The Housing Bubble

I like how he rails against banks. And credit card companies. He loves real estate. Wish I loved real estate.

He “made his fortune” as a slumlord. I called into his show in 2006 and he about cut me off when I said housing was in a massive bubble and major price declines were in store.

keep tabs on our library check outs

Not gonna happen. Librarians are freedom-loving commies, and the ALA (American Library Association) will fight ’til the end to protect your privacy.
Takes one to know one.

I hope this is true, but I suspect with some hacking the gov’t could get whatever info it needs. And governments have shown they are not above this. I don’t think it’s widespread by any means but the fact Congress told us they want to do it (via Patriot Act) should raise alarms.

Libraries don’t keep records of your previous check outs. Someone started to make noises about Homeland Security asking for records of who checked out certain books and the librarians had a fit and made sure their record systems wouldn’t keep the information once the book is returned.

University libraries might have that info on record longer, but regular public libraries just don’t. It is actually a little odd to go onto the MoCo on-line system and realize I can’t call up a list of books I have previously checked out or authors whose books I have borrowed in the past. Have to add a book to an Amazon wish list if I want to keep an electronic record of it or the author. Fortunately, you can access your Amazon lists at the library for reference.

The librarians have your back:
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/qa-privacy

Obviously upstate NY is quite large. I know Ithaca, Albany, and Syracuse a bit. I also have friends from the Buffalo area and they will flat out tell you that upstate NY is dead. Lastly, it’s astonishing how many people my age are originally from upstate NY down here because of jobs. Their friends back home in N Y state typically have lucky ducky jobs or are stay at home moms.

And I’ve driven through Hudson River valley enough to get an idea. I actually don’t consider that to be “upstate” but I consider it to be a longish commute to NYC, which is why it astonishes me RE prices are still so high in that area.

I go to LI a lot for family stuff, but Suffolk County (Quogue). I consider the elevated prices up there to be mainly a function of 2nd homes for Wall St types, so I never expect Hamptons prices to bear much resemblance to the larger reality of our economy.

They’ll be a lot more Booze Cruises going on.

Booze cruise is a British colloquial term for a brief trip from Britain to France or Belgium with the intent of taking advantage of lower prices, and buying personal supplies of (especially) alcohol or tobacco in bulk quantities.[1] Within limits, this is a legally acceptable process and should not be confused with smuggling.

The term is also used in other countries to refer to a pleasure outing on a ship or boat involving a significant amount of drinking, or an outing to purchase large amounts of alcohol in bulk for a party or outing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booze_cruise

I would argue that the only thing that matters to shareholders (and thus boards of directors) is growth and profitability, so in that I agree with you. Where I disagree is with the executive team.

It is up to the CEO and his senior managers to instill a moral corporate culture, which includes values like “Don’t be evil”. Unfortunately, too many senior executives exhibit sociopathic tendencies and are only concerned with self-preservation and wealth accumulation, so the only thing they concern themselves with is growth and profit at all costs, regardless of the morality of the strategy used.

Call me an idealist, but responsible corporatism (and through this, responsible capitalism) can be accomplished, and Google seems to be a good example to follow.

The Don’t be evil thing has never been official from google.

I think they’re overrated.

Dude check your coffee level. I think your comment pwned you.

‘Your rapidly depreciating shack owes you.’

Just had work done on my car. Depreciating asset it is. Just so I could keep it on the road legally…..safely…..for another year. I think it is fair to suggest a house is like a really big car without the wheels (most cases).

Exactly.

Except the losses on a house are much more massive. Especially at the current grossly inflated asking prices of resale housing.

And, you can live in your car and take a shower at the 24 hour gym.

I would rather not pay a landlord, and get a fixed price, and be able to have a place that suits me, and be able to pay down the principal and have something that could be sold.

I hate renting?

Buying is twice the cost of renting at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.

But eventually pay off the mortgage, early if you’re not an imbecile -

And all that money you repaid is irrecoverable.

Who’s hating? We loved skiing at Loveland yesterday, first day this season with lift #9 up to the Continental Divide open, under bluebird sky.

Had we flipped the wrong page in our Choose Your Own Adventure book some years back, we would still be in the Midwest paying the ex-squadette’s albatross mortgage and spending our weekends at Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and some restaurant ending in apostrophe s.

