The Housing Bubble

Realtors Are Liars®

Came across this link that has all the Federal salaries. I looked u and most of my friends are in GS14-15 level with pretty decent pay. They are at par with private sector or even more.

http://php.app.com/fed_employees10/search.php

Mitt sez:

“Let’s fight for the America we love”

Palmy say:

“Which America would that be?” (Because I think Mitty and I live in two different Americas. And I”m not gonna fight for his America)

BTW, I nearly got a beat-down yesterday from a couple of old biddies when I said I was going to vote for Ron Paul. You would have thought I’d advocated baby-killing. Priceless quote of the whole exchange:

“You can vote your conscience during the primary, but not in the general election.”

My hand to God, this really was said.

Palmy
People’s political beliefs are a religion. Just like religion, it brings out the possessed.

The mind-$et of the Federal Re$erve Inc. is going Global:

“I see nothing wrong with beautifying our surrounding$. We are not trying to keep the poor out of the picture,” he said.

Philippines erect$ wall to ob$cure view of slum$:
Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Delegates attending an international conference in the Philippines capital may not see what they came to discuss:

abject poverty.

A makeshift, temporary wall has been erected across a bridge on a road from the airport to downtown Manila that hides a sprawling slum along a garbage-strewn creek.

Presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang defended the wall’s installation, saying Thursday “any country will do a little fixing up before a gue$t comes.”

He expressed hope that this week’s annual meeting of Asian Development Bank Board of Governors, which includes finance minister$ and senior official$ from 67 member states, will show the Philippines is open for busine$$. The lending in$titution, which is headquartered in its own walled compound in Manila, aims to cut poverty in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We need to show our visitors that Metro Manila is orderly. We owe it to ourselves,” said metropolitan Manila chief Francis Tolentino.

“I see nothing wrong with beautifying our surroundings. We are not trying to keep the poor out of the picture,” he said.

Is France still a socialist country these days?

(Let me guess: Her position as IMF chief gives Lagarde free rein to make unsolicited policy prescriptions to sovereign governments around the world.)

IMF chief Lagarde calls for U.S. mortgage relief

View Photo Gallery — Christine Lagarde, IMF’s first female managing director: The International Monetary Fund tapped Lagarde in June to be its first female managing director. Here’s a look at what she has been doing since taking the helm at the fund and the road she took to get there.

By Howard Schneider, Published: April 12

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde called on the U.S. government to reduce the mortgage debt owed by homeowners as a way help to revive the nation’s economy and stimulate growth in the wider industrialized world.

Speaking Thursday at the Brookings Institution, Lagarde urged that this relief be extended to loans held by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue of whether to reduce mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, representing more than half of U.S. home loans, has become contentious in Washington in recent months.
…

Housing regulator scolds lawmakers over principal reductions letter
By Vicki Needham - 05/01/12 05:05 PM ET

The federal housing overseer for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shot back at lawmakers on Tuesday over allegations he hasn’t provided Congress with documents that would reflect the benefits reducing mortgage principal on government-backed loans.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco sent a same-day response on Tuesday to House Democrats Elijah Cummings (Md.) and John Tierney (Mass.), scolding them for releasing confidential information and alleging he had not been completely forthcoming in his testimony before Congress.

“I wish to convey my disappointment with this letter, the failure to contact FHFA to address your concerns, and the release of selective elements of the proprietary and confidential materials you received,” DeMarco wrote to the lawmakers, who sent their letter out earlier Tuesday.

“I strongly disagree with any characterization of FHFA’s work or motives as anything but in keeping with the professionalism expected of this agency,” he wrote.

“Throughout FHFA’s communications with you and the committee, we have focused on getting to the facts and the supporting information and analytics in what is a most important matter for homeowners and taxpayers.”

As part of the response, FHFA released an April 12 letter, which DeMarco said contained information requested by the lawmakers, as well as summaries of principal forgiveness pilot programs.

Cummings, ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Tierney, a panel member, wrote DeMarco asking him why he hadn’t told lawmakers about a proposed pilot program that would have provided, with an assist from Citibank, homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages and current on their payments with mortgage principal reductions.

