Bits Bucket for January 23, 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.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Black swan drops massive guano bomb on sleepy Fed heads
Why the Federal Reserve slept before the housing crisis
By Robert J. Samuelson, Sunday, January 22, 5:11 PM
The recent release of the 2006 transcripts of the Federal Reserve’s main policy-making body stimulated a small media frenzy. “Little Alarm Shown at Fed at Dawn of Housing Bust,” headlined the Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post agreed: “As financial crisis brewed, Fed appeared unconcerned.” The New York Times echoed: “Inside the Fed in ’06: Coming Crisis, and Banter.”
Comments from members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) now seem misguided. The first 2006 meeting was the last for retiring Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. Janet Yellen — then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and now Fed vice chair — said “the situation you’re handing off to your successor is a lot like a tennis racket with a gigantic sweet spot.” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — called Greenspan “terrific” and suggested his already exalted reputation might grow even more. There was no sense of a gathering crisis.
All true, but it begs the central question: Why? The FOMC members weren’t stupid, lazy or uninformed. They could draw on a massive staff of economists for analysis. And yet, they were clueless.
It wasn’t that they didn’t see the housing boom or recognize that it was ending. At 2006’s first meeting, a senior Fed economist noted “that we are reaching an inflection point in the housing boom. The bigger question now is whether we will experience (a) gradual cooling . . . or a more pronounced downturn.”
At that same meeting, Fed Governor Susan Bies warned that mortgage lending standards had become dangerously lax. She explained that monthly payments were skyrocketing on mortgages with adjustable interest rates. She worried that many borrowers couldn’t make the higher payments. The flagging housing boom concerned many Fed officials.
But they — and most private economists — didn’t draw the proper conclusions. Hardly anyone asked whether lax mortgage lending would trigger a broad financial crisis, because America had not experienced a broad financial crisis since the Great Depression. A true financial crisis differs from falling stock prices, which are common. A financial crisis involves the failure of banks or other institutions, panic in many markets and a pervasive loss of wealth and confidence.
Such a crisis was not within the personal experience of members of the FOMC — or anyone. Nor was it part of mainstream economic thinking. Because it hadn’t happened in decades, it was assumed that it couldn’t happen. There had been previous real estate busts. From 1964 to 1966, new housing starts fell 24 percent; from 1972 to 1975, 51 percent; from 1979 to 1982, 39 percent; from 1988 to 1991, 32 percent. Declining home construction had fed economic slowdowns or recessions. So the natural question seemed: Would this happen now? The answer seemed “no.” The overall economy was strong. This is the most obvious reason for an oblivious FOMC.
…
BS
Bubble was contrived by the Fed criminals themselves.
Bubble was contrived by the Fed criminals themselves.
BINGO
Look at Henry Paulsons investment decisions or Mozillow’s, my guess is you would see the same from the other elite CEO”s and politicians. These guys new what was going on and encouraged it in my view. This is the equivalent of Ken Lay taking the stand and saying he had no idea this was going on.
Yes. They knew EXACTLY what they were doing.
Another historical revision hack-job from the Washington Post. Even Greenspan was shouting about the housing bubble by 2006.
‘a crisis was not within the personal experience of members of the FOMC — or anyone’
Oh really? What about the oil states RE boom and all the banks/S&Ls that failed afterward?
But Samuelson goes on and on; why did our ‘leaders’ fail us? Why!?
You asking the wrong question. Why should we trust these unelected dumbbells with our money supply?
It’s a fawkin’ charade by the tightest definition. We’re giving these a-holes credibility by discussing their propaganda releases. TASS released more credible news during the cold war than these lyin’ $hitbags.
“giving … credibility by discussing their propaganda releases.”
Pervasive, that technique, and for many also persuasive.
Do I contradict myself?
“Very well then…. I contradict myself;
I am large…. I contain multitudes.”
Walt Whitman (Song of myself)
‘a crisis was not within the personal experience of members of the FOMC — or anyone’
As if they didn’t know what happened in Japan.
ISTR taking an economic history course in college. It wasn’t a required part of my economics major, but it was highly recommended by my adviser.
Methinks the Fed folks should have taken this class too. It’s not like this country has never had a bubble before. There were railroad and canal bubbles during the 19th century.
AZSlim — OT, but thanks for the help with the water collection website. I didn’t contact him directly, but it was a good start. Even though I only hooked one of the gutters into the tank, we’ve been able to collect ~550 gallons with around three inches of rain. That is around 100 hundred gallons over my projected catch, so I think that I have mis-estimated the roof area or the roof pitch is funky due to foundation settling. But it’s mis-estimated in a good direction! I did not have the time to elevate the tank the couple feet that I wanted for extra hydraulic head, so I’ll have to use a pump if I want to use the auto-timer that I bought. But you only need a couple psi to run a manual drip system, so we’ll probably do that and use the auto as a standby for when we go away or the tank runs out.
How is the worm project going? We took the red worms in out of the rain, but let the composter earthworms fend for themselves. Good luck boy-girls!
How is the worm project going? We took the red worms in out of the rain, but let the composter earthworms fend for themselves. Good luck boy-girls!
It’s still pretty cold here. As in near-freezing temps at night. I think I’ll wait for warmer worm weather.
And how about Asia/Thailand in 1998?
How about Greenspan’s oft-quoted “irrational exuberance” stock market comments during the mid-to-late 1990s?
To say the Fed had no inkling in 2006 after a few years of annual $100K+ house price appeciation in major markets is laughable. I don’t remember wages going up at a rate anywhere close to justifying that kind of escalation.
We ought to hit Robert Samuelson where it counts - in his commentary section, if he provides one.
Why should we trust these unelected dumbbells with our money supply? That’s the real issue.
We shouldn’t. We should end the FED, as Ron Paul would suggest.
This issue ties with yesterday’s post to which I wasn’t online at the time to comment. It concerns their “view” of the crisis.
Bernanke, the so-called “expert” was a big fan of Anna Schwartz and in her view, he doesn’t understand the basic problem. A snip from the Article:
“Ms. Schwartz thinks that our central bankers and our Treasury Department are getting it wrong again.”
“To understand why, one first has to understand the nature of the current “credit market disturbance,” as Ms. Schwartz delicately calls it. We now hear almost every day that banks will not lend to each other, or will do so only at punitive interest rates. Credit spreads — the difference between what it costs the government to borrow and what private-sector borrowers must pay — are at historic highs.”
“This is not due to a lack of money available to lend, Ms. Schwartz says, but to a lack of faith in the ability of borrowers to repay their debts. “The Fed,” she argues, “has gone about as if the problem is a shortage of liquidity. That is not the basic problem. The basic problem for the markets is that [uncertainty] that the balance sheets of financial firms are credible.”
What the FED has done is to PROVE to us, as small investors that we cannot rely on the FREE Market to Clear Bad Debts and Wipe OUT failed enterprises. They have abandoned “capitalism” in favor of a planned state economy. Under “capitalism”, Goldman-Sachs, Bof A, Citi, JPM and all the other SPECULATORS in paper gambles would be WIPED OUT.
That’s right. OUT of business. Caput. Gone.
They would have been bought up at pennies on the dollar, the model they usually like to employ on the rest of us. That is what should have happened. GM would be gone, too. Why it’s okay to see small enterprises killed off and re-started and not these so-called Too big to Fail, is anathema to a capitalist so-called system. It is a sham.
And, there, Anna Schwartz and Ben Bernanke, is the Crux of the problem.
The FED has fed UNCERTAINTY into the system because we can’t rely on the market to cleanse itself of these parasites. We find the markets are rigged in favor of the Big Banks and their crony speculators/traders.
Heads they win, tails we lose. Add the “Front-running of stocks, and the computer programs stolen from Goldman that we heard could be used to manipulate the markets and we find a world of financial shenanigans where it’s a pure gamble, with almost certain loss if you put your money into the hands of these criminals.
Uncertainty is embedded into the system by the FED because we know they won’t let the “market” work out the bad investments. Instead they will be papered over with freshly printed dollars, handed freely to the imbeciles who created “financial innovation” as a way to leverage their bets for unspeakable profits, risk-free. (there’s and oxymoron: risk-free investments). We know the system is rigged, so we stay away.
How do you fix it? Bernanke’s solution is to provide guaranteed profits and wealth to the Banksters, hoping it will trickle down and stimulate more investments. It won’t. They’ll just look for another algorithm to boost the value of their holdings while the rest of the economy lives in the dark about price discovery. It will be years, if ever, that we find out what the values of all the paper that has been past around is worth.
END the FED. Demand Disclosure. Stop the QE, TARP, etc. etc. Lending facilities. Then put Bernanke and his buddies on trial for treason.
What they have done is grand theft of the taxpayers. They should be called to account.
They keep telling us the way to build wealth for the society is capitalism. And I agree. However, they’re fighting a basic capitalist tenet - bad decision makers and bad investments must be wiped out from time to time so the wealth can be directed to productive investments.
The system they’re building is the plutonomy - darwinistic capitalism for the rest of us and centrally planned protection for the Nomenklatura.
“Under “capitalism”, Goldman-Sachs, Bof A, Citi, JPM and all the other SPECULATORS in paper gambles would be WIPED OUT.”
These too-big-to-exist parasites are killing the host.
” So the natural question seemed: Would this happen now? The answer seemed “no.” The overall economy was strong. This is the most obvious reason for an oblivious FOMC.”
Did they also miss the orgy of borrowing that was significantly tied to the housing bubble? How strong was that economy once you took away housing and much of the spending tied to that borrowing?
Could they not make the connections or did they not want to make the connections? Or were they in a delusional echo chamber?
“Did they also miss the orgy of borrowing that was significantly tied to the housing bubble?”
Well in fairness, though the Fed is responsible for banking regulation, it is not supposed to be some kind of omniscient Master of the Universe operation.
Oh wait…
“it is not supposed to be some kind of omniscient Master of the Universe operation.”
How much monie$ or coma’$ are they allowed to “produce to help make that idea come true?
(just wondering about po$$ibilities that’s all…)
“Could they not make the connections or did they not want to make the connections? Or were they in a delusional echo chamber?”
“They” combined two things $imultaneously:
a “goal” + c.e.r.t.a.i.n.t.y.
“They” also had “friend$”, but “none dare call it a con$iracy!”
“Did they also miss the orgy of borrowing that was significantly tied to the housing bubble? How strong was that economy once you took away housing and much of the spending tied to that borrowing?”
Since they did consider the possibility of a sharp housing downturn, it seems inconceivable to me as well that they didn’t ponder the likely outcome. They knew how many jobs were tied to housing. They knew about the excessive home equity borrowing and they knew that our jobs were being sent overseas. If they really thought that the rest of the economy was ‘fundamentally strong’, I’d love to know the thinking that went into that conclusion.
If I screwed up that badly at my job, I`d get fired. Excuses wouldn`t help.
“I’d get fired. Excuses wouldn`t help.”
How much does you job $uit co$t Al?
Do you clean it yer self?
(just messin’ with ya…no coffeeeeeee yet)
Most of us would get fired for far less.
Same here. I’ve lost jobs and clients over far less.
Yes, but then, you are not the ONLY “expert” that can run this show. Remember when they appointed tax-cheat Tim Geithner to the Treasury. The usual “media” stories were that he was the ONLY ONE who could lead us out of the crisis. He has all the answers. NO one was more qualified.
And “professor” Bernanke? What were his qualifications? Well, he read Anna Schwartz’s book. That made him an “expert”.
These people are SPECIAL. You and I, though much more reflective and understanding of the world at large, like these “special qualities” that make these appointees the only people in the world capable of running these scams. You and I are not qualified, and they can’t find anyone else in the universe that could possibly fill their shoes.
I meant to say>>>”lack these special qualities”.
need to proof-read before i post. context is somewhat revealing.
“If I screwed up that badly at my job, I`d get fired”
That would be intuitive, but in practice notariety trumps track record.
If they didn’t have a clue, as they are claiming, then why did they dump Greenspan and replace him with the man considered to be the leading expert on the Great Depression???
Are we expected to believe they just randomly picked someone that just coincidentally happened to be a depression expert?
Let’s play Ocama’s Razor. What is more likely.
1) They just randomly decided to kick Greenspan and just coincidentally replaced him with a depression expert, 1.5 years before we almost plunged into depression.
or
2) They saw it coming, but were still unable to avoid the crash. That all the problems that caused the crash are still there, we’re just using massive deficits and lies (easing FASB157) to hide them temporarily. That they want to pretend they didn’t see it coming so that we won’t lose faith in their ability to manipulate markets and persist lies.
I don’t believe Roosevelt was correct when he said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. That said, fear is one of the things we have to fear. If we can alleviate that fear with a few untruths, like “We have nothing to fear but fear” or “We just didn’t see it coming”… well, that is better than total economic collapse, is it not?
In the end, they know there is more to fear than just fear, but you still have to fear fear.
If a consumer is ruled by fear then he won’t consume hence fear has to be dealt with at the consumer level.
And this is one of the areas where macro collides with micro. From a macro level one should want everyone else to consume rather than hold back, but on a micro level he himself should want to hold back on consumption a mcuh as he can.
At the macro level the population as a whole should be pursuaded that all is well - hope should be kept alive - but at the micro level one needs to understand that it is not.
It’s crazy, but there it is.
Speaking of being ruled by fear…
Euro reclaims $1.30 level
Wall Street turning cautious
Investors consider the meaning of an impasse in Greek-debt talks as well as a timetable set for a European Union embargo on Iran’s oil exports.