I rent my equipment when I go skiing.

“Choose your own adventure.”

I died. I always, ALWAYS died in those things, usually in some horrible way. It got to the point where I read the back of the book first to identify the Page Numbers of Death, and then read the book reverse engineering how to avoid the Death pages.

Goonsquad, you ever head up to Waterton Canyon for a run? I wax nostalgic about the Colorado Trail. Man, what an incredible trail.

Waterton Canyon

We usually go to Mt Falcon, one of the Jefferson County Open Space parks, that is right near Red Rocks in Morrison. On the weekends we spend a lot of time in the Lost Creek Wilderness. Here, the Alpine Squad Task Force as seen on Saturday at about elevation 12,000′ in unseasonably snow-less conditions:

http://picpaste.com/2013-02-02_11-51-51_863-1X5LfXqw.jpg

““Choose your own adventure.”

I died. I always, ALWAYS died in those things, usually in some horrible way. It got to the point where I read the back of the book first to identify the Page Numbers of Death, and then read the book reverse engineering how to avoid the Death pages.”

LOL! How we read those says a lot about us. I always read every choice.

I don’t feel bad at all, I’m fully aware that if I don’t live in my house for ~20+ years, RAL will have been right and I would’ve been better off renting.

So RAL is right about my situation… for now. If HBB exists in another 18.5 yrs, I’ll have some ground to say it worked out.

I will say this about the conversation, the older I get the less I care about comfort in retirement. I work w/elderly people. They slow down. They get sick. Some avoid going out at all because they have such a fear of falling. They think they’re going to do things but then often can’t. At 50 I have already lost a frightening number of friends and classmates, too many w/little or no warning at all.

If I lived a sparse lifestyle or only worked all day which I did in the past, I churned huge amounts of account work, it would kill me, because at some point you’ve gotta have something to show for your life besides earning and saving money. Now, I’d respect what makes any one of you feel fulfilled for most assuredly, for each one of us, it is different. For me it’s experiences w/valued friends and loved ones. I’m not going to do some of these things when we retire because much of what it takes to have these experiences the way I want to enjoy them will be gone (hearing, vision, energy level). That’s how I feel in my 50s. Certainly it would be a different approach in my 30s. I’d still be that workohaulic. We all have to decide what’s best for us and our own situation. There is no one size fits all.

I can only speak for myself but the reason I work hard now is my underlying assumption that I won’t want to work very hard when I am 50. I will work, I’m sure, but will I be passionate about it anymore? Not sure. And perhaps,due to the economy or other events, the same opportunities won’t exist. I doubt a “Mad Max” scenario because everyone will lose since our modern economy depends on a well-ordered supply chain and medium of exchange. But surplus workers due to automation of jobs could result in even “knowledge workers” taking it on the chin.

Saving money isn’t about the money, it’s about the options.

Our R22 HVAC system needs to be replaced this spring with an R410 system. Another $5k I won’t ever see again.

at some point you’ve gotta have something to show for your life besides earning and saving money

Some point shouldn’t be the future, either. Any one of us could contract a fatal disease, get hit by a bus, or leave this mortal coil without a moment’s notice.

Plan for the future, but live your life like it might end tomorrow.

Lol, I just read the AJC story at the link. More information, but twice as confusing.

Yes. There have been a lot of home invasions in the area and they were still sitting in the driveway after he went into the driveway. Still looks like excessive force but I would like to see a real test of the GPS device before I call this one.

There’s a number of things I’d like clarified. For example:

“The couple, accompanied by two other friends, had pulled into Sailors’ driveway by mistake, thinking it was the home of another friend. The group had planned to go ice skating.”

Like I said, where’s the “friend” and where do they live? Where is the rink where they were going to go “ice-skating”?

“The Colombia native who attended Gwinnett Tech and worked at his brother’s cargo shipping business”

But, the “Colombia native” was earlier identified as a “Duluth man”. Which is it?

“Rebolledo said she was in love with Diaz, her boyfriend of seven months. Her father, Gregory Rebolledo, said Diaz was more responsible than most his age, eschewing gangs and partying and rarely drinking alcohol.”

They’re always saints. Always. Just because he wasn’t some tattooed MS-13 grunt terrorizing neighborhoods, doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved in a more sophisticated operation. Like “cargo shipping”.

