Bits Bucket for May 10, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
November 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Does anyone else remember a time where so much MSM time has been dedicated to people predicting the next collapse?
I’m certain there has been a time, I’m sure…but for this long? We’re going on 3 years+ with the constant “next collapse” predictions.
stocks and homes will take you to the glory land
It’s astounding to me that someone notices the ones predicting collapse but forgets the elephant in the room.
Obama?
Liars lie. Incessantly.
if you can ignore the stench of the piles of rotting corpses, the kool-aid tastes great
LMAO
+1
Original!
New HBB Haiku–
If you can ignore
The stench of rotting corpses
The koolaid tastes great
It’s a contrarian signal that stocks and housing will always go up from now on, as they steadily climb up an ice cliff of worry.
Speaking of ice cliffs, we know a few people who are climbing Denali right now, one of whom, if successful, will be the first woman ever to ski off of Denali’s summit.
we as in the HBB community or we as in you and your personal friends?
just wondering if it’s someone here.
The squad posts in the first person plural to speak of “the royal we”.
Translation: my friend C (who is really hot and played soccer for CU Boulder) wants to be the first woman ever to ski Denali.
It all stems from the MSM’s irrational hatred of Ben Bernanke.
Who recalls when there was a housing bubble which no establishment economist dared mention, out of fear that some high fallutin’ academic like Paul Krugman would mock them?
Apparently we are all bubble heads now.
Op-Ed Columnist
Bernanke, Blower of Bubbles?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 9, 2013
Bubbles can be bad for your financial health — and bad for the health of the economy, too. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s left behind many vacant buildings and many more failed dreams. When the housing bubble of the next decade burst, the result was the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s — a crisis from which we have yet to emerge.
So when people talk about bubbles, you should listen carefully and evaluate their claims — not scornfully dismiss them, which was the way many self-proclaimed experts reacted to warnings about housing.
And there’s a lot of bubble talk out there right now. Much of it is about an alleged bond bubble that is supposedly keeping bond prices unrealistically high and interest rates — which move in the opposite direction from bond prices — unrealistically low. But the rising Dow has raised fears of a stock bubble, too.
So do we have a major bond and/or stock bubble? On bonds, I’d say definitely not. On stocks, probably not, although I’m not as certain.
What is a bubble, anyway? Surprisingly, there’s no standard definition. But I’d define it as a situation in which asset prices appear to be based on implausible or inconsistent views about the future. Dot-com prices in 1999 made sense only if you believed that many companies would all turn out to be a Microsoft; housing prices in 2006 only made sense if you believed that home prices could keep rising much faster than buyers’ incomes for years to come.
Is there anything comparable going on in today’s bond market? Well, the interest rate on long-term bonds depends mainly on the expected path of short-term interest rates, which are controlled by the Federal Reserve. You don’t want to buy a 10-year bond at less than 2 percent, the current going rate, if you believe that the Fed will be raising short-term rates to 4 percent or 5 percent in the not-too-distant future.
But why, exactly, should you believe any such thing?
…
“But I’d define it as a situation in which asset prices appear to be based on implausible or inconsistent views about the future”
wow…an expert economist and this is the extent of his bubble analysis?
a very key element of a bubble is government policy that encourages the mal-investment.
30 years of massive misallocation of capital into rapidly depreciating assets is horrible policy. And the deleveraging from that mess is in right in front of us.
And you already know what happens to the asset value when the deleveraging begins.
It’s like he’s describing being on a raft on a river which leads to Niagara falls. The general consensus is yes, there is a giant waterfall SOMEWHERE ahead. The doomsayers are saying it’s within half a mile. The pollyannas are saying it’s a hundred miles away, and we’ll have plenty of warning as it nears.
Japan is closer to the waterfall, and they’re at 200% government debt to GDP.
It seems to me that we should be trying to get off the river to the falls, not arguing about how close we are to the falls, and seeing how much farther we can push it.
It seems to me that we should be trying to get off the river to the falls, not arguing about how close we are to the falls, and seeing how much farther we can push it.
But the river is going the direction we want to go and we’re making such lovely progress!?!?
printing money to pay govt debts is an ingenious idea that goes back to the roman empire.
Seems like once politicians get use to the easy money they keep wanting more the next time around.
Have we ever had a time when so much of the so-called free markets were totally manipulated by a united cabal of central banks leaving us all in a surreal suspended animation?
Does anyone else remember a time where so much MSM time has been dedicated to people predicting the next collapse?
I don’t think so. I read somewehere that in the 70’s and 80’s while we were making fun of Soviets for their central plans, we were quietly doing the same thing.
Believe the propaganda at your own peril.
Spot on Plan A.
The inversion you described are everywhere. One has to be willing to look.
Last 4 years have been an eye opening to say the least.
I can’t take the fraud & dishonesty in every segment of this country anymore. Will another country have me? I am sure it’s the same $hit there, too.
The last 4 years broke new records in graft, corruption and price fixing.
I am sure it’s the same $hit there, too.
The fix is in and it’s global.
Our planning was more successful because it was less centralized.
1932.
As “joe” and I pointed out yesterday on the key article thread, 7 years is a biological herd cycle and the PTB are and have been, manipulating it.
Look to the lessons of the Savings & Loan disaster as well as the history of RE boom/busts of this country.
It becomes plain as day.
I was just thinking about this very thing. I see a lot of places screaming doom and gloom, but the economy keeps trundling along.
HOWEVER - I do like to dis-aggregate the data. The Bernank himself warned of important pieces of information being lost in aggregated data. It was back in 2004-2005 when I realized the S was going to HTF.
It has been unprecedented central bank and government intervention which have managed to THUS FAR keep the previous economic model going (namely, flipping houses, and specifically, the underlying bond market, was going to lead the nation (at least the financial sector) to prosperity).
The questions that many of us have is - how long can it (massive deficits, unsterilized MBS and government debt purchase by the Fed) go on without something breaking? Can it continue indefinitely? If not, when does it end? And if it does end, what does that look like?
I want to buy a house. However, houses have not been cheap in 13 years. The timeframe 2001 to 2004 was when the market went nuclear. And the government and central bank are defending those debauched-lending driven prices with these unprecendented interventions. What’s been the net result of that?
Like I say, I want to buy a house. I want to buy a house that is relatively cheap. Like I want to buy stocks that are relatively cheap. The house prices are being maintained by these unprecedented interventions.
My questions about the interventions are:
1) How long can they last?
2) If not forever, what’s it going to look like when the interventions are drawn down?
3) What’s going to happen in the meantime?
It’s worthwhile to ponder these things. Instead of just stampeding with the herd. Of course, sometimes the herd is right, and there is a lion chasing. Other times, the herd is wrong, and it goes off a cliff.
My guess is that the predictions of doom and gloom in the media and the chances/timing of it happening have little coorelation. The media mostly skipped reporting the last 2000 bubble because they wanted add revenue, but this time can run the doom and gloom stories with less risk of losing the ads.
As for your three questions, they’re good ones. I’d like to ramble about the ‘how long’ one.
1. Government won’t stop running deficits and using QE because people demand it, because people won’t demand it. I think it’s a path to ruin, but I don’t believe the majority understand enough nor will want to believe if they do understand.
2. I’ve given up on bond vigilantes putting a stop to this mess. They’ve bought to much and gotten in to deep.
3. Politicians won’t try to end QE or be fiscally responsible on their own initiative. It’s too late to actually balance the budget let alone make any headway in paying down debt. And they can’t risk letting buyers set prices independant of QE, so they can’t stop QE either.
4. The only option left will be a rejection of the US currency. This will most likely come from external powers (ie China requiring specie instead of green backs) although most external powers have similar issues of their own, and like the bond vigilantees have accepted too much US debt and currency.
If the US was a household, someone would have forced it into bankruptcy already. Because it’s the most powerful nation with the reserve currency, this could drag out a long long time.
Am I missing something?
4. - screw China. We have thousands of Nukes to back up our currency.
How about zone off the internet and stop the flow of control. It would hurt us a lot more than it would them.
It’s sad that you believe that.
Without China to build our computers what would we surf the housingbubbleblog on?
“We have thousands of Nukes to back up our currency.”
I can see the negotiations.
“Take our worthless fiatscoes, or glow…”
If the US was a household, someone would have forced it into bankruptcy already.
But it isn’t a household. It isn’t going to retire someday (though it will eventually die). It’ll be around long after our grandkids bite the dust.
