Bits Bucket for June 1, 2013
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
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from another board:
think the economy is recovering? guess again..
—
written on 5-31-2013
Various highly paid fund managers came on CNBC and said the economy was fairly strong and they attribute that alleged strength to Berdoo.
What do the stats say? GDP is rising at 2.5%. Is it? No, it isn’t. GDP is a total pile of manipulated BS cooked up by imbeciles. What’s a better measure? Private sector money creation governed by bank reserves which gets its main expression in C&I loans. Notice how you never hear of C&I loans unless it was at this place? Why? All these pretentious fools at the universities and in money management don’t have a clue about how economics works. They only hear radio reports, and the radio reports create the group think which they all believe especially when the junk comes from BLS. None of them understands the importance of loan demand.
Since January reserve growth has risen $450B all created by FED. During the same period loan growth rose $20B, and that’s well represented in M2 growth of $50B. In fractional banking it’s supposed to work the other way around. $450B in reserves should allow up to more than $4.5 trillion in loans whose total would be considered fully loaned. Given the quantity of reserves created by Berdoo’s eternal prosperity the system is under performing at the uniquely poor rate of 1/100. There is no prosperity.
There is only the illusion of imagined prosperity through the stock market. Imagined prosperity has allowed producers who are driven by government imposed cost to recover those costs by raising prices. Although price increases aren’t happening across the board, obviously where government has less presence, the average price increase is running 10%. FED fans this false wealth perception with its feckless monetary policy, and the players have the stock market jacked up in anticipation of the effect of reserve growth. All those WS whores and followers think all strings are rigid, but they are only so in demand regimes where commerce is encouraged, not in anti business regimes which the traitors and the majority of Americans find things just ducky. They will be punished.
Aren’t we getting all kinds of anecdotal reports of economic strength from all kinds of liars? We are. What would happen if the air in the stock market was let out? Everyone involved with the stock market knows the whole run up is total BS. It isn’t supported by corporate profits, not by top line growth, not by anything but WS and Berdoo BS.
Today with 20 minutes to go the market acted like the ‘87 crash when all takers walked off the floor. The run-up in the bank stocks has been particularly stinky. Major ET flow negative divergences in all of them.
How do banks make money? They make money by lending money in the form of C&I loans. Given the paltry level of loan creation it can’t be the case that any major bank is making money through their traditional avenues. How are they making it? RE? the level of RE is spite of the Berdoo revived RE inflation is paltry as shown by mortgage creation. So it must be the case that banks aren’t making money. Their stocks are being bid up to some level that implies the coast is clear of the duress associated with the financial crisis. If Berdoo can’t get the economy up, then the banks are headed for a worse financial crisis, and he knows it. I predicted it in early 2009. The banking industry is symbolic of 90% of the other industries.
BULLSEYE!
And as GS pointed out below, we’re at the sell the news part of buy the rumor sell the news phase of this mess. Of course we’re hearing about how the “housing market is recovering” yet housing sales volume is flat and right where it was in 1997.
You better be selling the news when it comes to housing as honest analysts like Mark Hanson has already established that the current housing mantra is engineered and temporary.
Look out below.
Sales volume is flat, yet the builders are building like there’s no tomorrow.
And they aren’t dropping prices like a fire sale.
Because they know that the powers that be will do everything to prop up housing. Keep up with the easing, keep interest rates low, allow all standards to be lowered, give effective immunity to all kook aid sellers, etc.
None of the things I’ve heard mentioned as stopping this new engineered fake bubble seem enough to stop the madness.
The weight of suspended reality becomes crushing.
Once these hedge fund flippers leave the market, it is going to crash bigtime. They are already ambling towards the exits as nothing really pencils out as a rental anymore. They will one day realize were nothing but runway foam.
It’s all good. I’m glad that some really rich guys are willing to devote a small portion of their wealth towards helping to foam the housing crash runway. Their losses will not crimp the economy one bit, as there is more money where that came from…
I’m glad that some really rich guys are willing to devote a small portion of their wealth towards helping to foam the housing crash runway. Their losses will not crimp the economy one bit, as there is more money where that came from…
but less money overall.
wealth isn’t infinite, eternal or magical. it’s a human creation and it degrades over time like everything else. it is finite, and its destruction harms us all, since aggregate wealth is beneficial for everyone.
while it’s true that there is much wealth in the world, it’s also true that the majority of countries in the world have now embarked on its destruction with absurd, asinine policies. there will come a tipping point where more wealth gets destroyed than can be created. when that point is reached, life will get harder for everyone. when that happens the majority will blame ‘the rich’ for stealing it all.. and they will be wrong.
they won’t blame the true culprit, because like the author of the first post here said, they don’t understand economics. so the destruction will continue and worsen.
most people’s ‘god’ that i talk to is ‘fairness’. they are disciples of the ‘fairness god’. they never understand that their desire for fairness, is what brings about unfairness. who is qualified to be the judge?
if i had a ‘god’, it wouldn’t be wealth itself, but the creation of wealth. that’s because the creation of wealth benefits all mankind.
Because they know that the powers that be will do everything to prop up housing.
Or simply because they can get construction loans at this moment and they are making hay while the sun shines?
Or simply because they can get construction loans at this moment and they are making hay while the sun shines?
+1. If they can get the construction loans, they’re going to build; that way, their crews are working and they are paying both their crews and themselves.
I’m really curious about this builders thing. Is the ability to get loans now something materially different than it was a year ago? Because this type of building wasn’t going on then.
If so, what caused the change?
What’s the length of time they can keep it up? They eventually have to sell those houses, and do so on competition with what is already out there.
So we should know fairly soon whether this added supply is serving real demand or not?
I’ve been posting on the bond market meltdown for a couple of weeks already. It seems as though the MSM has finally caught on to the story.
How To Avoid Getting Destroyed In The Bond Market Collapse
John Wasik, Reuters | May 31, 2013, 3:29 PM
[Building collapse photo]
CHICAGO (Reuters) - For investors who piled into bond funds this year, the past week has been an abject lesson of how to get bruised in short order.
An uptick in yields smacked bond prices, which move inversely to yields. Funds investing in high-yield and long-maturity issues got hit the worst. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes hit a peak of 2.23 percent, the highest since April of last year, before dropping to 2.16 percent on Wednesday.
The pre-June bond swoon is a harbinger of things to come. The U.S. economy is heating up after years of decline, which will trigger greater demand for credit and lower bond prices.
The good news? There are a bevy of alternative vehicles to help you hedge bond price declines.
…
buy a house today and your wealth will grow exponentially.
German Bonds Drop With French Debt Amid Fed Tapering Speculation
By David Goodman - May 31, 2013 11:00 PM PT
German government bonds declined for a second week, with 10-year (GFRN10) yields rising to a three-month high, as concern the Federal Reserve will begin reducing stimulus measures dented the appeal of fixed-income assets.
