Bits Bucket for March 11, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Happy daylight saving time
Repubs are meeting right now to discuss cutting sunlight.
Anything to reduce the federal budget is on the table…
One hour of extra sunlight every day will accumulate and add to the phenom of Global Warming.
BTW, a solar flare is scheduled to hit earth today.
I heard a native saying once that went something like this; the white man thinks he can cut off one end of a blanket and sew it to the other, and have more blanket. BTW, Arizona doesn’t have this DST thing, and I’ve never heard anyone complain about it.
“…thinks he can cut off one end of a blanket and sew it to the other, and have more blanket.”
Sounds to me like foreclosure relief!
BofA to slash mortgage balances by $100,000 or more
By Les Christie @CNNMoney March 9, 2012: 3:09 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Bank of America will significantly slash mortgage balances for as many as 200,000 borrowers.
As part of the $26 billion settlement reached between the five major mortgage servicers, the federal government and the attorneys general of 49 states and District of Columbia last month, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) customers who qualify could see their mortgages reduced by an average of $100,000 or more, according to bank spokesman Rick Simon.
…
Another election year. We like to call it “elec-tile dysfuncton”.
I was hoping today to be a good day. Instead I am nursing my Achilles tendon. Nothing good to watch on TV except for crappy BBalls.
Not to mention loss of an hour from my sleep.
Just sore, or ruptured?
I had surgery for the latter a little over a decade ago; was not a fun time.
How can you tell if it’s ruptured? It’s not swollen or anything. Just painful.
I couldn’t walk; my guess is that if you are not sure, then you may have stretched yours, but didn’t rupture it. I’d have a sports medicine specialist check it out, but it sounds like something which will heal on its own provided you allow it to do so.
Thanks. Very painful to walk. Will give it a couple of days, then off to a doctor, I suppose.
Any helpful tips for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy?
Just got back from my morning run. The neighborhood junkies put the extra hour of darkness to good use, smash and grab at the corner store.
Except there was the same amount of darkness as always. It’s just the time that changed not the amount of darkness.
Yes, you’re welcome.
Poverty rates increase in Central New York
Poverty in Central New York remains heavily concentrated in the cities. The lowest rates are in the Onondaga county suburbs.
(Now who was that MIA HBB poster who used to argue with me that bifurcation was not happening here?)
“The federal poverty line is $11,170 in yearly income for an individual and $23,050 for a family of four.
The biggest increase came in Oswego County, whose poverty rate rose from 14 percent to 17.6 percent. Onondaga’s rate rose from 12 percent to 14 percent. Cayuga’s rate remained steady at 11 percent, while Madison’s dropped from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent.
There are only two “extreme poverty” census tracts outside Syracuse — in the city of Oswego and in Fulton. Both have rates of just above 40 percent.
But three other tracts in and around the two cities have poverty rates in the 20s. And to the east, Pulaski has a rate of nearly 24 percent.
Although the Onondaga County suburbs have far lower poverty rates in general than the city of Syracuse, a number of suburban neighborhoods have higher rates than some city tracts. The highest rate outside the city — 21.6 percent — is in and around the southern half of the village of Baldwinsville. The villages of Solvay (21 percent), East Syracuse (19 percent) and Camillus (19 percent) follow.”
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/poverty_rates_increase_in_cent.html
Dear Ben and fellow HBB posters,
Recently, after a period of personal soul-searching and no small amount of dispair over the depressing lack of integrity that has become the norm in modern life, I humbled myself and sought obedience to God and to walk in humility and with compassion for others. As such, I am bidding fareware to “Sammy Schadenfreude,” as by its very definition the name implies satisfaction in the distress of others. This is and was fundamentally misguided. I now wish to focus on reordered priorities, chief among them faith, hope, and love toward my family and fellow strugglers in this life, as ultimately this is the best we can do, in alignment with the will of the Almighty, to make this life and this world a better place.
God bless,
“Sammy”
I always saw that “pen name” as an attempt at levity and maybe some not so gentle needling, never occured to me that there was deeper and/or darker implications.
Well, I enjoyed being an instigator and levity, even barbed, doesn’t go amiss given the issues we debate (or rail about) in here. That said, I’ve no doubt managed to offend/insult quite a few HBB posters and readers over the years. For that, I apologize sincerely.
Your change of heart reminds me of my favorite musician quote, which I have already posted here a few times:
If it makes you feel better, nothing I have ever seen you say here rises to the offensiveness level of a typical FPSS post.
Schadenfreude is one of those things that makes life worth living.
I hope I’ve offended somebody. Otherwise what’s the point?
‘A lot of people ask me why I wrote this book or any book. All the stories I wrote are true because I believe in what I saw. I was traveling west one time at the junction of the state line of Colorado — its arid western one, and the state line of poor Utah. I saw in the clouds huge and massed above the fearing golden desert of even fall — the Great Image of God with four fingers pointed straight at me. Through halos and rolls and gold foals that were like the existence of the gleaming spear in His right hand which sayeth c’mon boy, go thou across the ground. Go moan for man. Go moan. Go groan. Go groan alone. Go roll your bones. Alone. Go thou and be little beneath my sight. Go thou and be minutest seed in the pod. Go thou go thou — die hence, and if this world report you well and truly.’
Jack Kerouac from Visions of Cody
“I hope I’ve offended somebody.”
We’re trying to get used to it.
I feel deprived if I don’t get my daily dose.
“I don’t come her to get insulted.”
“Where is it that you usually go?”
It’s particularly hard to NOT feel schadenfreude for the home-pawners.
They wanted to be leveraged to the hilt, and it was going to make them rich, Rich, RICH, and no set of rules was going to stand in the way. Anyone who argued otherwise was a rube and a ret@rd.
And they got it too. Good and hard!
For that, I apologize sincerely.
I forgive you, Sammy, and I wish you well.
Sammy, I sincerely hope this does not by any means mean that you will be giving Obama/McSame voters any kind of break.
I share your sentiments Sammy to do right by my fellow man within my small sphere of influence.
I still reserve the right to put my bile into long term storage for those who truly deserve it.
Testify, brothah!
For me it’s fairly simple: I spend my days tending to the under 18 herd, and they do deserve some space for poor choices. They are the yins.
Over 18? They’re the yangs.
So far in my life, I have seen few differences in propensities of yins versus yangs to make missteps, except yins tend to take it harder when something goes wrong. I guess that’s why we spend our days tending to them — to help them avoid an undue amount of growing pain.
In as much as I understand things, the trick is to allow them to fail in “controlled ways”.
That way the feedback sticks.
