The Housing Bubble

Good point. Why buy or rent when prices and rental rates are falling?

Why buy or rent

Uhhh, because you need a place to live?

Shhhh…sf…don’t mess it up. Getting exeter to say really dumb stuff that discredits him is fun. I’m enjoying it.

Uhh… Polly was inferring that the original post was a request for a place to live?

No, she was implying it.

Better luck next time abulance chaser.

Hey chump…. this isn’t about me so don’t make it about me.

It isn’t about me = I’m a Hypocrite

PS, have you ever used someone’s handle from here on another site?

I can’t toss insults without hiding. I’m skeerd.

90% of mortgages are backed by the government.

We bought a month ago. I received a letter last week telling me that Fannie bought the loan but the credit union would still be servicing it.

Also, there are consequences to this massive intervention. Malinvestment and moral hazard. High consumer and government debt. Which aren’t issues until they blow up.

Debt and gambling. In Maryland, in addition to vast expansion of gambling, they want to put in a new casino at a very upscale new hotel complex across the Potomac in view of DC. The politicians tell us the benefits of all these casinos in Maryland. My attitude is, “If gambling is so great, why not put a casino in every mall?

Of course, the reason is because gambling has costs no one talks about. The politicians in Maryland are slavering at the dreams of gambling revenue for their coffers. But no one talks about the costs.

Debt is the same way. But the Fed and government always celebrate higher consumer debt, claiming it’s a good thing for the economy. It’s just a way for the elites to extract wealth from the commoners. Just like gambling.

“Don’t fight the Fed.” Well, there’s another saying (or at least there ought to be): “Don’t fight market forces.”

So far as I can tell, the Fed’s primary modus operandi is to use all manner of subsidies, tricks and traps to prevent fundamentals from restoring rationality to markets.

Just paint it black.

Not for a woman.

So, this white guy steps up to a urinal beside a black guy and happens to glance over. He can’t believe his eyes and asks the black guy how it got so big. Black guy says he doesn’t know but maybe the white guy could hang a weight on his and it might stretch it. About two weeks later the black guy recognizes the white guy on the street and asks him if he tried the weight thing. The white guy acknowledges that he is and the black guy asks him how it is working. Well…..says the white guy, I think I am about half way there, ….it has turned black.

Thank you, thank you….I’ll be here all week.

Same setting, white guy notices that black guy’s member says
“Wendy”. White guy says, “Hey, my girlfriend’s name is Wendy too”. Black guy says, “No, it says ‘Welcome to Jamaica Mon, and have a nice day”.

Really ? So the previous administration handed the current one a balanced budget and no debt, and they ran up $16T in four short years ?

Is that what was said above?

Obama has grown the deficit by 60% versus the end of Bush’s term. It was $10T. Now it’s $16T.

BTW, if you could produce a copy of the current Federal budget, I’d appreciate it. Congress and Obama haven’t produced one for more than 3 years. Perhaps it exists and you’re sitting on it?

BTW, if you could produce a copy of the current Federal budget, I’d appreciate it. Congress and Obama haven’t produced one for more than 3 years. Perhaps it exists and you’re sitting on it?

I think one of my neighbors’ chickens may be sitting on that budget. It’ll hatch any day now.

Obama has grown the deficit by 60% versus the end of Bush’s term. It was $10T. Now it’s $16T.

And the Amazing part is that Obama’s spending grew way less fast than Bush’s spending while at the same time most of Obama’s spending on SocSec/Medicare and the wars was already baked into the cake before Obama even took office.

Obama’s deficits are not mostly because of increased spending. Obama’s deficits are mostly because of lowered revenue. A big part of that lowered revenue is the BushTaxCutsFor the Rich and the Great Recession. Amazing.

I think you mean debt. Assuming your numbers are correct, he accumulated debt is forecast to be 16T, making Obama responsible for 6T, not 16T. You can blame the guy for some of the problem but not all of it.

baked into the cake

This is key. Much that spending is Social Security and Medicare, which were bound to rise when people get older. Are you saying that now it’s Obama’s fault that people got older? How do you propose that he stop this trend?

Death panels?

Okay, here’s some humor for you…

Question: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: That’s NOT funny!

Seems like a rather minor poor choice of words compared to saying that the killing of four Americans was not optimal.

“Not optimal” doesn’t have the same cadence, you see.

By the way, how come everybody isn’t unifying around Obama the way everybody unified around Bush in 2001?

I can’t help myself:

Q. What’s the hardest thing about a female-to-male sex change operation?

A. When they take out half your brain.

Actually, the question should be: “How come everybody isn’t unifying around Obama the way everybody unified around Carter in 1980?”

