Bits Bucket for December 8, 2012
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!
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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The Daily Grind~
“Realtor Charged With Falsifying Contract”
http://foreclosuregate.prosepoint.com/story/realtor-charged-falsifying-contract
Yawn…
“Realtor Charged With Falsifying Contract”
Has Angelo Mozilo ever been charged with anything?
Oh, never mind.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The U.S. financial political loan scandal in 2008-2009 involved politicians who allegedly received favorable mortgage rates.
In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that numerous Washington, DC politicians over recent years had received mortgage financing at noncompetitive rates at Countrywide Financial because the corporation placed the officeholders in a program called “FOA’s”–”Friends of Angelo”, Countrywide’s Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. The politicians extended such favorable financing included the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND). The article also noted Countrywide’s political action committee had made large donations to Dodd’s campaign.[1] The largest recipient of campaign contributions from Countrywide, though, was Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), House Financial Services Committee), who has received $37,500 since 1989. [2] Dodd has advocated that the federal government, through the Federal Housing Administration, insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages for distressed homeowners.[3]
Franklin Raines, then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae, on July 31, 2002It was reported by the Wall Street Journal on 6 June 2008 that 2 former CEO of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines and James A. Johnson, who was also an adviser to then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, had received loans from Countrywide.[4] On July 16, 2008, The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had “taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.”[5] However, Raines and the Obama campaign both allege that Raines has never advised Obama.[6] See Raines and Obama.
On 18 June 2008, a Congressional ethics panel started examining allegations that Democratic Senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut (the sponsor of a major $300 billion housing rescue bill) and Kent Conrad of North Dakota received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.[7]
Dodd has faced criticism for his role in this scandal from Connecticut’s largest newspaper, the Hartford Courant[8] as well as from the Connecticut Republican party.[9] Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Dodd its June 2008 “Porker of the Month” for accepting a preferential mortgage deal from Countrywide Financial which stands to benefit from a mortgage bill he is pushing through Congress.[10]
On January 6, 2010, Dodd announced that he would not run for re-election.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countrywide_financial_political_loan_scandal - 37k
Raines and Mozilo both need to be in prison.
On what planet do you live?
UK Guardian piece on Julian Assange:
“And now he is the author of a new book, Cypherpunks: Freedom And The Future Of The Internet. Based on conversations and interviews with three other cypherpunks – internet activists fighting for online privacy – it warns that we are sleepwalking towards a “new transnational dystopia”. Its tone is portentous – “The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen” – and its target audience anyone who has ever gone online or used a mobile phone.
“The last 10 years have seen a revolution in interception technology, where we have gone from tactical interception to strategic interception,” he explains. “Tactical interception is the one that we are all familiar with, where particular individuals become of interest to the state or its friends: activists, drug dealers, and so on. Their phones are intercepted, their email communication is intercepted, their friends are intercepted, and so on. We’ve gone from that situation to strategic interception, where everything flowing out of or into a country – and for some countries domestically as well – is intercepted and stored permanently. Permanently. It’s more efficient to take and store everything than it is to work out who you want to intercept.”
The change is partly down to economies of scale: interception costs have been halving every two years, whereas the human population has been doubling only every 20. “So we’ve now reached this critical juncture where it is possible to intercept everyone – every SMS, every email, every mobile phone call – and store it and search it for a nominal fee by governmental standards. A kit produced in South Africa can store and index all telecommunications traffic in and out of a medium-sized nation for $10m a year.” And the public has no idea, due largely to a powerful lobby dedicated to keeping it in the dark, and partly to the legal and technological complexity. So we spend our days actively assisting the state’s theft of private information about us, by putting it all online.
“The penetration of the Stasi in East Germany is reported to be up to 10% of the population – one in 10 at some stage acted as informers – but the penetration of Facebook in countries like Iceland is 88%, and those people are informing much more frequently and in much more detail than they ever were in the Stasi. And they’re not even getting paid to do it! They’re doing it because they feel they’ll be excluded from social opportunities otherwise. So we’re now in this unique position where we have all the ingredients for a turnkey totalitarian state.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/07/julian-assange-fugitive-interview
When I tell people that google peeks at their gmail to gather personal information about them, most simply shrug.
Which is why we have a society on the way out. That’s what happens when apathy sets in.
I read the other day about TV that monitors your conversation so as to taget ads to you personally. A Verizon patent IIRC. Could get interesting if Mom and Dad are discussing adult topics while the child is out of the room and the taget ad comes on as the child returns.
hmmm more Viagra ads more vaginal cremes , more condom ads….just what we need in between Charlie Browns Christmas.
Saw that one too. Yes, it was Verizon. I already don’t watch much TV. That would make me tune out altogether if you couldn’t opt out and a piece of masking tape didn’t work.
‘ Could get interesting if Mom and Dad are discussing adult topics while the child is out of the room ‘
Or if a guy is left alone in the room. Picture torette syndrome except the words would be bacon, Victoria’s Secret and Noxzema.
“When I tell people that google peeks at their gmail to gather personal information about them, most simply shrug.”
Eloi?
Scary stuff and a good reason to understand how biometric IDs will be applied in the not to distant future. It’s a two edge sword, one approach would be to have every packet of data wrapped in encryption that was signed by your ID as a key giving you the ultimate control of who can view or modify your digital exhaust as we zip around the net. The flip side of that scheme is that governments would demand the ‘wrapper’ provide a skeleton key backdoor to track or block whoever they want - or what I call a digital assassination.
Privacy issues aside this is a remarkable technical achievement. As a student of databases designs it would be amazing to see what kind of information about a society you could derive from such an archive. Not to just drill down to individuals but to extract metadata about the human condition, spot developing trends and areas of discontent before they becomes a threat to the stability of society. Brave new world eh?
“…but the penetration of Facebook in countries like Iceland is 88%…”
Facebook as the new-era Stasi; I hadn’t thought of that.
Does declining an invitation to be somebody’s Facebook friend get you put on some kind of watch list?
“Does declining an invitation to be somebody’s Facebook friend get you put on some kind of watch list?”
More likely for not *having* a facebook account.
How about if you say that Facebook sux?
