Bits Bucket for January 24, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
April 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Is the US dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency coming to an end? The producers of the world - as opposed to the post-industrial casino economy created by Wall Street - are starting to wake up to the fact that Ben Bernanke’s created-out-of-thin-air greenbacks, printed by the trillion to inflate away government and banker debts and liabilities, may soon be worth a great deal less than they used to be.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NA24Ak03.html
A currency swap that puts more of the Chinese currency in the vaults of Persian Gulf countries almost went unnoticed as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao scouted the region last week for friendship, not oil - to paraphrase his words. As they wake up to bypassing the US dollar as an intermediary in their oil trade with Asia, Gulf leaders know that in a volatile world the “people’s currency” smells as comforting as a cup of fresh Arabica.
I’ve said here before that when the USD loses its reserve status, and it will, the fall from grace will be severe and dramatic. The PTB will say and do anything to perpetuate the ponzi though.
Even start more phony wars. The budding Iranian dance is about nothing more than maintaining the petro-dollar peg. Saddam said “I will sell oil for Euro’s”. Oops. Ghadaffi said “I will accept the African Gold Dinar for oil”. Oops. Iran says “We will do our business in the respective countries own currency”. Oops. Only this time, China, Russia, & India have a little something to say about it. Oops.
Dig beneath the surface and look at the real story. The ability to create precious Monopoly money will end. When? Who knows?
The Obama Zombies and McCain Mutants would be well advised to do some independent research on what will happen if the U.S. loses its reserve currency status and/or experiences a currency collapse. It won’t be pretty.
I wish we’d discuss some of those details here. I read a lot of different sources telling me how ugly it’s going to be but I’ve been on the search for details and have been coming up snake eyes which makes me wonder if it’s just echo chamber sentiment.
Can anyone provide us with the details of how the US$’s loss of reserve currency will affect the average American?
Can anyone provide us with the details of how the US$’s loss of reserve currency will affect the average American?
Available credit would shrink as lenders would expect to be repaid. Think creditworthiness.
Hyperinflation. On the bright side it wil be a snap to pay off your fixed rate mortgage. Unfortunately, essentials like food and energy will come at a premium. Expect a resurgence in victory gardens.
“Expect a resurgence in victory gardens.”
I think this has already happened to some extent, but it has been dressed up in the “trendy clothes” of eating locally, more healthfully and avoiding “chemicals” so you can pretend it’s not about being poorer.
Home canning is also back. According to the Washington Post sales of home canning supplies have risen 35 percent in the past three years.
I am strongly in favor of victory gardens. It’s gotten to the point where, any time I see a vast green sun-splashed lawn, I dream of the excellent garden that could be created there. I am saving paper to smother some more of my miserable lawn this spring and expand the veggie garden. Unfortunately one also has to plan how to protect it from the rodents, bugs and bunnies, while still keeping it attractive enough to mollify the neighbors. Gardening is a metaphor for life, with all its joy and heartbreak.
Only if your HOA/town/city gov allows you to. (how screwed up is that?)
Pennsylvania German “Four-Square” gardens are pretty neat. We’re doing 4×20 boxes with wire on the bottom and they look good so far. Made another one by floodlight last night. Three down, two to go.
whyoung –
We gave out a bunch of canned gifts two years ago: homemade preserved lemons, jams, chutneys, etc. so I hear you there. But while I’d agree that canning is back and loca-vorism is about being trendy without letting on that you’re poorer, it’s also about quality and service, if you get into good food. Why would I get sub-par burgers and fries with bad service when I can cooking steaks at home the way I like them with a bottle of good wine?
I think that we’ll see a more bi-modal distribution of restaurants in the future: McD (my 7 year boycott lives!!) on one end and good, high-end restaurants on the other. The mid-priced joints are in for rough sailing.
MrBubble
“Only if your HOA/town/city gov allows you to.”
I’ve heard of that for the front lawn (grass foolishly being the largest ag crop in the country: “But whatever will the kids play on? What about the CHILDREN!!!”). But town/city gov’t not allowing a back yard garden? What are they, Monsanto shareholders?
Our town does regulate irrigation, so we got a tank. DIY, beeotches.
I am strongly in favor of victory gardens.
So am I. My great grandparents had one during WWII. Kept my mother and her family fed.
Mr. Bubble, your 4×20 boxes are huge! I am looking at 3×6-ers, tops. Front and back. The front yard already has flowers-ornamental grasses-shrubs near the street so I figure I can tuck some veggies behind those beds. Already put some asparagus in there. The back gets less sun, so any plants requiring more than 4 hours per day must go in front. Fortunately my town has no laws against front-yard vegetable gardens. Some people are working on the town gubmint to allow raising chickens (currently prohibited. Also goats, alas.)
“while still keeping it attractive enough to mollify the neighbors”
There are several books on the topic of making a food garden that is attractive… titles include “The Edible Front Yard”, “Edible Estates” and “Edible Landscaping”.
Mr. Bubble,
No argument that eating local, etc can result in a better deal, I’m in favor of most of it.
But have seen a trend of “more frugal than thou” and “greener than thou” that seems to me to be a way for hipsters to put a spin on some things they’d rather not face - like the squeeze of the middle you refer to. If you’re being all trendy you can pretend you are not falling out of the middle class.
You’re never too poor to be better than everyone else.
4×20…420….nice some wacky weed in dem bohxez
Mr. Bubble, your 4×20 boxes are huge
Hyperinflation. On the bright side it wil be a snap to pay off your fixed rate mortgage. Unfortunately, essentials like food and energy will come at a premium.
Prices here in SF are at about 2002 levels. With the city giving us close to 80K in interest-free down-payment assistance (deferred payment for 40 years) and the chance to buy a place with a big yard to grow my veggies (winter veggies coming in now in my container boxes, we can plant all year round here), I guess hyperinflation would be the best outcome for us.
Still seeing all kinds of crap on the market, too: falling-down 500K houses. Decent places in safe neighborhoods for less than 450K are getting snatched up in less than 2-3 weeks.
Trying to keep the batty landlady happy so that we can ride this rental out at least until the summer. In the meanwhile, if we find a place we love and can afford then we’ll jump on it.
Planning to stay for at least 15 years, and rents are insane here. Bouncing around trying to find affordable rent and wait the bubble out longer is not looking feasible for our family (kids and dogs included). Do-able if you are single, childless, or in your 20’s or 30’s….but the next move I make I want it to be to a place where I am settling.
“But have seen a trend of “more frugal than thou” and “greener than thou” that seems to me to be a way for hipsters to put a spin on some things they’d rather not face - like the squeeze of the middle you refer to.”
That may be, seems as though many of us are getting poorer. I, however, am OK with the “frugal/greener than thou” whatever its provenance, since using less and sharing more is such an improvement over competing on house size, lawn quality, truck/SUV size, vacation spot cachet, Vegas trips, plasma-screen size, “Oh I never have to cook”, koi ponds and a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter and is based on consumption.
Won’t be pretty for whom?
Not good for those who have accumulated a lot of U-Owe-Mes in U.S. dollars, or whose lifestyle is enhanced by lots of imported goods.
Perhaps no worse for the majority of Americans scraping by, who are more likely to find a $10 per hour job sewing blue jeans that sell for $150.
So those who may have hedged in non-US currency may be a bit stronger should the hedger pick the correct one to place most of their bets on among all the not so wonderful choices?
“Only this time, China, Russia, & India have a little something to say about it.”
So which one is going to provide the aircraft carrier “protection” group whilst the other x2 $ubordinates pay$ for the $afe-transit $upport surcharge$?
Then there’s the pi$$ing contest that could never erupt between them, on account$ they are all $leeping with each others “cultural” spouse$.
Between the USA & Europe which has the more “unifed” tax system? Which is more “nimble” with it’s application of law$ & collection$ upon it’s citizen$?
China / Russia / India:
The three $hinning $tars of human $ocial $tability.
Ha, you go girls! (love your cheerleader outfits)
give me a: C
give me a: H
give me a: A
give me a: O
give me a: $
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/george-soros-on-the-coming-u-s-class-war.html
George Soros warning of “riots in the streets” due to escalating class conflicts.
$o Sammy, you saying you’ve already purcha$ed your one-way bus ticket to Calcutta? Or, are you gonna stick around eatin’ Neil’s all-natural popcorn whilst throwing confetti on the parading passers-bye?
Yosemite Sam: “Eyes eats fears with me’s biscuits!”