Avoidance of all pain is actually counterproductive. You need to let them fail but not crash. A very very difficult trick but it can be done.
I’m with you. For instance, my son who failed geometry last year has an A this year in the same course. Somewhere along the way, he figured out that if he reads the book, he can actually figure out how to work the problems at school, thereby avoiding homework. (I can’t say exactly how many times I told him to do this before he finally “learned” the lesson on his own.)
Over 18? They’re the yangs.
I have always found such reasoning to be somewhat unreasonable.
I realize that in the “legal system”, that some age of “accountability” needs to be established, to determine when one is responsible for their own actions. Personally, I don’t think a birthday makes much difference in the state of mind of unique individuals.
I have a niece who is 25, but has the mind of a 14 year old. She will never be an “adult”. I know kids that have greater self-awareness and sense of responsibility than many adults.
And I find the corresponding “protection laws” absolutely draconian.
under 18 can’t smoke? Under 21, can’t drink? Oh, unless you put on a uniform and say you’re a hero of the republic.
Commit a murder? Are you an “adult”? Some flexibility there.
The history of these government mandates is somewhat astounding, and that people are willing to accept them also amazes me. In the old testament, the age of accountability is 12.
It means at that age, you should know right from wrong.
I just can’t put my mind around “carding” someone to know if they are capable of interacting in social circumstances, but that is the new “norm” of American society. And amazingly, it’s more criminal to give a teenager a pack of cigarettes, than to provide an abortion, without parental consent. The dichotomy is perplexing.
As far as I know 12 is only for girls. Boys get until 13.
The brain keeps maturing until sometime in the 20s.
+10
Sammy,
I’ve always sensed a great deal of compassion in your words– as well as the dissatisfaction with the human nastiness you mentioned. But one doesn’t need gods to live a kindly and ethical life. In suborning one’s ego to hierarchy, one diminishes one’s own responsibility in creating and maintaining the human condition and turns it over to someone else’s interpretation.
Trust in your own. I’ve found it exemplary.
But one doesn’t need gods to live a kindly and ethical life.
“One” doesn’t, but I do.
Then may your god bless you and keep you on your way.
I am bidding fareware to “Sammy Schadenfreude,” as by its very definition the name implies satisfaction in the distress of others.
well yes I saw schadenfreude as humourous (Canadian spelling), after all there is artistic license. However there is a point where the way you identify yourself is more important than the humour.
God bless.
I humbled myself and sought obedience to God and to walk in humility and with compassion for others.
Might I suggest a new nom de plume: Sammy Sympathy?
Sammy Weltschmertz?
My goals remain two-fold:
1) Accurately identify and describe the reality in which we live.
2) Leave the world a bit better for my having been in it.
Reality is multifaceted. It has its good facets and nasty ones. I just heard a news story about a 5 year old boy with terminal cancer having a fundraiser for others. And planning for the summer. Unspoken - if he makes it. That’s a nasty facet. But I read about people who band together and help their neighbors devastated by a natural disaster. Or a guy who risks his life to save another. Then I read about scammers who prey on people devastated by natural disasters.
All part of the diamond of creation. All part of the whole. Removing the scammer from society and imposing commensurate costs improves society. So does helping the neighbors. Life isn’t black and white.
Anyway, good luck with the transition, but IMHO don’t try to blind yourself to the complexity - or wonder - of the entire diamond.
“1) Accurately identify and describe the reality in which we live.
2) Leave the world a bit better for my having been in it.”
You are a man (woman?) of my own heart.
2) Leave the world a bit better for my having been in it.”
I’m still trying to figure out how the h#ll I can do that…
…and then there were ________ (fewer crazy irate rational individuals).
No Justice.
Just Us.
Great Recession continues to take its toll…
Number of suicides in 2011 highest in 23 years
Written by R.J. Ignelzi
1 p.m., March 9, 2012
There were 392 suicides in San Diego County last year, the highest number in 23 years, according to local elected and mental health officials who released the 2011 suicide statistics Friday.
“It’s sad to know we are losing more than one person each day to suicide,” said County Supervisor Greg Cox, who urged the public to learn the warning signs of suicide and to get help.
…
Sounds higher than Foxconn?
Toon Op: Santa Barbara Foreclosure Flood
By Steve Greenberg on March 11, 2012 in News
I didn’t realize Santa Barbara had a foreclosure flood underway; I’ve always taken the impression that everyone from Santa Barbara is wealthy.
Maybe Isla Vista, CA?
Not everything in Santa Barbara is overpriced. In fact in the “wrong” neighborhoods, there are positively bargains to be had.
Example would be La Super-Rica Taqueria (622 N. Milpas St.)
Only funny-lookin’ brown people and New Yorkers get up there. Best Mexican food ever!
I have dreams about their fish tacos. Darn!
As an ex SB local I can tell you that Super Rica is a tourist trap. No, you did not “discover” a little off the beaten path taco shop. At least half a dozen better places in SB. But, Julie Child said….
No, I wont tell you about the better ones.
Tons of bargain eats in SB just like all over CA.
In the last 15 yrs SB has gone downhill per most old timers there. More traffic, more crime, more illegals, more chain stores, less charm and small town niceness. SB has both an East side and West side barrio that are not safe at night.
Many if not most people living there are wealthy, I believe, as well. How else could someone afford the cost of living there?
Working folk often must live in Lompoc or Santa Maria and commute; cuz the working class must use bedroom communities. I was in SB from 1986 to 2004; saw rents for three bedrooms grow from $1200 to $3000 on average. So unless you have 36k/yr to spend on rent fuggetaboutit. Practically every house on our street had a garage conversion rented out; obviously to defray costs.
When I sold my house I knew I would likely never be able to afford living there again. My taxes were $3500(thanks prop 13), but the new taxes after selling were over $10,000.
when we would drive north on the 101 pre-dawn, the snake-like vision of car lights coming from Lompoc was incredible. Another commuter group comes in from Ventura; they are subject to a 101 bottleneck in Monteceito; so a two hour commute to service the rich is common for the commoners down south. So the person serving smoothies; or working in the mall; unless perhaps a student with parental support, does not even live in town.
“So unless you have 36k/yr to spend on rent fuggetaboutit.”
Sounds just like La Jolla…
SA Time: Sunday, March 11, 2012 4:03:18 PM
Banks foreclosing on US churches
March 11 2012 at 11:57am
By Reuters
Banks are foreclosing on America’s churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data.
The surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling religious organizations forbearance.
Since 2010, 270 churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure, according to the real estate information company CoStar Group.
