Bits Bucket for February 15, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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Realtors Are Liars®
Angelo Mozilo is laughing at you.
“Even if I fell, I land on a bunch of money” - Jay Z
And former Lehman CEO Richard “Dick” Fuld has had over $100 million laughs at your expense too
Per his wikipedia page he is currently working as a hedgie on Wall Street.
“Fuld was nicknamed the “Gorilla” on Wall Street for his competitiveness. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Fuld number one on their Worst American CEOs of All Time list, stating he was “belligerent and unrepentant”.
Competition is great. It allows the best to rise up and set the pace.
However, there’s competition in the mafia too. Those who rise to the head of the mafia are not generally considered good for society.
When running the biggest scam nets you the biggest prize, society needs to step back and evaluate the incentive and disincentive system it currently has. It needs to re-evaluate the rules of its internal game.
Good idea. But I can tell you that there is ZERO re-evaluation going on right now, and into the foreseeable future. We’re nowhere near recovery. The fraudsters have total control of the politicians, the legal system and in fact our entire culture. We who desire sanity and justice are simply lucky so far that they haven’t chosen to actually jail us for speaking out.
BenterRenter,
Another great post. Speak louder my brother.
I do not feel like scumbag bankers are controlling me, more they are controlling large numbers of my fellow humans. You know, the ones who continue to use Bank of America, Wells Fargo, invest with Goldman Sachs, etc. If everybody boycotted B of A tomorrow, they would die. It’s the people who have allowed these mega-cancers to develop, and who continue to feed their bloated balance sheets.
Realtors are Liars.
A Depression is not just economic:
We must be in a Depression because every morning the news is more depressing than yesterday. The real news is pretty bad, but the make-belive/hopium fabricated recovery-based TBTF bull$hit is reaching the unbearable level. The worst part is there is no end in sight: Think election with no possibility of a favorable outcome the most foreseeable event and that is even pretty far away from where we are now. The bleak prospects seem to ruin the flavor of even the best tasting coffee.
news is pretty bad, but the make-belive/hopium fabricated recovery-based TBTF bull$hit is reaching the unbearable level ??
Quit listening to Hanity,Coulter,Limpy & Beck…
Here are today’s “news” headlines as selected by Drudge:
OBAMA: I didn’t understand how bad it was going to get
GAS PRICE UP 83% DURING TERM
Obama weighing up to 80% cut in U.S. nukes
Fewer warheads than China!
FOOD POLICE REJECT HOMEMADE LUNCH
MAKE PRESCHOOLER EAT ‘CAFETERIA NUGGETS’
Another solar company goes under
REPORT: Chicago most corrupt city in USA
BUDGET BUST: Obama’s defecit spending $17K per person, $70K per family
I listen to Rush Limbaugh if I am driving around at lunch, and he regularly uses Drudge-linked articles as talking points for his show. This entrenches the memes that get circulated on the evening cable “news” programs. Since I only watch C-Span’s Washington Journal, I mostly get to hear these talking points from the audience callers…
Considering the source I’m surprised they forgot the ClimateGate 3.0 breaking news…
Leaked: a plan to teach climate change skepticism in schools.
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/15/10415410-leaked-a-plan-to-teach-climate-change-skepticism-in-schools
It’s comforting to know our children’s futures are in good hands.
Luddites rule!
“Leaked: a plan to teach climate change skepticism”
Round them up for thought retraining. Skepticism of Official Science is subversive. A clear mind is a strong mind.
The news stories about the coming war with Iran should cheer you up.
2002 called, it wants its talking point back:
“We’ve got to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here”
Shite - those guys are fixing to attack New York City again!
The NYPD must assume that New York City could be targeted by Iran or Hezbollah. . . . Iran’s U.N. mission allows officials from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence to live and operate in New York with official diplomatic cover. . . . Iran also has a presence in New York via the Alavi Foundation, a nonprofit ostensibly devoted to charity works and promoting Islamic culture. . . . the NYPD must remain vigilant in attempting to detect and disrupt any attack by Iran or its proxies. Anything less would be abdicating our duty to protect New York City and its residents.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Bankers and Washington are not? So many sunglasses blocking reality.
Ben and Jerry?
CIBT wrote yesterday: “Asians generally are smarter”
link?
I’ve heard this canard over and over. Smarter than who or what? Based on what? IQ measurements by race?
I don’t think Asians are smarter or dumber than anyone else. But there’s no doubt that at one time, China, for example, had an incredibly advanced civilization in terms of art, architecture, philosophy, and (gasp) manufacturing. And food. Italy can thank China for pasta, for example. Fireworks and gunpowder were another Chinese “invention”. They had incredible textiles, pottery and porcelain, etc. And that Great Wall is quite something. And all of these long before Europe had anything to compare. So maybe that’s where this “Asians are smarter” comes from.
‘According to news reports Obama’s White House meeting on Valentine’s day with China’s Vice President, Xi Jinping, provided an opportunity for Obama to raise ‘a sensitive human rights issue with the Chinese leader-in-waiting.’ Obama declared that Washington would ‘continue to emphasize what we believe is the importance of realizing the aspirations and rights of all people.’
‘Think about that for a minute. Washington is now in the second decade of murdering Muslim men, women, and children in six countries. One hundred thousand, or one million, dead Iraqis, four million displaced Iraqis, a country with destroyed infrastructure, and entire cities bombed and burnt with white phosphorus into cinders is the proper way to show concern for human rights.’
‘Ditto for Afghanistan. And Libya. In Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia Washington’s drones bring human rights to the people. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and secret CIA prison sites are other places to which Washington brings human rights. Obama, who has the power to murder American citizens without due process of law, is too powerless to close Guantanamo Prison.’
‘Instead of following Washington’s human rights lead, the evil Chinese invest in other countries, buy things from them, and sell them goods.’
‘Nothing better illustrates the total unreality of life in the West than the fact that the entire Western world did not break out in riotous laughter over Obama’s expression of his human rights concern over China’s behavior.’
Thank you, Ben!
No truer words have been spoken before.
I believe it is an older Russian joke, that; ‘When God wants to punish Americans, he sends them tornadoes and hurricanes. When God wants to punish anyone else, he sends them Americans.’
Here is a Mexican joke:
Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.
Which is the real reason we are hated. And FWIW, many in the West do laugh at Obama’s human rights diatribe, it’s just not the “leaders”.
Much like those who decry other people’s “entitlements” while justifying their own, our national hypocrisy is plain for all to see, even if we refuse to acknowledge it.
‘our national hypocrisy is plain for all to see’
It isn’t just hypocrisy, it is an unreality of sorts. Let’s take the hub-bub about this bank ’settlement.’ This stuff happened AFTER the housing bubble formed. Where is the inquiry into what caused this whole mess? Not only do we not get to the problem, our govt spend trillions to keep house prices higher!
Listen to the complaining; these ‘banksters’ got off easy with $26 billion. Excuse me? Our govt GAVE these corporations hundreds of billions! Meanwhile, these same giant companies give our politicians and candidates, in both parties, the money they need to buy our own damn votes from us!
National stupidity is more like it.
“…our govt spend trillions to keep house prices higher!”
Next thing you know, we will have a budget crisis on our hands…
Could the U.S. Economy Ever Look Like Greece’s?
Danielle Kurtzleben U.S. News & World Report
February 14, 2012
This weekend, Greece’s fiscal problems resulted in austerity measures and destructive riots in Athens. Meanwhile, the White House released a budget Monday making for a deficit of nearly $1 trillion. Looking at the Greek crisis and the United States’ $15 trillion national debt burden, it’s hard not to wonder: When, if ever, will the U.S. debt seriously threaten the economy?
…
“Our govt GAVE these corporations hundreds of billions!”
How the MSM chronically overlooks this key point is nothing short of astounding.
TBTF can only exist with hypocrisy and lies. Fake things just work that way.
I guess I am a banksta apologist.
Because I am sorry the bankstas lent all that money to the Deadbeats.
Meanwhile in the Chem-Lab:
Deadbeats, filthy rich banksters, and corrupt leaders are the result of the chemical reaction that is human greed mixed with all the other elements of our “advanced” society. A failed chemistry experiment where perfecly good ingredients yeild a crappy, foul-smelling precipitate when mixed. Congratulations everyone who took part in this experiment.
‘banksta apologist’
Like the people who say, ‘the Federal Reserve saved us!’ The wall street banks OWN the Fed! Just yesterday posters here were saying that the TARP thing had to be be done. Didn’t you hear, Paulson got down on his knees to Nancy Pelosi? Jeebus, we had to have been on the abyss!
“Paulson got down on his knees to Nancy Pelosi?”
That alone should get him prison time.
Paulson got down on his knees to Nancy Pelosi? Jeebus
This conjures up an image I really wish I could erase from my mind…
‘an image I really wish I could erase from my mind’
I’d never head that, but someone posted it here yesterday, like it was a sign of the apocalypse.
HBO simplifies financial crisis in ‘Too Big To Fail’
BY PAIGE WISER TV Critic/pwiser@suntimes.com May 19, 2011 7:46PM
“The movie succeeds in putting a human face on the crisis; you won’t soon forget the spectacle of Paulsen approaching Nancy Pelosi on his knees. And you will learn that the term “bailout” is incorrect. It should be referred to as a “very large purchase assistance package.”
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/5457421-421/hbo-simplifies-financial-crisis.html - -
“I’d never head that, but someone posted it here yesterday, like it was a sign of the apocalypse.”
It’s right here in Politicies 4:12
And lo, the shiny domed one knelt before the harpy of congress.
And lo, he beseecheth her, “Give unto my brethren all the money, that we may saveth the people from their greed”
And the harpy of congress sayeth unto the shiny domed one, “Taketh this money and distribute it among your cronies. Forget not to contribute generously to my campaign fund, that I may continue to serve you in joy.”
And the clouds did gather, and the thunder did roll, and there was much gnashing of teeth among the people.
And the cronies did chortle in their money vaults, and begin preparations for the next big swindle.
obama got the nobel peace prize so it’s all good.
this guy is a laughing stock.
Laughing all the way to the end of his second term in 2017
“Laughing all the way to the end of his second term in 2017″
What this story doesn`t mention is that the owners of the flower shop had to cancel their insurance 4 months ago. There`s a lot of that going around.
Longstanding suburban Lake Worth flower shop ravaged by early morning fire
By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:09 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
Investigators believe an early morning fire that ravaged a suburban Lake Worth flower shop was electrical in nature, says Palm Beach County Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Don DeLucia.
The flower shop, which has been operating there for decades, suffered extensive damage, DeLucia said.
What the fire didn’t damage, smoke and heat did, DeLucia said.
Further details are expected later today.
What this story doesn`t mention is that the owners of the flower shop had to cancel their insurance 4 months ago. There`s a lot of that going around.
There’s something about those ever-rising insurance premiums, isn’t there? They just don’t seem to be matched by increases in income, do they?
BTW, an update on my health insurance saga: My rejection notice was responded to by the company in (I’m not making this up) Richland Hills, Texas. They sent me two pages full of insurance industry-speak to justify their rate hike. It reminded me of that old expression from my college days: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with BS.