Exactly. The US is not a household and such simplistic analogies do nothing to recognize, let alone begin to fix, the problems.
And that’s the first damn problem right there. People are too dumb to even know how to ask the question.
Colo and eco, read my second sentence in the same para. At the same time, I’d challenge that the US would be a better country if it acted like it was a household and faced the same consequences.
2. I’ve given up on bond vigilantes putting a stop to this mess. They’ve bought to much and gotten in to deep.
I agree with all of your points, but am not so sure on this one.
The so-called “bond vigilantes” are really merely speculators with deep pockets. If they thought that they could stampede the herd and make a healthy profit off of doing so, they would do it in a heartbeat. It does not take so long to go from “way long” to “way short”.
I think the real issue is that with the entire world in the cr@pper, there is nowhere to credibly stampede the herd TO. I think that is the only thing stopping them.
I tend to agree…however, allowing the Fed to get away with this I think is reliant upon the recent deficit shrinkage to continue…which it won’t unless there is some entitlement reform.
I think we may have bond vigilante’s relaxing as the Fed may simply telegraph shrinking their balance sheet over a LONG period of time in the context of shrinking deficits. That will be when complacency sets in, and we have less doom/gloom in the MSM.
However, I think absent real entitlement reform, entitlement spending will balloon as boomers retire in greater numbers, and just after everyone gets complacent…BAM!, we have the bond market crash that people are expecting now…will it be 3 years out? 5 years? 8 years?
I just don’t think it’s as immediate as the pundits predict.
“am I missing something?”
Nope. Housing has always been and always will be “too expensive” — even during its cyclical slumps. But some will always break down, take a deep breath, and buy it anyway. And a certain percentage of those will prosper.
You can wait a whole lifetime waiting for reality to match your version of rational.
….koolade drinker….. don’t stumble over the piles of corpses.
“However, houses have not been cheap in 13 years.”
This is an understatement. The current inflated asking prices of resale housing is well over 200% above trend.
The bright side of this? New product will continue to drag resale prices lower. And even better, the added inventory compounds the price reductions.
“However, houses have not been cheap in 13 years.”
+1 This is a huge country, and modest housing in most of its expanse is priced around 2.5 x local income or less. However, most people do [not] want to live in these areas for any number of personal reasons such as technology specific employment, children of the corn clans, long cold winters, etc., which leaves most home buyers fighting over scarce metro or coastline area that is subject to massive government intervention, graft and corruption.
This is a huge country, and modest housing in most of its expanse is priced around 2.5 x local income or less.
I don’t think that’s true any more, depending on your definition of “modest housing” and “local income”.
modest housing is priced around 2.5 x local income or less
This applies mostly to areas where there is no reason to buy a house, except to retire, and probably not even then.
“This applies mostly to areas where there is no reason to buy a house, except to retire, and probably not even then.”
+1 I agree totally.
In my case I am raising a family, and my expenses need to be less than our one income; old fashioned ‘ya know. FWIW, I never imagined living in fly-over country while I was pushing myself through engineering school. I’m glad I bought when I did and paid it off ASAP because teenagers are expensive, and college costs are looming.
Maryland’s got a nice state government data tool, which lists all the houses in Maryland and typically (but not always) their purchase history.
So, I was looking at this one street, about 20 houses. Back in the late 80s they were around 120K. By 2001 they were about 130K. By 2004, around 200K. By 2006, they were in the upper 300s. Recent comps, 2010 to 2012 were around 280 or so. One is back on the market in the upper 300s.
I see this pattern repeated all around the area.
This is a flawed economic model and the central bank and government are spending vast amounts of money to keep it going, which benefits the debt/bond market participants in the near term. It’s a reverse Robin Hood model. Keep housing unaffordable which mires people in debt. Keep a constant stream of inflation which makes people poorer. But it benefits people who keep contributing back to politicians at all levels, so it continues.
The policy makers keep talking about a wealth effect. Well, inflation has a reverse wealth effect. And crazy thing, you want people to have a wealth effect? Create policies which allow them to actually build some wealth.
Reverse Robin Hood.
“+1 This is a huge country, and modest housing in most of its expanse is priced around 2.5 x local income or less. However, most people do [not] want to live in these areas for any number of personal reasons such as technology specific employment, children of the corn clans, long cold winters, etc., which leaves most home buyers fighting over scarce metro or coastline area that is subject to massive government intervention, graft and corruption.”
Some people do what you describe. Most people live in modestly priced areas of the country. People who spend $3000 a month rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC or buy a $800K 2 bedroom house in SoCal are part of a small minority of Americans.
“I want to buy a house. However, houses have not been cheap in 13 years. ”
After 13 years doesn’t something become the new normal as opposed to a blip?
That’s a good question. Depends on what’s driving it.
1) The initial run-up was driven by debauched lending, and the ability of lenders to totally shed repayment risk. This was an unusual phenomenon.
2) The current price levels are maintained by unprecedented interventions by the Fed and government pumping vast amounts of money to defend those house prices. They’re doing this through borrowing money and printing money. Also by public-private partnerships with hedge funds to keep foreclosures off the market.
The only question going forward is, is the current model sustainable? The Fed and government are trying to maintain a flawed economic model IMHO, one that imploded. I don’t know how long they can maintain it.
Movies were $5 a ticket in the 80s. Today they’re $10+. That’s the new reality. Some people refuse to shell out $10 to see a movie. And that’s fine, there are plenty of other entertainment alternatives to the movies. But that doesn’t mean prices will ever go back down to $5.
And this is the same phenomenon with housing. After 13 years (or even longer since rapid price appreciation started in the late 90s) of expensive houses, I don’t think houses will ever be “cheap” again. At least not to mid 90s levels which is what everyone here seems to pine for. After 15 years of a trend, things just don’t go back. Movie prices, gas prices, groceries, you name it. We’re never going to see $1 gas again, we’re never going to see $5 movie tickets again and we’re never going to see $175K new houses for sale in SoCal again.
Care to wager on that?
The fact remains that housing prices are inflated by 200% +(350% in CA) which is why housing demand has collapsed to mid 1990’s level.
Well, regarding inflation, here’s an inflation calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
As far as where prices are going, you might be right. But, it’s important to understand WHY prices were what they were, and why they are what they are now.
The government and Fed program to defend the imploded economic model of house flipping is very, very expensive. Can they keep it up? Maybe.
But, as you note, as I have, if something is too expensive, there is a very simple solution: Don’t buy it.
No one is holding a gun to anyone’s head to buy $300/sq. foot houses or condos. Also, has been astutely noted here, “It’s not rape if you volunteer.”
Maybe owning a house is going to be a luxury going forward, although it would be pretty crappy if the middle class were in fact priced out forever.
I want to buy a house. However, houses have not been cheap in 13 years.
Face up, you are now priced out forever. Resign yourself to your fate.
I know I am.
Well, I don’t know what the future holds. But just like anything else, if something I want is too expensive, I don’t buy it. Renting has actually been pretty good to my net worth. I have friends who bought before the bubble went nuclear and the comps in their neighborhoods are double what they paid. That difference is gravy to the FIRE sector, enforced by the central bank.
However, I want a Rolls Royce too, but I can’t afford that either. So, the next best thing it is.
FYI, for those friends whose houses are worth double - they can’t make money off the house, because selling just means they need to buy a yet more expensive house. The NET RESULT of higher house prices to them is just higher property taxes.
Now, if someone is bailing out to Oil City, then they can realize some gains.
Also, I actually found Oil City in Pennsylvania: http://goo.gl/maps/DeLr1
That indeed is the Oil City Plan. Mid-boomers (age 56 or so) who bought when they were 29 could probably realize upwards of $300K if they sell. They could buy an oil city house outright for $60K, and live off the cash and some half-time job until SS or a pension or the 401K kicks in.
The only thing stopping them is health insurance. We’ll see what these “exchanges” can do.
Your MSM sources must be different from mine. All I’ve heard for the last 5 years have been incessant calls that the “bottom is in” for housing.
Bernanke’s Neofeudal Rentier Economy
The Fed has directly created a neofeudal rentier economy and society.
Charles Hugh Smith
May 7, 2013
This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy.
