The Housing Bubble

Up way too early again. Long story as to why.

All I can say is this: I’m glad there’s an HBB. What a rollicking ride it’s been for, oh, the last six years. So happy to have found this party back in the spring of 2006.

The DC tax appeals board might be corrupt and artificially lowering property assessment values for rich developers? You don’t say?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/surge-in-dc-tax-office-settlements-reduces-commercial-property-owners-bills/2012/08/07/5af75372-d1c4-11e1-8bea-6dc0b4879aab_story.html?hpid=z1

The $2.6 billion in property value reductions is more than eight times the total from 2011, when the tax office agreed to 164 settlements for a total reduction of $305 million, city records show. In 2010, there were 11 settlements with a total reduction of $43 million. In 2009, there were 35 settlements with $83 million in reductions.

George signed off on a settlement that dropped the building’s taxable value to $181 million, a 24 percent reduction. The decision reduced the building’s tax bill by about $1 million. No explanation was listed on the settlement form.

AUGUST 7, 2012, 3:18 P.M. ET.

For Unpaid College Loans, Feds Dock Social Security

More retirees are falling behind on student debt, and Uncle Sam is coming after their benefits.

By ANNAMARIA ANDRIOTIS

It’s no secret that falling behind on student loan payments can squash a borrower’s hopes of building savings, buying a home or even finding work. Now, thousands of retirees are learning that defaulting on student-debt can threaten something that used to be untouchable: their Social Security benefits.

According to government data, compiled by the Treasury Department at the request of SmartMoney.com, the federal government is withholding money from a rapidly growing number of Social Security recipients who have fallen behind on federal student loans. From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees’ Social Security checks on those grounds. That’s nearly double the pace of the department’s enforcement in 2011; it’s up from around 60,000 cases in all of 2007 and just 6 cases in 2000.

Roughly 2.2 million student-loan debtors were 60 and older during the first quarter of 2012, and nearly 10% of their loans were 90 days or more past due, up from 6% during the first quarter of 2005, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “It’s really a unique problem we haven’t had to face before, and it’s only going to grow,” says Robert Applebaum, founder of Student Debt Crisis, a nonprofit advocacy group in Staten Island, N.Y.

The government’s withholding power also extends to Social Security disability benefits. Tammy Brown of Redding, Calif. says that the government has been taking $179 out of her Social Security disability check each month for the past five years. Brown, 52, became disabled in 1986 after being involved in a car accident. Unable to work, she fell behind on her student loan payments. She says the Social Security check is now too small to cover her food and medical bills, so she quit taking prescription pain pills. “It’s kind of hard to live on this amount of money,” she says.

Attorneys who specialize in defending debtors have seen a sea change as the government has stepped up its enforcement. For most of the last four years, Joshua Cohen, an attorney in Rocky Hill, Conn., has represented clients in their dealings with banks and collection agencies. It was only in the past year, Cohen says, that he started getting a growing number of calls from retirees. Now, Cohen says, “I’m getting calls from all over the country from people desperate for help.”

Compared to present-day retirees, younger generations are in deeper debt, which means stories of Social Security garnishment could become more commonplace when they enter retirement. Borrowers in their 20s and 30s owe roughly $600 billion, according to the New York Fed. They’re also leaving college with more debt than their predecessors: Sixty-six percent graduated this spring with debt, and their student loans averaging $28,720, up from $9,320 in 1993, according to FinAid.org. “It’s entirely possible that the way student loan debt is growing, this could get worse,” says Rich Williams, higher education advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer group.

http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/student-loans/grandmas-new-financial-problem-college-debt-1344292084111/?link=SM_hp_ls4e - 111k

SNARP

A (interesting?) real estate investment strategy post:

I like the strategy of low housing cost leaving me fat stacks of cash to spend on traveling to cultural events. I believe it was Polly who prefers the opposite strategy, of extremely expensive housing in exchange for the DC area free culture buffet.

