Bits Bucket for January 18, 2012
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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
June 2025 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Bottom callers will call housing bottoms — it’s what they do!
Bartiromo: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon sees housing at bottom
By Maria Bartiromo, Special for USA TODAY, One on One
Updated 2d 10h ago
This year kicked off with some improving economic data on jobs, on retail spending and even a rally in the stock market. So does the good news suggest the economic recovery is finally taking hold and 2012 will be a positive new day for job seekers? For some answers, I caught up with Jamie Dimon, who heads the USA’s largest bank with $2.2 trillion in assets and operations in more than 60 countries. In a series of interviews during his firm’s health care conference last week, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase was optimistic and said the troubled housing market has bottomed. He pointed to innovation in health care as a testament to America’s strength and heft. Our interview follows, edited for clarity and length.
…
Ok….. so the high priest of indentured slavitude calls a bottom in housing. He’s telegraphing something.
A) Sales bottom- Sales volume increase from here as inventory is unleashed at reasonable prices.
B) Static sales volume-No change in anything
We know sales won’t improve without a market clearing price change.
Do not overthink it. He is simply trying to lure suckers off the side-lines and onto the field where he can make them the greater fool.
Good to remember that Wall Street’s business model is to lure greater fools into paying top dollar for the pleasure of catching themselves falling knives. Suckers who believe a real estate bottom is in might be more inclined to do this.
New York (MarketWatch) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s fourth-quarter earnings slumped 58% as rocky capital markets pushed the investment bank to record its second-lowest quarterly revenues since the midst of the financial crisis
On the “bad” news of Goldman-Suchs having such terrible earnings, GS is UP about 5% this morning. Of course, this is all based on news that the IMF is trying to extort a Trillion dollars from various countries to keep Europe afloat from being overly indebted. I am sitting on the sidelines for a few days to see how this plays out. Usually when I sit by the sidelines, I watch, dismayed as the market climbs 10%.
I am sitting on the sidelines for a few days to see how this plays out.
Ha, funny. I am siting on the sidelines for a few years to see how this plays out.
Too funny. I am sitting on the sidelines for a couple of decades.
Too true, Blue Skye. I thought it would be a few years back in 2006 when I first hit the sidelines. I guess my “few years” current estimate plus the last five will really end up being more like a decade.
Too funny. I am sitting on the sidelines for a couple of decades.
I’m getting too old to sit on the sidelines much longer. A 30 year fixed means I am paying ’til I am 77.
Looks like we may be moving this spring, no matter what happens to the housing market. Landlady has lost a screw, and the 21 year old water heater bit the dust 2 days ago. 1 day no water at all (shut off valve busted, too) and 2 days no hot water. Brrrrr.
Looking at rentals it appears that the cost of a rental for our family of 4 (the kids share a room) is roughly equivalent to PITI.
Been waiting - thanks HBB - for this to happen, although really what it looks like is that both rents AND owning are high. The idea that you would buy when renting and owning are equivalent doesn’t take into account that artificially high prices affect rents, too.
Houses in the neighborhoods we are looking are at about 2002 levels. A big mortgage may be a hedge against inflation, if and when it hits.
Landlady has lost a screw,”
Hows that ? she is old and wants rent money but won’t fix anything ?
It’s not high prices that affect rents. It’s people moving out of houses into apartments, without those houses being allowed to come back on the market. Recall that at the peak of the bubble, rents were low and house prices were high. It’s market manipulation which keeps housing stock off the market.
It’s market manipulation which keeps housing stock off the market.
I am seeing hundreds of foreclosures that are not for sale in the 2 neighborhoods we are looking.
How long can the banks keep this at a trickle? Months or years?
I’m seeing hints and whispers that the dam is breaking. Take that for what it’s worth.
However, the politicians may be starting to realize that not allowing housing to come back on market is squeezing a lot of people. They obviously don’t care about that, but want the people to be upbeat come this November, so they’ll get votes.
NOVEMBER - the elections - is the big deal. I’m thinking the politicians might force the debt holders to start loosening the screws this summer, if not earlier. They want voters happy at the election. If nothing at all happens by this summer… well… the trickle may well continue for a while. Then there’s the debt crisis in Europe which “some say” will have impact here.
For me, the big data points will be this summer and next summer. Pre-election maneuvering and then new government maneuvering. By June 2013, my guess is we’ll have a good idea of where the stable long term policy and trends are headed.
GS earnings are falling because there are fewer people to steal from.
Many of those who had money don’t have it anymore.
Those that have money are moving to safety and cash.
Governments have been abused by GS and are in dire straights so it’s harder to hide the thefts from the public.
Now they have turned their attention to the small whales like MF Global. It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t feed Corzine and others info that a massive bailout of European debt was in the works followed by a Lucy when they pulled the ball away.
“Jamie” is as TBTF as they come. The “Government” (HIS, not ours- we no longer have one) will do everything in their power to back his proclamations.
“Bottom caller$ will call hou$ing bottom$ — it’s what they do!”
As Radical Rick often says: “Hey Hwy, how tough is it?”
Jamie and the Boyz can’t stop filling my mailbox with balance transfer offers for my Chase Visa card. Sorry Jamie, but if I paid interest to anyone it would be to the local credit union.
Get out and run up that balance, you DEADBEAT~~!!!
Here’s what to do:
Take those lovely transfer offers and scribble all over them. If you have a two-year-old at home, give him or her this important job. If not, well, it’s time to practice your scribbling skills.
Next, put the offers back into their postpaid envelopes and fire ‘em right back at the credit card companies.
Have fun at their expense!
To be very fair, that does give the offer another chance to get stolen and possibly accepted in your name without your permission. The scribbling helps, but I wouldn’t put it past the identity thieves from finding a way around it.
A circular from the newspaper will also require them to spend the money to open up the envelope and you can safely shred the offer.
I think the important part is to remove any identifiers on the form and the envelope. All address info and any numbers on the edges of the form/envelope.
I’m guessing some of those numbers are just identifiers for the type of debtor, not specific info that indicates a particular debtor, but I don’t take any chances with that stuff.
I think the important part is to remove any identifiers on the form and the envelope.”
I see barcodes on all envelopes these days, and warnings about tampering. what the barcodes do and what a company will do about switching and mailing back I’m not sure
I see barcodes on all envelopes these days, and warnings about tampering.
I heard some people tear the barcodes off before sending back the empty envelope.
I have a friend who glued a reply card to a brick and mailed it back.
I wonder how much it costs to mail a brick via first class mail?
Next, put the offers back into their postpaid envelopes and fire ‘em right back at the credit card companies.
Keep Wall Street Occupied:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/29/1031267/-Keep-Wall-Street-Occupied-Lets-Help-This-Go-Viral
My college Marketing professor told us that he responded to junk mail promos that had “no postage necessary if mailed in the US” stamps on them…. He would attach a brick to it.. & mail back to them.
He said that the post office would charge them huge postage for the package… Since the “stamp” guarantees that the Company will pay any postage due for the delivery.
Great way to get revenge on the junk mailers!!!
My shredder (like 200-some USD) is one of the best purchases I have ever made. It keeps my workspace so very neat and tidy. Any offer with any opportunity of identity theft goes right into it. Mine makes something like 1 x 1/4 inch strips. Feed the document in perpendicular to the blades so no strip has any length of writing on it.
I use my fireplace as my “shredder”
Guarantees nobody can glue the little pieces together + heats the house nice & toasty!!!
signs of a bottom in Canada:
http://www.greaterfool.ca/2012/01/17/basis-instinct/
If the utterly clueless call a housing bottom every year from now till kingdom come, they are quite likely to eventually get it right.
NY REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL
JANUARY 17, 2012
From Bottom Up, Signs of Housing Recovery
By JOSH BARBANEL
After years of watching home prices slide, Claudia Ruggiero, a teacher in White Plains, was ready to strike.
She and her husband Michael Johnson, also a teacher, had a 14-month-old son at home and needed a shorter commute. They found a three-bedroom Dutch colonial in Armonk, a neighborhood they thought they could never afford, for a bit more than $500,000.
In a strong sign of recovery in the housing market, cost-conscious buyers such as Ms. Ruggiero have stormed back into the market for lower-priced properties across the New York area in recent months, leading analysts to speculate that the worst of the housing slump may be over.
Across Westchester, the number of buyers in contract to buy homes priced less than $500,000 at the end of 2011 rose by nearly 40% compared to a year earlier, according to a market report issued by the broker Houlihan Lawrence. Sales weakened at higher price points.
Analysts have noted a similar pattern in New Jersey. Sales have picked up due to buyers of properties priced less than $400,000, according to data compiled by the Otteau Valuation Group. The number of such contracts signed during the fourth quarter rose by 11.3% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Analysts said housing-market recoveries often begin at the bottom.
“It is nice when you get the high end of the market doing well,” said Chris Meyers, chief operating officer of Houlihan Lawrence, the largest residential brokerage in Westchester, “but in our experience the strong markets get healthy from the bottom up.”
…
“but in our experience the strong markets get healthy from the bottom up.”
Eyes could not agree anymores or less!
“Bottoms up!”
This reader comment stated the obvious to explain how two teachers are signing up for a half million in debt.
And it’s interesting that all of these prices mentioned in the article are just about at the “conforming” max of $417,000 + 20% down. This is the limit for the magical interest rates backed by the government.
And there you have it. Official US Govt policy that incentivizes debt slavery.
Why does our government want to enslave us?
Becasue your debt is their master’s money. If no one will take on the debt, the money will cease to exist and the great illusion that is our economy will be shown to be a lie.
…Why does our government want to enslave us?…
Because if you are enslaved you will tend to vote for the status quo.
In other words, what a great way to ‘keep em on the farm’.
Which is why I suspect that the government is so pro-jobs creation as opposed to being so pro-small business. Or pro sole proprietorship. Or pro freelancing.
Why? Because employees get their taxes taken out of every paycheck. They never even see the money.
As for those of us who aren’t employees, we have to pay our taxes once a quarter. It’s called estimated tax, and trust me, there is much unhappiness in Non-Employee Land today. Because Q4 2011 estimated taxes were due yesterday.
People who have to write checks to the government tend to be a tad more questioning of how the money is spent than those who have the taxes deducted from every paycheck.
Not to mention that small-business or small-anything do not have the means to retain high powered lobbyists.
Some small-business groups *do* retain lobbyists via trade associations, but I wonder if they have the same clout as those of mega-corporations. I suspect not.
Slim,
Yeah, no wonder they slowly bleed the employed per paycheck,while the self-employed pay qtrly. It was brilliant. And add the two-sided FICA liability for the self employed. You really get screwed. You need the income to get the write offs.
I’d rather be a wage slave. I’m interviewing and salaries stink, while the demands are 1.5-2 people in responsibilities. To an early grave, I go.
Knife-catcher tale of woe to follow.
Certainly the cheaper market segments in many areas probably HAVE hit bottom. But I don’t think that a return to a normality there implies that homes for the well off have necessarily hit bottom. In many areas there was simply more “luxury” housing built than there are “well off” purchasers. There’s still too much wishing, hoping, and barely holding on in middle and upper middle class communities.
“Certainly the cheaper market segments in many areas probably HAVE hit bottom.”
And certainly the opportunity for the few brave souls looking for a home to buy to locate to one of those cheaper market segments is sacking demand for many less cheap market segments. This explains why so many high-end homes whose owners are thinking they will somehow find a buyer willing to pay 2006 prices endlessly sit on the market.
Well just about nobody, anywhere, is willing to pay 2006 prices.
This fact makes it quite puzzling why so many sellers seem to expect to get paid 2006 prices.
Well you don’t expect them to “give it away,” do you? I’ve never understood the whole “insulting offer” idea. Look, it’s the offer I’m making. If you have a better one, take it. If you don’t, then counter it. We’re just talking about money.
The thing I find insulting is sellers who live in a 2006 bubble price fantasy land. As soon as a significant number of sellers come down from their imagined permanently high plateau, I might think about possibly dipping my little toe back into the housing market.
And certainly the opportunity for the few brave souls looking for a home to buy to locate to one of those cheaper market segments is sacking demand for many less cheap market segments. This explains why so many high-end homes whose owners are thinking they will somehow find a buyer willing to pay 2006 prices endlessly sit on the market.
Amen!