…
Rombama foreclosure policy:
Romney’s New Take on Foreclosure Crisis is Closer to Obama’s
03.10.2012
GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has taken heat for President Obama and homeowner advocates for saying that foreclosures should be allowed to run their course free of government intervention.
Lately, however, Romney has changed course on the foreclosure crisis, a topic that rarely gets much treatment on the campaign trail as it is.
Beginning with his victory speech after the Michigan primary last month, Romney has been critical of President Obama for not doing more to tackle foreclosures during his first term, especially when he had a super-majority in the Senate earlier in his presidency.
“We need those banks to be willing to renegotiate with people who are underwater in their homes to make sure people can stay in their homes,” Romney said March 3 at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio. “If you have someone who has an income and can meet payments that are a little lower than their current mortgage, then work with them, renegotiate, don’t put the home into foreclosure if those people are able to stay in the home and meet those obligations.”
…
Romney/Obama/Rep/Dem: in the end, it is just the same.
Bailouts of the banks and bailouts of the irresponsible specuvestors.
Mansions Take Longer to Repossess
Floridians in foreclosure with mortgages of at least a $1 million live rent-free in their houses for about 1,029 days.
By MARK PUENTE
TAMPA BAY TIMES
Published: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 9:27 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 9:27 p.m.
Even when they face foreclosure, the well-to-do fare better than those who own less expensive houses: They get more than eight extra months of free living as their cases slog through the courts.
Floridians in foreclosure with mortgages of at least a $1 million live rent-free in their houses for about 1,029 days, according to an analysis by data provider Lender Processing Services. Those with mortgages of $250,000 get 248 fewer days.
April Charney, a foreclosure expert with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, said one reason stands out for the longer foreclosure process on pricier homes.
“Those owners can afford more lawyers,” she said. “They have options. Most of my clients clean those houses.”
Real estate experts cite several other reasons for the longer foreclosures:
Banks are slower to foreclose on high-end properties because mansions cost more to maintain, have higher property taxes and homeowners association fees, and take longer to sell.
Lenders are more willing to work out loan modifications with holders of large mortgages because they typically have more assets and could recover faster from hard times than average borrowers.
Mortgages on high-end properties are not backed by government insurance, and lenders cannot collect payouts from the government. The bigger mortgages are also not typically bundled into securities, as smaller loans are. Banks prefer to keep the bigger mortgages on their books instead of selling to investors.
…
Tax break for mortgage relief may go away
By Kenneth R. Harney / The Nation’s Housing
Sunday, February 26, 2012 - Updated 2 weeks ago
Given the huge public and private resources now being devoted to helping financially distressed homeowners — including the recently announced $25 billion national mortgage settlement with five major banks — you might assume that a key federal tax law benefit underpinning these efforts would be a shoo-in for renewal.
But it’s not. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to expire in 10 months, and there are early indications on Capitol Hill that it might not make the cut. The law, first enacted in 2007, allows homeowners who have received principal reductions on their mortgages as the result of loan modifications, short sales or foreclosures to avoid income taxation on the amounts forgiven.
…
In hindsight, we should have bought a mansion years back and immediately stopped paying the mortgage.
Mansions Take Longer to Repossess
Floridians in foreclosure with mortgages of at least a $1 million live rent-free in their houses for about 1,029 days.
By MARK PUENTE
TAMPA BAY TIMES
Published: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 9:27 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 9:27 p.m.
Even when they face foreclosure, the well-to-do fare better than those who own less expensive houses: They get more than eight extra months of free living as their cases slog through the courts.
Floridians in foreclosure with mortgages of at least a $1 million live rent-free in their houses for about 1,029 days, according to an analysis by data provider Lender Processing Services. Those with mortgages of $250,000 get 248 fewer days.
April Charney, a foreclosure expert with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, said one reason stands out for the longer foreclosure process on pricier homes.
“Those owners can afford more lawyers,” she said. “They have options. Most of my clients clean those houses.”
Real estate experts cite several other reasons for the longer foreclosures:
Banks are slower to foreclose on high-end properties because mansions cost more to maintain, have higher property taxes and homeowners association fees, and take longer to sell.
Lenders are more willing to work out loan modifications with holders of large mortgages because they typically have more assets and could recover faster from hard times than average borrowers.
Mortgages on high-end properties are not backed by government insurance, and lenders cannot collect payouts from the government. The bigger mortgages are also not typically bundled into securities, as smaller loans are. Banks prefer to keep the bigger mortgages on their books instead of selling to investors.
…
Ban all lawyers, make the world more fair.
I am not a lawyer, and don’t have any interest in the argument either ways but I have plenty of very close lawyer friends, and have used the services thereof (not of the friends but of who they recommended.)
There is a large amount of utility in using them. It’s subtle but it’s not very likely to show up in the average middle-aged person’s life.
I talk to my parent’s lawyers, for example. It’s hardly even a “contentious” thing. It’s positively snooze-worthy. We all drink tea and agree each year that legal things can be arranged smoothly.
However, it’s important.
Likewise, I’ve used lawyers. It’s all very boring and has all the emotional energy of snoring the night away but it has extreme utility.
Can’t believe I spent so much energy defending the locusts but there you go!
Of course I was kidding; I have a couple of beloved friends and immediate family members who are lawyers. And there are also probably a few lawyers out there trying to sue me one way or another.
But I do find that Shakespeare quote very intriguing…
The Shakespeare quote is from the mouths of the rabble tossing out suggestions as to how they could hurt their society/status quo as much as possible. Shakespeare is all about context.
I’ve known people to used quotes from Richard III in wedding ceremonies when the context is Richard seducing a woman to be his bride very shortly after killing her husband (father too, perhaps?) and moments later turning to the audience and telling them that he needs her for political reasons but intends to kill her not long after the wedding.
Shakespeare is not best understood out of Bartlett’s Familar Quotations.
Lighten up, Polly — I was just trying to add a little levity to the discussion, not to provide any kind of deep insight to Shakespeare.
But as you are an attorney, I understand…
IMNSHO, her point was a lot deeper than merely self-defense.
Lawyers are like system admininstrators. Nobody pays attention to them until everything goes horribly wrong at which point there are indispensable.
Very unfair but it tells you what humans are like. All short-term thinking and no planning.
The best lawyer is one that makes sure you never ever get to court ever. Worth their weight in gold they are!
“Nobody pays attention to them until everything goes horribly wrong at which point there are indispensable.”
Agreed.
But my point was levity, not profound insight into that Shakespearean quote.
My issue was mostly the misuse of Shakespeare. I love the history plays. It always annoys me when people misuse quotes from those.
