Bits Bucket for June 13, 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
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http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/census-benchmark-for-white-americans-more-deaths-than-births.html?from=homepage
related article with interesting reader comments
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324049504578541712247829092.html
Also important to note that the whites who _are_ having kids aren’t like us, they are more like 2Banana or NorthTeastener. The whites who have more kids tend to be religious and skeptical of education/science.
whites who _are_ having kids aren’t like us
Hedge-fund wives are popping kids like candies in suburbs of NYC.
How the rich breed:
“The Sippy Cup 1%”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/magazine/the-sippy-cup-1.html
The whites who have more kids tend to be religious and skeptical of education/science.
And they’ll end up competing with illegals for the toilet scrubbing jobs.
I thought Americans didn’t want to do those jobs.
And they’ll end up competing with illegals for the toilet scrubbing jobs.
Spoken like the true limousine snob racist liberal that you are.
Want to know the real difference between a conservative and a liberal?
Conservative are more than happy to live under the laws they want for everyone else.
Liberals want exemptions for all the laws they want the rest of us to live under.
Want to know the real difference between a conservative and a liberal?
You don’t.
Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes
Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact. Psychological Science Journal, March 1, 2011
Abstract
PsychologicDespite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups
Spoken like the true limousine snob racist liberal that you are.
Nice. You have no counterarguments, so you result to insults.
You don’t know me bub, not at all. I’m prolife and a believer. I’m also Hispanic. But just because I don’t fit into your narrow definition of what a “conservative” is I’m a an elitist snob racist liberal. It’s because of people like you that I quit the GOP.
Nothing says “science” like imposing massive “carbon taxes” on all of America for an unproven theory while the #1 and #2 most polluting countries in the world merrily go on their way.
Or maybe the science that a baby is just a blob of tissue one second before birth (and in the case of obama even hours post birth) that can be murder at a whim.
Keep this thought in your head.
Liberals are aborting and not replacing themselves out of existence.
Your only hope is recruiting for the free sh*t army.
Keep this thought in your head…..Liberals are aborting and not replacing themselves out of existence.
Why should we keep a thought in our head that is wrong?
“Growing racial and ethnic diversity, which is concentrated among younger generations, has benefited Democrats. Race and ethnicity are strongly associated with views about government, and in no small part account for some of the greater liberalism of the younger age groups and greater conservatism of older groups.” Pew Research Center November 3, 2011
http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/03/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3/
I think we can settle this pretty easily. One side claims it’s an unproven theory, the other claims it’s proven.
http://thecontributor.com/why-climate-deniers-have-no-scientific-credibility-one-pie-chart
That’s just the first site I found - the exact same study is featured on may others.
The debate is over.
Global warming is a fact. Just like sunshine.
“More white people died in the U.S. last year than were born, a surprising slump coming more than a decade before the census predicts that the ranks of white Americans will drop with every passing year.
Population estimates for 2012 released by the Census Bureau Thursday showed what’s known as a natural decrease — a straightforward calculation of births minus deaths — of about 12,400 people among the nation’s 198 million whites who are not Hispanic. Overall in Maine, the number of deaths exceeded births statewide in 2012.
Though the percentage is small, several demographers said they are not aware of another time in U.S. history — not even during the Depression or wartime — when the dominant racial group experienced such shrinkage. No other group showed a similar fall off.”
Eh, we’re living in the last days of the republic anyway. The meltdown is close, real close.
Does this mean it’s “go time” now?
Wait for the code word.
How can the millennials be in any rush to start a family w/the crushing education debt so many are holding? Not to mention this is the age group so heavily hit by layoffs 5 years ago.
+1 snowgirl…Spot on….Besides…This same group has seen the ravages of divorce up close & personal…They want no part of it…They also know that before you have a child, you must take the calculator out and see if you can afford it…Hence…Later Marriages…Later Child bearing & fewer children…
So why don’t they just join the “free sh*t army”? Two lobsters in every pot and an Escalade in the Section 8 house’s garage.
You can’t get free stuff if you are still living at home and have no children can you? Not unless you are a drug addict or special anyway…
You can’t get free stuff if you are still living at home and have no children can you?
That’s why they need to start popping them out! Then the manna will fall from DC.
I know, I agree with you. The perverse thing is, the people who really don’t have that much education or future prospects are the ones who have the kids. They have less to lose. Worst case, just apply for food stamps and get medicaid for the kids. All the while complaining about the immigrants rather than blaming both parties in Congress for being complicit and actually wanting the immigrants here for cheap labor.
In about 2030-35 there is actually going to be a _shortage_ of well-parented kids who apply to Ivy League (and similar) schools. Increasing numbers of kids will be raised with religious dogma, glorification of violence, and other values of the poors. Even if my future kid is mentally challenged, he/she will get into a Johns Hopkins/Brown/Cornell level of school at the very least. It will be much easier for them in 2033 (or whatever) than for me in 2000.
In about 2030-35 there is actually going to be a _shortage_ of well-parented kids who apply to Ivy League (and similar) schools.
Did you miss that Asians were one of the two fastest growing minorities?
In about 2030-35 there is actually going to be a _shortage_ of well-parented kids who apply to Ivy League (and similar) schools. Increasing numbers of kids will be raised with religious dogma, glorification of violence, and other values of the poors. Even if my future kid is mentally challenged, he/she will get into a Johns Hopkins/Brown/Cornell level of school at the very least. It will be much easier for them in 2033 (or whatever) than for me in 2000.
What an idiotic thing to say. I hope you are not serious. Foreign students will fill the ivys or almost-ivys. You are not special..Your child will only exist to serve coffe and muffin to brown & yellow doctors & exectives.
First off, the numbers of asians are increasing but, as with whites, the most educated of them are having less children. It mirrors Japan, which has had a below-replacement-rate birth rate for a significant time now. Asians were already a very prominent group when I went to college. But guess what, now we’re 30 and most of them have zero kids now just like me.
Second off, it is already getting slightly easier to get into Ivy is similar schools. The toughest years were the early ’00s. Applications that pay the app fee are actually _down_ and the official numbers are only bouyed because schools give out fee waivers like candy these days. Kids that have no chance to get in will apply bc it’s free. It’s like buying a lottery ticket. Schools do this because high # of apps means low acceptance %. I think my yr of Princeton had a 11% accept rate, whereas this yr it was something like 8 or 9%. But if you look at the SAT range, it is slightly lower.
Bottom line, most of the kids today are being born to less educated and financially successful parents. Conversely, people with “nothing to lose” are having most of the kids.
The child-bearing these days belongs to the Duggars and other knuckle-draggers.
Bottom line, most of the kids today are being born to less educated and financially successful parents. Conversely, people with “nothing to lose” are having most of the kids.
So being wealthy and educated is an evolutionary dead end. Interesting.
1. You are mainly talking about Asian Americans. Asia is much bigger and will be much richer 30 yrs from now. Eevry rich Indonasian, Indian or Burmes kid would like a taste of Ivy and they will pay millions for their kid. Believe me, the “poor” people like you have no chance.