Houses sitting unsold is exactly what’s happening in my parents’ neighborhood. The houses there are still priced way above what the market will bear.
And, mind you, it’s a very nice neighborhood.
We just looked at a relocation for employment home that sold for $79K less than the original list price in Aug 2011. The buying couple was in their 60’s and it’s their first home. Going into debt for the write off, because their CPA told them to do it. No thanks, we’re paying cash, and they could keep that pos fixer.
Maybe it’s me, but starting a mortgage in your 60’s is dumb.
(unless you have the cash to write a check to pay it off if something goes wrong.)
2 teachers with a newborn taking on a 500K house? Well, unless the pay scale for teachers in NY is totally out of bound for what most teachers make, that sounds like the ol’ “Strawberry Picker” days to me.
Anyone want to take some guesses on combined income for this couple? 125-150K? No way in he** they should be buying a 500K house, especially not with a newborn child (which will likely cost them another 250K or so over the next 20 years).
Word.
Obviously, contrary to the popular portrayal in the “press”, teachers are not “underpaid” and suffering from abject poverty. In fact, most that I have seen do quite well. The salaries usually start at relatively modest level, but they increases come every year as “experience” is supposedly gained. After 15 to 20 years, they get a better pay than many other fields of endeavor.
Ironically, if the “experience” claim was valid, at all, then student test scoring would be consistently improving, which it isn’t.
On the other hand, if they really are poorly paid, they have no concept of debt, finance and budgeting, so that shows you just what caliber of teacher you have here.
While you’re certainly right to be skeptical that longevity represents added value to the employer, it DOESN’T follow that because teachers age test scores should be improving. Of course teachers retire and are replaced with younger, more inexperienced teachers when they do. —So you get a “B+”. Good premise, but not all of your facts support your conclusion, honest or not.
B+? When he conflates the idea that individual teachers get more experienced with the idea that the teaching cadre as a whole is always getting more experienced? Serious grade inflation.
Ignoring that conflation, it still is an interesting question whether an individual teacher’s increasing experience has a correlation with student learning or not.
I’m actually guessing that there might be a negative correlation, as young, energetic, motivated low-experience teachers might well get students more excited.
I’m guessing the first few (more?) years are pretty steep learning curve in classroom management and figuring out the facial expressions/body language that let you know who is getting it and who isn’t. So I’d expect the value added for experience during those years is pretty high. After that? Well, I’ve nver been a teacher so I don’t know. I’ve done a lot of tutoring, and I figured out new ways to explain things as I went along, but I don’t think that is a very good substitute for running a real classroom. And the background of my students was a huge factor even working one on one. The suburban kids from my hometown were nothing like the NYC kids at the evening homework program.
I’m guessing the first few (more?) years are pretty steep learning curve in classroom management
Coming from a family of teachers, and having been one for the past 14 years, I do not want my kids in a brand new teacher’s classroom. The first year of teaching is chaos. The second year you fix mistakes. The third year, if you are lucky, it might gel.
A good teacher gets better with experience. A mediocre teacher or a bad teacher, not so much.
I suspect this is true in many other professions.
Polly, turnover is very high in those first few years too…So I suspect that at least some of the “improvement” is self selection out of the field by those who discover that they are unsuited to it. One interesting thing about teacher pay is that public schools pay generally better than private ones. I suspect that’s because small classes and more motivated students are a more pleasant working environment than large classes full of kids who are not interested.
BTW, I didn’t mean to imply that a teacher fresh out of school and clueless in the classroom would be the best; I was more thinking that the three-to-five year mark might be the sweet spot, before the long slow burnout sets in.
Perhaps I should explain the suburban vs urban comment.
The suburban kids treated my like an employee (which I was, though of their parents, not them). They wanted to use me for the skills I could offer them in the time they had. Some wanted to learn the stuff and tried to use our time to go over the stuff they didn’t understand in class. Others just tried to get me to do their homework for them once a week. But they understood I was there for their use.
The kids at the homework program at NYC saw me as an authority figure. Some were used to getting positive feedback from authority figures and were willing to work with me to get more of it. Some were scared of authority figures and tried to avoid getting scolded. But in both cases, I had to work my butt off to get them to want to make mistakes in front of me. None of them expected me to embrace their mistakes as a chance to teach them something.
In fact, most that I have seen do quite well.
My sister has ten years experience and makes 40K. The payrange in our school district is 30-65K.
After 15 to 20 years, they get a better pay than many other fields of endeavor.
Like I said, out here the cap is 65K, and that assumes an advanced degree with 20+ years of experience. CS grads can start out making 65K straight out of college.
It’s like I (and others) have said before: People have been conditioned into believing that housing is supposed to be unaffordable.
People have also been conditioned to think that couples earning a middle class salary can afford a 500K house.
That’s almost exactly what my house cost, and (not trying to sound callous here) I am not at all a median income earner. I pay more in taxes (hence the screenname) than the median income in this country, my combined household is closing in on a 100K in taxes. I’m lucky and have worked hard (but no harder than some others, I don’t mean to imply that), but, at the same time, recognize that the way I live does not equate to a middle class lifestyle.
The thought of carrying a house like mine on a middle income salary (as I assume this couple has) is ridiculous. Last year alone, I had about 20K in maintenance that needed to be done to the house (both air conditioners, exterior paint, re-bricking the driveway, etc). That’s a fairly typical year for me so far, I assume that it’s going to hold that most years I spend in that range for just regular upkeep (somewhere between 5-10% of the purchase price of the home).
This idea of a middle-class (70-90K HH income) family in 500K houses is just laughable. Frankly, with 70K in income, you might not be able to afford (really afford, as in, keep up with the house and still eat something other than Ramen) a 500K house if it was given to you. The taxes and insurance alone on my house are 10K a year, add in 20K in repairs and regular services (HOA dues, lawn guy, pool guy, etc), you’re already over the “1/3rd” rule.
Thank you Overtaxed. Honest reality driven post.
my combined household is closing in on a 100K in taxes.
Holy moly, that suggests a household income of roughly $400K.
BTW, I concur with your conclusion. Middle-income earners could not afford to live in your house even if it was given to them.
The taxes and insurance alone on my house are 10K a year, add in 20K in repairs and regular services (HOA dues, lawn guy, pool guy, etc), you’re already over the “1/3rd” rule.
Even if they skipped the services and cut their own lawn and maintained the pool themselves, call it $10K/yr in maintenance, $20K with taxes included, and that ends up being more than my rent currently is on a ~$400K house.
“Even if they skipped the services and cut their own lawn and maintained the pool themselves, call it $10K/yr in maintenance, $20K with taxes included, and that ends up being more than my rent currently is on a ~$400K house.”
Yup. My taxes+insurance+upkeep are significantly higher than my rent was on my last house (which, BTW, cost more than my current house when it was last sold in 2006 and is 1/2 the sq footage and not nearly as good a location).
I have no illusions of this house as an “investment”. It may be, it may not be. But I put it in to the “consumable” part of my balance sheet, not a stock/bond that I consider an investment. I bought the house because my wife really wanted it and, to be honest, I really loved it as well. But, it’s not something I expect to produce income, it’s a drain on my finances that, without serious inflation, will never prove to be a good investment.
We’ve been very lucky, work hard, and have a DINK household. And last year was particularly good for us.. But, round numbers, that’s about the right neighborhood. We could afford this house on less (maybe even 1/2). But, at the same time, affording it on 100K/yr simply would not be an option, it wouldn’t even be close.
The real point that I think many in this country continue to miss is that 500K houses are not for the “average Joe”. They are for people that most would consider “rich”. 2 teachers spending what I do on housing expenses just makes my head hurt; why on earth would someone lend them the money to do this?
Well buying a house is an investment, but the dividend is housing which is generally consumed in it’s entirety. But unless wage inflation kicks off, everybody is right, 500k is just too high a price tag for a household with a near median income.
“500k is just too high a price tag for a household with a near median income.”
Not just too high.. In another stratosphere. I’d like someone with my income looking to purchase a 100′ yacht, you’re not even CLOSE. The slip+maintenance will consume your entire income before you pay the note or put fuel in it.
The median family in this country should be buying houses in the 125-175K range. And, unless we get wage inflation, that’s exactly where the median house prices are going to wind up. If we get serious inflation (and interest rates rise a lot) then probably 2X income is more the right number. Today about 2.5-3X is the most that the median income family should consider spending on housing.
I think that you may be overstating things a bit, Overtaxed. Keep in mind that in a normal market, with normal prices, buying a house IS a money losing proposition for the first few years. It doesn’t really start to be advantageous until the inflation has worked it’s magic on the equivalent rent which the owner is no longer paying. That’s the funny thing, when inflation gets into gear, the cost of owning becomes prohibitive, but the advantages of owning are also the greatest.
In the generally overpriced DC region, the carrying costs on a 500k house in maintenance HOA fees etc are not as high as yours seem to be. Purchase prices skyrocketed, but maintenance costs didn’t. Most people with 400-500k houses don’t have pools and don’t pay somebody else to mow their lawns. So I’m guessing that 500k where you live buys rather more house than it does around here. That price is still too high, but 250k is a reasonable stretch IF household income is stable. Of course as the economy slowly hollows out, a stable job is ever harder to come by.
“500k is just too high a price tag for a household with a near median income.”
Almost all housing costs this much or more where I live.
93021
Does this mean all local buyers make over 100K ? 5x income is the standard around here streching to 10x at the peak.
Last year alone, I had about 20K in maintenance that needed to be done to the house (both air conditioners, exterior paint, re-bricking the driveway, etc). That’s a fairly typical year for me so far
Really? You spend 20K every year in maintenance? I’ve had years where I spent ZERO. Our worst year was when we had the house repainted: $3500.
People have also been conditioned to think that couples earning a middle class salary can afford a 500K house.
I’m not sure that “afford” is the right coice of word. More like “this is what they cost and you will make every sacrifice possible to buy one”.
FWIW, very few people in Loveland live in 500K houses. The average here is around 200K, which is 4x the local median HH income, and hence is unaffordable.
Overtaxed wrote:
“Why would a lender make a loan that is unlikely to be repaid?”
Answer that and you have the core driver of the housing bubble.
The answer is that lenders discovered a way to avoid retaining any repayment risk. They did that by selling off the loans - at a healthy commission - which were securitized and sold off to the market at large.
If lenders had to retain repayment risk, they’d not make massive loans which were likely to fail.
Overtaxed, the other day someone posted an article stating how FL residents are overpaying for homewners ins. i.e. a woman with a $50,000 replacement cost home paying @$1,600 premium, on an inland home. Shouldn’t your $500,000 home, near or on the water, be at least $10,000/yr, for ins alone? or do the little people subsidize the well-off in lovely Floriduh.
In WP school district? I’d wager their combined is very close to 200k.
OMG. Well then, ignore my rant above, they may in fact be able to afford this house.
Where do I sign up for those 100K/yr jobs that only require me to work 9 months a year and don’t require me traveling for 20+ weeks (as I currently do) each year??
I don’t begrudge teachers a good salary, and, in the private institutions, I couldn’t care less if they make 10M a year. But public school teachers over 100K/yr? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?
It’s different if they are both professors, that’s a higher level of required qualification. But 100K/yr for a government employee who has a BA degree and gets 8-12 weeks a year off? That seems a bit over the top.
But public school teachers over 100K/yr? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?
Yeah, let me know what school district is paying that. Maybe I’ll move. We are a two-teacher family, both with teaching credentials AND master’s degrees (4 years after undergrad) with a combined salary of 125K. One of us has been teaching 14 years, the other 6 years.
Big buck, I tell ya.
It’s Westchester County NY where property taxes on a $hitbox will easily run $15k. And Armonk is as lofty as any area in WC. Big money and big names live there. Not saying it’s right nor do I ever want to settle there.
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/article.aspx?post=6e660b54-b9c7-470d-b650-68226582d6b9
A home maker makes more than a school teacher, maybe they should tax this implied income ?
Rather than complain about it, why don’t you get your teaching certification so you can make 100K/year too?
Did anyone else catch this? It just seemed to sum it all up for me….
“I believe that criminals who commit felonies shouldn’t be allowed to vote after they get out of office.”
-Mitt (Nom’nie”) Romney
Myrtle Beach, SC. 1.16.12
Said criminals would have to be convicted first. In a kleptocracy, that’s never going to happen. Does anyone think Jon Corzine will even face criminal charges for the disappearance of $1.2 billion in MF Global customer accounts on his watch? How much of that ended up in DNC coffers?
