Bits Bucket for February 26, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Here is an update on one of the Mortgage Fraudsters profiled on the HBB on June 24, 2012. Backstory here:
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=7229
Cynthia Suratos Lorica was sentenced yesterday to 1.5 years in the Federal Correction Institution for Women in Dublin, CA. She pleaded guilty to felony bank fraud and felony tax evasion. She will then serve 3 years on probation and must make restitution of $1,400,000 to WaMu (now the FDIC) and the IRS.
She is 51 years old and will go from being a landlord to a tenant (at taxpayer expense). I believe she continues to steal money even today, collecting rent from houses the FBI has not yet identified as under her control. Within the last few months and recently as December she allegedly committed fraudulent acts to prevent foreclosure on income producing rental properties, such as bogus bankruptcies to forestall foreclosure and diversion of rental proceeds from the properties without making the mortgage payment. Not such good behavior for someone who pleaded guilty in June, 2012 and was asking the court for mercy! Her defense attorney noted WaMu was complicit in her activities and that not one banker has served any prison time, so why should she?
Do not think she is happy or getting away with the crime. She is undoubtedly miserable, her family is upset and she has fallen from grace in her Filipino community. She will likely be deported when she is released from prison, going back to the Philippines, leaving behind her husband, 5 or 6 children and 10 or so grandchildren. Her primary home in San Ramon was likely acquired by mortgage fraud and the $1,400,000 loan is in default and it is close to foreclosure. According to court records, her husband had a heart attack and she is in ill health at age 51.
I think she will finally agree crime does not pay and I bet she would happily trade driving a Mercedes for a ‘72 Pinto beater car if she could stay out of jail and remain in the United States.
Her sister, Edwinna Suratos Firmeza will be sentenced in a few months. She also pleaded guilty to one count of felony bank fraud. The court delayed her sentencing because some more properties showed up in which she had worked her “magic”. Other members of the family have not yet been charged. Her brother Glynn Suratos and a few other siblings may feel the wrath of the FBI soon……particularly if Paladin has anything to say about it!
“Have Gun Will Travel, reads the card of a man. A knight without armor in savage land. His fast gun for hire heads the calling wind. Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam. Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home.” ….with appologies to Richard Boone!
Yes - it is true. Except for some small fish.
Leadership starts at the top. 1500 bankers were put in jail for the S&L crisis. How many bankers for put in jail by obama for the housing crisis?
Her defense attorney noted WaMu was complicit in her activities and that not one banker has served any prison time, so why should she?
Exactly 2B.
See Hard Rain’s post below. Former WaMu execs are back in business. The patients are running the asylum! All the more reason the banking reform act must be passed so the perps can be held accountable.
‘Former WaMu execs are back in business. The patients are running the asylum!’
All the reason why I believe we will rinse,wash,repeat this theft continuously until the system goes kablooie.
AB, It has always been that way. We have seen it many times on this blog…you know the saying “This time it is different”.
The only way to effect change is to make it happen.
All the reason why I believe we will rinse,wash,repeat this theft continuously until the system goes kablooie.
I dunno, there are so many chicken littles out there” preppers, Kunstler-ites, and doom and gloomers that it is hard to sort out which predictions are valuable and which are for attention-seeking or entertainment.
I am a fan of dystopian sci-fi. It is fascinating and a little bit titillating to imagination total collapse and chaos. Like car accidents: you don’t really want it to happen but it’s hard not to look and wonder.
Will “the system” go kablooie in my lifetime (next 30 years?). And what exactly would that look like?
Or maybe we will all just limp along and make the best of things as we slide into a long decline; no riots or bank runs or need to open up those prepper food packets, just a gradual lowering of our standard of living.
Lunchtime musings….
Will “the system” go kablooie in my lifetime (next 30 years?).
I doubt it. Why would the entire system go kablooie? If the Fed can print trillions out of thin air, then is not money for a large part fake?
And if a large part about money is fake, why would the system go kablooie if we had a problem with something that is for a large part fake? The economic infrastructure that that “fake” money has put in place is not fake. Corn fields, houses, educations and skills that the “fake” money paid for are not fake. They will not mostly disappear because of balance-sheet problems imo.
I’d say that a gradual lowering of our standard of living is the best guess but not because of the future problems caused by our “fake” money - but rather because the benefits of that fake money have not reached anyone but the super rich.
‘Why would the entire system go kablooie? ‘
I was thinking of the certainty that was 2008/2009 near-kablooie. Next time it may be a black swan not even discussed in prescient web meme.
Here ya go, sock puppet.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47879299/page/1
For the rest of you, google proves this meme is wrong and is a much reprinted story without origin. (no author, no publisher)
I almost forgot the biggest reason for the low number of convictions is that the laws were since changed to FAVOR the Master(bator)s of the Universe.
Changed years before Obama took office.
I almost forgot the biggest reason for the low number of convictions is that the laws were since changed to FAVOR the Master(bator)s of the Universe.
Exactly. You reap what you sow. Deregulate the financials, they’ll find a million ways to rip us off -legally- in the grey areas deregulation produces. That’’s the reason for the regulations n the first place.
before Obama took office
“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal”
“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal”
Too bad he wasn’t talking about our financial system…
The 0.1% have healed quite nicely, thank you.
http://rlv.zcache.com/oligarchy_2012_yard_signs-r4e906029ae344f8bb80592bbe50eb604_fomuw_8byvr_512.jpg
Small fish caught in Houston:
http://www.khou.com/news/local/Texan-gets-27-years-must-repay-25M-for-fraud-193317621.html
““Have Gun Will Travel, reads the card of a man. A knight without armor in savage land. His fast gun for hire heads the calling wind. Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam. Paladin, Paladin, far, far from home.” ….with appologies to Richard Boone!”
The guy we used to know here as Paladin never posted that quote.
The guy we used to know here as Paladin never posted that quote.
No, but he did post many a tale of mortgage fraud, similar to the one on Cynthia above…
Yes he did. Something doesn’t fit. Probably just me.
What? Try here on 4-21-2007 and many times thereafter….
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=2675
“Paladin
Have Gun Will Travel
Wire Paladin San Francisco
PaladinReports.com”
Have Gun Will Travel
Huh, I’d forgotten that, Paladin!
Paladin, did you uncover this fraud and tip off the feds, or just sharing found news?
I told them about it in late 2007 and they said they had it on their radar screen at that time. I kept sending them updates along with other cases as I turned over more rocks. It just goes to show you how long it takes to make a case. And how difficult it is to make it stick. The judge would not consider other evidence Cynthia Lorica was still actively participating in alledge new fraud and scamming other lenders on other properties. She said that was for another time and day.
The FBI agents have even bigger fish in the hopper now and it is going to be fun to watch them fry. The stupidity of mortgage fraud is that all the documents are recorded at the county level, so getting the basic evidence is simple. It is the other variables that are cloudy: Intent, tracing proceeds, family transactions, etc., etc., etc.
I will keep you posted.
The FBI agents have even bigger fish in the hopper now and it is going to be fun to watch them fry. The stupidity of mortgage fraud is that all the documents are recorded at the county level, so getting the basic evidence is simple. It is the other variables that are cloudy: Intent, tracing proceeds, family transactions, etc., etc., etc.
I will keep you posted.
Thanks for your service, Paladin! Keep up the good work.
Well done, Paladin! A grateful (subset of the) public thanks you.
Your gratefulness gives me great satisfaction!
I am pleased to be included in the righteous circle of your fans. One guy, fighting the tacit decline of Western civilization. Thank you for your good works!
Italy’s parliamentary elections have ended in stalemate and the possibility of a hung parliament.
With all domestic votes counted, Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left bloc has narrowly beaten ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi in the lower house but has failed to secure a majority in the Senate.
Mr Berlusconi conceded the lower house vote, but control of both houses is needed to govern.
A protest movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo won a quarter of the vote.
Meanwhile a bloc led by current Prime Minister Mario Monti came a poor fourth, with about 10%.
The outcome of the election, which comes amid a deep recession and tough austerity measures, was so close that the margin of victory given in interior ministry figures was less than 1% in both houses of parliament.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21583260
This month the Canadian mint stopped distributing the penny, or one-cent piece, as it costs more to make than it is worth. It’s far from being the lowest-value coin around, however. Some central banks are clinging on to coins that are truly “small change”.
There are many precedents for scrapping small coins. The US abolished the half-cent in 1857 and the UK’s halfpenny ($0.8 cents) was withdrawn in 1984. New Zealand and Australia abandoned the one-cent and two-cent coin in the 1990s.
Now some campaigners in the US and UK want the penny to be scrapped, because nothing can be bought with a one-cent or one-penny coin.
“The point of currency is to facilitate cash transactions. It used to be that a penny could serve that purpose because it was worth something but that’s no longer the case” says Jeff Gore, president of Citizens to Retire the US Penny.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21572359
minting is apparently the only government service where cost/benefit analysis is performed.
It would obviously result in a near instant 4% to 5% inflation bump as all retail prices would round up and/or sneak in an extra nickel because everything else is inflating. Great idea in a deflationary environment, not so great in an pre-hyperinflationary environment like right now. Looks like we’re starting the next down leg of the long depression, I’m thinking maybe near the bottom they might try it, if we still have any open retail stores left…
Also transaction activity is incredibly unclear. I just bought a $3.76 minimal cheap breakfast, now do I get charged $3.76 on a credit card or gift card or check but $3.80 cash or … ? Do I get to deduct $3.76 as a business expense because that’s “what they billed me” vs $3.80 because that’s “what it cost me”?
“The point of currency is to facilitate cash transactions” - Yeah so getting rid of the penny would be really foolish.
In a way lighting off the utterly inevitable hyperinflation ASAP would be a great fantastic thing. I’ve only got another 40 or so years left on this planet, and I’d like to spend as many as possible on the “upside” rather than this stupid stagflation kick the can business for another decade or so.
Its not just for me… if we crash now, when my little kids graduate they stand a chance of graduating into a real, growing economy, but with endless kick the can we’ll probably just be bottoming out by the time they graduate… Obviously my kids are better off if we do it sooner rather than later.
“as it costs more to make than it is worth.” That doesn’t matter at all. Does the lifetime tax revenue off the coin (which probably has a pretty long life and turns over many times) exceed the cost of the coin? Probably by an extremely large factor, yeah. We live in a centrally controlled socialist country where income tax rates are at least 1/4 and the govt borrows about half what it spends so it only needs to tax about $1 to spend about $2, so you only have to “flip that coin” aboveboard 4 times for the govt as a whole to make a profit off a penny that costs 2 cents to make. I checked my pocket and I have a ‘85 dime and a ‘66 nickel in it and I imagine that nickel has seen the inside of quite a few pockets in the last 47 years… Those things could cost $10 each and the .gov would still make a profit off them.
We are more likely to see the dollar coin eliminate the paper dollar, because coins last practically forever compared to paper money so they are more profitable to the .gov
The dollar is as the penny was.
Anyone remember 5 and dime stores?
They still have them, only they are $5 and $10 stores now.
They can take the penny and make it big and it will be the new dollar coin.
See how that works.
I can give you 100000 shares of stock and then as time goes by and I need more shares I will down round exsisting stock ( divide by 10 lets say ) so as not to dilute the value of stock to real worth or the new investors won’t want it.
I can take the dollar and down round it ( inflation ) so the new investors will still buy new dollars. The original holders of dollars are not worth much anymore compared to the new investors.
yes I was down rounded out of 100K of stock options 1/10 to get secound round and then pre IPO divide by 3/7 new shares were issued for investors.
I am all ready for the dollar down round. Is it so different the dollar and stock shares ? Just paper backed by real things.
My fear is that paper money will be eventually phased out completely so that all transactions will become digital and traceable.
I like the anonymity of cash.
How does a sales tax work without pennies? Would every price have to be configured to make its final taxed price end in 0 or 5 cents? No longer will every price be x dollars and 99 cents?
(I noticed while writing this that there is no ‘cent’ symbol on my laptop keyboard. I guess this is indicative.)
There hasn’t been a cent symbol on keyboards ever since I the 1980s.
What does that tell you?
What does that tell you?
Apparently ASCII did it in. I wonder if today’s kids even know what a cent sign means? Especially if it’s in a sentence written in cursive.
I looked some images of old typewriters. It wasn’t ASCII, it was the single quote, ‘, that did it in. Originally the double quote ” was the Shift+2, and the @ and ¢ were where the ” and ‘ key are now. They moved the @ to Shift + 2, moved the ” to where the @ was, and replaced the ¢ with ‘.
You can still get a ¢ with alt+0162.
You can still get a ¢ with alt+0162.
