Bits Bucket for October 13, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Property prices and housing finance are on a tear in Brazil, leading to fears of a bubble. Housing prices have risen by over 10% so far this year on a nationwide basis. Meanwhile, home loans increased at an annual pace of over 40% in the first half of 2012, much faster than the 18% expansion in overall credit. This eye-catching growth is raising concern. Lending booms preceded the housing busts in Spain and the US. However, Brazil is a different story in a number of important respects.
There is no question that housing prices in Brazil have surged in recent years. In the country’s two largest cities – Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo – prices have risen at an annual pace of over 20% (Chart 1). Such fast rises are not sustainable, but we do not foresee a sharp reversal. The fact that the speed of housing price increases has begun to slow should help mitigate concern.
http://brazilianbubble.com/will-brazils-housing-market-go-from-boom-to-bust/
No housing bubble in Brazil, it’s different there
Maybe Rio or someone else that knows can help with this…I I remember correctly, several years ago there were posts here that discussed the formation of lending sources that allowed people in Brazil to get mortgages simular to what we have here…In other words, 10%-20% down along with a new 30 year mortgage…
If so, is that, along with the optimism and growth from oil, the Olympics and the world cup fueling these rising prices in Brazil ??
According to the article, maybe it IS different in Brazil:
The other factor that reduces the likelihood of a dramatic housing bust is that the rise in housing prices has been driven – at least in part – by fundamentals, including a scarcity of adequate housing and a growing middle class.
Energy independent, government-backed health care with no job lock, jobs protected from outsourcing… sounds like the US in the mid-50’s. If they are lucky, the Bottomless Stockholder Maw will choose not to visit. How do you say “Jack Welch” in Portugese?
Not that great, from Forbes:
In all, Brazil’s growth is likely to moderate somewhat in the fourth quarter to around 1 percent as some of the temporary measures to stimulate growth start to fade. The stimulus deployed over the past few months is starting to kick in, but not enough to push Brazil’s GDP over that of the much weaker U.S., which will grow over 2 percent this year. Brazil should be so lucky.
The MSCI Brazil index is the worst performing of the four big emerging markets. The iShares MSCI Brazil (EWZ) exchange traded fund, which tracks that index, is down 5.5 percent year to date.
UN has the per capita income of Brazil at $10,716 compared to $46,546 in U.S. by the way Ireland still has $39,278 , a country without the natural resources of Brazil.
Don’t confuse protecting jobs from true unfair trade practices with protectionism which only makes a country poorer which seems to be what is occuring in Brazil.
BTW, the energy independence story is not as great a story as some make that out:
http://www.naturalnews.com/…Brazil_ethanol_oil_independence.html
Just compared the income to price ratio. Sure does look like a bubble to me:
http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Latin-America/Brazil/price.
If you think the Bay area is in a bubble you need to look at these numbers.
If you click on the links directly they do not seem to work, if you cut and paste and put them in a search engine they do bring you to the story. Here is part of the energy article:
Another part of this capital was used to purchase more than 20 million hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres) of Brazilian land, particularly in the mid-west regions and the Brazilian agricultural frontier. The rest went to the Amazon. The result is exploitation of Brazil’s abundant natural resources and biodiversity.
This exploitation can be best characterized as agricultural monoculture. Eucalyptus, a plant extremely useful for electricity generation and ethanol, is to be cultured exclusively throughout a section of the country in the south all the way to the border with Uruguay. Thousands of hectares of industrial plantations will be destroyed to create what is in effect a green desert. Sugarcane monoculture for ethanol production and export will also be expanded, including 77 new ethanol processing plants that will be built along four major pipelines.
Also reflective of this monoculture is that of the 130 million tons of grain produced, 110 million tons are exclusively soybeans and corn. 300 million hectares are for the production of export cattle. And the big GMO agribusinesses have pressured the government to allow for the selling of their modified corn in Brazil.
Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Brazil Landless Workers Movement sees this form of monoculture depleting natural resources, soil and groundwater, and affecting the quality and location of food and water. “Monoculture destroys biodiversity and upsets the environmental balance of the region,” he said in a recent publication.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/024082_Brazil_ethanol_oil_independence.html#ixzz29Dgg1mYb
you need to look at these numbers.
I would, if any of your links worked.
BRICs crumbling?
S&P warning jolts market; Sensex sheds 263 points during the week
Mumbai, Oct 13:
The BSE benchmark Sensex snapped a five-week winning spree by tumbling 263 points to close at 18,675 during the current week on fresh selling following downgrade warning to India from a top global rating agency despite the government unleashing a wave of economic reforms to boost growth and revive investor sentiment.
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Wednesday said there is a “one in three” change of a downgrade of the country’s sovereign rating to junk status in the next two years.
The news came after International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed the third-largest Asian economy’s growth forecast for 2012 to 4.9 per cent from 6.1 per cent projected earlier, due to low business confidence and “sluggish structural reforms”.
The market got a further jolt due to disheartening revenue and earnings guidance in rupee terms for the current fiscal given by IT bellwether Infosys in its quarterly results announced on Friday.
…
The best way to gauge the risk is to find out how much repayment risk lenders take on.
If they’re taking on full repayment risk and still making the loans that drive the bubble, then… the fundamentals probably have legs.
In the US, lenders were able to wash their hands of repayment risk. Even today with the relentless mantra of ‘housing has turned the corner’, most of the activity is due to government intervention in the MBS market, not market forces.
The reality is out there, buried within the financial system. It’s like a terror cell - only the architects know the full details, while the individual terrorist only knows a small part of it. And the outsider has no idea. Too bad none of the architects have been held to account yet. Fabrice Tourre was thrown under the bus, but even he hasn’t faced any consequences despite it.
There are prizes and prizes. And on Friday night there was no doubt in the minds of most Greeks that the biggest of them all, the Nobel peace prize, had gone to the wrong recipient.
In the country on the frontline of the worst crisis to hit the continent since the second world war, news that the EU had been given the award for its efforts to promote peace and democracy was greeted with bewilderment and disbelief. Three days after tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Athens over a visit by Angela Merkel – some dressed in Nazi regalia — many wondered whether the decision was a joke. Or even a Norwegian ruse to get the increasingly divided, debt-choked nation to bow to Germany’s demands for austerity. In the mind of the man who speaks for Syriza, the leftist party that might be a footnote if it were not also Greece’s main opposition, the decision had “cheapened” and “harmed” the institution that is the Nobel peace prize.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/12/greece-eu-nobel-peace-prize-war?newsfeed=true
Recently their pick of Peace prize recipients has been a little on the strange side, to say the least.
