Bits Bucket for December 11, 2012
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Britain wasn’t the only country to have an autumn financial statement. The Greeks had that pleasure too. In their case it was a new tax law, which their finance minister has helpfully explained in an interview with the Greek paper Kathimerini.
In it, Yiannis Stournaras, the aforementioned minister, explains exactly how powerless the Greek state has become since it accepted the bailouts and rule by the troika of the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission.
This is what happens when you choose government from Brussels over independence. It is a chastening tale of the value of freedom over Brussels-gifted sticking-plasters:
The proposal we made to the troika to simplify the tax system, which until now had eight brackets, was to create three brackets: 21 per cent for up to 25,000 euros, 36 per cent for 25,000 to 48,000 and 45 per cent for 48,000 and above. That’s the proposal we gave to the parties. The troika agreed but calculations we made showed that the tax for some incomes on the borderline of brackets was very high, so they proposed a similar scheme where a 45 per cent bracket for incomes over 26,000 would be introduced but with a tax discount of 1,950 euros for everyone.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexandraswann/100193685/imagine-the-top-rate-of-tax-starting-at-21000-for-greece-its-a-reality/
The new colonialism
EAGLES LYRICS
“Already Gone”
…
Well I know it wasn’t you who held me down
Heaven knows it wasn’t you who set me free
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key
But me, I’m already gone
And I’m feelin’ strong
I will sing this vict’ry song
‘Cause I’m already gone
…
The subconscious mind is a terrible thing to waste.
“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key”
A pile of money thrown at a rapidly depreciating house is a terrible thing to waste.
A pile of money thrown at a rapidly depreciating house is a terrible thing to waste.
Let me fix that: a rapidly depreciating pile of money is a terrible thing to waste, throw it at gold, platinum, palladium or at least a house as Oxide was smart enough to do. Better yet, buy a house with a cheap fixed mortage as she and others have done and at least derive some benefit from the inflation that the Fed is creating.
“Smart enough to do”"??? lmao… Yeah… being underwater is a wonderful idea.
Carry on with your charade “Dan”.
“This is what happens when you choose government from Brussels over independence.”
No, this is what happens when you make deals with the Bankstas.
Sounds redundant.
HSBC s expected to admit on Tuesday it has settled allegations of running money for Mexican drug barons for a larger than expected $1.9bn (£1.2bn), barely 24 hours after close rival Standard Chartered admitted paying $670m (£415m) in penalties to US regulators to settle allegations it broke sanctions on Iran.
The $1.9bn that HSBC will pay to the US authorities exceeds the $1.5bn it had warned it could cost to settle the allegations raised in a damning US Senate report in the summer which came amid a wave of scandals to hit the banking sector.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/10/standard-chartered-settle-iran-sanctions
Does this mean free market ideals might have a flaw?
Once international organized crime rings get involved through the back doors of Megabank, Inc, I think there might be a flaw with the operation of free markets.
Amen. The CORRECT way to handle the matter is to first extract the penalty, THEN kick the bank out of US markets and THEN take the individuals responsible, strip them naked and deposit them in a Mexican prison and throw away the key.
And even then it would be a small price to pay for the many lives they’d ruined by their actions.
This has been happening since before we were born.
It’s just one reason why a “free market” is a very bad idea.
Without rules, regulations and laws, somehow, some way, some body will “game” the market in a New York second.
As sure as the sun rises.
Breaking the law is an entirely different thing than a “free market”.
Breaking the law is an entirely different thing than a “free market”.
Precisely why free markets need regulation to exist.
Regulations-Absolutely a must. Can you imagine how more dangerous our food supply and other essentials would be if big business had no leashes. I’m a recovered Republican. I am involved in Breast Cancer Prevention, and a class at UCLA converted me about corporate leashes.
Wait a minute…nobody went to jail.
…and there’s the other problem…
No, it means more that life sucks for many souls on this planet so they turn to drugs. One of the things big bro needs to fear is sober people.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/10/marijuana-officially-legal-in-colorado-with-stroke-of-governors-pen/
James Kunstler talks reality.
http://usawatchdog.com/reality-truth-divorced-james-howard-kunstler/#more-9360
These are not “free” markets. These are organized criminal operations masquerading as Government Oversight agencies, working in collusion with the Criminal Banking cartels. All sanctioned by OUR Congress and Senate, with the approval of the President.
Do you think Eric Holder would ever seek a criminal indictment against a Bankster?? He knows who siphons money for his buddies.
Please note the ONGOING problem. NO One ever gets arrested and goes to jail for committing crimes.
Since the Banksters get their money FREE from the Central Bankster money-printing counterfeiting cartel, then “loan” it out to hard-working businesses and individuals ‘at interest’, they essentially get FREE money, for their “service”.
Unable to restrain themselves from endless greed, they continually break laws, and the “regulators”, which are government agencies collect FINES.
That’s right, when they get caught, rather than filing a criminal complaint, they mutually agree to a fine.
This gives the agency more money to expand and claim it is not a burden to the taxpayer, although the taxpayers are the ones getting to support the Banksters operations at the FED with “bailouts”.
This whole scenario is nothing more than organized crime at the highest levels of ALL supposedly civilized western countries. It is a shadow government, claiming to “regulate” the Banksters and Wall street crooks, when, like ALL other government agencies, it is only lining its own pockets.
The organizations are so setup as to continually allow criminal activity even when the crimes involve international gun-running and drug running.
In essence, the Gun/Drug cartels are partners with the Big Banks. the fines are never more than the income derived, so the Banksters still get to keep a bunch of the FREE money, and NO ONE goes to prison. You would think if a Bank was involved in essentially treasonous crimes, they would be shut down, and the perpetrators imprisoned.
Obama’s team on Reform has done nothing to stop it, only encourage more. The whole Goldman-Sachs world-wide take-over of the monetary systems of every free country continues unabated.
Diogenes, you are ready for your own blog. Say it, man.
Prison is for the little people.
“Michigan ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws Spark Heated Debate On Role of Labor Unions”
For HBB irony buffs:
What fun to hear the commie unionists complaining about those who “pay nothing and get our benefits for free” while the free-marketers are telling us that breaking up “private industry, the private unions” is in the best interest of all workers.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/michigan_12-10.html
Megabanks, unions, religions, drug cartels and governments all need an influx of tribute to stay organized.
“pay nothing and get our benefits for free”…….
one of the big lies of unions.
i’ve worked for two “union shops”, in the past.
One was the US postal service. Another a major US corporation.
Both had hired me as “causal labor”. that meant I got 1/2 the money, twice the work, and could be fired at will. The Unions say they represent ALL the workers. They don’t. If you are not in the “union”, you are not represented and don’t get “union scale”.
And, yet, they will allow the company to employ workers, who will get all the work the union workers don’t want to do, at a fraction of the pay.
The Unions represent THEMSELVES, only.
And in particular, Senior members.
It is a seniority system that has NO basis in Merit.
Dio,
My fave are the street kids the unions hire for <minimum wage to picket doctor’s offices and medical clinics. I love going up to them and asking why they’re picketing said establishment (”I dunno”) and what they’re being paid to do so ($5/hour cash). Then I tell them how the docs pay for employees’ health care, continuing education, car allowances, insurances, etc., and ask why they’re not picketing the union instead?
Surefire way to attract a couple of union goons to try to shoo me off the public sidewalk. And they ARE goons to be sure. I am also me, so it’s usually an interesting confrontation….
Management and labor work together to generate revenue for the enterprise. It’s like a marriage. They both claw at each other to gain a larger share of the revenue. Management is typically more organized than labor, which is where unions come in. So, you can have two organized entities clawing for the revenue instead of just management dealing with individual workers.
Management will thus try to first, avoid unions, and second, avoid the US entirely.
Robots don’t need no stinking unions.
Apple’s Revolutionary Move Into Robotic Manufacturing
Up to 700,000 people are employed in China, making products like the iPhone and iPad for Apple. It takes 141 steps to make an iPhone and each iPad will, over the course of the 5 days that it takes to build it, pass through 325 pairs of hands. Although labor only represents about 3% of the cost of building these products for Apple, the wages of Chinese factory workers have been rising at about 15% a year for much of the last decade. Problems managing this workforce have also harmed Apple’s image in a region that has become the most important engine of its growth.
Nobody is even questioning what happens to society when more and more jobs are lost for good to automation, or offering solutions to the ensuing spike in unemployment and poverty. Automation was originally sold as a wonderful technological achievement which would make workers’ lives easier by lessening the workload. What wasn’t discussed was that it really meant windfall profits for the bigwigs, and abject poverty for the masses.
Nobody is even questioning what happens to society when more and more jobs are lost for good to automation
Should we get rid of automation and staff assembly lines the old fashion way, with lots of manual labor? What happens to the software and robotics companies that make money providing these products and services to manufacturers? Do they go out of business for the benefit of employing the masses?
Are humans above nature? How does nature deal with the constant of change? Evolution. Darwinism. Adapt or die. Do you think human society, culture, and technology is any different?
Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
Adapt or die.
exactly. and automate or die.
few seem to understand that if someone is doing a tedious, tiring job, that having a machine come in and do it cheaply, helps everyone. it frees up the person that was doing it to go on to a better paying job. and the increase in the efficiency of labor makes our dollars worth more. it’s the way it works if we have free markets.
You still haven’t addressed the net loss of jobs. All you’ve done is blow hard.
You still haven’t addressed the net loss of jobs.
a net loss in jobs only happens in an economy sickened by over taxation and regulation. automation in a free market ADDS jobs. it creates the wealth from which jobs come.
Wow — we have a “free markets” bot on the HBB…
you need em for the commie bots.
The law doesn’t apply to police or firemen does it?
9/11, etc etc etc.
Michigan State Police have riot gear ready if needed at state capitol
LANSING — Riot gear was stockpiled in a back room at the Capitol on Monday as State Police prepared for what’s expected to be one of the largest demonstrations in Lansing history today. “Because of lessons learned in Wisconsin and Ohio, we are taking precautions,” said Inspector Gene Adamczyk. In February and March 2011, protesters in Wisconsin occupied the state Capitol for two weeks while protesting legislation that stripped public employees of certain collective bargaining rights. Officials estimated damage inside and outside the building at more than $7 million. The Ingham County Prosecutor said Monday that all eight people arrested last week for rushing past state police onto the Senate floor will face felony charges.
“The Ingham County Prosecutor said Monday that all eight people arrested last week for rushing past state police onto the Senate floor will face felony charges.”
Sounds reminiscent of a scene from ‘Skyfall.’
Has Michigan moved on from denial to the anger phase of the Housing Bubble Stages of Grief?
All union goons will be crushed and destroyed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_model
Government Bubble-era demonstrations.
Will Washington D.C. suffer the same fate, or will it attempt to solidify/justify its power through the threat of executive powers and guns?
Time will tell.
Too big to indict, HSBC to Pay $1.92 Billion Fine to Settle Charges Over Laundering
State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.
Instead, authorities on Tuesday announced a record $1.92 billion settlement with HSBC. The bank, which is based in Britain, faces accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations like Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries.
The case raises questions about whether certain financial institutions, having grown so large and so interconnected, are too big to indict. Four years after the failure of Lehman Brothers nearly toppled the financial system, regulators are still wary that a single institution could undermine the recovery of the industry and the economy.
A money-laundering indictment, or a guilty plea over such charges, would essentially be a death sentence for the bank. Such actions could cut off the bank from certain investors like pension funds and ultimately cost it its charter to operate in the United States, officials said.
A feature, not a bug.
HSBC’s activities are said to have gone beyond claims that the bank flouted United States sanctions to transfer money on behalf of nations like Iran. Prosecutors also found that the bank had facilitated money laundering by Mexican drug cartels and had moved tainted money for Saudi banks tied to terrorist groups.
Congressional hearings earlier exposed weaknesses at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the national bank regulator. In 2010, the regulator found that HSBC had severe deficiencies in its anti-money laundering controls, including $60 trillion in transactions and 17,000 accounts flagged as potentially suspicious, activities that were not reviewed. Despite the findings, the regulator did not fine the bank.
“State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.”
Why not just break up organized crime rings whenever you find one? Is some kind of bribery involved?
I’m missing it.
The comment section to the article is ripping the Justice Department a new one. Best comment: “How many jobs will need to be cut to offset the fine? 50,000?”
You just know that this is how HSBC will make up for the loss. Lay off the worker bees who had nothing to do with it.
Damn socialist regulations!
“Why not just break up organized crime rings whenever you find one?”
They do when they can. Lack of funding (and some bribery) are why they aren’t more effective.
We need Polly’s insight. This isn’t fraud where you have to prove motive and direct knowledge and even then it’s pretty squishy. From the sound of it, this was egregious and claer cut with a good chance of a guilty verdict, and they certainly spent enough government resources deciding NOT to indict. Heads ought to be rolling — why aren’t they?
If nothing else, that 1.9 billion sounds like a criminally low amount. And if I were a pension fund, I’ll pull out of HSBC anyway. Who banks with druglords and terrorists?
Finding it and proving it in court are two different things. If proving it in court means you have to devote 50% of your resources to a single case for a 3 or 4 or 5 years, well, it ain’t going to happen.
Large financial organizations can produce TRUCKLOADS of documents for review. It is a technique as old as the hills. Sometimes negotiating for a financial penalty is the best you can do.