So it’s a race by all the “world” banksters to see who can destroy their currency the fastest. $1.30? Really?
So, that would mean that the current dollar is devalued to about 0.05 or Five Cents in buying power, so a Euro is worth about 6 cents. Great. See what a nickel will buy.
That crazy little system we call “capitalism”. Funny how it worked so much better when we had to “compete” with the commies. Now the commies have all become money grubbers. What’s a J6P to do?
Supply his own lube.
“Let’s play Ocama’s Razor.”
Did you mean to say Obama’s Razor?
What’s that? A Democrat razor with a neocon blade?
A neolib haft with a neocon blade, played to the hilt.
‘the leading expert on the Great Depression’
They say this a lot, but what does it mean? How do you become an expert on something like this? Watch Grapes of Wrath a thousand times?
No, what he’s an expert on is printing money. Remember the helicopter/printing press quote? What he really did was carpet bomb the worlds billionaires with pallets of dollars.
IMO that’s why he has the job.
Small wonder that Zimbabwe Ben insisted on doing away with the Fed publishing regular updates of the M3 (money supply), before his printing press went into hyperdrive. The sheeple might get nervous if they saw the parabolic M3 graph and made the connection with the destruction of their savings and coming hyperinflation.
The key in this is that the printing is going to the privelaged, not everwhere. This is a placeholder for the privelaged at best and cannot lead to hyperinflation. M3 might show something, M1 surely does, but the total lump of extended credit is falling like a rock. The privelaged may be buying up our foodstuffs and building materials out of greed rather than paying off their debts. That will ruin them.
Try not to starve to death while this plays out.
Under the current system, if the past few years offer any instruction, they will ruin us while the government makes them whole.
Correct. If he actually cared about the current depression he would be doing something about growing wealth and income inequality. The problem is that it’s his job to foment economic inequality.
doing something about growing wealth and income inequality ??
I think it is probably to late to do anything about it short of confiscation…The disparity is so great that anything the government could do is just fiddling around the edges…Flat tax ?? Hell, that would be a wealthy persons dream come true….
You hit on the right idea, confiscation, but that is the wrong term. The correct term is a “clawback”. They got their earnings by FRAUD. They didn’t get their money the old-fashioned way as they brokerage commercial used to say, by earning it. They got it by fraudulent dealings. Therefore, it is not their money. It was gotten by misrepresentation and mis-dealings and misdirection. It should be quite easy to prove this and take it back, returning it to those from whom it was properly stolen.
The break up GS, CITI, JPM, BofA, WFC, and the rest of the banksters. Break up the big trading desks. RE-install Glass-Steagal to assure LENDING goes to enterprises, not speculations.
OBAMA won’t do anything. He gets his money from this scam.
Perhaps a new president would do something, but I don’t hear any such talk, except perhaps by Ron Paul. Congress has already provided us with the corrupt DODD_FRANK bill to mask the problem and perpetuate the gangs in power.
No, what he’s an expert on is printing money.
Exactly. He’s an expert on Monetarism, the economic theory that the Great Depression wouldn’t have occurred if we had just flooded the financial system with money. A theory the Big Boyz like, for obvious reasons.
It’s the ultimate 1%er theory- “As long as we’re rich, the system keeps working (and even if it doesn’t work, at least we’re still rich”).
Reminds me of the previous coach of the Baltimore Ravens. His tagline was “offensive genius”. I can’t count the number of sports stories that called him an “offensive genius” ™. The reality was that the Ravens offense was quite so-so. It’s traditionally been a defensive juggernaut and was so under him.
It’s like trying to start a meme I suppose.
If we can alleviate that fear with a few untruths, like “We have nothing to fear but fear” or “We just didn’t see it coming”… well, that is better than total economic collapse, is it not?“
The mild form of fear is called caution. Maybe a little caution early could have prevented total economic collapse. Unfortunately caution doesn’t win political popularity contests nor help c-type execs get oversized bonuses based on sales or stock prices, so it’s not palatable.
If they didn’t have a clue, as they are claiming…
If they were talking about Dubya I could actually believe it.
“All true, but it begs the central question: Why? The FOMC members weren’t stupid, lazy or uninformed. They could draw on a massive staff of economists for analysis. And yet, they were clueless.”
Because we’ve devolved into a culture where sychophants get ahead? And yes, I had to look up the spelling.
Greenspan believed it was better to let powerful market players do as they wished, and clean up afterward, because they were the smart people. Bernanke agreed. If he did not agree, he would not be Fed Chairman.
The truth tellers were howling from the sidelines. Without the internet, we’d have never heard them.
Exactly.
This is the REAL cause of our current problems.
I had to look up Susan Bies…here’s a quote from an interview with the WSJ in September 2008:
One man’s taxpayer-funded handout is another man’s bread and butter.
Florida primary turns spotlight on housing bust’s fallout
By Tim Mullaney, USA TODAY
Updated 6h 13m ago
TAMPA – On paper, Vincent Barone cuts a pretty good profile of a potential Mitt Romney voter.
A Realtor in Republican-leaning Wesley Chapel, Fla., Barone is running an open house at a new home in Live Oak Preserve, a 2-square-mile megadevelopment that typified Tampa’s housing boom, which long ago gave way to a grinding bust. Now Barone frowns at Romney’s argument that it’s time for government to get out of the housing market’s way and let prices hit bottom to promote long-term growth.
Business is getting better, the Mercedes-driving Long Island transplant says. But he says the recovery is still so fragile that he doesn’t want to know what would happen if Washington pulled back.
“Any work we’ve done to fix this market, it would just come undone,” says Barone, a registered independent voter. “It would be a waste of time. I’d leave it the way it is. It’s working.”
As the GOP presidential contest heads to Florida, the Jan. 31 primary looms as the first in the nation where declarations by Romney and former senator Rick Santorum that housing should be allowed to bottom will be judged by voters in markets where the housing bust has been concentrated. Beginning with a debate on NBC Monday in Tampa, how to fix the real estate bust will move toward the forefront.
So far, Republicans have largely used the issue to attack the Obama administration’s economic policies, rather than advocating specific alternatives. Newt Gingrich, who won South Carolina’s primary Saturday, has talked little about housing, and his campaign website doesn’t include housing proposals. In a Fox News interview in October, he blamed underwater homeowners’ inability to refinance on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and did not say whether he would back more loan-modification programs.
In a statement over the weekend, the Romney campaign said, “A host of Obama administration policies, and especially Dodd-Frank, have caused credit to dry up and made a bad thing worse. The only real solution to the housing crisis is to get the economy growing again at a healthy rate.”
…
declarations by Romney and former senator Rick Santorum that housing should be allowed to bottom
It will be interesting to see how such positions fly in a mega-RE bust state like Florida.
Romney already made similar remarks in mega-RE bust state Nevada. But it will be most interesting to see how Newt nuances his Freddie Mac consulting history for the Florida voters.
Romney already made similar remarks in mega-RE bust state Nevada
But they haven’t voted yet. That’s when we’ll see how the public (at least those that vote) views such ideas.
“Newt nuance$ his Freddie Mac con$ulting hi$tory”
It’s a vi$ion thing, eyes can’t $eem to $hake it.
Floridians are terminally stupid. It would be a badge of honor to lose in that state.
While that may be the perception, you must understand that their are very few Native “Floridians” here in this State. I am one of the few. I have some friends who also were born and raised in this place. The MAJORITY, are like the moron from whom we got the viewpoints of a Realtor, who as the story points out is a MORON from LONG ISLAND.
That’s right, children, we have lots of folks from up north who come down here to show us how “they do it up north”. They’ve been coming since the 1920’s to show us how to profit from real estate………..many get Stucco.
When God was (supposedly) going to destroy Soddom and Gomorrah, he said he would not destroy the city for the sake of ten righteous men. You, Brother Diogenes, and Palmetto, are righteous Floridians, carrying the flame, Prometheus-like with verve & brilliance, who I much admire. You two are indeed exceptions to the rule when I bash Floridians.
“Floridians are terminally stupid”
That’s right, Floridians are terminally stupid. Perhaps that should be phrased as “The majority of Floridians, who come from “up north” and “south of the border” are terminally stupid. Most of the residents are not native Floridians. We real Floridians are too cool to be stupid.
BTW, the “Newtster” is always referred to as a Georgian. He is not from Georgia, he is from PA. That is why he does not have the correct and cochlear pleasing accent.
“Floridians are terminally stupid. It would be a badge of honor to lose in that state.”
He drives a Mercedes. That’s all the stupid you need to know right there.
Let me give you guys a picture of Live Oak Preserve:
-It’s at least 20 miles from any meaningful employment
-It takes 60 minutes to drive those 20 miles any time between 7-10a and 4-7p.
-This area was once a swamp, which means it’s hot and humid as hell 10 months per year. streets often flood during summer rains
-There have been multple stories on this board and the MSM over the years about empty neighborhoods in this area, occupied by gangs and other malcreants
So if something is working there, it’s not the kind of working we would want to see.
Put Fannie and Freddie on Federal Books: Papagianis and Swagel
By Christopher Papagianis and Phillip L. Swagel Jan 22, 2012 4:00 PM PT
When Congress voted on Dec. 23 to fund a temporary extension of the payroll-tax holiday in part by requiring Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) to increase their fees, it effectively ended the fiction that the two mortgage-financing giants are part of the private sector.
Lawmakers should now recognize budgetary reality and put the firms’ liabilities on the government balance sheet and include their spending in the federal budget. The purpose of doing so shouldn’t be to keep the firms as part of the government, however. Rather, it should be to motivate reform that leads to a housing system driven by private capital.
When Fannie and Freddie — known as government-sponsored enterprises — were put in conservatorship as their finances deteriorated in September 2008, officials didn’t put them on the budget. Adding their roughly $1.5 trillion in debt and $3.5 trillion in mortgage guarantees to the gross U.S. debt might have raised questions about the country’s financial stability and exacerbated the financial crisis then under way (even though the $5 trillion of liabilities were matched by nearly as much in assets). And conservatorship was only intended to be temporary.
Three years later, with the government now using the firms as cash cows to pay for activities unrelated to housing — and with everyone from the president to Congress to the Federal Reserve looking to dictate their refinancing standards and other activities — the White House’s assertion that Fannie and Freddie aren’t government agencies is no longer tenable.
…
Is there a GOP candidate without embarrassing skeletons in his closet? I realize that no politician will be squeaky clean, but the current crop is covered in manure.
If you actually said these were government agencies, then you would call into question the “campaign contributions” that these agencies provide to support democratic candidates. You can’t have government agencies shelling out campaign money. You need to provide some shield or cover from public exposure of graft. Saying they are “private” makes this okay.
Stop trying to tinker with the laws of nature and political corruption.
Posted at 12:48 AM ET, 01/23/2012
Romney attacks Gingrich on Freddie Mac work, ties rival to Florida housing slump
By Philip Rucker
TAMPA — Mitt Romney will use the backdrop of Florida’s depressed housing market to launch a fresh offensive against rival Newt Gingrich here Monday, highlighting his consulting work for Freddie Mac and calling on him to publicly release his records relating to the mortgage giant.
As the dramatically reshaped Republican presidential race centers on Florida this week, Romney will air a television advertisement in the state designed to expose Gingrich as a hypocrite. The ad will contrast the former House speaker’s claims not to be a lobbyist with the $1.6 million to $1.8 million in consulting fees he reportedly was paid for his work with Freddie Mac, according to a Romney campaign official.
“Newt Gingrich says he was not a lobbyist — he was just a politician who was paid millions after he left Congress to influence his friends in Washington,” Romney campaign communications director Gail Gitcho said. “When it comes to his work for Freddie Mac, we still have more questions than answers. Speaker Gingrich should immediately make his Freddie Mac contract and work product available to the public.”
…
Watching Romney and Gingrich go at it is like watching the Iran-Iraq War. Let ‘em both lose!
to expose Gingrich as a hypocrite ??
Ya think….
Freddie Mac did ask for an open marriage.
eyes thought they just said: “open….
never mind / disregard
Gingrich Pressured to Release Freddie Mac Consulting Contracts
January 23, 2012, 1:43 AM EST
By Clea Benson and Julie Bykowicz
(For more campaign news, go to ELECT.)
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is refusing to release his consulting contracts with Freddie Mac while continuing to offer accounts of what he did for the government-backed mortgage lending institution that differ with those who worked with him.
Gingrich’s stance, which he based upon advice from his former consulting firm’s attorney who also serves as counsel to his campaign, is being challenged by chief Republican rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
“I’d like to see what he actually told Freddie Mac,” Romney told reporters on Jan. 21 gathered outside his South Carolina campaign headquarters in Greenville. “Let’s see what his report was.” Today, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Florida House Speaker-designate Will Weatherford will hold a conference call for reporters on Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac, the Romney campaign announced last night.
Romney’s move earned praise from some political strategists, who said the ties to Freddie Mac could become more damaging to Gingrich than allegations by one of his ex-wives that he wanted an “open marriage” so he could continue an affair with his current wife, Callista Gingrich.
“I thought it was smart,” Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.” “He took on Gingrich on the question of character, but not on the question of the marriage, but on the question of, you were working for Freddie Mac. You were the guy who’s the Washington insider.”
Freddie Mac Angst
Many Republicans abhor Freddie Mac because of the billions in taxpayer money that bailed it out after the housing market meltdown. Since September 2008, Freddie Mac and mortgage lending sister institution Fannie Mae, both now operating under U.S. conservatorship, have received a total $153 billion in taxpayer aid.