Or that FB stock is an abbreviation for f-d buyer stock?
see how many trackers there are on sites you visit
http://www.ghostery.com/
warning some tracking sites that ghostery blocks are needed for you to view the site properly (mostly flash) or pay a bill on line….but you can disable it anytime.
or that FB is racist and allows all sorts of criminal activity on it by people of color….
can the avg joe get prosper in america without owning a home or stocks?
Borrowing to buy a depreciating asset like a house isn’t prospering. It’s a loss.
Exactimento, amigo. The avg joe has certainly proved his ability in recent years to lose his shirt by buying a house or stocks.
The average Joe cannot discern the difference between borrowing and buying.
The average joe6pack thinks if he borrows a bundle of money then buys a house and all kinds of consumer crap with it, he thereby instantly becomes a wealthy member of the Ownership Society.
“The avg joe has certainly proved his ability in recent years to lose his shirt by buying a house or stocks.”
Maybe I’ve been asleep, but I was under the impression that the Average Joe no longer pays his bills and/or the 1099-c income tax on his forgiven debt.
Apparently the pending expiration of the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is having quite a stimulative effect on the rate of short sales.
Ergo eliminating special tax breaks for homeowners simulates the economy. I am guessing it would also work for the mortgage interest deduction. They should propose eliminating it in, say, 2014, which would create a fantastic demand stimulus for prospective 2013 home buyers to beat the calendar.
Is there any better way for a middle-class family to receive $95,000 in unearned income than through debt forgiveness?
I’m guessing welfare payments are not nearly so lucrative…
A real estate agent shows a short sale home in Miami. Photographer: Joe Raedle/Bloomberg
Bloomberg News
Short Sales of Homes Surge as Tax Break to Expire: Mortgages
By Kathleen M. Howley on December 06, 2012
Homeowners and banks are accelerating sales of properties for less than the amount owed as a U.S. law that gives them a tax break expires at the end of the year.
The transactions, known as short sales, increased by 35 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, while sales of bank-owned homes dropped 20 percent, according to a report today by mortgage data seller Renwood RealtyTrac LLC. Together, they accounted for 41.5 percent of home purchases in the quarter.
Short sales have accounted for as many as 1.1 million transactions since 2009, helping to reduce the inventory of homes owned by banks that can blight neighborhoods and flood the market. Barring a last-minute extension of the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, homeowners will be taxed on the forgiven principal. With Congress focused on the so-called fiscal cliff, federal spending cuts and tax-rate hikes set to kick in on Jan. 1, the law may not be extended, leading to a drop in short sales and a rise in foreclosures.
“If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage, it’s not likely you can afford an extra $25,000 or $35,000 tax bill to avoid foreclosure,” said Edward Mills, a financial policy analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia. “Mortgage forgiveness has become part of fiscal cliff politics.”
The Internal Revenue Service typically taxes forgiven debt as income to the debtor. For short sales, the average price tag was $94,896 below the mortgage on the property, according to the RealtyTrac report. Tacking that onto borrowers’ income would not only raise the amount of taxes due — it could push them into a more expensive tax bracket.
…
PB that’s surprising I thought they would wait till Jan 2nd and then approve tens of thousands of short sales and go after the FB.
“If you ask 10 people in foreclosure, most of them wouldn’t know they may have a deadline,” Cherry said. “They know about the fiscal cliff, but they don’t know they might be facing their own cliff.”
Are people in foreclosure more likely dull?
‘can the avg joe get prosper in america without owning a home or stocks?’
Those are only more recent historic phenomena trends aren’t they? The idea that houses and stocks outpace inflation in the long-run? IDK the answer really. As I was driving yesterday, it hit me like a ton of heavy things that people are/were so easy to sign up for 30 years of debt when they mortgage a house. OK, if you have a good job and the cash then so what, you gotta live somewhere. The willingness to commit to paying that mortgage and facing years and years of that, well, I guess that is an individual choice but it is foisted upon us by media and word-of-mouth that getting a mortgage is solid financial planning for the most part. Is it always and for everyone?
“OK, if you have a good job and the cash then so what, you gotta live somewhere.”
Made sense when people had stable jobs in or not far from a certain community. Now, things are different. For some, there’s more choice as to where you can live if you’re a telecommuter, consultant or whatever.
Stable job and all….
When you are in your 20s, you don’t appreciate the potential for huge changes in your life and environment over the next 30 years. So called stability has always been a long shot.
I cannot think of more than a few things that are not completely different in my life than when I took out my first mortgage in the 70s. The credit expansion was at least kind to me regarding all the foolish things I did financially over those years. Good luck to all who place the same kind of foolish bets in the credit contraction.
Define “prosper”
“prosper”; Being able to point to some other slob that has it worse off than you - or conversely - the crazy idea that you will ever know what it means to be independently wealthy. Isn’t this the underlying theory of behavioral economics on a national scale?
It has to be a business that throws off cash. I once knew of a man who had an old Pick-up truck,towing a stump-grinder , who rented a shack , but had a pile of money,and never trusted banks.
I knew that because my friend , who was an Investment manager for him , couldn’t resist blabbing it to me.
can the avg joe get prosper in america without owning a home or stocks?
The real question in my mind is can they really prosper even with a home and stocks?
Are you enjoying your view of the game of ‘fiscal cliff’ chicken going on in DC?
Pathetic isn’t it?
The squirming is so cringe-worthy, I almost feel sorry for Boehner et al. But they’ve gotta own it.
Playing chicken on edge of a fiscal cliff
December 8, 2012
Ordinary American families will be the ones to suffer if the two sides fail to reach a compromise, writes Nick O’Malley.
WASHINGTON: American pundits were reduced to car crash metaphors this week as the fiscal cliff loomed larger.
”Just because a drag race doesn’t end with someone getting killed, it doesn’t mean that drag racing is a safe thing to do,” professor of history and public affairs, Julian Zelizer, wrote for CNN.
The Tea Party governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, was even more colourful.
”The truth is Washington already drove us off the fiscal cliff while no one was looking,” the former Congressman wrote for Politico.
