Bits Bucket for March 5, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Realtors Are Liars®
From the Denver Post: Colorado resort homes sell at slower pace, lower prices
“Real estate sales in Colorado’s six resort counties, in dollar terms, fell more than 10 percent in 2011, a year that saw hopes for a rebound fizzle.
While high-end pockets like Aspen, Snowmass, Vail Village and Beaver Creek enjoyed strong sales last year, the widespread boomtimes that saw prices peak in 2007 and four mountain counties surge past $1 billion in annual sales seem long gone.
Since the high point of 2007, when Eagle, Pitkin, Summit, Routt, Grand and San Miguel counties saw more than $10 billion in combined residential and commercial sales, real estate activity in the resort-anchored communities of Colorado’s high country has fallen more than 60 percent.
A different type of value hunter is propping up the market in Pitkin County. The county as a whole endured a flat year, but the high-end markets in Aspen and Snowmass Village saw dollar volume climb 15 percent and transactions climb 25 percent. The two tony enclaves saw 16 sales over $10 million in 2011, compared with only 10 in 2010.
“I think high-end buyers realized they could get great value,” said Aspen broker Tim Estin, who writes a quarterly market analysis called the Estin Report. “What was once $30 million was selling for $15 million or $20 million.”
Not according to Zillow. In the 9+ million range, the Zestimate graph 2003-2012 shows no clear sign of a bubbly increase or decrease. Instead, there are just wild fluctuations with a final jump up to match the listing price.
I imagine that those super pricey properties have sales spikes which cause those fluctuations.
I suppose it depends on how many washed up celebrities on any given month start to run out of money, and have to sell an asset to keep up appearances. Also, among the geezer set (especially those who smoked) those high altitude properties might not be so desireable anymore.
A lot of those multi-million dollar properties sit vacant most of the year.
Realtors Are Liars®
Damned verminous lying commission-junkies!
Liars are born to sell Real Estate.
I like it Liz…..but nothing tops your eloquently stated;
The market is booming,
But where are the buyers,
Inventory is looming,
Realtors Are Liars.
From a Realtor® facebook friend’s info page:
“I work to help people navigate the sometimes complex process of buying or selling a home, whether their objectives are buying a house to live in to long term investing to achieve future goals.”
“I work to help people navigate the sometimes complex process of buying or selling a home, whether their objectives are buying a house to live in to long term investing to achieve future goals.”
LMAO….. what fawkin’ losers.
Hmmm… This would imply that Real Estate sales has more liars than other sales professions. I disagree.
How about, being a good liar greatly improves the probability that you will be a good sales person? I think that more accurately portrays sales in general. I’d add in marketing as well, which is just another form of sales without the 1-on-1 interactions with the customers.
It’s like the old joke says:
Q: How do you know that a salesman is lying.
A: His lips are moving.
Comment by jeff saturday
2012-03-03 10:45:12
“This is much bigger and uglier than the PTB would have anyone believe. This POS condo is still in the victims name on the county records, shows up as a Homepath Property Alert, has $123k of mortgages on it + whatever the unpaid HOA fees are, has an Assessed Value of $13k by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser and is listed at $28,900 WTF is going on here?”
———————————————————————————
Agents advised to keep ‘bank-owned’ quiet
By Alexandra Clough
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 11:05 a.m. Sunday, March 4, 2012
Looking to buy a home, but not sure you want one that fell into foreclosure?
Good luck finding out before you tour the property.
It’s a little-known fact that Wells Fargo Bank’s Premier Asset Services division, which sells bank-owned homes, instructs agents who sell these houses to list the owner as “Owner of Record,” and not Wells Fargo. Premier Asset Services also sells homes owned by other banks.
The Multiple Listing Service, which is used by real estate agents to list properties, includes a category for bank-owned property. But here again, agents are told by many banks not to disclose the fact that the property is, in fact, owned by a bank.
A number of agents who sell bank-owned properties privately say most banks have the same requirement. They say banks want their homes to be considered equally with non-distressed homes.
Tyler Smith, vice president of REO Community Development for Premier Asset Services, acknowledged that Wells Fargo prefers that the MLS not list a property as bank-owned, if the listing is optional. In some parts of the country, the MLS requires that the property be listed as bank-owned, and Wells Fargo asks its agents to comply with the rule, Smith said. But in the regional MLS that serves Palm Beach County, there is no requirement, and so the disclosure is discouraged.
“We want them to get them in the property and see the work we’ve done and that the house should be no different than the neighbor who is selling their home,” Smith said. “We’re trying to change their notion of what a (bank-owned) property looks like.”
Steven Daniels, an attorney with Arnstein & Lehr in West Palm Beach, agreed. “If a buyer knows a property is owned by the bank, a buyer already has discounted the price in his head. If there are two houses, and one is owned by Mr. Smith and the other is owned by the bank, as a buyer you’re going to think you can make a better deal on the bank one.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/agents-advised-to-keep-bank-owned-quiet-2215918.html -
moral hazard marches on.
Tyler Smith, vice president of REO Community Development for Premier Asset Services, acknowledged that Wells Fargo prefers that the MLS not list a property as bank-owned, if the listing is optional. In some parts of the country, the MLS requires that the property be listed as bank-owned, and Wells Fargo asks its agents to comply with the rule, Smith said. But in the regional MLS that serves Palm Beach County, there is no requirement, and so the disclosure is discouraged.
Federal money supports this crooked housing industry. Full disclosure should be a national policy.
Steven Daniels, an attorney with Arnstein & Lehr in West Palm Beach, agreed.
What a chit! Professionals should be above this behavior.
Isn’t this the same Wells Fargo Bank, chose a new name to run their “advance payments scams” for money mostly on the poor workers. You won’t see Wells Fargo name on these stores but they own a big number of them. Eye of the Beholder!
I bought a house from here PAS in Nov 2010. Thought it was weird they were WFB, but the seller was BofA. Very dysfunctional process. The first buyer in dropped out and I got a great deal as the second one in. Zillow is often goofy, but they list the house as worth $46,000 more than I paid. I put $15,000 down and did $8,000 in repairs. I’ll never move because it is our dream house, but it is nice to know PAS made me a great deal……due in part to their clunky computerized selling system.
Optimism Over Housing Recovery Premature
By Anna W - March 2nd, 2012, 11:30AM
Source:Bloomberg BRIEF, March 01, 2012
Richard Yamarone, Bloomberg Economist:
…
See, told ya. The bottom is in. Trust a Realtor and buy now before its too late. These prices won’t last!
The truth is not facts and figures. The truth is whatever we decide it to be.
If the truth were facts and figures, we’d all accept that money is other peoples’ unrepayable debts, and the economy would cease to function. It is in our best interest to ignore the true nature of money, so we do. It is in our best interest to ignore that we’re bankrupt as a country, so we do.
When I used to go to AA meetings on a regular basis and something had me really PO`d it seemed like I would always hear something that would bring me back to earth and realize I don`t have it that bad. I check the obituaries in my home town paper on line and I just had one of those “I don`t have it so bad” moments. Maybe I should go back to AA meetings on a regular basis. I hope you all have a good and safe day and it might not be a bad idea to tell the people that you love that you love them.
———————————————————————————-
Lauren Delepine | Visit Guest Book
Memoriam In Loving Memory Of Lauren Marie Delepine Happy 13th Birthday Love Mom, Dad, Peter & Emily
Published in GreenwichTime on March 5, 2012
Good Morning Jethro. Thank you.
Jeff i have a couple of AA dj gigs this year…..a long time dj friend has been in AA for years i knew nothing about it. Even did a sober NYE party great bunch of people. The only problem I find is the groups seem territorial.
His group is too small to have regular dj parties like Valentines day Halloween ..but asking other local AA groups to join in hasn’t been easy.
Any suggestions?
Did you check if her parents were up-to-date on all their mortgage payments? Sometimes people will use a child dying as an excuse to run up their helocs.
Rush Limbaugh has NOTHING on you.
It’s;
“Ra$h Limpbaugh$” and he’s a over-weight, loud-mouthed, blue-pill-popping male ver$ion of a certain kinda $lut.
signed: (The fill-in copy editor)
Big fat bloated head
overinflated ego
shut your mouth, douchebag
Nice, Steve!
Hey now, the fill-in position is without $alary or $itpend!
Good…feel the hate flow through you…take your weapon and strike him down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.
Mr. Limbaugh’s hate
does nothing to elevate
Joe SickPAC’s logic
“Good…feel the hate flow through you…take your weapon and strike him down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete.”
That was only valid because Vader still had some good in him.
“That was only valid because Vader still had some good in him.”
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Bill In Carolina would be squealin’ like a bitch if Limbards target happened to be Bill’s wife/mother/sister/daughter/niece.
Rush Limbaugh has NOTHING on you.
Thanks for noticing.
alpha, are you chiding Jeff for his continuing series of butting into mortgage records?* Isn’t there a better opening for that jibe than a memorial for a child?
———–
*I know the records are public, but still it can get tacky. (until the Fb starts screaming “victim” to the local paper, in which case I guess the FB brought it on himself.)
until the Fb starts screaming “victim” to the local paper, in which case I guess the FB brought it on himself
Those seem to be primarily the ones that jeff posts.
“Isn’t there a better opening for that jibe than a memorial for a child?”
Yes, hence my comment. This stupid stuff about right vs left is exactly that, stupid. Thank you for being a voice of sanity here. Jeff offered a decent sentiment and I thank him, but the degraders on this blog had to make something ugly out of it.
Nice.
Isn’t there a better opening for that jibe than a memorial for a child?
Whose child is this? Just something he saw in the paper, and that makes his post sacrosanct?
Since he’s all mr. touchy-feely all of a sudden, I was curious if his new-found sympathy extended to deadbeats.
Otherwise, I wanted to know if he’d done his usual mortgage background check on these people, to see if they were indeed worthy of our sympathy, or were just some more deadbeats who needed to GTFO.
And I thought it made a good point about our health care coverage rape-system, too. It was a 2fer, and I can’t pass up a deal. Not in this economy.
I admit, I didn’t get the health care allusion at all. I seriously thought you indicating callous parents. “oh woe is us our daughter is gone, let’s use pity as a cover to get us a Viking stove.” Which would have been really crass.
I hope you all have a good and safe day and it might not be a bad idea to tell the people that you love that you love them.
Fine sentiments, x3 cheers!
Sincerely Hwy50
(What do we really need in America? More Laws & Regulations or for certain folks to ‘Straighten up and fly right!”)
Jeff Zaslow’s last lesson:
By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor
updated 9:46 AM EST, Sun March 4, 2012
Part of complete coverage from
Bob Greene
“I know,” he said. “Why do I do this?”
We both knew the answer. He did it because it was the right way to do a job. And it doesn’t matter what a person does for a living. It can be the lawyer who stays late to look up a few more citations of case law, to give his client the best possible chance. It can be the teacher who goes over the lesson plan one more time, adding something vital to it at midnight, even though the students or the school administrators will never be aware of the effort she has put in. It can be the factory worker who takes it upon himself to check the specifications a third and fourth time, wanting to be absolutely certain that the product will be as close to perfect as humanly possible.
Does it always pay off, as Jeff’s 10 hours on the road paid off with “The Last Lecture”? Of course not. It hardly ever pays off that big. Most times, your boss, your colleagues, your own family will never know that you put in the extra effort when you didn’t have to.
But you’ll know. That’s what counts. And when the day finally comes when you have your big success, when you get your big break, it won’t be because you made the extra effort once. It will be because you made the extra effort every time.
Jeff did. And that’s the lesson I’d like to pass on for him. Especially today. The silence at the dinner hour tonight is going to be awfully loud.
I had a moment like that at Costco this weekend, watching a quadraplegic in a wheelchair being assisted by 2 women. There but for the grace of God…
Methinks Uncle Warren’s arm-chair analysis is overly concerned with the demand side (broke 20-somethings who may eventually muster the means and moxie to escape MIL’s basement) while ignoring the supply side (house-rich 60-somethings who sooner-than-later will need to sell their empty nest in order to move on to assisted care living).