And keeping clients out of court is the first and most important job of a lawyer. Sometimes it can’t be helped if you are brought in at the last moment, but doing well in court is usually not the best result for the client. Not breaking the law and/or having all the buisness terms spelled out so well in a contract that everyone knows what is expected and what the results will be if they don’t is the best result.
In hindsight, we should have bought a mansion years back and immediately stopped paying the mortgage.
Doesn’t work unless you have ZERO other assets. Or you’re on the gold-in-a-box-in-the-attic plan.
Crunch some numbers. You’ll rapidly see that the “opportunity cost of time” will mean that it’ll end up really really badly for these people.
Think Alpo at retirement time.
“Think Alpo at retirement time.”
…or the Donner Party Diet.
http://www.northcentralpa.com/article/donner-party-diet
‘Crunch some numbers. You’ll rapidly see that the “opportunity cost of time” will mean that it’ll end up really really badly for these people.’
Is that the case even in a non-recourse state like California? Or is there recourse in cases when the value of the asset in question is sufficiently high? (On second thought, don’t kill all the lawyers, at least until we get a good answer to this legal question…)
But let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that you could live in a La Jolla ocean view home for, say, five years, without making any payments. During that period, you live five minutes from your job (no opportunity cost of time there!) and either invest or buy fancy cars and vacations with the money you would have would have paid in rent or your mortgage, if you were foolish enough to play by the rules. After five years, you have enough money saved up to rent until you retire.
Where is the downside in the above scenario, provided you have no moral qualms about defrauding your lender?
I know you’re a theoretical kinda guy but here’s the reality.
Most people are simply not that disciplined. It just doesn’t happen.
The frugal types simply wouldn’t do such things, and the opposite thereof (= mouth-breathing ret@rds) can barely fog a mirror to save their lives (let alone think ahead bout the “opportunity cost of time”.)
I’ve never seen an in-between actually so if you have, educate me!
So yes, I buy your argument “in principle” but I fail to see how one would both (a) predict ahead of time that one would get free rent, and (b) be so absolutely systematic about saving as to get ahead.
This is the worst form of post hoc argumentation. Waste of time, energy and brain cells!
Your point is well taking. Nobody could have foreseen seen top-down intervention to enable rent-free living!
Why are home builder stocks soaring? Go look at any of the builders and it’s been like a rocket the last few months with shares rising 30% and more.
Interest rates have not moved much and incomes are not rising that much so it seems like something else has changed. I think the builder sentiment index is still under 30 (50 is neutral) so how much further up will these stocks go? If Romney wins will they continue up?
See: LEN, DHI, TOL, KBH
Pump-and-dump…(again!).
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Lots of money looking for a return, maybe?
1. Collect groups of out-of-work financial types seeking piles of money to manage (so as to extract some fees).
2. Match this up with the huge pile of low-return money looking for a home.
3. Exploit the well-entrenched psychology that (despite the evidence) real estate always goes up.
And - presto! - you have a budding boom.
Or … maybe not.
Oh, and don’t forget the spreadsheets. A nifty computer-generated spreadsheet loaded up with a bunch of nifty graphs and charts can enable one to produce his own reality.
If you tilt your head just right the whole virtual world of blogs and the internet is just like “a nifty computer-generated spreadsheet loaded up with a bunch of nifty graphs and charts can enable one to produce his own reality”. So what’s real? Reported new home sales are up and so are bookings but at the same time there are dozens of stories every day about the never ending crises in the RE market. So confusing… Anybody seen any household formation stats?
Housing demand
Leaving the nest
Mar 9th 2012, 18:34 by R.A. | WASHINGTON
ONE more thought on this morning’s job report. I noted this morning that:
One big factor holding back housing demand has been the decline in household formation through the recession and weak recovery. Last week, a piece in the print edition noted of the housing market:
…
One theme that seems to be at work: People aren’t buying, instead they are renting. Hence the hot REITs seem to be associated with rentals.
Not saying this is viable, but this seems to be where the money is flowing.
Linky:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-07/recovery-on-commercial-property-fueled-by-apartments- mortgages.html?cmpicl=yhoo
One nifty thing about spreadsheets and the “reality” they can create is the ability for one to plug into his database any number that suits his needs and he gets an output that tells any story he want to tell.
Such things as “projected rents”, “projected vacancies”, “projected expenses” are numbers that can (and do) stray far from the real world. But - hey - if a computer generated the numbers then who’s to argue?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-07/recovery-on-commercial-property-fueled-by-apartments-mortgages.html?cmpicl=yhoo
“… if a computer generated the numbers then who’s to argue?”
It’s been a long time since I took a college computer programming course, but one key point remains fresh in mind:
Garbage in, garbage out.
“Garbage in, garbage out.”
Ah, but fresh smelling garbage is what comes out.
Sort of like laundering money; Stick dirty money into the money washing mechanism and it emerges all nice and clean. Stick garbage numbers into a number-crunching computer and the numbers come out annointed with credibility.
Suck ‘em in, shake ‘em out.
I went to downtown DC yesterday to the Home and Garden show, and I was stunned at the amount of construction going on. Much of it was glass-walled city-living condos. Now, I know that DC has stable jobs, but I don’t think there are enough pretty young things — with down payments, mind you — to absorb all this new attached product.
Travel show is next week!
Also the first weekend of the Environmental Film Festival. Hope you will also come into the city for those. Should be much more interesting!
Haven’t you heard? The housing bubble is back!
LOL
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12983-74th-Ave-Seminole-FL-33776/2121360846_zpid/
A rare find of buyers more like it.
Built in 2010! They love it so much, and they hate to see it go…
This is pretty funny:
Estimated mortgage: $11796/month
Rent Zestimate: $2395/month
Someone with the means would rent that in a heartbeat. Also looks like a good opportunity for a horseboarding business.
Would it work well as a bordello?
“horseboarding business”
Yeah, that will make the neighbors happy.
No pasture, no riding arena, or anywhere else to ride around there, from what I see. Make sure you order a dumpster or two, for mucking out stalls. And hire a few illegals to do the mucking, unless you think you are going to be able to hire some of the local princesses who LOVE horses.
Really, the stupidity is really starting to make my head hurt.
Then why did they build a horse barn on 2.3 acres? I guess with a few more walls it could be the bordello.
How about a combined stud ranch (for fillies) / bordello (for johns)?
Is Santorum some kind of closet Islamic conservative Republican terrorist?
P.S. True confession: My family has deep roots in Rushland — probably helps explain why I find him so despicable.