…
Newt, Rush and Karl Rove - The fat faces of the Republican Party. But yet, women are lined up to marry these guys. They all have multiple wives. What is it ladies, the double chins, the giant heads, the bar-b-que guts???
I think we already had this discussion at least once, and power-as-aphrodisiac was mentioned. It must only work one way…I can’t imagine who powerful a woman would have to be to turn me on if she looked like Newt.
The divorce settlements.
DING DING DING!
Nope. It’s the proximity to power and the kowtowing it brings to the mate– who let’s face it, ultimately controls the access. The money is secondary.
January 22, 2012, 7:16 PM
Romney Links Housing Bust, Gingrich Consulting Work
By Sara Murray
ORMOND BEACH, Fla.—Mitt Romney sought to meld Newt Gingrich and the broken housing market in the minds of voters here as he began his attempt to blunt the momentum of his main GOP rival.
“He’s been working for Freddie Mac, remember those guys?” Mr. Romney said of Mr. Gingrich at a campaign event here Sunday evening. “What was he doing at Freddie Mac? Because Freddie Mac figures in very prominently to the fact that people in Florida have seen home values go down. It’s time to turn them around.”
The campaign is taking a harsher tone against Mr. Gingrich after being thumped in South Carolina Saturday. Among its targets is Mr. Gingrich’s time as a consultant with Freddie Mac, where he earned some $1.6 million.
Mr. Romney has begun calling on Mr. Gingrich to release records of the type of work he did for the failed home mortgage giant.
The Romney campaign’s message could prove to be salient in Florida, where a higher share of mortgages are in foreclosure than anywhere in the country and where elevated unemployment is keeping the market under duress.
Mr. Romney also took Mr. Gingrich to task for his congressional record, reminding voters that he ultimately resigned from his post as House speaker and had paid fines for ethics violations.
“At the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader,” Mr. Romney said. “He had to resign in disgrace.”
…
Morning, all!
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53351965-68/hollis-detroit-101-sullivan.html.csp
Evicted 101-year-old Detroit woman can’t go home after all
The Associated Press
First published 2 hours ago
Updated 1 hour ago
Detroit • The federal government now says a 101-year-old Detroit woman it promised could move back into her foreclosed home four months ago can’t return because the building’s unsanitary and unsafe.
Texana Hollis was evicted Sept. 12 and her belongings placed outside after her 65-year-old son failed to pay property taxes linked to a reverse mortgage, The Detroit News reported in a story Sunday. Two days later, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said she could return.
But now, HUD said it won’t let Hollis move back in because of the house’s condition. She had lived there about 60 years.
“Here I am, 100 years old, and don’t have a home,” Hollis said, rounding off her age. “Oh Lord, help me.”
Department spokesman Brian Sullivan told The Detroit News that an inspection determined the house “was completely unsuitable for a person to live in.”
“that an inspection determined the house “was completely unsuitable for a person to live in.”
Same result as for the “Do-Nothing”/”Get lil’ Opie!” repubican congressional house.
Missed it a day or two ago Hwy…Happy B-day..:)
Tanks you! (Clinks scdave’s glass)
For you information, the Republican Congress has done LOTS of things to get legislation moving. It’s the Democratic Senate, under Harry Reid who says “it’s dead on arrival” that stops everything from moving.
You really should stop listening to NPR and the Big media companies and look at what’s going on in the government.
The HOUSE was taken by HUGE landslide, the largest of turnovers in American history, after people saw what lil Opie was up to. It was our attempt to STOP him and head in a new direction. Unfortunately, the Republicans didn’t get the Senate. IF they did, we would still have “do nothing” Congress, because every Bill they sent to the President would be vetoed.
And, although, the Congress is supposed to write the laws and set the budget, the PRESS will say it’s Congress that has the country grid-locked, not the president. It takes 2 to Tango.
If the Republican Senators had been more cooperative in 2009-2010 when the Dems took the House, then perhaps the Democratic Senators would be more cooperative in 2011-2012 when the Republicans took the House.
The R’s have no one to blame but themselves.
They had the House and Senate for 12 years.
That’s HOW we got here!
Happy belated B-day, Hwy!
Happy belated B-day, Hwy!
+1
A friend and former neighbor reverse mortgaged her house for an eye-popping amount of money in 2006. I say eye-popping because the place was filthy.
My friend had quite an affinity for cats — she had about 17 of them on her “payroll” and you can imagine what the house smelled like after she left it. (She fell and broke her leg in 2007 and the family moved her up to northern AZ after she was released from rehab.)
So, I can relate to what’s being said in the Detroit story.
It’s a heart-stop sob story about an old woman, but it’s not news.
Just try and not pay your property taxes and see what happens to you.
Story: Woman fails to pay property taxes and the loses house to City after repeated notices of PAST DUE accounts mailed.
What story? Oh, yea, she’s old. This is not a Mortgage story.
The real story is government gangsters determining a house that she lived in for 60 years is not suitable to live in. how is that possible?
she’s lived there for 60 years. it’s better to live on the street instead of a house the government says isn’t suitable. That’s what’s criminal.
That, too, happens all the time. “MINIMUM STANDARDS”, meant to protect the poor and stupid, only works to put them on the street.
At least tell the whole story:
————————————————–
Department spokesman Brian Sullivan told The Detroit News that an inspection determined the house “was completely unsuitable for a person to live in.”
“We can’t allow someone to live in that (atmosphere) now that we are essentially the owners of the property,” Sullivan said. “The home isn’t safe; it’s not sanitary. It’s certainly not suitable for anyone to live in, especially not a 101-year-old mother.”
HUD doesn’t want to pay to fix up the house, but Sullivan said the department’s seeking other agencies that might help with the work and get Hollis back into her home.
“We’re not giving up,” Sullivan said. “We’re talking with anybody and everybody about solutions to this situation, but the condition of the property is a challenge.”
Seems to me it was “suitable” enough to live in for sixty years and get herself to age 101 in….
Eurozone crisis live: Greek deal on knife edge
Pressure on Greek creditors to accept larger losses mounts as eurozone finance ministers’ meeting gets underway
7.30am: Good morning and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the world economy and eurozone debt crisis. Hopes of a deal in Greece with private bondholders in time for the eurozone finance ministers’ meeting have dwindled after the bondholders’ representative, Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance, left Athens on Saturday.
Creditors have made their ‘best offer,’ and are not willing to take any more than a 65% to 70% loss on the current value of Greek debt (with a coupon of 4%-4.5%, while the IMF has indicated it wants a coupon closer to 3%).
Even that wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to tackle Greece’s mounting debt burden, says Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets.
The more I read about the Greek bondholder situation, the more I think about the “Point/Counterpoint” segment from the movie “Airplane!”
“They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting themselves into…I say, let them crash!”
In other news; the owners of the Concordia are offering the survivors 30% discounts on their next booking.
Great ref! Reminds me of the Kentucky Fried Movie’s “Count/PointerCount”
“Well Sheila, I guess even you and your liberal cronies have found the light at the end of the tunnel of love with our beloved president. The intellectuals have been much agitated and now, having gotten the presidency by exploiting the problems they themselves have manufactured, he has done his best to fuel their anxieties about him. Sheila, will you and your pack of bleeding heart liberals never learn that expanding welfare roles only accelerate inflation and inevitably hurt most those they purport to help?”
“Why John, you old stick in the mud. I’ve been listening to that horse shiat of yours for months, and you can take that crap and blow it out your a55. And for good measure, sit on THIS!”
God I miss that movie. WAY ahead of it’s time!
It seems to me there is every incentive to be the one of the last holdouts and dictate the terms. Look at politics. The last politician to get on board in a deal is the one who gets the sweetest deal. I’m not sure if this kind of brinksmanship will work this time or not.
It would be nice to imagine that internet archives are one variable no one counted on with this time-honored strategy, but as Mr. Gingrich so aptly demonstrated in South Carolina, stupidity, compounded by anger, trumps history every time.
Eight Leading Economists Sound Off on Europe’s Fiscal Woes
Jan 23, 2012 12:00 AM EST
As economic contagion continues in Europe, and with the future of the euro imperiled, Newsweek asked eight economists to describe the origin of the problem facing the single currency and what would happen if the euro were abolished.
The stock market seems to be “betting” that the euro is not going to unravel….
This is a little like having eight shamans slay eight chickens and strew their entrails on an altar, then asking them to tell us what it bodes for the future.
I wish I were kidding.
You know it.
Wish I could get a 6 figure job and get paid to be wrong most of the time.
Realtors Are Liars®
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPIxrzmatq0
The media is a proxy for entrenched interest and the Housing Crime Syndicate. It cannot be trusted.
15 years ago I worked with a herd of Romanians that lived under Ceaucescu’s Soviet Bloc rules. One wise Romanian said to me in broken english, “over there you knew exactly what was fact and fiction. In the US, the media is so deceptive you can never tell.”
Most of my 20-30-something co-workers, many of whom have MBA’s or economics degrees, buy the REIC lie without reservation. Some got their $8000 tax credit from Uncle Sugar in 2010 and are now $25000+ underwater. But at least they can paint the walls any color they want.
There is a possibility that our jobs could disappear in 2013, and anticipating this the squad is prepared to go nomad like Bill-in-wherever.
Kiss my lease loosers!
Nomad is the only way to go. Wall Street has a 90 day outlook, why shouldn’t you?
“Romanians that lived under Ceaucescu’s Soviet Bloc rules”
A worked with a Hungarian fellow that spoke delusional of his neighbors that would unannounced disappeared for days and when they returned, their finger nails had gone missing!
(Kovac, smart fella he.)
15 years ago I worked with a herd of Romanians that lived under Ceaucescu’s Soviet Bloc rules. One wise Romanian said to me in broken english, “over there you knew exactly what was fact and fiction. In the US, the media is so deceptive you can never tell.”
In totalitarian states, the PTB have their secret police, Gestapo, KGB, etc. Here, in the land of free, they have can’t use force in that way. So propaganda is a much more important tool in getting the compliance of the population.
The police I see look more and more like storm troopers every day.
“So propaganda is a much more important tool in getting the compliance of the population.”
Ah so. And if one FULLY understands this then this understanding just may give one the incentive to ignore all the propaganda and instead spend some energy seeking the truth.
“You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”
IMO it’s not the truth in itself that makes you free, it’s the KNOWING the truth that makes you free.
“Here, in the land of free,they have can’t use force in that way”
Don’t bet on it. Don’t EVEN bet on it.
I guess you haven’t heard the news about Megaupload yet?
The Nine American Cities Nearly Destroyed by the Recession
Posted: January 19, 2012 at 3:35 pm
http://247wallst.com/2012/01/19/the-nin-cities-that-havent-recovered-from-the-recession/ - 64k
Nice find Jeff….Its even worse in little rural towns…
As I pointed out last week the low natural gas prices will have a blow back effect. Now it’s finally prompted the drillers to slash drilling. This morning Chesapeake Energy cut it’s active rigs from 47 to 24 effective immediately and reducing capital investments from 10.5 billion in 2010 down to 1.4 billion for 2012 and shut in up to a billion cubic feet per day of production.
Drill baby drill.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/22/3385621/surplus-of-natural-gas-causes.html
Look for this to have a domino effect. Nat. Gas prices are up 5% this morning. The N. Texas job market is about to get whacked. 38% of the growth in the last 10 years was from the natural gas industry.
I like how a retail price drop of about 15% is a “collapse”. Median wages have dropped that much in my neck of the woods, but I have yet to read or hear that described as a collapse in the MSM.
The MSM sure doesn’t say much when nat gas prices soar, as much as 100%, do they?
The Alberta tar sands play, so I’ve heard, is gimick to turn cheap, clean and abundant natural gas into expensive, lower energy, toxic black goo. Cheaper gas prices will give them more incentive to tear up the wheat land.
Canadians, who used to worship our Mr. Obama, now are saying without hesitation that he wouldn’t sign off on their pipeline across the lower 48 simply because they didn’t deliver sufficient payoffs. Interesting shift in sentiment. I tone down my NY accent even more here these days.
Now they want to be China’s oil bitch. I’m not sure how they will pipe that toxic stuff over the Rockies!
You have 5 factual arrors in 3 paragraphs. Good job.
Perhaps my friends here are in “arrors”. I said it’s what they are saying. Even the part about a pipeline over the Rockies is part of what I heard here this week. If you are paid to think differently, pitch in.
Underwater on your mortgage there, drillboy? Over the last three years Obama has broken your cartel, and BP knows it.
“Ask your son how well that theory worked for the followers of Jim Jones.”
Whatever kind of genetic marker imprinted the patterns in those people’s brains, it clearly was not favorable to survival. A similar remark applies to members of the Heaven’s Gate cult, not to mention the earlier, and far more benign, example of the Shakers.
Do not cornfuse “tendencies” with “decisions”, it will lead you on a far meandering & divergent path.
(Still haven’t read the “Logic of Life” yet I presume?)
Let me be more specific about a god gene. My understanding is that the functions of the Id, the base of human emotion and the source of our animal spirits have been mapped in the human DNA. The belief in gods and the supernatural can be trace to the the evolving rational mind of our distant ancestors trying to deal with autonomic response to environmental factors such as sudden trauma and death. From the view point of technology religion served a function at one time but now stands in the way of technology’s relentless march to the future. The trick will be separating the emotions like hope and compassion from the belief in the supernatural by targeted genetic modifications.
