Bits Bucket for March 4, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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What Rush Limbaugh said about Sandra Fluke the 30-Year-Old Law Student was as Daffy Duck would have said despicable!! Daffy says: You’re despicable!! - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Z2MP8vMWU - 131k -
“Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” Fluke told the hearing.
Having said that, I have written Sandra Fluke a poem.
I got into Law School
It took brains and some luck
Now that I`m here I need $3k to
I thought that there are generic contraceptives that can be purchased at WalMart and other pharmacies for $4/month?
I know that in 3rd world countries contraceptives are handed out free of charge, so they can’t be that expensive.
“I thought that there are generic contraceptives that can be purchased at WalMart and other pharmacies for $4/month?”
So did I and everyone else I have talked to. But then again I don`t talk to everybody.
Pelosi, House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing on Women’s Health February 23, 2012
Contact: Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
“Democrats are prepared to hear from a single witness today, a Georgetown Law student, Sandra Fluke, to testify before the committee. She was invited by the Democrats to be at the panel that was called together last week. But the Republicans did not want to hear from her. And so we do today.
“We are proud to bring Sandra before our Steering and Policy Committee to deliver the testimony she was denied last week, to stand firm in the cause of women’s health. To no longer be held silent. Sandra is a bold and passionate leader for young women, and all women, at Georgetown and across the country. She understands that this issue that we’re discussing is a matter of women’s health, plain and simple. She has stood on the frontlines of this debate at Georgetown University Law, dedicated her time and energy to the battle against other issues: human trafficking and domestic violence, and served as the President and Secretary of the Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice. Sandra will continue to serve women and our committees as a leader in the field of public interest law.
http://pelosi.house.gov/ - 47k -
$83 a month sounds a little pricey for contraception, but the cheapest “pill” doesn’t work for all women. I have a friend for whom it doesn’t work. She also can’t take Tylenol because it makes her temperature spike. There are people like that.
I think that $4 is the co-pay for generic prescriptions. So, that only works if you have insurance that covers it and generics work for you and you happen to live/go to school close enough to a Walmart or one of the other places that offer the deal (they won’t if there isn’t enough competition in the area to make them do it).
A country that passes out cheap contraceptives is trying to get the overall number of births down. They don’t give a rat’s ass about one particular woman having a perfect outcome (no unplanned pregnancies) with her contraceptive method. That is public policy which is very different than real health care.
I think that $4 is the co-pay for generic prescriptions.
Nope, that is the total cost. I know because I home some generics like that. On the big pharmacy receipt is shows thew full price and how much you paid. In my case both were $4. I just bought some differin for my son. The “cash” price is $296.49. My copay was $60.
I had a prescription filled once that was $0.58, but it wasn’t for birth control pills. And a lot of research was done a while ago that lower levels of hormones can be as effective as the higher levels in the bc pills my mother took. So I’m guessing a lot of those formulations aren’t available as generics.
The best way that I know of to get cheap bc pills is to go to a doc in a very high rent district but look less well off than all her other patients. The good ones will save the sample packs the drug companies drop off for their less wealthy patients. Of course, without decent insurance, you are going to pay rack rate of a few hundred bucks for the appointment, so saving some money on the pills is a little pointless.
OrthoNovum cost $36 a month in 1970. That’s was an awful lot of money for a young person who wanted to behave responsibly. ( For the moralists out there, many women got married at 18 then.)
Perhaps some of these old white men might want to consider what it costs society to raise the products of unwanted pregnancies to adulthood (and beyond?)
During this time of economic travail, do we really want to be encouraging taxpayers to drop out of the workforce to have more babies for the welfare State to take care of? Or shall we allow all those tax-avoiding, Medicare-billing, Pell-grant-accepting “religious” colleges and hospitals to maintain their “religious freedom?”
Truly skewered logic, Rush. I seem to recall that when you were arrested with all that unprescribed Oxycontin you also had a vial of someone else’s Viagra on you….
I thought condoms were free?
As a father of three daughters, and as a former 18 year old male, I’m not going to depend on ANY 18 year old male for “responsibility” and “judgement”.
But I live in Fundamentalist Born-again ChristianLand. Most of these parents think that getting their kids on birth control is giving them a “green light”. So they don’t. and the kids can’t afford it on their own, especially with no insurance.
And, as mentioned, sometimes the generic stuff causes more problems than they fix.
You would think that Republicans and their supporters would be handing out contraceptives like Halloween candy, to keep liberals/Godless heathens/minority scum from breeding and going on welfare, and filling up the school systems.
Birth control doesn’t prevent STD’s.
You don’t want your daughters to get herpes. Hence, condoms it is.
Pregnancies can be dealt with. There are some irrevocable consequences otherwise.
The odd thing is those very same religious freaks who do not want their kids on contraceptives would not want a daughter who, is impregnated by a scummy loser, to get an abortion. Freaks! No wonder I am an atheist!
oxy contin fiend
insufferable jackass
i poop on you. twice.
The guy is an ass.
Why people listen to him
Is a mystery.
Nobody liked my poem.
I liked it, though I would probably have appreciated the punchline better if I had spent more than ten seconds of my life paying attention to this story.
Jeff, I raise my wine glass…(raise happening now)…to your poem.
Vulgarity runs in my family on my dad’s side…”If the dog didn’t stop to shi_ he would have caught the rabbit” - my dad’s line.
Damn!
The 40th running of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race will take place on Saturday March 3, 2012. I was planning on taking Dozer up there, picking up a few homeless dogs along the way and entering that thing this year too.
OK, I have now watched parts of 3 episodes of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic Channel and I gotta tell ya. If the people on this show are the only ones who are going to be around, I don`t want to survive.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/ - 105k -
Haven’t seen it, but I heard it is somewhat long the lines of what you’d expect if the NAR and the fed teamed up to made a documentary about the HBB… a shock-show hatchet job. Is that accurate?
I think we can expect more of this in the future. Has there already been any HBB-related mass media attacks yet? In the run-up there was a lot of anecdotal stories about people not willing to “invest” in real estate getting divorced, etc, has there been more than that?
Mass media better hurry up about it, they’re becoming less relevant every year.
I loved the guy building the under ground condos!
Only $1 million and you to can live with a bunch of other rich aholes. At least when the food runs out, you won’t feel guilty about that bbq meal.