French and Belgian securities also dropped as bonds around the world were set for the worst month in almost a decade. Italian 10-year bond yields rose less than those of their German peers after the nation sold 5.75 billion euros ($7.47 billion) of debt maturing in 2018 and 2023. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week that the central bank could reduce record stimulus if the economy shows sustained improvement.
…
CREDIT MARKETS
Updated May 31, 2013, 5:10 p.m. ET
U.S. Treasury Bonds Fall
By MIN ZENG
Treasury bonds fell on the last trading session in May, wrapping up the biggest monthly selloff in 29 months.
At the end of Friday’s trading, the benchmark 10-year note fell 3/32 in price, yielding 2.135%, according to Tradeweb. Bond prices move inversely to their yields.
The 10-year yield surged nearly 0.5 percentage point this month, the biggest increase on a monthly basis since December 2010. Treasury bonds handed investors a loss of 1.58% in May through Thursday, according to data from Barclays.
The bloodbath underscores growing fears that the $11.4 trillion market may soon lose support from the Federal Reserve, which has been a main buyer since the 2008 financial crisis to support the economy.
Demand for safe assets also diminished as upbeat U.S. data led by housing and consumer sentiment eased worries that the pace of growth would be derailed by fiscal austerity. Many investors plowed cash into U.S. stocks, which hit record highs in May.
Friday, a gauge of consumer sentiment hit the highest level since 2007, while a measure of business activity in the Chicago region rose to the highest level in 14 months, sending bond yields higher.
“The deck seems to be stacked against Treasurys right now,” said Jeff Tjornehoj, head of Americas research at Lipper.
…
May 31, 2013, 3:12 p.m. EDT
Shake up your stocks and bonds for a new market
Commentary: Time to rebalance your portfolio and lower expectations
By John Coumarianos
NORTHVALE, N.J. (MarketWatch) — There’s good reason to believe that the standard 60/40 balanced portfolio will not perform over the next decade the way many investors expect.
Investors have become accustomed to this balanced approach delivering a few percentage points over inflation on an annual basis. But this time, it’s really different: the 10-year Treasury is yielding around 2%, which means it may not keep up with inflation. Corporate bonds may do a bit better, but not much given the narrow difference in yield between corporates and Treasurys.
In other words, there’s a significant chance that nearly half of the traditional balanced portfolio may not keep pace with inflation over the next decade if one gains bond exposure through the main bond benchmark, the BarCap US Aggregate Index.
…
Careful there,Whackster… don’t pull a muscle while patting yourself on the back.
I wasn’t trying to pat myself on the back; was just puzzled why the MSM totally missed a story that was staring them in the face.
He can pat himself on the back as much as he likes. He has been invaluable to this blog. He is the world’s greatest blogger, deserving of hall of fame status. His posts are always informative.
Is it truly possible there are stock traders who are oblivious to the existence of the bond market, or to the Fed’s openly-stated plans to remove the QE3 punch bowl? (Shaking my head in disbelief…)
Dow falls more than 200 points on last day of May
By Andrew Tangel
May 31, 2013, 1:48 p.m.
NEW YORK — Wall Street ended the last day of May with a broad selloff in late trading, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 200 points.
The Dow fell 208.96, or 1.36%, to 15,115.57 at the closing bell, capping a volatile week in the stock market.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 23.67, or 1.43%, to 1,630.74. The technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped 35.38 points, or 1.01%, to 3,455.91.
Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, said the sharp drop Friday afternoon could have been merely for “technical” reasons.
Without any apparent negative news to cause investors fleeing, the selloff could have been fueled by the month-end rebalancing of stock portfolios or options expiring, he said. Overall, he said, various indicators have pointed to increased volatility in the stock market.
The Dow had risen more than 60 points at one point Friday, and was flat for much of the trading day. Despite the late-afternoon selloff, the Dow gained 1.9% in May and was still up 15.4% for the year.
…
QUIZ: How much do you know about the stock market?
Dropped 200 points? Seriously, who cares. It’s up how much this year?
A drop of even 20 points is big news. But, a move of 500 points to the upside is normal, and expected. I see many tears on the horizon.
Is it truly possible there are stock traders who are oblivious to the existence of the bond market, or to the Fed’s openly-stated plans to remove the QE3 punch bowl? (Shaking my head in disbelief…)
Of course you know there are, PB!
One group of traders is those who dollar cost average into assets. Over the long haul, stock indices outperform precious metals, precious metals outperform treasuries, treasuries outperform the cash under the mattress.
Such people as dollar cost averagers do not make sudden moves into the market based on today’s news.
Brokers do not like DCArs. HBBers do not like DCArs (because 99.9% of all HBBers know how to exactly time the market and are multi billionaires as a result).
Posted this Susanne Posel article the other day, these were 2 responses.
“You do realize this is completely made up, right?”
“The bit about declaration of “marital law” was a pretty good (and most hilarious) tip-off.”
Posted this yesterday.
By Prof Peter Dale Scott
Global Research, February 23, 2011
23 February 2011
The financial bailout legislation of September 2008 was only passed after members of both Congressional houses were warned that failure to act would threaten civil unrest and the imposition of martial law.
U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., both said U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson brought up a worst-case scenario as he pushed for the Wall Street bailout in September. Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO, said that might even require a declaration of martial law, the two noted.[4]
http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-martial-law-and-the-economic-crisis/23354 - -
This is the Deutsche Bank informant article describing what he says happened in 2008 followed by an article from July 13, 2007.
Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
Aug 1, 2012
A source in the Deutsche Bank claims that in 2008 our financial and monetary system completely collapsed and since that time the banking cartels have been “propping up the system” to make it appear as if everything was fine. In reality our stock market and monetary systems are fake; meaning that there is nothing holding them in place except the illusion that they have stabilized since the Stock Market Crash nearly 5 years ago.
The Deutsche Bank informant says that the cause for the bailout of the banks was a large sum of cash needed quickly to repay China who had purchased large quantities of mortgage-backed securities that went belly-up when the global scam was realized. When China realized that they had been duped into buying worthless securitized loans which would never be repaid, they demanded the actual property instead. The Chinese were prepared to send their “people” to American shores to seize property as allocated to them through the securitized loan contracts.
To stave this off, the American taxpayers were coerced by former President Bush and former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. During that incident, the US Senate was told emphatically that they had to approve a $700 million bailout or else martial law would be implemented immediately. That money was funneled through the Federal Reserve Bank and wired to China, as well as other countries that were demanding repayment for the fraudulent securitizations.
To further avert financial catastrophe, as well as more debt or property seizure threats by the Chinese, the Euro was imploded there by plunging most of the European countries into an insurmountable free-fall for which they were never intended to recover.
All the money that those banks claimed they needed to avert collapse was also sent to the Chinese to add to the trillions of dollars lost during the burst of the housing bubble on the global market.