Another prediction. In the next 30 years you will be able to implant a computer in your brain to augment your senses and provide telepathic capabilities.
to be “specific” :
“The Logic of Life” By François Jacob
Great “orientation” stuff, when finished, you can begin to argue with yourself, eyes did.
“Another prediction. In the next thirty years you will be able to implant a computer in your brain to augment your senses and provide telepathic capabilities.”
Will these telepathetic capabilities become a two-way street in that my thoughts will no longer be my own, that my own thoughts will not really be my own thoughts but thoughts transmitted into my brain by somebody else?
I like it, just as long as I am the one who gets to do the transmitting.
We are borg?
Want that hot chick over there to fall in love with you?
Yes? Then bring me a sack of money and I’ll see what I can do about transmitting a few wonderous thoughts about you into her brain.
Take out the god gene and replace it with a telepathic receiver means somebody gets to play god.
my own thoughts will not really be my own thoughts but thoughts transmitted into my brain by somebody else?
Hence the need for tin-foil hats.
We already have electronic devices permanantly implanted next to our brains.
They are called “cellphones”.
Humans are temporary beings. They seem to be the only creature on the planet which can contemplate their own destruction. They however strongly desire to continue existing. This basic irritant in the oyster shell is what creates the desire for some kind of afterlife.
Additionally, they maintain relationships which are quite important to them as social animals. Herd animals. Pack animals. The destruction of these relationships is another factor which creates the desire for some kind of afterlife.
Regarding technology and religion - my suspicion is that one day, science will either find God or kill God. However, that presupposes that this three pound mass of meat we call the brain is capable of understanding the deepest secrets of the universe.
If it is, my suspicion will hold true. If it is false, we are destined to never know and to continue existing in The Matrix.
The human brain is binary and programmed for hierarchy. Hence the need for gods, Gods, and a God. Plus a Mrs. God, of course….
And in my experience, non-human animals are indeed aware of and contemplate their own mortality– though perhaps through a different time frame than humans.
Regarding technology and religion - my suspicion is that one day, science will either find God or kill God. However, that presupposes that this three pound mass of meat we call the brain is capable of understanding the deepest secrets of the universe.
Have you read “The Naked God” series by Peter F. Hamilton? If not, you should. Interesting science fiction about that topic.
Religious belief is many things.
It is part false pattern. Part of intelligence is the ability to see patterns in the data. Sometimes, especially if we do not put the pattern to the test using rigid scientific study (and sometimes even if we do), we create a belief in a false pattern.
We didn’t have rain so the crops wouldn’t grow. We killed a sheep to eat it, then it started raining. Oh, killing a sheep makes it rain.
Or in the modern world, when it is cold out we spend more time inside in close contact with others. Close contact makes germs spread more quickly. Cold weather makes your nose run, getting snot on your hands, which contains germs. Oh, being cold makes you sick. Don’t go out without your jacket or you will catch a cold.
Religious belief is part appeal to unqualified authority.
Homosexuality is bad because God says so. I should be your ruler because God made be strong and gave me a great victory in combat. God wants you to donate that sheep, and some gold, to me, then he will make your wife pregnant….
Religious belief is part tradition, social meme.
Religion is part sub-conscious decision to believe a beautiful lie than face an ugly truth. An afterlife is a much happier lie than the truth of simply ceasing to exist.
I’d be happy if we can start with belief in Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, visiting aliens(ancient and modern), and haunted houses. We can deal with God paradigm after we’ve covered the easy stuff.
When in lived on Oahu,I learned of this belief that is was bad to take pork over the Pali (a pass from the south shore to north shore). The spirits will get you…. Ohs nos. I’d been doing it regularly for years without issue before I even heard of the “curse” that it triggers.
Sweet. Sign me up right now for the “jedi” chip. I wanna be able to summon the wii remote from across the room, fire up netflix, and mind trick the wife into grabbing me a cold beer.
Seems like kind of a waste of a mind trick…
The herd insticnt overrides logic and even self preservation, in religion, war, politics, investing and “accepted science” across human history. Mockery of the one with immersion in the other is a manifestion of denial.
a Skyeism.
And here is a interesting item.
If all the Atheist left the USA, it would lose 93% of the National Academy of Sciences but less than 1% of the prison population.
It would probably also lose 93% of Wall Street and the political parties, probably the churches too, if a true litmus test were available.
I don’t believe you have ever worked in science or been inside a prison.
Religion is how the left half of the bell curve codified wise living and common sense to the right half.
From front or back?
I made a long, somewhat rambling post in last night’s Bits Bucket about the December 2011 DataQuick sales figures for San Diego County zip codes, a version of which is linked here. One of the key points was the dearth of zip codes where single family residences (SFRs) were selling for north of $1m these days — only four zip codes in SD County remain with a median SFR sale price over $1m (Del Mar, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and Solano Beach). By contrast, there are no areas where the median condo sale price exceeded $1m, though it is a bit hard to comment on market values in areas where none sold, such as Rancho Santa Fe.
I couldn’t find any links to old DataQuick zip code charts on their web site for comparison, but I did come across this article which suggests $1m+ home sales were quite a bit more common a few years back in San Diego, not to mention the rest of California, than they are these days:
Million-Dollar Home Sales Rise in Golden State
February 2, 2005
La Jolla, CA.—-More million-dollar homes were sold in California last year than in the two previous years combined, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 33,107 Golden State homes sold for a million dollars or more last year. That was up 73.5 percent from 19,080 in 2003. The total was 13,871 in 2002, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
Last year’s surge was strongest during the second quarter when year-over-year sales were up 109.3 percent. During the year’s final quarter, sales were up 61.0 percent.
“A million dollars just isn’t what it used to be when it comes to California real estate. Because of appreciation across the board, more homes are in the million-dollar category than was the case earlier. We don’t expect home prices to go up as much this year as in 2004, so we anticipate that sales counts will level off,” said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.
Million-dollar sales accounted for 5.0 percent of all California home purchases in 2004. In 2003 it was 3.0 percent, and in 2002 it was 2.3 percent.
Statewide, there were 221 sales for more than $5 million last year, 237 sales were in the $4-$5 million range, 690 in the $3 million range, 2,894 sales in the $2 million range, and the rest between $1 million and $2 million.
…
Top 25 California Zip Codes
Ranked by the number of million-dollar homes sold in 2004
Community Zip Code 2003 Sales# 2004 Sales# 2004’s Most Expensive*
La Jolla 92037 307 464 $9.70 mill.
Manhattan Beach 90266 381 458 $4.85 mill.
Hillsborough 94010 277 384 $5.99 mill.
Laguna Beach 92651 232 348 $13.50 mill.
Newport Beach 92660 293 343 $5.88 mill.
Saratoga 95070 243 334 $4.30 mill.
Del Mar 92130 221 327 $6.80 mill.
Rolling Hills Estates 90274 279 309 $6.15 mill.
Calabasas 91302 217 305 $6.00 mill.
Trabuco/Coto 92679 182 296 $5.31 mill.
Laguna Niguel 92677 146 295 $6.10 mill.
Pacific Palisades 90272 251 277 $11.45 mill.
Rancho Palos Verdes 90275 173 274 $3.91 mill.
Los Altos 94024 221 270 $4.35 mill.
Danville 94506 187 270 $5.28 mill.
Mill Valley 94941 195 262 $5.90 mill.
Alamo 94507 193 261 $3.04 mill.
Cupertino 95014 127 247 $2.40 mill.
Beverly Hills 90210 207 234 $13.00 mill.
Brentwood 90049 219 226 $6.30 mill.
Rancho Santa Fe 92067 208 226 $10.00 mill.
Malibu 90265 203 220 $12.00 mill.
Encinitas 92024 193 211 $3.63 mill.
Los Altos 94022 194 211 $4.50 mill.
Coronado 92118 147 210 $5.85 mill.
*Where the sales price could be determined from public records
Ha, whilst my Big “Sis” & Big “Bro” smile, preen & dust, eyes amble over my creek and up the ridge…oh look a lil’ bird, lying in the sycamore leaves, what can be done?
A million dollars just isn’t what it used to be ??
For whom ??
Million-dollar homes just aren’t what they used to be.
The number of “million dollar homes” will shrink significantly.
The number of actual houses won’t go down. But they won’t be “million dollar homes” anymore either…
To our resident hope ‘n change lemmings: what’s Obama’s slogan for this election? While “No kleptocrat left behind” would be truth-in-advertising, I’m guessing that to sucker in the dimwits again, he’ll have to go with something like “I’m not Gingrich” or “Romney and I are clones so let’s save the moving expenses of installing him in the Oval Office.”
“Vote for me, because my $hit sundae tastes better than his $hit sandwich!”
Everybody loves ice cream, don’t they?
Obama saved Gingrich’s life a few years back.
It’s true.
Did it by pulling out a gun, and shooting a rabid,$hit-eating dog……
In other news:
Gingrich accused of eating $hit sandwiches. Gingrich denied it, said he doesn’t like bread…….
“I’m not Gingrich” works for me.
“I’m not bought and paid for” works for me.
Alas.
If Obama is re-elected, he is effectively no longer bought and paid for. Congress, on the other hand…
Isn’t that like the gal who said to me that after decades of different partners, she had been alone of three years, so was for all practical purposes a virgin?
How will he build his ego palace aka presidential library?
Also, doesn’t he need to keep these people happy so that he keeps on making few millions a yr giving speeches?
Butters, if Mitt Romney can make over $350,000 in one year in speaking fees, I expect Obama can earn far more whether there is anyone left who likes him or not!
Good point Oxide.
Term limits. If we had them, things would be different.
People say term limits put more power in the hands of the lobbyists. I say it puts less money in the hands of the lobbyists, because the politicians they but are in office for less time.
“Things may look bad, but if it wasn’t for me, it would have been much worse”. “I personally saved and created 4.5 Million jobs with my stimulus programs, or else we would have had 20% unemployment.”……….”It’s getting better. I never said this would be fast or easy”. “Republicans would have made it worse”.
And remember this, “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t. you know me. I care about hope and change, so vote for me.”
“Obama…..at least he uses lube”
South Carolina / last place / Ron Paul
Did the Southern folks leave ya witha lump in yer throat Sammy?
With that kinda showing he best fire up his own version of “Hope & Change”
Yes it did to me. I was hoping for a strong 3rd.
I canceled my canoe trip in protest.
Poll: Ron Paul bests Rick Santorum in Florida
The State Column | Staff | Monday, January 23, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has bested former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in the latest poll of likely Florida Primary voters. Mr. Paul garnered 13 percentage points in an Insider Advantage poll released Sunday. The Texas congressman bested Mr. Santorum by 2 percentage points in the Florida poll.
This is the first post-South Carolina Primary poll of likely Florida Primary voters. The results of the South Carolina Primary were discouraging for supporters of Mr. Paul’s campaign. The former Air Force surgeon pulled in 13 percent of the votes to finish in fourth place. Mr. Santorum stole a top-tier finish from Mr. Paul by earning 17 percent of the votes.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who won the South Carolina Primary, also won the Florida poll with 34 percent of the votes. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finished in second place 26 percent of the votes.
…
I HAVE to stop watching CNBC while getting ready for work. The stupidity leaves me in foul mood the rest of the day.
This morning’s moron award goes to some dufus that was saying, to fix the economy we just need to turn everyone into computer programmers, high tech designers and scientific researchers.
Wow… he could have just said that we need to turn everyone into world class soccer players.
Being a computer programmer is not just a skill. It is innate ability to think rationally, grasp complex concepts, see patterns in the data, solve difficult problems….
I have said it before and I’ll say it again. When I started in my BSCS program, there were like 100 people in the degree program. At graduation, there were like 20. Of the 20, I’d say half were more likely to end up in technical writing or business analyst type positions than hard-core developers.
My IQ puts me 1 in 1000 of the population as a whole. Among my actual co-workers, I’m barely above median.
Some people struggle with freshman algebra or basic physical science. Other people grasp calculus and quantum mechanics like a duck to water. Just because the economy is working for the latter group does not mean we can just give the former group the skills to succeed.
Half of all people have below median intelligence. A successful economy must be able to provide jobs for the majority of those people too.
“Some people struggle with freshman algebra or basic physical science. Other people grasp calculus and quantum mechanics like a duck to water. Just because the economy is working for the latter group does not mean we can just give the former group the skills to succeed.”
Quite meditation might be a better route for some than writing, or watching the TeeVee in the morning.
Half of all people have below median intelligence. A successful economy must be able to provide jobs for the majority of those people too.
After all of that bragging, you made a good point.
And let’s not forget that there are other forms of intelligence than those found in STEM.
I haven’t heard of Shakespeare producing any great mathematical theorems, but I still think he was pretty smart.
I’m convinced there are a million different flavors of “smart”. We’re only good at measuring a few of them.
I will concede that point.
Some people are excellent at memorization. While short-term memory has been shown to be a key factor in determining ability to see patterns in the data (traditional IQ smarts), long-term memory has not been shown to be as important for reasoning.
There is also varying abilities to be creative. Again, ability to see patterns in the data (traditional IQ smarts) is not indicative of your ability to go beyond the data and create great works of fiction.
There is also a sub-conscious level of calculation that occurs when someone swings a bat at a ball or throws a ball at a hoop that does not indicate an ability to do conscious reasoning.