But do the kids know what it means? (It doesn’t even look right to me. The line across the c is too slanted.)
Yes, they teach the cent and dollar symbol in 2nd grade.
We should get rid of pennies and nickles and even quarters and round everything to the nearest $0.1. Might as well make dollar coins at the same time and get rid of singles. Just two coin types, dimes and dollars.
Much like the $100 bill, 90% of pennies are not circulated.
Do you know how much money is made trading $0.01 in nanoseconds?
How easy it is to raise a tax by 1Cent and make and extra million without the plebes complaining?
They will NEVER get rid of it. It hides a multitudes of sins.
But none of that is done with real pennies. They can still raise taxes by 1 cent or trade 1 cent if they wish. They just need to round off the bill to the nearest 10.
The physical penny is part of the charade and metal re-enforcement.
How does a sales tax work without pennies?
Brazil has no penny. I’ve heard that eliminating the penny here did cause some slight inflation. Now they round it to the nearest nickle, Brazilian style.
After they add sales taxes, if something ends up costing R$4.47 they end up taking either R$4.50 or R$4.45 depending on the mood they are in, what kinds of coins they have in the register (Brazil has a shortage of coins) and what you give them.
I don’t know what they do if you pay by credit card because my credit card charges are on a USA credit card which includes currency conversions and foreign transaction fees.
Take a look at the copper value in some older US cents:
http://www.coinflation.com
Hint: Gresham’s Law coming soon to the lowly penny
“Now some campaigners in the US and UK want the penny to be scrapped, because nothing can be bought with a one-cent or one-penny coin.
“The point of currency is to facilitate cash transactions. It used to be that a penny could serve that purpose because it was worth something but that’s no longer the case” says Jeff Gore, president of Citizens to Retire the US Penny.”
I use pennies to carry out cash transactions all the time. I have to combine them with other coins or paper money as well, but the penny or pennies are still part of the transaction.
I hope Jeff isn’t a high school debate coach in his spare time. His ability to conflate the penny being used as the sole coin required to carry out a transaction with it being used in a transaction combined with other money is scarey.
In Canada: for cash transactions the guideline for retailers is to round up or round down depending on the final price plus taxes: e.g. 3.76,& 3.77 would round down to 3.75; 3.78 & 3.79 would round up to 3.80. Cheque, debit or credit card transactions are not rounded.
Pennies are still legal tender. Some retailers still give exact change. They will accept pennies, but not rolls of pennies (take those to the bank)
That will teach ‘em.
From the “If at First You Don’t Succeed” Department: David
Schneider, who headed Washington Mutual’s home-loans unit during the peak of the mortgage bubble, was running another sizable mortgage company until this past Friday.
Last fall, Schneider appointed Rotella and John McMurray, WaMu’s former chief risk officer, to a newly formed advisory board. Radha Thompson, another former WaMu executive, is Vericrest’s chief information officer.
(In December 2011, Rotella agreed to pay $100,000 and Schneider $50,000 to settle a lawsuit brought against them — and former WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger — by the FDIC. The settlement did not bar the men from future involvement in the mortgage business.)
Besides servicing mortgages, Vericrest also has waded back into the mortgage-backed securities market. Since 2009 the company has floated more than $2 billion in bonds backed by nonperforming loans (NPL), most recently a $99 million issue last month.
In its statement, Vericrest said it would name Schneider’s successor “in due course.” Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry publication, had reported that a leading candidate is a former executive at Countrywide Financial.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020414898_sundaybuzz24xml.html
“…Since 2009 the company has floated more than $2 billion in bonds backed by nonperforming loans (NPL), most recently a $99 million issue last month….”
What? Who knows non-performing loans better than the monkey that created them? He brings a real skill set to society. What he really should be doing is learning a new trade….like making license plates!
Reading about the lawsuit is pretty infuriating too.
NYT Dec 13, 2011 (Louise Story)
“Former executives at Washington Mutual have reached a $64 million agreement to settle a civil lawsuit with the government…
Much of the settlement will come from insurance policies the company took out for the executives..
The F.D.I.C. accused the executives of pushing Washington Mutual, which was based in Seattle, to the brink by making risky bets to reap short-term profits for themselves. In an unusual move, the F.D.I.C. also accused the wives of Mr. Killinger and Mr. Rotella of helping them shield some of the compensation from the company from legal claims. The wives will also be released from the suit as part of the settlement. ”
——–
Gee, must be nice for a company to take out an insurance policy so the execs don’t have to pony up their own bling. And they should start throwing these wives in jail too.
As for getting back into the business, well why not, I suppose. If people are stupid enough to buy those bonds from these crooks, well they take their own chances. Doesn’t Dodd-Frank prevent any more bailouts?
Those settlements amount to nothing more than traffic tickets for those guys.
All worship at the same franchise.
LOL. I happened upon the Today Show last week during breakfast. The show was being broadcast in Miami.
During a promotional segment on Miami in general, they were talking about the resurgence of the housing market where some Realtard was saying that the players (investors, lenders) were doing well and the reason that things would not go sour was because (I quote and I kid you not), those people “are smarter now.”
“It’s different this time!”
Restaurant Owner Finds Dedicated Teen Walking 10 Snowy Miles for Job Interview
theblaze.com | february 25, 2013 | lix klimas
Art Bouvier, the owner of a New Orleans-inspired restaurant located in Indianapolis saw a young man trudging through the early morning snow and ice last week. The teen stopped to ask Bouvier — who owns Papa Roux Po Boys and Cajun Food– how much further it might be to his final destination and was told it was six to seven miles.
“He thanked me and continued on,” Bouvier, who also goes by Papa, wrote of the encounter in a now viral Facebook post. “He could have asked me for money for a bus. In fact I quite expected him to. He didn’t. He just started walking.”
To a local news station, Fox 59, Bouvier added that the teen later said he wouldn’t have money for a bus ride until he got a job.
Bouvier continued in his post that 15 minutes later he was in the car and told his wife to pull over when he spotted the teen — still walking.
That’s when he found out the 18-year-old named Jhaqueil Reagan had intended to walk a full 10 miles for a job interview. The Bouviers gave Reagan a ride the rest of the distance — but that’s not all.
“I’m thinking to myself, here’s a kid walking almost 10 miles in the ice and slush and snow for the hope of a job at minimum wage,” Bouvier told Fox 59. “That’s the kind of story your parents used to tell, my parents used to tell, up both ways in the snow.”
Bouvier took Reagan’s phone number advising him to keep his interview, but noted he would see if he could hire him at Papa Roux.
In a phone interview with TheBlaze, Bouvier went on to say he told Reagan whatever the other shop offered him, he would double it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth
was he wearing boot straps?
“The Bouviers gave Reagan a ride the rest of the distance”
A guy was doing that at the local bars around here, trying to be a good Samaritan / keep the drunks off the streets, the local taxi drivers sic’d the cops on him and they leaned on him to stop helping people or go to jail.
I think the Bouviers story is made up neocon agitprop, but my story is real, if you google for it in my hometown (see my alias) or just go to
http://waukesha.patch.com/articles/man-exposes-himself-to-gas-station-clerk-thanksgiving-dysfunction-unlicensed-taxi-cab
Bouvier went on to say he told Reagan whatever the other shop offered him, he would double it.
I call BS on this. He’s going to pay this kid at least $15 an hour? Unless he’s going to be a manager, that’s going to make the rest of the staff quite jealous, because I guarantee they’re not making anywhere near that.
Oh, wait, it’s the Blaze. That ’splains it.
Been there, done that, and as I got older I learned the hard way that for the most part, nobody gives a damn.
There are thousands more just like him that you will NEVER hear about.
Good luck to him. He’s going to need it.
But hey - the stock market is at a 4 year high so all is good. The liberals on this board tell me so.
————————
Why Consumers May Be On A Crash Course
CNBC | 25 Feb 2013 | 10:21 AM ET | Stephanie Landsman
Consumers are clipping coupons at a rate not seen since before the 2007 recession, and that’s a troubling sign, according to Coupons.com CEO Steven Boal.
What? You’re blaming the liberals because the stock market has recovered to 14,000. You sound like an idiot. What credit did you give the conservatives for the DJ 6,000 and the 50% drop in housing values. Speciousness ignorance is so unattractive….
“This is the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime” — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, July 2007
Ooh…ooh…ooh….ooh!
The federal reserve is to blame for both?
He’s just venting his Obama Trauma.
And you are venting your Obama love?
Obama love?
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/24/police-racially-charged-assault-not-probed-as-hate-crime-despite-witness-claim/
Obamanisms:
1. Obama Trauma
2. Obamaquester
3. Obama Nation
4. Obamaphone
5. Obamanother?
I sense the potential here for lots of additions to the American lexicon, thanks to this president!
Obamacare.
Obama Camps
Where they will send Racist® thought criminals who display insufficient love for Dear Leader.
“What credit did you give the conservatives for the DJ 6,000 and the 50% drop in housing values.”
That was Boosh’s fault* — remember.
* Anything that happens to the economy only happens because of whichever U.S. president is sitting on the throne at that very moment. And if it is a librul president, that makes it the libruls’ fault.
$4 gas.
U6 unemployment at 15%.
Real inflation at 10+ percent.
Median incomes down 10% since 2007.
Now that’s Hope and Change we can believe in.
The only part Obama has played in this mess is the same part that all presidents, senators, congressmen, federal reserve chairmen, etc… have ever played and that is that they are all on the payroll of Big Oil, Big Banks, Big Healthcare, Big Insurance, etc… and not at the service of voters. We all need to remember that at the next election. The only thing voting for the lesser of two evils gets us is more of the same. Write in, vote green, vote crazy Ron Paul, vote for someone other than these puppets of Big Business. It’s the only answer.
The only thing voting for the lesser of two evils gets us is more of the same.
You are wrong IMO. Study the votes of the SCOTUS -their implications for the next 50 years - the 5 to 4 decisions and which party nominated the 5.
Start with Citizens United and Gore vs Bush. None of that was “more of the same”.
The pont is that if the dems and reps see their futures threatened with the prospect of a third party winning.. revolution if you will, they may start listening to voters. Gravy train stops here.
Seems like so far any third party threat has just resulted in them collaborating against the voters.
Troubling for who? The overpriced retailers?
Cry me a river.
A teen’s luck appears to have changed after a chance encounter with an Indiana restaurant owner during a 10-mile trek through ice and snow for a minimum wage job interview.
It all started on Friday, when Art Bouvier, the proprietor of Papa Roux, a Cajun restaurant in Indianapolis, was laying rock salt outside the establishment after an ice storm earlier that morning.
He said he was approached by a teen who asked him how far it was to 10th and Sherman.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284542/Art-Bouvier-Man-spots-Jhaqueil-Reagan-walking-10-miles-job-interview-gives-job.html#ixzz2M0lEoHZ8
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
One to make goons heart burst with pride.
But why should he have to walk? If he just got on food stamps he’d get a free Escalade*. And Obama would pay for his gas and mortgage.
* as reported in the Washington Times, linked from the Drudge Report
Don’t forget the free Obamaphone!
Forward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
…and there’s a thousand more just like him that you will NEVER hear about nor will they even get the small break this kid got.
eco.. i hear tripe like this all the time. 95% of the time you will work hard and have no luck to catch a break. 5% of the time you will catch a break and people will call you lucky, conveniently forgetting the 95% of failure you endured to get there. Soo many people give up after putting in a little work and not seeing any significant reward. Then another set of people does nothing/ as little as possible and just say it is pure luck when things like this happen to kids like that. If you don’t put in the effort, you will never be present to be lucky.
You have to know that putting in lots of effort could result in a significantly diminished return on your work, and still be willing to get ahead that little bit at a time… Of course, you should also know that working your ass off with all rewards going to someone else isn’t really in your best interests… This is why 30-50% effective tax rates have me looking at non-dollar earning opportunities.
“Of course, you should also know that working your ass off with all rewards going to someone else isn’t really in your best interests… This is why 30-50% effective tax rates have me looking at non-dollar earning opportunities.”
I was following up to this point.
The only experiences I’ve had in this scenario is being ripped off by the bosses or the business partners.
I’d LOVE to have that kind of tax problem. Quit your whining.
And I have literally met those thousands. It’s too depressing to extrapolate a real number.
Home Depot Profit Tops Analysts’ Estimates on Housing
By Chris Burritt - Feb 26, 2013 7:06 AM ET [Bloomibergi]
Home Depot Inc. (HD) posted fourth- quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as shoppers spent more on projects and Hurricane Sandy repairs. The company also raised its dividend and approved a $17 billion share buyback.
…Rising home values are encouraging consumers to spend more on remodeling while the repairs after Hurricane Sandy spurred demand in the U.S. Northeast.