While it is clearly feasible to live in MIL’s basement forever, especially if you are broke and buried in unforgivable student loan debt, the tsunami wave of downsizing Baby Boomers will be force of nature on the supply side.
But I agree with his optimism: In the long run we are all dead, and housing will recover.
Buffett admits being ‘dead wrong’ on timing of housing recovery but remains optimistic overall
View Photo Gallery — Billionaire investor: A look at the life of the Berkshire Hathaway chairman, who is widely respected for his business smarts and investing acumen.
By Associated Press, Published: February 25 | Updated: Monday, February 27, 4:18 AM
OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday that he was “dead wrong” with a prediction that the U.S. housing market would begin to recover by now, but he remains optimistic about the nation’s economy.
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said he is sure housing will recover eventually and help bring down the nation’s unemployment rate. But he did not predict when that will happen.
Investors eagerly await the letter from Buffett, 81, the so-called Oracle of Omaha, who built a roughly $44 billion fortune by following a steadfast, no-nonsense investing strategy.
Buffett said housing “remains in a depression of its own,” but he predicted, in typical plainspoken style, that the housing market will come back because some human factors can’t be denied forever.
“People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over,” he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.”
…
Buffett admits being ‘dead wrong’ on timing of housing recovery but remains optimistic overall
Save it for the next generation, gramps!
Save it for the next generation, gramps!
He won’t be around that long.
As long as there are no jobs, the doubling up will continue.
And a lot of guys will be playing Xbox in their parents’ basement, when they aren’t working their P/T job at some retailer.
but eventually hormones take over,” he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.”
Might depend on how “hot” the in-laws are, for example; look at the hormonal relation$hip between The Federal Re$erveInc. $COTU$ “person” & the $elect few who dwell in the $uites on Wall $t.
Hot babeeeeee! theys is $mokin’…………………
Maryland vs. Virginia: Two different approaches to foreclosure
View Photo Gallery — Keith and Janet Ritter have battled against eviction almost from the moment they moved into their five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot manse along the Potomac River in Fort Washington, Md.
By Annys Shin, Published: March 3
Before the housing meltdown, Maryland’s foreclosure process was so quick that it was nicknamed “the rocket docket.”
Foreclosures had to be filed in local courts and approved by judges, but the court’s involvement was so minimal and the deadlines so swift that a lender could schedule a foreclosure sale 15 days after the borrower defaulted.
In 2007, as thousands of Marylanders began losing their homes at an alarming pace, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) vowed to end what he called the “fast track to foreclosure.”
Starting in 2008, state lawmakers passed a series of measures designed to give homeowners — some the victims of predatory lending, others hurt by the recession — more time to find a way to stay in their homes. The changes included forcing lenders to wait longer to file foreclosures, giving homeowners more access to housing counseling, and requiring lenders to participate in mediation.
Each change forced banks, loan servicers and the courts to adjust the way they do business, adding long delays to the foreclosure process. And last year, major lenders voluntarily halted foreclosures nationwide over concerns about “robosigning,” in which employees at firms hired to process foreclosure documents routinely signed them without reading them.
The result: Maryland has gone from having one of the country’s fastest foreclosure systems to having one of the slowest.
…
From the article “Homes in Prince George’s have lost 52 percent of their value from their peak in 2006, and houses now spend an average of 102 days on the market, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which tracks real estate data. ” The first figure seems about right, but 102 day on market seems low to me. I’m guessing that if a house cycles back and forth between “for sale” and “hidden inventory” several times (not at all uncommon) only the last period “for sale” is counted. I don’t know that this is wrong per se. After all, can you really measure time spent “waiting for the market to improve” as “on the market”? But it does make it look like houses are selling more quickly than I think is the case.
battled against eviction almost from the moment they moved into… This example is just too stupid to comment on.
Geography lesson: The paucity of bridges over the Potomac separates MD and VA into two separate markets. Only the few and brave commute between the two. Prince George’s county MD is where all the welfare queens went when the city was gentrified, and is mainly Lucky Ducky jobs, especially on the souteastern side. It never should have bubbled in the first place, and its crash was a foregone conclusion. Fort Washington MD is due south of the city, but the jobs are on the Virginia side of the river, which entails driving up to the Beltway, over the long Eisenhower bridge, and down the other side. Prince William county VA is basically a McMansion county for defense contractors, with a crowded commute up I-95.
On the contrary, the bubble hit PG county hard because of the massive increase in subprime loans. Interest rates hit near bottom in 2003, and for the next several years, the bubble was driven by every cr@ppier underwriting, and lower and lower loan quality. Many people who were by no sane measure ready for homeownership got mortgages that they had no realistic prospects of repaying according the loan terms. Everybody thought that they’d refinance in a couple of years after the appreciation fairy bailed them out. Of course that crashed hard when the subprime market tanked. Certainly where I live (College Park), the market is much closer to bottom than in say, Potomac or Bethesda.
And of course you’re right “battled eviction almost from the moment they moved in,” means that they simply couldn’t afford the house. Who knows, if the price had been lower, they might have been able to afford that house. But the banks were willing to make stupid loans, so if these idiots didn’t bite at that price, somebody else would have.
My above comment was based on the linked story, not the one that gave the details of the Ritter’s situation. They are delusional crooks. The weird kind who use religion to forgive themselves of their culpability. Of course the banks were dumb enough to make multiple loans to somebody convicted of bankruptcy fraud, so no pity for them either.
Poster Children of the Age of the Flipper.
$1.3million, no money down, never made a payment in 5 years. Ex Con, convicted of bankruptcy fraud for using family members as straw buyers and declaring bankruptcy for them to place hold the flips. Minimum wage janitor turned Bentley owner. Fighting the banks all this time to keep his “home”.
VICTIMS.
Hang in there. HAMP is on the way!
HEMP is already there!
He’s got all the personality traits of a future 1%er.
or only the borrowed clothing.
only the borrowed clothing.
Leverage, baby!
They started off in a $360K 2300 sq ft house with a pool. Just checked Zillow, and yep, there are several McMansions in that area like that. These must be some nightmare commutes. Any house of that size would be at least $525K in Montgomery County.
Please note my point in a post above about how student loan debt is a key reason why Buffett is way off on his housing recovery prediction.
My guess is that Uncle Warren has some sh!tty mortgage assets or perhaps some home builder shares he would like to soon unload, but I admit to paying absolutely no attention to his operation.
Next US Housing Recovery Threat: Student Loans
Published on: Thursday, March 01, 2012
Written by: Brian O’Connell
Americans have been fighting like mad to pay down their mortgage debt and other factors have come into play to help spur a housing market recovery, but now experts are pointing to another looming threat in the form of rising student loan debt. The total amount owed by U.S. students ballooned to $867 billion in 2011 and it is a foregone conclusion that this debt will prevent many new prospective homebuyers from wading into the real estate market. A Federal Reserve white paper notes that only 9% of 29- to 34-year olds were approved for a first-time mortgage, and that the numbers could get worse as tuition continues to increase and banks get more restrictive with home loans.
…
Yup. The $10/hour Lucky Ducklings are gonna buy houses with all the money they have left over after paying $500/month on student loans for the next 10+ years. NOT.
The past couple of decades have seen that it has gotten more and more difficult to get a decent job with just a HS degree. Wages have been stagnating, educational requirements going up, and the out of pocket costs of a degree have gone up. So when you add the costs of student loan service the effective wage for young people has gone down. Rick Santorum is wrong more than he is right IMHO, but he’s right that the idea that everybody should get a college degree is a dumb one. It does more to enrich the educational-financial complex than it does to improve competetiveness.
It’s just that there aren’t enough jobs.
It’s just that there aren’t enough jobs.
Supply-side, “Free-market” economists and politicians are LIARS.
They said we’d create jobs cutting taxes on the rich: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs cutting taxes on business: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs with NAFTA and GATT: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs buying Chinese products: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs busting unions: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs deregulating: A Lie
They said we’d create jobs becoming a banana-republic. A Lie
32 years of proof now of the LIES we were told and are still being told.
Yes, well, words are pretty cheap. It’s the listening that gets expensive.
Why do you hate “free market” capitalism?
If those Lucky Duckies don’t stop bankrupting the country with their food stamps and earned income tax credits the Producers are gonna go John Galt and then you’ll really be sorry…
“32 years of proof now of the LIES we were told and are still being told.”
Hip hip hooray! Hip Hip Hooorrraayyyy!!!!
[ronnie Raygun wasn't wearing any clothes, told ya!]
Pattern$ of Behavior$:
and are $till being told.
and are $till being told.
and are $till being told.
and are $till being told.
and are $till being told.
[Eye was a ganderin’ at the Deloitte & Touche Building in California Plaza LA on Sunday … Boy it sure is a tall & pretty … “Vertical “Bidne$$” Cathedral”!
You guys worry too much about student loan debt. They’ve got a plan……
Expect to see a massive student loan forgiveness or forebearance program, if you enlist in the Armed Forces, or the National Guard. Prorated, of course, depending on time in service, and military specialty (infantry and combat engineers get extra brownie points).
Six to nine months after that, the shooting will start.
Expect to see a massive student loan forgiveness or forebearance program, if you enlist in the Armed Forces
Why would they do that? There’s currently no shortage of potential recruits.
There will be, if somebody decides an partial occupation of southern Iran is a good idea. Or decides another “surge” in Afghanistan is the solution-du-jour.
Remember, the Army was having trouble recruiting as recently as 5 years ago, when the IED campaign in Iraq was in full swing.
Seems that the volunteer Army/National Guard isn’t nearly as attractive, if multiple deployments to a country where there’s a good chance you are going to be blown up are SOP.
There will be, if somebody decides an partial occupation of southern Iran is a good idea.
Yeah, that might be the case.
Seems that the volunteer Army/National Guard isn’t nearly as attractive, if multiple deployments to a country where there’s a good chance you are going to be blown up are SOP.
Then again I have a nephew who comes from a low 6 figure income household who signed up for the Marines and iis currently in Afghanistan.
Your King and Country Want You
We’ve watched you playing cricket and every kind of game,
At football, golf and polo you men have made your name.
But now your country calls you to play your part in war.
And no matter what befalls you
We shall love you all the more.
So come and join the forces
As your fathers did before.
Oh, we don’t want to lose you but we think you ought to go.
For your King and your country both need you so.
We shall want you and miss you
But with all our might and main
We shall cheer you, thank you, bless you
When you come home again.
” he’s right that the idea that everybody should get a college degree is a dumb one”
Nobody has argued for that.
“…..currently in Afghanistan”
Where, depending on his military specialty, he may be safer than he’d be on the streets of LA/Detroit.
I’ve developed the theory that, by spending billions of dollars on technologies designed to reduce casualties, we’ve made it way too easy for our politicos to believe that military intervention is a viable option.
Total “Enduring Freedom” US KIA (10-2001 thru 3/2012)= 1821
Total KIA at Tarawa (76 hours) = 2383 (including 687 KIA from torpedoing/magazine explosion on escort carrier USS Liscombe Bay)
Total KIA “Black Thursday” (8th Air Force, second Scheweinfurt mission, Oct.14, 1943) = 594
Total KIA “Regimental Combat Team-31 /”Task Force Faith”, Chosin Reservoir, Nov 27 thru Dec 1, 1950 = 1000+
“32 years of proof now of the LIES we were told and are still being told”
Atlas sharted.
Heard recently on NPR:
“Adminstrators at Mount Holyoke College have decided to hold the line on education costs by not increasing tuition this year.”
“We decided that increasing the cost of higher education beyond the annual rate of inflation was bad policy.”
Huh, so all these tuition increases had nothing to do with actual inflation (read as increased costs) and was just an attempt to rake in more money as long as parents and students were willing to pay and FEDGOV was willing to lend?