I’ve also reported this company to the Arizona Department of Insurance. Perhaps it could take action against them like the City of Los Angeles has.
goon,
the banksters are the one’s laughing about 2012.
the fix is in.
the banksters are the one’s laughing about 2012.
the fix is in.
Darn tootin’ it is. It’s Obama vs. Romney, most likely. We already know Obama is Wall Street’s boy. And Romney is neck-deep in the finance industry. So he’s also Wall Street’s boy. We’re doomed for another 4 years.
And Darrel (Phoenix?) wonders why the heck I want this system to crash and burn? It’s so that they stop running up $20K in more debt in my direct name each year, Darrel! I don’t have the money and will never have the money, but they’ll still try to take whatever wealth I have to make up the difference. Their plan is to make me a pauper. If they keep going for another decade of this I will die a pauper no matter WHAT I do. I’ll die poor in my own country as it attacks my wealth as a standard policy.
Spot on Ben…Pretty hypocritical…Thats why they ignore our demands…Its all theater…We Talk but don’t walk-the-walk…
Homer Simpson:
Son I know it’s easy to criticize
so I do
From Futurama…
I’ve found a loophole in the mortgage! If we pay it, we can keep the building!
“four million displaced Iraqis”
We should give them all a check for $2,000.
free iPhones would be fair at a minimum.
Of course, it was Bush’s decision to enter the Iraq war. And to execute it so poorly. Same with Afghanistan.
All Obama got to do was clean up (which he actually did quite well). It would have been politically and logistically impossible for him to do much else. Hardly seems fair to blame him for it. But politics makes for strange logic.
“We should give them all a check for $2,000.”
$2,000 for displaced Iraqis, that they want to offer. A settlement? That’s absurd!
Jeff, I was being sarcastic.
I know so was I, that`s a modified quote from my new favorie DB.
Obama’s human rights failures?
Uh, hello, he got us OUT of 1 war and winding down the 2nd one! He tried like hell to close Guantanamo! He tried like hell to bring jobs back this country! He tried like hell to reform medical insurance! And he was obstructed the entire way by Republicans who threw us ALL under the bus to thwart him!
Do you people really have THAT short term of memory?! And you wonder why the PTB do as they please?
That’s why. Because they can.
People may have short term memory but you certainly have a selective memory.
Got us out of the first war, but no mention of Iraqis kicking us out. (Obama wanted to stay put in a smaller scale if Iraqis would allow it)
Winding down the second war, but no mention of escalation.
No mention of drones.
No mention of Libya.
No mention of soldier pissing on dead Afghans.
No mention of cia rendition
No mention of indefinite detention of AMERICANS
No mention of Gestapo like Airport security
Tried like hell but the opposition blocked is the lamest argument. Didn’t work for Bush and will not work for Obama. They all tried like hell to make things better according to their world view. The proof is in the pudding.
And still the Sri Lanka events of 2008-2009 go unnoticed by the masses. Hundreds of thousands of people dead by Summer 2009. Even more unnoticed than Rwanda.
I have yet to hear Obama or Bush say anything on the matter.
‘he got us OUT of 1 war and winding down the 2nd one’
Oh please, the US left Iraq because they wouldn’t give our troops immunity. The administration tried everything they could to stay and then when they lost, shouted ‘hey, I said we’d leave and I did it!’ Maybe you have a short memory or didn’t bother to know what happened?
‘winding down the 2nd one’
Spending $12 million/hour right now. And did you know that the US kills more people in Pakistan than Afghanistan these days? Did you know the president is still selling arms to Bahrain, at the same time the dictator tortures and kills protestors? That the Haditha murderers got off while Bradley Manning looks at a life in jail?
Who cares about health care when the bill of rights is being trashed?
I am really wondering what it looks like for a President to “try like hell”.
Well truthsquadrookie, that wasn’t the subject. The subject was Obama’s human rights record and the hyperbole that he had done nothing.
Which is a proven lie.
Didn’t say he was prefect, just pointed out that he has done some things instead of “nothing” and some succeeded and some failed due to obstruction and some were never attempted.
“Tried like hell but the opposition blocked is the lamest argument.”
Oh? Says who?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/28/us-usa-democrats-offshore-idUSTRE68R40I20100928
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/us/politics/24gitmo.html?pagewanted=all
So the truth is lame, truthsquadrookie?
Interesting choice of name.
“The proof is in the pudding.”
Cheney-$hrub: “We did everything for peace, everything we could both think of…”
Obama: “I ordered a speed up in troop reductions”
heeheeeheeheheeeheeehee
“No mention of drones.”
It puzzles meselfs how the young repubicans can rail against good ol’ fa$hioned ROI of their beloved MilitaryIndu$trialIncComplex “Bidne$$” decision$
Looks like lil’ Opie knows about that $acred “Bidne$$” holy word: “efficiency”
turkey lurkey said: “He tried like hell to close Guantanamo!”
Why do you Democrats keep repeating this lie? It’s one of the most stupid lies to have ever been uttered. Obama is Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. armed forces, which means total command of all military personnel, equipment and bases. Once Obama lowered his hand after taking his oath of office, he could have walked over to a table and signed an order to the Dept of Defense to wind down operations and close Gitmo. He didn’t do that. He never did anything like that. So he lied to the American people. Obama is a liar. (Since he’s a corrupt Chicago politician, this is no surprise to the rest of us.)
Just because you’re proud of having voted for the “first Black President”, doesn’t overcome the fact that the first Black President is such an obvious liar.
the first Black President is such an obvious liar.
That is a non-point if the point is to draw party distinctions. As if every president in you life was not a “liar”.
Uh, did you, uh, see the link turkey posted?
Even I can find more just like that from dozens of other news source.
It’s a matter of CONGRESSIONAL RECORD that the Republican majority of Congress blocked him from closing Guantanamo.
I have yet to hear Obama or Bush say anything on the matter.
But but But MIA gave us the suooperbawl middle finger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.I.A._%28artist%29
It’s a matter of CONGRESSIONAL RECORD that the Republican majority of Congress blocked him from closing Guantanamo.
Even if true, can anyone explain why he would need congressional approval for an action he would seem able to take without any approval as CiC?
Because Congress has control of the budget and Big Oil has control of the Congress?
My point is that if he wanted to transfer those prisoner under the authority of the Justice Dept., he could, on his own authority.
Maybe he can’t actually get funds allocated to _decommission_ Guantanamo, but who really cares about that?
ecofeco said “It’s a matter of CONGRESSIONAL RECORD that the Republican majority of Congress blocked him from closing Guantanamo.”
You’re not listening, which is sadly the case when one challenges a Democrat over Obama’s lies. The Commander-in-Chief does not need Congressional approval to order military forces to do anything. That’s why he is the COMMANDER. And closing a base can be done under current funding and disposition of forces
What REALLY happened was that Obama didn’t actually want to close Gitmo, but he needed an excuse to not look like the bald liar that he really is. So he let the Republicans “block” him from doing it.
I wasn’t referencing funding to close bases, move prisoners, etc. I was talking about holding the domestic agenda hostage. Which is precisely what happened.
There never was any good reason to do this since the muslim people were not at fault…what would have happened if we bombed 1000 mosques and no one got killed? …Ok maybe a few idiot clerics and imans…
Think about that for a minute. Washington is now in the second decade of murdering Muslim men, women, and children in six countries.
what would have happened if we bombed 1000 mosques
A lot of Muslims would have been really, really pissed off. Kinda like how we were pissed off when they crashed those 4 airliners in 2001.
If we left these people alone, it wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately some of them have oil, so we don’t leave them alone.
If we left these people alone, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Too late IMO. Seeds of hatred have already been planted for at least a generation or two.
Too late IMO. Seeds of hatred have already been planted for at least a generation or two.
Agreed.
And yet some continue to argue on behalf of their status-quo slave masters.
It truly boggles the mind.
Feudalism! Cause it just… works!
And yet some continue to argue on behalf of their status-quo slave masters.
Yeah, all cuz they’re on the bow of the Titanic w/Jack and Rose so they’ll go into the water 2 seconds later than the suckers they think they’re better off than further upship.
Amen, my brother. Amen.
I think it’s because the Asians in foreign lands who excel in universities and businesses. That’s such a small sample.
This group likely is over representative of the outliers I mentioned below. Hence Americans coming into contact with Asian high achievers tend to over-estimate average population intelligence.
Generally speaking (at least around here) Asians (particularly the Chinese) put a very high priority on education..Very low on their priority list is organized sports…
Very low on their priority list is organized sports…
That was before Lin.
Very low on their priority list is organized sports…
Not in the Olympics crazy PRC.
I once read a comparison of average IQs based on race. IIRC, Asians were only a few IQ points higher than Caucasians.
Wasn’t there once a skit on MadTV called “The Average Asian”, which portayed a mediocre American Asian who wasn’t good at math or martial arts, etc. and had to cope with everyone expecting him to be above average?
Lin came from one of the best K-12 public schools in the country and is a very smart kid witnessed by his entrance into and graduation from Harvard…His skill set at the NBA level are marginal at best…6 games do not make a NBA career..2 years from now we won’t even hear about Lin in the NBA but my bet is that he will have a pretty damm good job somewhere…Probably back home in Palo Alto working @ Face-Book, Google or some start-up…
How did the Asian pretty much equals to east Asians in USA?
A Bangladeshi, an Afghan are also Asians, why do we not call them Asians?
Aren’t Caucasians from Asia too?
“His skill set at the NBA level are marginal at best…6 games do not make a NBA career..2 years from now we won’t even hear about Lin in the NBA but my bet is that he will have a pretty damm good job somewhere.”
This is asinine. I actually happened to watch the game against the Lakers. He scored 38 points, outplaying one of the best basketball players in the history of the game. Marginal? You don’t know basketball. He had a double-double, scoring 10 points and 13 assists in limited play tonight, sitting out half the third and entire fourth quarters as the Knicks routed the Kings.
Immingrants tend to be smarter and harder working in general due to selective migration. It has always been thus. The dumb Asians are back in their home countries living in some hovel.
The only exception might be immigrants from countries from which it is easy, rather than hard, to get to the U.S.
Meanwhile, I’d bet U.S. expats are smarter than the average Americans, too.
We have a winner.
When I went across the pond to visit the family in the 1970s, I got more than a slight dose of envy cast my way.
Why? Because my ancestors had the get up and go to get out of County Cornwall. Which has never recovered from the economic collapse of the 1800s.
The British Empire brought in cheaper tin from Malaysia and that shut the Cornish mines down pronto-pronto. The ruins are still there. They’re very picturesque. People come from all over the world to see them.
I’ve heard this canard over and over. Smarter than who or what? Based on what? IQ measurements by race?
Any cultural group that places a strong emphasis on education and learning will rise to the top.
Jews have done remarkable well over the centuries, in large part because the culture emphasizes life-long learning, debate, and questioning.
Asian-Americans, esp. Chinese, tend to push their children to study hard and take school seriously. I have yet to see a failing school (defined by low test scores) that is majority Asian.
I was an instructor, curriculum coordinator, and director of a private ESL program on a California community college campus.
I encountered students from 67 countries in my fourteen years. I chose to marry a Japanese woman, a former student.
