“The Boomers, for whom moral relativism and self-absorbed fecklessness has been a generational credo…”

+100

The use of “boomers” needs to be more closely examined by you folks who refer to this demographic. I read an indepth article some years back that broke this group, which includes myself, into 3 different segments, based on EARLY, middle and LATE.
If you were born in the early quartile, say in 1945-1952, you typically did very well, as the job opportunities expanded, you were promoted. You bought a house at the beginning of the expansion, you got everything a lower prices before the groups that followed and had it relatively easy most of your life.
The second wave 1952-1959, did relatively well, too, but not as well, because most of the good positions were already filled.
The last group 1959-1966 or so, did not do near as well, because the first 2 groups forced up prices in housing and commodities and they were late to the party.
The OLDER folks did well if they were invested when this generation created rising demand and rising prices….a Boom, so to speak.
All my timeframes are approximations. I don’t have that article anymore, so going from a vague memory.
But it seems true.
While I fall into group 2, I came out with group 3, because I was poor. It took me 8 years to get through college, so by the time I graduated, another recession was underway and most of the best jobs were taken 10 years before.
It was not an easy place for me, as a “Boomer”, and I faced the additional circumstance of being a “white”, “male”, Anglo, English-speaking in Country looking to avoid being sued by the Equal Opportunity Commission for not having more “diversity”.
Equal Opportunity meaning hire anyone but English-speaking White Men.
So, no, the “boomers” haven’t gotten it all the way you theorize that have, nor do I have these attitudes that are attributed to us, though I have seen to what you refer.
For the “leading” group, life was EASY. For the late comers, they are more in tune with Gen X.

So what you’re saying is that if you’re in front of a wave you can ride it, but once you’ve missed the crest you’re going nowhere except under your own power which ain’t much.

It was not an easy place for me, as a “Boomer”, and I faced the additional circumstance of being a “white”, “male”, Anglo, English-speaking

Dang, some people just can’t catch a break.

“Older baby boomers caught all the breaks”
http://tinyurl.com/26o775 (usatoday)

“In a generation as sprawling as the baby boomers, you’re bound to notice some big differences. And the main difference is probably this: The older boomers, exemplified by the 62-year-olds who will start retiring this year, occupy a demographic sweet spot that most younger boomers can’t match.”

“based on EARLY, middle and LATE.”

I agree with you that the boomer generation is too broad. This is something other generations do not understand. The experience of the early and late boomers was vastly different and not just in terms of jobs.

The early boomers were the hippies, war protesters, and Vietnam vets (with some slop both before and after). The earliest were old enough to be involved in the Civil Rights movement. But that was mostly done by the time those born in 1948 and later were adults. The sexual revolution was at its height in the early 60s and was driven by previous generations.

I was born in 1952 and missed the Summer of Love, Woodstock, most of the anti-war protests, and the Civil Rights protests of the mid-60s. Some of my classmates went to Vietnam, but college provided student deferments for a lot of them.

Middle boomers graduated into the Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the rampant inflation of the mid to late 70s. Environmentalism took off with the first Earth Day and environmental laws. Jobs were hard to come by in high school and beyond - mostly taken by older boomers or peers with connections.

Later boomers graduated into the 24 hour news cycle, the Iranian revolution and the Reagan era. Vietnam was over. The draft ended. The Civil Rights and Womens movements had morphed into affirmative action. Manufacturing jobs started to be outsourced. This, combined with affirmative action, put great pressure on white men who had been raised with the expectation of being the breadwinner.

I remember staying home after the birth of my first child and the loss of self esteem I felt. It really brought home to me what a man must feel at the loss of his job. As a society, we really expected blue collar white men to cope with a lot of changes.

bommers are at least 2 groups with GenX even worse off.
Or maybe this is a normal economy and front edge boomers and silent generation had it abnormally good.

I was born in 1960 and until I read the 4th turning I just figured I wasn’t catching any breaks.

whats next ? The old white America is fading due to low birth rates. I see Romeny as the old white ( think Boomers ) with Obama as the new multi race younger Americans ( genX and Y and milleniums ).

Thank you, Happy.
We Boomers complained that OUR parents had taken all the goodies for themselves and left us with the dregs, the bills, the wars, the crappy economy, their idiotic “morality;” and HBB’s disaffected gen-warriors will get their day to be reviled for their greed and opportunism, too. Sic transit.

It’s Ron Paul rally time!

You don’t think that 30 years of diminishing economic opportunity has anything to do with it do you?

Naw, couldn’t be!

“there is outrage. Against what exactly I wonder. ”

Against the fact that the architects and prime profiters from the credit bubble were bailed out and given a mulligan, while everyone else has been told they need to sacrifice now that times are tough.