The peace prize is merely an expression of the political sentiments of the committee. Death row murderers have been nominated for it. Yasser Arafat won it. Obama won it for reasons yet unclear (other than the unspoken ones - namely that he was not Bush, a fact which endlessly pleased the award committee). However, it’s generally expected that recipients not maintain a “kill list” an issue which likely causes the awards committee some consternation
TOKYO—The International Monetary Fund and Europe remain deadlocked over how to tackle Greece’s debt crisis, with Europe willing to consider only lower interest rates and longer debt repayments, while the IMF is pushing for a debt restructuring, according to senior European officials.
“We are still apart. Time is tight and there is a need for a common line,” a senior European official with direct involvement in the matter said.
The official said that a number of euro-zone countries, led by Germany, see the Greek problem “as one of adjustment and structural reforms over time; the IMF sees it more as a debt issue, which must be addressed at once.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444799904578053761956008052.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
This about sums the progress they are making
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuxSl_4yLz4
“…with Europe willing to consider only lower interest rates and longer debt repayments,…”
Bernanke doctrine: Lower interest rates are an economic panacea.
“… longer debt repayments…”
Pray and delay. Works for me.
Keep that fresh cash coming in and it’ll all work out.
Trust me.
LOL…
Perhaps this should have been obvious to me by now, but isn’t the Fed’s role in this credit scheme to provide the fresh Ponzi finance when private individuals aren’t providing enough?
That’s certainly the role they’ve chosen (or been directed) to play. I’m just wondering what they think the final result will be?
Greece Will Probably Leave Euro Within Six Months, Borg Says
By Johan Carlstrom and Josiane Kremer - Oct 13, 2012 6:27 AM PT
As European Union leaders prepare for a summit next week devoted to saving the euro, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said Greece may quit the common currency within the next six months.
“It’s most probable that they will leave,” Borg said today on a conference call from Tokyo, where global finance officials have gathered for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund. “We shouldn’t rule out this happening in the next half-year.”
Borg’s warning comes a day after the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize amid a financial crisis now in its third year and four days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel encountered rioters and anti-Nazi taunts on a trip to Athens. Merkel said she wants Greece to remain in the euro.
The so-called troika that oversees euro-area bailouts, comprised of officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, has resumed talks with Greek officials after a pause that provided Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s three-party coalition with backing to continue efforts to carve out 13.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion) of new budget cuts needed to unlock aid payments.
EU leaders meet in Brussels Oct. 18-19 to discuss their efforts to make the ECB Europe’s chief bank supervisor and plans to tighten economic and monetary ties within the bloc.
…
I thought once you are assimilated - no one can leave the borg
Looks like that theory is gonna be tested soon.
I tried testing the theory once. Maybe the next guy on the scene will have better luck.
Well, the Southern States tried that, too. About 80 years into the experiment, when “dissolving the political bands” was viewed as a nobel venture.
Lincoln went to war on them. Said they had no right to leave, but if they though they could, then whatever “federal property” was in the State belonged to the United States. Just didn’t work out.
From Politico - How Wall Street made Paul Ryan:
“Paul Ryan may be best known for Washington budget wonkery, but it was also his Wall Street ties that fueled his meteoric rise from Hill staffer 15 years ago to vice presidential nominee today.
The finance, insurance and real estate sector has been Ryan’s top backer over the course of his career — to the tune of $3 million, records show.
When he stepped into politics he quickly became an industry darling thanks to his hard-line free-market, anti-regulation, pro-business stance.
“I, like many others, saw a rising star and wanted to keep him in the Congress,” said John Magill, a lobbyist at the Credit Union National Association who was a House GOP aide during Ryan’s first few years in Congress.
When Ryan launched his political career, he fast emerged as an attractive member of a new breed of House Republicans — young and savvy — who caught the eyes of donors.
The Wisconsin Republican also made friends within the industry when he sided with them on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, a watershed vote for financial services that repealed prohibitions on the consolidation of commercial banks and investment banks.
He even turned on hardline conservatives during the financial meltdown, voting to bail out the banking system. He later took a more populist tone, accusing the Treasury of mishandling the program.
And in 2010, Ryan voted against the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. He penned an op-ed for Real Clear Politics in 2010 berating Obama and Democrats for pushing through the overhaul.
“Its fundamental architecture expands and centralizes power in Washington, doubling down on the root causes of the 2008 crisis,” he wrote.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82360.html?hp=t1
That, plus the near-complete silence on Wall Street during the presidential campaign, speaks volumes!
Isn’t “meteoric rise” an oxymoron?
LOL
For me its pretty clear that Ryan is a shill for BIG BUSINESS . His idea to let the free market correct the health care system costs by competition between price fixing Private insurance /Big Pharma
is absurd because they are price fixing ,not competitive .
On Oct 9,2012 they released the new Movie ATLAS SHRUGS . It’s interesting because Ryan seems to be a Ayn Rand fan ( but he has been denying it lately ).
Atlas Shrugs was a story about all the rich people and so-called productive giants ( JOB GIVERS ) leaving the USA for a Island where they could worship a big dollar sign statue and practice pure
capitalism and get what they deserve finally . The rest of the USA were socialist or commie pigs in the USA ,and the USA was falling apart with these Masters of the Universe exit to the secret island ,where the leader dude was named John Gault . The people left behind were a bunch of lazy entitlment pigs who couldn’t find themselves out of a paper bag and the people had cracked the backs of what Ayn Rand protrays as the truly productive and entitled ,who finally decided to abandon the parasites (the people ) who didn’t deserve them.
I was just wondering who was going to do all the worker bee work
for the Giants that went to the island ,but they didn’t cover that in the book . Mind you , I am going from my memory of the book because I read it when I was 15 years old .
You be your own judge as to the merits of a story that has this many reality holes ,but many people worship the Ayn Rand school of thought that the “producers ” and ” money men “are the most moral in the World and we don’t deserve them . The story doesn’t really jive with de-regulated crime spree Lenders /Wall Street casino games and Monopoly Corporations making Government their pawns and getting bail outs from the people in real life ,but the true believers really believe in the story .
The real truth is the people should escape from them ,and its to bad we don’t have a Island to escape to .