Last night there was a dude who was moving his family from Jacksonville Fl. to the hills of Tennessee. His problem was he had been Doomsday Prepping for a while and he was not only going to have to move his family and build a house but also move like a 10 year supply of rice and water, solar panels, black pickle barrels for heating water in a green house an arsenal of weapons and 5000 rounds of ammo etc. The cost of moving all his Doomsday sh#t to Tennessee would have bought a house in Tennessee. His kids looked none to happy about it either. The other dude I saw last night had been foreclosed on so he and his wife were Doomsday Prepping in their 18 wheeler. That guy spent like $450 on camo netting that covered like 1/3 of his truck so he could hide it at night from the wandering bands of thieves they are always worried about. When he was bitchin about how it was going to cost $1,500 to cover his whole truck with the netting I flipped the channel.
That’s out here in our neck of the woods.
If we go all “Mad Max”, I’m going to make it a priority to pack up all my guns, and pay that place a visit. For General Principle.
X-GSfixr you`re just like John Trivolta in Pulp Fiction.
“Jules, if you give that f#ckin’ nimrod fifteen hundred dollars, I’m gonna shoot him on general principles.”
What’s to stop Uncle Warren from snapping up a couple of hundred thousand homes, if it penciled out as an investment?
I notice the dummies who write for The Economist completely overlooked the artificially, monopolistically manipulated shadow inventory as an explanation for tight U.S. housing supply.
The housing market
Holding back the spring
Mar 3rd 2012 | WASHINGTON, DC | from the print edition
THE reanimation of America’s housing market has been a long time coming. Residential building last contributed positively to growth in 2005. Housing-construction employment has dropped 43% since then. Government efforts to resuscitate the market have flopped. Yet tantalising signs of a durable recovery are emerging at last. The National Association of Home Builders’ index of builder confidence rose for a fifth consecutive month in February, to its highest level since May 2007 (see chart). Sales of previously-owned homes rose 4.3% from December to January. The housing overhang is receding. The number of homes for sale dropped 21% in the year to January, to just over six months of supply—a “normal” level.
The recovery is an odd one by American standards, centred on the rental market. Though house prices sank 4% in 2011, rents posted a 2.4% increase, thanks to tumbling vacancy rates. Tight conditions are a side-effect of the housing bust. Construction hit a record low in 2011, surpassing a 2010 performance which itself displaced 2009’s. The pressure from America’s growing population is now showing. Builders are responding. The number of new building permits jumped 19% in the year to January. Approvals for buildings with five or more units, which are favoured by renters, soared by 61%.
Meanwhile, adults who sheltered with friends or family during the recession are striking out on their own. A Goldman Sachs analysis reckons that growth in new households has been some 50% short of trend since the recession began, with over half of the shortfall coming from those aged 18-34. Goldman reckons the worst is over, and that the young should soon add to new housing demand.
Those rising rents make buying a bargain: as attractive as it has been for three decades, according to the National Association of Realtors’ index of housing affordability. Stocks of homes for sale are falling as investors snap up and convert vacant homes for renting out. Were it practical, mused Warren Buffett recently, he would buy up “a couple of hundred thousand” homes.
…
I notice the dummies who write for The Economist completely overlooked the artificially, monopolistically manipulated shadow inventory as an explanation for tight U.S. housing supply.
LOL! If the supply was indeed “tight”, wouldn’t the builder boys be building them like it was 2005?
What’s really tight is financing. That’s always been the real determinant of the housing market, at least in living memory (the late 20th Century and after).
Americans cornered themselves into unaffordable housing by accepting more and more widespread use of credit in order to buy. That would have happened to anything priced so thoroughly in terms of credit.
BTW, this is relating to my anecdote about my friends trying to be emotionally chained to an overpriced asset, a $60K-assessed duplex that is being sold for $125K, by the seller who paid $150K for it (cash) when it was assessed for about $70K. I’ll talk more about it later, but the latest issue is they were handed one of those howmuchamonth sheets that boiled down the purchase in terms of monthly payments depending on down payment and mortgage type. Kierkegaard wrote “Fear and Trembling” in 1843, and I now know exactly how he felt nearly two centuries later, looking at this insidious system trying to literally destroy my friends through social persuasion to become obscenely indebted. Naturally, and no offense at all to the ladies here, but the wives or ladies on both sides of this are doing the dance; it’s like watching a resonance experiment in a physics lab. I’ve told my friends a few times that they would be overpaying 100% for a falling asset that is not guaranteed to produce an income, but it seems that this has had no effect, particular once the howmuchamonth sheet was produced. Gawd, I’m terrified. :shudder:
I seriously doubt that Buffett can’t do a simple PITIM calculation. He can do it in his sleep.
He’s talking his book.
Berkshire Hathaway owns Clayton Homes.
As he always says himself, “Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.”
Never ask a Realtwhore if its a “good time to buy”.
And never pay any attention to NAR research saying that buying is a “bargain”.
reanimation of America’s housing market
Huh, interesting use of terms. Is this a Disney production..or anime made in Japan? Or Japanese Kabuki?
reanimation of America’s housing market
More like the Walking Dead… housing dies, then comes back like a flesh-hungry zombie ready to tear out your intestines if you get to close. (sorry, last night’s episode is still fresh in mind)
Real estate industry fears homes will flood market as prices rise
By David Slade
dslade@postandcourier.com
Sunday, March 4, 2012
After dozens of lookers and no buyers, Dixon Whitmire of Summerville decided to take his house off the market until real estate demand improves. Real estate professionals worry that homes like Whitmire’s, along with foreclosures owned by banks, comprise a “shadow inventory” of homes that owners would like to sell.
Dixon Whitmire would like to sell his house in Summerville and move closer to friends and work in Mount Pleasant. But with housing prices in a slump and buyers scarce, he decided to pull his home off the market and wait.
“I had 45 or 50 people come and look at the house, but no offers materialized,” Whitmire said. “With the market being what it is, I would have had to lower the price more than I was comfortable with in order to sell.”
Whitmire, 36, is employed and pays his mortgage on time, but the real estate industry nonetheless fears homeowners such as him: those planning to put their homes back on the market at the first sign of rising prices.
The inventory of homes listed for sale has been falling, but there is widespread concern in the industry that a hidden reservoir of homes, known as the “shadow inventory,” could flood the fragile market and harm the prospects for a recovery.
The shadow inventory includes foreclosures that banks haven’t yet put up for sale, and homes owned by people like Whitmire, representing pent-up demand on the selling side.
“The problem with the shadow inventory is, no one really knows how large it is,” said Doug
Holmes, an agent with Carolina One Real Estate who analyzes sales market statistics for CharlestonRealEstate Stats.com.