IQ, or “smarts” is traditionally associated with conscious reasoning. I’d call these other areas of mental ability “skills” other than conscious reasoning.
Still, studies indicate that mental abilities are innate similar to height or eye color than they are teachable or trainable.
I spent 3x as much time studying spelling than I ever did on calculus, and still I could never spell my way out of a paper bag. You can not teach me to remember how to spell tens of thousands of words any more easily than I could teach someone that struggled with basic algebra to program a complex statistical, probabilistic matching algorithm built on a fully normalized, dynamic data model using a high throughput, optimized kernel.
“..program a complex statistical, probabilistic matching algorithm built on a fully normalized, dynamic data model using a high throughput, optimized kernel.”
You mean an educated guess.
“You mean an educated guess.”
Well, technically, millions of educated guesses per second.
Is Bill Clinton that lived on Pennsylvania Ave in DC and was married to a Hillary, the same guy as the William Jefferson Clinton that lives with some woman named Hillary in New York but still has a DC phone number….
Now here is a guy named William Clintno with a similar address, but he seems to be married to a Hillary Rode Ham.
Or, better…..
This cell phone was at this location the same time that cell phone was there. This cell phone made a call to this known bad guy. Other know bad guys have been at the same and other locations with other cell phones. These guys have been know to frequent the same web sites and are a few of the same Twitter groups….
If person A reports he’s been in contact with someone that is planning something, give me a 3 degree of separation candidate list of know associates based on movements, cell phone tracking, internet activities, and known associates.
Or you could just go on a hunch. Quit flattering yourself; the quants were wrong. Remember 2008?
A successful economy must be able to provide jobs for the majority of those people too.
The economy has successfully provided jobs for these people. It provides them with 3 part-time jobs with no benefits the combined wages from which may reach $500/week.
The future belongs to Lucky Ducky
“Independent Contractors…….the new paradigm for the formerly Middle Class”
That “full time job” fantasy is so 20th Century.
Because jobs are a privilege and not a right and therefore you should have to pay for that privilege.
Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
This morning’s moron award goes to some dufus that was saying, to fix the economy we just need to turn everyone into computer programmers, high tech designers and scientific researchers.
My dad was a scientific researcher. I can speak from personal experience when I say that our society already has enough of such people.
Why? Because it’s the sort of career that becomes your life. Not the sort of thing that’s conducive to having close, warm relationships with friends and family.
What did I learn from having such a person as a father? That friends and family count for a lot more than a career ever will. Even a scientific research career.
The more important point is that STEM jobs can only be a small fraction of all jobs in the economy. I heard a statistic back in the ’80s which said that 30% of the American workforce has a college education, even though only 20% of the jobs in the country require one. This implies two things. First, we’re sending far too many of our young people to college, and second, a bachelor’s degree is irrelevant to job prospects of the vast majority of all American workers.
Which is why so many waitresses and bar tenders have college degrees. They take these jobs to get through college, then graduate to find that they can make more as a bar tender or waitress than they can in the field of their chosen degree.
First, we’re sending far too many of our young people to college, and second, a bachelor’s degree is irrelevant to job prospects of the vast majority of all American workers.
Many years ago, I was an unhappy junior high school student. I really wanted to pursue a career in art, but I was in the college-bound track.
On that track, art was definitely an elective. As in, why are you wasting time on that, Slim? What are you trying to do, anyway?
“I’m trying to be an artist,” I replied.
Well, I went to college, majored in something practical like economics. Only job I ever had that used the degree was my worst ever.
It was one of those jobs that made me wonder if I was really cut out for the job world. I left that world less than a decade later.
In 1999, I met up with my guidance counselor from my unhappy junior high years. Told him that I was a graphic designer, and oh, you should have seen the chagrined look on his face. With more than a little contempt, he said, “You don’t have to go to college for that!”
Indeed you don’t. I use what I’ve learned in my high school commercial art and photography classes — plus what I learned on my own — to make a living.
In my happiest jobs, I’d wake up happy and looked forward to my day. I use my Acct’g backgound, yet let me creative mind thrive. That’s why I like Shopping Ctr Mgmt. The creative side is solving problems, visual merchandising, marketing, and the very functional side of P&L. I also was aware of consumer and color psychology. I would watch a mom and pop launch. It’s a really cool mix. I just wish there were jobs right now.
I’d like to see if High School counselors/teachers were scored by the number of students that went on to college, in their performance reviews.
By the time I was in high school, it was obvious. All of the “college track” kids got all of the counselors time/effort. The only time the rest of us saw a counselor, was when we got into a fight. This was in a highly rated (still) Red-State, suburban-rural school district.
It worked out, though. Learned a lot more from my “Modern Novel” and “Science Fiction Novel” classes that I would ever have gotten out of Trigenometry.
(This was a long time before NCLB……no time for such “nonsense” in high school now.)
It always amuses me that kids are supposed to be taking career advice form somebody who ended up as a high school guidance counselor.
It always amuses me that kids are supposed to be taking career advice form somebody who ended up as a high school guidance counselor.
Agreed. This guy didn’t seem to have any experience in careers other than being a guidance counselor.
Excellent way to phrase it.
But, at least the girls are all hot.
Half of all people have below median intelligence.
That is practically impossible no? Does not at least one person have to have the median IQ?
> Half of all people have below median intelligence.
> A successful economy must be able to provide jobs for
> the majority of those people too.
All depends on how you define successful… the current crop of leaders, seem, for the most part, to be wholly owned by our corporate masters. To them, a “successful economy” might be one in which these people are desperate for ANY income, willing to slave away at the minimum possible wage and benefit level, maximizing corporate profits. By this measure, our economy is becoming more and more successful by the day!
“Of the 20, I’d say half were more likely to end up in technical writing or business analyst type positions than hard-core developers.”
These people are as important as the hard core developers. Business analysts have to be able to translate real world problems into tech-speak. They have to see both the big picture and the details. They may not be quite as strong mathematically as the hard-core developer, but they have to be better communicators.
Tech writers have to take complex technical material and explain it in ways that intelligent people outside the field can understand.
Or you could put it, “They may not be as verbally adept as the hardcore communicator, but they have better math skills.”
All this self-congratulation simply hints at self-doubt. When one has to bolster one’s argument by telling people what one thinks one’s “IQ” is, (twice now,) the weakness of the argument is intrinsic.
This morning’s moron award goes to some dufus that was saying, to fix the economy we just need to turn everyone into computer programmers, high tech designers and scientific researchers.
They’ve been saying this for 30 years.
That will take care of the about 30% of the population or the ones that have an IQ over 110.
So what about the rest? Yeah, they never have an answer for THAT.
So what about the rest? Yeah, they never have an answer for THAT.
We’ll just educate them to a higher IQ. NCLB, baby.
The other thing they don’t seem to consider is what all of the STEM folks would be paid if everybody was doing it. And what will they be paid when 100 million Chindian engineers crowd the market?
This is important enough, I think it needs to be yanked out and put in its own thread instead of being lost 4 layers deep.
Combotechie says:
“If a consumer is ruled by fear then he won’t consume hence fear has to be dealt with at the consumer level.
And this is one of the areas where macro collides with micro. From a macro level one should want everyone else to consume rather than hold back, but on a micro level he himself should want to hold back on consumption a mcuh as he can.
At the macro level the population as a whole should be pursuaded that all is well - hope should be kept alive - but at the micro level one needs to understand that it is not.
It’s crazy, but there it is.”
Hold back your consumption for what reason? To accumulate a bunch of other peoples’ unplayable debts that we like to call money? To see the value of that money poof away in a cascade default or an inflationary spiral?
Who is really the sucker? The person that spends other peoples’ money, then doesn’t pay it back, or the person that forgoes their own enjoyment, planning for the future, only to see those plans go for naught when the value of the savings vanishes?
Money is just other peoples’ debt. If those people can’t pay it back, then it will poof out of existence.
Yesterday, someone, sorry forget who, said he’s thinking of taking savings and paying cash for a house. Govt is unlikely to tax away houses, but more likely to tax away more liquid assets.
Well, I’m on the flip side of that. My wife and I (43 and 45) have about $150K in 401(k)s and are adding another $14K or so a year when employer match is included.
We are seriously thinking of cashing out about $100K of that to pay off vehicle and some other debts. Sure, govt will take about 45%… 10% penalty, 28-33% bracket, 5% state. But that is better than letting it poof away other ways such as another stock market crash that catches me unawares, or eventually taking a haircut on my US govt debt as being forced upon the holders of Greek debt.
And, if we assume I’m going to have to eventually pay some of that income tax anyway, or worse, be taxed on my 401(k) withdrawls while also having them reduce my SS payments through means testing… The 10% penalty may end up being a bargain.
Why an I paying 5% on a vehicle loan and 10% on some other debt, then being happy with making 1-2% on my 401(k)?
It is smart to max my 401(k) contribution. My employer matches $ for $. So, even if I turn around and take it right back out a coupe years later, I’ve just had the employer pay my income tax.
Is it not “even smarter” to just take the money out and spend it rather than hoping beyond hope that it will still have some value 30 or 40 years from now?
Let the suckers scrip and save to lose it all in the crash…. the smart people are enjoying the good times while they can….
No?
I think there is a kids story about an ant and a grasshoper that answers this question.
In the parable, requires that the hardworking and well prepared ant survive the winter while the playful imprudent grasshopper starves.
In our reality, the ant’s food is taxed away and then given to the grasshopper.
Worse, we don’t need to survive months, but decades. We can’t actually put away enough food to get us through 20 years or retirement. It isn’t just food we need, but a wide array of goods and services.
We do not pack away food, but rather money. Money is other peoples’ debts. It can poof out of existence in cascade default or be inflated away through over creation.
The whole point of my post is that the parable of the ant and the grasshopper does not really apply to the modern concept of retirement.
Rather than food or money, you may be better off packing away housing. 20 years of no PI adds up fast.
4 years into a 15 year mortgage. Will be paid off when I’m 55.
So who is the smarter?
Do you not see how your superior analytical mind is screwing with your determinations? Here’s another one for you:
Inflation. What if?
having them reduce my SS payments through means testing ??
Plan on it……..
Yep.
Meaning it would be better to have lower income and lower expense rather than having higher income but higher expenses.
There it is!
Lower expenses means one can live with lower income.
Lower income means one pays fewer taxes.
A tax is an expense in itself so earning less allows one to trim his tax expense even furthur which allows him to earn even less than before.
What’s really a great idea is for one to seize control of a corportion and have the corporation pay all his expenses for him.
Note: I did not say one should OWN a coproration, just control one. If one controls a corporation then he gets lots of benifits the owners don’t get (i.e. he gets to fly on the corporate jet but the owners - the stockholders - don’t).
The guys in control get to run up the bills and the owners get to pay them.
What’s really a great idea is for
onea corporation to seize control of acorporationand have thecorporationgovernment pay all his expenses for him.Fixed it for you. And this has happened for everything from tax breaks for call centers in Mumbait to government-sponsored college loans to H1-B visas to medicaid to favorable tax policy to the military protecting “American interests” overseas.
“What’s really a great idea is for one to seize control of a corportion and have the corporation pay all his expenses for him. ”
This is how it’s worked for the last 30 years that I know of.
It’s what “de-regulation” was REALLY about.
Did you know that most corporations PAY the personal income taxes of the BOD executives?
Seriously, today’s PTB make Marie Antoinette look like an amateur.
I expect the government to means test based on wealth as well as cash flow
you own a house so your expenses are lower expect the government to count that as income
I could be wrong
$150K in 401K and ~$40K in debt? And this with two incomes. Sadly, this is typical.
It is worse than I’ve said.
Between my wife and I, we have 3 divorces, a custody battle…
I was married for 15 years to a lady that did not work. When we divorced, the initial alimony numbers floated about were in the $1500-1600 a month for 7 years range. By giving her the house, what little was left in my 401(k) after the tech wreck (whole other story of MCI/Worldcom there) and all the stuff, and taking on about $10K marital debt plus about $7K lawyer fees (mine and hers) I was able to get this reduced to “only” $800 alimony for 5 years + $900 child support for 7 years. I also had to cover medical insurance and 2/3rds of the kids medical expenses.
All-in-all, I sent her over $125K in 7 years.
Unfortunately, the divorce was in 2002 in the wake of the tech wreck. My alimony and child support were based on peak earnings, but I took a 10% pay cut just to get work in the aftermath of the crash.
I had money for basic expenses, but any extraordinary expenses went on credit cards.
While paying on that first ex, I had a 15-month rebound marriage disaster. It cost me about $5K to make her go away.
My current wife also had a messy divorce in the early 2K0s that included a pretty ugly custody battle a couple years after the initial divorce. She was a non-traditional student earning her bachelors at 33 and her masters at 35.
Then, soon after we met 6.5 years ago, she had about $30K in medical expenses that were not covered by insurance.
So, when we got married 4.5 years ago, combined we had about $40K credit card debt ($30k me, $10K her), $50K student loans (her), $140K mortgage, $40K second mortgage (used to pay medical bills and lawyer for custody fight), and owed about $5K on a vehicle.
Before the housing crash, we refied the house to $186K for 15 years at 5%-ish.
4 years later, the mortgage is down to $150K. 11 years to go and will be paid off when we are 55/53. CC debt is about $30K. Student loans have not budged much since we are making minimal payments (lowest interest rates and tax deductible). Unfortunately, we now owe more on vehicles. Bought a used car 1.5 years ago when son turned 16, and another used car last summer after he wrapped my pickup around a power pole.