He has been THE person responsible for protecting the carried interest rule granting capital gains treatment for money earned in exchange for work that in any other circumstance would be subject to ordinary income rules.
yawn - funny i do not remember the outrage here when Goldman Sachs was obama’s #2 biggest campaign contributor in 2008
Yes ,you are right 2Banana ,its all a corrupted lobbying system and money talks for campaign contributions .This is why you get the most bizarre solutions to problems these days . They don’t even talk about the real issues ,they talk around the real issues . The BIG MONEY with their lobby power, and they own the main stream news, and they are the advertisers and the brainwashers, and now they are corrupting the regulatory agencies , and the RULE OF LAW is something they buy off now .
“NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase, the country’s biggest bank, reported a record quarterly profit Friday, helped by a surge in mortgage refinancing. CEO Jamie Dimon said he believed the housing market “has turned a corner.”
The bank made $5.3 billion from July through September, up 36 percent from the same period a year ago”
http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-turns-record-profit-higher-revenue-111027556–finance.html
Bloomberg News
Dimon Says Bond Market Turn Assured on Budget Impasse
By Dawn Kopecki and Zachary Tracer on October 10, 2012
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said bond markets would spurn U.S. debt if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to address the nation’s deficit.
“It’s virtually assured” that markets would react that way, Dimon said today in Washington at an event held by the Council on Foreign Relations. “The question is when and how.”
…
No, the question is what is safer than US debt if they decide that US debt isn’t safe enough. The money has to go somewhere. Corporate debt? EU debt? Swiss debt? Gold? Real estate? Beanie babies?
Well stocked easily defensible island?
Bloomberg Radios translation: JPMchase has finally offloaded the last batch of dead, worthless mortgage paper and it’s now on the governments books.
This clearly demonstrates that I earned every cent of my salary and bonus.
And I deserve even more.
Be sure to kick the Fed chairman in the balls as you pass GO and collect $20,000,000.
Ya gotta admire the cocky SOB for his Chicago-style temerity…
…
Dimon said the company is still paying the price for doing the Federal Reserve “a favor” by buying Bear Stearns in early 2008.
“I’m going to say we’ve lost $5 billion to $10 billion on various things related to Bear Stearns now. And yes, I put it in the unfair category,” Dimon said, speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington.
Dimon’s candid comments come one week after the New York State Attorney General filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan, alleging that Bear Stearns deceived investors buying mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007.
…
If anyone here has a problem of not being able to earn enough money on the float to meet the various promises and commitments you made in the past, let me know. I may have a solution.
You are a god send.
Anyone that believes that all these financial problems cannot be easily fixed has not taken enough time to think the problem through.
If your name is Charles Ponzi I don’t know if I want to hear your solution .
Whats with all the new handle names ,its cracking me up .
I’m experiencing an identity crisis.
I ADORE sock puppets!
It was my equity I cashed out. I don’t see why I should have to give it back.
The Beatles - Help! Lyrics
HARP, I need somebody
HARP, not just anybody
HARP, you know I need someone
HARP!
When I was younger, so much younger than today
I bought three houses and it seems I overpaid
But now these days are gone I’m not so self-assured
Now I find I’m Robo-signed it opened up the doors
HARP me if you can, I’m upside down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please HARP me?
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
My line of credit seems to vanished in the haze
But every now and then I feel so insecure
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before
HARP me if you can, I’m upside down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please HARP me,
HARP me, ooo
Ha ha ha ha .
In light of all the bail outs ,I’m surprised that these Politicians can actually look at people with a streight face and act like everything hasn’t been contorted to bail out the Culprits of the biggest crime spree lending Ponzi -Schemes in history .
Very funny. Now give me back my equity.
Give he back her equity. She was just handling her finances efficiently.
Nobody could have possibly forseen what was to come down upon her.
Did any of you get in on the realogy (RLGY) IPO? Make some quick cash players.
It is sad that the administration wants to blow off all the unemployed people out there by saying they don’t exist. 7.8% and 20% is a big difference. Dust them under the rug I guess.
I am going bird dogging today.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/10/12/robert-kennedy-documents-show-150000-mafia-plan-to-kill-fidel-castro/
Dang those Feds just contract out everything, don’t they.
Makes sense, as everyone knows the private sector does it better than the gubmint…
Hi
We survived the move in (minimal-sleeping here w/o our stuff)and the the new roof episode. Our broker turned out to be a mensch. He has been over half a dozen times helping us demo (diy) and has hauled away old carpet and other debri (free), took down mirrors all over the house with hubby, etc… Transaction is over and he has been fantastic. Not the glamour shot type! He knows construction and such.
What has slowed down the renovation is a 15′ and a 12′ slider opening. What an expensive pain.
Love the new digs. We’re much happier, even with the warts in process of removal.
Just checking in. Have a great day!
Awaiting, congratulations on the new digs and the many projects that you must have planned.
Thanks, Lip. This home is going to an expensive fixer, but we are doing diy projects to control the costs. We love our new digs! The Cypess trees reaching to the stars, and moon watching have given us a happier perspective. Getting a crash course in pool maintenance, for sure. It’s our new hobby. lol
Once we get through this turbo renovation, and our black & blues, our backs, and boo boos heal, life will be GREAT!
He has been over half a dozen times helping us demo (diy) and has hauled away old carpet and other debri (free),
Why the h#ll would he do that? Is he an old friend? As a broker, his obligation to the transaction ends at closing…
That just sounds weird.
Maybe he thought that they might know other people in the same situation (really wanting to buy and with cash). Good will a good thing to have if you think a customer will refer you to other qualified customers.
Prime
Our broker likes us and is a great person. He is truly a good soul. Sometimes your good attracts others with the same perspective. He’s given us some great tips and places to buy quality at a discount. A Gen Contractor has been equally as wonderful because he likes us. Isn’t that cool!
Smilin’ for you, Awaiting. Now you’ll have to change your moniker. Happy new adventure!
ahansen
Good call. I’ll do that next time I drop my to say hi. Thanks for kudos and well wishes. My knowledge base on roofs, HVAC, windows, flooring, and other things has had a boost. I have accomplished more physical hard work than I could have imagined, and I can now use tools. This adventure has been confidence building.
HGTV,are you out there? lol
I saw a raccoon in my yard. Those creatures are big and I heard fiesty.
I never saw one before.
I wanna so bad to be in the free s$it army…lookie here ohbewanna phones by the bag full
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTYiKjFnMos
See? Capitalism works.
Yes but we can’t cut government spending the sky will fall.
Isn’t it amazing how the U.S. housing market, which all experts say has bottomed, and the U.S. stock market, which is highly volatile and prone to frequent selloffs, have completely decoupled?
