Bits Bucket for July 5, 2012
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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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Bank of England’s money printing blamed for pensions ‘meltdown’ as annuity payouts dive 27% in four years
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2168807/QE-blamed-pensions-meltdown-annuity-rates-27-tumble.html#ixzz1zk1dB58Q
Rising numbers of children are going without food due to chaotic parenting, charity warns
One million children don’t know where their next meal will come from
Some children getting just ten meals a week
Undernourished children are at risk of slow growth
By Laura Clark
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168982/Rising-numbers-children-going-food-chaotic-parenting.html#ixzz1zk1kgE5Q
These two articles beg two questions that have been exercising what little brain I have (I am a Frankie of very little brain and yes I do look like Winnie the Pooh)
1) Are future pensioners throughout the Western world being thrown under the bus to keep the financial markets and what’s left of the economy functioning?
2) Are food price rises dragging the lower paid amongst us back into real rather than relative poverty?
“1. Are future pensioners throughout the Western world being thrown under the bus to keep the financial markets and what’s left of the economy functioning?”
IMO they are being thrown under the bus because there is a shortage of money. Lots of promises were made but little money was put away to back up these promises.
Not all that complicated, IMHO.
There is NO shortage of money, only a (contrived) shortage of ever higher profits.
“There is NO shortage of money …”
Good to hear. Problem is solved. Say goodby to thousands of payday loan stores and those numerous loan ads you see on TV.
That’s not a shortage of money, that’s concentration of wealth.
There is NO shortage of money, only a (contrived) shortage of ever higher profits.
Wealth concentration is a bitch.
People complain that there is a shortage on fresh water in the Southwest.
By some people’s logic how can there be a shortage of fresh water when the Great Lakes is full of the stuff?
“You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”
People complain that there is a shortage on fresh water in the Southwest.
By some people’s logic how can there be a shortage of fresh water when the Great Lakes is full of the stuff?
Keep your dry desert hands off my Great Lakes, varmints! Seriously, it will not surprise me when the war over water begins. Or maybe it will take the form of a stealth pipeline siphoning off lake water in “There Will Be Blood” fashion. “I drink your milkshake”.
People keep telling me to go to where the jobs are.
Well, I’m sitting on all this water. Maybe you job-full guys need to come here where all the water is.
We can’t just ship out the GL water. The water is controlled by international treaty. Yes Americans, you don’t own all that water. Canada shares it. And Canada has expressly said it’s not going to allow us to ship all that water to the morons who live in the western area (i.e. deserts) of the USA. Effectively, GL water can’t legally leave its watershed unless it flows out via the St Lawrence.
The GLs also serve a lot of commerce via shipping, but it doesn’t take a lot of water loss to endanger that shipping, since the Lakes are joined by channels which are sensitive to water levels. Piping out water from the Lakes to feed the millions of morons in the western USA would drop levels so much that commerce between the Lakes would cease. The channels between them would turn into waterfalls. A massive set of canals and locks would need to be built. Nobody’s up to that.
The good news would be all those invasive species would quit getting free rides, if the Great Lakes shipping stopped.
Invasive species. Free market created problem, government/taxpayers get the bill to fix/mediate/control.
Looks like ANOTHER government subsidy of business to me…….
If we were to intentionally stage the flow from one lake to the next from North to South, the available hydro-power would solve the power issue forever.
Effectively, GL water can’t legally leave its watershed unless it flows out via the St Lawrence.
Since when have we let a little thing like international law get in the way of our interests?
It’s actually a bit more complicated.
When there is a shortage of money, either explicit decisions can be made regarding who gets stiffed, or else the printing press technology can be used to make implicit decisions. The latter approach tends to be more politically viable, but makes it more difficult to control who comes up short.
They really, really should not have included a picture of the founder of Kids Company, the charity that feeds the kids.
A ha, the comments say that Camila looks like she does because of a thyroid condition. Still, it probably would have been better to leave out the pic.
An un-or poorly treated thyroid condition.
‘hey really, really should not have included a picture of the founder of Kids Company’
chortle
3) Are those trick questions?
First rule of liberal journalism and liberal lawmakers.
It is for the children.
Children are starving.
That is why we need to raise taxes and grow government…
Just send them all back to Somalia, or the Caribbean, or wherever they came from. Problem solved!
The terrible irony now being: the growth of government is what’s leading children to be endangered in the United States. Too much of the GDP is being gobbled up by government, starving out the private sector which provides jobs. Too much govt debt now sits like an massive iron plate on the economy.
Did you know they used to torture people that way? They’d tie them down on the ground or on a stout table, and keep loading iron plates on top of them until they were crushed to death. Great fun… for the loaders, which in this case is the government and all its vassals (contractors, welfare recipients, union scum, etc.). You can figure out who’s the loadee in this model: people like you and me. And the rich, who having collected the most capital gains and the most income, pay the most in taxes. Even the rich are strapped to that table, in this sense.
“….rich strapped to the table…..”
BS. The rich pay people to have the plates stacked on other people.
X-GSfixr, the rich are still taxpayers. Clear fact.
The rich have gazillions of loopholes to avoid taxes.
When the rich pay a higher percentage of their total income in taxes than the middle income, get back to me.
and keep loading iron plates on top of them until they were crushed to death.
Iron plates? That’s the high-tech way to get crushed!
Well before they had iron plates, they used big stones for the same purpose…
The use of the word “chaotic” parenting is unusual. Is this a common usage in the UK? From the article comments, it sounds as if the parents are receiving government money, but using the money for goodies instead of feeding their children. I guess that would explain “chaotic.” Apparently there is no dedicated food stamp program like there is in the US either. (?)
Oxide
The UK doesn’t provide food stamps or any other type of cashless voucher, only cash for all government benefits. Even the so called Housing Benefit is often paid directly to the tenant. It isn’t unknown for the Landlord not to receive the money; as the tenant disappears into the far distance with the “Housing Benefit” and what ever else they can strip from the house.
Perhaps this quote best sums up the difference between us
“England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”
― George Bernard Shaw
Although if you want to see archaic English at it’s best you could do worse than peruse the Indian English press.
Although if you want to see archaic English at it’s best you could do worse than peruse the Indian English press.
And I read somewhere that best English literature are taught not in England or US but in India.
Good god, that should be the first law of charity — never give them cash, always give them actual stuff.
Until computers and debit cards, food stamps were physical slips of paper. It was common from someone to get his food stamps and then immediately sell them on the street for cash less than face value. It’s better now.
It’s a benefit not charity; most people would look on it as an entitlement. I feel rather sorry for those that rely on benefits; they’ll soon be replaced by charity.
I guess I should have said “benefit” and not charity, but the idea is the same. While I don’t begrudge modest benefits for citizenry, IMO they shouldn’t just receive cash willy-nilly to buy whatever they want while the kids get crap nutrition.
“chaotic parenting” is just more euphemism.
I see it happening on either side of me. Reminds me of that bumper sticker: Stupid People Shouldn’t Breed.
Isn’t it SOP for central banks to pass the costs of economic crises on to pensioners and owners of fixed-income securities, through trying to print away the problem?
Are future pensioners throughout the Western world being thrown under the bus to keep the financial markets and what’s left of the economy functioning?
Yes.
Pensions were an unsustainable invention. The temporary empowerment of the worker in the 20th Century West laid on another layer of instability. And then the public unions grew the problem until it became explosively unstable.
No economy can run when the majority just sits and collects off the minority.
Now, to fix all this, pensions need to be destroyed. The very idea of a pension needs to be obliterated. We need to get back to the most basic of things from which all stability flows:
1. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
2. You have to capitalize yourself; that means saving money.
3. The government isn’t your parent, sibling, mate or banker.
2. You have to capitalize yourself; that means saving money.
I think “they” have come to depend on the economic effects of that money being spent instead of saved. Be careful what you wish for.
1. Hard to work, when there aren’t any jobs. After all, you don’t “own” your job. It’s a commodity.
(And no, it’s not a job if it pays $8/hour, but you incure $8 in costs just to get there)
2. See #1.
3. But they can be “partners” with business. Maybe they should be required to take out “Wedding Licenses”
Yeah, never mind. Work ’til you die. No safety net for old people. What a ridiculous idea, making sure that just because you are too old to work that you should have shelter and food.
X-GSfixr said: “Hard to work, when there aren’t any jobs.”
Well, you should have seen all this coming, and ended up without debts and mortgages and all that jazz, to prepare for the new order. Really, any fool with half a brain and one eye open could have seen the result of globalism.* Blue collar workers knew this had to happen; they watched enough of their jobs become lost permanently since the 1980s.
Did you think that some legislative action was going to overturn economics? Private property? Sorry, that’s delusional.
Americans went on a spending spree, fueled by borrowing. There were always responsible for that. Nobody forced them to borrow and spend.
* Not to mention the realities of petroleum depletion. The entire world economy had to take a permanent nose dive eventually. The post-oil world will look exactly like the pre-oil world: Crowded cities and vast swaths of countryside owned by the rich. This is the natural state of civilized Humanity.
“If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.”
Corollary: If you do work, you should get paid. And paid at least enough to feed and house yourself.
Now, what do we do with the disabled (defined as those who are incapable of any kind of work due to accident or disease)? Yeah, I know that Steven Hawking has managed to carve out a living in spite of disability. Most of the disabled do not have a unique ability that enables them to earn a living in spite of it. Some of them might be able to earn a partial living.
And I guess we should just let the drug-addicted and ex-convicts starve. Oh, that’s right. They will find another way to get what they need. You may not like it.
Round and round it goes. Do you require make-work employment of the unlucky and drive down wages for the rest of the workforce?
I favor work for most of us. I think people live better lives when they work regular hours and earn their own money. Work gives structure and a sense of accomplishment. But I am enough of a realist to understand that there are those who don’t fit. And we need to account for them as well.
Happy2bHeard said: “And I guess we should just let the drug-addicted and ex-convicts starve. Oh, that’s right. They will find another way to get what they need. You may not like it.”
No, I don’t like it, but I’m ready to shoot them dead if they try it.
I told you that the government is not our parents. Is my English proving too difficult to follow?
We have already accounted for those who don’t fit. Biology already took care of that well enough when the government wasn’t this unaffordable monster. And biology said: Charity, family, death. It’s too bad about the 3rd option, but it’s a biogram and it’s pointless trying to oppose it. After all, the price of opposing it will produce civil war in the nation. That’s another biogram that can’t be avoided, so I guess you’re not making a real choice at all.
“No, I don’t like it, but I’m ready to shoot them dead if they try it.”
You may become the shootee. I prefer to live in a society where it is not necessary to shoot someone.
“I told you that the government is not our parents. Is my English proving too difficult to follow?”
So If I disagree with you, I lack the ability to understand you? Is that what you’re saying? If I believe that government has a role in providing for its citizens, then I am too stupid to understand you?
“And biology said: Charity, family, death. It’s too bad about the 3rd option, but it’s a biogram and it’s pointless trying to oppose it. After all, the price of opposing it will produce civil war in the nation.”
Why do you assume that charity excludes government? And is civil war the only option? You sure seem to favor violence.
BR would probably be one of the first to get knocked off if it comes to violence. If BR has a cache of weapons BR better have a cache of hands to fire those weapons, otherwise they’re just a target for any organized gang that wants the weapons. And, a gangleader will tolerate losing a few foot soldiers to take the weapons, if TSHTF.
If BR is going to talk big and have no weapons to speak of, BR will just be crushed.
So, basically, I don’t think we have to worry about BR. BR will receive the karmic kickback that attends those who embrace violence and denigrate cooperation.
IAT
Tell me who pays for government charity when the people collecting outnumber the people paying?
Civil war is the only option when you keep trying to pay off people without regard to natural law. Natural law says that you have liberty and privacy. That creates the wonderful thing called “property rights”.
We used to have a lightly regulated capitalism, but nobody seems to want that anymore. Sensible Libertarians like me do, but we’re heavily out-numbered. So what else should I be preparing for, but increased social upheaval and outright violence? Cutting off SSI tomorrow would make most poor urban areas burn with riots. And yet, SSI must be cut off. ALL welfare must be cut off. We can’t keep paying. And we can’t keep promoting individual reliance on the nanny state. The state doesn’t create wealth. Only private industry does that… well, whatever private industry we have left, considering corporations have become the biggest welfare recipients in the land.
It’s really too late to save our nation. We have too many hands held out, grasping for the common wealth without working for it. Wealth without work: We were warned about that by a particularly insightful man.
I leave this thread now with the only thing that can be said: When all avenues of peaceful resolution have been exhausted, then war is the only result. In the USA, all peaceful resolutions have been exhausted. Do the math.
We need to get back to the most basic of things from which all stability flows:
1. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
2. You have to capitalize yourself; that means saving money.
3. The government isn’t your parent, sibling, mate or banker.
Do we get to expropriate everybody to start even? Or is the government still your protective big brother if you’re rich?
Or is the government still your protective big brother if you’re rich?”
Obama care, health care for the rich paid for by the middle class. So much for hope and change, your communist leader let you down…now what?