And there’s no way of knowing if these properties will dribble onto the market slowly or hit the market in a disruptive rush.
…
So now the “shadow inventory” includes folks like Dixon, who kinda sorta wants to sell his house for a more than fifty looky-loos were willing to pay? Well, heck, by that definition, we have a shadow inventory of about 100 million.
I totally agree that shadow inventory should consider pent-up supply represented by a massive number of soon-to-downsize Baby Boomers who are waiting for prices to come back to levels which offer a tolerable exit point. Eventually these people will have to sell, regardless of whether prices come back, just because they will not have the means or the desire to maintain a family-sized McMansion past the age of 70. I personally know quite a few people in this category.
Perhaps it is just my age, but I know precisely zero young families champing at the bit to get into a home as soon as prices get a little bit higher than current levels.
“Perhaps it is just my age, but I know precisely zero young families champing at the bit to get into a home as soon as prices get a little bit higher than current levels.”
While making half the wages of the boomers for twice the work?
“After dozens of lookers and no buyers”
There realy should be a shadow inventory auctioneer.
One dollar bid, now one, now one, will ya’ give me one dollar? One dollar bid, now one, now one, will ya’ give me one dollar? Any lookers? Hey 12 lookers, lookers will ya’ give me one? One dollar bid, now one, now one, will ya’ give me one dollar? Hey! No bidder, no bidder, no bidder, no bidder, no bidder, no bidder. No bid going once, no bid going twice, slam-NOT SOLD! No buyers.
The shadow inventory auctioneer is Dutch:
“$500K bid — do I hear anyone at $500K? No? Now going at $450K — any takers? No? Now down to $400K — any bidders at this attractive low price? Now going down to $350K — get this home on sale while it lasts, folks. No bids at $350K? Trying $300K now. Does anyone want this beautifully furnished home with granite counter tops in the kitchen for the low, attractive price of $300K?
Sold for $300K to the man in the front row with a suitcase full of cash.”
And if I remember my auction theory, the expected sales price will be the same in both styles.
Right.
My point was that if the offer price starts off above market value, the result is a Dutch auction, not an English auction.
That’s an interesting headline:
Real estate industry fears homes will flood market as prices rise
I think that the flood would prevent prices from rising much if it happened.
There’s a lot of people around here getting ready to put their house on the market this spring, since the market is “recovering”.
Shadow Inventory Weighs Down Housing Market
How much is $1 trillion?
Economists calculate that the decline in home prices has cost American homeowners approximately $7 trillion in home equity. That number is the equivalent of 28 million homes losing $250,000 in value each!
Compounding this problem is the fact that the inventory of homes available for sale remains high and there is potential for a significant volume of “shadow inventory” to hit the market. Real estate is a supply and demand game, so what steps must policy makers take to prevent the loss of additional trillions in home equity?
The good news is that the abundant supply of homes available for sale presents opportunities for first-time homebuyers and “move-up” buyers as affordability is at an all-time high. Many are hesitant to make a move, however, because they’re wait for values to reach “bottom.” This is more of a gamble than a strategy.
As any trader will tell you, picking a market’s top or bottom is nearly impossible.
…
Real estate is a supply manipulation and demand game, so what steps must policy makers take to prevent the loss of additional trillions in home equity?
Sounds like a job for Market Manipulation Man!
Do the dummies who write about U.S. housing for ‘The Economist’ do any research before penning an article? Google could be your friend, stooges!
Real Estate
How ‘Shadow Inventory’ Is Killing the Housing Market
By Katherine Tarbox | February 8, 2012
Recently, there have been lots of positive signs coming out of the real estate market. Foreclosure rates are down, housing starts are up, and homes have appreciated in value in some markets for the first time since 2006. Even so, two reports surfaced last week indicating that, for the nation as a whole, home prices dropped by 3.5% to 5% in 2011. And one factor hurting the prices of homes that are for sale is the enormous number of homes that aren’t for sale — but that should be.
The Case-Shiller housing index was released last week, stating that home prices had dropped 3.7% in 2011, compared with the previous year. CoreLogic, a real estate research firm, also recently released a report estimating that prices had dropped in 2011 — by 5%.
“While overall prices declined by almost 5% in 2011, nondistressed prices showed only a small decrease,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “Until distressed sales in the market recede, we will see continued downward pressure on prices.”
Most housing experts agree: prices won’t rise until all distressed inventory (a.k.a. foreclosures and short sales) is moved through the market. Distressed sales keep prices low because banks want to get rid of such properties asap, and they’re willing to sell at a loss so long as the homes are out of their hands.
Exactly how many foreclosures need to be cleared out of the system is somewhat unknown, however. While about 3.5 million homes are officially for sale at any particular time, millions of homes that otherwise would be for sale are currently off the market. It’s these properties that are known as “shadow inventory.”
There are many reasons why homes that could be for sale aren’t. Some are stalled in the foreclosure process, which can easily take more than a year in some states. Some banks decide against putting certain homes on the market either because they can’t process all their distressed inventory, or because flooding the market would drive prices further down. Technically, shadow inventory also refers to homeowners who would like to sell but are waiting for market conditions to improve.
…
Again, why are falling prices (therefore better deals for buyers) considered ‘killing’ the market?
Answer: It’s because we’re still in a housing bubble. The flippers still want prices to be high, so they can flip them higher. The flippers are still controlling everything. Houses are still being sold largely for gains as financial assets, not for living in them as usable assets.
This nonsense is going to continue for more years. Many more. I predicted a bottom (defined as, right before a long-term rising trend) after 2030 AD, which is about a generation after the ‘peak’ in 2005-2008.
Whew! It’s a good thing the bubble never happened in the Rust Belt!
“Nearly one-third of Hoeltzer Street is now city owned. Over on Sullivan Street to the north, pending foreclosures could leave the city owning nearly 60 percent of the block.”
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120304/NEWS/302110043
FWIW, you can have foreclosures galore without a bubble. All it takes are massive jobs losses, which is the definition of the rust belt. Lose your $20/hr union job (and replace it with a P/T minimum wage job) and suddenly you can no longer afford payments that were manageable during the past 10 years.
Yes, there’s some of that going on. But again, that’s not the entire issue. In the rusted-out areas, when things were rotting down into the humus, and population/jobs were fleeing, prices still rose. It was a national housing bubble. No place was safe or sane, since there was a national banking market which acted with uniform bubble policy. They loaned everywhere, driving up prices everywhere, regardless of economic circumstances.