U.S. Stocks Fall Most in Week Since June on IMF, Profits
By Lu Wang - Oct 12, 2012 9:00 PM PT
U.S. stocks had the biggest weekly retreat since June as the International Monetary Fund reduced its global growth forecasts and projections from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Alcoa Inc. (AA) disappointed investors.
All 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell for the week. Technology companies slumped 2.9 percent as AMD cut its sales forecast and Apple Inc. (AAPL) had its longest string of weekly losses since July. Dollar Tree Inc. (DLTR) led consumer- discretionary shares to a 2.9 percent drop after saying revenue will be at the low end of its estimate. Alcoa slid 4.4 percent after trimming its global aluminum outlook while Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) sank 4.4 percent amid narrower profit margins.
The S&P 500 tumbled 2.2 percent to 1,428.59 for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 281.30 points, or 2.1 percent, to 13,328.85. Both gauges had their biggest weekly retreat since June 1.
“We’re in this quarterly period of maximum uncertainty,” Dan Veru, who oversees $3.5 billion as chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in Fort Lee, New Jersey, said in a phone interview. “Earnings haven’t started in earnest yet, but the companies that have bad news to report are putting their news out. We’re just early in the process and that makes it tricky. I’m trying not to read too much into it.”
…
Would now be a good time for dips to buy?
Oct. 12, 2012, 1:06 p.m. EDT
Sell complacency, buy capitulation
By Thomas H. Kee Jr.
We have been offering proactive trading strategies through the Internet longer than anyone else I know. Stock Traders Daily was founded on Jan. 2, 2000, on the heels of the invention of online trading and discount-brokerage firms. Through this history I have seen major increases and major declines from the market, I have seen wealth built, and I have seen it ripped away, but along the way we have continued to offer proactive trading strategies. A constant truth has also proved to mark the best times to sell and the best times to buy the market respectively.
Everyone knows that the best time to buy the market is when the market is capitulating and at a relative low, but the opposite has held through all of these major market cycles as well. When complacency is at a relative high, when everyone begins to believe the market will go up forever, that is usually the best time to protect assets, adopt proactive strategies, and begin to control risk.
Today I find the condition of complacency at a relative market high, and with it I will again offer a proactive trading strategy that I have already talked about in this venue a few times before.
…
I am hoping for a big stock market correction so I could get good deals. The losers will rush to the exits and be left wearing their shorts when they sell at the bottom to capitalists like myself.
Sure, as long as it’s big enough to be “real”. I have no desire to pile back in at 12k. I’m still waiting for a test of the 2009 bottom.
Ahhh, The Bottom. And The Top. The elusive El Dorados which we all seek.
The pots of gold at the rainbow’s end…
Merkel Sees No Alternative to ‘Arduous’ Euro-Area Overhaul
By Tony Czuczka - Oct 13, 2012 4:38 AM PT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there’s no way around economic overhauls for euro-area countries struggling in the debt crisis and pledged to help them defend the joint currency.
Merkel said she will hold countries to commitments to make their economies more competitive and attract investors. “It’s arduous, but I see no other option that leads to a decent outcome,” she said in a speech to a regional convention of her Christian Democratic Union party today. “It isn’t some kind of pressure that were creating to make you suffer.”
While the euro area needs to regain the confidence of financial markets, Germany would bring on “the risk of a recession” if it refused financial aid to stem the crisis, she told delegates at Celle in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Many investors “are betting that we won’t have the political strength” to defend the euro, she said. “I am determined to make the effort, even if it’s hard.”
“Trust means that everyone fulfills their commitments,” she said. “Trust is good, but verification is better. That’s what I’ll continue to fight for in Europe, every day.”
…
“Trust means everyone fulfills their commitments.”
Even if the commitments aren’t theirs they still must be fulfilled.
I will always get my due.
Mark Steyn on the Benghazi Debacle.
Let’s pause right there, and “politicize” a little more. Liberals are always going on about the evils of “outsourcing” and “offshoring” — selfish vulture capitalists like Mitt shipping jobs to cheap labor overseas just to save a few bucks. How unpatriotic can you get!
So now the United States government is outsourcing embassy security to cheap Welshmen who in turn outsource it to cheaper Libyans. Diplomatic facilities are U.S. sovereign territory — no different de jure from Fifth Avenue or Mount Rushmore. So defending them is one of the core responsibilities of the state. But that’s the funny thing about Big Government: The bigger it gets, the more of life it swallows up, the worse it gets at those very few things it’s supposed to be doing.
So, on the first anniversary of 9/11 in a post-revolutionary city in which Western diplomats had been steadily targeted over the previous six months, the government of the supposedly most powerful nation on earth entrusted its security to Abdulaziz Majbari, 29, and his pal, who report to some bloke back in Carmarthen, Wales.
Greater love hath no man than this,” quoth the president at Chris Stevens’ coffin, “that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Smaller love hath no man than Obama’s, than to lay down his “friend” for a couple of points in Ohio.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/330299/who-s-politicizing-benghazi-mark-steyn?pg=1
This “coverup” is collapsing the entire campaign. Wouldn’t it had been better if they just fessed up in the beginning and went on the offensive against these Islamic terrorists?
Looks like the October surprise is happening to them.
Steyn is a good writer, but he’s a mega mega neo-con.
The guy obviously doesn’t know how to spell “librul.”
I suppose I must have dozed off sometime previously as I was absolutely startled to learn that US Embassies were not protected by United States Marines! When did that change?
When we started sucking the d…s of the islamists. Still not sure why the progressive left developed such a kinship with the savages, I think it has something to do with anti-capitalism.
Are you F’n serious to try to tar and feather this administration for outsourcing military missions. Holly sht. I guess blackrock, and halliburton just sprang up over the last 4 years.
It’s different when Republicans do it…
“..tar and feather this administration for outsourcing military missions.”
Boy, you are a dedicated propogandist to reply to my question with this much venom! Do you view everything that is said through the left-wing prism?
I thought US Marines were still the primary guard force for US embassies. I knew there have been security contractors for years but I thought embassy protection was still USMC.