The lawmakers said they had received documents from an independent source that brought into question whether DeMarco had withheld some information from Congress.

The exchanges comes as Democratic lawmakers press the agency to consider reducing principal on some loans.
…

I can’t find this guy. He seems to be promising a bundle of everything to everybody which does not pencil out; that, despite his reputation as some kind of financial wizard, due to how much money he made in private business.

Case in point: The Democrats are pounding poor Ed DeMarco into submission over their desire for $35 bn in mortgage principal reductions (aka unearned income) at F&F. Where are the Republicans? Where is Romney? Will they remain silent on other huge domestic policy issues if they regain the WH?

Bloomberg News
Romney’s Conflicting Tax Goals Make Burden Shift Likely
By Richard Rubin on May 02, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax plan rests on a set of principles that, taken together, are difficult to reconcile.

Romney wants to reduce individual income tax rates by 20 percent, keep preferential rates for capital gains and dividends, broaden the tax base to limit revenue loss, and retain the tax-burden distribution across income groups.

Those goals are in conflict and will require that Romney consider limiting or eliminating the tax breaks for charitable deductions and home mortgage interest, said Martin Sullivan, contributing editor at Tax Analysts in Falls Church, Virginia.

“As soon as he gets in, he’s going to have to start backpedaling big-time on all of his promises,” Sullivan said. “It’s just not doable under any conceivable, realistic scenario.”
…

Obama has a mortgage plan. What do the Republicans have to offer in return? Silence?

Obama’s Election-Year Mortgage Plan
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Written by:
Shanthi Bharatwaj

President Barack Obama has made economic stimulus a priority in his administration and much of that effort has been focused in revitalizing the housing industry. To do so, Obama has tweaked federal programs to help distressed borrowers avoid defaulting on their mortgages and it is no accident many of his initiatives are targeted at the middle class home-loan borrower. Critics argue Obama has not done enough and that programs like the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) have been largely ineffective. Many also believe that government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not doing enough to help. Even so, Obama continues to make refinancing available to struggling homeowners with hopes that more will be able to take advantage. For more on this continue reading the following article from TheStreet.

Housing has been among the top priorities for the Obama administration heading into the election year, with the government announcing a slew of measures aimed at providing relief to troubled borrowers in the past few months.

Many of the recent proposals are just tweaks to existing programs and the jury is still out on whether they will provide enough relief to borrowers to prevent them from defaulting and losing their home to foreclosure.

But the announcements of such measures play an important part in framing the narrative for the Obama re-election campaign.

“Most of these measures are aimed at the middle class. It is a calculated strategy of appealing to those most likely to vote,” said David Johnson, CEO, of political consulting agency Strategic Vision and a senior Republican consultant who worked on Bob Dole’s1988 Presidential campaign.

Through these mortgage relief programs, the administration is advancing its claim that it is “fighting for the middle class” and that Republicans, who are against further government intervention in housing, are ” out of touch,” with the plight of average American, says Johnson.

Housing remains among the few macro-economic indicators that is yet to show any sign of improvement in a slowly recovering economy.

While not as critical an issue as, say, job growth when it comes to determining who wins the election, housing policy has always been a political hot potato and there is nothing quite like stories of people losing homes to stir politicians into “doing something.”

“”I’m not one of those people who believe that we just sit by and wait for the housing market to hit bottom,” Obama said at a news conference, in an obvious shot at Governor Mitt Romney, who previously suggested that foreclosures be allowed to run their course. “There are real things we can do right now that would make a substantial difference in the lives of innocent, responsible homeowners.”
…

Corporation$ Inc., don’t need no stinkin’ Gov’t regulation, on account$ of theys “ProFEE$$ional$” & “Ethical$” & good ol’ “Bidne$$Folk$”

” …But those fee$ have more than doubled in recent months, reaching the 24 cent average like all other shops, Duncan said. So retailers selling 99-cent cups of coffee may now be paying almost a quarter in fee$ on a sale.