Credit, insurance and subsidies all drive up prices, pretty much uniformly or without exclusion. Those explain why certain things in the USA have become so expensive, or so misdirected (like ethanol).
That Realtor Lie is a beaut….. “We didn’t have a bubble here.”
The implication is it’s ok to buy now because prices will never fall.
Why must realtors continuously lie?
Another more insidious Realtor Lie is “you can’t build it for that much!”. Really? Realtors are estimators, bidders and contractors?
Realtors just need to stop lying. As my 90 year old father would say, the best substitute for a lack of brains is a closed mouth. The internal Realtor mantra is, the best substitute for a lack of brains is a lie to cover realtor incompetence and uselessness. That way, they look smart and profit at the same time. At someone else’s expense of course.
“you can’t build it for that much!”
this statement is a comment on the price of the lot.
whaaaaaaa????
the biggest impediment to new construction at this point in time is the price of lots. They are falling but they remain too high. If you add the cost of construction to the price of the lot the result is higher than the market.
around here lots are coming down but are not yet low enough to compete with the existing inventory of housing units.
“…around here lots are coming down but are not yet low enough to compete with the existing inventory of housing units.”
Does CalPERS’ decision to unwind its real estate holdings have possible future implications here?
MARKETS
January 18, 2012
Calpers Downsizes Housing Portfolio
By ROBBIE WHELAN And CRAIG KARMIN
Associated Press
Calpers, the giant California pension fund, is dumping one of its last major housing investments at a big loss.
In a major step toward winding down a two-decade program as the pension world’s biggest player in the U.S. housing market, Calpers is selling a portfolio of 28 housing communities to a partnership between San Diego-based developer Newland Real Estate Group LLC and an affiliate of Japan’s largest home-building company, Sekisui House Ltd.
The portfolio, which includes 16,300 unbuilt home sites and thousands of acres of additional undeveloped land in 11 states, represents about one-fifth of Calpers’ residential land portfolio.
People familiar with the terms said the portfolio sold for between $500 million and $600 million.
At that price range, the deal values each home site at about $35,000, at most. During the housing boom, big builders would typically buy the land underneath new homes for $75,000 to $150,000, depending on location and state of infrastructure completion. This means that Calpers, which bought the property over about five years starting in 2002, is likely suffering a loss of as much as 30% to 50%, the people said.
Calpers move comes after three years of distressed-land sales by other major owners, including builders and banks that have driven down values by as much as 75% in some markets. Calpers has resisted a major liquidation of its holdings until recently.
During the past decade, Calpers was the biggest U.S. public pension fund investing in residential housing and land deals, in certain deals using debt to finance up to 80% of the purchases. That boosted returns, but also risks.
Currently Calpers has about 9% of its $226 billion in assets invested in real estate. Up until the crash, the pension fund used the proceeds from its housing investments to make payments to over 1.5 million state retirees.
But now, Calpers officials say they are looking to real estate for stability rather than high yields. “The plan calls for real estate to be a diversifier…to provide stable cash yields and to act as a partial inflation hedge,” says Calpers spokesman Wayne Davis.
After the bubble burst, Calpers began suffering losses on a number of deals—losing more than $900 million on one deal alone. Last year, the pension giant started overhauling its real-estate-investment program and since then, it has put in place a plan to sell down its portfolio and concentrate on safer, income-producing commercial property.
…
Charlie the way you phrase it you imply it is the cost of construction that makes housing prohibitive, not the lot. It’s the other way around and only in a few areas.
I have the feeling a Federal bailout of CALPERS is coming in the near future!
Calpers Downsizes Housing Portfolio
Buy high, sell low!
I have the feeling a Federal bailout of CALPERS is coming in the near future!
Maybe $0.35 per dollar a la the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)?
There’s something quite sickening about the fact that Calpers was speculating in land.
Can you even imagine analysts basing their findings on actual data, rather than simply emitting an endless stream of bullsh!t? The nerve!
Straight talk about the housing market
Outside the Box
Commentary: Housing stock and household formation are key
February 29, 2012|William Spiegel and Scott Schaen
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Economists, policy makers and consumers continue to seize upon any sign that the housing market is rebounding.
A common refrain from pundits is that a recovery may be seen in the next “one to two years.” Unfortunately, based on the data, the truth is that a housing market recovery is still much further away than most are admitting, and there are no practical short-term solutions that will solve the problem. See “U.S. home prices at postcrisis lows: Case-Shiller.”
It is understandable why so much attention is focused on the housing market. After all, as the housing market goes, so goes the economy. A home represents the single largest asset of most consumers, and the continued decline in home prices creates a negative wealth effect that hampers a full economic recovery. Moreover, construction and other housing-related industries are experiencing significant employment drops and these jobs will remain lost until residential construction rebounds.
The steady drop in home prices generated a great deal of favorable headlines—and fueled a false assumption that once homes reached a point of affordability, new home buyers would be virtually tripping over each other in a race to buy. With the market remaining largely stagnant, many are citing a lack of access to credit, the high unemployment rate and a chaotic foreclosure process as the most critical barriers to reviving the real estate market. But these factors aren’t the biggest obstacles, and it is misleading to suggest that governmental policies or the banking industry can expedite a real estate revival. Check out the chart: “Green shoots or false dawn for housing.”
…
‘as the housing market goes, so goes the economy’
I stopped reading right there…
Megabank, Inc seems to be using propaganda in a renewed attempt to dump sh!tty mortgage assets on unsuspecting greater fools.
Sorry to say, but REIC members will not be able to scam themselves out of the housing bust.
Feb. 22, 2012, 3:10 p.m. EST
Housing recovery for real? Deutsche Bank says yes
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Of course the National Association of Realtors are cheerleaders. But the data released by the real estate agent trade group, along with other housing and economic indicators, has turned the opinion of one major Wall Street house.
Economists Carl Riccadonna and Brett Ryan of Deutsche Bank on Wednesday penned a note saying they believe the housing sector has finally entered a true recovery.
“While the housing recovery is still in its nascent stage, we wonder if forecasters have counted this sector out for so long that they are overlooking the possibility that it could pose an unexpected mild boost to the economic outlook in the year ahead,” they said in a note to clients.
…
IMO the MSM puts far too much stock into the utterances of bloviating narcotics addicts.
March 2, 2012, 4:12 p.m. EST
Rush Limbaugh goes too far
Commentary: Political discourse is further inflamed
By MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Radio host Rush Limbaugh has finally gone too far.
Limbaugh, arguably the most successful radio personality in the United States, has prompted a firestorm by calling Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University Law Center student, a “slut” and likening her to a prostitute on air, saying she owed it to taxpayers to post sex tapes on the Internet if the public is to bear the cost of her contraceptive prescription.