Sorry your right it’s me that’s the propagandist you were just posting a question
“Liberals are always going on about the evils of “outsourcing” and “offshoring” — selfish vulture capitalists like Mitt shipping jobs to cheap labor overseas just to save a few bucks. How unpatriotic can you get! So now the United States government is outsourcing embassy security to cheap Welshmen”
The F’n practice started long ago. Here’s a quick bit from Wikipedia
n August 2003, Blackwater received its first Iraq contract, a $21 million contract for a Personal Security Detachment and two helicopters for Paul Bremer, head of the U.S. occupation in Iraq.[1][8]
In July 2004 Blackwater was hired by the U.S. State Department under the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s Worldwide Personal Protective Services (WPPS) umbrella contract, along with DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, Inc. for protective services in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Israel.[9] The applied for two years and expired on June 6, 2006. It authorized 482 personnel, and Blackwater received $488m for its work.[10]
On September 1, 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, Blackwater dispatched a rescue team and helicopter, free of charge, to support relief operations.[11] Following that, it was reported that the company also acted as law enforcement in the disaster stricken areas, such as securing neighborhoods and “confronting criminals”.[12] Blackwater moved about 200 personnel into the area hit by Hurricane Katrina, most of whom (164 employees) were working under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to protect government facilities,[13] but the company held contracts with private clients as well. Overall, Blackwater had a “visible, and financially lucrative, presence in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as the use of the company contractors cost U.S. taxpayers $240,000 a day.”[14]
In May 2006, the U.S. State Department awarded WPPS II, the successor to its previous diplomatic security contract.[10] Under this contract, the State Department awarded Blackwater, along with Triple Canopy and DynCorp, a contract for diplomatic security in Iraq. Under this contract, Blackwater is authorized to have 1,020 staff in Iraq.[10] Blackwater’s responsibilities include the United States embassy in Iraq.
Now I hat the idea of contractors. You make war profitable you will have more of it guaranteed. You have the US training these men and then some politically connected person paying them twice what the common soldier gets and still stripping a massive chunk of change for themselves. That’s your tax dollars at work. You knew what you posted.
Still does not explain the complete failure of this administration to protect our diplomatic missions in Libya. No matter how you spin this commie, your administration’s sick need to blow the islamists cost four American patriots their lives. Go ahead and try to blame bush.
Naw, Bush killed Tillman. Different coverup.
“Boy, you are a dedicated propogandist to reply to my question with this much venom!”
Blatantly obvious propaganda scam attack numero uno: Accuse your accuser of being the real propagandist…
As usual, you are full of pseudo-intellectual BS!
And you are full of paid-prostitute propagandic vitriol…
The State of Florida sets race-based educational goals.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-minority-standards-20121010,0,1527027.story
Race-based goals? As in a race to the bottom?
Whomever reaches the bottom first wins the race?
What sort of prize is awarded to the winner?
If there is an unequal outcome in a race then that is proof that there must have been an unequal match up in the selection of the participants.
All participants must cross the finish line at the same moment for a well-matched race to be successful, to demonstrate that the race was well-matched. And if all participants cross the finish line at the same time then all the participants can be declared winners.
No child left behind and all that.
Test scores should be averaged. Points should be deducted from high scorers and distributed among the low scorers.
If the average score drops then blame should be placed squarely on the high scorers since their high scores are what is needed to keep the average score up.
Punishment should follow this blame to act as an incentive for one to do better the next time.
LOL! Good analogy there.
That isn’t what the article said. It has nothing to do with individual test scores.
If, for example, the Hispanic kids in their district don’t do well in math, they can’t just try to get the Hispanic kids who aren’t meeting standards to quit school. They will still be judged on how many of the Hispanic kids are meeting standards. The percent may be less than the number of white or Asian kids who meet the standards (because, for instance, they recognize that school performance and social class are tightly linked and that a much greater portion of the Hispanic kids in Florida are likely to be poor than white and Asian kids are), but the schools are still expected to make progress in all the sub-groups.
Sounds like a small incentive to the schools to work on lifting all boats (as is right in a public school) rather than sink a bunch of boats that need the most work and pretend they never existed.
Polly, Combo is referencing a common conservative parable of the eeeevils of socialism. Under Obammywan the socialist, if you get a 4.0, you have to give 1.0 point to a 2.0 so that everyone gets a 3.0. Everyone’s a winner! Oh, you think you earned that 4.0 and should keep it yourself? Welcome to the Republican party *smirk*.
Of course the question is more complex than that but that never stopped Rush & Co.
[example of another conservative parable: the little girl who wanted to mow the lawn for $50 and then give the $50 to the homeless guy and why didn't the homeless guy mow the lawn himself for $50. HBB went over that one too.]
“If, for example, the Hispanic kids in there district don’t do well in math, they can just try to get the Hispanic kids who aren’t meeting standards to quit school.”
These kids don’t need encouragement to quit school, that’s a decision they make all on their own. The school officials have a hard enough time getting these guys to come to school in the first place, why would you think they would want to turn around and encourage them to quit?
Schools are paid according to the number of students they have attending. Less students, less money. If the number gets less enough then the school gets closed.
But, from another point of view, those students who DO NOT WANT to go to school generally are doing a great service to the rest of the students - the ones who DO WANT to go to school - by not showing up.
Shape up or ship out. Whichever path you choose to take you will be doing everybody else around you a big favor.
we’re getting there muggy….next we will be saying: we need to teach black people how to speak English…..its getting close…
Political correctness is dying
Supreme Court skeptical of University of Texas affirmative action
Conservative justices hint they will throw out the school’s admissions policy, but it’s unclear whether they will reverse the court’s 2003 ruling on the issue.
October 10, 2012|By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled Wednesday they were likely to strike down a University of Texas affirmative action policy, but did not make clear how far they might go in outlawing the use of race in admissions at colleges and universities.
From his opening question, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he was troubled by having students “check a box” to designate race or ethnicity and by allowing officials to decide who is admitted based on this factor.
“Should someone who is one-quarter Hispanic check the Hispanic box?” he asked. When the lawyer for the university said it was up to the student to decide, Roberts tried again: “What about one-eighth?”
The case, brought by a white student who was rejected, could lead to a ruling requiring top colleges and universities to use “race neutral” policies to achieve campus diversity. Texas, for example, has required its universities, including the Austin campus where the case originated, to admit students who graduate at the top of their high school class, without regard to race or ethnicity.
Thanks to that 1997 law, about 30% of the new freshmen at the University of Texas were Latino or black. That success has undercut the university’s defense of its separate and smaller affirmative action policy.
Roberts joined Justice Antonin Scalia in questioning the university’s claim that it needs affirmative action to have a “critical mass” of minority students in its classes.
“How do they decide?” Scalia asked. “Somebody walks in the room and looks them over to see who looks Asian, who looks black, who looks Hispanic?”
…
“How do they decide?” Saclia asked. “Somebody walks in the room and looks them over to see who looks Asian, who looks black, who looks Hispanic?”
Does Tiger Woods look Asian or does he look black?
Should blacks be pissed because the terms Asian and the term Hispanic are capitalized but the term black is not?