Card companies “followed the rule but not the spirit of what the Fed said,” Duncan said.”

heheeheeheeheeeheee :-/

Bank$ slash retailers’ debit card fee$:
By Jose Pagliery @ CNNMoney May 3, 2012

End of FDIC program may hurt small firm lending

It’s still unclear whether the savings from lower fees are being passed on to consumers. It’s even unknown whether most shops have seen the savings themselves.

Some have fallen victim to a legal loophole, according to Robert Day, managing partner of Merchant Relief Council, a Tustin, Calif., group which seeks to protect retailer profits.

His explanation involves credit card processing companies, which fill middleman roles between shops and banks.

“Debit card companies had to lower fees to processors, but there’s no rule that says the processors have to pass that on to the merchants,” he said. “They’re pocketing that savings for themselves.”

According to the Fed report, Visa and MasterCard are charging shops 24 cents on average, while Discover’s rate is lower, at 17 cents. A dozen smaller companies fall into a similar range.

It’s a sharp fall from what the big three were charging in 2009, when the average was 55 cents for each transaction.

Today, the cap is set at 21 cents, plus a percent of the sale amount.

In the age of plastic, the total amount buyers put on debit cards has grown. In 2009, $1.4 trillion was spent in 37.6 billion debit card transactions. Last year, $1.8 trillion was spent in 46.7 billion transactions.

I’ve known or met a couple of fellows over the years who worked at F&F. They were long gone before the current wave of departures.

ECONOMY
Updated April 30, 2012, 10:53 p.m. ET

Freddie, Fannie Departures Escalate
By NICK TIMIRAOS

Concerns are growing about departures at mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a situation that some executives argue is making it difficult to manage the companies and their $5 trillion mortgage business.

Freddie Mac has found it harder to retain employees amid reduced compensation and public complaints, such as a protest in Los Angeles in February.

The latest sign came Monday when Freddie said that Anthony Renzi—the executive who oversees the single-family mortgage business, by far the company’s largest and most complex division—would leave this month to take another job in the industry.

Mr. Renzi, who has spent two years at Freddie, joins a growing list of industry veterans who have departed over the past year. The chief executives of both Fannie and Freddie have said they plan to leave this year. In the past two years, dozens of senior managers, many with long tenures, have left.
…

Adam Levin
Say Something Already! Obama and Romney’s Housing Crisis
Posted: 04/27/2012 3:04 pm

President Obama, Governor Romney and their backers may be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to live in the most expensive and exclusive house in the nation, but they aren’t saying enough about the fact that housing in America is broken. Despite what the media and candidates might have you believe, real estate, home ownership and mortgages are the most important issues of the coming presidential election. No one, however, is really talking about how it broke, who is responsible or what should be done with them. Worst of all, they’re not talking about how to fix it. Really fix it.

Across this nation there is marked frustration with the persistent and toxic residue of the Great Recession. Some 12 million Americans find themselves $700 billion under water — their homes threatened by foreclosure. There is a general sense that the $26 billion settlement by which the five major mortgage-servicing banks escaped further liability on some issues was more a victory for the banks than it was for the government or the public. And, just last week another settlement in a class-action suit against Bank of America was challenged, after its $20 million award was agreed to by the lawyers in New York.

That litigation was brought by pension funds seeking redress for nondisclosure of Merrill Lynch’s disastrous financial condition at the time that it was purchased by B of A — a condition that resulted from Merrill’s real estate and mortgage investments. Lawyers in a collateral case that would be extinguished by such a settlement raised several objections — two of which revolved around charges of collusion, and the fact that the New York settlement involved no payment by individuals.

Those plaintiffs are frustrated — like everyone else. There’s a general feeling that people who should be on opposite sides of a barbed wire fence are actually winking and nodding at each other. With all the lawsuits and settlements that have already occurred, and are ongoing at this moment, there are precious few individuals who have been called to account by a civil court, and virtually no one has been prosecuted criminally. Instead, for the most part there have been a number of settlements and fines paid by institutions rather than individuals. Those payments have generally been infinitesimal in comparison to the magnitude of the collapse, have had very little effect on the problem itself, and in most cases were made by financial institutions that benefited directly or indirectly from the taxpayer bailouts of 2008 and 2009.

