Bits Bucket for June 13, 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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Has Stephen Colbert been reading 2banana’s posts?
The Colbert Report
June 12, 2012 10:00 PM
…
Only Romney has the courage to say what we’re all thinking. America is being sucked dry by fireman, policeman and teachers. These big-government teet moochers are so lazy they can’t even take the stairs. Some of them slide down poles.
Must be nice. And the worst part folks is our kids look up to these parasites. Ask any brainwashed six year old what he wants to be when he grows up and it’s always members of public service unions; firemen, policemen, teachers.
Kids need to start admiring society’s real heroes; job creators.
I wonder if astronauts have a union.
http://nhpa.org/
oxide
Thank you for that link. I had no idea that JPL NASA had unions. Just went to the JPL NASA annual open house (open 2 days-free) this past weekend. What a great way to spend the day.
We have astronauts? How can we have astronauts if we don’t space ships anymore?
That was tongue-in-cheek. We’ve always had plenty of “astronauts” who never got a seat on the E Ticket ride.
that’s the problem colbert…we have been using a six year old’s mindset to set public policy for way too long…public policy not only with respect to public unions…but with respect to the FIRE economic sector as well.
the chickens…are roosting.
“Ask any brainwashed six year old what he wants to be when he grows up and it’s always members of public service unions; firemen, policemen, teachers.”
They could do worse..
More than one out of every 10 police officers and firefighters in the New York state pension system retired last year with pensions exceeding $100,000 a year, a new report shows.
Of 933 uniformed officers who retired in 2011, 95 received six-figure pensions.
The number of $100,000- plus pensioners is three times higher than a decade ago, rising at a rate that far exceeds cost-of-living increases, according to an analysis by the Empire Center for NY State Policy.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/more_cops_firefighters_join_state_52wGXd8FEmM2iNtYqsgnYL#ixzz1xgTRE75i
Of 933 uniformed officers who retired in 2011, 95 received six-figure pensions.
Thank the “War on Terror” for this gem… that and working the pension system to boost those last few year’s income for retirement calculations.
I agree that the pension system is broken, but the union bashing is really part of a concerted effort by the PTB to make sure everyone is underpaid and powerless. It’s a smokescreen. The 12% of remaining union workers in this country are not the cause of our country’s financial ruin.
The 12% of remaining union workers in this country are not the cause of our country’s financial ruin
I haven’t seen anyone present public employee unions as the cause of this country’s financial ruin.
I have seen folks point out that public union benefits/pay/pensions are the cause of local municipality’s cash woes, and that the pay/benefits are often considerably better than those of the taxpayers who are footing the bill. Both seem like valid observations, IMO.
And the reason for that?
The 1%ers are screwing the wretched refuse, making the public unions retirement seem better.
So the obvious answer is to screw the last 10% of the Wretches who haven’t been screwed yet.
I wonder how much of the backlash against public employee unions is an unintended consequence of Obama’s class warfare against the 1%ers. It’s all about their cash flow in retirement which probably makes them 10%ers compared to the general populace. They have more than me and that is just not fair.
Also, why not the top 5%ers? Although I am not in this category (yet - but I hope to be one day), I think I have more in common with the top 5% than the bottom 5% or even the bottom 25%. It is a sliding scale and to divide it between the 1% and 99% seems a bit ridiculous.
While I am at this, how can you lump millionaires and billionaires together? How many zeros is that? If he mentioned thousandaires and millionaires together you would laugh. Maybe that advanced math is just too much for the bottom 50%ers.
None of it. The attacks on public unions in particular (and all unions, really) predated the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street movement by deacades.
Don’t kid yourself about being a member of the 5%.
You can’t be a 1 to 5%er until you:
Pizz away a couple of hundred grand on something totally useless, like a birthday party, or to sending your jet to drop off the family pooch in Aspen.
While at the same time, bitching about the Wretched Refuse being underworked/overpaid.
GSfixer - I read something on Yahoo finance the other day about average household wealth dropping by 40% from $122 thousand to $77 thousand (can’t remember the exact numbers)but the top 5% went up slightly from $1.14 million to $1.17 million.
Polly - I know there were always attacks on unions but I am not sure it was always focused so much on the pensions. Have the pensions recently become over generous to the point of bankrupting municipalities while Joe public’s lot has continued to decline.
+1
Absolutely, this is the eeeevil plan: divide and conquer, bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator. And that could get mighty low.
This morning, I enjoyed a three-dollar adventure.
I had a meeting with a potential client, so I hopped aboard my trusty bicycle, rode to Downtown, and locked the bike in its secret parking place near the Ronstadt Transit Center.
Buck-fifty got me on the first bus, and the friendly driver asked me if I needed a transfer. “Yes, please.”
One of the things you’ll notice about Tucson bus rides is how polite the passengers are. To the point of calling out “Thank you!” when the driver opens the rear door to let someone off.
Meeting went okay. Guy’s company looks like it could become one of those nice, tasty design and photography clients.
After the meeting, I waited at the bus stop near the potential client’s office. The stop’s outside of one of Tucson’s many call centers, and what a beaten-down looking work force. My heart went out to them.
I also felt very blessed that working in a call center isn’t what my life has come to. As tough as things have been lately, I still have many options.
Back on the bus. Couple of guys in a spirited discussion about their mutual employer, their coworkers, and other things work-related. Guys really added a joyful air to the balcony section in the rear of the bus. I was sorry to see one of the guys get off at his stop.
Did I mention that Tucson’s city bus drivers are union members? And that, on two of my rides, they had to tend to wheelchair-bound passengers? Who really appreciated being able to be out and about on the city bus?
I’m hoping that the rest of today lives up to my three-dollar adventure.
Az Slim
My hubby and I hop on the Metro in L A at least once a qtr. For a $5 day pass, we hop the bus to the subway system, and take it to many adventures we would never see or do if we had to drive it. This past monday was a doctor’s appt far away, but luckily subway and walking easy. We sat by a mom and adult daughter from New Zealand on our journey, and boy, was it a hoot comparing economic stories about our two countries.
I love those type of adventures. For the most part, they have truly enriched out lives. As I like to say, it’s a different “flavor” from our norm.
“La Vita e Bella!” (life is beautiful!)
“out” s/b “our” lives
So Democrats use a 6 year old as a guide for fiscal policy. Well done.
“So Democrats use a 6 year old as a guide for fiscal policy. Well done.”
… and for gay marriage apparently.
How does this make any sense at all. The six year old comment was from a satire piece on the Colbert Report. How do you jump from that to the Democrats getting policy from 6 year olds?
I tend to doubt people who accuse other posters on this blog of being paid to post ideological garbage. But I’m starting to be convinced that you could be. I don’t see how anyone could make that leap of illogic just in passing. You must have some unique motivation to make stuff up.
If you aren’t being paid, it is even more sad. Please find a way to use the lose connections on something more interesting. Abstract art or whatever.
“Please find a way to use the lose connections on something more interesting.”
Note the abundant evidence to support my point that paid Repugnican trolls are infiltrating the HBB to interrupt reality-based discussion of the economic picture with a spam storm of bigoted vitriolic propaganda.
You mean they don’t want to grow up to be diversity officers?
I recall a commercial where a bunch of kids describe unlikely role models. The last kid remarks “When I grow up, I want to be a brown noser”
I never met a diversity officer that actually believed in diversity….its a fake scam job
Because diversity includes ME!
Not that I watch much of him or Jon Stewart. But Colbert Report is clearly a satire.
What? Colbert is not really a right-wing Glenn Beck loving nut job? I am shocked!
Niall Ferguson on How Europe Could Cost Obama the Election
Jun 11, 2012 1:00 AM EDT
Spain has accepted a big bank bailout, but the Eurostorm isn’t ending anytime soon—and it may come to American shores just in time for the election.
Could Europe cost Barack Obama the presidency? At first sight, that seems like a crazy question. Isn’t November’s election supposed to be decided in key swing states like Florida and Ohio, not foreign countries like Greece and Spain? And don’t left-leaning Europeans love Obama and loathe Republicans?
Sure. But the possibility is now very real that a double-dip recession in Europe could kill off hopes of a sustained recovery in the United States. As the president showed in his anxious press conference last Friday, he well understands the danger emanating from across the pond. Slower growth and higher unemployment can only hurt his chances in an already very tight race with Mitt Romney.
…
This assumes that people are idiots, and will credit or blame the President for anything that happens. Thus Obama got rid of dictators in Egypt and Libya, but failed to regain all the lost jobs.
It may be, however, that all such idiots either:
a) Don’t vote, or
b) Always vote for the same party as part of their “identity.”
Thanks to Ohboozo killing Qaddafi, people in Africa will be dying a lot quicker do to locusts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jun/11/sahel-locust-invastion-niger-mali
Oh come on. We’ve been trying to off Qaddafi for decades. Obama finally pulls it off and now we didn’t want to do it after all?
Holy Revisionism, Batman!
‘Holy Revisionism, Batman!’
You might want to revise and extend your remarks:
‘A major Western defense firm was upgrading military equipment for an elite Libyan security brigade just before an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, documents show, showing how the West tried to foster ties with him during his final years in power.’
‘Less than a month before the start of the revolt, the British arm of U.S.-based General Dynamics was making arrangements to improve communications systems for tanks, artillery and armored troop carriers for the Khamis Brigade, which played a lead role in cracking down on the revolt, according to documents found by Reuters at a brigade base.’
‘The documents illustrate in detail for the first time what weapons were involved in the deal and that the firm was doing business with Gaddafi’s forces on the eve of the uprising. It said the equipment might have been included in the British subsidiary’s May 2008 contract with Libya — an 85 million pound ($136 million) deal to provide a tactical communications and data system as part of what it termed at the time “the United Kingdom’s initiatives to improve economic, educational and defense links with Libya.”
‘This was after Gaddafi, widely ostracized abroad for much of his 42-year rule because the West accused him of supporting terrorism, abandoned his program of mass-destruction weapons in 2003, returning Libya to mainstream international politics.’
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/07/us-libya-generaldynamics-idUSTRE7862ZA20110907
‘A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable shows that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain promised to help Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi obtain U.S. military hardware in 2009.
The cable, released by the open information group WikiLeaks, reveals the pledge came at meeting that was attended by other prominent members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62114.html#ixzz1xhERA5Bk
‘Tony Blair’s close relationship to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has come under fresh scrutiny after it emerged he had six private meetings with the dictator in the three years after he left Downing Street.’
‘Mr Blair is coming under increasing pressure to make public details of all his meetings and discussions with Gaddafi. It follows the disclosure in The Sunday Telegraph last week that on at least two occasions Mr Blair flew to Tripoli on a private jet paid for by the Libyan regime.’
‘Among the new meetings uncovered by this newspaper is a visit to Gaddafi in January 2009, when JP Morgan, the US investment bank which pays Mr Blair £2 million a year as a senior adviser, was trying to negotiate a deal between the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) and a company run by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a friend of Lord Mandelson. The multi-billion dollar deal, which later fell through, would have seen the LIA provide a loan to Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8787074/Tony-Blairs-six-secret-visits-to-Col-Gaddafi.html
I recall that during the Reagan years we bombed his home, killing some family members in the process.