”A nation that has a $US16.3 trillion ($15.5 trillion) debt, a debt that is larger than our entire economy, has already driven through the guard rail and is in free fall with the cliff somewhere in the rear view mirror.”
On Thursday President, Barack Obama did what he normally does when negotiations with House Republicans seize up; he flicked the switch back to campaign mode and addressed the public directly.
He invited cameras into the Santana family home in Fairfax, northern Virginia (roughly equivalent to a Canberra politician meeting real people in Queanbeyan) and said: ”You know, for them to be burdened unnecessarily because Democrats and Republicans aren’t coming together to solve this problem gives you a sense of the costs in very personal terms.” It was a fair point. Should the two parties not come to an agreement by the end of the month the impact on every American family could be dramatic.
The fraught negotiations were thrown into further turmoil with the surprise resignation on Thursday of the Republican senator Jim DeMint, from South Carolina, who helped ignite the Tea Party movement.
His departure from the Senate to become president of the conservative Heritage Foundation will give him a new platform to push the Republican Party to the right and campaign against any hint of tax rises.
But it may make the cliff negotiations a little easier for the House Speaker, John Boehner, and more moderate Republicans to make the kind of deal DeMint has railed against.
To understand how Congress and the White House came to toy so dangerously with the US’s economic recovery you need to look back to the debt ceiling negotiations of 2011, and remember this is not an economic crisis, but a political one, entirely manufactured by the key players.
…
However this chapter in the Drama ends, the pain for the American people is only going to grow, as the borrowing to spend will continue.
REPORT
AIR DATE: Dec. 7, 2012
News Wrap: Boehner Says There’s ‘No Progress to Report’ on Fiscal Deal
SUMMARY
In other news Friday, Washington’s stalemate continues. House Speaker John Boehner announced that no noteworthy progress had been made in negotiations for a deal between House Republicans and the Obama administration to reduce America’s long-term deficit before automatic tax hikes and spending cuts kick in come January.
It’s not a stalemate between the two parties. It’s a stalemate between these politicians and us, the American people. They already know there’s no painless choice now. They already know they’ll look like fools no matter what they choose. They already know we’ll suffer regardless.
The two sides agreed on the budget cuts to avoid a ratings downgrade. While the Fed might be capable of buying all the debt necessary and not requiring outside purchasers for the debt, it seems that this step might be a bit too rich for even the Fed’s and the government’s taste.
What these theatrics do is very simple. It is elaborate theater to allow both sides to point fingers at each other. Both the House and Senate passed the budget cuts last year by very healthy majorities. But they said, “Oh we don’t really expect this to come to pass. We’ll put together a super-partisan committee which will hammer out a deal.” Of course the super committee failed.
This is so much theater.
The Sequester Explained:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/14/the-sequester-explained/
When will the Realtor™ lies ever end?
Check out this writer’s entitlement mentality: In a word, unbelievable!
Uh-Oh, Mortgage Interest Deduction Part of ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Maneuvering
Paul Stewart is a veteran of public policy, legislative and political battles.
By Paul Stewart
December 6, 2012
With 26 days and counting before we all fall off the “fiscal cliff,” that tax write-off American homeowners have enjoyed for more than a century – the mortgage interest deduction – well, get ready to kiss it good-bye.
Numerous reports concerning maneuvering on the fiscal cliff package have stated that a change to the long-standing policy that allows homeowners to deduct mortgage interest payments from their income taxes could be part of the remedy. As homeowners (or potential homeowners), you should be outraged and opposed to any changes to the mortgage interest deduction (MID).
…
Ironic how “tax the rich” is morphing into “tax the average people”. Totally UnExpected!
When they stop working?
If a lie is just talk and talk is cheap then the return on telling a lie can be enormous.
Put a bit diffently, if the risk/reward ratio for telling a lie greatly favors telling the lie then the incentive for telling lies overcomes the incentive for telling the truth.
If one wants to discourage the telling of lies then he will have to somehow alter the risk/reward relationship.
You are a very logical thinker Combo. However, you missed one fundamental point. The consequences for telling the lie is non-existent in the realtors case.
“However, you missed one fundamental point.”
This fundamental point is the one I am trying to make.
Put more risk into the telling of lies and you will end up with fewer lies.
BTW, here’s a Frontline presentation titled “Black Money” that talks of lies and corruption and so forth:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/black-money/
Run time = 54 minutes.
“Every dog gotta day.”
W. Kuzeta
“BTW, here’s a Frontline presentation titled “Black Money” that talks of lies and corruption and so forth:”
More middle-east corruption.
Is it really a lie if people want to believe it?
“thats one small step for man…”
Those are the lies - the ones people want to believe - that work the best.
“that’s one small step for man”
So, Spook, how did that laser reflector get placed on the moon?
So, Spook, how did that laser reflector get placed on the moon?
There are people who insist that all space launches are fake, never mind satellite TV or the fact the you can see the ISS with a pair of high powered binoculars.
Like I said the other day, had we faked the moon landings, the Russians would have cried foul.
Comment by In Colorado
Like I said the other day, had we faked the moon landings, the Russians would have cried foul.
—————————————————-
Would you believe the people who lost the moon race?
*don’t hate the player, hate the game*
“Would you believe the people who lost the moon race?”
“Lost the moon race” implies that somebody else won.
If winning the moon race means somebody landed on the moon then it looks as if we just might have landed on the moon.
Comment by Combotechie
So, Spook, how did that laser reflector get placed on the moon?
————————————
Combo, I didn’t say Im a moon landing doubter. Im just saying its easier to lie to people when the lie you tell is something people want to believe.
I too thought the moon landing hoax people were “crazy”.
Then Obama was elected.
That was my first real taste of the phenomenon of people being so dedicated to a belief in something that to express even the most minor challenge to it was to risk being burned at the stake.
See, when white people do it, you just get dismissed as a racist.
But if you are a black person?
You might be burned in effigy.
Its the power of taboo.
BTW– its possible the reason the Soviets lost the moon race is because they actually really tried to go?
Looks are very important.
Did you notice how real the dinosaurs looked in Jurrasic Park?
Would you believe the people who lost the moon race?
Perhaps not, but that never stopped them from accusing us of other things. That they remained silent is perhaps the best proof that the moon landings did indeed happen.