“If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.”
So no income from investing? Everyone has to work to earn money. Sounds revolutionary.
Or is there a loophole for the rich again? I’m betting there is.
Don’t be disingenuous. You know exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that if you don’t work, you shouldn’t be paid as if you were working. By your employer or your government.
Whatever money you can obtain from manipulating your investments is your business. Oh, did you make 20% on that this year? Good for you! Oh, did you lose it all? Tough luck.
There’s always a loophole for the rich: THEY’RE RICH. That automatically gives them manifest advantages. With a minimal government (where taxes and regulations are fairly assessed and 100% collected and enforced) they still can’t enslave you.
Minimal and solid government really is beneficial for everyone. Too many people live in fear of our bloated government to see that.
Minimal and solid government
Meaning it helps the rich protect and increase their wealth, and gives everybody else the shaft.
Any examples of a successful minimal and solid government, anywhere in the world, ever?
There’s always a loophole for the rich: THEY’RE RICH.
There’s that propaganda meme again: The Rich are Untouchable, stop even thinking about making them contribute their fair share to society.
“Minimal and solid government really is beneficial for everyone. Too many people live in fear of our bloated government to see that.”
Some of us are worried about too little government. We don’t want to live in a society where the rich, powerful and/or ruthless run roughshod over the rest of us.
Isn’t a pension a promise to pay later? Doesn’t this make a pension the equivalent of employer forced savings? Both sides entered into the agreement without coercion. If you stop working, your pension stops growing. Why is this a problem?
alpha-sloth said: “Meaning it helps the rich protect and increase their wealth, and gives everybody else the shaft.”
No. The rich gain all these protections from a huge and invasive government. Minimal government serves stated goals. There aren’t enough back rooms in a limited government, operationally speaking, in which to crank out the usual deals that perform the functions you complain about. Minimal government cannot collude.
In a concrete case, if the government has a tax collection office, and you’re there as a Big Corporate Creep, looking for a handout, you’ll find there’s no official who’s empowered to hand you money or make special arrangements for you. The only people there, are there to take money from you. That’s the power of minimal government: LIMITED TO FUNCTION.
You people are so scared of what’s happened so far that you just aren’t thinking. Big government is the problem. The solution can’t be MORE GOVERNMENT.
Happy2bHeard said: “We don’t want to live in a society where the rich, powerful and/or ruthless run roughshod over the rest of us.”
Well, your complaint’s a little odd then, since with our huge, bloated government, the rich, powerful and/or ruthless run roughshod over the rest of us with nearly frictionless ease.
The larger and more expensive the government gets, the more hooks the rich get into it. The rich have all sorts of natural advantages, and one of those advantages is the ability to out-maneuver the rest of us in a government where only money talks. Bloated government = money government.
Reducing the government to the constitutional and chartered minimum is the only solution. You can’t control a government that’s already too massive to control except by the rich who can afford to gear up to control it.
Didn’t see this posted.
Fractional Reserve Banking and the Federal Reserve: The Economic Consequences of High-Powered Money
“Fractional reserve banking underpins the entire banking system, yet its effects on society are completely ignored. Our financial system consists of vast amounts of credit pyramided on top of very small amounts of real savings– all backstopped by explicit and implicit government guarantees. This poses significant risks to the stability of the economy and monetary system, which ought to give pause to any serious observer of financial markets. Hopefully this hearing will create a greater understanding among the American people about the nature of the banking system, and begin the movement towards serious systematic reform. The American people deserve a financial system that is stable and efficient; one that operates without taxpayer subsidies and bailouts.” – Congressman Ron Paul
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/07/04/fractional-reserve-banking-and-the-federal-reserve-the-economic-consequences-of-high-powered-money/
No, we DON’T deserve it. We deserve the screwing we’re getting because we VOTED for it. For 30 damn years.
And because the stupid will always be the prey of the unscrupulous.
You don’t have to be stupid to be the prey of the unscrupulous.
But it helps.
Spit up my salmon and peas viewing the Pops concert last night. Sponsored by none other than “Liberty” mutual. Large VIP section occupied by disinterested white guys, Friends-of-Ted apparently.
“Liberty Mutual chairman Edmund F. “Ted” Kelly, under fire for receiving nearly $50 million a year from the Boston insurance giant, said Friday that an “accounting issue” made his compensation appear larger than it is.
“my salmon and peas”
Now THAT is a real 4th of July meal. And folks, I’m not kidding at all. Cold poached salmon is the New England tradition and the early peas were ready right around early July.
As for the special section? It is annoying, but at least it keeps the concert going.
Seems everyone is really eager to jump on the pensions (and unions)-are-the problem bandwagon. The media serve it up and the general population eats it up willingly.
Only 12% of U.S. workers are now unionized. The PTB will not be satisfied until the entire nation has privatized retirement (we’ll force you to invest in our rigged stock markets whether you want to or not). It’s all fun and games until grandma has to eat cat food.
It’s 90 degrees and rising here in NYC and my brother-in-law is out on the picket line as we speak. Con Edison workers have been locked out (before they could strike). One of the big issues is pensions, but there is not a single shred of evidence that the pensions are a problem for the company: Con Ed is making record profits and paying pensions is not a problem for the company. But it’s a good time to sock it to the workers, because we have all been convinced that pensions and unions are the cause of this country’s economic woes.
A major black out could get my BIL back to work, but I was here for the last one (2003?) and I gotta tell you, NYC without power in the middle of the summer is a little scary.
-SFrenter sweating it out in Brooklyn
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/nyregion/con-edison-and-locked-out-union-to-talk-thursday.html
It is PUBLIC unions that are bankrupting cities/county and states.
The unionization of PUBLIC workers is at about 30% and growing.
Public unions force workers to join AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT, take UNIONS DUES FROM THE PAY WITHOUT CONSENT and give 99% of their political donations to DEMOCRATS who further promise PUBLIC union more and more honey.
PUBLIC unions are some of the biggest political campaign money contributors out there.
And PUBLIC unions do it all TAX FREE.
An endless feed back loop that looks at homeowners as a never ending well of money that can be taxed to oblivion.
——————
As cities go broke, pensions are slashed
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57395072/as-cities-go-broke-pensions-are-slashed/
The smallest city in the nation’s smallest state — Central Falls, Rhode Island — is bankrupt. The main reason is it can’t afford the pensions for its retired city workers. How the city is digging out of its financial hole may have consequences for city pensions in other cash-strapped towns across the country.
Are you quite SURE it was not the city managers’ faults, for failing to save enough for a rainy day and making pension promises that could not be honored without adequate savings?
OK, bananas, I don’t think you are going to believe me, but here it is.
I am a member of my union. It was a purely voluntary act. I would have gotten the protection of the working conditions negotiated by the union whether I joined or not, but there is absolutely ZERO requirement to join the union to be a federal employee whose job is within the bargaining unit. Heck, I didn’t even know I was in the bargaining unit until I was at orientation.
And unions do lobbying because it is explicitly allowed as a union activity. If Congress had an issue with unions doing lobbying, they would limit their ability to do it. Charities, for example are allowed to do very little lobbying. It is part of the rules governing their part of the statute.
http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprofits/article/0,,id=96169,00.html
If you don’t like it, I strongly suggest you make this your new political cause. Go try to change the law. Go ahead. When you get it changed, do you know what will happen? The unions will set up associations (just like the ones the business groups have) to do the exact same thing. But it should keep you distracted for a couple of decades.
“If you don’t like it, I strongly suggest you make this your new political cause.”
New!?
“Go try to change the law.
…
But it should keep you distracted for a couple of decades.”
Please, please, please follow Polly’s sage advice, just this one time!
Ah, THERE’S the old cabana boy!
It is already happening.
See Wisconsin and Indiana for recent examples.
More on the way after the landslide in November.
And I know what will happen. The PUBLIC unions will cry and scream and act like the spoiled children they are. Police unions will “suggest” that crime will get out of control. Fire unions will “suggest” that it will take longer to get to fires. Sanitation unions will “suggest” that trash may pile up and roads not get plowed from the snow. Teachers unions will “suggest” that they will not be able to teach. Etc.
The public (which these PUBLIC union goons are supposed to serve) have had enough with their antics and their entitlement mentality.
If you don’t like it, I strongly suggest you make this your new political cause. Go try to change the law. Go ahead. When you get it changed, do you know what will happen?
Investigate the pensions of these state, city, and municipal managers and you’ll see why the workers received lucrative pensions. Also, read the original NY Times story on the Central Falls, RI pension shortfall. IIRC, a vote was taken by pensioners to cut the pensions in half. It seems that 60% of the pensions are 75% (tax-free)disability pensions. The vote was to only cut the regular pensions in half. The disability pensions remain intact.
This morning, I used two bananas in my breakfast smoothie. It was delicious!
If public unions are the problem, then where have all the non-public unions go and why has the middle class income been falling?
The “union thug” rhetoric is widespread now, judging by the anti-union comments on any blog or major newspaper that reports on strikes. In the Con Edison case, this is a private company with record profits and an extremely well-paid CEO (1.5 million a year) and they want to cut all pensions, no pensions at all for new hires, and double the cost of health care.
And yet…the “union thugs” comments are widespread. Never mind that the company locked out 9,000 workers - they didn’t even strike.
If all the public unions disappeared and union membership in the private sector magically increased, I doubt you’d see the PTB, the media, or Joe six-pack all of the sudden decide unions are fabulous: we’ve been brainwashed to side with our masters.
Thank you sir, may I have another?
Check out the graph near the middle of the page regarding the wealth gap and union membership.
billmoyers.com/
Illinois and Wisconsin are not examples of what I suggested. Get Congress to change the statute so that unions may not support candidates in elections (their ability to so is already restricted).
Then you should be perfectly content to let the unions do what they are meant to do - improve the conditions of workers through collective bargaining. That is what they are there for.
The answer is very simple. Private sector is bound to make as much profit as possible. Profit that comes from goods and services is not enough, so each year they cut a few expenses too. Workers are just another expense to be cut.
There is a definite coordinated attack on unions. When Hostess tried to decalre bankruptcy, the screaming chiron on one of the news channel (CNBC?) read that Hostess was in trouble because union expenses were too high.
Live within your means and don’t get in debt.
That’s the only thing I have learned from this fiasco. Everything else is meaningless and frankly too political. In the history of mankind, last 50 yrs or so is the exception not the rule. Strong unions didn’t create the powerful middle class. Neither the lack of unions is the cause of dwindling middle class. Forget what have you learned in 50 yrs.
Even if you hand out 50,000 USD to every child, man and woman, 2 yrs from now we will find ourselves in exactly the same situation. Rich people even richer and most people with “useless” stuff and still poor. People do not have the education or the discipline to live within their means period.
Anecdote:
My mother crossed a picket line once in the 80s.
Goon is a very appropriate word for those picketers.
“Corporations do not have the education or the discipline to live within their means, period.”
Fixed it.
Check out the graph near the middle of the page regarding the wealth gap and union membership.
billmoyers.com/
What he said. Good graph.
“Even if you hand out 50,000 USD to every child, man and woman, 2 yrs from now we will find ourselves in exactly the same situation. Rich people even richer and most people with “useless” stuff and still poor. People do not have the education or the discipline to live within their means period.”
Many of the rich who were not born rich, get that way because money is important to them. For most folks, it is a means to an end and not the end itself. I do know folks who have an odd relationship with money and would give it away in very short order.
In a lot of this country, 50K would be spent on useless things like food and housing and medical care and be gone in 2 years.
If unions have nothing to do with maintaining a middle class, why is it the US has been destroying unions and the middle class is vanishing, but in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, and on and on unions are strong and they still have a middle class? Just askin’.
IAT
The unionized workers that teach our children, put out fires, and protect us from crime are a greater threat to our financial existence than those that rig the financial markets and steal our privatized retirements?
I guess I’m going to have to be much more attuned to doing the bidding of the most overprivileged before I could believe that.
But its a problem when we have the highest per KWH in the country and it will go higher. we have 1 ac on all day and 2 others set at 78-80 as back ups…but we get direct sun at 5am in the bedroom and 3pm in the front living room, and a flat roof…..so it can easily be over $250 for 3 months
My LL just put in tuesday new double pane UV screened windows and what an incredible difference…from the old single pane that were 80 years old…..the picture window used to feel like a car window in the direct sunlight not anymore…and sound insulation from the tucks
what part of brooklyn?
——————
Con Ed is making record profits and paying pensions is not a problem for the company.
what part of brooklyn?
Beautiful downtown Bed-Stuy
Not too far from you off the BQE in queens and the LIE….
Bed-Stuy
“$250 for three months”
Socialist. My daughter had a $300 electric bill for ONE MONTH last August (900 sf apartment), out here in BF, Red State.
I noticed that, too, but I think he meant $250/mo for three months in a row.
250/month wasn’t unusual in California.
XGS i dont have 900sq ft maybe 700 and that’s a lot for NYC..but its in a 2 family house duplex so 3 sides are exposed to the outside… i also got rid of my big 21″ CRT, desktop, and got a mac mini 23″lcd..so ill save a lot there….
but I think he meant $250/mo for three months in a row.
