Bits Bucket for January 28, 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
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You Give Love A Bad Name
Performer: Bon Jovi;
Writer: SAMBORA, RICHARD S. BON JOVI, JON CHILD, DESMOND
I`m upside down,
And you’re to blame
Hey now, you can`t sign
The wrong name name.
A Liar Loan is what you sell
You promise me profit and then house prices fell.
Refi loans got a hold on me
Three-Hundred percent is my new LTV.
OH! You’re a loaded gun … yeah
OH! There’s nowhere to run
No one can save me, the damage is done!
I`m upside down,
And you’re to blame
Hey now, you can`t sign
The wrong name name.
I play my part, of the victim game
You can`t sign the wrong name.
You can`t sign the wrong name.
We took cash out, back in 05
A new granite kitchen and two new cars to drive.
Two condos, that we could rent
We refied them twice but that money is spent.
WHOA! You’re a loaded gun
WHOA! There’s nowhere to run
No one can save me the damage is done.
I`m upside down,
And you’re to blame
Hey now, you can`t sign
The wrong name name.
I play my part, of the victim game
You can`t sign the wrong name.
You can`t sign the wrong name.
You can`t sign…
You can`t sign… the wrong name
You can`t sign…
You can`t sign… the wrong name
You can`t sign…
You can`t sign… the wrong name
Jeff –
When is your collection of Housing Bubble Classic Hits coming out? I’d like to purchase a copy for myself.
Jethro’s Greatest Hits
What’s the hidden message when you play it backward$?
Realtors Are Liars
Jeff & the Subliminals.
Great song btw!
Yes Cantankerous…….. realtors really are liars.
New group to probe origins of housing bubble
Effort links attorneys general, federal agencies
5:52 PM, Jan. 27, 2012
Written by Brian Tumulty
WASHINGTON — The public should expect to see results within weeks from an effort to document criminal and civil violations at the root of the housing bubble, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Friday.
“Americans lost close to $7.5 trillion in home equity over the last five years,” Schneiderman said. “That’s where the wealth of the working class and the wealth of the middle class was. And that’s why we have to make sure we hold people accountable.”
Schneiderman, New York’s top law enforcement official, wouldn’t predict when any the architects of the housing bubble might go to jail.
“I can’t comment on the specifics of the investigation,” he said.
The investigation is being undertaken as part of a collaboration, announced Friday, among state attorneys general and federal agencies.
Schneiderman joined U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other officials Friday at a news conference to discuss the formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group.
Federal and state officials will target the creation, promotion and sale of the financial instruments that provided fuel for the overheated housing market and the run-up in prices. They will share information and staff while deciding which agency has the most appropriate jurisdiction to pursue criminal or civil charges.
“Mortgage-backed securities were, in many ways ground zero,” Robert Zhuzami, director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said at Friday’s news conference.
…
$ as in $ecurities and Exchange Commission
$ as in $chneiderman
$ as in $ame $hasta
$ as in “$traighten up & fly$ right!”
(They’re Educated & Ethical & Profee$ionals, they can do it all by themselves, they don’t require any adult supervision/regulation/compliance laws, iffin’ only they would choose to do so, they’re big SCOTU$ Inc. boy$ & girl$, they knows how they’s OUGHT to behave, it’s completely up to them what they do with all the meager profit$ that they’re allowed to accumulate using American peon-citizen$ & American $oil/Infra$turcture$ & Financial $afety, all they have to do is make good hone$t decision$, they’re capable of that right?)
Luckily that 5 year statute of limitations on securities fraud will keep anyone from going to the pokey.
Well, good! Wouldn’t it be counter-productive to jail the “job creator” class? LOL!
New probe into the origins?
Wasn’t Ron Paul’s testimony in front of Congress in the early 2000s enough to point out the causes? My Buddha! It’s one of the most popular videos on Youtube!
“Americans lost close to $7.5 trillion in home equity over the last five years,”
By God, someone will pay! Heads will roll!
Poor victims “lost” $7.5T. No mention of the artificial means of creating most of that “gain.”
Here’s an irony for you: Robo-signing banks are blaming homeowners who want modifications for failing to submit proper paperwork.
Housing program expands
9:27 PM, Jan. 27, 2012 |
Written by DEREK KRAVITZ
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that will expand its signature foreclosure-prevention program to try to help those with heavy debt loads avoid losing their homes.
The Home Affordable Modification Program will also be extended through 2013.
The government will triple the financial incentives for private lenders to reduce the principal amount of mortgages for homeowners at risk of losing their homes. And for the first time, the government will offer incentives for principal reductions to government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The three-year old program has strived to help those at risk of foreclosure lower their monthly payments. But it has failed to help more than half of those who have applied lower their payments on a permanent basis. Many have complained that the program is a bureaucratic nightmare.
The government has tried several different approaches to help struggling homeowners.
…
Throughout the history of the $29 billion mortgage modification program, homeowners have complained that they were disqualified after banks lost their documents and failed to return phone calls.
Banks have blamed homeowners for failing to submit needed paperwork.
“Banks have blamed homeowners for failing to submit needed paperwork.”
L.M.A.O.!!!!!! Accusing others of exactly that which they are doing. Banks themselves don’t even have their own “needed” paperwork.
What a clusterfark.
Yet another “Man bites dog!” story in the real estate saga, it seems…
“What a clusterfark.”
Not to worry, it`s all being taken care of.