“Puglise dismissed suggestions by some who’ve followed the case that Diaz’s race may have been a factor.”

LOL, look at the guy’s photo. He was white!!!!!!!!!!

“Sailors was wary when he spotted two people in his driveway getting into their car.”

Definitely needs more clarification. Had the two people gotten out and were getting back in? Or were they loitering and were being picked up by these folks? If so, where did they come from? In one story, there are three people. In this one, four.

“But the police report indicates that the vehicle was leaving Sailors’ property when Diaz was shot.”

Like to know more about that police report. Police these days don’t want to get “Trayvonned”. Can’t say as I blame them.

Normally I’d say “stay tuned”, but I have a feeling that this one’s going to quietly go away.

Hey palmetto, great observation on how the MSM sugar coats the non-COEXISTyness of reality. Another favorite phrase they use is “turning his life around”, to distance an alleged “victim” from their history of thuggery when reporting on their violent ending.

Also suspicious is the cell phone, which was readily used to call 911, but not, apparently, to contact the “friend” they were going to pick up.

The reporting on this story majorly stinks.

LOL, I just read another story on this where the vic was identified as a “Lilburn motorist”.

ROTFLMAO! Now that’s some serious PC mental gyrations there!

So here you grew up in this 5,500 square foot home in a very lovely neighborhood - and with all your vast wealth you couldn’t find it appropriate to donate some money to renovate your childhood home???? Really???? How pathetic is that!!!! You are so out of touch with the working class Americans and unemployed people in this country. You have no clue what normal working people go through every day - living paycheck to pay check - hoping they can pay their bills from one check to the next and feed their families.

People in this country deserve more than lip service from all the weatlthy politicians. Not to mention that all the big businesses in this country who have their cars, etc., manufactured outside of the USA just so they can save money because they don’t want to pay Americans a better wage here - should be penalized big time for doing this because if they kept their business here then more Americans could be working and supporting their families - and also supporting America’s economy. Wake up America - let’s give notice that we are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it any more!!!!

Deterioration is a very legitimate reason for not buying a home. But rentals deteriorate too, and who will pay for those repairs? By the time my house falls in, I’m hoping it will be paid off and I’lla tleast get a land value out of it. I don’t expect DC to go the way of Destroit.

I remember Romney’s house being bulldozed, and I was surprised that he didn’t put up a half-mil of chump change into saving it as a future “boyhood home of President Mitt” pilgrimage site/tax writeoff.

“I don’t expect DC to go the way of Destroit.”

Maybe not. But stranger things have happened. I think Rome would be the model for DC. A second rate Rome, with second rate ruins. But, I think real estate has held its value in Rome, lol.

““I don’t expect DC to go the way of Destroit.”

It *could* happen, but I don’t think anyone reading here will be around long enough to see it.

“Could” happen? It *will* happen….It’s happened in large city after large city…. yes…. just like Detroit, Cinncinati, Columbus, Buffalo, Philly, Newark, Albany, Hartford, Springfield, etc etc….. and it occurred quite rapidly too.

What’s a lot worth in any one of those cities? A couple thousand.

property values could drop, but DC becoming detroit? seems unlikely. at least in our lifetimes.

if it does happen, it means the U.S. Empire really has fallen and probably taken NYC, SF, and every other decent place with it. it would take a collapse of the government, of banks, etc.

in this case, screw the US, time to move to Auckland or Wellington but they probably won’t want us

SF and DC’s price declines will occur regardless of the countries fortunes or misfortunes.

price declines sure. becoming detroit? no.

detroit isn’t a s***hole because of the cheap housing, it’s a s***hole because it doesn’t provide essential services, its neighborhoods are decayed and unsafe, and most of its jobs have long since left. it also lacks good human capital and doesn’t have the educational system to create any.

Housing prices falling to dramatically lower levels equals Detroit?

Strawman much?

Joe- I’m not sure it’s appropriate to refer to SF as a “decent place”. All the signs of decline are readily apparent on visiting The City. The physical infrastructure is falling apart, the population of poor/homeless has expladed, and the middle class has pretty much dissapeared for cheaper/more family-friendly locales. Sad really.

“price declines sure. becoming detroit? no.”

Could actually be even worse than detroit, if some pissed off enemy decides they should do the world a favor by vaporizing it.

““I don’t expect DC to go the way of Destroit.”