Here’s a nice graph regarding the top 1% and unions
billmoyers.com/2012/07/03/inequality-rises-as-union-numbers-decline/
If there is one thing you can count on throughout history, it’s that people will not be swayed by facts, only disaster… and even then there are times that lesson has to be learned several times…
billmoyers.com/2012/07/03/inequality-rises-as-union-numbers-decline/
Nice graph regarding income at the top and union membership.
True but even public sector union #’s are falling now.
“Only 12% of U.S. workers are now unionized.”
True, but here is illuminating breakdown:
From BLS:
Highlights from the 2011 data:
–Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (37.0 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.9 percent).
Yeah, and that ratio is working out so well for the private-sector worker.
Polly,
I see your point and I am not a “public rights” fanatic by nature. However the concert has always been one of the few opportunities for the Hoi polloi to live like the elite, if only for a day. Used to be if you arrived earlier or waited in line longer that effort was rewarded with the best seat.
MarieOnCape summed it up nicely:
Thank you for the link HardRains. I found that it quoted Joe O’Keefe, a Department of Conservation and Recreation spokesman, as saying, “The way we look at it is, in order to attract major events such as the Boston Pops, and to make them available to the general public, having a small number of seats available for the sponsors is not unreasonable,”
Joe, I don’t think “small number” means what you think it means. Or it has morphed expanded over the years.
And really do we have “attract” the Boston Pops to do the Indepedence Day concert on July 4th?
Large companies have private events and hire entertainers all the time. I was able to see Aerosmith and a number of other acts that way as a customer of a large software company. If Liberty Mutual wants to a have a private pops concert they can and should do that, but “sponsoring” an event like this means to make it available in return for publicity - not shutting out large numbers of people - else it is actually a private event (into which you are allowing a few of the public in to for show).
Small number - sure, OK. Large area, smacks of the opposite of the democracy we are celebrating on July 4th.
“However the concert has always been one of the few opportunities for the Hoi polloi to live like the elite, if only for a day. Used to be if you arrived earlier or waited in line longer that effort was rewarded with the best seat.”
See that is the problem. The elite don’t wait in line for things. They consider their time too valuable. Pops on the 4th has always been a hoi polloi event. Would it have been much less obtrusive for the sponsor to rent a boat for their executives and guests and just reserve a really good spot on the river for viewing? Yes. That is what I would have done if someone put me in charge of it. But corporate PR tends to be totally tone deaf (ha, ironic to be tone deaf about seating for a concert) on that stuff. Seriously, it doesn’t occur to them that there are families that have traditions going back years, if not decades about snagging good seats for that concert and that those people will be irked enough to complain loudly. They know that the people who decided to pay for the sponsorship want something for the money.
Bad PR department. Bad. But still better than not having the concert.
Most corporate PR folks are some of the stupidest people I have ever met.
see that is the problem. The elite don’t wait in line for things.
NPR had a good piece on this not too long ago. Talked about how there are line-waiting businesses in DC that will hold your place for you in line for a fee so the lobbyist/wealthy interested type can get a good seat at some congressional hearing or such.
Seems counter to democracy when access to your representatives and hearings where policies that impact you are discussed are sold to the highest bidder. And no, their time isn’t more valuable than mine or yours. Time is one thing we all have a limited amount of, and no amount of money will buy more… despite what our health care industry likes to think.
Stupider than lawyers? I doubt it.
There is no such thing as a good seat at a Congressional hearing. Either you get one, or you don’t. The press have a special table so they can set up their laptops. People from government agencies with an interest in the topic (like if they would have to enforce the law that is being discussed) have seats reserved for them sometimes. People who are the support staff for the people testifying may get to sit right behind their bosses. Bu the rooms just aren’t that big and you have a better “seat” watching on CNN.
And the higher value on time for the wealthy is based on opportunity cost. You can’t place a higher absolute value based on time spent with family, but you sure can know whether the person sitting on the grass to reserve a concert seat all day could be earning $9 an hour or $2000 an hour instead.
WAY stupider than lawyers. That’s pretty damn scary, isn’t it?
Polly, I think it would be better to not have the concert. That will at least draw attention to the privatization of America.
“WAY stupider than lawyers. ”
Pretty ironic, considering how much this site depends on a lawyer to explain stuff.
Large companies have private events and hire entertainers all the time. I was able to see Aerosmith and a number of other acts that way as a customer of a large software company. If Liberty Mutual wants to a have a private pops concert they can and should do that, but “sponsoring” an event like this means to make it available in return for publicity - not shutting out large numbers of people - else it is actually a private event (into which you are allowing a few of the public in to for show).
Thank you.
And speaking as a photographer who has worked large festivals, I’ve dealt with more than a few event sponsors. The nicest ones are the non-profits that know what it means to be kind to all who are involved. The worst are the ones who act like they’re owed the kowtowing treatment. I think that Liberty falls into the latter category.
Most overvalued property markets, based on rents and incomes:
http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/2012/07/the-fresh-dangers-faced-by-buy-to-let-investors.html
Before I post the data, can I just thank the people of this website for actually posting all the data in one place in a no-nonsense table. Any US news site would have made this table into a “slideshow” with a stock tourism photo, a paragraph of boilperplate nonsense, and a new pop-up ad for every click.
Singapore +60%
Hong Kong +58%
Belgium +56%
Canada +54%
France +47%
New England +44%
Australia +38%
Netherlands +32%
Sweden +29%
Spain +27%
Britain +22%
Italy +10%
South Africa +7%
Ireland -2%
U.S. isn’t even on the list? No wonder foreign real estate investors are parking their real estate equity gains here…
U.S. isn’t even on the list? No wonder foreign real estate investors are parking their real estate equity gains here…
Don’t forget, the dollar has been relatively weak compared to other currencies, which means their money goes farther here…
Why did you change “New Zealand” to “New England”
Freudian slip?
The US was probably not surveyed at all, bear.
And yeah, I was probably confusing New Zealand with Britain.
Oxy - Freudian slip on “New England”? In the article you cited it’s “New Zealand”.
Hmmmm…..
At least houses built in Europe can last 50 years with no one in them. I would give houses in American about 3 years before they would need to be torn down.
——————————
Tuscan village on sale on Ebay for 2.5 million euros
Medievalists.net | June 28, 2012 | unattributed
A medieval village, set in the Tuscan hills of Italy among castles and monasteries, can be yours for €2.5 million. Pratariccia, which is situated about 25 miles east of Florence, has now been put on sale through ebay, the popular online shopping website.
The village consists of 25 homes and eight hectares of land. The village has been abandoned for over fifty years, so many of the buildings are in a ruined state and electricity lines would need to be established. Also, no roads exist that lead to the village.
Local estate agent Carlo Magni said in an interview, “It’s a stupendous location, 40km from Florence, with hermits still living in the nearby hermitage of Camaldoli and all the castles you’ll ever need, dating from when Siena and Arezzo fought over the area.”
The current owners of the property are said to be a monastic order, who have been trying to sell the land for several years, and hoped that by listing it on eBay it would get more attention. Magni added, “I posted the advert two weeks ago and I’ve had lots of calls about it and I’m hoping to get some viewings arranged over the next few days. I think it has potential as a private hotel or luxury spa and that’s what one of the potential buyers wanted to do but it fell through.”
Bananas: At least houses built in Europe can last 50 years with no one in them
Article: “The village has been abandoned for over fifty years, so many of the buildings are in a ruined state
Reading comprehension FAIL.
Stop using facts to harsh on 2bananas’s diatribes.
Doesn’t look to bad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu8l_Sze-II
can’t say the same for the music.
I’ve come to the conclusion that banana doesn’t actually read the articles he posts.
Counter Offer came back “Best & Final”.
6 other offers as well (7 total including ours).
We’re taking a shot in the dark here, w/ our cash & close counter. (I disdain this blackhole called highest and best in a bidding war.)
Suck-ie! We’re beng herded, we know.
How many got a counter?
How many were cash?
(Lender’s Appraiser could be a dream price deal breaker.)
It’s a rental (tenant living there). The lady owner lives in Tx. $ in escrow until the tenant is out and house condition confirmed.
We’re going a little higher, but as I said, extortion is out. The place needs $50K put in.
Any feedback?
It’s hard to give feedback on such a disjointed post, but if “the place needs $50K put in,” that’s a little worrying.
I’d be worried those other bids were a scam to try to get me to overpay; but that’s just my nature!
I gave plenty of feedback late last night on why I think this is a particularly bad time to buy (albeit not as bad as Summer 2006).
Did you catch my posts?
Whatever happened to all the Realtor® types who were arguing it is a good time to buy now just a couple of weeks ago? I hate to make my points in a vacuum, though do so anyway when nobody bothers to refute them.
I think we ran them off. Not the first time that’s happened. We’re pretty tough on realty shills.
Cantankerous
Yeah, but we’re in a pickle. We have a medical issue which has turned our life upside down. We’ll make up the overpaying issue in another yr or two of multiple rents bleeding us broke, if we don’t stop it. I did see your post. Sometimes, both choices suck.
oxide
So Ca has an inventory issue beyond belief. One-Story homes are not often available, and this is a great neighborhood. All the homes are one-story, and the yard is private. A rare find right now. A general contractor friend has offered by buy materials for us, so we can bring down the fix’n up costs. $50K was before his offer last night in an email.
I have a hard time imagining a medical issue as providing the impetus to buy now, but at least you have given careful thought to the rent-buy decision in light of your personal situation.
That said, if there is any way for you to at least delay until a few months after the start of 2013, when the U.S. government is scheduled to drive over a fiscal cliff, and by when better information about the severity of the simultaneous recession that is currently hitting countries around the planet (per my post of last night), I strongly recommend delaying purchase.
And I’ve alrady given my feedback concerning your pickle. Short version: California is not the only state with medical facilities and one-story houses with private yards.
But how could any civilized person possibly stand to live anywhere else?
Yeah, there are acceptable alternatives to coastal california — Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia (northern part), Suffolk County NY, north shore of Chicago, pacific northwest, etc.
Seriously, not everyone could just live in Ohio or Iowa or something. But if you don’t want to live in a dump, there are still at least a few other options.
Yeah, there are acceptable alternatives to coastal california — Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia (northern part), Suffolk County NY, north shore of Chicago, pacific northwest, etc.
The surf isn’t very good in any of those places…
So Ca has an inventory issue beyond belief. One-Story homes are not often available, and this is a great neighborhood.”
all correct in Ventura Co. at prices below 450K It’s crazy now co-worker has been out-bid again by a full price all cash offer in Oak Park.
just like 2003-2004 all over again easy money and a very tight inventory in Ventura Co. PLUS cash rich out of Country buyers.
My advice is don’t panic fall should bring some relief to this buying frenzy
Cactus
Thank you for the co-worker story. Tell him he’s not alone. This is our 4th offer (and we’re cash, but up against idiots overpaying with cash). It’s getting old.
Back to the “howmuchamonth” mentality. The asset price lesson wasn’t learned.
Unfortunately, the policies of CA have driven us to the supply shortage.
1. Many cities with restrictions on annual housing permit numbers.
2. LONG time periods to get projects entitled, because of CEQA, and soon, greenhouse gas considerations (Google “Stockton Settlement Sierra Club; you’ll see where the AG of CA, and the Sierra Club essentially forced the City of Stockton to include greenhouse gas studies as part of their land use processes; AG at the time was Jerry Brown).
Numbers 1-2 effectively drive up the value of entitled residential land (hard to get entitlements).
3. High permitting costs.
4. Higher construction costs due to things like “build it green building codes” (Google “build it green california building standards”).
Result? Not enough homes, and certainly not enough inexpensive homes.
Repeating your lies merely makes you a liar.
If you are right, and that what I say is untrue, there should be massive amounts of building going on in California (because entitled land would be plentiful and cheap, permits easy and cheap to come by, and construction costs low).
Where is it?
Can anyone help corroborate Truth by noting massive amounts of new subdivisions going up in quick response to supply shortages?
Anyone?
The Chiles, in our multi-year quest, occasionally got invited back (as one of three) to give a best and final. The listing agent (which we’d encountered numerous times) had a pretty consistent and well thought out marketing plan, and the going back to the three “best” offerors was part of the plan.
The third time it happened to us, we simply didn’t bother since we learned that there was always someone who’d panic and offer 10% over asking (and this was post-2008). It led to much confusion when the 5.00pm deadline on a Wednesday came and went without our best and final. We figured there was no way we’d be the highest or the best (despite having 20% down and no other abode to sell); espically since it seemed that the definition of “best” was “highest”. So we figured some idiot would panic and offer 10% over asking, and we weren’t going to even go over asking, so why waste everyone’s time? (1)
But it took a few hours for everyone to understand that we weren’t playing the game. And I guess that is my point: if you’re on this blog, you’re probably not interested in overpaying, and it is very likely some idiot that will overpay, so don’t get your hopes up. So you might as well have fun with it.