On the other hand, excutives are often scared to death to take on something that big because they can ruin their career (even if it is just staying in the government) by taking on a really big criminal prosecution and losing. Cases can be screwed up pretty easily by people who are used to dealing with civil penalties not getting the info they need to do a criminal one. And prosecutors hate (and I mean HATE) taking on any case that isn’t a sure winner. They sometimes have to (see Simpson, OJ - the police screwed that one by tampering with the evidence), but they do not like it. Also, they assume juries are stupid. This stuff is complicated. Explaining it to 12 people who can’t figure out a way to get off the jury is hard.
“Large financial organizations can produce TRUCKLOADS of documents for review. It is a technique as old as the hills. Sometimes negotiating for a financial penalty is the best you can do.”
That is yet another of many, many reasons to break up too-big-to-fail / too-big-to-jail firms.
Why not just break up organized crime rings whenever you find one?
Because they are running our government.
This, is, once again the “too big too fail” argument.
The whole financial “reform” exercise was a joke.
The TOO BIG TOO FAIL needed to be broken up under Anti-trust legislation.
All the Big Banks should have been broken up, just like the Phone company.
Instead, all the small banks got absorbed by the “BIG 10″.. It was a government-sponsored takeover, given the name of financial reform.
There are WELLS_Fargo Banks everywhere here in the Bay Area, new ones, recently taken over from other banks and new constructions, and people are filling their parking lots. Most Americans have no clue they are supporting a criminal syndicate, and don’t care.
Making Goldman-Sachs a commerical bank to provide FED funds was another bad joke on us.
Walmart tried for years to have a bank in it’s buildings. NO WAY the Banksters said.
Goldman was approved almost overnight, to allow it to get direct loans from the FED window, and use the money to do whatever schemes they wanted. WE are run by criminal banking cartels, and the LEADERS of America, with exception of Ron Paul and a couple others just ignore it.
They now they and theirs will be taken care of.
Screw America and the rest of the world.
These are the “real” rich, that “write-off” all their luxuries as tax-dodges so they don’t pay for having all the benefits of a Mob boss in tax losses.
It’s called “hollywood accounting”.
It’s good to get FREE money by the Billions.
‘concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.’
Have we seen anything yet? IOW, is the coast clear now? Meltdown(s) averted? The new norm in my book is to expect retribution on many levels.
In case what was going on around you had you convinced things really were different there….
Over 20 Million Houses Sitting Vacant-Fabian Calvo Real estate expert
Fabian Calvo says there’s more to the story about rising prices in the housing market than what’s reported by the mainstream media. Calvo charges, “There’s a tremendous amount of manipulation . . . Yes, prices have gone up 3%. I see it, but it’s because the inventory has been suppressed on purpose by big players . . . not foreclosing on properties.” Calvo should know because he runs a company called TheNoteHouse.us. It buys and sells $100 million annually in distressed debt and real estate. Calvo says, “Over 20 million houses, on any given night in America, are completely sitting vacant.”
According to Calvo, the economy is being helped by “shadow stimulus.” It’s coming from millions of underwater homeowners who have stopped making mortgage payments. Calvo says, “Money that would have been otherwise allocated towards a housing payment is going into consumer spending.” The Fed is also propping up housing by suppressing interest rates. Calvo says the fragile real estate market would crash if rates rose just a little, and he adds, “That’s why you’re going to see low interest rates . . . through 2015 or until there’s some kind of dollar or bond crisis.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Fabian Calvo.
(14 min video follows)
http://usawatchdog.com/over-20-million-houses-sitting-vacant-fabian-calvo/
“It’s coming from millions of underwater homeowners who have stopped making mortgage payments.”
And the beauty of the situation is that since these people have no pesky monthly housing obligation to cough up, they can focus their consumption expenditures on other areas of the economy which need propping up.
ipads and xboxs?
Disney vacations
Well yeah…
No.
It isn’t about I-Pads and Disney vacations.
It’s about artificially propping up an economy that if allowed to clear, many in Washington, D.C. and NYC would be out of a job. Even in jail, perhaps.
Can’t have the peasantry marching in Washington, can we?
That’s what this is about.
It’s interesting that people here fault those defaulters who, in effect, allow Washington to maintain and strengthen its highly profitable, elitist status.
A thinking man or woman doesn’t chide the rubes whom they manipulate in order to live well.
Of course NONE of them would ever think of this as a found money and stash it safely into their IRA….nah..
safely?
The NY Fed Reserve (sorry, don’t have link) came out this week and admitted the S&P would be around 600 if they hadn’t interceded in the markets. So it’s now safe to admit publicly that markets are manipulated because obviously most Americans are too afraid of the alternative to protest too much.
In any case, did you watch the rest of that video in the link? The pressure is on currency/bonds and at some point we’ll have an implosion, he said (paraphrased). Do we really know where “safe” is? We know manipulation of commodities and assets, and illegal means will be involved as controlling powers attempt to affect the fall. We know contracts may not be worth the paper they’re printed on. Following the dots is no longer an option. Perhaps blowing on your lucky darts will bring greater luck?
“So it’s now safe to admit publicly that markets are manipulated because obviously most Americans are too afraid of the alternative to protest too much.”
We’ve come a long way since 2005, when anyone who even suggested the Fed was actively involved in propping up the stock market would be instantly labeled a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist.
I was one of those people. The trolls who used to come on the HBB back then to attack me were the most hubristic bunch of idiots God ever created.
admitted the S&P would be around 600 if they hadn’t interceded in the markets.
Well…more like a Fed study showed that if you took away the gains that occurred before Fed announcements, then the S&P would be at 600. But it also noted that this didn’t mean the S&P would necessarily be at 600, absent the Fed announcements. (I guess it could be at 500?)
safely?
snowgirl…ok they cant touch the money in a Bankruptcy or judgement….so safely is relative…..of course they really cant repossess your top of the line mac pro if its your main or only source of income
you could buy some gold coins and sell it at coin shows for cash
but 99% will throw it away on games toys vacations and have nothing left to show for that $50,000 in free rent.
(1500x 36 months is $54K)
Over 20 Million Houses Sitting Vacant-Fabian Calvo Real estate expert
Old news.
Old news….that bears repeating.
I know you know that people are getting worn down over time.
Oh I’m with you. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t it less than six months ago you were claiming that vacant inventory was 35 million? 15 million units cleared in less than six months is pretty bullish.
Ya know “Al” ;), putting words in my mouth is dishonest.
Why are you misrepresenting the truth?
My mistake, you said 30 million not 35. So it’s 10 million houses cleared out of inventory since late Sept.
“Comment by Pimp Watch
2012-09-21 04:51:33
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there are 30 million empty houses and merely the ownership changed but they’re still empty?????????”
You’ll be right when the Census Bureau counts all the excess empty housing inventory. Until then, you’re disingenuous.
Ummm, you seemed content with the 20 million now. Didn’t dispute it. And yet there are your words a few months ago. Are you being disingenous?
Why would I be content when the 20 million is underreported?
And the best news is that an additional 35 MILLION excess empty houses have just started hitting the market as boomers begin to die off.
Same old, same old. Dance monkey, dance!
And the truth you can’t change……. even with your raft of lies.
Just curious, how do you feel about your Pat booting?
Just curious…. how much are you liars being paid?
No lies here. You can’t name one. I’m just putting your words against you. You claimed 30 million, and yet when 20 million was put forward, you didn’t react.
So which is it?
Was the 30 million a mistake you made?
Was not disputing the 20 million a mistake you made?
Or were 10 million units cleared in the last few months?
One of the three must be true.
Then you better try harder than that my lying realtor.
“Over 20 million houses, on any given night in America, are completely sitting vacant.”
Throw another 10 million on top of that where “homeowners” with “troubled mortgages” have been living rent free for the last 3-5 years and you have a shadow inventory.
“According to Calvo, the economy is being helped by “shadow stimulus.” It’s coming from millions of underwater homeowners who have stopped making mortgage payments.”
How were the Black Friday numbers this year? I know I got flamed on this board for saying this last year.
MH….
There is a religious-like expectation that demands only sunny optimism…. even if it’s a flat our misrepresentation of the truth.
Carry on brother.
What does ’sitting vacant’ mean?
More denial from you? Why is that?
“What does ’sitting vacant’ mean?”
Failed flip in a less desirable neighborhood.
I was taking one of those nice Sunday bike rides a couple of days ago. I saw quite a few sitting vacant/failed flip places.
Seems that a lot of in-VEST-or types thought they’d get rich by buying houses, renting them out, and watching them appreciate to the sky.
Didn’t happen.
What does ’sitting vacant’ mean?
They got into that in the video. No foot traffic, just sitting dark, unlived in, no MLS involvement or FSBO sign. This guy,Fabian Calvo, buys REOs so he follows the paperwork. Follow the link to his own website where he publishes a decent bit of info about what his company is doing and their level of research.
No foot traffic, just sitting dark, unlived in, no MLS involvement or FSBO sign
What if they’re on vacation?
What if the sun rises in the west?
“Follow the link to his own website…”
Where was the link from? I didn’t have any luck finding it, either from the linked article or from googling Fabian Calvo. It would be interesting to see his methodology. According to census data the rate of vacancies was around 14%* for 2011, up from 11-12% for recent history (1999-). Annecdotal info suggest a worse situation than that, so maybe Fabian’s info can shed some light.
* 18.8 million vacancies out of 132.3 million units. Vacancies include units for sale, for rent, seasonal and held off market. I’m not sure if the methodology of calculating ‘held off market’ is able to deal with the complex shadow market situation.
And seasonal, for sale and for rent are all empty and all excess inventory.
My house was listed as vacant in the 2010 census. To their credit, the census bureau returned in August to see if it was occupied… and it was. But they could only check of on their form if it was vacant being held for rental or vacant being held for sale. I guess the idea of homeowners doing their own renovations doesn’t fit in a standardized box. Only flippers fix up houses??
Before I moved back my insurance agent called it a vacation house.
The Fed is also propping up housing by suppressing interest rates.
A point that NPR is missing by a mile in today’s “Morning Edition.”
Slim they are not missing the point…the point is NPR is government approved radio. They wont hire people like you or me who would include that point in a debate.
Goverment Bubble-era machinations.
Government = Housing
Housing = Government
Manipulation of the housing market by the federal government will continue unabated until the government bubble goes Pop!
Goldman Sachs populates both sides of the Cabinet.
Yeah, I’m a broken record about the D.C. Titanic, but it’s all so very elementary.
It isn’t about laws and money, either. It’s about the lack of ethics among those in power.
A lack of ethics doesn’t go anywhere without incentives.
True.
A disregard for ethics and morals must in itself be rewarded.
Oftentimes, the reward is monetary in nature.
Taking a look at where money is distributed geographically in the United States (per capita) provides at least some indication of the locals regard for ethics and morals.
It isn’t about laws and money, either. It’s about the lack of ethics among those in power.
When was the US run by ethical people?
According to Calvo, the economy is being helped by “shadow stimulus.” It’s coming from millions of underwater homeowners who have stopped making mortgage payments. Calvo says, “Money that would have been otherwise allocated towards a housing payment is going into consumer spending.”
A year or two ago, I read a BusinessWeek article that hinted at the same thing.
Sign in here Housing Hookers.
Amy Hoak?
And the chorus of pimps and liars who rule the city-data forums?
cit-data…. a fully platform fully co-opted by NAR-scam to propagandize.
Posted a sober rebuttal (no Jim Cary schadenfreude) to a “prices are going up” piece last week in Arizona’s Tri Valley Dispatch, which caters to the Casa Grande and Eloy region. Deleted from the queue!
Does that mean you don’t think prices are going up in the Phoenix metro?
IMO they are being manipulated up by controlling the inventory.
the banksters are controlling the inventory EVERYWHERE. I’ve posted numerous comments about areas I’ve been watching in the Tampa/Clearwater/Palm Harbor regions of Florida.
this includes the foreclosure process.
You can usually tell “deadbeat” homeowners.
first, the lawns start getting neglected. the property is still “occupied”, but maintenance is lacking. This can go on for over a year.
Eventually you see the house vacant. It can sit that way for months before a “for sale” sign gets put on it. Then, because it’s one of few available in the area, in the range that working people can afford, the 3% interest rate makes it “affordable”, even if the price is what I consider too high.
I think this is the FED plan to unload all the bad debt.
Does that mean you don’t think sales cratered in Phoenix metro?
Hint: They have. But that’s what happens when prices inflate.
“Does that mean you don’t think prices are going up in the Phoenix metro?”
I’ve had my eye on a older Scottsdale neighborhood just north of ASU for a few years now. Prices in there never really dropped like the outlying cities, and it appear that asking prices have inched upward lately as interest rates have dropped. But low cost Scottsdale still means $130/sqft, which is a guaranteed scalping when austerity eventually makes its American debut. Scroll down to Redfin’s “price history” for the mid 90’s and compare that to current listings, and then look at the flat median household income for the same period. Nowhere but down for asset prices.
Is the stock market pretty much a brain-dead patient now, kept alive only through government-sponsored life support measures?
Buttonwood
Desperately seeking investors
If pension funds do not buy equities, who will?