“How much of that ended up in DNC coffers?”
Hopefully enough to keep the “TruePurity™” Evangelicalista’s / “TrueBeliever’s™ & True Deciever’s™” from getting control of the US Senate & women’s reproductive SCOTUS decisions.
So to your mind theft of customer accounts is justified if it flows to “your” political party. A Boomer to the core.
All$ well that end$ well $ammy.
From Politico - Pete Sessions got Countrywide VIP loan:
“Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, a top member of the House GOP leadership, received a VIP mortgage from defunct lender Countrywide Financial Corp., making him the fourth current member of the House who has acknowledged getting a sweetheart deal.
Sessions’ office would not comment on the amount of the loan or when it was issued, although press reports state that it was a 2007 transaction worth as much as $1 million. The loan does not appear on any of Sessions’ annual financial disclosure reports on file with the House Clerk’s office. Lawmakers and senior aides must file such reports each year, but they are allowed to leave off information regarding personal homes or property that do not generate any income.
House ethics rules require that lawmakers and staff may only accept “loans from banks and other financial institutions on terms generally available to the public.”
Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, joins Reps. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.), Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) and Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) in acknowledging being notified that they received below-market loans from Countrywide’s VIP program. The program was put in place by Angelo Mozilo, former Countrywide CEO, and it was designed to boost the company’s standing with celebrities, athletes, and well-connected business and government officials.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and former Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) also received special loans through Countrywide’s VIP unit. No charges were ever filed against the two senators, but the Senate Ethics Committee said both Conrad and Dodd “should have exercised more vigilance” in their dealings with Countrywide.
Altogether, about 30 loans from the Countrywide VIP program went to senators or staff, Issa told the Senate Ethics Committee in July 2010.”
“House ethic$ rules require that lawmaker$ and staff may only accept “loans from bank$ and other financial institution$ on terms generally available to the public.”
“$essions’ office would not comment on the amount of the loan or when it was issued, although press reports state that it was a 2007 transaction worth as much as $1 million.”
“$essions, the chairman of the National Repubican Congressional Committee”
A powerful, ethical, “TruePurity™” repubican displaying “TrueHypocrite™” behavior$?
Eyes am in $hock & Awe!
I’ve always thought these loans were crooked. A way to get special favors for Countrywide from people with influence (who else would be a “VIP”?). But I have problems with a lot of business models.
I am not yet a “senior citizen”, but I watch all the time as I see other folks getting a “senior discount” at McDonalds, A special checking account at the bank, 10% discount for “seniors” at many places I go to eat.
NONE of these offers are generally provided at terms available to the public, unless you believe most of the people doing business here are over 65. Banks, in particular, have always had special programs for ’seniors’, so how do you distinguish a “vip” program from a “house for oldsters” benefit plan?
All this stuff galls me because OLD folks have less expense than 20- somethings. The YOUNG people starting out have a much tougher time paying for things than Old folks. There really should be an under 40 “discount”, and a surcharge on retirees.
In legal documents (and congressional ethics guidelines are very close to legal documents, though they don’t have force of law behind them), “generally available to the public” does not have to mean that anyone can access it. A business that provides pedicures is providing services to the public even though there are people who don’t have feet.
“Generally available to the public” is going to mean (generally) that there are clear, written guidelines as to who qualifies, the organization will provide those guidelines to anyone who asks so they can figure out if they qualify, and a reasonable number of people will qualify. If the CEO of the company is the one doling out access to the program on an individual by individual basis, it isn’t generally available to the public.
Somewhere in between is the Citibank private banking program I had access to as an associate at my first law firm. I’m sure they had this program generally set up for wealthy clients, but the firm probably arranged for us to have access despite being broke (my net worth was about negative $65,000 at the time) because it meant we spent less time dealing with life stuff and more time billing clients. My guess is that they might have had clear, written guidelines that indicated that anyone with $x of assets being managed by the bank had access to this program, but the fact that they made exceptions to the requirements for us (and perhaps other people working at big NYC law firms) made it a bit more like a program for people we want think well of us in the future because they are (or may be) powerful.
I dumped the program as soon as I realized that in NYC (unlike rural NH) no one cared if I wrote a check from a local bank.
Here in Tucson, the Whole Foods Market announced that it was dropping senior discounts. This happened a year or two ago.
Senior discounts have migrated, conveniently, from 55 to 60 to 65 as the pig has moved further through the python.
Give me my Goddamn deserved discount or I will never patronize you again for the rest of my ever-lengthening life!!
ahansen:
Are you sure that you got the exact quote there? I think that he specifically mentioned violent criminals.
Nevertheless, it did sound like silly pandering that would be appreciated by the audience. A person commits a violent crime, so you want to take away their ability to vote for their entire lives? Is that really going to deter violent crime?
Is that really going to deter violent crime?
Of course not, but I thought the idea was to spare us from them having any further input on the system rather than to deter them.
What you’re saying is that taking away their ability to vote wouldn’t be a punishment. It would just be a way to remove people from the pool of eligible voters because we don’t want them to have an influence on elections. This would be similar to the rules that restrict non-citizens and kids under the age of 18 from voting.
If it’s not a punishment, why limit it to violent criminals? Why shouldn’t white-collar criminals, for example, be excluded? I don’t really see the logic there.
I couldn’t find the quote online. I was interested in the “after they get out of office” part.
Mighty,
Forgot the “violent.” Yes, correct quote is:
“I believe that violent criminals who commit felonies shouldn’t be allowed to vote after they get out of office.”
Montana,
Yep. Surprised no one picked that one up. I laffed my arse off.
Realized that as soon as I posted. Thanks for the catch.
criminals who commit felonies shouldn’t be allowed to vote after they get out of office.”
Shows the importance of being re-elected.
Definitions are so important.
Household waste is by definition not “Hazardous Waste”.
Elected officials are by definition not “Criminals”, though technically they are hazardous.
+1000 ahansen -
More bailouts for banksters. The US contributes 17% to the IMF, so this, combined with Bernanke’s back-door bailout of Europe, will commit US taxpayers to untold billions more to cover the banksters’ bad loans to the EU, mostly to feed the housing bubble there. I wonder how Chinese and Indian workers making $5 a day feel about being hit up to protect European plutocrats and their kletocrat political allies from the inevitable Financial Reckoning Day.
Thank you, Obama voters. Thank you, McCain Voters.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/dollar-yen-hold-losses-versus-euro-as-u-s-recovery-damps-safety-demand.html
The Washington-based IMF is pushing China, Brazil, Russia, India, Japan and oil-exporting nations to be the top contributors, according to an official of a Group of 20 nation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. The fund wants the agreement struck at the Feb. 25-26 meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bankers in Mexico City, the official said.
The people with the money have to spend it, or the debt can not be repaid, the debt will default, and the money will pood out of existance.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2012/01/18/panicked-greeks-hide-cash-under-pools-and-olive-trees/
Just default already, Greece. Get it over with, for your sake and ours.
Oh, GAWD, I hear ya. I’m so tired of Greek default talk I could puke.
Hey, Palmy, I’m surprised you’re not all over those 430% Greek bond yields.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=GGGB1YR:IND
You gotta love show biz!
You know if this keeps up much longer, it might just well effect my sleep!
(Oh, look Cabella’s has a sale on black powder guns!)
You forgot to add a $ sign somewhere to your post.
It’s just a$$umed now.
tanks!
Cabella’$ + gun$
Well I want them to default before April, because I don’t want to make my ROTH IRA contribution for 2011 until AFTER they do.
Why, Jim? Can’t you just park it in cash in your ROTH while waiting for the buying opportunity that you are expecting?
You can only put 5k into the ROTH per year. And really, having a bunch of small, Roth balances in different funds tends to get you fee-d to death by the fund manager. So I don’t want to shuffle the money around once it’s in there.
As Jack Bogle is wont to say, in investing, you get what you DON’T pay for.
Why buy a house today when you can buy later for 65% less?
I’m not so sure. The Fed’s Weimar Republic-style money creation could mean that now is the time to grab tangible assets, then pay off those debts with increasingly worthless Bernanke Bux. In Weimar Germany the debtors were chasing down the lenders to pay for real assets with wheelbarrow fiat currency.
IMHO, that’s the real question. There’s no doubt that in most areas, houses are still overpriced. But that has to be weighed against the Fed’s outright focus to create inflation at all costs. Eventually (even if it does require helicopter drops of 100 dollar bills) they will be successful. And, when they are, holding assets (houses, stocks, cars, etc) with notes on them is going to be the position you want to be in.
Frankly, with interest rates around 4%, I’m pretty convinced that borrowing today is already under the rate of inflation. Make that a tax advantaged 4%, and now you’re way under.
Think about it. Would you lend money to someone (assuming you knew they’d pay it back) for 30 years at 4% interest? I wouldn’t lend for 5 years at that interest rate.. And if you wouldn’t lend at that rate, in many cases, it means you should be borrowing. This does NOT mean you should buy overpriced houses with the money though!
Eventually (even if it does require helicopter drops of 100 dollar bills) they will be successful.
Isn’t that what the payroll tax holiday basically is?
This does NOT mean you should buy overpriced houses with the money though!
What should you be doing with the money, then? I can’t find a decent place to park what I already have…
Please don’t take this as advice, I’m just answering the question as to what “I do” with the money.
I hold mostly high dividend stocks (VZ and other telcos are some of my primary holdings, also things like GE, MRK, and other large blue chips) and tax free municipal bonds (BFK and PIA are some of the funds that I invest in).
The muni-bond funds, in particular, have been great performers. They yield between 5-7% (tax free) and have seen their prices rise significantly with the fed helicopter drops of money to lower the interest rates. However, at some point, when interest rates go up, these funds are going to get beat up pretty badly. I try not to invest in the bond funds all at once, they are my “drip” investments, I buy a few times a year every year to try to average out my interest rate risks.
My portfolio yields a blended 4-6% (depending on the year) after tax income. That does not count appreciation (or depreciation) of the underlying stocks, just the income from the dividends. It’s not “hitting the cover off the ball”, but it’s not bad either. My blended (again, after tax) borrowing costs are around 3-3.25%. So I’m making a few points every year by borrowing the money, and, of course, have the flexibility afforded by having the “cash”.
But the real big reason for this strategy is to setup for inflation. If inflation hits in a big way (which I believe it will) I’ll make out like a bandit with my investment setup (except for the bonds, they will get beat up, but I’m aware of that and have some protection from that risk).
Don’t take any of this as advice, I’m not an investment adviser, and I don’t play on on TV either!
” holding assets (houses, stocks, cars, etc) with notes on them is going to be the position you want to be in”
Not me. So far it’s a horrible bet to be leveraged up on house debt. The Fed is giving the mere perception of inflation. Pissing up Niagra Falls. You go ahead though and bid up the prices of those things with borrowed money. That’s what’s driving the commodities bubble. All the big chipmonks have their cheeks so full of the stuff that it’s only a question of who will puke first, and when. Heads you win and tails you change your name, if you know the right people.
65% less?
(Just how ela$tic is the hou$ing bungee-cord anywho?)
That which is ca$t down must have been ri$en at one time. (old school dude, from China)
Many Americans gave up hope last year – 2012 will be worse
http://www.guardian.co.uk
The year 2011 will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope. President John F Kennedy once said that a rising tide lifts all boats. But now, in the receding tide, Americans are beginning to see not only that those with taller masts had been lifted far higher, but also that many of the smaller boats had been dashed to pieces in their wake.
In that brief moment when the tide was indeed rising, millions of people believed that they might have a fair chance of realising the “American Dream”. Now those dreams, too, are receding. By 2011, the savings of those who had lost their jobs in 2008 or 2009 had been spent. Unemployment cheques had run out. Headlines announcing new hiring – still not enough to keep pace with the number of those who would normally have entered the labour force – meant little to the 50-year-olds with little hope of ever holding a job again.
Indeed, middle-aged people who thought that they would be unemployed for a few months have now realised that they were, in fact, forcibly retired. Young people who graduated from college with tens of thousands of dollars of education debt cannot find any jobs at all. People who moved in with friends and relatives have become homeless. Houses bought during the property boom are still on the market or have been sold at a loss. More than seven million American families have lost their homes.