Why Krugman and the Keynesians Are Lackeys for the Neofeudal Debtocracy (April 24, 2013)
(I separate the bottom 95% from the top 4.5% and the .5% financier class for several reasons: 1) most of the stocks and bonds are owned by the top 5%; 2) the top 4.5% is shedding debt while the bottom 95% are adding debt; 3) the income of the top 4.5% is rising while household income of the bottom 95% is declining, and 4)the top 4.5% have access to lower-cost credit than the bottom 95%, but they do not have access to billions of dollars in nearly-free credit from the Fed or the shadow banking system like the financier class.)
Let’s take rental housing as an example of this Fed-driven rentier economy. The financiers borrow $1 billion in nearly-free money and use these funds to buy thousands of houses for cash. Since they can offer cash, they beat out households with approved mortgage applications.
This is the story one hears anecdotally: potential home buyers have a mortgage application approved, all they need is to have their offer for a house accepted. But the house is sold to an investor with cash.
So while the Federal housing agencies are offering low-interest, low-down payment mortgages to marginally qualified (or flat-out unqualified) buyers, the Fed is enabling the financier class to outbid conventional homebuyers.
Things are falling apart–that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand. We will cover the five core reasons why things are falling apart:
1. Debt and financialization
2. Crony capitalism and the elimination of accountability
3. Diminishing returns
4. Centralization
5. Technological, financial and demographic changes in our economy
Complex systems weakened by diminishing returns collapse under their own weight and are replaced by systems that are simpler, faster and affordable. If we cling to the old ways, our system will disintegrate. If we want sustainable prosperity rather than collapse, we must embrace a new model that is Decentralized, Adaptive, Transparent and Accountable (DATA).
We are not powerless. Not accepting responsibility and being powerless are two sides of the same coin: once we accept responsibility, we become powerful.
The Real Reverse Robin Hood: Ben Bernanke and his Merry Band of Thieves (August 31, 2012).
http://beforeitsnews.com/gold-and-precious-metals/2013/05/fsn-bernankes-neofeudal-rentier-economy-2499926.html - 25k -
Good article.
And these are the same people who go on and whine about the growing income disparity. Jesus, I hate stupid people.
Jesus loves stupid people. Jesus loves everybody.
Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzE76nUSjL8
“Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford”
Once you strip away all the Greenspan-speak, it really is pretty simple.
Talk like that will get you labeled a racist, a 1%er and someone who wants to starve kids and throw grandma in the street (although I may have that last part backwards - I can never keep it straight).
Where’d you get that idea? That was clip from a network TV show. Did someone accuse NBC of racism after it was broadcast?
Woman: Let me see that! “If you don’t have any money, you shouldn’t buy anything.” Sounds interesting!
Man: Sounds confusing.
Let’s take rental housing as an example of this Fed-driven rentier economy. The financiers borrow $1 billion in nearly-free money and use these funds to buy thousands of houses for cash. Since they can offer cash, they beat out households with approved mortgage applications.
That.
Population growth is the lowest in US history. As the death rate among 70 million boomers continues to escalate, they will leave 35 MILLION empty houses. This is in addition to the 25 million excess empty houses already in inventory.
No wonder they’re pushing the shamnasty bill so hard.
One of the reasons. The other is tax revenue.
When you eliminate good paying jobs, you have to make up for the reduced tax base by have a lot more low paying jobs. i.e. low paid employees.
There will be 40 mil+ legal americans in next 10 years.
Housing will skyrocket.
Default on a loan?
No problema! Back to Mayheeco!
Every one of these new immigrants will make an all-cash real estate investment purchase or ten…
One in ten Los Angeles County residents are in USA illegally:
http://touch.latimes.com/#story/la-me-ln-usc-immigrant-study-20130507/
Only 1 in 10? That’s much lower than I would have thought.
“Only 1 in 10? That’s much lower than I would have thought.”
It seems we have found yet another shadow inventory.
From the article:
“Immigrants residing in Los Angeles County illegally make a median wage of $18,000 a year, compared with $47,000 for U.S.-born residents. ”
And yet we’re to believe that these people who make $18K a year are a net benefit to the country economically. And we’re also to believe they won’t cost taxpayers any money when they are legalized via amnesty and immediately eligible for every welfare benefit out there. Are people out there really this gullible?
Don’t be such a buzzkill, dude. Just slap a COEXIST sticker on that.
Remember, our differences only make us stronger!
I’ve heard I claimed that they won’t qualify for such benefits. I do not believe this claim.
I’ve heard I claimed that they won’t qualify for such benefits. I do not believe this claim.
It’s hard to have them turn out and vote without those benefits. Democrats are a loot smarter than that.
Of course they will qualify. Once they get a green card they get everything available to green card holders. No judge in the land would allow a 1st class green card and 2nd class green card situation where green card 1 gets benefits and green card 2 doesn’t. Same when they become citizens. I’ve heard some suggestions that illegals who become citizens be denied the right to vote. Never gonna happen even if it’s in a bill. The second the bill is signed, that portion will be overturned by a judge.
Felons are prevented from voting in a lot of states.
“Felons are prevented from voting in a lot of states ” until they become blue states. There, fixed it for ya!
Once again, when you view it through the prism of matching up jobs to the population so we can pare back welfare rolls vs matching up housing to new suckers, this conversation takes on a totally different slant.
The Texas Economic Lesson Obama Refuses To Learn
Investor’s Business Daily | 05/09/2013 | John Merline
President Obama went to Texas on Thursday to kick off a nationwide tour pushing his economic policies, apparently unaware that Texas has thrived the past four years by doing pretty much the opposite of what Obama has prescribed.
Since taking office, Obama has pushed more government as the way to get the economy moving. He dramatically boosted spending, imposed massive amounts of new regulations, ran enormous deficits, and has imposed more than $1 trillion in tax hikes.
At the same time, Obama has berated those who advocate tax cuts and deregulation as key ingredients for economic growth and prosperity, saying such policies have “never worked.”
But Obama’s policies have produced the most sluggish economic recovery since the Great Depression. GDP growth has topped 2.5% in just four of the 15 quarters since the recovery started. The country is still 2.6 million jobs shy of the previous employment peak set back in January 2008. Poverty rates are up; real household incomes are down.
The Lone Star state has the 6th lowest tax burden in the country, according to the Tax Foundation, and has the third smallest government per-capita in the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
It also consistently ranks as one of the most business-friendly states in the country. Chief Executive magazine, for example, has ranked Texas No. 1 for eight years in a row, citing “its business-friendly tax and regulatory environment.”
And since the recovery started in June 2009, Texas has outperformed Obama on every important economic measure.
Jobs: Private sector jobs have shot up 10% in Texas since June 2009, which is twice the national growth rate. And while U.S. employment is still 2% below its pre-recession peak, in Texas it’s 5% above the state’s previous high.
Labor force: Nationwide, the labor force — the number of people who have jobs or are actively looking — has remained virtually flat since the recovery started, climbing just 0.3% over the past 45 months. Texas, in contrast, has seen its labor force climb 6.2%, as workers flood the state.
GDP: And Texas’ economy has grown faster than the overall economy since Obama took office. Between 2009 and 2011, real GDP in Texas expanded 8.7%, while the nation’s overall GDP managed just 4.6% growth, according to the BEA.
And while Obama and his backers complain that austerity is now standing in the way of economic growth, Texas proves that more government spending and government jobs aren’t needed to grow the economy.
Overall state spending has been flat since 2010, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers, and BLS data show that state and local government jobs dropped 16,500 since the recovery started.
Ahh, Texas. So nice to be such a “leader” in state rankings of:
child poverty
infant mortality
uninsured
obesity
air pollution
et cetera
And what % of those people who have children in poverty, have infants dying, are uninsured, etc are illegals? As for obesity….
Texas: 30.4%, bunch of fat Rednecks. Why can’t they be more like those trim and fit NE and Midwest states like
Indiana 30.8%
Ohio 29.6%
Pennsylvania 28.6%
Michigan: 31.1%
Maryland: 28.3%
Delaware: 28.8%
Break that down by race:
Texas: 62.2% of whites are categorized as overweight/obese. WHOA!! 62%, bunch of stupid inbred rednecks. Stop shoving fries and pizza down your throats already. They should look to NE states where everyone eats salads and tofu for health tips. States like Maryland (also 62.2% of whites obese/overweight) or NY state (59.3%) or NH (61.5%) or Pennsylvania (63.8%) or New Jersey (60.3%) for weight loss tips.
Sorry, being tied for 10th place doesn’t qualify Texas as a “leader”
http://healthyamericans.org/report/98/
I’ve never, ever, known anyone to accuse the Midwest states of being “trim and fit.”