I can only suppose it’s because Obama has yet to place a grain embargo on Libya, Egypt and Syria.

Murder of ambassadors? Check. Obama has that one covered.

“female-to-male sex change operation?”

Isn’t the technical term for that operation an “adacoctomy”?

Hahahahaah….it’s Friday and I’m on a roll.

He didn’t pass hundreds of drug tests. He managed to miss most of them. He was required to report his location so they could do random tests, but he would give the right city/general location, but the wrong actual address. The rules only punish you if you aren’t in the city/general location, but they still can’t do the test if they can’t find you within that general location. No idea why they weren’t required to provide a contact number so that the test could be done within a few hours.

Also, a bunch of his old samples have tested positive for EPO but at the time there wasn’t an effective test for it.

A few other things, but there have been some stories talking about the details. The one thing that is clear is that his claim to have passed 100s of tests is not close to true.

Wow, thanks Polly. I didn’t know that. I recall(?) reading that swimmer Michael Phelps pretty much had to go straight from the pool to the cup during the Olympics, repeatedly. Not test avoidance there.

Didn’t even Sheryl Crow turn on him? I heard security was really tight wherever he was, in case of random tests. All kinds of crazy maneuvers and stonewalling to hold them off.

I was a big fan and believed his story for a long time.

We have a “Livestronged” 24 Hour Fitness (exercise facility) here. On the wall is the following quote:

“This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it; Study it; Tweak it; Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day; What are YOU on?”

Haven’t been to that gym’s location in a few months so I’m curious to see if they’ve pulled down all of his quotes, stories, replica medals, etc.

CIBT,

I was going to say “I’m sorry” for getting you mad, but I guess my post was meant to do that.

I am sorry that I did that. Please forgive me.

That is a funny website, but we’re probably laughing for different reasons.

Have a great weekend.

“Have a great weekend.”

Ditto.

This seems like a good place to post. There used to be a Barnes and Noble in my neighborhood. Closed when all the others did. It has had a few things in it since then - temp Halloween store and a “discount” outlet for some over stocks on a fancy furniture store - but nothing permanent. Looks like it is finally getting a tennant. Discount Shoe Warehouse (DSW) coming soon. Right next to the New Balance Store. Wonder if New Balance will have to bring back their sales? They used to have big discounts on one sneaker style a month. Haven’t seen one of those in over a year.

I think DSW sells NB shoes. They’re probably last year’s models. Like Nike, NB shoes fall apart on my feet. The only sneaks I can make last are Adidas.

You already have a closet full of shoes. Why do you need more?

It also is shale country, which is not viewed favorably by Obama.

My observation:

Majority of White Billionaires are democrats.
Majority of White Millionaires are republicans.

So in rich white world, Republicans are the party of the middle class.

Carl, I’d actually like to see a study on who is wealthier per capita: white Democrats versus white Republicans.

A male study. A female study. A household study.

I think the Democrats would come out with a much higher per capita income. They do a great job of painting the picture of the evil rich Republicans but in the end, both political parties are the same.

That is my suspicion as well, but I could be wrong.

I’d also like to know the party affiliation of the evil 1%er crowd.

And what does 1%er entail relative to income and freebies? What is the base 1%er income anyway? $250K annually? $150K annually?

It’s a lot lower than many would like to believe. Many of them undoubtedly reside in Washington, New York, Boston and California.

You can thank Occupy for even raising this question. As of about a year ago, the top 1% income was $343K income. The average within that 1% was $960K, showing that the 1% is skewed toward the 0.1%. Average securities industry worker in NY: $311K. Lots more factoid numbers in the article.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/20/news/economy/occupy_wall_street_income/index.htm

Except for Manhattan or deep downtown of major cities, you can live pretty richly on $343K income just about anywhere.

Excellent - thanks, oxide.

He was making that comment at a fundraiser. None of them were at that event and if it’s like any of the private political events I’ve attended, they announce that there is to be no recording or rebroadcast of any kind.

I’m not saying it was right, I’m just saying he didn’t expect that it would get out.

“That’s why RMoney was such an idiot to make that 47% comment. A good chunk of that 47% actually vote for him.”

Luckily illiterate hardscrabble Joe6Pack types are unlikely to be tuned into the issue…

I think you have to go back and look at the context. My understanding is that he said 47% will vote for Obama anyway so there was no use trying to get their vote, not that he didn’t care about that 47%. i.e., only in terms/context of the election did he not care.