You do the fuzzy math -
Turns out that under uniform rearing conditions white-white parents kids have the highest IQs, by group average, at least according to the study cited below. I would take its results with a large grain of salt, without further information about how the sample was selected, not to mention how significant the results are, given the very small white-white cohort. The results are interesting in that the IQ of kids in all the study groups declined between ages 7 and 17, with the smallest decline in the group living with biological parents, suggesting a possible difference in nurture effect compared to adopted kids.
Of course, this ignores the Asian Tiger Mom phenomenon, and that there are a lot more Asians, tending to result in more extreme outliers.
Uniform rearing conditions
Several studies have been done on the effect of similar rearing conditions on children from different races.
The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study (1976) examined the IQ test scores of 122 adopted children and 143 nonadopted children reared by advantaged white families.[120] The children were restudied ten years later. Nisbett has criticized the study for a number of weaknesses that are acknowledged by the authors.[121] Rushton and Jensen have criticized this and argued for the significance of this study.[21]
Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study[122] Tested at age 7 and follow-up at age 17
Biological parents / Number of children / Age 7, average IQ / Age 17, average IQ
Black-black 21 95 89
Black-white 55 110 99
White-white 16 118 106
Asian or indigenous American 12 101 96
Biological children 104 116 109
This is good, so far as demonstrating the futility of attempting to have a calm rational discussion of racial differences in intelligence and achievement:
Full Version: The Bell Curve - Asians vs. Whites (battle rages on)
Asia Finest Discussion Forum > AF Entertainment > AF Lounge
Whitey
Sep 20 2008, 05:12 AM
You probably know that Asians are more intelligent than whites on average. However you may have also heard that whites say “Yeah Asians are smarter but they still don’t invent anything!” Maybe this phenomenon can be explained by the greater variance in intelligence for whites. A greater variance means that whites have more idiots and geniuses than Asians. The idea is that one person with a 150+ IQ does more than a hundred people with IQ=110.
This graph show IQ scores for Whites and Asians but other intelligence tests have similar results. Asians average 103 while the white average is 100. The dotted line shows that whites and Asians are equally likely to score above 108. The graph also shows that whites are more likely than Asians to score higher than 108. In general the higher the score, the more disproportionately whites (compared to Asians) are expected to obtain that score.
These bell curves are well documented. Any ideas as to why there is such a difference in variances? I’ve got to admit that I’ve noticed this too.
Jasel
Sep 20 2008, 05:16 AM
The Bell Curve has been debunked by the scientific community like 40 times already
Whitey
Sep 20 2008, 05:19 AM
QUOTE(Jasel @ Sep 20 2008, 05:16 AM)
I know it is the subject of debate but how has it been debunked? This is the standard normal curve and we would expect that intelligence scores would follow this distribution.
KT80
Sep 20 2008, 06:59 AM
give 10 or 20 years i am sure some chinese kid will invent something good
Arash
Sep 20 2008, 07:26 AM
IQ doesn’t mean $hit.
Advancement in technology depends on dozens of reasons including current cultural trends. There were times when countries in Asia depended on technological advancement which led to great leaps in science and technology in places like China and the Middle East. Other times powerful rulers valued the status quo more than anything and so creativity and imagination was suppressed.
Intelligence has nothing to do with progress and technology. All humans are capable of incredible achievement. The difference is all in the conditions of life.
Now piss off troll!
…
Um, who’s the troll here? This thread started with Hard Rain quoting a post by CIBC in yesterday’s Bucket that, “Asians generally are smarter.”
Sorry if that post confused you, Bill. Other than my italicized intro, the rest was a reprint of a discussion from another source which I found amusing because of the last commentator’s dismissive attitude about the theory that IQ might be related to human achievement. Apparently the writer thinks my first cousin who suffers from Down’s Syndrome could have written War and Peace.
P.S. If I had to pick which ethnic subculture I though was “smartest,” it wouldn’t be “Asians,” but rather Ashkenazi Jews. This is based on first-hand personal experience, casual observation of the high density of this small subpopulation in areas requiring a great deal of candle power (music, medicine, academia, etc), and things I have read.
Naturally they don’t measure up in raw numbers to high achieving Asian students out here on the Pacific Rim.
The evolution of intelligence
Natural genius?
The high intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews may be a result of their persecuted past
Jun 2nd 2005 | from the print edition
THE idea that some ethnic groups may, on average, be more intelligent than others is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. But Gregory Cochran, a noted scientific iconoclast, is prepared to say it anyway. He is that rare bird, a scientist who works independently of any institution. He helped popularise the idea that some diseases not previously thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which ruffled many scientific feathers when it was first suggested. And more controversially still, he has suggested that homosexuality is caused by an infection.
Even he, however, might tremble at the thought of what he is about to do. Together with Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending, of the University of Utah, he is publishing, in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science, a paper which not only suggests that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process that has brought this about. The group in question are Ashkenazi Jews. The process is natural selection.
…
I think Ashkenazi do rate the highest in standardized tests, followed by east Asians.
I vote for the Basque.
Query: If Jews are so smart, why did they locate their Israel in the middle of Palestine?
PS. Cochran is a crank, and the Journal of Biosocial Science is a discredited vanity press of which he is a partial owner. (Cambridge Press is not Cambridge University Press.)
My nephew is Chinese. He avoids debt. I think he is very smart.
and fortune cookies seem quite wise in general. I think the Chinese are pretty sharp cookies.
Don’t let the American half destroy the Chinese half.
They have already melded.
I believe they are commonly known as ABCs (American Born Chinese).
The top 20% of Chinese or Indians students are more then all Americans in school.
so just by sheer numbers they will beat us badly
Regarding the sheer numbers issue, the first two minutes of this video is illustrative.
According to the book Outliers, only Asians from areas that grow rice do well on tests and in school.
They must grow rice in Santa Rosa then.
Not quite Santa Rosa. still close.
Love those hilly rice terraces in Asia. One of the most beautiful sights……
Per Wikipedia
commercial production began only in 1912 in the town of Richvale in Butte County.[49] By 2006, California produced the second largest rice crop in the United States,[50] after Arkansas, with production concentrated in six counties north of Sacramento.[5
http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/amazing-views/best-rice-terraces
LOL. Good one.
But to skewer your hypothesis, there’s an awful lot of rice grown around Bakersplat.
Which is all Asia, no?
They grow millet in the drier regions- like central China, I think.
I’ve also seen it argued that the large amount of seafood in coastal Asia’s diet is responsible for the higher IQs. Mom was right, fish is ‘brain food’.
Rice requires a lot of water.
A huge portion of China is desert ( Great Gobi Desert ) and its becoming bigger every year.
The WSJ editors are suddenly seem to be channeling RNC talking points. Don’t they realize that it is different now than it was in Obama’s first year, when the Bush recession was still a raging conflagration?
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
FEBRUARY 15, 2012
The Amazing Obama Budget
He’s proposing higher spending and deficits this year.
Federal budgets are by definition political documents, but even by that standard yesterday’s White House proposal for fiscal year 2013 is a brilliant bit of misdirection. With the abracadabra of a tax increase on the wealthy and defense spending cuts that will never materialize, the White House asserts that in President Obama’s second term revenues will soar, outlays will fall, and $1.3 trillion annual deficits will be cut in half like the lady in the box on stage.
All voters need to do is suspend disbelief for another nine months. And ignore the first four years.
…
Obama should ditch mortgage deduction
February 15, 2011|By Rodney P. Mock, Special to CNN
Buried deep within President Barack Obama’s $3.73 trillion budget for 2012 are changes to the tax code that directly affect homeowners, including a significant shrinking of the mortgage-interest deduction.
For every dollar a middle-class family spends on mortgage interest, it gets a 15-cent tax deduction in return. Millionaires who do the same enjoy a deduction more than twice as generous.
To make things fairer, the president’s budget calls for reducing the total amount of itemized deductions a taxpayer may claim on income more than $200,000, for single filers, and $250,000 for married couples. The mortgage-interest deduction, as well as real property taxes, would be part of this reduction.
This is a step in the right direction, but if the administration really wants to increase federal revenue and shrink the staggering national debt, it should go even further. It should eliminate the mortgage-interest deduction entirely.
Millions of Americans are not in the foreclosure process yet, but severely “underwater” in their homes, meaning that their homes are worth less than their underlying mortgages.
For many of these “owners,” the only reason they are hanging on for dear life is the mortgage-interest deduction. Given the downward spiral in home sales and the rise in foreclosures and short sales, this deduction represents just another tax-subsidy time bomb waiting to explode.
The mortgage-interest deduction is one of the federal government’s largest tax expenditures, costing an estimated $131 billion in 2012.
…
The mortgage-interest deduction is one of the federal government’s largest tax expenditures, costing an estimated $131 billion in 2012 ??
Oh its coming for sure……Probably elimination of the tax deduction for property taxes also….
I wonder how they calculate that $131B.
For example, I took an $8000 interest deduction. At 25% marginal bracket, that is $2000 lost revenue.
However, in reality, all my itemized deductions were about $2000 more than the standard deduction. Eliminate the mortgage interest, and the gov would get an extra $500, not $2000.
I suggest with do away with the mortgage deduction and the standard deduction. If you receive income, you pay tax on it, not this bullsh*t system we have now. Do away the child tax credits and earned income credit first and foremost. Quit rewarding people for spitting out children and being single parents.
People lose their jobs. In our current era, more than once.
And you can plan for that, how exactly? Never have children? Says who? You?
Not recommending not having kids, personal choice. Having kids should not factor into equation of how much tax one pays. Furthermore, a refundable tax credit (child tax) should not be awarded thru the tax code.
Bigger picture, EIC if needed should be called and accounted for as a welfare supplement and not be part of the tax code, IMO.
Taxes factor into every aspect of life. There is no way around it, only ways to try and minimize it.
Children should never suffer because their parents made decision OR were subject to circumstances beyond their control.
We all agree the tax system is Byzantine at best and badly needs some serious overhaul, but that isn’t going to happen soon.
Yeah, let’s push even more of the tax burden onto the middle class. While we take away their deductions we can reduce the capital gains tax, maybe even to zero. That way we still have a budget crisis and a reason to strip away any benefits the middle class still receives.
The MID is nothing but a REIC stealth bailout that encourages excessive debt taking with respect to buying a house.
I agree….
1) Eliminate payroll taxes.
2) create income tax brackets that are the size of the minimum wage $7.25 *40*52 = $15K. You pay X% on the first $15K. 2X% on the second $15K. 3X% on the next $15K. etc etc.
With $8T income and $4T projected federal budgets, the total tax collected needs to average about 50%.
I’m thinking 5% is probably about right for the first $15K. By the time you get above median income, you are at 15% marginal rate. At 10x, or $150K, 50% marginal rate. 20x minimum wage = 100% marginal rate, so there would be no reason for anyone to ever want to earn more than $300K a year.
I would like flat tax, 15% or 30% or whatever people can bear. Next time people raising tax, it is very unlikely. About poor people, just refund some money like $2000 per capital depending your tax records, no refund for tax evasion. This way poor can even get some money because they pay less tax. And no rich can evade tax we keep tax code simple, no conditional tax break and we can save quite a bit no man power to deal with tax. I would think this can benefit middle class.
Darrell — You are probably correct; that is, I imagine they simply total the MID across all tax returns without netting out the fallback standardized deduction if it were eliminated.