Dec 1st 2012 | from the print edition
THERE is always sadness when a long-lasting marriage falls apart. The close relationship between pension funds and equities, formed in the late 1950s, is heading for the divorce courts.
Figures from the Pension Protection Fund, an industry insurance scheme, show that British defined-benefit (or final-salary) schemes had 43.2% of their portfolios in bonds and just 38.5% in equities. As recently as 2007, the funds had an equity weighting that was double the size of their bond holdings (see chart).
In part this is down to the disappointing performance of equities since the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. But regulators have also encouraged funds to buy bonds, because pensions are a debt-like liability. In accounting terms, future pension liabilities are discounted using a corporate bond yield so that a higher bond weighting reduces the volatility of a scheme’s funding ratio. In addition, as final-salary schemes have closed to new members, they have become more “mature”; their membership has increasingly been dominated by retirees rather than current workers. This too has encouraged a higher bond allocation.
So the high bond weighting is not really a gamble on future returns, unlike the 81% equity weighting held by pension funds in 1993. It reflects a changing attitude to risk management. A similar shift has occurred in the portfolios of insurance companies, where regulations have encouraged a larger bond holding. All this is highly convenient for governments, which have a lot of bonds to sell.
This portfolio shift has already had profound consequences. The great insight of George Ross Goobey, the Imperial Tobacco fund manager who advocated a switch into equities in the 1950s, was that equities were a natural fit for pension funds. Stockmarkets might be volatile in the short term but over the long term, they should offer a higher return than bonds because of the link to profits growth. With their long-term horizon, pension schemes could take advantage of the “risk premium” paid to equity investors. Insurance companies reasoned along the same lines.
As a result of this process, the corporate sector gained a stable shareholder base, one that could usually be relied on to support fund-raisings and acquisitions. Where companies ignored shareholders’ wishes, the institutions also used their power to lobby for change; chief executives did not usually want to offend the likes of Scottish Widows and Prudential.
But share registers are now dominated by mutual-fund managers, hedge funds and other investors with a shorter time horizon. Such investors are more interested in seeing cash returned in the form of buy-backs than they are in seeing long-term investment plans. The stockmarket is barely used these days as a vehicle for raising capital; instead, companies are taking advantage of low (and tax-subsidised) interest rates to raise funds in the bond market.
Once the dream of every small businessman was to have a stockmarket listing. But these days fast-growing small firms hope to be snapped up by a large company with lots of cash. Quoted firms are happy to swap their listing for the embrace of private-equity groups, where they can operate out of the public eye.
So who can replace the pension funds as a source of equity capital? Private investors have lost enthusiasm for equities after suffering two bear markets in the past 12 years.
…
the avg joe has been hosed one to many times. they have learned the game is rigged.
The only players left are the FED and wall street. they have done everything possible to suck the retail investor back in but the trust is broken.
“flip this house” was on the other night.
“flip this house” was on the other night.
re-run?
not sure….i don’t think so.
They have new episodes.
Or have you thought that Average Joe isn’t investing simply because he doesn’t have the money to invest?
Prices on needs have risen to where that retirement money is being sucked up by the needs of today: college loans, health insurance, gas, bread.
“Private investors have lost enthusiasm for equities after suffering two bear markets in the past 12 years.”
Lost enthusiasm will sooner or later translate to low P/Es.
Don’t buy stocks when they are hot, buy them when they are not.
Don’t buy stocks when they are hot, buy them when they are not.
How has that strategy worked out in Japan?
Give it another twenty years…
Not all captains abide by the rule of staying on board a sinking ship.
MARKETS
December 10, 2012, 8:33 p.m. ET
Insider-Trading Probe Widens
U.S. Launches Criminal Investigation Into Stock Sales by Company Executives
By SUSAN PULLIAM, JEAN EAGLESHAM and ROB BARRY
Federal prosecutors and securities regulators are taking a deeper look into how executives use prearranged trading plans to buy and sell shares of their company stock.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office has launched a broad criminal investigation into whether seven corporate executives cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article traded improperly in shares of their own company’s stock, according to a person familiar with the matter. These executives lead companies in industries ranging from retailing to energy to data processing.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining trading by VeriFone Systems Inc. PAY +1.33% Chief Executive Officer Douglas Bergeron, according to a person familiar with that probe. VeriFone said Mr. Bergeron, one of those cited in the Journal article, did nothing wrong.
The probes illustrate that authorities have opened a new front in a three-year push to attack possible improper trading on Wall Street and in corporate America.
Until now, prosecutors and regulators were focused mainly on ferreting out traditional insider trading in the financial world, involving outside investors in companies. Some 70 convictions and guilty pleas from traders and others have resulted from such efforts.
Now, authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are turning more attention to trading by corporate executives in their own company’s shares. The probe follows the Nov. 28 Journal article, which focused on highly beneficial sales by executives that occurred before bad news about their companies hit, sparing them declines in the value of their holdings.
…
Insider trading regulations are anti-capitalist socialism, don’t ya know?
The free market should sort this out!
Not.
As I’ve said, there are literally thousands of examples of how big business will screw the little guy if they think they can get away with it and this is just another example.
HSBC yet another. And let’s not forget the Wall Mart bribery investigation. That isn’t over yet despite the recent news.
Rules, regulations and laws cannot replace ethics. Period. Do you think Socialism or Communism works when the leaders of government are unethical?
Ethics and the desire to do what is right is either upheld as an ideal in society or it is not. In US society today, it is given lip service…
+1 Northesterner….
Perhaps I should rephrase my question: Who is dumb enough to buy stocks now?
(I probably would be, but I got singed badly enough in the Fall 2008 financial crash for my meager exposure that I am largely avoiding it this time…)
Silence your inner “Scream,” and go buy yourself some stocks!
INVESTING
December 10, 2012, 11:44 p.m. ET
For Many Financial Advisers, Stocks Become a Hard Sell
By JONATHAN CHENG
WILMETTE, Ill.—Financial adviser Jeffrey Smith recently watched a once-confident client scrawl his fears across a legal pad during a discussion of stock investments: “Congressional stalemate,” “unemployment,” “European crisis,” “corruption.”
The client, retiree Nicholas Zerebny, later recalled how his thoughts strayed to Edvard Munch’s “Scream” paintings. In the middle of the page, Mr. Zerebny drew a crude version of the iconic screaming face.
“That’s how I feel right now,” he told Mr. Smith.
For Mr. Smith and other U.S. financial advisers, that anguished cry—real and metaphoric—has become a familiar part of the job.
Financial adviser Jeffrey Smith meets in his Wilmette, Ill., office last month with his client Nicholas Zerebny.
Since hitting a recession-driven low in March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has doubled in value. But many ordinary investors remain too fearful to join in the gains.
After two stock collapses in one decade—2000-2002 and 2007-2009—along with scandals, the rise of high-frequency trading and worries over Washington’s ability to rein in debt, Americans are pulling out of the market. Individual investors yanked a net $900 billion from U.S. equity funds since January 2000, according to fund flow tracker EPFR Global. Stocks and stock mutual funds now make up 37.9% of the average U.S. household’s financial assets, down from 50.5% during the height of the tech-stock boom in 2000, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“Is it me or does it seem like a calamity could be just around the corner?” Mr. Zerebny asked during the meeting. “I accept that there are cycles in the market, but it’s the trust in the system that concerns me.”
…
Thanks to the HBB warning sirens of ‘08, I pulled most of my money out of stocks. Avoided the fall crash of that year.
Gracias, HBB.
That was a relatively easy call.
I find the current market relatively harder to read: Will the Fed’s endless flow of QE stimulus suffice to keep the stock market propped up indefinitely, or will a mass exit of individual and institutional investors lead to another near-term leg down?
Only time will tell.
Thanks to the HBB warning sirens of ‘08, I pulled most of my money out of stocks. Avoided the fall crash of that year.
Gracias, HBB.
Same here. But I didn’t get back in because it didn’t seem to be over. It’s been a long wait.
I haven’t gotten back in either.
What I’ve been looking at is investing at the local level. But, sorry to say, I haven’t found a lot that offers the same type of financial reporting that is now required by SarbOx.
I’ll keep looking.
We, thankfully, turned 50% into boring, but safe, cash.
Is there still time to get on the Housing Bubble reflation train, or has it already left the station?
The train already left the station.
Next stop? Much lower elevation.
This is amazing: A long-winded article about U.S. housing’s “Big Long,” with nary a hint about the myriad extraordinary government subsidies propping it up…
Step right up, Mom and Pop, to compete with the likes of KKR, Colony Capital and Blackstone for your share of the Fed’s $40 bn monthly injections into the MBS market.
Property
The Big Long
A new generation of investors is betting on America’s housing market
Dec 1st 2012 | from the print edition
THOSE feeling nostalgic for the boom before 2007 will have been heartened this week by headlines about Lehman Brothers selling a portfolio of American apartments for $6.5 billion. Lehman Brothers? No, the investment bank felled by the mortgage miasma is not rising from the dead: its administrators are merely flogging its remaining assets to repay creditors. But the sale shows that American housing, once so toxic it made the global economy choke, is once again attractive to investors. Hedge funds and private-equity firms, so often the villains, may be helping a housing revival.
America’s residential sector was once the preserve of “mom-and-pop” investors or local developers. The role of hedge funds became apparent only when those who bet massively against the housing market—“The Big Short”, as it was later termed—made billions while their rivals floundered. By gambling that subprime mortgages, extended to borrowers with no plausible means of repaying them, would poison the financial system, John Paulson personally pocketed $3 billion after his hedge fund skyrocketed.
The Big Long is now slowly taking shape. House prices have stabilised since their 2009 trough, and have even made small but steady gains in recent months. Investors convinced that a full-blown housing recovery is under way—a big “if”—are looking for ways to profit from it.
The most predictable of these is to invest in mortgages, or the very same residential mortgage-backed securities that were so avidly shorted in the run-up to the crisis. It is a deep pool: the $10 trillion of home loans outstanding is second only to equities as an asset class. Over half of these mortgages are tacitly guaranteed by the government, turning them into something akin to Treasury bonds. But packaged in tax-efficient structures to which large dollops of debt are added, these can kick yields up to the 10% range: not bad in a low-interest environment.
The risk is that even a small rise in interest rates will wipe out all the value. “You really have to believe interest rates are going to stay low for the foreseeable future,” says Gregory Perdon of Arbuthnot Latham, a bank.
Mortgages not guaranteed by the government, known as “non-agency”, are far more volatile and thus more appealing to return-hungry investors. Their price is closely correlated to that of the houses which underpin their value. Repayments are also higher when house prices are buoyant: if the house is worth less than the mortgage, the owner may simply walk away. Picking up those mortgages at rock-bottom prices has delivered returns of 30% or more for savvy hedge funds this year.
The other, and more intriguing, way of betting on rising house prices is to buy the houses themselves. KKR, Colony Capital and Blackstone are among those amassing large portfolios of homes, mostly buying from banks’ foreclosure auctions. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment bank, estimates that around $6-8 billion is being lined up to invest in single-family homes, the most appealing part of the market.
…
This is amazing: A long-winded article about U.S. housing’s “Big Long,” with nary a hint about the myriad extraordinary government subsidies propping it up…
What else would we expect from the corporate owned MSM?
To get the real news you need to tune into Al Jazeera or maybe that hippie radio show “Democracy Now”.
Why do you hate our freedoms?
To get the real news you need to tune into Al Jazeera or maybe that hippie radio show “Democracy Now”.
Agreed on both counts. But I will admit that I find Amy Goodman’s voice a bit grating to listen to.
True dat. For instance, a quick Google search into the ownership of The Economist reveals the owners include members of banker clans like the Rothschilds.
No surprise their editorial stance reflects their business interests…
“America’s residential sector was once the preserve of “mom-and-pop” investors or local developers.”
This hasn’t been true since at least the 1980s.
Anyone remember U.S. Homes? Fox and Jacobs? …just to name a few.
IIRC, US Home was acquired by Lennar
This is where the question of sustainability comes in.
1) The Fed could buy every scrap of government debt and every mortgage out there. It would almost certainly be vastly inflationary, which probably wouldn’t be good for politicians, and the effect on the favored sectors isn’t clear. Half of the Senate was voted out in the early 80s, during high inflation.
2) The Fed and the governments’ lending liabilities are vast and understated:
“Flaws in the way the government accounts for its loans and credit guarantees understate the costs that taxpayers are bearing with student loans and other credit programs totaling more than $2.5 trillion, plus more than $5 trillion in mortgages backed by the federally owned companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, a proper accounting — like that required of most businesses — would make the government’s budget deficit even larger than the officially reported amount.”
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3126
The Fed is trying to present the image that its interventions, its ability to soak up debt is limitless. But history shows this is not the case. The Fed is meeting today and there are rumblings about flat out UNSTERILIZED bond purchases.
It’s trying to find the edge of what the markets will tolerate. We’ll see where that is. Maybe it could buy all government debt and every scrap of mortgage debt without sparking inflation. We’ll see.
Is it too late to get in on Wall Street’s blowout ‘fiscal cliff avoidance’ stock market rally?