It would have been fine if he had left it at, “there are 47% of the people will vote for the President no matter what” (accurate, given polling). It was when he insinuated that 100% of the 47% of the folks who would vote for Obama think they are entitled to handouts that is the problem.

His choice of 47% was not random. Why not use 45%, 48%, or 50%? 47% is exactly the same amount that supposedly “don’t pay taxes.” The conclusion that he wants people to make is obvious.

Masochism is more prevalent than you may realize.

“Masochism is more prevalent than you may realize.”

Judging from sundry tortured tales of home buyers shared on the HBB, I doubt it.

What pleasure do they take in shooting themselves in the foot?

There is more to their decision making process than money.

It’s either shoot themselves in the foot, or shoot other people in the feet.

Which one are you, Cantankerous?

Do you owe the world your best? Or, does the world owe you?

What did John F Kennedy say?

“Do you owe the world your best?”

I do what I can. It seems like it would be a lot easier to give the world my best without an ongoing struggle to cover the astronomical and ever-rising costs of the basics.

Public employee unions are a big burden on the economy

CEO pay AND pay of top employees but a small fraction of a large company’s revenue

Taxes are paid in dollars not rate. The top taxpayer pay the majority of income taxes. BY THE WAY MEASTON how much do you pay in taxes? Since you seem to like them so much how much extra do you contribute???

Market manipulation has strip weatlh from the middleclass. If the middleclass lives beyond its means whose fault is that? Economies are not static. Market conditions change. As noted before the high rate of pay and lifestyle for 1950 American middleclass was an economic / historical anomoly. As a consumer and shareholder not interested in high cost labor.

Trade and tax policy does encourage job to migrate to China. Why do the Democrats create such a hostile business enviroment in the US? Only a Democrat would think that people keeping their own money is a “break.” But there is no favorable treatment for sending jobs to China or elsewhere. The expense is similar to any other exspense.

One man’s “keeping his own money” is another’s “punish labor in favor of capital” and “hoarding of all of the productivity”

All of this complaining about “shortages of trained people” and “nobody wants to work” are a signs of a screwed up marketplace for labor. It’s always about “lazy, uneducated employees. No consideration whatsoever that the wretched refuse aren’t getting paid enough, or that the “Masters of the Universe” and/or their camp followers are making too much.

Of course, the Republican answer for this is to eliminate any leverage the wretched refuse have to even the odds.

Taxes are paid in dollars not rate. The top taxpayer pay the majority of income taxes. BY THE WAY MEASTON how much do you pay in taxes? Since you seem to like them so much how much extra do you contribute???

Where do you get this stuff? The way we determine what we pay is by PERCENTAGE of income. Otherwise, EVERY taxpayer would be sent a bill that says, “Amount you Owe: $3000″ independent of income level. A flat-amount tax, as it were.

Given this, and the fact that the top pay less as a percentage of income than measton, why is it unreasonable for someone like measton to ask that the top pay a similar percentage? Why should measton pay more than the percentage currently dictated by tax law? The mind…It boggles at your comment.

Would a flat (percentage) tax be a fair compromise for you?

No it’s not.

No it’s not in play.

Take a look at Joe Biden’s schedule. How much time has he spent in Pennslyvania ver the past 4 months? If they hadn’t thought PA was in play he wouldn’t have spent a minute there.

While it is fun watching you and Ross step on each other’s points, why not Obama, why just Biden? I think they may have sensed something in the last four months as the polls were closing but the major effort was not made. They certainly did not think this was in play in January.

Real Clear Politics now has PA as a “toss-up” currently.

It’s called a chess match. Watch Obama’s schedule from 4 yrs ago. He was visting states he carried by 10 points or more few days before the election.

The last few days were almost a victory tour. Remember the campaign’s polls are not released to the public.

Joe Biden grew up in Scranton, but he is very useful in Ohio. If PA was not an issue, he would have spent zero to very little time in PA and even more than he already has in Ohio.

All I am saying is that in states where there is no point (like Wyoming or Idaho) the democrats might not have bothered with a ground game. PA is NOT in that category. It is cheap, and all they had to do was reactivate what they had from 4 years before. You can fantasize the dems not having done anything there if you like, but you will be wrong.

Nate Silver has likelihood of PA going to Obama at 89% as opposed to Romney’s 11% as of yesterday.

Middle men are WAY more than half our GDP.

Of course, he fixed the economy the same way you “fix” a male dog.

What take it for a run on the common. The other dog owners won’t like that.

I think I can see where your coming from and I concur the economy is f……acing a period of uncertainty.