Whatever makes each of us happy, to each their own or whatever. However yesterday’s bits had a comment by az slim about an astronomy themed bar in Tucson. Tucson! I would have never guessed. I’ve been into astronomy and space exploration since I was a kid, but I’ve never heard of this bar until yesterdays bits. Because I’m not limited by high housing expenses, I can fly there just to visit a bar. Well it would be a lot more fun to visit during a launch or landing, than just any random day. And it needs to favorably intersect with the work/kids/school schedule that prevents me from doing “culture” for about 99% of my time. But I can certainly afford to do it, and probably will. Not this year (too much stuff already scheduled) maybe not even next year, but someday I will drink a beer at the astronomy bar while watching a launch or landing … and I’ll be paying the whole way in cash, because I can, because of where I live.

I think it is a somewhat superior strategy, at least for me, because “my culture” is (unfortunately?) all over the map. If I could live in one hyperexpensive city that hosted a CA makerfaire, a NYC Hope conference (2006 was a blast), a REAL N.O. cajun food restaurant, a Dayton hamvention, a TED conference (which I can (barely) afford but could never get the unobtainable tickets which is probably just as well), a Huntsville space museum (at least in the early 90s it was the coolest museum on the planet), az slim’s now world famous astronomy bar, a bike trail and a snow shoe trail in the north woods of Wisconsin, then I’d think, just think, about moving to that super-expensive super-city. At least some of what I’ve already done and some of what I wanna do probably appeal to some of you, but not all, my point being that as a group its probably not even theoretically possible for “a city” to appeal to everyone or even appeal to more than a tiny minority of people.

So that’s the long version of my investment strategy of putting money into planes / trains / automobiles instead of renting real estate from the bank. Inspired by az slims recent discovery of the astronomy bar. Tucson… who ever would have guessed?

home equity makes the world go round.

A half percentage drop on mortgage rates will drop the monthly payment 6% on a $300K loan which translates into further devaluing of the dollar.

Godesses Are Liars:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rhinestone-Real-Estate-Goddess-Realtor-Pin-/350585748506?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51a089fc1a

Sarah Palin: Mama grizzlies united
By Diana Reese CLEVELAND, Mo—Sarah Palin did not disappoint.

“The crowd cheered and applauded repeatedly during her speech here Friday night, from her opening remarks about “mama grizzlies” on the Missouri state flag to her promise to stop at the local Chick-fil-A for a midnight snack.

Palin was in the Kansas City area to campaign for Sarah Steelman, who’s in a tight three-way race in Tuesday’s Republican primary for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat. The winner will face Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) in November.

Palin was there to lend some of her magic to Steelman, who shares not only her conservative views but an independence and willingness to buck the political system. (One of Steelman’s goals is to end Congressional pensions, for example.)

Somehow, Palin has achieved celebrity status since the 2008 election. How many failed vice presidential candidates and former Alaska governors end up with book deals and reality TV shows? With an estimated net worth of $12 million?

When Palin took to the makeshift stage in the middle of a Missouri farm field, she was dressed more for the part of Hollywood celebrity than serious politician. But it was hard for me to take Palin seriously dressed as she was.

First, her shoes: Five-inch wedges. Her black capris weren’t quite skin-tight but tight enough, and her t-shirt with its Superman logo (a Steelman campaign shirt emblazoned with “Our freedom. Our fight.”) emphasized her figure. She never once removed her oversized sunglasses.”

I can spell. I sware.

Update on what I mentioned about a week ago about the shortage of the Red plastic gas cans in the South . Lawyers bankrupted the small USA company that made them , because people were pouring gas on fires with them, and being made in the US ,were fair game to lawsuits .
There are red plastic gas cans available again now in the stores, they cost 3 times what the old ones did , are No-name (Chinese) , and are plastered with warnings about not pouring gas on fires.We bet they will get brittle in 6 months ,too,
The feral money-sucking lawyers made theirs on the lawsuits , now we pay with almost certainly cheaper quality , but much higher priced items,

The stock market is in a massive bubble, and a meltdown is coming.