Of course, I wouldn’t put it past the neo-cons to have patched together an under the table truce, if there was money to be made
McCain, dirty since the Keating 5 days…
McCain, dirty since the Keating 5 days…
As a neighbor likes to say about McCain: “I worked for American Continental. I knew what kind of a crook he is.”
do to locusts
due to locusts
“And don’t left-leaning Europeans love Obama and loathe Republicans?”
No so much anymore. Maybe he needs to go give a speech in Berlin again this summer.
“In a new global survey released on Wednesday, approval of President Barack Obama’s policies has declined significantly since he first took office. Overall confidence in Obama and attitudes toward the US have slipped modestly as a consequence. By several measures some of the greatest slippage has occurred in Germany, especially with regard to America’s image and Obama’s foreign policies. After more than three years in office, Germans are disappointed in the US president’s unilateralism; his use of force, particularly drone strikes; his inaction with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian situation and his lack of effort in curbing climate change. “
“In a new global survey released on Wednesday, approval of President Barack Obama’s policies has declined significantly since he first took office.”
I think they were hoping for a reduction in US imperialism.
It didn’t happen. Just more of the same.
This is one of the better-written, though more disturbing, recent descriptions I have seen of the eurozone predicament.
Fasten your seat belts, investors: Plenty more eurozone panic lies in store before the global financial crisis finally crash lands on the hard ground below.
June 13, 2012, 12:02 a.m. EDT
How tiny Finland could bring euro crisis to end
Commentary: The crisis could go from ‘Spanic’ to ‘Quitaly’ to ‘Fixit’
By Matthew Lynn
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The most pressing question about the euro crisis is also the hardest one for anyone to answer. It is easy to analyze why the single currency has gone so badly off the rails, pick apart the flaws in its construction, and identify the mistakes made in the endless bailout packages. But how will the saga eventually resolve itself?
No one can know for sure. There are so many actors on the stage and so many conflicting ambitions and pressures on each of them that every prediction has to be hedged with uncertainty.
But here’s how it might come to a head over the summer: a “Spanic,’ followed by a “Quitaly,” followed by a “Fixit.” A fresh panic in Spain, might be followed by rising demands for Italy to quit if it doesn’t get the same terms its Mediterranean neighbor has been offered, followed by a Finnish departure from the euro (EURUSD +0.16%) that might finally bring the whole saga to a climax. It would be a rough ride — and you wouldn’t want to be holding many assets other than dollars or gold or possibly Swiss francs whilst it was playing itself out. But at least it might bring a resolution to the crisis.
This week, the news has been dominated by the bailout for Spain. It has become the fourth country to need some form of financial rescue, and by far the largest. Almost a quarter of the euro’s 17 members have now needed outside help, and Cyprus will probably join the list soon. It is hardly a great record for a monetary experiment, which, let us remember, was meant to bring greater stability not less.
…
“No one can know for sure. There are so many actors on the stage and so many conflicting ambitions and pressures on each of them that every prediction has to be hedged with uncertainty.”
My problem isn’t with the actors ‘on the stage’ it’s about the puppet masters behind the stage pulling the strings that are totally ignored by the media that bother me. Just like we have TBTF banking we have a media problem where freedom of the press is constrained to freely print by a too big media complex with an agenda favoring the few. Thank God for the internet.
“Thank God for the internet.”
Thank Al Gore.
Actually, we can thank the U.S. Department of Defense. They were the original funders of what is now called the Internet.
How are the Grexit prospects shaping up by now?
Yesterday at 11:35 AM
The Absolute Moron’s Guide to the Euro Crisis — Part II
By Kevin Roose
We’ll take this slowly.
A lot of confusing things have happened since we brought you our first Absolute Moron’s Guide to the Euro Crisis. Building panic over next weekend’s Greek elections, a new French president, and terms like “Grexit” and “Frob” probably made you put down the newspaper and turn on Basketball Wives weeks ago. We don’t blame you.
Still, it’s important to understand this stuff, since it will come up at your office picnic this month. So without further ado, we present our second FAQ for people who have no clue what is going on with the mess in Europe.
Ugh, this Europe thing is still happening?
Well, yes. The most recent thing is the Spanish bank bailout, which was announced last weekend.
Ooh, Spain! I went to Ibiza on spring break during college. They pronounce it “Eeveetha.” This guy named Ignacio took me to a rave and I swear we were dancing until like 7 a.m.
That’s great. Anyway, after months of speculation and hand-wringing, Spain agreed to take a bailout — which some people are calling “Spailout” because it’s fun to combine words — that will help it recapitalize its banks.
Recapitalize? Is that like when you’re texting on an iPhone and you want to type “mark” but it keeps changing it to “Mark” because it thinks you’re talking about your friend Mark and then you scream at Siri, “I’m not talking about Mark, Siri!!!”
That was a good effort, but no. Recapitalization is a fancy way of saying that Spain’s damaged banks needed to raise a whole bunch of money in order to avoid dragging down the entire Spanish economy — not to mention Europe, the United States, and the rest of the money-loving world. This weekend, Spain finally admitted it needed outside help, and asked the European Union for a big bailout package.
How big a package are we talking? Heh.
Really big. Huge. The details of the package won’t be finalized until after June 21. But it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 billion euros.
And that’s what, in American?
That’s about $125 billion, or about a fifth of the size of TARP, the U.S. bailout fund that was used to buy toxic assets off the books of big banks and other firms at the height of the financial crisis.
Does Spain have a TARP?
Sort of. It’s called FROB. But instead of buying up bad assets, FROB will be used to inject capital directly into the Spanish banking system.
Why couldn’t Spain bail out its own banks, like we did?
Because Spain is part of the E.U. It doesn’t have the authority to print euros like we can print dollars, and its fiscal house is in such disarray that borrowing that kind of money on its own would be prohibitively expensive.
You lost me at “fiscal house.” Anyway, did the bailout work?
Not exactly. The market responded well to Spain’s bailout announcement for a few hours on Monday, but the effects quickly wore off. Spain’s stock index closed negative for the day, and Spanish bond yields rose back to levels that indicate that investors still aren’t feeling confident about the nation’s chances of solving its overall fiscal and economic problems.
Oh. So I guess you could call it a “failout.” Ha ha! See what I did there?
Yes, very clever. Also, there are still a lot of question marks surrounding the bailout — where the $125 billion will come from, what the terms of the bailout will mean for existing Spanish bondholders, and whether the troika will require Spain’s government to enforce any spending cuts.
…
O’Driscoll: Spain is TBTF; Greece not so much.
OPINION
June 12, 2012, 7:10 p.m. ET
Gerald O’Driscoll: How the Euro Will End
Greece will simply run out of cash. Then Spain’s real-estate bubble will ruin an economy that really matters.
By GERALD P. O’DRISCOLL JR.
The euro is the world’s first currency invented out of whole cloth. It is a currency without a country. The European Union is not a federal state, like the United States, but an agglomeration of sovereign states. European countries are plagued by rigidities, including those in labor markets—where language differences and the protection of trades and professions in many countries impede labor mobility. That makes it difficult for their economies to adjust to cyclical and structural economic shifts.
For such reasons, when the euro was created in 1999, Milton Friedman famously predicted its demise within a decade. He was wrong about the timing, but he may yet be proven right about the fact.
Greece is the epicenter of a currency and fiscal crisis in the euro zone. Markets fear a “Grexit,” or Greek exit from the euro. That exit is almost a foregone conclusion. The endgame for the euro will be played out in Spain.
But first to Greece, which is devolving from a money-using economy. Firms, households and even the government are short on cash. The government isn’t paying its suppliers and workers in a timely fashion, so households cannot pay their bills to businesses with whom they transact. Businesses, in turn, cannot pay their suppliers. There is a cascade of cash constraints.
Normally, credit supplements cash in economic transactions. But there is scant credit in Greece. Anyone who can is moving their money out of the country, either to banks in other euro-zone countries, such as Germany, or out of the euro to banks in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and U.S. (the franc, pound and dollar, respectively).
Absent a truly dramatic event, Greece will exit the euro not by choice but by necessity. It will do so not because the drachma (its old currency) is superior to the euro, but because the drachma is superior to barter. Greek standards of living, which have already fallen substantially, will fall further in the short- to medium-term. It will then be up to the Greek people to forge a new future.
While a Greek exit from the euro zone will have substantial repercussions, it won’t unleash the doomsday scenario painted by some. A Spanish exit would be an entirely different matter. Unlike Greece, Spain is a major economy. According to the International Monetary Fund, at official exchange rates in 2011 the Spanish economy was more than five times the size of Greece’s. And unlike Greece, Spain has numerous banks, some large and global.
The Greek tragedy began with a fiscal crisis—brought on by the government spending more money than it took in—that became a banking crisis. In Spain, there is a fiscal crisis that exacerbates a banking crisis.
…
Mr. O’Driscoll is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He was formerly a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and later a vice president at Citigroup.
Eurozone crisis live: Italian borrowing costs jump at bond sale
• US retail sales disappoint
• German finance minister reassures on Italy and Spain
• Spanish and Italian bond yields are flat
• Italian one-year yields surge to six-month high at auction
2.42pm: Global markets have been unsettled by the weaker than expected US retail sales.
Wall Street has opened lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 40 points. The FTSE 100 is now more than 25 points lower, while Germany’s Dax has dropped 0.88% and France’s Cac has slipped 0.77%. The Spanish market, however, is managing to keep above the waterline, up 0.85%.
Italian and Spanish bond yields, worryingly, are both edging higher again.
As far as the US retail sales go, this is another sign of weakness in the world’s biggest economy, which is not good news for President Obama’s re-election campaign, for a start.
But this latest data is likely to prompt further talk of another round of quantitative easing from the US Federal Reserve, so-called QE3.
1.58pm: Greece might soon need a third bailout, German weekly Die Zeit reports, citing unnamed financial and government sources.
Discussions are under way in the EU to give the debt-laden country more time to reduce its deficit. In order to extend the deficit-reduction timetable, Greece would need tens of billions more in aid, the paper said.
Eurozone officials have told Market News International that if the new Greek government shows sincere commitment, “some adjustments could be made to the bailout programme.”
The sharp deterioration in the country’s growth outlook leaves room to extend the period for the consolidation effort, one source noted. The
working scenario has been for an extension of two years, which means Greece would have to bring its deficit down to 3% of GDP by 2016 instead
of 2014, the official said.
“It is a well known secret in Brussels that the €130bn second bailout programme won’t be enough,” another source said.
…
For those wondering how tiny Finland could bring the euro crisis to an end (since this was the title): The author believes that one by one, countries will walk from the Eurozone, which would solve the euro crisis by destroying the euro. Finland would be the first domino.
‘Fess up: How many paid Republican party hacks are trolling here?
Show of hands: How many commenters here work for goobermint contractors and merrily post while their employer bills the time to the taxpayer?
Both sides of the same 1%er coin, working to divide and conqueror.
Same plans, different PR campaigns.