====
(1) It didn’t help our cause that Ms. Chile handled the offer paperwork while I was in the Middle East getting ready to board a plane back to the US, and we were discussing our counter offer via Skype while I was in Paris-CDG. But still, it was sweet not to play the game.
Bad Chile
Thank for for taking the time to share your journey and experience. It was very constructive. Yeah, we gave it our best shot this morning. If we don’t get it, it wasn’t meant to be.
Problem is, there are few homes on the market, and Ca has a bad for buyers legislation that is positive for FB’s. If Gov.Brown signs it, it means the same inventory issues for YEARS! (Even more extend & pretend added to the alphabet soup of moronic & corrupt ideas.)
Thanks again.
Simi ?
It’s a rental (tenant living there). The lady owner lives in Tx. $ in escrow until the tenant is out and house condition confirmed.”
Good
Cactus-
east Simi (not our 1st pick for a location)
No earthquake damage in the tract. Went to the city and read this home’s file. In 1981 there eas an electrical fire (yep, aluminum wiring). All up to code now, and part of the house is rebuilt. Will not show up on the CLUE Report. (purges at 7 yrs)
We’ll know Friday (hopefully). Now I know the waiting hell you went through, cactus. And yours took months. Stomachs of steel, you and the Mrs.
The stock market is falling up again, with the opening bell price level a little higher every day they sell off compared to the last day they dropped.
July 5, 2012, 9:57 a.m. EDT
U.S. stocks drop as financials, energy weigh
Global central banks take measures to boost growth
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stocks on Wall Street dropped on Thursday, while the dollar rallied after the European Central Bank’s president said downside risks to the euro-area growth outlook have materialized, overshadowing positive U.S. economic data.
Investors also digested moves by global central banks. China cut interest rates for the second time in less than a month. In Europe, the Bank of England expanded the size of its quantitative-easing program, while the European Central Bank cut interest rates, as expected.
“The message sent by the coordinated cut in interest rates — China, ECB and BOE — reminded traders that the global economic conditions remain weak,” said Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at Davidson Cos.
Also, U.S. retailers reported disappointing June same-store sales on Thursday, Dickson noted. Read more on same-store sales.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.54% dropped 57 points to 12,887, with only five of its 30 components posting gains.
The biggest decliners in the blue-chip index were banks, with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM -4.18% down 2.2% and Bank of America Corp. BAC -1.99% down 1.7%.
The S&P 500 index SPX -0.63% declined 54 points to 1,369, with financials and energy weighing the most.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP -0.40% fell 3.91 points to 2,972.32.
The U.S. dollar rallied against its major rivals, while the euro EURUSD -1.25% slumped 1.1% to $1.2384.
…
“The global progressives spreading their filth, lies and destruction like a pandemic virus.”
What do some people have against progress?
Always wondered about that all my life.
Seems to be a control issue. As in, the established regime losses control.
American socialist didn’t like being called socialist so they changed their names to liberals. Then liberals didn’t like being called liberals so they changed their name to progressives.
They will change their name in again in the near future.
It won’t matter - it all means the same. Bigger government, more taxes, more control and less freedom. They can’t seem to get away from their core beliefs…
Actually, those labels were given to them by the conservatives.
I used to be a semi-moderate Republican.
The only thing that has changed is that I’ve seen how many ways “businessmen” screw their customers/employees/local, state and Federal governments/the environment, and humanity in general.
Government used to keep some of these excesses in check. Back in the days before politicians realized that money = votes.
Now, according to the new Republitard party meme, I’m a socialist/liberal/child molester/free-spender/union lover. (Except for same sex unions, of course).
The current batch of Republicans refuses to confront their contradictions. They don’t want government interfering with their “rights”, but they don’t have problems with restricting other peoples “rights”. They support a free market economy, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their current monopoly/subsidy structure. They are against “over-regulation” but don’t study history (other than “Creative Design”), and realize that most of the regulations are put in place for some very good reasons.
Follow the money. The guys pushing “deregulation” hardest are the biggest/richest predators in their particular pond.
According to the meme, the “free market” is the answer to everything. Half of the people who believe this are naive. The other half are the types who are used to “getting their own way”, (aka bullies), who don’t think their should be any restrictions on their actions.
Government used to keep some of these excesses in check. Back in the days before politicians realized that money = votes.
Surely they always knew that…so what changed? Maybe were the voters more difficult to buy off back then? I doubt the politicians were so much more moral back then…
The voters got dumber. TV is the only place a lot of people get their news from, so having the money for TV time is of paramount importance).
(Which is why public education cutbacks are a win-win for business, at least if/until they have to get into bidding wars for educated employees……not likely to happen, as long as porous borders and the H-1B is around)
The current batch of Republicans refuses to confront their contradictions. They don’t want government interfering with their “rights”, but they don’t have problems with restricting other peoples “rights”. They support a free market economy, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their current monopoly/subsidy structure.
Don’t forget the wars. The reasons you sighted plus the wars, I was never a republican and I am glad never voted any republican in my life. I used to a have lukewarm support to Republican party because of some of their election rhetoric, but W proved once in for all that it was only a rhetoric.
“American socialist didn’t like being called socialist so they changed their names to liberals.”
Most Americans labeled socialist were not really socialist. And that is more true today when anyone who disagrees with the right wing of the Republican party is called a socialist.
The progressive era ended some time ago.
During that era, progressive Democrats believed the government should be well run, so it could do more to meet people’s needs. And progressive Republicans believed the government should be well run, so it could do what it must do at a moderate tax level.
Now, everyone just wants to suck more out of the government and put less into it until it collapses. We’re back to pre-Progressive corruption, but at higher tax levels.
So what’s up with the sudden surge in anti-progressive diatribes on the HBB? I guess everyone has to nurse a pet grievance to bitch about…
So what’s up with the sudden surge in anti-progressive diatribes
I think our entire society has polarized to the extremes of liberal and conservative values. The moderate attitude doesn’t exist any more. The divide in beliefs, wealth, and government control are so great, that there is no middle ground to speak of.
Here’s a recent conversation I had with a registered Democrat co-worker:
Co-worker: “I think we can raise taxes some (for education). I don’t mind paying more, as we can afford it.”
Me: “So why do you think everyone should be required to pay more in taxes, especially if those services aren’t used by everyone? If you want to give more to the State, local government, or schools write a check yourself.”
Co-worker: “…”
There is no middle ground here. He believes we should all pay more for the “good of society”. He most likely will use public education for his young child and his family is wealthy. I use private education. My family is not wealthy. This divide is insurmountable, as my belief is the antithesis of his and I despise what public education has become. In years past, we may have found a compromise. Today, we’re too polarized.
The moderate attitude doesn’t exist any more. The divide in beliefs, wealth, and government control are so great, that there is no middle ground to speak of.
I hate the middle ground. There are solutions either in extreme left or in extreme right.
There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos. Jim Hightower
Polarization has destroyed many an empire.
I hate the middle ground. There are solutions either in extreme left or in extreme right.
Indeed, but one might argue that when both sides are unhappy, we have the best compromise possible. Democracy in a society as divided and stratified as ours is about compromise, else you end up alienating wide swaths of society. I have to think the polarization of the moderate attitude is a destabilizing element in our society. What the end-result is, I don’t know, but it can’t be good in the long view…
Here is what public education does
1. Helps equal the playing field between the haves and have nots. Plenty of people out there who pulled themselves out of a bad situation due to public education. If they had been relegated to only what their family can afford more perpetual poverty.
2. The American melting pot. Seriously there was a time in big cities where ethnic groups and religious groups walled off from one another.
3. Limited the teaching of hokus pokus. Intelligent design and all, although Texas is really moving away from this. Let students see there are ideas outside of their little walled off compounds and forces them to defend those ideas or adapt.
here’s a nice piece from Texas
The 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform, adopted June 9 at the state convention in Forth Worth, seems to take a stand against, well, the teaching of critical thinking skills. Read it for yourself:
We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority
Plenty of people out there who pulled themselves out of a bad situation due to public education.
My best friend in high school did that very thing. She grew up in a poor family where there were four kids, only one parent working (the mother was too sick to work), and a lot of demands on the father’s income.
She got scholarships to go to college, where she majored in art. Yeah, I know. Art. Impractical degree.
But I later heard that she became a school teacher, and if I know her, she was a good one.
Nowadays, she’s a full-time artist, and from what I can see, she is good.
Unfortunately, we’ve lost touch. I’ve tried contacting her online, but no reply.
Public education helps equal the playing field between the haves and have nots.
Well DUH. That’s why the rich want to get rid of it.
Measton, we need a link to that! Pronto! (if you please)
Polarization has destroyed many an empire.
Perhaps it’s a symptom of a crumbling empire rather than a cause.
“especially if those services aren’t used by everyone?”
Public education is used by everyone, even if not directly. I no longer have children in school, but my children and I benefit from being surrounded by an educated populace. Public schools have their problems, but they still do a good job of educating most children - even those children not inclined to pursue education.
Public transportation benefits even those who don’t use it directly by taking cars off the roads. As a group, we save commute time, gas, and road maintenance costs.
My point in highlighting the discussion was that our viewpoints were diametrically opposed with no middle ground to speak of, hence “polarization of the moderate attitude towards the extreme”.
As to public education, meh. Point 1 is a straw man as it was never said that poor people shouldn’t receive some level of education but most don’t need college prep. But you take “No child left behind”, State-level mandates, local politics, Unions, Inclusion, Special needs, real estate taxes, Federal tax dollars, College lobby’s, Publisher lobby’s, etc. and you have an ineffectual system rife with waste that fails on every level (as seen by US test scores when compared international and dollars spent when compared internationally).
Point 2, meh. Tribalism has it’s uses. These days it’s less about race than about socioeconomic status. Not to say there aren’t bad apples in any class of society, but the struggles of the poor have little interest to me, as I’m sure the struggles of the middle class have little interest to a 1%er.
3. Whose to say what’s hokus pokus? Some of the “science” out there regarding quantum physics, empty space, and the potential for particles to spontaneously appear in empty space, “from nothing” sound more hokey than religion (and most of it is just theory anyway). Bottom line, I’ll trust the Jesuits with my child’s education before I trust a bureaucrat, whether from TX, MA, or FedGov.
Public education is used by everyone
And I already pay for it via my real estate taxes as well as Fed and State tax dollars withheld from my pay. The issue of contention was that my liberal demorcrat co-worker felt we should all pay more taxes for public education while I thought I paid quite enough, especially given we weren’t using the service directly. When confronted with the solution that he could just write a check for any amount over and above what he paid, I was left with silence…
Honestly, public education seems to have failed on reading comprehension… so maybe I’ve proved my point.
“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)”
I.e., are against the latest progressive ed teaching fads that have never been proven to work.
Public education helps equal the playing field between the haves and have nots.
Really? Somebody just said that it was the lack of unions. The problem is we have nothing but grown “public education” in last 50 years and still the haves and have-nots are growing further apart.
I.e., are against the latest progressive ed teaching fads that have never been proven to work.
Exactly. Someone has been doing their homework.
The Russians knew something 50 years ago that we seemed to have forgotten. Rote memorization has it’s place and has value in a k-12 education, especially when teaching fundamentals.
And as far as that reference to not teaching HOTS by the TX Republican party, I support it 100%. Here’s a link which discusses the full issue: That HOTS shouldn’t be taught over traditional methods of learning.
Advocates of traditional education object to elevating HOTS above direct instruction of basic skills. Many forms of education reform, such as inquiry-based science, reform mathematics and whole language emphasize HOTS to solve problems and learn, sometimes deliberately omitting direct instruction of traditional methods, facts, or knowledge.
We have NOT “grown” public education in the 50 years.
Of ALL the 1st world nations, we spend the LEAST per pupil.
http://mat.usc.edu/u-s-education-versus-the-world-infographic/
“Honestly, public education seems to have failed on reading comprehension… so maybe I’ve proved my point.”
When you make more than one point, I can address the one I choose.
“When confronted with the solution that he could just write a check for any amount over and above what he paid, I was left with silence…”
He got your point, which was, STFU. Outside of the .00001%, none of us have enough money to address funding issues by ourselves. United we stand, divided we fall.
“Advocates of traditional education object to elevating HOTS above direct instruction of basic skills. Many forms of education reform, such as inquiry-based science, reform mathematics and whole language emphasize HOTS to solve problems and learn, sometimes deliberately omitting direct instruction of traditional methods, facts, or knowledge.”
While I agree that HOTS should not be elevated above direct instruction and am horrified by the mess that has been made of mathematics education, I think a lot of this is driven by a desire to teach creationism over evolution.
Science teaching should focus on the scientific method, which is directly opposed to dogma. If the only “facts” someone believes should be taught come from a book written 2000 years ago, then I have a problem with that.
NE - Point 1 is a straw man as it was never said that poor people shouldn’t receive some level of education but most don’t need college prep.
So we should just point them all to shoe shine school and be done with it? Straw man again but my friend pulled himself up through public school into a scholarship for engineering. There are many that have done the same. Public education through HS gives those that can shine the chance to do so.