Our mid-late-30s were a very, very bad time with multiple divorces, heavily alimony and child support, and some very expensive extra-ordinary expenses. Our 40s is a time of trying to dig out.
You can say I’m in bad shape, but I think I’m well above average. Our total debt is less than 2x our income of $150K a year. We’re only $40K upside down on the house, coming down at $11K a year. $150K in 401(k) is about 3x the average for our age group.
We’ve managed to not have any unemployment during this recession.
Were the divorces good financially? Of course not. Yeah, I’ve made some really bad mistakes in the spouse selection department. My bad.
In addition to no state income tax, it is alimony free in most cases.
Thank you for this valuable reminder to remain single
And I thank you as well, Darrell.
Thank you for this valuable reminder to remain single
Valuable reminder to ignore that long-legged young ‘thang at the front desk; just can’t afford it.
A history major would have saved a lot of that money….
I admire your spunk Darrell. You know what I would like to see is the whole marriage thing revised. In that to get married both partners need to put up a sizable escrow account*, a 6 or 7 thousand dollar marriage license fee plus a psychoanalysis screening. The escrow could be release in parts over time depending on factors like age, family size, health issues etc..
* married people would get a higher credit score and other tax breaks as a reward for choosing wisely.
Or you could just get a pre-nup.
Other than the “rebound” and third marriage, sounds like we could be “Twin sons of different mothers”.
When I started making alimony and child support payments, the ex- made it a point to rub my nose in it, every chance she got.
I just shrugged. Why?
Child support is child support, you are putting a roof over the kids head (along with the ex-, and her new hubby, but I digress…….)
What made me smile was thinking about what was going to happen when the child support and alimony ended.
It was going to be a lot easier for me to get used to having an extra $1500/month, that it would be for her to have $1500/month suddenly removed from her income. Good luck with selling that “bought in 2005″ house.
I’m 51 and don’t have much more than you in 401K and rollover IRA’s
sad really I started way back in the 1980’s
supposed to be a million dollars by the time I’m 65
hmmm
I’m losing about 2% per year on my safe savings which sucks, but something is better than nothing. At least by trying to plan for the future I’ll have the right to claim victimhood if it all goes wrong.
Seriously though, normally combo’s assertions would be right. You should be able to put savings into low risk investments and pretty much come out even with inflation over the long haul, or take some risk and do a little better with the growing economy. Right now there is no real growth, distortions aplenty, and serious rigging for the 1%ers.
That sounds dumb to me. Why pay that much penalty? If you want to pull all your money out to pay down some debts, the more intelligent thing would be to stop putting it in. But that sounds insane to me too, unless you have some kind of magic fortune telling iq you forgot to mention.
And you are concerned about means testing social security when the max monthly payout (as far as I can tell) is currently $2,366 and the average is currently $1,177? You sure you have your thoughts straight? At $12k a year (matching your 401k with the average SS), you would be paying a lower tax rate in the future than you are now most likely.
Average comes from:http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/13/~/average-monthly-social-security-benefit-for-a-retired-worker
“If you want to pull all your money out [401K] to pay down some debts, the more intelligent thing would be to stop putting it in”
Sorry, the tax is the same, except for the 10% early withdrawal penalty, and he’d give up the company match.
For those of us in the over 59 1/2 club, the question is do you want your money now, or sometime after the fund goes MF Global?
Whoa - I just realized I am in the over 59 1/2 club. No penalty for me as I have yet to put anything in. (So I got that going for me).
“That sounds dumb to me. Why pay that much penalty? If you want to pull all your money out to pay down some debts, the more intelligent thing would be to stop putting it in.”
Shall we do the math?
Let’s say I make $90K and put 5% into a 401(k). That would be $4,500 I put into a 401(k), matched by my employer with another $4,500. I’m in the 25% + 5% marginal bracket after deductions, so I save about $1350 in taxes. My paycheck went down by $4500-$1350 = $3150.
If I take the $9K out, I pay 25% +10% +5% on it. $9,000 *.6 = $5400.
$5400 - $3150 = $2250 after tax profit by putting the money in, then taking it back out.
Another way to think about it is that I’m getting the 60% of the employer match that the govt lets me keep in exchange for 10% penalty on what I put in. $4500 * .6 - $4500 *.1 = $2700 - $450 = $2250.
Putting in and then paying the penalty to take back out is much better than not putting in at all.
The question is, is taking out now to lower my after tax expense, better than leaving it to the whim of the market and increasing my pre-tax income later?
Obviously, a big part of the decision would have to be based on tax rates later and market directions over the next 20-40 years.
One thing to keep in mind: if your employer match does not vest immediately, then you may lose the match by taking out your contribution. My impression is that this varies wildly between plans.
The money I am contemplating taking out is about 2/3rds our current balances, and long ago invested with previous employers plans.
The example of immediately taking it back out was just for the sake of explaining while participating but then withdrawing is better than not participating in the first place.
If you really need the money to pay down current debts, then yeah, fine, but you couched your reasoning for removing the money in that you feel that investing for the future is a questionable undertaking under our current govt/fin regulations, and with secondary concerns about a larger than average nest egg reducing social security, and I don’t see that you considered that in your math, either a market crash nor future value of your investments vs the meager income provided by SS only.
~~~
Sorry, the tax is the same, except for the 10% early withdrawal penalty, and he’d give up the company match.
~~~~
And the tax is not the same. Current income is $90k, income when you are retired will be less than that. Who knows how much less.
Overdog, the math was specific to your assertion that if I need the money now, it is smarter to stop putting in than take out some of what is already there.
Future market moves nor changes to SS such as means testing do not effect a decision between stop putting in now or take out now.
As for taxes being lower in retirement, I’m not sure we can assume that. Yes, my income will be lower, but based on surging debt and pending Boomer retirement, I think it is very reasonable to assume that taxes, combined with whatever I lose from SS means testing, could easily be higher than the tax rate I would pay by taking out the money now.
Again,the question revolves around the prudence of lowering debt now and lowering income later, vs having higher income later but also needing that higher income to continue paying on debt later.
In addition, I see the risk of another market crash, and even a US Govt debt write down as a real possibility in the next 20-40 years.
Even if I was just going to take the money and splurge on a vacation or some fancy consumables, would that not still be better than just letting the money poof away in a giant $35T+ debt cascade default that I believe is likely? Better to spend it while I can than see it evaporate away or be taken through high tax rates.
My debt is someone else’s money. My money is someone else’s debt.
In most cases, once you’re vested, all of your employer contributions going forward are also immediately vested. At my company, you’re 25% vested after 1 year of employment, 50% after 2, 75% after 3 and 100% after 4. I’ve been here 10 years so the company match funds are 100% mine as soon as they go into my account.
Is it not “even smarter” to just take the money out and spend it rather than hoping beyond hope that it will still have some value 30 or 40 years from now?”
only if we get inflation above returns on your saved money
which looks like you expect
I’m not so sure.
Bill Moyer
Can’t remember who was calling Moyer out of touch and saying he didn’t identify those crushing democracy and the middle class but there aren’t many accounts better than this from the media.
archive.truthout.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
Moyer keeps retiring and then coming back because he is pissed off.
Ron Paul’s post South Carolina primary speech. Very interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lllPqAjkTP8
“Very interesting.”
Which part? I watched the whole 19 minutes, and it was all standard RP stump speech. Perhaps interesting if you’re hearing him for the first time ever.
Actually, I haven’t been paying close attention. The Democrat field is established and the Republican field has not presented a candidate of which I’m particularly enamored.
With Ron Paul, the return to the gold standard I don’t think could work. How to represent the wealth of a society with a finite amount of gold? And other problems.
However… there’s no perfect candidate in my view. I do appreciate Paul’s statement of facts as I generally agree with the premises and conclusions. I’m thinking that his appeals to personal responsibility and apparent plain-spokeness might be the right chemical to add to DC. So yes, the speech was a bit of an eye opener to me. I appreciate he’s a politician. And putting him into the presidency might just be a bit like throwing pure potassium into water. Big boom. But it might be worthwhile to loosen the cruft and shake things up.
I was watching the pre-primary debates at a local drinking establishment and one of my acquaintances was watching intently. I asked him if he was really watching it and he said, “it was very important”.
I told him it was nothing but bullshit and he looked like I had just killed his dog.
It occurs to me that if the Fed broadcasts that it is going to unleash inflation, and plants seeds of this in the media, that it will push people to go into debt.
I was talking to someone who was considering buying real estate. He’s got the option of a cash purchase or a mortgage-based purchase. We realized that buying in cash was not a good idea as real estate is only declining. However, going into debt to buy real estate might be a good idea as you get to pay it off in depreciated dollars.
The inflation threat from the Fed is credible though because of all the benefits it would have for a central bank. Would they really do it though? Or is it just a front to get people to start going into debt again?
However, going into debt to buy real estate might be a good idea as you get to pay it off in depreciated dollars.
Inflation also means that rent payments will inflate along with everything else. By buying, you win doubly.
Think about this for a minute. What we have been seeing for the past several years is peanut butter and gas going up, while wages go down. Even if mine isn’t going down, plenty of my neighbors’ are.
If the Fed does more of what they have been doing since 2008, which direction is that ultimately going to push rents?
Yep, incomes have to be part of the discussion. Stagnant wages and increased prices do not a rebound (in housing) make. And I’m one of the guys looking into rental real estate.
I won’t buy into it until I’m cash flowing from day one on a traditional mortgage with comfortable signs that I can raise rents over the next 1.5 decades.
Right now, I don’t find comfort. Just still-high asking prices that make for non-cash-flowing properties from day one, unless, of course, I throw a bunch of “worthless fiats” at it from day one.
You mirror my thoughts on rental real estate, sleepless. I don’t find comfort in the current metrics either.
Cheers, Slim. What I’m finding is that many others are thinking along the lines of, “I need to get my money into RE before inflation hits.” So, once again, as they did during the mid-2000s but for a different reason, they are ignoring cash flow and, along with Fed meddling, are serving to keep prices of multi-families out of reach for those who want longer term income.
My sister just bought a property in Bullhead City. It has 2 duplexes on it and she rents one of them. The purchase price puts the PITI at 2x her rent. Not too bad for 4 units.
3 of the units are currently rented out so it is cash-flow positive from day 1. The fourth needed a little work, but is now back on the rental market.
She’s putting some of the positive cash flow into a fund for maintenance and repairs, and the rest is going to pay down the mortgage. She’s 50 now and hopes to have it paid off in 15 years.
I am looking to buy. Lots of props with great cash flow off 20% down. $145k places renting for $1200. No it is not the best town, but not the bottom 75% either.
Where are you located, Avocado?
I forgot to mention that, because I’m in Portland, another reason for the lack of cash flow is because (and yes, people still say it) “everyone wants to live here.”
Here’s what’s going to happen to rents: They are going to go up slightly as people pack more and more incomes into the same dwelling. Mom will take a second job OR take in day care. Teens will work at K-mart, and grandma will pitch in her SS check. The government will raise the Section 8 subsidy with inflated money. In short, wages may be stagnant, but household incomes are going UP.
You can state averages all you want, but in areas with jobs, there is still some room for rents to rise. At the very least, rents will NOT go down in some locations — for example the location next door to me.
Until all the shadow inventory clears the pipeline.
It is still supply and demand. More people per household is less demnad. And we all know there was massive overbuilding.
This doesn’t make sense, Oxide. If you pack more people into one unit, that means there will be more vacant units which would tend to DE-crease rents, not increase.
Both of you are correct thermodynamically, but not kinetically.
Are you assuming you will be able to make inflation level returns on the cash not spent on the house?
Put $100K in the bank and buy a house with a $100K loan.
10 years later at 8% annual inflation, maybe your income doubled. However, you still have $100K in the bank and $100K mortgage. The only difference it that the interest rate on the mortgage was probably higher than the bank was paying on the savings.
Another way, and probably easier, would be to say, “Inflation eats the purchasing power of savings to the same degree it eats the debt/wage ratio.”
Your net position (net positive, net negative) that determines whether inflation hurts or helps you. Equally offsetting debt and savings does not alter the net, so does not help nor harm how much inflation helps or hurts you.
If you believe there will be wage inflation for you, then the best thing to do would be to go borrow money and spend it on stuff. Pay the debt back later with your higher income.
Personally, I doubt the wage inflation scenario. The US base manufacturing wage is like $10 a hour. In China it is $3 an hour, Mexico like $2 an hour, and Thailand or Indonesia more like $1 an hour. This means we’d have to have 300%-1000% inflation before we start to be cost competitive with China and start to create some room for wage inflation. Long before we got to that point, the economy would simply implode from total lack of demand and cascade default of unpayable debts.
I see wage deflation as the more likely scenario, meaning it would be better for me to take savings and pay down debt before I lose income.
Of course, wage deflation will also lead to cascading defaults.
Commodity inflation without wage inflation = cascade debt default. Commodity and wage deflation = cascade debt default.
So, how do you predict which we are likely to get? Well, ask yourself which one is self-reinforcing with cascade default, and which is counter indicative to cascade default? The answer, of course, is that cascade default caused by commodity inflation and wage stagnation = 2007/2008 collapse, which immediately rolled back all the commodity inflation.
1929 is the commodity deflation, wage deflation scenario.
And, remember, 2007-2008 crash was stopped by massive government intervention and easing of FASB157 to encourage people to lie about the value of their assets. We have doubled real national debt in 4 years and massive government bail out is unlikely next time. You can only lie so long before you actually have to eat the default as noncollectable.