The only saving grace has been the US dollar being the global reserve currency. However, now this prop is showing signs of wear as foreign nations like China, Russia, India and Iran are dealing in gold as currency and purchasing gold on the market at an exponential rate.
http://www.occupycorporatism.com/government-silently-positions-for-martial-law-as-financial-collapse-arrives-in-america/ - 66k -
U.S. Urges China to Buy Mortgage-Backed Securities (Update2)
By Josephine Lau - July 13, 2007 11:38 EDT
July 13 (Bloomberg) — The Bush administration is urging China’s central bank to buy more government-backed mortgage bonds in an effort to sustain financing for U.S. home loans.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is in Beijing to persuade the Chinese central bank to buy more securities from Ginnie Mae, a corporation under HUD that guarantees $417 billion in federally insured, fixed-rate mortgages.
“It’s not a matter of whether they’re going to do more business in mortgage-backed securities,” Jackson told reporters in Beijing. “It’s who they’re going to do business with.”
HUD aims to tap China’s $1.33 trillion of foreign-currency reserves, the world’s largest, after surging defaults on subprime mortgages caused the near-collapse last month of two hedge funds run by Bear Stearns Cos.
Moody’s Investors Service on July 10 cut its ratings on $5.2 billion of bonds backed by subprime mortgages, which are loans taken by borrowers with poor or limited credit histories. Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded $6.39 billion of such bonds. Fitch Ratings said it may lower ratings on $7.1 billion.
Ginnie Mae is “in a better position than most” to offer mortgage products because, unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it provides the full backing of the U.S. government, Jackson said. Mortgage securities offer China’s central bank better returns than U.S. Treasury bonds at the same level of credit risk, he said. China held $414 billion in U.S. Treasuries as of April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jackson met with central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao in the nation’s capital this week. Central bank spokesman Li Chao couldn’t be reached for comment.
Commercial Banks
China has approved the creation of a new agency that will manage about $200 billion of its foreign exchange reserves, as the government seeks to boost returns from its holdings.
The nation held $107.5 billion in U.S. mortgage-backed securities as of June 2006, up from $3 billion three years earlier, according to HUD’s Web site. The figures include securities offered by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, HUD said, without detailing the holdings in each agency.
“China’s bought some mortgage-backed securities from us, but not in great numbers,” Jackson said, without providing a target for future purchases.
HUD also plans to approach Chinese commercial banks such as China Construction Bank Corp. and ask them to buy government-backed mortgage securities, Jackson said.
The housing department wants to sign a memorandum of understanding with construction minister Wang when he visits the U.S. in August, Jackson said without elaborating. The two nations face similar challenges in providing affordable housing to average citizens, he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE7I.0mnjrSY - 75k - Cached -
Another reason to not give up your guns…what if your local municipal government goes broke and lacks sufficient resources to protect its citizens against menacing criminals?
LOL!
Only funny til it happens to you; did you read that story out of Oregon?
No. What happened?
“Another reason to not give up your guns…”
There is no reason for law abiding citizens to have guns! We must continue the propoganda, I mean fight until only government henchman, bodyguards of the Mayor Bloomberg crowd and criminals are allowed to possess firearms. And if we have to torture a few 5 year-olds along the way, so be it. It’s all for the common good.
5-year-old Interrogated By School Over Toy Cap Gun Until He Wet Himself With Fear
Then suspended for rest of the year
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 31, 2013
Yet another child barely out of nappies has been persecuted by school officials for playing with a toy gun on the school bus.
The Washington Post reports that the five-year-old from Dowell Elementary School in Lusby, Maryland was questioned by school officials for over two hours after he showed a friend his cowboy-style cap gun on the way to school.
Officials finally called the boy’s mother when he wet his pants. The mother told the Post that she found it highly unusual that her son soiled himself, indicating that he was very intimidated.
The report states that the boy’s parents bought him the plastic, orange-tipped cap gun at Frontier Town, a western-themed adventure centre. Following the interrogation, the boy told his mother that he had brought it to school because he had “really, really” wanted to show his friend, who had previously brought a water pistol to school.
The school’s principal told the mother that her son had pointed the toy at other students and pretended to shoot them, although the boy and his sister, who was also on the bus and subsequently questioned, say this is not the case.
The principal even stated that had the gun been “loaded” with caps, then it would have been “deemed an explosive and police would have been called in.”
The boy, who remains anonymous has been suspended from school for 10 days. “If the punishment stands, it would become part of the boy’s permanent school record and keep him out of classes the rest of the school year,” the report notes.
“The school was quite obviously taking it very seriously, and he’s 5 years old,” the boy’s mother said. “Why were we not immediately contacted?”
“I have no problem that he had a consequence to his behavior,” the mother added. “What I have a problem with is the severity.”
The family has hired attorney Robin Ficker, who was also the attorney involved in the infamous Hello Kitty bubble gun incident back in January, when school officials in Pennsylvania suspended a five-year-old girl for “threatening” class mates with the toy that contains a harmless soap solution. Officials were also said to have interrogated the girl for several hours, before notifying her parents.
Officials at the Mount Carmel school issued a statement describing the girl’s actions as “terroristic” and then refused to retract it following media coverage.
“Kids play cowboys and Indians,” Ficker stated with regards to the latest incident. He added that the boy’s age is important. “They play cops and robbers. You’re talking about a little 5-year-old here.”
He’s “all bugs and frogs and cowboys,” the boy’s mother added.
School officials said they cannot comment on the matter but have scheduled a “disciplinary conference” today to resolve it.
This latest knee-jerk overreaction to children playing with anything that even remotely resembles a gun comes just days after another kindergartner was punished by school officials and forced to apologise for bringing a tiny miniature lego gun onto a school bus.
The list of previous incidents of this nature is now so long that it has prompted Maryland Sen. J. B. Jennings to introduce a bill to stop such idiotic over reactions being played out over and over again in schools.
In March, a 7-year-old boy from Maryland was suspended for unintentionally biting his pop tart into the shape of a gun.
A third grader in Michigan was reprimanded by school officials when he brought a cupcake to school with a plastic toy soldier, holding a gun, on top of it.
A ten year old Virginia boy who was arrested for taking a plastic toy gun to school was forced to deal with a potentially permanent criminal record over the incident.
A student in Florence, Arizona was recently suspended because he had a picture of a gun on his computer.
A six-year-old kindergartner in South Carolina was suspended for taking a small transparent plastic toy gun to school for a show and tell.
A five-year-old in Massachusetts who faced suspension for building a small toy gun out of lego bricks and play-shooting his classmates.
We also reported on an incident that erupted when a discussion between two children about a toy nerf gun caused a lockdown and a massive armed police response at two elementary schools in the Bronx.
In another incident, a Long Island high school was also placed on lock down for 6 hours in response to a student carrying a toy nerf gun.
The nerf gun was once again the deadly weapon of choice as a university campus in Rhode Island was placed on lockdown, causing panic and minor injuries when a stampede to flee the building ensued.