Asian is capitalized, yellow is not.
Hispanic is capitalized, brown is not.
European is capitalized, white is not.
African is capitalized, black is not.
Negro was capitalized, colored… I don’t really know if it was or not.
THE SATURDAY ESSAY
October 12, 2012, 7:58 p.m. ET
The Unraveling of Affirmative Action
Racial preferences spring from worthy intentions, but they have had unintended consequences—including an academic mismatch in many cases between minority students and the schools to which they are admitted. There’s a better way to help the disadvantaged.
By RICHARD SANDER and STUART TAYLOR JR.
Jareau Hall breezed through high school in Syracuse, N.Y. Graduating in the top 20% of his class, he had been class president and a successful athlete, and he sang in gospel choir. He was actively recruited by Colgate University in rural New York, one of the nation’s top liberal-arts colleges.
None of Colgate’s recruiters mentioned to Mr. Hall that his combined math and verbal SAT scores were some 250 points below the class median—let alone that this would put him at great risk of academic difficulty.
Many black and Hispanic students admitted to elite schools for which they are not prepared end up getting low grades, switching to easier majors, or dropping out altogether. WSJ’s Gary Rosen discusses the problem with Stuart Taylor, Jr., co-author of a new book on the subject.
Arriving at Colgate in 2002, he quickly found himself struggling in class, with far more rigorous coursework than he had ever faced. “Nobody told me what would be expected of me beforehand,” recalls Mr. Hall, now 28. “I really didn’t know what I was getting into. And it all made me feel as if I wasn’t smart enough.”
…
Gotta wonder about that high school…
“Many black and Hispanic students admitted to elite schools for which they are not prepared end up getting low grades, switching to easier majors or dropping out altogether.”
What a surprise!
And this is because:
1. They are black or Hispanic? or …
2. They are not prepared?
Take anyone who is not prepared and they would do the same, no? But these students weren’t chosen because they were prepared, they were chosen because they were black or Hispanic.
Such is the system.
Public Schools in this country are funded based on the local tax base. Meaning, we hold kids responsible for the income of their parents.
No wonder we have to fight our way our of that paradigm.
New Home Affordable Refinance Program (SNORKEL)
UPDATE (October 13, 2012) : The SNORKEL Refinance program is available to U.S. homeowners as of last night. This post has been updated since its original publish date to account for changes to the SNORKEL program guidelines.
Click here to get a SNORKEL rate quote.
If you’re underwater on your conforming, conventional mortgage, you may be eligible to refinance without paying down principal and without having to pay mortgage insurance.
Here are the details of the government’s new SNORKEL refinance program.
What Is SNORKEL?
SNORKEL was started last night. It goes by several names. The government calls it SNORKEL, as in you paid so much for that house there aint no way you are ever going to pay anyone a dime back unless we bail your sorry @ss out.
The program is also known as the Romney Hates the middle class plan, the Obama Refi plan, UW Refi+, and Relief Refinance.
In order to be eligible for the SNORKEL refinance program :
1.Your loan must be, well it doesn`t matter we need to get re-elected.
2.Your current mortgage must have, once again it doesn`t matter we need to get re-elected.
If you meet these two criteria, you may be SNORKEL-eligible. If your mortgage is paid off or if you have participated in the early voting program, you are not SNORKEL-eligible.
LOL… Nice.
Posted: 5:22 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012
South Florida housing inventory down 34 percent
(Golf clap)
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
South Florida’s inventory of homes for sale was down 34 percent in September from the same time last year with the largest decrease happening in the higher price ranges.
A report released Thursday by the real estate analysis firm Zillow measured home availability in three price tiers ranging from less than $105,600 to greater than $234,351. In Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the supply of homes carrying the higher price tags was down 34.4 percent, while the inventory of homes in the lowest tier was down 33 percent.
Nationally, the overall average inventory drop in homes for sale was 19 percent.
Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said first-time homebuyers are feeling the biggest impact from the decrease in inventory as cash investors compete for low-priced homes they can rent out.
“First-time homebuyers are being squeezed out of the market by falling inventory and the rapid influx of investors looking to buy basic homes to rent out to the growing population of people who have recently been foreclosed upon,” Humphries said in a press release. “Investors are paying in cash and can close sooner, which is more favorable to banks and homeowners looking to sell.”
Palm Beach County’s overall inventory of single-family homes was down to less than a five-month supply in August. That’s 57 percent below where it was in August 2011, according to the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.
Zillow’s report found the largest drops in home inventory occurred in California with some metro regions, such as San Diego and Los Angeles, experiencing 45 percent decreases in the availability of the lowest-priced homes. Available homes for sale in Sacramento in the lowest price-range were down 55 percent.
Also on Thursday, RealtyTrac released a report naming Florida tops nationally for foreclosure activity in September, which could mean more low-priced homes are headed for resale after bank repossession.
But Florida Realtors Chief Economist John Tuccillo said lenders are more hesitant today to take back homes for fear that putting more foreclosures on the market will crash prices. That concern is helping to stabilize prices by producing more short sales, which typically carry higher price tags than foreclosures, Tuccillo said.
A short sale is where the bank agrees to sell the home for less than what the owner owes on the mortgage.
“We’re no longer running around like chickens with our heads cut off,” Tuccillo said. “In three years, Realtors and lenders have walked way up the learning curve.”
old news
You call this news? I call it a well executed plan by TPTB.
Is this site/guy legit? 90% market correction is some serious pants-$hitting.
“why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies?
After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized.
It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.”
http://www.moneynews.com/Outbrain/billionaires-dump-economist-stock/2012/08/29/id/450265?PROMO_CODE=FE8A-1
Sounds like a scam to get weak hands to sell their shares to strong hands at a deep discount…
I’ll go for a 90% haircut. It would make Wall Street sport a marine hairdo I suppose! I would like to buy Apple at $65 per share, Master Card at $47, Google at $70.
has shrunk to a six-year low relative to the size of the economy as homeowners, cities and companies cut borrowing, undermining rating companies’ downgrading of the nation’s credit rating.
Total indebtedness including that of federal and state governments and consumers has fallen to 3.29 times gross domestic product, the least since 2006, from a peak of 3.59 four years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Private- sector borrowing is down by $4 trillion to $40.2 trillion.
Reduced borrowing means there is less competition for the U.S. Treasury Department as it sells debt to fund spending programs to help the nation recover from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Credit-rating firms are discounting the improvement even as debt, equity and currency markets suggest the U.S. is more creditworthy than before Standard & Poor’s stripped the nation of its AAA grade in 2011.