In other words, everyone can hear the piper but only the taxpayers are paying him. It sure seems like the bad guys are slithering away yet again.

And that’s the real issue. It seems like the people who looted our nation and took away the American dream are getting away with it. And we all know it… including the presidential candidates. It’s the elephant in the room. OK, it’s the donkey in the room, too.
…

Occupy’s image blown to smithereens
The Plain Dealer | May 3, 2012 | Kevin O’Brien

What a lucky, lucky week this has been for Greater Cleveland — especially for whichever unsuspecting souls were driving across the Ohio 82 bridge across the Cuyahoga Valley while five petty criminals associated with Occupy Cleveland were trying to community organize it.

The Occupiers, authorities tell us, thought they had rigged the span with plastic explosives that would detonate when they punched a code into a cellphone.

The only thing that went up in smoke, though, was their plot. They were working with dummy devices — fitting — sold to them by an FBI informant whom they failed to recognize as the Man.

I’m sorry. Your call to anarchist glory cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and dial again. And again. And again.

General Electric was lucky, too. Its lighting plant was to have been the site of an Occupy Cleveland protest about taxbreakssinglepayerAfghanistanenvironmentaldestructioncorporategreedCitizensUnitedjobtrainingstudentloandebtgayrightsdefensespendingteacherpayimmigrationpolicyChinesecurrencyshenanigansIraqGlassSteagallforeclosures.

Once the alleged bomb plotters’ arrest became public, the unions and leftist organizations that were going to bring the party favors to the GE May Day demo backed out. In Cleveland, rigging public bridges for destruction is still considered bad form.

How are prospects looking for QE3, given the ever-improving labor market situation against the backdrop of ultra-low U.S. interest rates?

FPSS: I am going to mock you if QE3 doesn’t come to pass.

May 3, 2012, 8:36 a.m. EDT
U.S. jobless claims drop 27,000 to 365,000
Applications for benefits decline for first time in one month
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who applied for jobless benefits fell last week for the first time in a month to just slightly above a four-year low, according to the latest government data.

Jobless claims declined by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000 in the week ended April 28, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 392,000 from an original reading of 388,000.
…

From the MarketWatch dot com home page:

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I saw an interview on Colbert last night and the guy was saying that OWS was looking into starting their own bank that would be run more like a credit union, ie those with money in the system would be the owners.

This just in from my dental hygienist: “I can’t wait for home prices to start rising!”

OK I’m calling uncle. I guess we wait it out another 6 months, 1 year, forever.

Just found out that a house we put an offer in on Monday went to an all cash, no contingency offer. This would be the third time this exact same thing has happened in as many months.

Here’s the house: http://www.trulia.com/property/3082367070-236-University-St-San-Francisco-CA-94134

List 599K, we offered 617K.

Agent said there were 25 offers, and judging by the traffic at open houses, I don’t doubt it.

Oil City would be Plan B, but we have jobs here.

Free “house for sale” advertising from southern Arizona’s leading fishwrap:

Nat’l Building Museum spotlights Tucson home

The money quote:

“The house features a swimming pool and outside living area carved into a cliff face and a kitchen cantilevered over the downhill slope of the house’s 3.5 acres of desert property. The exterior is clad in heavy-gauge steel, with the lower level formed from cast-in-place concrete.

“The house, at 6620 N. Eagle Ridge, is now for sale, listed at $5.2 million, according to the website of Robin Sue Kaiserman, the Long Realty real estate agent representing the sellers.”

To which I say:

Robin Sue does a lot of listings like this. She’s one of those agents who seldom stoops to list anything within the Tucson city limits. We’re just not uppah crust enough for her.

The MegaIndu$trialMedicalComplexInc.$ [+ the Billing $y$tem]

Their ProFee$$ional / Ethical$ / and their main concern is every $ingle one of yer health i$$ue$!