…Home Depot today followed Lowe’s in forecasting profit for the current fiscal year that trailed analysts’ estimates. Home Depot said profit this year will be about $3.37 per share, while analysts estimated $3.49, on average.
—————
They think they will be hit with the end of the payroll tax holiday too.
These numbers are borne out when go to Home Depot. Fairly active even on a weeknight in Jan/February, which is supposedly dead time. The paint counter is pretty busy. The orchids and other flowering houseplants are flying off the racks. In April, when the outdoor plants come in, the place will be a ZOO.
How much have you contributed to their profit since committing financial suicide by embracing mortgage albatross debt slavery?
Your losses will be incalculable.
I quit reading this post after “Comment by goon…” LOL…..
I quit waiting for a table at a Sacramento Applebee’s after 2 hours.
Your losses will be incalculable.
Have you bought a house yet?
The Squad is renting for less than the cost to buy, and spending the extra time hiking the Front Range.
And I have contributed quite a bit, actually.
jingle male is the biggest clown on HBB, because his housing market “profits” puffery is exactly the sort of thing that will end very badly. for people like oxide, awaiting (inch by inch), or myself etc you can see some non-bubble, realistic rationale for the purchase vs rent discussion. I’m not saying any one of us was correct in buying. But we’re not sitting around talking about gains. Housing is an expense.
not saying any one of us was correct in buying
Your losses will be incalculable.
Your losses will be incalculable.
unquestionably.
Incalculable… I’m crying over here guys. And not tears of joy, either.
But we’re not sitting around talking about gains. Housing is an expense.
Not in Ipanema and Copacabana if you bought 7 years ago. It’s more like a retirement plan.
It’s different here because they are not making anymore land in Ipanema and Copacabana. Everyone wants to live here. The cops have taken over the slums next to Ipa/Copa. There’s an oil boom. The rich are rich. The beaches are blocks away and palm trees and pineapples grow here. And people are trim.
The Olympics and the World Cup are coming and the entire nation is pouring billions into Rio’s infrastructure and improvements. Even Donald Trump is building some skyscrapers near downtown. Donald Trump I tell ya. Rio is working off a different economic model and home prices here have reached a permanently higher plateau.
An additional 15% price rise in 2013 is in the bag.
I’m not saying any one of us was correct in buying. But we’re not sitting around talking about gains. Housing is an expense.
What he said.
Our hens starting laying last week. Fresh eggs for breakfast!
Now raising chickens for eggs is actually not cheaper than buying them at Costco. By the time you factor in the cost of a decent run and henhouse and the price of feed, you may or may not (probably not) come our ahead, financially.
But if you like fresh eggs, enjoy chickens, and use the poop for gardening, then making the decision to have backyard chickens is not based solely on cost analysis.
For us personally, the value of buying - at this time in our lives - is more than a cost analysis. Dogs, cats, chickens, and fostering shelter dogs: our lifestyle does not easily lend itself to renting.
“you can see some non-bubble, realistic rationale for the purchase vs rent discussion”
Someone who has suffered through a landlord’s foreclosure or a bad landlord may choose to buy simply for more control over one’s circumstances.
Both renting and buying are mixed bags. Personal history may influence the decision.
Dogs, cats, chickens, and fostering shelter dogs
Your losses will be incalculable.
Then you better dump your seaside slum shack in Ipanema.
Then you better dump your seaside slum shack in Ipanema.
It’s not in the slums of the mountains. (Although the Ipanema/Copacabana slums are becoming “the place” since the cops moved in. But note: Rio is NOT paradise but can be nice if you know how to move with its beat.
My house is on the “desirable” flats where they are not making any more land.
But why would I dump it when I can sell it for 100% more in 3 years and then move back to America and buy for 60% off today’s America prices? (BTW…..both of those premises in the previous sentence are jive IMO.)
I would bet on Rio prices going down before I’d bet on American prices going much further down.
“My house is on the “desirable” flats where they are not making any more land.”
LOLZ
Dump that slum shanty.
LOLZ…..Dump that slum shanty.
And rent for 15 times my property tax per month? For less of a dwelling than my nice house? Why? Because you say prices will go down in Rio? I have more important things to worry about than “losing” some money.
I don’t think you understand there is much more to a house than the bottom line at the end.
I don’t think you understand that your losses grow by the day.
I don’t think you understand that your losses grow by the day.
I understand.
You sound like my barber, but not my Realtor.
No you don’t. But you will.
“Fairly active even on a weeknight in Jan/February, which is supposedly dead time.”
What is winter weather like where you live? I occasionally butcher wood, I would not be so ambitious as to call myself a carpenter, sometimes it even turns out nice, and at least for indoor projects “picking up another … on the way home from work” makes this absolutely peak time for me, and lots of other wanna be wood butcherers like myself. Also I don’t do the “sports” thing but I’m told sportsmen have a lot of TV to watch at night the entire year except for mid winter, so the wanna be jocks pretty much have to do their “projects” at that time.
Now boring would probably be March/April or so when I’ve finished everything I’m gonna do indoors and its too muddy to start doing stuff outdoors. I’m not about to build a garden bench in February or be stuck inside putting together bookshelves in June.
I have to wrap up about two more little projects indoors and then I’m pretty much done doing “home improvement” until May or so. Oh I’ll find something to do, its just not going to involve swinging a hammer.
I just thought it funny, this being “filthy basement season” I spent 1/2 hour vacuuming up a whole wet-dry vac full of sawdust last night and still smell like sawdust today, and for the last three weekends the whole house stank of curing wood finish etc etc.
“What is winter weather like where you live?”
Cold? Of course.
More important are duration and overcast, IMHO.
DC winters are generally mildish and dreary rainy with sunny cold spells. Temperatures like to rise from a low of ~28°F to a high of ~40°F. We get a lot of “wintry mix” of sleet during rush hour because that’s when the temp hovers around 30°-32°F.
We get very little lasting snow, so usually people aren’t stuck inside, and they can drive out to HD for paint and a few specialized screws or new cabinet pulls.
Most of the HD traffic is the paint department, the tile flooring aisles, and the cleaning section. Not much activity in the kitchen design center.
A good tip about HD kitchen cabinets -
Each store only sells certain colors, at least in the DC/Baltimore area. But you can order online and ship to store. When/if that stuff gets returned (or isn’t picked up), HD typically sells it for 1/3 off. We did our basement kitchen/wetbar/laundry areas using Hampton Bay cabinets in cognac color and we saved maybe $500 going to stores in Baltimore city and county (White Marsh/Rosedale), because they didn’t carry cognac and thus were selling perfectly new stuff at markdown. I live less than a mile from the Baltimore city HD, so it wasn’t as big of a PITA as you’d expect.
The only downside was I had to go to the store near Ft. Meade (Anne Arundel county) to get kickplates, end pieces, and 2 “open” shelves in the cognac color. So I stopped off on the way home from work one day to do that. Again, not a big hassle.
“What’s the weather like where you live.”
Rather nice. I’m outside now with shorts on working up garden areas and pruning. Just finished some fun projects around the house this last week. I took the existing garage door opener down, went completely through it and moved it over to my single garage door that didn’t have an opener. Then I replaced the old opener on the double door with a new quite one that I got on sale at fifty percent off. I love having projects to work on but it takes a lot of time finding quality materials and that is not at any Home Depot, lowes or Oash. One of my current projects is trying to find a quality gas log set for a two sided open fire place.
What is winter weather like where you live?
nice its the growing season in S CA everything is green
What is winter weather like where you live?
June, July, Aug. Short days. Much less tourism. Avg Temps: High 73. Low 63. Very cold. I have to wear socks. My favorite time of the year. (I like socks)
Ain’t disaster capitalism great?
Why buy a house now with prices inflated by 150-200%? Rent for half the cost and buy later for 65% less.
I don’t usually talk about politics in here, but why is the POTUS continuously campaigning throughout the country instead of working on solutions to overcome the sequester? I don’t believe laws are enacted in the campaign trail!
B-b-b-but he said “we’ve got to do some governing”
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/02/obama-weve-got-to-do-some-governing-157781.html
What a joke.
Sounds like John Kerry saying “can I get me a huntin’ license?” in 2004.
Obama found out, during his first run for Pres, that he is most effective as a campaigner and actually, he probably found this out during his time as an activist. So I believe this is an effort to do what works for him, and I say this with no sarcasm or desire to take a shot at him. It’s human nature to return to successful actions when all else fails.
I suspect Obama finds Washington too confining and toxic for himself. The Republicans get the blame for much of the toxic atmosphere, and with good reason, but I suspect that isn’t the full story. Obama could, if he wanted, go to members of his own party who are in Congressional office and persuade them to “reach across the aisle” and work with their Republican colleagues to move the needle. We have been set up to believe that the two parties are opposed, but there’s a lot more collegiality in Washington than we know.
However, it may be and I think it’s the case, that the long knives are out for POTUS within his own party. So the campaign trail, scene of the glory days, is the best option.
OTOH, one might wish for members of Congress to spend more time in their own districts themselves and assess and address the true concerns of their constituents. But why brave the ire of the constituents when you can get some soothing oil from a lobbyist?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/25/us/massachusetts-child-rapper-investigation/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
“continuously campaigning throughout the country instead of working on solutions to overcome the sequester”
LOL as if they’re mutually exclusive or unrelated rather than one being the goal and the other being the method.
If you’re asking why he’s using that strategy to achieve that goal, I can’t help you there. Could be he thinks it’ll work, could be he thinks it should not work.
Also your post implies the sequester should be overcome, which I completely disagree with, if anything it should be dramatically increased, and that the prez “enacts laws” in other words he’s the sole member of the legislative branch (he’s actually in charge of the executive branch which has a mostly different role, which he can do perfectly well from anywhere, he doesn’t have a desk in congress, etc)
Presidents don’t have to work. They have their aids and handlers doing the actual work for them. I think the country would have been better served if presidents work less and had less power. Same goes with congress and SC.
I call BS. Why does the President have to physically be in Washington? Has anyone here heard of a “telephone?” Or signing bills on Air Force One?
———–
Obama, Republican leaders talk sequester as deadline nears
February 21, 2013, 2:27 PM (Reuters)
“Telephone diplomacy to avoid the sequester has begun.
President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday to discuss the across-the-board budget cuts set to begin on March 1. Neither side said much about the talks but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and the GOP leaders had “good conversations.”
————
OK, so Obama “worked on solutions” with Boehner and Cantor for a hour or so, got only sneers and scorn for his troubles. What’s he going to do with the other 15 hours that he’s awake? Make a speech and convince the people to convince the R’s. It’s as good a strategy as any other.
What’s he going to do with the other 15 hours that he’s awake?
This:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/03/Obama-administration-paves-the-way-for-sharia-law
Thanks for channeling some Republican talking points our way. I thought that was 2banana’s job?
(And don’t bother to pretend you came up with that Retardican line on your own. I read lots of newspapers.)
I guess I must be a hateful, southern baptist republican for not agreeing with everything the POTUS does….
hateful, southern baptist republican
Isn’t that redundant?
What does that have to do with it?
The president has made his position clear. The leadership of the Senate would go along with his, though they probably couldn’t get to 60. The leadership of the House wants to get rid of the military cuts, shift all cuts to non-military programs and cut tax rates. They are so far apart there is no obvious “split the difference” position. If such an outcome were possible, then it would make sense for everyone to sit in a room bashing out the details, but it isn’t so the exercise would be useless.
The president has much higher approval ratings than Congress right now, so he is bringing his position directly to the people (it isn’t campaigning, he can’t run for president again) and explaining what the sequester will mean to them. Presumably, he hopes that this will cause people to tell their congress critters to come closer to his position. For a few congress critters in swingable districts or districts that will be hurt a lot by the up coming cuts, it might even work eventually.
You may object to his priorities, but why shouldn’t he do what he thinks is most likely to get his priorities enacted? Sitting in a room with people who object to his position on every level. most of whom are in districts where their re-election isn’t at issue, doesn’t accomplish anything at all.
Kudos for the awesome political analysis.
58% of Federal Spending is for entitlements
19% of Federal Spending is for the military
The Government borrows 46 cents of every dollar it spends.
And all we get from obama are the horror stories of the government shutting down for less than a 1% cut in spending.
Leadership at its finest.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Forward.
And all we get from obama are the horror stories of the government shutting down…..
You’re just mad because it’s working. (as did Obama’s last 2 presidential campaigns)
The majority of Americans lean left dude. The far right is imploding the once proud GOP before your very eyes.
In addition, pretty much nobody is talking about a government shut down right now. That is the end of March, not February.
“I don’t believe laws are enacted in the campaign trail!”