In another incident, a teacher at Malden High School in Massachusetts who glimpsed sight of a “gun”, alerted police who rushed to the scene only to discover a neon water pistol. School officials then vowed to track down the suspect who brought the toy to school using surveillance cameras.
A South Philadelphia elementary student was searched in front of classmates and threatened with arrest after she mistakenly brought a “paper gun” to school.
A 6-year-old boy was suspended from his elementary school, also in Maryland, for making a gun gesture with his hand and saying “pow”.
Another two 6-year-olds in Maryland were suspended for pointing their fingers into gun shapes while playing “cops and robbers” with each other.
A couple of second grade students at a Virginia elementary school were recently suspended for two days after violating the school’s “zero tolerance” policy on weapons when they pointed pencils at other students and made gun noises.
In Oklahoma, a five-year-old boy was also recently suspended for making a gun gesture with his hand.
A 13-year-old Middle School seventh grade student in Pennsylvania was also suspended for the same hand gesture.
The terrorists really are everywhere these days.
http://www.infowars.com/5-year-old-interrogated-by-school-over-toy-cap-gun-until-he-wet-himself-with-fear/ - -
Eric Holder “We Must Brainwash People Against Guns”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjudsrM-aFk - 188k - Cached - Similar pages
Jan 10, 2013 … Eric Holder “We Must Brainwash People Against Guns”
Fine with me. Less idiots with guns mean I win the arms race. I had no problem keeping pot around when it was illegal, and my guns will stay where I can get at them in the unlikely event I need them.
My respect for the law went out the window 30 years ago.
Detroit Citizens Protect Themselves After Police Force Decimated
By Chris Christoff - May 30, 2013 5:00 PM PT
As crime hobbles Detroit (9845MF)’s attempts to revive itself, the city is bolstering its police department by having unarmed citizens patrol the streets in a program that costs less than annual salaries and benefits for three officers.
Volunteers given radios and matching T-shirts help officers protect neighborhoods where burglaries, thefts and thugs drive away people who can’t rely on a police force that lost a quarter of its strength since 2009. With 25 patrols on the streets, the city hopes to add three each year. Meanwhile, the homicide rate continues rising.
Kevyn Orr, the Detroit emergency manager appointed by the state to supersede the mayor and city council, has called public safety crucial as he reorganizes a city running a $380 million deficit, teetering on a record municipal bankruptcy and struggling to provide services. Orr has said Detroit (AERPDTMI)’s turnaround depends on reversing a population loss of more than 25 percent since 2000.
“Nobody’s going to move back to Detroit as long as people don’t have a sense of security,” said volunteer Lorenzo Blount during his morning rounds in the west-side Grandmont area. “That’s what we’re trying to add in our neighborhood in our little way.”
…
Man, that’s just bad. Really, really bad.
Unarmed volunteers in T-Shirts with radios. In Detroit. While the paid poh-leece sit in their cars avoiding the gangstas.
I’d be busting a gut with laughter if it wasn’t so sick.
What a sick joke Detroit is. What a symbol for the decline of America. But hey, that fist sculpture is cool, right?
Yep - but the public union goons still get high salaries, gold plated benefits and insane pensions in a bankrupt city.
And they expect the tax payers to fight crime with T-Shirts and whistles.
The democrat plantation.
“Kevyn Orr, the Detroit emergency manager appointed by the state to supersede the mayor and city council, has called public safety crucial as he reorganizes a city running a $380 million deficit, teetering on a record municipal bankruptcy and struggling to provide services. Orr has said Detroit (AERPDTMI)’s turnaround depends on reversing a population loss of more than 25 percent since 2000.”
Reversing population loss. That’s the guy’s answer. I guess more population is the answer to everything these days, as evidenced by the shamnasty push. Well, heck, if population loss is the problem, just give all the women in Detroit of child bearing age massive amounts of money to reproduce!
You can pretty much count on the fact that Detroit is lost, down the drain, if that’s the guy’s solution to the problem. He’s not going to turn it around, that’s for sure.
In order to solve a problem, you first have to properly define it. THEN you can do something about it. Otherwise it’s like trying to get a car with a busted engine to run by putting on a new set of tires.
Security is a fundamental need. Until you have it nothing else matters. People will happily vote for fascists if they are the only ones who can deliver it.
You just nailed it. And that is the unfortunate decline from republic to democracy to fascism and then the descent into totalitarianism.
Henry Kissinger in an address to the super secret Bilderberg Organization meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 said the following as transcribed from a tape recording made by one of the Swiss delegates:
“Today American’s would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.” ___
Wooly don’t play Dat.
“It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil.”
And Detroilet is the perfect experiment to see how this sort of thing will unfold. You read some of the news accounts about residents pleading for deliverance from the neighborhood thugs. Chi-town, too.
Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, Califailure.
Does QE “work”?
Updated May 31, 2013, 10:18 a.m. ET
FX MATH
Evidence Suggests More QE Likely Won’t Help Economy
By VINCENT CIGNARELLA
The dollar is up 6.4% this year, according to The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, and that is being largely attributed to a rebounding housing market and other signals of recovery in the U.S. economy.
So is it time to congratulate Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke? Not so fast.
The idea that aggressive monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve has finally built the foundations of a healthier U.S. economy might be an appealing notion. But a closer look at the impact of easy money on lending and economic growth suggests the economic payoff from four and half years of zero interest rates and close to $3 trillion in bond-buying is pretty slim.
The first round of “quantitative easing,” or QEI as we’ve come to know it, certainly helped stabilize a dangerously unstable financial system in 2009. But the truth is that even that $1.75 trillion blast, as well as all that has come up since via QEII in 2010-2011 and the current, indefinitely timed QEIII program, has spurred relatively little credit growth in the wider economy.
Two data points that demonstrate how ineffective it has been: loan-to-deposit ratios of the nation’s largest banks stood at a meager 84% at the end of 2012, down from 101% in 2007; commercial banks’ deposits at the Fed have grown from $1 trillion in March of 2009 to $2 trillion now. In other words, instead of lending out the cheap cash they’ve obtained from the Fed, banks continue to give it back to the central bank.
…
I remember when we used to criticize Japan for keeping their zombie banks and big corporations alive instead of letting nature take it’s course to make them stronger.
In other words, instead of lending out the cheap cash they’ve obtained from the Fed, banks continue to give it back to the central bank.
Because the bank is giving them an above-market rate; compare the rate that they are getting paid on reserves with the duration required to get the same yield in the T-bills market.
I flunked the stock market quiz on the first attempt.
Test your business knowledge with these quizzes
Yes, but more importantly, how did you do on the ” How well do you know your premium jeans?” quiz?
I got 4/7. The first question is kind of vague, and I think their answer is only correct if one counts people who own stocks through mutual funds, pensions, and 401ks. Hard to believe that many people directly hold stocks in individual brokerage accounts.
How is the Bitcoin exchange rate holding up after the Liberty Reserve take down?
Liberty Reserve indicted on digital currency money-laundering charges
May 28, 2013, 8:47 a.m.