2. Identity politics. Once the minorities (Asians/Latinos/Africans) become more powerful as a society, do not for a moment think that they will ease up on preferential treatment. Exactly opposite will happen. A Guatamalan orphon child with IQ of 80 will have a better chance than your procious kid in getting admitted to an Ivy.
That’s the future and you know it.
But guess what, now we’re 30 and most of them have zero kids now just like me.
It’s what I’ve observed. Of my three Asian colleagues, only one has a kid and she waited until she was 40 to have her baby.
The poors? I think Joe forgot about the prosperity bible churches. The local 1000+ member megachurch is referred to as the shiny church on the hill due to the wealth and social position of a large proportion of its members. They offer a pretty generous spectrum of parenting classes (some might call it indoctrination) but I would say a disproportional number of their kids get into some pretty top level schools. Maybe due to connections. Maybe due to very competitive school districts and having parents that would be socially horrified if their kids fell short. Maybe due to the gift of DNA from very intelligent parents as suggested by their station in life.
Increasing numbers of kids will be raised with religious dogma, glorification of violence, and other values of the poors.
Most fundy kids I know either go to state or a Fundy U like Bob Jones U.
prosperity bible churches.
The local 1000+ member megachurch is referred to as the shiny church on the hill due to the wealth and social position of a large proportion of its members.
I think Jesus would be appalled at the prosperity bible churches.
Because a lot of the prosperity bible churches are probably appalled today that God’s works can no longer be patented for the sake of man’s money.
Court says human genes cannot be patented
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/court-says-human-genes-cannot-be-patented-1.5474342
(AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that companies cannot patent parts of naturally-occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and biotechnology industries.
…….The high court’s unanimous judgment reverses three decades of patent awards by government officials.
The court has said that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.
“We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” Thomas said…..
……”Today, the court struck down a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation,” said Sandra Park, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project. “Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued.”
I think Jesus would be appalled at the prosperity bible churches.
Really? Then quote some scripture to support your hypotheses.
You will probably find it right next to the verses where Jesus said “go out and create huge governments with huge bureaucracies that will take money from some people, at the point of a sword, and give that money to other people as a government sees fit.”
I think Jesus would be appalled at the prosperity bible churches.
Really? Then quote some scripture to support your hypotheses.
Dude, I bet you like hitting your head with a hammer too.
The Prosperity “Gospel” v. the Gospel of Jesus Christ
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/29004
…..Here are some of the many conflicts between the prosperity gospel and the Gospel of Jesus Christ
1. The prosperity gospel presents Jesus as merely the means to the greater ends of material health, wealth, and happiness. Jesus claims that he is our health, wealth and happiness. He is the ultimate end and satisfaction for all our desires and longings (Matt 6:19-21; 13:44-46; John 6:35; 14:6). True health, wealth, and happiness cannot be found in this world.
2. The prosperity gospel claims that suffering is never God’s will. But Jesus himself suffered and calls his disciples to take up the cross, forsake the world, and be prepared to suffer as he suffered (Matt 16:24-28; John 15:18-20). Moreover, the Apostolic writers tell us that God often ordains suffering as the means by which he sanctifies his people (2 Cor 1:3-10; 1 Peter 4:12).
3. The prosperity gospel teaches that faith is a positive force. The New Testament teaches that faith is trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. It is his power and promise upon which we lean not the power of our faith (Romans 3:26-28, Ephesians 2:1-8).
4. The prosperity gospel teaches that praying in “the name of Jesus” assures that you will get what you ask for - as if using the literal name of Jesus mechanistically forces God’s hand. But the New Testament teaches that praying in “Jesus’ name” means praying for things that accord with his revealed will and purposes (1 John 5:14). Since the prosperity gospel replaces God’s revealed will with worldly prosperity the prosperity system does not produce prayer in Jesus’ name.
5. The prosperity gospel encourages adherents to give in order to get. The New Testament presents generosity as a gift in and of itself - an outpouring of the love of Christ. Disciples do not give to get they give because they have already “gotten” the greatest treasure of all (2 Cor 8:1-7).
6. The prosperity gospel teaches that God’s miraculous work is necessarily tied to the strength of human belief. The Gospels show this to be a lie. While Jesus at times requires that people trust in his power to heal before healing, at other times he simply decides to heal regardless. Dead people, for example, do not have the power to name nor claim anything, and yet Jesus raises them (Luke 7:11-17). And he decides to heal people who neither ask for it nor believe it can happen (John 5:1-9). God’s power to heal and deliver does not depend on human faith.
The comparison above is not and cannot be exhaustive. Nailing down the prosperity gospel is notoriously difficult, like nailing jello to the wall, because there are so many flavors and strands and there’s no comprehensive confessional or doctrinal material. But the thrust of the prosperity message - God wants you to have your best life now - is easy to spot once you understand it’s basic outline. It’s important to spot since prosperity thinking trades on false hope, luring people toward the mirage of material health and happiness and obscuring the pathway toward the only One in whom true life and hope is found.
The Bankruptcy of the Prosperity Gospel
http://bible.org/article/bankruptcy-prosperity-gospel-exercise-biblical-and-theological-ethics
Conclusion
“Through this study of the theology and the biblical interpretation of the prosperity gospel, one may discern five clear reasons why this movement’s teachings concerning wealth are incorrect:
1. The prosperity gospel is built upon a faulty understanding of the Abrahamic covenant.
2. The prosperity gospel is built upon a faulty understanding of the Atonement.
3. The prosperity gospel is based upon a faulty understanding of the biblical tachings on giving.
4. The prosperity gospel is based upon a faulty understanding of the biblical teachings on faith.
5. The prosperity gospel, in general, has been constructed upon faulty biblical interpretation.
Aside from these five specific theological and biblical arguments against the prosperity gospel, and without even considering the practical implications of this movement,41 there is perhaps one general, summary reason why the prosperity gospel is a wayward gospel: its faulty view of the relationship between God and man. Simply put, if the prosperity gospel is correct, grace becomes obsolete, God becomes irrelevant, and man is the measure of all things. Whether it is the Abrahamic covenant, the Atonement, giving, faith, or the biblical interpretation of any given verse, the prosperity teacher seeks to turn the relationship between God and man into a financial quid pro quo transaction. As scholar James R. Goff noted, God is “reduced to a kind of ‘cosmic bellhop’ attending to the needs and desires of his creation.”42 This is a wholly inadequate and unbiblical view of the relationship between God and man and the stewardship of wealth.”
Note: This article was originally published in Faith and Mission Vol 16, p. 79ff. Published with permission.
My Sky Wizard is better than your Sky Wizard.
My Sky Wizard is better than your Sky Wizard.
The values, customs, traditions, laws and morals of the western world were not based upon Sky Wizards.
that will take money from some people, at the point of a sword, and give that money to other people as a government sees fit.”
Are we allowed to use the Old Testament?