I guess Romney’s “noone could have seen it coming” advisor Glen Hubbard didn’t foresee an economic recovery on the horizon this year? Romney’s “it’s the economy, stupid” style message is not going to work very well if unemployment follows its usual rapid downward trend when recovery gains force.
Romney: hoping for the worst?
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift
February 15, 2012
WASHINGTON — The stock market is doing very well, signaling that corporate America is getting off the sidelines and stepping up its investment in the economy. That makes everybody happy, but it is not good news for the likely Republican nominee. Mitt Romney has staked his campaign on a rotten economy, and now that it’s improving, his message is shopworn.
He needs a bigger, broader vision about what he would do as president. If the economy continues to show strength, creating more than 200,000 jobs each month, Romney won’t have a convincing rationale for his candidacy. Voters want to believe in something more than robotic sound bites and Romney’s inability to connect on an emotional level has Republicans worried that he will blow their chance to take back the White House from a vulnerable incumbent.
Even as the GOP tries to blame Obama’s policies for slowing the recovery, the president was standing in the East Room of the White House on Thursday announcing a ground-breaking $26 billion settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks over faulty lending practices that led to the ongoing housing crisis. It’s a victory for Obama, albeit a belated one. It would have been much better for homeowners if this settlement had been reached earlier, sparing millions of people unnecessary grief and economic hardship.
…
the president was standing in the East Room of the White House on Thursday announcing a ground-breaking $26 billion settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks over faulty lending practices that led to the ongoing housing crisis. It’s a victory for Obama, albeit a belated one.
Even if Obama was standing naked in the east room and dropping a stinky on them, Clift and Cohn would still say Obama looks good naked and the stink bombs are a win for America because it shows Obama has a healthy digestive system.
lol
Have you seen him at the beach. He’s pretty damn buff.
just sayin’…
He is pretty buff, but he’s a bit soft around the middle. Guy needs to walk more, but that’s probably a bit of a challenge in his current job. It’s not like he can stride around DC the way Truman did.
I’m sure there is a gym in the White House. Whether or not he has time to use it is another matter. I suppose he could run or walk on a treadmill while being debriefed.
“a bit soft around the middle”
Maybe Obama eats too many carbs.
Even though I do 45 min/ treadmill/7 days a week, if
I don’t watch my carb count, it shows.
It’s work to age healthy. Slim, you could be our instructor. I’ll be the one eating the chocolate chip cookies in the back row. LOL
In the low-carb circles, you should be eating 100-150 g carbs per day MAXIMUM.
Now, count the carbohydrates that you get from fruits and vegetables. You may be surprised to find that those veggies add up, and that you have NO carbs left over for wheat/corn/rice products.
oxide
I’m 5′, so I try and stick to 60 or less carbs. Yeah, veggies do add up, and a piece of fruit/handful are my qtrly treat.
I found some great videos to watch on the NeoStem website about Adult Stem Cell Research. Another great website was from Cytori. OMG, this stuff was interesting.
Suzanne Somers had a fat/stem cell moose injected into her cancer recovered remaining 1/3 breast, and the videos are online. I think she’s generally over the top, but I give her credit for doing this legally, and opening the doors for women in America (FDA approval, American Hospital, American Doctor). 400 of these procedures have been successfully done in Japan. We are far behind in medicine, that’s for sure.
I have recently noticed more than the usual ambient divergence between bullish (bullsh!t?) Marketwatch headlines and plunging share prices. What gives?
Wall St. telegraphing gains
Global markets’ positive reaction to Chinese words about Europe set to spread across the Atlantic.
Indications Archives
Feb. 15, 2012, 9:17 a.m. EST
U.S. stock futures up; data, earnings in focus
Zynga, Comcast active in pre-open trade
By Kate Gibson and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures were modestly higher on Wednesday after a gauge of manufacturing in the New York region proved better than expected.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Empire State manufacturing survey rose to 19.5, its highest reading in more than a year.
“Beneath the headline though, the report was not as strong as the headline suggests. New orders, employees, prices paid and prices received all declined in the month,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC.
U.S. stock-index futures were also bolstered by words of encouragement from China’s top central banker directed toward Europe, with shares of Comcast Corp. and Zynga Inc. active in pre-open trading.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39 points to 12,879, and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 4.3 points to 1,352.
…
Mo’ liquidity, pleeze…
Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJI: DJIA
Market open 12,789.46
Change -88.82 -0.69%
Volume 61.95m
Feb 15, 2012, 1:06 p.m.
Is it QE3 disappointment that has gelded the Wall Street bovine brigade?
And what’s to stop the Fed from holding on to the extra assets it took onto its balance sheet forever, rather than ever risking deflation?
The Fed Archives
Feb. 15, 2012, 5:04 p.m. EST
Fed minutes show few supporters for QE3
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Only a few members of the Federal Open Market Committee favored another round of quantitative easing, or bond purchases, according to minutes of the last meeting released Wednesday.
Others on the Fed’s interest rate setting body indicated that what markets call QE3 “could” become necessary if the economy lost momentum or if inflation seemed likely to remain below the 2% target for a long time, the minutes showed. Read excerpts from Fed meeting.
In December, “a number” of FOMC members judged that the current outlook could warrant additional asset purchases in the near term.
U.S. stocks SPX -0.54% extended losses after the publication of the minutes, and the dollar DXY +0.33% rose.
Economists at Bank of America said they still expect the Fed to enact another round of asset purchases in the fall.
“In our forecast, growth slows in the second half, convincing the majority of Fed officials to launch QE3,” said Michael Hanson, economist at Bank of America, in a note to clients.
A majority on the FOMC thought that sales of assets on its balance sheet would start “no earlier” than 2015.
…
From the New Yorker - Poor, White, and Republican:
“This election year, he’s back and getting a lot of attention from sociologists and pundits (Charles Murray’s new book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” sparked the current flurry of commentary). But in 2012 he’s no longer even working class. He’s fallen through the last restraints of decency and industriousness, down into the demoralized and pathological underclass that, in the past, Americans associated with the black poor. There, he lives on disability, is no longer fit for employment nor has any impulse to get a job, is divorced, fathers illegitimate children who grow up to do the same, gets hooked on meth or prescription drugs, does time in prison now and then, and has bad teeth.
Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican. Sunday’s Times had a fascinating and disturbing lead story about the pattern of government dependency around the country. A map showing areas of greatest reliance on public benefits corresponds with weird exactness to the map of red America: the South, Appalachia, and rural areas in general.
In addition, reliance on the safety net has more than doubled in the past four decades. During the same period, median incomes in America have sta”gnated or declined.”
greatest reliance on public benefits corresponds with weird exactness to the map of red America: the South, Appalachia, and rural areas in general ??
As the neocons “rail” against entitlements this same group embraces them…Go figure…
Doesn’t sound like a wise political strategy if true. Could it be possible that the groups, even in the red state, who rely on entitlements are overwhelmingly democrats?
May be it’s just a political rhetoric. The repubs have proven time after time that the cutting government/entitlement is not what they do.
The globalization, outsourcing, and uncontrolled illegal immigration that created these economic conditions were a 100% bipartisan effort. R’s and D’s deserve equal thanks for this
I’m sick of that bullcrap.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/28/us-usa-democrats-offshore-idUSTRE68R40I20100928
“The repubs have proven time after time that the cutting government/entitlement is not what they do.”
…for their pet projects.
Could it be possible that the groups, even in the red state, who rely on entitlements are overwhelmingly democrats?
You mean like all those “self reliant” Republican Texas farmers and ranchers who recieve subsidies and drought bail out monies?
They are perfectly willing to “chuck” their principles in cases like that.
They are perfectly willing to “chuck” their principles
Reminds me of a former Tea Party coworker. She used to froth at the mouth over “Obamacare”, “big government”, and of course “socialism”.
Until she got a Fed Gov job.
I have a friend, who I mention often, who HAS a Fed Gov job and STILL froths about Big Gov and socialism.
Oh, and the Occupiers and most jobless are lazy, entitled moochers.
truthie,
Look at the stats for Kern County, CA. Reddest of the red, and fully 63% of households get a government paycheck of some sort–welfare/SSI/SSD, military, county, state, federal contractor or public service pensioner. I think there are something less than 1000 registered Dems in the whole county.
Other than Clint Eastwood, I don’t recall any working class whites in Gran Torino.
And his character had lost his wife and was dying from cancer.
From the New Yorker - Poor, White, and Republican ??
I just read the article…The comments after we even more interesting…Nice post goon squad…
Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican.
I think we all know the answer to this question: God, guns and gays.
Not to mention the belief that your entitlement is not the entitlement that they are talking about when the Republicans say we need to slash entitlements.
Ask a 20-something if their Pell Grant is an entitlement the Republicans are attacking. Nope, that is less than $50B of the budget, less than 1.5% of the total spending. It is an investment in the future that they’ll pay back through higher income taxes on their higher wages.
Ask a 65 y/o is SS and MC are the entitlements that Republicans are talking about slashing. Oh no. I’m just getting back what I paid in.
So, what is this big bogyman that is the entitlement monster? Well, food stamps and section 8 housing. The portion of Medicaid that goes to young poor people (but the 1/3rd that goes to long-term care for old poor people is okay). Unemployment beyond 13 weeks. You know… that evil welfare stuff.
Oh, that evil welfare stuff that is less than half the deficit, and stimulates much of the economic activity from which the wealthy derive their income?
Oh, it is the fraud, waste and abuse… And where exactly is that?
Read the memo dude: every single food stamp recipient drives a blinged-out Escalade and gets $20,000+ of child tax credits and EITC talking on their taxpayer purchased cell phone and watching their 60″ flat screen while eating steak and lobster they bought with their EBT card. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!
RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! IT’S THE WELFARE QUEENS!
Meanwhile Wall St. just boned us for $30 TRILLION, but it’s still welfare queens what’s messed up this country!
And people wonder how wars get started…
Those damn $10/hr school janitors collapsed the global economy.
UNION janitors, by god!
Damn onion peeling janitors….. crashed the global economy.
Cinder$ & Ashe$, Agonie$ & Pain$, …the $uffering $o’s have been tax-$lapped and can’t get up! Hurry!,…Help ‘em!
Food stamps are paid via dept agriculture.
The first presidential primary is in Iowa.
Not to mention the belief that your entitlement is not the entitlement that they are talking about when the Republicans say we need to slash entitlements.
Of course. It’s only welfare when some one else receives it.
Ask a 20-something if their Pell Grant is an entitlement the Republicans are attacking
To be fair, you have to be dirt poor to qualify for a Pell Grant. For most college students “financial aid” == “crushing loans”
Ask a 65 y/o is SS and MC are the entitlements that Republicans are talking about slashing. Oh no. I’m just getting back what I paid in.
This has always bugged the shinola out of me. Are we really going to blame the 65 year olds for inflation? ‘Cause that’s the real issue here. What they paid in won’t begin to cover what they’ll take out because of inflation. Again, the guys at the top are driving that train, not the little guy playing but the rules the big guys told him to.
“Are we really going to blame the 65 year olds for inflation? ”
When they begin suggesting they’re entitled to it but I’m not, the answer is yes.