Dec. 11, 2012, 6:16 a.m. EST
Talks on fiscal cliff take positive turn: WSJ
By MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Talks aimed at averting the so-called fiscal cliff of potentially recession-inducing spending hikes and tax cuts have made steady progress in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people close to negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans. While big differences remain, there has been a significant shift in recent days as staff and leaders have consulted, making for more “serious” negotiations, the report said. Both sides are keeping quiet, however, refusing to point to areas where progress had been made, the newspaper said.
QE1
QE2
QE3
ZIRP
Operation Twist
3% down
90% of all loans backed by future taxpayers
Forward!
QE to infinity and beyond!
P.S. It isn’t flying — it’s falling, with style.
Toy Story - Falling With Style
P.S. It isn’t flying — it’s falling, with style.
Nice.
Is there still time to get on the Housing Bubble reflation train, or has it already left the station?”
I think it’s like the stock market bouncing off a bottom and then stalling. Maybe going back down and then bouncing again as the FED increases money for housing.
Earlier this year I joined a contest called Biggest Energy Saver. I have now made it to the final public voting period. Starting today (12/11/12) public voting has begun to select the winners. You can vote for 1 contestant from each service area (Oncor & Center Point) each day from today through Saturday. I’m not sure if you have to be a Oncor or Center Point Energy customer but give it a try. I was one of 4 households selected from the Oncor area eligible to win one of 3 prizes. At their web site http://www.biggestenergysaver.com you can view a video and a short essay describing how each contestant achieved their energy goals. In my case I used the smartmetertexas.com web site to precisely calculate my past electric use and designed a solar array that now provides 95% of my electric use. That along with using water heater timers, zone cooling, thermostatically controlled attic fan, and energy saving lighting my estimated total electric bill with Green Mountain will be less than $100 for the entire year of 2012.
My entry is listed as JACK.S (the guy standing in front of the solar panels) and I would appreciate your vote.
uhhh… green mountain power???
Is the purpose of the contest to see who can use the least energy or who can buy the least amount of energy from the power company? Because they are different goals.
If you visit the web site (hint Biggest Energy Saver) the goal is to cut your usage. For most people that will also mean lower electric bills but that is not the goal. Even if I didn’t add solar panels the other steps I took slashed my electric consumption. My #1 energy saving tactic was to put my electric water heater on a timer followed closely by implementing a zonal air conditioning scheme. Watch the other videos and you can pick up some good ideas for free.
Insulation, water heating and HVAC are usually the number one sinkholes for most households.
Distant second is vampire appliances and lights.
My water heater uses $12 natural gas a month.
“My water heater uses $12 natural gas a month.”
No kids in the house?
Nice going on the conservation steps Bluestar. The question of whether you “saved” energy yet might include consideration of the energy invested in making the solar panel. That’s just the way I look at things and some people tell me I don’t know Jack!
Hey, I got a kick out of the blond gal talking about her energy savings while standing in front of a monsterous castle waterfall thingy by her swiming pool.
What was she thinking? I could barely hear what she said over the noise of her waterfall.
RE: Solar panels, it’s complicated. It takes a lot of energy to make the silicon ingots, the glass and metal parts. The assembly process is not very expensive but it does produce some toxic by-products during the doping/coating phase. On the other end the salvage value is pretty good since most of the panel is 100% recyclable silicon and aluminum. Much like the natural gas market, the price of producing silicon is at best, breakeven. Don’t forget that many gas wells are not economical at $3.50 mcf but since they are getting a free ride with regards to the costs of water and the ability to use emanate domain to confiscate land for pipelines none of the gas drillers are going broke.
Just a question Blue star, why did you not just go to a tankless water heater. I am interested on your thoughts about the economics of such a system
Good for you!
Polly, the difference no longer matters if you are making your own power from renewable sources. The main point is to get off the grid and become independent.
Making your own electricity is true power and freedom.
Commie talk.
Solar and wind are for Euro-socialist cheese eating surrender monkeys.
And Toyota Prius is for economic girly-man.
Yehaw!!
“Renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid 99.9 per cent of the time by 2030 at costs comparable to today’s electricity expenses, according to new research by the University of Delaware (UD) and Delaware Technical Community College. The model incorporated data from within a large regional grid called PJM Interconnection, which includes 13 states from New Jersey to Illinois and represents a fifth of the US’s total electric grid.”
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/energy-and-environment/news/renewable-energy-could-offer-viable-power-source-by-2030/1014925.article
My panels are running at 14% theoretical output. In a few years we could be looking at twice the output for 1/2 the cost. What do you think a fossil fuel company thinks when they read articles like this? :
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/142962-princetons-nanomesh-nearly-triples-solar-cell-efficiency
Yeah but burning oil makes a nice vroom-vroom sound and looks kewl with plastic testicles hanging from the trailer hitch!
Renewable energy = Solyndra = Obama was born in Kenya
And Toyota Prius is for the socialist and homosexuals
“What do you think a fossil fuel company thinks when they read articles like this…”
First they thank you for buying solar cells. A lot of coal fired electric was used to make them. That and the mining operations pulled 20 years of energy demand forward to today. I won’t live to see if that pays out for you. The guys who make these things tell me the cells likely won’t survive to net energy breakeven. Still, it’s nice to be generating some juice on the homestead.
On the link, I read it with interest. Having the company that is pimping itself named Jumanji is too big a red flag, don’t you think? Fantasy and all that… The person who wrote the article is an idiot, or smartly writing for the mentally challenged. Paraphrased; If it is sunny, we are 50% more efficient. If it is cloudy we are 100 % more efficient. Therefore we are overall 150% more efficient.
LOL.
I am suspect of the subwavelength hole grid thing. I think this might be snake oil. You see the the screen with all the little holes on the glass door of your microwave? Those holes are subwavelength diameters. The microwaves cannot pass through, though visible light can. That’s why your eyeball does not get hard boiled when you look in to see how the TV dinner is doing. This is going to help a solar cell how? They don’t say.
We are living in an age of great scams. Be careful out there!
You do realize that France gets about 90% of their electricity from nuclear power?
Solar and wind are for Euro-socialist cheese eating surrender monkeys.
How stupid.
You get zip putting your money in CDs or Bonds. I bought the next 25 years of my electricity up front for less than it costs to buy it from the “free market”. Oh yeah, I don’t worry about blackouts either.
But dude like what about the zombies?
I live 1/2 a block from one of these gas lines along with about 500 other home owners. Looking at the whole county there maybe 100,000 citizens living close to a major gas main since we drilled thousands of gas wells around here over the last 5 years.
Check out this huge gas explosion that just went off in W. Virgina:
http://www.businessinsider.com/west-virginia-natural-gas-explosion-2012-12
The local salt mine is hoping to turn one if its caverns into a liquefied gas storage facility. Right on the lake shore, where the gas could just settle in the valley if there is a “problem”.
Do you have storage batteries or feed into the grid?
BTW, they let me vote for you from NY.
I do have some batteries but only for critical loads for about 12-16 hours. I delayed getting more backup power because I figure there will be better technology in a few years. Lead acid only lasts 5-7 years and then you have to recycle & replace. When the costs comes down to about 20 cents per watt hour I will fill out my battery bank.
CRATER!!!!
?
Not that I don’t agree with you, but what’s going to crater, in your opinion?
Stop trying to spark a panic with your one-word bold italic sound bites.
With the Fed waiting in the wings with liquidity fire hose in hand, there is absolutely no cause for concern going forward. So buy generous amounts of stocks, bonds, houses, gold — anything that qualifies as a financial asset will do.
The Fed stands ready to ensure safe passage over the edge of the ‘fiscal cliff.’
Dec. 10, 2012, 7:46 a.m. EST
Fed to do what it can to ease cliff uncertainty
Central bank may maintain steady pace of $85 billion in asset buys
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve is set to take more action this week to support financial markets and the economy, as the central bank tries to stay predictable given all the uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff.
To accomplish this, the Fed may announce fresh monthly purchases of $45 billion of Treasurys, economists say. These new purchases will start in the new year after the existing Operation Twist bond-buying program expires.
The Fed’s two-day meeting starts Tuesday, and the interest-rate setting Federal Open Market Committee announces its latest monetary policy decision at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a press conference at 2:15 p.m.
Under Twist, begun in September 2011, the Fed offset $400 billion of Treasury purchases with sales of shorter-term debt on its balance sheet.
While on the outside, the Fed wants to give the appearance of a steady hand on the tiller, behind closed doors it is another story.
“I think they are terrified of the fiscal cliff,” said Joseph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
“They are pretty sure there would be a recession if there is no deal,” he said.
…
How does the FED printing more money in exchange for worthless assets provide any economic stabilization??
I’ve grown tired of Bernanke and his “FED is ready to act”. to do what? More of the same?
How are you going to unload all those bad assets?
Tell us that, you worthless hack.
Can’t stop the FED but re-enstate FASB mark-to-market rules and that will halt them from buying junk at 100% face value.
What? Where your brain once was?
Good morning liar.
If Crater!!! is your tag, then define it. Saying Crater means nothing.
The beanie baby market cratered.
The tulip market cratered.
A lot of thing have and will crater.
If you don’t define it then there is no way to discuss it.
CRATER!!!!!
Housing can only go up from here! Now is the time to buy!
CRATER!!!!! = FOOD FIGHT!!!!
CRATERRRRRR!!!
“The beanie baby market cratered.”
Oh noooooo!!!! How will I ever retire now?
The beanie baby market has bottomed out. Buy now, or get priced out forever!
Have the Republicans waived the surrender flag on the ‘fiscal cliff’?
Dec. 11, 2012, 6:01 a.m. EST
Republicans have surrendered on fiscal cliff
Commentary: Path to a fiscal-cliff deal is visible, but it won’t be easy
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Now that Republicans have conceded two of their most cherished economic ideals, the path is open for them to reach a deal with President Barack Obama to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff in early January.
The only thing that stands in the way of a deal now is for the Republicans to recognize that they’ve already given up on their core principles.
Foremost, they’ve now agreed to raise taxes on the wealthy, thus abandoning their No. 1 talking point that taxes can never go up. Read Republicans offer tax revenue in cliff plan.
And, just by acknowledging that the fiscal cliff has to be avoided because of the damage that austerity would inflict on the economy, they’ve rotated 180 degrees to become Keynesians in their economics, thus abandoning their main gripe about Barack Obama’s efforts to stimulate the economy over the past four years. Read John Boehner describe “the threat to our economy” from the fiscal cliff.
It could take some time for Republicans to realize what they’ve done, and it could require some tricky negotiations to allow both parties to save some face in a final bargain. It is by no means certain that a deal can be struck by Dec. 31. But the biggest hurdle to a deal has now been overcome.
Republicans insist that they are still standing by their principles. But that’s just political posturing.
Last August, President Obama and Congress put the U.S. economy on course to go over a “fiscal cliff.” WSJ’s David Wessel tells you everything you need to know about the “cliff” but were afraid to ask.
The key concession by the Republicans was when House Speaker John Boehner agreed to $800 billion in new revenues, rather than $0. We don’t know the details of the Republican proposal; all we know is that the money would come from reducing various tax breaks for families making over $250,000, but we don’t know which ones would be capped or eliminated.
…
In my opinion the tax rate for everyone should go up just because we didn’t pay for 2 disastrous wars and for creating the much hated Department of Homeland Security. But it shouldn’t go up as much for the working class as it should for the top 10%. My thinking is since the top 10% have control of over 80% of our politicians and since they did nothing to stop these disasters they should bear a greater share of the taxes needed to repay the trillion dollar hole in the budget caused by the worst military blunder since starting the war of 1812.
since they did nothing to stop these disasters
Plus any of them profited from what caused the disasters, handsomely in many cases.
i’m in the top 10% and the only “control” i have over politicians is my vote.
I think he meant top 1%. (not sure if he did, but that would be more accurate)
Most of suffer from coffee depletion first thing in the morning.
Voting has shown to be a pretty ineffective way to register our objections lately. Ever write your legislators?
i wrote several in the beginning of this debacle…also pointless.
Which debacle? Repeal of Glass-Steagall? Iran-Contra? Watergate, Vietnam? It’s all a big joke but nobody is laughing.
Posted: 3:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, 2012
Florida housing corporation dinged on audit, working to comply on most items
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Lax oversight of agencies handling Florida’s $1 billion foreclosure prevention program and employee bonuses of up to $25,000 awarded without proof of justification are two areas faulted in a 30-page audit of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
The review, conducted by the Florida Auditor General, has 16 recommendations for the 125-employee agency, which was established by the legislature to help provide affordable housing and increase homeownership with programs such as down payment assistance.
“We went with the federal guidelines because they are widely used, accepted, updated regularly and allow for cost differences between localities,” Auger said. “We maintain that we are fine with whatever state laws we’re required to meet and if the legislature wants us to abide by state travel policy, we’ll do it.”
Between January 2010 and June 2012, the corporation spent $385,175 for travel expenses.
Total corporation revenue for last year was $818.6 million. The corporation earns money through a variety of sources including interest on loans, investment income, state documentary stamp taxes and federal program funds.
Another example of damned socialist regulations!
Not.
You folks are really on the ball today with finding great examples of how big business will screw us all if it weren’t for checks and balances.
“Another example of damned socialist regulations!”