…
Let’s look a little deeper at the role this guy plays. He rounds up ‘conservatives’ for the neo-cons and fully supports attacks on civil liberties, even as he goes on about the constitution. I recently heard him saying we should leave Afghanistan because of the recent killings. Not because it was a huge waste of blood and treasure. How many condoms would $12 million an hour buy Limbaugh? What do you and the disastrously wrong neo-cons OWE the taxpayer?
Back to the role; the so called “right wing” radio people are still playing the war drums even as Iraq and Afghanistan blow up on us. Now it’s Iran:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/clerical-hard-liners-appear-headed-for-big-victory-in-iran.html
‘Iranian officials Saturday were touting a high turnout in parliamentary elections that most analysts predict will bolster clerical hard-liners.’
Boy, couldn’t see that coming. Sanctions and war plots/assassinations failed for decades in Cuba, and here we go again.
I guess what I’m disappointed about is not so much that there’s outrage about calling a student names, but where’s the outrage on the role of these radio people in wars, in the degradation of our rights?
Superficial issues are easier to process. The person who tackles the most difficult mental task first is rare.
If I could go back in time I would personally hand Rush’s dad a box of condoms.
He’s nothing more than a carnival barker for the neo-cons. And people still eat it up?
Who’s to say than he’s not a result of a broken condom?
Rush Limbaugh is living proof that Native Americans f##ked buffalo.
“I recently heard him saying we should leave Afghanistan because of the recent killings. Not because it was a huge waste of blood and treasure.”
My Afghan cab driver yesterday commented on the amount of Afghan blood that has been spilled since 2003 or so…apparently that is an important consideration among the people whose country serves as the battleground.
If Rush’s uncle hadn’t been on the draft board in that little hick town in Missouri he is from during the Vietnam era, he might just have a different view point of the Afghan war.
March 2, 2012, 12:17 p.m. EST
More misery for America’s most miserable city
Commentary: Stockton has fallen, and doesn’t know how to get back up
By Al Lewis
The downtown waterfront in Stockton, Calif.
DENVER (MarketWatch) — Stockton, Calif., has ranked among the U.S.’s least literate cities, most obese cities, most crime-ridden and dangerous cities, and now it ranks among the nation’s most insolvent cities.
The Los Angeles Times called this town of 290,000 in California’s Central Valley “Foreclosureville, USA.” Last year, Forbes magazine said Stockton had been “ravaged by the housing bust” and placed it No. 1 on its list of “America’s Most Miserable Cities.”
“An article like this is the equivalent of bayoneting the wounded,” Stockton City Manager Bob Deis told Forbes at the time. “I find it unfair. … The people of Stockton are warm. The sense of community is fantastic.”
The wounded, with their fantastic sense of community, turned out in droves Tuesday night for Stockton’s City Council meeting. There, Stockton’s leaders decided to default on bond payments and start a newfangled mediation process with creditors, unions and debt holders in the unlikely hope of avoiding a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing.
If you want to read about the U.S.’s economic recovery, pick up almost any newspaper. But if you want to see a truly bewildered people, a community that is still reeling from what the economy and their government has done to them, there’s a six-hour video of Stockton’s city hall proceedings on the city’s website. Here’s a link to the Stockton video.
“We definitely need the help of the Lord,” Mayor Ann Johnston declared, calling for an opening prayer.
From there, the microphone went to a diverse cast of characters, few of whom had any clue as to how the city got into its devastating financial predicament, or how it could ever get out of it.
…
Do any other HBBers remember the days back when it used to be different in Marin County?
Troubles in 1% Land
March 1, 2012
MarketWatch dot com columnist David Weidner makes a stop on Mean Street to profile Marin County, California and its foreclosure rate that tops the U.S. national average. Photo: Reuters.
I saw a headline recently that said the truly wealthy families were being hit with foreclosure problems. Riiiiiiiiiight.
The truly wealthy pay cash for homes. They pay cash for politicians. They even make cash from thin air.
These type of stories are nothing more than an attempt to divert the ignorant festering mob’s attention away from the real bandits imo.
I saw a headline recently that said the truly wealthy families were being hit with foreclosure problems. Riiiiiiiiiight.
+1. These folks would more accurately be called the “apparently wealthy”. They spend all of their money on the appearance of wealth.
There’s a great line in a play I once saw. They are “hand to mouth on a higher plateau.”
Bang on target!
They are “hand to mouth on a higher plateau.”
Awesomely put!
I can’t take credit. It’s by John Guare.
He was born in the 1% of his time but I think he rebelled to become a playwright.
I was just online looking at 2009 American Community Survey profiles data including income in the school district of my coastal hometown. You can google Portsmouth, NH to see what property is going for presently.
They’re totally screwed.
Family Income:
Total Families 4,676 100.0
Less than $10,000 132 2.8
$10,000 to $14,999 43 0.9
$15,000 to $24,999 256 5.5
$25,000 to $34,999 258 5.5
$35,000 to $49,999 581 12.4
$50,000 to $74,999 934 20.0
$75,000 to $99,999 677 14.5
$100,000 to $149,999 1,141 24.4
$150,000 to $199,999 323 6.9
$200,000 or more 331 7.1
Median family income (dollars) 80,820
Mean family income (dollars) 93,706
Per capita income (dollars) 35,858
Nonfamily households 4,734 101.2
Median nonfamily income (dollars) 47,523
Mean nonfamily income (dollars) 58,539
Median earnings for workers (dollars) 35,863
Median earnings for male full-time, year-round workers (dollars) 54,543
Median earnings for female full-time, year-round workers (dollars) 38,917
http://proximityone.com/acs/dpnh/dp3_3305820.htm
Do banks give the 1% greater largess in the time until foreclosure? I recall some 99%er friends of ours, who scrounge out a living as free-lance musicians, were inundated in one of the early waves of Bank of America foreclosure evictions. By contrast, I guess if you are among the 1%, you get to live rent-free for an average 792 days until foreclosure.
Doesn’t this situation smack of class warfare against the poor? I would think banking law would outlaw this kind of discrimination, but then I have to remind myself that there is no enforced rule-of-law these days in the U.S. banking sector.
ECONOMY
February 28, 2012
For the Costliest Homes, Foreclosure Comes Slowly
By SHELLY BANJO And NICK TIMIRAOS
Michael Underwood hasn’t made a full mortgage payment on his four-bedroom house in San Francisco’s East Bay area since early 2008. But he has yet to be evicted from the home, which includes a lagoon-style pool carved into the property’s natural sandstone.