NE: But you take “No child left behind”, State-level mandates, local politics, Unions, Inclusion, Special needs, real estate taxes, Federal tax dollars, College lobby’s, Publisher lobby’s, etc. and you have an ineffectual system rife with waste that fails on every level (as seen by US test scores when compared international and dollars spent when compared internationally).
A: And how many of those school systems you are comparing too are public vs all private?? My guess is zero. There are a lot of issues that keep test scores low in the US and private education isn’t going to fix them.
NE Point 2, meh. Tribalism has it’s uses. These days it’s less about race than about socioeconomic status. Not to say there aren’t bad apples in any class of society, but the struggles of the poor have little interest to me (AND THUS YOU WOULD LIMITE THEIR EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS AND DO AWAY WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION),
Tribalism within a country is a cancer. Individualism and equal opportunity are what should be promoted.
NE. 3. Whose to say what’s hokus pokus? Some of the “science” out there regarding quantum physics, empty space, and the potential for particles to spontaneously appear in empty space, “from nothing” sound more hokey than religion (and most of it is just theory anyway). Bottom line, I’ll trust the Jesuits with my child’s education before I trust a bureaucrat, whether from TX, MA, or FedGov.
A: Seriously ? Read something on the scientific method and the role of theories. The scientific method is not a book of beliefs it’s an approach to better understading the world and all theories even those that are felt to be well proven are subject to challenge via experimentation. That’s the big difference between science and religion.
Good find butters. My bad.
However, it seems there is some contradictory data, even my general statement is still wrong. Which is still good to know.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_pri_sch_stu-spending-per-primary-school-student
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_sec_sch_stu-spending-per-secondary-school-student
And finally:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/04/06/the_death_of_public_education/
“…even though my…”
sheesh
but the struggles of the poor have little interest to me, as I’m sure the struggles of the middle class have little interest to a 1%er.
That about sums is up…..nothing I can say to that, ‘cept thanks for the honesty
When confronted with the solution that he could just write a check for any amount over and above what he paid, I was left with silence…
It’s hard to have a useful conversation with someone when they propose a solution like that, so he probably chose silence over the other options. From his perspective, it was clear that him (and possibly a few other people) writing a check would not actually address the issue he was trying to address–to have well-funded schools. So he was probably left wondering whether you really didn’t get that relatively obvious point… If he chose to ask that, you might have been insulted.
Of course, I know you from many other conversations, Northeastener—so I know full well that you are plenty-smart enough to get that point…
Names are so meaningless in American politics. There’s nothing liberal about the “liberals” and there’s no progress with the “progressives.”
Should have said Labels instead of Names.
See the national debt graph
Really nothing conservative about conservatives.
Nice name calling though I think you said it right the first time.
Really nothing conservative about conservatives.
Agree to that one as well.
Actually neo conservatives want to conserve the status quo. This is why I call mainstream democrats and Republicans neo conservatives.
“Actually neo conservatives want to conserve the status quo.”
Which is why they want to privatize Social Security and roll back Roe v. Wade.
“What do some people have against progress?”
Thanks for re-posting. Progressives reside in all major political parties and movements. The only progress they desire is a post American, one world collectivist type of system that strips us of our Sovereignty, freedom, humanity and dignity.
I am all for real progress, like improving our infrastructure, streamlining government, tax simplification and so on, but not at the price of decreased liberty. Nobody with a grain of self worth would willfully submit to the “progress” being handed down by so called progressives.
What do some people have against liberty?
Report: Countrywide won influence with discounts
Yahoo - July 05, 2012
The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.
Issa said that while Mozilo mocked Fannie Mae and top executives for its crony capitalism business model, he would nonetheless personally intercede to ensure executives had access to discounted Countrywide loans. “These relationships helped Mozilo increase his own company’s profits while dumping the risk of bad loans on taxpayers,” the report said.
Among those who received loan discounts from Countrywide, the report said, were:
-Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
-Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
-Mary Jane Collipriest, who was communications director for former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, then a member of the Banking Committee. The report said Dodd referred Collipriest to Countrywide’s VIP unit. Dodd, when commenting on his own loans, has said he was unaware of the discount program.
-Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
-Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., former chairman of the Oversight Committee. Towns issued the first subpoena to Bank of America for Countrywide documents, and current Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., subpoenaed more documents. The committee said that in responding to the Towns subpoena, Bank of America left out documents related to Towns’ loan.
-Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.
-Top staff members of the House Financial Services Committee.
-A staff member of Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, a member of the Financial Services Committee.
-Former Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.
-Former Housing and Urban Development Secretaries Alphonso Jackson and Henry Cisneros; and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The VIP unit processed Cisneros’ loan after he joined Fannie’s board of directors.
-Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, was an exception. He told the VIP unit not to give him a discount, and he did not receive one.
-Former Fannie Mae heads James Johnson, Daniel Mudd and Franklin Raines. Countrywide took a loss on Mudd’s loan. Fannie employees were the most frequent recipients of VIP loans. Johnson received a discount after Mozilo waived problems with his credit rating.
Pigs at the trough.
Big money owns both parties.
This is why concentrating the wealth is bad.
In the past politicians were just as piggish but they worked for a larger # of players and knew if one player pushed them too hard they could always walk away. As we get oligopolies and verticle integration corporations get more and more control.
Of course - if we threw some of these “public servants” in jail it may wake up the rest of them.
“Of course - if we threw some of these “public servants” in jail it may wake up the rest of them.”
I prefer that the system be set up to prevent bad behavior. It is easier for all parties than punishment after the fact. A percentage of good, intelligent people will succumb to temptation or be talked into unwise actions. We protect each other from temptation with systems of accountability. At the same time, we make the system more robust.
When the systems of accountability fail, then punishment is a last resort.
Part of the problem is expecting “public servants” to be saints. We should expect them to be human.
This is why I hate bi-partisanship. Nothing good comes out when Dems and Repubs agree to something.
So should they take turns?
HUD.
So corrupt it makes organized crime look good and Fannie and Freddie look like a well run lemonade stand.
THE WASHINGTON HILLBILLIES
Come and listen to my story bout a man named Dodd
refied his house but it seemed kinda odd
saved eighty grand but he said he didn`t know
law makers get a break cause they`re friends of Angelo
Mozillo that is , CountryWide , Bad loans
Well the first thing ya know Angelo is in some trouble
he say`s HEY DODD NOW THEY SAY I CAUSED A BUBBLE!
Dodd say`s fine I`ll just sponsor us a bill
tell em that they need it and I`ll sell it on the Hill
Well the moral of the story that you all should know
better vote em out if they`re friends of Angelo
or one day soon we`ll be shootin at our food
Bernankes got us lookin at two hundred dollar crude
Oil that is , black gold , OPEC tea
And now it`s time to say goodbye to you and all your kin
and Dodd would like to thank you all for kindly chippin in
you`re all invited back again to this localitee
to pay another trillion for their bogus LTV
Loan to value, that is
Kick your shoes off
Ya`ll come back now ya hear?!
That’s what I’ve been missing…
Yep. Nobody does it better.
Excellent!
Love it, jeff!
Pushing on a string can only go on so long before the string no longer moves when further pushed.
July 5, 2012, 11:20 a.m. EDT
Central bank action fails to cheer Europe stocks
ECB and China to implement cuts, BOE boosts quantitative easing
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect maturity for one of Spain’s government bond auctions. The story has been corrected.
MADRID (MarketWatch)—Thursday turned black for European stocks, which went from tottering around the flat line early on to plunging into negative territory in the afternoon as a series of central bank moves from Europe and China neither cheered investors nor suggested a resumption of upside.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.5% to 255.94, with losses deepening after ECB President Mario Draghi began speaking in the wake of interest-rate cuts. Jarring markets were signs that the central bank won’t be open to more innovative measures to help out debt markets in Spain and Italy.
Stocks in those countries bore the brunt of selling, which focused on banks—BBVA SA ES:BBVA -4.64% BBVA -6.07% sank more than 5% in Madrid and UniCredit SpA IT:UCG -5.13% tumbled nearly 7% in Milan—as well as oil and pharmaceutical stocks.
Markets got no help from Wall Street, which returned from a midweek holiday and turned due south. U.S. retailers reported disappointing June same-store sales, while ADP employment data showed private-sector payrolls rose more than expected.
“The ECB‘s monetary policy easing, although unanimous and significant, amounts to little more than a ‘tweaking at the edges’ as far as the eurozone’s ailing peripheral economies are concerned,” said Nicolas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, in emailed comments.
…
From the Marketwatch URL:
dollar-inches-higher-ahead-of-ecb-boe-meetings-
July 5, 2012, 10:09 a.m. EDT
Euro falls to five-week low after ECB, BOE
China’s rate cuts also boost growth hopes
By Deborah Levine and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar extended gains on Thursday, pushing the euro down to its lowest in almost five weeks, after the European Central Bank cut interest rates but disappointed investors hoping for it to increase lending or bond purchases.
Markets also got news of more stimulus measures from the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of England.
“Following this morning’s actions by the ECB and the BOE, it is difficult not to be bullish on the near-term prospects for the U.S. dollar amidst ongoing crisis in Europe,” said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.
…
How many systemically-important Megabanks are implicated in the two price-fixing scandals that are currently brewing (energy & Libor)?
And it seems like I have seen more than a couple of “buy” recommendations on J.P. Morgan as of late. If it’s a “buy,” how come the stock price keeps going lower?
July 5, 2012, 11:53 a.m. EDT
Financials drag S&P down, led by J.P. Morgan
By Regina Hing, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Big banks dragged the financial sector down Thursday, as investors worried about the repercussions of the ongoing probe into attempted manipulation of interbank lending rates.
Three central banks, meanwhile, took measures to stimulate growth, reminding investors of the weak economic environment. Read more about the measures.
The Financial Select Sector (SPDR ETF XLF -1.38%), which tracks the financial stocks in the (S&P 500 SPX -0.30%), retreated 1.4%. Financials were the biggest decliners in the S&P 500, which dropped 0.3%. Read more about U.S. stocks trading.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM -3.74%) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC -1.99%) led decliners on the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA -0.19%), with their shares slumping 3.8% and 2%, respectively.
Among other big banks, Citigroup Inc. (C -3.06%) shares fell 3.1%, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS -2.30%) shares sank 2.5%. Morgan Stanley (MS -2.38%) lost 2.2%.
…
Big banks dragged the financial sector down Thursday…
Yeah, like they’ve never done that before. They’re also pretty good at dragging down whole economies.
In a 2banana world.
Everyone would have to pay their taxes in full and in CASH on November 10th.
Election day would be November 11th.
—————————————————
There’s a Triple Tax Increase in Your Future
ncpa.org | July 5, 2012 | ncpa
The so-called Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year. That means that all of the current income tax rates will rise to pre-2001 levels overnight: the lowest rate will jump from 10 percent to 15 percent and the highest from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.
As a result of the Bush tax cuts, capital gains and dividends are taxed at a flat rate of 15 percent.
When the cuts expire, however, these forms of income will be taxed as if they are regular income, meaning that gains for the wealthy will be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent.
Also, the health care law imposes a new 3.8 percent tax on passive income, including dividends and interest.
Everyone would have to pay their taxes in full and in CASH on November 10th.
Thanks for ruining my birthday, you Dual Bananas killjoy you.
I just don’t see how the Democrats can let them expire and hope to win a presidential election this year. If I was a Republican politician or Republican presidential candidate, I would be fire-breathing on every talk radio and TV broadcast that would have me that “the Democrats want these cuts to expire and the Average Joe’s taxes to go up, significantly”. The wealthy already know their taxes will go up considerably, hence all the money poring into Romney’s campaign.
Keep government services and staffing level? Money has to come from somewhere… who wants to get screwed and have more money taken away from them?
Correction: Long term capital gains tax rate will increase from 15% back to pre-Bush 20%. dividends will yes, be taxed as ordinary income instead of the current 15%.
This is why I am not interested in buying stocks with more than 2% yield.
Starve the govthugs!
Creative Destruction.
It is a concept we are forced to accept when businesses restructure, jobs disappear, communities die out. The working classes in the US have been dealing with creative destruction for many decades. It’s an unpleasant but necessary part of life.
However, in the place where it is most needed - at the top of the political and business structures which led us into this mess into the first place - it is not allowed. Is it not utterly incredible that the vast majority of politicians and financial sector executives that orchestrated the mess we’re in still have their jobs? Even the ones who walked away, did so with a kings ransom. They were not penalized in any real way.
Even at General Motors, when Rick Wagoner was ousted as CEO, his right hand man took the helm. But at least Wagoner was publicly ousted.
Creative destruction must return to the top of the system, not just the working classes. It is a difficult but effective reality and it must apply to the politicians and executives who orchestrated the broken system we currently have.
‘It is a concept we are forced to accept when businesses restructure, jobs disappear, communities die out.’
This reality eludes the 99%.