U.S. loosens mortgage aid requirements
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 3:18 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, 2012
Investors with rental properties and homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages because of other debt can now qualify for federal aid under radical changes to the Obama administration’s main foreclosure prevention plan.
The revamp of the Home Affordable Modification Program, which was announced Friday, also includes tripling the monetary incentives the government pays to lenders to reduce loan balances on underwater mortgages.
Friday’s changes should dramatically increase the eligibility pool, administration officials said.
Allows mortgages on rental properties to be modified. Previously, only loans on homes the owner lived in were eligible.
Triples the incentives to services that write down principal amounts from between 6 and 21 cents on the dollar to between 18 and 63 cents on the dollar.
Allows homeowners whose payments are below 31 percent of their income but who cannot afford the monthly mortgage cost because of other debt, such as from credit cards, medical bills or a second lien, to apply for a more flexible program.
Extends the program through Dec. 31, 2013.
Offers incentives to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce principal amounts on underwater mortgages.
And, at least one economist argued the government should just let the market reset itself and stop coming up with new housing subsidies that he believes are delaying a recovery.
“I can’t come up with a good argument for trying to rig the housing market,” said Arnold Kling, senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. “I believe if they had let the market just adjust, that it would have adjusted by now.”
“U.S. loosens mortgage aid requirements”
My memory of what happened five or so years ago is fading, but didn’t loose lending standards lead to some kind of problems in the subprime lending market?
“I believe if they had let the market just adjust, that it would have adjusted by now.”
No shit, Sherlock!
They take their cues from Warren Buffett.
“In 2006, I went out and authored a letter with 24 other senators asking for major reform of Freddie and Fannie, warning of a meltdown and a bubble in the housing market.”
Rick Santorum on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 in a Republican presidential debate in Jacksonville, Fla.
Sen. Rick Santorum says he warned ‘of a meltdown and a bubble in the housing market’
…
The claim
In the Jan. 26, 2012, debate, Fannie and Freddie came up in a question contributed by the public. “How would you phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Does the private mortgage industry need additional regulation?”
That degenerated into a mudfest. Newt Gingrich, who once had a consulting contract with Freddie Mac, accused Mitt Romney of holding investments in the government-chartered entities. Romney accused Gingrich of also holding mutual funds that invest in them.
Moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul and Rick Santorum a followup question.
“It seems they both acknowledge they both made money from Fannie and Freddie,” he said “Should they return that money?”
Santorum said:
“Well, I would just say, in answer to the question, that as I mentioned last debate, in 2006, I went out and authored a letter with 24 other senators asking for major reform of Freddie and Fannie, warning of a meltdown and a bubble in the housing market. I stood out, I stood tall and tried to get a reform, and we couldn’t do it. The reform we’d need is to gradually decrease the amount of mortgage that can be financed by Freddie — or underwritten by Freddie and Fannie over time, keep reducing that until we get rid of Fannie and Freddie.”
The letter
Santorum’s campaign didn’t answer our request for the letter, but we tracked it down.
…
Santorum, Fannie & Freddie
Want more evidence that it wasn’t a housing bubble Santorum was worried about?
Santorum, who served in the Senate from 1995 to 2007 after a stint in the U.S. House, gets credit for supporting the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act in 2005, the year before senators’ letter to their colleagues. The goal of the legislation, according to its official summary, was to set up stronger congressional oversight of Fannie and Freddie and other housing entities by a new Federal Housing Regulatory Agency.
Santorum bucked a strong covert lobbying effort by Freddie Mac to kill the legislation, supporting it in committee — though he was not one of its co-sponsors. (The lobbying effort ultimately kept the bill from reaching the Senate floor.)
But he didn’t voice any concern over “a meltdown” or “a bubble” that we saw in news clips, press releases or transcripts of related hearings from 2005 or 2006.
He focused his energy instead on an amendment to strengthen the entities’ affordable housing goals. As National Mortgage News reported at the time, “Sen. Santorum supports the concept of an (affordable housing) fund that could pump billions of dollars into the construction and renovation of affordable housing.”
In Congress, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., a co-sponsor of the legislation, thanked Santorum in August 2005 “for taking a leadership role in addressing the need for a better focus by Fannie and Freddie on affordable housing.”
No word about a housing bubble.
Our ruling
Santorum said he “went out and authored a letter with 24 other senators asking for major reform of Freddie and Fannie, warning of a meltdown and a bubble in the housing market.”
Indeed, he signed a letter along with a group of colleagues asking for reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. But it didn’t warn of a meltdown and a bubble in the housing market. And we couldn’t find evidence that Santorum voiced that concern in 2005 or 2006 in press releases, transcripts or news clips. Instead, he sponsored a successful amendment of a reform bill to boost the entities’ commitment to affordable housing, a very different concern.
We rate his statement Mostly False.
ehhhhhh…….. Seeing as WE chronicled the Great Housing Fraud right there on this blog, Rick “I’m obsesssed with sex” Santorum said NOTHING. Did NOTHING.
He’s another LIAR.
Of course he’s lying now. Anyone who derided the housing bubble when it was growing, was called everything except “White male”. I remember well those times. As soon as I finished speaking or clicked “OK” to post, I was called anti-American and a hippie and anti-Capitalist and that I hated progress and wealth. And that was light treatment for the era. Even if Santorum actually DID believe there was a housing bubble, he didn’t DARE say anything about it, since he would have been branded as being against All Things We Value (which means money money money).