As a side issue I’ve noticed a mellowing of attitudes over the decades toward internet access at work. So I spend 10 minutes here at HBB while my cubical neighbor spends 10 minutes every hour smoking up. Eh. Nobody cares as long as the work gets done on time.
As I said in yesterday’s bits, I don’t begrudge those who work for goobermint contractors a bit of posting here and there. These blogs are the modern day version of the water cooler. It’s when the output becomes rather prodigious that it starts to bother me and I start to wonder if me and my fellow taxpayers are taking the hit for it. Particularly when there are lectures on moral rectumitude involved. It’s kind of like having a someone stand at the water cooler much of the day and lecture their co-workers.
I’ve got a couple of gigs, when I’m working for someone else, the nature of the work doesn’t lend itself to posting. When I’m working for myself, I’m only cutting my own income when I post, rather than minding my own biz and getting to work. Or am I? LOL, I guess I’m not producing taxable income that goobermint contractors can bill for and hoover up.
That Rolling Stone article really cheesed me off.
As far as I’m concerned, this Uncle Sugar gravy trough contracting gig is my own personal bailout. Things have been slowing down lately, but the new gig should be much busier…
Don’t worry, Palmy! I take good care of your Obama bucks!
HA! The squad won’t be participating as much here after this week and then the only goons you’ll have to deal with will be the boogeymen under 2banana’s bed
Nanners had us up all night with his nightmares. We gave him an orange flavored aspirin and a Flintstones chewable and he went right to sleep.
His post at 11:43 in yesterday’s bits bucket had the word goon seven times.
Yes. He was still up at that time flailing away like a zombie screaming “goons! goons everywhere!”.
When I think of “goons” I think of henchmen in Batman comics. Who knew that school teachers worked for the Penguin?
“We gave him an orange flavored aspirin and a Flintstones chewable and he went right to sleep.”
Keep ‘em up high and far away … me lil’ brother got a hold of the whole jar of ‘em at age 5 and nearly died! ” :-/
goobermint contractors
I’ve been participating somewhat less the past month due to a job change. But I’m not a goobermint contractor…
all of us do.
ZIRP anyone?
Was that meant to change the subject, which was, how many posters here are getting paid to post Republican propaganda, rather than sincerely sharing what is on their minds?
I don’t really care that much, but the drool all over the blog gets tiresome.
not changing the subject…i just think that both republican and democrat propoganda on this blog are fairly represented.
i just try and ignore it.
I frankly don’t mind a little propaganda now and then, so long as it represents honest opinion. I only was objecting to the appearance that some of the 24/7 HBB propaganda might be of the paid partisan variety, rather than genuine, which seems patently unfair — kind of like when people are offered ultra-low rents to live in vacant homes, in order to give them an owner-occupied look.
I have a hard time imagining anyone as rabidly partisan as 2banana or Smithers without financial incentives to create such an appearance, but I suppose such people are out there…
rio?
Calling Bush Chimpy McHitler for 8 years….non-partisan, intelligent political discourse.
Saying unions have too much power and need to be reined in….Republican hack.
Got it.
Did anyone actually call Bush Chimpy McHitler while he was in office on this blog? And I missed it? That would have been one heck of a thread.
Oh, you mean you were comparing something you saw someplace else (or heard someone accuse other people of doing whether it ever happened or not) and it has absolutely nothing to do with our discussions here? So the comment is completely irrelevant?
Look, if you like attacking people who would call the president of the United States Chimpy McHitler, please feel free to go find some place where it actually happened and attack them there. It has nothing to do with us.
I have a hard time imagining anyone as rabidly partisan as 2banana or Smithers without financial incentives to create such an appearance, but I suppose such people are out there…
Where I grew up in Wyoming they wouldn’t be too far right of center. So I don’t assume they are paid, because I have friends and relatives I could imagine posting that stuff all day for free if they could sit still long enough to get comfortable operating a computer.
accusing one of using propaganda while spewing one’s on propoganda is the oldest propaganda trick in the book.
i just discern the truth and move on.
sometimes republicans are right and sometimes democrats are right.
i have agreed with rush limbaugh on one point while agreeing with michael moore on another.
i agree with rio on some points and 2bananna on others.
Exactly Mike.
propaganda might be of the paid partisan variety
I have heard that there are folks who are paid to troll blogs and post misinformation (if something is repeated enough people will eventually take it as truth), but I am still incredulous that this is a real phenomenon.
Is it for real? Proof?
if someone is paying someone then they are very stupid.
i know plenty of zealots who would do it for free.
“i agree with rio on some points and 2bananna on others.”
2banana has some interesting things to say when he is not ranting about insane public sector unions.
I have yet to see Smithers post anything that is not rabidly and snidely political. I have missed a few days recently due to travel, so please correct me if I am wrong.
I like getting the international perspective from Rio and wish nhz was still posting from the Netherlands.
Some would accuse Mike of being weak-minded. I choose to think of him as a critical thinker.
So much divisiveness and polarization has gotten us nowhere.
D,R,I, or L. Why the labels and dogmatism? Only reveals the lack of depth of thought, clarity, and capability to truly analyze.
“United States Chimpy McHitler”
Fawkin’ trolls are back.
“…if something is repeated enough people will eventually take it as truth…”
It helps a lot if the receivers of the propaganda message are silent and compliant. But if a few good people take the trouble to point out the ludicrous nature of the propaganda message, I tend to doubt most intelligent people will accept it.
Perhaps the Repugnican propagandists are counting on a critical mass of stoopidity to allow their message to stand unchallenged?
“Where I grew up in Wyoming…”
Isn’t that where that gay kid, Mathew Shepard, was murdered, pretty much just for being gay?
Where do Repugnicans come down on issues like this (other than the Log Cabin faction)?
How One Mother’s Story Helped Change Obama’s Gay Marriage Stance
By Andrew Cohen
May 24 2012, 4:01 PM ET 49
After her son Matthew was brutally murdered, Judy Shepard’s relentless campaigning on behalf of tolerance led to a major shift in American law.
In 2009, the president delivered remarks commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act with Shepard’s parents onstage. (Reuters)
Byron Tau at Politico posted an interesting piece yesterday about how President Obama’s views on gay rights evolved after “meeting people like Judy Shepard,” mother of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998 in a case that drew international attention. Looking to buttress his recent announcement supporting same-sex marriage, the president mentioned Shepard in a campaign video. The president said:
The president and the remarkable woman met in 2009, just as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was becoming law. That federal statute came about largely because Shepard and her husband, Dennis, relentlessly promoted its passage, year after year, often in the face of scornful Republican opposition. The legislation was first introduced in 2001. It died in the 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses before finally passing through a Democrat-controlled House and Senate.
What President George W. Bush had consistently refused to do on gay rights Obama quickly did. So it’s natural and unsurprising that the president today would specifically mention Judy Shepard. She has been a tireless tribune for tolerance — a worthy symbol of what America has done well since 1998 to combat anti-gay prejudice and violence. Her story, that of a grieving parent trying to bring some good to something so bad, is a universal one; heartbreaking and ennobling at the same time.
…
Isn’t that where that gay kid, Mathew Shepard, was murdered, pretty much just for being gay?
Sorry it took so long for me to get to this (busy day at work), but yes. And oddly enough, I’m friends with a guy who worked for a while with one of them.
Repeatedly, you seem to call anyone who expresses any opinion different than the one you hold as troll.
Repeatedly, you seem to call anyone who expresses any opinion different than the one you hold as troll.
+1
Believe it or not, folks can have a different opinion than you, PB, and can hold it honestly and it can be a valid POV. They don’t have to be a paid shill.
Hey drumminj-
Firefox automatically updated the other day and it seems that the Joshua Tree extension isn’t filtering out like it was before the update.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
I have. And drumminj fixed the problem. See if the latest update at:
http://mysite.verizon.net/drumminj_tx/joshuatree.html
will work for you.
http://mysite.verizon.net/drumminj_tx/joshuatree.html
That site is dead.
I have an updated version that works. I forgot to add it to google docs, but will. Link to follow….
Firefox automatically updated the other day and it seems that the Joshua Tree extension isn’t filtering out like it was before the update.
New version here(2.1):
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0QMI_-Iy8pod25GTjYwRTFZNlU
I’ve been using it a while, as have been a few guinea pigs here on the blog (thanks Carl and AZ Slim). Let me know if you have any problems.
See if the latest update at:
Hilarious. Frontier bought up Verizon’s network, and apparently cloned the websites. Verizon never deleted that one, though Frontier deleted theirs…I’ll have to see if I can still upload files there..
“Believe it or not, folks can have a different opinion than you, PB, and can hold it honestly and it can be a valid POV.”
I never suggested otherwise.
But any fool can tell when certain posters spew a nonsensical, off-topic Repugnican propaganda message 24/7 — can’t they?! My sincere apologies to anyone who disagrees…
“Was that meant to change the subject, which was, how many posters here are getting paid to post Republican propaganda, rather than sincerely sharing what is on their minds?”
I don’t know how you go about proving that someone is getting paid to post here, that’s kind of a silly accusation. There seems to be a pretty good cross section of thought on this board. It would be extremely boring to read only one point of view with posters gleefully cheering for each other and piling on.
“I don’t know how you go about proving that someone is getting paid to post here,…”
I wasn’t hoping to ‘prove’ anything about why people post here. Rather, I was rather optimistically expecting any paid political hacks would first offer a confession, then politely cease and desist from posting here.
“… that’s kind of a silly accusation.”
We are all entitled to our opinions, but I don’t think my ‘accusation’ is silly at all, or I wouldn’t have made it. If some posters are trying to make sense of top-down manipulation of the housing market or banking system while others are paid political hacks doing their best to disrupt the flow of information, there is an obvious problem with the latter group’s presence.
Yeah, the political stuff is a bit too much any more, I am guilty of a few barbs here and there, but you are correct the housing market manipulation should be first and foremost.
How many in private industry browse the internet? I work for the government and I don’t dare browse or post on-line. It’s somewhat restricted and monitored.
“Ben Jones: ‘In 2005-06, I’d get emails from people who worked in the defense dept. saying they couldn’t access the HBB at the Pentagon. When I changed to the current web host, they figured out what had been done and fixed it.’ ”
Is it safe to assume your duty station is not the Pentagon?
Now I troll for paid hacks of the NAR variety on a number of sites. There is common political and ideological theme linking all the sites I frequent. I should be more accurate and call it an underlying economic theme that is inflationary in nature(it’s ok to borrower yourself into slavery and if you don’t, you’ll be left behind as a complete loser) Once you push back on it, I’m attacked with the typical mindless political droning. The people behind the theme are there and post daily, 7 days a week.
In 2005-06, I’d get emails from people who worked in the defense dept. saying they couldn’t access the HBB at the Pentagon. When I changed to the current web host, they figured out what had been done and fixed it. I always wondered why on earth they had bothered.
In other news:
By Robert Frank | CNBC
‘All of a sudden, high-end real estate prices in Miami are breaking records. There was the $25 million condo sale last month, which marked the highest price ever paid for a condo in Miami-Dade County. There was the mansion on Indian Creek Drive that is reported to be in contract for $52 million, which would also smash pre-recession records for the area. The whopper of them all: The owner of Casa Casuarina, formerly known as the Versace mansion, has listed the property for $125 million.’