Cannot Executive Orders be signed on the trail?
why is the POTUS continuously campaigning throughout the country instead of working on solutions to overcome the sequester?
Pres. Obama campaigning throughout the country IS working on a solution because increasing public pressure on the Repubs can hasten the solution.
Rio:
Can you enlighten me on what solutions ohbewanna is fighting for?
Its like everyone has the wrong answer.. Just tell us the truth for once we are in Afghanistan because the Taliban would immediately destroy all the poppy fields and we cant have that.
Can you enlighten me on what solutions ohbewanna is fighting for?
I hope Obama is fighting for the de-facto destruction of the current, perverse version of the once proud GOP.
How is that going to help anything? Who knows what the new GOP will be like?
but then again…we have this:
http://www.facebook.com/ChicksOnTheRight
‘I hope Obama is fighting for the de-facto destruction of the current, perverse version of the once proud GOP’
Do you even know what government is? Obama wasn’t elected King. He was given a job, and part of that job is to represent every citizen. Do you think he would have been elected had he run on what you are saying? What happens to the Green Party or the Republican party is none of his business. He supposed to have a job to do. Maybe this attitude is why the country is going to hell.
But I’m not surprised to hear you say that. You have no problem with a war criminal being president. With a tool of the 1% who ordered Homeland Security to shut down the Occupy movement. Fascists like you belong in one party, banana republic countries. I for one hope you never come back.
Anyway, I don’t know how “proud” the GOP is or isn’t. I would like to get rid of the two party system. It’s unconstitutional and entrenches what we have now. But like it or not, we have a two party system. What we need is opposing views in DC. I don’t care who is in power as long as the checks and balances in the constitution are in place. Your ignorance of the law and government stinks to high heaven. No surprise then what murdering scum you vote for.
Do you even know what government is?
Of course. And so does Obama. And he’s using it to break a GOP party that is currently detrimental to the American way of life IMO.
Obama wasn’t elected King
King? Dictator? He was not but these are common Repub/Obama hater talking points. How is he “King”? Obama is working within the confines of the laws of American government and the Constitution. If he were not, the GOP holds the House and can impeach him. They’ve impeached for much less than for what you accuse. See Clinton.
Do you think he would have been elected had he run on what you are saying?
Yes. For sure, if the Repubs were also saying what was their real goal.
You have no problem with a war criminal being president.
“War criminal”? IDK but I’d estimate that most of our lives we’ve had “war criminals” as our president.
I for one hope you never come back.
I believe you. I upset many’s rigid world-view. Especially Repubs. Sorry. But “I’ll be back”.
I would like to get rid of the two party system.
I think that is a pipe dream. More realistic is to improve the current system which would happen if the GOP were crushed into becoming more in line with American middle-class interests. That might be happening. That is what government and politics do to parties that are off the reservation. It’s part of American history.
No surprise then what murdering scum you vote for.
Almost 52% of Americans voted for Obama vs 47% for Romney. You don’t even know who I voted for.
Maybe this attitude is why the country is going to hell.
Maybe. And maybe the attitude couched in “both parties are bad” so the current system can’t be improved is why “the country is going to hell”.
part of that job is to represent every citizen
Same with the off-the-reservation GOP.
Fascists like you belong in one party, banana republic countries.
You are living in one too. The difference is, is that Brazil is becoming less of one and America is becoming more of one. Thank you for calling me a Fascist. It well balances out those who’ve called me a Communist. Because the 2 are totally different.
‘I’ll be back’
Only if I let you. This is my blog and if I wanted a political blog I would have started one. But if you post complete crap, don’t expect me to be quiet. I’ve banned thousands of posters, so one more won’t make a bit of difference to me.
‘if the GOP were crushed into becoming more in line with American middle-class interests’
So why not try to reform this party? Oh no, much better to “crush” them using the murderer in chief. You get all civic minded when you’re called on it, but you’re not fooling me. Your kind would line up and shoot those you disagree with if you could. Freaking Nazi.
‘I’ll be back’
Only if I let you. This is my blog and if I wanted a political blog I would have started one…..Freaking Nazi.
Dang……Of course “only if you let me”. But half the posts on your blog are “political”. Half the housing thing is political. Why would you ban me? Because I offer a different and powerful argument for a point of view different than yours? It was the Nazi’s themselves who censored rational opposition. You’ve never banned for opinion alone.
why not try to reform this party? Oh no, much better to “crush” them
Like the GOP will reform themselves if not “crushed”? How? Mitch McConnell is going to reform and be more in line with the middle-class by sweet talk? The GOP has lost 5 out of the 6 last presidential elections and they have not learned the lesson. They might reform if they get cold-cocked hard. Nothing else will work with them IMO. Why does this opinion make you so angry?
your kind would line up and shoot those you disagree with if you could
Say what??. I don’t hurt people. But even if I did, why would I “shoot someone” who disagrees with me when the vast majority of Americans already agree with me?
So why not try to reform this party?
That’s true of both parties, no?
More realistic is to improve the current system which would happen if the GOP were crushed into becoming more in line with American middle-class interests.
Even more likely if history is any guide, is that the Ds will overreach and drive people right into the arms of the GOP prior to much improvement on their part. In fact, with all the assault weapon stupidity I’d guess that it’s probably already happened but we won’t know for sure until the next election. I say this as someone who would love to see the Rs become a party that I would actually be happy to vote for. But it won’t happen.
Its like everyone has the wrong answer.. Just tell us the truth for once we are in Afghanistan because the Taliban would immediately destroy all the poppy fields and we cant have that.
Speaking of which, there’s a funny new website out there that wants to be The Onion for military folks. Very irreverent and over the line at times (consider the intended audience). Today’s article was about the Taliban complaining about impending layoffs if the sequester isn’t resolved…
http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/02/facing-mass-layoffs-taliban-protests-against-automatic-us-budget-cuts-from-sequester/
lollllz
Ben,
You’re going to have to count me as one of those who would prefer to see the Republican Party reform itself into something other than the current parody of its professed values. What we have now encompasses everything from the American Sharia faction to the rational libertarians, and there is a real danger that the conservative voice in our country will be stifled by the very excesses it claims to eschew. “Liberty” and “freedom” are not well served by the tyranny of narrow ideology.
I fail to see why Rio’s comments continue to arouse such extreme ire. It seems to me that he’s more-than-demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the American status quo, (after all, he left the country) and is in an unique position to bring us valuable information on how a significant part of the rest of the world views our political foibles– which he does with both insight and civility (at least as far as what I’ve seen posted here.) More to the point, you and he seem more on the same page as men of conscience than in opposition.
Grab your Skittles and iced tea (but don’t rouse the suspicions of the neighborhood watch, LULZ) for some enlightening reading:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/m-the_endgame_for_the_destruction_of_the_united_states.html
From the piece:
“If you criticize the president for any of his policies, you are racist, and your argument ends. There aren’t defenses for these kinds of accusations, and it completely eliminates the possibility of discussion and compromise.”
When Jackie Robinson was chosen to be the first black player in major league baseball, he was NOT chosen because he was the best black player they could find.
At minimum, there were 10 black players better than him; you don’t know this because the complaints and grumbling of these black players was swept under the rug.
The decision to allow black players into MLB required a certain kind of black player as defined by the people who controlled major league baseball. So Robinson didn’t have to be the best, he just had to be “that ___ga”.
(same with Rosa Parks)
Barak Obama is the same thing. He is not the best black person to be president. He is just the vehicle to normalize the concept of a black person being president.
So, to a certain extent, all those people who voted for Obama because he is black were justified because their behavior was a necessary step that needed to be taken if only to get the “issue” out of the way.
Normalize the concept of a black president.
Same thing with black quarterbacks. Its no longer a big deal anymore; when a black quarterback sucks, nobody has to defend him anymore.
Obama is not “black”, he is half African and half white.
He’s definitely NOT Asian.
I think he had an asian step father, no?
Was his stepmother an alien?
(fiddy points to whoever gets the ref.)
eco, you know that in the age of google pointing out that there is a reference to be gotten makes the challenge sort of useless, right?
Name me ONE African tribe that comes here to shoot and kill people?
He’s not African…he’s just black
He’s not African…he’s just black
Dude what’s your problem with Obama? Have you heard him talk???
The man is a walking and talking university of proper English communication. Obama’s speech/success is a perfect lesson that English-challenged minorities need to master America’s language in order to achieve success.
He speaks English better than 90% of the American population. Isn’t that your big deal??
Yes I give him credit for that, but not much else…he loves Deadbeat homeowners and John Corzine type criminals……I was hoping for a change.
Jackie Robinson was not the first.
Moses and Weldy Walker played for the Toledo Blue Stockings back in the 1880’s.
He is not the best black person to be president. He is just the vehicle to normalize the concept of a black person being president.
I don’t agree. Yes, Jackie was chosen for his temperment* rather than his baseball skills, but you don’t need a good temperment to be a good baseball player. Ty Cobb comes to mind. But temperment IS part of the job description to be President. You can’t be a good President with a bad temperment, at least not since the age of radio and TV.
————–
*I recall that they were eyeing Satchel Page, but Satchel was too hot-blooded.
Barak Obama is the same thing. He is not the best black person to be president.
Obama is not the same thing as Jackie Robinson. Robinson was solely chosen by an organization. Obama won political elections.
They are not the same thing.
Well-stated, Spook.
Plus the fact that the country was so sick and tired of the Bush and Hilary cabal, he won by outlasting the (seemingly overwhelming) opposition. In that alone, he deserved to win.
If you criticize the president for any of his policies, you are racist,
What if you criticize the president for all his policies? Including those he inherited from the previous admin? And those he can do little about? And wail when he takes a vacation? And claim he’s going to take your guns away and then institute sharia law?
Are you racist then?
“If you criticize the president for any of his policies, you are racist, and your argument ends. There aren’t defenses for these kinds of accusations,
Hogwash. There is no defense from racism accusations that have nothing to do with the issue? Maybe for a moron.
Example:
White guy: Obama’s gay marriage policy is pure politics.
Brown guy: You’re just saying that because you’re a racist.
White guy: What does race have to do with gay marriage?
Brown guy: Uhh, Uhh, but, but your a racist.
Yellow guy: Dang brown dude….you’re a moron.
The POTUS has many roles and responsibilities.
Only Congress has the actual power to make laws. But the Constitution gives the president power to influence Congress in its lawmaking. Presidents may urge Congress to pass new laws or veto bills that they do not favor.
Are you implying his way to influence the outcome is for him to do press conferences, rallies and wife’s appearances at the Oscars?
Cuts in the goverment should be made, but not across the board. No successful company EVER makes indiscriminatory cuts. They are usually followed my methodical analysis of the needs of the company and starts with the fat!
Dang it. This was supposed to be a reliable to VinceInWaukesha
case schiller says the good times are back, right?
Not really, if you read what they say beyond the numbers.
Read below for what Shiller says directly on the matter.
Yes Rental Watch you liar…. lets look.
http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-shiller-home-investment-a-fad-2013-2
WSJ: What do you make of the investor activity in the market right now? A lot of these buyers are all cash buyers—no leverage—buying on rental return. Are you worried about any return of speculative purchases?
Mr. Shiller: In a housing debacle, I’m sure some houses are underpriced, and there is probably a profit opportunity for some people who are going to choose carefully. I’m not surprised that this is going on. There seems to be a shift in public tastes for the time being at least for rental. So this business doesn’t surprise me. It seems to be an appropriate response.
I guess Mr. Shiller doesn’t agree with my belief that speculative activities will revert to the mean, or possibly overshoot to the downside, once the final nail is hammered into the housing bubble’s coffin?
I think it depends on how you think about investment.
Is all investment speculative? Or
Is the kind based on income generation NOT speculative? Or
Is all investment speculative to some extent?
In my opinion, all investment is speculative to some extent.
On one end of the spectrum, an investment to maturity in a US Treasury is as far away from pure speculation as possible, with the only bit of speculation being that the US will be solvent enough to pay (print money to pay) you back.
On the other end of the spectrum is land, startup businesses with only an idea to go on, etc. No income, but speculating that someone will pay you more in the future for what you own or develop (and that you CAN develop that income).
In between are cash flowing assets/businesses. The speculation here is that someone will continue to pay rent (business earn income) sufficient (all costs considered) to give you the yield that you expected when you invested, and that such yield is sufficient to attract other cash flow investors in the future at a similar purchase price.
Said a different way:
Investing at the peak in housing was nearly pure speculation, when yields were <3%, and you could get similar yields with taking less risk elsewhere…it was nearly impossible to see how someone else would pay you for the income potential of the home.