I’ve never, ever, known anyone to accuse the Midwest states of being “trim and fit.”
Obesity is everywhere in the US now. For years I heard about the obesity epidemic but only noticed a lot of overweight people when I left the city.
No more: even places like Boulder and SF have a large percentage of people with weight problems.
What really makes me sad is when I see obese toddlers.
Sleepless, I’m from the Carolinas (born in NC, living in SC now), so I can accuse them of that. Compared to us, people in the Midwest are sculpted gods.
Obesity is everywhere in the US now.
Indeed. Even in the supposedly fit environs of the NW, there is much excess.
…but at least some areas have reputations for being fit. The Midwest was never one of them…
…but at least some areas have reputations for being fit. The Midwest was never one of them…
Actually I believe that Colorado ranked the lowest while Mississippi ranked the highest, IIRC. A few years ago too.
Actually I believe that Colorado ranked the lowest while Mississippi ranked the highest, IIRC. A few years ago too.
At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority in any state are fat, ugly and stupid. Is it 80% or 85%, a small difference.
Look at the data:
For Whites:
West Virginia is highest at 69.3%
Hawaii is lowest at 52.1%
The healthiest state still has over 1/2 its population considered obese or overweight. And it’s not so cut and dry as “West and Northeast is fit, South is fat”. Georgia is at 59.6%, NY is at 59.3%. Maine is at 65.3%, Texas is at 62.2%.
Point is every state is fat. Some are a little fatter than others. But that’s a little like saying the “healthy” states are the tallest midgets.
And I used whites as examples. The rates for Hispanics and blacks is higher than that of whites in every state. Which is why states like TX with a lot of hispanics skew to the “fat” column while states like Vermont with about 3 Hispanics in the entire state skew to healthy overall. But look at just white populations in all states and with a few outliers like W. WA, they’re all in the mid 50s to low 60s.
The Fittest and Fattest Cities in US
I did gain 15 pounds living in TX in 8 weeks on a college internship. Blame it on $3.75 Chicken-fried-steak/Cornbread/SweetTea lunches and bacon-wrapped sirloin for dinner that were bought by visiting managers on corporate expense accounts.
Of course, other than working and partying, there was nothing else to do but be a gym rat (2x per day) so some of the gain was muscular in nature as well.
is it better to have a job and be uninsured, or to be unemployed and on medicare?
People on medicare are over 65. You really think it is going to be possible for most of them to go out and get a job?
People on medicare are over 65. You really think it is going to be possible for most of them to go out and get a job?
He’s thinking about Medicaid, Polly.
A lot of the things on your list are individual / family metrics. If there are a lot of poor people then there is cheap labor - not a bad ingredient for a good business economy.
The title of the article is The Texas Economic Lesson Obama Refuses To Learn. So what you’re saying is that lesson Obama is ignoring is that is America would become a more business-friendly country if drove more of our people into poverty.
business-friendly country if drove more of our people into poverty.
People will become more poorer that’s going to happen regardless. The problem with Obama is why is he so hell bent on increasing living cost on these poor (and becoming poorer) people?
why is he so hell bent on increasing living cost on these poor (and becoming poorer) people?
It doesn’t matter a bit, as long as the newly poor don’t blame HIM for their situation. Blame-shifting is easy to do, and profitable for politicians.
Which living costs is Obama trying to increase for poor people?
Texas has high property taxes. IIRC they also tax corporations’ retained earnings. Both good ideas, IMO.
Yeah, come to any NYS city outside of NYC and view the future w/a high property tax state. They’re all dying.
Texas has no income tax. Makes high property taxes not so hard to handle. NY, NJ, CT etc have high property tax AND high income tax.
High sales tax as well in Texas.
Texas creates alot [sic] of jobs. Poorly paying jobs, but jobs nonetheless.
They have no choice. The lawyers’ hourly fees are too damn expensive.
Texas companies use NY, DC, CA, or IL law firms like everyone else (there are a few exceptions, obviously).
After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation
WEST, Tex. — Five days after an explosion at a fertilizer plant leveled a wide swath of this town, Gov. Rick Perry tried to woo Illinois business officials by trumpeting his state’s low taxes and limited regulations. Asked about the disaster, Mr. Perry responded that more government intervention and increased spending on safety inspections would not have prevented what has become one of the nation’s worst industrial accidents in decades.
Texas has always prided itself on its free-market posture. It is the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage. It boasts the largest city in the country, Houston, with no zoning laws. It does not have a state fire code, and it prohibits smaller counties from having such codes. Some Texas counties even cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.
But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade. Fires and explosions at Texas’ more than 1,300 chemical and industrial plants have cost as much in property damage as those in all the other states combined for the five years ending in May 2012. Compared with Illinois, which has the nation’s second-largest number of high-risk sites, more than 950, but tighter fire and safety rules, Texas had more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs.
small price to pay for all those McJobs they create down there
/sarc
Darn those facts.
“alot [sic]“
You’ll have to get ALOT engraved on your headstone, Joe.
Texas had a deficit as large as CA. The only reason they don’t now is bookkeeping tricks.
The ONLY reason.
Doesn’t the high price of gas help Texas?
When you consider the tax breaks the oil companies, no.
“Texas had a deficit as large as CA. The only reason they don’t now is bookkeeping tricks. The ONLY reason.”
You’re probably right. The fact that unemployment in TX is 50% lower than CA, and has been for several years has no effect on fiscal matters. Just those darned accounting tricks that apparently only TX uses.
A Brief History of American Welfare State
RealClearHistory.com | 05/09/2013 | Brian Vanyo
According to deficit forecasts in President Barack Obama’s latest budget, the national debt will surpass $20 trillion by 2016. If this occurs (and it is almost certain to occur), then Obama will add more to the national debt during his presidency than all prior presidents combined , despite collecting projected record-high tax receipts each year of his last term in office.
The largest expenditure in Obama’s budget — and the largest federal outlay in every budget since 1970 — is an expense item labeled “payments for individuals,” which includes spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disability payments, and other federal welfare subsidies. These payments comprised 65 percent of all federal spending in 2012 and are expected to grow to 70 percent in 2016. (By contrast, national defense spending was 19 percent of the federal budget in 2012 and will decrease to only 14 percent in 2016.)
National defense spending to decrease? That’s unpossible!
Reminder: coffee is for closers. Lockheed Martin = closers.
http://picpaste.com/IMG_20130430_111316_621-c7nI4P9h.jpg
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/03/16/corporations-record-huge-returns-from-tax-lobbying-gridlock-congress-stalls-reform/omgZvDPa37DNlSqi0G95YK/story.html
http://www.corporations.org/welfare/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/25/government-subsidies-corporations_n_1912835.html
You were saying?
Obama welfare Obama taking our guns Obama sharia law Obama gay marriage Obama drone strike Obama suveillance Obama socialism Obama Kenya Obama Indonesia Obama dog meat Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama.
I don’t agree with all the “it’s all Obama’s fault” either, BUT he does have the ability to veto ANY bill that comes across his desk. I can say I haven’t seen any strong leadership from the man.
Ecofeco there should be no “corporate” taxes. They’re overhead and get added to the cost of every loaf of bread, pair of shoes, or gallon of gas. Maybe you feel better paying taxes if they’re hidden into the price of things but you’re paying the taxes none the less. Of course politicians love taxes that are hidden. They’re less painful.
Spoken like a good little corporate commie.
But have no fear! We’re halfway to your Banana Republic nirvana already!
http://www.classwarfareexists.com/wsj-nearly-70-of-u-s-corporations-pay-no-taxes/
“The percentage of U.S. corporations organized as nontaxable businesses has grown from about 24% in 1986 to about 69% as of 2008, according to the latest-available Internal Revenue Service data. The percentage of all firms is far higher when partnerships and sole proprietors are included.”
From that liberal commie rag, the WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577026361246836488.html
That’s true of all taxes that anyone in business pays, including property taxes, sales taxes, FICA taxes, etc.
Our current leadership.
Biden: ‘I’m Proudest’ of the Stimulus
Weekly Standard - 10 MAY 2013
Vice President Joe Biden says that of first term accomplishments, he’s “proudest” of the stimulus. He made the comment in an interview to Rolling Stone magazine.
“The thing I’m proudest of that we were able to get done in the first term was the Recovery Act,” said Biden. The “Recovery Act” is also known as the stimulus.