‘Miami real-estate agents are hyping the market with a level of heavy-breathing not seen since 2006. Prices can only go up, they say.’
‘But a closer look suggests that the Miami boom is displaying some bubble-like tendencies. While it’s not likely to crash anytime soon, the market is being driven by an especially speculative species of wealthy buyer.’
‘The lion’s share of Miami’s high-end real estate is now bought by foreigners. In 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors, Florida accounted for more than a quarter of the $82 billion in sales to international buyers. The average price paid by those buyers was $400,000, against an overall U.S. average of $212,000.’
‘Real-estate economists and brokers say most of the foreigner investors are rich families from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Russia.’
At least the some in the media can spot trouble in the hoopla.
‘Real-estate economists and brokers say most of the foreigner investors are rich families from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Russia.’
Are these wealthy folks trying to escape from their home countries to set up new lives here? Or would these be ‘vacation home purchases’ or ‘investment homes’ for people with megamillions to spare?
Are these wealthy folks trying to escape from their home countries to set up new lives here? Or would these be ‘vacation home purchases’ or ‘investment homes’ for people with megamillions to spare?
Judging from the wealthy Mexicans I know, it’s a bit of both.
Agree. It’s a vacation home now, but serves as a nice fallback should the biofuel hit the wind turbine in the patria.
Some are more subtle than others..
“This is evil. It is legal, but it shouldn’t be. Medicaid is not a program to allow middle class home owners to leave houses to their children. You want dad’s house? Move in and take care of him”
Apparently the “rule of evil” doesn’t apply to the well-heeled:
“Even is something is illegal, it is often outrageously difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
Since the people running the banks have a lot of money, they can often get the laws fixed so they never have to violate them to do something evil.”
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=6365
At least in China they have the dignity to flee from their debts. In the US we have to pry ‘em out of their debt mansions.
Angry Bagmaker Shows China Slowdown Worst in Wenzhou
Jiang Xiangsong has 18 days to pay a 2 million yuan ($314,000) bank debt or his suitcase company in eastern China will go bankrupt. He’s close to tears as he realizes his last hope, a government-backed office, won’t help.
“This is totally useless: If I had any collateral, why the hell would I come here?” he yells at an official in Wenzhou’s state-run loan service, set up to help small businesses after rising bankruptcies and suicides prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to visit in October and pledge support.
Wenzhou had the worst non-performing loan ratio among the 21 cities tracked by Shenzhen Development Bank Co. (000001) last quarter. About 60 business owners fled the city in the first two months of the year to avoid paying their debts, China Business News reported.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-12/angry-bagmaker-shows-china-slowdown-worst-in-wenzhou.html
Yesterday someone asked how far off peak that prices were. I did a quick check. In general, prices are 35%-40% off peak, and that seems to apply across the board regardless of house type or location. If it’s 30% off peak it sits, if it’s 40% off peak it sells fast.
Re yesterday posting by Ben: “Homebuyers in Somerset County and other targeted areas of the state will be able to take advantage of lower interest rates in the Maryland Mortgage Program, devised as a way to stimulate the housing market…st rate to 2.875 percent. ‘It’s to assist people to get back into home ownership,’/“‘That’s awesome,’ said Cindy Stevens, owner of Wilson Realty in Crisfield. ‘That will help us quite a bit.’ Lower interest rates could help sellers, too, by driving up prices and increasing demand, Stevens said.”
Great idea, lower interest rates so people can afford their housing and have disposable income. Then along comes brain dead Cindy not realizing that higher house pricing for the buyer removes disposable income over into the debt servicing column (no job creation here) while the return to higher interest rates with put the buyer underwater at the point of sale.
Something somewhere needs to trigger a stop to this global runaway banking fiasco.
‘a stop to this global runaway banking fiasco’
The banks aren’t what’s primarily fueling this thing in the US right now; it’s the govt. But the article with thousands of UHS descending on Washington, then bragging about all the money they are making should raise eyebrows. And it raises the question; where are all the wall street bashers now that the government is doing exactly what WS did? And using public funds to do it!
“where are all the wall street bashers now that the government is doing exactly what WS did? And using public funds to do it!”
Excellent question.
Not necessarily. If the interest rate is low enough and the mortgage is a fixed payment, then Cindy’s PITI should be the same — more P, less I — and disposable income is about the same.
I do agree that if interest rates go up, then it will be tough for Cindy to sell the house for what she paid for it, since the buyer would have more P and more I to pay. So yes, the balance between P and I is a valid reason to hold off on buying, IF you think interest rates will go up and prices will tank in response.
“If the interest rate is low enough and the mortgage is a fixed payment,”
That isn’t how mortgages work.
To clarify, I meant that if the interest rate is fixed, then the mortgage payment is fixed for the next 30 years. [I'm leaving out taxes and ins.] Where did I go wrong?
The payment is determined by the amount of the loan and the interest rate and the term.
You don’t walk into a bank and say, “I want to pay $1000 a month” and they figure out your term based on what the interest rates are and the amount you are borrowing.
You don’t walk into a bank and say, “I want to pay $1000 a month” and they figure out your term based on what the interest rates are and the amount you are borrowing.
Why not? They do this at car dealerships all the time. You can choose any length of loan (3-6 years), change the down payment, maybe a little leeway on the interest rates, or even lease the car, to produce any howmuchamonth you want.
And you can do it with mortgages too. You can negotiate the price, use various flavors of I/Os neg-ams, down payments, grace period length, closing assistance, etc. You can choose a price and fix the terms to any desired howmuchamonth (within reason). Of course, it’s foolhardy to do this for adjustable rates or deferred principle — as we saw in spades over the past few years.
With a safer fully amorzied 30-year fixed rate mortgage, you can still choose your price to match your desired PITI. When I was looking to buy, I took my current rent, used Zillow to figure out which house price would give me a PITI that was equal to my rent, and looked for houses somewhat below that price range. Yes, that makes me a Harryhowmuchamonth, but isn’t every renter a Harryhowmuchamonth?
As for the example of Cindy, let’s say she has $1000/month to spend. Based on 4% interest rates, she buys a $200K house. What if rates go to 7%? The next buyer, with the same $1000 PITI, will calculate his price, but based on 7%. His price will much less than $200K. Hence, Cindy will not be able to sell to this guy for $200K. She will need to find a person to buy the same house with a higher PITI.
That’s why house prices go down when interest rates go up.
” That’s why house prices go down when interest rates go up”
It didn’t work that way in the 80’s and hasn’t worked that way the last 5 years. Supply and demand, not interest rates.
Now you are talking about changing the price. That isn’t what I got from your original post.
And deciding what to pay for a particular house based on what you can afford to pay each month and working backwrds is a good way to over pay. You can use that to decide the maximum amount you can afford to spend, but that doesn’t mean any particular house you are looking at is worth that maximum amount.
I think that you would find most banks would have a heart attack if you demanded a mortgage with a term of 23 years and 7 months. They have standard products they offer, 30 years and 15 years being the most common. They are going to have a much harder time selling the note if it doesn’t fall within standard terms.
‘” That’s why house prices go down when interest rates go up”
It didn’t work that way in the 80’s and hasn’t worked that way the last 5 years. Supply and demand, not interest rates.’
Really? Because I recall numerous posts by Mr. Ben Jones expounding on the mid-1980s Texas real estate depression. Don’t really have much evidence on other parts of the U.S.
“Supply and demand, not interest rates.”
For the same monthly payment, a higher interest rate reduces demand, as the more of the monthly payment goes to the bank, the less is available to apply to the purchase price.
Examples (MS Excel formulas shown in context):
Assumed payment = $2000
Interest Rate = 3.375%
Term = 30 years
Loan proceeds = PV(2000/12,.03375*12,-2000) = $452,390.22
Assumed payment = $2000
Interest Rate = 4.375%
Term = 30 years
Loan proceeds = $400,572.61
PV(2000/12,.04375*12,-2000)
Assumed payment = $2000
Interest Rate = 5.375%
Term = 30 years
Loan proceeds = $357,161.20
PV(2000/12,.05375*12,-2000)
Assumed payment = $2000
Interest Rate = 6.375%
Term = 30 years
Loan proceeds = $320,579.66
PV(2000/12,.06375*12,-2000)
So you can see how a return from the current extraordinarily low 30-yr mortgage rates around 3.375% up to a more normal level of 6.375% would reduce the amount of 30-year loan proceeds that could be applied to a home purchase (before considering closing costs) would drop from around $450K to circa $320K. Absent a large offsetting increase in incomes, this hypothesized rate increase would represent a sizable drop in aggregate housing demand.
Hence the suggestion that supply and demand operate independently of interest rates is patently false.
“I think that you would find most banks would have a heart attack if you demanded a mortgage with a term of 23 years and 7 months.”
Polly — Your point is taken, which is that in a world of banking oligopoly and excessive regulatory constraint, there is little chance of a borrower being able to find a bank willing to offer a boutique product customized to his preferred term of amortization. That said, in the computer age, there really is no reason that lenders should not be able to tailor their loan products to a customer’s specifications, right down to the duration, repayment pattern, and interest rate necessary to underwrite the implied risk. Problem is, the private lending market is pretty much FUBAR in the wake of the subprime implosion, and Megabank, Inc doesn’t really do customized customer service.
But a buyer nonetheless has recourse to figure out an affordable monthly payment, given household budget priorities, choose a loan term (15yrs, 30yrs, etc), determine a purchase budget constraint, factoring in downpayment and current interest rates, then go shopping for homes that fall within this budget limit.
The idea behind the low interest rate was to put a person in the house at a current low purchase price, but Cindy would like to see the purchase price elevate. If you can’t buy now because of the current interest rates, how is lowering the interest rate and raising the purchase price going to help the low income purchaser buy and do nothing but service debt?
OK, I was confused by the “debt service” column. At first I thought you meant they were paying more interest. But nope, debt service includes servicing principle too.
“The vote was unanimous. If your lawns aren’t mowed, if dumpsters are full, gutters are broken, shopping carts are unattended, windows and doors are boarded banks or homeowners face: $250-$1,000 fine for the first offense, $2,500 plus up to 10 days in jail for the second and $10,000 and 15 jail days for the third.” WCDS NY
Unbelievable? I think I’ll spike my morning java and move on.
I would love to see them put a banker in jail.
Future outlook for twenty-somethings: High student debt burden, dismal job prospects.
Average cost of four-year university up 15%
By Christine Armario, Associated Press
Updated 12m ago
When those college tuition bills come in, be prepared for sticker shock.
Barnard College graduates at commencement on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, May 14, 2012. By Richard Drew, AP
The average tuition at a four-year public university climbed 15% between 2008 and 2010, fueled by state budget cuts for higher education and increases of 40% and more at universities in states like Georgia, Arizona and California.
The U.S. Department of Education’s annual look at college affordability also found significant price increases at the nation’s private universities, including at for-profit institutions, where the net price for some schools is now twice as high as Harvard.