The $urprising $ecret Behind Doctor Referral$
A little-known profe$$ion that just might influence which doctor you see next.:
SMARTMONEY MAGAZINE / MAY 2, 2012

All good news for McKenzie — because even though she is nursing a lingering cold, that’s not what brings the 32-year-old University of Alabama grad, stylishly turned out in a black dress and triple strand of pearls, to the small town of Bay Minette (population: 8,500). She’s making the trek as a principal of AdvisorsMD, one of a small but growing number of health care consultancies around the country that promise to help specialist physicians reel in more referrals by marketing their services to fellow doctors.

In this business, it’s all about pitching one doctor to another — often without one having seen the other in action, or face-to-face. On this morning, McKenzie is promoting two clients: a 20-doctor orthopedic group trying to fend off a nearby competitor and a solo urogynecologist who handles pelvic and bladder issues. But she knows she has only a few minutes to get through her pitch, a spiel that touches on a host of body parts, from arthritic hands and hips (”We’ve got some top surgeons”) to leaky bladders (”Do you get many older patients complaining of incontinence?”). Not an expert on medicine herself, McKenzie has brought along some show-and-tell, including a glossy flier that looks like a yearbook page for the lab-coat set, complete with 20 smiling head shots of doctors posing with diplomas or spinal vertebrae models.

The internist, with patients waiting outside, nods absently. There is no discussion about the physicians’ credentials or experience. (McKenzie later says she has met this doctor before and that clinical quality of AdvisorsMD’s clients is assumed.) She doesn’t describe the nonsurgical treatments the bladder guy offers, nor how the orthopedists handle pain management. But wait times are a different matter; McKenzie excitedly describes a referral hotline that guarantees appointments within 24 hours. A business card, with an X-ray of a skeletal hand holding a phone, completes the pitch. “This is good for the girls at the front desk to keep handy,” she says.

“More profit$”, less workers! … in America.

& if you gift us a “Tax Amnesty”, we’ll bring our Profit$ back to the U$A & hire more workers, really!, honest!, we truly mean it this time!

[It's a beautiful MegaCorporation Inc. "Financial Innovation".]

America’s Jobs Crisis
The 86 million invisible unemployed:
By Annalyn Censky @ CNNMoney May 3, 2012

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — There are far more jobless people in the United States than you might think.

While it’s true that the unemployment rate is falling, that doesn’t include the millions of nonworking adults who aren’t even looking for a job anymore. And hiring isn’t strong enough to keep up with population growth.

As a result, the labor force is now at its smallest size since the 1980s when compared to the broader working age population.

Iffin’ Oct-O-Mom had thought of this she’d had x14 different Gun Manufactures + the NRA to $upplement / Enhance her “Financial $it-U-A-$hun”

[Eyes had to create a new archive folder for articles like this one: “Breaking news in America & around the Globe!!!!!” :-/

Levi Johnston to Name Baby Daughter After a Gun:
By Russell Goldman | ABC OTUS News – 19 hrs ago

Alaskan baby daddy Levi Johnston, former fiancé of Bristol Palin and father of their child, has another baby on the way and plans to name her after his favorite pistol.

Johnston said he and girlfriend Sunny Oglesby would name their baby “Breeze Beretta,” after the Italian handgun.

I see that once again, a society is tending towards allowing a small handful of people to control the distribution of vast amounts of wealth.

Historically, we had kings/dictators. Then we moved to more representative democracies and republics. Then highly successful business people wound up forming de facto oligarchies (the Citigroup plutonomy memo anyone? Robber barons?). Then with communism, there are small groups of government apparatchiks who wind up controlling and distributing vast amounts of wealth. The same holds true with socialism.

Now, I see The Bernank doing the same thing with his vast money printing and bond-buying programs. This state of affairs seems to be what human societies tend towards. And it is something we should guard against, this concentration of wealth and wealth-distribution powers.

Failing that, who do I see to supplicate The Bernank and key politicians in order to receive some of that largesse?

The same media that tell us Elizabeth Warren is Native American but George Zimmerman is white…

Astounding that this election is even close. But that says a lot. Even for the “Kennedy Seat” in one of the most liberal states in the union.