I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around where we are headed and I came to the conclusion that home mortgages should follow the bank interest rates down to the two percent level. That will drive more speculators and investors to pull money out of the bank for property as well as the old timers turning to property management (ie. LL). The people already in housing and not under water will be able to refi at lower rates and have more spendable income to support the economy. At low rates housing would be transferred to stronger hands and we wouldn’t need QW 3.

America the Anxious: Why We’re Freaking Out
by David Frum
Aug 6, 2012 1:00 AM EDT

The recession is over—but not for you. From penniless retirement accounts to frozen wages, demographic uneasiness to inept lawmakers, Newsweek’s David Frum breaks down the bad news.

Corporate profits are setting records. Companies hold mountains of cash. Private-sector output is growing 3 percent per year, in line with historic norms.

But jobs? The middling July numbers warn that it’s likely another half decade before the U.S. returns to full employment. How about prospects for a raise? Make us laugh. The future? Scary. The panic of 2008 has subsided, replaced by an ambient anxiety.

Crushed by debt, American households can’t afford to buy enough to put everyone to work. Even when households can afford to buy more, they are often buying products made by Chinese and Indian workers who work very nearly as well as Americans for a lot less pay. All of us are left to wonder: What happens to me in this new world? When can I retire? Where do I put what’s left of my savings? Will Medicare still exist when I need it?

In this election year, both presidential candidates are competing to offer a response to the anxious mood. President Obama urges Americans to put their trust in more and bigger government. In an important speech in Kansas last year, the president defined his vision for the American middle class: more government employment, more government contracting to stabilize employment in the private sector, and higher taxes on wealthier Americans to pay for it all.

Challenger Mitt Romney has not been so explicit, but his message is equally clear: don’t fight anxiety—embrace it. Medicare will become a voucher for Americans under 55. Medicaid and other social programs will radically shrink. Restrictions on the financial industry will be rolled back. Even less will be guaranteed than today—in the hope of unleashing pent-up dynamism.

About 46 percent of the country rejects the Obama approach. Another 46 percent rejects the Romney proposal. There’s not much enthusiasm anywhere for either. Four years ago, Americans looked to politics for “hope” and “change.” Today’s mood is bleaker. The incumbent seems defeated by the nation’s worries. The challenger seems indifferent to them. Altogether, the political system seems overwhelmed.

Fewer than one third of Americans believe the country is on the right track. Suicides are up; birth rates are down. Business leaders say they can’t hire because they feel so uncertain about future government regulation; consumers won’t buy because they feel so uncertain about their future incomes.

In past periods of economic distress—the 1890s and 1930s—Americans protested in the streets. Not this time. Occupy Wall Street has gone home. The Tea Party has been absorbed into the Republican Party. Today, Americans have been left to face their worries alone.
…

I know some here like a good study so……

Como se dice SNARP?

Nearly half of all immigrants on welfare

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/8/slow-path-to-progress-for-us-immigrants/

43% on welfare after 20 years

Immigrants lag behind native-born Americans on most measures of economic well-being — even those who have been in the U.S. the longest, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that full assimilation is a more complex task than overcoming language or cultural differences.

The study, which covers all immigrants, legal and illegal, and their U.S.-born children younger than 18, found that immigrants tend to make economic progress by most measures the longer they live in the U.S. but lag well behind native-born Americans on factors such as poverty, health insurance coverage and homeownership.

The study, based on 2010 and 2011 census data, found that 43 percent of immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least 20 years were using welfare benefits, a rate that is nearly twice as high as native-born Americans and nearly 50 percent higher than recent immigrants.

The report was released at a time when both major presidential candidates have backed policies that would make it easier to immigrate legally and would boost the numbers of people coming to the U.S.