Thou shalt have no Sky Wizard before me.
that will take money from some people, at the point of a sword, and give that money to other people as a government sees fit.”
Umm…Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s? Spoken by JC himself.
The Economist: “The Rise and Rise of the Cognitive Elite”
Why should we matter about the numbers of people with certain skin color?
Race should not matter. What should matter is the quality of people being born. Every child should be wanted. Every child should have parents who make darn sure they get the best education, whatever form, home school, private, public.
Worrying about the numbers of people sharing characteristics is collectivism.
Collectivism is poison.
Get back to us on that in ten years, bila….
If you take on mortgage debt at current massively inflated housing prices, you’ll enslave yourself for the rest of your life.
“Debt is bondage.”~ Suze Orman, May 11, 2013
Don’t Be A Debt Donkey®
do u get all your financial advice from suze?
Do you take financial advice from a Realtor?
keep listening to her and you will be renting the rest of your life.
Considering rental rates are half the cost of buying, how can you go wrong?
On the other hand, why pay massively inflated prices for houses that are ALWAYS depreciating assets?
All depends really. If you can get that rare deal and you have the cash…CASH, ownership is worth it. Then you’ve got nothing but normal costs of homeownership plus rent to the government. If the cost savings are $400 per month, it’s better than letting your money sit for 1%…
Not at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
keep listening to her and you will be renting the rest of your life.
Worse things have happened.
Bad Andy
Great post, because it’s true.
HA is like a broken record.
Our cash buy for a reasonable
amt in the God awful So Ca market,
put us at $600-$700/mo housing costs,
and that includes property taxes.
Try renting for that. Our costs are contained
until we go. We fixed most of the oh sh*ts before we
moved in. 50 yr roof and so forth.
HA -Good Morning.
There’s no good argument for renting if you’ve got the cash and long term stability. Market value is irrelevant at that point and with cash at 1% if you’re lucky…well…
I’ve learned a valuable lesson about borrowing and won’t do it again when it comes to where I have to live.
There’s no good argument for buying when prices are double + the long term trend, irrespective of where you get the money.
Would you pay double + for a car? Of course not.
And as for our West Coast Debt Donkey,
What did you pay for your dump?
HA
After paying So Ca inflated rent, trapped in HB 1.0,
we learned renting is expensive. HA- long term, you’re wrong, short term- sometimes right. It’s not black and white.
Ans all the little houseowners lived happily ever after with candy crapping unicorns and puppies farting rainbows. All the jobs came back from Chindia, Mexico, and the rest of the world, interest rates stayed at near-zero rates forever, and national median income tripled such that the current house prices made economic sense, amen.
azdude: keep listening to her and you will be renting the rest of your life.
Carl Morris: Worse things have happened.
If one can avoid getting caught up in the latest get-rich-quick scheme peddled by the government or the media, it is possible to build some actual wealth. My net worth has continued to grow throughout all these years of renting.
Ans=And
Typo.
Oh, and high five Neuro - me too. Debt free and in the black.
DONKEY
<strong.What did you pay for your dump?
Donkey?
Are you addressing me?
Cool it on the nasty stuff.
Be a grown up, and agree to disagree.
Buying was the right decision for us.
We’ve owned since 1984, excluding our
renter period due to the bubble. We’re
homeowners, not renters. To each their own.
Donkey,
What did you pay for your dump?
Good morning, Stasi.
East Germany and “The Lives of Others”
How can trust be restored among people who were betrayed by their government and by each other?
When people have been through a long period of rule by an oppressive government, the task of rebuilding a sense of trust is a daunting one. Serious efforts are crucial on the part of the new government to show it will respect the civil liberties of its citizens, and will not turn neighbor against neighbor. Confronting the past openly and honestly, and taking responsibility for history, are other important steps. But ultimately, the act of trusting requires a true leap of faith on the part of all citizens.
…
“a true leap of faith on the part of all citizens.”
will take my chances with goon’s sky wizard.
Call on Sky Wizard, but row away from the rocks.
+1
A Modern-Day Stasi State
Thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, we now know that an army of private contractors can monitor anyone’s phone calls and e-mails.
Tim Shorrock
June 11, 2013
This photograph shows a copy of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order requiring Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis,” to give the National Security Administration (NSA) information on all landline and mobile telephone calls of Verizon Business in its systems. (AP Photo)
When I first heard that the source for Glenn Greenwald’s blockbuster stories on the National Security Agency was a contractor working for Booz Allen Hamilton, I felt a surge of vindication. After all, I’ve been writing about the murky world of intelligence contracting for a decade, and here was finally a sign of how extensively the government has outsourced its most secretive operations. Plus at the center of the scandal was a company that I have long identified as one of the most important companies in the intelligence-industrial complex.
Edward Snowden, who is only 29, worked for Booz Allen at the NSA as an infrastructure analyst and telecommunications systems officer. His time there and at other private contractors included stints at NSA listening posts in Hawaii and Japan, and his job gave him access to some of the NSA’s most classified operations. They included a massive surveillance program called PRISM that monitors virtually all global Internet traffic on a real-time basis, and a telephone-monitoring program that gives the NSA access to millions of phone records of calls, including domestic ones, routed through telecom provider Verizon.
From his vantage point, he learned that the NSA monitors Americans “even if you’re not doing anything wrong.” From “just sitting at my desk,” Snowden said he had the “authority to wiretap anyone…” “If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.” He also discovered that the NSA is “using the system to go back in time to discover everything you’ve done.”
…
government employees are fat lazy slobs just counting down the minutes until they can retire at age 49 with $200,000 pensions and unlimited free chuck-e-cheese tokens for life.
government contractors are bootstrapping, rugged individualist, invisible hand of free market, horatio alger, galt gulch, taking america back, restoring our future, morning in america, born in a log cabin, bald eagles, stars and stripes, mom and apple pie.
My big thing this week and probably for a few months is Equitable Adjustments. When a contractor has cost overruns, management & their law firm figure out ways to blame the cost overruns on the gov’t or on “acts of nature” etc so that the contractor can request an Equitable Adjustment, meaning the gov’t pays more money to the contractor. In reality, a lot of times the costs are not really necessary but are incurred bc contractors generally do not have insight into what the gov’t intends to do in war zones. They are unaware of all the logistics or risks going on. So there are a lot of inefficiencies. Like a contractor proposes to do work in a way that assumes there will be no border closings (e.g. the Pakistan/Afghan border closing after the Koran burnings a few yrs ago). So they don’t have alternate or better logistics in place. And then the project ends up costing 2x what it would’ve cost otherwise.
Then you have the stubborness of contractors towards the gov’t once conditions change. Rather than move ahead and mitigate the losses, the contractors dig in and start the legal papers flying. If the army/navy/AF/state department/cia/NSA were doing the work itself, they would just work out a solution.
So yeah, anyway, my current projects are all about how to classify cost overruns as being the govt’s fault so the private contractors can get more $$.
FAR Part 15 is my life.
FAR Part 15 is my life.
I can see why you’d want to spend your weekends on skis. It probably helps you forget about that for a few hours.