The vice president went on to say that he’s particularly proud of the “clean-energy programs” that were part of the the stimulus. “It had $90 billion in clean-energy programs. We had a lot of money going into research and development, and also tax credits for wind and solar energy. Republicans say to me, ‘That’s not government’s role,’ and I say, ‘Why in the devil do you think we have the investment tax credit you guys get for drilling for oil? How did that start?’ The reason it started was six, seven decades ago, we didn’t have the technology to know how many dry wells you had to dig before you hit a gusher, so we rewarded people for going out and exploring. We still spend $4 billion a year on that – and they don’t even need it anymore. And yet they fight us on renewable-energy tax credits.”
Solyndra is what people think of when the money Obama spent on “clean energy” programs. What’s really funny is that’s only one company. We were a DoE contractor until last year, and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of Recovery Act funded projects riddled with waste, fraud and abuse. And they will never be audited by DCAA. And the money will never be recovered. Oh, the tales we could tell were it not for confidentiality agreements…
We need moar and moar of these - Democrats
ARRA projects were an absolute nightmare to administer. Never again.
Solyndra? Put out of business by China’s state backed solar manufacturers.
They should really talk about Tesla.
Seems like that’s been a great investment.
US is now the leader in electric cars.
Shapping up to be the early Apple/Google of autos.
In my state the Gov set up a state funded operation to just hand money out to local businesses that donated to him. Many of these were grants ie gifts rather than loan guarantees or loans. Then the state run entitity forgot to track it’s loans and grants. Poof goes the tax payer money.
Tesla’s success is premature. They will go the way of fisker if no more government support. I read that Tesla was suing governement for the loans or something like that.
Tesla - Only in America where a government would give 100’s of millions of dollars to a car company so the car company would produce a car base priced at $100,000 that only the wealthy could afford…
Ah, but Tesla is a HUGE obama campaign contributor. So now it all makes sense.
Wrong. They have a very close partnership with Toyota these days.
Stock value has nearly tripled since I invested.
They gave money to ford nissan gm and others as well with the goal of creating cars that reduce our dependance on middle east oil. Which funds Pakistans madrassas and nukes via Saudi Arabia, Irans nukes Hezbollah, Al Queida etc. It was the reason we went into Iraq and spent over a trillion dollars.
So for a small investment they created a company that has a shot at becoming a major global player. Yes they built an expensive car, uhm they are an upstart and can’t start with a cheap car produced on a large scale. Nissan’s Leaf is now only 28k, 21k with tax break. GM says the VOLT will cost 10k less in teh next 5 years. The prices will keep falling. Tesla has plans for a 30k car in the next couple of years.
Remember when cell phones and computers came out. Now see where prices are.
I’d say the gov is going to make quite a windfall in tax returns on all the people who have made money on Tesla Stock. And all the new employees at a company stealing market share from Mercedes BMW Lexus Infiniti and Porshe.
We created American Jobs and reduced our need for oil.
I’d say the gov is going to make quite a windfall in tax returns on all the people who have made money on Tesla Stock. And all the new employees at a company stealing market share from Mercedes BMW Lexus Infiniti and Porshe.
We created American Jobs and reduced our need for oil.
Whoa, koolaid drinker! Obama’s hiring few of you to preach the good news. MSM, too.
Hey take a good look at how the market values TSLA.
Like I said my investment nearly tripled. Take a look at the perfect score consumer report gave the car. Take a look at Motor Trends car of the year. You guys let your hatred and idiology stand in the way of logic facts and your own good.
You guys let your hatred and idiology stand in the way of logic facts and your own good.
…not to mention innovation. They’ll never acknowledge how public most of the “private” sector is, or was. I’m not sure nanners even realizes what he posted there.
Let’s give them a quiz
How has the gov directly helped,
1. Telecom companies
2. Train companies
3. Energy Sector
4. Defense contractors
5. Pharmaceutical companies - Hint - In addition to research we may have one you remember called Medicare prescription drug plan
Exxons tax breaks alone dwarf the help given to GM,Ford,Nissan,Tesla and Fiskar. Throw in the help they get from teh military, engineering, pennies on teh dollar rights for gas and oil developement on gov land, infrastructure etc.
Yet they have a stroke over Tesla and solar.
Yet they have a stroke over Tesla and solar.
You are just a plain idiot. Why do you automatically assume that we favor subsidies to other industries?
ALSO GET THIS OUT YOUR HEAD. GOVERNMENT DID JACK$HIT. AT BEST IT JUST DISTRIBUTED TAX PAYERS MONEY TO THEIR CRONIES. THE RETRURN IS PROBABLY ISN’T THAT GOOD ANYWAY CONSIDERING THE WASTE, ABUSE AND FRAUD.
And what happens when our companies have to compete with Chinese companies that get much greater state support?
So are you all for closing down global trade?
I would be OK with ending most of the public private partnerships that exist and going with a flat tax with no deductions on all income not just W2 wages. The system we have now greatly favors the elite. Of course this will never happen.
I just don’t understand the bile that comes out when people mention electric car makers and the support they got when there have been far greater tax payer give aways which have minimal to no benefit for the general public.
Why do you automatically assume that we favor subsidies to other industries?
Because you fail to address things like this,
“We still spend $4 billion a year on that…”
choosing instead to focus selectively on industries someone made you believe were pinko/commie. That’s why.
Poof goes the tax payer money.
Mission acomplished. Let’s do more.
You are a bag of talking points
PS - Do you see any irony in using the term Mission accomplished?
You are a bag of talking points
Look who’s talking? “We created American Jobs and reduced our need for oil.”
PS - Do you see any irony in using the term Mission accomplished?
Do you know the meaning of insanity? Like government is capable of doing anything other than wasting tax payer’s money.
goon, you just wrote: Obama welfare Obama taking our guns Obama sharia law Obama gay marriage Obama drone strike Obama suveillance Obama socialism Obama Kenya Obama Indonesia Obama dog meat Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama.
and then immediately after write about Obama’s clean energy program and the secret fraud, waste, and abuse that you can not reveal due to confidentiality agreements.
From your first post I thought you were just tired of people incessantly talking about Obama. Now I’m not sure what to think. Are there two goon squads on here?
Bailouts are coming
Wall Street Journal - Cutting Down Student Debt:
“The White House proposes that the government forgive billions of dollars in student debt over the next decade, a plan that cheers student advocates, but critics say it would expand a program that already encourages students to borrow too much and stick taxpayers with the bill.”
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424127887324059704578471223436096876?mg=reno64-wsj
This is great news for us, as we’re going to have to take out lotsa student debt in the next ten years, in order to pay unaffordable tuition bills.
isn’t this basically debt monetization or are the taxpayers somehow gonna foot the bill and owe it to some banksters?
Expand the free sh*t army for more democrat voters
There’s no difference between democrats and 3rd world thuggerments.
I always thought democrats are the stupid party and republicans are the evil party. Seeing Obama and his handlers not sure which on is which.
Maybe this will help:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/28/usa-democrats-offshore-idUSN2821013620100928
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
Cleveland always knows how to represent.
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio!
We lived in Cleveland from 2006 to 2009. And we mean in Cleveland and inner-ring suburb, not out in the lily-white 440 and 330 area codes.
Because we are hardcore, keeping it real, et cetera.
Respect the 216, b1thches!
Yeah, but I’m old school 2-1-6. The terrified, “look who’s coming to dinner,” lily-whiters are the Solons and Hudsons of the area, not the now 216-adjacent burbs.
She now is applying for government jobs that pay about $55,000 a year. According to a repayment calculator created by the New American Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, Ms. Rodriguez-Marshall would pay $273 per month in her first year under the program; without it, she would owe $3,562 a month. Under the program, she would pay about $102,000 over 10 years, and the government would forgive about $639,000, which includes interest.
Do college students ever look at their chosen career path income and compare it to the college program’s cost? Same question for the colleges? No market based system here.
Yes they do, but that’s no guarantee the market will exist when they graduate, is there?
When did college become a training camp for big business?
Since big business started hiring based on college degrees? That’s probably when everybody who really just wanted a job started thinking they needed to go to college.
AWESOME!
Well worth 1:27
Student stands up to lazy teacher @ Duncanville, TX High School …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsTXtowZVQ - 191k - Cached - Similar pages
1 day ago … Jeff, a student at Duncanville High School,
One lazy public worker (probably union goon) who can never be fired no matter what
vs
one future conservative student (although he probably doesn’t know it yet)
Who wins?