“Soros was just 13 when Nazi soldiers invaded and occupied his native Hungary in March 1944. In only eight weeks, almost half a million Hungarian Jews were deported, many to Auschwitz. He saw bodies of Jews, and the Christians who helped them, swinging from lampposts, their skulls crushed. He survived, thanks to his father, Tivadar, who managed to secure false identities for his family. Later, he watched as Russian forces ousted the Nazis and a new totalitarian ideology, communism, replaced fascism. As life got tougher during the postwar Soviet occupation, Soros managed to emigrate,
first to London, then to New York.”
London is kinda Europe right?
NYC is kinda USA right?
Like eyes said: Be free! … to choose!
China / Russia / India:
The three $hinning $tars of human $ocial $tability.
London is kinda Europe right?
The Queen would be insulted, Hwy.
So which one is going to provide the aircraft carrier “protection” group whilst the other x2 $ubordinates pay$ for the $afe-transit $upport surcharge$?
I think that this is where it all boils down. Capitalists around the world rely on the US military to keep their assests safe.
So you’re saying we bring at least some of the advantages of rule of law to the entire planet?
Maybe in the case of keeping shipping lanes safe from pirates. But I was thinking more of the “keep the restless natives in check” sort of thing, you know, so the they don’t overthrow the government and seize the foreign owned means of production.
Mexico nationalized its oil industry in 1938. I wonder if Cardenas timed it as WW2 was brewing and FDR was worried about bigger fish and would not send US troops into Mexico to seize the expropriated oild fields and refineries.
Yep. Rule of law for the corporations and by the corporations.
“Monopoly money” ….how many different meanings can you read into that?
Let’s say you are correct and the continued growth in total debt/money must end.
What is the solution?
Allow the house of cards to come crashing down as was happening in 2008?
Banks and brokerages popping left and right, cascade defaults. Return to 600K job losses a month. Falling tax revenue.
Sure, in 2008, FDIC could make the “little guys” hole and we could pump in $700B TARP, plus unemployment, food stamps, stimulus checks…. But we now have double the real national debt that we did just 5 years ago.
The scenario you describe we would have to be slashing UI, Food Stamps, Social Security, Medicare, and pretty much everything else. FDIC would not be able to cover losses.
People unable to sell what they want to sell would be forced to sell what they could sell, meaning crashing commodity (gold, oil, industrial metals, food, etc) prices along with everything else.
With the crashing economy and falling tax receipts, every attempt to cut deficits would cause further falling receipts. At some point, even the $10T in publicly held US Treasuries will be forced to take a big hair cut as is happening with holders of Greek debt.
The government would be forced to raise any tax it could. Property tax, sales tax, income tax, banking tax, tax tax.
Is that what we really want. Complete and total washout, no where to hide, end of the 20th economic model in one, very ugly crash?
Or, is there another way to go about this?
What has caused the need for exploding debt? Trade imbalances, both international and domestic.
What has to change before we can stop living on debt and maybe start repaying some of the debt? We need to attack and reverse the trade imbalances. We need to end free trade and return to a confiscatory tax code that prevents too much money from ending in the hands of too few, funded by unsustainable debt growth for everyone else.
But, we’re SOOOOO far from even beginning to talk about undoing all the financial innovation of the last 50 years. Yeah, you are right. Probably not going to happen.
On another site, someone was talking about the polar bears and how they will be extinct in the wild if we are not off fossil fuels in the next 10 years. My response was, then they will be extinct in the wild because there is simply no way possible for us to get off fossil fuels in less than a decade.
I guess I should apply the same deductive proof to our economy. The house of cards will collapse unless we get off “unsustainable debt growth” in the next few years. To get off “unsustainable debt growth” we need to directly attack and reverse the trade imbalances, both internal and internationally. We can’t even begin to have the conversation about this in our current economic and political environment. Even if we could have the conversation, it would take years to reverse the trend. We do not have years to reverse the trend.
Yeah, we’re doomed.
So, how do you protect yourself from total wipe out where stocks, bonds, commodities all collapse, FDIC insurance isn’t there, US Treasuries take a massive haircut, housing and real estate all crash, civil unrest covers the globe….
Guns, lots of ammo, and a bunker in the mountains? Not going to do any good if a Napoleonic style dictator comes to power, as frequently happens post economic collapse.
What convoluted argumets to keep digging the debt hole. Life will not end, it will just get more real, and I expect with less baggage, not more.
I was in no way attempting to make the argument that we should continuing going into debt.
Continuing to go into debt is the path to crash. Crash will be very, very ugly with no where to hide.
However, the debt is the only thing feeding the trade imbalances. My argument was that if we want to stop going into debt, then we must first attack and reverse the trade imbalances, or that too will cause crash.
It is my belief that the only way to avoid crash is to first address the root cause of our economic troubles, which I believe to be trade imbalances both international and domestic(widening wealth disparity).
The remainder of the post was simply a sink into despair as I state a belief that we will not attack and reverse trade imbalances. Therefore, the obvious outcome is crash.
“How do you protect yourself?” and “Napoleonic Dictator” was not intended as hyperbole.
Military dictatorship is, in my ever strengthening opinion, the most likely end game of the economic path we are on.
The only other way out would be to undo all the “financial innovation” of the last 60 years, and I do not see that as a realistic probability.
It is my belief that the only way to avoid crash is to first address the root cause of our economic troubles, which I believe to be trade imbalances both international and domestic(widening wealth disparity).
Seconded.
OK. In essence, if we stop borrowing, the trade imbalances would correct.
Hey if we lost global reserve currency status, the only place those creditors of ours would have to spend their greenbacks would be right here.
“OK. In essence, if we stop borrowing, the trade imbalances would correct.”
Sure. With the current free trade and tax code, we stop borrowing, the money in circulation drains out of circulation into the pockets of foreign trade partners and those who make $21 million a year but only pay $3 million in tax.
Then with no money in circulation, the economy crashes, no one can pay on their debts, cascade default into depression, most of the existing money poofs out of existence, even the US Government has to default on the national debt….
I’m looking for a solution that doesn’t involve crash into depression. IMO, that means FIRST attacking the imbalances.
Just stopping going further into debt is like stopping changing the dressing on the gun shot wound without first addressing the wound.
Amen Darrell. Been saying the same thing to anyone that will listen. You can’t consume more than you produce indefinitely. Debt has allowed us to do that for the last several decades, but it isn’t sustainable. And yes, that means the standard of living in this country will drop for the foreseeable future. The same thing happens at the household level when people stop fueling unsustainable consumption with credit cards. Tough.
Max, you are agreeing with me, not with Darrell.
The vast majority of individuals would survive just fine if they stoped borrowing and adjusted their expenditures down to fit. Our FedGov would also be just fine if it trimmed it’s largesse. The country will not implode if we start behaving responsibly. Biggest frickin economy in the world, no barbarians at the gates, yet we are afraid to take our foot off the accelerator.
Darrell’s argument sounds to me like we owe too much becasue we bought too much crap. Hey, we can’t stop borrowing more until we slow down buying too much crap. Of course, how do you know when too much crap is too much? When you have to borrow. Stop borrowing. Only 1/10 people seem to get this!
The country will not implode if we start behaving responsibly.
It’s irresponsible for the government to greatly reduce its spending in the midst of a recession.
There is a difference between micro- and macro-economics, although ‘conservatives’ with cliches and bromides about common sense will tell you otherwise.
Ask the Brits how their austerity measures are working.
“It’s irresponsible for the government to greatly reduce its spending in the midst of a recession.”
You have a bit of a point, but it does not stand alone. Money well invested in the labor force and physical plant may be money well repaid. Money spent on silk boxers for bankers will not, just as an expample. My meaning is; show me you are not stealing from me before you talk about spending more of my money to help me. “You” meaning “you-uns”.
The USD has HUGE problems.
But do other countries of the world REALLY want a currency of a communist nation as their “reserve” currency.
A nation that has defaulted on its currency at least 3 times in the last 100 years?
A county that has no free exchange of its currency and has closed markets?
Yep. We’re still the least ugly girl at the dance, by far.
And unlike the other girls, we put out (we import crap that we could make ourselves). That will get the boys every time.
So we’re that girl that all the boys love and all the girls hate?
Give the boys what they want and they will “love” you.
I’m thinking the girls are other countries and the boys are the corporations?
The boys are whoever has money to invest.
Are we the least common denominator or the most common denominator? -
The Gulf treasuries may be full of redbacks (peoples currency) but China’s treasury is full of greenbacks. China is walking into a trap of its own making. All the US has to do is to erode the dollar a little bit and watch the game as China tries to make good on its promises as it is caught in a pincer grip between currencies. Its sort of like the guy who has a margin call.