NEW YORK — A federal grand jury has indicted Liberty Reserve, a major digital currency company, and its top executives in what authorities billed as history’s biggest-ever international money-laundering case.
The alleged $6-billion scheme spanned the globe and involved more than 1 million users worldwide, according to the indictment announced Tuesday. Prosecutors cited 55 million illicit transactions as part of the scheme, calling Liberty Reserve a “financial hub of cyber-crime world.”
“The defendants deliberately attracted and maintained a customer base of criminals by making financial activity on Liberty Reserve anonymous and untraceable,” the indictment said.
…
Bitcoin will continue to function beyond the reach of government and law
Law enforcement caught up with money laundering hub Liberty Reserve but will struggle with decentralised online currencies
James Ball
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 May 2013 11.47 EDT
…
May 31, 2013, 12:00 PM
What the Liberty Reserve Bust Means for Digital Cash
By Jacob Gershman
The staggering allegations against Liberty Reserve this week have made it abundantly clear that digital cash is firmly in the sights of regulators as well as prosecutors.
In particular, the Treasury Department’s decision on Tuesday to activate a powerful anti-money laundering provision of the Patriot Act – isolating Liberty Reserve from the U.S. financial system – means that every purveyor of virtual currencies has to worry about compliance.
Advocates for digital currency’s most promising experiment, for one, are keeping calm and carrying on.
“I don’t see some secret government crackdown,” said Patrick Murck, a virtual currency entrepreneur and legal counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group that promotes bitcoin software and security standards, in an interview with Law Blog. “The sky isn’t falling. The government isn’t coming to take away your bitcoins.”
…
Wall Street’s Best Minds | FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013
Don’t Fall Prey to the Lure of Gold and Bitcoins
By JASON D. PRIDE
While alternative currencies are a “noteworthy trend to observe,” it’s better to invest in stocks and other assets that generate actual returns, writes a Glenmede strategist.
“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein
Here’s an up front summary of this article:
• Fears regarding economic tail risks and the future of fiat currencies (e.g., the dollar and euro) have created surging demand for “alternative” currencies.
• Alternative currencies, such as gold and even the fledgling bitcoin possess many of the required characteristics to serve as currencies, but limitations will likely prohibit attainment of currency status in the foreseeable future.
• While these alternatives are theorized to be better stores of value than printed currencies, recent interest and price appreciation, ironically, likely undermines this stability.
• Further, the economic tail risks that spurred interest in alternative currencies may be waning as governments globally have begun to address debt and deficit problems.
• While alternative currencies can be a noteworthy trend to observe, we nonetheless continue to recommend investment in productive assets that provide a return of and on capital.
One philosophical interpretation of Einstein’s quote is that money and physical possessions are not, at the end of the day, more important than emotional considerations. In the world of finance, everything must be counted, recounted and then counted again to verify the accuracy of the result. Vexing for economists and investors is the fact that intangible factors play as great, if not greater, a role as fundamental and countable factors like revenue, profit and income. Currencies and commodities are a breeding ground for this phenomenon. Where most assets have an underlying value based on an ability to generate income, currencies and commodities do not and therefore are more susceptible to softer, intangible factors.
Gold: The Original Currency, Once Removed
Arguably the first true currency, gold demonstrates most of the key characteristics required of a currency: desirability, divisibility, portability and exchangeability. Its beauty and rarity make it one of the most desirable substances, and as it does not physically degrade over time, it’s a reasonably good store of value. Gold is infinitely divisible such that, if separated into smaller and smaller parts, the value of the aggregate remains intact. Although gold had for many years been accepted in trade for goods and services, the world ultimately evolved to favor printed currencies and coinage which have proven more portable, divisible and exchangeable. Electronic banking has only driven the wedge further, relegating gold to the estranged position of an alternative currency.
…
BUSINESS
May 31, 2013, 8:29 p.m. ET
‘Virtual’ Currencies Draw State Scrutiny
By ROBIN SIDEL and ANDREW R. JOHNSON
State banking regulators are scrutinizing companies that let people buy and sell virtual currencies such as bitcoin, and some are looking at requiring costly licenses, according to people familiar with the efforts.
It is the latest sign that the freewheeling world of virtual currencies is about to get less free. Just this week, prosecutors claimed to have exposed a $6 billion money-laundering ring that allegedly relied on them.
Bitcoin enthusiasts say the currency derives its value from its limited supply and the support of the people using it.
“Virtual” currencies can be used just like dollars among people who agree to accept them. One big difference is that they aren’t backed by a government. Instead, bitcoin enthusiasts say, the currency derives its value from its limited supply and the support of the people using it.
In the past three months, the Treasury Department, prosecutors and now state regulators have taken aim at virtual-currency exchanges, telling them they must follow traditional rules aimed at thwarting money-laundering. The lightly regulated currencies have caught the attention of people who allegedly use some of them to mask profits from illegal activities.
Companies using virtual currencies said they welcome the regulatory push because it helps legitimize the practice and build trust with users and investors. But new rules could also make the systems more cumbersome, taking away some advantages, currency experts say. Bitcoin can sometimes be cheaper to use than regular currencies, for instance, because there are fewer “transaction fees” that can take a bite out of regular credit-card transactions.
“There is definitely a lot of scrambling that is going on in the industry,” says Carol Van Cleef, a lawyer at Patton Boggs LLP in Washington who represents clients in bitcoin ventures.
The four-year-old bitcoin payment system is among the most popular of the new methods. The price of a bitcoin on the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, a primary exchange, was about $130 Friday. That compares with roughly $50 in mid-March and a high of $230 in April.
The new scrutiny comes at the same time federal regulators are attempting to rein in illegal activities made easier by virtual currencies. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a unit of the Treasury Department, in March issued guidelines that said virtual currency exchanges are subject to the same comprehensive anti-money-laundering requirements as traditional money-transmission businesses such as Western Union Co. WU -0.49% and encouraged them to register with the agency.
“This is definitely on our radar. We are becoming aware of more and more businesses that may need to be licensed,” said Daniel Wood, assistant general counsel in the Texas Department of Banking.
…
Tech
U.S. Deals a Blow to Bitcoin
U.S. officials dealt a blow to the fledgling digital currency called Bitcoin, freezing an account that is tied to the largest Bitcoin exchange just months after regulators warned that such entities should follow traditional rules on money laundering. Jeffrey Sparshott joins digits. Photo: Getty Images.
5/16/2013 2:34:18 PM
This news indicates gold investors should have relatively little trouble finding greater fools on whom to unload their gold holdings.
82% of the Asians believe that price of gold will increase, says World Gold Council
Sutanuka Ghosal, ET Bureau May 30, 2013, 05.48PM IST
KOLKATA: World Gold Council chief executive officer Aram Shishmanian said on Wednesday that a new World Gold Council research shows that 82% of Asians believe that the price of gold will increase or will be stable in the next five years.