I am Jack’s raging bile duct…
Heard recently on NPR:
“Adminstrators at Mount Holyoke College have decided to hold the line on education costs by not increasing tuition this year.”
My Mom went there she is a trust fund baby had alot of money in Enron and BAC I would say that education at Mnt Holyoak was worthless as far as managing money and common sense.
Many years ago I gave her some advice it was ignored
I went to public school so what do I know right
Admittedly, there’s no particular reason to believe that the costs of providing a higher education are going to exactly mirror the CPI-U or the PPI or any other, particular measurement of price movements. A college education is made up from a different basket of goods. That said, I have to believe that the “far than the rate of inflation” rise in the price of a college degree has more to do with the increased availability of student loans than with increased costs.
“I went to public school so what do I know right”
Clearly, public school didn’t teach you how to punctuate.
Clearly, public school didn’t teach you how to punctuate.
LOL—an all-too-common malady, unfortunately.
Clearly, public school didn’t teach you how to punctuate.
Why don’t you try making a paragraph sized, semi-complex post sometimes before you try to disparage someone’s message simply because of their punctuation. That was weak-sauce “Montana”.
That was weak-sauce “Montana”.
I didn’t think so. There were clearly many individual sentences strung together there with no punctuation between, or even capitalization of the first word of the new sentence.
Many people don’t bother with basic punctuation these days. That’s unfortunate, because it makes the resulting prose harder to read. But I’m seeing more of it even in business communication.
It strikes me as selfishness, in that it saves micro-seconds for one single author, at the expense of time spent deciphering by the many readers.
+1, Prime.
I can’t stand reading the same sentence 3, 4, 5, 20 times trying to decipher the intent of the author…and my OCD won’t let me skip it and move on, either!
Many people don’t bother with basic punctuation these days.
no your wrong and I was write ‘ the Content is more important than your preoccupation with puncuation or spelling its like saying 1 + 1 dont equal 2 just because I misspelled “+” witch isnt the main point of the additions resulting number so there
“but now experts are pointing to another looming threat in the form of rising student loan debt.”
I wonder why that’s being pushed so heavily instead of the real problem.
I have read online that only 55% of grads get “real” jobs, with about a quarter doing minimum wage and about a quarter completely unemployed.
That pushes down the wages of the lucky half… why should an employer pay more salary if they know behind every hired grad they’re an equally qualified un/under employed grad.
They’re trying to solve a problem on the cashflow and income sheets by screwing around on the balance sheet… that’s not gonna end well.
I have read online that only 55% of grads get “real” jobs
And this applies to people with “real” degrees as well, not just the liberal arts and psychology majors.
“Household formation” for these kidz = renting with 4 roommates.
So Goon
Maybe the 4 car garageMahal coupled with the 5 bedroom 6 bath McMansion was WAY ahead of its time???
You gotta admit, if the kids are gonna stay at home, it sure would be more pleasant in a McMansion than a 3/2.
FWIW, the kids do want to get out of mom n dad’s house, but with Lucky Ducky wages that becomes increasingly difficult everyday.
“…the real problem”
Our leadership does not want J6P to put 2 + 2 together. So the “pulling fly crap out of the pepper” programs/bandaids will continue, until the J6Ps/Dittoheads/free-marketers wake up to the fact that the lack of jobs is wholly due to the 1%ers paying off government elected representatives to pass tax, trade, and regulatory policies beneficial to the 1%ers, at the cost of everyone else.
This program will continue until the pitchforks and torches come out, either literally, or figuratively. OWS was the first round of torchbearers. Note how quickly they were crushed and discredited (i.e., dirty hippies that should get a job)
OWS crushed even by many of those who understand what the problem is. Propaganda + Divide and Conquer are powerful tools.
On a related note, this story from Politico: Consumer Bureau targets student loan abuses
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has held public hearings on payday loans and is rewriting the rules on bank overdraft fees, is now accepting complaints from students and their loved ones about the difficulties of obtaining and repaying college loans, according to a press release issued yesterday. As part of its mandate, the CFPB wants to help borrowers who have struggled to get a private student loan, have had problems eliminating the debt or had difficulties managing a school loan that has gone into default or into collection.”
The squad had a student loan with another lender that was sold to Sallie Mae. The previous lender offered a 2.25% principal reduction after 18 on time monthly payments, Sallie Mae bought the loan after about 12 payments had been made to the previous lender, and was totally oblivious about the principal reduction agreement. It took an hour on the phone and a month wait to get the agreement in writing from Sallie Mae.
These people are SCUM
It’s different here, back in the U.S.
Global Housing Report Shows Downturn
Published on: Monday, February 27, 2012
Written by: Global Property Guide
…
The world’s housing downturn is gathering momentum, according to the latest world-wide survey of house price indices prepared by the Global Property Guide.
During 2011, house prices fell in 22 countries, of the 35 countries for which Q4 house price statistics are available, and rose in only 13 countries.
Similarly, 21 housing markets performed worse during 2011 than last year, while only 14 countries performed better.
The figures for the 4th quarter of 2011 are somewhat worrying, with quarterly price rises in only 10 countries, but price falls in 25 countries. On the other hand, the apparent trend towards recovery in the US is positive.
…
India and Brazil seem unstoppable, and remain the best performing housing markets in the world….
The world’s second strongest house price rise occurred in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where house prices surged by 19.79% in 2011. Good weather, relatively inexpensive cost of living and strong capital appreciation are some of the reasons why Brazil is seen as a good choice for property investment. During the 4th quarter, house prices rose by 3.93%.
Inflation adjusted gain of 17% in 2010 and 20% in 2011 on top of 08-09 gains? Of course this cannot last. And “Good weather, relatively inexpensive cost of living and strong capital appreciation are some of the reasons why Brazil is seen as a good choice for property investment.”?? First of all it is not “relatively inexpensive” in Brazil’s major cities and we’ve seen how far “good weather” and “strong capital appreciation” can get you. Bubble? IDK. Overpriced and due for a nice correction? Yes.
Ditto in Mexico CIty. Even though the place is dangerous as heck, rents and sales prices are utterly unaffordable for the middle class. The only hope for the middle class is a “casa de interes social” in the boondocks, which can translate into a 2 hour plus bus ride to the workplace. And you can be mugged or even kidnapped on the bus.
The poor? They live in shantytowns, which are built upon squatted federally owned land.
prices are utterly unaffordable for the middle class.
And it’s been like that for decades right? Why is middle class housing so expensive in developing nations?
Why is middle class housing so expensive in developing nations?
IMO one of the reasons middle-class housing in Brazil is so expensive is because of the historical lack of financing. Just as too-easy financing can lead to expensive housing, so too can the lack of financing but for different reasons.
In Brazil no one could get mortgages which led to a severe lack of housing being built. The low supply of money led to a low supply of houses. The middle class in Brazil has grown while the supply of housing did not keep up. But not only that, now mortgages are available and are forecast to double as a percentage of Brazilian GDP in the next 2 years.
“Currently, outstanding mortgages are equal to just 4.8% of Brazilian GDP,”…”We are forecasting a rise to 10% by 2014.” …outstanding mortgages in Chile approach 20% of GDP while in the U.S. they are equal to more than 80% of GDP.
Higher incomes, low unemployment and declining interest rates have pumped up the real estate market in Brazil, but few see signs of a bubble.
“Several positive trends have come together in recent years, contributing to a marked expansion in the real estate industry,” ….”That picture remains unchanged and the industry will continue to grow.”
“There is no sign of bubble, even in the medium- and long-term. We have a deficit of 8 million homes in Brazil. There is room to expand with little risk.” ….the non-performing loan rate for mortgages is only 2%, compared with 5% for the financial system as a whole.
…”Government supervision is keen. At the slightest sign of trouble, the government will step in with measures to guarantee an orderly market.”
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/02/27/little-risk-bubble-seen-in-booming-brazilian-real-estate/#ixzz1oGALOjMD
Oh and this just in from the above posted article. Brazil is starting it’s own version of securitization of mortgages. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
CEF now accounts for 71% of outstanding Brazilian mortgages, and it is ready to ramp up securitization — in which mortgages are bundled into packages and then resold to investors as bonds. At the end of last year, the CEF-controlled FGTS bought some BRL2.8 billion in mortgages from local banks, in anticipation of securitizing them.
Meanwhile, local players are studying ways of bringing foreign investors into the mix.
“We are evaluating, with the government, the possibility of issuing mortgage-backed bonds, called LFIs,” said Lazari. “These would be issued by banks and real estate developers. If approved, LFIs would be a good mechanism for bringing international investors into the market.”
Lazari said he expects government approval by the end of this year.
Wow. In the USA, residential mortgages are $10T and the GDP is, what is it reported at now? $15.7T? So, while Brazil is at 4.8% mortgage/GDP, the USA is above 60%.
Imagine what would happen to our economy if $5T in USA mortgage debt went poofage.
So…If it was a lack of money that drove prices too high, now that a huge credit expansion is in progress, that should make prices come down? Just wondering!
“So…If it was a lack of money that drove prices too high, now that a huge credit expansion is in progress, that should make prices come down? Just wondering!”
I guess that would depend on whose hands the money is going into, the availability of land on which to build, building permitting, etc. etc. etc.
If it is in the best interest of the politicians and bankers that house prices go up, then house prices will go up.
If it was a lack of money that drove prices too high, now that a huge credit expansion is in progress, that should make prices come down? Just wondering!
Yea, I’m really wondering too. IMO, it is actually a perfect domestic set-up for a real barn-burner bubble however the China slowdown and the macro-global economy will have its say too.
The credit expansion has also now greatly increased housing construction the past 3 years in a lot of areas other than built-out city centers.
Also, the Brazilian government is afraid of bubbles and inflation (due to years of crippling inflation) and they’ve shown no qualms about interfering with “free-markets” as seen by their slapping taxes on foreign, incoming “hot-money”. The situation is fluid and complicated and is no doubt “different” here.
Part of the problem in developing countries is:
Giant crowded cities, which forces the middle class (who often can’t afford a car, or to drive it to work) into horrid commutes on public transportation.
Lack of infrastructure (freeways, lightrail, etc) which makes commuting from the boonies such a pain that it places a high premium on closer to town housing.
Here is an example: A 2600 sq foot apartment. 6,350,000 pesos, which a today exchange rate would be about $500,000 USD.
http://avisooportuno.mx/inmuebles/detalles_premium.php?anuncio=Venta%2BDepartamentos+y+Condominios%2BMiguel+Hidalgo-12254442
This is clearly out of reach for middle class, college educated Mexicans, who earn on average less than $2000 USD per month (bosses earn more). This apartment is located in the Polanco neighborhood:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polanco_(Mexico)
“The poor? They live in shantytowns, which are built upon squatted federally owned land.”
Maybe it’s time Mexico instituted their own musica salsa version of “Oklahoma!” / homestead Act
Or is it that there “ain’t no more land”?
The shanty towns are collectively known as “Ciudades Perdidas” (Lost Cities). They don’t show up on maps, even though millions around Mexico City live in them. Over time the gov’t would eventually pave the roads, provide water and sewage, while giving squatters title to their homes.
This was during the 70’s and 80’s and early 90’s when the PRI still ran Mexico. I’m not sure how the PAN the (right wing party) has dealt with the squatters.
“Here’s what wikipedia has to say about squatters in Mexico:
“In Mexico, squatters are known as paracaidistas (that is, “paratroopers”, because they “drop” themselves mostly at unoccupied lands), and it is a common practice in large cities. Since the most valuable real property is located near the downtowns of the cities, the paracaidistas usually establish slums at unoccupied lands at the outskirts of the cities. Since Mexican laws establish that an individual may take legal possession of a property after five to twenty years of peaceful occupation, many paracaidistas establish themselves with the hope that the legal owner will not discover them and expel them before five years. Large extensions of many Mexican cities were established originally as squats (for example, Nezahualcoyotl, in Mexico City). “
People buy property because of the inflation.