—————————–

Warren: I used minority listing to share heritage
Boston Herald | 5/3/12 | Chabot

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, fending off questions about whether she used her Native American heritage to advance her career, said today she enrolled herself as a minority in law school directories for nearly a decade because she hoped to meet other people with tribal roots.

The Harvard Law professor argued she didn’t use her minority status to get her teaching jobs, and slammed her Republican rival U.S. Sen.Scott Brown for suggesting otherwise.

Warren is looking to shake off the story of her Native American background, which has hounded her since the Herald first reported that Harvard Law School has touted Warren as a minority hire. She also listed herself as a minority in a law school directory for nine years between 1986 and 1995.

Warren’s statements come as genealogists at the New England Historic Genealogical Society were unable to back up earlier accounts that her great great great grandmother is Cherokee.

http://www.realestateconsulting.com/content/SBMI-201205

Good graphical description of the market data. Burns’ opinions are his opinions.

and why will this make housing go up in price ?

‘The number of workers receiving SSDI jumped 22 percent to 8.7 million in April from 7.1 million in December 2007, Social Security data show. That helps explain as much as one quarter of the decline in the U.S. labor-force participation rate during the period, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

Expiring Benefits
The participation rate — the share of working-age people holding a job or seeking one — was 63.8 percent in March after falling to a three-decade low of 63.7 percent in January. Disability recipients may account for as much as 0.5 percentage point of the more than 2 point drop since the end of 2007, the economists calculate, and that contribution could grow when some extended unemployment benefits expire at the end of this year.

“Housing Prices Are FALLING In Silicon Valley”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/24/businessinsiderbelieve-it-or-not-ho.DTL

Don’t believe reaItor lies about housing. Prices are falling even in Silicon Valley.

Just for shits and giggles, the engineering and construction biz appears to be growing at a pretty good rate in the Ohio area. Weird huh? New hires, new designs in the pipeline, etc.

Well, well, well… what do we have here.

Crackhead Corporate welfare mama daddy.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120503/BUSINESS/305030034/Scott-Congel-Medley-Centre-Irondequoit?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home&nclick_check=1

Tell Congel to pull himself up by his designer boot straps.

“NJ Realtor Charged With Fraud”
(imagine that)

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/real_estate_agent_charged_with.html

“Realtor Charged With Mortgage Fraud”
(you don’t say!)

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/Local-Real-Estate-Charged-With-Mortgage-Fraud-140016453.html

“NY Realtor Charged With Theft”
(nahhh…. it can’t be!)

http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/153718/13/Williamsville-Real-Estate-Agent-Charge-With-Stealing-

“CA Realtor Charged With Embezzlement, Forgery And Theft”
(typical of a realtor)

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_19939009

These links to realtor criminality should be a warning to you all.

lake view, central coast of CA. $125k

http://realestate.slocountyhomes.com/idx/3482/details.php?idxID=239&listingID=186141

Treasury may seek a post-Fannie Mae safety net
By Cheyenne Hopkins, Clea Benson and Ian Katz
Bloomberg News
April 19, 2012
Jonathan Ernst/Bloomberg News

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said Treasury may offer a plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in coming weeks.

WASHINGTON - Treasury officials are leaning toward recommending that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be replaced with a government safety net for the mortgage finance system and continued federal backing for loans to lower-income homebuyers, said three people briefed on the discussions.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that a recommendation for winding down the two taxpayer-owned mortgage companies could be released in coming weeks.

In timing its proposal, Treasury must balance political and economic realities. Presidential campaign politics and deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans make it unlikely that mortgage-finance overhaul will be enacted this year.

Yet the lack of a clear blueprint is contributing to continued weakness in the housing market, said Karen Dynan, a former economist with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

“The uncertainty surrounding the future of the mortgage finance system has impeded the rebound of the housing market and the private housing-finance market,’’ said Dynan, now a vice president at the Brookings Institution. “It’s just really hard for the players to make decisions when you don’t know what the rules are going to be in the future.’’
…

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/a-rebellion-at-the-federal-reserve/256601/?source=Patrick.net

“better to burn out…than to fade away!”