“Stock market can’t be selling off Obama assures us the recovery is on track. Since the stock market predicts the future usually six months ahead, it should be soaring since Obama has fixed the economy.”

Did you consider that perhaps Mr Market is pricing in an Obama victory?

Last winter was mild. What are you talking about?

Also, I don’t think this lady is going to be qualified to do fixer’s job anytime soon.

If you think you can compete with me, knock yourself out, and head out here to BFE..

I’ve dealt with the business climate around her for 40+ years.
It’s going to be real tough undercutting me on price, when all of my overhead sits in the trunk of my old POS car, and I have a full Rolodex.

You are so literal…

I was referring to McJobs, not the highly skilled and valuable work that The Fixer does.

GS-Fixer, you know flyover. Are there enough minimum -wage jobs in flyover to make Oil City plan viable? If someone has, say $125K in cash to buy a $60K cutie-patootie cottage outright and keep $50K emergency/retirement money, could they reasonably depend on always being able to find a McJob within, say 6-7 miles of home, enough to support a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle?

I don’t have anyone in mind; I made those numbers up. I’m just curious. I used 6-7 miles in case the used car went kablooie and they’d have to bike to work.

This brings us back to health insurance. If they don’t have Medicare, soon enough the medical-industrial complex will have their 50k.

There are a lot of 47 year old accountants who couldn’t manage a 14 mile round trip commute on a bicycle.

I know! They told me!

We will soon see. I think old Ben Franklin will be vindicated myself. He firmly believed in the sunspot theory. Besides it is the only theory that explains both the warming on Earth and the similar warming that has occurred on Mars.

Kate Ravilious
for National Geographic News

February 28, 2007

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet’s recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist’s controversial theory.

The earth is TOO, flat! It is it is IT IS!

Don’t bother him with facts, Blue. He’s on a mission. It’s like trying to debate a creationist.

Yes this is great news for our high tech mega agriculture with huge mono culture acreage. They can now go back to the Farmers Almanac.
http://www.hcpress.com/things-to-know/today-marks-the-first-day-of-fall-accuweather-farmers-almanac-predicting-cold-snowy-winter-ahead.html

As with everything else humans can only imagine the future through a glass darkly.

Folks need to stop calling it “global warming”. Warm has such a pleasant ring to it, like maybe I’ll be able to wear a sun dress at night in San Francisco.

It’s “climate change”, as in hurricanes, freak snow storms, droughts, and other insane weather.

Climate change is the new leftist description of what was global warming and before that global cooling. Why is it so hard to understand that we don’t understand. We had an ice age long before man could have created it.

There are just a few things that humans can do to really screw up the global biosphere. Full scale nuclear war and unchecked emissions into the environment. One is sudden and one is like boiling a frog but the outcomes are similar. We are lucky to be frogs!

More left wing tripe here.
http://beefmagazine.com/disaster/us-long-term-weather-shift

“This is now the new normal and you can expect it for another 20-30 years.”

The global warming/catastrophe meme is over.

It officially jumped the shark just recently, as The Weather Channel/Service (whatever) has announced it will name snowstorms.

Within a decade, it will name sunny days.

What John Coleman must think about TWC these days! Poor man.

What a miserable, mamby-pamby outfit TWC has become.

Global warming is not left wing tripe. If you take a look at who will benefit the most, it will likely be Wall Street. Renewable energy sources are inherently unpredictable and create trading opportunities on power markets and to a lesser extent, in REC or carbon markets.

What a miserable, mamby-pamby outfit TWC has become.

That used to be my favorite channel, until the went all climate-changey and substituted docu-weather shows for regular coverage.

Naming the snow storms is a pretty good idea.

That really bad winter in DC we had Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, Snow-my-god, etc. It was silly. Calling a storm Burt would be a welcome improvement.

I bet there’s a strong correlation between the time when TWC was taken over by GE/NBC and when it started to suck.

The Weather Channel was founded by John Coleman, an ABC-TV weatherman out of Chicago.

Like you, I also loved the station during the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Back when they actually reported the weather and didn’t insist on ramming social dogma down their viewers throats.

I haven’t had cable for 3 years now. What a waste of money.

Netflix and youtube provide the cheap a la carte I want.

Yeah, but if he had wanted to make general, starting as a fighter pilot was the best way. He just happened to not want it.

I’ll let you know. I’ll be seeing my friend in a few weeks. We’re both in the same photography meetup and we’re going on an camera excursion/dental trip.

We’re also very good friends with a lady who’s now in SoCal. (She used to live in Tucson.) She’s in treatment for depression (finally!) and we need to discuss how we can be of support to her as she recovers.