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates must think someone besides the Federal Government will spend their money in a “smarter way”.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates’ ‘Giving Pledge’ Gets 11 More Billionaires To Pledge Half Of Wealth
Posted: 09/19/2012 12:42 pm Updated: 09/19/2012 6:05 pm
“Signing the pledge comes with the nonbinding agreement to donate at least half of one’s fortune and doesn’t specify how the funds should be distributed, but Gates, who was named the richest person in the U.S. on Wednesday, told the Journal that he sees it as an opportunity for wealthy people to give in a “smarter” way.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/warren-buffett-giving-pledge-new-members_n_1896882.html - 327k -
I recall Gates announcing he had already made plans to give away everything but a couple million for his kids after he and his wife passed.
How many times is he gonna give it all away? Here’s a suggestion Ghandi Gates; give it all up now! Show us your compassion; donate everything and go volunteer to work with lepers in India or something.
Just let us know Bill. I’m sure you need time to think about it.
Here’s a suggestion Ghandi Gates; give it all up now! Show us your compassion; donate everything and go volunteer to work with lepers in India or something.
damn that was beautifully said!! gates and buffet, two of the biggest hypocrites of our times.
Suspect the Gates’ directorship of their foundations are doing far more to advance world health and education efforts than them going off to “work with lepers or something”.
Do you think Angelina Jolie actually changes bandages?
set the goal so low everyone gets a bonus…..
~The Daily Grind
Santa Clara County(Bay Area) housing prices are down MoM and QoQ 1.2% and 3.6% respectively.
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Santa-Clara-County-home-value/r_3136/#metric=mt%3D19%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D3136%26el%3D0
Did Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) real estate investors miss the memo that a housing bottom is in, and real estate is going to always go up from here on out?
how many more americans will enter poverty as a result of central banking?
Lots of Grandmas and Grandpas who rely on returns on CDs and savings may need to learn to enjoy the taste of Alpo.
They’ll learn the beauty of working at a menial job in their old age.
I can see why many young ‘uns don’t bother to save. They know they’re gonna have to work until they drop dead anyway, so they might as well enjoy it now while they’re young and pretty.
Did you see the graph of the age of workers who are getting all the jobs? the over 54 crowd has gotten most of the jobs as the 18-53 crowd continues to lose jobs. I guess alpo is getting more exspensive cause granny is having to go back to that service job at walmart and mcd’s.
I’m afraid you’re more right than you think, Colorado.
Add the fact that wages are not keeping up with inflation and haven’t for the last 30 years, plus repeating recessions, plus jobs going overseas, plus totally worthless interest rates on savings and it’s no mystery to me why NOBODY gives a damn about trying to save.
How can you?
“how many more americans will enter poverty as a result of central banking?”
Everybody but the 10%. Then the cities will burn again. Just like they did in the 60s.
I guess alpo is getting more exspensive cause granny is having to go back to that service job at walmart and mcd’s.
Plus for many grandmas and grandpas their only source of retirement income is SS, and it just doesn’t go that far. So it’s a “retirement” spent working at a menial job.
“how many more americans will enter poverty as a result of central banking?”
Exactly.
And the world goes silent as they consider the question.
Did Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) real estate investors miss the memo that a housing bottom is in, and real estate is going to always go up from here on out?
Well, their house prices are up 13.9% year-over-year.
And down QoQ and MoM while demand craters.
But if they bought a year ago, and sold now, they’d have made some scratch, eh?
Of course you conveniently leave out transaction and carrying costs.
Honesty… clearly you don’t value it.
Billion here
Billion there
And a couple of tra la las
That’s how we keep prop the market up
In the merry old land of Oz
I’m not able to read or understand the charts I post!!!
I see one of the used house pimps hijacked my username. Cowards.
Actually I’m rather hoping that it was Ben.
In the same way you’re hoping your crushing losses disappear.
Are you having a moment of clarity?
You’re going to have a moment of reality if you’re the clown who hijacked my username.
How many names do you claim?
You heard me.
Median prices are misleading and reflect changes in the mix of homes sold as well as the prices of homes sold.
If you go to Zillow’s Value Index (which compares sales of like properties), it’s all green.
You seem to know this quite well when it suits your argument.
Indices are misleading and reflect the questionable motive of those who post them.
If you go to Zillow’s SALE PRICE index, it’s all falling prices.
You seem to want to misrepresent the market Rental Pimp.
Why is that?
“Sale Price” is the median. This value is affected by the mix of properties (which can vary with the season).
End of story.
And sale prices are falling.
End of story.
Seasonal peaks of median occur during the summer, when families have a greater tendency to move (bigger, more expensive houses).
Look at the oscillation of median price movement over the decade.
Oh I see. Now that you concede you’re wrong, you desperately cling to seasonality.
Nice try Rental Pimp.
You are conveniently ignoring seasonality, in the MEDIAN price numbers, which is why I point to the index, which deals with apples-to-apples sales comparisons…year on year price increases are massive, and if you were here, you would be well aware of what is actually happening…it’s not consistent with your view.
No. In a dishonest way, you point to a Zillow algorithm and misrepresent it as current sale prices.
You are a serial liar and a fraud.
Why waste time with MoM and QoQ? That’s what realtors use to convince people now is a good time to buy, and they can turn on a dime. They’re very seasonal as well. If you want to understand what’s to expect in the short to medium term, look at sales volume and YoY.
Maybe a look at the fundamentals could give a more useful insight into a generational cycle.
Not sure zillow even HAS any fundamentals. For years they’ve listed my (unimproved) adjacent 20 acre pasture as a 3/2 house located at some city address 64 miles from here. My own house is absurdly mis-described on their website and up until recently was valued at 90% less than what it cost me to build myself in 1998. (It’s up to about the land value now.)
The neighbor’s (literally) falling-apart 25-year-old trailer house on 1/10th the property is zillow-appraised 6% higher than my entire ranch. The haunted flipper house across the road is described as being 700 sq ft larger and fifteen years newer than it actually is. And the two bona fide mansions in the area are valued at less than similarly-sized mobile homes on 1/6 the acreage.
Best of all, the zestimate fluctuates wildly with no apparent regard for the fact that nothing’s sold in the area for months if not years. It’s up 50% over last year at this time, down 10% from last week, and apparently I’ve gained two bedrooms and a HVAC system since I last checked the listing….
Haunted flipper house. Why I am conjuring up a picture of the ghost of a 1960s TV series starring a dolphin?
Fundamentals in Silicon Valley: Strong job growth, low vacancy rates.
Fundamentals in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County)
Falling demand and falling housing prices. See for yourself.
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Santa-Clara-County-home-value/r_3136/#metric=mt%3D19%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D3136%26el%3D0
“Silicon Valley: Strong job growth”
Kidding, right?
“The Bay Area Council shows Silicon Valley noticeably absent from the list of markets with the most recent tech job growth.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/12/06/valleys-tech-job-growth-eclipsed-by.html?page=all
Faster than lightning? -
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/23/title-why-are-startups-flocking-to-sf-theres-no-more-room-in-silicon-valleys-inn/
SF/Silicon Valley is one big tech market. A fair bit of the growth is happening in SF due to available space for growth. With no space in Silicon Valley for growth, businesses are pushing north.
Just because businesses are pushing north, doesn’t mean the employees are moving their families into SF (still not a great place to have kids).
Think about how many jobs (on a nominal basis) 20% growth in SF represents as compared to what 36% growth means in North Carolina in terms of number of jobs.
A friend of mine works for a major tech company…their expansion space is MUCH closer to SF than Palo Alto…even though they have a major presence already in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto.
Link yet to arrive, but one reason cited for there being lots of startups going to SF (see the 20% growth on the chart) is that there is very little room for growth farther south (Palo Alto, etc.).
Those new employees who have their office in SF won’t necessarily live there, especially if they have kids. SF is not a great place to raise a family.
Silicon Valley business peaked and is now grinding lower.
Worth another look in primetime.
Do You Live In A Death Spiral State?
William Baldwin, Forbes Staff
11/25/2012 @ 8:13AM
Don’t buy a house in a state where private sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government.
Thinking about buying a house? Or a municipal bond? Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of a fiscal tailspin.
Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors. They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an exodus of employers. The list includes California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, along with some smaller states like New Mexico and Hawaii.
If your career takes you to Los Angeles or Chicago, don’t buy a house. Rent.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2012/11/25/do-you-live-in-a-death-spiral-state/ - 195k -
“The list includes California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, along with some smaller states like New Mexico and Hawaii.”
Aren’t all of those Democrat states?
I seem to recall that there were some red states in that list as well.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The good paying jobs have been offshored for decades and they are still are leaving. Fewer good paying jobs == death spiral, it doesn’t matter how good the deals are at WalMart or Target.
i wouldn’t worry about New Mexico…I am sure all the unfettered illegal immigration into the state will soon turn its economics around.
My understanding is that New Mexican Hispanics don’t feel a great deal of kinship towards their south of the border cousins and that they consider themselves culturally separate. For instance, they consider their cuisine (AKA New Mexican food) distinct from Mexican food.
It is true. The culture is much more Spanish than Mexican. Although the large numbers of illegals is changing that so you have a culture in transition.
Red or green?
I’m referring to a question asked in New Mexico restaurants. You’re being asked whether you’d like red or green chilis with your meal.
Depends on the meal, I usual go hot and pick green. However, there are some great dishes where red tastes the best.
Red or green?
That is the official question of the State of New Mexico.
I have a coworker who expects waitresses to know what he means when he says he wants his burrito “Christmas”. Red and Green.
Although the large numbers of illegals is changing that so you have a culture in transition.
I’m sure they come. Just pointing out that unlike places like California ,the local Hispanics are less than thrilled about their arrival and probably even shun them.
there are more illegals in The OC, (so Cal) than all of NM.
I get red, green on the side. But when I lived in NM for 6 yrs, I did miss salsa fresca and my guac!
NM is tiny, ignore them, they like it that way.
More illegals workign under the table in Orange County CA than all of NM.
Biz love cheap labor.
If Bush, a Texan, with all 3 branches under GOP control for 6 yrs did nothing, then big biz wants nothing to change. get it? Foster Farms loves illegals…
Bush II wanted us to unite with Mexico and Canada. It is interesting when papa lost due to his low standing with Southern Baptists, out popped Bush II. Now with the Republicans having trouble with Hispanics, Joaquin Bush is in the wings. The only core value with the Bush family is promoting world government run by the banksters.
In fact, just like in Iran you do not get to run for President unless you meet the religious test, you do not get to run for president in the U.S. unless the banksters approve you. Now, the banksters may have their favorite and he may not always win but they win every election before it even occurs by making sure that both candidates buy into their core agenda.
This article was posted here recently. The list also includes Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi. All of which are right-to-work, invisible-hand-of-free-market capitalist utopias. And which have some of the highest rates of child poverty, obesity, food stamp dependency, infant mortality, and rates of uninsured population
All of which are right-to-work, invisible-hand-of-free-market capitalist utopias
How does that offset California (8th largest economy in the world), New York (16th largest economy in the world), and Illinois (5th largest in the US) being on the list?
Sooooo, this guy moved in upstairs:
http://youtu.be/eM68Yz2rCwk
Really makes me appreciate the previous tenant, who I NEVER heard. Mr. Singer-songwriter likes to play acoustic guitar and sing at full volume, and I can hear EVERYTHING. He also clomps around like a morbidly obese hippo, re-arranges the furniture at 3 a.m., and plays his stereo too loud, but I’d be willing to overlook that stuff as just what you get for living in an apartment. It is his douchebag singing that is really driving me up the wall.
Unfortunately, all the inconsiderate stuff he does is merely loud enough to disturb me, but not loud enough for the other neighbors to hear or to call the cops, so not much I can do. He must think it isn’t that loud because he isn’t playing a Marshall stack, but I can hear him over my own stereo. I told him real musicians rent practice spaces to practice in and don’t do it in an apartment.
Anyway, the prospect of moving, only to face the same problem elsewhere, is depressing me. Buying a foreclosure with a 3.5% (or zero) downpayment is starting to look pretty good!
Please remind me all the reasons this is a bad idea, how the market is going to crash further in 2013, or how the neighbors at my new crapshack will be meth dealers who blast cojunto at 3 a.m. and then moving won’t be an option, etc.
Complain, forcefully, to your landlord.
Also, most towns/cities have “after 10pm” noise ordinances. It doesn’t matter if nobody but you is disturbed, it’s still against the law if even just one person has a problem.
However, if you live in an area that doesn’t have this law, lean heavily on your landlord. Do this in any case.
Personally, I’ve known enough (literally hundreds) musicians to dislike them very much for the most part. Not all of them are inconsiderate buttheads, just most of them.
Personally, I’ve known enough (literally hundreds) musicians to dislike them very much for the most part. Not all of them are inconsiderate buttheads, just most of them.
They also tend to be very insecure and in constant need of ego-stroking. It gets tiring after a while.
It doesn’t have to be a law. Read the fine print in your lease.
just what you get for living in an apartment
Living in the wrong apartment, maybe.
We live in a top floor unit with no shared neighbor walls.
And our previous experience living in SFH included: barking neighbor dogs, neighbor lawnmowers and leafblowers, annoying girlfriend asking us to operate lawnmower and leafblower.
Oh, Bub. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this $#)!. If asking him nicely neighbor-to-neighbor doesn’t elicit a neighborly response, enthusiastic howling when he starts to tune up might, as might loud mocking laughter. Better yet, invite a few friends over when you suspect a concerto in the offing and cue them to howl and jeer along with you. Musicians, especially sensitive acoustic musicians tend to be tuned in to people’s negative responses.