BTW– its possible the reason the Soviets lost the moon race is because they actually really tried to go?
The show stopper for the Russians was that they couldn’t get their heavy lifter rocket (their equivalent of the Saturn V), the N1, to work. All of their early unmanned test launches failed catastrophically. And since we won the race, they eventually gave up and never perfected the N1 rocket and with its cancellation their own manned lunar exploration project was also cancelled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Moonshot
So how ironic is it that all our manned missions since then have used Soyuz rocketry? And that Russian’s missile technology and capacity far exceeds that of the US?
In the fall of 1957 the Russians put Sputnick into orbit and thus created within the U.S. a National Purpose and this National Purpose peaked less than twelve years later with Apollo 11.
In less than twelve years! Truly amazing!
From Redstone rockets blowing up on the launch pad to men being transported to the moon to walk around a bit and then being brought back to earth. Six times over.
But then after that - then what? Once this National Purpose accomplised its goal what other National Purpose was available to take up the slack?
There wasn’t any. And so here we are.
‘In less than twelve years! Truly amazing!’
That’s the big question mark for me. How do you go from Model T to Ferrari in just a few years?
“How do you go from Model T to Ferrari in just a few years?”
Accelerator theory of investment? Throw enough money at it to make it happen fast enough… (Just a hunch).
“How do you go from Model T to Ferarri in just a few years?”
By resolve created by a National Purpose, and this National Purpose is usually created by an event.
The attack on Pear Harbor was an event that created a National Purpose and in less than four years - driven by this National Purpose - we ended up a World Power - one with nukes. (The only one with nukes.)
I was thirteen when the Russians did Sputnick. From that age I was able to follow, step-by-step, the decision to go to the moon and the projects, the steps - Mercury, Gemini, Apollo - that led us there.
Maybe one had to live in those times to fully appreciate them.
Exactly, Combo. Inspire the children, and as they will grow and come of age so will what inspired them.
One of the problems with the study of moon hoax landing theories is that anyone with enough technical background to understand what questions to raise usually has some vested interest in supporting the “official story”.
I can’t discuss it with my smart friends because they get mad.
This leaves me and the “wing nuts”
The web is suspect too because most of the videos and documents are derivatives of 1 or 2 people who did some actual research. The rest tends to be attention whores of various stripes who cut and paste…
There is a lot of Russian language stuff that comes up, but I can’t read it.
The best thing I have found so far is (and I did a lot of searching) is an article called “Wag the moon doggie”
http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/Apollo1.html
Yes he is a conspiracy theorist, but he is the least annoying kind in that he appears to have some technical background as a photographer and has a limited “holier than thou” attitude towards us civilians. And in somewhat of a 1st, he investigates all the programs (Mercury, Gemini…) instead of just Apollo. It helps to do that in order to understand the technical difficulties necessary to overcome.
The 60s must have been a golden age for NASA; a fat budget, good paying jobs, vast public support… now all we have is a 100 billion dollar floating mens locker room in orbit,
and we can’t even get there without the Russians.
(((shakin my head)))
If anybody finds any good “non wing nut” supporting material, please share.
Thanks.
Comment by In Colorado
2012-12-08 09:25:12
That they remained silent is perhaps the best proof that the moon landings did indeed happen.
——————————–
Who is “they?”
the politburo? the central commitee? Seems to me in the old Soviet Union you would only have to get the confidence of 1 or 2 people, and then they would dictate what everyone in the country is gonna believe.
The “Soviets would have protested” arguement is actually pretty weak when you follow it all the way through.
Matter of fact, both space agencies were/are dependent on their prospective governments for funding.
Do you bite the hand that feeds you?
Pencils and slide rules.
“That’s the big question mark for me. How do you go from Model T to Ferrari in just a few years?”
They didn’t.
The V-1 and V-2 were proven and successful rockets and missiles made during WW2. The V-2 was continually tested and flown in the US after WW2.
Goddard had been experimenting since the 1930s.
Von Braun, partnered with Goddard, is what made it all possible.
So the time table is more like 30 years if you count Von Braun early work.
“Von Braun, partnered with Goddard, is what made it all possible.
So the time table is more like 30 years if you count Von Braun early work.”
There you go — the (German) government built that, through funding the research programs of brilliant scientists.
The American government gets credit for efficiently exploiting the human capital flight out of Nazi Germany.
“How do you go from Model T to Ferrari in just a few years?”
I don’t think they did go in a Ferrari. They went in a model T. I have worked in the high vacuum industry for three decades, and I have seen the stuff they built to send men to the moon. It is crude. If anyone has gone aboard a WWII submarine they probably had a similar reaction.I’m not talking about the rockets, I know nothing about that stuff, but the technology to seal against vacuum was crude. Lucky for them it was a short trip.
“Lucky for them it was a short trip.”
They also had those space suit thingees…
Spook, and anyone else who is interested:
Here is an extremely thorough discussion of the moon hoax debate with special emphasis on the photographic evidence. http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
Moon Truth
Claim: A video clip shows a NASA studio-produced ‘outtake’ of the first moon landing.
FALSE
…
“They also had those space suit thingees…”
Hand sewn they were
“When will the Realtor™ lies ever end?”
When will the manipulators stop pulling the strings?
Marionette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette’s puppeteer is called a manipulator.[1] Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television.The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose.
yawn..
That is really what it has all turned into isn`t it. Bailed out Banksters, yawn. Another government program for underwater homeowners, yawn. QE whatever, yawn. House prices are up this month, yawn. Inventory is down, yawn. Consumer confidence, unemployment numbers it`s all BS. The only thing left to do is…… yawn..
….. precisely.
+1 Hope you have a comfortable perch from which to yawn.
Foreclosure fighters rally in Lake Worth
by Kim Miller
Palm Beach County homeowner advocates will hold a candlelight vigil tomorrow, Dec. 6, in Lake Worth to commemorate a national day of action against foreclosures.
The event, which begins at 5:45 p.m., is part of the Occupy Our Homes’ movement of “Reclaim our homes, reclaim our future.” It will be held at a vacant foreclosed home at 107 North B Street.