The Alamo, Calif., home that he bought in 1999 is now worth about $1.05 million, less than the $1.58 million that he owes after refinancing several times.
“I feel guilty, it bothers me,” says the 63-year-old former mortgage banker, who says he depleted much of his savings and sold assets, including jewelry, to make house payments after he initially ran into trouble. “This has been going on for, wow, four years.”
His extended stay illustrates yet another consequence of the complex U.S. foreclosure system—and banks’ skittishness in disposing of certain large loans. A new analysis for The Wall Street Journal shows that high-end homeowners are able to remain in their houses, without making payments, for far longer than those with smaller mortgages.
Nationally, borrowers with loans of at least $1 million were in default for an average 792 days last year before banks repossessed their homes, according to an analysis by data provider Lender Processing Services. For loans under $250,000, the wait stood at an average 611 days—a difference of about six months. The numbers are current through November.
…
Sidebar video:
WSJ’s Nick Timiraos has details of a Wall Street Journal study that shows holders of mortgages under $250,000 are foreclosed upon faster than those with mortgages worth more than $1 million.
Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files
Doesn’t this situation smack of class warfare against the poor? I would think banking law would outlaw this kind of discrimination, but then I have to remind myself that there is no enforced rule-of-law these days in the U.S. banking sector.
Why would you assume this is discriminatory in nature?
It also fits awfully well with the theory that banks are putting off foreclosure to avoid taking the losses onto their books (but at the cost of taking larger losses overall).
If that theory were true, it would make perfect sense to put off for longer the larger losses.
+10
Most people read too much into stuff that is just basic economics at work.
Admittedly, it’s Econ 101 combined with downright fraud and Psychology 101 but most economists (particuarly academics) never seen to make that trifecta of a connection.
Right now, the banks can sell ten $100K repos quicker, easier, and with a smaller hit to the balance sheet than that $1 million dollar house that used to be $2 million.
-Let them keep the property up and live “for free”, at least for a while. Unlike J6P and the other LuckyDucks, these people will have other assets worth suing them for.
“…downright fraud…”
I used to think fraud was illegal,with legal consequences to perpetrators, but I now have very strong doubts on the second point and some additional doubts on the first.
They don’t own the smaller ones. Just servicers. It is possible they own some of the really large ones. Over $700 and whater K and they weren’t conforming. Wouldn’t be surprised if the larger ones were less often privately securitized. If for no other reason, they might have kept some of the jumbos as a way to provide total service to a local business person who did their business banking with that bank. Or as a curtesy to private banking clients who wanted to have a local person to call about all their banking issues.
“It also fits awfully well with the theory that banks are putting off foreclosure to avoid taking the losses onto their books (but at the cost of taking larger losses overall).”
I would think the laws that say you cannot discriminate against one group (poor people in default on homes valued below $250K) in favor of another (formerly wealthy people in default on home valued over $1000K) would trump considerations of monopolistic banking strategies to help them sell for the most possible, given the epic bust.
But as usual, I defer to the HBB’s stable of legal eagles on matters of legality.
Well if you started from the longest non paying deadbeat homeowners and worked backwards….how could anyone claim discrimination or harassment…?
I would think the laws that say you cannot discriminate against one group (poor people in default on homes valued below $250K) in favor of another (formerly wealthy people in default on home valued over $1000K)
You are confused, PB. There are laws on the books protecting against discrimination due to race, age, and a number of other protected classes.
But I have never heard of any law saying that you can’t discriminate based on someone’s relative poverty/wealth.
Reference, please?
Yesterday I beat up on investing in Compton so today I want to present another side of the issue:
I know two people who have bought rentals in Compton and are doing quit well. Both are successful because they utilize the time-proven business technique of KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER.
Both of them are very selective tennant-wise. They spend time to understand their tenants and their problems, and they work with their tenants to seek out areas that benifits both their tenants and themselves.
In short, both have built up win-win relationships with their tenants.
As a result the tenant turnover is low and so is the maintenence.
IMO the deciding factor that seperates successful investing in places such as Compton is the incentive. And this incentive is determined by just who’s money is being used for the “investment”.
Is it one’s own money or is it Other People’s Money (OPM)?
If it is one’s own money then the incentive is to choose tenants wisely. If it is OPM then the incentive is to collect fees.
How do you tell which Section 8 voucher is superior?
Who is the sluttiest, a defense contractor such as myself or a landlord collecting section 8 from the Feds? First recall the lines “provide for the common defense” and “promote the general welfare” and tell me the difference between “provide” and “promote.”
Comment by alpha-sloth
2012-03-03 16:32:16
“Why does your search criteria match a 1 br/ 1 ba 540 sq ft condo? Looking for investment property? Or did wifey give you the boot?”
Mine doesn`t. They are Sent By: “Homepath.com Alerts”
and include every overpriced POS condo or house that Fannie Mae has taken off the books of your friends, the Big Banks and my friends the Deadbeats in an effort to get someone share in the pain and stupidity of overpriced home ownership.
(sorry I had to change my e-mail address)
There are new properties that match your search criteria.
Sent By:
“Homepath.com Alerts”
On: Mar 03/02/12 6:46 PM
To: The Deadbeat Slayer @ dbs.net/victim
PALM BEACH COUNTY LISTINGS - 438 TOTAL
504 N E ST
LAKE WORTH, FL 33460 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$47,900
1162 RIALTO DR
BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33436 NEW
203 4TH ST
JUPITER, FL 33458 NEW
431 45TH ST
WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33407 NEW
4335 TREVI CT
LAKE WORTH, FL 33467 NEW
List price:
$42,900
1068 BENOIST FARMS RD APT 312
ROYAL PALM BEACH, FL 33411 NEW
List price:
$28,900
6662 THORNHILL CT
BOCA RATON, FL 33433 BACK ON MARKET
List price:
$174,250
9480 BOCA COVE CIR APT 4
BOCA RATON, FL 33428 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$58,550
2512 NW 4TH ST
BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33426 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$104,900
18771 STEWART CIR APT 1
BOCA RATON, FL 33496 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$71,250
web: http://www.homepath.com
This email was sent to The Deadbeat Slayer @ dbs.net/victim
Unsubscribe from this alert Unsubscribe from all alerts Change alerts
Here is what they sent yesterday
Sent By:
“Homepath.com Alerts” On: Mar 03/03/12 6:06 PM
To: The Deadbeat Slayer @ dbs.net/victim
There are new properties that match your search criteria.