I have said it before. All this is a sideshow. Despite the issues in the US, it will emerge winner. At the very least we will see a very different China in 20 maybe even 10 years from today.
Emerge the winner? Will that be the whole US or just the 1% US?
I have said it before. All this is a sideshow. Despite the issues in the US, it will emerge winner. At the very least we will see a very different China in 20 maybe even 10 years from today.
I’m convinced that, before too long, the United States will become known as the comeback kid of countries.
Could you explain why? It seems as though we have a crumbling infrastructure, dependence on foreign oil, a corrupt government/marketplace, divided population, massive wealth disparity, aging population, lowered standards of living, etc.
What’s going to get us up off of the mat?
I know that someone said yesterday that 9 of the 10 trains coming down the road to smack you go off the rails before they reach you, but it seems as though there are 100 trains this time…
Well if Iran ’s mullahs declared Israels right to exist in peace, and to end all hostilities, and start diplomatic relations….i think that would be the start of 20-30-50 years of prosperity until some other religion wants Israel dead.
What’s going to get us up off of the mat?
At some point the Persian gulf folks will wake up to the fiat scheme be it USD, EURO, or RMB.
Before we invaded Iraq, they were just about to change their oil trading over to Euros.
Yes, I remember that. Haven’t heard anyone crowing about the Euro lately.
No surprise. Our news service is a little “slanted”.
Obama’s votes-for-mortgage-writedowns scheme would cost taxpayers another $100 billion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-usa-housing-fhfa-idUSTRE80M2BW20120123
(Reuters) - The regulator for Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) told lawmakers that forcing the two mortgage firms to write down loan principal would require more than $100 billion in fresh taxpayer funds.
In a letter sent on Friday to the Republican and Democratic leaders of a U.S. House of Representatives government oversight panel, the Federal Housing Finance Agency explained why it has long opposed principal reductions for borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.
It said it had determined that such reductions would be more costly for the two firms than allowing those troubled borrowers to default.
The regulator has been under pressure from Democrats to permit the write-down of principal by the two government-controlled mortgage finance providers as a way to help some of the millions of U.S. homeowners who are “underwater.”
Last chance to bribe more “hope and change” voters
$100 billion won’t even slow the bleeding.
Please note civil service federal employees doing their jobs without bowing to politics. Again.
Ten States With the Worst Mortgage Debt
Published January 23, 2012
24/7 Wall St., Michael B. Sauter
1. California
> Mortgage debt per person: $313,749
2. Hawaii
> Mortgage debt per person: $307,508
3. Maryland
> Mortgage debt per person: $242,445
4. New Jersey
> Mortgage debt per person: $236,017
5. Washington
> Mortgage debt per person: $225,581
6. Massachusetts
> Mortgage debt per person: $224,661
7. Virginia
> Mortgage debt per person: $221,873
8. Connecticut
> Mortgage debt per person: $211,516
9. Colorado
> Mortgage debt per person: $198,117
10. Nevada
> Mortgage debt per person: $196,911
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/01/23/ten-states-with-worst-mortgage-debt/ - 70k -
Florida didn’t make the top ten????????? I’m hurt. Sniff…sob.
There there, Palmy.
10. Nevada
> Mortgage debt per person: $196,911
Ha, Nevada’s a big state. Eyes gue$$ that debt load is concentrated in a rather small geographical portion of that loverly state. Maybe mostly in x2-3 cities with neon repair workers.
(eyes reckons Elko & Ely & Eureka would not be a good place to start with as a 1st gue$$)
How is that possible? With 3 people per household, that would be $1 million per household. Even at 5% interest, that is $50K just interest per year. That is more than median income.
average vs. median
I ran the numbers, and as I suspected, this is flat out impossible.
CA has a population of 37,000,000. $314,000 mortgage debt per would be $11,600,000,000,000 ($11.6T). Total household mortgage debt for the entire country is $9.9T.
This must be “per mortgage” which is WAY different than per person.
I an not arguing with your numbers but this is what this guy said.
1. California
> Mortgage debt per person: $313,749
> Median household income: $57,708 (9th highest)
> Credit card debt per person: $6,434 (30th highest)
> Change in home value (2006 – 2010): -30.8% (2nd biggest decline)
While most of the residents of the states with the highest mortgage debt have been able to support the massive mortgages despite the fact that their homes have lost significant value, California is a different story. In 2006, California had the most expensive homes in the country, with a median home value of $532,000. By 2010, that value had declined by $164,000 — more than 30%. The effects of this massive decline in home prices had wide-reaching effects on the state economy. Unemployment in California is now the second-highest in the country, and 14.5% of the population lives below the poverty line. The average mortgage debt per person of $313,749 has been too much for thousands of residents. In December alone, one in every 252 homes was foreclosed upon.
Yeah, I read the article.
It is still impossible for 37 million people to have $314K mortgage debt per person as that would make California’s mortgage debt more than the entire nation’s mortgage debt.
I do not know if the $314K is per household, per mortgage or per some other factor, but I do know that it is impossible for it to be “per person” as stated in the article.
It is still impossible for 37 million people to have $314K mortgage debt per person as that would make California’s mortgage debt more than the entire nation’s mortgage debt.
I recall reading somewhere that nearly 2/3 of Californians own their homes outright.
“I recall reading somewhere that nearly 2/3 of Californians own their homes outright.”
66%
Megabanker$Inc. drool & live for another equity extraction$, er “put-yer-monie$-to-ta$k” day!
Re-modeling loan$ … yepper$
Rever$e mortgage$ … yepper$
I found an article for the Chicago metro area that says 25% own a home without a mortgage, and the national average seems to be about 30%, so so 66% mortgage free across CA sounds across outrageously high. I would bet CA is actually below the national average due to higher than average prices and a large percentage of nonwhites.
Per person? Or per mortgage debtor?
Same thing. You’re not a person unless you have a mortgage. It’s in the Constitution; one of the newer amendments.
D’oh! Thanks for the clarification!
I’m in debt, therefore I exist.
It goes back to Descartes. I owe, therefore I am…
Bingo, Colo. Thanks.
I notice it says:
Nevada residents owe an average of $196,911 on their mortgages
I bet some mathematically challenged person thought “debt per person” was an equivalent way to say that.
Yeah, I’m thinking “per mortgage” too.
Fox Business News, reporting! Count on it!
(Well, don’t actually count, because it won’t come out right.)
And Arizona’s not on the list? Come on, we have to step up our game!
The Art of Extortion (From Wolf Richter at http://www.testosteronepit.com):
Treasury Secretary “Hank” Paulson was the trailblazer with his proposal for TARP in September 2008. He walked into the Capitol with a list of demands—unlimited powers to hand unlimited amounts of taxpayer money to whomever—and threatened that the whole world would collapse if his demands weren’t met immediately.
When Congress didn’t go for it, markets fell off a cliff, and Paulson’s world of finance appeared to come to an end. So Congress approved a more limited TARP, which ended up being irrelevant compared to the trillions the Fed would hand out. Thus, Paulson’s extortion had worked—though the source of money had shifted from the Treasury to the Fed. It would be copied.
In November, just after the G-20 meeting in Cannes, France, it was Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou’s turn. With a single sentence about a referendum on Greece’s exit from the Eurozone, he knocked the world’s financial markets into a tailspin. His message: give me more money and larger write-downs on Greek debt, or else I will say a whole paragraph. It reopened the spigot, and money started flowing again (temporarily).
In early January, it was Greece’s new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos. He threatened the world with “disorderly default.” His goal: impose salary cuts on private-sector workers and ever bigger “voluntary” haircuts on banks and hedge funds that hold Greek debt. “So we can get the next loan installment,” he explained. Unions rebelled, and bondholders dug in their heels, but they started talking again. For that whole debacle, read…. Greece’s Extortion Racket Maxed Out.
Now Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, has stepped into the extortion racket herself and threatened that there would be another Great Depression—the red line on the financial threat-o-meter—if certain countries and their taxpayers didn’t fork over more money. She never mentioned Germany and the US by name, but those were her prime targets.
“It is about avoiding a 1930s moment,” she said at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, “a moment, ultimately, leading to a downward spiral that could engulf the entire world.”
Paulson couldn’t have phrased it more darkly.
Snakes all. Time for a little pest control imo.
Mongoose.
Lagarde: A Desperate Scream for Help
Or how Sally Strouthers will soon be pleading with us to open our hearts and sponsor a deprived bankster.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2847820
Let’s look at the facts, shall we?
The situation facing Europe and indeed the developed world is much like a gambler who walks into the casino with a bankroll and sits down at the tables. He loses the first few hands but feels the “old alchemy”, and much like a drug addict he likes the rush that is produced, even as his stack starts to dwindle toward zero. This is akin go the first political promises made to give handouts to people that have no funding behind them.