Maybe you could get him to practice in a back room instead of one with a common wall? Or perhaps, if he’s made aware of how much it bothers you, he could wait until you are at work or out of your apartment?
If nothing else, maybe he’ll improve with practice….
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) - Memorable quotes
Garage Attendant: You guys got nothing to worry about, I’m a professional.
Reggie Wayne’s Bentley stolen by valet, police say
NFL.com
Published: Dec. 11, 2012 at 07:34 a.m
A 2007 Bentley belonging to Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne allegedly was stolen by a valet employee at a Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
Police arrested 21-year-old Gunner Belcher and accused him of stealing Wayne’s car, leaving work Saturday night without clocking out, and driving the Bentley while drunk, the Indy Star reported.
Wayne and his car were reunited on Sunday, according to the newspaper.
“Eh. What a maroon.”
Not an isolated incident.
Valet’s Joyride Caught on Tape - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQXocTgfQPE - 142k -
May 1, 2012 … Florida parking attendant accused of driving customers’ cars around town. … Valet Takes Corvette on Joyride Caught on Tapeby … Ferris Buellers Day Off: Famous Linesby neckisstiff901,688 views · 2003 SVT Cobra - Whipple …
I was a valet as a kid in Newport Beach, CA… we did it all the time. Nothing like 0-60 in Maa bi-turbo or 9/11, in an underground parking garage to get the adrenalin pumping. Good news none of us ever stole anything, and people left cash an Rolex’s in plain site.
So THAT’s what happened to my Maser….
Nah, it would have broken down anyway without any help from the valets :-).
Washington Post - U.S. students continue to trail Asian students in math, reading, science:
“Students across the United States have made some gains but continue to lag behind many of their Asian counterparts in reading, math and science, according to the results of two international tests released Tuesday.
U.S. fourth-graders’ math and reading scores improved since the last time students took the tests several years ago, while eighth-graders remained stable in math and science. Americans outperformed the international average in all three subjects but remained far behind students in such places as Singapore and Hong Kong, especially in math and science.
Still, the results are likely to fuel concerns among U.S. business leaders, policymakers and many educators, who worry that the country will not be able to compete globally if U.S. students cannot keep up academically with their peers around the world.”
U.S. students continue to trail Asian students ??
And guess what Goon…Many of them aren’t black freeloading parents…
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2012%2F12%2F09%2Fopinion%2Fsunday%2Fkristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall&ei=TFbHUOisCuiviQKE_oGgAw&usg=AFQjCNGG6gydoFNryf6C9RT1g3b–4RP-Q
Are Asians Racist® or is math Racist®? Maybe it’s both
Asians cheat. Too much pressure to get A’s.
Most Asians don’t cheat, IMHO as a 14 year educator of students from 67 countries.
We need to invest more in education, right? Forward!
Money can’t buy genius
The U.S. spends almost $11,000 on every K-12 student. Other nations spend less – and get better results.
Released Aug. 1, 2012
We spend an average $10,995 in public dollars on each US elementary and secondary student, but other countries spend less to get better reading, math and science test scores. Japan spends $8,301 per student and South Korea spends less, at $6,723, but both outpace US academic performance. The US outlay per student is $2,826 more than the average in industrialized countries.
Sources:
US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics: “The Condition of Education 2012” report (Indicators 22 and 26, Tables A-22-1, A-26-1 through A-26-30) OECD: “Annual Expenditures per Student, by Educational Institutions on Core Services, Ancillary Services and R&D (2008)” (Table B1.2) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/money-cant-buy-genius/ - 34k -
The other countries tend to track students into non-college paths much sooner than we do. That drags our test scores down.
It’s easy to post good numbers when you cherry-pick the pool of students taking the tests.
Just test the smart kids and we`re fine.
Only problem is American kids aren`t down with those non-college path jobs like illegal or I`m sorry, undocumented Immigrants are.
Correct. How much you wanna bet that the typical Foxconn worker isn’t all that hot at math or physics? But he or she didn’t go to college prep school either. More likely a vocational school where they are taught how to solder and other manufacturing related skills.
“How much you wanna bet that the typical Foxconn worker isn’t all that hot at math or physics? But he or she didn’t go to college prep school either”
9/11/2012 @ 8:07AM |48,303 views
32,000 Students Choose: Build Your iPhone 5 Or Get Expelled From School
Will you be one of the eight million people expected to pay $600 for an Apple (AAPL) iPhone 5S later this year? If so, you will be contributing to some 32,000 students who were forced to work on the Foxconn assembly line building your order — or face expulsion from school.
Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, told the Times that as recently September 9 he learned that 10 of 87 workers who labored on one iPhone assembly line were “interns.” And as Li said, they “don’t want to work there — they want to learn. But if they don’t work, they are told they will not graduate, because it is a very busy time with the new iPhone coming, and Foxconn does not have enough workers without the students.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/09/11/32000-students-choose-build-your-iphone-5-or-get-expelled-from-school/ - 128k
December 11, 2012
Head of Obama’s Jobs Council: ‘State-Run Communism’ Actually ‘Works’
Appearing Monday morning on CBS, Obama’s jobs council head and the CEO of GE Jeffrey Immelt said that one thing that “actually works” is “state-run Communism” in China.
CHARLIE ROSE: China is changing. It may be being stabilized as we speak. What does that mean for China and what does it mean for the United States? Should it change expectations?
JEFF IMMELT: It is good for China. To a certain extent, Charlie, 11 percent is unsustainable. You end up getting too much stimulus or a misallocation of resources. They are much better off working on a more consumer-based economy, less dependent on exports. The one thing that actually works, state run communism a bit– may not be your cup of tea, but their government works.
http://nation.foxnews.com/jeffrey-immelt/2012/12/11/head-obama-s-jobs-council-state-run-communism-actually-works?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%5Cu00253A+FoxNation+%5Cu002528Fox+Nation%5Cu002529 - -
Sounds more like “slavery works”. Enjoy your i-phones.
it’s working well here too…just look at the U.S. housing market in recent months.
If so, you will be contributing to some 32,000 students who were forced to work on the Foxconn assembly line building your order — or face expulsion from school.
The article was mum about what kind of school they attend. I’m guessing it’s a vocational school. It also didn’t say if they are paid, though I’m guessing that they’re not.
Lucky Duckies! Witness your future.
“eighth-graders”
In related news, US editors underperform their asian counterparts.
US editors underperform their asian counterparts.
The editors of “The Onion” regularly put stuff over on Asian editors.
There was a recent Onion story that was reported as fact in China.
Yea, that was the one about Kim Jung Un being named sexiest man alive I think.
eightth?
Only 7% of Detroit Public-School 8th Graders Proficient in Reading
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/only-7-detroit-public-school-8th-graders-proficient-reading
No wonder why I rant about the horrible rap and hip hop music today…
Now Thats Racist!!!!!!
All Detroit public school workers will receive a bonus this year.
At least three school districts in Metro Detroit closed Tuesday after hundreds of teachers called in sick to join union rallies in Lansing against right-to-work legislation passed by lawmakers.
Treasury sells AIG stake for $22.7B profit
Treasury said it received $32.50 per share for its 234.2 million shares
9:39AM EST December 11. 2012 - WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that it has sold all its remaining shares of American International Group (AIG), moving to wrap up the government’s biggest bailout of the 2008 financial crisis.
Treasury said it received $32.50 per share for its 234.2 million remaining shares, which represented a 16% ownership stake in the giant insurance company.
On Sunday, AIG said it will sell up to 90% of its airplane leasing unit to a Chinese investor group for $5.3 billion. It said it planned to use the proceeds to help repay the government for the bailout.
With this sale, Treasury said the government has received $22.7 billion more than the $182 billion bailout it provided to support AIG. It was the largest government bailout package, including both loans and federal guarantees.
AIG, based in New York City, nearly collapsed at the height of the financial crisis. The company suffered massive losses from financial instruments whose value was based on mortgage securities.
AIG became a symbol for excessive risk on Wall Street. It was criticized by some members of Congress for spending $440,000 on spa treatments for executives only days after it was bailed out and for millions of dollars in bonuses it provided executives.
In November, a federal judge dismissed a $25 billion lawsuit arising from the government rescue of AIG. Starr International Group, run by former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, had accused the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of taking valuable assets from AIG shareholders without their consent or fair compensation.
…
And while the loan was a government expenditure under Bush, the payback of the principle and “profit” is credited to Obama. Thereby, raising the deficit under Bush and reducing the deficit under Obama. Something very few on this board consider when they try to compare the first year under Obama to the last year under Bush.
Having said that this profit was earned by stealing from the middle class their proper return on the savings by forcing interest rates below their market rates.
bail them out…the fed spends/prints trillions of dollars propping them back up…sale stock at a profit…sheeple think the government made money so it’s all good.
crazy.
……13% in 4 years……at least its a Profit…whew
Thanks CITB,
I really would like a bailout tally (weekend topic)? of how much we got screwed or not. Seems we did well on GM, subsidized Chrysler and AIG.
Net?
“Net?”
Never take govt-sponsored shell game statistics at face value.
AIG = ChinaBank
WSJ - U.S. Small Business Hiring Plans Plunged in November:
“In a sign of deep pessimism about the economy, U.S. small-business hiring plans plunged to their lowest level in four years last month, a survey released Thursday said.
Small-business owners’ net hiring intentions for the next 12 months dropped to -4 in November, down from a reading of +10 in July and matching the previous record low from November 2008, according to the quarterly Wells Fargo / Gallup Small Business Index survey.
The negative reading indicates that more businesses expect to decrease the number of jobs at their company than expect to increase it — 21% of owners plan to cut payrolls while only 17% plan to boost hiring.”
Hope and Change
Four more years
Forward!
“WSJ - U.S. Small Business Hiring Plans Plunged in November:”
Since His First Day in Office Barack Obama Has Hired 101 New Federal Employees on Average Each Day
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, December 10, 2012, 6:21 PM
USA Today
Since Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office in January 2009 he has created on average 101 new federal employees each day.
Andrew Malcolm at Investor’s Business Daily reported:
You may have noticed some economic difficulties across the country in recent years among family, friends, neighbors, colleagues. One sector is doing quite nicely, however, under Barack Hussein Obama.
In the 1,420 days since he took the oath of office, the federal government has daily hired on average 101 new employees. Every day. Seven days a week. All 202 weeks. That makes 143,000 more federal workers than when Obama talked forever on that cold day in January of 2009.
Under Obama the total federal workforce has surpassed two million for the first time since the first Clinton term, now sitting about the 2.2 ,million level.
Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.
Now comes a new poll revealing that Americans know what’s going on. A majority of Americans believes government workers make more money than private sector workers, according to the new Rasmussen Reports poll. Sixty-one percent of private sector workers believe that.
Surprisingly, Republicans, independents and Democrats are united in agreement that government employees have it better than private sector workers although, predictably, Dems are slightly less sure.
“The federal workforce has become an elite island of secure and high-paid workers, separated from the ocean of average American workers competing in the global economy,” according to a report this year by the Cato Institute.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/12/since-his-first-day-in-office-barack-obama-has-hired-101-new-federal-employees-on-average-each-day/ -
And that’s not including the new hiring of private-sector, for-profit, invisible hand of free market, John Galt, bootstrapping government contractors
Federal govt employees = takers
Government contractors = makers
Please recalculate those numbers after removing the huge (and temporary) bump for the 2010 census hiring.
Thanks.
That article is kinda wacked. It claims that the civlian workforce grew to 2.2 million, but according to the US office of personnel management, that number hasn’t be less than 2.5 million since the 1960s.
They don’t provide data for 2011 or 2012 yet, but show 2000 additional worker from 2009-2010.
There were over 3 million workers in the late 80s and early 90s.
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/historicaltables/totalgovernmentsince1962.asp
So even worse than I thought. There are plenty of ways to skew the statistics that hide the fact that you are skewing it. I presumed that since the number that was being touted was “hiring” that the way the article was wrong was just by counting hires and not taking into account that a huge chunk of it was temp hiring for the census. Why be totally whacked when just deceptive will get you most of the way to where you want to go?
“Much of the hiring increases came in the departments of homeland security, justice, veterans and defense.”
Did Obama really make government bigger?
By Tami Luhby @CNNMoney January 25, 2012: 7:11 AM ET
The conservative Heritage Foundation, which advocates for a reduced government role in society, acknowledges that much of the increase in federal spending originates in laws passed by this Congress and previous ones, but feels that Obama could do more to rein it in.
“He didn’t do it alone,” said Patrick Louis Knudsen, a senior fellow at Heritage. “But he tends to do little to reduce spending. He is taking the size of government to new levels and he’s keeping it there.”
Of course, Obama did press for a record $787 billion stimulus plan in 2009, as well as a bailout of the automakers in Detroit. But he also deserves credit for winding both of those down, said Stan Collender, partner in Qorvis Communications, a public affairs firm.
Employees: The number of federal employees grew by 123,000, or 6.2%, under President Obama, according to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Much of the hiring increases came in the departments of homeland security, justice, veterans and defense.