That’s how our system of control works. We marginalize anyone who’s honest, while the scam is expanding. Just try to get a news outlet to say this is a Depression, for example. They don’t dare do it.
“We marginalize anyone who’s honest, while the scam is expanding.”
Then during the bust, a huge cadre of ‘experts’ like Santorum claim to have warned everybody, while those who did warn everybody remain marginalized.
Man, that’s so correct. So they get to remain the official experts and leaders, while having done (1) NOTHING to have stopped the bubble, and (2) NOTHING to stop the bubble from re-occurring. THEY collect all the accolades, and WE still get treated like night soil.
We have the best system of propaganda ever devised. I really hope that Hitler DID make it to Argentina and live out his life there, so he could see his Big Lie methodology become so successful. If he could have only lived to see Reagan and Thatcher in action. We would have deserved that, to have him watching all that and smiling under his twitching tiny mustache. And yet, from that horrible start of the deconstruction of all Western Sensibility in the 1980s, it only got WORSE.
Even if it were true that he waas pushing for refroms in 2006, isn’t that like closing the barn door after the cows, horses, chickens, pigs, and pertty much all other forms of livestock had left.
You mean the same coal lobbyist who voted for the Patriot Act? And has voted to raise the debt ceiling?
And he cares about we Amerikans? Go jump in a lake, Mr. Senator.
Good to know SV guy.
Suck a shotgun barrel before you fall in the lake Santorum.
That’s not a very nice thing to say
…… meh.
Housing budget set for 41% cut
(UKPA) – 13 hours ago
Scotland’s housing budget for next year will be cut by more than 40%, Scottish Labour has claimed.
The party said figures obtained from the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre show that the original budget for housing in 2011/12 stood at £363.7 million while the budget for 2012/13 is £214.8 million - a drop of just under 41%.
Finance spokesman Richard Baker said the figures would put even more pressure on the construction sector.
He added: “This cut tells you everything you need to know about the SNP’s commitment to home building and the Scottish construction industry. This will be a terrible blow for people waiting for a home and the thousands of people employed in the already under-fire construction sector.
“At a time when demand for housing is increasing, this SNP cut will mean the thousands of people across Scotland who are waiting for affordable homes will be left waiting even longer.”
…
Here’s to hoping Kamala Harris goes it alone on her mortgage fraud investigation, rather than allowing her efforts to be diluted by collaboration with East Coast establishment types who lack the will to protect California interests.
P.S. Harris-Schneiderman Democratic ticket in 2016?
New Obama housing probe to focus on mortgage-backed securities
New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman, second from left in top row, during President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, which he watched as a guest in the box of First Lady Michelle Obama. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
By Jim Puzzanghera
January 26, 2012, 1:06 p.m.
Reporting from Washington—
The Obama administration’s new effort to investigate the causes of the financial crisis will focus on the toxic mortgage-backed securities that triggered the market collapse, Justice Department officials said Thursday.
A team of 55 attorneys, agents and analysts will be quickly assembled to try to speed up existing probes and launch new ones.
The joint federal and state initiative, which President Obama announced in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, also will aim to file civil suits against financial firms and bring criminal charges against people who violated the law, said senior Justice Department officials.
Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman will unveil the special working group Friday in Washington.
Schneiderman has been one of the most aggressive officials in investigating the mortgage crisis. Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan also has joined the working group, and federal officials anticipate adding other state attorneys general as well.
A spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said she was “happy to support” the effort in any way she could, but has not committed to join yet. Harris already has her own 50-person task force to investigate mortgage fraud.
The new initiative will be part of the existing Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which Obama created in 2009 to better coordinate federal efforts to crack down on violations such as Ponzi schemes, insider trading and investment scams.
“This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” Obama said Tuesday.
…
PBear,
If you followed her clown act in SF at all you wouldn’t have high hopes.
She appeared more concerned with fostering and maintaining a judicial free “sanctuary city” for very new residents. There was one very notable case where an illegal she protected from prosecution in multiple cases killed a father and two sons who had mistakenly turned their car into a bad neighborhood. This POS shot and killed them all.
Let Freedom Ring!
“If you followed her clown act in SF at all you wouldn’t have high hopes.”
I offered a long-shot, off-the-cuff prediction. I said nothing about hopes.
But given the spectacular ongoing clown show the RNC has served up this presidential election season, I am completely missing your point about the potential to run for high office. In this day and age, it is a willingness to take the stage and line up financial backing which qualifies candidates for high office. The American electorate is collectively too ignorant to figure out which politicians’ ideas are complete bupkis.
Ladies and gentlemen, let the mortgage fraud prosecutions begin!
The Wall Street Journal
JANUARY 27, 2012, 5:23 P.M. ET
Schneiderman: Objection resolved in mortgage deal
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says there’s been a resolution of one major objection to a proposed settlement between U.S. states and the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders over deceptive foreclosure practices.
Schneiderman, named Friday to help lead a nationwide probe of wrongdoing in the mortgage-backed securities market, says his issue with the multistate settlement was that it shouldn’t interfere with a comprehensive investigation.
He says he’s confident those releases for the banks have been “narrowed.”
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial agreed to the settlement, with up to $25 billion for lowering homeowners’ mortgage principal, refinancing, a reserve account, and checks to homeowners.
…
And the sheeple will yawn…
Let’s focus on the real news, like Pat and Vanna drunk during Wheel tapings!
That’s hot!
William K. Black details the specifics of the fraud involved in the housing bubble on Bill Moyers.