The dark underbelly of the previous decade’s financial boom has been fully exposed in Europe as well. Dithering over Greece and key national governments’ devotion to austerity began to exact a heavy toll last year. Contagion spread to Italy. Spain’s unemployment, which had been near 20% since the beginning of the recession, crept even higher. The unthinkable – the end of the euro – began to seem like a real possibility.
This year is set to be even worse. It is possible, of course, that the United States will solve its political problems and finally adopt the stimulus measures that it needs to bring down unemployment to 6% or 7% (the pre-crisis level of 4% or 5% is too much to hope for). But this is as unlikely as it is that Europe will figure out that austerity alone will not solve its problems. On the contrary, austerity will only exacerbate the economic slowdown. Without growth, the debt crisis – and the euro crisis – will only worsen. And the long crisis that began with the collapse of the housing bubble in 2007 and the subsequent recession will continue.
Moreover, the major emerging-market countries, which steered successfully through the storms of 2008 and 2009, may not cope as well with the problems looming on the horizon. Brazil’s growth has already stalled, fuelling anxiety among its neighbours in Latin America.
Meanwhile, long-term problems – including climate change and other environmental threats, and increasing inequality in most countries around the world – have not gone away. Some have grown more severe. For example, high unemployment has depressed wages and increased poverty.
time to legalize pot and make things from Hemp….
+1. Don’t indulge, but the War on Drugs has been a comprehensive failure and has gutted the 4th Amendment. Hemp has an amazing variety of uses, but has a strong corporate lobby trying to suppress its legalization.
Hemp oil was used in paint until it was outlawed after WW2.
What did the paint industry substitute you might ask?
Lead.
Can’t do that dj, that leads to man on dog type actions. In fact the more I think of all those murders committed by mary jane crazed killers I’m even more sure than ever.
Romney 2012
“all those murders committed by mary jane crazed killers”
Women cry for it!
Men die for it!
Reefer madness!!
Didn’t the push to end Prohibition have a lot to do with the money the states and the feds were losing by not taxing alcohol sales?
I posted this article the other day linked from the Toronto Globe and Mail, but is certainly warrants a repost.
That and how Bloomberg reported last week that only 7% of those laid off since the 2008 financial crisis have found jobs equal or exceeding their previous job.
And that half the American workforce earns less than $500/week.
I have seen the future, and it is Lucky Ducky
“And that half the American workforce earns less than $500/week.”
That can’t be right, can it?
Median wage is $31.6K, right? That is like $610 a week.
For a lot of the lower level on-the-clock jobs 35 hours a week is considered “full time”. (The reason for this is to avoid paying overtime as most employees may go a bit over the 35. They will be punished if they go over 40 without permission.)
So at $7.25/hour (minimum wage) a 35 hour week = $253.75
Would have to be making around $14/hour to get to $500 for a 35 hour week.
And don’t forget, they like to hire “part time” workers as much as possible so they don’t have to spend anything on benefits. (No health insurance, no sick days, no vacation days, no 401k…)
I’m not sure if it’s still this way, but back in the 70’s in Missouri employers who were not engaged in interstate commerce (and therefore not subject to the federal minimum wage laws) could pay even lower wages as the state did not have any minimum wage.
Median wage for 2010 is $26,364. $507 a week.
It depends on the sample. For all workers the median is $500 a week. If you remove the part timers (the lucky duckies) it goes up to the $600 level Darrell mentioned.
Either way, it’s a pittance. Small wonder almost 80,000,000 Americans qualify for food stamps based on their income level, even though onky 50M are getting them at this time.
This is the central point of any discussion of the non-existant recovery, that Lucky Ducky wages will not support house prices at 5+ times median incomes.
With global wage arbitrage, there will be no inflation of incomes to support the alleged recovery. The future belongs to Lucky Ducky.
Memo to corporate media and Washington DC: there is no recovery, there will never be a recovery, stop lying about it. Two years ago was “green shoots”, last year was the direct assault on the last shreds of organized labor and the pushing of the meme that the job creators just need less taxes and regulation and all will be hunky dory.
Can anyone, anywhere in media or government, just not lie and admit that the “new normal” is here to stay, that it is a permanent structural economic decline, and that there will never be a recovery?
Can anyone, anywhere in media or government, just not lie and admit that the “new normal” is here to stay, that it is a permanent structural economic decline, and that there will never be a recovery?
You might as well ask for a candy crapping unicorn while you’re at it.
This is becoming tragic. The wealth transfer is gathering speed from taxpayers to the corporotocracy, desperate to cling onto power at all costs so they can extract the last dime out of the productive economy, while luring the sheeple to “invest” in the rigged casino economy.
When the current financial crisis began in late 2007, people gasped as Central Banks printed a few billion, but now we’re immune and a few trillion is the new standard. All the sheeple care about is the Golden Globes or what antics those silly Kardashian sluts will come up with next. Any society so grossly unfair to future generations deserves everything it is going to get when the financial reckoning day arrives.
And surely come it will Sammy.
Over Bernanke’s and Timmay’s dead bodies.
Maybe they will get a real job???…ho ho ho flash yor cleeevage here is $15k for that..no underwear $35K
silly Kardashian sluts
“You cannot directly pursue the “American Dream” by Neon-Aristotle
“You can directly pursue the “American Dream”!
by MegaRealEstateIndu$trialComplexInc., + illustrations by: “MegaBamkerInc.friend$” of a different mother
“…a rising tide lifts all boats.”
2012 update: A rising tsunami tide sinks all boats.
You would think with all that pessimism that houses and stocks would be cheaper.
You wold also think that with American gasoline demand constantly dropping, gas would be cheaper.
But it ain’t, is it?
Brazil’s growth has already stalled, fuelling anxiety among its neighbours in Latin America.
Hey Rio, is that true?
Brazil’s growth has already stalled, fuelling anxiety among its neighbours in Latin America……..Hey Rio, is that true?
It’s “stalled” compared to the 7.5% 2010 growth. I’m hearing 3-3.5% for 2011 and the same for 2010. It’s mostly due to a cutback in consumer spending which was needed IMO because of rising personal debt. But it’s “different” here.
Dip in Consumer Spending Slows Growth in Brazil
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/americas/brazils-growth-slowed-by-decline-in-consumer-spending.html
“Brazil differs from other economies that are facing structural problems, which suggests a long period of low growth,” said Rodrigo Telles da Rocha Azevedo, a principal at Ibiúna, an asset management company in São Paulo. “Brazil’s problem is more cyclical, giving us space for measures to reverse declines in consumption and investment.”
Brazil still boasts indicators that suggest that the economy is far from a crisis. Unemployment fell in October to 5.8 percent, a historic low, from 6 percent the previous month. The country also maintains $352 billion in foreign currency reserves, compared with just $54 billion at the end of 2005.
It’s “stalled” compared to the 7.5% 2010 growth. I’m hearing 3-3.5% for 2011 and the same for 2010. It’s mostly due to a cutback in consumer spending which was needed IMO because of rising personal debt. But it’s “different” here.
Thanks much for the info.
BTW, speaking of “it’s ‘different’ here,” I did feel badly that the Puddy-tat gave you such abuse some weeks back. I found your twelve reasons fairly thought-provoking and somewhat convincing, although I also understand his aversion to “it’s different” thinking.
Some years back, it was “different” everywhere, so it’s tempting to reject that argument out of hand as a repeat of past mistakes. But the fact that everyone was mistaken back ten does not necessarily imply that it couldn’t be “different” somewhere now.
I did feel badly that the Puddy-tat gave you such abuse some weeks back.
Thanks. Don’t sweat it. IMO, what he gave me in rudeness and blanket statements, I gave him back even more with some facts and pointing out his crudeness. And remember there were 13 reasons, not 12.
This BBC article says Brazil is “different” partially because of it’s domestic demand and domestic growth.
Brazil’s economy marching to samba beat
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16407585
The giant scale of everything is also indicative of Brazil’s growing economic might.
“God blessed Brazil with huge amounts of natural resources,” says Mr Itzaina.
It is blessed with minerals and fresh water, and now we have just found huge reserves of oil and gas.
“Brazil is very well placed for the future.”
Domestic market…
…Brazil’s economic growth last year was enough to see it overtake the UK as the world’s sixth-largest economy, according to economic research group the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
What helps Brazil is that its vast domestic market - it has a population of 195 million - helps shield it from any global economic storms.
This population may be dwarfed by China’s 1.3 billion, but on average, Brazilians have much higher purchasing power.
Mr Itzaina says: “Brazil’s exports account for between 13% and 14% of its economy, China is more like 40%. So while exports are obviously important for Brazil, and it wants to increase them, it is not dependant upon them.
I did feel badly that the Puddy-tat gave you such abuse some weeks back.
FPSS really hammered on both Rio and Oxide. Whatever got into him, I hope it works itself out while he’s in India.
Oxide, are you out there? It’s safe to come back now. You are missed!
Stagflation??
Menu prices expected to rise in 2012 due to higher food costs
According to industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN), a second straight year of rising commodity costs will force restaurant chains to pass on higher food costs to consumers by hiking up menu prices.
More than 150 restaurant operators participated in the survey, 67 percent of whom said they would be increasing prices in 2012. Of those respondents, 64 percent said the price hikes would range between 1 and 3 percent; 31 percent said they would hike prices between 4 to 6 percent; and six percent said they plan to raise prices by more than 6 percent.
Meanwhile, despite the uptick in prices, restaurant operators cited value pricing as their menu’s main focus this year. That was followed by improved food quality, the use of local or seasonal items, lower-cost food items and bold and spicy flavors.
I still haven’t seen an all you can eat baloney special…that would be the bottom sign for me.
I still haven’t seen an all you can eat baloney special
Haven’t you seen any of the Republican debates?
“Stagflation??”
I think combo was the first to bring up the specter of stagflation here on the blog a few years back.
“Menu prices expected to rise in 2012 due to higher food costs”
In other news, restaurant revenues expected to decline in 2012 along with disposable income.
Idiots. Times are tough. Let’s raise prices! Booyah!
“I think combo was the first to bring up the specter of stagflation here on the blog a few years back.”
Thanks Palmy, but I’m more of a deflationist than a stagflationist, and I view the rate of money flow as being more important than stated prices.
As an example, these restaurants can price their food to whatever prices they want but if the customers do not have the money to pay these prices then they won’t, and the money the restaurants desperately need to stay in business will not flow into their cash registers.
High prices or not, look for fewer restaurants to remain in business as this deflation rolls on.
“these restaurants can price their food to whatever prices they want ”
And just like retailers they can create MSRP’s that make some people think they are getting a bargain when they run their “specials”.
That’s not “deflation”. That’s “response” to inflation.
Gotta love that deflation!
The Lucky Duckies who ate out at Applebee’s, Chili’s, Olive Garden, now eat the $1 menu at McDonald’s, if at all.
The food prices at King Soopers (Krogers) are not deflating at all, but are now at an elevated plateau, which I would argue is at least 25% higher than 5 years ago.
See also the few MSM stories about the crowds of Lucky Duckies at Walmart at midnight the day their EBT (food stamp) cards are loaded, which the media erroneously terms is a result of the “paycheck cycle” of these mythical consumers that all coincidentally get paid on the first of the month.
The only real deflation is in wages.
Heck, we rarely eat out anymore. For less than half the cost of eating burgers at Applebee’s we can make a steak dinner at home on Sunday.
The Lucky Duckies who ate out at Applebee’s, Chili’s, Olive Garden, now eat the $1 menu at McDonald’s, if at all.
Perhaps it depends on where you draw the Lucky Ducky line, but in Colorado things slowed down a bunch in late 08 early 09, but then mostly bounced back and stayed there. Those places are all still doing decent business. Either we don’t have many LDs here, or else a bunch of them aren’t paying the mortgage any more.
Heck, we rarely eat out anymore. For less than half the cost of eating burgers at Applebee’s we can make a steak dinner at home on Sunday.
Same here. I’m really enjoying the art of cooking. Sometimes, my food even tastes artful.
That’s the “$1.50″ menu now.
That’s no joke.
” Either we don’t have many LDs here”
According to wiki, only 5% of Lovelanders are living in poverty. That said most restaurants here are not packed to the gills the way they were in say 2005. Then again. median HH income here has dropped over 10% since 2000 (which was lower than in 2005 during the construction boom).