At Full Sail University, a film and art school in central Florida, the average price of tuition, fees, books, and other expenses totals $43,990, even when grants and scholarships are factored in. The average net price for an incoming Harvard student: $18,277, according to the department. Net price is cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said students need to be smart consumers and states needs to do their part by making higher education a priority in their budgets. Forty percent of states cut higher education spending last year, the most important factor in tuition increases.
“As a nation, we need more college graduates in order to stay competitive in the global economy,” Duncan said. “But if the costs keep on rising, especially at a time when family incomes are hurting, college will become increasingly unaffordable for the middle class.”
…
We feel fortunate that tuition for our kids at U Northern Colorado is a $5000 a year. Of course, not too many years ago it would have been $2000.
Bust the trusts, and TBTF will be history…
Dimon and breakup debate
Lawmakers are set to grill CEO Jamie Dimon over how J.P. Morgan Chase was able to retain trading losses of more than $2 billion, against a backdrop in which Washington continues to actively debate whether the nation’s biggest banks should be broken up.
From the WSJ - Children of Immigrants Lag Behind, Posing Risk for Economy:
“Many of the parents are Hispanic and speak little or no English. And though the story of the U.S. is one of immigrants whose children assimilate, some researchers worry about the prospects for this generation. Their performance, they say, could undermine the U.S. economy as the children grow up, affecting everything from medical services for baby boomers to home prices.
Starting in the 1980’s, immigration from Latin America and Asia surged. Now, a quarter of all children in the U.S. have at least one foreign born parent. Ninety percent of those 18 million children are U.S. citizens who will begin to reach adulthood next year.
Children of immigrants are almost twice as likely as children with U.S. born parents not to be covered by health insurance … nearly a third live in poverty … and a quarter drop out of high school.
Educational attainment among Hispanics is a particular concern. Children with origins in Mexico and Central America are least likely of any group to finish school … More than a third of Hispanic fourth graders were identified by their schools as English language learners … By the time they are in middle school, English language learners tend to show the poorest performance in math and reading of all groups.
About 82% of children of South Asians and and 55% of children of East Asians had earned college degrees … In 2010, children with parents from South Asia, mainly India, were in families with a median income of $98,000, while East Asian families, including South Korea and China, earned a median of $86,000. In contrast, children of Mexican and Central American immigrant parents were in households with a median income of $31,400″
Educational attainment among Hispanics is a particular concern. Children with origins in Mexico and Central America are least likely of any group to finish school
Because unlike with Asia, we are importing Latin America’s underclass to mow our lawns, scrub our toilets, pick our vegetables and buss our tables.
Consider South Federal Blvd (my daily commute) in Denver between about Evans and Alameda as a good illustration of this. Large immigrant population from East Asia (mostly Vietnam) and Mexico and Central America, both are poor, but the East Asians are more likely to emerge from Lucky Ducky status by the 2nd generation…
But are the Vietnamese from the bottom of the barrel where they came from? They might be poor because they left with little more than the shirts on their backs, but they probably came from a socio economic segment that values education, unlike most illegals.
Just for starters, the Vietnamese immigrants are not illegals, are they? The probably came to the US with more than a 2nd grade education (you’d be surprised how many illegals are functionally illiterate in their native language). The illegals come out of a socio economic structure that does not value education, so they don’t pursue it.
The bottom line is that Mexico and Central America use us as an escape valve to rid itself of its dregs.
Most immigration to the US fits the ‘escape valve’ template, not just LAm. For most Americans with European ancestry, did those forebears come here because life was going so well in Ireland/Germany/Slovakia/Italy, etc? Mine sure didn’t. They came here because their lives were going nowhere fast in those places with little hope for a turnaround. Sure, there are always some exceptions, but in general folks came here because they had few or no good options in their homeland.
I honestly don’t know whether formal education was so much more valued in many of the aforementioned countries compared to LAm because I’m not a sociologist and my frame of reference is basically what some elderly and now nearly all deceased relatives have told me about my origins. I get the sense that verrrry few people outside the aristocracy had any kind of education beyond a rudimentary reading and math level when they left.
South Asian immigration to the US interestingly and possibly uniquely differs from this template since many who came here occupied the higher strata of their society. The Indians and Pakistanis who are here are mostly descended from winners over there, or were themselves doing (relatively) well before they arrived. Don’y know why it turned out that way although I suspect the relative ease of making it to the US selects for a different class of immigrant than coming from 7 thousand miles away.
For most Americans with European ancestry, did those forebears come here because life was going so well in Ireland/Germany/Slovakia/Italy, etc? Mine sure didn’t.
Same here.
“….functionally illiterate in their native language……”
Need proof? Go visit your local high school. All of the “Spanish” classes are filled with the kids of illegals.
Saw this at my oldest daughter’s high school 12 years ago. Uncle Sugar teaching Mexicans how to speak and write Spanish.
Another example of privatized gains (cheap illegal labor for Bidness) and socialized losses (spending taxpayer money to teach Mexicans Spanish).
“Need proof? Go visit your local high school. All of the “Spanish” classes are filled with the kids of illegals”
For some, it is an easy A. For others, it is a means of learning formal Spanish. All of the English speaking kids take English.
Political stunt to amend (or clarify) the 14th amendment. If I thought they were the least bit sincere, I’d approve.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/birthright-citizenship-14th-amendment-republican-senators-explore-change/story?id=11313973
Given the current state of polarization, I wonder if there will ever be another constitutional amendment.
In 2010, children with parents from South Asia, mainly India, were in families with a median income of $98,000
Hindus, another soon to be powerful minority after the Jews and the Mormons.
Many are Muslims too.
And, from what I was surprised to learn, more than a few are Christians too (the so called “Thomas Christians”), plus there is a fair share of agnostics.
Those with median income of 98000, 90% of them are Hindus.
So what will the “Hindu Lobby” campaign for? More H1-B visas?
You know it. May be they will need us drop more bombs and drones in Pokistan?
H1-B visas are all used up for next year already. 85,000.
This must mean the Great Recession is over.
Educational attainment among Hispanics is a particular concern. Children with origins in Mexico and Central America are least likely of any group to finish school …
Tell me about it. Kid next door parted company with school a few months after I moved into the Arizona Slim Ranch. That puts the bailing on school back in 2005.
If what the family told me about her age in 2009 is correct — they said that she was 15 — then she would have been a non-school student at the age of 11.
Other than having to go to school while she was on probation in 2008, she hasn’t gone near formal education. Sitting at home in her bedroom and listening to (c)rap on the stereo is much more important. So is running the streets with the homies all night.
We neighbors have been concerned about this situation for years. But since she’s had the appearance of someone who’s older than she actually is, no one called the truant officer.
We should have.
Ok - so it is Ted Nugent. Still very good points.
——————————
READY TO ROLL OVER TEAM OBAMA
The Washington Times ^ | June 11, 2012 | Ted Nugent
I recently had a nice conversation with my friend, ultra-left-wing comedian Bill Maher. He wants me back on his television program to explain why I am so angry with the Obama administration’s policies.
His over-the-top left-wing agenda has led to the rebirth and dramatic upkick of the dreaded and totally unnecessary, self-inflicted Misery Index. The underemployment rate is near 20 percent. Arguably, the president’s economy is the worst since the Great Depression. I know many of us are greatly depressed by it.
Gas prices have also doubled since the president took office. Green energy has been a tax-torching bust. In 2008, Mr. Obama stated his green energy policy would create 5 million jobs. Instead, his green energy lie has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of wasted dollars and created virtually zero jobs.
Mr. Obama’s maniacal orgy of borrowing and spending is unprecedented and is bankrupting the country. By the way, where did the $831 billion failed stimulus go and who got it? The president stated it would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent and create millions of jobs. Not even close.
While not all the responsibility for this economic train wreck rests solely on this president’s shoulders, the national debt surpassed 100 percent of our gross national product on his watch and stands at 16 trillion smackers. Seven trillion of this debt is due to Mr. Obama’s berserk, unaccountable spending spree. Given four more years to drive our economy off the cliff, the national debt will probably surpass $20 trillion by most estimates. Welfare advocates Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven taught you well, Mr. President.
The president promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Deficit spending during the president’s tenure has gone way up, not down. Promises, promises, promises.
Obamacare is an unprecedented and illegal government takeover of a significant part of the U.S. economy that will not improve health care or lower the costs. In fact, the opposite is already proving to be true.
The president is a radically racial polarizing person. As I recall, he was supposed to be the great uniter when instead he has been the worst racial divider ever in the White House.
Mr. Obama has appointed a number of extreme liberal kooks as czars. Additionally, I can’t find anyone on his Cabinet who has any private-sector experience, including his secretary of labor. They are all either professional bureaucrats or lawyers or both.
“Mr. Obama has appointed a number of extreme liberal kooks as czars. Additionally, I can’t find anyone on his Cabinet who has any private-sector experience, including his secretary of labor. They are all either professional bureaucrats or lawyers or both.”
Yeah but as we all know the smartest people in the world work for the govt. So if you want smart people in your cabinet they have to be govt workers. That’s why I fear a Romney presidency. He’s do something stupid like hire people who have run businesses before to serve in his cabinet. And some of them might even not have a Harvard law degree. Now that’s downright freaking scary!
I thought that the smartest guys in the room were the MBAs.
I thought that the smartest guys in the room were the MBAs. (I just threw up in my mouth a little — fixed).
Didn’t the Sec of Treas Geithnor work for Wall Stree and the Sec of Energy Chu run Bell Labs?
Geithner never worked for a Wall Street bank. He worked for the NY Fed.
On the other hand, I believe Mitt Romney has a law degree from Harvard.
Not a word about indefinite detention, killing citizens with no trial. Just blah blah about debt and Obamacare. Hey Ted, did you know Romney wrote the framework for the health care bill? What about the ‘berserk, unaccountable spending spree’ over at the Pentagon?
I know, I know - etch-a-sketch!
I’ve watched this clown on some reality shows, shooting guns, acting like a child. Why would anyone listen to this fool? I guess he’s just as intellectually significant as Limbaugh or Hannity.
They listen because they have cat scratch fever, buh da buh da!
Their brain is all wango-tangoed baby!
Here’s an appropriate laugh for the day, that I, even as an occasional hunter, enjoy:
The Day Ted Nudget Killed all the Animals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwlnmrgscYI
“Not a word about indefinite detention, killing citizens with no trial. ”
Telling, isn’t it? I guess that part of what he’s doing is A-OK with the neo-cons.
The current Bitch-In-Chief is a carbon copy of the last Bitch-In-Chief. And they both report(ed) to the same masters. They’re basically prison trustees not the warden…. and we are the prison bitches.
Neo-cons? Wow talk about a flashback to 2006.
What term du jour would you prefer? Neo Fascists perhaps?
I am partial to “wing nuts”, it fits in nicely with the fact that the inmates took over the GOP asylum.
What you really mean to say is Jews. That’s what neo-con is code for.
‘That’s what neo-con is code for.’