He said: “It is well known that there is a deep belief in gold and its long-term prospects in India and China. Since the sudden drop in the gold price during mid-April, which was driven by the US investment markets, this belief has been reinforced. Not surprisingly, demand has surged as consumers have seen an investment opportunity to buy significant amounts of gold.”
…
Whac-a-Bullion,
You have been a gold bear ever since it was at $500 and you have been wrong for 10 years.(last 2 years you have been partially correct)
When gold hits $2,000 I’m sure you will post stories of how gold is in bubble territory.
IMO, gold should go down when the US gets their financial house in order. So that should be after I am dead.
SD Renter:
You could say the exact same thing about HBB and real estate. It’s amazing how the very same people who scream REAL ESTATE BUBBLE, REAL ESTATE BUBBLE are also the same people screaming BUY GOLD, BUY GOLD in the very next breath.
Real estate is in a bubble because prices are 100% higher than 20 years ago. Gold is 1000% higher yet that is not in a bubble and has another 1000% to go. It’s beyond illogical.
Mr. Smithers,
Real estate is not suppose to go up when the US gets deeper in a debt that they cannot possibly get out of. One might say that real estate can and is going up because of historically US interest rates and people buying homes for a reasonable payment.
Many say gold does go up when people realize that the US cannot possible ever pay their bills. A dollar collapse is perhaps inevitable and only just a matter of when. Should gold go up in the face of spiraling mismanagement of our brain surgeons elected to public office? I don’t know the exact answer but if JP6 doesn’t know where to put his money, a few thousand years track record of gold as wealth is not a bad place.
One of your alternatives to put your money is to have faith in the govt and store it in the bank. I don’t think many people on this blog have faith in the govt nor the US financial system. Is gold in a bubble? Maybe but I’d rather bet on gold than the US getting itself out of hot water.
We have O, Goldman Sachs and Pelosi making decisions for us all. We may have Hillary and Michelle O on a ticket in 2016.(Oh God, the thought of it, just take me now)
Real estate is not suppose to go up when the US gets deeper in a debt that they cannot possibly get out of.
You mentioned dollar collapse. Maybe do people think that the US government is going to destroy the dollar, but will be able to successfully maintain property rights? If that’s the conventional wisdom then it would make sense.
Real estate is not suppose to go up when the US gets deeper in a debt that they cannot possibly get out of.
+1, Carl.
SD Renter, if you truly believe that the US is going to be buried by crushing debt, then RE going up follows logically: governments with crushing debts generally print their way out of it; printing devalues the currency, driving up the the price of everything; hard assets such as RE benefit.
If the end of the world does arrive and the dollars is destroyed gold will be worth nothing. When you don’t have enough to eat, the last thing you will buy is gold.
Gold is a hedge against inflation in an ordinary world. If/when the dollar is destroyed, you’re no longer in an ordinary world. Long term gold is a lose/lose proposition.
Smithers.. If it’s lose lose, how about you send about a hundred ounces my way free of charge?
“Real estate is in a bubble because prices are 100% higher than 20 years ago.”
Look EddieTard Slithers,
You seem to want to minimize and detract from the fundamental goal of this blog with each post. Here’s a bulletin for you. Current resale housing prices are 250% higher today than the were at the beginning of the bubble.
You couldn’t evaluate the the price of a house if 10 people walked you through the process.
It will go down when-and-if the Fed takes away the QE punch bowl. That is all I have to say about it. (I.e. I cannot predict whether or not the Fed will follow through on its “end QE3 soon” saber rattling.)
P.S. It might help to explain the mechanism involved, which is rising Treasury and GSE bond yields. When bond yields are below inflation, gold is an attractive choice, as its value as an inflation hedge outweighs its absence of a yield.
When yields on other flight-to-quality assets (e.g. Treasurys) go up faster than anticipated future inflation, a natural consequence of removing the QE3 punch bowl, the equilibrium price of Treasurys (and the dollars in which they are denominated) increases relative to other inflation hedges like gold.
Any questions?
(I.e. I cannot predict whether or not the Fed will follow through on its “end QE3 soon” saber rattling.)
I have a prediction that I continue to make: The Fed will engage in sabre-rattle, and nothing more.
They sure did a good job of fooling Mr Market last month!
IMO, gold should go down when the US gets their financial house in order.
It didn’t go up nearly as much as I expected it to go up during 2007-2007, when all heck was breaking loose. So it probably won’t go down in the mythical event of “getting the house in order”.
The IRS is being used to harass people who don’t have the correct political views and to carry out the partisan wishes of the administration.
Fascism.
Waiting for the obama kool-aid drinkers to defend him and blame Bush in 3…2..1..
————————
IRS scandals include gift tax abuse
American Thinker | 06/01/2013 | Thomas Lifson
The IRS unit headed by Lois Lerner not only harassed conservative nonprofits seeking tax exempt status, it evidently set in motion harassment of donors to nonprofits. Talk about a chilling effect!
The details are laid out in a Wall Street Journal story:
At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 to build support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge.
Simply having a conservative thought is a crime. Therefore the IRS had every right to prosecute the criminals. Lois Lerner should be given an award, not prosecuted by these right wing lunatics.
Or so MSNBC keeps telling me….
Why do Republican trolls keep trying to shift the HBB discussion to politics?
“Why do Republican trolls keep trying to shift the HBB discussion to politics?”
Why do liberals insist on ignoring the biggest political scandal of the past 40 years?
Iran Contra?
“…biggest political scandal…”
Ignore the troll trap bait…
Why not take your political opinions to another blog?
Mother: And remember, the Lord loves a working man.
Navin: Lord loves a working man.
Father: And son, don’t never, ever trust whitey.
Navin: Don’t trust whitey. The Lord loves a working man, don’t
trust whitey. (he hugs his mom)
Mother: Ah baby!
Navin: Daddy! (he hugs his dad)
Navin: Pierre come here. Don’t you forget to grow up now.
Father: O.k. Now let the boy go. We got work to do.
Mother: And I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.
Navin: I will Ma. I know it’s out there.
Taj: It’s out there alright, and if you catch it, see a doctor and
get rid of it.
Navin: See a doctor and get rid of it.
Taj: Good luck.
Navin: Good luck. The Lord loves a working man, don’t trust
whitey, see a doctor and get rid of it. Bye Grandma!
The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!
“Cash buyers” huh? It’s a lie. Just like the “housing is an investment” lie.
“Subprime mortgages are back”
http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/listedblogpost.aspx?post=e7e44f4a-6edb-4179-b869-1b008a4fe9ef&_p=d57d9588-9957-47ac-aa6d-4171a4943cdb
And of course….. subprime and zero down lending created the previous bubble and collapse. Imagine the losses resulting from the coming collapse?
No one could see it coming…
We are victims…
We need to bail out the banks or there will be tanks in the street…
Hope and change…
Forward…
Yes we did.
WrongWay Barack only does things one way……. the wrong way.