PALM BEACH COUNTY LISTINGS - 445 TOTAL
1162 RIALTO DR
BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33436 NEW
List price:
$289,900
717 39TH ST
WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33407 BACK ON MARKET
List price:
$41,500
710 BOND WAY
DELRAY BEACH, FL 33483 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$250,000
601 S DELAWARE BLVD
JUPITER, FL 33458 NEW
5827 GYPSUM PL
WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33413 NEW
2978 HAMBLIN WAY
WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33414 NEW
List price:
$444,900
5334 LIMEWOOD CT
BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33472 BACK ON MARKET
List price:
$50,900
431 JUPITER LAKES BLVD APT
JUPITER, FL 33458 NEW
755 DOTTEREL RD APT 1508
DELRAY BEACH, FL 33444 PRICE REDUCED
List price:
$86,500
15175 MICHELANGELO BLVD # A
DELRAY BEACH, FL 33446 NEW
Last week I attended an retirement seminar and there are several things I took away from the occaision:
1. Most people in attendance did not have a clue about handling money.
2. The person who ran the seminar was quit happy to learn this.
His main theme was:
Retire now and hand over all your money for me to handle. Do not take a pension; Take the cash-out and give me the money. Do this ASAP because right now the interest rates are low thus the cash-out is high.
So I asked him: “What are your fees?”
Answer: “1.1% annual rate taken out monthly.”
Then I asked him: “Where are you going to invest the money?”
Answer: “Mostly mutual funds.”
Me: “What are the names of some of these funds.”
Him: “Vanguard, Fidelity, American …”
… I KNEW he was going to say “American”.
American is a load fund and their load fee can be as high a 5.5%. This is money that will be kicked back to my money manager. So my money manager gets paid from both ends: He gets paid up front an annual rate of 1.1 percent for all the money I hand over to him, and he also gets paid a big chunk on the back side for the money he moves into American Funds.
Me: “How will you determine where to put my money?”
Him: “Every six-months-or-so I will get in touch with you and reccomend the reallocation of your funds.”
Translation: Every six-months-or-so he will want to shift my money in and out of American Funds and each time he does this he will collect a hefty fee taken directly out of my stash.
Good catch, combo. I just learned something, thanks!
Combo
We went to an *.*. Edwards retirement “workshop” (a long time ago) and the audience was told each soda at Carl’s Jr. they passed on, would be a step closer to retirement. As he picked out audience members to single and out and use fear tactics on, he came upon my husband and myself. My husband ripped him a new one (with manners of course).
Which reminds me, we also met with the owner of FS (online radio show guy) and he’s fee IIRC was 1.5% per qtr, regardless of a profit or loss. Wow, they would munch up your $ quickly. Great for the Broker’s income stream. Yours, not so wondeful.
sorry, I just woke up
my post was full of brain fog
1.5% every quarter? I would like to know what the commission based accounts looked like.
Thats still cheaper than most hedge funds.
Sounds like every person in attendance would do themselves a favor by reading this book :
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052
It’s the fees, stupid.
It’s a terrible book. He argues that the market is efficient at all times.
Yeah, right!
Blow me, buddy; blow me raw!
Bubbles happen in all markets. You need to get out in time.
Yes, part of where I disagree with the Bogleheads approach is ’staying the course’ even during obvious frothy times, or fire sale times.
That being said, this book goes a long way to warn the average person against fees brought on by load funds and fund managers. it does so by presenting good facts on why one can beat the market reliably for the long run (despite short term successes) and why the average person is better off to save portfolio-eating fees with an age-appropriate portfolio of index funds.
There is certainly a brand of Kool-Aid being sold (as with any financial book) , but I also think there’s a lot of great financial advice and warnings that many people who trust their portfolios to money managers should read.
I don’t think someone such as yourself, with sophisticated knowledge of the financial markets, is the target audience.
Despite what you say, I think there’s a lot of good knowledge in the book.
Btw - I’ll go back and retread, but I don’t think the guy espouses efficient market theory. Actually, the whole point of rebalancing is to automatically sell high and buy low to take advantage of temporary mispricings. I will look up the position in the book.
I personally believe in ‘inefficient market theory’ -the market is nearly always mispriced.
I agree that the fees portion is accurate.
He definitely espouses Efficient Market Theory. He has a website - efficientfrontier.com - where he tries to produce “original research”.
I mean how much more KoolAid can you drink?
And he’s a doctor. So I say, stick to tonsilectomy’s buddy! That’s your skill level.
I’ll go far beyond him. There are mispricings every day, every week, every month and every year. It’s very very very hard work to figure it out but it’s definitely possible even to satisfy the most diehard statisticians.
Here’s a synopsis of the four main sections of the book. He talks in great detail about ‘behavioral finance’ and contrarian investing (done automatically via rebalancing into your AA) I really don’t think he espouses efficient market theory. Again, let me look up his official position in the book.
The Theory of Investing: “Do not expect high returns without risks.”
The History of Investing: “About once every generation, the markets go barking mad. If you are unprepared, you are sure to fail.”
The Psychology of Investing: “Identify the era’s conventional wisdom and assume that it is wrong. More often than not, it is.”
The Business of Investing: “The stockbroker services his clients in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks.”
Most people don’t think they could be brain surgeons or nuclear engineers without any training, right?
What makes most people think that they can actually succeed at Finance without actually engaging with the nuts and bolts of the subject?
Seriously!
I take his book about as seriously as Suzy Orman. It’s all obvious stuff wrapped up in pop psychology and pseudo-science.
Here, he wrote this article:
http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/405/housing.htm
We were laughing at him even back then.
What a joke!
To his credit, he didn’t try and whitewash it.
He has no clue about the Fed, central banks, interest rates, carry trades, etc.
It’s like watching a donkey trying to be an opera singer.
“He argues that the market is efficient at all times.”
I thought that was a matter of religious belief at Chicago, started by the likes of Lucas, Fama, Markowitz etc etc etc.
Perhaps they have moved on from their intellectual intransigence on the market efficiency strawman?
Here’s some trivia about American Funds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Funds
I’m not saying he’s any good, or worth the fee, but American Funds has a share class with no front end fee, designed specifically for this type of arrangement. You will pay the advisors fee, plus the underlying fund expense %, but no entry or exit charge.
Loan fraud probe branches out
http://tinyurl.com/7q43a88 (sacbee)
“A federal mortgage fraud probe that has produced criminal charges against dozens of people in Sacramento’s Russian American community is spinning off new white-collar investigations.