“Most people don’t pay much attention to ratings when it comes to Treasuries, as they are still considered to be risk- free assets,” Donald Ellenberger
Free men are not equal.
Equal men are not free.
Bezmenov on demoralization in America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpODYhnPEo
I had lunch with Bezmenov once in the 80’s. Interesting guy.
Whoa, never heard of this dude. Fascinating guy.
Its interesting he uses the term “demoralization” because can’t it have two meanings?
1. To make someone “feel bad”, lack hope… because of something done to them.
2. To remove a persons values, common sense, manners…
Maybe both definitions are the same because in both cases something is being DONE to a person.
But I have two uses for the word.
For example:
If your opponent returns a kick for a TD, it may demoralize you.
But if I reward a child for strangling kittens, Im DE-moralizing the child right?
So is the assumption that everyone starts with internal morals?
SAN DIEGO HOME PRICES HOLD ON TO 4-YEAR HIGH
Demand on the rise at time of below-normal supply
Written by Lily Leung
12:01 a.m., Oct. 13, 2012
Updated 3:08 p.m. , Oct. 12, 2012
September offers more evidence that home prices are staying strong after the popular buying seasons of spring and summer, based on Friday’s market report from real estate tracker DataQuick.
The median price for all homes sold in the San Diego County market in September was $350,000, up 1.4 percent from August and up 11.1 percent from the same month a year ago. We’ve been hovering at or around a four-year high for the last three straight months, a result of increasing consumer demand and a lower-than-normal supply. Prices have either stayed flat or gone up during the last six months.
The county recorded a total of 3,214 home sales, including single-family resales, condos and new homes. That’s a 19.3 percent drop from August.
However, it’s important to note that August was the busiest month for San Diego County home buying since 2006. The monthly sales average in the county this year to date is 3,348 — up more than 12 percent from the same time period last year. Another reason for the dramatic month-to-month sales drop: There were four fewer business days in August.
DataQuick analysts point to record-low mortgage rates and a boost in consumer confidence as reasons for the increase in prices not only in San Diego County but also throughout Southern California.
Another key factor is that fewer foreclosures are being resold into the market, and those tend to be priced lower than traditional homes. Foreclosures made up 13.3 percent of total resales, the lowest percentage for any month since July 2007, when it was 11.6 percent.
“Assuming this year’s modest upward trend in pricing holds,” said DataQuick President John Walsh in Friday’s report, “we’ll eventually see the market begin to rebalance with more supply, though that could take many months. More and more potential move-up buyers who do have equity will be thinking about timing their next purchase to maximize the advantage of super-low rates and relatively low prices. As more potential sellers get off the fence, or no longer owe more than their homes are worth, we’ll see the inventory of homes for sale rise. That’s going to limit price appreciation.”
Lower-than-normal inventory continues to be a challenge for buyers but is a positive for sellers trying to get the best price for their home.
The number of active listings in the county featured on the Multiple Listing Service has fallen for 15 straight weeks. Right now, there are roughly 5,300 available listings, the lowest number in at least three years and three months, based on data from the San Diego Association of Realtors. The current listing supply is half of what we saw the same time a year ago.
The result of limited supply and increased demand? Bidding wars.
…
HEARD ON THE STREET
October 12, 2012, 3:04 p.m. ET
Banks Left QEasey by Fed’s Efforts
By DAVID REILLY
How times have changed. Four years ago, investors worried banks wouldn’t have enough money to keep running. Today, big U.S. banks are struggling with all the cash they have.
Clearly, that is a better problem to have. But it is still a problem, as shown by solid third-quarter results Friday from Wells Fargo (WFC -2.64%) and J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM -1.14%). They brought into sharp relief the blessing and curse of the super-low interest rates brought about by the Federal Reserve (500469.BY +0.59%).
The short-term high from yet more quantitative easing, or QE, is another mortgage refinancing wave. But this must eventually crest. So banks can’t count on such business for too long. And the longer-term pain is deeper. With rates set to stay lower for longer, pressure is rising on banks’ net interest margins, or the difference between what they earn from borrowing money and lending or investing it.
With deposit rates already near zero, banks have limited room to further lower their cost of funding. Wells said that its average deposit cost in the third quarter was just 0.18 percentage point, down only marginally from 0.19 percentage point the prior quarter.
Meanwhile, each quarter banks see higher-yielding loans and securities mature, only to replace them with ones that yield significantly less. That contributed to a 0.25 percentage point fall in the margin at Wells to 3.66%. J.P. Morgan’s margin fell 0.04 percentage point to 2.43%.
At the same time, deposits keep flowing into big banks, even as they struggle to put them to work given still tepid loan demand. Both J.P. Morgan and Wells said margins could remain under pressure.
Underscoring the conundrum, Wells said it kept on its own balance sheet nearly $10 billion of residential mortgages it would typically sell to investors. This meant the bank gave up about $200 million in mortgage-revenue this quarter in hope of generating more yield.
While a small amount compared with total assets of $1.37 trillion, it is still an about-face. In 2009, Wells chief John Stumpf said the bank wouldn’t put 30-year conforming mortgages on its books because rates were too low. By holding mortgages the bank takes on more risk that rates could suddenly rise. Today, rates are even lower.
…
Why the President Is Still a Heavy Favorite on the Prediction Markets
Ohio — which has remained Obama friendly — is one of three key states where Romney needs to gain support in order to swing the election in his favor. Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
On the NewsHour tonight we explore three ways to predict the presidential election: polling, economic modeling, and betting in the prediction markets. Economist David Rothschild tracks all three. His was a fascinating interview, filled with nuances about presidential prediction and the betting markets in particular. The most surprising fact of all: they used to be much bigger than they are today. But you’ll have to read the entire exchange below to find out how much and when. (Unless you skip ahead, that is.)
David Rothschild: The uncertainty in election forecasts is not about what would happen if the election were held today. It is about what could happen between now and Election Day that could shake things up. And so when a state is 55 percent, or 60 percent, or 75 percent for a given candidate, what we’re saying is that there is a 45 percent, or 40 percent, or 25 percent chance the other candidate could win if something happens that shifts that balance, not what would happen if the election were held that day.