I think those are your words. What’s that term you like; straw man? Is Lindsay Graham a Jew, or John McCain? Or Dick Cheney?
Maybe we can recall how the neo-cons lied us into a war? Defend these murderous scumbags if you will, but race baiting isn’t gonna work on this one.
MOMMY! There’s an anti-semite under the bed and I’m scared!
My favorite scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 is where Paul Wolfowitz licks his comb then combs his hair with it. So classy…
I believed neo-con was coined by Bill Kristol’s father. They were supposed to be former liberals who evolved into taking conservative position while or after Reagan. Just because Kristol was Jew doesn’t mean it was only meant for Jews.
But it is true that After 9/11, any war monger is a neo-con regardless of his or her political ideology or religions.
There are paleo-conservatives and neo-conservatives. When the terms originally became popular - I guess in the late 90s - the neo-conservatives were just those who didn’t have the strongly held racial views. Paleo-conservatives were the old school, defending “White, Christian America” folks. Unapologetically race-conscious. Neo-conservatives dropped the race-conscious element from the platform. And they typically advocated for an aggressive foreign policy.
Neocon did take on a dual meaning in the run-up to the Iraq war. Jewish conservatives were/are very much concerned with Israeli national security issues. Those on the left, who wished to discredit all conservatives, were happy to see any brand of conservative discredited. Paleo-conservatives who wished the undermine the interventionist foreign policy Republicans, happily used the term neocon to describe solely Jewish conservatives. Both sides it seems perceived undue Jewish influence on US foreign policy.
Reality unfortunately for them intrudes. Most of the neocons are evangelicals who are most certainly white and Christian and conservative. And they too are concerned with Israeli security as it is a part of their theology. But they avoid the racial consciousness as part of the platform, as opposed to paleo-conservatives. And there are scores of neocons are are most obviously not Jewish. Like a significant chunk of the Republican party.
Neocon was code in some circles for Jewish conservative. It wasn’t previously to the Iraq war. Today, it seems to me that it once again is reverting back to its original meaning.
‘any war monger is a neo-con’
Obama is a warmonger, IMO.
The real neo-cons want to go to war with Iran.
“What you really mean to say is Jews. That’s what neo-con is code for.”
News to me. I did not know George W. Bush was a Jew. I thought he was the epitomy of a neo-con.
Did someone here say AIPAC?
Eventually, these schmucks will get their war.
‘The real neo-cons want to go to war with Iran’
Or as they said prior to the Iraq invasion, ‘everybody wants to go to Baghdad, real men want to go to Tehran.’
And then there’s ‘the prize’:
‘In summing up the results of this Mideast campaign so far, I am reminded of nothing so much as the remarks of former LaRouche cultist-turned-neocon Laurent Murawiec, delivered to Bush’s Defense Policy Board in the summer of 2002. Among other seemingly fantastical propositions in his PowerPoint presentation, Murawiec projected the possibility of a US takeover of the Saudi oil fields, and – in a section devoted to “A Grandiose Strategy” – averred:
Iraq is the tactical pivot
Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot
Egypt the prize
The text of Murawiec’s 76-page speech wasn’t uncovered until recently, and the mystery about the exact meaning of “Egypt the prize” has been cleared up. Here is what Murawiec had to say about the future of Egypt:
“Mubarak’s ability to gyrate with the prevailing winds offers us the temptation of relying on his opportunism: why not let him crack down on the Islamists once we have terminated their power elsewhere, and benightedly allow him to stay in power without policies being changed—isn’t he our friend after all? That would be a sure recipe for disaster. The pivot of the Arab world is the most important one to transform in depth. Iraq may be described as the tactical pivot, the point of entry; Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot; but Egypt, with its mass, its history, its prestige and its potential, is where the future of the Arab world will be decided. Egypt, then, in the new Middle Eastern environment created by our war, can start being reshaped.”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/01/01/egypt-the-prize/
“What you really mean to say is Jews. That’s what neo-con is code for.”
Ignore the Repugnican party operative.
Why would anyone listen to this fool?
Reason #768 of why I quit the GOP and became an independent. The inmates took over the asylum.
That’s an insult to actual clowns! Ted Nugent is in a class by himself. A no-good, gun-crazy, animal-murdering class by himself.
animal-murdering?
Ok - and we are walking, everyone just keep a walking…
The day Ted Nugent killed all the animals!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwlnmrgscYI
I guess he’s a “clown” the way The Joker is a “clown”
His over-the-top left-wing agenda has led to the rebirth and dramatic upkick of the dreaded and totally unnecessary, self-inflicted Misery Index.
If he’s such a leftie, then where’s our national health insurance? And the free birth control, which, BTW, is offered to women of reproductive age in Iran? What about free university education? A lot of European countries offer that?
Or, how about a real public transit system? Haven’t seen one of those sprouting up lately.
No one said he was a very good leftie
From the Washington Post - China seen edging past U.S. as top economic power:
“For the first time, people responding to a global survey are more likely to view China and not the United States as the world’s leading economic power.
America’s economy remains well ahead of its closest rival. But it does highlight China’s steadily rising public image amid rapid growth, as well as the erosion of the United States’ status as the global superpower, especially after the 2008 financial crisis left it struggling with recession and high unemployment.
The polls were nationally representative surveys conducted in March and April by 26,210 telephone or in person interviews in 21 countries, including Brazil, Japan, India, France, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan and the United States.”
I think that this poll is possibly biased by overall international dislike of the US.
Japan, India, and Pakistan probably feel the rising influence of China’s economy on Asia. And in terms of growth, China has outstripped the US for a few years now.
From the Pu$hington Po$t
From the Wall $t Jaundice
The looooong $hadows of Billionaire 1% er’$
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html?ncid=webmail1
“Under the agreement currently being advocated by the Obama administration, American corporations would continue to be subject to domestic laws and regulations on the environment, banking and other issues. But foreign corporations operating within the U.S. would be permitted to appeal key American legal or regulatory rulings to an international tribunal. That international tribunal would be granted the power to overrule American law and impose trade sanctions on the United States for failing to abide by its rulings.”
Bite my arse, Obamney. Eff yer “international tribunals”.
Seriously?
Maybe it’s time to vote third party. Or not at all.
Given the decrepit quality of union run public education, I can’t blame parents for looking into alternatives. But come on people, did you expect anything different from a school run by THE BLUE MAN GROUP? And for the low low price of $32K a year to boot!
____________
“Parents are yanking their kids out of the “progressive,” $32,000 per-year private school founded by the Blue Man Group — which has no books and no tests — because their kids are barely learning to read, The Post has learned.
One mother, who is yanking her son at the end of the school year, complained that the school is “unstructured.” “It’s true,” she said when asked if her kid was struggling to read. In all, she added, four of her son’s first-grade classmates are leaving the Financial District institution.
BUT CAN THEY READ? Parents are pulling kids from the Blue School, founded by the Blue Man Group, over academic woes.
Another parent who dropped her first-grade son off yesterday said he’s not coming back next year — because he’s got nothing to do.
“When a 6-year-old says they’re bored, there’s a problem,” the mother said. “I think they bit off more than they can chew.” Other moms have taken to a popular message board to vent. “It’s all fun and games until you realize your second-grader can’t read,” a parent wrote on Urbanbaby.com.”
While this story is humorous, it does raise the red flag of for profit K-12 education.
FWIW, my kids graduated from a public high school with a mere $7,000 per year per pupil budget (it’s now going down to just above $,6000) and scored in the top 5% of the ACT test, as did about 20% of their graduating classes.
Washington DC has the highest per pupil funding of any large school district in the country. It is also arguably the worst performing school district in the country. Throwing money down the education rathole doesn’t do much…except fatten the wallets of unions who run it.
I wasn’t talking about funding (and I agree that throwing money at a problem won’t necessarily solve it). Just saying that some public schools do alright, even when saddled with budgets that are a fraction of what private schools charge.
New Yorkers turn backflips to keep their kids out of schools with minority-dominated enrollment.
It’s easy to preach about that sort of thing when you live in a state that is close to 100% white and English speaking.
FWIW, Colorado is 20%+ Hispanic.
Many liberals are Racists®. The best anecdote I heard about this that always comes to mind when spending time with the Bobos in Paradise in places like Boulder or Ann Arbor is “a college education gives you the correct attitude about minorities and the means to move away from them.” While the squad favors single-payer universal health care, these are the kind of hypocrites I refer to as bedwetter libtards.
Really? What if the school is is Asians dominated?
You kidding? Asians are the competition.
I wasn’t preaching. On the contrary, I share their concerns.
Good luck w/ that plan going forward.
Census: Minorities Surpass Whites In U.S. Births
by The Associated Press
May 17, 2012
For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing.
New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in the nation’s racial makeup and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S.
…
Here is the beauty of school choice.
You can leave ANYTIME you want and find a better school for your kids.
Right now - we lock kids into failing schools that will never improve, run by public union goons and they have NO way to escape to find a decent education. In essence, they are doomed before they even get to HS.
But it is for the children!
No it ain’t. If it was - none of this would exist.
The teachers in NYC and DC public schools deserve combat pay.
I thought this was interesting. I have talked to people who would like to abolish property taxes because they feel that they don’t truly own their property if the government can take it for non-payment of taxes. I understand where they are coming from, although I worry about how government would replace that income. I was interested to see that conservative North Dakota has some of the same concerns.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018416975_primaries13.html
“Voters in North Dakota on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment to abolish the property tax, turning aside arguments by advocates of the measure who say the tax has proved inconsistent and is in conflict with the basic concept of property ownership.
…
There, a powerful coalition of groups, including business leaders and public workers, strongly opposed the idea and raised significantly more money than the other side to spread a message that ending the property tax would mean chaos, an increase in other taxes and an end to most decision making by local city councils and county boards.
Though the property-tax ban failed, state lawmakers said they had grasped the depth of residents’ frustrations and were all but certain to tackle concerns about unfair property-tax exemptions and rising assessments and tax bills.
I’m glad that North Dakotans were wise enough to realize that the ‘abolish the property tax’ group was really just a push by the 1%ers to take endless control of larger swaths of the state, and not have to return anything to the state.
——————–
don’t truly own their property if the government can take it for non-payment of taxes.
——————–
The government can and does take property via emminent domain, via right of way easements, by allowing nearly unlimited access for game wardens, and can by force if they want to. I don’t see how paying taxes changes that very much at all.
It’s limbo time.
Gas prices in a town near Greenville, SC have broken below $3.00 for regular at every gas station I passed.
How low can they go? The Daily Fuel Gauge Report shows the average over the entire country, and has a map showing each state’s standing (one of five color coded price ranges). Current U.S. average is $3.54 for regular.
http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com/?redirectto=http://fuelgaugereport.opisnet.com/index.asp
Colorado had it pretty good throughout the spring with the cheapest gas in the country, now it’s pretty sticky around $3.65…
Shocked, SHOCKED I tell you. The CFPB from the FIRE sector’s perspective:
Earlier this week I told a group of lenders in Arizona that the stated mission of the CFPB is great from a public relations perspective, but if not controlled can drive our industry into a hole. One person reminded me that, “The good parasite doesn’t kill its host,” not that the CFPB is a parasite - but you get the idea.