The public union goon who will collect an insane pension for doing nothing her entire career.
Some of the Feds in our office are retiring soon. And they won’t be replaced by hiring more Feds. They will be replaced by hiring more government contractors. The Washington Post reported that contractors account for 70 percent of the Pentagon’s costs for services. This is the most Republican environment I’ve ever worked in. I am surrounded by people who are “double dipping” collecting both federal pensions and contractor paychecks, and every single one of them voted for Romney.
There’s nothing more profitable than gaining entry into the govt contract goldmine. Even for us $hit house rats gathering the crumbs falling off the table.
Never be fired? Sock puppet much?
Most states have no problem having teachers fired. Especially Texas. right to work state, remember? You post the articles all the time.
In addition to the paid NAR trolls posting here, there is a contingent of paid “Texas Chamber of Commerce” trolls who love to extol the greatness of the Lone Star State.
Also NEA trolls
Bernanke is speaking.
Why does he speaking in a trembling voice every time? Is it the lies?
Bernanke is very ill at ease when he’s speaking publicly. He’s been like that for a long time, has probably had some coaching, but coaching can only do so much.
In short, there are some people who do well on the podium. And there are others who shouldn’t go near one. Bernanke falls into the latter category.
Bernanke falls into the latter category.
I agree. Pay attention to the messenger and not the message. Check the messages uttered with everything else you know or can learn. Don’t be beguiled by excellent public speakers. The ‘best and brightest’ - ain’t.
Amazing to see the difference in the media coverage when there is a democrat in the white house.
Hope and change
Forward
Yes we can.
Oh, I forget. When there is a democrat is the white house, nothing is his/her fault, it has been like this for 40 years, there other side is just as bad, there is nothing that can be done anyways so why dwell on it.
—————-
A Monstrous Cover-Up
National Review | 5/10/2013 | Deroy Murdock
‘There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy,” the President of the United States told the United Nations last September 25, one of six “video” references in his speech. A fortnight after the deadly attack on America’s mission in Benghazi, Obama was still insisting that Innocence of Muslims, an obscure, anti-Islamic YouTube video, had fueled the mayhem. Presumably, a spontaneous protest spun out of control and unleashed lethal violence.
But, as he addressed the General Assembly, Obama surely knew that it was an al-Qaeda–propelled assault, not a YouTube video, that had killed U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
As Wednesday’s sworn testimony by three State Department whistleblowers demonstrated, this was just one of many lies deployed by Obama and others high atop the U.S. government. These lies nurtured the myth that “al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat,” as Obama claimed at a Las Vegas campaign rally the evening after the Benghazi onslaught. With the truth kept conveniently obscured up to November 6 and beyond, Obama won reelection as the man who supposedly killed both Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In fact, only the former is dead.
The father of the late Tyrone Woods says that, as his son’s remains were officially welcomed home on September 14, then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton approached him. She promised that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula — the Los Angeles–based, Egyptian-born Coptic Christian behind the anti-Islamic video – would be “prosecuted and arrested.” Never mind that producing anti-Islamic videos is not illegal, for now. (Nakoula remains in jail, nonetheless, for probation violations tied to unrelated crimes.)
In the May 13 Weekly Standard, Stephen Hayes carefully documents how Team Obama sanitized the CIA’s initial talking points to erase al-Qaeda’s fingerprints on this attack and, instead, make it look like a demonstration gone crazy. A September 14 version of this document stated, “We do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al Qa’ida participated in the attack. . . . Ansar al Sharia’s Facebook page aims to spread Sharia in Libya and emphasizes the need for jihad to counter what it views as false interpretations of Islam.”
The next day, United Nations ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday-morning talk shows. Relying on the doctored talking points, she told Fox News’s Chris Wallace: “What sparked the violence was a very hateful video on the Internet.” Rice added, “It was a reaction to a video that had nothing to do with the United States.”
Hicks also testified that “I’ve been effectively demoted from deputy chief of mission to desk officer” — perhaps because he has failed to toe the Obama line.
In addition to the three whistleblowers who came forward this week, 30 more Benghazi witnesses remain hidden and reportedly afraid to speak up. As American citizens, they should not have fear in their vocabulary.
Republican win in 2016 = more government contractors
Democrat win in 2016 = more government contractors
Are federal contractors “goons” too, or is that only state and municipal employees?
Regardless of who you vote for in 2014 and 2016, you are voting for more government contractors. Bill in Los Angeles, joe smith, and myself thank you for your support.
With republicans, many more government contractors.
Private sector, yo!
Time to dust off the meme list. Government contractors are:
Bootstrappers
Rugged individualists
Taking America back
Restoring our future
Job creators
Horatio Alger
Galt Gulch
Born in a log cabin
Mom and apple pie
Invisible hand of free market
et cetera
I guess you do forget.
The GOP cut embassy funding prior to Libya.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/jason-chaffetz-embassy_n_1954912.html
Damn pesky facts.
Obama secretly wanted the Africans to kill our ambassador, because Obama was born in Africa.
Forward.
How does that explain Bush’s desire to kill embassy staff?
7 times?
LOOK Squirrel !!
Not one person from the CIA was present at ANY of the House hearings. The whole fu*king thing was a CIA operation linked back to Syria gun running. The State Dept. is the CIA’s public relations division. Anybody got the balls to question those guy in public? Anybody?
CIA gun running?
Again?
Why am I not surprised?
Iran-Contras anyone?
“Things are falling apart–that is obvious.”
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”
Rental watch doesn’t notice it, so how obvious can it be….
“The rent is too damn high!”
Gold and oil down big today (close to 3%)
Copper is down by almost 20% this year.
What does this tell us?
And how far behind is another commodity (housing) that has huge holding costs…
Margin debt as high as fall 2007. A coincidence?
Gold and oil down big today (close to 3%)
Copper is down by almost 20% this year.
What does this tell us?”
Central Banks will keep interest rates low forever.
Until they go Greek
And housing demand will stay at multi decade lows forever…
Until prices fall.
Democratic thuggerment case #349383892
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups
More Hope and Change in Hopeychangeville.
Forward.
Link?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36×8rTb3jI
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/irs-apologizes-targeting-conservative-groups
My nephew plans to sell his house in the next two months. He believes he should take advantage of the mini-bubble being blown by U.S. 85 billion/month injections combined with Japan 75 billion/month injections. I’m trying to pare my positive stock bets because I just can’t stomach this perpetual rise in equities, but now gold is starting to catch my eye. My gut tells me it has a ways to fall and it will be a SCREAMING buy.
I hate to yell but I’m sooooo excited.
P.S. We can’t forget oil.
Don’t they know that being a fascist means never having to say you’re sorry?
The left never understands that the tactics they invent and use on their “enemies” will one day be used against them.
Imagine Dick Cheney with a drone “kill list” of American citizens…
———————
IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups
Yahoo News | 10 May 2013 | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.
The coronation and anointment of The One in 2008:
http://blog.masslive.com/thefray/2008/08/mile-high-stadium-crowd-denver-obama.jpg
‘Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.’
“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association. “The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she added.’
Since I donated money to Ron Paul in 2007 (the fundraising money bomb, the original “Tea Party” before it got astroturfed by Koch Fluffers) and again in 2012, does that mean my name is on “The List” too?
Obama will soon put you on kill list, too. Buy some drone repellent.
Patrick W. McDonough is the IRS executive director.
Political party affiliation is not showing on a quick Google search.
One of the greatest things about The Housing Bubble Blog is this;
http://bit.ly/10yMxfA
And the first result of a google search for housing bubble obama:
http://m.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/re_inflating_the_bubble_QgouEca5dJQOBb2iNOPNxJ
Mike Whitney nails it yet again. The money quote:
“Everything about the US housing market is fake”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/11/housing-hijinx/
From the article;
“There remain over 10 million vacant housing units” and that does not include the “shadow supply”.
Again….. if you bought a house 1998-2013, you’re going to lose a lot of money. ALOT of money.
Most recent Whitney piece:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/03/the-housing-shell-game-prices-up-ownership-down/
“Nationally, the market holds about 3 million homes in serious delinquency or foreclosure—which is about 3 times the normal level, according to Moody’s.”
Not including shadow inventory of 20-30 MILLION excess empty houses.