Investing after the peak is less speculative, IF your true yield actually is 6%+, when you can’t get similar yields elsewhere, and it is easy to see how someone would pay you for the income potential of the home (see yields on publicly traded REITs for instance).
Rather than allowing housing to bottom out, our interventionist Fed / Treasury (aka plunge protection team) took measures to prop it by throwing a wrench into the natural workings of the market. For this reason, investing after the peak is highly speculative, as you are gambling on whether the PPT has the means and political will to continue propping up the housing market indefinitely.
Is the Fed action:
A: Propping up rents? If so, how?
Or
B: Pushing down yields?
I believe it is the latter.
If that is the case, then what really matters is what rental yields are relative to “pre-QE” rental yields on single family homes.
If rental yields are below historical averages (pre-bubble and pre-QE), then you are right, a case can be made that the Fed is propping up prices.
However, what I’ve seen indicates that rental yields in Southern CA are in excess of what they were prior to the QEs (ie. in excess of historical levels for SFH in Southern CA).
In other words, prices have reached levels where rental yields are primarily supporting prices, not Fed intervention.
Now, cap rates for apartments on the other hand are crazy low when judging by pre-bubble/pre-QE history…the Fed HAS created a bubble in apartment values by driving down apartment yields.
You’re a liar
What’s really going on in California
California imposed a new law on banks innocuously called “Homeowners Bill of Rights” which forces banks to switch over to a judicial foreclosure process, which they can opt to do on their own, but takes a year or more to renegotiate contracts and compensation structures for the foreclosure law firms who do all the leg work for the banks. And while those changes are being made… it makes it appear that foreclosures have slowed down dramatically in the state.
The reality?
Defaults (undeclared) are spiraling upward that yet have to pass through the foreclosure pipeline.
The truth?
California is still the highest foreclosure state in sheer volume and percentage.
The low-down?
Resale housing is still massively overpriced as a result of unprecedented interference by individual states and the federal government. The market distortions will be removed and the down draft will continue allowing the market to correct.
If you play with fire, you will get burned.
He basically says house prices will go sideways and he says its a market with a lot of risk. Does not rule out that the bubble hasn’t completely burst. He also says time and time againt that houses are not investments and have not historically appreciated above inflation. Moreover, they have carrying costs. Housing is an expense, not an investment.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that homebuilders won’t be able to make money. They WILL be able to make money bc there will always be Americans who will view housing as an “investment” bc of idiotic aspects of Uniquely American Psychology.
“Of course, this doesn’t mean that homebuilders won’t be able to make money.”
We can make money a prices far lower than these. A LOT of money.
I know. This is why Jinglemale is a clown.
I think Jinglemale makes sense if you think the last downturn was sufficient to make an upturn sustainable. It’s hard to say with some places having taken a decent haircut and others having not. But I personally do not believe that the last downturn was sufficient to clear out the bad debt and make an upturn sustainable. I still think we’re on borrowed (literally) time.
Jinglemale makes sense if you think the last downturn was sufficient to make an upturn sustainable. It’s hard to say with some places having taken a decent haircut and others having not.
Written as per someone unbiased and thinking logically on the issue.
New Housing Prices Fall A Whopping 9% on Skyrocketing Sales
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-home-sales-jump-to-highest-pace-since-mid-2008-2013-02-26
9 down, 56 to go.
+100
In testimony today bernake says there are no signs of inflation from the bond buying program know as QE.
“the subprime crisis is contained” - ben bernanke
Were you expecting him to NOT lie?
New Housing Prices Fall A Whopping 9% on Skyrocketing Sales
Based on an analysis done at zerohedge, seasonal adjustment accounted for the majority of the 437,000 annual rate headline number.
The actual, unadjusted number of homes sold in January was a meager 31,000.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics… I expect nothing less from our Ministry of Truth.
New Housing Prices Fall A Whopping 9% on Skyrocketing Sales
“The median price of new homes, however, fell more than 9% to $226,400 in January from $249,800, indicating that buyers flocked to less expensive properties.”
?????
Does this mean new home prices are really falling or that builders are building smaller and/or less fancy homes?
We’re building larger houses and slashing the price.
Not around here. The McMansion craze seems to have ended. Builders are definitely building smaller homes.
Yes “around” there too.
Nope. Not around “here”.
Yes “around” there. And we’re going to continue driving prices down until you get a grip.
I don’t know of Melissa Mayer can turn around Yahoo, but I do think she’s right that if you want to do innovative work, you need a good amount of “face time” in the office.
“Since Marissa Mayer became chief executive of Yahoo, she has been working hard to get the Internet pioneer off its deathbed and make it an innovator once again.
She started with free food and new smartphones for every employee, borrowing from the playbook of Google, her employer until last year. Now, though, Yahoo has made a surprise move: abolishing its work-at-home policy and ordering everyone to work in the office.
A memo explaining the policy change, from the company’s human resources department, says face-to-face interaction among employees fosters a more collaborative culture — a hallmark of Google’s approach to its business.
In trying to get back on track, Yahoo is taking on one of the country’s biggest workplace issues: whether the ability to work from home, and other flexible arrangements, leads to greater productivity or inhibits innovation and collaboration. Across the country, companies like Aetna, Booz Allen Hamilton and Zappos.com are confronting these trade-offs as they compete to attract and retain the best employees.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/technology/yahoo-orders-home-workers-back-to-the-office.html?src=me&ref=general
If you want people to collaborate with each other, there’s nothing quite like face-to-face time for making it happen.
We used to have pretty flexible work at home rules, but my employer nows requires we work at the office, and get permission to work at home. This has slightly loosened to letting the boss know, for example, if you are working at home the next day and for what reason. But we can’t stay home day after day…
Personnally I’m more focused in the office, but I can work effectively at home.
Our projects are staffed with people in several locations in different provinces, so it’s not unusual for me to be the only one on a particular project in this location. So there isn’t much “face time” to foster collaboration. And my boss is in a different province, so it doesn’t help him to keep an eye on me.:)
I whole-heartedly agree with the new policy. It has been my experience that not much gets done with those that “work from home”. My neighbor got quite a chuckle when he saw me washing my car during the day and I told him I was “working from home”:)
Yeah, nothing kills productivity like endless meetings, non-stop idle gossip and pointless corporate policies to get some face time in. Working at home isn’t for everyone, but too many people confuse hours in office with productivity.
Preach it, bruthah!
There’s collaboration. And then there’s wasting time.
The noise in a cubicle environment is kind of horrible too.
My husband works in Cubicle Land. The only time he gets any work done is before everyone else comes in, or at home. The work day is filled with unproductive meetings, and interruptions.
The only time he gets any work done is before everyone else comes in, or at home. The work day is filled with unproductive meetings, and interruptions.”
yep me too makes me crazy sometimes
so does the consultant I’m working with now
I should say training now PITA
All it is, is a control move by a clueless CEO. Yes she is clueless and dumb as they come. She rode google’s success and she will flame out in YHOO. I will give her another 2 years and she will be canned.
and she will be canned.
With a hefty golden parachute.
A businessinsider article interviewed a former Yahoo engineer who mentioned that the WFH productivity issues were a Yahoo specific thing because Yahoo had a large remote workforce without the management and technology to monitor remote worker productivity.
He went so far as to point out that there were many remote employees who just refused to come into the office and weren’t really doing anything, so this may be a defacto layoff without the severance costs, as many of these employees will quit rather than have to commute into an office.
Yahoo’s biggest problem since its inception has been the user interface.
My boss is in Atlanta, my VP is in Dallas, my operations team is Washington state, my project manager is San Ramon, my dev team is in Ireland, my QA team is in Israel and India, my business client is in St Louis, and my accountants are in New Jersey.
Face to face collaboration? Where? We all gonna meet in Nebraska or something?
People who think all work can be done from home don’t seem to realize they are the minority and a privileged one at that.
I suppose I am partly to blame for the end of these teller jobs, as I never go inside the eerie blue-lit spaceship to speak with human drones working inside, preferring instead to do my banking at the drive-up ATM from the safety of inside my car.
JPMorgan to cut 4,000 jobs this year
People pass a sign for JPMorgan Chase & Co. at its headquarters in Manhattan. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images / October 2, 2012)
By Andrew Tangel
February 26, 2013, 7:02 a.m.
NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday it would cut about 4,000 jobs as it pares expenses by $1 billion this year.
The nation’s largest bank by assets becomes the latest Wall Street powerhouse to announce that it would reduce its headcount as financial firms issue pink slips to thousands of employees.
The bank said the 4,000 job cuts would come through layoffs and attrition.
Major Wall Street firms have been shedding jobs as they adjust to new regulations following the financial crisis and as banking has become less profitable.
Banks have cut employees to maintain profits. JPMorgan, for example, increased its number of branches by 2% to 5,614 in 2012, compared with the previous year. At the same time, it cut branch employees by 5%.
The bank said it would continue reducing employee ranks in consumer banking and would eliminate 9,000 branch jobs by 2015 through attrition as consumers increasingly make deposits online and without the help of tellers.
…
this is disturbing:
recluses gold will be auctioned off to pay for 800,000.00 in estate taxes and fees, WTF?
http://www.rgj.com/viewart/20130226/NEWS/302260028/Carson-City-recluse-s-gold-fortune-auctioned-taxes
Beware the Ides of February.
Feb. 26, 2013, 6:01 a.m. EST
Bankers are honorable men
Commentary: Have banks done all they can to help homeowners?
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — With apologies to William Shakespeare…
Friends, Americans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury the homeowner, not to praise him. The evil that borrowers do lives after them. The good is oft interred in credit reports. So let it be with homeowners.
The noble bank CEOs who took nearly $450 billion in bailouts from taxpayers in the hope they would help borrowers have told you homeowners were greedy. If so, it were a grievous fault, and grievously hath the homeowner answered it. Here under the leave of the bank CEO and the rest — For bank CEOs are honorable men. So are they all honorable men.
Come I to speak of the homeowner’s foreclosure. He was my friend, faithful and just to me, his family and job. But bankers say he was greedy, and bankers are honorable men.
…
Friends, Americans,
countrymenCountrywide borrowers, lend me your ears…Attorneys will lie, if it’s a professional responsibility.
February 19, 2013 7:15 pm
Blavatnik hits out at ‘arrogant’ JPMorgan
By Tom Braithwaite in New York
Len Blavatnik, the billionaire investor, has complained about “arrogant” treatment from JPMorgan Chase, which he is suing to reclaim $100m in losses he claims were incurred because of the bank’s negligence.
Mr Blavatnik, whose business interests span Warner Music and chemicals group LyondellBasell, claims JPMorgan acted negligently by investing some of the $1bn he placed at the bank in risky assets, which later declined sharply in value. JPMorgan disputes the allegations.
His case, which went to trial in New York last month and is now awaiting a verdict from a judge, is one of the few brought by individual investors alleging wrongdoing from banks during the financial crisis.
“If the government sues them they settle immediately and it could be billions,” Mr Blavatnik told the Financial Times, referring to action against JPMorgan and other banks by US regulators. “If it’s individuals or small corporations they litigate you to death and who can take them on?”
He said JPMorgan had made inadequate attempts to settle the case, which he said had cost him $10m in fees. “Nobody apologised until recently. I appreciate it but it was basically in the context of ‘settle for no money’. It shows arrogance.”
Mr Blavatnik said: “I think it’s the only litigation I ever had and I’m definitely not a litigious person. In this case I felt wronged because I’d been a customer of JPMorgan for 15 years. The money was in a clearly defined cash management account with a very strict mandate of how to manage it – with no risk.”
JPMorgan said on Tuesday: “In no way did we fail to live up to our responsibilities. However, we are sorry that Mr Blavatnik feels that he had a bad experience.”
The bank said that the account made an overall return of $4m and any losses were restricted to specific securities. He was “simply wrong” to characterise it as a risk-free account and the guidelines were negotiated with sophisticated representatives of Access Industries, Mr Blavatnik’s conglomerate, the bank added.
Mr Blavatnik said the account “became almost like a hedge fund” when it was supposed to have a mandate to hold “no risk”. “They put my money in risky securities, particularly mortgage securities . . . That was happening while in their own account they were selling everything.”
…
Attribution: ft dot com
I wonder where all those troubled mortgages went? Did they just up-and-vanish into thin air?
Financial Times
February 26, 2013 9:23 pm
JPMorgan to cut 17,000 jobs over 2 years
By Tom Braithwaite in New York
JPMorgan Chase said it was cutting 17,000 jobs over two years, with the bulk of losses falling on the consumer and mortgage businesses.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of the largest bank by US assets, told an annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday that an improving housing market, with fewer employees processing mortgage defaults, and new technology would lead to lower headcount.