It’s 30 minutes, but riveting for anyone who follows this stuff. Very worthwhile if one wishes to understand the nature of the fraud behind the housing bubble, and why the fraud is not being investigated in any significant way.
Three more bank failures this week and the fraud continues. For kicks I like to Google the CEO when a bank fails, nine times out of ten the results are mind boggling.
This week Tennessee Commerce Bank.
Here are a few snippets taken from the Nashville Post:
January 21, 2011
Tennessee Commerce Bancorp is closing its three out-of-state loan production offices to help it cut costs and focus more on growing in Middle Tennessee.
Also on the call, President and CEO Mike Sapp provided more detail about the resignation of Chief Administrative Officer Martin Zorn. Sapp said Zorn’s departure for a Hawaii risk management company is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“He’s not running from something, he’s running to something,” Sapp said.
“Given the economic meltdown, they’ve obviously seen tremendous growth,” said Zorn, who owns property on Maui and has long planned to retire there. “They needed me now.”
May 18, 2010
Complaint seeks compliance with OSHA reinstatement ruling
Fort was fired after raising a number of internal control and compliance issues related to the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
Federal officials two months ago told Tennessee Commerce it needed to pay Fort more than $1 million in back wages, interest and other fees and reinstate him to his old post.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/draft/tennessee_commerce_bancorp/
2007
Directors, who have stepped down over the last three days, all apparently disagree with recent decision to grant hefty pay hikes to the bank’s top four officers
The dispute appears to stem from the recent decision by the rest of the company’s board to increase dramatically the base salaries of the company’s top four executives.
The four men, who according SEC filings made a combined $690,000 last year, will each receive over $330,000 in ‘07.
CEO Art Helf and chief lending officer Michael Sapp, who each took home $190,000 in ’06, saw their salaries more than double this year, jumping to $400,000 apiece
“The dispute appears to stem from the recent deci$ion by the rest of the company’$ board to increase dramatically the base $alaries of the company’$ top four executive$.”
Likes eyes said up above: They’re Educated / Ethical / Profee$ionals, they don’t need no stinkin’ adult supervision, theys can do it all by themselves, they’re Big SCOTUS Inc. Person$ / boy$ & girl$, they$ know$ how$ they OUGHT to behave$, now leave ‘em alone!
Speaker Newt “Moonbeam” Gingrich — gotta love his proposal in a political season when Republicans are clamoring to slash spending on government programs!
In his defense, I can say that I probably would not have been exposed to college math topics (e.g. set theory) during my grade school education if I hadn’t grown up during the Space Era. And I also would most likely not be writing this on a desktop computer if NASA had never pushed for manned space travel to the moon.
Political Science | The Question of Space
For a Moon Colony, Technology Is the Easy Part
Marcus Yam for The New York Times
Newt Gingrich campaigned at the Republican Jewish Coalition Rally in Delray Beach, Fla., on Friday.
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: January 27, 2012
Could the United States establish a moon colony and develop a new propulsion system for going to Mars? All within eight years of a Newt Gingrich presidency, as Mr. Gingrich promised this week?
Bringing back trips to the moon, like this Apollo 17 mission, would have financial hurdles.
The answers seem to be technologically yes, economically iffy and politically very difficult.
In proposing an ambitious vision for space, Mr. Gingrich stepped into the eternal debate over where the nation’s and NASA’s priorities should lie. Mr. Gingrich spoke little about NASA’s unmanned missions, which many think produce better science with less money. Inspiration and economic frontiers, not science, drive his long-standing enthusiasm for space.
“I come at space from a standpoint of a romantic belief that it really is part of our destiny,” Mr. Gingrich said in his speech on Wednesday. He joked about a legislative proposal, early in his Congressional career, that a moon colony could apply for statehood once its population reached 13,000.
…
The problem with a moon base is the same as the space station. Once you build it, now what? How many times do you need to test how plants grow in weightlessness?
A moon base is less useful than the space station. There is way too much gravity on the moon to do anything that requires weightlessness. It could be a test location for figuring out how to mine asteroids, but that is about all I can think of, and even then it is of limited use. When it comes to mining asteroids, you may want to work on the small ones, not the big ones. And for now, reusing and recycling is a much more likely way to get natural resources than mining asteroids.
Look, NASA goals for manned space exploration are rarely set because there is a clear use for any technology that will be developed to accomplish it, even less a major need for the exploration itself. They are set because they are cool. The question is whether now is the right time for the government to be taking on these particular goals. You can come to your own conclusions.
Let’s get real here:
1. There would be no net direct economic benefits to colonizing the moon, absent some unforeseen, near-miraculous discovery of economic opportunity on the moon. Compared to the dubious benefits, the cost of this kind of program would seem immense to anyone but the most hard-core Keynesian thinker.
2. There might be some indirect benefits, as I alluded to in another post (e.g. Republicans who don’t recognize the general need for a well-educated populace suddenly see the light if the U.S. reenters the Space Race).
3. Lots of money from places outside of the Florida Space Coast will get sucked in to the Florida economy, creating a wealth transfer with no net gain to the national economy.
“Once you build it, now what?”
1. Colonization
2. U.S. Statehood (step aside, Puerto Rico, Newt has the rest of the Universe in his gun sites)
3. Inter-galactic travel
Fantasy space exploration is a piece of cake!
Hwy50 as fill in acting copy editor:
“Repubicans are clamoring to slash spending on government [Defen$e] programs!”
That long line of TrueAngry peoples?