Santorum: ‘I have different visions’ for U.S. than Obama
Sunday, March 11, 2012
By Scott Moyers and Erin Ragan ~ Southeast Missourian
…
“This is my first trip to Cape Girardeau,” Santorum told the crowd. “Jo Ann’s been bragging on you a long time. It’s good to be in the hometown of Rush Limbaugh, which some people see as a trip to Mecca.”
…
Sorry, but I will never, ever even consider voting for someone who portrays himself as a ditto-head. I’m guessing millions of other American voters think likewise, but this is just a guess…
Many of the local “small businessmen” feel the need to play Rush Limbaugh’s show over the music/PA system in their businesses.
Much like they avoid/boycott businesses that support the “Socialist’s Agenda”. I avoid these businesses any way that I can. Unfortunately, out here in Flyover, most times you don’t have that choice, unless you want to drive 100 miles to the big city.
It scares me to live in a country where the masses idolize pill-popping, bloviating bigots. But that is the country we live in — gotta deal with it or leave, I guess…
Take a chill pill, dude!
PS :- Violin.
“chill pill”
Would you recommend oxycontin?
Someday I’ll tell you my tale about that drug after some minor surgery.
Not cool, not cool at all. Positively crazy and bonechilling!
Live and learn is the name of the game here.
“I’ll tell you my tale about that drug after some minor surgery.”
Look forward to it.
And on that note, perhaps I will give the Rush rants a rest. As much as I can’t stand the guy, at some level I feel for anyone who gets hooked on narcotics — even somebody who lacks the human decency to empathize with others in that state of existence.
“Game Change” was excellent.
You betcha.
Brother and SIL in town this weekend. Getting caught up on the family “skelatons”
One of the in laws are working on settling their parent’s estate. Parents bought the house in the mid-60s/early 70s, in a “high growth” Midwest Metro area……owned the place for 40 years.
You would think think disposing of the house would not be a problem. You would be wrong. Mom never worked, Dad worked for TWA (pensioners thrown under the bus). Can you say HELOC? Sure you can…….
Evidently, the house is underwater, or has very little equity. Kids don’t want to “give it away”. So they are keeping up the payments on the mortgage, and are waiting until the “market recovers”.
Maybe things will work out. I wouldn’t bet my retirement on it.
They aren’t dumb people. But like many, they refuse to admit/acknowledge that the rules of the game have changed.
Settling an Estate is fraught with emotions, especially when it involves a long held homestead.
If ever there was a case for jingle-mail, an underwater home in an estate would be a prime candidate.
There has never been a better time to rent!
Stop ‘Dreaming,’ America: Why Rent is a Better Deal than a Mortgage
By Brian Stoffel, The Motley Fool
Posted 11:25AM 03/08/12
Real Estate, Personal Finance
Over the past 50 years in America, becoming a homeowner has developed into such a standard rite of passage that millions of people have signed on the dotted line without ever really stopping to consider the alternatives. Perhaps if more them had, we might not have had to watch the roof collapse on the real estate market.
When you look at the way we really live — how long we stay in one place, what kind of amenities we want — it turns out that home ownership isn’t quite the universally advantageous deal we’ve all been led to believe.
Jailed in by the White Picket Fence
Let’s first take a look at mobility — our ability to pack up the kids and move for, say, a new job.
Imagine two friends working at the same job in Seattle — one who owns a home and one who rents. After they both get laid off, a new job becomes available in Dallas. All things being equal, the renter is in a far better position to go after the new job. After all, the mess of selling a house can drag on for months.
In fact, the mobility of America’s workforce right now is lower than it’s ever been since the Census Bureau started tracking such statistics after World War II. Before 1980, about 20% of the population was mobile in any given year. Here’s what has happened since.
American dream
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Being locked into a mortgage severely limits one’s potential opportunities in an ever-changing job market.
The mobility conundrum becomes even more dire when you consider that the average age of a first-time homeowner has gone down over the past decade to 30. That means a large percentage of the first-time buyers are younger than 30 — with their mortgages potentially impeding their career growth.
The Decision to Sell
Of course, the easy answer is to sell your house if you need to move for a job. But take a look at what happens to your dream home/investment.
In 2011, the National Association of Realtors found that the average home-seller had lived in their house for nine years. That means if you have a 30-year mortgage, about one-third of the house should be paid off, right?
Wrong. In fact, it’s usually not until about the 21st year that an owner will have paid off just half of the principal on a mortgage. That’s because the nature of an amortization schedule front-loads the interest payments to the bank, and back-loads the equity-producing payments on the house.
In essence, the average homeowner is simply paying rent for nine years to a bank instead of a landlord.
…
As Brahms told the critic who wrote off his 1st symphony as “Beethoven’s 10th”, “Any ass can see that!”
Yep!
Worker bees- stay mobile. We’re not sure where we need you yet, so don’t get all comfy somewhere with family and friends.
Mobility is a great human asset to enjoy in times of financial instability.
Yes, but a country of rootless job chasers strikes me as rather dystopian, although I’m sure the 1% would enjoy having such a ‘flexible’ work force. People give less of a damn about the environment, the community, historic preservation, rational development, etc, when they’re ‘just passing through’, and will soon be moving on to the next job site- as we just saw happen in the RE bubble.
If high-end celebrity homes aren’t moving at half-off prices, I wonder how run-of-the-mill $1m+ coastal SoCal homes are selling these days?
Inside Britney Spears’ estate
Britney Spears’ Beverly Hills home is hitting the market one more time — now for more than half off the original asking price.
The “Oops!… I Did It Again” singer is trying to sell her Mediterranean-style estate one more time. It was first listed in Sept. 2008 for $7.9 million, then again in July 2009 for $6.4 million and again the following year for $4.8 million. Spears is now asking $2.9 million.
…
Million-dollar foreclosures rise as rich walk away
By Jessica Dickler @CNNMoney February 23, 2012: 10:09 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Five years after the housing bubble burst, America’s wealthiest families are now losing their homes to foreclosure at a faster rate than the rest of the country — and many of them are doing so voluntarily.
Over 36,000 homes valued at $1 million or more were foreclosed on — or at least served with a notice of default — in 2011, according to data compiled by RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures. While that’s less than 2% of all foreclosures nationwide, it represents a much bigger share of foreclosure activity than in previous years.
“These properties are accounting for a bigger piece of the foreclosure pie,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.
Out of all foreclosure activity, the share of foreclosures on properties valued at $1 million or more has risen by 115% since 2007 while the share of multi-million dollar foreclosures — or homes valued at more than $2 million — jumped by 273%. Meanwhile, the share of foreclosures on mid-range properties valued between $500,000 and $1 million fell by 21%.