As recently posted on zerohedge:
Denmark Goes NIRP, Cuts Deposit Rate To NEGATIVE 0.2%
What won’t central banks do to fight deflation and attempt to increase the velocity of money? What will you do when it costs you money every month to keep money in the bank? Will you move to cash? Buy assets to park your money in? The next stage in the war has begun… and anyone who thinks interest rates will rise in this environment anytime in the next decade (or longer) is delusional.
What does this mean exactly?
Does it mean if you put $100 in the bank you get back $99.8 in a year?
Yes.
ZIRP: Zero interest rate policy
NIRP: Negative interest rate policy.
We used to believe 0 was the lower bound for rates. Seems the central banks have found a way to get around the lower bound…
Interestingly, Greg Mankiw (Bush’s Economic adviser) proposed NIRP his blog some 3 years ago.
A -.2% interest rate (guaranteed by FDIC) will seem pretty good, when every other investment you can think of drops by 20% year.
An advertised rate of 0% in this economy is defacto “negative”. But nobody will admit it.
It seemed like there was a world-wide coordinated “easing” today. Not sure why the Fed didn’t participate.
That’s the future of our savings.
Stunning news Northeasterner…. thanks for the post.
Interesting times. It makes a non-interest bearing checking account look good.
Entrenched extractive elites. Once the system solidifies, change becomes more and more difficult. And creative destruction at the top becomes more necessary and yet more difficult.
The question of extractive elites
Bankers and the public sector may both be enemies of growth
Apr 14th 2012
The Economist
There are two potential candidates for extractive elites in Western economies. The first is the banking sector. The wealth of the financial industry gives it enormous lobbying power, including as contributors to American presidential campaigns or to Britain’s ruling parties. By making themselves “too big to fail”, banks ensured that they had to be rescued in 2008.
Much of current economic policy seems to be driven by the need to prop up banks, whether it is record-low interest rates across the developed world or the recent provision of virtually unlimited liquidity by the once-staid European Central Bank. The long-term effects of these policies, which may be hard to reverse, are difficult to assess.
It is tougher to argue that the financial sector has inhibited growth in other areas of the economy. Indeed, both banks and venture-capital groups play a vital role in supporting new companies. Nevertheless, it is possible that the extremely high rewards in the financial industry might have diverted talented people away from other activities that could have helped rich economies to grow more sustainably. Furthermore, those high rewards could derive from “rent-seeking” by the financial sector, in the form of fees, charges and spreads, that have acted as a tax on the rest of the economy.
…
Just as a ship’s hull acquires barnacles, a government naturally attracts all kinds of supplicants and subsidy-seekers. If such behaviour is unchecked, then eventually the system may grind to a halt.
http://www.economist.com/node/21552589
I’d like to see these three graphs combined
http://billmoyers.com/ see inequality rising graph
GDP growth
http://www.marketobservation.com/blogs/index.php/2011/02/17/title-282?blog=10
National Debt -
zfacts.com/p/318.html
Public Debt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png
Average Salary - I’d like median inflation adj
http://visualizingeconomics.com/2008/05/04/average-income-in-the-united-states-1913-2006/
The story
As workers lost influence trade rules changed and wages fell or flatlined as the US gov and elite used debt to hide the fact that the US middle class was in a pot of boiling water. Turn the heat up slowly we are now cooked.
The ONLY people blaming unions and ignoring the wealth gap that is worse than most 3rd and 2nd world countries:
“Income inequality is more severe in the U.S. than it is in nearly all of West Africa, North Africa, Europe, and Asia. We’re on par with some of the world’s most troubled countries, and not far from the perpetual conflict zones of Latin American and Sub-Saharan Africa. Our income gap is also getting worse, having widened both in absolute and relative terms since the 1980s.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/map-us-ranks-near-bottom-on-income-inequality/245315/
…are the 1% and their sock puppets.
The problem with Atlantic. This is also the magazine that supports all kinds of bailouts to WallStreet and money printing. If you want to close the gap, stop bailouts and stop money printing.
On that we agree
This was the original Tea Party position - Which is why big money moved into leadership positions in the movement and diverted it. This was the position of OWS which is why the elites press marginalized it by showing the fringes of the movement and I wouldn’t be surprised if some attempt was made to infiltrate the groups and disrupt and discredit it.
Agree — very disappointed in the way OWS and the Tea Party evolved. Kind of like the Reform Party. Get any success, and any new group will be overrun by the nuts and or interest groups.
Agree — very disappointed in the way OWS and the Tea Party evolved.
A neighbor-friend works in Downtown Tucson. Last fall, when Occupy Tucson was camping near her office, she’d go over to the site and watch the fistfights.
Apparently, the trouble started brewing after the Occupiers got kicked out of Armory Park. They went Downtown, and it seemed like the encampment became a magnet for every loose screw, drifter, and ne-er do well who ever passed through Tucson.
Right after Thanksgiving, I stopped by the camp, and one of the stalwarts regaled me with stories of all the people who were just camping out, but doing nothing to help the larger community. According to this guy, they were real first-class freeloaders.
I suggested a Catholic Worker approach. Simply put, the Catholic Worker communities deal with some of the most down-and-outest people imaginable. But, once you’re part of the Catholic Worker, you’re expected to do something to keep things going. You can’t sit back and think that things will be handed to you.
I think my mention of the word “Catholic” turned this guy off because he was no receptive to my suggestion. Maybe it was a little too religious for his taste. I don’t know.
To be honest, I think he was so burned out with Occupy that he just needed to step back from it.
It amazes me how many of the local homeless consider themselves Republicans.
Tax cuts will mean better, more lucrative panhandling, by putting more money in the hands of the rich people.
The Atlantic did NOT pull those numbers out of thin air.
Nice knee jerk reaction, though.
No one’s disputing the numbers. Maybe I should. I was just pointing the hypocrisy of the mouth piece of the elites.
The Atlantic is too weird. It’s why I don’t read it.
Just quick source of the chart that I verified with other search returns for this post.
The Atlantic is too weird. It’s why I don’t read it.
I maintain three periodicals: The Economist, The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Sadly I don’t have the time to read them cover to cover, but I find the gems. I also leave them at the office cafeteria magazine rack when I’m finished with them.
I liked this response in the comments:
The problem occurs when inequality hits a certain threshold. This is usually when a critical mass of the population feels that they are unable to gainfully prophet and contribute to the system. At this point, law and order begin to breakdown as a large percentage of the citizenry assume they have no stake in social order.
It is difficult to predict these events as each society has a different capacity to absorb dissonance. The United States is an example of a nation which has so far been able to cushion the effects of inequality.
There are likely a few reasons why this has occurred. Despite the separatist/dissonant rhetoric designed to appeal to disgruntled conservative constituents, the reality is that the US has one of the most ingrained nationalistic ideologies of any nation. Politicians work within the framework of the present system, no matter what they say. Strong institutions in the States serve to glue the fabric of the society together, ideologically, culturally and economically. Relative freedom of ideas also serve as a pressure release, allowing the blame game to be channeled and directed, often at a revolving door of presidents who’s policies are disconcerningly similar and dependent on static lobby/corporate oligarchy.
Thus being poor in America is not akin to poverty in other areas of the world. Our infrastructure and geographic landmass serve as a pressure release system, allowing people to emigrate from ailing regions and immigrate to areas with a better economy. Food is subsidized, remaining a minor expenditure (4%) over the 10% of our northern neighbor and up to 40% people spend in poor regions of the globe.
Probably the most important factor of all is the ideological belief in “The American Dream.” It is an ideal that offers a rags-to-riches path for prosperity. The reality unfortunately is that this path has become so difficult, that generally only the brilliant, industrious, well educated and well connected ever achieve the income that would be considered wealthy ($250 000 + annually). Regardless, many Americans are still fooled into believing this goal is actually attainable. With 40% of the nation earning next to 0% of the nations income, and the top 10% earning 80%, the mountain to climb has become very steep. The American Dream is a fallacy that keeps the oligarchy secure via the compliance of the people.
The second Gilded Age has arrived.
The last time inequality was so high it directly or indirectly triggered a series of events that toppled governments the world over, two world wars, the rise of fanatics, the holocaust, the optimal conditions for the spread of a plague like flu, and a world wide depression.
Will we let inequality continue to grow? We may be gambling with the stability of our society, or risking another series of global catastrophes.
Ah, somebody gets it.
It gets better!
The current heatwave and drought now show that we cannot escape global warming within our national boundaries by simply moving north. 100+F around the Great Lakes? We’re screwed.
Welcome to northern Mexico!
Seriously I grew up in Texas. The midwest feels about the same these days. I hope the PR guys running the show for climate change deniers have come up with a new angle. At first it was there is no such thing as global warming now the line is that it isn’t affected by the ever growing human population of the world.
I thought “we” liked to make fun of the people in the winter who claim that cold snaps were evidence that disproved climate change, based on the idea that real climate change was a long term thing and had nothing to do with today’s weather?
“based on the idea that real climate change was a long term thing and had nothing to do with today’s weather?”
Agree! But it is likely helpful to point to weather extremes today (such as a heat record being broken, if it’s part of a pattern of more records being broken per year or decade than is ‘normal’. Even record cold snaps are important in that context. Our planet, like home prices, constantly tries to find an equilibrium, and overshoots the top and bottom in the process. More extreme conditions all the way around, as mother nature reacts to the *average* temperature of the Earth rising just a bit.
But it is likely helpful to point to weather extremes today
I disagree, because I think that it feeds the frenzy of each side pointing to today’s weather as evidence of climate change. Which makes any legitimate scientific points get lost in the cacophony of shouting between ignorant people on both sides…
The issues:
- Is the Earth, in fact, warming?
- If so, how much of that is caused by man?
- Will intervention have an affect?
- How much money/jobs/hardship will intervention cost?
My suggestion, instead of these stupid
“emissions trading” schemes?. A Carbon/Fuel Tax. Nothing like a tax to promote more efficient use, or alternatives.
(It works in the aviation business. Not many “fuel hog” jets flying anymore.)
Payable in cash. On Earth Day.
My suggestion, … A Carbon/Fuel Tax. Nothing like a tax…
Guess we can never have to much taxation?
“I think that it feeds the frenzy of each side pointing to today’s weather as evidence of climate change. Which makes any legitimate scientific points get lost in the cacophony of shouting between ignorant people on both sides…”
I can’t argue with that, but I think that more and more people, as the info is readily available, are at least finding out the very basics on their own, such as the diff. between short term weather and long-term climate. Everyone? No. But since it’s in the news alot, more on both sides of the issue see it in their interest to educate themselves at least little so that they don’t sound like fools when discussing it.
That’s an optimistic assessment, IMO. But then again I get most of my news here, any more…I don’t really get exposed to the average person that much now that I think about it.
Greg Mankew had a great solution
Tax gas and coal etc
Use all the proceeds to reduce or eliminate the payroll taxes and subsidize public transportation.
ie make employing Americans cheaper and send them home with more money while making fuel consumption more expensive.
Libertarian candidate Harry Browne had a better idea. Sell off all the land the feds have bottled up and use to money to give everyone on social security the option to stay in or leave. Then end the program going forward. We’d get many millions of acres into supply and solve an entitlement problem that’s headed to disaster.
A carbon tax puts money in the hands of the government. Cap and trade puts money in the hands of Wall Street. This makes cap and trade an effective subsidy for the banks. This is probably not the desired outcome…
It’s strange to have cabin fever in mid-summer. But it’s just too bloody hot to be outside, except to water the plants. We are supposed to get some relief from the heat next week, when I will be in Florida.
The current heatwave and drought now show that we cannot escape global warming within our national boundaries
The issue was never whether global climate change occurred. Evidence of heating and cooling cycles, ice ages, droughts, etc are clearly evident in the geologic record.
The issue has always been whether climate change is exacerbated by human industry and if so, how much.
“The issue has always been whether climate change is exacerbated by human industry and if so, how much.”
The issue is also: Will we ever have enough data to answer that question to the satisfaction of enough people? Perhaps not. So the issue then becomes, is it better to err on the side of caution with something like this, or hope for the best?
“The issue has always been whether climate change is exacerbated by human industry and if so, how much.”
I have little doubt that human industry and its spinoffs are exacerbating climate change. How much and what to do about it are open questions.
It may already be too late for controlling emissions to have enough of an effect. I favor investigating technological solutions (like emitting sulfer into the upper atmosphere to partially block the sun’s rays). I think it would be easier to implement a technological solution than to get society to change its ways. And it would be useful to know several effective, low-cost ways to impact climate, both hotter and colder.
Sticking our collective heads in the sand will not make climate change go away.
“emitting sulfer into the upper atmosphere to partially block the sun’s rays”
I drove a CC researcher to the airport a couple of years ago who said that they were pondering the effects of “mass clouding” the earth. Perhaps sulfur was part of that equation, I don’t know. But I do know I didn’t like what I heard. Clouds, while blocking the suns rays effectively, also prevent heat from escaping at night. Overall, I suppose it could result in a net temperature loss. But it sounds like one of those nice ideas that might have “unforeseen consequences”. Well, he didn’t say they were going to push the idea, just that they were pondering its’ effects.