It already went there. Check out the history of the 1960s DC riots some day when you have spare time on your hands.

the signs of decline are readily apparent on visiting The City

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-waste-shuts-down-BART-escalators-3735981.php

“Joe- I’m not sure it’s appropriate to refer to SF as a “decent place”.”

Haven’t been to SF since college (and I mostly spend time in Berkeley anyway–interesting place). You could be right. It’s a beautiful city but people pay for it.

The last time I was in CA I was in San Diego and Carlsbad/Oceanside (my brother was at Pendleton). The wheels were falling off in SD. The nice areas were ridiculously overpriced so people were paying big money for very mediocre areas. SD also does not seem to have any of the network effects you see in areas with real downtowns. The place is very sprawl-y.

When was the last time you were in Detroit? You say that there are good, safe areas in Baltimore, even though it’s famous for tis ghettoes, crime, gangs, etc. Maybe there are some nice sections of Detroit, too.

it also lacks good human capital and doesn’t have the educational system to create any.
—————————

soylent green is people.

“But rentals deteriorate too, and who will pay for those repairs?”

We have a good division of repair costs going with our landlords.

We handle minor, inexpensive repairs. They handle the big-ticket items, like replacing roofs and garage doors and paying the exterminator when we get infested with noxious insects.

And if we ever have a really big repair need which the landlord is unwilling to cover, we have the option to move out at the end of our next annual lease.

I’m not sure it’s appropriate to refer to SF as a “decent place”

Then you haven’t spent any real time here. It might not be your cup of tea, but there’s a reason why millions visit here every year, why it is a destination for young people looking to relocate, and why SF is often rated highly for quality of life, best food, beauty, outdoor recreation, etc.

My biggest gripe is the cost of living, esp. housing. But other than that, it’s an awesome place.

If you don’t like city living (or gays and Asians and Mexicans or fog), then you won’t like it here. But like any other major city, there are slums, grime, crime, etc. Even Toronto, which is spic and span, has its grit.

You better believe plenty of us have spent time there. FPSS even said the streets of Calcutta are nicer than the slum that is SF.

“Having 2 or more children is something Bobos/youngish professionals simply don’t do.”

then you say:

“However, I postponed getting married and starting a family until after the decade of economic hardship that was the 1980s.”

i am not sure you are who he is talking about.

Men can put off having kids for a long time. Women, not so much.

And both can choose to put it off forever.

The happiest people we know are DINKs

My co-worker tells me she drops $800/month on her son’s private kindergarten. Not much compared to what coastal elitists pay, but $800/month that could fatten up a savings account, and/or buy a lot of FUN.

LOL @ private schools, especially for K-8 (and even most 9-12). What percent of private schools confer any real advantage? Very few.

Most private K-12 schools have science teachers who are woefully underequipped to teach their subject; very few have a master’s degree and most of them have a B.S. type of undergrad degree, which can become outdated over the course of a decade or so. And this doesn’t even get into the inadequate facilities. The rigor is just not there in general.

And then you have the private religious schools that “teach the controversy” or teach “ID”. ‘Tis a joke.

“Men can put off having kids for a long time. Women, not so much.”

A man can also marry a younger woman (like I did).

“A man can also marry a younger woman (like I did).”

+1 Ditto!

The fertility rate for women with grad degrees is very low, something like 1.3.

That’s a Japan type level, well below 2.1 (replacement rate for population stability).

The fact is, the higher up on the continuum of education/career success you go, the less kids you get. Of course there are counterexamples, but the plural of anecdote is not data. The number simply show that the less educated and less employed/employable someone is, the *more* children they will have.

Think of a random stay at home wife… what reason does she have to *not* have a bunch of kids? What else is she going to do? I’m not saying she should have a lot of kids (there should be budget constraints, ideally) but how does someone like that fill their time?

Then you have the religious people… much more likely to have multiple kids.

Part of this is also generational… all these trends seem to be accelerating. Women outnumber men in many formerly male-dominated professional schools these days. Including medicine and law. This was not the case in the 80s or 90s. In fact, females were a very underrepresented minority in both those fields.

I guess this is a problem if you believe that the children of the wealthy are born more intelligent than the children of the poor rather than simply born being more rich.

Yeah, I don’t think so, but who knows?