Other than gold/silver, where should a Brazillian put his money?
People buy property because of the inflation.
Good point. For decades, that has been a huge factor too in Brazil.
“Other than gold/silver, where should a Brazillian put his money?”
And how is this differnet than the US?
I wouldnt put my money in real estate in the US.
Nor would I, but I have excess cash and feel right now the wisest choice is to pay my mortgage down and buy some silver here and there. Equities? CD’s? Bonds? Commodities? None seem too appealing right now.
Anywhere you can think of to park your money, odds are that $30T got there before you and already bid up the price to insane levels.
I wouldnt put my money in real estate in the US.
Not right now anyway.
where should a Brazillian put his money
Into income generating assets?
where should a Brazillian put his money
Miami?
Foreign Property Buyers Flock to Florida, Bring Cash
http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/foreign-property-buyers-flock-to-florida-bring-cash-58806.aspx
Latin American real estate investors paying in cash are prowling property deals in Florida and snapping up low-cost distressed homes. The purchase push, driven primarily by newly wealthy Venezuelans and Brazilians looking to spend in Miami, is helping revitalize Florida’s property market. The buyers are motivated by shrinking market opportunities and soaring real estate prices in their home countries, and the result in 2011 was a 40% spike in home sales over last year in Miami.
NYC?
Brazilians pouring into NYC real estate, say agents 21 February 2012
http://opp.org.uk/news-article.php?id=6249
Brazilian overseas property buyers are surging into New York says local agent Marcus Cohen, a broker at agency Prudential Douglas Elliman in the city…..The usually opt for apartments in Manhattan, he says. “For many, Manhattan is their dream town.”
The US is coming out of the Bush Depression.
If I can buy for less than rent, I am buying. But, I have all the skills to own a home and like eating fruit off my trees.
+1 But avocado, do you mean renting an equivalent dwelling? I could rent a 1-bed for a little less than buying, but that’s about all I could rent.
Sure, apples to apples helps with my theory.
I sold my 2400 sq ft house and have rented for a while too.
Had to cash out, money was too easy to pass up.
borrow in Dollars at 0% invest in Brazilian RE
It happened here a decade ago with yen at 0%. Exporting inflation.
I guess you can export deflation like China pinning their currency very low to the dollar.
The creatiobn of a real estate bubble will depend on if securitization in Brazil results in the evaporation of underwriting standards or not. While securitization clearly CAN lead to that, it doesn’t have to. Requiring the securitizers to keep the worst 5 to 10% as an “equity” tranche should have a decent influence on those securitizers to make sure that only people who otherwise could have qualified for a loan can get one with the new capital sources.
No bubble here, folks — move along.
Why The China Property Bubble Doesn’t Exist
Published on: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Written by: Clay Fisher
Contrary to most US media reports, China’s real estate market is in the early growth stages. When adjusted to China’s living standards, tax structure and the savings and available disposable income of most Chinese residents, real estate in China is highly affordable. See the following article from The Street for more on this.
The sheer volume of misinformation and crowd-think surrounding China’s real estate market is staggering. It seems the entire U.S. media has convinced itself a bubble exists, yet when we read what’s printed, there’s very little in the way of facts provided. Yet few controversies can be as important to Wall Street.
China’s real estate market is the backbone of its domestic economy. The sector’s strong demand of late has helped China become the backbone of the world’s economic recovery. Any meaningful “stumble” by China’s real estate market could have ominous affects on the developed world’s recovery.
…
Lol! That is hilarious!
Let me see if I understand….
The Chinese real estate market has seen prices increase 500% while wages have increased less than 20%. Something close to half of all units in the major cities are sitting empty because they are so unaffordable. The government created new lending rules to slow specuvesting, and transactions dropped 25% in one month. Sure, that “might” indicate a tad bit of a bubble.
The argument against there being a bubble goes like this…
If China is in a real estate bubble, then the global economy is doomed.
The global economy is not doomed, therefore, not bubble.
Once again we see that truth is not facts and figures. Truth is whatever we all agree it to be.
“The Chinese real estate market has seen prices increase 500% while wages have increased less than 20%”
Please explain [kind sir Darrel] to me’s lil’ economic mind how “house price$” & “peon worker wage$” are even remotely related to obtaining a loan? Take how they do things in America for example …
China’s property bubble bursts marriage plans
Feb 20, 2012
China’s property bubble bursts marriage plansIt seems China’s housing bubble also burst young Chinese couples’ marriage plans in the country as some 10,000 people polled by a local daily, revealed wedding plans, have been shelved recently because they still cannot afford homes of their own.
Home ownership is a prerogative before marrying in China and although prices had been on a decline, an ordinary worker earning an average 4,500 yuan a month could still not afford mortgage payments for a Beijing-based apartment with mortgage payments of no less than 7,000 yuan a month.
First-time buyers are required to put up 30% as minimum down payment for brand new homes. Second home buyers need to shell out 60%. Mortgages for subsequent purchases were also disallowed.
There were also new property taxes imposed in cities Chongqing and Shanghai were some lucrative jobs can be found.
Chinese authorities have not relaxed tight controls on the property sector, although some policy easing on economic policies have begun. Buyers are still limited to what they can buy triggering major price declines in key cities.
In January, home prices in 47 Chinese cities fell, according to the National Statistics Bureau website.
…
prerogative?
Was that supposed to be prerequisite?
Transrate, prease?
Not funny. Not even a little. How good would your accent be if you tried to speak Chinese?
And besides, it’s the Japanese who have trouble with L’s, not the Chinese.
It has and I wasn’t the least bit offended.
Now let me tell you what I think over sensitive PC crap….
I meant, “I have been made fun of for my accent in more than one language”
Lighten up Francis. http://www.engrish.com
haha
I thought Chinese lived in multi-family homes?
and eyes thought that they lives in multi-generational-family homes?
Home ownership is a prerogative before marrying in China and
It certainly didn’t stop the masses back in Mao’s days.
But why shouldn’t young Chinese buy a crummy, unheated apartment for 100x their annual salary?
As boned as we are, the Chinese are even more screwed.
Bubble Has Burst: China Sales Down 24% in January
The global automotive powers are likely not going to be able to rely on the strength and growth of the Chinese market this year, because results are in for the first month of the year, and it looks like there won’t be a repeat of last year’s performance.
According to Bloomberg, sales in January tumbled 24 percent, the biggest decline in seven years. However, it’s not all bad news, since the earlier than normal Lunar New Year came with a long holiday that slashed a weeks worth of sales.
However, further signs that the world’s second-largest economy is cooling are evident, as retail grew at the slowest pace since 2009’s global financial crisis.
…
However, it’s not all bad news, since the earlier than normal Lunar New Year came with a long holiday that slashed a weeks worth of sales.
You mean they don’t have holiday related sales like we do?
“Chairman Mao sez get down to your neighborhood VW dealer and take home a new Passat at New Year holiday savings! Hurry, these sacings will soon be gone!”
I thought the orbit of the moon was rather fixed.
The number of days in the year is not evenly divisible by 28.
I get that. What I didn’t realize is that they use Leap Months to keep things in synch with the Solar year, sort of.
So, our Masters of the Universe have been telling us for years that, in order to get in on the ground floor of the “booming” Chinese markets, we’ll just have to sacrifice a bunch of our factories, and hand over a bunch of intellectual property to our Chinese “partners”.
So now, the Chinese market will perform “worse than expected”, at the same time our market has a whole bunch of new Chinese-sponsored competition, undercutting our markets with free/no cost research and development, and $5 a day Chinese labor.
Not so long ago, these idiots would have been exposed as idiots and failures our local and national media, and run out of town, preferably with a financial future commensurate with the damage they have caused.
Our 1% class and our so-called business “leadership” unfortunately are treated the same way as the investment banks……”too big to fail”
Not so long ago, these idiots would have been exposed as idiots and failures our local and national media, and run out of town,
Our MSM is disgraceful corporate propaganda. Here’s a FOX clip “How Unions Killed the Twinkie” interview of an “expert” from “The Labor Relations Institute”. (Sounds like an unbiased think tank no?) It’s actually “The Labor Relations Institute INC” - a below-the-radar, private company who’s product and service is UNION BUSTING. But there is no disclosure of this fact by FOX.
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1383561509001/unions-killed-the-twinkie/
“Fair and bananced” my ar$.
Mao Yushi: China’s property bubble must burst
By David Bandurski | Posted on 2012-02-28
Back in April 2011 Chinese economist Mao Yushi (茅于轼) set off a firestorm with a strongly worded criticism of Mao Zedong (毛泽东) posted to Caixin Online. This week Mao Yushi has again raised eyebrows, this time with a darkly frank assessment of China’s property market in an interview with Guangdong’s Southern Metropolis Daily.
In the interview, Mao Yushi argues that one key reason behind rising property prices in China in recent years has been a lack of good investment alternatives for China’s rich, fueling a boom in properties used largely for investment purposes but unaffordable for the vast majority of Chinese.
Citing a high rate of vacancy in Chinese properties (“possibly as high as 50 percent”), Mao suggests China’s property bubble must collapse, with properties losing at lease 50 percent of their value.
…
50% vacancy rate. Just wow.
The American market has crashed 30+% with a relatively insignificant vacancy rate. What was ours? 10%?
It is mind boggling.
I recall reading a year or so ago that 70% of China’s GDP was real estate driven. The US and Japan, at their peaks, were 25% and 30%, respectively. I think there is a long way to go still in China. 50% does not seem unreasonable.
So, if China stops building houses and cities that nobody needs, their economy would be about the size of Spain’s.
Welcome to the world-wide “Bugger thy Neighbor” economy.
Back in the Neanderthal days, there were these things called “investments” that had the “rising tide lifts all boats” effect.
Of course, that was back in the day when 1%er didn’t thing 15-20% ROI was their birthright.
Old style investments are few and far between. Now, it’s all about screwing your neighbor.
+1
As other have said here, the Corporate Maw is insatiable.
I hope so, I am in a “short” fund that bets on a China crash.
Hopefully it will not Corzine on you.
What’s the fund?
Why do so many Americans pride themselves in listening to bloviating jackasses?
March 5, 2012 7:37 AM
Will Limbaugh apology quell controversy?
By Jan Crawford
Rush Limbaugh apologized over the weekend for the language he used to describe a law student who wants insurance coverage for birth control.
But some of his sponsors are dropping his show, and the Republican presidential hopefuls are being drawn into the controversy with Super Tuesday just hours away.
…
The problem is that with all the issues we face, anyone cares about what Limbaugh says, and about what people say about what Limbaugh says.
Where are Jane Curtain and Dan Akroyd when you need them? Akroyd was TRYING to be a joke.
“Why do so many Americans pride themselves in listening to bloviating jackasses?”
Because truth is not facts and figures. Truth is whatever we decide it to be. Many people like the truth that these jackasses bloviate. (yes, I had to look it up. Good word.)
“Why do so many Americans pride themselves in listening to bloviating jackasses?”
Is this a trick question?
No. Rather it’s a sincere curiosity. I honestly only listened to Rush for a brief period almost two decades back when an obnoxious coworker blasted his radio loud enough for anyone within earshot to listen. The coworker had a PhD in math, which made it hard for me to fathom Rush’s appeal to him.
That guy is sure getting a lot of free advertising!
There is no such thing as bad publicity.
“There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
That is just an old sound-byte. Tell it to John Edwards, Anthony Weiner or Milli-Vanilli.
Sure, but wouldn’t it be better to have Marv Albert or Elliot Spitzer or maybe even Lindsey Lohan or Charlie Sheen or Paris Hilton or Mel Gibson…
Tell that to OJ Simpson.
Eyes to the soul of justice
Written by Michael McKiernan Issue Date: March 2012
When a California jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of two counts of murder in 1995, the verdict delivered a where-were-you-when moment to people around the world. But the trial also gave Canadian advocates for cameras in the courtroom their biggest and longest-lasting headache. The case has become a textbook argument against putting cameras in the courts, with grandstanding lawyers on both sides, an allegedly star-struck judge, and an orgy of commentary stoking a media frenzy around the televised trial.