Until recently, many homeowners at the high end of the housing market were able to postpone the foreclosure process, Blomquist explained. With other assets and alternatives, “they had more financial means to hold out against default.”
In addition, lenders are typically more amenable to working with homeowners that have other resources, said Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, a real-estate firm in Miami where homes priced over $1 million represented 9% of all foreclosures last year.
See inside 8 multi-million dollar foreclosures
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Why the mortgage settlement is a fair deal
By Shaun Donovan @CNNMoney February 24, 2012: 6:06 AM ET
Shaun Donovan is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(CNNMoney) — Earlier this month, I was proud to join Attorney General Eric Holder, colleagues from across the federal government, and 49 state attorneys general to announce a historic mortgage servicing settlement on behalf of American homeowners — one that addresses foreclosure processing violations by the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers.
The $25 billion settlement provides important relief for one million homeowners. It forces the banks to reduce principal balances, refinance loans for “underwater” borrowers, and pay billions of dollars to states and consumers to provide other forms of relief.
Another component of the settlement that has received a lot of attention is the payments of about $2,000 it provides for an additional 750,000 homeowners.
Some have questioned whether $2,000 is enough redress for families who lost their homes improperly. The answer is obviously no.
But that isn’t what these payments are about. Rather, they are about holding lenders and servicers accountable for how they treated a much larger group of homeowners — their customers — poorly.
…
If your loan was bundled and made part of a MBS; then if I understand it correctly, you are not eligble for principle reduction settlement bux. Were loanowners able to choose to keep their loans in house, or did the originator decide to do that? (and sold the risk). Free from settlement risk, free from risk of default. And by bundling them they were able to (supposedly fairly) run away from any responsibility for those bundled loans. I bet the banks think the settlement is fair!
How is it fair, that borrowers whose banks kept their loans in house get principle reduction redress and those who ended up in a MBS pool are, by no fault of their own, not elegible?
Greece officially defaults on Friday and noone cares.
Where is this Bear run that I’m betting strongly on?
I’m going to be pretty happy when we resume the
inevitable fall to the bottom that will herald the arrival
of the beginning of the true recovery.
Of course this will only occur when the fed temporarily
turns off the free money spigot to its bloody cronies.
What happened to the 99 movement? They didn’t even
whimper when they died.
It’s probably because Americans have forgotten to fight about what’s meaningful. Don’t you feel the shame to call yourself an American?
Now somebody has to get mad or inspired by what I said.
“Where is this Bear run that I’m betting strongly on?”
Dude — It’s all contained, sterilized, neutralized, etc, as the bagholder identification process plays out. Get with the program!
ECB’s Weidmann Says Europe Must Be Ready If Debt Crisis Worsens
February 24, 2012, 4:07 PM EST
By Jana Randow and Rainer Buergin
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said Europe must prepare for a potential worsening of the euro region’s sovereign debt crisis even after Greece secured a second bailout package this week.
“A crucial requirement now is to prepare for the eventuality of a further escalation of the crisis by initiating appropriate ring-fencing measures,” the Bundesbank President said in a speech prepared for delivery in Mexico City today. “The resilience of the banking system is to be increased by imposing additional capital buffers” and leaders will decide in March “whether it is necessary to increase” the firepower of the region’s rescue funds “even further,” he said.
The region’s debt turmoil, which originated in Greece in 2010, has driven up bond yields in other euro countries and led some investors to speculate about the potential for highly- indebted countries to abandon the single currency. Greece must deliver the fiscal and economic policies it promised to qualify for earmarked assistance, Weidmann said before a two-day meeting of finance officials from the world’s 20 biggest economies.
The comments come as Citigroup Inc. economists said in a report today that Portugal may need a 50 percent cut in the nominal value of its government debt this year or next to return to sustainable public finances.
…
The answer is almost right, but the reason given is wrong.
If you want to know the reason the answer is not entirely right, talk to anyone who bought circa 1996 and sold circa 2006.
New American Dream is renting to get rich
By Lou Carlozo
Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:05pm EST
(Reuters) - Rich Arzaga owns a luxury home in San Ramon, California, but he’s not betting on it as an investment.
The founder and CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management, who bought the 5,000 sq. ft. property in 2005 for $1.8 million and has spent $500,000 improving it, considers the abode a wonderful place for his family. But ask him to rate his home — or any home, for that matter — as a financial investment, and Arzaga balks.
“It’s the American Dream to own a home, but whoever said that didn’t do the analysis on it,” says Arzaga, knowing he’s taking a contrarian stance to conventional wisdom.
Examining 250 properties around the U.S., and going through close to 40 client files to project the financial impact of owning real estate versus liquidating it, Arzaga, an adjunct professor in personal finance at the University of California at Berkeley, found that, “100 percent of the time it was better to rent, rather than own.”
That’s right: 100 percent.
The reason is simple. While a home is the main repository of wealth for many Americans, it comes with numerous hefty expenses. The carrying costs - what’s needed to hold and maintain the asset - range from property taxes and home insurance to emergency repairs and renovations. In a rental situation, the landlord covers those costs, leaving the occupant free to invest revenue in other areas.
“I don’t have the emotions a lot of people do surrounding real estate,” Arzaga says. “I have steely eyes for how investing in real estate works, and I’d better be a prudent investor for my clients.”
Owning a dream home, he says, creates a drain on other financial priorities, causing homeowners “not to meet their financial goals. They were going to fail.”
…
My L.A. Apartment complex is asking $1420 per month for the one bedroom units. The studios go for $1100. The studio renters cannot park in the indoor garage. But other than that, in such a transient situation many of my neighbors are in, it is no biggie. There are cars newer than mine and more costly at the new purchase price parked out side. This is my second time I returned as a resident and it does not give me any advantage. Nearby SFHs go for over $600k. Not really bad.
The work situation is tense. The direct hires are encouraged to work as slaves (for free). As a con-w2 working on a contact between me and my job shop, I am supposed to report every hour I work. Well I haven’t. I work only 43 or 44 hours per week and report 40 because the client forbids contractors charging overtime. If my shop knew, they would sue me and I would in turn have to sue the client. So the young tech lead who snottily tells me he works 50 hour weeks better learn that I could be sued. Maybe he will then stop being a snot and I will agree to work what I can over the 40. There is a 1099 guy who puts in 60 and charges 40. But he produces less per hour than me. He is not trying to one-up me, but to win favors. He is a surfer and permanent resident of the area and would not want to be man enough to do gigs on the east coast.so he wines and dines (literally) the tech lead and manager. There must be something unethical in that. I call it bribery. I would not stoop so low to buy them expensive booze and dinners and make those kids feel like big shots.