I don’t know about other rural areas, but in Wyoming where I grew up Democratic administrations in Washington tend to support policies involving public lands and using federal highway money to control local laws that annoy the crap out of the locals. I think that’s one significant factor in why they almost never vote D. And then there’s gun control…
I’m sure those locals were more than happy to cash their USDA subsidy checks.
Why? Because they blames the “darkies” for thier misfortunes and the Repubs are about as racist as it gets.
I’ve compiled data on federal non-healthcare spending on the needy over the decades as a share of GDP.
The total didn’t change much until the Great Recession put a halt to our debt-driven economy, which made more people eligible for benefits.
What did change was the composition, from support for the non-working poor (ie. welfare) to support for the working poor (EITC, food stamps), who previously got less help.
This was bi-partisan, and was generally thought to have been a good thing.
How do you keep people spending even though the best jobs are being off-shored? Oh, simple. Access to debt.
How do you make rents and house prices go up faster than incomes? Section 8 housing subsidies.
Honestly, think about this for a second. What would happen to the economy if we were to slash government spending?
Imagine $80B gone from housing assistance. What would happen to rents?
$100B gone from unemployment. What would happen to consumer spending?
$80B gone from food stamps.
Imagine 3 million additional people out of work from 50% cut in DoD spending.
What would happen to colleges and K-12 education if $80B in federal funding went away?
Debt is money, money is debt. Those $1.3T a year the federal government is pumping into our trade imbalance plagued economy is the only thing keeping it going.
Wouldn’t it be better to attack the trade imbalances rather than just kill the economy?
I guess you are assuming we will have some choice about it. Sure we can just keep issuing more and more T-Bills and reserve notes. Why might that ever *not* be possible?
Delray Beach foreclosure scam companies to pay $59,000 in restitution
by Kim Miller
Three Delray Beach companies accused by the state of bilking hundreds of homeowners in a foreclosure rescue scam have agreed to settle the complaint for $59,000.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office announced the settlement with Home Owner Protection Economics, Inc. DC Financial Group, and Deleverage America, Inc., on Tuesday. The owners of the firms are Christopher S. Godfrey, 43, of Delray Beach and Dennis Fischer, 40, of Highland Beach.
According to the settlement filed in court, about 320 people contracted with the companies and are due an estimated $234,217 in restitution after being illegally charged upfront fees for foreclosure-rescue services that were never provided.
The fees charged by the three companies ranged from $495 to $2,000, according to an investigation by the attorney general’s economic crimes division.
Also, the companies allegedly told homeowners they would reduce their debt and prevent foreclosure, when in reality lender banks were never contacted on the homeowners’ behalf.
“Any homeowner who seeks the help of a foreclosure-related rescue service and is asked for an up-front fee should report that business to our office immediately,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in a press release announcing the settlement. “This practice is prohibited by state law, and my office will continue to crack down on these illegal actions.”
The state sued the companies in May and they were ordered temporarily shut down by Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Robin Rosenberg. The settlement permanently shutters the businesses and bars Godfrey and Fischer from operating any loan modification services in the future.
Homeowners who think they were scammed by the companies need to fill out a claims form with proof of payment to the firms by March 12. The claims form can be found here, or at the attorney general’s website, http://www.myfloridalegal.com.
Godfrey and Fischer were also indicted in Massachusetts in August after federal investigators said their loan modification company _ called HOPE _ took $3 million from thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure. HOPE also did business as DC Financial Group and Deleverage America.
Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records show Godfrey as the owner of a Delray Beach home that he bought in 2005 for $1.14 million. Fischer is listed as the owner of a Highland Beach home he purchased in 2007 for $612,500. Both homes are in foreclosure.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Foreclosures, Housing affordability, Housing boom, Mortgage fraud, Mortgages, Real estate bust.
One Response to “Delray Beach foreclosure scam companies to pay $59,000 in restitution”
1
eric targan Says:
February 14th, 2012 at 6:01 pm
That settlement isn’t even worth reporting. 59000 to split between 430 people is $137 a piece. Another example of our public officials not looking out for us.
“Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records show ”
I think I taught these reporters to look up Property Appraiser records before they print or post a story. Now if I could just get 60 minutes on board.
Housing bubble silver lining (and its a real stretch)
Question for Ben Jones:
Ben, what is the coolest thing to date you have recovered from a clean-out?
I don’t think I’ve ever found anything ‘cool’ left behind. I got a batman baseball cap once.
I have one today, standard stuff; half used paint, household chemicals, moldy mattresses, plastic plants, dog toys, giant balls of lint where the couch used to be.
“I got a batman baseball cap once.”
I’m fawkin dyin laughing here.
New HBB apparel:
HBB hat:
“I saw the housing bubble coming from a mile away and all I got was this lousy Batman cap.”
“I helped pick up the pieces of the popped housing bubble and all I got was this lousy Batman cap”.
LOL… Good ones, palmy!
I was in a bank repo that had a tanning bed that worked.
You gotta go to the “Storage Wars” to find cool stuff. Those guys do every week.
That show makes me sad. It makes me wonder what happened to the people that stopped making payments on a storage locker that was filled with $1000s worth of cool stuff.
“That show makes me sad.”
Because they don`t show the storage lockers that were filled with cr@p that should have been given or thrown away before they paid money to store it. Those units wouldn`t make for good TV.
Yep, Jeff, you’re right. We have 3 storage units right now. One has a Vette, and the other 2 are filled with expensive home furnishings, including a Conservatory Grand Player Piano ($15K alone).
And remember there is no right to survivorship thanks to some a-hole attorney who oversees the industry law (association guru). So let’s say my hubby dies (GF), it all goes into probate, and would cost me $, even though my career helped pay for all our “treasures”.
That industry is full of immoral scumbags. They will not even talk to me, only my husband. The Agreement had to be in his name, since I was at work at the time. No joint tenancy allowed.
They deserve a lawsuit for non-disclosure. We found out after the fact.
Storage auctions yield thrills, but little gold
By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel
December 12, 2011|
Tony Vargas scans the Boynton Beach storage facility’s parking lot and sees a caravan of about 30 cars quickly fill the empty spots. “Here comes the herd,” he says. “They’re late today.”
Within minutes, the lobby is crowded with men and women carrying flashlights. They’re here to search for treasures that may be hidden among heaps of dirty clothes and filthy mattresses, and they’re eager for the storage auction to begin.
“It’s not like the television show. They always find gold on that show,” says Vargas, 54, of Pembroke Pines. “They never show how most of the time you just end up driving to the junk yard.”
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011/dec/12 - 54k -
Oh, I get it. They buy half-a-dozen lockers, then they show you the one that has the cool stuff.
Still makes me sad for the people that had a locker full of cool stuff that they didn’t keep up the payments on. Are they dead, in jail, just too flat broke to get back there and take the stuff to a pawn shop or a swap meet?
Awaiting, I hope the storage facility has climate control, for the sake of your piano.
Montana - It is in a climate controlled unit, and also has some heavy duty moving blankets on it, as it sits in its vertical “piano holder” (legs off). I can’t wait to play it. I’ve been using my electric keyboard forever. It has slowed down my learning curve somewhat, not having the sound richness of a real piano.
Me too. Especially if they have nothing but bare bone family stuff.
Yeah, a business acquaintance that I saw lose everything had his family belongings in a storage facility in Florida and could not keep up with the payments. Silver, antiques, photos, everything gone to the highest bidder. I gave him a ride to SeaTac to start his life anew somewhere in the southwest with a friend helping him out. Fifties with a law degree. Sad story. The quote I like is “if you live long enough, you will lose everything.” I also like the term peak baggage mentioned here last week.
b-hamster -sad story. Gotta feel for the guy.
That is sad, but it’s also _stupid_. When you can’t keep up with the payments, you should at least go sort out your valuables and family photos from the junk before you get locked out!
“at least go sort out your valuables”
Here is a wild idea. If they are valuable, maybe just maybe you could sell some of them before you can not afford the monthly storage fee. I don`t think you are locked out after being 10 days late. Even at that you should probably see it coming.
They changed the law a couple of years ago in California dropping the requirement to notify the delinquent owner by certified mail. (ie no need to notify at all)
“(ie no need to notify at all)”
So let me get this straight. In California you can have your valuables locked up and sold after being 1 day late with your self storage payment. But if you keep them in the house you`re not paying for, you`re good for 3 or 4 years and then you get a check from the government for $2k.
Steve J - You’re right about the law change. Thanks for the reminder. Nothing like a good lobbyist group in Sac.
I use to belong to 3 associations, and I’ll tell you, I loath the thought of belonging again. Spoiled Narcisisstic A-Holes, wanting to rule their universe (and ours).
HE IS SMARTER THAN ALL OF US !!!
This is a key insight. World War II and the Cold War incentivized the federal government to force the pace of scientific innovation, nowhere more obviously than in the realm of nuclear technology. But as the totalitarian threat waned and then expired, government turned from research and development to health and safety. Redistribution and regulation took over and, as they did so, the sci-fi dreams of the 1960s faded into a stagflationary reality. In 1964, when I was born, Popular Science magazine could seriously ask: “Who’ll Fly You at 2,000 m.p.h.?” Instead, I have lived to see the Concorde decommissioned and coal-carrying railroads reopened.
We aren’t moving faster. We haven’t freed ourselves from fossil fuels. Life expectancy still rises, but at a slowing rate. Only in Palo Alto—the realm of Moore’s law on the recurrent doubling of computer processing power—has progress persisted. The rest of us have had to rely on leverage, aided and abetted with financial technology, to maintain the illusion of rising real incomes.
As for globalization, it just took established Western ways of making stuff and spread them to the East and South. Worse, when leverage combined with globalization to produce a massive financial crash, we fell back on Keynesian deficits plus money printing in the mistaken belief that they had saved us before. They hadn’t. It was technological innovation, accelerated by government, that produced the economic miracles of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.
To listen to Thiel is to hear an alternative economic history of the past hundred years. It is also to hear a rather bleak prophecy about the next hundred. He and his friends will continue to innovate, no doubt; but they will focus their energies on the few relatively unregulated sectors. The rest of us will remain mired in a stagnant politicized economy of regulation and redistribution, vainly trying to divert a fraction of the innovators’ billions our way.
Peter Thiel Billionaire
Well, when you think about it, the average Joe is far more interested in Smart Phones than Mars Explorers.
I know what you mean about the 60’s. I was a kid back then and there was palpable excitement over the space race. We were told that moon bases, giant space stations and manned expeditions to Mars were imminent.
Then we lost interest. Our “space station” was a clunker called Skylab. We designed the massive kludge called the Space Shuttle in the 70’s and hung with it until recently. The Soviets were wise enough to kill their shuttle program after the first unmanned flight.
Even the ISS falls far short of the giant rotating space stations we were told were coming soon.
So instead of staring at the sky, we now stare into the tiny screens of our Smart Phones, drooling over innane apps.
The super-cargo-jet used to ferry their space shuttle is still in use today, as a private cargo hauler:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225
It’s the New New Economy. I’m starting a hedge fund trading in Zynga Farmville currency derivatives and Facebook like-backed securities. Cus we’re all gonna tweet our way to prosperity!
Don’t kid yourself. That could actually work.
Ever heard of “gold miners” for WOW and other games?