If you disagree with wealth breeds intelligence, then the simple solution is to more equitably redistribute income and the intelligence of the US will be just fine. Funny how so many problems with the US could be fixed by that.

‘the simple solution is to more equitably redistribute income’

I talked about that some this weekend. Think about it; the government doesn’t take rich people’s money and give it to you or me. They only keep non-rich people from accumulating wealth. And when you consider the interest on government debt we are incurring, it’s a transfer to super rich people, not the other way around.

“I guess this is a problem if you believe that the children of the wealthy are born more intelligent than the children of the poor rather than simply born being more rich.”

I’m not saying that at all. It’s a problem because more kids are being born to people who are in a worse position to raise the kids responsibly. Of course you can have a high school drop out with a lucky ducky retail job be a great parent to 3 or 4 kids. I guess it is theoretically possible.

But, obviously this person will need gov’t assistance and some form of child care help.

There are also issues of language, culture, and responsibility. Language acquisition is extremely important to a child’s success much later in life. This happens primarily in the home, with caretakers. It’s been shown repeatedly that adults who don’t read do a very poor job of raising kids who can converse and read effectively. And from there, it all snowballs. Same thing with culture and responsibility.

The intelligence argument really isn’t that necessary. I’m sure it plays a part, I don’t think Murray & Hernstein have been entirely discredited. However, even an intelligent kid reared by parents with limited resources is up against great odds. And *that*, my friend, is the story of most of today’s children.

The intelligence argument really isn’t that necessary. I’m sure it plays a part, I don’t think Murray & Hernstein have been entirely discredited.

Far from it. The Economist has an article this week about how we should follow the Nordic model. However, as the world runs more and more on intellectual capital, countries such as Sweden have an advantage due to its high average IQ. The immigrants to Sweden do not have that advantage so despite having the same access to good schools etc, they do not perform as well. We should continue to protect children from lead exposure. poor diet etc, which do impact IQ but to expect the same result across all populations is PC run wild and an example how many on the left can act like fundies when their religion conflicts with the facts.

^this. +1000

But in an economy that is 70% consumer spending, it will never happen. And most of the sheeple are so lulled into complacency by TeeVee and advertising they can’t really think much beyond their next bag of cheez doodles or can of Duff.

The real problem is that people don’t want hear the truth. Imagine a person who is 30 or 35 years old and has an income that can pay for a middle class standard of living - nice house, nice car, vacations. Imagine telling that person that he needs to do is save at least 20% of his income and live a sort of working class life with all of the necessities of life, but few luxuries.

Yeah, that was my big epiphany a few years ago. Even though I’m an engineer with in demand skills and an MBA making “good” money, I can’t live the middle class lifestyle without going broke. Which means that either my peers who ARE living well are slowly going broke, or have a source of money in addition to their incomes. I didn’t understand that 10 years ago.

We didn’t understand until we found this blog that people were taking on debt to live so far ahead of us. Those years were so weird. I remember feeling like we were in some sort of crazy dream. We were within a few years of paying off our house, a nice house on a really comfortable lot, and the vehicles were almost paid off too. This at 42 years old. But even though the income was not bad at all we probably looked like paupers compared to the rest of the community. And believe me, we paid for that.

“Yeah, that was my big epiphany a few years ago. Even though I’m an engineer with in demand skills and an MBA making “good” money, I can’t live the middle class lifestyle without going broke.”

+1 This Civil Engineer sensed the debt/income disconnect in California during the “dotcom” boom, so it was off to flyover country. Second “shining” occurred around the time Bear Stearns “fell down and couldn’t get up.” Time to cut the fun and start making double and triple mortgage payments. Debt free and never going back.

Reference: http://www.nber.org/cycles.html

In fact it would be kind of nice if those who don’t make stuff the 0.1% want would just hurry up about it.

the 0.1% shall remain immune to the chaos and violence.

Well, maybe not all of them….

Missing Irish property developer Kevin McGeever, who was found wandering at the side of a rural road, was mutilated and had an insult carved across his forehead.

Mr McGeever, who is currently in hospital, has told gardai he was abducted eight months ago by armed men but he cannot recall what happened to him after that.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/missing-irish-developer-found-wandering-on-road-had-insult-carved-in-forehead-16268743.html#ixzz2Jz1T74p6

Sorry, I thought this post was lost. But my second post made a slightly different point.