The federal payroll has been expanding since President Bush took office, after declining during the Clinton administration. But it’s still a tad smaller than it was in 1992, said Craig Jennings, a federal budget expert at the progressive think tank OMB Watch.
The federal government has been one of the few areas that’s grown during the economic downturn. The private sector remains down 1.1 million jobs from the start of 2009, while state and local governments have shed 635,000 positions.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/25/news/economy/obama_government/index.htm - 64k -
My first thought was, yeah, you’re hiring 101 employees per day, but 98 are leaving everyday. Turns out the article was talking net employees, but with data from…..?
There is also a wave of retirements expected in the federal government. We had some hiring in my department in the last few months, but just as many if not more people are retiring in the next year (half in the next few weeks). Federal government retirements are highly concentrated at the end of December, so taking a number that covers most of 4 years while excluing one of the end of December rushes out the door is not very representative either.
Since Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office in January 2009 he has created on average 101 new federal employees each day.
Aaaugh! His middle name is Hussein! He’s a Muslim! A terrorist!
Katie, bar the door!
The memes are a lot more fun now that the election is over
We like to remind the haterz that they have four more years of implementing sharia law, being born in kenya, taking our guns away, etc from The One to look forward to.
And never mind the illegal drone wars, which will continue regardless of whether O or R won. We voted for Gary Johnson.
The emotionally volatile types who get worked up into apoplectic rage over every new Drudge Report headline deserve every minute of the next four years.
Forward!
Under Obama, a Record Decline in Government Jobs
By FLOYD NORRIS
When Barack Obama ran for president four years ago, he appalled some Democrats by saying Ronald Reagan had been a transformational president.
Three years into his presidency, he has exceeded Reagan in one area: reductions in government jobs.
Notions on high and low finance.
Over all — including a decline of 12,000 public sector jobs in the Labor Department report for December — government employment is down 2.6 percent over the last three years, compared to a decline of 2.2 percent in the early Reagan years. That is a record.
That record, which will seem a dubious distinction to public-sector employees, is largely a result not of federal policy but of shrinking state governments. State employment fell 1.2 percent in 2011 — the largest percentage for any year since counting began in 1955. The number is down 2.2 percent over the last three years. It was up 1.2 percent during Reagan’s first three years, declining in only one of the years.
Don’t muss up my anti-govt rants with those damn fact thingees!
yipppee!
7.7% unemployment and dropping!
Go Obama!
Show the GOP how to be a fiscal conservative and repair the damage they have done!
O has cut 600,000+ gov jobs…
Romney would have gone Bush on us, more gov spending, less revenue…
O hasn’t cut any gov jobs; the Federal workforce has steadily increased under Obama. The decrease of gov jobs is in state, county, municipal workers which Obama did his best to slow or prevent with stimulus money.
And the postal service.
see, up 2 posts
News of mass individual and institutional investor withdrawal from the stock market, insider trading scandals, international drug cartel dealings with too-big-to-fail banks and fiscal cliff chicken must be music to investors’ ears, as the stock market is on a tear today.
The stock market always goes up. Buy now, or get priced out forever!
There is no limit on crazy talk by small business owners these days.
Dec. 11, 2012, 10:14 a.m. EST
Small businesses: Obama worse than Lehman collapse
Commentary: President needs to engage business community more
By MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Do small-business owners really fear that the re-election of President Barack Obama is worse for their businesses than the collapse of Lehman Brothers?
…
Small businesses don’t want socialism, don’t want sharia law, don’t want the UN taking our guns away.
Because nothing is worse for small business than socialism, sharia law, and the UN taking our guns away.
Good thing people have stable jobs and good raises and decent pensions and no medical bills or we would have to blame them!
Oh wait…
Lehman brothers was a disaster for the big boys. The tax and regulatory changes under Obama have hit small business much harder. To me it is the billionaires using these government policies to crash the millionaires. After the final competition to the big box stores is crushed do you really think it is going to be good for lucky ducky? If we really cared about true wealth concentration we would be focusing on taxes for the .01% and not the 1 or 2%.
Does it say somewhere in the U.S. Constitution that the American government has a legal requirement to protect the real estate investments of foreign equity locusts?
One thing I noticed during the Indonesian tsunami footage a few years back: Those people hanging out relaxing on the beaches? They were all lilly white westerners. The Asian natives got to consider themselves “lucky duckies” as the beaches that used to be theirs now were off limits. They were, however, allowed to feed themselves and care for their humble housing as they waited on the invading wealthy classes from abroad.
Perhaps the appropriate phrase is: Turnabout is fair play.
(I’m as white and western as they make them. I’m just not that adept at denying reality.)
Does it say somewhere in the U.S. Constitution that the American government has a legal requirement to protect the real estate investments of foreign equity locusts?
I don’t know. What do you say, libertarians? Are property rights only sacred for US citizens?
I live in Rancho Bernardo. And guess who named this lovely San Diego real estate enclave?
You’re right: It was named by Mexican ranchers who lived here during the rancho era, before the U.S. government claimed the land.
So you see, there is a precedent for reclaiming U.S. land that illegally falls into the possession of foreigners.
Why are we allowing all these foreigners to lay claim to U.S. sovereign territory? And why not put an end to it, sooner than later?
Why are we allowing all these foreigners to lay claim to U.S. sovereign territory? And why not put an end to it, sooner than later?
Because then they’d seize American property that’s in their country?
Don’t they understand that once the Sunni rebels prevail in Syria, they are going to restart the war for Iraq? This is from UPI.COM:
Published: Dec. 11, 2012 at 11:03 AM
DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec. 11 (UPI) — Washington and other Western and Arab powers plan to give air and naval support to Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime, a British newspaper reported.
High-level uniformed-services officers from the United States, Britain, France, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates met privately in London a few weeks ago at the request of British Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss providing military training to the rebels and supporting them with air and naval power, The Independent reported Tuesday.
The countries concluded the 21-month-old civil war in Syria had reached a tipping point and countries supporting the opposition must help rebel fighters succeed in a final push to defeat President Bashar Assad, the newspaper said.
The Western nations are especially concerned about wanting to influence the political shape of the opposition the West hopes will replace Assad, the newspaper said.
In Washington, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday it sanctioned Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab, two senior members of the Syrian-based al-Nusrah Front for acting on behalf of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The State Department designated and sanctioned al-Nusrah Front Monday.
Also Tuesday, the Treasury Department sanctioned two armed militia groups operating under the control of the Syrian government, Jaysh al-Shabi and Shabiha, and two Shabiha commanders.
The sanctions block the designated entities from accessing property or interest on property in the United States or in possession or control of U.S. residents. The sanctions also prohibit U.S. residents from conducting business dealings with the sanctioned entity.
“The United States will continue to aggressively pursue those who undermine the desires of the Syrian people to realize a representative government that does not employ violence against its own people. We will target the pro-Assad militias just as we will the terrorists who falsely cloak themselves in the flag of the legitimate opposition,” Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said.
Jihadist groups among the rebels have gained power and influence due to weapons and money coming from some Persian Gulf states, The Independent said. This puts secular groups at a severe disadvantage, it said.
To counteract that, Western help will be directed at strengthening moderate groups, The Independent said.
Washington, London and Paris agreed at the meeting none of their countries would have “boots on the ground” to help the rebels.
Training camps could be set up in Turkey, the newspaper said.
Any such military action would also likely take place without U.N. authorization, The Independent said. Russia and China are unlikely to back such a resolution.
Washington had no immediate comment on the report. Nor did any of the other countries reported at the meeting.
French newspaper Le Figaro reported French military advisers already met with Syrian rebel groups across the border in Lebanon. Washington is believed to have stockpiled weapons retrieved in Libya for future supply to Syria, The Independent said.
Al-Nusra Front, which helped capture a military base near Aleppo Monday, is separate from the opposition Free Syrian Army, but many FSA leaders recognize its strength and order their forces to cooperate with it, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.
Twenty-nine opposition groups signed a petition in support of Jabhat al-Nusra in defiance of Washington. Mainstream opposition activists expressed anger at the State Department’s announcement.
“It is terrible timing on the part of the United States,” Mulham Jundi, who works with the opposition charity Watan Syria, told the Telegraph.
“By calling [al-Nusrah Front] terrorists, the U.S. is legitimizing the Syrian regime’s bombardment of cities like Aleppo. Now the government can [legitimately] say it is attacking terrorists.”
The Assad regime has insisted it is fighting foreign terrorists.
Topics:David Cameron, Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein
© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/12/11/Report-Syria-rebels-to-get-US-armed-aid/UPI-99581355212800/#ixzz2ElHfi5iG
It’s Bush’s fault!
Yes and Obama and Carter. The three Presidents that actually believed you can bring democracy to the middle east.
In Egypt, there are credible reports that the Moslem Brotherhood is paying thugs to rape woman that protest against the President, who came from the Moslem Botherhood. In Libya, the BBC files this report:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20584573
I took quite a beating from this board when I suggested about two years ago that this rebellions in the Middle East would turn out badly and that Islam and democracy are not compatible. But what is going on is the continued movement from the Pan-Arabist beliefs which respected all religions and allowed for the modern treatment of women, to a very primitive form of Islam. Another part of this, is the Sunni Islam school that is most on the rise believes that Christians, atheists and Shiites and those that preach equality for woman should be killed.
There is not one reference to rape in this article. Please don’t try to conflate the legitimacy of the BBC with your ill-sourced propaganda.
Realtor astroturfing on social media?
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/14miue/heres_to_hoping_reddit_is_as_excited_as_we_are/
A few hours after it was posted, the account that posted it was deleted.
Reddit is the place where all the younger demographic (generation screwed) hang out. Makes me kind of ill to see them targeted by realtor manipulation like that. Typical scumbag realtor tactics, I guess.
“Typical scumbag realtor tactics, I guess.”
No doubt.
A few months ago, a real estate agent posted a housing turnaround message on a LinkedIn board that I frequent. I responded with a Michael Olenick/Firedoglake article about shadow inventory. Agent had nothing to say in reply.
Oops. My bad. The Olenick article was from naked capitalism.
Falling Incomes, High Unemployment, Rising Taxes and Tight Credit = Housing Recovery?
By Barry Ritholtz -
December 10th, 2012, 12:00PM
Jonathan Miller shows us the above chart (via RealtyTrak) and ask the question: How does flat to falling incomes, high unemployment, rising taxes and tight credit = housing recovery?
• 2008-2010 – Heavy foreclosure volume as a result of the fallout from the tanking economy and housing market
• 2010 (fall) – Robo-signing scandal combined with huge backlogs in judicial states causes a sharp decline in distressed sales entering the market in 2011.
• 2012 (1Q) Major servicer agreement with state attorneys general as distressed volume drops to its lowest crisis level.
• 2012 Calculated Risk and other respected sources call the bottom (and they may be right) but doesn’t factor in the distressed sale phenomenon. “Bottom” does not equal “recovery” but rather it’s a step on the way to recovery.
• 2012 (2Q) Distressed sales begin to rise again. By adding lower priced distressed sales in the mix, housing prices stabilize or slip next year nationally (I see Manhattan rising with low distressed exposure and limited inventory).
Comments
BennyProfane Says:
December 10th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Speaking of foreclosures:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/foreclosure-cases-moving-like-mud/nTQxq/
“As of Oct. 31, there were 377,272 pending foreclosures in Florida’s 20 circuit courts, a net reduction of just 435 cases since the money became available in July, according to the state courts administrator.
Judges say new foreclosure filings have nearly outpaced the number of cases they’ve been able to close as banks work on clearing defaulted loans on hold since the robo-signing freezes and pending the National Mortgage settlement, which was finalized in March.
While the $4 million has helped courts statewide close 69,513 cases in four months, 69,078 new cases were added during the same time period.”
And, don’t think it’s any different in New Jersey, New York, and the other judicial states living with this backlog. Slow drip, for, what, another five to ten years? Praise the lord for 4% 3.5 down FHA mortgages to low credit score cases, or, there would be no housing market to speak of.
I was listening to the radio driving around yesterday, and I heard some pundit say something about the “significant” improvement in housing prices, and the market in general. This cheerleading from fantasy land has gotten way out of hand. The election is over, so, let’s cut it with the propaganda. The housing market of 2006 will never return in your lifetime. Which, is good. Look what happened in 2008.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/12/falling-incomes-high-unemployment-rising-taxes-and-tight-credit-housing-recovery/ -
Judicial states are a mess.
IL, and NJ are in the process of passing laws that will allow them speedy foreclosure of abandoned properties…it will be interesting to watch when these homes flow into the market.
California is a huge mess and growing. CA is in the top 5 foreclosure states in the country.
http://www.realtytrac.com/trendcenter/uiservices/heatmap.aspx
Heads up and get out of the way because there’s a California house thats going to crush you.
You don’t seem to understand that foreclosures happening is GOOD. This is clearing out the distress, and the main reason that CA and AZ have fallen from 15% or 16% non-current loan rates in early 2010 all the way down to less than 8% now.
Continuing to foreclose is a good thing, and at the current pace, non-current loan rates in CA and AZ will reach approximate “normalcy” in about 12 months.
As a counter point, your link shows New York as way “better” than CA, despite the fact that per LPS they have a 13.4% non-current rate (as compared to CA’s 7.9%). They have a ton of shadow inventory to work through–if they ever start to foreclose with speed, you will see a flood of distressed properties hit the market, and the RealtyTrac slide for NY to turn as red as CA is today.