As the stack in front of the gambler dwindles, however (and the political promises pile up debts) the level of desperation rises. Now euphoria is replaced by sweat. You see, the gambler came to the casino with the mortgage payment and electric bill as his stake, just as the IMF committed billions knowing that the entities involved in the game — in this case Greece — lied to get into the Euro and did so with the explicit support and participation of many of the world’s largest financial institutions.
So now, having lost the original bet, we have the doubling down. And the doubling down on the doubling down.
Anyone who has gambled knows how this ends — in bankruptcy. Oh sure, there’s the chance that you will pull off the big hand, that you will get back what you lost. It’s the nirvana that is always just around the corner, just one more hand, just one more pull of the slot machine handle, just one more hit off the crack pipe and you’ll stop….
“Anyone who has gambled knows how this end$”
Tomb$tone / Big-No$e Kate’s $aloon / Derringer bullet$ / New $heriff / $unrise & horse-$hate anew …
a·new/əˈn(y)o͞o/
Adverb:
1. In a new or different, typically more positive, way.
2. Once more; again.
$700B was NOT irrelevant compared to the trillions the Fed would hand out.
Sure, the Fed made $9T in overnight loans between 2008 and 2009. But they were OVERNIGHT loans. $9T / ~500 days = an average overnight outstanding balance of $18B a night.
AND, the $18B were loans, meaning the money added to both assets and liabilities, making for a net $0 effect on bottom line Tier-1 capital (money on hand not offset by liabilities).
The $700B TARP mostly went to buying stocks other tier-1 liquidity injections where the asset is not offset by a liability.
“The Wall Street firm that received the most assistance was Merrill Lynch, which received $2.1 trillion, spread across 226 loans.”
So, the average overnight loan was $9.3B.
Compare that to $45B Citigroup stock, $45B BoA stock, $40B AIG stock…..
TARP was WAY, WAY, WAY more important to saving the banking system than overnight Fed loans. Take the $700B TARP and multiply it by the number of days the money was outstanding, and it would be way more than $9T.
Due to the lack of transparency at the FED and their ability to tell any story they want to tell, we don’t really know what they have done, nor how much of our money has been committed to whom.
The whole FED system is a sham of secretive shysters, printing money and passing it around to friends and colleges in the banking/trading/loansharking businesses.
If they buy up some acreage on the waterfront in Thailand or speculate on copper mines in New Guinea, or front-run exchange traded fund certificates, we don’t know. It’s all behind closed doors. Real cloak and dagger stuff.
The FeD committed Trillions to Foreign banks. They have “loaned” trillions to their member banksters who bought back “treasuries” to give them free interest money at taxpayer expense to “rebalance” their books. whatever that means.
You can provide whatever “statements” the FED reports as to where the money went and we will never know what really happened. It’s like the WARREN Commission. EVerything kept secret for 75 years. Why? What’s not to know that American People should be kept in the dark.
There is only one reason to keep us in the dark. It makes it so Banksters can line their pockets with our money and none will be the wiser. They can never fail. They are a skimming operation that provide NO value to American enterprise, in spite of the many new ads by Goldman/WFC/JPM about how they make America great by providing “capital”.
Well, give me a printing press and a government law that says only DIOGENES Debt Certificates are legal tender for all debts and I will gladly provide the “capital” for these enterprises,,,, AT INTEREST, oF COURSE. I NEED TO PROFIT FROM MY SCHEMES. And, of course, I can use a whole pile of the new bills to buy up some REAL ASSETS with the printed money for myself.s
I think that describes how Central Banking in General, and the FEDERAL RESERVE system, in particular, work.
It’s like being a Casino owner in Nevada, or anywhere else. Here in Florida, you need to be a Seminole Tribesman. In either case, the Government grants a “license” to run scams on other people, and the government takes a part of the rake.
You and I can’t have a casino, or even run a poker game at our homes without fear of arrest and confiscation. But, if you are part of the privileged few, you can skim money off the rest of society, in perpetuity.
You, see, all you dumbasses that think America needs JOBS, you are completely wrong. You just need money. I don’t want a job, I want money. I want the rest of you working and producing things so I can get money and BUY the things the working slobs make. I want to be retired, like a government worker at age 50.
We don’t want work. We want to be retired, with FREE MONEY.
That’s how the game is really played. And who plays it better than Banksters? They are the source of all the Free money in the universe.
You can’t play these games without a money printing FEDERAL RESERVE that provides “capital” from printed paper debts.
So, say what you want about the supposed “lending” and reserve requirements and “transparency”. All I see is LOTS of NEW Wells FArgo Banks, everywhere I go. All put up and paid for with the Money the FED gave them. So they can LEND it to us, and pay it back “at interest”. What a SCAM. That’s “free enterprise”????
Yea. Right.
Quoted for truth.
Save the rich and accept a diminished future for yourself and your children or you’ll REALLY be screwed.
Blackmail. Same thing with the Republicans in Congress and the debt ceiling vote. It’m sick of it. Let it blow.
It will.
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men. (oh no Godzilla!)
Realtors Are Liars®
Another U.S. “ally” that American taxpayers have propped up with billions upon billions in foreign aid is circling the drain, meaning we’re soon to be hit up with yet another mega-bailout, directly or through the IMF. Imagine that in a FUBARed place where one in three marriages are between cousins (no, not South Carolina) and female genital mutilation is still the norm.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NA24Ak02.html
Investors bought less an a third of the 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$580 million) worth of Treasury bills offered to the market on January 22, a red flag warning that Egypt’s foreign exchange position is close to the brink.
Yields on Egyptian government debt maturing in nine months jumped to nearly 16%, but the government could not place its local-currency debt to Egyptian investors, even at that exorbitant rate.
This is a new and ominous decline in the financial position of the most populous Arab country. I have been warning since last May that “Egypt is running out of food, and, more gradually, running out of the money with which to buy it.” How fast this may occur is hard to specify, but the government’s inability to borrow on money markets suggests that the crunch is not far off. (See The hunger to come in Egypt Asia Times Online, May 10, 2011.)
“but the government’s inability to borrow…..”
Let that penetrate the medula oblongata for a minute. Borrow from whom? Shouldn’t a sovereign nation be able to create its own money?
Of course the answer is yes. Central Bankers armed with wheelbarrows of fiat are the cause of much of our dilema.
Take the macro view, connect the dots, and you’ll see who the real terrorists are.
End the Fed.
Interestingly enough, I couldn’t find a peep about the failed Egyptian bond auction in the U.S. financial media.
What a surprise.
Please go to the Debt Clock . org and see where Amerika stands right now. We will never recover from the massive government spending and interventions of the past 5 years.
Stooges like Paul Krugman who run a propagandist column in the NYT claim the government needs to do more to “stimulate” growth, only have one solution……more government spending.
That’s all he knows. When if fails, it wasn’t enough. Need more.
He is a propagandist for his buddies on Wallstreet. NOthing more.
Take a good look at the debt clock and see the bottom line at the bottom of the screen, LIABILITIES:
Social Security: 15 Trillion
Prescription drug: 20 Trillion (it’s more because SS is offset by receipts)
MEDICARE: 81 Trillion
Total: 117 TRILLION DOLLARS for 113 million registered taxpayers.
In the far right bottom: PER TAXPAYER LIABILITY: $1,038,050.
That’s we we owe, technically.
Average income: about $50,000. Average DEbt, about the same.
The problem is the UNFUNDED liabilities.
WE are all expecting that in the next decade or 2 as we retire that there will be available money to fund our retirements, and medicare/medicaid/ OBAMACARE-LESSNESS, etc.
Who’s going to pay for it???
Answer: The FED, with printed dollars.
How much “medical care will a dollar buy???
You say you want an aspirin for pain? Okay. $200. We’ll add it to your bill.
Maybe bond holders aren’t comfortable that 75% of the incoming parliament is Muslim Brotherhood and a few other hard core Islamist political parties?
A bankrupt government and widespread poverty & starvation will absolutely guarantee an ultra religious party to be elected. We will be wishing for Mubarak to return. Like Saddam, Mubarak kept the Islamists in check.
One of the quietly growing trends in the fundamentalist areas of the world is…
…secularism. You can already see this happening in the South. Kids aren’t as interested in spending mega-time in the mega-churches the way their parents are. Watch this church refusenik movement grow even bigger in the coming years.
It’s also happening in the Arab world, but we don’t hear much about it in this country.
“A bankrupt government and widespread poverty & starvation will absolutely guarantee an ultra religious party to be elected.”