No it’s because short term borrowing is at about 0%, and 30-year is at about 2.75%.

If you increase the cost of borrowing on $1 Trillion by 200 basis points, that’s an additional $20 Billion of deficit borrowing per year just to make up the additional interest.

Multiply that $1 Trillion by the amount that they need to roll, and you’ll see the additional interest cost quickly go over $100 Billion per year, which could then start causing people lots of concern about inflation…because:

1. The Fed/Treasury will then be less concerned about short term rates; and
2. The Fed/Treasury will need to engage in more printing/borrowing to make up the increased interest cost.

I personally think this is something the Government should be doing slowly and deliberately. A few tens of billions here in longer-term borrowing, a few tens of billions there.

ARM’s were also used during periods of high interest to “make housing more affordable” for the every man as well.

No I wasn’t counting sales tax, gas tax, license and registration, property tax (passed cost to renters also), etc in the 1/2. Every bit of tax paid by the under 100k is paid by the over 100k, then it goes up higher!

I don’t think the tax rates under 100k are very good either. In fact, my argument all along has been that people who work for a living should not be paying income tax or social security tax at all. People hiring should be paying those taxes as they have better resources to manage the paperwork and deductions associated with businesses. Citizens should not feel threatened by their government coming after them with police and guns for not paying tax on the fruit of their labor.

Businesses (which gain a benefit by use of a nation’s labor force) should pay tax for use of the labor force, to help pay for their education, perhaps healthcare (OMG!), and general well being and maintenance of the nation. In addition property owners should pay tax for use of the natural resources of the nation. Businesses also tend to have better collective bargaining power than individuals in terms of setting rates and maintaining fairness (although many small business owners would argue about this).

I have been self employed. There are good reasons for doing so.

You get to deduct business expenses, like computers and cars, to reduce your top line income.

When you are a W-2 employee of a consulting firm, they will calculate that they need at least 10% of the rate to cover the 7.85% of the employer’s share of SS and Medicare. And they will not stop when you reach the maximum for the year. This seems unfair, but they are also paying FUTA and have administrative costs to cover.

If you have chosen to be a 1099 self-employed consultant, then you have advantages over a W-2 hourly employee consultant that mean less of your hourly rate goes to both your consulting company and the government.

If you are dealing with a large, reputable company, they will take about 25% for 1099 and 40% for W-2 and 55-60% for salaried.

Small companies are a crap shoot. You can potentially keep more of the hourly rate if you know someone. But it is riskier, because you may have to wait for the client to pay before you get paid. And benefits are non-existent. This is OK if you are young. But past middle age, the cost of private health insurance far exceeds any group policy.

If you are fortunate enough to be on a vendor list, you get whatever rate you are able to negotiate. And you can make money off of other consultants. You better be able to defend that you are really self-employed and not at the beck and call of your client/employer or you can get in trouble with state and federal income tax agencies. If your client decides your services are no longer needed, you will have trouble collecting unemployment.

All in all, if you are self-employed, you are not really an employee.

“I think we might be better off to promote apprenticeship programs for kids starting at about 13.”

Agree.

Jobs such as mowing lawns and paper routes? Those are the type of jobs I used to have as a kid and these jobs helped me discover the value of the buck.

But now these jobs are worked by adults.

“Real jobs”, meaning being an official employee with a Social Security number and all that requires that one be at least 16 (in California at least).

The other side of this age 13 issue carries with it a possible child exploitation aspect.

I think we are talking about two different things here.

I’m talking about how to protect oneself from the predations of parasites and you seem to be talking about something else.

By “bitch shield” I thought you were referring to a shield you carried around to ward off bitches, but it appears you meant a bitch shield was something bitches themselves carried.

I like your posts, Spook, but I often have a hard time understanding what you are saying.

“By “bitch shield” I thought you were referring to a shield you carried around to ward off bitches, but it appears you meant a bitch shield was something bitches themselves carried.”

Are you calling me a bitch? (grrrrrrr)

LOL!

Yeah man, you try to pick up a girl in public with a nice comment about her and sometimes you get a scowl or eye roll… cause your the 5th guy that morning to try it; but its much more likely that they just ignore you– thats the bitch shield.

Regarding the dysfunction of the parasite enviroment; for someone engaging in a craft that benefits from sensitivity, trust, honesty, empathy… such as art, sex…

Some amount of your creative energy must be diverted to “force protection” in order to deal with the parasites.

Your interaction with another person can never be truly elastic if you gotta wonder if they are only out to abuse you, to “get over” on you…

and adding money to it often makes it worse.

I did an experiment once