…
And he can twist their nutzzz on advertising rates for those idjit wussie sponsors who bailed on him…when they crawl back to his show.
“Why do so many Americans pride themselves in listening to bloviating jackasses?”
I don’t know, but the collective stupidity of Americans is so high on both sides of the political moonscape that asshats like Limbaugh and that mental-doorstop Bill Mahr both manage to survive, regurgitating their idiotic dogma for the feeble-minded on either side of the aisle. Some people are simply incapable of independent thought or analysis.
** Porn industry may flee California for Arizona thanks to new law forcing porn actors to wear condoms while on location. That’ll put the “staff” in Flagstaff.
Why is it that when people flee CA they only get as far as AZ? AZ is awful. Cant they flee to Utah or CO??
Noooooooo! Please stay away!
Wait. Aren’t you one of “them”?
Porn Stars = Run away from over-regulation
Republicans = Run away fro over-regulation
In which case,
Republicans = Porn Stars
Except Republicans want to regulate porn/strip clubs/adult book stores outr of existence.
Therefore…….Republicans = Hypocrites
Except Republicans want to regulate porn/strip clubs/adult book stores outr of existence.
I doubt most of them *really* want them out of existence. More of a NIMBY thing. “Pollute somewhere else and send me what I want over the wires…and be discrete.”
and be discrete.
I hate it when the online porn sites are continuous!
LOL…
math-geek alert!
Wasn’t last year one of the best on record for U.S. Treasurys? It strikes me as odd, given that both Pimco and China decided to divest.
ASIA BUSINESS
Updated March 2, 2012, 4:02 a.m. ET
Beijing Diversifies Away From U.S. Dollar
By TOM ORLIK and BOB DAVIS
China is shifting sharply away from U.S. dollars and the world hasn’t ended-yet. Tom Orlik discusses on Markets Hub. Photo: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images.
BEIJING—Fresh data suggest China is moderating its appetite for investing in U.S. securities, a trend that could mean lower flows of cheap capital from Beijing and a possible rise in borrowing costs across the American economy.
An analysis of U.S. Treasury data suggests China, with $3.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, has begun to rapidly diversify its currencies portfolio.
“It clearly indicates China’s intention not to put all its eggs in one basket,” said Lu Feng, director of Peking University’s China Macroeconomic Research Center.
…
The net effect of Zimbabwe Ben’s deranged money-printing, in addition to debasing the currency, is to export inflation to the rest of the world that accepts the dollar as its reserve currency. When countries like China start demanding alternative, more sound currencies, inflation in America will soar - along with interest rates.
“more sound currencies”
Just what exactly might that be? It sounds catchy, but I haven’t seen anything matching that description lately.
When countries like China start demanding alternative, more sound currencies
Such as what? The Euro? Who else has an economy large enough to provide the world’s “reserve currency”? If China demands to be paid in Yuan, they aren’t going to sell a lot.
We suck, but we suck less than the others.
and what happens if interest rates rise in the US at the same time unemployment and underemployment are high ? What will a collapse in demand from the US do to China who apparently has a bit of a bubble problem of their own.
The reality is that technology allows us to produce far more than we need with a fraction of the work force employed. We’ve hidden from this fact by blowing bubbles and creating artificial demand or pulling demand forward. It won’t last.
The reality is that technology allows us to produce far more than we need with a fraction of the work force employed.
The problem.
The problem.
Wasn’t the age of mechanized production supposed to free us up for a new era of leisure time, cultivation of the arts, reduced stress, and living the good life?
Who moved my utopia?
Who moved my utopia?
They labeled it socialism, and taught the lunkheads to oppose it.
Wouldn’t it make great sense for China to dump U.S. Treasurys and go to cash? Think of the real estate fire sales that might result from a runup in U.S. interest rates!
Up and Down Wall Street | FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012
China’s Sale of U.S. Debt — Beginning of the End?
By RANDALL W. FORSYTH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
When all else fails, central-bank monetization of debts is the usual answer — but not a good one.
The dollar’s share of China’s huge cache of currency reserves has been slashed to a record low, the Wall Street Journal reports, to which it adds the world hasn’t ended as a result.
But more recent data showing outright sales of U.S. securities by China suggests a less cavalier attitude would be in order. It isn’t the end of the world, just a portent of what can happen when the biggest buyer of America’s biggest export — its IOUs denominated in dollars — stops buying.
That would leave the Federal Reserve as lender of last resort to the U.S. government to fill the gap left by its biggest creditor. Think this Zimbabwe style of central-bank monetization of an unsustainable government debt can’t happen in one of the world’s major industrialized democracies? Well, it may be starting in Japan.
According to the Journal’s crunching of the numbers, dollar assets comprised 54% of Beijing’s $3 trillion-plus reserves as of last June 30, down from 74% as recently as the end of 2006. That’s based on data on China’s foreign-exchange reserves and the U.S. Treasury’s latest survey international holdings of U.S. securities. Those numbers show an outright increase in China’s holdings of U.S. securities, by $115 billion in the latest 12 months, to $1.726 trillion.
Beijing has made no secret of its desire to diversify from greenback assets — mainly U.S. Treasuries — and for the establishment of another reserve currency to use as a store of wealth and for international transactions. The European sovereign debt crisis has reduced the allure of the euro for those purposes. While Beijing has voiced limited support for the various schemes to ease Europe’s woes, it has added to its holdings of other, smaller currencies, such as the Australian dollar.
But more recent Treasury data show China has been selling Treasuries outright. And while the markets have been complacent to the point of snarkiness, MacroMavens’ Stephanie Pomboy thinks that’s wrong. Unlike other Cassandras, she’s been right in her warnings — notably in the middle of the last decade that the U.S. financial system was dangerously exposed to a bubble in U.S. real estate. Hers was a lonely voice then because everybody knew, of course, house prices always rose.
…
Maybe China is selling Treasuries because they - just as everybody else on the planet - needs the money?
Sounds plausible. How soon until the gold hoarders follow suit?
Think of this: If China desperately need cash then they just can’t come right out and say so. So they make up other reasons for their raising of the stuff.
Question: Does anybody here on this message board think that China does not need to raise cash?
This may just be a revaluing of Chinese currency to some amount agreed on by the PTB.
What does China need the money for? High operating costs, no. Decades-long legacy of safety nets like PIIGS, no. Big military interventions like the US, no. Housing/infrastructure shortage, no, they have leftover ghost cities. Then again, they seem to be importing stuff they shouldn’t be importing: food, water, energy raw materials.
China is into “hoarding” stuff. I would love to watch China in that TV show.
FWIW, China is expanding its military, buying used aircraft carriers, etc. They also have a manned space program (unlike us) with launchers and space capsules.
And given how little the working class is paid in China, there aren’t a whole lot of people to tax.
“Those numbers show an outright increase in China’s holdings of U.S. securities, by $115 billion in the latest 12 months…”
Euro zone drags on world economy as services slide
By Jonathan Cable
LONDON | Mon Mar 5, 2012 7:53am EST
(Reuters) - The debt-ridden euro zone acted as a drag on the world economy at the start of the year and is seemingly destined to slide back into recession just as monetary policymakers are running out of ammunition.
Data from the euro zone’s private sector published on Monday showed a sharp downturn among Italian and Spanish businesses dragged the currency bloc back into decline last month. Growth slowed in Germany, the region’s biggest and strongest economy, and stalled in France.
The European data followed slightly more upbeat purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs) from Asia, with China services growth picking up and India’s slowing, but maintaining a robust pace.
While central bankers in Asia have interest rates to cut, policy rates are at or near zero in most of the developed world and while the euro sovereign debt crisis may now be containable, it is far from resolved.
“It will put a dent in hopes that Q4’s contraction was a one-off for the euro zone as a whole but the most worrying development is the continued weakness of the southern European measures,” said Ben May at Capital Economics.
“The ECB is going to be setting policy for the region as a whole and not for individual economies and it is likely that policy is going to be less accommodative than say Spain or Italy would choose.”
…
It’s once again time for members of the Wall Street bovine brigade to assume the crash position:
U.S. Stock Futures Fall as China Cuts Outlook
By Peter Levring - Mar 5, 2012 4:28 AM PT
U.S. stock-index futures dropped, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will fall for a second day, as China cut its economic growth target for 2012.
Citigroup Inc. (C) declined in German trading. ConocoPhillips (COP) fell, following oil prices lower. Zynga Inc., the developer of social-media games, slipped 3.1 percent as JP Morgan Chase & Co. lowered its recommendation on the stock.
Futures on the S&P 500 (SPX) expiring this month slid 0.4 percent to 1,363.20 at 7:26 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge has advanced for the last three weeks as a report showed the economy grew faster-than-estimated in the fourth quarter and euro-area leaders moved to contain the region’s debt crisis by granting a second bailout for Greece. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 44 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,924.
…
Buy the 15 minute dip.
Oil will not smooth these troubled waters
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
March 6, 2012
OIL spikes usually turn bad once energy costs reach 9 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). That proved to be the pain barrier in the 1970s and again in 2008 and we are just shy of that level now. In Europe oil is already capturing a higher level of GDP than it was in 2008.
The rule of thumb is that a 10 per cent rise in crude cuts US growth by 0.2 per cent four quarters later, but the science is flabbily soft and nobody knows where the inflexion point lies. Nothing much seems to happen until confidence suddenly snaps.
…
$5/gal will sure do a lot of snapping.
There will be a lot of cheap pickups and SUVs for sale. Snap then up while you can!
How will all the F-350 boyz (some of whom probably secretly prefer boys) demonstrate their manliness at $5/gallon?
By leaning against their parked behemoth?
Retiring those gas guzzlers is long over due.
Especially when most of them are used as cars.
“Especially when most of them are used as cars.”
+ many
They are starting to give away the old RV’s.
I get 26 mpg at 75-80 mph, 32 mpg at 65 mph in my zippy Mazda.
A good friend of mine who lives happily with his wife pay check to paycheck, was asking about buying my electric scooter. Seems the new gas hog he bough a couple of years ago is taking a bite out of the paycheck. His wife bought her new gas hog a year later. Like many Americans there is no more blood to squeeze from his house. The FED can shift his spending patterns but it can’t increase them.
Down the crapper we go.
Risk off: Beijing cuts growth outlook
Street’s bears key on China
Stock futures point toward a modestly softer U.S. open as China lowers economic-growth target.
March 5, 2012, 8:02 a.m. EST
Stock futures point lower on China worries
BP shares on rise after settlement with plaintiffs
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a weaker start for Wall Street on Monday, with investors taking a cautious stance after China lowered its target for economic growth.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJH2 -0.12%) fell 36 points to 12,932.
S&P 500 Index futures (SPH2 -0.20%) dropped 4.6 points to 1,364.20, while Nasdaq 100 futures (NDH2 -0.19%) lost 8.75 points to 2,634.75.
“As we kick off the week, equities are heading lower, taking their cue from a slowing growth outlook from China,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor. “The message being sent around the globe is that the price of oil is putting the brakes on growth in emerging markets.”
…
The fiction that the Eurozone financial crisis is “contained” (and Wall Street’s Ponzi stock markets will continue to levitate higher) is unraveling at an accelerating rate.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9122862/Debt-crisis-live.html
An anti-piracy warship has become the latest casualty of swingeing austerity cuts in Greece.
Those security dollars need to get spent a little closer to home I’d say. What there are no security dollars. Time for some ouzo.
Anyone else see The Lorax?
“How bad can I be? I’m just building the economy.”
Breitbart’s last column - The Vetting, Part I: Barack’s Love Song To Alinsky
“In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama claims that he worried after 9/11 that his name, so similar to that of Osama bin Laden, might harm his political career.
But Obama was not always so worried about misspellings and radical resemblances. He may even have cultivated them as he cast himself as Chicago’s radical champion.