“government contractors are bootstrapping, rugged individualist, invisible hand of free market, horatio alger, galt gulch, taking america back, restoring our future, morning in america, born in a log cabin, bald eagles, stars and stripes, mom and apple pie.”
Ever wonder how much effort and taxpayer money is spent on that Congressional Act to investigate anti-Semitism and Israeli criticism around the United States and the world?
Um, that’s kinda racist. But since you brought it up:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/12/adl-spies/
From goon’s link:
Despite the ADL having promised to get out of the business of illegally obtaining information on its enemies in exchange for not being prosecuted back in 1993, there is no evidence, twenty years later that it has.
What it has done is strengthen its ties with police across the country through its LEARN program (Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network) in which it trains police in dealing with “extremist groups” and “hate crimes.”
The “Prism” operation has likely been a contributor.
Remember: He’s a low level private contractor and he has no HS degree and did not attend college. His base salary was 122k and last yr he made 200k (private contractors get overtime pay, unlike fed employees). Private contractors also bill the gov’t to provide health ins and other benefits for contractors - it’s part of overhead. Snowden was low on the contractor totem pole but those are still some pricey numbers.
Like I’ve said before, I see numbers like 500k and 600k all the time. Someone like BiLA costs the government 300-350k easily when you include benefits and overhead (and he has no management responsibilities).
It’s all about a vast army of contractors and the ability to get a security clearance.
“he has no HS degree and did not attend college.”
No wonder he’s such a smart guy. And able to think for himself, imagine.
He failed his GED course then broke his leg in basic training. He got a job as a security guard for a private contractor. Once you have that first security clearance and an “in” with a contractor, you can only move up. The vast ranks of private contractors have been expanding rapidly since 2001/2002.
He was basically in the right place at the right time. In a way, he was lucky not to get a degree and not to finish boot camp. If he finished boot camp, he’d be doing real work and making much less. Since he didn’t finish boot camp, he got paid much more to do much, much less work and was never in harm’s way.
Privitization… it’s the new wave of the future.
“He’s a low level private contractor and he has no HS degree and did not attend college. His base salary was 122k and last yr he made 200k…”
It’s a difficult comparison to make, but didn’t Dr Faustus do far better for selling his soul to Mephistopheles?
Like I said, he’s low level and he’s only 29. He only had 4-5 yrs of experience. If he was ambitious he could easily increase that, maybe double it in the next 10 yrs if our country keeps chugging along with the private contractor scheme. He wouldn’t need to get much better at his job or get a degree, either. Just go along with the program, keep his sec clearance (like BiLA), and not blow the whistle. Oops.
Good thing for BiLA, he just ignores the ramifications of his DoD contracting work.
Good thing for BiLA, he just ignores the ramifications of his DoD contracting work.
Those people are collectively known as “collaborators”.
hate the game, not the player
hate the game, not the player
During times of war, it is not unusual for collaborators to face a firing squad.
Nope. Hate em all. The game, player, dealer, cocktail waitress. You need to spread hate around as much as possible where hate is due.
My preggers cousin works for Booz Allen Hamilton. Probably looking forward to that maternity leave right about now.
June 13, 2013, 7:00 a.m. EDT
Big Data knows if you’re naughty or nice
MarketWatch speaks with author of a new book on data collection
By Quentin Fottrell
Revelations that a government surveillance program monitors phone calls and electronic communications has many Americans wondering how this new era of widespread data collection will change their daily lives. In “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think,” authors Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier argue that consumers will pay a high price for sharing their data — or having it mined by companies or the government. “How we use data for future predictions and in what context, that’s what I’m worried about,” Mayer-Schönberger says.
…
Merkel, other European leaders raise concerns on U.S. surveillance
TOBIAS SCHWARZ/REUTERS - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among the European leaders concerned about U.S. intelligence service surveillance.
By Michael Birnbaum, Published: June 10
BERLIN — European leaders, describing themselves as stunned by revelations of an extensive U.S. surveillance program that included their citizens, moved Monday to demand more information from the U.S. government and said they would discuss ways to bolster their already stringent privacy laws.
And in Britain, where intelligence agencies have long had robust cooperation with their American counterparts, a top official tried Monday to limit potential uproar, telling Parliament that the partnership had not been used to circumvent British laws.
The discontent from Europe pointed to the breadth of fallout from the affair and to the potential for fresh strains between the United States and allies wary of American intrusiveness.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to raise the issue when she meets in Berlin with President Obama next week, a spokesman said, and other German officials said they were concerned by the apparent monitoring of their citizens. Top officials of the 27-nation European Union also said they would press the U.S. government on the matter at bilateral meetings this week.
The PRISM surveillance program, portions of which were described in recent days by The Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper in Britain, makes clear that U.S. intelligence services now have the power to vacuum up data about telecommunications traffic across the world. An apparent snapshot from an NSA Boundless Informant database published on the Guardian’s Web site indicated that in March 2013, foreign intelligence gathering was primarily focused on the Middle East. For that month, more pieces of intelligence were gathered in Germany than anywhere else in Europe.
…
Yup. I knew the rest of the world was gonna be mad about this.
“An apparent snapshot from an NSA Boundless Informant database published on the Guardian’s Web site indicated that in March 2013, foreign intelligence gathering was primarily focused on the Middle East.”
The middle-east…always the middle-east. Why not write-off the middle-east? I don’t hear or read much about the middle of south America; this is how the middle-east should be too. I can’t recall the last time I bought anything manufactured in the middle-east; nothing but cannon fodder for the news outlets. Phuck the middle-east. I’m tired of seeing our tax dollars wasted there.
I can’t recall the last time I bought anything manufactured in the middle-east
That’s a good one.
Dang volatility is messing up my stock market wealth effects.
Thanks to decoupling, Wall Street investors need not concern themselves that a 20 percent drop in Japan’s Nikkei stock market since the last week in May will spill over into American markets.
Japan’s volatile Nikkei plummets 6.4 percent
Junji Kurokawa/AP - A woman walks by an electronic stock board flashing the day’s stock update in Tokyo June 13, 2013. Investor investors are showing growing concern about Japan’s dramatic strategy to end a two-decade economic stagnation.
By Chico Harlan, Thursday, June 13, 3:45 AM E-mail the writer
SEOUL — Japan’s Nikkei stock market plummeted 6.4 percent Thursday, the latest in a series of alarming dives that threaten to cut short the country’s economic resurgence.
In the last three weeks, Japanese stocks have lost more than 20 percent of their value, starting with a 7.3-percent plunge on May 23. Since then, the Nikkei has transformed from the world’s best performing stock market into its most volatile, as investors show growing concern about Japan’s dramatic strategy to end a two-decade economic stagnation.
That strategy, designed late last year by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calls for a mix of government spending and monetary easing, along with some economic reforms. But markets, after initially welcoming Abe’s plan, now seem preoccupied with its risk. This also holds true for Japan’s normally sleepy bond market, which has fluctuated heavily in recent weeks.