Steven A. Camarota, the center’s research director and author of the 96-page study, said it shows that questions about the pros and cons of immigration extend well beyond the sheer numbers and touch on the broader consequences of assimilating a population defined by tougher socioeconomic challenges.

“Look, we know a lot of these folks are going to be poor, we get it. But don’t tell the public it’s all going great, which is the story line I think a lot of people want to sell,” Mr. Camarota said. “There is progress over time. Every measure shows improvement over time, but still, the situation does not look like we’d like it to look, particularly for the less-educated. They lag well behind natives even when they’ve been here for two decades, and that is very disconcerting.”

Federal law requires that the government deny immigrant visas to potential immigrants who are likely to be unable to support themselves and thereby become public charges.

On Tuesday, a handful of Republican senators wrote to the Homeland Security and State departments asking them to explain why they don’t consider whether potential immigrants would use many of the nearly 80 federal welfare programs when they evaluate visa applications.

Neither department responded to messages Tuesday seeking a response to the senators’ letter.

Expanding legal immigration is a contentious issue for voters, the vast majority of whom tell pollsters that they want the levels either retained or decreased.

But most politicians want legal immigration expanded.

During his time in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama backed bills that would have dramatically boosted legal immigration, potentially by hundreds of thousands a year. As president, he has called for the same thing.

Immigrants made up more than half of all farmworkers, 41 percent of taxi drivers and 48 percent of maids and housecleaners, but they also represented about one-third of all computer programmers and 27 percent of doctors.

The center found that use of public benefits varied dramatically based on where immigrants originated.

Mexicans were most likely to use means-tested benefit programs, with 57 percent, while 6 percent of those from the United Kingdom did. The rate for native-born Americans is 23 percent.
———————————————————————————-
“the situation does not look like we’d like it to look, particularly for the less-educated. They lag well behind natives even when they’ve been here for two decades, and that is very disconcerting.”

That is disconcerting, when did we become natives? Well that doesn`t look like we’d like it to look at all. So how about this….

Let the less-educated immigrants take out some student loans and get educated so the federal government can get some of our money back by withholding it from their nearly 80 federal welfare programs like they do with native-born Americans and their Social Security benefits. That will fix it.

A number of my work colleges, have interest only mortgages. In the 1980’s early 1990’s these where common in the UK; the mortgage would be paid off by an endowment policy invested in shares and bonds (this would cover the mortgage and leave you with a healthy lump sum, or so the salesmen said).

Today in work I spent a happy hour listening to a college arguing with a Help Desk about his mortgage, his endowment had paid up but he was twelve thousand pounds short. The gist of the conversation was from his point of view how they’d cover the short fall and from there’s how would he cover the short fall. No decision was made but I fear it won’t end well for him.

This conversation lead to two questions popping into my mind

1) How could this have come as a surprise to him

and

2) Are endowment mortgages a UK only occurrence or are they sold in other countries?

Houses still cost too much.

Indiana: Hundreds of manufacturing jobs go unfilled
CNNMoney.com - By Parija Kavilanz - August 8th, 2012

There are hundreds of factory jobs ready for the taking as the area’s manufacturing sector has come back to life after the recession.

But even with an unemployment rate as high as the national average, companies are struggling to hire workers.

His challenge: “I’ll have to go through 500 applicants just to get the 10 that I need. And there’s no guarantee that those 10 hires will work out.

A labor shortage isn’t the problem. Companies are getting hundreds of applicants, she said. But they are either not the right fit or unqualified.

“Applicants are failing drug tests,” she said. “Some apply and then decide they want to wait until their unemployment benefit runs out before taking a factory job.”

Then there are the candidates with four-year college degrees who can’t find other work. Manufacturers shy away from hiring them, believing they’ll leave as soon as they find a job that’s a better fit.