The average pickup driver works in a cube farm, but I suppose that showing a guy heading home in his pristine, unscratched Dodge Ram after a hard day’s work in his cubicle doesn’t come across quite as manly as the commercials where the burly voiced guy tells you how the truck is tough while a ton of gravel is dropped into the bed.

Even tougher - Dodge Ramses

“The average pickup driver works in a cube farm”

There are real farmers in Iowa and Oklahoma that have side jobs in cube farms.

There are real farmers in Iowa and Oklahoma that have side jobs in cube farms.

I suppose. But I’ll bet most pick up drivers in LA have never seen a farm.

That was inspired, oxy. Brava!

I always thought they should teach Accounting instead of Calculus in High School to the majority of the kids. Likewise, a course in Logic is move valuable than Sociology.

You can dollar cost average into Vanguard (and others -they are just my personal favorite) mutual funds and there are no commissions.

Yes and I participate in the stock plus investment plan for Wisconsin Energy since the 80s where at least purchases are commission free if you live in our great cheddar utopia… but you know that’s not what they’re looking for.

Besides churn = profit. You wanna bill them for churn as a commission line item? Fine. you wanna bill them for churn by providing a slightly dumpier rate of return? Fine, although a little less honest. Its not like shuffling paper magically gets cheaper because of some financial slight-of-hand trick to “hide” the cost.

I wish I had. What I think and what I type is, often, two different things.

I purposely did not take typing in HS or college, because I did not want to be slotted into secretarial work. When I started typing 8 hours per day for my work, I quickly became proficient at it.

7th (Gifted Program) - Pre-Algebra - Liked it

8th - Algebra 1 - Seemed useless except for programming the mind for logical links and conclusions.

9th- High School! - Kinda fun to explore spaces in Plane Geometry.

10th - Algebra II - No excuse to exist for most students outside of brain patterning.

11th - Analytic Geometry - Dropped it.

12th - Trigonometry - Dropped it. Gifted, maybe. Stupid, no.

“we need to convert to the metric system and we can’t even seem to do that”

+1 Exactly right!

I also prefer using 24-hr time and calendars that start on Monday and end with the “week-end.”

No Banker Left Behind!

No Banker Left Behind!

Which is the name of a very good song by Ry Cooder.

It is? Hell, we coined that term here!

The station where we paid $2.59 less than a month ago is now $3.19. Now that’s Hope and Change you can believe in!

$4 in CA. and corp profits are at ALL time highs! Go Obama!! A true capitalist!!!!

We had a record price for gas last year averaged over the entire year. How long before we match the inflation of Argentina with its similar policies:
http://news.yahoo.com/argentina-freezes-prices-break-inflation-184539828.html

FWIW, the price oil is set by global markets. As for doing an Argentina, we aren’t even close yet. I’ve lived in a country with 50%+ inflation. Imagine, every time you go to the store, the price of everything has gone up.

I’ve also lived in a country where prices were frozen. You would have to hoard when prices were briefly unfrozen. Lots of fun.

But oil is priced in dollars so what the Fed does to the value of the dollar always impacts the price of oil both to us and the rest of the world.

I’ve lived in a country with 50%+ inflation. Imagine, every time you go to the store, the price of everything has gone up.

If you’re the guy with the store it seems you can’t raise prices fast enough to be able to replace your inventory. Back in the 1970’s I can remember the UPS guy bringing us new manufacturer price sheets every week. Eventually our customers ran out of money. Stagflation.

But oil is priced in dollars so what the Fed does to the value of the dollar always impacts the price of oil both to us and the rest of the world.

Nope.

What the “Fed does to the value of the dollar” _ALSO_ correspondingly impacts the exchange rates with every other currency, so the cost of oil in those other currencies should be relatively unaffected.

Sure they do. An refi automatically makes the mortgage a recourse mortgage.

Worse yet, When CA becomes a full recourse state(which is very soon), look out below.

“liar” loans are back with 30% dn

Interesting, so the banksters think that there’s negligible risk with 30% down.

Well what risk is there with 30% down? Even if the FB walks and never pays a penny in interest, the bank can easily take the house and sell at 30% below market and break even.

3% down doesn’t sound like a lot, but remember that some high % of Americans can’t come up with $5K if they need it. Doesn’t include closing costs. Also doesn’t factor in that FHA adds a hefty fee to the PITI.