In 1998, a small Chicago theater company staged a play titled The Love Song of Saul Alinsky, dedicated to the life and politics of the radical community organizer whose methods Obama had practiced and taught on Chicago’s South Side.
Obama was not only in the audience, but also took the stage after one performance, participating in a panel discussion that was advertised in the poster for the play.”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/03/04/obama-alinsky-love-song
I wonder if Alinsky was the direct influence on Limbaugh’s style, or if it was second hand?
The Republican’s can decry the demagoguery and divisiveness in Alinsky’s philosophy all they want, but they are clearly using that philosophy while doing so.
“The Republican’s can decry the demagoguery and divisiveness in Alinsky’s philosophy all they want, but they are clearly using that philosophy while doing so.”
Indeed. Like everything else they do…. hypocrisy.
We really do need to change some old phrases for things.
Like madoff instead of ponzi and republican instead of paranoid hypocrite. (or demagogue)
Don’t go all Palosi on us.
Who’s palosi?
You mean, Palin, right?
…and he’s still…. dead.
March 5, 2012, 9:05 a.m. EST
Treasurys slip fourth day in five
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices edged down Monday, pushing long-term yields up for the fourth day in five, as concerns about Greece’s ability to get private debt holders to sign off on a bond swap took center stage.
Yields on 10-year notes (10_YEAR +0.81%), which move inversely to prices, rose 2 basis points to 1.99%. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Yields on 30-year notes (30_YEAR +0.48%) rose 2 basis points 3.12%.
Yields on 5-year notes (5_YEAR +2.50%) added 2 basis points to 0.86%, climbing back towards its highest levels this year.
Analysts also noted that bond volume was rather small compared to recent trading sessions.
As for U.S. data, the ISM’s services sector index is due at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Greece’s investors have until Thursday to tender outstanding bonds, with various cut-offs in the participation rate being watched as indications whether the swap is voluntary versus forced. See more about Greek debt swap.
“Tail risks continue to abate (and are no longer considered close to base case by most investors), and this improvement should help realign the rates market with economic fundamentals,” said strategists at Nomura Securities. “We look for a near-term target of 2.18%” on 10-year yields.
Now HAMP is for specuvestors too???
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-05/boom-era-property-speculators-to-get-foreclosure-aid-mortgages.html
Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid
By Prashant Gopal - Mar 4, 2012 9:00 PM PT
The Obama administration will extend mortgage assistance for the first time to investors who bought multiple homes before the market imploded, helping some speculators who drove up prices and inflated the housing bubble.
Landlords can qualify for up to four federally-subsidized loan workouts starting around May, as long as they rent out each house or have plans to fill them, under the revamped Home Affordable Modification Program, also known as HAMP, according to Timothy Massad, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability. The program pays banks to reduce monthly payments by cutting interest rates, stretching terms, and forgiving principal.
“The Obama administration will extend mortgage assistance for the first time to investors who bought multiple homes before the market imploded, helping some speculators who drove up prices and inflated the housing bubble.”
Why would the Obama Administration want to help such people? What is the ideology behind it? The answer is, the Obama Administration DOESN”T want to help such people. It has other goals.
Which sort of raises the question as to who is really being helped by all those programs to help homeowners.
“Why would the Obama Administration want to help such people? What is the ideology behind it?
are yours serious?
everything this administration does, the bush administration did, and the romney adminisitation will, is done to keep the TBTF banks solvent.
the federal reserve holds almost $ 2 trillion in U.S. treasuries. how much influence does that buy?
the dems are just a whole lot better at keeping the sheeple whistling past the graveyard than the repubs are.
Who says that Obama is hostile to “small business”?
OH is hostile to PROFITABLE small businesses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Affordable_Modification_Program
“Now HAMP is for specuvestors too???”
Ur tax dollars at work.
LA times
Approaching retirement, Ventura County Chief Executive Marty Robinson was earning $228,000 a year.
To boost her pension, which would be based on her final salary, Robinson cashed out nearly $34,000 in unused vacation pay, an $11,000 bonus for having earned a graduate degree and more than $24,000 in extra pension benefits the county owed her.By the time she walked out the door last year, her pension was calculated at $272,000 a year — for life.
Robinson, 62, is among a group of public employees who have increased their retirement paychecks by adding such things as vacation time, educational incentives, car allowances and bonuses to their final salaries.
Such “salary spiking” was banned in 1993 by CalPERS, the state’s largest public employee retirement system, to help control spiraling costs. But 20 of California’s 58 counties — including Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and San Diego — do not participate in CalPERS and their employees may legally continue to spike their salaries.
Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl.
Night-time would find me in Rosa’s cantina;
Music would play and Felina would whirl.
I see what you did there :-). My dad’s a big fan so I’ve played the song many times with him.
Not the same kind of “Marty”…….and its “Robbins”. And she’s a chick.
But, yeah……
I can’t believe they base it on just 1 or 2 years at the end of the career instead of basing it on the full employment history. Stupid.
CA has been destroyed by these greedy scammers, yet no one stops them.
This is correct. I lived out there for one year and the corruption mindset is set in stone from the top to the bottom. With very few exceptions, EVERYONE is a nasty sleazy scammer.
The civil right, labor and safety violations in one year alone makes up a significant part of all national violations.
CA, like NYC, is somewhere I will NEVER live again.
With very few exceptions, EVERYONE is a nasty sleazy scammer
Agreed. Which is why we left and never looked back.
Two years after we moved out here some friends drove their motor home from San Diego to visit us.
One afternoon they wanted to stop at the nearby outlet mall. About an hour into it, their preteen daughter realizes she lost her wallet. Her dad gave it up for lost, and when I suggested we try lost and found, he rolled his eyes.
Lo and behold, her wallet, with its contents intact, was waiting for her in the mall office’s lost and found. Our friends were simply amazed that someone turned it in.
Surely this must be the rule and not the exception. Better cut those pensions for all those municipal $15/hour union janitors!
Why? They were overpaid at $15hr as it was! It’s just too bad they got sick and had family problems and couldn’t budget for inflation and didn’t save their money!
Damn $10/hr janitors! Ran the global economy off a cliff.
The Execution Factor: It was designed as
propaganda to deter would-be criminals. Instead
interviews on death row have become China’s new
TV hit
By HAZEL KNOWLES Last updated at 6:41 PM on 4th March 2012
With her silk scarves and immaculate make-up, Ding Yu looks every inch the modern television presenters.
Indeed, for the past five years she has hosted a hugely successful prime-time show in China which has a devoted following of 40 million viewers every Saturday night.
But while in Britain the weekend evening entertainment will be The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing, Ms Ding’s show features harrowing – some would say voyeuristic – footage of prisoners confessing their crimes
and begging forgiveness before being led away to their executions. The scenes are recorded sometimes minute…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109756/The-Execution-Factor-Interviews-death-row-Chinas-new-TV-hit.html?ICO=most_read_module
Good grief…. Go Ding Yu before Ding Yu dings you.
If you are dinged by Ding Yu, it’s the last dinging you will ever get.
…by the sea shore?
A million-dollar mortgage goes unpaid for years while couple fights foreclosure
By Annys Shin, Published: March 3
The eviction from their million-dollar home could come at any moment. Keith and Janet Ritter have been bracing for it — and battling against it — almost from the moment they moved into the five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot manse along the Potomac River in Fort Washington.
In five years, they have never made a mortgage payment, a fact that amazes even the most seasoned veterans of the foreclosure crisis.
The Ritters have kept the sheriff at bay by repeatedly filing for bankruptcy and by exploiting changes in Maryland’s laws designed to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Those efforts to protect homeowners have transformed Maryland’s foreclosure process from one of the country’s shortest to one of the longest. It now takes on average 634 days to complete a foreclosure in Maryland, compared with 132 days in Virginia.
Champions of Maryland’s system, including Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), credit it with driving down the state’s foreclosure rate and helping thousands of victims of predatory lending, fraud and other abuses hang on to their homes.
“How is it people can stay in a house for five years without ever making a mortgage payment?” said Thomas A. Lawler, a former senior vice president at Fannie Mae who now runs his own consulting firm in Loudoun County. “That’s a screwed-up process. It’s an example of how the process is broken.”
The Ritters, who bought their house for $1.29 million with almost no money down, are hardly representative of the vast majority of Maryland’s distressed homeowners.
During the boom, they set out to become mini real estate moguls, buying properties and flipping them for a profit. In the process, Keith Ritter, 54, went from being on probation for bankruptcy fraud and making minimum wage to being a successful real estate investor and landlord with a six-figure income. Then, when the housing market tanked five years ago, the couple found themselves facing multiple foreclosures.
The Ritters have tried to negotiate different payment arrangements with their lender to save their posh home near National Harbor, they said, but to no avail.
“It was never our intention to get here and never make a mortgage payment,” Keith Ritter said. “We don’t believe in living for free.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-million-dollar-mortgage-goes-unpaid-for-years-while-couple-fights-foreclosure/2012/03/01/gIQAb4DBpR_story.html -
The Ritters have kept the sheriff at bay by repeatedly filing for bankruptcy
I thought you could only do that once every eight years?
From wikipedia
“Another change that resulted from the BAPCPA was an extension of the time between multiple bankruptcy filings. 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(8) was amended to provide that the debtor would be denied a discharge if a debtor had received a discharge in a prior Chapter 7 case filed within eight (8) years of the filing of the present case. Prior to BAPCPA, the rule was six (6) years between chapter 7 filings. BAPCPA did not change the rule for the waiting period if the debtor filed a chapter 13 previously.”
to provide that the debtor would be denied a discharge if a debtor had received a discharge in a prior Chapter 7 case filed within eight (8) years of the filing of the present case.
Note that these debtors had NOT “received a discharge.”
It sounds like they were intentionally withdrawing their earlier BK filings, in the hope that lenders would not realize that the BK had not gone through, and would not pursue them because they thought the BK was in in-process.
But since they had not had an earlier discharge, they were eligible to re-file.
I know someone that had this happen to them in the late 70’s. They filed in good-faith, but didn’t make a timely followup filing with the courts, had their BK thrown out as a result, and the banks didn’t figure that out and try to pursue them again. Final result: no collections efforts, and also no BK.
Is there anyone outside of the NEC, San Fran, and SoCal that uses the word “posh”?
“Newt, in an attempt to keep his posh, lifted, F-150 4×4 from being towed by the repo guys, hid it over in Uncle LeeRoy’s barn”.
I get the feeling that the only payment arrangements this pair is willing to negotiate, is one that defers all payments until after they are both watching grass grow from the wrong side.
Perfectly illustrating the country’s fundamental problem:
For the fraudsters/banksters: Truckloads of carrots…….and no sticks
Yes, but only when referring to a Spice Girl. She’s the one that married Beckham, right?
“Champions of Maryland’s system, including Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), credit it with driving down the state’s foreclosure rate and helping thousands of victims of predatory lending, fraud and other abuses hang on to their homes.”
“The Ritters, who bought their house for $1.29 million with almost no money down, are hardly representative of the vast majority of Maryland’s distressed homeowners.”
I am sure the Ritters are are hardly representative of the vast majority of Maryland’s distressed homeowners, I am sure the vast majority of Maryland’s distressed homeowners only bought houses for $400k or $500k with almost no money down. Except of course for the distressed homeowners who aalready owned a home and saw the Stanley Johnson commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0HX4a5P8eE - 94k
and refied their houses up to $300k or $400k above what they are now worth. But I have to agree with Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), allowing people to live in “their” house without paying for 5 years will drive down the state’s foreclosure rate.
So, I had to amend my tax return and owed $83. Sent in $83, and jut got a return for $83.
Any ideas?
The probably processed the amended prior to the main return. I had that happen to me a couple years back. Had to wait a month then refile the amended.
Drinks are on Muggy?