…
Easy come easy go. Same will happen in US.
So much for Abe-nomics saving the day.
New York Markets Open in: 1:34:55
Pre-Market Indications | Analyst Ratings
Futures: S&P 500 -0.3% DOW -0.3% NASDAQ -0.3%
Stock futures slip, fighting against global market rout
• Nikkei sinks 6.4% into bear territory, mauled by yen | Gold falls
• Gut checks: Bad streaks | Reeves: How to prepare for volatility
do you think they suckered in enough mom and pops yet?
I suspect most moms and pops are too broke about now to get suckered in much.
However, I think lots of hedge fund investors are seeing their stock and bond market wealth effects getting trimmed about now.
Not individually but mom and pops thru their pension, 401k, etc. are suckered in. Expect to hear sob stories when stock market collapses like 2008.
Asian markets
Southeast Asia reach ‘correction’
The cacophony in the Japanese share market is no longer able to muffle the noise being made by falling stocks elsewhere in Asia.
Gamble at your own risk. Past returns are no guarantee of future results.
Shareholders of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae On Weak Legal Ground In Lawsuit Against US Government
By Sreeja VN | June 13 2013 7:12 AM
Shareholders of Fannie Mae (OTCBB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCBB:FMCC) sued the U.S. government seeking damages of $41.5 billion for taking over the mortgage giants in 2008, in a case that analysts believe does not stand on firm legal ground.
Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, which filed the suit on behalf of the shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said, that while the takeovers were “beneficial to the economic welfare of the nation, destroyed the value of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s common and preferred stock and trampled the private ownership rights and property interests of shareholders.”
According to the complaint filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, the government “bullied and coerced the companies’ Board of Directors” to accept the conservatorship that fleeced the private shareholders.
…
Yeah, if the SEC had not turned a blind eye to those companies in the early 2000s, they would have nothing to lose to begin with. Funny how some folk see government as a source of cheese, and nothing else.
Whither inflation?
Hot investing tip: AVOID TIPS.
CREDIT MARKETS
Updated June 11, 2013, 7:37 p.m. ET
Inflation Shield Loses Its Appeal
By CAROLYN CUI
Investors are fleeing debt that protects them against inflation, amid signs that the Federal Reserve is preparing to trim its bond purchases.
The rout has sent the yield on 10-year Treasury inflation-protected securities into positive territory for the first time since December 2011. When bond prices fall, yields rise. The selloff in TIPS shows that investors believe the U.S. recovery is on track and that the risk of an inflationary spike is receding.
Investors typically fear that when central banks flood an economy with cash, the price of everything from vegetables to toasters to gasoline is apt to surge once economic growth accelerates.
The central bank has been buying $85 billion of bonds monthly in a bid to make credit more available and expand U.S. employment. But inflation readings remain low and the Fed has signaled in recent weeks its desire to reduce the scope of those purchases as soon as this year. The trends are diminishing demand for the debt.
“It’s a strange concept. People were writing a check to the U.S. Treasury for the privilege to own TIPS,” said Richard Gilhooly, an analyst with TD Securities. “Now, they are finally demanding some compensation.”
TIPS are bonds or notes issued by the U.S. government that provide a shield against inflation. If the consumer-price index goes up, the principal on TIPS goes up, too. That boosts semiannual interest payments and repayment of principal at the date of maturity.
TIPS became popular during the financial crisis amid investor fears that unprecedented Fed interest-rate cuts and bond purchases would drive up prices on goods and services.
The yield on TIPS—reflecting the so-called real, inflation-adjusted, yield on 10-year Treasury securities—traded at 0.07% on Tuesday afternoon, according to Tradeweb. That compares with a recent low of minus-0.74% on April 5. That means investors were willing to lock in a small negative return to reduce the risk that inflation would erode their purchasing power.
The fund run by noted bond investor Bill Gross had said in May that it would hold on to its bets on TIPS.
The retreat from TIPS comes as a broad bond-market rally has turned. In May, the $892 billion market for TIPS suffered its biggest monthly losses since the financial crisis.
TIPS investors have been hit by a double-whammy of headwinds in recent weeks: tame inflation in the U.S. and comments from Federal Reserve officials indicating they are making plans to cut back purchases of Treasurys and mortgage bonds.
Investors in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that buy TIPS have pulled $7.2 billion out of the funds this year, according to Lipper, flushing out more than the $5.2 billion of new money the funds received in 2012.
…
You also might want to avoid traditional long-term government bonds.
U.S. Treasurys are a ‘Ponzi market’: Guggenheim’s Minerd
June 13, 2013, 8:42 AM
There’s no shortage of descriptions out there for central-bank policies — past favorites have included allusions to mad scientists and heroin treatment programs.
But Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, may take the prize for the most gutsy portrayal of monetary-easing policies. In a note released on Wednesday afternoon, Minerd says the central bank has effectively turned the U.S. Treasurys market into a “Ponzi market’.
A Ponzi scheme involves the fraudulent act of repaying one investor’s money with the principal of another, thereby over-inflating the value of assets until the bubble finally pops. (If you need a refresher, we suggest you check out MarketWatch’s recent interview with infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.)
…
Did they get that thru a wiretap?
Mr. Minerd, what do you think Fed has done to equities?
1:05p Treasury sells $13 bln in 30-year debt at 3.355%
The 30-year T-bond has incurred more than a 10% capital loss since early May 2013.
Beware the release of tightly-coiled springs.
Treasury Yields Will Spike to 5%: Societe Generale
Published: Thursday, 13 Jun 2013 | 8:30 AM ET
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Traders work in the ten-year U.S. Treasury Note options pit at the Chicago Board of Trade in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Discussions on when the Federal Reserve is likely to reduce its bond buying program have reached fever pitch, with analysts and bond fund managers divided on both the timing and the impact the Fed’s “tapering” action could have.
Societe Generale analysts have thrown their hat in the ring with a bold prediction. They expect the Fed to taper quantitative easing (QE) in the autumn of this year and totally end the program at the turn of the year.
According to the bank, 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields will hit 3 percent by Spring next year and rise to 5 percent by 2017. Such a big move in yields that are used as a benchmark across the world has the potential to roil markets.
Bond prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks, pushing yields higher, with the 10-year yield jumping to 2.2 percent from 1.6 percent in just six weeks.
…
With the Fed talking about dialing back its long-term Treasury purchases and investors bracing for further interest rate increases as a logical consequence, who is buying long-term debt now?
ft dot com
June 13, 2013 6:26 pm
Bond sales dry up as interest rates rise
By Vivianne Rodrigues and Stephen Foley in New York
Ben S Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 2013 Financial Markets Conference in Stone Mountain, Georgia, US, on Monday, April 8 2013©Bloomberg
The number of companies tapping the bond market has collapsed as a result of rising interest rates, threatening to halt a global refinancing wave that helped companies boost earnings and strengthen balance sheets.