The cuts amount to 7 per cent of the bank’s 259,000 workforce, with significant redundancies in the consumer bank offset partly by hiring in asset management, private banking and commercial banking.
After a year marred by $6bn of trading losses racked up by a trader nicknamed “the London whale”, Mr Dimon acknowledged that the incident and a reorganisation had led to an undesirable amount of management change.
“Yes, it was a little bit too much change in one year: some of it was ‘the whale’, some was the reorg,” he said. “That’s life.”
In spite of the cuts, Mr Dimon expressed confidence that the bank would beat analysts’ estimates of net income of about $22bn this year and overcome headwinds from new regulations. “Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater,” he said of tougher regulation. “But whatever changes are made, JPMorgan is in a position to compete with whoever’s in the ring.”
Some 13,000-15,000 jobs will be cut from the mortgage business. Competitors such as Bank of America, which has the largest default servicing business, are also looking to reduce staff as the number of troubled mortgages decreases.
…
$7,052 dollars in food stamps in South Texas!!! WHY WORK?
Watch the video in the link!
————
Exclusive: $7,000+ Food Stamp Balance
A gas station clerk, who wants to conceal his identity over fears about losing his job, is fed up.
“Bob” as we’re calling him rings up a customer paying with a Lone Star card.
“There are times I see customers come in and they’ve got thousands,” Bob said.
The numbers he said, just don’t add up.
The balance was more than $7,000 in tax payer funds.
According to Bob, on an average day he sees about 10 different people all with over $2,000 in food stamps, who report to the government they cannot make ends meet.
Don’t forget the Obamaphones and Escalades.
Didn’t you get the memo? They get extra food stamp money from the 2011 Obama Gay Marriage Tax Credit.
’tis an outrage.
wheres the link?
wheres the link?
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=863400#.USzQn_q9LCQ
Yeah, so what? When I was drawing unemployment in 2009, there were times when I had a few thousand dollars on my card. Especially in the first month or so, when weekly deposits were being made, but I was paying bills with my last paychecks.
Three months later? Still had a $1000 or so. Once again depending on the time of month.
There might be 100 reasons why someone might have $2000 or $3000 in their account. But knowing the facts might ruin the “welfare parasites” story, so you will never hear about them in the conservative press.
- Of course there is abuse in these programs, just as with any gov program (ESPECIALLY the big ones!). There is a lot of abuse in the private sector as well. The big benefits always flow towards the top, though.
- The Koch Army needs stories like this to become the dominant meme so that people will be too distracted to focus on the big (9,10,11,12-digit) budget items. It’s a lot easier to point fingers at debit card wielding Wretched Refuse types than to drill down on agricultural subsidies, PILOTs, etc. etc.
- Lots of otherwise intelligent/responsible people end up as Koch Fluffers because they lack the critical eye to question the “USPS is a bankrupt failure” or “SNAP programs are allowing Linda the Lunchlady to Live Lavishly” (TM) storylines. c.f. Snowgirl yesterday (sorry I was hard on you but you were mindlessly Koch Fluffing)
This what I try to tell people. Two sides to every story. If you are so convinced that you are right, why distort/lie/tell half truths about the facts?
Notice all the things that Faux News is “outraged” about, or is a “crisis”. Everything is “outrageous”. Nothing is “annoying”, “mildly irritating” or “somewhat bothersome”.
Acting a lot like 15 year old girls, if you ask me.
I thought those were reserved for certain democrat senators…?
Acting a lot like 15 year old girls, if you ask me.
The USPS thing is a perfect example. If we free up USPS to act like a business, they could easily be wildly profitable–delivering 1st class and bulk mail in urban (and nearby-to-urban) areas is still viable, even 6 days a week. Delivering packages would add to the profits, especially if USPS was free to set rates rather than go back to Congress. You could charge more for deliveries in/around the wealthier areas quite easily–no one would blink. USPS could also negotiate better deals with private companies like our law firm has with UPS (we pay maybe 1/2 of the rates on the UPS website and I’m sure it’s because 90% of our mail goes to a handful of cities and all our offices are near major hub airports, e.g. EWR, BWI, LAX, and O’Hare). And then there is the whole way that USPS has to fund its retirement healthcare way ahead of time and has to sock away billions of dollars of cash a year for this.
So what is USPS? Is it a business, yet run the the gov’t, and we want it to post profits? Or is it a service that we want to provide a backbone network and continue delivering mail at a flat cost on a daily basis and treat Upstate NY the same way it treats profitable areas like NYC, CT, NJ, LI, etc.?
We act like USPS is supposed to magically be able to serve rural Kansas 5 or 6 days a week (at a loss) and yet break even. Idiotic.
“If we free up USPS to act like a business”
LOL the USPS has a govt enforced at the point of a gun barrel monopoly on first class mail delivery. I’ll believe all the blather about it being a business when the “enforcers” stop harassing the competition. Its pointless to use “free market” words to discuss a (natural) monopoly.
“(we pay maybe 1/2 of the rates on the UPS website…”
That’s SOP for any business above a certain size.
You can’t never lose an opportunity to take advantage of a crisis if you don’t have any crises.
It has more to do with that $55B+ pot of pension overage (that’s essentially controlled by Congress) than any inefficiencies in the marketplace. I wrote a guest blog about this a couple of years ago suggesting precisely the money grab we’re seeing today.
Of course there is abuse in these programs, just as with any gov program (ESPECIALLY the big ones!). There is a lot of abuse in the private sector as well.
Yep.
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us
http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/?iid=hl-article-mostpop1
Dozens of midpriced (Private Hospital) items were embedded with similarly aggressive markups, like $283.00 for a “CHEST, PA AND LAT 71020.” That’s a simple chest X-ray, for which MD Anderson is routinely paid $20.44 when it treats a patient on Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly.
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us
What the markets could use is some upbeat spin on housing to put everyone in the mood for buying stocks and houses.
That’s just what the doctor ordered to fix all the pessimism that’s holding markets back.
Whad’ya know!
Feb. 26, 2013, 10:30 a.m. EST
Stocks recoup some of prior day’s drop
Slew of economics reports cast upbeat spin on housing market
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with shares of consumer-related companies among the best performers after economic reports showed some health in housing.
And, the Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence climbed to 69.6 this month, exceeding estimates of 62.3.
“Since most people have their wealth tied up in their home, rising home prices make consumers more confident, more credit worthy and more willing to spend acquired income,” Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC, noted in an email.
What’s News: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke begins two days of testimony before lawmakers, Italy’s election results prompt sell-offs and Google begins to worry about Samsung flexing its muscle.
“Ultimately that has important effects on economic output, one reason that home-price fluctuations are watched so closely,” he added.
Economic reports showed the value of U.S. homes rising in the final month of last year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported home prices rose 0.6% and the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index climbed 0.2% in December. Read: Annual home-price gain best in seven years.
Commerce Department figures showed new-home sales rising 15.6% last month to an annual rate of 437,000, the highest mark since July 2008.
…
we beat this drum here every day I think. All about stock and home prices now. There are no jobs so we have to rely on artificially increasing asset prices. welcome to the new economy.
Hey joesmith, check out this goober:
“According to police, he left emails and voice mails for Fields’ office which were threatening in nature. Fields has sponsored two pieces of gun-control legislation and is a vocal advocate for restrictions on firearms.”
Some of the language is not very COEXIST. The article also identifies his employer as SofTec Solutions, we have SofTec government contractors here in our office, LULZ!
http://www.9news.com/news/article/319427/339/Cops-Man-arrested-for-threatening-Co-Rep
If he loses that contracting job, he should be able to find another. We had a discussion yesterday at lunch–apparently contractors soon will be strongly discouraged about asking about criminal history during early parts of a job application. It might be deemed discriminatory under a disparate impact analysis (much more likely to affect blacks or hispanics who will plead guilty to something if they can’t afford a lawyer to fight it; also more likely that prosecutors will press the charge if the person can’t afford a lawyer). It was a real head-scratcher.
If you apply for an actual fed gov’t job –> background checks into everything, it’s basically (”legitimate”) rape (TM Todd Aiken 2012). But if you apply to for contractor jobs, what they ask or look at varies widely. Some check almost nothing, some are thorough (which costs money for the background checking).
By the way, the best point anyone raised about the disparate impact argument and contractors not using criminal history questions to screen apps:
So basically the government wants contractors to bring the person in for an interview and run a background screen and *then* not offer the job, *after* finding out the race? As opposed to at the very beginning of the process where they still don’t know the applicant’s race? And that is fairer, how?
The answer is that in person there can be a discussion about what the offense was, how long ago, whether the person plead guilty for lack of funds to hire a private lawyer, etc.
Still, I thought the question was highly funny. Asking a question in a web application = potentially discriminatory. Asking it face to face when the race is obvious = fairer. This kind of points out how the whole thing is PC B.S.
Joe
I would have loved to see disparate impact used against the RIAA in all the downloading lawsuits. They never sued black people and that had a major impact on white people.
Or racial discrimination would have been good too. Remember Jammie Thomas was from a hometown that was 96% white….I cant find anyone they went after this much in a black city like Camden or Gary or Oakland.
By the way, the best point anyone raised about the disparate impact argument and contractors not using criminal history questions to screen apps:
Apparently, he is (was?) the Chief Operating Officer of SofTec, but has since been removed from their corporate website.
That idiot Fields will be directly responsible for thousands of jobs being lost in Colorado when Magpul Industries moves their entire operation to Texas or South Carolina. Magpul employs 200 in Colorado and does 18 Million in business with suppliers in Colorado. Just like Beretta in Maryland, they have signaled their intent to move to a state that values the 2nd Amendment.
Yeah but the COEXIST sticker factory in Boulder just announced a $100 million expansion and 500 new jobs.
LOL.
Speaking of COEXIST, have you seen the IWI Tavor yet? Israeli bullpup, piston-driven semi-auto chambered in 5.56, 9mm, and 5.45×39. 5.56 should be on sale in March in the US, with conversion kits for 9mm and 5.45 coming shortly thereafter.
MSRP around $2000. Designed to use GI AR mags unlike the Steyr Aug, and is lighter than the FN FS2000. Because it’s a bullpup, you get a 16″ or 18″ carbine length barrel with the form factor of an SBR (without the BATF Stamps).
I can do a lot of COEXISTing with one of these…
Saw this 3-4 years ago on the Mil Channel.
Damned impressive and accurate gun.
Israeli bullpup, piston-driven semi-auto… 5.56, 9mm, and 5.45×39. 5.56 ….conversion kits for 9mm and 5.45 …
I like (and am good at) shooting guns but I’m much more interested in tools for creating. IMO, a piano, guitar or paintbrush create much more of anything than any of those numbers you just listed.
Interview on WSJ with Shiller:
It’s possible that home prices have hit a bottom, but heavy government involvement to stabilize the mortgage market and the broader economy has made it harder to gauge the durability of recent home-price gains, says Yale economist Robert Shiller, the co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index that bears his name.
The Case-Shiller 20-city index was up by more than 8% in November from its February 2012 trough as falling supplies of homes for sale and stronger demand have boosted prices. Developments spoke with Mr. Shiller on Monday about his outlook for U.S. housing markets right now. What follows is an edited transcript:
WSJ: Did we finally hit a floor in home prices last year?
Mr. Shiller: The trend in home prices seems to be up now. It has been going up. That’s upward momentum, which by my general rule of forecasting has been good for the future. I’ve been tentative about that. It may well be the turning point.
But I’m not sure about that. I’m more worried than most people that it could be a short-lived turnaround. It could be like the 2009-10 upturn where we saw home prices rising right after President Obama took office and right after the home-buyer tax credit was instituted. In that upturn there were some cities that did quite spectacularly. And then that fizzled. I’m not too sure that this one will extrapolate either.
WSJ: Why are you more worried than most people?
Mr. Shiller: Part of the reason the indexes have gone up is because the foreclosure boom has receded. Foreclosed homes sell at a lower price, and the share of those sales has been falling. People might be deceived by this by looking at the indexes. The question is whether the gains will be sustained.
There isn’t any sign of the real enthusiasm we saw during the last bubble. The question is whether this could be the very vague beginning of a new boom? I guess it could. I just don’t know. Then there are issues with what the government does to support housing. They’re doing everything they can. They say they’re going to stop some day. When will people start worrying about that?
WSJ: There are some people who look at the double-digit annual price increases in Phoenix and elsewhere and wonder whether we’re seeing new “mini-bubbles.” Is that a concern you share?
Mr. Shiller: Home prices are back down to a reasonable level. Why should they go up a lot? It means you have to have a succession of eager buyers that would bid them up. Historically major bubbles tend to occur at widely separate intervals. Once it bursts, usually, historically, people are fed up for a long time.