What’s it for you ask?
Well now you see, they’re a collective group of really pi$$ed off Fi$cal Con$ervative Repubicans, that’s the “Audit-the-Pentagon” registration line don’t ya know!
my guess is Gingrich pictures himself in Moonraker as the king of a genetically perfect bunch of young people ready to be transplanted back to earth. I suspect that when he looks in the mirror he sees Arnold Schwartzneger.
I’m so happy Newt’s Moonbeam Initiative has opened the door to ginormous heaps of political ridicule. I generally hate election politics, and I find Newt’s desperation mudslinging, which Republican voters seem to so admire, particularly despicable. But Americans who relish political humor owe Newt a large debt of gratitude for the immense comic opportunities he has created for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to exploit.
Late Night: Stewart, Colbert ridicule Gingrich’s moon base idea
January 27, 2012 | 9:47 am
Earlier this week, presidential candidate New Gingrich promised that, if elected, he would establish a permanent American colony on the moon by the year 2020. On Thursday night, Gingrich’s ambitious proposal drew the jeers of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
The moon colony idea was Gingrich’s way of embracing contentions leveled by his rival Rick Santorum in South Carolina last week that he is a “grandiose” thinker.
Stewart marveled at Gingrich’s audacity: “A moon base?! Your solution to being accused of grandiosity is ‘Give me eight years and I’ll have a…moon base?! Did you start with Death Star and got kind of reined in?”
Both hosts blasted Gingrich’s suggestion that the moon colony could eventually become a state. Stewart pointed to remarks Gingrich made in 1993, when he dismissed efforts to make Washington, D.C., a state “crazy.”
Colbert also found some bitter irony in Gingrich’s idea that the moon could become a new manufacturing hub. “America will bring manufacturing to the moon. Ohio? [Totally] out of luck.”
Not to be outdone, Stewart managed to tie Gingrich’s outlandish moon mission back to his much-discussed personal life. “This isn’t about making new states,” Stewart said. “Newt Gingrich did that global warming ad with Nancy Pelosi, realized that the Earth is very sick and now he wants to leave it for a younger planet!”
…
But theres gold on the moon!
To the moon, Alice!
http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/video/2188352035/the-big-bang-theory-awkward
57 seconds in.
Maybe he was giving his audience a solution to the Palestinian ‘problem’.
Just think of all the jobs, jobs, jobs that would spontaneously materialize along the Florida space coast and perhaps this will all seem to pencil out some how…
Moon plan would cost the earth
January 29, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio: Newt Gingrich’s goal to establish a permanent moon base by 2020 if he is elected President would be costly and should not be the space program’s focus, John Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, said.
”Sometime we’ll go to the moon, but I think to have a lunar colony by 2020 is optimistic to say the least,” Mr Glenn said.
The 90-year-old said he doubted the cost of a permanent base had been thought out, especially the expense of maintaining a colony.
…
They aren’t making any more Space.
They aren’t making any more Space.
Hah, it’s expanding as we speak, so if you buy now think of the spread your children will inherit. Susan checked it out!
“…it’s expanding as we speak…”
Don’t tell Newt, as next thing he will propose colonizing solar systems in outer galaxies…
Space is expanding into what? What does space encroach on? Enquiring minds would like to know.
MoonBean$ Cafe & Lunar Du$t Re$earch Lab = Prudent Fi$cal Conservative$ Program
National Healthcare System = “Evil”
“All Aboard Amtrak!”
I guess Newt’s campaign advisers think it is crazy talk that wins Florida Republican votes?
And we thought that getting enough water to Las Vegas and LA was hard.
If there is anything that biosphere 1 and 2 showed is that a self-sustaining sealed environment is much, much more difficult than originally anticipated.
But those biosphere projects did not face the transportation problem to which Polly alludes. It is costly enough to ship oil and other provisions to Hawaii, much less to the moon.
P.S. Gingrich clearly is a well-educated moron. I totally understand his appeal to the RNC.
“Three years” is not “long term.” Period.
Jan. 23, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
5 best and 5 worst U.S. housing markets, long term
The places with best, worst home-price outlooks for next three years
…
Five worst:
Bottom 5 No. 1: Wilmington, Del.
…
Bottom 5, No. 2: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga. (Sorry, Eddie!)
…
Bottom 5, No. 3: Tucson, Ariz.
…
Bottom 5, No. 4: Jacksonville, Fla.
…
Bottom 5, No. 5: Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif.
The Sacramento area also suffered big home-price drops in the past year. During the housing boom, prices rose 35%, but plummeted 38% during the bust. While the government sector often provides stability to the local economy, it’s always vulnerable to state budget cuts. The number of jobs is down 11% over the year. At left, the tower bridge from the east side of the Sacramento River as it flows through Sacramento.
Professor Bear’s math fact of the day:
A 35% price increase followed by a 38% decline measures up to a net change of ((1+.35)*(1-.38)-1)*100% = -16.3%.
Sorry, Eddie!
Big fat Simpsons’ Nelson Muntz HA HA to that
+1
Just for a laugh:
Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/opinion/banks-taketh-but-dont-giveth.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp
Realtors Are Liars®
$25,000 underwater but at least they can paint the walls any color they want
Politicians are Cowards.
Denial is a form of pure cowardice.
Ron Paul is the only one with the courage to tell the people the truth that nobody wants to hear. But that doesn’t get you very many votes these days…
This country is led by cowards.
Cowards will always lose in battle.