I worked for this same client for eight years. They know I have the skills they need. Consultants have less overhead than directs and are cheaper. A lot of new hatred these days toward us. But they would have to dream up something big, set me up, to get rid of me because I know they cannot complain to my shop that I do not output 40 hours worth of work. I can almost do my work in my sleep. Very familiar stuff. As an added benefit I am getting a refresher on a software tool I haven’t used in a decade. It is upgraded and I was used to it within one day.
Another thing is that the first day back consulting at this L.A. client, the HR gal said straightforward that they won’t pay consultants overtime.
Like I wrote, I don’t mind working a few extra hours here and there if I am asked kindly. But to be treated snottily because I do not work as many hours slave labor as the directs, well that perturbs me. They have to stop that attitude or I have a way of making it stop
“…they won’t pay consultants overtime.”
At that point, you have to ask yourself whether you might not be better off working of Uncle Sam (who also doesn’t pay overtime).
The DOD quit software development more than a decade ago (1990s) and left it to contractors. Focus on Defense acquisition. That was one reason I quit being a federal employee. This deal about lack of overtime is only with the ccurrent client.
The Bernanke has everyone convinced QE3 is on the way (even FPSS), and some have interpreted this as a sign of incipient inflation. This paranoia, coupled with Fed-funded generation-low interest rates and a hope for future QE3 purchases of MBS, have encouraged real estate investors to crowd out people who want to buy homes as places to live (again!) — Phoenix is a good case in point.
I’m guessing bid wars were not prevalent in the wake of previous U.S. real estate busts, but I would enjoy seeing any contrary evidence HBB posters can present.
Phoenix-area homebuyers squeezed out by investors
Cash-up-front deals shut out competition for tight supplies
by Catherine Reagor - Mar. 10, 2012 11:25 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Many potential homebuyers who sat on the sidelines watching metro Phoenix’s house prices fall during the past five years are back in the market, ready to take out a mortgage and move in.
But many are finding they cannot buy.
Armed with a preapproved mortgage and even enough cash for a hefty down payment, they bid on foreclosed homes and houses up for short sale — but are outbid by investors buying houses for cash on the spot.
Traditional homebuyers, who typically make an offer contingent on other steps such as an appraisal and securing the loan, find they can’t compete with someone who is willing to pay up front the entire asking price or more.
Tight supply makes the competition even stiffer.
Home resales, averaging 7,500 a month, are at their highest level since the peak of 2005-06. But the number of homes for sale is at the lowest level in more than a decade. There currently are about 23,000 homes for sale in metro Phoenix, one-third of the area’s housing inventory in 2009.
With demand for houses high and supply so low, many are drawing multiple bids.
…
The many government-sponsored efforts to prop up the value of U.S. housing have attracted foreign investors interested in claiming a share of the taxpayer-provided subsidies. There is nothing like forcing U.S. citizens to give away their hard earned tax dollars to foreigners.
Door opens to US market
March 11, 2012
Is now the time to buy US property?
Many investors have been taking the plunge into US real estate, lured by the combination of a strong local dollar and dirt-cheap properties stateside. Former captain of the NRL team Canberra Raiders, Alan Tongue, is one of them - you can read of his experience, right - and you may even be thinking of joining him. After all, there should still be opportunities for the enterprising investor when your own slice of the American Dream can be bought for as little as $30,000.
The collapse in the US property market has left properties in Sydney or Melbourne priced about 15 times or more what you might pay for a similar house in the US. Of course, a low price isn’t the same as a good investment and there are a raft of other issues to keep in mind before rushing off to build a US property empire.
For one, the exchange rate may go against you; that is, it might go even higher. That would dampen your US-dollar returns. Another problem is it is almost impossible to accurately gauge the relative values of properties in different countries. What can look like a cheap house overseas may in fact still be too expensive if it sits in a depressed area and is badly in need of repairs.
…
Posted on Sat, Mar. 10, 2012 10:25 PM
Economic, political pressures redo dream of homeownership
By RICK MONTGOMERY
The Kansas City Star
Despite all that has crashed down in recent years, Americans by their nature still want to be owners, not renters.
Opinion polls make that clear. And homeowners with equity do tend to lead happier lives, much evidence shows.
But economic, political and cultural trends are challenging the conventional wisdom, embraced for decades, of homeownership being the American Dream for all. Its benefits to the nation are no longer a no-brainer.
Our ownership ethos — and government policies that have encouraged us to take on the debt — helped inflate the housing bubble that burst and resulted in the steepest economic dive in eight decades. The impulse to keep a house, some experts argue, may even contribute to high unemployment, as job-seekers who might find work in a distant place lack the mobility, or desire, to relocate.
Policymakers on the left and right now ask if it’s fiscally wise for the country to let you write off your mortgage interest as a tax deduction.
“Fifteen years ago, nobody was talking about eliminating the mortgage deduction,” said Douglas Robinson of NeighborWorks America, created by Congress in 1978 to help people find affordable homes and build strong communities. “But the collapse of the housing market turned the discussion around — to the point where homeownership is somehow a bad thing, according to some corners.”
…
It only leads to happier lives if one is very kind to their neighbors and if those same neighbors are very kind to you, I.e. No cRAP “music”. Also they gotta be long term neighbors usually around and you can take turns watching over each others places when someone is on vacation. I cannot be depended on for that obviously, since I am gone from home most of the time.
Super mobility is the best way to keep ones income opportunities very high, like your Seattle analogy above.
On the
negativepositive side, when renting you have no equity-buildup-loss potential. Thatbenefitrisk has beenminimalmaximal in recent years but is nowrevivingwaning. Owning a home haslongrecently been thebestworst form of short-long-term investment for most families.FIXED IT.
Renting vs. buying a home
By Jim Woodard Creators Syndicate Inc.
Posted: Saturday, February 18, 2012 12:00 am
Home sales are on an upward swing in most areas of the country, but the growth is slow.
A key reason for the continued sluggishness of the home-buying market is the mindset of many prospective buyers that prices have not yet reached bottom. They are waiting for clear signs of a positive turnaround in home values. In the meantime, they are renting a residence.
Most of those renters want to experience the great American dream of homeownership as much as current homeowners, but they feel it’s prudent to wait a while before becoming an owner. A few renters are convinced that permanently renting is best for them.
About 98 percent of all prospective shoppers prefer ownership rather than renting for their next home, as was revealed in a recent survey conducted by real estate consultant John Burns. Only 2 percent of these prospective shoppers prefer to rent today, despite the fact that 20 percent of those who took the survey are currently renting.