And every time someone suggests that the rich should perhaps share a bit of that sacrifice, their defenders (like you) leap up and shout ‘class warfare’.

Their is anger at their bailout, and their is anger at the political power the 1% have that allows them to get such bailouts.

Are there people in the 1% who are fine people? Of course. Do we wish the 1% harm? No. We want them to join in the sacrifice the rest of us are making, and we want their political power to be more reflective of their numbers, rather than their money. Isn’t that what a democracy is all about?

What I am trying to get at is that there was no outrage against the big winners as long as we were all going to be winners,

you just weren’t listening. There was plenty of outrage. There were articles bemoaning the fact that CEO’s in teh US made 500-1000x the average worker salary while European and Japanese made 50-250. There were aritcles pointing out that the Hedge Fund managers had created loopholes allowing them to pay far lower effective tax rates than the middle class. Yes things were amplified after the crash, that doesn’t make the injustice any less true.

I think most have no problem with the income athletes, and entertainers make that’s a free market. Most wouldn’t quible with people who start their own business and make a bunch of money as long as it doesn’t invovle manipulation of markets. People hate the elite who have predominantly made their money manipulating markets, gov, or corporate boardrooms, stripping wealth from investors, tax payers, and consumers. There is anger over our trade policy that has benefited the elite at the expense of the average worker. There is anger that they pay very low effective tax rates.

“their defenders (like you) leap up and shout ‘class warfare’”

Such a short attention span! I didn’t say that at all, but perhaps it was a worm in your ear anyway.

My point is missed entirely, perhaps intentionally. Let me put it another way.

I’ve worked 40 years in our corporate mud wrestling pit ExxoWhatto, P&GeeWiz, etc.. Most of those why try hard to get ahead were, in my personal experience, morally bankrupt. For the most part I acted out The Last Boy Scout and took down a few of these clowns personally. Fair to say though most after they drew first blood. I made it to upper middle management a few times, briefly. So, I’ve known my share of real brass balls @sshats, and many of them busted before they grabbed the ring. I hate what they all stood for, the losers no less than the winers.

The losers in this mele were not virtuous. Their defenders have no compass. Picking the few ripe fruits is foolish when the tree needs to be girded.

“Picking the few ripe fruits is foolish when the tree needs to be girded.”

So…we should revolt and kill them rather than just raise their tax rates? Interesting, but we’re not quit there, yet. I hope.

“The people are revolting.”

Let he who is without greed cast the first stone.

I’m pretty sure people are pissed off about this:

“The income of the richest 1 percent in the U.S. soared 275 percent from 1979 to 2007, but the bottom 20 percent grew by just 18 percent, new government data shows.”

Google and learn.

Never let perfection get in the way of “good enough.”

“Let he who is without greed cast the first stone.”

But you said the tree needed to be girded (which I assume meant girdled). Now you’re saying that we should give them another mulligan?

Pick a position, you can’t be on all sides of an issue, unless you’re just blowing smoke.

“The income of the richest 1 percent in the U.S. soared 275 percent from 1979 to 2007, but the bottom 20 percent grew by just 18 percent, new government data shows.”

The blending in of the top 0.1% with the top 1% always makes the numbers look better. Doctors and Lawyers, engineers, middle management adn many small businesses haven’t seen these increases. Those in the top 0.1% have seen income gains far in excess of 275%. In 1979 the top CEO’s earned about 50x average worker. At the peak they made 700 x the average worker. They still make 350x the average worker. Throw in Hedge Fund billiionaires who have A list politicians on their boards feeding them inside info and getting their companies lucrative contracts, and those that manipulate markets and the media and then pay 10-15% effective tax rates and you get the picture.

http://www.anamericanstudies.com/2008/06/ceo-vs-worker-pay.html

This is just liberal, bedwetter, crybaby class-warfare…

girded (which I assume meant girdled…

Yes, the words mean the same.

I’m not on both isdes of the issue. I tried two approaches, neither of which penetrate your singular thought.

I’m against corruption, not success in itself. Penalize the corrupt who don’t get the loot as well as those who do.

Having $10,000 in cash stashed makes me a drug dealer, no? Depends on how you think. Maybe I just don’t drink Starbucks.

Let he who is without greed cast the first stone.

There are different levels of greed, everything from I’m willing to work some overtime to take home a bigger paycheck to I’m willing to strangle granny put her in the freezer and keep cashing her pension and social security checks for 20 years. WS is not just ahead of this last person due to the scale of there greed.

The vast majority are NOT.

Name one.

You see… the difference between me and you is you’ve had everything handed to you. Lifetime job, pension, medical insurance, etc. Yet you want to deny those same benefits to those who come after you.