This relates to what our favorite jet mechanic has been telling us for many years:
When Flight Safety Gets Outsourced to China
Never forget that “free market” means free to eff you up the bum.
Read the comments.
Yeah, full of “Free Market drives the cost” bull$hit.
As usual the bean counters saw a compromise position in the regs, and drove a truck thru it. For a long time, only US certified people could work on US registered airplane. Then the airlines lobbied to allow “Qualified” foreign maintenance facilities to fix US airplane, because it made no sense to fly an airplane in Europe back to the US to do a minor inspection/repair.
Originally (back in the day when airlines did their own maintenance)this meant that US airlines would have Lufthansa guys do minor repairs/inspections on US airplanes in Frankfurt, while US guys would fix Lufthansa planes in New York.
This has morphed into “reciprocal agreements” between the US State Department and Mexico/China/Vietnam/etc., where our FAA guys have to accept signoffs on work done on US aircraft overseas with no FAA review.
Supposedly, the airlines have people on site inspecting the work. The reality is all they “inspect” is the logbook entries/paperwork. There is no way in hell that they can review the work of 100 guys, in five different “shops”, on three or more shifts. (Well, they COULD, but not with a half dozen or fewer guys covering 4-5 airplanes)
I could spend all day trying to tell people how effed up it is for “C” check work to be done overseas. But too many people in this country believe the “free market” BS, and/or think $15/hour is still too much to pay for skilled labor.
One guy commented that the FAA database is proof that US mechs are no better than Chinese/Mexican/God-knows-where-they-are-from mechs. Ever wonder why the Feds never bust some airlines for maintenance infractions, compared to Southwest and (formerly) American? It’s because they are about the only guys who still do maintenance in house.
The airlines are able to get away with this, because the incentives/tax structure is set up to buy new airplanes, and then dump them on someone else when they get old. This will work until they have to start keeping older airplanes. Then they are going to be screwed.
Of course “Joe Blow’s Part 145 Airliner Repair Station and Hair Care Center” getting fined a gazillion bucks for shoddy maintenance” doesn’t rate page 20 in most newspapers.
People need to get a clue. First of all, in a Part 145 Repair Station, you DO NOT have to be a licensed mechanic to fix the airplane. In fact, very few of their licensed guys work on the “Whole” airplane…….mostly they know a lot about engines, or avionics, or systems, or structures, and very little about the rest of the aircraft. The work just has to be “supervised” by a certificated individual. How much supervision do you think China is doing, when they are hiring experienced US mechs on contracts?
If they don’t have enough trained people to fill all of their pilot openings, what makes anyone think they are doing any better fielding mechanics, who have always been bottom feeders, compared to pilots. Especially when they consider the position requires a 4 year degree program?
I’ll just sum it up with three things:
-When the autopilot is on (about 95% of the flight), the MECHANIC is flying the airplane, not the pilot.
-FAA standards are considered MINIMUMS. When someone brags about maintaining airplanes to “FAA Standards”, all it means is that they are doing just barely enough to keep their operating certificates.
-The Bankster/1%er class have THEIR airplanes fixed by US mechanics, in US repair centers, that require almost all of their employees have FAA certification. The rest of you bottom feeders (including free market advocates) get the lowest common denominator.
You can say all you want about how “Amerikkkans” are better than the chaper brown and yellow tecnhincians, but take a look at the safety records of the top world airlines (may are run and maintained by brown and yellow people), they are second to none.
Get over it. There’s nothing special about american workers.
You’re an industry expert, then?
I think it’s due more to Boeing and Airbuses design.
Right, it has nothing to do with the fact that those jets are all fairly new too. Notice how the older, 3rd world airlines do fall out of the sky a lot.
I’ll just sum it up with three things:
-When the autopilot is on (about 95% of the flight), the MECHANIC is flying the airplane, not the pilot.
-FAA standards are considered MINIMUMS. When someone brags about maintaining airplanes to “FAA Standards”, all it means is that they are doing just barely enough to keep their operating certificates.
-The Bankster/1%er class have THEIR airplanes fixed by US mechanics, in US repair centers, that require almost all of their employees have FAA certification. The rest of you bottom feeders (including free market advocates) get the lowest common denominator.
Remember this, people!
Fixr, you’re behind the times. Look at the fires and building collapses in Bangladesh. Those people are so poor that they have no alternatives, it’s the factory or starvation. A thousand dead from the factory collapse.
Here, they had the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. There was Upton Sinclair’s description of the meat industry in The Jungle. Pesky irritations from the workers like that got us building codes and worker protections.
Now - if pesky worker welfare regulations are in place, the answer is easy - just move the factory! Avoid the Americans entirely. Or in airline mechanics, just move to where the regulations are less intrusive and costly.
And if the occasional airliner goes down, it’s just the cost of doing business. The people are none the wiser about the causes. And to hell with the American worker. It’s not like his forefathers fought, sacrificed and died to shape the country. Lincoln, standing at the slaughterhouse of Gettysburg, said, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Well, somewhere along the way, it became the “government of the highest bidder, by the highest bidder, for the highest bidder.”
You don’t pay the politicians, they are unlikely to consider your interests.
It’s interesting that you mention Bangladesh and Triangle Shirtwaist. When I was reading the article about the fertilizer, it occurred to me that the PTB in Texas would probably like to secede from the union. Then they could be free of things like OSHA, EPA, unions and the minimum wage. At that point they could probably get FoxConn to start building factories in Texas and the statistics would show us all how many jobs can be created if government gets out of the way.
Can anyone explain the recent huge volume in VXX?
You need to check the money flow, dividend payout dates and volume to figure it out.
Don’t worry it’s just computer algorithms executing the current version of Wall St. Reality. It’s synthetic Wall St. voodoo and made too complicated for average people to understand for a reason.
In the process of buying a place for $103 a sq. foot in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire. Comparable rentals in the area are significantly higher than what my monthy payout would be on this place, even when you factor in insurance and the high property taxes. The house was built in 2001 and at this point has little in the way of maintenence, although I realize that will change with time. The natural gas heating will also save me money over the oil heating costs most of the rentals and many of the other homes I saw were equipped with.
I understand housing in a depreciating asset, but even if the value decreases to zero in my lifetime, how am I losing out if I would have to pay more to rent? I’m paying for a roof over my head either way, and in the case of the house I’ll be paying less. If you are renting, you are not investing and your housing is an expense, correct? Plus I get to paint the walls any color I want! (joke)
“how am I losing out”
Hey pimp….. rental rates are half of total monthly carrying costs.
But seriously…. you’re going to pay $225k for a run down shack in NH?
You’ll get what you deserve.
how am I losing out if I would have to pay more to rent?
Because renting is “supposedly” half the cost of owning. To say otherwise is to be labeled a liar. Even if where you live it’s true.
Because some here PREDICT that both renting and owning will be 65% cheaper at some unknowable point in the future.
“Supposedly”? “Predict”?
There is no question unless you’re a debt-junkie.
What did you pay for your debt-dump?
What did you pay for your debt-dump?
What do you do for a living?
Everyone knows my stock in trade.
What did you pay for you debt-dump?
What did you pay for you debt-dump?
What did you pay for yours? We all know you aren’t a renter.
I’m beginning to sense the start of a romantic comedy here. Polar opposites, sworn enemies, then somehow accidentally get into a fix where they need each other (e.g. sfh needs a bridge built to her luxury home on an island off the CA coast), and then love, and then harmless and endearing bickering as the movie ends.
This has nothing to do with me Junkie.
What did you pay for you debt-dump?Be honest.
Because some here PREDICT that both renting and owning will be 65% cheaper at some unknowable point in the future.
Why do you engage him? You know he’s a crank.
Why do you engage him? You know he’s a crank.
Just for yuks.
Haven’t installed JTT on my new computer yet.
Excuses excuses. Cute drama queen club though.
What did you pay for your debt dump?
What did you pay for your debt dump?
Hey look I know how to use bold, too!
How much do you pay in rent?
What happened to the “ignore”? You can’t even tell the truth about that.
Why won’t you disclosed the massively inflated price you paid?
You’re ashamed. And you should be.
Fellow HBB-ers: There will be a Tucson meetup this coming Tuesday evening. 6 p.m. at the Epic Cafe, southwest corner of University Boulevard and 4th Avenue. I’ll be chillin’ with the AZGolfer and hope to see you there too.
“You’d have to have rocks in your head to buy a house at these massively inflated prices.”