Even among the 2 percent that shared they wanted to rent for their next move, 68 percent want to buy a home in the future.
Let’s take a brief look at the pros and cons of renting a residence.
When you rent a home you keep the cash that would go for a down payment and closing cost in your bank account. It’s available for other investments. You also avoid the financial burden of paying for ongoing maintenance costs.
Additionally, you are also in a more flexible situation with housing needs. No need to sell one house before moving to another.
On the negative side, when renting you have no equity-buildup potential. That benefit has been minimal in recent years but is now reviving. Owning a home has long been the best form of long-term investment for most families.
…
Permanently renting is best for me while I remain a consultant.
FIXED IT.
The word is out: Renting is the path to riches in America, owning is the path to poverty.
Which path will your household choose?
Incidentally, this will flip within the next ten years. Not yet as inexorably as the weather surely it shall.
Anything the hoi polloi believe in large numbers has a tendency to be totally and utterly wrong.
But first the masses have to fully digest the recent wave of MSM articles advising that renting is better than owning. I’m guessing it will be at least a few years before ‘everyone knows’ that real estate is the ‘worst’ investment.
Real Estate Stocks: Is Home Ownership a Bad Investment?
By Rebecca Lipman, Kapitall
February 3, 2012
Today’s history lesson: Investing in home real estate has shown itself to be a bad investment. A real shocker, considering it defies the universally accepted idea that owning a home is the best investment anyone can ever make.
This information is highlighted by the recent Journal of Wealth Management paper “Measuring Residential Real Estate Risk and Return.”
It points out what we already know: Yes, the overall housing trend for the 19-year period 1987-2005 was upward. CBS News adds, “The run-up in home prices was so great that for the 10-year period 1997-2006, the nominal and real returns were 9.7 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively. And from 2000 through 2006, the figures were 11 percent 8.2 percent, respectively.”
This sounds great, so what’s the problem? Well, a 19-year timeline doesn’t exactly encompass the history of the housing market. It’s actually biased, reflecting a tendency to give too much weight to recent experience while ignoring long-term evidence.
The real lesson
“Knowledge of the historical evidence would have led to the conclusion that prices don’t go straight up. In fact, in just the period 1972-1984, the U.S. had experienced three boom-bust cycles in housing prices: 1972, 1978 and 1984… For the period 1890-2005, inflation-adjusted home prices rose just 103 percent, or less than 1 percent a year.”
Indeed, inflation is pretty important when it comes to homeownership. Another example, made by Yale professor Robert Shiller, is a home in 2005 sold for 10 times the price it sold for in 1945. “While that produces a simple return of 900 percent, the real (inflation-adjusted) annualized return was less than 1 percent.” Ouch.
This doesn’t even account for the costs of living in your own home, like significant transactions costs, closing costs, property taxes, maintenance, and improvement costs.
…
Renting is the path to riches in America, owning is the path to poverty.
How many households are capable of understanding a NPV calculation of future cash flows? Besides, there is more to ownership than intrinsic value particularly if you are married and/or raising children. Nothing in life is free.
Why not rent for (relatively) cheap in a nice school district while your kids are going to school? Then move somewhere else without the “good schools” constraint on your location choice, using all the money you saved by not throwing it away on ownership costs?
At least that’s our plan…
If the Democrats play their hand right, Rush’s bigoted anti-women remarks will play well into Obama’s reelection prospects.
Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans
Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
Lynn Leseth in San Diego on Thursday at the Rally for Women’s Rights, which denounced efforts to limit reproductive freedoms.
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: March 10, 2012
As baby showers go, the party Mary Russell attended to celebrate her niece’s first child was sweet, with about a dozen women offering congratulations over ice cream and cake.
Mary Russell of Iowa City has previously voted Republican, but may vote for President Obama this year.
But somewhere between the baby name game and the gifts, what had been light conversation took a sharp turn toward the personal and political — specifically, the battle over access to birth control and other women’s health issues that have sprung to life on the Republican campaign trail in recent weeks.
“We all agreed that this seemed like a throwback to 40 years ago,” said Ms. Russell, 57, a retired teacher from Iowa City who describes herself as an evangelical Christian and “old school” Republican of the moderate mold.
Until the baby shower, just two weeks ago, she had favored Mitt Romney for president.
Not anymore. She said she might vote for President Obama now. “I didn’t realize I had a strong viewpoint on this until these conversations,” Ms. Russell said. As for the Republican presidential candidates, she added: “If they’re going to decide on women’s reproductive issues, I’m not going to vote for any of them. Women’s reproduction is our own business.”
…
I am kind of Hopi g for Obama to be re-elected so long as the bigots and religiocrites keep control of the Republicans. I will either write in Ron Paul for POTUS in November or vote for Gary Johnson.
The Buffett rule? $366 million? No wonder his secretary pays more taxes than he does.
Buffett’s NetJets Countersued by U.S. for Unpaid Taxes
By Andrew Harris - Mar 9, 2012 3:51 PM ET
NetJets Inc., the private-plane company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), was countersued by the U.S. over $366 million in taxes and penalties.
NetJets in November sued the U.S., saying the federal government had wrongly imposed taxes, interest and penalties totaling more than $642.7 million.
Claiming the federal Internal Revenue Service wrongfully assessed a so-called ticket tax — an excise tax on payments made in exchange for air transportation — to private aircraft owners maintaining their own planes, the Columbus, Ohio-based company demanded refunds and abatements.
The federal government, in a revised answer and countersuit filed yesterday in federal court in Columbus, rejected NetJets’ claims and alleged that four of the company’s units owe unpaid taxes and penalties.
NetJets Aviation Inc. owes more than $302.1 million, and another unit, NetJets International, is liable for $52.9 million, the U.S. said. Executive Jet Management Inc. owes $10 million while NetJets Large Aircraft owes $1.19 million, the U.S. claimed.
“NetJets doesn’t comment on pending litigation,” General Counsel Colleen Nissl said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-09/buffett-s-netjets-is-countersued-by-u-s-over-unpaid-taxes.html - 180k -
Does anyone here live in Milford, CT?
I went to Milford Academy in Milford Ct. for a PG year in 1978-79 before Milford Academy moved to the state of New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/19/nyregion/view-milford-academy-preparatory-school-works-change-factory-image.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm - 47k
And now for something completely different.
China reports large trade deficit as imports surge
China posted a record trade deficit in February as commodity imports surged raising fears for the health of the global economy.
Imports rose 39.6% from a year earlier, while exports rose at a much slower 18.4%, resulting in a trade deficit of $31.5bn (£20bn).