Hah! To the parasite, the regulator is the parasite.
[Raj Date of the CFPB] goes on. “Let me give you an example from the mortgage bubble: the yield-spread premium. Too often it was the case that mortgage brokers were paid more to give borrowers a worse deal. If a borrower could qualify for a loan at, say, 6 percent, a broker might juice that rate from 6 percent up to 8 percent. As a result, the most important, most visible person in the mortgage process for many borrowers - the mortgage broker - had a financial stake that was confusingly and perversely in direct opposition to the interest of the consumer himself. If people are paid to treat customers poorly, it shouldn’t be surprising when they do.”
It is rumored that Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals (NAIHP) called Date’s comments “outrageous” and that the NAIHP is calling for Date’s resignation, per MReport. “The banks approved these loans, not the brokers.” While Date speaks of ‘transparency, fairness, and proper financial incentives,’ Savitt believes Date’s bias makes him unfit for his role.”
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/pipelinepress/06132012-fha-streamline-program-wells.aspx
The FIRE sector is entitled to its opinions, certainly. However, it is not entitled to its own facts. Reality will definitely prevail in the long term. I hope it prevails sooner rather than later, for all of our sakes.
What is your preference?
A) Regulate food portions and ban ingredients (with criminal penalties for those who violate the regulations), but decriminalize drug use and allow legal, taxed, competitive production/distribution enterprises to spring up.
B) Continue to criminalize drug use but stop trying to regulate/criminalize what and how much we eat.
C) Criminalize/control both.
D) Criminalize/control neither.
I should have included
E) No changes.
Some ingredients should be banned in food products. I see no benefit from having melamine added to food and a huge danger. Traces of heavy metals in unprocessed fish may be unavoidable, but additives are a different story.
Regulating portion sizes, as NYC has done with soda, is overreach. Requiring large, clear labeling of calories consumed would be a better approach. Or taxing based on portion size could be effective in reducing the perceived bargain of larger portion sizes, although retailers could circumvent that with their pricing structure.
I could see decriminalizing drug use, with taxing its sale and possibly strengthening public intoxication and DUI laws where warranted.
D) Criminalize/control neither.
(Sigh). Another senior moment.
E is the same as C.
Amusing - large conglomerates which came into being in the 90s, after the start of the merger/takeover boom, are claiming they’re much older than they really are.
1) Citigroup claims to be 200 years old.
It’s actually 14 years old.
2) Lockheed Martin claims to be 100 years old.
It’s actually 17 years old.
These companies bought and merged with companies much older. Those companies are now gone and a new corporation exists which is much younger and whose structure is radically different from those previous companies.
That’s like saying if I get married when I’m 30, I’m really only 1 when I turn 31 because I’ve only been married for 1 year.
That’s kind of dumb. The corporation I work for has property, equipment, procedures, buildings, and contracts that are nearly 100 years old even though it is less than 3 years old in it’s current state. If it were truly 3 years old, then i wouldn’t have to be dealing with all the old crap, so it’s 100 years old.
The end game when a government lives beyond its means and goes deep in debt.
Soon to come to America.
——————————-
Greeks are pulling cash out of banks, stocking up on food in panic
Financial Post | 06/13/12 | Dina Kyriakidou and George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS — Greeks pulled their cash out of the banks and stocked up with food ahead of a cliffhanger election on Sunday that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro.
Bankers said up to 800 million euros (US$1 billion) were leaving major banks daily and retailers said some of the money was being used to buy pasta and canned goods, as fears of returning to the drachma were fanned by rumours that a radical leftist leader may win the election.
The last published opinion polls showed the conservative New Democracy party, which backs the 130 billion euro ($160 billion) bailout that is keeping Greece afloat, running neck and neck with the leftist SYRIZA party, which wants to cancel the rescue deal.
Retailers said consumers were stocking up on non-perishable food while almost all other goods were seeing a huge drop in sales as cash-strapped Greeks have no money to spare in the country’s fifth year of recession.
“People are terrified by the prospect of returning to the drachma and some believe it’s good to fill their cupboard with food products,” said Vassilis Korkidis, head of the ESEE retail federation.
“It’s over the top, we must not panic. Filling the cupboard with food doesn’t mean we will escape the crisis,” he said.
Iceland survived. Greece will survive leaving the Euro.
Iceland is doing rather well.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/guess-whos-emerging-from-the-crisis/
I seem to recall bank runs in the 30s in America. Was our government living beyond its means then?
Let’s get back on track now…….(pushing reset button)
Realtors Are Liars®
A Realtor® on bath salts assaulted my 3yo daughter and chewed my face off.
That’s what happens when the system lets special education drop-outs sell houses.
Although this New York Times article sees more government programs/spending as THE answer to the unemployment crisis in America (gee, how predicable), at least even the NYT can understand that there is a crisis.
Obama’s idiotic “the private sector is doing just fine” remark set off a lot more incredulity than anyone realized and will, hopefully, haunt him right through election day.
Obama has never worked a day of his life in the private sector. Never had to make a payroll. Never had to deal with the insane taxes and regulations. He just thinks the private sector is his private playground to tax and regulate how he sees fit.
——————————————————-
The Human Disaster of Unemployment
The New York Times | May 12, 2012 | By DEAN BAKER and KEVIN HASSETT
In 2007, before the Great Recession, people who were looking for work for more than six months — the definition of long-term unemployment — accounted for just 0.8 percent of the labor force. The recession has radically changed this picture. In 2010, the long-term unemployed accounted for 4.2 percent of the work force. That figure would be 50 percent higher if we added the people who gave up looking for work.
While older workers are less likely to be laid off than younger workers, they are about half as likely to be rehired. One result is that older workers have seen the largest proportionate increase in unemployment in this downturn. The number of unemployed people between ages 50 and 65 has more than doubled.
The prospects for the re-employment of older workers deteriorate sharply the longer they are unemployed. A worker between ages 50 and 61 who has been unemployed for 17 months has only about a 9 percent chance of finding a new job in the next three months. A worker who is 62 or older and in the same situation has only about a 6 percent chance. As unemployment increases in duration, these slim chances drop steadily.
Great post. Affirms the sad reality that most people laid off past age 50 have only a Lucky Ducky future to look forward to…
Obama has never worked a day of his life in the private sector.
Not true.
He had private sector jobs in high school and after he graduated from Columbia University. I also believe that his summer internship at a Chicago law firm, where he met Michelle, was a paid position.
“A worker who is 62 or older and in the same situation has only about a 6 percent chance.”
This does not really surprise me. A 62 year old would be expected to retire in a few short years. I am not surprised that a company would not want to hire a full time, permanent worker at that age. 62 year olds should be looking for temp or contract work like BILA. Companies are not so picky about hiring contract workers since they have no long term obligation to them and can let them go without consequences.
I consider that after my late 50s, I am not hirable as a direct employee (with bennies). I do know a tenacious guy in his 70s who drives a Corvette and jets all over the place like me - who is a consultant.
I want to be like him when I am growed up.
Bulletin » Hong Kong stocks open lower, with exporters a weak spot; Hang Seng Index down 0.8%
June 13, 2012, 8:26 a.m. EDT
Stock market is saying ‘Don’t fight the Fed’
Commentary: The news is so bad that it’s good
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Don’t fight the Fed!
That is only way I know of making sense of the stock market’s surprising strength on Tuesday.
After all, the news coming out of Europe was so awful that most observers expected the U.S. stock market to plunge. Investors in effect concluded that this past weekend’s bailout of Spain was woefully inadequate. The credit ratings of more than a dozen Spanish banks were downgraded, and yields on Spanish government bonds spiked upwards to a record high — higher even than where they stood prior to that bailout.
And yet, far from plunging, the U.S. stock market rallied, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA -0.62%) gaining 163 points.
Investors appear to be betting that the Fed and European central banks now have no choice but to stimulate their economies to a much greater extent than previously planned. Since much of that additional liquidity would find its way into equities, the stock market responded favorably.
To put it crudely: The news is so bad it’s good.
…
My personal view for many years has been that Joe Sixpack can no longer service the four major outlays that define middle-class membership:
-housing
-transportation
-health-care
-upper education
Bethany McLean, Author, “All The Devils Are Here”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C8tC_0dsDI
Listen carefully to what she says about HELOCs (fast forward to exactly 37:00 minutes).
Good to see marriage is not one of them…but it is divorce that is expensive. If you are not married you won’t have to be worried about half your assets being confiscated to your ex!
Obama to address doubts over economy, Romney predicts ‘cheap words’
Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:59am EDT
* Setbacks cloud Obama’s re-election prospects
* Obama to accuse Republican of pursuing calamitous agenda
* Democrat faces pressure to reset economic narrative
By Caren Bohan and Laura MacInnis
WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, seeking to counter deep doubts about his economic leadership, will ask voters on Thursday for more time to boost growth while arguing that his Republican rival Mitt Romney would resurrect policies that plunged the United States into crisis.
Obama will use a campaign speech in the battleground state of Ohio to try to bounce back from a series of recent setbacks.
These include an anemic jobs report and a misstep in which he seemed to play down the economy’s woes by saying the private sector was “doing fine.” He later told reporters he did not think the overall economy was fine.
The Democratic president, who risks losing the Nov. 6 election if he cannot convince voters that his economic remedies are working, will take aim at Romney and congressional Republicans, who have rejected his ideas for spurring job growth.
“Governor Romney and his allies in Congress believe that if you simply take away regulations and cut taxes by trillions of dollars, the market will solve all our problems on its own,” an Obama campaign official said.
“The president believes the economy grows not from the top down, but from the middle class up, and he has an economic plan to do that.”
Obama’s approval ratings have slipped to their lowest level since January - from 50 percent a month ago to 47 percent - because of deep economic worries, wiping out most of his lead in the White House race, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday.
The campaign aide said Obama’s remarks for Thursday had been in the works for weeks, with the president trying to reset the election-year narrative as he kicks off an intensive schedule of summer campaigning.
“The more time he spends talking about his vision for how we get out of this morass long term, the better off he is,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a former policy adviser to Obama and President Bill Clinton.
…
Asian Markets Drop On Spain Ratings Cut
Spain’s Debt Stems From Speculative Investments That Imploded In 2008
By Kevin Voigt
CNN
POSTED: 12:15 am EDT June 14, 2012
UPDATED: 12:56 am EDT June 14, 2012
HONG KONG (CNN) — Asian markets opened lower on the news that credit ratings agency Moody’s has cut the rating of Spain to the edge of “junk” status.
All major Asian indices fell in early trade, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.8%, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.7% and Shanghai Composite was down 0.6%.
The Moody’s downgrade was the latest sign that investor mood has not been buoyed by Madrid’s Saturday request for up to ?100 billion ($125 billion) from the European Union to recapitalize its ailing banks. Moody’s cited the bailout request in its downgrade, saying “this will further increase the country’s debt burden, which has risen dramatically since the onset of the financial crisis.”