Cowards will always get just what they deserve.
Diogenes is traveling today. Any rude or unseemly comments must be postponed until arrival at destination in Jacksonville tonight.
Several stops via Orlando and Daytona.
Please load the post with hideous comments about OHbamah and his minions in my absence. Thank you.
That sense of attack you are feeling is known as cognative dissonance, “the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.”
Not attacking you, just pointing out inaccuriies in your, clearly strongly held, beliefs.
Money is borrowed into existance and is a measure of other peoples’ debt.
It is impossible for everyone to spend less than they earn, accumulating money. The only way someone could sell more than they buy, is if someone else is buying more than they sell.
We have been funding our international trade deficts and widening wealth disparity on unsustainable private sector debt growth. When the private sector maxed on debt, we either allowed the economy to collapse, or have the government step up as borrower of last resort to keep the unsustainable economy going a few more years.
Your claims that the government deficits are a spending problem, fly in the face of a detailed analysis of the budget and a study of other countries attempting to correct their deficits via spending cuts. The underlying problems causing the deficits ibn all of these coutnries are the trade imbalances of international trade deficits and widening wealth disparities.
Unless the objective is to triger a depression, before we can stop the federal government deficits, we must first directly attack and reverse the trade imbalances that created the need for unsustainable debt in the first place.
Reagonomics has been a disaster, increasing debt at 3x the sustainable rate for 30 years. We have increased each household’s share of total debt from 2.8x median income to 6.5x median income. The reason the economy refuses to respond to stimulus of massive deficits and 0% interest rates is that we’re maxed on debt. The econmoy of the last 30 years has been based on unsustainable debt growth, and outside of the federal government, we’ve reached the max supportable debt load.
Now, I’m sorry that you are uncomfortable with these truths, but please consider them attacks on your incorrect beliefs and not you personally.
In a far away place, before you were born, I married a beautiful woman who had “needs”. Her needs were met with charge accounts. Her needs far exceeded the imaginations of this young scout. Her needs were insatiable. She was a spoiled brat.
Our journeys took us to the land called Credit Limit. She fell into a great depression, in which we discovered that her needs were not so great. She learned to do with less and the charge accounts faded away with time. And she and I were very very happy.
Why do you add extra Hs to the president’s name? It seems to please you to do it, so I’m pretty sure it is meant as an insult, but I don’t know why.
I think it has something to do with making it more like Oh-Bomb-A or Oh-Bum-A
Then why the extra h at the end? Your idea only explains the first one, not the second one.
Any and all insults to Obama are greatly appreciated.
Eric Holder is a racist.
Eric Holder is a racist.
So who does he fancy…and hate?
Really liked your post yesterday about less government spending vs. taxes. I don’t understand how people seem to want to give more money and control to the government. For those who don’t seem to understand my position it is more anti bureaucracy than anti-government. And the fed government is mother of all bureacracies. No need to throw the bady out with the bath water just change the water. Hardly a day goes by without a news story about waste and fraud and mismanagement. And yes it applies to non government - s very recent example: Kodak’s bankruptcy.
Unbeknownst to Republican politicians, it is hard to have a country with no federal government. Perhaps outside the box thinkers could start figuring out how to govern with less of a bureaucratic stranglehold on the economy?
When the government creates FDIC or gives $700B to the banks, to create economic stability and the rich rich, this is good government.
When the government then tells those banks they can’t make your CC rate 35% if you are 1-day late on a payment, government should not intrude into the economy.
Double standard much?
The problems with the argument are
1) most of the money doesn’t go to bureauracy. $770B goes to Social Security checks . Another $800B or so goes to pay for Healthcare for the poor, elderly and elderly poor. $670B defense. $240B interest. $100B transportation. $77B Education. $60B courts an prisons. That is over $2.7T of the $3.7T.
2) Many of the people he is arguing with, including me, also want to reduce government spending. I personally think that to do so, before first attacking the underlying trade imbalances that created the need for the debt in the first place, would immeidatly result in depression. First, fix the bleeding, THEN stop pumping blood into the patient.
3) My desire for a very steep income tax with 90%+ top rate and lots of deductions, as existed in the 1950s, is not to actually make people pay those high rates, but rather, to strongly encourage them to spend the money rather than loan it to people that can’t pay it back.
I’m not arguing that we should pay people to dig holes, then fill them back in.
I’m arguing that we need to end free trade and offer people with money, both a carrot and a stick to get them to spend the money. I’m arguing that we need to reverse trade imbalances to stop needing the government spending.
The United States government is a medical insurance company and retirement savings program with a military. Any solution to the long term debt that is not primarily aimed at those items is going to fail.
Any “cut our way out of the deficits” solution, yes.
If we end free trade to balance our international trade deficits, then revert to a tax code that prevents too much money from pooling into too few hands, we could create jobs and increase wages.
This could allow us to reduce spending by upto $500B (Disability, unemployment, food stamps, housing assistane, EITC, child tax credit, Medicaid, etc) while increasing tax receipts.
The United States government is a medical insurance company and retirement savings program with a military.
Wow…so what was good for GM really WAS good for America.
Hi. Maybe those wanting to buy will get a big bonus from the government. In their attempt to keep the market propped up maybe there will be the return of the big tax credits and even lower rates for the shrinking pool of buyers. How many here would take the plunge if the governement offered 0% mortgages and they did not have the effect to simulate demand so there was 0% mortgages with prices where they are today? 0% mortage with a big tax credit?