Bond investors have retrenched in the face of increasing market volatility since Fed chairman Ben Bernanke hinted on May 22 at a possible “tapering” of US quantitative easing. This has left companies unable to raise financing on previously beneficial terms.
Some of the world’s largest and best-known companies, such as Apple, Vodafone and Petrobras, have borrowed billions of dollars at record low rates, and even highly leveraged companies have locked in cheap financing through the junk bond market.
“The bond market is a bit of a disaster right now,” said Michael Collins, senior investment officer for Prudential Fixed Income. “All that borrowing for the sake of borrowing just because yields were at record lows is probably behind us.”
US sales of investment grade corporate debt, which began to falter last month as US Treasury yields rose, have this week come to almost a complete halt.
By the end of Thurssday (SIC), only $4.1bn worth of investment-grade bonds were sold, down from a weekly average this year of $23.2bn, according to Dealogic data.
The drop in sales of high-grade debt follows a similar decline in US junk bond offers, which started two weeks ago. Only six junk borrowers came to markets this week, in sales worth $1.6bn. Until the middle of May, the weekly average issuance was $8.8bn.
Traders are saying the few companies venturing into the US debt market – mostly super-safe utilities trying raise funds before borrowing costs get even more expensive – are having to accept concessions to drive deals through.
For market-moving news and views 24 hours a day visit our new rolling news feed of bite-size stories and commentary
“Investors still have money to put to work but it seems they would rather hold cash than pay up for poor-performing new issues,” said Ed Marrinan, head of macro credit strategy at RBS Securities.
“It looks like we may begin to see a new trend in issuance with fewer deals, wider levels and lower oversubscription rates.”
…
These drops in bond issuance, if continued, are larger than the Fed’s QE. I read a statement saying some guy had never seen such a fall in bond prices without an accompanying “tail risk event”. IMO the tail risk was the bond market. What happens when you get a stock, bond and housing bubble at the same time? We’re about to find out.
“What happens when you get a stock, bond and housing bubble at the same time?”
We’ve already begun to find out.
JPMorgan to Barclays Ushering Bond Buyers Into Equities
By Lisa Abramowicz - Jun 13, 2013 7:48 AM PT
Wall Street’s biggest bond dealers are telling clients to shift from most fixed-income markets into U.S. stocks as deepening concern the Federal Reserve will pare unprecedented stimulus fuels the worst debt losses since 2011.
…
Got shadow inventory of black gold?
HEARD ON THE STREET
June 12, 2013, 2:56 p.m. ET
Fed Could Drain the Oil Market’s Tank
By LIAM DENNING
There is a shadow looming over oil prices in the shape of a big tank—and a big central bank.
At around 394 million barrels, U.S. commercial stocks of crude oil, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, are hovering around their highest levels since the early 1980s.
In part, that reflects the shale-led surge in U.S. supply, with domestic production outpacing imports in late May for the first time since January 1997. In its latest monthly report, issued Wednesday, the International Energy Agency forecast U.S. output would top 10 million barrels a day on average this year, up 23% in just two years.
Meanwhile, domestic demand is sluggish. The IEA expects it to average slightly less than 18.6 million barrels a day this year, down for the third year in a row. The trend of Americans buying more fuel-efficient cars and driving less is holding down consumption. Back in 2005, Americans burned almost 21 million barrels a day.
But another factor keeping inventories high has nothing to do with roughnecks or commuters. It emanates from Washington.
Refiners and oil marketing and trading firms keep stocks on hand to ensure they can supply customers. Low interest rates, facilitated by the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing, make it cheaper to finance those inventories. Indeed, those low rates can make it very profitable to buy oil, store it and lock in a margin by selling futures.
Energy economist Phil Verleger estimates that with short-term interest rates around 0.25%—roughly in line with Libor—the financing cost of holding stocks today is around two cents a barrel every month. Right now, three-month oil futures trade at about a 30 cents a barrel premium to the spot price. On that basis, assuming 90% leverage, an investor could buy oil and sell it three months forward, earning a 2.5% return after costs.
That might not sound like much. But it is five times the yield on three-month U.S. Treasurys and a no-brainer for a trader at an oil firm with access to storage capacity.
But the trade is getting squeezed over time. Back in February, the spread was around $1 a barrel, implying a return over three months of almost 10%. While spot prices have held pretty steady over the past few years, futures further forward have been slipping, likely reflecting rising expectations for U.S. supply and acceptance that the global economy’s recovery will be a gradual, drawn-out affair.
The upshot is that, with bond yields rising as the end of quantitative easing becomes a more realistic prospect, profits on the carry trade are likely to shrink further. The same trade described above at current spreads but with a 1% financing cost earns a return over three months of less than 0.7%.
As this squeeze becomes more apparent, it can become self-fulfilling as those holding inventories sell them in the expectation that futures will decline further. That liquidation adds further pressure to prices as it increases available supply.
…
still paying $3.65 here. but the honda civic gets 37.5 mpg highway. love driving up to the pump after one of the truck nutz f-350 boyz and seeing it cost them $80 to fill up. loosers
My Focus turns in 40+ as long as I keep it under 75. At $3.50 yesterday it cost me $30 to fill.
just hope you never have a collision with one
Rush Limbaugh’s Paul Shanklin parody of Elvis’ In The Ghetto, changed to “In A Yugo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZzKUt4OtE8
just hope you never have a collision with one
Newer small cars are quite resilient in crashes. They aren’t the 2000 lb tin cans on wheels from yesterday. Now many weigh close to 3000 lbs.
I’ve seen the crash test videos and am in the insurance business. I’m not any more worried in my focus than I would be in a car of any size. The guys in the big trucks and SUV’s stand a better chance, sure…but I don’t know that it’s worth the trade offs.
The guys in the big trucks and SUV’s stand a better chance, sure
Except that those dogs are a lot more likely to roll over in an accident, ejecting over confident and often unbuckled passengers, who will likely suffer life ending injuries.
Colorado:
I know a person who fits that bill perfectly. Always has to drive gigantic trucks, very aggressively, with no seat belt. This person got ejected from the vehicle in a crash and was out of work (and in severe pain) for months. Luckily, the baby was in a car seat and didn’t get hurt. I’m sure the trauma from seeing mommie thrown into the street and taken away by an ambulance was not a good influence.
Gas stations are disappearing in my OC community usually replaced by a Chase bank branch or a Walgreens. Guess we are all walking to the bank. To get money for our prescriptions.
There’s a huge Walgreens being built near here. It’s the third drugstore on the corner. Supermarket with drug store is already there. So’s a CVS.
Those corner drug store chains are really in the real estate game, not just the retail/drug game.
“Those corner drug store chains are really in the real estate game, not just the retail/drug game.”
They used to be in the landlord/re game usually as the anchor store in a strip mall. I have read that many of these older strip malls have lost their curb appeal and investment luster.
“… domestic demand is sluggish. The IEA expects it to average slightly less than 18.6 million barrels a day this year…”
So I’m supposed to get excited because there’s a whole 21 days worth of oil in reserve?