I remember when Mimi’s cafe opened here a few years ago. There was always a line out the door. Now there’s rarely a wait, not even on Friday or Saturday. Ditto with the Applebee’s, Lone Star, and some other places. Curiously, Chili’s seems to be the busiest place.
AZSlim —
“I’m really enjoying the art of cooking.”
Next step: the science! We’ve got some cabbage fermenting for sauerkraut (blaukraut, actually) and all the bubbling led to a purple disaster on the counter this morning.
Home-made posole for lunch and lasagna for dinner. Keep raising the prices and lowering the quality of service and food restauranteurs! That’s the ticket!
There’s a massive shake out coming in restaurants with only the cheapest and best food/service options left standing. Two 4×20 veggie boxes in the ground and a 1000 gallon water tank on the property now. Supermarkets are the next target.
Combo–
You have been making compelling deflation arguments for a while now. Do you have an article on how deflation and stagflation are different?
Heck, we rarely eat out anymore. For less than half the cost of eating burgers at Applebee’s we can make a steak dinner at home on Sunday.
We just announced to the kids, “No more take-out and no more eating out. Once a month they get to choose: In-n-Out Burger or tacqueria”.
I’ve been busting out the crockpot, less packaged/processes food (we didn’t eat that much anyway) and it’s Costco coffee beans for us.
Just doing our part to bring down the US economy, one meal at a time.
In-n-Out Burger or tacqueria
Yes!
We just announced to the kids, “No more take-out and no more eating out. Once a month they get to choose: In-n-Out Burger or tacqueria”.
LOL! For us “eating out” == getting burritos at Chipotle to go.
“Combo, you have been making compelling deflation arguments for a while now. Do you have an article on how deflation and stagflation are different?
Wiki-up “deflation” and then wiki-up “stagflation”; Each will give you a good description.
Keep in mind that in the Seventies when we had raging stagflation various governmental tax revenues were forever increasing. That’s because NOMINAL prices and incomes and corporate profits were forever increasing.
REAL prices and incomes and profits were not increasing in any real sense but THEY WERE TAXED AS IF THEY WERE! This make a great deal of difference to government budgets because with stagflation there is an ever-increasing stream of tax revenue going into government coffers.
But with deflation there isn’t.
Take a look around and decide for yourself what it is you see that is happeinig all around you.
“Wiki-up “deflation” and then wiki-up “stagflation”; Each will give you a good description.”
I suppose that I asked for that.
I thought that I had an adequate idea of the two, but was looking more for the signs that you are seeing that would be manifested by their difference. However, now I’m not sure that I could pass a pop quiz on the issue. I’ll do my homework and come back better informed!
This line of yours is striking though: “with stagflation there is an ever-increasing stream of tax revenue going into government coffers”.
Currently:
Fewer people eating out or eating prepared foods = less taxes
Lower property values = less taxes
Less consumption = less taxes
Doesn’t seem like stagflation but I’ll do the research, tomorrow, of course…
Don’t forget wages. If people aren’t earning then they aren’t paying taxes.
And don’t forget borrowing. People don’t have to earn money if they can borrow it; If they can allow their house to do all the “earning” then they are set for life (or until reality strikes, whichever comes first).
But if they can’t earn and can’t borrow then they are financially hosed. And if they are financially hosed then they can’t do a lot of spending. And if they can’t do a lot of spending then those who depend on them doing a lot of spending are hosed right along with them.
And so is the tax collector.
IMO the times of today resemble the Thirties in that people who have money aren’t spending much of it, and people who don’t have money can’t get any.
Whatever the case, either way, spending is reduced. And reduced spending is a killer in an economy that is seventy-percent dependent on people spending money.
And prices will reflect this diminshed spending.
The trend for prices, in general, is down. This trend may look be a bit ragged but most trends look a bit ragged.
food costs + labor costs + utility costs > menu costs = out of business.
What labor costs? Do you know what the average wage is for most restaurant workers? Min wage. Only the wait staff gets tips.
For fast food, it’s about $10hr, but no tips.
Only the wait staff gets tips.
And they usually only get half minimum wage, for this reason. So they’re a super-low labor cost.
The manager, cooks, dishwashers, and and busboys don’t get tips- that’s the labor cost.
“Idiots. Times are tough. Let’s raise prices! Booyah!”
Welcome to voodoo, er, “supply side” economics.
When times are good, raise prices and declare scarcity of product.
When times are hard, raise prices and declare scarcity of income.
FBs who can live an average of 681 days rent-free in their houses (time it takes now for banks to foreclose) can eat out more often on the money they’re saving on house payments.
“…can eat out more often on the money they’re $aving on hou$e payment$.”
“Gluttonous pigs!, if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s gluttony!” Piedmont (from the Razors Edge)
Or as they say on Madi$on Ave.: “You i$ what you eat$!”
Judging by how empty restaurants are in my neck of the woods we must have a non-mortgage-paying, deadbeat shortage out here.
Yup. Is the same across much of Lakewood and suburban JeffCo.
You’re saying restaurants are empty up in Loveland? I haven’t seen that in Boulder and Longmont.
You’re saying restaurants are empty up in Loveland?
Restaurants are pretty packed here in Redmond, WA. Went out on Friday night and had a 45 minute wait for a table. Granted, this is the “popular” happy hour place for the Microsoft folks (based on all the windows mobile phones set on the bar)
Sun-Thur, you can always get in without a wait. Sometimes even Fridays and Saturdays, if you miss the rush hour.
Sometime we go out to lunch at work, and head to Flat Irons mall. I remember a few years ago that would always involve a wait. I’ve been to Red Robin, C.B and Potts and a few other chain eateries there lately. Never a wait and they are only half full.
Restaurants are pretty packed here in Redmond, WA
I was in nearby Bothel a couple of years ago on business. Went out to eat a few times. There was never a wait.
I was in nearby Bothel a couple of years ago on business. Went out to eat a few times. There was never a wait.
To be fair, this was midweek. But even in lowly Loveland, during the bubble, the chain eateries were packed 7 days a week.
OK. I guess all I really know is that the Texas Roadhouse in Longmont (my wife’s current favorite place) always has a wait on weekend evenings.
Here in Tucson, it depends on the restaurant. If you offer good food that is well served and at reasonable prices, you’re doing okay. Not great, but okay.
Large-size (not really that large) Hellman’s mayo was nine bucks yesterday. Forget physical gold, mayo might be more worth hoarding and its more liquid and tastes better.
Large-size (not really that large) Hellman’s mayo
Brazil has hardly any large sized packaged foods. The largest mayo I can find is about 12 ounces and the largest cottage cheese is about the same. It’s a bummer. Food prices are up here too.
eyes feel your pain Rio, iffin’ eyes bar chart my “everything-is-caloric-energy” expenditure$, the Total Wine Inc. bar is rapidly making a $tatement about “leader-of-the-pack” hierarchy
The largest mayo I can find in Brazil is about 12 ounces
Correction: 500 grams or 17.6 ounces. Big huh?
“Large-size (not really that large) Hellman’s mayo was nine bucks yesterday. Forget physical gold, mayo might be more worth hoarding and its more liquid and tastes better.”
Peanut butter prices rising to new heights
By Janet Cho, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer | Thursday, September 08, 2011, 6:45 PM
Blossom September 09, 2011 at 9:16AM
Follow
Amr,
I agree with everything you wrote. I hate going grocery shopping any more, because every time I go, the prices have gone up on something, and it seems like I get less and less for my money. I shop mainly at Marc’s for groceries, and even their prices have gone up. And it’s not just food - other basic necessities have gone up in price as well - toliet paper, soap, laundry detergent, garbage bags, etc.
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/09/peanut_butter_prices_rising_to/2311/comments-newest.html - 60k -
Despite the higher prices, the Lucky Duckies find solace in TeeVee and food:
“One in three American adults is obese, a national level that has stayed the same in recent years, said US data released on Tuesday.
About one in six children and teenagers are also obese, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association report which showed that obesity remains a significant problem in US society despite efforts to combat it.
When overweight people are added to the adult tally, the prevalence of overweight and obese people jumps to 68.8 percent of the US population.”
About one in six children and teenagers are also obese
This is the one that gets to me. When I was a kid, fatsos were RARE. Of course we all rode our bikes and didn’t have 300 TV channels, DVDs and high def video games to keep us in couch potato mode (OK we did have ATARI, but they were pricey for the time and few people had them).
I also recall as a kid that drinking soda pop was a treat. Not something you did on a daily basis. The only time I recall dinking a cola was when my mom took us to McDonalds, which was at maybe once a month.
I wonder how much of this is because greater sedentary entertainment opportunities (more TV and Xbox) and how much is the culture of fear that has taken over American parenting? Certainly seat belts and bike helmets have done much to make childhood safer, but parental fear of abduction probably leads to more deaths due to diabetes and heart disease than it saves.
Our little burg has an excellent recreational sports program for kids. It’s super cheap (mostly run by volunteers). It’s how my son got into soccer.
What I have observed is that it’s mostly the upper 50% who participate in kids’ rec sports. Don’t know why, but I suspect that it might have to do with both parents working multiple jobs (exceptionally American) and not having time to get the kids involved.
Plus it’s mostly the upper 50% that is thinking about college and scholarships while the kids are still young.
Plus it’s mostly the upper 50% that is thinking about college and scholarships while the kids are still young.
Maybe for the girls. For the guys, at least here in the Centennial state, scholarships outside of American Football and Baskletball are pretty rare, mostly because the football teams eat up most of the scholarship money. There are only two Division I men’s soccer teams in the state (Air Force and DU). The soccer scholarships at the Division 2 schools are a joke.
My son plays competitive Soccer at the premier level and he only got a couple of crappy offers from some no name division 2 schools. I’m talking like 2K per year plus they’re out of town so he would have room and board costs.
If any Colorado boys will get athletic scholarships, it will be the blue collar ones who play American Football or Basketball. The upper middle class boys who play soccer or lacrosse will have to be happy with whatever academic scholarships they can get.
Hello, baby hello
Open up fridge and let your feelings flow
You’re not unlucky knowing me
Keeping the speed real slow
In any case I set my own pace
By watching my favorite show, say hello, hello
Obesity and me
We’re pretty good company
Eatin` chocolate cake
And watchin` Oprah on TV
Obesity, gee I really love you
And I want to love you forever
And dream of Ben & Jerry’s and Obesity
overweight and obese people jumps to 68.8 percent of the US population.”
Almost 70%????? I think there is something dangerous about American food.
Moving to Brazil, I’ve lost 12% of my body-weight and am now trim and back to my college weight. Forget that, I’m actually a lean and mean bad a$$ muthe….(OK, I’m kidding) But I am trim and my cholesterol went from a “walking heart attack waiting to happen” (doctor’s paraphrased words) to “normal”.
I’m just guessing but here’s the 12% loss breakdown.
2% It’s hot here.
2% Walking more
3% Dairy intake down 70% bean intake up 50%
5% Something wrong in American food. High fructose corn sweetener? They have NONE of that here. More trans-fats? Portion sizes? But I miss Mexican food.
Rio, I am very tempted to try to replicate your diet here in the US. Would you be willing to share more about what it involves, other than less dairy and more beans?
Would you be willing to share more about what it involves, other than less dairy and more beans?
I think the less dairy part is huge. It might be 80% less. Chese is very expensive and I don’t like the milk here except in coffee. Sometimes when I make my own yogurt, I eat a good amount of it. I eat very little processed foods and there is no corn sweetener here. My diet (other than eating less because it’s hot) would not make it on many diet programs because there’s nothing special about it.
I eat a lot of chicken, red meat about every other day, rice and beans about once a day or every two days, pasta a with meat sauce 1 or 2 times a week, a lot of salads and/or veggies with most meals except breakfast), fish maybe once a week. I have BLT’s and burgers once a week, eggs twice a week with hash browns or bacon about once a week. Cake or flan type sweets about twice a week.
(This is making me hungry)
Now on diet to lose weight for the Pikes Peak Ascent half-marathon exactly 7 months from today:
No beef, no pork, no processed meats, no shellfish, no cheese, no potatoes, no bread, and no high fructose corn syrup.
Yes to chicken, lean fish, occasional bison or elk for red-meat craving, egg whites, skim milk, and at least 200% daily recommended fruits and vegetables.