If you want a quick and meaningful rubric for understanding the likelihood of an election, one way to think about it is take every state and the District of Columbia — the 51 Electoral College districts — and rank them from the most likely for Romney to the most likely for Obama. Rank them all, number them 1 to 51. You have a bunch of states that are bunched up near 100 [percent likelihood] for Obama and a bunch of states bunched up near 100 [percent likelihood] for Romney. Then you have this whole middle ground from leaners [to the Democrat ticket], to tossups, to leaners [toward the Republican ticket]. And what happens is that, barring a major event, any given state is just going to start drifting, over time, towards the candidate they’re most likely [to vote] for. So every day that goes by on which that state does not flip [to the other party], it’s going to slowly drift in the direction of the candidate that it favors in terms of probabilities. And that’s what we’re seeing happen.
…
“And so when a state is 55 percent, or 60 percent, or 75 percent for a given candidate, what we’re saying is that there is a 45 percent, or 40 percent, or 25 percent chance the other candidate could win if something happens that shifts that balance, not what would happen if the election were held that day.”
Sorry, but if he means percent of voters going for a given candidate,
that’s just way off. And if he is talking about poll results, in case it is still a little off. Only if his ‘55 percent, or 60 percent, or 75 percent’ refers directly to probabilities (not normally described as ‘percent’) would his statement make sense. Imprecise language makes it impossible to know what he is talking about.
For a simple example, if a poll says 60% of likely voters in Illinois are going to vote for Obama with a margin of error of +/- 3%, there is not a 40% chance it is going for Romney; closer to 0% chance, in fact…
I personally know two stake presidents. One is a billionaire business owner; the other, the husband of one of my wife’s oldest, closest friends, is a federal employee of modest means.
Both of them are very good men by any objective definition.
And Mitt Romney was a stake president, to throw in a third example to the mix…
Was Mitt Romney the ‘quintessential’ Mormon stake president?
A look at volunteer LDS leaders
By Joseph Walker, Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Aug. 23 2012 4:21 p.m. MDT
As a stake president, Mitt Romney served in an administrative position similar to that of bishop in other Christian churches. He was the spiritual leader for a number of LDS congregations in the Boston area during the 1980s and early 1990s, that included significant, time-consuming volunteer efforts.
By most accounts, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was effective as a stake president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One blogger refers to him as “the quintessential example” of an LDS stake president.
However, a recent study by the Brookings Institution indicated that even after all of the publicity and coverage of what has been called “the Mormon moment,” fully 82 percent of Americans say they know “little” or “nothing” about the LDS Church. So the complexities of the church’s organizational structure are likely lost on most people, who probably think a stake president is the guy in charge of the rib eye at Sizzler.
The LDS Church understands that, and has recently released a detailed discussion of the church’s lay ministry — complete with infographic.
“In a church with lay leadership,” the web document states, “the work of the individual congregations depends wholly on the volunteer efforts of the local members.”
And in Boston, Mass., during the 1980s and early 1990s, that included significant, time-consuming volunteer efforts from Romney.
As a stake president, Romney served in an administrative position similar to that of bishop in other Christian churches. He was the spiritual leader for a number of LDS congregations in the Boston area. Those individual congregations are called “wards” and are led by a lay minister called a “bishop.” Romney served as a bishop of a Boston-area ward from 1981-86. When Romney was president of what is called the Boston Massachusetts Stake, from 1986-94, all of the bishops in the stake as well as all of the members of the church who lived in that geographical area were within his jurisdiction.
If Romney was indeed the “quintessential” stake president, he spent anywhere between 20-30 hours a week — sometimes more — in his ecclesiastical responsibilites, which included administrative, ministerial, organizational and financial oversight for the entire stake. He might spend one evening conducting personal, one-on-one interviews with stake members seeking spiritual advice, financial counsel or personal guidance. Another night might find him playing volleyball with teenagers during a stake youth activity. Sundays usually began early with meetings with other ecclesiastical leaders in the stake, then extended through worship services in several different wards, and then concluded with more of those personal interviews. And twice each year he was in charge of stake conferences, during which all members of the stake gathered to hear him and other church leaders teach, instruct, inspire and motivate.
As with all lay ministers of the LDS Church, Romney invested all of his time in this church assignment without financial compensation, performing his professional responsibilities during the day and filling his evenings and weekends with duties in his church ministry.
“These are volunteers in the sense that they are not paid, but they are not volunteers in that they don’t volunteer for the position,” said Elder L. Whitney Clayton, a member of the LDS Church’s Presidency of the Seventy, who oversees the work of stake presidents all around the world. “No one ever campaigns to be a stake president. I’ve never received letters, or seen any sort of organized effort to promote someone to be a stake president.”
…
But weren’t you saying you knew that there were financial requirements (at least along the lines of self sufficiency and significant savings) to be a Stake President? I thought maybe you had info on that…
Obama grabs wide lead among those who have already voted: Reuters/Ipsos poll
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:15am EDT
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are neck and neck in opinion polls, but there is one area in which the incumbent appears to have a big advantage: those who have already cast their ballots.
Obama leads Romney by 59 percent to 31 percent among early voters, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling data compiled in recent weeks.
The sample size of early voters is relatively small, but the Democrat’s margin is still well above the poll’s credibility interval - a measurement of polls’ accuracy - of 10 percentage points. (full graphic: bit.ly/RmeEen)
With the November 6 election just more than three weeks away, 7 percent of those surveyed said they had already voted either in person or by mail.
The online poll is another sign that early voting is likely to play a bigger role this year than in 2008, when roughly one in three voters cast a ballot before Election Day. Voting is already under way in some form in at least 40 states.
Both the Obama and Romney teams are urging supporters to vote as soon as possible so the campaigns can focus their door-knocking and phone-calling operations on those who are still undecided or need more prodding to get to the polls.
Early voting was a big part of Obama’s victory over Republican John McCain in 2008, and his campaign aims to repeat its success this year.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll indicates the campaign’s efforts appear to be paying off, although its advantage could erode as Election Day approaches.
The Obama campaign says it is leading among early voters in Iowa and Ohio, and trailing by a smaller margin than 2008 in several other swing states. It expects its early voting efforts will help the campaign weather a blitz of negative ads expected to saturate the airwaves in battleground states in the final weeks before November 6.
“We’ve made early investments in battleground states - where we’ve been registering folks and keeping an open conversation going with undecided voters for months - to build a historic grass-roots organization that will pay off when the votes are counted,” spokesman Adam Fetcher said.
…
Someone / everyone please virtually b*thch slap me. Getting seriously tempted to buy a house. Prices are down in my hood - suburban Boston. There is one that has everything I want. One level, solidly built, small and less expensive than neighboring houses, garage, un- renovated, quiet street, walking distance to shopping and the T, etc…But at last my hard headiness will prevail. Whew… close call.