Buying gold at this point is a bet the Fed won’t stick to its guns on QE3 withdrawal.
So far, Ben Bernanke has done almost everything he said he would do, especially the things he and other FOMC members said over and over again in advance of policy implementation. Maybe this time is different, though.
June 13, 2013, 9:20 a.m. EDT
Gold extends drop on stronger-than-expected data
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Gold futures rise $15 to settle at $1,392 an ounce
Gold futures rise, rebounding from losses
By William L. Watts and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures extended losses Thursday as stronger-than-expected data on weekly U.S. jobless claims and May retail sales underscored expectations the Federal Reserve will begin scaling back monetary stimulus in coming months.
…
Got foreclosures?
Housing
5 states with highest foreclosure rates
Despite housing’s recent gains, foreclosures are rising once more.
CA will eventually make it illegal to foreclose.
Ex-Monarchs star says foreclosure broke California law
By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jun. 7, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 6B
Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 13, 2013 - 4:18 am
Ruthie Bolton, a former Sacramento Monarchs all-star, two-time Olympic gold medalist and a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, is crying foul against companies for what she calls an illegal foreclosure on her Elk Grove home.
The string of events that put Bolton’s home in limbo are detailed in a May 31 complaint filed in Sacramento Superior Court.
In the lawsuit, Bolton claims a Southern California loan-services company authorized the auction of her home at the same time she was working on a loan modification.
The suit says that practice, referred to as “dual tracking,” is illegal under the state’s Homeowner Bill of Rights, which took effect Jan. 1 this year.
…
California Foreclosure Starts Increase in April, the McCann Law Group LLP dba Consumer Attorney Services Offers Foreclosure Offense in California in May
In response to California start rates rising in April, Consumer Attorney Services began offering foreclosure offense services in May to help more California homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Jacksonville, Florida (PRWEB) May 22, 2013
In response to California start rates rising in April, Consumer Attorney Services began offering foreclosure offense services in May to help more California homeowners avoid foreclosure. According to an April 2013 report from Realtytrac, California foreclosure starts were up 13% in April and were up on a monthly basis for the third consecutive month in California.
…
“offering foreclosure offense services”
How generous of them…oh, wait, to fight over the new law, I need to PAY an attorney? And just how many hours of attorneys time equals one month of rent on an alternative place to live? And at the end of the day, my home will still be underwater and encumbered by the loan?
“CA will eventually make it illegal to foreclose.”
Then wouldn’t mortgage interest rates be more costly there?
If most loans are Fannie/Freddy loans, maybe not.
If it is illegal to foreclose, then the very practice of having a loan encumbering a property would not be happening at all, and any loan to buy a house would be essentially unsecured borrowing by the homebuyer, and thus, extremely low leverage.
The housing market would die completely…no one except those who can write a check for the whole house would buy. In other words, since many lawmakers in CA own homes in CA, the “illegal to foreclose” won’t happen.
Frankly, it is much easier to foreclose in CA as compared to other states (NY, NJ, FL), and the new law didn’t change that.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDMQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforexblog.oanda.com%2F20130613%2Fu-s-foreclosures-jump-11-in-may%2F&ei=6Lm5Ub20E4vrigK1hoHQAg&usg=AFQjCNE2SOgQ0bUEmLft-NpxAWBgwRn3nQ&sig2=p6d8xqcHd9BXLs3SaYRgSg&bvm=bv.47883778,d.cGE
do you think there is a direct correlation between the number of foreclosures and home prices?
Nope.
Clearly it depends on how and when they come back on the market, and high-level intervention can throw the correlation for a loop.
And that high-level intervention has massive unintended and unforeseeable consequences. Moral hazard, stock market collapse, crippling stagflation anyone?
Is stagflation when a currency is only good for wiping ones bottom?
How can Uncle Sam afford to continue pouring billions down the crop insurance subsidy rat hole, yet need to take away a relative pittance in food stamp allowances?
Congress Poised To Make Crop Insurance Subsidies More Generous
by May 30, 2013 3:00 PM
5 min 10 sec
An Illinois corn and soybean farmer walks to his tractor while cultivating his field.
Seth Perlman/AP
For decades, farmers have been getting checks from the federal government as part of a safety net to help protect against, for instance, the financial ruin of drought or floods.
So last year when a big drought hit the Midwest, who paid for it? You did.
As my colleague Dan Charles has , payouts from crop insurance policies added up to about $16 billion, and much of it was paid by taxpayers.
And as Congress debates a new farm bill that will authorize future spending on crop insurance subsidies, it seems that the programs are poised to become more generous.
Lawmakers are considering an additional program that would help farmers recoup even more of their losses than currently is covered by crop insurance.
You see, the way crop insurance works, farmers are eligible for payouts not only when their crops fail due to drought or flood, but also when the prices of their crops drop.
In essence, farmers with crop insurance are able to lock in a guaranteed price. Sometimes, like last summer, they’re able to get the best of all worlds: High prices for their crops, together with a hefty insurance payout to compensate them for a small harvest.
Since we, the taxpayers, pay about 60 percent of crop insurance premiums, farmers can get these generous insurance policies on the cheap.
Farm state Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, is among those who think the program works. He summed up his support recently on the Senate floor when he said, “Crop insurance allows producers a way to manage risk, so they can provide a stable and secure food supply and pass their operations onto their children.”
But not everyone is so convinced that this is a success story.
Critics say crop insurance has reduced the risk of farming so much that farmers are now incentivized to farm on marginal lands, such as wetlands or lands with less than optimal soil.
“When the government is guaranteeing you [a farmer] 85 percent of your income, it suddenly makes a whole lot more sense to farm in places that might flood or have low soil moisture, which might not have been practical to farm if you simply had your own skin in the game,” says Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group.
He also says the system helps the rich get richer. About a third of the subsidies go to the largest 4 percent of farm operators.
In its farm subsidy , EWG finds the largest recipients of crop insurance support receive more than $1 million a year in subsidies.
And groups such as Taxpayers for Common Sense argue that the farm subsidies are overly generous — at a time when farmers are doing quite well.
“When some of the worst conditions in the field produce one of the best years for the bottom line [of farmers], it should teach us a simple lesson — that agriculture safety net is too generous,” says a Weekly Wastebasket newsletter from the group.
Land prices are near record highs and crop prices are high, too — which means farmers are doing quite well.
…
+1 Crop insurance programs aka Red State pork.
Shhh don’t discuss that Red States receive more back from the fed gov’t than they pay in taxes. (Also note that enlisted military service is also welfare for Red Staters.)
The fed gov’t largely runs on tax money from the northeast and west coast.
If Teabag Hypocrisy had a “Greatest Hits” album, these two would be on it:
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/tea-party-congressmen-accept-cash-from-bailed-out-bankers.html
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-12/mississippi-whites-not-used-to-help-back-republican-aid-cutters.html
Shhh don’t discuss that Red States receive more back from the fed gov’t than they pay in taxes. (Also note that enlisted military service is also welfare for Red Staters.)