Why is that?

Secondly…. I’m personal friends with a number of 1%’ers. That’s right. Say a dozen or so. Not a single one of them has EVER created a job in the absence of govt. contracts. Not ONE. And they do everything they can to stay on the govt t_t. They crowd out anyone else using whatever means necessary including the use of cash.

What makes you think that you’re anymore deserving than the hourly chumps that came after you?

I personally know two 1%ers. They both own, and run, family businesses started by their parents. Neither gets gov’t contracts. Both businesses are manufacturers of high-tech metal products, and have been re-tooled as well as expanded into new products and markets by their current owners (my friends). They employ highly skilled, well-paid workers. They are as far from Wall Street’s vastly overpaid CEOs as I can imagine.

There are many 1%ers in the entertainment biz who may be overpaid by some standards but at least many of them have actual talent, and people want to buy their music, films, etc. My point is, there are 1%ers who earn it, and 1%ers who don’t. Not all are created equal even at the stratospheric level.

“Name one.”

Steve Jobs?

“You see… the difference between me and you is you’ve had everything handed to you. Lifetime job, pension, medical insurance, etc. Yet you want to deny those same benefits to those who come after you.”

LOL! Commuted to nearby state U, flunked out, got drafted, joined up for three years instead, went back to college on GI Bill, worked career in tech, got laid off three times and fired once, laid off the last time at age 60, immediately moved from high cost to low cost area, did crap jobs for benefits until 64, now retired in a low cost area. Pension? I changed jobs so often I never built up the time but once. $7K a year with no COLA (as is true of pretty much all private pensions). We did what we had to do in order to have a comfortable retirement, even though 401K’s didn’t come along until the career mid point. Finally, I’ve stayed out of the Obamacare debate because to do so as a Medicare beneficiary would have been the height of hypocrisy. I occasionally remind my fellow retirees here of that fact.

All this “I know a nice 1%er, I know 2 mean ones” misses the point.

The country needs money, we’re in a crunch, and we can no longer afford for the wealthiest 1% to be taxed at lower rates than the rest of us.

It doesn’t matter if they earned it the hard way, or had it given to them by daddy, if they’re salt-of-the-earth, or complete bast@rds. They gotta pay a few more points. Get over it, it’s called sharing the sacrifice.

We can no longer afford the leaches stripping wealth, manipulating markets, and creating bogus investment vehicles to steal from pension funds while bribing our gov and rating agencies to stay out of the way. We can’t afford to bail out their stock options.

Sounds like RP needs to get out of the Republican party and go independent. The Republicans think he’s an embarrassment.

Well…this is Iowa after all.

“Observations From 20 Years of Iowa Life”
http://tinyurl.com/dy95enf (the-atlantic)

“But relatively few rural Iowans are employed in the business of wind energy. The bulk of jobs here are low-income ones most Iowans don’t want. Many have simply packed up and left the state (which helps keep the unemployment rate statewide low). Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly waiting to die, those too timid (or lacking in educated) to peer around the bend for better opportunities, an assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth, or those who quixotically believe, like Little Orphan Annie, that “The sun’ll come out tomorrow.”

The bulk of jobs here are low-income ones most Iowans don’t want.

And why don’t those jobs pay enough to attract Iowans? In most cases they’ve gotta hire *somebody*…right? How are they filling those jobs without paying enough to attract Iowans? Are they bringing hillbillies up from MO and AR?

Hmmm…

“(or lacking in educated)”

Now that’s funny.

“disposable income” is marketing code for “whatever is left over after the bare necessities are paid and it belongs to us.”

Good. That’s when we finally get universal health care coverage- when the money runs out, and there’s no other way.

Let’s not forget they also absorbed a bankrupt former communist country 20 years ago.

Depends on whether you consider “Turks” born in Germany to still be “Turks”, or whether they are just Germans. Is “German” a race, or a place where you were born?

German citizenship is ruled by this principle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ius_sanguinis

“Gold is going to fall like a rock, and I think to $600.

But I think not before it gets above $2500 per ounce.”

My crystal ball is quite cloudy, but this scenario is as plausible as any I could come up with. For instance, I don’t think it will drop back to $250/oz again, but it is likely to drop to the 2013 dollar equivalent of $250 in 1999 dollars, provided the Fed starts tightening and the safe haven asset of choice shifts from gold to Treasuries as a consequence.

You apparently get the diversification concept. I’m not so sure about the myriad folk who claim gold is “special.”

Did you have LDS girlfriends when you were young? There is the rare exception of the LDS girl who gets pregnant before marriage (we know one personally), but the norm is for them to wait.