Lol… drinks are NEVER on me. See FPSS thread on NYC the other day. I did my own little MC Hammer thing ten years ago. I never made it to ‘Pet Tiger status’ but I burned through about $10k in 3 months partying. I don’t regret that period (the drunk 23 year old), but I also regret that period (the 35 year old, broke dad).
I’m glad I learned that lesson once. The irony is that I will not likely be in any cash position anytime soon to learn it twice. So, in many ways that period was like a basket-weaving degree — fun while it lasted. And only fun then.
Darrell, my main return cleared right away. I am going to resend it again with another 1040x.
Realtors Are Monsters
If OWS blasts this from speakers in at the RNC in Tampa, I’ll jump in (contains potty words):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnVDaDJM0k
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GGGB1YR:IND
Greek 1-year bond surged past 1000% today. Crisis contained! Buy now or be priced out forever!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9124676/John-McCain-to-say-US-should-bomb-Syria.html
Uber-neocon “I never met a Mideast War I Didn’t Love” McCain says we should bomb Syria. Wonder how much stock he owns in defense contractors?
This story gives new life to the hackneyed saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.”
A 9th advertiser pulls out of Limbaugh’s show
Published March 04, 2012 | Associated Press
NEW YORK – Rush Limbaugh’s mouth is taking a bite out of his wallet.
Nine advertisers and a radio station in Hawaii dropped his show after he called a law student a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
One of the most popular radio shows in the country on Monday lost advertisers including AOL Inc. and Tax Resolution Services Co.
The tax firm helps people who have disputes with the IRS. It spends some $9 million a year on radio advertising, according to ratings firm Nielsen, and its website carries endorsement from conservative talk radio personalities Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, as well as Limbaugh himself.
“You don’t need to fight this fight alone,” Limbaugh is quoted as saying on the Tax Resolution site. His endorsement was still up on Tax Resolution’s site on Monday afternoon.
CEO Michael Rozbruch said the statement about dropping Limbaugh was easily issued — but changing the website will require a meeting later in the week.
Limbaugh apologized over the weekend for his comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke after she testified to congressional Democrats that her Jesuit college’s health plan should cover her birth control.
KPUA, an AM station in Hilo, Hawaii, said it is dropping Limbaugh’s show immediately.
The statement by station owner New West said the Limbaugh incident “crossed a line of decency” and didn’t live up to the station’s standards.
“We are strong believers in the First Amendment and have recognized Mr. Limbaugh’s right to express opinions that often times differ from our own, but it has never been our goal to allow our station to be used for personal attacks and intolerance,” station owner New West said.
Limbaugh joked on Monday that he got a busy signal when he called his show because of the advertisers who are abandoning it.
…
For those young people who want to acquire human capital without burying themselves in student loan debt, there are alternatives.
Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Walls
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Sebastian Thrun, left, a Stanford professor, and Andy Brown, a course manager, recording in their studio in Palo Alto, Calif.
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: March 4, 2012
The pitch for the online course sounds like a late-night television ad, or maybe a subway poster: “Learn programming in seven weeks starting Feb. 20. We’ll teach you enough about computer science that you can build a Web search engine like Google or Yahoo.”
But this course, Building a Search Engine, is taught by two prominent computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford research professor and Google fellow, and David Evans, a professor on leave from the University of Virginia.
The big names have been a big draw. Since Udacity, the for-profit startup running the course, opened registration on Jan. 23, more than 90,000 students have enrolled in the search-engine course and another taught by Mr. Thrun, who led the development of Google’s self-driving car.
Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education. While the vast potential of free online courses has excited theoretical interest for decades, in the past few months hundreds of thousands of motivated students around the world who lack access to elite universities have been embracing them as a path toward sophisticated skills and high-paying jobs, without paying tuition or collecting a college degree. And in what some see as a threat to traditional institutions, several of these courses now come with an informal credential (though that, in most cases, will not be free).
Consider Stanford’s experience: Last fall, 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in an Artificial Intelligence course taught by Mr. Thrun and Peter Norvig, a Google colleague. An additional 200 registered for the course on campus, but a few weeks into the semester, attendance at Stanford dwindled to about 30, as those who had the option of seeing their professors in person decided they preferred the online videos, with their simple views of a hand holding a pen, working through the problems.
…
I find it heartening to see that after two decades of unbridled Limbaugh rants, women are finally standing up to this bloviating bigot. It’s about time. Perhaps it is time to get a hearing aid, as Old Rush appears to be comedically tone deaf.
Women react to Rush’s apology: Not accepted?
Rush Limbaugh apologizes to Sandra Fluke for calling her a “slut” on his radio show, a remark that ignited a firestorm of comments and cost him advertising sponsors. NBC’s Lester Holt and David Gregory report on the day’s political news.
By Rita Rubin
Updated March 4: The outcry over Rush Limbaugh calling birth control activist Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” seems to have worked. Several days after his attempt to slut-shame the Georgetown University law student, Limbaugh issued a rare apology on his website, saying “in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize.”
The conservative radio host also claimed he wasn’t against birth control, according to a transcript of his show.
But the apology may be too little, too late for scores of women who felt personally stung by the attack.
…
Sweet Jee-bus!
Sharing a “no-go” message. Finally was able to go check out Bullhead City. Been watching the charts and figures and numbers and stats. Apparently, those don’t tell the whole story. Imagine that.
It looked like someone had taken a 60 ton block of methamphetamine and airburst it over the major population center.
No-Go
I repeat….
No-Go
I love my wife (captured in action responding to a Jon Stewart segment on Rush’s kerfuffle):
Multiply this guy’s comments by a factor of ten for housing, as there are not enough successive generation members coming along to occupy, much less to purchase, all of the Baby Boomers’ McMansion tract development family-sized housing.
If you are in the Peter Lynch or Buffett school of common sense investing, the logical course is to buy stuff the Boomers will need (medical care, assisted living, pharmaceuticals, funeral services, etc) and dump anything they won’t need (McMansion tract family-sized housing).
March 4, 2012, 5:06 p.m. ET
INTERVIEW
Bad News for Boomers
Demographic trends will depress portfolio returns, this researcher warns
By KAREN DAMATO
If you’re a baby boomer, you’ve got a big problem when it comes to the investment returns you can expect in retirement: It’s the sheer number of other boomers who are also getting ready to leave the workplace and rely on their portfolios to help pay the bills.
That’s the depressing conclusion Robert D. Arnott, a portfolio manager, asset-management executive and inveterate researcher, has come to in more than 20 years of studying demographic trends and financial-market results.
The problem in a nutshell: The ratio of retirees to active workers in the U.S. will balloon. As retirees sell stocks and then bonds to support themselves, there will be fewer younger investors to buy those securities, keeping a lid on prices. Meanwhile, strong demand from boomers and a limited supply of workers will boost the prices of goods and services the boomers need.
Mr. Arnott is the founder and chairman of Research Affiliates LLC in Newport Beach, Calif. He is well known in the fund world as the portfolio manager hired by Pacific Investment Management Co. to run Pimco All Asset and Pimco All Asset All Authority —as well as for creating fundamental indexes that weight components by measures such as corporate earnings rather than stock-market value.
At age 57, Mr. Arnott’s interest in boomers is personal, as well as professional.
…
Op-Ed Columnist
States of Depression
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 4, 2012
The economic news is looking better lately. But after previous false starts — remember “green shoots”? — it would be foolish to assume that all is well. And in any case, it’s still a very slow economic recovery by historical standards.
There are several reasons for this slowness, with the most important being the overhang of household debt that is a legacy of the housing bubble. But one significant factor in our continuing economic weakness is the fact that government in America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn’t: slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy.
In fact, if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era.
Notice that I said “government in America,” not “the federal government.” The federal government has been pursuing what amount to contractionary policies as the last vestiges of the Obama stimulus fade out, but the big cuts have come at the state and local level. These state and local cuts have led to a sharp fall in both government employment and government spending on goods and services, exerting a powerful drag on the economy as a whole.
One way to dramatize just how severe our de facto austerity has been is to compare government employment and spending during the Obama-era economic expansion, which began in June 2009, with their tracks during the Reagan-era expansion, which began in November 1982.
…
Rush has shifted the blame for his foot-in-mouth disease episode onto his “leftist” critics. I hate to say, but I suspect his case is incurable.
Rush Limbaugh Fires Back at Critics During On-Air Apology to Law Student
By Christopher Palmeri on March 05, 2012
Rush Limbaugh on Nov. 6, 2011 in Pittsburgh. Photographer: George Gojkovich/Getty Images
Rush Limbaugh fired back on the air at critics today after apologizing a second time for calling a Georgetown University law student a “slut” over her testimony about birth control before Congress.
“I acted too much like the leftists who despise me,” Limbaugh said on today’s show, according to a transcript at his website. “I descended to their level, using names and exaggerations to describe Sandra Fluke. It was wrong, and that’s why I’ve apologized.”
…
I successfully avoided all Occupy and other protest demonstrations while visiting Sac (aka Casey Serinville) last week.
Activists protest education cuts at Capitol; about 70 arrested
A coalition of student groups and labor unions supported the demonstration, billed by some as an ‘occupy the Capitol’ action. The protest reflected discontent over steady hikes in college costs amid budget cuts.
California Highway Patrol officers carry out a protester after he refused to leave the state Capitol in Sacramento during a demonstration Monday against budget cuts in higher education that drew thousands. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press / March 5, 2012)
By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times
March 6, 2012
Reporting from Sacramento — Thousands of students and activists marched on the state Capitol on Monday to protest cuts in higher education, and authorities arrested 68 of them who refused to leave the building after it closed in the evening.
Four had been arrested earlier in the day, one on suspicion of possessing a switchblade.
The demonstration, billed by some as an “occupy the Capitol” act and supported by a freewheeling coalition of student groups and labor unions, was the latest sign of simmering discontent over steady hikes in the cost of attending state universities and community colleges.
Tuition has tripled at the universities over the last decade. “We’re getting pushed against a wall,” said Carson Watts, 23, a sociology major at UC Santa Cruz.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed a budget last year that slashed funding for the University of California and Cal State systems by 23%, did not attend the rally. But he said through a spokeswoman: “The students today are reflecting the frustrations of millions of Californians who have seen their public schools and universities eroded year after year. That’s why it’s imperative that we get more tax revenue this November”— a reference to his proposed ballot initiative to raise taxes.
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Million-dollar house in foreclosure for years
Keith and Janet Ritter have battled against eviction almost from the moment they moved into their five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot manse along the Potomac River in Fort Washington, Md.
Keith and Janet Ritter inside their home in Fort Washington, Md. In five years, they have never made a mortgage payment, a fact that amazes even the most seasoned veterans of the foreclosure crisis.
Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post
Why can’t the rest of the world get on board with the Plunge Protection Team’s asset price stabilization program?
Asia stocks pounding down
Major Asian benchmarks move solidly lower, with steel makers among the weak spots.
• Russian stocks off 1.3% after protests, arrests
• Oil futures slip in electronic trading
Global Dow Realtime USD
DJI: GDOW 1,975.37
Change -8.93 -0.45%
Volume 1,405.79b
Mar 6, 2012 3:00 a.m.
Previous close 1,984.30
Day low 1,976.36
Day high 1,987.45
Down.
March 5, 2012, 4:24 a.m. EST · CORRECTED
Euro-zone Feb. composite PMI falls to 49.3
LEARN MORE
By William L. Watts
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The Markit euro-zone composite purchasing managers index fell to 49.3 in February from 50.4 in January, coming in below an earlier, preliminary estimate of 49.7, data showed Monday. A reading of less than 50 indicates a contraction in private-sector business activity. “At this stage, our best estimate is that the region’s GDP will have contracted by 0.1% in the first three months of the year. Perhaps more worryingly, the ongoing steep declines signaled by the weak surveys for Italy and Spain suggest that a return to growth for these countries still looks to be a long way off,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. On a national level, Germany’s composite PMI fell to a two-month low of 53.2 in February. Italy’s PMI dropped to 44.7, while Spain dropped to 42.9 — both figures are two-month lows.