At Daman Manifolds, among hundreds of applications the company will review in coming weeks, half will likely get dumped because folks won’t fill out the entire eight-page form, Davis said. Another big chunk won’t make it past the phone interview.

Several more will fail the hands-on assessment because they lack the right skills.

Bell estimates that the state needs about 40,000 to 50,000 manufacturing workers right now to meet the uptick in production.

All four were offered a job, and only one accepted, he said. “These statistics are not unusual at all among manufacturers here,” he said.

Sqeezed by debt crisis, Greek ditch cars for bikes
ekathimerini.com | Wednesday August 8, 2012 | By Karolina Tagaris

Greece’s dire economic plight has forced thousands of businesses to close, thrown one in five out of work and eroded the living standards of millions. But for bicycle-maker Giorgos Vogiatzis, it’s not all bad news.

The crisis has put cash-strapped Greeks on their bikes - once snubbed as a sign of poverty or just plain risky - and Greek manufacturers are shifting into fast gear.

The high cost of road tax, fuel and repairs is forcing Greeks to ditch their cars in huge numbers. According to the government’s statistics office, the number of cars on Greek roads declined by more than 40 percent in each of the last two years. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 bikes were sold in 2011, up about a quarter from the previous year.

A pay cut two years ago forced Koniaraki to give up her car under a ”cash for clunkers” scheme as she could no longer afford to pay the road tax or fill up her tank. She also moved from her house in a leafy northern Athens suburb to the centre.

And to get through a cash squeeze in March, she picked up a second-hand bike for the first time since childhood.

”At first my friends would laugh at me and say: Oh, poverty!” said Koniaraki, who now cycles to work from the foothills of the ancient Acropolis, past shop-gazing tourists in Plaka and through the bustling Syntagma square.

New York real estate prices will be up due to rich French fleeing France?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48568622

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/08/us/politics/08poll-results-documents.html

This is the data behind the data of a recent NY Times poll and I call BS. They seem to consider virtually all of the registered votes as being “likely voters” despite a 60% turn out in U.S. being very good. I will stick with Rasmussen.

He promised change. He delivered. 110 million Americans are now on welfare. All part of the Democrat plan for a permanent dependent class.

The data come “from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law. CBO estimates that the premium subsidies, scheduled to begin in 2014, will cover at least 25 million individuals by the end of the decade.)”

This is not just Americans, however. “These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well,” according to the committee.

Hottest July nationwide since records have been kept.

Anyone still bold (or deluded) enough to call Global Warming an Al Gore nutcase conspiracy?

The Earth is the ultimate “house” of humanity. How is the health of the world’s McMansion?

Look at peak oil and peak consumption, and the burning of coal for electricity. The real answer is to reduce world population immediately by 2 billion and force austerity worldwide of greenhouse gas emissions to avoid global collapse in 75 years. Any volunteers?

But no worries. We’ll nuke each other long before then.

Fannie Mae put out their second quarter credit supplement today (which includes information on bubble state delinquency rates).

http://www.fanniemae.com/resources/file/ir/pdf/quarterly-annual-results/2012/q22012_credit_summary.pdf

On serious delinquencies:

CA is down from 2.24% to 2.07% (Q1 to Q2)
AZ is down from 3.22% to 2.82%
FL is down from 11.35% to 11%
NV is UP from 7.06% to 7.15%

Shadow inventory lurks in FL an NV far more than AZ and CA.

I don’t fully understand what is at stake in this political tug of war, but would be interested in the explanation from anyone who does.

(I do get the “23.7% upside down” part of the story.)

Aug. 8, 2012, 2:45 p.m. EDT
Housing regulator warns about ‘eminent domain’ use
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The regulator for government-seized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wednesday warned against the use of so-called eminent domain to restructure mortgages.

San Bernardino County has proposed using such powers to seize distressed mortgages at a discount and then refinance them for struggling homeowners. Chicago officials also are considering the idea, according to reports. Although mortgage rates are near record lows, underwater homeowners are essentially blocked from refinancing their loans.