This is the second year of the event, which is being organized locally by Palm Beach County homeowner advocate Lisa Epstein and the blog 4closurefraud.org.
“All over the country, activists have declared housing a human right and come together in solidarity,“ said Shab Bashiri, an organizer with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, “We’re occupying our homes to prevent eviction, disrupting foreclosure auctions, restoring vacant homes to community use, and putting the spotlight on the banks that caused this mess in the first place.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Florida economy, Foreclosures, Housing affordability, Housing boom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
8 Responses to “Foreclosure fighters rally in Lake Worth”
7
Bob Says:
December 6th, 2012 at 11:58 am
I feel for anyone who doesn’t have a place to live, but concerning this foreclousure mess I know of several people who quit paying their mortgage 2 or more years ago for 1 reason only, with the asumption that the bank would modify their loan principal amount as they had heard this was the popular thing to do, they have a higher standard of living now as they have an extra $2000 + a month to spend and are going to bars, vacations, driving new cars etc while still living in same house. I say great screw the banks, plus they don’t have to pay property taxes or insurance..
Now thats the way it should be for all of us, I think a new federal law should be passed allowing all of us to quit paying all of our bills, let the rich take up the slack.
For how much longer can the Fed keep Treasury yields pinned to the mat before Mr Market finally calls “uncle!” and collapses?
Treasuries Trade in Tightest Range Since July on Fed Speculation
By Susanne Walker - Dec 7, 2012 9:00 PM PT
Treasury 10-year note yields traded within a quarter-percentage point of a record low as stronger- than-forecast job growth failed to blunt speculation the Federal Reserve will announce another round of bond purchases.
Yields on benchmark 10-year notes rose from the least in more than two weeks yesterday after Labor Department figures showed the U.S. added 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent. Fed officials, who said after September’s policy meeting that they will buy bonds until the job market improves substantially, gather for the final time this year Dec. 11-12.
The Fed “easing is going to continue,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s biggest manager of bond funds, said yesterday in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu. “We will see more balance-sheet operations and maybe even see a tweak to the communications. The Fed will remain hyper active.”
…
Treasury 10-year note yields traded within a quarter-percentage point of a record low
Will bond prices be “up on the rumor, down on the news?” Or no?
I’m still trying to grasp the reasons why the Fed could not hold T-bond yields at their current temperature near absolute zero forever, if they chose.
What could force change before the Fed decides to allow it?
If I had an answer I’d give it. As far as I can tell, the only thing the Fed can’t control is what people will give and do for a dollar. It probably ends when nobody outside the USA will give us oil in return for dollars. Which may be why we’re trying so hard to find domestic energy as quickly as possible?
Carl then why aren’t we going after the environmentalists who are stopping us from drilling on protected lands for Rare earth minerals? Moly corp knows where the big mines are….Afghanni is the other place with huge reserves, guess that’s why everyone wants that backward country.
Why is obewanna so against coal anyway…its not like we have a shortage of it.
I’m still trying to grasp the reasons why the Fed could not hold T-bond yields at their current temperature near absolute zero forever, if they chose.
I wrestled with that question as well; the only conclusion I came to was that the only fundamental limit on their ability to do so was political: their powers could be changed or reduced if there was enough of an uproar.
But I see no signs of that; I suspect it would take something akin to hyperinflation for it to happen.
Gross Recommends TIPS as U.S. Yields Lag Behind Inflation Rate
Wes Goodman, ©2012 Bloomberg News
Published 11:22 p.m., Thursday, December 6, 2012
Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — Bill Gross recommended Treasury Inflation Protected Securities as U.S. five-year yields lagged behind the inflation rate by the most in six months.
Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said investors should avoid longer- term Treasuries because policies to spur growth will boost costs in the economy. Five-year notes yielded 0.62 percent, versus 2.2 percent inflation, based on consumer prices. The so-called real yield was negative 1.58 percent, the least since May.
“Current bond yields are not enough,” said Yoshiyuki Suzuki, the head of fixed income in Tokyo at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co., which has about $70 billion in assets. “In the short term, bonds are a safe haven. In the long term, inflation is an invisible cost that not every investor can tolerate.”
…
Saw an interesting article in the WSJ yesterday that was noting corporate bond yields falling below corporate dividend yields, and that the last time that happened was in the early 70’s.
One example they gave was WMT, who’s 10-year bond yield was under 2%, and their dividend yield was over 2%.
Wow.
Does anyone on this board think that owning bonds (US Treasuries, or Corporates) is a good idea today?
Who would not want to buy 30 year US Treasuries at 3%?
What could go wrong?
“Does anyone on this board think that owning bonds (US Treasuries, or Corporates) is a good idea today?”
Not I.
Vanilla Ice, former rapper turned real estate investor and star of the DIY Network show, The Vanilla Ice Project, has launched his own real estate investing website.
“I’ve been flooded with requests from viewers of my show to teach them how to succeed at real estate, “ remarked Ice, “so for my fans, I give you, http://www.vanillaicerealestate.com.” This new website aims to help others succeed at real estate investing using strategies and techniques Ice and his team have gathered over a lifetime of experience.
Although he is well known for his musical talent and became an international superstar with the hit song, “ice, ice, baby,” Vanilla Ice (aka Rob) has also been investing in real estate for more than 16 years.