The ultimate GOP plan here as well.
Another U.S. “ally” that American taxpayers have propped up with billions upon billions in foreign aid is circling the drain
Mubarak was friendly toward Israel.
“After months of refusing to bargain with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Egypt’s government has begun negotiations for a $3.2 billion loan,…”
Isn’t getting a loan from the IMF pretty much a confirmation that there is no hope at all?
This POS needs to rot in jail and his brother should be there with him.
Skakel Seeks Sentence Reduction for Conn. Murder
NEW HAVEN, Conn. January 24, 2012 (AP)
Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel plans to seek a reduction in his sentence of 20 years to life in prison for the killing of his neighbor when they were teenagers in 1975.
Skakel, a nephew of Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, is scheduled to appear Tuesday before a three-judge panel in Middletown that reviews sentences.
Skakel was sentenced in 2002 after he was convicted of bludgeoning 15-year-old Martha Moxley to death with a golf club in wealthy Greenwich. Moxley’s brother and mother are expected to attend the hearing.
Skakel, who has a son, said prosecutors “want me here for the rest of my life for something I didn’t do.”
“They have disparaged me for the past 10 years, deprived me of my liberty and my child, my freedom, my good reputation, and I don’t understand their motivation in trying to take my attorneys from me,” Skakel said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/skakel-seeks-sentence-reduction-conn-murder-15423646 - -
beat him with a golf club!
“Please don’t take my attorneys A-WAY-AAAYYY!”
States should wait to convict all teen criminals until they turn 18. Think of the profits to be made!
These Rich guys ”debating” in Florida last night . Mitt made over 21 million $$$ just last year without working at all . Seems like he would have a bit of a hard time relating to a 30K working stiff .
Vanity Fair magazine has a story about Mitt this month called “The Meaning of Mitt”. The rather long subtitle or qualifying statement is “Republican voters just can’t get excited about Romney. The feeling may be mutual”.
Seems like he would have a bit of a hard time relating to a 30K working stiff .
True, but it seems like that would be the case for all of them.
“These Rich guys ”debating” in Florida last night . Mitt made over 21 million $$$ just last year without working at all . Seems like he would have a bit of a hard time relating to a 30K working stiff .”
And everyone of them needs to walk in the shoes of a $30k/yr stiff for 5 years then come back and share their experience and we’ll see how wonderful they think it is then.
Exactly. None of these clowns ever had to pawn something to fix the car or skip medical treatment because it was unaffordable.
When will the Occupy movement, the 99% (us) go after Romney et al.? He is not only in the 1% (them) but even in the higher stratosphere, as stated in today’s LA Times.
My wife and I paid a higher % than he did last year. Fair?
Talk about class warfare. The guy made $40 million and I paid double the tax rate he did?
Something is very wrong in this country. Very wrong.
Loaned for $219,375 in 2005 but Fannie Mae will let you have it for $29,900 in 2012. I guess the reason they are letting it go so cheap is so the new owner will be able to afford the arsenal they will need to survive in their new neighborhood. But at least JPMORGAN CHASE is off the hook.
Homepath Property Alert in PALM BEACH County, FL
There are new properties that match your search criteria. (How did they know that I am a gun owner?)
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
MICHAEL needed a little extra cha-ching in 2007.
Type: MTG
Date/Time: 2/8/2007 10:37:29
CFN: 20070064479
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 21393/1246
Pages: 21
Consideration: $210,000.00
Party 1: FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL
Party 2: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA
Legal: NORTH PB 4 B57 L43-44 BL
Type: LP
Date/Time: 10/28/2008 11:27:50
CFN: 20080392846
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 22926/827
Pages: 1
Consideration: $0.00
Party 1: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA
Party 2: FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL
WEST PALM BEACH
FRALLICCIARDI SPOUSE
Legal:
And I`ll throw in another little equity extraction made by FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL on one of his other “investments”.
Type: MTG
Date/Time: 8/12/2005 15:23:27
CFN: 20050509100
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 19075/1307
Pages: 17
Consideration: $163,800.00
Party 1: FRALLICCIARDI MICHAEL DAVID
Party 2: OPTION ONE MORTGAGE CORPORATION
Legal: VLG SANDALWOOD LK S L17A L
This should fix it. LMAO
Major banks offer $25 billion over foreclosure abuse
By Derek Kravitz
The Associated Press
Posted: 9:58 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, 2012
WASHINGTON — 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 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 - half of the households that might be eligible for assistance under the deal - would probably receive checks for about $1,800.
Under the deal:
$17 billion would go toward reducing the principal that struggling homeowners owe on their mortgages.
$5 billion would be placed in a reserve account for various state and federal programs; a portion of that would cover the $1,800 checks sent to those homeowners affected by the deceptive practices.
$3 billion would help homeowners refinance at 5.25 percent.
The settlement would apply only to privately held mortgages issued between 2008 and 2011, not those held by government-controlled Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Fannie and Freddie own about half of all U.S. mortgages, roughly 31 million U.S. home loans.
I thought Palm Beach County was all rich folks. There cannot be any crime there.
“I thought Palm Beach County was all rich folks. There cannot be any crime there”
Here is today. There will be another hundred tomorow and the day after and the day after and……….
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blotter - 44k
Another Goldwater in the making?
Newt Opens Up Lead in Florida
Slate
A pair of polls out Monday show the former House speaker with a near double-digit lead over Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State. Rasmussen Reports shows Gingrich’s lead at 9 points, 41-32, while a new Insider Advantage poll has the gap at 8 points, 34-26.
And that was before we learned that Romney earned $21 million in investments last year, and paid only $3 million in tax.
Sorry, not last year, 2010.
Lots of dem talking points this am…
Were the investments in muni bonds (which ANY investor does not pay taxes on)? Or other tax exempt products?
Did he do ANYTHING illegal? Did he cheat?
Obama is going to raise $1 BILLION for the 2012 election.
GS was the #2 donor to obama in 2008.
Hope and change boys…
Obama is going to raise $1 BILLION for the 2012 election.
You advocating that lil’ Opie’s donation machine & donor$ should be told by the Gov’t what they can and can’t do with their “hard-earned” $mith Barney monie$,..or are you simply jealou$ on account$ he’s “learned” from the repubican’s own “Bidne$$” playbook?
Repub, Dem, whatever; politics is politics. They all win and we all lose. By taking sides and pretending that one party will solve all of the problems is just playing into their plan. Turn them all out, re-elect nobody! That is the only way out. Unfortunately, this will not happen as the serfs are too caught up in abortion, NRA, etc. Nothing will change.
Turn them all out, re-elect nobody! That is the only way out.
And replace them with whom?
By a constant stream of new people; that is why the House has elections every two years. The founders did not design elections so that congressmen could raise s**t loads of cash every two years. Nor would they spend the rest of their lives in Congress sucking up kick-backs and huge retirement packages. The system was designed for turnover in the House every two years and the Senate every six. Men should serve their nation for two years and then go home and run the plantation.
“go home and run the plantation.”
Really, you could have chosen better phrasing.
Well, that was then.
The system was designed for turnover in the House every two years and the Senate every six.
It was designed for elections every 2 or 6 years, not necessarily for all officeholders to be replaced, or else they would have simply included single term limits.
“And replace them with whom?”
Replace them with literally any 3rd party candidate. The 2 party system has failed this country. Time to try something else.
Replace them with literally any 3rd party candidate.
Who will come into office not knowing how to run the government, and will have to rely on staff and government employees to show them how to do so, thus increasing the power of these non-elected, non-term-limited positions.
‘Throw the bums out’ doesn’t solve everything. Lobbyists, of course, can still offer you a fat job after your one term is up.
Someone at the New York Times is blogging the tax returns.
Interest off municiple bonds was a few hundred bucks for one year, and nothing for the other.
Did he do ANYTHING illegal? Did he cheat?
What Romney (and many other corporate raiders) did SHOULD be illegal. I won’t provide a link because a0 am somewhat technologically challenged and b) I read about it at the orange site which is considered left-wing by some here.
An ‘investing house’ buys a big stake in a company. Strongly encourages, i.e. forces, company execs to borrow the maximum they can get. Investors pocket the money. Company, already on the edge due to excessive borrowing, has a bad quarter or two. Company is already in hock up to its eyeballs and can’t pay its creditors. Creditors start pressuring. Company goes bankrupt, putting hundreds if not thousands of employees out of work.
The company was Dade Behring, a medical technology firm.
The investors included Bain Capital, which made tens of millions by stripping every penny of equity out of the company and ruined it. This happens over and over–vulture capitalists come in and pick the meat off of a perfectly good company that actually makes stuff and employs people. A handful of vultures get fat while the smoking ruins of somebody’s dream, and a lot of peoples’ livelihood, turn to ash. It’s not illegal but it SHOULD BE.