It is the latter that is the real budget-buster as I can’t grow my own. I can understand why so many Lucky Duckies are obese, as fatty, salty, processed garbage is cheaper, and to many, tastes better than eating healthy.
Good luck with the race. We climbed it before my brother ran the ascent. Good gawd, those golden stairs at the top? Youch.
I have hiked over eighty peaks above 13,000′ elevation since moving to Colorado two years, but this will be the first one I attempt to run for some/most of the route. Recently averaging about 2,000 vertical feet of gain per week and will increase that to 7,000 to 10,000+ feet this summer when things melt out.
http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org
Maybe if they added and segmented say $50 a month to everyone’s food stamps but it can ONLY be used for fresh fish fruits and veggies…(no lobster) easy to do with scanning…..and you use it or lose it each month to avoid running it up to say $500 that you could turn to some illegal cash
I can understand why so many Lucky Duckies are obese, as fatty, salty, processed garbage is cheaper, and to many, tastes better than eating healthy.
Thanks much, Rio!
IN response fewer people will eat out. Restaurants will fire employees and some will close. This will drive up unemployment and decrease demand. Of course consumers won’t just cut back on eating out. They will stop going to movies, skiing, sporting events, etc etc etc. Same thing happens as they drive up fuel costs.
They can print and drive up food and fuel costs but until that money gets circulated all they will accomplish is more unemployment and more anger.
News yesterday suggested that people are keeping their old cars for much longer 10.8 years, I think in the 90’s it was 8.4 years. This is what happens when you print money and hand it to a small # of players. People are driving less and fixing cars when they break instead of buying new cars.
No country wants a rich middle class now, as that leads to outflows of cash as the rich middle class buys more imported goods and jobs are outsourced to cheaper countries. This is a race to the bottom. The bottom of course being the floor of a volcano or hell.
It doesn’t help that new cars have become so expensive.
No country wants a rich middle class now
Correct. A quick look at third world countries tells the story: Only the managerial class lives what we would recognize as a middle class lifestyle.
Already happening where I live.
Resident’s mortgage aid on hold
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:53 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012
Federal mortgage assistance payments were suspended Tuesday to a Jupiter homeowner while her eligibility for the $1 billion Hardest Hit program is investigated.
To qualify for the program a homeowner cannot own more than two properties, one of which must be the primary residence.
Sheryl Stuart, who was featured Monday in a Palm Beach Post story, owns three properties, including her residence and two condominiums that are in foreclosure.
Stuart said she was unaware of the property limit and a counselor at the Delray Beach-based Consumer Credit Management Services knew about the two other properties when she was approved to receive six months of mortgage payments.
She said she noted on a bank statement included with her application and provided to The Palm Beach Post that there will no longer be rent payments from the two condominiums because they are entering foreclosure. A hardship statement also included mention of the condominiums, but she said she was told by the counselor not to use the statement.
The counselor who handled Stuart’s application no longer works at the nonprofit group, according to Darish Still, director of housing counseling for Consumer Credit Management Services.
But Still said Stuart’s application, which is filled out online and then sent out to different housing counseling groups for review, shows she marked that she owns one other property besides her primary residence, not two.
Still said the application can be changed after it is received by his group, but doesn’t believe it was.
“It’s not advantageous for us to qualify them when they’re not qualified,” said Still, who added that his company has processed 831 Hardest Hit applications. “We don’t want to jeopardize our contract with the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.”
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation oversees the $1 billion Hardest Hit program and confirmed Tuesday that Stuart’s payments have been suspended pending an investigation.
Spokeswoman Cecka Green said Hardest Hit housing counselors do not routinely perform property searches.
“Each adviser has a significant caseload and is not expected to go to extremes to determine if the applicant is being truthful about owning only one additional property,” she said. “However, if there are other indications that there may be more than one additional property owned, the adviser does due diligence to ensure that the information is reviewed for the purpose of making the eligibility determination.”
4 COMMENTS
Hey Jeff, I think Ms. Miller read your posts. I wonder how stupid Ms. Stuart feels looking for her 10 minutes of fame…….. Now she is going to feel really duped when HUD looks to get it’s money back……Should have followed my philosophy……
Diver4life
12:08 AM, 1/18/2012
Another scumbag gaming the system to get what is not deserved. An idiot,overpaid government worker processing apps. Due Diligence?
How about just doing your job and catching this fraud.
Takes 60 seconds to look up on property appraisers’ website.
If we could eliminate or at least reduce waste and fraud, We could probably save 50% or more on these types of programs.
JPowers
12:08 AM, 1/18/2012
The next headline in this series: “Resident Arrested For Mortgage Aid Fraud”. Maybe Kimberly Miller will visit her in jail.
Half Baked Reporting
2:18 AM, 1/18/2012
That was smart Ms. Stuart. Bring attention to yourself. Now you are facing a fraud conviction!
Tazman
6:27 AM, 1/18/2012
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/residents-mortgage-aid-on-hold-2108013.html -
What did I say about Ms. Stuart the day you posted the boo-hoo article about her?
Go LOOK and I’ll say the same thing right now. She’s a FRAUD.
Well I know I am not supposed to post entire articles (including comments) but this time I am glad I did. Because these 4 comments have been deleted and it now reads….
User comments are not being accepted on this article.
As far as “She said she noted on a bank statement included with her application and provided to The Palm Beach Post that there will no longer be rent payments from the two condominiums because they are entering foreclosure.”
Perhaps someone should look at this..
Foreclosure wait time drags to 806 days in Florida
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 12:32 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012
A foreclosure filed today in Florida will linger in the courts until March 28, 2014, before the bank takes possession, a timeline that has increased 40 percent in the past year.
——————————————————————————-
And put 2+2 together.
PS
I was going to put this on the PB Post but jeff`s comments are not being accepted on this article
hey what happened to reader comments? lol
…oh I see. The comments weren’t helpful.
“…oh I see. The comments weren’t helpful.”
Not if you`re looking for tax free income and government CHEESE!
She has a good chance to get the Martha Stewart treatment.
“She has a good chance to get the Martha Stewart treatment.”
Was Martha Stewart duped too?
“Sheryl Stuart’s Hardest Hit aid ends next month. Her salary, which qualified her, now disqualifies her for more aid. ‘I feel that I’ve been duped,’ the Jupiter resident says.”
“She said she noted on a bank statement included with her application and provided to The Palm Beach Post that there will no longer be rent payments from the two condominiums because they are entering foreclosure.”
No longer? Entering?
Let`s see it probably took at least a year of no mortgage payments for B4 the LP was filed and that was 10 months ago so I`m going with 2 years of collecting rent w/o paying the mortgage and I would “guess” it`s been longer than that. As Polly has stated the “homeowner” does not lose their right to collect rent until the property has been taken back by the bank, whch would be about 2 years from now. But I`m sure honest Sheryl who “filled out online and then sent out to different housing counseling groups for review, shows she marked that she owns one other property besides her primary residence, not two.” and has over a million $ in mortgage activity on “her” 3 properties with a cost of $314,000 on all 3 would not have collected the rent for another 2 years.
Type: LP
Date/Time: 3/10/2011 10:29:44
CFN: 20110082135
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 24400/1318
Pages: 2
Consideration: $0.00
Party 1: WELLS FARGO BANK NA
WACHOVIA BANK NA
Party 2: STUART SHERYL L
STUART SPOUSE
CHASEWOOD OF JUPITER CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION INC
CHASEWOOD PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION INC
DOE JOHN
Legal: CHASEWOOD JUP CONDO U10-F U
Boy that DOE JOHN made a lot of bad realestate investments.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/irish-move-into-empty-buildings-escalates-battle-for-bust-legacy.html
Occupy Cork gets literal. I’m waiting (eagerly) for the legions of the Free $hit Army to start squating in all those HUD foreclosures (where by law the utilities must be paid for and kept on by Uncle Sam) into perpetuity. And then do the same for vacant flipper-owned houses.
How does one join the Free $hit Army? Is there a signing bonus? What do I have to do to get my free cheese?
Those houses are already being squatted. It’s called shadow inventory and the banks are doing the squatting.
Well….. those banks represent the security interest in those houses so they’re not squatting. We know the defaulted borrowers don’t own them.
Ah… but the banks don’t own them either, remember?
The banks represent the security interest. The defaulted loan-owners have no claim. They didn’t pay, they don’t own the place.
They didn’t pay, they don’t own the place.
In your mind, perhaps, but here in the real world, the defaulted loan-owner is still the owner-of-record for the property.
If there is a security interest in the property, the borrower is NOT the owner.
Ah, I think I get it—you are using a different definition of “ownership” than the legal one. In your definition, only free-and-clear property is actually owned, correct?
Property without a lien is titled property. If their is a lien on it, you don’t own it nor can you sell it.
If their is a lien on it, you don’t own it nor can you sell it.
That actually makes a lot of sense to me—it’s a more “real” definition of ownership, really.
But you are willing to overlook the implicit lien that the state always has on it for future taxes, I take it?
In other words, even with no liens filed, it’s still not really free-and-clear, and never really is.
What is the “incandescent bulb crisis” repubicans “USA-budget-deficit-as-Ho$tage” gang up to today?
Dangs it, IDK, …:
Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?
Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn’t to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it’s okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.
Why is the blackout happening?
Wikipedians have chosen to black out the English Wikipedia for the first time ever, because we are concerned that SOPA and PIPA will severely inhibit people’s access to online information. This is not a problem that will solely affect people in the United States: it will affect everyone around the world.
Why? SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won’t be effective at their stated goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. And, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.
What are SOPA and PIPA?
SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (”IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout.
How could SOPA and PIPA hurt Wikipedia?
SOPA and PIPA are a threat to Wikipedia in many ways. For example, in its current form, SOPA would require Wikipedia to actively monitor every site we link to, to ensure it doesn’t host infringing content. Any link to an infringing site could put us in jeopardy of being forced offline.
Just saw a politically charged segment on CNBC where the Republicans are trying to frame the 2012 election as Envy vs. Aspiration.
People that say “Wall Street is a bunch of crooks that are rigging the political system for their own gain while screwing the majority.” are simply evil, envious losers.
The good people are those that aspire to climb the rungs of society to become rich and powerful, so they can rig the system for their own gain while screwing the majority.
Really?
That is how the rich and powerful want to frame the arguement?
How about this?
Since total goods and services bought must always exactly equal all sold, it is not possible for one person to sell more than they buy, accumulating money, unless someone else is buying more than they sell by first borrowing the money into existance.
To fund international trade imbalances and widening domestic wealth disparity, we’ve been increasing debt at 3x the sustainable rate. In the United States, each household’s share of total debt has increased from 2.8x medina income in 1980 to 6.5x median income today.
Our trade imbalance plagued economy did not boom despite the debt, it boomed because of it.
Once the debt has been created via a trade imbalance, it becomes impossible for the person with debt to repay the debt unless the people with money are willing to spend the money.
Our imbalance plagued economy (international and domestic widening wealth disparoty) does not only need debt, it needs debt to constantly increase at an unsustainable rate.
Private sector debt can not increase at an unsustainable rate forever. You grow the private sector’s ability to carry debt by lowering interest rates, loosening lending standards and lengthening loan terms. Eventually you reach the point of sub-inflation interest rates that can’t go lower, lending standards so loose that fraud becomes the norm rather than the exception, and you reach interest only, infinate length loans.
The private sector maxxed out by 2007 when Fed Rates were at or near 0%, lending standards were so loose that fraud was common and the standards had to be tightened, and people could not pay on their debt even in the interest only terms.
With the private sector maxxed out on debt, the federal govrnment has stepped up with massive deficits to create the $1.3T per year new debt our economy needs to function. But, in 5 years we added more real government debt (publically held) that we had in the previous 230 years. At most we have 5 more years before the debt reaches a breaking point for the federal government.
People speak of an economic recovery that would make the federal deficits unnecessary, but that would require the private sector be able to support the new debt needed to fund the trade imbalances or for the trade imbalances to go away. We are taking no action to shrink nor reverse the widening wealth disparity, $2 per hour global labor wage is preventing us from closing international trade imbalances.
For all the talk of household deleveraging, the Federal Reserve Z.1 tells another story with household debt having increased from $7T in 2000 to $13.8T in 2007 and 2008. In the 3 years since 2008 household debt has only drifted down to $13.2T. Millions of bankruptcies and foreclosures alone should have reduced the debt by more than $600B, meaning net other debt is still increasing. Net non-mortgage household debt is flat for the last 2 years.