Internal Revenue Service agents recently disclosed in federal court filings that they’re looking into allegations of identify theft and tax fraud involving some of the people targeted in their mortgage fraud inquiry.”
Ah, breathing is now easier. For at least the last moment there is a net increase of 2 in the Libertarian Party versus the Republican Party. I assume all the early voting Arizona ballots were counted by now, so I re-registered with the Libertarian Party. Hard enough sticking with Ron Paul who I agree with about on every issue except abortion. I like the Libertarian Party platform’s stance on that issue and agree with it.
Welcome back.
Did I see Ron Paul wearing jeans yesterday in some campaign? Say it ain’t so!
LOL - its the Mormon’s rubbing off on him.
/Huntsman’s father’s former partner Ladd Christensen is bank rolling Ron Paul now. Thats why he can’t say anything bad about Mitt.
The fix is in!!!!!
Colorado
If you check in here before 6 PM turn on NBC and you will see the area where I live. The Honda Classic is being played at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. Like I tried to show you with those Jupiter pictures, it`s not all a hell hole.
I’m sure it’s pretty. It just seems that you guys are bursting at the seams with “deadbeats” and other assorted crooks. Plus the infernal heat and humidity, along with all the bugs (that alone for me is a show stopper)
“deadbeats” and other assorted crooks” are everywhere although on a percentage basis more here. (although I think some of that on this blog is that I do an excellent job through County records of outing Deadbeats and crooks that present themselves as victims and shoppers etc.) They are like woodchucks, you pop one when they stick their head up and you know there`s a sh#t load more underground. I don`t see anyone else posting records like that about their areas but I am willing to bet you all have a lot of woodchucks.
infernal heat and humidity - current temp 59 degrees Nov. thru May pretty damn nice Late June thru September pretty damn hot.
bugs? - I guess if you live like a pig but we don`t have any problems.
Beaches, golf courses, boating, world class.
I just don`t think I should have to go and leave it to the beats.
http://www.theyrule.net/
Get ready to watch your tax dollars go to work, paying off Ownership Society members’ mortgages:
Latest HARP program for underwater mortgages ramping up
“HARP 2.0,” the second version of the federal mortgage refinancing program, comes with streamlined processing, but some key issues could hinder borrower participation.
By Kenneth R. Harney
March 4, 2012
Reporting from Washington—
The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan?
Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, “HARP 2.0″ — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.
The revisions are crucial for owners who have outstanding mortgage balances in excess of 125% of the current resale values of their homes. Under the second version of HARP, there is no upper limit on permissible loan-to-value ratios (LTVs). You can owe twice or even three times the value of your home and still qualify for a refinancing at today’s low interest rates. The earlier version imposed a limit of 125%, which cut out millions of the hardest-hit victims of the real estate bust.
The latest HARP also comes with streamlined underwriting — no requirement for physical appraisals in many cases, speedy processing and elimination of some of the deal-breaker fees imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in recent years.
The objective, federal officials say, is to get it right this time around by removing the previous obstacles to widespread participation by lenders and severely underwater borrowers. Industry studies estimate that as many as 6.9 million loans could fit the broad requirements for refinancing, but that far fewer — around 2 million borrowers — are likely to qualify on all the detailed eligibility criteria.
…
Hey if ya wanna drop the interest from 7 to 1.9% on your $600,000 condoze…go ahead, you still wont be able to pay for it.
——You can owe twice or even three times the value of your home and still qualify for a refinancing at today’s low interest rates
GAS PRICES RISE, SO DOES CONCERN
Derailment of economic recovery called unlikely, but hikes tend to have lagging effect
Written by Dean Calbreath
12:01 a.m., March 3, 2012
Updated 8:51 p.m. , March 2, 2012
As gasoline prices continue to shoot skyward, oil is quickly replacing the jobless rate as the nation’s chief economic concern.
On Friday, a gallon of regular gasoline in San Diego averaged $4.37, up 57 cents from a year ago. It’s little better across the nation, with drivers paying an average $3.74 per gallon. Although that’s well below the national record of $4.11 a gallon set in July 2008, the question on everyone’s minds is whether higher gas prices will derail the economic recovery.
Although that’s not likely at this point, rising energy prices tend to have a lagging economic impact, said James D. Hamilton, economics professor at the University of California San Diego. Unless income keeps pace — which isn’t happening for most people now — higher fuel costs will eventually displace other expenditures, he said.
In the meantime, Republicans are pushing for more oil drilling and construction of a fuel pipeline from Canada. President Barack Obama is using rising fuel costs to renew his campaign to halt government tax breaks for the oil industry.
But oil industry analysts say there’s relatively little either party can do to rein in the price rise.
…
It’s still $3.15 out here.
I paid $4.29/gal today, and it was at a discount (cash only) station.
While America’s lobotomized electorate continues to vote for crony capitalism, Icelanders hold their government officials and banksters accountable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/05/iceland-pm-charged-crisis
Iceland’s former prime minister will appear in court to answer charges over his role in the 2008 financial crisis.
Geir Haarde became a symbol of the get-rich bubble for Icelanders, many of whom lost their jobs and homes after the country’s main commercial bank collapsed, sending inflation soaring and its currency into a nosedive. Haarde is accused of negligence in failing to prevent the financial implosion from which the island country is still struggling to emerge.
Haarde’s trial – the culmination of a long fight by the politician to avoid prosecution – marks a new chapter in the aftermath of the meltdown: accountability. The former prime minister has rejected the charges, calling them “political persecution” and insisting he will be vindicated when he appears at the Landsdómur, a special court convened for the first time in Iceland’s history to try him.
This statement is at odds with some here who think gold is in a bubble:
“No, gold is not in a bubble. It wasn’t in a bubble in 1973, either, but it still corrected by 40% then. I don’t believe gold is anywhere near a bubble phase. A bubble phase is characterized by the majority of market participants being involved in a market space. I saw a gold bubble in 1979–1980, when the whole world was dealing – buying and selling gold 24-hours a day, globally.” - Marc Faber.
Key phrase: A bubble phase is characterized by the majority of market participants being involved in a market space.
You have to be part of the mania to think that statement means something logical.
oops, link for Marc Faber quote: http://lewrockwell.com/faber/faber127.html
Fluke’s claim of a cost of $3k during law school seems totally suspect to me. Pap Smear and Ultrasound included? How many months? I call bullshit on that, but Rush is over the top and deserves to have his sponsor waiting list reduced by half. More illumination, please!