The investors included Bain Capital, which made tens of millions by stripping every penny of equity out of the company and ruined it. This happens over and over–vulture capitalists come in and pick the meat off of a perfectly good company that actually makes stuff and employs people.
Exactly. Bain Capital = Gordon Gekko.
They were corporate raiders, not job creators, for the most part.
Gee ONLY $3 million dollars for one year. More than most people make in their lifetimes. But still not enough for the bleeding heart spendthrift liberals. Why don’t the Democrats pay more in taxes for all the spending they want? I just don’t get it. They whine and cry about government needs to do this, that, the social safety net, health care, child care, etc… But they just won’t put THEIR money where their mouths are. The other day Obama said in speech that he should be paying more taxes. Nothing stopping him.
Ron Paul would be the Goldwater. He’d lose, but he’d at least make a coherent argument that could lead to things being different going foward.
Newt is more like George Wallce in 1968 or Strom Thurmond in 1948.
Newt is more like George Wallce in 1968 or Strom Thurmond in 1948.
In temperament perhaps, but neither Wallace nor Thurmond won the nomination.
Ron Paul would be the Goldwater. He’d lose, but he’d at least make a coherent argument that could lead to things being different going foward.
What’s the coherent argument? That we should go back to the Articles of Confederation? Or just to the period where the federal government had no ability to protect people’s rights at the local and state level?
“What’s the coherent argument? That we should go back to the Articles of Confederation? Or just to the period where the federal government had no ability to protect people’s rights at the local and state level?”
Look, I don’t agree with the guy and wouldn’t vote for him. I’d vote for Obama.
But at least he doesn’t have different rules for different people. Whether or not his rules make sense, I’ll take the lack of pandering to the powerful and self-dealing.
As for the federal government protecting rights, and making society more equitable, that appears to be a time to look back on with nostalgia. Today it replicates or exacerbates the inequalities the selfish manage to create on their own.
As for the federal government protecting rights, and making society more equitable, that appears to be a time to look back on with nostalgia.
You live in New York, right? Try living in Flyover. We’d have prayer back in schools, abortion and sodomy (read: homosexuality) outlawed, religious requirements to hold office, and segregated communities and businesses in a heartbeat, without federal protection of our civil liberties.
I noticed, during the Cuba and Iran discussions, how with Rick, Newt, and Mitt it was all “Fear, fear, fear. War, war, war.”
Paul would then insert some logic and call BS on all of it. When they’d then go back to one of the other guys, there was a dismissive air of “Well that was cute, now let’s get back to the evildoers” in spite of the applause from the crowd (that wasn’t supposed to be reactive).
America loves its testosterone.
Watched some of the debate last night. I would have liked to see Romney answer Santorum’s questions.
“My question to Governor Romney and to Speaker Gingrich, if you believe in capitalism that much, then why did you support the bailout of Wall Street, where you had an opportunity to allow destructive capitalism to work, to allow a failure of a system that needed to fail because people did things that in capitalism you pay a price?”
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum accurately claimed that Romney and Gingrich had pushed for the federal bailout: “My question to Governor Romney and to Speaker Gingrich, if you believe in capitalism that much, then why did you support the bailout of Wall Street?” “You should have allowed those financial institutions to go through the bankruptcy process and you would have seen these companies fail and pay the price.” Both Santorum and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the other two on the debate panel January 23, had opposed the TARP bailout, while Romney and Gingrich had supported it.
I am sure it would be something like “jobs, retiree savings, wealth effect…”.
We can’t all be rich, until we’re all poor first.
Well, we can’t all be rich, until we first ensure that the rich keep getting richer.
Ummmm - who else voted for TARP?
Oh yeah - obummer.
Hope and change.
I thought we were talking about the GOP debate. We already know that Obama stinks. The question is will any of the GOP clown car boys stink less? And now that it seems to be down to Gingrich and Romney, it would appear that Obama is teh less stinky candidate (though not much).
In the end there isn’t much difference at all.
There are a number of differences:
1) Supreme Court nominees
2) Obama will be a second term president thinking about legacy while any one of the republicans would be a first term president, running for re-election from day one (and even earlier)
3) Romney, Gingrich or Santorum would be more likely to get into a war with Iran (opinion)
4) The House is likely to remain Republican and the Senate might switch to Republican (though not over 60). If you prefer gridlock, you don’t want to switch over the executive branch as well.
I think Obama already has his “legacy”. He signed the NDAA into law.
Sorry, but NDAA is a footnote.
ACA is his legacy for now. Plus getting out of Iraq and killing Bin Laden.
I think he would want to see ACA fully implemented and try to get a jobs program passed.
I can’t begin to imagine what one of the Republicans would do to try to make sure they satisfy the base in 4 years. If you believe what Romney is saying now, he wants to vastly increase military spending while cutting government spending (real dollars). Sounds like a complete gut of Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. I don’t have room for my parents in my one bedroom apartment, but a lot more people might find they have to let their parents and post-college teens share the basement.
I’ll be doing a write in again this year if either of those guys is the Republican candidate. Yes, I realize it’s “wasting” my vote. Frankly, Newt/Rommney/Obama all disgust me the same amount. So I’ll write in someone who I’d actually like to be president in the hopes that it will have some effect on the RNC to realize that they need to stop running spineless morons and start to put up men of character and integrity.
I didn’t even vote during the past presidential election. I couldn’t make myself vote for Palin, and, at the same time, couldn’t stand Obama either. So I abstained. This year I’ll vote, no matter what. But will write in a candidate of my choosing (assuming that the RNC doesn’t nominate someone I’d feel comfortable running this country).
Four!More!Years!
Sure is looking that way, especially if the Newt gets nominated.
How could the Republicans possibly nominate Newt, given his personal life and career? It is insane.
Anybody-But-Romney mania knows no bounds.
“How could the Republicans possibly nominate Newt, given his personal life and career?”
Because he is a real Christian.
It is insane.
I think you nailed it. The GOP has been drinking its own koolaid for too long. With the help of Faux News and the Kochtopus’ propaganda, they’ve gone around the bend.
Because he is a real Christian.
IIRC, he is Catholic, which many Fundies also consider to be a cult, or at least an “ism”. I am surprised that they are supporting him, given his past indiscretions plus belonging to the “wrong church”.
The Newtster is Catholic because that little hottie (22 years younger) is Catholic and required him to join in order to keep receiving her gifts.
That brings up this question: If Newt is elected president, will his wife become the First Skank?
“How could the Republicans possibly nominate Newt, given his personal life and career? It is insane.”
Perhaps, when things get bad enough, people are willing to overlook stuff like that, *if* the candidate in question shows some special ability/knowledge/charisma/leadership skills. That is what South Carolina Republicans decided, and what Florida voters are apparently thinking as well. Just a guess, but I’d say that in a general election, he might do just fine–independent voters are far less likely to hold his ‘life and career’ against him—the traits I mentioned above may trump his overall douchedome if voters are panicky enough about the future.
I’ve seen Newt at his best, and he can be impressive. However I’m old enough to remember the parts of Contract With America that he ignored after he got his way (especially term limits). His actions don’t match his promises. And of course I’m ignoring his…uhhh…instability.
Comin’ @ ya like a high $peed train babeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
Go America! Go Amtrak!
Obamah not only voted for TARP, he was rabid about it. AND, then the “STIMULUS”, AKA Democratic party slush fund. He was rallying about the need for IMMEDIATE 800Billion dollar “stimulus” fund before he was inaugurated. It couldn’t wait. First order of business, vote on more money spending. PUBLIC EXCUSE: SAVE JOBS.
Where did the money go? ON stupid ventures run by his contributors. When the ventures went bust and all the money was gone……no one was held to account.
The WORST pRESIDENT, EVER.
Remind us again who SIGNED TARP?
Who sponsored it and rallied for it? I think Bush was railroaded into the Bill, but Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats wrote it? With all the hysteria in the press, do you think he could have NOT signed it?
Yea, Hank Paulsen is a crook and he was all too friendly with Goldman-Suchs and all the insiders. Bush was a patsy in that regard. But he makes OHbamah look like a piker. or vice versa.
Paulson was Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “Friendly” is one heck of an understatement.
Worst president ever is clearly Bush Jr.
If you want to try to convince me Obama is 2nd worst, okay, but you will never convince me he is worse than Bush Jr.
Worst president ever is clearly Bush Jr.
+1 Are we clear? Crystal!
This is like arguing which is the worst way to die.