I am not sure that it is the best idea - it comes from the effects of large volcanic eruptions, like Pinatubo, that drop the temperature worldwide for several years. And I think it is actually sulfur dioxide or some such.
I just think it would be good to have some feasability studies done on various technological solutions that could have a quick impact if we need it in the next 50 years or so.
I also think we should be pursuing conservation of energy resources and reduction of pollution. Global warming is not our only environmental issue. We have the means to make this planet a much less livable place.
“We have the means to make this planet a much less livable place.”
I know you meant the reverse, but there’s truth in it as well.
Of course, we never had 100 degrees before nor had any droughts.
We are so doomed!
Thousands of new records set already this summer.
I was in Texas last year during their drought. It was brutal beyond belief.
Yes, we are doomed if those conditions can occur as far north as the Canadian border.
“Of course, we never had 100 degrees before nor had any droughts”
Your point is taken. There’s always going to be extreme heat or cold or wind or rain somewhere that is out of the ordinary for a particular region. But the question is, are these extremes popping up more often than before (past centuries, decades, years)?
More and more, inequality is self-imposed. My nephew prefers to sit and watch TV over achieving. He is perfectly content. Age 36. He has friends who do the same.
Everyone is born equal. The people to run away from are those who pine for equal outcome. My Colt 45 helps prevent that though!
Wish me luck.
I just pitched one of those big music industry magazines. Maybe-just-maybe they’ll hire me to shoot something from Tucson’s music scene.
I also submitted three gardening photos to a major magazine.
And in the department of big things that just happened, an Australian website, FreelanceSwitch, just ran my 100th article. I started writing for FreelanceSwitch back in July 2008.
So, in this den of growling housing bears is some good news from Slim.
Good luck!
And don’t forget your new career as a DJ….and public speaker…
Thanks, NYCdj.
I’ve been taking a bit of a breather from the radio station. Perhaps it was due to those three shifts in one week. Five hours on the air, including two where I was tech-ing (running the mixing board) for a brand-new deejay class student.
Looking back on that week, I like to call it the week that KXCI tried to kill me.
Well, yesterday morning, I got on the bike and went in search of fun and merriment. And I found it. Human-powered parade in the first Tucson neighborhood that I lived in when I moved here 25 years ago. People there made me feel so welcome that I’ve gone back to that parade many times since.
After the parade and after-party ended, I went back home. Called Mom and Dad.
No news to report, other than Mom doesn’t want to go to Homecoming this fall. Dad is the reason. According to Mom, he’s pretty much been written off by the engineering college — I guess they’re just biding their time, waiting for his bequest.
So, looks like no more family trips to Ann Arbor. Probably just as well. The last few times I went were just me and Dad, and he was becoming more and more of a challenge to deal with.
Well, phone call with Mom ends. I check my e-mail. It’s the radio station. Would you do a show this Saturday or next?
Next Saturday was my reply.
I already have a show next Sunday afternoon, so that means three hours on the air next weekend. Times, themes, and other details coming soon to a housing bubble blog near you.
On the public speaking front, I have a gig with this group in August. Details being worked out as we, ahem, speak.
Sweet! Here’s wishing you much success!
Good luck, Slim!
(fingers crossed…)
Taxes should not be going to FIRE sector profits, only to public goods.
Buying or insuring bad loans is just funneling tax money to the FIRE sector.
Bad loans were at the core of this crisis. I appreciate that politicians are well funded by the FIRE sector, and as a result have no issue with funneling tax money back to them, but it’s really a societally destructive use of tax money. This goes back to the “Extractive Elites” problem.
Federal Housing Administration rescinds tough new rules on mortgage applicants
By Kenneth R. Harney, Published: June 28 | Updated: Friday, June 29, 6:55 AM
Washington Post
In a policy switch that could be important to thousands of applicants seeking low-down-payment home mortgages, the Federal Housing Administration has rescinded tough new credit restrictions that had been scheduled to take effect July 1.
The policy change would have affected borrowers whose national credit bureau files have one or more collections or disputed-bill accounts where the aggregate amounts were $1,000 or greater. Some mortgage industry experts estimate that if the now-rescinded rules had gone into effect, as many as one in three FHA loan applicants would have had difficulty being approved.
Under the withdrawn plan, borrowers with collections or disputed unpaid bills would have been required to “resolve” them before their loan could be closed, either by paying them off in full or by arranging a schedule of repayments. In effect, if you couldn’t resolve the outstanding credit issue, you might not be able to obtain FHA financing.
The rescinded policy would have replaced more lenient rules allowing loan officers to discuss the accounts with applicants and determine whether they represented material risks that the borrower might fail to make the mortgage payments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/federal-housing-administration-rescinds-tough-new-rules-on-mortgage-applicants/2012/06/28/gJQAqFFx9V_story.html
Taxes should not be going to FIRE sector profits, only to public goods.
Buying or insuring bad loans is just funneling tax money to the FIRE sector.
I agree.
Another “wealth extraction” program. The hammer businesses use to turn disputed matters over to a “collection agency”.
Had a pizzing contest with a local business recently. I disagreed with their judgement. They said we don’t give a crap; pay up, or they would turn it over to a collection agency, and put a ding on my credit report.
Kiss $400 worth of discretionary spending bye-bye…….Gotta serve the new business paradigm, which is to screw your customers six ways from Sunday with fees/hidden charges/petty larceny.
Thought about paying it at the local office, then call the cops and have them arrest the office manager for theft. Unfortunately, all the would probably tell me is to take it to small claims. Yeah, right.
And while I’m ranting……it pizzes me to no end that tire stores, have you pay for the tire, then pay more to mount them on the wheel, then to balance them. Then pay to dispose of the old tire. Then some try to charge you for nitrogen (the biggest ripoff). They used to include this in the price of the tire. It isn’t like everybody is going to take them home, and mount/balance them there.
Nickled and dimed where the customer is always wrong is why I hate this country more and more each year.
What are you talking about? You can still use electronics for a month or two and return to BestBuy & Targets with no questions asked. You can do with clothes and many other items, too. If you are talking about fees here, fees there, don’t forget to thank your governments.
If government gets too carried away with fees, (theoretically) I have a moderate amount of control over that. Maybe not in one particular instance, but there is this thing called “payback”.
Not so with businesses. Other than promising yourself you won’t do business with them again. And you are still out the $400. I could retire, if I screwed everyone I met out of $400.
And besides, this “We do it because everyone else is doing it” excuse is getting old. Just because “everyone is doing it”, doesn’t make it right.
Think of business and politicians as eight-year-old kids. Always somebody else’s fault. Rationalizations like “He/she did it first”….. “If I don’t like it, I’ll take my stuff and go play somewhere else”. Temper tantrums. Calling people bad names. Eating all the cookies, then denying it on a stack of Bibles. Hedging statements of fact.
Best Buy charges a re-stocking fee for returns.
And if anything, fees are a sign of LESS government, not more. Fees target the cost only to those who use the service. Fee Land is a Galtian paradise where you have to pay a toll just to leave your driveway.
I’d say “Shhhhhhhh……..don’t give them any ideas”. Except it’s already in the works.
One of the reasons I’m keeping my old cars. All that EMF put out by the old fashioned ignition system will interfere with the GPS/digital brains of a monitoring system.
Speaking of which, dug into the control system of the new-to-me car over the last couple of days thanks to a new tool that just became available. Used to be just having a computer seemed overly complex…now the code itself is getting crazy. So many tables. Still fun to learn, though. My first exposure to PID process control…
I’m not happy about the ever rising government fees as well, which ARE predominately state and local in my region.
I’m still dinking with the system on my old Caddy. Nice to be able to check for stored/current codes, without taking it to a shop/dealer. Being able to check/interrogate/clear codes (plus some helpful info on the Caddy owner’s website), has probably saved me a couple of thousand bucks by fixing/troubleshooting stuff myself.
(Has a hub bearing going bad a while back…..couldn’t isolate which one, until the traction/skid control sensor failed on the bad bearing)
It just turned over 176,000 miles. Paint and interior still look decent, all of the electronics still work. Makes me think that GM put a lot more quality/effort into their top of the line stuff, than they did the bottom feeders.
Had to change the fuel tank pump/level sender last week. On about 90% of the cars/trucks I’ve seen, you have to drop the tank. Not so on this car…….has an access panel in the trunk. A half hour job, if you are slow.
About a 1.5 on the “1-10 PITA-meter”. Would have been zero, except I didn’t have a spanner wrench for the retaining plate/nut.
Hmmm, nice.
Fee Land is a Galtian paradise where you have to pay a toll just to leave your driveway
^love this!
The FIRE sector was taken over by the organized crime back in the 1980s. After they found out it was the best way to launder money, they soon realized it also the best way to legitimize fraud, theft, extortion, and loan sharking.
Then they got creative…
Ivy-league MBA can be very helpful if you want to rob people.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-squeezed-higher-rents-tight-050516177.html
Great article:
“studio apartment outside Boston rent had spiked from $725 to $995…
Just 4.7 percent of U.S. apartment units are vacant
It is now cheaper to buy a home than it is to rent in virtually every major city in the United States,
the average credit score is 762 for a consumer securing a mortgage backed by government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae. But 65 percent of Americans have scores below 750.
In the 12 months ended in May, rents rose 14 percent in San Francisco and 11 percent in San Jose, California, according to Zillow. Last year in Minneapolis, they spiked 11 percent even as home values sank 8 percent…”
—-
But 65 percent of Americans have scores below 750.
I guess everyone is outta luck if you had over that score for a decade or two before the crash….no mercy for the unlucky.
Not in coastal part of LA. Still far cheaper to rent.
It is almost like the powers in charge are forcing people to buy a house and become a debt slave for life…
One night last spring, David Hall returned home to his studio apartment outside Boston to learn that his monthly rent had spiked from $725 to $995.
It would be much cheaper for the maintenance manager to buy a nearby starter house than to stay put.
The stuff you see when Vampire squids run the show.
My “Cardboard box under a San Diego overpass” plan is looking like a sensible alternative.
“My “Cardboard box under a San Diego overpass” plan is looking like a sensible alternative.”
I like my “van down by the river” option better.
You don’t have to play. You can keep your powder dry and wait till the market resumes some stability. You can keep improving your net worth.
Robert Shiller was recently interviewed on Bloomberg radio/tv. He admitted that housing as an investment has been a loser for the past century. He said the only reason an individual should buy a house is if he wants to live in it.
Also - people need to make personal decisions about what’s best for them and their finances. If you think buying a house is going to improve your net worth at some point, it’s a good idea. If not, then it’s not a good idea.
There’s this other issue going on too - there’s a lot of building in the rental market. With new construction and the government selling foreclosed houses to big investors, to rent out. That should take some of the edge off the rental spike in the next year or two.
If they’re going to spray tax money at the FIRE sector, the apartment builders gonna get some love too
“Analysts at Reis also warn that supply in the apartment sector is coming fast. They estimate 70,000 units to come online in 2012, double the rate of 2011, and around 150,000-200,000 in 2013.
“While this kind of supply growth need not push apartment fundamentals back into contractionary territory, it is important for individual investors to consider how greater competition in specific submarkets caused by the proliferation of apartment rentals will impact their property’s or portfolio’s performance,” notes the Reis report.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48083498
Candidly, that’s not a lot of apartments.
~130,000,000 housing units in the US.
~35% as rentals = ~45,000,000
200,000 = ~0.5% increase in supply
Candidly, you’re a liar.
You don’t have to play. You can keep your powder dry and wait till the market resumes some stability.
You are assuming that one’s rent is reasonable…
Here’s a clue about landlords: They’ll take all your income in rent if they could. It’s called greed. Lust for money. Sound familiar? It’s everywhere in America. This can’t be a surprise.
So landlords try to leverage your desire for stability into rent increases. But the market is glutted with properties. Don’t reward their predation with complacency. Reward predation with punishment instead. The 6mo+ of the empty apartment or house is good punishment for trying to screw a tenant.
This is an excellent point. Landlords will raise the rent 10% a year because they think that to the renter that 10% is a smaller price to pay rather than rent. This happened to me this year landlord wanted to raise rent from $1800 to $2150, we said no way and are going to be moving into a comparable apartment around the corner for $1700 while landlord has our apartment listed on craigslist for $1800, which doesn’t sound like bright move for the landlord until I started talking to my neighbor who has lived in the building for 8 years and is paying $2700 not because maket rates have gone up, but because he’s just had a 10% increase every year. I feel like hanging up signs in the elevator advertising what rents in the neighborhood are going for. (For comparison sake this is in Riverdale (Bronx) NY).
rather than rent.
Should have said rather than move.
You think the apartment managers aren’t wise to people moving? In my area, all the rents on comparable properties were comparable. There is no such thing as a competition lowering prices in needs industries. One company raises prices by $200 and the competitor raises prices by $175. That’s the modern “price war.”
My LL invited me to move, knowing full well there was no place to move TO. They also know that new inventory is not nearly as desirable because it’s farther out with a worse commute.