“We need to bail out the banks or there will be tanks in the street…”
Is that the new TFB program?
Tanks For Banks
Everything will be done to prop up housing. If they are just now reporting it, it’s been going on for a while. That means only about 5 more years til the rests and the next crash. Until then it’s party on like its 1999 (2003)
The fact that they’re reporting already means the rotation has already begun. And in fact the reversal has already begun.
Zerohedge…
Some amazing stats on the growth of government under obama. Even under the joke called “sequester”
————–
Move Over Marx, Here Comes Obama
Pivotfarm’s - 05/31/2013
Obama’s new tax policy will raise $800 billion over a decade. But, it’s the rich and the middle class that are going to be hit the most. The People’s Bank of the Soviet Union shortly after the Revolution was created by the merging of banks that were nationalized by force. Only difference with Obama and the US banking system is where the forcing came from. The banks in the US have been to all intents and purposes nationalized. Obama has bailed out the banks to the tune of $780 billion each year since the recession according to research. They get $360 billion in Federal Reserve subsidies and $120 billion in federal deposit insurance. You can add another $100 billion in government-guaranteed loans and the same sum in monopolistic advantages. Lastly there’s $100 billion in fees in the OTC (over-the-counter) derivative market. That all adds up to trillions. Literally.
Remember they were “too big to fail”. Where’s the free-market economics that were the pride of neoliberalism? Reagan would be turning in his grave! Didn’t we believe in the US at one time that printing money would do nothing more than increase inflation. Whatever happened to those principles of the USA, so dear to their hearts, so exportable to the rest of the world? It was the model that we all had to follow. Now, the US is turning in on itself, coming full circle, turning commy. Who would have thought?
Obamacare was an admirable pledge for his election. Even though he is far from succeeding and there are still million without access to health in the USA. There were 45 million in 2012 that still didn’t have healthcare cover. But, in the process of setting up healthcare Obama has created a hoard of bureaucrats that are employed daily as civil servants to deal with the implementation of new policies. Federal employment has increased under Obama by 11.7% on average since 2009. If the shrinking private sector of liberals can’t employ you (there’s been a fall of 7.5 million jobs), then the state will happily do so. Can we all join the bandwagon? There were 2,790,000 federal workers in January 2009 (when Obama took office). Now there are 2,804,000. Every month has seen an increase in the number of federal workers since that date. Where’s the neoliberal attitude gone?
What happened to free trade? Where are the open markets, privatization and deregulation? Where’s the reduction in the public sector gone? Where’s the meritocracy in life? Where’s the employee of the month hanging on the wall out of just deserves? That’s so old-hat, isn’t it just! Everyone gets protected, helped, boosted, aided. That’s the wonderful thing about Communism. Old-School style. Now that’s fashionable, isn’t it? Old-school!
The Obama administration has sent the welfare state through the roof, costing nearly $1 trillion a year. That’s an increase of 19%. Is the US becoming an assisted state? Is the state become the people’s nanny? Federal and state spending have grown from $779.9 billion to $927.2 billion. Debt is growing, spending is increasing and the welfare state is expanding. The answer in true Soviet fashion is to print the bills and provide for the people.
But, as we look on and watch in awe at what is happening with the QE, the state intervention(s), the money-printing, the bolstering of the banks, the massive shore-up policies to save the failings of their system, we wonder how Stalin must have (somewhere, wherever he is in that Communist paradise) a wry smirk on his face. Can you hear The Internationale? Obama is humming it as we speak! The USSA?
” Federal employment has increased under Obama by 11.7% on average since 2009…There were 2,790,000 federal workers in January 2009 (when Obama took office). Now there are 2,804,000.”
Although I agree with the point you are making, how is 14000 new workers in 4 years 11 percent increase ?
Teabilly math.
“Teabilly math.”
Do you work for the IRS?
Ah-Maze-ingRust, taking a covert little swipe like a cockroach in the corner. At least some of the Tea Party folks have an understanding of basic concepts such as income has to be greater than outgo. His crew knows no such thing, as evidenced by the fact that the public school system churns out illiterates and innumerates by the boatload. That’s lots of $$ for a crappy product. But they do teach that everyone’s special and everyone’s a weiner and everyone deserves. Mo’ money from the gubmin’! Coddle, coddle.
“And son, don’t never, ever trust whitey.”
“And son, don’t never, ever trust whitey.”
+1 Especially if they wear a suit and tie.
The fact that there are close to 3 MILLION govt employees is disgusting in and of itself, whether it’s a 1% increase or an 11% increase.
Be thankful you aren’t the sucker borrowing massively inflated amounts for depreciating houses that you know won’t be able to be sold for half that amount in the future.
“With 25 million excess empty houses and growing, housing demand at 17 year lows and falling, housing prices have a very long way to fall. A very long way.”
Feds crack down on foreclosure auction scams
Posted: 10:21 a.m. Saturday, June 1, 2013
By PAUL ELIAS
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
At the height of the financial crisis, bargain hunters would gather each week on county courthouse steps to bid on foreclosed properties throughout Northern and Central California. The inventory lists were long, especially in hard-hit areas such as Sacramento and Stockton. But the auctions were generally short affairs — often because real estate speculators were illegally fixing the bidding process.
In the past three years, federal prosecutors have charged 54 people and two companies in three states for bid-rigging during courthouse auctions of foreclosed properties. Most cases originated in California, the state with the highest foreclosure rate during the financial crisis. Nearly identical rings were also broken up in Raleigh, N.C., and Mobile, Ala.
Working in concert, the would-be buyers would appoint just one person to bid on each property on the auction block, thus securing the “winning” bid. Minutes after the official proceeding was over, they would then conduct an auction among themselves, often on the same courthouse steps.
That’s when a property’s true price would emerge. The conspirators would then divvy up the difference paid at the official auction and the private one.
Federal officials say they expect to charge a few more people in the coming months but that cases are expected to soon drop off now that the heated foreclosure market of late 2008 and 2009 has cooled.
Madeline Schnapp, an economist with PropertyRadar, a company that tracks foreclosures, said sales at auctions have fallen from a height of about 30,000 a month to about 5,000 a month in California as government programs and new laws have made it more difficult for banks to begin foreclosure proceedings.
“There’s not much of a supply now,” she said.
Paul Pfingst, a lawyer who represents another investor charged in participating in a Central California ring, says illegal temptation got the better of many speculators who couldn’t resist victimizing seemingly unsympathetic banks. His client, Andrew Katakis, is accused of participating along with four others in a $2.5 million conspiracy to rig bids in the Stockton area, which has led the nation in foreclosures.
“sales at auctions have fallen from a height of about 30,000 a month to about 5,000 a month in California as government programs and new laws have made it more difficult for banks to begin foreclosure proceedings.”
The great foaming of the runways for the banks continues.