WSJ: Could it be possible that prices are rising by double digits in these places simply because they fell below their long-term relationship with incomes and rents, and are now bouncing back off of that?
Mr. Shiller: Phoenix overshot. Prices got too low. In real terms it was down well over 50%, maybe close to 60%. Now it’s bumped up. It doesn’t look out of line either way now.
WSJ: What do you make of the investor activity in the market right now? A lot of these buyers are all cash buyers—no leverage—buying on rental return. Are you worried about any return of speculative purchases?
Mr. Shiller: In a housing debacle, I’m sure some houses are underpriced, and there is probably a profit opportunity for some people who are going to choose carefully. I’m not surprised that this is going on. There seems to be a shift in public tastes for the time being at least for rental. So this business doesn’t surprise me. It seems to be an appropriate response.
WSJ: For somebody with a stable job, who plans to live somewhere for more than a few years, is this a good time to buy a house?
Mr. Shiller: I think it’s OK, especially because mortgage rates are so low. This isn’t a time to get a flexible-rate mortgage! Get a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage. Rates are so low. They have gone up a little, but they’re still very low. That’s a real opportunity. Prices are not particularly low, but they’re not particularly high.
WSJ: What’s your outlook for home prices?
Mr. Shiller: It’s especially hard to say. We could be looking at a 1-2% increase a year for the next five years. That’s a reasonable scenario—1-2% a year, and it might go up more than that. I don’t know. My main message is that it’s a market with risk in it. We don’t know the future. That’s the most important message to convey.
“That’s a real opportunity. Prices are not particularly low, but they’re not particularly high.”
It’s an epic opportunity to learn first-hand about the inverse relationship between interest rates and speculative asset prices!
“Prices are not particularly low, but they’re not particularly high.”
Could this situation somehow relate to that of the ‘permanently high plateau’ in stock prices identified by another famous Yale University economist during GD1?
A combo “snow/sick” day for the -fixr……..both airplanes left this weekend, will be gone all week. Spending the day laying on the couch, sucking on (corporate engineered, non-locally produced) orange slices, and watching Road Runner and Bugs Bunny on the Cartoon Network.
Basically, implementing the business plan of the 47%
the 47%
Wouldn’t that mean getting paid not to work every day?
procreating counts as work, no?
The 47% get paid to pump out kids, yes? Sounds like work to me…
“The Housing Market “Recovery” Is A Complete Myth
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1151771-the-housing-market-recovery-is-a-complete-myth
In comparison to the recently reported NAR + new inventory, Mr. Hanson defines and quantifies the shadow inventory of homes at 20-30 million homes.
With 20-30 MILLION excess empty houses, prices have a long way to fall. A very long way to fall.
Looks like Mr Market paid more attention to BB’s Congressional testimony while ignoring Goldman’s dire warning.
Gold forecast melee: Goldman joins in, slashes forecast to $1,550
February 26, 2013, 10:15 AM
If you can stand it, here comes another gold call.
In a note that surfaced Tuesday, Goldman Sachs analysts slashed their gold forecasts for this year, saying the turn in the gold cycle is happening faster than they thought.
That call came as gold (GCJ3 +1.86%) enjoyed some Italian-inspired safe-haven buying that drove European stocks south. Italian stock markets were down nearly 5%. The April gold contract was up $4 at $1,590.60 an ounce, though the huge SPDR Gold Trust GLD +1.36% exchange-traded fund was down. Gold had its best gain of the month Monday thanks to the Italians. Read more on gold trading.
So anyway, Goldman slashed its three-month gold-price forecast to $1,615 an ounce from $1,825, its six-month forecast to $1,600 an ounce from $1,805 and its 12-month forecast to $1,550 an ounce from $1,800.
…
Good. Hope it falls more. I will buy more.
Hope it falls more after that. I will buy more.
Sell what China is buying.
Times change.
Miss our Hoz….
Beppe Grillo! Democracy rules.
The Eurozone, not so much.
Recluse’s gold fortune to be auctioned for taxes
By MATT WOOLBRIGHT, AP
6 hours ago
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Even though he lived in the same quiet neighborhood for decades, no one seemed to know Walter Samaszko Jr. He was so unknown that weeks passed before authorities discovered he had died in his modest Carson City home.
When cleanup crews arrived, they made another startling discovery: The 69-year-old man who had lived so simply had a vast collection of thousands of gold coins worth millions of dollars stashed in old ammunition boxes in his garage.
About half of the collection’s value will be auctioned off Tuesday in a Carson City courtroom to satisfy some $800,000 in government estate taxes and fees.
The profits beyond that amount will go to a substitute teacher in San Rafael, Calif., who is Samaszko’s first cousin and sole heir. It took an exhaustive search to locate Arlene Magdanz.
The auction will include only the bullion coin collection, not the collector’s edition coins, said Alan Glover, Carson City’s clerk recorder who will oversee the auction.
“They’re buying and bidding on an ounce of gold, pure gold by the weight,” Glover said.
The bidders are all professional coin collectors who regularly make purchases ranging from $3 million to $10 million, he added.
There seems to be a lot more to this story:
About half of the collection’s value will be auctioned off Tuesday in a Carson City courtroom to satisfy some $800,000 in government estate taxes and fees.
I’m guessing they figure he got into the coins at a dirt cheap rate and therefore has a large amount of capital gains that need taxing, plus there obviously has to be a large inheritance tax that needs to be paid, probably some city taxes related to dying without telling anybody, etc. In another 10 years the government would probably take everything and demand even more from the relatives…After all, all that gold is heavy and some government employee might get hurt lifting it.
There is no capital gains to be taxed at death. You get a bump up in basis to the value on the day you died or a date 6 months later at the choice of the executors of your estate.
There is no capital gains to be taxed at death. You get a bump up in basis to the value on the day you died or a date 6 months later at the choice of the executors of your estate.
Interesting. I think I knew that about a house but I didn’t have any idea it extended to other assets. Hard to believe!
Thanks!
“Interesting. I think I knew that about a house but I didn’t have any idea it extended to other assets. Hard to believe!”
“Thanks!”
Sounds like you got a close relative with a garage full of gold.
PS
I would not let that relative read this blog if they can make the connection between you and Michael Viking.
Recluse’s Gold Fortune to Be Auctioned for Taxes - ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/recluses-gold-fortune-auctioned-taxes-18595531 - -
I don`t like “boomerang buyer” , I`m gonna call em Frogs… Rebeat Rebeat
New site helps foreclosed homeowners buy again in fewer than 7 years
by Kim Miller
From the creators of YouWalkAway.com _ a website that promotes ditching underwater mortgages in favor of foreclosure or shorts sale _ is a new website that says it can help former homeowners who went through a foreclosure buy again.
The site, AfterForeclosure.com, says that the 7-year waiting period to purchase a home after a foreclosure is a myth and that some homebuyers are able to buy a home in less than three years.
“There needs to be a way for people to easily see if they are eligible to buy again,” said You Walk Away co-founder Jon Maddux. “Millions have experienced the unfortunate event of foreclosure, but that does not mean that they should be discouraged from becoming homeowners again in a more stable environment, or that they should be disqualified from doing so.”
Since 2007, 110,699 Palm Beach County homeowners have received a foreclosure notice. Real estate agents and mortgage brokers have noted the tentative return of the so-called “boomerang buyer” to the market.
“Starting right now, this month, there is a big population of people who are starting to fit the timeline of those who can qualify after losing a home a few years ago,” said Skip McDonough in during a July housing forum sponsored by The Palm Beach Post. McDonough is president of Family Mortgage in Jupiter.
While having a foreclosure or short sale on your record was once at least a three- to-seven-year sentence against buying another home, McDonough said the Federal Housing Administration as well as federal mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have softened those rules.
It especially helps if the short sale or foreclosure is the only blemish on the homebuyer’s credit record, and if they have a good reason, such as job loss or family illness, for losing the property.
“For the next few months I believe the largest segment of buyers will be those who believed in the American dream and can now get back into the market,” McDonough said.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 8:54 am and is filed under Foreclosures, Housing affordability, Housing boom, Mortgage fraud, Mortgages, Real estate bust. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7 Responses to “New site helps foreclosed homeowners buy again in fewer than 7 years”
1
huh Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 9:35 am
Great, let’s encourage the deadbeats to be deadbeats all over again.
2
patrick woods Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 9:50 am
There are programs out for previous foreclosed apon borrowers, in a less as two years, with extenuating circumstances, 3 years standard. Please contact me if you need details.
3
ErinP Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 9:51 am
This does not surprise me. I have a ‘friend’ who defaulted on around a cool million dollars in loans in the last couple of years and is already out looking. She admits she and her husband blew all of the money on trips to Europe and new cars. I couldn’t stand listening to her anymore and severed the friendship. One minute it’s ‘poor me I’m foreclosed on (twice)’ to “Look at these new home listings! We’re buying next year!” I feel for any family who lost their home due to job loss, medical etc but the people who used their homes like ATMs make me angry.
4
I did it right and got scr@ed Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 9:53 am
Exactly, huh!!!!!!
These people should never have had a home to start with. because of them and the unscrupulous banks
I now have a home worth half of what I owe.
Will the banks do anything for those of us that did everything the right way and got scr@ewd? No. Only people that knew they couldn’t afford a home.
5
Cheeseus Sonofdog Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 10:12 am
Sweet deal. They speculated and took risk and didn’t lose anything. In fact, most lived five years without paying their mortgage, property taxes, hoa or insurance. Many finally got foreclosed on and got checks due to the robo-signing settlement. Now they can do it all over again. Why do I play by the rules?
6
Toni Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 10:24 am
Hey tell them all to come check out the lovely homes in family friendly Palm Springs. I’ll sell them my home and I don’t care how many times they were foreclosed on as long as they can secure a loan for their new purchase.
7
Marie Says:
February 26th, 2013 at 10:32 am
So, my company asked me to move to Florida from my home in the Northeast last year (and did not pay any moving expenses and was quickly asked to move); I had to sell our home up there and we’d had a “vacation” townhome here in S. Florida. Having 2 mortgages since we wouldn’t be using or even renting our home up North was not an option if we were never moving back there again. So based on the fact that the housing market in the city I lived in up North had already depreciated 30-40% and I would never have been able osell my home for what I wanted or even owed on it, I had to sell it as a short-sale. I never missed a mortgage payment; never was delinquent on any bills yet I had to move to keep my job. Whay would that make a short-seller a delinquent or deadbeat or whatever “name” people will jump to call someone? I agree there are plenty of people who never should have owned a home to begin with based on their financial situations but I have always made over 90K per year (not including my husband’s salary) and have always had very good credit. Had I sold my home as a “regular” sale, I still would have had to sell it under what I owed, never making a profit and would have been taxed on the sale price. The short sale was the only option and actually because of the reason (job transfer) I had to sell it (according to my mortgage bank) I will not be taxed on the sale (because of the debt-relief act that ended end of 2012) and will be able to buy another home in another couple of years (if I wish) as my credit has not been affected (I’ve checked already). Please people out there…don’t be so quick to judge.
“For the next few months I believe the largest segment of buyers will be those who believed in the American dream and can now get back into the market,” McDonough said.
So what exactly is “the American dream”? The ability to buy something with someone else’s money and walk away from it if it loses value while retaining the right to sell it and keep the profit if it goes up in value?
You didn’t know?!
“You didn’t know?!”
If my wife finds out about this she is gonna be pissed. All through the bubble years she would say….. How come we can`t buy a house when (she would list 4 people who made the same money we did or less) can? I would reply….. They can`t afford a $400 house, you will see. Well now 3 of them are still in the homes (rent free for 5 years or so) and the other will be back in the market soon.
$400k house, we all could have afforded a $400 house.
Privatize profits, socialize losses is a heck of a business model if you can get it.
U.S. banks in 2012 post highest profits since ‘06 -FDIC
By Emily Stephenson
Reuters | Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:53am EST
(Reuters) - The U.S. banking industry in 2012 recorded its highest earnings since before the 2007-2009 financial crisis, according to data released on Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-usa-fdic-earnings-idUSBRE91P0N820130226
————————————————————
FDIC source story: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2013/pr13014.html - “Full-year net income improved for a third consecutive year.”
“Privatize profits, socialize losses is a heck of a business model if you can get it.”
I think it`s the new American dream but as far as I know it only works for Bankers and Boomerang buyers.
It’s GOOD to be the Banksta!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuMQjKiaDTg
Is Obama’s release of illegal immigrants a scare tactic?
by Opinion Staff
The Obama administration has confirmed that it is releasing some detainees who are being held pending deportation.