Being dropped into a volcano?
Mud wrestling with Michael Moore over the last slice of pizza in the world?
Both horrible ends for sure.
You might want to rethink your talking points, Dio.
This 57 page internal WH memo from Dec. 2008 (before BO took office, if you recall,) details the administration’s serious doubts about the efficacy of the TARP stimulus, and argues strongly against them.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/285065-summers-12-15-08-memo.html#document/p1
That is funny. I was going to forward you a link to that doc last night. Wanted to make sure you saw it. All my economics reads are bickering about how to read it.
Krugman’s first instinct was to think that Summers was scared of the bond market (implying that he had no idea how big the problem was). Some of the others think it just reflects a mistaken impression that it would be easier to go back to Congress for more money if it turned out to be too small, than it would be to pull back if it turned out to be too big.
“You should have allowed those financial institutions to go through the bankruptcy process and you would have seen these companies fail and pay the price.”
Along with all the other companies, when their payrolls disappear. Great Depression II.
But the question is still worth asking. “Destructive capitalism” might have been better for the serfs in the long run than crony capitalism.
But there is another way out.
Why will no one even talk about that?
The options do not have to be “crash now” or “crash later”.
How about we turn around and start undoing everything we’ve been doing for the last 60 years?
Did we do that in the last 60 years? yes? Okay, let’s reverse that.
Free trade? Let’s bring back tariffs, but this time on money leaving the country instead of products entering.
Flatter tax code with fewer deductions? Okay, let’s reverse that. Steep income tax with 90+% rate on any money over about $3 million a year, with lots of deductions for spending money on things that create jobs.
Increase payroll tax from 6% to 15%? Roll it back.
COLAs on Social Security? Roll them back.
Removal of Glass-Steigal? Bring it back.
Interstate banking? Roll it back.
If you are in a hole. stop digging? But do you then just collapse the sides of the hole in while you are still in it? No? Slowly start filling it in to lift yourself out.
The hole started in 1980. If we were going down the tubes since 1952, show me the numbers to back that up.
From the national debt chart I saw recently it appears that the exponential growth actually began in the early 70s. Exponential growth appears minor at first. Not saying Reagan didn’t make it worse, but what happened in the early 70s that might have started it?
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
Look for the exponential growth.
By 1973 we were already a net import country.
1972 we passed SS COLAs, putting excessive drain on SS.
By 1970s we’d already lowered the top marginal rate from 90+% to 70%.
By the 1970s we’d already increased payroll taxes from <4% in the 1950s to 8%+.
The reason I say we need to go back 60 years to the 50s is because I want to roll the tax code back to the tax code of the 1950s, the payroll taxes back to the 1950s, free trade back to the 1950s, etc.
(For my conservative friends, I’ll add roll Welfare back to that of the 1950s. But, this has to be done in stages as we bring back jobs and wages.)
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
Look for the exponential growth.
Income growth must have been strong in the 70s. If you look at dollars rather than as a percentage of national income you see it start taking off a lot sooner.
If you look at dollars rather than as a percentage of national income you see it start taking off a lot sooner.
Maybe, but the ability to pay the debt is determined by its percentage of national income. That didn’t start skyrocketing until we were introduced to the magic of supply-side economics in 1980.
With 20% inflation income growth was indeed great in the 70’s.
Well, the debt remains. The only way to roll THAT back is to the mass bankruptcy.
Not correct.
Wage inflation triggered by ending free trade could quickly bring down the debt/income ratio.
Increasing the income tax on the rich, could bring their incomes below their expenses and drain money back into the economy where people can earn it and use it to pay down debt..
We can’t pay down the debt while we continue to flood money out of the economy in the form of trade imbalances that favor those with money and are going against those with debt. If we could attack and reverse those trade imbalances, we could begin to pay down the debt.
But Darrell, do you mean that we actually shop less? Shop less? Buy less than we can pay for?
Just how do we do that?
No the other route we could have taken
1. Nationalize big banks as they fail - Stock holders and bond holders loose everything.
2. Brake banks into smaller pieces and sell them to those with cash.
This is what we should have done. We could have continued loaning for payrolls via the FED .
+1 Hard Rain
We don’t have a TV, nor are we interested in political theatre, but these posts have been interesting. Thank you all.
It’s all a flip flop blame game, and in the end the vortex and its contents (our country), still goes down the toilet.
“Don’t despair Awaiting, it’s gonna be a mother beautiful 25 years of America eating ‘$traighten up and fly$ right!” humble pie!”
Sgt. Oddball (Kelly’s Heroes)
To those of you who live in Florida and have a listed landline number- get ready for the flood of robocalls. If you think you’ve had a lot already, just wait until the last few days before the primary.
I’m tellin’ ya. Already coming in thick and fast. Just got a Newt one a few minutes ago. Sometimes I’ll pick up and listen, just to see what they’re saying. I hang up when I feel a need to reach for the barf bag.
By Derek Kravitz
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:47 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012
Posted: 9:58 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, 2012
WASHINGTON — 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 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 - half of the households that might be eligible for assistance under the deal - would probably 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. Roughly 1 million homeowners could see the size of their mortgage reduced.
The settlement would be the biggest for a single industry since the 1998 multistate tobacco deal.
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.
President Obama is expected to tout the settlement in his State of the Union address tonight . His administration has put pressure on state officials to wrap up a deal more than a year in the making.
Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, said Monday that the details are a step in the right direction, but he still has concerns.
“We are pretty excited about the principal reductions, but believe the settlement amount as well as the elimination of criminal liability would be problematic,” Soto said. “The dollar amount itself isn’t enough.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/major-banks-offer-25-billion-over-foreclosure-abuse-2120944.html?printArticle=y - -
A draft settlement between the banks and states has been sent to state officials for review.
And don’t expect the likes of Harris, Biden, Schneiderman, Masto, and Coakley to hurry up and sign it.
Slim - This is a good thing, right? (Harris and others going for more)
Makes me curious, I need to investigate and see if I am eligible for an 1,800 check. BofA did dismiss my foreclosure without reason after 39 months. ( We know why). How ironic would that be, living in the house for 42 months and receiving a settlement check. Might be a good day for me……
diver4life
12:20 PM, 1/24/2012
lol. Diver4life cracks me up. You can’t help but like the rascal.
As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil.” Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether.
George Soros
Sounds like a great time to own an ocean going yacht.
Better stay out in the middle of the ocean. There’s pirates near the shore.
Some of my ancestors came from a part of the world where piracy was common. And, from what at least one of my family members says, being a pirate wasn’t exactly dishonorable.
being a pirate wasn’t exactly dishonorable.
Fortunes were made through piracy (especially ‘wrecking’) in the original colonies. And if you make enough money, especially after a generation or two, it becomes honorable. Just ask the robber barons’ heirs.
The pirate, Sir Francis Drake, endowed the College of William and Mary in 1693, (in colonial Williamsburg,) on a warrant from Queen Mary.
Back when I was a kid… 7 or 8 based on where we lived at the time, I heard a riddle that fascinated me for a time. I asked it to many friends and family, but none could crack it (except dad who knew the answer but would not tell).
It goes like this:
Three men go out for dinner, and the bill is $25 (hey, it was the early ’70s). They decide to add a $5 tip and each pitches in $10.
The waitress realizes she has mis-charged them and that it should have been $20, not $25. Since the men can’t split $5 3-ways, she decides to tell them that she only overcharged them by $3. She returns $1 to each man, and keeps the extra $2 as bonus tip.
Each man paid $9. 3 x $9 = $27. Plus the $2 for the waitress is $29. But the original payment was $30. Where did the extra $1?
Sometime around the start of Jr High, I finally cracked it.
We’re adding spent and received.
The men spent $27. The restaurant received $20 and the waitress got $7 tip.
The real summary should be 3 x $9 = $20 + $7.
So who cares?
We should never forget that the real formula is “spent = received”.
If you are yelling about deadbeats that spent more than they made, while bragging that you made more than you spent, you really should pull your head out and realize that the ONLY way it was possible for you to make more than you spent (accumulating money) is because of the person that was willing and able to borrow that money into existence so that they could spend more than they earned.
Now, the ONLY way the person can NOT default on the debt is if the people with the money spend it so that the people in debt can get the money to repay the debt. The only other option is cascade default into depression.
Spend the money while you can, or see it poof out of existence.
Or, you can sit around wondering where the extra $1 went.
OK still trying to understand. It sounds like at the two extremes we’ve got:
1. All the money is hoarded in a small number of hands. Everybody else defaults. Money becomes worthless paper or bits because it is no longer backed by a promise of future work.