Why Neil Barofsky’s Book “Bailout” Matters
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Perhaps the most important revelation in the book is a meeting with Geithner that Barofsky recounts, where Geithner says that Treasury’s housing initiatives were successful, despite their inability to stem the tide of foreclosures. The programs were meant, Geithner says, to “foam the runway” for banks, spread out foreclosures since banks couldn’t take a hit all at once. The publicly stated rationale for administration housing initiatives, in other words, was simply a lie. The Obama administration didn’t try to prevent a foreclosure crisis, they just spaced it out to help the large banks. This is very important information, and it’s useful that it has come out now.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/in-bailout-neil-barofsky-reveals-the-key-lie-of-the-obama-administration.html - 150k - Cached - Similar pages
Aug 28, 2012 …
Cool. That also lead me to this one:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/05/so-who-is-the-dumb-money-ruining-the-housing-rental-market.html
I was in Vancouver (BC) recently and was there with a team from all over N. America. One of the dudes on the team is from Texas. So we’re in a cab and drove by a construction site for yet another condo with a sign that said “Condos Starting at $399,000″. He saw that and said “400K for a condo? Man in Texas for $400K I could literally buy a mansion. This is insane.”
And that 399K was probably for a studio on the ground floor next to the boiler room.
Things are different in Vancouver…
They are not making any more land..
Everyone wants to live here…
Lois Lerner, the IRS director of exempt organizations is not big on the 1st, the 2nd has to go but she’ll take the 5th.
San Diego County used home market situation summary (according to Redfin dot com):
- 4800 used single-family homes, condos and townhomes are currently on the market
- “Only” 29% of these (1386) are priced north of $1 million
Comments:
1) With the number of homes on the market today a small fraction of what was on the market in 2006, I would guess the pace of home sales is also far lower than it was in 2006. I.e., the housing market is still collapsed when measured in terms of transaction volume, rather than more popular, though highly misleading, sales price indices.
2) I can’t imagine that a large number of prospective buyers in the market are interested and able to pay over $1 million, but then perhaps I underestimate how many millionaires would prefer to live in San Diego versus wherever they are already comfortably housed.
Bill Spetrino
Why the Dow Will Hit 60,000 (and One Easy Way to Profit)
Friday, 31 May 2013 01:22 PM
Bill Spetrino, editor of the Dividend Machine newsletter (ranked #1 by Hulbert Financial Digest), is taking a successful approach to investing with Warren Buffett’s concept of “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
That’s why in 2009, Spetrino was lambasted for his bold moves in the stock market. “I was telling people to buy stocks as the market was taking a 50% hit,” Spetrino explains, “and they thought I was crazy.”
Four years later, Spetrino’s model portfolio is sitting on 161% returns, but according to Spetrino, that’s just the start.
“Stocks will rally 399% from here, catapulting the Dow to 60,000,” he explains.
…
I actually believe this could happen. Not based on any sane concepts of value, mind you. Mainly based in insane inflation and casino rigging.
This would represent a massive wealth transfer out of fixed income pensions into Wall Street’s coffers.
Not suggesting it can’t or won’t happen; merely noting the effect if it does.
I suppose since retirees have been hosed out of the returns on their CDs and money market accounts for several years now, adding some massive opportunity costs of inflation-fueled stock market wealth effects of which they could not partake to the hosing would be no big deal.
I think 30,000 at the least in my lifetime, which is why I am over 60% stocks.
Posted: 1:27 p.m. Saturday, June 1, 2013
Judge: Google must give user info to FBI
By PAUL ELIAS
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Google must comply with the FBI’s demand for data on certain customers as part of a national security investigation, according to a ruling by a federal judge who earlier this year determined such government requests are unconstitutional.
The decision involves “National Security Letters,” thousands of which are sent yearly by the FBI to banks, telecommunication companies and other businesses. The letters, an outgrowth of the USA Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, are supposed to be used exclusively for national security purposes and are sent without judicial review. Recipients are barred from disclosing anything about them.
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston sided with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a lawsuit brought on behalf of an unidentified telecommunications company, ruling the letters violate free speech rights. She said the government failed to show the letters and the blanket non-disclosure policy “serve the compelling need of national security” and the gag order creates “too large a danger that speech is being unnecessarily restricted.”
She put that ruling on hold while the government appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the latest case, Illston sided with the FBI after Google contested the constitutionality and necessity of the letters but again put her ruling on hold until the 9th Circuit rules. After receiving sworn statements from two top-ranking FBI officials, Illston said she was satisfied that 17 of the 19 letters were issued properly. She wanted more information on two other letters.
It was unclear from the judge’s ruling what type of information the government sought to obtain with the letters. It was also unclear who the government was targeting.
Kurt Opsah, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he was “disappointed that the same judge who declared these letters unconstitutional is now requiring compliance with them.”
Illston’s May 20 order omits any mention of Google or that the proceedings were closed to the public. But the judge said “the petitioner” was involved in a similar case filed on April 22 in New York federal court.
Public records obtained Friday by The Associated Press show that on that same day, the federal government filed a “petition to enforce National Security Letter” against Google after the company declined to cooperate with government demands.
Neither Google nor the FBI would comment.
The letters issued by the FBI can be used to collect unlimited kinds of private information, such as financial and phone records. The FBI sent 16,511 letters requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available.
Critics contend the government is overly zealous in using the letters, unnecessarily infringing on privacy rights of American citizens. In 2007, the Justice Department’s inspector general found widespread violations by the FBI, including sending demands without proper authorization. The FBI has since tightened oversight of the system.
Copyright The Associated Press
Some folks enjoy gambling with money; others, with their own lives.
See what happens when the storm chasers are suddenly chastened.
In El Reno, a tornado ‘looking at us dead in the eye’
By Ben Brumfield, Holly Yan and George Howell, CNN
updated 2:32 PM EDT, Sat June 1, 2013
Car bombings and arson among retirees at 55+ condo…
http://www.tampabay.com/news/accusations-of-arson-and-car-bombing-fly-at-clearwater-retiree-mecca/2124235
If we do return to 8% or more federal funds, Series I savings bond fixed rates would be above 5%. TIPS would be where a big part of my treasuries would go. All that money that I told myself would be put to the luxury house in a red state would instead go for care free renting an ocean view place.
In coastal California renting is much cheaper than owning. Anyone owning must have had more than one occasion a brick fall on their head.
For now, gradually increasing my T-bills and rolling them back in at maturity is a fun thing, even with yields of 0.102%.
I knew a guy, a family man, who only invested in government bonds. Not a leftist. Just that he did not care for stocks. In his favor he did not pay state income tax on the income. That’s what I admired. He knew all the stuff about laddering. He’s not much older than me either. He was doing this in his 30s.
I like both worlds, stocks and bonds. It’s fun to own a piece of companies and have a hand in growing them. I like corporate bonds too.
You have to participate in several asset classes for over 20 years and rebalance periodically to not get left behind.
In L.A. I see people scrounge garbage cans for plastic bottles. There is my alternative. Well no thanks I don’t intend to be one of them.