March 6, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
Ben Bernanke’s gas pump bump
Commentary: QE2 has weakened dollar, and boosted crude prices
By Joseph R. Mason
BATON ROUGE, La. (MarketWatch) — Any motorist on the road can see our domestic energy policy isn’t working. It’s posted on the prices at the pump, and it continues to rise.
Consumers are rightfully worrying while politicians scramble to point the finger. Certainly there is no shortage of factors to blame — precarious international markets, political gridlock, poor consumer confidence — and the list goes on. But a not-so-obvious culprit is causing some of the biggest and longest-lasting impact: misdirected U.S. monetary policy.
Intrinsically, oil prices and the value of the U.S. dollar are inversely correlated — that is, when the value of the dollar falls, the price of oil increases. Traded in the global marketplace, prices are determined by international supply and demand. When the value of the dollar decreases, oil becomes comparatively cheaper for other countries, who buy more, driving up demand and the price. In turn, higher energy costs at home increase operating costs and diminish productivity, which makes America less competitive globally.
The Federal Reserve has pursued a strikingly soft monetary policy. Shaped in part by efforts to revive the downturned housing markets, the White House has supported the Fed’s commitment to near-zero interest rates. Such low rates incentivize consumers here at home to purchase more, but it also makes the dollar less lucrative to outside investors, thereby decreasing its value.
In 2009, the central bank completed its first round of “quantitative easing,” a process in which it injected funds into markets to deflate interest rates to these low rates. It completed a second round, or QE2, in 2011. Oil prices surged in tandem with each. Recently, the Fed signaled again its commitment to zero interest rates through 2014, and already oil and other commodity prices have begun to swell.
Unfortunately, the situation is oddly self-compounding. Low interest rates diminish the value of the dollar, which in turn drive up oil prices. Higher energy costs then increase operating costs and prices for domestic goods, putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage to other countries and causing the value of the dollar to suffer even more. As a result, America faces the very real threat of stagflation, a situation in which the value of the dollar is falling as prices increase.
The Fed already knows the economy is susceptible to considerable upset, but has no ammo left in its belt after fighting to bail out banks following the financial crisis. A slower economy on the back of a further rise in oil prices would probably lead to another round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. But lowering interest rates further in QE3 would exacerbate the problem of high oil prices as the Fed bets that monetary stimulus will expand growth to a greater magnitude than higher oil prices hinder growth.
Since rates are already approaching zero, achieving a QE3 on the back of what is already extremely creative monetary policy implementation is very risky. Thus, the Fed is left scraping the bottom of its monetary policy toolbox searching for massively complex solutions to increasingly complicated economic problems.
…
March 6, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
Harder for non-investors to buy foreclosures
For average home buyers, a short sale might be the better way to go
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — It’s getting harder for non-investors to buy foreclosures in some parts of the country, as lenders shift their strategies on how to deal with distressed inventory.
When a home buyer looking for a place to live considers a foreclosure, they’re usually looking at those listed as “REO” or “bank-owned,” meaning that the lender has taken back the property and is now putting it up for sale. But REO sales have been shrinking.
There are a couple of reasons why.
First, more properties are selling at auction, typically the first opportunity the lender has to sell the property, and where buyers are mostly investors. Buying a foreclosure at auction often requires full payment in cash, and the buyer often doesn’t get the chance to fully inspect the property before buying it — both turnoffs for a home buyer looking for a place to live.
“Anecdotally, we’re hearing from investors that the lenders are more aggressively pricing the opening bid at the auction to attract more bidders,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace. In a more typical market, the lender sets the opening bid at what they’re owed on the property, he said.
A sale at a trustee’s sale or sheriff’s sale auction gets a property off the lender’s books before it becomes an REO. Lately, there are many investors willing to bid on the properties at auction, as many see opportunities in rehabbing foreclosures and renting them out or selling them.
Second, there has been an increase in short-sale transactions, so more distressed properties are being saved from foreclosure altogether, statistics show. A short sale is one in which the lender accepts less than what is owed on the mortgage as payoff from the homeowner.
“The longer the foreclosure timeline, the larger the severities for the lenders,” said Sam Khater, senior economist for CoreLogic, a provider of consumer, financial and property information. “The foreclosure is the worst outcome for everyone involved — the borrower, the lender the community.”
From the lender’s perspective, one benefit of going the short sale route is that the place doesn’t have to sit vacant, since the seller often remains in the home until it’s sold. Legally, a short sale is also a safer move.
“It’s become a lot more risky for lenders to foreclose and costly as well,” Blomquist said. “You have the risk of being sued later on for improper foreclosing, because of the questions that have come up about paperwork and documentation. And the cost to maintain the property is a consideration that lenders have to take, and one of the trends we’re seeing is more municipalities are imposing fines on lenders if they’re not properly maintaining [foreclosed properties].”
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Let ‘em sink, then bust the Megabank trusts into small, service-oriented, non-systemically risky pieces.
March 5, 2012, 10:06 a.m. EST
What the banks don’t want you to know
Commentary: Fed stress test disclosures could sink bank stocks
By MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — A banking revolt against regulators is brewing. But is it about “competition” as the industry alleges, or is it because investors might panic?
As the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, big banks are pushing back against a Federal Reserve promise to disclose more detailed information about how financial institutions would fare in an economic downturn.
The sticking point is a Fed plan to project revenue and net income losses at each of the 19 institutions required to do Fed “stress tests.” Among them: Bank of America Corp. (BAC +0.38%), Citigroup Inc. (C +0.15%), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM -0.57%) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC -0.07%).
It’s hard to believe, as the banks argue, that such disclosures would create a competitive disadvantage. Projections of financial performance don’t provide competitors with an obvious proprietary secret that can be used to exploit them.
No, what really seems to be at issue is the potential reaction of investors. The Fed, by disclosing potential profits, or losses, would be playing analyst — albeit an analyst with access to non-public information — and investors would likely sell banks that they deem less prepared to weather a downturn and buy the stronger institutions.
The advantage of keeping this information from the public is obvious. Banks and their CEOs can manage expectations and dress up their results. They can talk about their safety in general terms while keeping the details of their balance sheet assets from close examination.
After big banks lost 40% of their market value last year under those more favorable conditions, the risk is clear — and so is the enemy.
No, it’s not the competition. It’s the ownership.
March 2, 2012, 10:01 a.m. EST
Long, hot spring on the way for gas prices
Commentary: Strengthening U.S. economy could be derailed
By Howard Gold
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average is around 13,000, the Standard & Poor’s 500 has topped last spring’s highs and people are feeling better about the US economy.
But just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, gasoline prices have surged amid fears of a new Persian Gulf conflict. The price of oil accounts for two-thirds of gasoline prices, and Brent crude has been rising sharply since last fall, to around $120 a barrel now.
Regular unleaded gasoline sold for $3.72 a gallon nationwide as of Feb. 27, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s a 20-cent-a-gallon jump over the past two weeks and 24 cents below its peak last year. Gasoline also crossed the ominous $4 threshold on the West Coast, where it averaged $4.12 a gallon.
Continued high gasoline prices could put the kibosh on the economic recovery, which has been picking up steam in recent months.
…
March 6, 2012, 1:17 a.m. EST
Asian stocks move solidly lower
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asian shares fell sharply Tuesday, with steel makers among the top decliners, following global peers lower on growth concerns.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI -2.16%) lost 1.5%, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:000001 -1.41%) fell 1.4%, and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NIK -0.56%) ended 0.6% lower.
South Korea’s Kospi (KR:0100 -0.78%) dropped 0.9%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index (AU:XJO -1.37%) closed with a 1.4% loss.
Stocks bounce back from morning losses but still end the day lower amid concerns about slowing global economic growth.
U.S. shares had ended the day with small losses Monday, with investors taking their first chance to react to China’s cut to its 2012 growth estimate. Read more on Chinese GDP target.
Data out later Monday weren’t inspiring, with a gauge of euro-zone business activity falling into contraction territory in February. Read more on European PMI.
U.S. data showed a better-than-expected reading for the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index, but orders to U.S. factories declined in January for the first time in three months. Read more on factory orders.
Monday’s U.S. numbers were just the start for this week’s data-heavy calendar, which culminates with U.S. nonfarm jobs data on Friday.
“I think that people are focusing very heavily on what’s going to happen with the U.S. jobs number on Friday. Up until now we’ve been mostly worried about Greece and oil, and this is the third man at the party,” said Andrew Sullivan, a strategist at Piper Jaffray.
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I made a decent return on my 401(K) last year by steering clear of stocks at points like this. I am doing it again now — stocks are a very small share of my overall portfolio balance.
Enjoy your falling knives, Wall Street bovines!
March 6, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EST
Insiders as bearish now as last April
Commentary: Insider selling has become even more lopsided
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Corporate insiders continue to sell shares of their companies at a well-above-average pace.
In fact, they are behaving even more bearishly than one month ago. And that’s really saying something, since — as I reported then — their pace of selling in early February was the highest since last July, right before the bottom dropped out of the market. ( Read my Feb. 9 column .)
So far, at least, the market has escaped the fate that beset it last August and September. But it hasn’t rallied very much either. Over the last month, for example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.11% has only gained about a half of one percent.
Going forward, the market must now contend with insider behavior that is even more lopsided to the sell side. We have to go back nearly a year — to the weeks leading up to the late April 2011 stock market top — to find another period in which insiders were as bearish as they are now.
Consider a ratio of the number of shares that insiders have sold to the number that they have bought. In the week ending last Friday, according to the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, published by Argus Research, this sell-to-buy ratio stood at 6.56-to-1. A month ago, in contrast, it was 5.77-to-1.
As Vickers editor David Coleman writes: “We have not seen such a consistent number of sales reported by insiders since May 2011, with overall selling elevated for five consecutive weeks now. When this last happened, a correction came a callin’.”
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As Rush et al hurry the GOP towards their demographic collapse, the Kochtopus, hoping to co-opt the next generation, turns its attention to the libertarians:
Cato Goes to War
The Koch brothers have launched an extraordinary campaign to take control of America’s most respected libertarian think tank. Will they destroy it?
By David Weigel
Charles and David Koch have been putting some of their hard-won oil wealth into libertarian causes since the 1970s. A lot of the money has gone to theoretical, academic research—Cato, the Mercatus Center,* internship programs for college students. Charles Koch had helped to found Cato in 1977, but in 1991, he bolted; the think tank wasn’t producing his kind of results. David joined Cato as Charles left, becoming a minority partner, present but not really policing the think tank’s work.
In 2009, after Barack Obama’s Democrats passed health care legislation and tried to pass a cap-and-trade energy tax, the Kochs stepped up their political activism. Americans for Prosperity, a grass-roots organizing group chaired by David Koch, helped build the Tea Party movement with conferences, bus tours, and punditry; its budget grew from $7 million pre-Obama to $40 million in 2010.
The Cato Institute had never been so directly involved in politics. Its scholars had criticized Republicans when they were in power; they criticized Democrats when they started ruining things their own way. But if other Koch-connected organizations were at war with Obama, Cato largely sat it out. When the Occupy Wall Street movement began, Americans for Prosperity denounced its “violent rhetoric.” Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at Cato, blogged a Venn diagram and wrote that “to the extent the substance of [Occupy Wall Street’s] grievance is, or can be turned to, corporations’ use of government power to win unjust power and profits for themselves, that’s a grievance I can sit in a drum circle for.” In 2011, according to Cato chairman of the board Bob Levy, the think tank got no money whatsoever from the Kochs.
On Oct. 26, 2011, Niskanen passed away. Within days, Crane learned that the Kochs would be coming after the Cato shares held by Niskansen’s widow, arguing that they were not hers to hold. A win would give them complete control of the think tank, with a supermajority to make key hiring decisions…
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/03/the_kochs_brothers_are_trying_to_seize_control_of_the_libertarian_think_tank_cato_.html