Business debt is actually back above the 2008 peak.
This is not a private sector that is regrouping and about to go into another orgy of debt creation. It is a private sector that is holding on by its finger nails, sucking up every penny of federal government money printing.
The only end-game for the road we are on is for the federal government to max out on debt. When that happnes, they can either print massive amounts of nre money, triggering commodity inflation in the face of falling wages and crash the economy or default on the debt causing the global economy to collapse. There is now end of this road that does not involve economic collapse.
Now, tell me where in that disertation I seemed envious of those that hold $ trillions of other peoples’ unrepayable debts, or why I should want to aspire to scrimp and save to accumulate $ trillions of other peoples’ unrepayable debts?
The only “non collapse” outcome is if we change course and directly attack the trade imbalances with tariffs and a steep income tax with an insanely high top rate. I see no hope of that happening soon.
I am not envious. They can not fill me with aspiration to win the doomed game.
I am left with dispair.
The Lucky Duckies making $500/week may aspire to make $600/week, just need to give more tax cuts to the “job creators” and it will all be sunshine and roses again.
“You work three jobs? How uniquely American.” — President George W. Bush, 2005
Let’s see … FOUR p/t jobs, working an aggregate of 80 hours per week @ minimum wage ($7.25) is $580 a week.
Foghorn: “Eyes say Boy, yous on to something son, ton$ of job$ @ minimum wage$ ($7.25) go get ‘em now boy …heheeheehee”
That is how the rich and powerful want to frame the arguement?
The 0.1% are getting really ballsy. Of course, there is no shortage of stooges willing to vote for the GOP, in the vain hope that abortion and homiosexuality will be outlawed the the “values” candidates from the GOP.
Those damn abortion’ers (er sumpin) and homosexuals!
For all the talk of household deleveraging, the Federal Reserve Z.1 tells another story with household debt having increased from $7T in 2000 to $13.8T in 2007 and 2008. In the 3 years since 2008 household debt has only drifted down to $13.2T.
Interesting how steady it has held, especially considering that houses and cars are not selling at historical rates. It can really mean only one thing: student loan and CC debt is picking up the slack.
People that say “Wall Street is a bunch of crooks that are rigging the political system for their own gain while screwing the majority.” are simply evil, envious losers.
Really?
That is how the rich and powerful want to frame the arguement?
Let’s hope so!
Republicans are trying to frame the 2012 election as Envy vs. Aspiration.
Here’s some of the inane, right-wing talking points you see repeated all over the place:
1. Why do liberals “hate” rich people?
2. Why do liberals think corporations are bad or “evil”?
3. We are turning “socialist”.
4. Liberals want to “steal” other people’s money by taxes.
5. “I’ve never gotten a job from a poor person”.
Sadly, those canards hold a powerful sway over the kind of people that Obi Wan Kenobi once described as easily influenced by the Force.
They’ve ALWAYS framed the economic condition for J6P as envy vs. aspiration.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
“Just saw a politically charged segment on CNBC where the Republicans are trying to frame the 2012 election as Envy vs. Aspiration.”
That’s what NY’s public employee unions say about their retroactive pension enhancements and related pension abuses. It’s just envy.
The powerful self-dealers don’t get that no one would resent what they had if been earned rather than coming at the expense of other people.
We’ve HAD redistribution. It just hasnt’ gone to the less well off.
Unions represent only 12% of the workforce nationwide.
The problem does not lie with the unions.
You can always vote with your feet. We left California 17 years ago, and haven’t regretted it.
Real estate agent pleads guilty to conspiracy in Versailles home sales scheme
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 5:41 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
Parkland Real Estate agent David Lam, 42, pled guilty Tuesday in federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in relation to a home sales scheme in Wellington’s Versailles community.
Five of Lam’s co-defendants have already pled guilty to charges relating to the scam that involved recruiting straw buyers. Four of the co-defendants have been sentenced.
The four charges Lam pled guilty related to sales worth more than $15 million in mortgage loans on 12 Versailles homes and more than $5 million in fraudulent loan proceeds.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/real-estate-agent-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-in-2108443.html -
You mean a Realtor was Lying?
What a crying shame: Another foolish real estate investor bites the dust. But looking on the bright side, land hoarders giving up their holdings at a loss might help liberal California take a step in the direction of its long-sought goal of providing its citizens with affordable housing.
The Wall Street Journal
MARKETS
JANUARY 18, 2012
Calpers Downsizes Housing Portfolio
BY ROBBIE WHELAN AND CRAIG KARMIN
Calpers, the giant California pension fund, is dumping one of its last major housing investments at a big loss.
In a major step toward winding down a two-decade program as the pension world’s biggest player in the U.S. housing market, Calpers is selling a portfolio of 28 housing communities to a partnership between San Diego-based developer Newland Real Estate Group LLC and an affiliate of Japan’s largest home-building company, Sekisui House Ltd.
The portfolio, which includes 16,300 unbuilt home sites and thousands of acres of additional undeveloped land in 11 states, represents about one-fifth of Calpers’ residential land portfolio.
…
The photo on the inside page of this article in the dead tree edition of the WSJ shows 4S Ranch (sometimes referred to as “Foreclosure Ranch”), which apparently is one of the properties on which Calpers lost a bundle of money. We personally know people who bought foreclosure homes there for more than 50% what the original buyers paid.
“…for
moreless than 50% what the…”Fixed it.
And at less than 50%, it’s still probably not a good deal.
Debit, Credit, or EBT?
Now a standard question in the supermarket checkout line. Apparently the cashier needs to press a button before your order can process after the initial swipe. First noticed the EBT add-on in the last year. Wondering when it will evolve into: “EBT, Credit, or Debit?”. The trend is disuturbing to say the least.
The trend is disuturbing to say the least.
That’s what happens when a country offshores all its middle class jobs.
Yep. Some of our circle of friends have EBT cards, and a lot were once well paid EE’s married to people that got their jobs axed, too. Thanks for nothing PTB.
During the 1980s when blue collar jobs were being wiped out by offshoring, it was the white collar class that was chanting the MSM mantra of “overpaid factory workers.”
Wonder how they feel now?
Now they are chanting overpaid government workers from the unemployment and food stamp line.
They’re retired with the good pensions and health insurance that were eliminated for the white collar workers that followed them.
And Generation Greed feels fine, except for the minority among them that care about younger generations. Those folks have been on the losing end for 30+ years.
I was a private sector worker in the 80’s. Unless you worked for a Fortune 500 firm and managed to hang on, you didn’t get a “good pension” or any pension at all. And most of those private sector pensions were not all that. Certainly nothing like the pensions cops and firefighters get. At HP, the most you would get in the golden years was 1/3 of your salary and you certainly didn’t start collecting until you were well into your 60’s.
Now they are chanting overpaid government workers from the unemployment and food stamp line.
They are? I thought those folks were too busy loading the steak and lobster they bought with their EBT cards into their Escalades, while yakking on their iPhones.
“I thought those folks were too busy loading the steak and lobster they bought with their EBT cards into their Escalades, while yakking on their iPhones.”
No they have to use their debit card for the steak and lobster!
Government contractor here. While we do have OK health insurance we have no 401k match, just the limited choice of mutual funds similar to my experience working in the lower rungs of Fortune 500 corporations.
The bloated pensions argument does not apply here. Or to many of my Gen X and younger Fed co-workers. Only the older Feds get to sail off into retirement with pensions.
…… damn government goons.
During the 1980s when blue collar jobs were being wiped out by offshoring, it was the white collar class that was chanting the MSM mantra of “overpaid factory workers.”
Now they are chanting overpaid government workers from the unemployment and food stamp line.
Mea culpa, it’s the overpaid school teachers’ fault. Between my paycheck and my huge CALSTRS pension I will surely receive in 25 years and not going to restaurants anymore I claim full responsibility for the coming economic collapse.
“Now they are chanting overpaid government workers from the unemployment and food stamp line.”
Frankly, I want to institute a Take your (GOP-loving, “Socialist”-hating) Public Worker to Private Work Day. With a few of my friends, it would do a lot of good.
I’d LOVE to retire at 50 with full bene’s as these guys will. But for them, someone else is the enemy. All those OTHER workers and THEIR free ride.
That’s OK, renter. I will save the economy for you. I just sent off my renewal for Consumer Reports and they actually buy stuff so they can test it. That’ll take care of everything. And my freebie NY Times on-line subscription ran out and I’m going to pay for that now, too. Wow. We better watch out or all that money I’m pumping into the system will cause it to overheat.
“With a few of my friends, it would do a lot of good.”
Meant to add…it would do them a lot of good, given that I work in the manufacturing sector and can show them all the accounts I no longer actively call on due to off-shoring. But to them, people that have lost jobs act entitled, only want handouts, need to work harder, and should quit being so lazy.
Obviously that’s why THEY still have THEIR jobs.
I’d LOVE to retire at 50 with full bene’s as these guys will.
My wife works for the muni gov’t and the only “bene” she’ll get when she retires is the balance on her 403b account. Oh, and I really doubt she’s gonna retire next year when she turns 50.
“Oh, and I really doubt she’s gonna retire next year when she turns 50.”
The folks I’m talking about walk the border. I’m all for hazard pay, but one of them walks the NORTHERN border.
“Law enforcement employees may voluntarily retire at any age after completing 25 years of service or at age 50 or older with 20 years of service.”
For the record, I’m not calling out the public worker. I’m calling out the hypocrisy of those who are while they decry the “Socialist” state. They got theirs but somehow those who haven’t just aren’t working hard enough. I’d like them to see it from the standpoint of the US manufacturing worker.
My question is, when the austerity they are calling for hits their shores, then who will they blame?
Government contractor here.
I’m confused. If you’re a govt contractor then you’re working for a private entity, right? Who doesn’t pay a 401k match.
The Fed pays the contractor to pay us instead of hiring more Feds. It is a private LLC that won the bid for the contract partly based on its status as a veteran and minority owned business.
And yes the contractor pays us no match on employee 401k contributions, the previous one did. I have been working the same job but have been under three separate contractors in less than two years.
Your tax dollars, and the invisible hand of the free market, at work..
For the record, I’m not calling out the public worker. I’m calling out the hypocrisy of those who are while they decry the “Socialist” state. They got theirs but somehow those who haven’t just aren’t working hard enough.
EGG-ZACKLY!
It is precisely this hypocrisy that is so corrosive.
“Who doesn’t pay a 401k match.”
Many don’t match. HP only matches if it meets its secret internal goals each quarter.
And many who do have a vesting period as long as 5 years for every single match. Since few people stay at the same job that long they lose most of their match monet when they leave anyway.
The two-tier contracts started in the early 1980s recessions. That’s when most new hires were converted to 401Ks in companies that previously had pensions. The employer funding for 401Ks was eliminated later. That’s the dividing line, in most places, for those who got and those who didn’t.
Two (or more) tier labor deals have continued up to this day, in cases where they weren’t put in place in the early 1980s. New auto industry was one of the last to throw new hires under the bus while keeping the bennies for older generations.
Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that automates the delivery, redemption, and reconciliation of issued public assistance benefits. EBT is the method for distributing CalFresh benefits (formerly known as Food Stamps and currently known federally as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits), California Food Assistance Program benefits, and cash aid benefits. EBT is currently used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam
had to look it up
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/mesa/article_b7ed8380-4164-11e1-9ac3-0019bb2963f4.html
Real estate experts predict the Valley’s years-long housing glut is reaching its end and, as early as this spring, could stun home buyers by transforming into a shortage.
The crunch is expected to be more pronounced in the East Valley, where some subdivisions are approaching build-out and other builders are raising prices.
The prediction may seem outlandish given how gloomy real estate news has been for years, said Mike Orr, director of the Arizona State University Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice.
Ha, when “theys” gets around to forecasting 6-8-11+% “coming $oon!” RI$ING mortgage rate$ it’ll turn into a good ol’ fashioned $tampede.
just-you-wait-&-see$
“Hold on to your hat martha, there’s a curve up ahead and it don’t look pretty.”