P.S. Moon space station sounds interesting. But are n’t oceans still underexplored? They’re a lot closer than the moon. When I was a kid it seemed like it was very trendy to say you wanted to be a marine biologist. Maybe the Jacques Cousteau effect.
“But are n’t oceans still underexplored?”
Yes there are by golly! Gander thine eyes at this local:
(The best Legacy item Cheney-Shrub let for ALL current & future wealthy American$ to visit, enjoy and play/camp/explore!) [no-cell service, apologies]
Cheney-Shrub Legacy item #241:
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument:
The area was proclaimed the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument by U.S. President George W. Bush on June 15, 2006; it was renamed Papahānaumokuākea in 2007, and inscribed on the World Heritage list as Papahānaumokuākea on 30 July 2010, at the 34th Session of the World Heritage Committee, Brasilia.
The area is managed in partnership with the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior, and the State of Hawaii.
(Iffin’ you voting for Ron Paul, these Dept’s will be gettin’ a repubican style haircut/Brazilian wax treatment)
+1. This happens to be one the very few things I applaud from the prior admin. It was at a cool visitor center in Hilo that I first heard of this area, other than the more popular atolls.
“They’re a lot closer than the moon.”
Also a hell of a lot more likely to harbor something of economic value, compared to the cost of exploration. Take untapped coastal oil reserves, for instance…
That’s what I mean if I did not articulate. The coffee is just finishing brewing…
+1 Anon
Darrell in Phoenix posted a study a few days ago
“There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb,”
“The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults.”
“So, are you racist because you are dumb? Or are you just a conservative because you are a dumb, and that makes you racist?”
And alpha-sloth chimed in with…
“One study is not sufficient to prove anything…”
“Oh, there are plenty of similar studies:”
“Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study”
Well I have done a study of my own over the last 30 years, I will share 3 of my findings. As most of you know what I have been a drywall guy since the early eighties. Although I have worked on many projects for middle class or lower income people who are dumb like myself, most of the work I have done has been for well educated smart people (I couldn`t say for sure wether these 3 in my study were liberal or conservative but they were well educated and by most standards smart). One was a lawyer, one worked for Pratt & Whitney and one (who lives in Steeplechase of Robo Lynn fame) was some kind of business man with an MBA.
Background; In a single family home when possible drywall is stocked in an upright position with a slight lean back against the exterior or bearing wall where it is placed. This makes it much easier to work with than being stocked flat on the ground. We work with 4×12 sheets that are bundled in 2s with 5/8 weighing about 105 lbs per sheet and 1/2 weighing about 80 lbs per sheet.
This is where the study gets interesting, smart people are also curious. In all 3 istances that happened over about a 4 year span the smart and well educated homeowner had told the builder to add an outlet and being smart and curious they decided to look behind the upright stacks of 18 to 20 sheets of drywall to see if they had gotten what they asked for. Well let me tell ya, you can lean 20 boards back to an upright position but if you go slightly passed that you`ve got a big problem.
The first time it happened we heard the crash and the screaming so we dropped our tools jumped off the baker scaffold and ran to the room with the trapped and flailing smart guy where we peeled the bundeled rock off of him. We helped him up and made sure he was OK. He explained what he was doing and then hobbled out the front door got in his BMW and went home. We all looked at each other and said…Boy is he smart. By the third time this had happened which was over a number of years we finished what we were doing before we went in to free the trapped and curious smart guy. Much like your third child, the bottle hits the ground with the first one and you boil it. By the third one you wipe it off on your pants and say… here this ain`t gonna kill you.
Through the years I would estimate that we saved another 10 - 15 smart well educated men from the same fate by warning them and on several occassions pulled the board to an upright position so they could see for themselves without getting burried.
The other part of my study has concluded that smart guys tend to wail like little girls in a man’s voice when they are hurt and trapped. Where as dumb guys like myself tend to say Fuch! Or… SON OF A B#TCH! Or as I have done on many occasions screamed… Oh God I`m hit! MEDIC! That tends to make you laugh and deal with the pain even if you do need stitches. This also helps to keep you from being called a part of the female anatomy.
In conclusion and out of respect for the other studies that have been offered I have begun to tell my black and Hispanic friends that I can no longer be their friend because I am dumb and therefore a racist. I will get letters out to the black guys I played football with as soon as I can to tell them the same thing.
I find it mystifying that lefties I’ve known have frequently had a hard time making the connection between their disdain for people who think differently than them and their inability to get them to consider voting differently.
And worse Carl …so many potential employers i talk to today, cannot fathom hiring anyone who can think outside the box
“And worse Carl …so many potential employers i talk to today, cannot fathom hiring anyone who can think outside the box”
What`s a box?
I can’t fathom how all the big money is “earned”, possessed, controlled and laundered by those in big cities where only honest, caring and unselfish people reside.
It’s the flyover rubes with no money and no stature who create all fiscal and regulatory problems, don’t ‘cha know.
Is this big money?
The Solyndra loan controversy is a political controversy involving U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration’s authorization of a $535 million loan guarantee …
I have met more people educated beyond their intelligence than I care to remember.
In most cases, the people I know who have Phd’s who insist on having “Dr” in front of their names tend to fit that category of “educated beyond their intelligence.” They also are not humble. On the other hand I know people who have Phds who do not put the “Dr” in front of their name and they are very down-to-earth. I allow the exception to medical doctors. I would hope they have the label if they diagnose any symptom I have.