I know the Fed is trying to create asset inflation. I just do not see how it is possible with stagnate to down wage prospects. Any money printing they do will find its way into commodities and crash the economy, undoing the money printing in cascade defaults.
The cost of shipping is highly dependent on the price of oil and could negate the savings on labor in the near distant future.
They ship apple juice to the US from China, I think we are a long way from oil prices driving up IPOD prices.
And almonds are grown in California, shipped to China for processing, then shipped back to the U.S. for consumption.
I know the Fed is trying to create asset inflation.
Wouldn’t it work much better to just get the people who have money to spend it? In the USA? Maybe the right kind of inflation will do that, but what are the odds of getting the kind you want when you give all the new cash to the same people who are hoarding the existing cash?
I know the Fed is trying to create asset inflation. I just do not see how it is possible with stagnate to down wage prospects. Any money printing they do will find its way into commodities and crash the economy, undoing the money printing in cascade defaults.”
OK so you think there will be deflation and want to pay your debts now before you can’t. This is the classic older folks approaching retirement and looming wage deflation, get out of debt strategy.
Use your 401K savings to pay off credit card faster. I have a freind at work who wants to cash out and buy a big house with his 401K.
I would probably not cash out. 401K is protected from many things that can get you , like bankrupcy, etc. At least for OJ simpson it was.
and plants seeds of this in the media, that it will push people to go into debt.”
they already did this we got a housing bubble
A most incredible 3D reconstruction of US Air 1549 flight on the fateful day Captain Sullenberger had to ditch in the Hudson river due to a bird strike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tE_5eiYn0D0#t=109
Wow. Great find, Neuro!
I’m still amazed at Sullenberger’s calmness through that not to mention how decisive he was in setting himself up in a straight line while briefly considering some alternatives, instead of making the decision to make multiple, potentially disastrous, turns over the population below.
Goosebumps.
It seems that willingness to splashdown in the Hudson I think saved them. Instead of desperately turning back towards Laguardia or just coasting towards Teterboro, he was willing to head over water till he could get the engines restarted. And if not, then splash down over water.
I’ve read the transcripts and timelines of the doomed Air France 447 flight. Timeframes are very, very short. They felt a bump when the aircraft stalled. Three minutes to figure out what’s going on. The pilot figured it out after two minutes and change. Too late.
I was impressed by the smoothness of the river landing. It was as if they were putting the plane down on a runway — and they greased the landing.
I wonder if he had to do that 100 times how many of those times would be successful. He may be good, but I bet the number wouldn’t be 100. Sometimes luck is everything.
Chris Dodd being blunt about the need for bought congresscritters to stay bought, vis a vis the SOPA / PIPA fight.
Dodd: “Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake”
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml#comments
Speaking of critters, here’s an adorable pic of Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman posing with one:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/barneyz.jpg/
As a computer programmer, whose job depends on enforcement of copyright laws, I seem to find myself on the opposite side of the SOPA debate from most.
If people can not make money off the creation of intellectual property because there is not an effective way to limit copyright violations, then we will all suffer for it.
If people can not make money off the creation of intellectual property
You realize this post is only being read by folks on the internet due to the existence of non-monetized software development, right?
Yes, there is a need to protect copyright. And it’s a civil matter and there are civil remedies. It’s worked in the past - what has changed so drastically now?
And regardless, it isn’t all about the money. So much IP is created out of a love for it, and explicit decisions are made not to monetize it.
I would say that the ads and requests for donations are monetization of this site.
If people choose to not monetize their software by giving it away as freeware or releasing it as shareware, it is their option.
What has changed is the world wide nature of the internet today. Attempting to enforce copyright laws over international borders is nearly impossible using civil trails.
I see no problem with blocking the IPs of sites and even ISPs that can not show they are making efforts to ensure that copyrighted materials are not illegally disseminated via their networks.
We’re not talking about shutting down HBB because someone posts a little too much of an article for it to fit within the “fair use” legal use. Ben and other posters do a pretty good job of ensuring that people know they should use excerpts from articles, not post entire articles. Besides, we almost always provide a link to the original site, giving that site more traffic not less as a result of this site.
We’re talking about the sites and services that exist just to help people access pirated music, movies, software and other copyrighted materials in their entirety.
Oh, but if I download it from the net, it is still there, so I have not stolen anything. WRONG! You have stolen the owner’s right to sell you the copyrighted materials on their terms.
Yes, there is a need to protect copyright. And it’s a civil matter and there are civil remedies. It’s worked in the past - what has changed so drastically now?
One of my fellow Tucson photogs was shooting the same bike race I was on Saturday.
Speaking of civil remedies, he discovered that a client was using one of his images in a way that wasn’t specified in their contract. So, the photog sued. And won. Total judgement: $6,000. He just got his last installment check from the settlement.
Speaking of civil remedies, he discovered that a client was using one of his images in a way that wasn’t specified in their contract. So, the photog sued. And won. Total judgement: $6,000. He just got his last installment check from the settlement.
I had something similar happen - a few of my photos were used for an ad campaign and I was never consulted - though they were kind enough to attribute the photos to me (which is how I found out - a friend at a magazine emailed to congratulate me on my photo credit).
I got a lawyer involved and got paid. $9k. The lawyer took 1/3 for her commission.
BTW, Darrell, copyright infringement is a civil tort. It’s not theft, by definition. You may choose to use those words in a way not consistent with their legal definition, but at that point you’re comparing apples and oranges.
^^^ And I say all that as someone who makes a living off IP, has had their IP infringed and had to resort to civil remedies, and as someone who gives away quite a bit of thir IP for free (I don’t make a dime off the JT extension, and the code is freely shared), and who donates much of their IP to non-profit organizations (photos, web design, website coding…)
Yes, there is a need to protect copyright. And it’s a civil matter and there are civil remedies. It’s worked in the past - what has changed so drastically now?”
This is the million question.
IMO, it’s about commercial interest still trying to completely control the Internet.
They seem to have no clue that it can’t be done.
I’d agree with trying to limit copyright violations. The core issues were the draconian nature of the remedies and the ability to shut down websites with little or no due process, based on assertions from big media companies.
The media stopped shaking its voodoo rattles at us about Greece. However, the problem still remains.
Greece’s Creditors Have Made ‘Maximum’ Debt-Swap Offer, IIF’s Dallara Says
Bloomberg
By Maria Petrakis - Jan 22, 2012 5:13 PM ET
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Jan. 19 that for the final deal to lead to a sustainable level of debt for the country there must be a 100 percent participation rate.
Hedge funds holding Greek bonds may resist the deal, seeking greater profit by getting paid in full, either by the Greek government or by triggering payouts from insurance contracts known as credit-default swaps.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-22/greece-s-creditors-have-made-maximum-debt-swap-offer-iif-s-dallara-says.html
William K. Black dissecting the 2005 Citigroup Plutonomy memo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ3-OWMa92E
William K. is the man!
In Soviet Russia, they had a name for the 1% - The Nomenklatura. A privileged elite class which compensated itself handsomely and stayed in power due to its connections.
Los Angeles “Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa argues that illegal immigrants should be given a pass to state laws requiring driver licenses, insurance and car registration as an act of compassion for the hardships they face.” So laws in the USA are only written for those of us who pay taxes, PAY THE MAYORS SALARY, PAY THE CHIEFS SALARY, but those that are here “ILLEGALLY” are EXEMPT FROM OUR LAWS???? What about us Law Abiding USA residents who are facing hardships becuase of the economy in the pits? WHAT ABOUT OUR RIGHTS?
Mayor this statement and foolish belief of yours shows your complete lack of common sense, ability to run a city (other than into the ground, like you have done) and shows you dont give a damn about the LEGAL citizens of the city of LA…You are a pathetic joke and should be charged w/your stupidity!
Beware of Villagrosa he wants to be a US Senator…..
Me thinks the number of illegal alien drivers would skyrocket is that plan was put into place.
That’s one way around emission testing.
That’s one way around emission testing.
Perhaps it’s time we all renounce our citizenship and become illegal aliens. Then we no longer need to follow existing laws, nor pay taxes. And we all get free sh*t.
Who’s with me?
Demographics is destiny. However, how are the illegals able to vote anyway? Refugees streaming across the border is one thing. But are they really able to vote? Are the politicians correctly identifying the registered voters?
The sooner LA falls into the Pacific, the better.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of the IMF called on European governments to boost the size of their rescue fund and consider financial risk-sharing steps like common euro zone bonds as a way out of their sovereign debt crisis.
Christine Lagarde said the world economy faced a “defining moment” that required quick, collective action.
To help meet the challenge, she urged leading powers to back an increase in resources for the Washington-based lender to help fill a global financing hole that the IMF believes could reach $1 trillion over the coming years.
“The longer we wait, the worse it will get. The only solution is to move forward together,” Lagarde said, according to an embargoed copy of her remarks provided by the IMF before delivery.
“We must all understand that this is a defining moment. It is not about saving any one country or region. It is about saving the world from a downward economic spiral.”
This reminds me of Hank Paulson asking for a blank check with no strings attatched. They never ask the people who got us into this mess to sacrifice anything.
“It is about saving the world…”
In that case, whatever they request is sure to be summarily granted.
THE COMMITTEE TO SAVE THE WORLD
Well, to be fair, it is more debt AND inflation they’re advocating to combat debt. Not JUST debt. <bill_murray_voice/ So they’ve got that going for them. </bill_murray_voice/
Did you know that Realtors are liars?
Can anyone who grasps the subtle legal distinction please explain the difference between “deceptive” and “fraudulent”?
Mortgage lenders, states reach draft settlement over deceptive foreclosure practices
Published January 23, 2012 | Associated Press
The nation’s five largest mortgage lenders have agreed to overhaul their industry after deceptive foreclosure practices drove homeowners out of their homes, government officials said Monday.
A draft settlement between the banks and U.S. states has been sent to state officials for review.
Those who lost their homes to foreclosure are unlikely to get their homes back or benefit much financially from the settlement, which could be as high as $25 billion. About 750,000 Americans — about half of the households who might be eligible for assistance under the deal — will likely receive checks for about $1,800.
But the agreement could reshape long-standing mortgage lending guidelines and make it easier for those at risk of foreclosure to restructure their loans. And roughly 1 million homeowners could see the size of the mortgage reduced.
Five major banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial — and U.S. state attorneys general could adopt the agreement within weeks, according to two officials briefed on the discussions. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the agreement publicly.
The settlement would be the biggest of a single industry since the 1998 multistate tobacco deal. And it would end a painful chapter that grew out of the 2008 financial crisis.
Nearly 8 million Americans have faced foreclosure since the housing bubble burst. In some cases, companies that process mortgages failed to verify the information on foreclosure documents. The worst practices, known collectively as “robo-signing,” included employees signing documents they hadn’t read or using fake signatures to sign off on foreclosures.
…
The difference? About a million dollars or so.
Absolutely. When you pay a politician to legalize your fradulent practice, it becomes merely deceptive.
Jan. 23, 2012, 7:00 a.m. EST
What’s behind Republican attacks on the Fed
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve has been working for months on improving its communication with financial markets. But the central bank does not seem to speak the same language as one key group — Republican primary voters.
During the Republican presidential campaign, attacks on the Fed have become as commonplace and unremarkable as images of fluttering American flags and the national anthem.
Hardly a week goes by without some negative reference to the central bank.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry started the attacks off by threatening bodily harm to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and accusing him of treason.
Front-runner Mitt Romney has since said he would fire Bernanke. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also said he would fire Bernanke and went further to propose a commission to examine returning the U.S. to the gold standard. And Texas Rep. Ron Paul has reveled in his unwavering stance of simply ending the Fed.
What is behind these unprecedented attacks from a party that used to be synonymous with business and banking? And what may be in store for the Fed if Republicans take the White House and the Senate in November?
…
Paul has reveled in his unwavering stance of simply ending the Fed.
What is behind these unprecedented attacks from a party that used to be synonymous with business and banking? And what may be in store for the Fed if Republicans take the White House and the Senate in November?
ANSWER: They don’t want the economy to be stimulated prior to the election. So they keep up the pressure on the FED. Make no mistake that if they are voted into power the flood gates will open.
Sorry didn’t mean to clip puals name, but Gingrich and Romney would open the flood gates. The rhetoric would change 180 degrees and these same people will be out protesting how cautious the FED is.
The rhetoric would change 180 degrees and these same people will be out protesting how cautious the FED is.
“We need to get money flowing to the job creators and entrepreneurs again, now that they’re free of government interference and regulations! “
I like the new meme going around: job CREMATORS.
fraud
noun \ˈfrȯd\
Definition of FRAUD
1 a : deceit, trickery; specifically : intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right b : an act of deceiving or misrepresenting : trick
2 a : a person who is not what he or she pretends to be : impostor; also : one who defrauds : cheat b : one that is not what it seems or is represented to be
Examples of FRAUD
He was found guilty of bank fraud.
He was the victim of an elaborate fraud.
Taxes? What taxes?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-u-s–businesses-enjoy-tax-free-status.html
The percentage of U.S. corporations organized as nontaxable businesses has grown from about 24% in 1986 to about 69% as of 2008, according to the latest-available Internal Revenue Service data. The percentage of all firms is far higher when partnerships and sole proprietors are included.
Any current profits are being offset against prior losses. That’s the explanation. A law was passed to let them do that more fully, as part of the stimulus package.