According to CoreLogic, some 11.4 million, or 23.7%, of all residential properties with a mortgage are “underwater” or “upside down” — meaning that borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. There are federal programs to aid such borrowers, but so far they are only available to a small segment of those mortgage holders.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency made clear its opposition to the use of eminent domain for fixing mortgages. “As conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and regulator of 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, FHFA has significant concerns about the use of eminent domain to revise existing financial contracts and the alteration of the value of the companies’ securities holdings,” the agency said in a statement.

“FHFA has determined that action may be necessary on its part to avoid a risk to safe and sound operations at its regulated entities and to avoid taxpayer expense. Additionally, FHFA has concerns that such programs could negatively affect the extension of credit to borrowers seeking to become homeowners and on investors that support the housing market,” it added.

Lobbyists for banks and securities firms such as the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association have made similar points. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was cool to the idea when asked at a congressional hearing last month.
…

Even with this former obama economic adviser supporting every liberal/socialist program out there - even he does not think it is going to bring housing back.

So then - WHY DO IT?

—————————————–

Housing Market’s ‘Go-Go Days’ Are a Thing of the Past
David Chalian - Daily Ticker – August 8, 2012

The sluggish economic recovery would certainly get a short-term boost if the housing market picked up a bit of steam, but any notion that a boom in housing alone will be the key to a fully recovered American economy should be eradicated according to former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee.

“When housing comes back, and I think in many if not most markets in the U.S. we have reached a bottom and you’ve started to see the prices recovering. But when they come back, it’s probably not going to be back to the Go-Go days,” Goolsbee told The Daily Ticker. “It’s just unrealistic. We’ve got 5 million vacant homes in the country and so the thought that we’re going to get substantial construction building more homes, I think it’s going to be several years before that happens, though we might see some relief with the prices starting to go up modestly.”

Goolsbee, who currently serves as a professor at the University of Chicago, also weighed in on a controversial policy proposal getting some attention and consideration by local officials across the country including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Mortgage Resolution Partners, a San Francisco-based company, has put forth a proposal where local governments would use eminent domain authority to take ownership of underwater mortgages.

It’s not clear if that would be a legal use of eminent domain, but Goolsbee said it is worth consideration.

“That kind of thing hasn’t been tried before. I’d advise anybody to look at this. In most of these housing policies when you actually sit down and look at the details a lot of them are hard to put into practice. If you are weighing in with eminent domain, I think you just got to be careful about what the spillover effects are going to be on other parts of the housing industry. But we know there $750 billion of negative equity out in the housing market and that’s a huge issue. These people who have debt overhang are not increasing their consumption. They are going to have a hard time coming back while they’re under all that debt.”

Goolsbee also expressed dissatisfaction with FHFA acting director Ed DeMarco’s continued opposition to writing down the principals for underwater homeowners.

“It’s on a strictly business decision they ought to be evaluating whether they can keep more people in their homes and get more payments out of them by writing down their principals somewhat so that they don’t default,” he said. “I find it a little frustrating that the head of Fannie and Freddie is not wanting to think anything other than let’s just hold on to these vacant homes and hopefully the prices will and let’s not consider any of these kind of alternative payment options.”

So then - WHY DO IT?

Duh! Because its what the banksters want.

But forget that, I heard that some union teachers in a city far away from where I live actually make good money and get nice pensions when they retire.

Damn Union Goons!

Why is it that realtors are reluctant to admit their occupation? They seem ashamed of it.

Why is that?

Let’s compare those salaries to CEO pay in America for similarly sized organizations. You know the ones who hand pick their compensation committees and have massive golden parachutes.