“When ‘Ice, Ice Baby’ was selling a million records a day, I bought several properties; a home next to Michael J. Fox in LA, a palace in Miami, and mountain cabin in Utah,” reminisces Ice, “then, a few years later, I took a break from touring, saw that my properties had cobwebs, so I sold them, and to my surprise, I made a huge profit!”
http://www.vanillaicerealestate.com/vanilla-ice-announces-vanillaicerealestate-com-inspired-by-the-hgtv-show-the-vanilla-ice-project - 37k
Jun 21, 2011 …
“Ice Ice Baby”
Snork Dog Cramdown
Yo, VIP
Let’s kick it
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
All right stop, collaborate, and listen
Snork is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like I`m Robo-signed, daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights and you see I’ll glow
To the extreme I squat like a Beat not a vandal
Teaser rates what I thought I could handle
Now that the party was jumping
With the bass kicked in and the Refi’s pumpin’
Quick to the point, to the point, no faking
Flip dat house like a pound of bacon
Love it or leave it, you better gang way
Granite and a Gate, or the kid don’t play
If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while Bernanke revolves it
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork
Rollin’ in my 5.0
With my rag-top down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby waving just to say hi
Did you stop? No, I just Refied
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I busted a left and I’m heading to the next block
The block was dead, yo, so I continued
To A1A Beach Front Condo
Ready for the chumps on the wall
The chumps are acting ill sayin price gonna fall
Market crashed when they rang da bell
I grabbed my nine and tried to sell
Falling were da prices real fast
Jumped in my car slammed on the gas
Bumper to bumper the listings packed
I let eight go let da bank have em back
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork, Dog, Cramdown
Snork
Yo, man, let’s get out of here
Word to your Mortgage Counselor
he is well known for his musical talent
That is technically a true statement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFgZRNXz1wk
“I’ve been flooded with requests from viewers of my show to teach them how to succeed at real estate, . . .”
To make a little money aviation one must start with a lot.
Hi. Bubble re-inflating in London?
Property: The Lure of London
Financial Times
England - Real Estate Development and Ownership
In London, Battersea Power Station has enthralled - and frustrated - a procession of property developers in the 30 years since it was decommissioned. Highly publicized efforts to turn it into a hotel, a football stadium, and a theme park have all failed. Today, however, a new generation of Malaysian developers is placing an £8 billion bet on turning Europe’s largest brick building into a 39-acre complex of apartments, shops, and offices. These investors have spearheaded a buying spree in which Asian investment funds, excluding Indian funds, have plowed £2.4 billion into central London so far this year - nearly four times the total for 2010. So strong is demand that London has brushed off Europe’s economic crisis to become the world’s most coveted property market, cornering £13.2 billion of £177 billion spent globally this year. The appeal of Europe’s most populous city to Asia’s newly rich mainly lies in price: London is cheap - at least relative to other cities - because property values have declined precipitously over the last five years. Asian investors also tend to be more interested in rental prospects than Western buyers, and London offers several advantages in this respect. For instance, most commercial leases hold tenants responsible for rent, building insurance, and maintenance. (1,690 words)
On another note: Do any of you get those Valpak envelopes in the mail? They have about 50 coupons. They are typically for local / mom and pop merchants. The pack this morning included Macy’s, the See’s candy store or kiosk at Chestnut Hill Mall, an upscale mall - Bloomingdale’s is the anchor - here in suburban Boston and some other big retailers not typically in it. Never saw this before not even at Christmas. Wonder if retail sales are down.
anon, when we lived in Manhattan we got val pak at least once a month sometimes twice, Loved them…most all were useful items…2 for 1 restaurants…Indian place across the street was great food, discounts on hardware, rug cleaning, even clothes and all were very local, we moved across the river to queens and no valpaks at all..
Wow - higher taxes may not lead to more “revenue” to government and even cause EVEN LARGER deficits.
Especially when spending is out of control.
————————————-
Despite Tax Increase, California State Revenues in Freefall
http://gopthedailydose.com | december 8, 2012
California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.
Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.
Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: “California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”
State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state’s $6 billion annual tax increase,with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year.
I bet the CA Liberals will roll around like children and moan in shock and horror. Rich people are too mobile now. You can’t trap them with taxes. They have options; collectively they have armies of accountants and lawyers prying open every possible loophole (really only made possible by a huge tax system in a huge government which Liberals tend to love).
Yes, when I said it about a month ago that California was in real trouble and this year was the year it would go over the edge, I was ridiculed. Something like you know that global warming is ending and that California is going belly up too, who do you thing you are? My present answer is a student of history including climate and economics.
“California State Revenues in Freefall”
Yawn (again)…Hasn’t the California economy been on something of a fiscal cliff edge of its own for over a decade now? I’ve totally lost track at this point.
It is a bummer if you have kids in the CA public university system, as they are rapidly increasing tuition to fill budget holes.
Maybe 1/3 of colleges should close and total student loans say over $25,000 only be available to the top 25% of students.
Then have a separate adult classes for those unemployed at very low rates to retrain or upgrade skills.
It is a bummer if you have kids in the CA public university system, as they are rapidly increasing tuition to fill budget holes.
Isn’t this the case at all State U’s? Tuition here in the Centennial State used to be around $2K per year. Now it’s as high as $8-9K.
I notice the gold price is at least four times what it was circa 2000.
Maybe the Fed’s plan is to inflate the price of everything 4X but tell nobody.
And we wonder why health care costs are out of control.
Don’t worry - obamacare will fix it.
And least give us the right…to mooch off the US Taxpayer.
——————————-
Illegal immigrant gets kidney
Chicago Tribune | December 9, 2012 | Michael Holtz
As an illegal immigrant, Jorge Mariscal waited eight years for a kidney transplant he feared would never come.
His persistence paid off Thursday when he underwent the procedure at Loyola University Medical Center.
After years of uncertainties, Mariscal said he’s excited about his future and grateful for the help he received. But he remains frustrated with a health care system that he worries might leave out an untold number of illegal immigrants in need of lifesaving treatments. “Why can’t we be treated the same?” he asked while sitting in his hospital room. “Health care should be a human right, not a privilege. At least give us the chance to fight for our lives with dignity.”
Loyola is a Catholic school / hospital no? Probably charity that paid for the operation. But you’re right since at emergency rooms supposedly it’s illegal to see whether patients are legal citizens so they are getting care.
“Probably charity that paid for the operation.”
Bwahahahaha! Do a little search on the net and see what kind of subsidy Catholic Charities gets from the US gubmin. Some 67% of funding comes from government sources.
Not to mention the “refugee re-settlement” racket, which the gubmin subsidizes as well, dumping turd world dreck on unsuspecting communities, where they are further taken care of at the expense of those communities, while the dreck gang-bangs, rapes, beats up on locals, makes demands, etc.
Read about the tragedy of Lewiston, Maine and other areas.
Just to be fair, the man has been living in the US since he was 1 year old and his mother donated the kidney. Private physicians donated their services to treat him. Not sure where the procedure was carried out, but chances are it was a private facility as well.