Of course what if the individual owner is a foreign national. Say he or she lives in teh Caymans. Tax free investing.
I do believe this is the most enthusiastic I have ever seen the HBB over buying houses! Borrow and buy the House! Inflation will kill you if you don’t buy realestate! Rents WILL NOT GO DOWN! Pencils out great with a 30 year loan!
OK, I am calling it. 2012: Second big leg down.
Remember, it was ~6 years to the bottom of the S&L disaster.
“OK, I am calling it. 2012: Second big leg down.”
You’re onto something my friend.
And I’ll go on the record and say major changes to public policy effecting housing will occur post 2012 election in 2013.
And no….. housing will continue to be ever more affordable.
Work is hard. No wonder Americans don`t want to do it.
I know, right?
Now feed me another bon-bon.
WTF is a bon-bon anyway?
Bonbon
“Work is hard. No wonder Americans don`t want to do it FOR 3RD WORLD WAGES.”
There. Fixed it.
While living in factory dormitories.
“There. Fixed it.”
No you didn`t. In the trades down here there are hardly any(how can I say this without being tagged whatever) I know! People for who english was their first language who work in the trades anymore. It`s not that you don`t make $500 to $800 a week no matter what your first language is, but you have to bust your @ss. In the early 80`s when I started there were different color people in the trades but we were all born in the U.S. Sometime in the 90s it started and got to the point where no more American born kids out of high school came to work in the trades.
I was talking about it with the metal framer I was working with today, he`s 48 and we are pretty much the last generation in it. I`m not saying it`s bad that immigrants do the work or that it`s bad that American kids don`t want to. I`m just saying that`s the way it is. Electricians, plumbers, roofers, carpenters etc. all the same thing. On the way home I saw a road crew, same thing. But like I said…Work is hard. No wonder Americans don`t want to do it.
I think there’s little or no effective trade school training in high school. Plus, the society has gotten the idea that everyone Must. Go. To. College. Like it’s a mark of social status. Plus a key to high earning.
Here’s an interesting link - starting salary and unemployment by major:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/not-all-college-majors-are-created-equal/2012/01/12/gIQAfz4XzP_story.html
But - let’s be honest about the social status thing: I think it is a mark of social status. For their parents, going to college was a mark of achievement. For older generations, not going to college was perfectly legitimate. Younger generations, not so much. Of course, this is an anecdotal observation by your trusty correspondent.
One third of high school students don’t actually graduate high school:
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/06/13/national-high-school-graduation-rates-improve
I am seeing more of a differentiation now between community colleges and 4 year colleges. That’s a positive sign. The community college has more trade-related programs. So tradesman can have a college degree as well, to satisfy the social status thing. I do think a liberal arts education is a good thing, but secondary to job skills. Ultimately people gotta make their way in the world and job skills provide that. But an educated society I think makes for a higher standard of living for everyone. Learning how to think critically and such are useful societal skills.
Good point jeff.
However, where I live, there’s serious reverse discrimination along with wages being stagnate or even lowered for the last 20 years in the trades.
I know because I USED to work in the trades. (it’s also become the same with almost all entry level jobs where I live)
Also, illegal immigration took away the jobs that teenagers would do.
I am too tired to go through this Donal Trump named FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL other houses and refi adventures so I will leave it at… He paid $219,375 in Apr-2005 and now Fannie Mae or you the tax payer is offering it at $29,900
Homepath Property Alert in PALM BEACH County, FL
There are new properties that match your search criteria. (No sh#t)
PALM BEACH COUNTY LISTINGS - 429 TOTAL (140,000 not listed :))
5014 PINEWOOD AVE
WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33407 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$29,900
———————————————————————————-
Location Address: 5014 PINEWOOD AVE
Municipality: WEST PALM BEACH
Parcel Control Number: 74-43-43-04-08-057-0430
Subdivision: NORTH PALM BCH PL 4
Official Records Book: 24861 Page: 176 Sale Date: Oct-2011
Legal Description: NORTH PALM BEACH PL NO 4 LTS 43 & 44 BLK 57 & NORTH PT OF HIATUS LYG BETW BLKS 22 & 57 LYG ADJ THERETO
Sales Information
Oct-2011 24861/0176 $100 QUIT CLAIM FANNIE MAE
Oct-2010 24138/0428 $26,600 CERT OF TITLE JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA
Apr-2005 18564/0688 $219,375 WARRANTY DEED FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL
While his colleagues from the Boston Bruins were visitng the White House earlier today, goaltender Tim Thomas was absent. Here is his personal explanation for why he did what he did.
Thomas statement on White House absence (via the NHL):
“I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.
This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.
Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.
This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT”
Heterosexual man-crush confirmed….
Long time New York Ranger fan saying gooooooo Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins! Well, maybe not the Boston Bruins. Let`s go Thomas clap, clap, clap clap clap. Let`s go Thomas clap, clap, clap clap clap.
http://news.yahoo.com/senator-rand-paul-detained-airport-security-161704831.html
Rand Paul “detained” by TSA after refusing patdown. As much as I like Ron and Rand Paul, this smacks of political grandstanding. I would have much preferred that he addressed the issue of TSA intrusive airport searchs on the floor of the Senate, and not at the airport with some poor hapless TSA screener.
He, in fact, did last year.
http://www.debka.com/article/21673/
India to pay for Iranian oil in rupees instead of dollars. Is the world finally waking up to the fact that Zimbabwe Ben’s printing press greenbacks do not deserve to be the the global reserve currency?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/24/newt-gingrich-freddie-mac-consultancy
Plutocrats for Gingrich stepping up to the plate.
More evidence that the world is wising up to Zimbabwe Ben’s debasement of the US dollar, whose days as the world’s reserve currency appear to be numbered.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NA24Ak03.html
China and Qatar have been taking virtually opposite positions apropos events in Libya and Syria. Yet, they do not seem to be deterred by this little difference and are bonding in a big way in economic cooperation to mutual benefit.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who visited Doha last week, disclosed at a press conference on Friday: a) China proposes to invest in the manufacturing of ”downstream oil products, which are most urgently needed by Qatar”; b) China and Qatar signed an agreement to jointly build a refinery in Taizhou, Zheijiang, in China; c) Chinese companies propose to participate in infrastructure projects in Qatar; and d) China and Qatar are discussing a “long-term, stable and comprehensive cooperative partnership” in natural gas.
Then, Wen quietly dropped a bombshell. He revealed “one more important point” as if it were an afterthought. He said:
In order to address investment issues, we [China and Qatar] need financial support. Therefore, we reached another agreement, a cooperation agreement linking finance with investment. Qatar also proposed the use of local currency in trade settlement and even a specific ratio. I think this proposal can be studied.
The short point is, the renminbi, the “people’s currency” also known as the yuan, is appearing in Doha. The China-United Arab Emirates (UAE) currency swap deal which was signed during Wen’s visit to Abu Dhabi last week already brings the yuan to the Emirates. The deal with the UAE is worth US$5.5 billion and the Chinese central bank statement said that it aims at “strengthening bilateral financial cooperation, promoting trade and investments and jointly safeguarding regional financial stability”.
Indeed, China is playing for the long term. Addressing an energy summit in the UAE, Wen made the startling proposal to create an international body that is mandated to determine the price of oil and which would regulate the policies of the entire supply chain involving the supplier countries, the consumers and even the transit countries.
Iran and Russia have already switched to their national currencies for conducting bilateral trade. Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi said on Friday, “[Trade] with Russia is based on our national currencies. We started this work long ago. Iranian businessmen are buying products in Russia and are using the rouble as [payment] currency] … The US dollar has no [economic] support base … There is a similar interest on the Russian side.”
Last week, it also came to be known that India proposes to allow Iran’s central bank to open rupee accounts with two Indian banks as a long-term solution to the countries’ payment problems instigated by the US (which pressured New Delhi to terminate the traditional payment mechanism for Iran within the Asian Clearing Union.) An Indian delegation visited Tehran last week to finalize details.
Little fact: just before we invaded Iraq, they were about to convert their oil trading to Euros.
Foreclosure Robo-Signing Deal Worries N.Y. Official
by Ilya Marritz
January 23, 2012
Listen to the Story
Morning Edition
[4 min 4 sec]
January 23, 2012 from WNYC
Some of the biggest banks in the country are reportedly close to a settlement with authorities over the so-called robo-signing scandal in which mortgage company officials signed and notarized foreclosure documents without properly reviewing them.
Many lenders and mortgage servicers acknowledged making serious mistakes in foreclosure paperwork.
But the much-delayed settlement still faces challenges. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is raising objections, and may reject the settlement because he believes authorities have done too little to investigate the role of big banks in the financial crisis.
On a ride with the attorney general in his state-issued SUV, we pass the site of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Schneiderman didn’t take part in the protests, but he agrees with some of the message.
“People aren’t sure what happened, but they know that … this was a man-made catastrophe, [and] that there are people who caused the bubble and the crash,” he says.
So Schneiderman is out for justice — his idea of justice.
Starting His Own Investigation
When he became attorney general a little over a year ago, Schneiderman joined with other state attorneys general who were suing five large mortgage servicers, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. The idea was to get a settlement with these banks that could bring in aid for hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners who had been served faulty foreclosure documents.
But the shape of this agreement disturbed Schneiderman. He says banks wanted broad protection from lawsuits over other mortgage practices, like how huge volumes of bad loans were made to begin with, or the creation of toxic mortgage-backed securities.
“I wasn’t willing to provide a release that … released conduct that hadn’t been investigated, essentially,” Schneiderman says, “so we started our own investigation.”
Officials used New York’s powerful Martin Act, which allows the state’s top law enforcer wide powers of subpoena.
“This started to catch on, and I guess the AG who was leading this effort decided he didn’t particularly like my critique so he — they — removed me from the executive committee,” Schneiderman says.
…
Most amazing aspects of the aftermath of the Fall 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown:
1) Megabank, Inc has won.
2) The rest of America is screwed.
3) Too-big-to-fail lives.
4) The good people who tried to usher in meaningful reform all failed in their efforts.
POLITICO
Last chance on mortgage mess
By: Simon Johnson
January 22, 2012 09:16 PM EST
The meeting in Chicago on Monday of state attorneys general is being touted as representing a key moment on the road to a real mortgage settlement.
It’s not. In fact, most of the AGs from key states are unlikely to show up. Yet this week, and the coming weeks, are crucial because the Obama administration urgently needs to shift toward agreeing with Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, and others who insist that there must be a combined state-federal investigation of all mortgage practices.
The financial sector has been the Obama administration’s Achilles’ heel. Despite coming to power in the middle of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression with a broad mandate for “change,” the administration has consistently deferred to big banks and done its best to keep them in business “as is.”
The Obama administration has continued to press for a small-scale settlement of the alleged abuses around mortgage practices, repeating and compounding the mistake. The White House has routinely overlooked voters’ dismay at its favoring “too big to fail” banks. But given how its electoral base is now reacting, this time may be different — because a lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters in swing states could cost President Barack Obama reelection.
The Obama administration’s pattern of behavior is unmistakable. Its first, and worst, decision was to keep the management and boards of big banks in place — despite the fact that these financial institutions had been driven into the ground by incompetence, greed and notoriously failed governance.
When Citigroup was on the rocks, key members of the Obama administration — led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — rallied to keep the chief executive officer, Vikram Pandit, in office. In Ron Suskind’s book “Confidence Men,” he documents that the president requested firmer action on Citigroup but was essentially blocked by Geithner and his colleagues.
The White House argues that this is not what happened. But its protests ring hollow: From that time forward, top officials consistently favored the financial sector in general and big banks in particular at every turn. The current White House chief of staff, Jack Lew, was formerly at Citigroup; his predecessor, Bill Daley, was a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase.
In early 2010, when former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker proposed greater restrictions on big banks’ activities, his proposal was initially endorsed by the president — but then thoroughly undermined by the Treasury Department. Volcker’s idea ultimately prevailed only because of support from key members of Congress, particularly Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Carl Levin of Michigan. Elizabeth Warren, in setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, struggled against the Treasury Department at every turn in her efforts to better protect people who borrow from the financial sector.
The White House and Treasury also strenuously resisted attempts to strengthen what became the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation — the efforts, for example, of then-Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and then-Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.).
The list goes on.
…
Jan. 24, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
Fed’s forecasting reputation shaky
By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve has misinterpreted more than once developments that were already underway — much less those that lay ahead.
At the conclusion of this week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed is expected to reveal its members’ innermost thoughts and expectations about the future. If the early word is correct, the Fed will publish the predictions of senior officials regarding the course of interest rates over the next several years.
Don’t bet the ranch that these forecasts will come true. When push comes to shove, the Fed is no better a forecaster than the rest of us. Indeed, it may well be worse.
Take the housing bubble, for example. Just-released transcripts from the Fed’s meetings back in 2006 reveal that central bankers had no clue that there was a housing bubble which would lead to a financial crisis.
Yet anyone who followed the course of housing prices and household incomes knew that something was amiss.
After having averaged three times annual incomes for years (and 2-1/2 times in the early 1970s), the ratio of home prices to incomes shot up to five times by 2005 — and over six times incomes in such bubble markets as those of South Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California.
As for the Fed and other regulators of mortgage lending, a close examination of the books of the firms under their supervision would have revealed that the only reason many people were able to obtain a mortgage was that it carried a low adjustable rate. Once rates would begin to rise, their monthly payments would, too.
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