Information on 500 of America’s largest companies, income, tax rate, CEO compensation.
NerdWallet

Another evening with Linquine and Clam Sauce

Speaking of which, got into Boston tonight…just had one.

ft dot com
August 8, 2012 6:46 pm
Americans need to face the harsh truth and pay more tax
By Jared Bernstein

One of the guiding principles of contemporary tax policy in the US is the notion that Americans are terribly overtaxed. Both candidates are running on not raising taxes for the middle classes and Mitt Romney wants to not only make the George W. Bush tax cuts permanent, he wants to cut income tax rates another 20 per cent across the board.

Yet, data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reveal that, when it comes to federal taxation, US households are less taxed now than 30 years ago, and that is not just a function of the recession. The CBO data began in 1979 when the typical, or median, household paid 19 per cent of their income in federal taxes. In 2009, that share had fallen to 11 per cent.

Both economic and policy changes account for the decline in “effective tax rates”. In recessions, progressive tax systems provide automatic tax cuts as declining incomes push households into lower tax brackets. Middle-income households lost an average $6,000 in market-based income, an 11 per cent decline, between 2007 and 2009, but their federal tax bill fell $2,300, or 24 per cent. Thus their effective tax rate fell from 14 per cent to 11 per cent.

But policy changes also played a significant role and the Bush tax cuts have had a large impact on the fall of tax rates ever since. Over the 1980s and 1990s, the overall effective tax rate fluctuated within a narrow band of 20.2 per cent to 22.7 per cent – lower in the Ronald Reagan years, a bit higher in the Bill Clinton years. But from 2000-07, before the recession took hold, they fell by almost 3 percentage points, equal to about $300bn in revenue, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

Policy changes lowered taxes in the recession, too. That’s a perfectly legitimate use of tax cuts, but such cuts are supposed to be temporary and reset once the downturn has passed. Yet, every time a tax cut nears expiration, the deafening cry of “tax increase!” frightens politicians such that today’s tax policy is solidly asymmetric: rates can only go down. That makes it impossible to get on a sane fiscal path.

For Republicans who have signed the Grover Norquist pledge to never raise taxes, the misleading mantra that we are overtaxed serves two purposes. First, the wealthiest households get the biggest income boost from any across-the-board cuts.
…

Why buy stocks now when a fall 2012 crash most likely will wipe out all your gains?

Aug. 9, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Stock stall, higher rates ahead?
Commentary: Bull and bear think bond boom busted
By Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Two turn-calling letters disagree on stocks — but expect higher interest rates.
…
octogenarian veteran Richard Russell’s worrying, in his Dow Theory Letters comment posted after the market close Wednesday, about the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s (DJIA +0.05%) persistent refusal to close above its May peak of 13,279.32.

Coupled with deterioration in the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJT -0.33%), this causes Russell to suspect an imminent Dow theory sell signal.

He writes: “My conclusion is that the stock market is discounting ahead, discounting something it doesn’t like in the future, which is probably four to six months ahead.

“What could it be? If I had to guess — I’d guess it was consumers suddenly cutting back on their buying. I say this because I don’t get the perception that U.S. consumers have taken the business situation seriously — yet.

“They’ve been hypnotized by the optimistic quarterly earnings of stocks. Europe is in recession, and they will be cutting back on imports — this will hit the earnings of America’s blue chips.

“The bad news will probably hit in the fall. The news will shock and surprise America’s consumers.”
…

Like I said the other day, it`s Spring Training in South Florida for tougher gun laws.

Posted: 11:02 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012

Man charged with attempted murder after knife attack on cab driver in Boynton Beach

By Julius Whigham II
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

BOYNTON BEACH —
A 31-year-old man was arrested Wednesday night after he allegedly attacked a cab driver with a knife while trying to rob him, city police said.

Gregory Neider is facing charges of attempted felony murder and attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, said Stephanie Slater, city police spokeswoman.

The driver, Marcellin Augustin, 56, remained in stable condition at Delray Medical Center late Wednesday, she said. The cuts to his head were deep enough to expose part of his skull, reports said.