We didn’t lose interest. It was killed by political infighting and a heavily financed propaganda campaign making space technology look like a waste. (much like why we don’t have high speed rail)
Another case of the politicians throwing us all under the bus for personal political gain.
Another case of the politicians throwing us all under the bus & [cars]
Jed: “Lookey Granny everyones sitting in their cars alls alone”
Granny: “Why’s so many of ‘em frownin’ Jed?”
Jed: “Can’t rightly say…”
All Aboard Amtrak!
turkey lurkey said: “(much like why we don’t have high speed rail)”
No, we don’t have high-speed rail in the USA since we have a huge nation with a lot of spread-out population, already well serviced with roads and airports. We already have a passenger rail system called AmTrak. It loses money essentially everywhere except the NE Corridor. The NE Corridor is packed like Japan and Europe are packed, which is the only way passenger rail makes money.
HSR in the nation runs into the same problem in study after study: It loses a lot money. That means the private sector won’t do it, which is only sensible; but that also means having the public sector do it is just more statist dreaming of collecting a lot of taxes for your crony business friends to run off with, which is NOT sensible.
If you’re going to talk about rail transport in the USA, please bother to know what the heck you’re talking about. Currently, you don’t know.
“The Soviets were wise enough to kill their shuttle program”
Wasn’t there a little problem with collapse of the Soviet Union?
There was, but the rest of their space program survived. Good thing, as these days the only way to get to the ISS is aboard a Russian rocket.
Shuttle pay loads were dismal.
1/3 of the weight was needed for reentry with a 1/25 chance of complete disaster.
It cost $1 billion and 10,000 contractors to refurb after each flight.
Complete boondoggle.
Colorado said: “Even the ISS falls far short of the giant rotating space stations we were told were coming soon.”
Emphasis mine on the irony. Just like Skylab and Mir before it, the ISS is scheduled to re-enter. This will be the 3rd space station that we Humans let get destroyed. And we put up each at a cost of $10000 per kilogram. Clearly, we have no intention of becoming a space-faring civilization. Clearly, space development is just a payoff for aerospace cronies. Clearly, it’s a circus for the masses while their bread is stolen behind their backs.
Space travel and exploration never had a moral (i.e. socio-economic) basis that involved improving Humanity. It was only about slapping billions into the hands of fat White men chomping on cigars in meeting rooms. And we can’t even afford to do that much anymore. So I can’t say I’m shedding a tear about spaceflight coming to an end. All wasting of tax money needs to come to an end.
“Clearly, it’s a circus for the masses while their bread is stolen behind their backs.”
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey’s on the moon)
I can’t pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still.
(while Whitey’s on the moon)
The man jus’ upped my rent las’ night.
(’cause Whitey’s on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
I wonder why he’s uppin’ me?
(’cause Whitey’s on the moon?)
I wuz already payin’ ‘im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin’ my whole damn check,
Junkies makin’ me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin’ up,
An’ as if all that sh1t wuzn’t enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an’ arm began to swell.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Was all that money I made las’ year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain’t no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey’s on the moon)
Y’know I jus’ ’bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I’ll sen’ these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)
Status quo, baby!
Welcome back to the 19th century! …as fast as we can get there!
we fell back on Keynesian deficits plus money printing in the mistaken belief that they had saved us before. They hadn’t. It was technological innovation, accelerated by government, that produced the economic miracles of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.
And what funded that technological innovation? How was it ‘accelerated by government’?
By Keynesian spending.
Redistribution and regulation took over and, as they did so, the sci-fi dreams of the 1960s faded into a stagflationary reality.
Redistribution took over? Is he referring to the redistribution of middle class wealth to the super rich since the 1960’s? On this point, the guy is ignorant or a liar.
What Thiel doesn’t mention explicitly in his discussion of the research and development that was funded by the federal government is that the Internet is one of the things that was developed by the government. Many Americans know this, but somehow disregard it.
Not only the Internet, but many other aspects of information technology - semiconductors, programming languages, operating systems, relational database technology - were developed by the feds, using tax revenues, of course. The fruits of that research and development were then handed for free to industry. This is known as corporate welfare. So, Peter Thiel, the Paypal billionaire, is a welfare queen - a “libertarian” billionaire welfare queen.
I reject his basic thesis.
In the 60-70 year prior to WWII we had massive technological advancement. Electric light bulb, telephone, refrigeration, the horseless carriage, the airplane, commercial radio…
Punched card tabulating, the forerunner to the modern programmable computer, was very common prior to WWII. The standard punched card format was developed in 1928.
I reject that it was WWII and the cold war that fueled the technological age. We were well on track long before them.
I also reject that the end of the Cold War somehow began the age of regulation and redistribution. The labor movement was fueled by government regulation in the late 1800s.
Most business regulation dates from the Great Depression, including the minimum wage, the 40-hour work-week.
Redistribution also has its foundation in the GD. Unemployment insurance, social security, FDIC bank insurance, food stamps, section 8 housing assistance, Fannie May…
Workman’s comp insurance was created state-by-state between 1900 and 1940s.
Never let a silly thing like the truth get in the way of making a point I guess.
What saved us from the GD was a tax code with a 90%+ marginal rate, ending free trade, attacking the wide wealth gap, pretty much wiping out all debt and starting over from $0, then MASSIVE government spending to get the now air-tight economy running.
Just spending money while the economy is still as wholly as Swiss Cheese is not going to do anything but bury us in debt faster.
read the “fourth turning” I think we are ready to go back to doing useful things and if certain politicians and groups hinder this ?
I don’t know it may become ugly for them. Its about time to reward real work again. purge out all this flim flam
So, we have government working its butt off trying to keep house prices inflated. Case Shiller is still in the 130s. We need almost 25% more drop to get to 100. With oversupply and low demand, 100 would unlikely be a natural bottom.
So, let’s say government got totally out of the way of falling house prices. Undo QE and push interest rates back to 6-7%. End FHA loans. Close down Freddie and Fannie. 20% down and highly qualified buyers only. Force banks to push through foreclosures and liquidate REOs at whatever they can get in a demand-less economy.
Where would the bottom be? 75 Case-Shiller, so 45-50% drop from where we are?
Is that a reasonable “bottom” based on massive oversupply and unnaturally low demand?
Let’s say that triggers another wave of strategic defaults, job losses, bank failures. Let’s say total mortgage debt crashes from the current $10T back to about $5T where it was in 2000. $5T money poofage.
All the big banks fail. This time, no TARP to prop them up. Massive asset liquidation into a non-existent market. Massive deflation.
A follow on wave of business bankruptcies, and another wave of $5T of money poofage as business debt plunges from the current $10T back to $5T.
Do we have FDIC get $10T from the US Treasury to honor all the FDIC insurance, or do we just let the money poofage out of existence in cascade default?
If we don’t honor FDIC insurance, then it is cascade default into greater depression.
If we do, then we double the publicly held debt of the US Government, which combined with 5% treasury rates = $1 trillion a year just net debt, increasing deficits from $1.2T to $2T.
So, what outcome are we really looking for here?
Wouldn’t it be better to end free trade and go back to a 1950s style tax code, create some jobs in the USA, get wages going up, then let much of the existing debt poof out of existence while higher wages increase tax receipts, shrinking deficits without massive cuts to SS and MC/C?
Drama queen.
What do you think the effects of $5T-$10T debt poofage would be?
What do you think the effects of overpaying 200% for a house would be?
If that came at the end of 30 years of increasing debt at 3x the rate of inflation to fund massive international trade deficits and internal i imbalances of the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer?
Total financial collapse, multi-decade long Greater Depression….
But, I’d rather avoid that if possible.
I certainly would not bet on the side-lines hoping and rooting for collapse.
ANSWER the question.
I did answer the question!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Total financial collapse, multi-decade long Greater Depression….
So if overpaying by 200% for a house will result in total financial collapse, what would happen in your world if housing sold at market value?
Instead of bailing out the banks and trying to prop up housing, the government could have seized failed banks via the FDIC and sold them off. It would have been more honest, transparent, cheaper and effective.
Sold them off to whom? To the people that were losing all their money in the collapse of those very same banks?
And, how would the FDIC have covered the losses? As I recall, they had some $50B in the trust fund insuring some $5T in insured deposits.
And, how would the FDIC have covered the losses? As I recall, they had some $50B in the trust fund insuring some $5T in insured deposits.
First of all, recognize that the FDIC takes backs over before they are completely insolvent. From watching the closings the past couple of years, the max costs of their shutdowns seems to be roughly in the range of 30% or so of the customer deposits. The average is probably a little lower. Let’s call it 20%.
Second, not all banks are going to fail. Only the insolvent ones fail. What percent would that be? I have no idea.
But it definitely would not take $5T to save all the insured deposits.
And the US Gov’t is more than capable of printing whatever amount is necessary to prop up the FDIC insurance fund. They are also more than willing.
This entire line of thinking and concern is a hobgoblin hiding in your closet, from my perspective.
“So, what outcome are we really looking for here?”
I’d like a dirt cheap house and the opportunity to say, “I told ya so.”
Et tu, Muggy? I am shocked and appalled that you favor global economic collapse over propping up the value of Darrell’s Phoenix home.
From Tucson’s leading local fishwrap:
Our Sacred Home Sales are up! We’re saved! Whoopee!
One commenter said:
Several homes in my NW neighborhood were taken off the market after 1-2 unsuccessful sale attempts with various real estate companies. Stale signs remain up on others. It’s still a tough market but I’m glad to see things are picking up a bit.
Which got this response:
obviously not MARKET priced
maybe dropping the price 20% would work???
And here’s another tasty comment:
Home sales merely went from next to nothing to almost next to nothing.
The upturn is due to the sale of foreclosures that are being bought by speculators.
On the other hand it is a good time to buy. Homes formerly priced at over $200,000 can be found selling for less than $90,000.
To which I say:
Just what Tucson’s economy needs: More specu-vestors. I’ll bet that the appreciation fairy won’t be smiling upon them either. Look to see their in-VEST-ments in foreclosure within five years.
Like I’ve been saying: The market is still being determined by flippers. Not by people who are buying a house to live in.
Sadly, in my rusty city, although houses are falling into the cash range, the economic collapse has concomitantly made it almost impossible to even have that little cash on hand. People on the coasts can come up with $20K-30K in cash, but they are facing much larger house prices. So it all remains the same: Unaffordable housing. Everywhere.
The Oil City Plan would work, and I did that myself to a degree, but Americans are elitist at all levels, so such a plan is laughable. The hypermajority won’t do it. The fraction of people who will do the OCP is probably less than 1%. So the Regional Unaffordability Paradox will persist as an American norm.
Next up in the housing bubble collapse saga:
1. An uptick in new home construction on top of a mountain of shadow inventory, thanks to ongoing efforts to prop up housing prices above levels fundamentals support triggering a false bottom signal.
2. Affordable housing for everyone!!!
Sign of life in housing market
Builder mood best in years
Confidence in market for new single-family homes climbs for a fifth straight month, reaching its highest level in more than four years, according to National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo survey.
The confidence has not translated into increased housing starts.
To be fair, as long as credit is offered, the way Americans are now, there will always be new construction performed regardless of the size of the existing inventory. Culturally and all of a sudden, Americans started to use the term “used house”. I was not raised that way (70s-80s childhood); a house was an extremely durable asset that naturally changed hands into the control of new buyers, and only fairly wealthy or independent people built new ones. Now it seems that half of the nation is wrinkling its nose at having a house that some other icky Americans had lived in before, eww!