Enough to make you barf
BOSTON (Reuters) - The United States is becoming less economically competitive versus other nations, with political gridlock and a weak primary education system seen as the main drag, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
In particular, the nation is falling behind emerging market rivals and just keeping pace with other advanced economies, according to a Harvard Business School survey of 9,750 of its alumni in the United States and 121 other countries.
Seventy-one percent of respondents expected the U.S. to become less competitive, less able to compete in the global economy with U.S. firms less able to pay high wages and benefits, the study found.
xxxx
70 percent cited lower wages as the reason they chose a new location, pointing to what is widely seen as emerging markets’ main advantage.
xxxx
Asked what the U.S. government could do to improve its competitive position, respondents top recommendations were to simplify the tax code, reform immigration policies and reduce the corporate tax rate.
I’ll add the things they were thinking but didn’t say
1. Do away with democracy (policy papers and editorials have suggested taking a lot decision making away from congress and using panels instead)
2. Shift entire tax burden onto the working class - Well Mit Romney pays 6% less effective tax rate than I and many corporations pay nothing so they are close on this. They really don’t want to simplify the tax code as this is what allows them to pay nothing.
3. reform immigration is code for allowing slave labor.
At some point htey will find they have no customers because everyone is living hand to mouth. Then we will again see them start to eat their own.
Reintroduce slavery. But in a less racist way.
If people could sell their children into slavery, they could keep spending more than they earn, boosting the economy.
Reintroduce slavery. But in a less racist way.
Done and done. No need to wait for you to sell your kids.
Eliminate child labor laws, eliminate compulsory education, eliminate OSHA, eliminate food stamps, eliminate child tax credits. Then people who can’t afford to raise them but insist on having them will be forced to put them to work at age 6, at wages that compete with China, bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US.
This was a resounding success in 19th century England.
This was a resounding success in 19th century England.
Of course it was. Look at how it inspired Charles Dickens.
Yup. Reading a biography of him now in observance of his 200th birthday next month. Including how his family’s poverty forced him to drop out of school and go to work in a blacking factory and how visiting his father in debtor’s prison inspired the descriptions of the Marshalsea prison in Little Dorrit.
This is the link to my prior post, given Ben may end up in jail soon for any of our posts that infringe on copyrighted materials, not sure if the song writers on the board are at risk?
finance.yahoo.com/news/u-economy-losing-competitive-edge-164729375.html
BEIJING (AP) — The World Bank warned Wednesday of a possible slump in global economic growth and urged developing countries to prepare for shocks that could be more severe than the 2008 crisis.
The bank cut its growth forecast for developing countries this year to 5.4 percent from 6.2 percent and for developed countries to 1.4 percent from 2.7 percent. For the 17 countries that use the euro currency, it forecast a contraction, cutting their growth outlook to -0.3 percent from 1.8 percent.
Global growth could be hurt by a recession in Europe and a slowdown in India, Brazil and other developing countries, the Washington-based bank said. It said conditions might worsen if more European countries are unable to raise money in financial markets.
And down the toilet we go. A race to the bottom in terms of currency and labor will leave no consumers.
A race to the bottom in terms of currency and labor will leave no consumers.
But think of the deal you’ll be able to get on a 60″ HDTV!
It will never be cheap enough. I’ve been TV-free since the digital broadcast switchover and this month I started seriously looking for a new one (deals aplenty online)… but… then I noticed the cost of staple foods in the supermarket had all gone up 20% from Dec 2011 levels. Tortillas. Eggs. Bread. No TV for me. No restaurants. Replaced phone service with a rarely used prepaid cell. No new vehicle (still driving the 20 yr old subcompact that refuses to die). When costs go up on something I *have* to buy, I try to subtract the increase from expenditures in other areas. That is becoming increasingly difficult. These endless food increases are forcing me to cut back on things I hadn’t expected to economize further on… like heat. Life in the 21st century is looking more and more like the 19th from where I’m sitting.
No way! Notice there wasn’t direct mention of any issues in the US. In fact, some realtors above said the housing glut was over, with an implied rise in prices to follow. It has been written.
Got home for lunch, and I had to shovel the snow from the driveway, which took three full passes since it was so deep. Wind chill is -4 degrees F and steady wind at 12 knots at the airport. Forecast says steady snow for another 30 hours then intermittent for three more days.
BTW, homes are much cheaper here than metro suburbia!
And where are you located? Sounds like it’s winter there.
OTOH, our daytime temps are forecast to hit the low seventies by tomorrow. S’posed to rain again next week. Which means that Slim is getting psyched for spring wildflowers. Better go seed the front yard again.
And where are you located?
IIRC, rms is near Moses Lake, WA…
Sounds like it’s winter there.
Yeah, really cold too, but that makes for powdery snow, and the wind is strong enough that it carries away the snow once you start moving it with the snow shovel.
This has been a mild winter though, but we still have overcast skies and freezing fog with a dash of black ice.
Skydiving quality weather is roughly 22-weeks, second week of May to second week of October. Bicycle commuting for me starts in mid march, and ends about mid October.
wussies….some real cold driving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpnjYljWWco
Skydiving quality weather is roughly 22-weeks
rms, are you a jumper?? My oldest brother is a full-time skydiving bum (ok, I know he actually works hard doing tandems), and one of the happiest people I know.
…he actually works hard doing tandems…
Where’s he haul’n meat, down in the sun-belt?
He occasionally “summers” in Maine at Skydive New England, but his home base is Hawaii… Rough living, pushing people out of planes in paradise!
And where are you located?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyhiKOfy1pk
Got home for lunch, and I had to shovel the snow from the driveway, which took three full passes since it was so deep. Wind chill is -4 degrees F and steady wind at 12 knots at the airport. Forecast says steady snow for another 30 hours then intermittent for three more days.
This morning I had to scrape the ice off my windshield, except this being Norcal the only thing I had to do the job was a tube of sunscreen.
My kids think summer and winter are destinations, not seasons.
Are you on the east slopes of the Cascades, rms?
I was due in Seattle today but that’s not going to happen. Got about 4″ here in PDX but it turned to rain in the early AM and it’s mostly gone, save for some slush here and there. 51 degrees at this point.
On the other hand, can’t wait to get to the mountain on Saturday!
Are you on the east slopes of the Cascades, rms?
+1 The Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA 98823
Wow. Other than no longer being a Californian, WTF are you doing out there?
…WTF are you doing out there?
Waiting for the coastal California bubble to deflate.
A 3 bedroom Dutch Colonial for a scoosh over $500K?
The bottom ain’t here yet when folks pay $500K for a $225K house.
The last bubble was all about having appreciation mitigate paying too much and the on-going bubbble is all about the hope of mitigating excess purchase prices via future inflation. Good plan if it works, but hard to get inflation during a deflationary contraction. Maybe in a few years it will happen. I’ve said for a long time that any sale price higher than a 1998 price is a bubble price and in most areas prices are way off 1998, but people continue to think that any decrease from a few years ago means a bargain and they continue to stretch their budgets to the breaking point to pay more than is really prudent. Mr. “overtaxed” is on target about all the other costs of ownership and these folks with an assumed “income” (before taxes of all kinds) of $200K are still going to have to squeeze every nickel until the Buffalo farts….
While I don’t disagree, Aramak is a very small enclave (3500 residents) and where the hq of IBM is located, and of which there are probably hundreds across the US where housing prices are relatively high in relation to other areas. That rich people support high house prices so they don’t have to live next to poor people is not much of a shock.
To support your point though, the median price is 2000 was about $280k, in 2009 was $540, and 2011 was $503k. That’s a 7% haircut in just 2 years after ~100% growth the previous 9.
I also doubt they make anywhere near $200k since the median for the county is only like $80k, and the upper quartile for rent is $1400. That’s a hefty ownership ‘penalty’.
Sometimes I really feel that there is a global conspiracy to keep real estate overpriced. Even in Mexico City, where median incomes are low, low and low; house and apartment prices are stratospheric, comparable to places like the Bay Area or Boston.
It’s the broken global debt markets. Big money was made from them. So there’s a strong push from the big players to keep it going. They slaver at the possibility of being able to harness the mortgage-paying power of the little guy.
Local paper
Do you believe your foreclosure is fraudulent? *
Yes No
Have you stopped paying your mortgage even though you can afford it?*
Yes No
Do you know anyone who has decided to do a strategic default?*
Yes No
How has the real estate bust impacted your neighborhood?*
Name*
Phone number*
Email*
1 day ago ..
mortgage
5 housing trends in winter 2012
By Polyana da Costa • Bankrate.com
These times won’t last forever 1 of 6
Thinking of buying a home? Don’t take too long. There is no question this is still a buyers’ market, but you’ll find with a wave of investors in search of good deals, the bargain homes are selling at a much quicker pace. The low prices and low mortgage rates won’t disappear overnight, but they won’t last forever.
“This is one of those times that, 10 years from now, people are going to look back and say, ‘If I only had made the decision,’” says Shaun White, a vice president for the RE/MAX real estate network.
And for those who have been waiting to refinance their mortgages but couldn’t because their home values have tumbled, your chance to take advantage of historically low rates should be here soon — if all goes as planned.
Here are some of the housing and mortgage trends you can expect to see in the first quarter of
Home prices begin to stabilize 2 of 6
If you have been waiting for the market to reach bottom to buy a house, the wait is over in many parts of the country.
“I think we’ve bottomed out,” says Steve Anderson, a broker and owner at RE/MAX Benchmark Realty in Las Vegas. “If anyone wanted to buy a home today, now would be the time.”
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/5-housing-trends-winter-2012.aspx - 75k -
“This is one of those times that, 10 years from now, people are going to look back and say, ‘If I only had made the decision,’”
“If I only had made the decision to wait a few years!
“I think we’ve bottomed out,” says Steve Anderson, a broker and owner at RE/MAX Benchmark Realty in Las Vegas. “If anyone wanted to buy a home today, now would be the time.”
If you needed a home, and you had cash sitting in an account earning nothing then maybe I could rationalize it especially if rents were high. Otherwise, this is not the time to commit to debt on an asset that will likely continue to lose value.
If you can’t live without yer Wiki for the next few hours, I noticed that there is a way around the blackout.
The blackout page only loads after first loading the actual page. Go to the page you want to view (…wiki/real_estate_bubble page, for example). There is enough time, if you hit the “X” (that stops pages from loading) fast enough after the page loads, that the blackout page won’t load. If it does, refresh and try again.
Or disable javascript in your browser’s settings…
What a day to call the shorts. I’m betting all my chips that this high is ready to blow off. Someone’s gonna make a ton of money real soon if they can accurately call this false explosion in fantastic news. 2300 shares says this new high is going to trigger a crash among the big whigs. Trouble is they never let us little guys in on the news that they’re all privy to.
May the 99 movement thrive
May the 99 movement jive.
May the 99 movement turn into the real hope and change
Now’s our chance America
Who is worthy to lead?
Can the smart folks here tell me what this means? It looks like this house was purchased as a foreclosure. The document recorded with the county mentions $10 in compensation for the property? That’s ten dollars? What am I missing?
http://info.kingcounty.gov/Assessor/eRealProperty/Detail.aspx?ParcelNbr=3378600015
btw, the foreclosed upon party had refied $326k out of it, it appears. They paid $85k in 1999 (the refis and such don’t appear to be recorded, though)
Hey drummin, it’s a common practice in WA state to list $10 in compensation on the public records filing; I don’t quite know why. But I do know that I’ve seen a bunch that used that identical amount. It doesn’t actually mean that it sold for $10. Too bad, huh?!
I think it just means that they wanted to keep the actual sales price out of the public record for some reason.
I think it just means that they wanted to keep the actual sales price out of the public record for some reason.
That makes me feel a little better about it! Still seems shady, though — why aren’t sales prices consistently recorded?
Since my LL doesn’t want to renew my lease (he’s moving back in), I need to find a new place. Doing research on the properties to make sure that I’m not going to get a visit from the sheriff at some point. Such a pain in the arse, looking for a house to rent…
Such a pain in the arse
Yeah, finding a good place to rent is a major pain in the arse; I’m sorry that you’re having to deal with it.
I salute you for checking the property records, though. That’s smart.
I found a great LL the last time around: paid-off house, long-term owner, more interested in having a reliable tenant who will take good care of the property than in maximizing rent, etc. I’m hoping nothing changes!
I hope you find a similarly-great one, drummin! Know that they are out there, even if they are hard to find!