2. Money hoarders are persuaded to spend it, inflation is somewhere between significant and massive, but people are working again and can pay their debts.
But is there possibly a third way where the hoarders are persuaded (or freely choose) to spend just enough to keep the have nots in a state of perpetual near-slavery…with just enough money to survive and service their debt but not enough to ever get out of debt? Never to end unless they all go on strike or successfully revolt?
OK, riddle this:
I cook up some juciy Skye burges on the aft grill. You are invited to bring a dish to pass. You have nothing to share but show up anyway and ask if you can borrow a burger at interest. We’re too far from the dock and I don’t want to give you a spanky clean pfd to wear so I lend you a burger rather than shove you over the rail. You eat the burger.
Next week I ask you to come to dinner and bring two burgers, which would fulfil your promise. There you are, all bright and smiley! No burgers. You explain to me that you don’t have any burgers with which to repay me because I haven’t made any more burgers, and that I am a greedy bastard for holding out on you.
Your sorry bun is going in the water.
Take your time. Ignore the typos.
Aren’t you assuming anyone can make burgers independent of everyone else?
Only one entity is allowed to make dollars. If all the dollars are under lock and key and you don’t have any, how can you repay someone who insists on being repaid in dollars? It sounds like you’re saying the person should create something of value from non-dollar resources and try to pay with that instead?
Carl, don’t get sucked into this vortex. Dollars are not hard to come by, maybe just “harder” as the worth of your efforts is laid bare. It’s the whole point of currency, you can exchange anything for it. Wimpy, in my example, made a bet that he wouldn’t have to pay later what he doesn’t have, or that it would somehow magically become easy. Debt rarely makes things easier, it usually makes things harder. When Wimpy’s debt comes due, he hasn’t found or made or traded anything of value to offer. He is a fraud, worthless. He doesn’t even offer to show the day before and do a dollar’s worth of waxing the boat.
He cries. He hasn’t lost any weight either, that one.
Carl, don’t get sucked into this vortex.
Whatever, I think Darrell makes an interesting case.
Carl, sure if you extrapolate just some factors to infinity. You’ll end up crouched in the corner with your shirt pulled up over your head and peeing yourself.
if you extrapolate just some factors to infinity. You’ll end up crouched in the corner with your shirt pulled up over your head and peeing yourself.
So we shouldn’t listen to the people who get hysterical about how we’re going to go broke if we don’t get rid of all entitlement programs and end food stamps (while reducing taxes on the wealthy)?
I am listening and engaging. Hysterical isn’t likey to be consturctive. In my view we are not spun off into outerspace.
So, to play to your hand, let’s stop entitlements to bankers and other countries before we take the little ones off of food stamps, shall we?
let’s stop entitlements to bankers and other countries before we take the little ones off of food stamps, shall we?
Sounds good to me. And let’s tax rich people’s income at the same rate we tax everyone else’s income. Throw in universal health care coverage, and we’d be back in business.
Memo to self: Bring plenty of food to share at a party on the USS Blue Skye.
Sure you would. Bikers already get this stuff.
So given all the soft peddling of the now inevitable Greek default. ie S and P putting them on double secret probation for a parital default, and saying it won’t be that bad, and IMF saying the same. The only question i have at this point is who did they sell all of the credit default insurance backing the Hedge Funds who purchased all of the Greek Debt in the first place to.
One article suggested that Hedge Funds purchased Greek debt after the crash at discounted levels and then bought credit default insurance. Who the F sold them credit default insurance. My guess is only institutions that knew they could off load this to the gov at a later date.
psssssst…..It’s an insurance Holiday. Keep it to yourself or you will regret it.
As we plummet in to economic hell I would like to point to the flashing sign over Wall St. this evening announcing a new high for the Nasdaq-100 now OVER it’s closing price when George W Bush took office for his first term in January 2001. Apple just sold over 37 million iPhones raking in over 46 Billion in revenue. Apple is now the most valuable company in the world surpassing Exxon.
For all the people who swear that the economy can’t recover without housing the stock market is making fools of us all. Anybody see a growing mob of angry consumers start an Apple boycott? Nope all I see is the amazing evidence of behavioral economics in action.
There is probably an “app” for Economic Hell”.
Anybody see a growing mob of angry consumers start an Apple boycott?
If their treatment of Foxconn workers gets coverage the way the university logo-themed clothing sweatshops did, expect to hear about a lot of campus protests.
Google is doing its darndest to take over the evil computer empire label today. New privacy policy.
There’s your problem Slim, Foxconn employees are not people, they are Chinese workers, just an accounting entry on the Apple/Walmart/Nike balance sheet.
Obama is going down in history as presiding over the best stock market for a 1st term president since Calvin Coolidge kicked off the roaring twenties. Kind of takes the wind out of the “Obama is a socialist” meme.
If he was smart he would point out these new stock market records during tonight’s SOTU speech but I’ll bet $1 he doesn’t.
Shocker: Obama Crony Warren Buffet Stands To Profit Mightily From Keystone Pipeline Delay
Rob Port • January 18, 2012
Obama announced today that he’s not going to give approval to the Keystone XL Pipeline before the 2012 election, claiming that after three years and billions of dollars spent on study, the pipeline needs yet more study.
But there may be a more practical motivation to Obama’s decision. One of the largest oil plays in America, and almost certainly the fastest growing, is North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields. The Keystone pipeline, if built, would have taken 100,000 barrels per day of oil from those fields. But without the pipeline, oil producers in the state are going to be forced to rely more heavily on rail transport to bring the oil to market (the state’s roads are already running at maximum capacity).
The Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railroad serves North Dakota (along with Canadian Pacific), and guess who has a majority stake in BNSF these days?
As oil production ramps up in the Bakken fields of North Dakota, plans to use the pipeline to transport it have been dashed.
As a result, North Dakota’s booming oil producers will have to rely even more on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad, which Buffett just bought, to ship it to refineries.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe in a deal valuing the railroad at $34 billion. Berkshire Hathaway already owns about 22% of Burlington Northern, and will pay $100 a share in cash and stock for the rest of the company.
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
No doubt.
My bud comments on the $25 billion
Makes me curious, I need to investigate and see if I am eligible for an 1,800 check. BofA did dismiss my foreclosure without reason after 39 months. ( We know why). How ironic would that be, living in the house for 42 months and receiving a settlement check. Might be a good day for me……
diver4life
12:20 PM, 1/24/2012
Holy cow. They really might nominate Gingrich. Obama must be doing his happy dance. That GOP koolaid must be some strong stuff.
Gingrich Erases Romney’s National Lead
Gallup
Newt Gingrich has all but erased Mitt Romney’s 23-percentage-point lead of a week ago among Republican voters nationally, and the two candidates are now essentially tied, at 29% for Romney and 28% for Gingrich.
I’d say a few of Obama’s lines were lifted right off this board.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/201212419141977478.html
Just when I start losing hope in humanity, people like this come along to restore my faith and inspire me.
If the trite and empty blah blah blah of the SOTU bored you as much as it bored me, here’s an alternative, no-BS version.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=200973
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-25/obama-will-create-crisis-unit-to-investigate-mortgage-misconduct.html
Obama says he’s creating a “crisis unit” to investigate mortgage fraud. What a complete farce. We already have a multitude of enforcers and regulators, yet they turned a blind eye, and are still turning a blind eye, to massive, systemic Wall Street fraud and Fed rip-offs of taxpayers and savers. Are any of you hope ‘n change lemmings really buying this?
Likely 2/3 of the men and women there for the president’s State of the Union speech are guilty of insider stock trading. So long middle-class.
This EEOC appointee has been sitting in the WH for 3 years and Now he says he’s going to appoint another “commission” to do another investigation about things that have been going on for years and have a huge paper trail that the SEC was working diligently to destroy.
What a farce.
However, as I read the article, it seems his primary focus is not on the FRAUD that permeated the mortgage crises, it is on the ROBO-signing or underhanded foreclosure procedures.
They aren’t looking for people who LIED on their applications. They are trying to soothe angry homenestors and help give more government money to them to buy votes.
More Chicago politics. Ohbumma vote buying and pandering to the suffering masses, then off for another round of golf, flying to the nicest resort on Air Force One, with his wife taking another plane with a group of friends who stop off for steak/lobster and cocktails on the way over.
I was never an Obama fan.
I just voted for him becasue he was the least bad candidiate.
What candidate is going to lock down Wall Street, end free trade, take us back toward a 1950s tax code, attack and reverse the trade imbalances, strengthen labor laws, protect SS and MC, get capital gains income treated as regular income…
None?
Okay, then I’m forced to choose the least bad option.