Hello Mr. “The Baby Boom Started in 1941″

We’ll school you in truth whether you like it or not.

I can’t recall the case unfortunately. I took 2 semesters of crim procedure largely because:

1. it was a small seminar course that was exempt from mandatory grade curves (law schools generally limit the % A’s and B’s can be given in courses with >15 students).

2. the professor was the most cool, conversational, and relaxed. this is very rare in L school where most faculty are stuck up pr*cks.

Also, ridiculously, crim pro course was entirely focused on *Federal* crim procedure, which is probably .1% of the criminal cases in this country. We talked endlessly about RICO and financial crimes, for example… which is an area that less than .01% of lawyers will ever work in.

Just another reason L school should only be 2 yrs…

The majority of the states in this nation sentence murderers to life imprisonment without parole and you say that sentencing someone to gun offense without parole would be unconstitutional? Now, I do not think you could give someone a life sentence for using a gun but that would be based on the eight amendment not separations of powers.

Someone committing a gun offense

BTW, you would not have to make using a gun a separate crime, you would, probably, have to have it as an element of the crime and prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.

From the way dj phrased his comment (always hard to navigate) it seemed like he wanted an escalation in sentences for using an unregistered gun. Escalation is allowed under the federal guidelines but there are rules about what a judge can/can’t considered, whether the escallating factor must be proved at trial based on admissible evidence, etc. These are technical issues and I’m sure states differ. Perhaps DJ was saying that the unregistered gun should be charged as a separate count and proven, then obviously that can be sentenced however a state wants. I was just saying that using the gun to escalate the sentence for another crime would be a constitutional problem.

As I mentioned in a different post, this isn’t something I do and I admittedly only took crim procedure for the interesting professor and his liberal grading.

Yes Joe you pretty much said it. a separate action/sentence for the unregistered gun.

So they will serve some time even if they are acquitted.

“How hot is it there?”

So hot that….

(fill in the blank)

Please don’t try to justify the Iraq war. It was a huge blunder and there will be blow back to deal with for decades.
I am with you on fuel cells but I would prefer hydrogen over NG since I can use my solar power to convert water to H & O and cut out the middle man.

I am not justifying the Iraq war, I am explaining it. Saddam Hussein had vast oil deposits and the ability to produce lots of oil. He also decided to price his oil in currencies other than dollars to punish us. We cannot maintain budget and current account deficits unless we can borrow in dollars, that we print.The U.S. needed to remove Saddam’s threat to the reserve currency and get more oil production out of Iraq before the world’s demand for oil exceeded production. Ironically, this has occurred but too late for W. However, if you remove Iraq’s present production from the world’s production, you would see oil north of $200 a barrel.

Now the average person would have been better off if the fiat currency system was not running the world since a trade deficit would have eaten all our gold and caused us to find a way to produce goods to compete before we hollowed our industries. However, the elites on the coasts would not have made nearly as much money under that system. Thus, they have sent a clear message that deviating from the fiat system can get you invaded and destroyed.

Of course, the transition back to producing goods to pay for our imports will be very painful for this country and the average person. So I agree with those on this board that say it is going to get worse much worse.

“I am not justifying the Iraq war, I am explaining it.”

Paul Wolfowitz and the AIPAC neocons saw an opportunity to oust Saddam Hussein who had earlier ordered scud missiles to be fired on Tel Aviv. Recall Colin Powell’s scripted U.N. fabrications? Another lame excuse was hatched for entering Afghanistan, “The graveyard of empires.” The unspoken goal was to “sandwich” Iran with U.S. controlled airbases to enhance Israel’s security.

Oil? Haha!

‘The U.S. needed to remove Saddam’s threat to the reserve currency and get more oil production out of Iraq before the world’s demand for oil exceeded production.’

I thought it was to keep away the mushroom cloud. And Osama Bin Laden. Is this how we went from fighting the North Vietnamese Army to the Viet Cong, kinda like going from Al-Quaida to the Taliban, without missing a propaganda step. I’m confused. And I understand the US kills more people in Pakistan than anywhere, and Pakistan is an ally.

Well…maybe they will, but not for long.

Could have been. Both genders of realturds are sodomizers.

And some women actually marry them….

Alas.