Illegal immigrations in a detention center in Georgia. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said the releases are to save money in advance of across-the-board cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on Friday.
ICE says it needs to prioritize spending to deal with the so-called “sequester.”
ICE is not saying how many detainees it is releasing or how they were selected. Presumably, the agency is not releasing violent criminals. But in the past, The Washington Post reports, many detainees who were released pending deportation to their home countries did not show up for subsequent hearings.
President Obama has tried to put pressure on Congress to avoid the sequester, which imposes $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years. An estimated $85 billion in cuts will come this year. The Pentagon and many domestic agencies — not just ICE — will be affected.
The Obama administration has compiled a list of cuts that will hit each state. Releasing the detainees might be necessary to save money needed to pay for detention of more dangerous people. But it also is an attention-getter, given that immigration remains a hot-button issue.
Polls show the public has not been paying much attention to the sequester. If the cuts come and the public still does not care, that undercuts Mr. Obama’s push in favor of raising taxes to accompany spending cuts necessary to reduce the deficit.
But if the public does start paying attention to the cuts, that puts pressure on Republicans to agree to tax increases in addition to the $600 billion in new taxes included in the previous fiscal cliff deal.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Economy, Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Blue hot Flame
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-prices-soar-short-supply-170905186.html
Raymond: Gotta get my boxer shorts at K-Mart.
Charlie: [pulls over and gets out of the car] I’m going out of my mind! Outta my mind! WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHERE YOU BUY UNDERWEAR?! WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?! UNDERWEAR IS UNDERWEAR! IT IS UNDERWEAR WHEREVER YOU BUY IT! IN CINCINNATI OR WHEREVER!!
Raymond: K-Mart.
Charlie: You know what I think, Ray? I think this autism is a bunch of shit! Because you can’t tell me that you’re not in there somewhere!
Raymond: Boxer shorts. K-Mart.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003515-in-california-dont-bash-burbs
Interesting read. Outlines the trouble with overbearing government with respect to land planning…less supply of what people actually want.
With the 7,000 REO’s in San Diego alone, there is no need for more supply.
Get honest.
http://www.foreclosureradar.com/california/san-diego-county-foreclosures
In all of San Diego COUNTY, there are 3,200 REO (the City of San Diego has 1,000).
In a County with a population of 3 million, and typical listings of over 10k (just ask CIBT), 3,200 isn’t much.
Wrong again.
Try 7000 plus shadow inventory.
“…typical listings of over 10k…”
This is not a typical market. Even the DataQuick analysts are starting to drop the “B” word, but they are typically confused about how to read market conditions. For instance, Andrew LaPage mistakenly reads the current dearth of inventory as a sign there is no bubble.
Redfin (admittedly not a 100% reliable data source) currently shows 1,491 single-family homes, condos and townhouses on the San Diego market, including MLS-listed homes and foreclosure homes plus for-sale-by-owner homes — one of the lowest inventory counts I have ever seen. Of these, 442, or 29.6%, list in the $1+ million dollar price range.
Trust me on this one: Far less than 29.6% of San Diego home owner households are wealthy enough to afford a $1+ million dollar home. This is a market under extreme disequilibrium stress, quite certainly thanks in no small part to the Fed’s extraordinary $40 bn / month QE injection into MBS.
“inspectors general and Congress found that more than $1 billion was sent to more than 250,000 dead people over 10 years.”
Dead but still collecting
By Jennie L. Phipps · Bankrate.com
Monday, February 25, 2013
Posted: 5 pm ET
A retirement planning drama took place recently in a community near Bankrate.com’s North Palm Beach office. I thought you might find it interesting.
In response to suspicions by the Social Security Office of the Inspector General, sheriff’s deputies dug up the backyard of a modest ranch home in Lake Worth, Fla., and found the bones of a woman who would have been 102 had she been alive. Then they alerted the Marietta, Ohio, police, who arrested the woman’s daughter and charged her with defrauding Social Security out of $141,962 by collecting her mom’s checks for 14 years.
Theft of government funds carries a statutory maximum possible punishment of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, a period of supervised release of up to three years and the payment of a $100 special assessment.
The Social Security Administration uncovers about 1,500 of these cases a year. The way many people get caught, according to Jonathan Lasher, a spokesman for the Office of the Inspector General, is a small problem with Medicare: The late loved ones never go to the doctor. While that might be easily overlooked when the dead relative is 65, it is not so easy to understand when the dead person has turned 100.
The other way that Social Security finds out is by fraud reports from family and friends. If you suspect someone is defrauding Social Security, call the fraud hotline at (800) 269-0271. Be prepared to provide as much of this information as you can:
•Name, address, telephone number and Social Security number of the person suspected of fraud. Also include the individual’s date and place of birth, father’s name and mother’s birth name, if known.
•A complete description of the potential fraud incident.
•Your name, address and telephone number.
How big is the total retirement fraud problem? A 2010 report compiled from government audits and reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general and Congress found that more than $1 billion was sent to more than 250,000 dead people over 10 years.
Just ridding the Social Security system of dead weight — pun intended — would go a long way toward putting it on a more solid fiscal footing.
Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/retirement/dead-but-still-collecting/#ixzz2M3S1Dz6y
Follow us: @Bankrate on Twitter | Bankrate on Facebook
DHS Contractor Apologizes For Selling Shooting Targets of Children
“Offensive” cut-outs depicting pregnant women, gun owners in residential settings removed from website
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 22, 2013
A company which received $2 million dollars from the DHS has apologized and taken offline “no more hesitation” shooting targets which depicted pregnant women, children, and elderly gun owners in residential settings as “non-traditional threats,” following an online uproar.
As we first reported on Tuesday, Law Enforcement Targets Inc. (LET), a Minneapolis based company that has received almost $2 million dollars in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security over the last three years, recently began selling cardboard cut-out targets designed to desensitize police to “non-traditional threats,” including pregnant women, mothers in school playgrounds, and little boys, as well as elderly gun owners in their homes.
The company’s relationship with the DHS, along with thousands of law enforcement agencies, led to fears that the targets could be connected with Homeland Security’s purchase of roughly 2 billion rounds of ammunition over the last year, which many fear is linked to preparations for mass social unrest. As we documented, the LET’s contracts with the DHS were for “training aids” and “paperboard”.
In its apology, posted on the company’s website as well as Facebook, LET acknowledged that the targets were requested by law enforcement agencies.
We apologize for the offensive nature of our “No More Hesitation” products. These products have been taken offline due to the opinions expressed by so many, including members of the law enforcement community.
This product line was originally requested and designed by the law enforcement community to train police officers for unusually complex situations where split-second decisions could lead to unnecessary loss of life.
Consistent with our company mission as a training supplier (not a training methods company), we will continue to seek input from law enforcement professionals to better serve their training objectives and qualification needs. We sincerely appreciate law enforcement professionals for the risks they take in providing safety and defending freedom.
The company’s excuse that the targets were designed to help police prevent “unnecessary loss of life” is highly dubious given that the images were all of armed individuals termed “non-traditional threats,” designed to ensure “no more hesitation” from police officers encountering them.
As one respondent to the company explained, “Look, each of the supposed “threats” appeared to be in their own home settings. They were also all holding a weapon….it is obvious these paper targets were never intended to be decoy (don’t shoot targets). It is apparent this was designed to assist in desensitizing the trainee.”
In addition, the company had previously struck a different tone when it told Reason’s Mike Riggs that the targets were designed to combat, “hesitation on the part of cops when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition.”
Although the targets have been taken off the company’s website, it’s unclear whether or not they have been removed from sale entirely.
Mike Lilly, a retired 32-year police officer, demanded that the targets be discontinued completely.
“Whomever convinced you this was a good idea needs psychological counseling. Proper training and readiness is NOT dependent on shooting pictures of pregnant women and children. Anyone who says otherwise is seriously mistaken or has another agenda It is noted that you say they were taken OFFLINE. Have they been DISCONTINUED AND RECALLED?” he stated.
Lilly’s concern was echoed by retired City of Houston police officer T.F. Stern, who asked why police officers were being trained “to feel nothing’s wrong in shooting a pregnant lady or an old man with a shotgun inside his own home.”
View the targets that caused the uproar below.
http://www.infowars.com/dhs-contractor-apologizes-for-selling-shooting-targets-of-children/ - 113k
OH NO not ACE……….
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ace-frehley-facing-foreclosure-20130226
I notice the MSM articles on this proposal never, ever mention who will pay for it or how much it will cost.
Obama’s mortgage bill faces tough road
By ANDREW MIGA /Associated Press
Created: 02/22/2013 12:32:24 AM PST
WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Congress isn’t likely to jump at President Barack Obama’s challenge for quick passage of a mortgage refinancing bill that supporters say could help millions of homeowners save big each year and boost the economy.
Obama praised the legislation in his State of the Union speech last week, saying the proposal would help more homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac take advantage of low interest rates and refinance their loans.
Even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, Obama said, too many families that have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being turned down.
“That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it,” the president said. “Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before.”
The economy’s slow recovery from the recession gives the idea urgency, Obama said. “Send me that bill,” he told members of Congress listening to his speech in the House chamber.
The proposal is part of a push by Democrats and the White House to help homeowners take advantage of low interest rates as a way to help the housing market recover and to give the economy a shot in the arm.
While the bill could gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it faces a rough road in the GOP-run House, where many Republicans favor scaling back the government’s role in the housing market as a way of aiding the economy. Similar versions of the measure died in the House and Senate’s lame duck sessions last year.
“At the moment, it’s an uphill battle,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who plans to file the House version of the bill.
Welch said he will reach out to Republicans this year in hopes of building more support, but the bill’s association with the government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing agencies partly blamed for the collapse of the housing market, hurts its support base among GOP lawmakers.
“The American taxpayers have already sunk $190 billion dollars into the operations of Fannie and Freddie,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, a member of the House Financial Services Committee. “It’s time that we wind their operations down instead of using them as a piggy bank for failed programs that further delay the housing recovery. ”
…
Politics: White House
Calls intensify for President Obama to break ties with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
February 25, 2013 | 8:00 pm
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 09: Fannie Mae’s headquarters in the nation’s capital are seen November 9, 2011 in Washington, DC. Citing the rise in defaults on loans it has guranteed, the government-controlled mortgage giant is asking the federal government for $7.8 billion in aid to covers its losses in the in the third quarter of FY 2011. Fannie has received $112.6 billion so far from the Treasury Department - the most expensive bailout of a single company. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Obama is facing increased pressure to eliminate the government-backed mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after months of very limited progress by the White House to loosen the failed mortgage giants’ grip on the rebounding real estate market.
Five years after the housing market crashed, Obama has focused primarily on helping homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages get refinancing. But that effort has required even greater government reliance on Fannie and Freddie without making any substantial push to create a new home-financing system that’s influenced more by the private sector. Since being taken over by the federal government, Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers $137 billion.
“There has never been any White House leadership on this,” said David John, a senior research fellow in retirement security and financial institutions at the Heritage Foundation. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have outlived their usefulness. The real hesitation to do too much while housing was very weak — that ceases to be an excuse.”
In his State of the Union address, Obama touted a “healing” housing market, but Fannie, Freddie and other federal agencies are now responsible for 90 percent of all new housing loans. The administration floated the idea of eliminating Fannie and Freddie in a paper released a year ago, but the suggestion was put on the back burner ahead of the presidential election.
In recent weeks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hinted at such reforms but added, “We don’t expect to legislate this year.”
A new report released Monday by the Bipartisan Policy Center said Obama and Congress could ill afford to ignore broader housing reforms. The group called for the elimination of Fannie and Freddie and increased involvement from private interests, saying the current arrangement “failed and should not be repeated.” The report was authored by former Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, former Republican Sens. Mel Martinez and Kit Bond and Henry Cisneros, President Clinton’s Housing and Urban Development secretary.
“Greater federal intervention was necessary when the market collapsed but the dominant position currently held by the government is unsustainable,” the report concluded. “Reducing the government footprint and encouraging greater participation by risk-bearing private capital will protect taxpayers while providing for a greater diversity of funding sources.”
Under the proposal, a “public guarantor” would oversee the issuance of mortgage-backed securities by private companies and banks. The public guarantor would only be used if private insurance failed and would be funded by a federal insurance pool established from fees on the mortgage-backed securities.
…
“The public guarantor would only be used if private insurance failed and would be funded by a federal insurance pool established from fees on the mortgage-backed securities.”
Why start off with a too-big-to-fail feature? Why not just let individual banks compete for the risk and eat the losses in case they screw up their risk underwriting? The good ole fashioned way?
And also break up the too-big-to-fails, lest the taxpayer ends up holding the bag (again!)…