On the one hand someone who has worked hard for their PhD might feel proud about it. But mostly I mentally roll my eyes.
At work it’s all I can do not to suggest to colleagues to take it off their email signature.
I’m friends with and work with PhD’s. Not a single one of them use the Dr. prefix except for 2. One is a medical doctor and the other truly lives in a vacuum. Not a lick of common sense. The others are brilliant, critical thinkers and loads of common sense.
I’m not sure what the point of the story is.
I’ll defer to the Dilbert Principle here. Everyone is stupid at least one a day.
Like, I could tell you that at 90 degrees, the lateral torque from a 2000 lb object is 0 lbs, at 85 degrees it is 175 lbs, and 80 degrees it is 350 lbs, and at 75 degress the lateral force is 500 lbs.
Doesn’t mean I might not lean a stack of sheet rock over without thinking about it.
Intelligence is your ability to see patterns in the data, when you are actively looking for them. Intellignce is not a measure of eductaion, experience or how often you take time to think things through before doing them.
“I’ll defer to the Dilbert Principle here. Everyone is stupid at least one a day.”
So that`s it! Everyone is stupid at least one a day except for conservatives and they are stupid and racist everyday.
“Oh God I`m hit! MEDIC!”
Priceless Jeff!
smart guys tend to wail like little girls in a man’s voice when they are hurt and trapped.
Congratulations, Jeff. Your weakest post ever. And that’s saying a lot.
(What is it with conservatives and their always available/unsupportable anecdotal evidence? Someone ought to do a study.)
“Congratulations, Jeff. Your weakest post ever. And that’s saying a lot.”
If you were Ben Jones or RAL or several others on this blog I would listen to you. But you are not.
“(What is it with conservatives and their always available/unsupportable anecdotal evidence? Someone ought to do a study.)”
Is this like that lady that was getting the Hardest Hit money that I couldn`t prove was collecting rent on 2 other condos she owned while getting the Hardest Hit money and then the next day the PB Post had a story about how she lost her Hardest Hit money because she had 2 condos she was collecting rent on? That was a pretty weak post too according to Mr. do you have any proof. Hey man, I know some bad @ss smart guys too. But I can`t prove that either. I know some bad @ss liberals that are smart too. But I can`t prove that either. These guys in this story didn`t fall in that category and I don`t give a damn wether you believe me or not. ( by the way if I was gonna make sh#t up I would have made myself something better) I wouldn`t want an opened minded guy like you to think I would throw a blanket statement out about a whole group of people. Cause I know you wouldn`t do that, oh wait. Hey Dr. gray matter, go study your anterior cingulate cortex.
You don’t need to “make sh#t up” when you are talking to Darrell-sloth & etc. You do stuff. You are an artist.
Anyone think Jill has a “nom de pen” that would get her an interview @ Goldenman$ucksInc., et.al.?
Hey now, quick pickin’ on TruePatriotic American/Australian SCOTU$ Inc. MegaMudraker$ Person$
British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe
UK police arrest police officer, Sun journalists, as part of inquiry into bribery by tabloid:
Associated Press / By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) — British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.
The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing — which has already shut down one paper, the News of the World — to a second Murdoch newspaper.
The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.
Police said Saturday’s arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch’s News Corp., the internal body tasked with rooting out wrongdoing.
News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.
Lucky fellow Frank, gettin’ paid to report on items like this, looks really cold, wonder how that effected things?
Topless protesters detained at elite Davos forum, trying to call attention to poor
Associated PressBy Frank Jordans, Associated Press
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world’s poor. Separately, demonstrators from the Occupy movement marched to the edge of the gathering.
After a complicated journey to reach the heavily guarded Swiss resort town of Davos, the Ukrainians arrived at the entrance to the complex where the World Economic Forum takes place every year.
Burt Reynolds drops asking price of Hobe Sound ‘Valhalla’ home by $4 million
Bill DiPaolo, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
HOBE SOUND, Fla. — The price to live in Valhalla has dropped by $4 million.
The waterfront five-bedroom home of actor Burt Reynolds, which was for sale in August for $9 million and on which foreclosure proceedings began in August, can now be had for $5 million.
About 125 brokers and customers attended a showing 10 days ago after word went out that the price dropped at the gated home, said Robert Kairalla, owner/broker for JIC Realty, the Jupiter firm selling the home.
“It’s a sign of the times,” Kairalla said. “(Reynolds) is very motivated to sell.”
Valhalla - named for the mythical place where the Nordic god of war Odin greets slain warriors - is three buildings on 3.4 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway. It includes the main home and two guest houses.
http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_martin_county/hobe_sound/burt-reynolds-drops-asking-price-of-hobe-sound-valhalla-home-by-4-million#ixzz1km8unMr0
Burt Reynolds…
We dumped on Burt Reynolds yesterday.
Apparently removing an elected gov and replacing the head with a hand picked central banker isn’t enough. The central banks want total control.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.
“There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that’s enough,” the source said.
The source added that under the proposals European institutions already operating in Greece should be given “certain decision-making powers” over fiscal policy.
“This could be carried out even more stringently through external expertise,” the source said.
The Financial Times said it had obtained a copy of the proposal showing Germany wants a new euro zone “budget commissioner” to have the power to veto budget decisions taken by the Greek government if they are not in line with targets set by international lenders.
Banksters uber deadbeats
Uber alles in der Welt
Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package
This is pretty amazing stuff. Who would have thunk it?
All your sovereignty are belong to us.