Speaking of smell, I sense the filthy REIC at work in that change. And then there was all that cheap gasoline, that made such long commutes possible. And we all know why a lot of White people were chomping at the bit to get out into suburbs while keeping their city jobs. It rhymes with “fleeing Blacks”.
I keep meeting these boomers (my group) that want rental properties for the cash flow, and think now is the time in So Ca. When I mention the REO Rental program (cents on the $ purchases) and competing with those rents, they tell me being a LL is the road to riches. Not one has penciled it out. 4-5 SFH’s is a lot of upkeep and headaches, not to mention this escalator is still going down. One asked “What is opportunity cost?”
Awaiting, what does it take to keep you from clocking these people? Or throwing a tantrum at them?
Please tell me, because I also meet these people in Tucson. And it’s very hard for me to keep my self control.
Stay cool. It’s their funeral. You can console them later when they file for BK.
Yeah, when I mention REIC, propaganda, the PTB, etc…, they say NAR says… Then I know I’m wasting my time. These same people bought the oil sands in Canada nonsense and lost money.
Of all the things to become in life, a LL isn’t one of my dreams. Now, if I was to become tall, blonde, beautiful, and rich, I’d be one happy soul! LOL
Of my 4 sisters, 2 have “income properties” and a third is thinking of buying some rental units.
It is no different that the people that buy gold. They can’t comprehend that times change. Just because it worked in the past does not mean it will work in the future.
Just because it worked in the past does not mean it will work in the future.
I think that it _will_ work in the future—just not if you buy right now.
So Cal makes parts of Mississippi look smart.
less rust, but more decay, that’s alls eyes got to say, … ’bout certain parts of LA.
“they tell me being a LL is the road to riches.”
Collect the rent and don`t pay the mortgage is one way that loads of LLs are doing it. That really helps the bottom line.
Ya gotta point there, jeff. And, sad to say, there are tenants who learn the hard way about what their landlord was really doing with the mortgage. As in, ignoring it. Out on the street they go.
Good point, Jeff. Maybe if I turn into an a-moral pos, I too could think that way. In the meantime, I’ll treasure my humble conscience.
“they tell me being a LL is the road to riches”
We will never be rid of bubbles, their speculators and their endless vetted slogans. Just let them sink into the quicksand. Teach your own kids not to be so foolish, but let the foolish majority suffer. It’s not like you can do anything about it. We bubble bloggers had zero effect upon the housing bubble itself. Those who we “saved” were pretty much inclined to look for dissenting information in the first place. The vast majority still crashed everything anyway.
Stocks down.
What happened? Are we done recycling rumors?
Churn baby churn!
Gotta love it. From a friend’s facebook wall:
If you’re ready for the commitment, now is a great time to buy with prices and interest rates so low. As much as a pain it can be, I love owning a home.
Ugh.
Might want to post a lovely note about prices being out of line with historic metrics of incomes and rents:
1. In a local housing market, the median house price has historically been three times the median income.
2. If you’re buying an SFR for renting out, your purchase price should be 100-120x the monthly rent that the market will bear for that location.
yeah, I simply posted that there’s an inverse relationship between interest rates and prices. I think my friend is looking to buy for quality-of-life reasons, so I don’t intend to give them too hard of a time…
I often respond with something along the lines of “I don’t want low rates, I want low PRICES.”
Sometimes that’s enough for the proverbial horse to get it. Sometimes I need to add a few descriptors to get the horse to move toward water. Still, most times, the horse won’t drink.
If I’m feeling particularly punchy, I might ask them why we’ve become so dependent on debt and why they think mortgage debt is any better than the “bad” debt.
Maybe mortgage debt is good debt because the house will make them rich?
Well…obviously.
Houses on my street rent for $1100, and most recent sells are for $110K-120K. With 4% interest rates, it would easily be cash-flow positive with a ratio above 100.
The unknown, of course, is whether rents will fall drastically and if I could keep a place rented out to someone that would make the payments on time.
One of my sisters is in Oceanside and pretty much only rents to Marines from Pendelton. Big military drawdown, she’s done.
Other sister is in Bullhead city. Has learned the fun of having a tenant that won’t pay, but trashes the unit.
“As much as a pain it can be, I love owning a home.”
He loves the pain? So he’s a masochist.
“As much as a pain it can be, I love owning a home.”
Thank you, sir! May I have another?
Is your friend a lying realtor?
If you’re ready for the commitment, now is a great time to buy with prices and interest rates so low. As much as a pain it can be, I love owning a home.
Are you sure this friend isn’t a Realtor??
Are you sure this friend isn’t a Realtor??
It’s a friend of a friend who made the comment. And no, I’m not sure.
A must see.
“If the social contract is broken, the people must revolt.” John Locke. But being an apologist for the bank, you are putting a giant bull’s eye on your back, which you are happy to do, but do not blame us when that day of reckoning comes…”
Max Keiser slaps a bank apologist around for sh!ts and giggles
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/10/20/max-keiser-slaps-a-bank-apologist-around-for-shits-and-giggles/
People in Greece are right to revolt against the banking system which is committing massive fraud in the country, an economic critic tells Press TV.
Keiser: It is in the best interest of Greek’s sovereignty for them to default. The Greek people know that they are struggling and fighting for their sovereignty; that bankers from outside the country want to steal their assets. They want to steal the new gold mining operations that have recently been talked about as going to be exploited.
This is really an eco from what we are seeing in Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London. As you know the global insurrection against banker occupation started in Tunis and went on to Cairo, then we saw it in Spain and Athens, then it went over to New York, and now it is going to shift back in a big way to Athens, and hopefully Athens, through the strike, can collapse the banking system. That is the goal. It is in their best interest.
Press TV: Financial institutions such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are said to control a large portion of the money supply. How come this money does not reach the people? After all, these were some of the companies that were bailed out and now they are obviously in the positive.
…Goldman Sachs has made repeated bets against the Greek economy through credit default swaps. There is a meeting with Lloyd Blankfein and John Paulson, a noted hedge fund manager in Athens, a couple of years ago. The sole purpose of that meeting was how to destroy the Greek economy using credit default swaps.
So it is a sinister plot and it is in Greek’s best interest to get rid of those bankers who are with Papandreou committing massive fraud.
Just in the past week, Bank of New York [was] caught with a 300-billion-dollar pension scam; Wachovia Wells Fargo [was] recently caught in a 400-billion Mexican drug laundering scam; Bank of America, just in the last two days, [was] caught trying to move more than trillions in debts from Merrill Lynch to the public federal balance sheet and of course, just in the last couple of days, the Supreme Court of America saying that the mirrors foreclosure scandal is OK by them even though it is a 400-billion-dollar fraud.
So we have to collapse the banks. We have to go after the banks the same way we go after terrorists in these other countries. These other terrorists are targeted for assassination by Obama, and yet he lets terrorists like Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon go scot free.
…..People who want to side with the bankers are doing so willfully and the consequences will be dealt with accordingly. Those who want to take down these terrorists are doing hard work. It is a global effort to do so…
This is a grand battle that is taking place. We will see who wins at the end. I have got my bets on the global insurrection.
…Keiser: First I should say that banks take risk but not in their name. The banks do not take any risk to their balance sheet. The executives did not take any risk to their salaries and bonuses. They took enormous risks in the name of the people that are now suffering the austerity measures.
To say that banks are taking risks is a misnomer… an enormous misrepresentation of the truth. Lies are considered the currency of the banking system.
smoke and mirrors scandal
smoke and mirrors scandal
How is the Greek financial situation a smoke an mirrors scandal BlueSkye? Are you apologizing for the banks again or did you mean something else?
Don’t be Dink Rio. If I were apologizing for the banks, I’d be voting for Obama..or Romney! I won’t exchange insults with you, though I am more efficient in that way than you, it isn’t healthy. Did you notice that 99.99% of the HBB avoided our rude exchange like the plague???
The transcript that you posted said “mirrors”. I think it is obvious that the speaker said MERS. It’s a play on words which is a play on the poster not really catching it.
though I am more efficient in that way (insults) than you,
LOL Well congratulations BlueSky. You are good at insults! Yes you are very “good” at it. Your calling “d!ckhead” “Dink” and “bite me” show how good you are. You are funny.
it isn’t healthy
I don’t think it is healthy for you. You don’t handle it well. You get too freaked out and resort to insults and mumbo-jumbo when faced with a mirror. But I and more know where you are coming from. You are a bank/crony-capitalist apologist who tries to hide it behind your driftin’ “no-debt” persona. I have no debt either and assets but I’m not a traitor of the middle-class and I don’t try to hide my position behind amateur subterfuge.
our rude exchange
“Our”? You were the rudest by far. You were rude, insulting, libelous and you butted in on none-of-your-business on Saturday with me and you were rude and a crude name-caller yesterday.
And BlueSkye? Did you just apologize for the banks again but try to hide it behind your “clever” but seen trap? THAT is a classic example of how you defend the banks. You always have a lame/backup excuse for it when called out. (as you just did and were)
You are right about one thing, I am OK poking fun, but when I forget my manners it is not healthy for me.
Take a step back and look at what a spin you are in! You imagine that because I am an intentional boat bum, it is an obvious cover for a wall street banker. It wasn’t even your idea, and now you own it.
I will apologize for my remark on Saturday. You were very vulnerable. I suggested that you had been defanged. FPSS has been insulting dolts here since long before you showed up. His appeal is his insight and his flamboyance, unrivaled, but he takes a poke back as well as any. I have insulted him much more severly than I did you.
I was pissy about something that had nothing to do with you. You are pissy now about something that has nothing to do with me. Go get a grip on what’s really abusing you and deal with it.
You have your parents down there? If so I envy you. Show them some love and don’t waste your time being angry at strangers.
You imagine that because I am an intentional boat bum, it is an obvious cover for a wall street banker.
I never thought you were a banker. I agree with you on a lot of things but I think you’re an apologist for gross wealth inequality which very much involves the workings of banks and their overly influential power. We all, including me, are apologists for something but I don’t approve of what you give a free-pass to more often than not.
I suggested that you had been defanged.
Obviously the news of my defanging was premature.
You were very vulnerable. ….FPSS has been insulting
I’m not good at shrugging off unwarranted disrespect but I was, and am not vulnerable. That’s why I can take bullies such as FPSSS on. I’m not vulnerable to his NYC master’s of the universe delusions of grandeur, insults and perverse mouth no matter his “insight or appeal”.
I will apologize for my remark on Saturday
Thank you. I accept your apology and hope to move on.
“… an enormou$ mi$repre$entation of the truth$. Lie$ are con$idered the currencie$ of the banker$ $ystem.”
Adapted From the $hort $tory:
“The Banker$ New clothe$”
Illustration$ & Frustration$ provided free by Hwy50
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46397794
“Their encampments are largely gone, but the U.S. “Occupy” movement is far from dead, with organizers focused on a next wave of protest.
In Iowa, a major farming state, Occupy activists are mobilizing with other groups against agricultural biotechnology firm, Monsanto. In Oklahoma, Occupy plans to target retail giant Wal-Mart Stores for protests. Groups in more than 50 cities are planning a national protest day Feb. 29, targeting numerous corporations.”