If a state doesn’t allow foreclosures, thus masking the real levels of distress, do you think that is good?
Of course foreclosures are good. They drive down prices.
http://www.lpsvcs.com/LPSCorporateInformation/CommunicationCenter/DataReports/MortgageMonitor/201210MortgageMonitor/MortgageMonitorOct2012.pdf
See page 17 for the state-by-state non-current loan rates.
7 of the worst 10 are judicial.
See California…. They’re in the top 5 foreclosure states.
http://www.realtytrac.com/trendcenter/uiservices/heatmap.aspx
That’s right, CA and non-judicial states are dealing with the issue by foreclosing. Judicial states are hiding from the problem.
You can see this in the non-current loan rates and their year-on-year reduction (see my link above).
And you’re hiding the truth about the disaster CA is.
Just got this email…What do you think…
Tanya Marchiol Discusses the ability to purchase homes in Phoenix Arizona under $100K on Fox Business News Varney & Company
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX2FMXGyCZg
Tanya Marchiol’s 2013 Real Estate Outlook
The housing market will improve moderately in 2013, but nobody will mistake this for a boom. The gains in activity and prices will be a welcome relief, but will leave many homeowners still underwater.
1. Higher amounts of Short Sales will continue to go through the market. Short sales will far outweigh REO’s. This trend is already starting as Short Sales outweighed REO’s in the third quarter of 2012. Banks make more money with short sales. The agents do all of the work the bank must do if they take them back as REO’s. Valuation, Marketing, Upkeep, ect
2. More traditional sales will continue to hit the market as the market itself pulls underwater home owners to a point where they can sell without short selling.
3. Mortgage rates will remain near their record lows for the first half of 2013, but lending requirements will remain tough. In the second half of 2013 lending will lighten up just a bit but rates will gradually rise, still remaining below 4 percent.
4. Expect property values to continue to strengthen with most U.S. house price indexes likely rising by 2 to 3 percent in 2013. There will continue to be boom markets in Arizona, Georgia, and Florida. Some other market may start to see stronger comebacks.
5. Household formation should step up further to a net 1.20 to 1.25 million household increase in 2013 with housing starts up around the 1 million annualized pace by the fourth quarter.
6. People will begin to believe in housing again. Vacancy rates for both apartments and the single-family for-sale market could bring aggregate vacancy rates down to 2002-2003 levels as household formation outpaces new construction. The normal housing vacancy rate for owned property (single family houses and condos not in the rental market) is around 1.5 percent nationally. Our high was three percent, but we are now down to 2.1 percent.
7. The refinance boom will continue into early 2013, it will be less compared to 2012 so look for single-family mortgage originations to slightly decline, but expect multifamily lending to rise.
However, none of this will hold true if two things do not happen before the end of the year. One, the 2007 Debt Forgiveness Act needs to be extended. Without this extension the housing market cannot continue to recover. It will come to a screeching halt and foreclosures will exponentially go up. Cancelled debt is considered income and is taxable, but under the 2007 Act, debt forgiven in connection with a mortgage modification, where as a foreclosure is exempt from tax. People will not know what to do since both foreclosure and short selling will lead to higher taxes that people just can’t pay.
The second critical extension is the mortgage interest deduction. Homeowners use this extra cash for improvements, maintenance, and to keep rents lower on rental properties. Eliminating both of these will send the minimal housing recovery into a downward spiral which again will leave homeowner with no confidence in housing and the economy in general.
However, none of this will hold true if two things do not happen before the end of the year. One, the 2007 Debt Forgiveness Act needs to be extended. Without this extension the housing market cannot continue to recover. It will come to a screeching halt and foreclosures will exponentially go up. Cancelled debt is considered income and is taxable, but under the 2007 Act, debt forgiven in connection with a mortgage modification, where as a foreclosure is exempt from tax. People will not know what to do since both foreclosure and short selling will lead to higher taxes that people just can’t pay.
Pay attention to the above. It may well happen.
Agreed and unlike some commentators I am not sure that it will get extended. The banksters were surprised by tactical defaults by people that could pay but decided not to pay their loans. It is legal in non-recourse states, but they were stunned to find that the little guy could lack ethics as much as they do. I think if the law is extended it could very well require that people show that they could not make their payments. I don’t think that is in the present law but since I do not have it before me I am not 100% certain. However, I do remember a couple of Congress woman in CA that pushed the bill and I don’t think they would have put that provision in the law since they intended to walk away from their mortgages.
As far as the MID, I do not see it being eliminated but I could see it being cut back which would impact Bay Area and other high price housing areas but I do not think it would impact most areas.
“I do remember a couple of Congress woman in CA that pushed the bill and I don’t think they would have put that provision in the law since they intended to walk away from their mortgages”
Was this one of them?
5/21/2008
Newly Elected California Congresswoman Walks Away from $535,000 mortgage shortly after being elected.
Filed under: General — WLS @ 1:16 pm
Posted by WLS:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/05/report-californ.html
Funny how you only find this information in an LAT Blog and not on the news pages.
Capitol Weekly reports newly elected California Congresswoman Laura Richardson walked away from the mortgage on her $535,000 Sacramento home, letting the house slip into foreclosure and disrepair less than two years after she bought it with no money down.
“While being elevated to Congress in a 2007 special election, Richardson apparently stopped making payments on her new Sacramento home, and eventually walked away from it, leaving nearly $600,000 in unpaid loans and fees,” the publication reports.
Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, declined to comment for the Capitol Weekly story, and her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from LA Land.
Capitol Weekly, citing tax records at the Sacramento County assessor’s office, reports “… in January 2007, Richardson took out a mortgage for the entire sale price of the house — $535,000. The mortgage amount was equal to the sale price of the home, meaning she was able to buy the house without a down payment, even though the housing market was beginning to turn. A March 19, 2008 notice of trustee’s sale indicates that the unpaid balance of Richardson’s loan, which is held by Washington Mutual, is more than $578,000 –$40,000 more than the original mortgage.”
In addition to 100% financing on the home itself, the report quotes the woman who sold the house to Richardson as saying she also gave Richardson $15,000 toward closing costs.
The weekly also reports Richardson’s residence quickly became an eyesore, angering neighbors. The report says she recused herself on two key house votes on government efforts to address the foreclosure crisis.
This is from Charles Rangel’s website:
The 2007 tax relief is set to expire at the end of 2012. H.R. 4202 would assure that this relief will be available for two more years, through 2014. There are currently 12 million Americans on the verge of losing their homes because they owe more money than their home is worth. An estimated four million American have lost their homes to foreclosure since 2007.
“Congress must not let the Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act expire at the end of the year,” said Rangel. “A culture of deregulation and irresponsible consumer lending that was widespread during the George W. Bush Administration caused an unprecedented housing crisis which has affected every town across America — big and small, Republicans and Democrats alike. Consequently American families everywhere are still suffering. We must work together in Congress to rebuild our housing market and help people get back on their feet.”
At the time of its introduction, no Republican Members in the House Ways and Means Committee have signed on to Rangel’s bill, while all 14 other Democratic Members joined as original co-sponsors.
Added Rangel: “Republican or Democrat, none of us in Congress wants to see our constituents who have just lost their homes be forced to pay unforeseen taxes when money is already tight. We should put our political differences aside to do what is right for the American people.”
This legislation is part of Rangel’s ongoing effort to provide relief to underwater homeowners. Recently Rangel and more than 110 Democratic Members in the House sent a letter to Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), requesting loan forgiveness for struggling homeowners. The Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, owns or guarantees more than half of all mortgages in the United States.
Cancelled debt is considered income and is taxable, but under the 2007 Act, debt forgiven in connection with a mortgage modification, where as a foreclosure is exempt from tax.
So, I’m confused, why would foreclosures “exponentially go up”?
7. The refinance boom will continue into early 2013
What I’m hearing is that it’s hard as nails to refi.
What’s worse, the closing costs aren’t exactly peanuts. We’re talking several thousand dollars, peeps.
“What’s worse, the closing costs aren’t exactly peanuts.”
+1 Commission junkies don’t care if you’re struggling to survive.
One, the 2007 Debt Forgiveness Act needs to be extended.
yeah, for realtors, banks and government that need higher home prices.
Without this extension the housing market cannot continue to recover.
bubbles don’t recover.
It will come to a screeching halt and foreclosures will exponentially go up.
which will be good for people who can’t afford to buy homes now. it will also help the economy over the long term.
Cancelled debt is considered income and is taxable, but under the 2007 Act, debt forgiven in connection with a mortgage modification, where as a foreclosure is exempt from tax.
it shouldn’t be. it’s just more price fixing.
People will not know what to do since both foreclosure and short selling will lead to higher taxes that people just can’t pay.
as clint would say, “peepulz got to know their limitations”. maybe they’ll then be for lower taxes??
People will not know what to do since both foreclosure and short selling will lead to higher taxes that people just can’t pay.
Well this is what happens when you pay a massively inflated price for what is always a depreciating asset. If these debt junkies had to EARN the money for a house, they wouldn’t have never bought in the first place. But so it goes with debt junkies…… they take short cuts by borrowing inflated amounts no matter the consequence and peril to their own lives, when they finally get crushed, they want a free pass on the tax obligation.
This is how debt junkies operate. They are dumb. They are suckers. They are freeloaders. They are lazy.
The money on the bus goes “Clink, clink, clink,
Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink”
The money on the bus goes “Clink, clink, clink”
All through the town.
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - 213k - Cached - Similar pages
US National Debt Clock : Real Time U.S. National Debt Clock.
+1 Someone with kids.
We need another one of those stimulus packages to bring the economy roaring back like last time.
Aaaaaaaaaaand daycare is going up again.
And my insurance drug coverage gets shittier and shittier.
One covered medication has risen from 80 per month to 160.
Of course the drug that helps me function best costs $325 per month; so I make do with less even though it works. Can no longer afford it
Deductible up to 7500 per year too
As I’ve said before, it’s only a matter of time until no one has insurance, or at least insurance that actually covers anything. $7500 per year deductible? That’s basically non coverage.
“Aaaaaaaaaaand daycare is going up again.”
“And my insurance drug coverage gets shittier and shittier.”
My supplier says material is going up 30% 1/3/13
Forward!
Squatter Nation: 5 years with no mortgage payment - CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/09/real_estate/foreclosure_squatter/index.htm - 60k - Cached - Similar pages
Jun 9, 2011 … Millions are staying in their homes without paying their mortgages. … a mortgage payment in nearly five years — but they continue to live in their …
Bailout here
Bailout there
And a couple of tra la las
That’s how we prop the Bankers up
In the merry old land of Oz
Felon here
Felon there
And a couple of tra la las
That’s how we let the Bankers play
In the merry old land of Oz
“That’s the logic that we get stability by leaving felons in charge of our largest banks,” he said. “This is insane.”
Posted: 7:27 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012
US defends $1.9B deal with British banking giant
By CHRISTINA REXRODE
The Associated Press
NEW YORK —
American authorities on Tuesday cited “astonishing” dysfunction at the British bank HSBC and said that it had helped Mexican drug traffickers, Iran, Libya and others under U.S. suspicion or sanction to move money around the world.
HSBC agreed to pay $1.9 billion, the largest penalty ever imposed on a bank.
The U.S. stopped short of charging executives, citing the bank’s immediate, full cooperation and the damage that an assault on the company might cause on economies and people, including thousands who would lose jobs if the bank collapsed.
Outside experts said it was evidence that a doctrine of “too big to fail,” or at least “too big to prosecute,” was alive and well four years after the financial crisis.
The settlement avoided a legal battle that could have further savaged the bank’s reputation and undermined confidence in the banking system. HSBC does business in almost 80 countries, so many that it calls itself “the world’s local bank.”
Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s criminal division, cited a “stunning, stunning failure” by the bank to monitor itself. He said that it enabled countries subject to U.S. sanction — Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan — to move about $660 million in prohibited transactions through U.S. financial institutions, including HSBC, from the mid-1990s through September 2006.
Officials noted that HSBC officers in the United States had warned counterparts at the parent company that efforts to hide where financial transactions originated would expose the bank to sanctions, but the protests were ignored.
HSBC even instructed an Iranian bank in one instance how to format messages so that its financial transactions would not be blocked, Breuer said at a news conference announcing the settlement.
“The record of dysfunction that prevailed at HSBC for many years is simply astonishing,” Breuer said.
For the government not to go a step further and prosecute was “beyond obscene,” said Bill Black, a former U.S. regulator for the Office of Thrift Supervision who now teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“Regulators are telling us, ‘Yes, they’re felons, they’re massive felons, they did it for years, they lied to us, and they made a lot of money … and they got caught red-handed and they’re gonna walk.’”
Black disputed the government’s concern that indicting HSBC could take down the financial system.
“That’s the logic that we get stability by leaving felons in charge of our largest banks,” he said. “This is insane.”
There’s a chance I’ve been made. New handle coming right up.
There. That’s better.
Yep.
Resistance is futile.
Exciting observation just made by one of my 12-year-old sons, who is up way past his bedtime: Within the next hour, it will be 12/12/12 12:12 at the first of two times for the entire 21st century, with the second and last time to occur exactly 12 hours later.
Enjoy!