Its not that they aren’t wise to it its that they are playing the long game and they are more than happy to lose one tenant paying $X to get another tenant also paying $X that in a year would be willing to pay $X+10% and another 10% the year after. The issue is market rents here are still $X but the managers are willing to take a gamble that you are willing to pay above market for the convenience of not moving every year. Which if you are a FB turned landlord isn’t smart, but if you are dealing with a larger number of units is worth the gamble.
And in some cases, when the landlord is looking to put money into the units to get more on the open market for rents, they WANT you to move.
Ok, so we made an offer on a short sale a couple months back on a house the wife and I could see living in for a long time. The problem seems to be that the deadbeat only seems to have it listed to pretend to the bank he’s trying to sell it and is just sitting on the offer. There are plenty of houses in the sea out here (Long Island) so I’m not really concerned about this particular house, but it got me thinking that this guy and presumably others don’t understand the implications of the expiration of the “The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007″ at the end of the year. I was thinking of putting together a “scare the crap out of the deadbeat letter” that I could submit with short sale offers to illustrate the benefit of them aggressively trying to get the bank to approve the short sale. Any thoughts as to how I might phrase such a letter so it makes it sound like I care about their best interests?
Just a straightforward “BTW” letter will suffice. Assuming the deadbeat can read.
This also assumes of course, that Congress won’t extend the program to “Save the Housing Market/Banks/Realtors”.
Which would be sweet if the Republicans get elected. First thing they will be confronted with, is another bailout bill with no Democrats/Socialists around to blame……extend the program, or watch the dominos start to fall.
Headline: “Romney attempts to herd Tea Party Cats”
Even if they eventually do extend it hopefully it will get these deadbeats moving faster.
LOW LOWball it…..because the bank will accept your offer on Jan 2,2013
Based on where I see the market, its lowball or no ball at all.
“Any thoughts as to how I might phrase such a letter so it makes it sound like I care about their best interests?”
I do not know a single person who has succeeded in this endeavor. Good luck. The pipes will be filled with concrete before they let us responsible “bottom feeders” have it.
Welcome to the dawn of the age of ransom.
Let’s… start… R U N N I N G !
but it got me thinking that this guy and presumably others don’t understand the implications of the expiration of the “The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007″ at the end of the year.
I’ve also been wondering why the media, which reports on real estate every single day, is not running more stories about this.
Question for a tax person out there:
If the guy has a basis of $600k, and a mortgage of $500k, and the market value is $400k, and he sells, isn’t the following true in 2013:
He has a loss of $200k since he paid $600k and sold for $400k; AND
He gets debt forgiveness income of $100k.
On a net basis (excluding the effect of capital gain vs. ordinary income, etc.), he has a loss of $100k, right?
Today, the only difference is that he would have a loss of $200k.
In any event, with a loss associated with a primary residence, is he limited on the amount of such a loss that he can take in any given year to something far less than $100k?
I think guys are only totally hosed if they bought for $200k a LONG time ago, and then refinanced out $500k, then sold for $400k.
Then they have a capital gain of $200k, PLUS debt forgiveness income of $100k…and no cash with which to pay the tax either…
So let me see if I have this straight…….
-”Penalty” for not buying unaffordable insurance = TAX
-Premiums paid to free-enterprise, US American insurance company, in case you get a back strain pulling yourself up by your bootstraps = NOT A TAX (in fact, is deductible)
Funny, no one ever called mandatory car insurance a “tax”.
(This assumes, of course, that they will accept you as a customer)
If, after all the song and dance, after all the cheering and shouting and handwaving has stopped, I have to pull out my checkbook and write a check to the government, it’s a tax.
Unless it’s a fee.
Another person struck by celebratory gunfire.
“A man watching fireworks at the Safety Harbor city marina on Bayshore Boulevard Wednesday night was injured when a falling bullet pierced the bill of his baseball cap and hit his face. ”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/man-injured-by-falling-bullet-while-watching-safety-harbor-fireworks/1238858
I was thinking of going out to watch the fireworks last night. But, being the bicyclist that I am, I wasn’t interested in riding home on roads full of drunks. Not to mention being under a bullet complying with the laws of physics.
So, I stayed home. By the time the local fireworks display started, I was heading off to dreamland.
Drove down to spend the Fourth with my daughter in Wichita. The cops were out in force. Drunk drivers didn’t stand a chance.
21st Century sign of US Independence: Fireworks stands all had “Visa Accepted Here” signs.
Nothing says “America” like lighting off $600 worth of Chinese fireworks. paid for by borrowing money @20% from JPMChase.
Nothing says “America” like lighting off $600 worth of Chinese fireworks. paid for by borrowing money @20% from JPMChase.
Around here, the only fireworks I heard were the city’s display. That was a big surprise because Tucson usually sounds like a war zone on the 4th of July.
There was a supposed “ban” in Wichita, due to the fire danger.
The grass looked pretty green to me. Usually the first sign that they haven’t had rain in a while. Saw several fire trucks running around with their lights on, but no fires……Maybe Uncle Fester let a bottle rocket get away from him, and set fire to his trouser trout.
Evidently, Wichita sounded like a firefight in Fallujah since about 4pm Tuesday. In my daughter’s suburban-ish nabe, cars were driving around with their lights on, due to “Fog”. The “rich” folks (living in the $200K house development down the road) had “the good stuff”.
“Wichita sounded like a firefight in Fallujah since about 4pm ”
Dang, for a second I thought you were singing a line from this classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID-DEJryG8M
I actually love that L.A. bans the sale of fireworks. Even if they permitted the sale, responsible people who know and love the true meaning of the Fourth would not risk starting fires or scaring off neighbors’ pets. The commies and other such boobs are the ones who would set them off.
I could never understand why in Phoenix and Tampa it is legal to buy and sell them but illegal to set them off in the environs. It is an invitation to all the commies to go nuts.
As a result in my part of LA it was peaceful last night. You mainly heard Redondo Beach scheduled event.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18699445
The city of Stockton, California, has become the latest in a string of American cities to have gone broke and declared themselves bankrupt.
A half-empty marina, a baseball stadium, a sports arena and new hotels - projects that Stockton hoped would spur urban regeneration - became a lethal financial burden on the city as the recession hit home.
Starting to gain some traction on a major Police blog in the UK
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-shape-of-things-to-come/
“……marina, a baseball stadium, a sports arena, and new hotels….”
And of course all of the local business/property owners/developers fought this tooth and nail.
Especially when it was funded by the taxpayers, and was to be paid back by visitors from out of town, paying taxes on hotels/restaurants/rental cars/etc.
A marina? In Stockton?
I don’t get it.
A marina? In Stockton?
I don’t get it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=A+marina%3F+In+Stockton%3F+I+don%E2%80%99t+get+it.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento-San_Joaquin_River_Delta
Our full-service marina features an extensive selection of houseboats, ski boats, patio boats and V-hull fishing boats, as well as ski equipment rental packages. We also offer a lakeside grocery and tackle store, and complete marina services. The marina is located just five miles from Stockton, where you can experience the nautical ambiance of the waterfront area,
http://www.sevencrown.com/lakes/california_delta/paradise_point/index.htm
Posted: 5:59 p.m. Thursday, July 5, 2012
Few Floridians apply for foreclosure compensation
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Florida residents wronged during a foreclosure could receive up to $125,000 in compensation through a federal program launched in November, but just 3 percent of homeowners contacted statewide have applied to have their cases reviewed.
More than 625,919 Florida homeowners, or previous owners, were sent letters by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency alerting them they are eligible for a free foreclosure review. If lender misconduct is found during the audit it may result in financial fixes that range from the correction of a credit report to $125,000.
As of the end of May, just 20,212 Floridians requested the review. Nationwide, 4.3 million letters were mailed with about 4.4 percent of recipients — 193,630 — asking to be included in the program, called the Independent Foreclosure Review.
The deadline for applications was extended for the second time last month to Sept. 30 when the comptroller’s office also announced new monetary guidelines that will be used to award damages.
While some of the bank failings eligible for compensation cut a large swath, such as not soliciting people for a loan modification or not approving a modification within a specific timeframe, there is concern that the plan is an empty promise.
“If you’re waiting for the government cavalry to ride in and make everything alright, I’m sad to say you’ll be waiting a long time,” said foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim, of Oppenheim Law in Weston. “Time and time again homeowners have looked to government programs for justice, but with a decidedly mixed bag of results.”
In the new compensation framework, a homeowner whose loan modification was mistakenly denied could be eligible for $5,000, have their foreclosure rescinded and a new lower loan payment approved. A person whose home was repossessed during a trial loan modification period could receive the full $125,000 if the lender is unable to rescind the foreclosure.
Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said the nearly 200,000 applications received is a significant number and that it’s unfair to compare that to the 4.3 million letters sent. The letters, he said, went to everyone who faced a foreclosure during the eligibility period of 2009 and 2010 and not just the number of people who may have been financially harmed because of lender wrongdoing.
“I would not characterize the number as a few,” Hubbard said about the applications received.
The audit is part of an agreement reached in April 2011 by bank regulators and the nation’s largest mortgage servicers after revelations that deficient foreclosure documents were used to repossess homes. The program, which is separate from the $25 billion attorneys general settlement reached in February, is also selecting files on its own to review. The total number of files slated for review is 338,447.
Some homeowner advocates say a lack of awareness as well as distrust of foreclosure rescue schemes could be hurting participation.
Struggling homeowners, already under a daily mail assault, may unwittingly toss the review offers, which advocates said are written in legalese more appropriate for attorneys than borrowers. Just 5.3 percent of the letters came back as undeliverable.
“Both the cover letter and the form appear to have been written by lawyers for lawyers,” said Alys Cohen, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, during congressional testimony last year. “The name, ‘independent foreclosure review,’ sounds like something dreamed up by a foreclosure rescue scammer.”
Oppenheim said while some “meaningful forms of restitution” are offered by the program, many scenarios faced by homeowners are omitted, including so-called robo-signing.
“In the 14 possible violations detailed in the framework for the Independent Foreclosure Review process, you won’t find the word fraud,” Oppenheim said.
The framework does list the failure of a bank to have “standing”, or the right to repossess a home, but the remedy is listed as “remediation determined on a case-by-case basis.”
“I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t apply for a review,” Oppenheim said. “But what I am saying is you can’t count on it to rescue you.”
For more information, go to http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com or call 1-888-952-9105.
——————————————————————————–
Homeowners wronged during a foreclosure could receive between $1,000 and $125,000 depending on the error.
Loan modification never solicited by servicer; offer loan modification, pay $1,000;
Loan modification application denied in error; rescind foreclosure, pay $5,000;
Foreclosure occurred during a trial loan modification; rescind foreclosure, pay $15,000;
Foreclosure completed while borrower paid on a forbearance plan; if rescission of foreclosure is not possible, pay $60,000 plus equity.
Foreclosure completed during a trial loan modification; if rescission of foreclosure is not possible, pay $125,000 plus equity.
How you can qualify for a review
Eligibility requirements include:
Must have been in some process of foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2010.
Servicer was one of 27 participating in the review. For a list, go to http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com.
Property is your primary residence.
Source: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
It’s gonna be hard to get people who committed mortgage fraud to apply to the government with many details about their mortgage, regardless of the opportunity.
“Loan modification never solicited by servicer; offer loan modification, pay $1,000;”
That sounds like something in the booking blotter.
Hey baby you want a Loan modification?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/s/blotter/ - 61k -
Detroit Could Become ‘Zombieland’ If Developer Has His Way
By: Dr. Johnny Nesman | 2 days ago
What better use of the run-down and abandoned buildings in Detroit than to turn them into a zombie-land apocolypse?
Detroit has seen more population erosion than any major U.S. city in the last 30 years. Once bustling with over 1.8 million residents in 1950 during the automotive boom, the 2010 census shows the city now has fewer people than Seattle (714,000)! In addition, Detroit has become famous for it’s block after block of abandoned homes, churches and car factories. These shocking images have you thinking, this is real? They look like something out of a war zone, or an apocolyptic movie.
Now, a developer named Mark Siwak has an ambitious plan to turn 200 acres of abandoned downtown buildings into a zombie apocolypse theme park. Critics say it’s an insensitive way to deal with the city’s problems. Well perhaps, but such a park, says Siwak, would drive in massive amounts of tourism, employ workers and bring back life to the city. Park-goers would be exposed to a cityscape not different than Will Smith in “I Am Legend” – run down buildings, zombies popping out from everywhere, hiding in rusty cars. The official terminology being used is ‘live-action terror theme park’. It’s never been done on a large scale, and with the growing obsession with zombies that shows no sign of slowing down, why not?
Yes, the critics say it’s insensitive, but until the leaders of Detroit can come up with a better way to curb the bleeding of money and residents, we like it.
http://newstalk870.am/detroit-could-become-zombieland-if-developer-has-way/ - 74k -
When life hands you lemons…
… snort bath salts.
What is with this silly fixation on zombies? Purely fictional. Not inspiring at all and a waste of time.
Florida realtors snort bath salts.