It’s not like this guy can just “go back to Mexico” for treatment. Go back where? Under whose jurisdiction?
The donated transplant operation is one thing, but the meds he’ll have to take for the rest of his life (at 10K+/year) are quite another. As someone who has to pay full fare for expensive non-generic medications, I’d be mightily annoyed if he got those for free from Medicaid. And what truly concerns me is that he’s been in our country for 24 years and hasn’t bothered to apply for citizenship.
His case brings up the larger point, which is our schizoid attitude toward medical care. If it’s a privilege, it should be treated as any other business and not discriminately subsidized for some and disproportionately expensive for others. You should get what you pay for; like a car, or a restaurant meal, or a new computer, and no one should be taxed to pay for it. On the other hand, no one should expect to be treated if they cannot pay for it out of pocket — which pretty much eliminates 90% of the population and endangers the 10% who can.
If it’s a right, like public schooling, we should get the profit motive out of its public delivery and make it equally available to all our citizens. (Key word, “citizens”.)
I would forgive the repayment of debt if someone took a Heloc out and used $100K for the kidney transplant or to save their kids life, and then couldn’t pay it back.
But that would be such a small percentage of the home owners and it would be a humane thing to do, keep them in their homes. They may not live that long anyway.
“I would forgive the repayment of debt if someone took a Heloc out and used $100K for the kidney transplant or to save their kids life, and then couldn’t pay it back.”
But they should still be liable for income tax on the forgiven debt.
after they die…sure…..let the estate pay it…. don’t even think its 1% maybe even 1/2 of 1 % the numbers are so small vs those who spent it on a booob job for the GF
Hope and Change.
———————————
73 percent of new jobs created in last five months are bureaucratic
Hot Air | 12/8/2012 | Erika Johnsen
Hey, I’ve got a neat idea — why don’t we just keep growing the government, until we all can have government jobs? That can work, right?
Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the same five-month period since June, the number of people employed by government increased by 621,000 to 20,559,000. These 621,000 new government jobs created in the last five months equal 73.3 percent of the 847,000 new jobs created overall.
Does that number include government contractors?
Y’know, the for-profit, private sector, invisible hand of free market ones?
Clawback?
Why are not they in jail?
———————————-
Ex-IndyMac Executives Found Liable for Negligent Loans
Edvard Pettersson - Dec 8, 2012 - Bloomberg
Three former IndyMac Bancorp Inc. executives must pay $169 million in damages to federal regulators for making negligent loans to homebuilders as the real estate market was deteriorating, a jury decided.
The federal court jury in Los Angeles issued the verdict against Scott Van Dellen, the former chief executive officer of IndyMac’s Homebuilder Division; Richard Koon, the unit’s former chief lending officer; and Kenneth Shellem, the former chief credit officer. Jurors yesterday found them liable for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
The jury awarded the damages to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which brought the lawsuit in 2010.
The FDIC, which took over the failed subprime mortgage lender in 2008, alleged the men caused $500 million in losses at the homebuilders unit by continuing to push for growth in loan production without regard for credit quality and despite being aware a downturn in the real estate market was imminent.
The agency said the executives made loans to homebuilders that weren’t creditworthy or didn’t provide sufficient collateral.
Why are not they in jail?
You know why. Thieving bankers are the elite. We don’t dare jail them anymore, because we feel deep down that they are superior to us.
Comment by alpha-sloth
2012-12-07 14:07:34
The country’s credit rating goes to junk status overnight.
Let’s not forget that there are those, both in Congress and in the general population, who want just that to happen.
Huh??? Why would anyone want that to happen, alpha?
Reset the playing field?
Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012
Democrats want jobless benefits in ‘cliff’ deal
By SAM HANANEL
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
Hovering in the background of the “fiscal cliff” debate is the prospect of 2 million people losing their unemployment benefits four days after Christmas.
“This is the real cliff,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. He’s been leading the effort to include another extension of benefits for the long-term unemployed in any deal to avert looming tax increases and massive spending cuts in January.
“Many of these people are struggling to pay mortgages, to provide education for their children,” Reed said this past week as President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, rejected each other’s opening offers for a deficit deal.
Emergency jobless benefits for about 2.1 million people out of work more than six months will cease Dec. 29, and 1 million more will lose them over the next three months if Congress doesn’t extend the assistance again.
“Many of these people are struggling to pay mortgages, to provide education for their children,” Reed said this past week. . .
Unemployed home owners used to take out a HELOC to see them through till the next job, and interest rates are current low too.
Take 2:14 and learn yourself up on quorum sensing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJWKWYQfSi0
I knew it!
I am a victim of Robo Quorum sensing. I am applying for Hardest Hit money Monday morning!
sounds like something my cousin would know about she’d a MD and some big wig VP at Novartis
Scary metaphoric when you substitute K-Street lobbyists for specific virulence factors.
I was clued into to this via the McAfee story. One theory was that his bacterial research has biocomputation applications, specifically for, drumroll… trading.
Thats not far fetched Muggy….Tobacco virus
Bad Virus Put to Good Use: Breakthrough Batteries
Virally Structured Nano-Electrodes Boost Energy Capacity Ten-Fold
http://newsdesk.umd.edu/universitynews/release.cfm?ArticleID=2302
Charming Tiny House For Sale
http://tinyhouselistings.com/charming-tiny-house-for-sale/ - 61k - Cached - Similar pages
Oct 16, 2012 … Price: $24700, Address: 34012 Texas Street. Type: Sale, City: Albany. Bedrooms: 1, State: Oregon. Bathrooms: 1, County: USA. Size: 212 Sq. Ft …
I tried loft living once..never again….unless the bathroom is on the same level…same with circular stairs…i sleep well at night but you know sometimes you dont, and those stairs & ladder look very deceiving.
Legal advice for drug dealers and others with ill-gotten cash they need to hide from view: Avoid the extra legal exposure of money laundering by making all-cash real estate investments.
What’s it called when you have an affix in front of a domain? Like
money dot cnn dot com
What’s the money part?
Tough couple of weeks for the NFL.