Moody’s rating for Spain’s government bonds dropped three notches to Baa3 from A3, one step above junk status, which is considered a “highly speculative” investment. Such a move would only add to Spain’s woes, as the pool of eligible investors is reduced. Many institutional investors, such as government pension funds, are forbidden to invest in junk-rated bonds.
Spain also has “very limited financial market access” to attract purchasers of new bond issues to pay for the nation’s mounting debt woes, Moody’s said. The yield on 10-year Spanish bonds rose to 6.83% this week, the highest level since the euro was introduced in 1999, raising the borrowing costs for the world’s 12th largest economy to dangerous levels.
Spain’s debt and banking troubles stem from speculative property investments that imploded with the 2008 credit crisis. Now Spain, going through its second recession since 2009, has an unemployment rate of 25%.
“If you were to see a collapse of the sovereign debt market in Spain and Italy, you are talking about a Europe-wide banking crisis,” Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon and an adviser to the International Monetary Fund, told CNN. “After all the largest banks in France and Germany alone hold $600 billion in Spanish sovereign debt. They hold even more Italian sovereign debt.”
…
Do the Repugnican goons who post here consider the eurozone debt crisis situation that menaces the global economy to somehow reflect Obama’s economic policies?
If so, please enlighten us with how this works. I would like to know exactly what Obama did which you think caused the eurozone to blow up just before the election?
June 13, 2012, 12:08 p.m. EDT
Crisis focus shifts to Italy ahead of key auction
Italy braces for medium- and long-term-debt auctions
By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The traveling euro-zone debt crisis will shift from Spain to Italy on Thursday as Europe’s third-largest economy hosts a key bond auction, hoping to stem fears that it might be the next country to require a bailout.
Pressure has intensified on Italian bonds leading up to the auction of €4.5 billion ($5.62 billion) in medium- and long-term debt as fears have emerged that if Italy were to require a bailout the EU wouldn’t be able to provide one.
“The markets are clearly worried that there are not enough funds in the EU rescue funds to bailout Spain,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director at Spiro Sovereign Strategy. “So if there are not enough funds for a full-blown bailout of Spain, what is likely to happen if Italy experiences a run on its debt?”
…
The eurozone seems to have succumbed this spring to a highly contagious outbreak of bailout fever.
European Shares to Open Lower, Eyes on Italy Bond Auction
Published: Thursday, 14 Jun 2012 | 1:35 AM ET
European shares were called to open lower on Thursday as weaker U.S. economic data and concern ahead of an Italian debt auction showed how little impact a bailout of the Spanish banking system at the weekend had had on the euro zone debt crisis.
Late on Wednesday Moody’s Investors Services downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt by three notches from A 3 to Baa3 - just above junk status. The rating agency also placed the country on review for a possible further downgrade.
The action, which followed a similar move by Fitch last week, came despite the 100 billion euro bailout package agreed on Saturday, with Moody’s actually citing those plans as a source of concern, alongside Spain’s limited access to financial markets and continued weakness in the country’s economy.
Moody’s also cut its credit rating for Cypriot sovereign debt by two notches to Ba3 from Ba1 citing rising risks of a Greek exit from the euro zone and an already strained economic position.
Meanwhile, Italy’s borrowing costs were expected to rise sharply at a bond auction on Thursday as investors, unconvinced by the bailout deal for Spain, turned their attention to the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
Italy’s own economic reforms are showing signs of faltering while it is also trying to fend off market speculation that it may become the next country in the euro zone to need a bailout.
Italy will offer up to 4.5 billion euros in bonds at a smaller-than-average auction.
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Woman Lives In Spacious Brooklyn Loft Rent-Free For Past Six Years
Margaret Maugenest Stopped Paying Rent Over Maintenance, Safety Concerns.
June 8, 2012 7:22 PM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – How would you like to not pay your rent, year after year, and get away with it?
A Brooklyn woman has done just that for the past six years.
Artist Margaret Maugenest, 60, stopped paying rent for several years, but instead of getting evicted, the state’s highest court said she was justified, CBS 2′s John Slattery reported.
“Yeah, I feel very good about that, John. I feel very relieved,” Maugenest told Slattery.
Since 1984, Maugenest has lived in a loft — a converted manufacturing building on Nevins Street in Gowanus – with rent of less than 600 a month.
Several years ago, however, Maugenest began withholding rent because over no maintenance and safety concerns.
“The wooden pillars in the basement were rotting,” Maugenest said.
Under the city’s 1982 Loft Law, former commercial buildings could be rented to residential tenants if safety issues were met. But this tenant says a gas leak in the building wasn’t fixed — it was just shut off.
“We didn’t have gas for about a year-and-a-half,” Maugenest said. “That meant I couldn’t cook.”
She also said she had no hot water.
After six years of non-payment with the landlord trying to evict her, she was forced to pay 2 1/2 years of court-ordered rent. The landlord won two lower rulings, but now, the state’s highest court said that since the landlord missed deadlines for building improvement, there’s no eviction, and back rent can’t be collected.
The landlord’s lawyer, David Berger, counsel for Chazon LLC, citing an overburdened Loft Board, said, “”The result is that the tenant may live rent free in a very large apartment, that she obviously feels safe in, under the guise that she is just trying to get the Landlord to make her apartment safe, with no end or limit.”
Maugenest gets to keep the back rent for the past 6 1/2 years which amounts to roughly $35,000.
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Investors withdraw from US stock funds in May
By MARK JEWELL
BOSTON
Investors continue to be cautious with their money. May was the third consecutive month that they’ve withdrawn more cash from U.S. stock mutual funds than they deposited into them. Bond funds attracted new cash for the ninth month in a row.
Investors withdrew a net $4.8 billion from U.S. stock funds last month, industry consultant Strategic Insight said on Tuesday. Stock funds attracted cash in January and February, but not enough to offset the total that flowed out the past three months. Year-to-date, net withdrawals total $7.4 billion.
Last month’s retreat from stock funds came as major market indexes declined, and the average U.S. stock fund lost 4.2 percent, Strategic Insight said. Investors grappled with the widening debt crisis in Europe, weaker readings about the U.S. economy and Facebook’s disappointing initial public offering.
“U.S. investors’ psyches have been battered with a stream of negative news, whether disappointments in job growth or disappointing progress on the eurozone problems,” said Avi Nachmany, Strategic Insight’s research director. “This has exacerbated the caution that many investors already felt.”
He expects that investors will continue to favor bond funds over stock funds until there’s sustained job growth in the U.S. and progress in resolving Europe’s debt crisis.
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The best time to put more money into stock funds is when the hoards take money out of them!
News Summary: Exit from stock mutual funds in May
The Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, Jun. 12, 2012 - 1:26 pm
CAUTIOUS INVESTING PERSISTS: Investors withdrew $4.8 billion more than they deposited into U.S. stock mutual funds in May, industry consultant Strategic Insight said on Tuesday. It’s the third consecutive month of net withdrawals. Year-to-date, $7.4 billion has been pulled out.
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With so many investors pulling out of U.S. stock funds, what supports the market these days?
U.S. Mutual Funds Had $1.37 Billion Net Redemptions Last Week
By Charles Stein - Jun 13, 2012 10:57 AM PT
U.S. mutual funds saw net redemptions of $1.37 billion last week as investors pulled money out of domestic stock funds.
Funds that invest in U.S. equities saw $3.08 billion in net withdrawals in the week ended June 6, the most of any category, according to an e-mailed statement by the Washington-based Investment Company Institute today. International stock funds attracted $1.35 billion, taxable bond funds won $411 million and municipal bond funds received $1.18 billion.
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Greeks withdraw cash, stock up on canned goods ahead of cliffhanger vote
Published On Wed Jun 13 2012
Dina Kyriakidou and George Georgiopoulos
Reuters
Greece holds general parliamentary elections on June 17. The election poster reads “We open the road to hope.”
PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/REUTERS
ATHENS- Greeks pulled their cash out of the banks and stocked up with food ahead of a cliffhanger election on Sunday that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro.
Bankers said up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) were leaving major banks daily and retailers said some of the money was being used to buy pasta and canned goods, as fears of returning to the drachma were fanned by rumours that a radical leftist leader may win the election.
The last published opinion polls showed the conservative New Democracy party, which backs the 130 billion euro ($160 billion) bailout that is keeping Greece afloat, running neck and neck with the leftist SYRIZA party, which wants to cancel the rescue deal.
As the election approaches, publishing polls is now legally banned and in the ensuing information vacuum, party officials have been leaking contradictory “secret polls.”
On Tuesday, one rumour making the rounds was that SYRIZA was leading by a wide margin.
“This is nonsense,” one reputable Greek pollster said on condition of anonymity. “Our polls show the picture has not changed much since the last polls were published. Parties may be leaking these numbers on purpose to boost their standing.”
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Given the recent overwhelming preponderance of Republican partisan posts here, perhaps this is a fitting time to review the record on one of America’s most ignoble presidencies.
Needless to say, the perpetrator was a Republican.
Nixon’s vice was ‘far worse than we thought,’ write Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, reflecting on ever-expanding knowledge about the Watergate scandal
Published On Wed Jun 13 2012
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
The Washington Post
President Nixon speaking to a White House news conference in March of 1973. Forty years on, an expanding record of documents, transcribed tapes, memoirs and other materials have answered many questions about the Watergate scandal. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974.
CHARLES TASNADI/AP
As Senator Sam Ervin completed his 20-year Senate career in 1974 and issued his final report as chairman of the Senate Watergate committee, he posed the question: “What was Watergate?”
Countless answers have been offered in the 40 years since June 17, 1972, when a team of burglars wearing business suits and rubber gloves was arrested at 2:30 a.m. at the headquarters of the Democratic Party in the Watergate office building in Washington. Four days afterward, the Nixon White House offered its answer: “Certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it was,” press secretary Ronald Ziegler scoffed, dismissing the incident as a “third-rate burglary.”
History proved that it was anything but. Two years later, Richard Nixon would become the first and only U.S. president to resign, his role in the criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice — the Watergate coverup — definitively established.
Another answer has since persisted, often unchallenged: the notion that the coverup was worse than the crime. This idea minimizes the scale and reach of Nixon’s criminal actions.
At its most virulent, Watergate was a brazen and daring assault, led by Nixon himself, against the heart of American democracy: the Constitution, the country’s system of free elections, the rule of law.
Today, much more than when we first covered this story as young Washington Post reporters, an abundant record provides unambiguous answers and evidence about Watergate and its meaning. This record has expanded continuously over the decades. Such documentation makes it possible to trace the president’s personal dominance over a massive campaign of political espionage, sabotage and other illegal activities against his real or perceived opponents.
In the course of his five-and-a-half-year presidency, beginning in 1969, Nixon launched and managed five successive and overlapping wars. All reflected a mind-set and a pattern of behaviour that were uniquely and pervasively Nixon’s: a willingness to disregard the law for political advantage, and a quest for dirt and secrets about his opponents as an organizing principle of his presidency.
Long before the Watergate break-in, gumshoeing, burglary, wiretapping and political sabotage had become a way of life in the Nixon White House.
What was Watergate? It was Nixon’s five wars.
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