In other words, Occupy was always a conglomeration of a 1000 failed protest groups, and it has crumbled back into that primordial ooze from which is was formed.
Occupy was not focused and was never going to be able to focus.
Meme-o-matic replies:
“They need to occupy a shower and get a job”
“Go back to mom’s basement, loosers!”
“Occupy activists are mobilizing with other groups against agricultural biotechnology firm, Mon$anto.”
Expo$e-their-Deciet$ says:
“Bless ‘em, every single one of ‘em…”
x3 Cheers kids!
aNYdj posted yesterday:
but the g-d of the bible is to me nothing but a glorified Capt Kirk who came with his ship+crew and populated our planet…
Hmmm…. so Yahweh/Jehovah was just a cocky and horny dude with a cool starship?
That’s almost as plausible as getting one’s CC debt forgiven by the banksters in order to stimulate the economy.
I guess that makes Jesus a redshirt.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017486066_covington12.html?source=patrick.net
Squatters blighting neighborhood while Freddie Mac (i.e. the US taxpayer) drowns in vacant foreclosures.
Hmm, maybe that’s the strategy. Let the banks get their shadow stuff out on the market, then dump the GSE stuff later.
“When Wilson and his wife, Mia, moved here in 2003, Crofton Hills was brand-new, a quaint, middle-class suburb built next to a cow pasture. The place felt safe, and on clear days the view of Mount Rainier was breathtaking.”
Wow paradise, a quaint middle-class shack with a breathtaking view of Mount Rainier and your own private shroom field right next door. But then….
“with the disruption next door, the couple couldn’t sleep. They’d hear loud parties until 3 a.m. Wilson saw one squatter burning furniture on the back patio. Strangers took away the stove and other appliances.”
“You’d come home and find them (squatters) throwing things out of the second-floor window,” said John “J.D.” Wilson, who lives next to the house.”
“One day, Wilson was out walking his rat terrier, Zinnia.”
“One of them walks up to me and says, ‘I’d like to barbecue your dog.’ ”
That dude needs a dog. And a Glock. Nobody ever says that to me and Dozer. Dozer is a dog and I have a Glock.
If I were Wilson and Mia, I’d be making a royal pain of myself on 911 and at the office of any public official I could think of. I’d also be calling all the TV stations. They’d be on this story like white on rice.
Yes, it’s true. Part of being a neighborhood activist is being a pain in the you-know-what. And you just keep on being one until you get results. That’s how my neighbors and I ran a halfway house full of sketchy characters off this street in just nine months.
Deadbeats Are Dirtbags.
Banks Are Enablers.
Its Dirty Out There.
Fail on line 2.
Or was that not intended to be a haiku, Liz?
Deadbeats are inevitable if people with money won’t spend it.
Without banks allowing new money to be borrowed into existence, we could not fund our trade imbalances.
It is indeed dirty.
Dude,
You need a delete button. WTF happened?
They are just possible contemporary names such as yours. Sorry about the confusion.
How about;
Housing Is Dead
Housing Is Collapsing
Housing Is Inflated
Housing Is Worthless
Worthless Housing
Man falls ill eating Heart Attack Grill burger
By KEN RITTER
The Associated Press
Posted: 11:41 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
LAS VEGAS — Laughing tourists were either cynical or confused about whether a man was really suffering a medical episode amid the “doctor,” ”nurses” and health warnings at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, a restaurant owner said Wednesday.
“It was no joke,” said Jon Basso, who promotes himself “Doctor Jon,” his scantily-clad waitresses as nurses and customers as patients.
Basso said he could tell right away the man in his 40s eating a Triple Bypass burger was having trouble. He was sweating, shaking and could barely talk.
Paramedics were called Saturday night, fire spokesman Tim Szymanski said, and the man was hospitalized. His name and information about his condition weren’t made public.
Giggles can be heard on the soundtrack of amateur video showing the man on a stretcher being wheeled out of the restaurant where patrons pass an antique ambulance at the door and a sign: “Caution! This establishment is bad for your health.”
Eaters are given surgical gowns as they choose from a calorically extravagant menu offering “Bypass” burgers, “Flatliner” fries, buttermilk shakes and free meals to folks over 350 pounds.
Basso said he hopes the man is OK, and added that he felt bad for him because tourists treated his misfortune like a joke.
“We would never pull a stunt like that,” he said.
http://my.news.yahoo.com/man-falls-ill-eating-heart-attack-grill-burger-195306231.html - -
We just met our new neighbors. A nice family from Cincinnati, OH that will be moving in on the first. The have a 3 and 5 year old and kids were thrilled to meet them.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that we’re the kiss of death, and that every place we’ve rented ends up with way worse renters after we move out.
I still have heard back from my LL regarding renewal of our lease. I really only stressed for two days. I don’t care anymore. Every time this has happened we’ve ended up in a better place than I had hoped for. So screw it, we’ll move again if we have to.
This time, though, I’ll hire some crackheads to help me move.
“This time, though, I’ll hire some crackheads to help me move.”
North American or Allied Van Lines?
Realtors lie all day
Telling me it’s time2buy
Wine comes in boxes
Miss me?
Dang but I’ve been busy!
Good to see everyone still here.
No, Ben and I aren’t dating. I’d like to know who started that rumor! It’s mere coincidence that we are gone about the same time! Coincidence I tell you!
Late as always, dang problem set. Gives me the opp to be first in saying welcome back, though! Will you let us know what you’ve been busy ON? Inquiring minds want to know and all that.
For RAL - are you still interested in CT? I read your post the other day that you are now in RI. If CT is still on your radar, I read on Reuters that Pitney Bowes (hq in Stamford) had a Fitch downgrade. The downgrade happened after I heard from a friend who used to work there that she was laid off this month. She wanted to know what the climate was like in NoVa.
I told her that the prospective DoD cuts are already rippling through. Lockheed, CSC and a couple other major contracting firms have let some people go, a couple hundred at most among them. Booz Allen chopped some middle and senior management, again numbers of a hundred or so - source is the Washington Business Journal. Scarcely the deluge everybody was expecting. It looks like these were paper jockeys, note-takers and handshakers for the most part, not folks who did modeling and simulation and engineering drawings and other stuff that gets turned into long lived things in the tangible realm - source is colleagues who work at these places.
I said she was welcome to use my address as a hangout and as an addy for a couple months while she looked, as others did for me when I first came here. But warned her up front that I would not be nearly as good a hostess because my nose is buried in my notebooks and suchlike during the long march through this program. She said she understood and wouldn’t expect catering. She’ll prolly come down next month and I’ll introduce her around to get her started in looking for a jobbe. About CT, she says the hopium is still high in lower Fairfield County, that house prices have barely budged after taking a deep breath in their gentle decline through last summer.
OK, that’s all the news I have. I do sometimes wish that I had adventures in exotic locales to report housing prices from. But then again, said adventures would probably rattle me to the core and addle my brain to boot. A calm, bookwormy lifestyle is a source of much contentment! And, it allows me to recirculate some of the favors that others did for me, a source of considerable satisfaction.
Welcome back, Eco, please spill the beans soon.
.
Welcome back.
This cream puff has an accepted offer……we’ll see
Rents were $1550 and $1125…usual crappy condition…looked like some water intrusion, it does have a fenced in yard but its 4 steps out of the first floor common area with WD boiler back of the garage.
Stairs felt like they were 100 years old creaky springy, looks like a lot of scraping of the wood panels…and the bedroom floor looks nothing like the picture…must have been taken a year or two ago….it needed refinishing….so move-in condition no way
oh yeah 1 boiler 1 thermostat great for tenants maybe they will wall in the garage to get more rent, but even in nice condition you probably wont get $3500 total for stable tenants…$4000mo but they will churn….the math wont work. ($4500 taxes)
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5018-39th-Pl-Long-Island-City-NY-11104/31935799_zpid/
So… why not buy a Home Path house with a Home Path IO loan? If it hits the fan in ten years, boom, you’re out.
It’s like owning and strategic default from the get-go. Like an SFRenter plan on ‘roids.
Check out the video and paint job:
http://video214.com/play/lX3wb7vHPJnOW9zQEkd1CA/s/dark
This should be a great year for the U.S. stock market — provided the Greek situation does not blow up into Lehman Brothers II.
Asia Markets Archives
June 16, 2011, 5:00 a.m. EDT
Asia tumbles on Greek debt fears, U.S. data
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asian shares fell sharply on Thursday, as investors reacted to fresh developments on Greece’s sovereign-debt crisis and some disappointing U.S. economic data, with exporters, banks and energy companies among top decliners.
The Hang Seng Index fell 1.8% to 21,953.11, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.5%. Both Chinese markets, as well as Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index, — which ended the day down 1.9% — fell to 2011 lows during the session.
The Nikkei Stock Average ended down 1.7% at 9,411.28, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.9%.
Greek Prime Minister Papandreou will form a new government Thursday after talks to form a national unity government failed. The announcement came as police clashed with protesters in Athens.
“I think that the bad economic data out of the U.S. has raised questions about the U.S. recovery, and there’s a lot of concern about further fallout in Europe. Those are the two biggest export markets for Asia,” said Andrew Sullivan, director for institutional sales at OSK Securities.
“That doesn’t bode well for Asia unless Asia can pick up the slack itself, and the recent data out of China, as well as the recent tightening in China, call that into question,” he said.
…
Got accelerating Asian share price declines?
Asia Markets Archives
Feb. 15, 2012, 9:24 p.m. EST
Asia stocks fall as Greece worries weigh
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asian shares traded mostly lower Thursday, as investors fretted about the possibility of a messy Greek default, although Japanese shares got some support from a relatively weak yen.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 index (AU:XJO -1.70%) dropped 1.5%, the South Korean Kospi (KR:0100 -1.20%) fell 1%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI -0.82%) declined 0.5%.
However, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:000001 -0.18%) and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NIK -0.26%) each traded flat.
U.S. shares ended firmly lower overnight, with minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting dashing hopes for a imminent round of further quantitative easing and as uncertainty lingered over the prospects for Greece.
On Wednesday, reports suggested that some euro-zone nations were considering delaying Greece’s next bailout package until after the country holds elections — expected to take place in April. At the same time, arrangements would be made to help the country avoid disorderly default, the reports said.
…
I hope everyone caught the near-identical Marketwatch stories I posted above from June 16, 2011 and from February 15, 2012. It seems that very little progress has occurred on the Greek debt crisis front over the course of eight months.
I can only imagine what the next eight months will bring…
Thanks for the perspective.
We love SoCal!
Reply was to NYC DJ.
The January 2012 DataQuick home sales numbers are out. Here is what I see for used single family homes in our our zip code:
Area / Zip Code / Number of Homes Sold / Median Price / YOY Change
Rancho Bernardo W 92127 23 $548,000 -18.8%
That 18.8% drop seems pretty hefty. To put it into perspective, the one-year loss in value for a home that dropped by 18.8% since January 2011 down to $548,000 would be:
(18.8%/(100%-18.8%))*$548,000 = $126,877.
Check:
Old value = $548,000 + $126,877 = $674,877
Loss = 18.8%*$674,877 = $126,877.
That’s quite a haircut!