Cowboy charged after player dies in auto accident
By SCHUYLER DIXON, AP
2 hours ago
IRVING, Texas (AP) — Police charged Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent with intoxication manslaughter Saturday after he flipped his car in a pre-dawn accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown.
Irving police spokesman John Argumaniz said the accident happened about 2:20 a.m. Saturday in the Dallas suburb, hours before Brent was to be on a team flight to Cincinnati for the Cowboys’ game Sunday against the Bengals.
Argumaniz said the 25-year-old Brown - a practice-squad linebacker who also was Brent’s teammate at the University of Illinois for three seasons - was found unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead at a hospital.
Brown’s death was the second tragedy to hit the NFL in a week. Last Saturday, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend before killing himself in front of his coach and general manager.
“We are deeply saddened by the news of this accident and the passing of Jerry Brown,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. “At this time, our hearts and prayers and deepest sympathies are with the members of Jerry’s family and all of those who knew him and loved him.”
Officers conducted a field sobriety test on Brent and arrested him on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, Argumaniz said. The charge, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison, was upgraded after Brown was pronounced dead.
Argumaniz said Brent, who pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge three years ago at Illinois, was being held without bond. Brent is named as Joshua Price-Brent in the police news release. Argumaniz also said Brent missed a 10 a.m. Saturday booking session with a judge because he was intoxicated. He did not know if Brent had an attorney.
Brent was speeding when the vehicle hit a curb and flipped at least once, Argumaniz said. Police received 911 calls from motorists who saw the upside-down vehicle but they did not immediately have any eyewitnesses to the wreck, the police spokesman said.
Argumaniz said when officers arrived at the scene on a state highway service road, Brent was dragging Brown from the vehicle, a Mercedes, which was on fire. Officers quickly put out the small blaze, he said.
Argumaniz wasn’t sure if the vehicle was a car or SUV and said it wasn’t known how fast the vehicle was traveling. The road has a 45 mph limit.
“I can say investigators are certain they were traveling well above the posted speed limit,” Argumaniz said.
Before he was taken to the jail, Brent went to a hospital for a blood draw for alcohol testing and also received treatment for some minor scrapes.
Argumaniz said Brent identified himself to officers as a Cowboys player.
Brent was arrested in February 2009 near the Illinois campus for driving under the influence, driving on a suspended license and speeding, according to Champaign County, Ill., court records.
In June 2009, Brent pleaded guilty to DUI and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, two years of probation, 200 hours of community service and a fine of about $2,000. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors dropped one count of aggravated DUI/no valid driver’s license. Brent successfully completed his probation in July 2011, court records show.
Brent, a nose guard, has played in all 12 games this season and has been a bigger presence on defense with starter Jay Ratliff battling injuries. Brent made his first career start in the season opener against the New York Giants and has 35 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks.
The Cowboys signed Brown to their practice squad Oct. 24, but he hasn’t been on the active roster. He was released from the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad Oct. 20. Brown played in one game for the Colts, a loss to the New York Jets on Oct. 14.
“On behalf of the entire Colts family, our sincerest condolences go out to Jerry’s family and friends,” Colts general manager Ryan Grigson said in a statement. “He was a good teammate that was well liked by all. Today’s tragic news is just another reminder of how fragile life is and how everyday given is a gift.”
Brown played for San Antonio in the Arena Football League this year. In 2011, he played for Jacksonville in the AFL and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League.
He was born and grew up in St. Louis, attending Vashon High School.
We lost one of our high school classmates in a similar scenario. The driver, his best friend and classmate, only had some scratches. In those days it was considered an accident, not a homicide.
“Vashon High School.”
That’s a tough high school, in a rough part of town. If he made it all the way from there up to the NFL, only to have it snatched away from him and his family in an auto wreck, that truly is tragic.
Apparently some people don’t think the FED can continue to buy debt without consequence, and are giving advice on what to do when treasuries fail. You can find the complete article at john Maulidins web site you have to sign up but it’s free
“A month ago in Outside the Box, Dylan Grice made the case for the need for safe havens, due to expansive monetary policy. But what is a safe haven anymore?
In today’s piece, a follow-up to last month’s, Dylan gives us a very good rundown on the historical relationship between equities and government bonds, in order to point out the very atypical current negative correlation between them. He then observes that
… what constitutes the ‘safe haven’ changes over time. It’s important to remember not only that government bonds aren’t always the market’s safe haven, but that that there will always be a safe haven somewhere. For all the headlines about the billions wiped off stock market values during market routs, that money had to go somewhere. It doesn’t just disappear. It will go into whatever the safe haven is, which in normal times will be bonds. But what happens when government bonds themselves fall victim to the primary ills of the day?
“the billions wiped off stock market values during market routs, that money had to go somewhere…”
Actually, no. Stock market valuations are set in the margins. If a few shares trade today at a higher price, the “valuation” of all shares goes up. That is not “money”. If a transaction occurs tomorrow at a lower price, poof, your valuation goes down. No money was involved in your situation, only disillusionment. Valuations fall by billions because someone took only a few dollars off the table.
I wonder why people who spend all of their time thinking about the stock market have such a silly idea.
‘Stock market valuations are set in the margins. If a few shares trade today at a higher price, the “valuation” of all shares goes up.’
To hear Shiller and the shills talk about it, you’d think residential real estate’s price was set the same way.
TRY NOT TO CATCH YOURSELF A FALLING KNIFE BY OVERPAYING FOR OVERVALUED REAL ESTATE.
“To hear Shiller and the shills talk about it, you’d think residential real estate’s price was set the same way.”
They are…owners see comparable sales and get into their heads what their home is “worth”.
Why do you think listings are so low?
1. Little distressed inventory hitting the market;
2. Underwater borrowers unable to sell; and
3. Owners believing their homes will go up in value, because they’ve seen such higher values before (some buyers believe they could go up again since they’ve seen such values before as well).
I know folks would like to believe that #1 and #2 represent the bulk of the reason for few listings, but the math doesn’t seem to work for me.
Totally agree, RW.
“But what happens when government bonds themselves fall victim to the primary ills of the day?”
Money go POOF!?!!!?!?!?!!!!