“You’d have to have rocks in your head to buy a house at these massively inflated prices.”
Says the guy who makes his living in the real estate industrial complex.
I didn’t know building bridges was the REIC. Good to know how out of touch with reality you are.
Hey….. for 28 days straight, you said you had me on ignore. And for 28 days straight I told you that you haven’t the intestinal fortitude to ignore the truth. Therefore;
How much did you pay for your debt dump?
I don’t have rocks in my head, I have RAL in my head. He’s been living rent-free but I’m going to start collecting or initiate eviction.
He’s been living rent-free but I’m going to start collecting or initiate eviction.
Make sure he pays you in full. He sure that renting is ALWAYS half the price of owning.
Even though he’s not a renter.
He bought at the right time. The rest of us have been priced out forever.
There’s no right time. He will still lose 65% some day.
The embarrassment of paying a massively inflated price is no where near the shame you suffer from ducking and weaving from the question day after day.
The Kansas budget cuts are really starting some controversy around here. Lots of people are looking at the proposed cuts and going WTF?
Also have been seeing a full blown radio/TV/internet ad campaign from “Americans For (the Koch Brothers) Prosperity” saying “Don’t be like California, stay the course”
Pretty soon, we’ll be as “business friendly” as Texas, with crappy schools, uncontrolled/regulated pollution, and lousy roads, with longer and colder winters.
All of these cuts are supposed to attract business to the state. All I’m seeing is companies playing taxation arbitrage, until they can get their stuff packed to relocate to Mexico.
They’ll attract businesses to come in search of lower-priced labor and (crony capitalist) tax breaks like TX has. All the high value-added work will still be done in the usual places. Kochs win, almost everyone else loses.
It’s all fun and games until the fertilizer plant next door blows up.
That explosion is now a criminal investigation:
“On Monday, the state fire marshal’s office said it ruled out four potential causes: weather, natural causes, anhydrous ammonium, and ammonium nitrate in a rail car.”
They arrested one of the first responders today and charged him with possessing a pipe bomb. The whole thing might be an arsonist getting his kicks.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/justice/texas-explosion-probe/index.html
Funny,
I see all of that in high tax and union goon states. Guess you guys have never been to Camden, Trenton, Cleveland, Buffalo, Philly, Newark, NYC, Syracuse, etc.
crappy schools, uncontrolled/regulated pollution, and lousy roads, with longer and colder winters.
So, you are okay will all of these things, as long as your taxes are low?
BTW, MrFruit…..did you ever see a TeaParty/Republican policy you didn’t like?
It’s funny how liberals here scream about overpriced housing in liberal Meccas like LA, Boston, NY, DC, Seattle. Then they crap all over an effort to keep costs down in places like Kansas and Texas through low taxes and regulation.
It never dawns on these people that 1/2 the reason a 2 bedroom house costs $750K in Los Angeles is due to the regulation and taxes that associated with constructing the home….the same home that could be had for $100K in Topeka or Dallas. TPlus all the environmental laws and land restrictions in LA that make land use insanely expensive. he same permits that cost $1000 in Topeka cost $10,000 in LA. But that doesn’t affect housing prices, no sir. The union worker making $40/hr in LA vs the same non-union worker making $15/hr in Topeka working on the house also doesn’t affect the price. Nope not at all. Nor does the sales tax, corporate income tax and the other taxes/fees that are double or triple in LA vs Topkea. It’s just those evil Koch brothers who set the price high in LA and keep prices low in Topeka. Yeah, that’s it.
It never dawns on these people that 1/2 the reason a 2 bedroom house costs $750K in Los Angeles is due to the regulation and taxes that associated with constructing the home…
Oh Mr. Slithers…. you’re not being honest with the public… again.
We build in all 48 states and our costs don’t vary more than 5% between any two states. In other words, prices in LA are a fraud like most of CA.
Here’s a better idea…. Instead of changing up your name and posting the same deliberate misrepresentations, just stick to one username. Your supervisor won’t know the difference.
Sure it’s just a movie but that rouge cop in California (Christopher Dorner) shows what happens when you mix motive, ability and weapons.
A film tribute to all the little folks that got shafted by Wall St.
“Assault on Wall Street”
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Assault-Wall-Street-Exclusive-Red-Band-Clip-Assault-Begins-37385.html
Don’t get mad, get even.
I posted yesterday about what I was seeing in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Coeur D’Alene is just over the state line into Idaho from the Spokane, WA area. Same city/region really. This report confirms what I was seeing.
“SPOKANE, Wash. — The residential real estate market improved in the state for the third quarter in a row, according to a report released Thursday by the University of Washington. The report said sales of existing homes rose 14.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same period a year ago. Prices were also on the rise. The statewide median home price was $237,000 in the first quarter, up 14.1 percent from the same time last year…..
Crellin said the index showed that middle-income families, at an annual income of $73,150, could qualify for a home priced well above the statewide median. Only San Juan County had an index below 100, meaning that a typical middle-income family there could not quite afford a median-priced home in the county.”
Meanwhile back on earth;
Yakima, Washington: “Real Estate market in crisis”
http://www.kimatv.com/home/video/Real-Estate-market-in-crisis-192620891.html
“They’re not selling,” she said. “Houses all over the place aren’t selling.”
Of course houses in Washington aren’t selling. Collapsing sales is what happens when prices of anything are grossly inflated.
Just blew through there on Weds. Didn’t notice any deals on housing, but I did pick up some dirt cheap locally grown fruits/vegetables: tomatoes, onions, asparagus, oranges.
Cherries look to be early this year…Looking to get back over there in a month when they should be coming in.
Der…apples, not oranges.
Nice selective editing. Here’s what you left out
“YAKIMA, Wash.– A rebound in the housing market around Washington State is not having a local ripple effect. Yakima isn’t seeing it. In fact, analysts say it’s worse than last year. Some homeowners are dropping their prices to close a deal.”
So as the article I posed says, WA state as a whole is appreciating quite nicely. If you’ve ever been to Yakima you’d understand why it’s no happening there. Yakima is to Washington what Buffalo is to NY. It’s been overrun by illegals and turned what was once a s**thole into a non-English speaking s**thole.
Houses don’t “appreciate” my friend. They depreciate.
And if you buy a house at these massively inflated prices, you’re going to lose alot of money. Especially in WA state.
Wow, those were some smart people who bought last year. Seeing prices go up 14% in one year would double prices in 5 years and I bet wages will be lucky to rise 10% in that same time frame. I think middle class income in America is now considered from $38,000 to $60,000. Of course this is a national number so your region is likely higher than some place like Texas or Tennessee.
Did you not read this part?
“Crellin said the index showed that middle-income families, at an annual income of $73,150, could qualify for a home priced well above the statewide median. Only San Juan County had an index below 100, meaning that a typical middle-income family there could not quite afford a median-priced home in the county.”
Median income: $73,000
Median home price: $237,000
Looks pretty balanced to me.
Considering that ratio is 50% greater than the long term historic ratio, you seem to be intentionally misrepresenting the truth about housing prices to the public.
why is that?
I’ll answer your question when you tell me how to build for $60/sq ft (including land) and still be profitable.
You’re deliberate misrepresentation of the truth has nothing to do with anything except your deliberate misrepresentation.
Like I said, stick to one username.
“Like I said, stick to one username.”
Who said what now?
You too.
I have to admit, you’ve found religion in the last couple of days, but it might be a bit early for you to start preaching. But using one handle instead of many is a great step forward for you. Maybe you could stop being so rude to people next?
Admit? How about some genuine admission…..
Hows LieWog and Bigsby these days?
You’ve given up those handles, that’s great. But I think you’re implying I’m one of them from Pat’s site. I read there but don’t post. Check back and you’ll see I’ve been posting as Al here from late 2007, but not all that often.
BTW, I also post as Al on Dr HBB, but it’s been a long time since my last.
We’re happy for you.
Housing Demand Collapsing In San Francisco Bay Area
http://picpaste.com/pics/868029f6be374f92a82d2dd9e14dd2fc.1368227741.png
Given the massive levels of corruption in housing sales and the massively inflated asking prices in CA, this is no surprise.
Add to that, a massive 2012 tax I crease making California the state with the highest taxes in the nation.
But higher taxes leads to economic growth. Or so Obama has been saying for years. Does that not apply in CA?
This post will help the internet viewers for building up new website or even a
weblog from start to end.