The fed gov’t largely runs on tax money from the northeast and west coast.
Please, stop sending the money to them. But you won’t because you love the control it gives you…
The fed gov’t largely runs on tax money from the northeast and west coast.
Utter nonsense..utter lies…
Cheap money allows Northeast and west coast to pay more taxes. But in the process rest of the country suffers the most.
Please, stop sending the money to them. But you won’t because you love the control it gives you…
If you take out the cheap money from the equation, the coasts will be just like any other flyover.
Also note that enlisted military service is also welfare for Red Staters.)
Is the unlisted, which bigger than enlisted IMO, a welfare for the blue states?
Shhh don’t discuss that Red States receive more back from the fed gov’t than they pay in taxes. (Also note that enlisted military service is also welfare for Red Staters.)
The fed gov’t largely runs on tax money from the northeast and west coast.
It’s not that simple. There are some midwestern states, such as Illinois and Minnesota, that pay more in tax than they see in local federal spending.
More importantly, you’re forgetting a very important fact that your region - DC, Maryland, Virginia - clearly benefits from federal spending that far exceeds the taxes that they pay to the IRS.
http://nemw.org/images/issues/budget/NEMWI%20Note%20to%20the%20Coalitions%205.11.2011.pdf
The Sword Drops on Food Stamps
George Zornick on June 11, 2013 - 3:35 PM ET
A sign announcing the acceptance of electronic Benefit Transfer cards at a farmers market in Roseville, California. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
It’s official: Congress will slash food stamp funding in the midst of a deep economic recession, when more people rely on food stamps than ever before.
Monday night, the Senate passed a five-year farm bill that contained $4.1 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over ten years. This ensures that the only debate now will be about how much to cut—and it’s likely to result in cuts much deeper than $4.1 billion.
The House Agriculture Committee passed a farm bill last month that cut $20.5 billion from SNAP by removing “categorical eligibility” (more on that here), which would take food stamps away from 2 million Americans and hundreds of thousands of children.
…
wait, I thought we were in a recovery??
the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades
June 12, 2013, 9:28 p.m. EDT
World Bank cuts 2013 global growth estimate
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IBM has begun U.S. job cuts: report
By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The World Bank lowered its global economic-growth forecast Wednesday, tipping 2.2% expansion in 2013, down from a 2.4% projection issued in January and below last year’s estimated 2.3% growth. In its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report, the multinational development agency also revised lower its expectations for growth in China, Brazil and India, while upping estimates for Japan and the U.S. For 2014, the World Bank sees global growth at 3%.
And IBM is a “profitable” company. Has done really well last decade or so.
And IBM is a “profitable” company. Has done really well last decade or so.
I remember explaining to my in-laws why super profitable companies have frequent layoffs. Needless to say, they were floored. And my FIL was once an executive in a multinational.
“International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.14% began cutting jobs in the U.S. as part of a global restructuring plan announced in April,”
Restructuring, as in “were moving more good paying, skilled jobs to third world hell holes where we can hire talent for less than US minimum wage”
I was an IBM employee for about 18 months around 10 years ago or so. Small company I was at got acquired. Not sure if it’s the same everywhere in the company but I was very happy to get away from them. Similar mentality to DoD work. My brain is incompatible with it. It’s amazing they are able to make a profit.
I was an IBM employee for about 18 months around 10 years ago or so.
Same here. I was in the printer group. I pretty much share your observations. The straw that broke my camel’s back was one day when I worked late with a colleague. We finished up around 8PM and we shot the breeze in my office before taking off, and shared a laugh or two.
The next day my manager tells me that a higher level boss heard us laughing and wanted to know what the hell was going on. I guess we had to be shirking at 8PM.
“Restructuring, as in “were moving more good paying, skilled jobs to third world hell holes where we can hire talent for less than US minimum wage””
Fear not. Soon enough the US will be a 3rd world, low wage hell hole, and the jobs will come flooding back!
+1
“The next day my manager tells me that a higher level boss heard us laughing and wanted to know what the hell was going on.”
Laughing is only allowed at the executive level.
…while bathing in a money pile.
which one is cheaper on a per vote basis?
A thought similar to your comment crossed my mind as I posted.
Presidential campaigns start in Iowa. If you don’t get past Iowa you don’t get on the ticket and the SNAPpers can’t vote for you at all.
in the haterz drudge addled minds, the only people on food stamps are all black, voted for obama at least twice in each election, drive cadillac escalades with $2,000 rims, filling up their grocery carts with steak, lobster, crab legs, grape drank, all paid for by the ‘producers’
I read my share of Drudge, and that’s not my view at all.
My view is quite simply that a lot of the folks on food stamps today would have had jobs if the Dodd-Frank overreach/uncertainty didn’t slow down investment (which it did), and the healthcare legislation was less confusing/implemented faster.
Uncertainty is bad for business. Uncertainty in times of great volatility is terrible for business.
The recovery would still be slow mind you, as is frequently the case following a credit crisis, but it would have been faster than it has been.
We said “the haterz drudge addled minds”, and not the drudgers hate addled minds. Note the difference. I don’t think Drudge creates haterz, but he certainly throws gas on the fire for existing haterz.
Divided we fall
I kind of follow the 80/20 rule with Drudge.
80% of the links are to news organizations fit to ignore (hopelessly biased). For those article perhaps 20% of the content comes from a third party–if the topic is of interest it is worth following that 20% to the source.
20% of the links are from more reputable news organizations. For those articles, 80% of the content may have merit.
Joe the Lawyer says:
“if you can go to the best school you get to pay less than if you go to some rando school that actually charges you tuition.”
What does “rando” mean?
I learned there is an app called “rando.”
Urbandictionary has this:
“an unpredictable, awkward and often creepy individual. a rando is always there in the background, even though no one invited him. Randos tend to be isolated within large groups; they sit in corners and lurk in the shadows of others. Even though everyone is aware of the presence of a rando, no one knows anything about him or her and therefore randos are often unwittingly ignored.”
in this context, what pantie joe means is anyone who had the terrible misfortune to not attend princeton.
if you went to u michigan, u texas, ucla, or some other second-tier nonsense, you are a looser.
rando is slang for off brand/generic.
The name brand schools don’t need tuition money. They are swamped with endowment money and get outsized amounts of research money for their size. The only people who pay full tuition (or close) are loaded parents, which are actually pretty high % of the parents.
U Mich, U Tex, etc get a lot less credit bc their in-state numbers are terrible. UTex especially bc they _have_ to accept any high schooler in the top 10% of their class, even if they are from some tiny town and had a 900 SAT score. This happens, btw, and was the reason they were sued last year. If you look at out-of-staters (often National Merit Scholars getting full rides) at these schools, they are just as good as lower-Ivy applicants. The key point is that it’s easy to get into flagship state U from in-state, but they are very selective with out of state, which they use to boost their numbers. Berkeley and Virginia are the only state U’s that are able to boost their #s high enough to get into the top 25 but Virginia is BS because they accept tons of freshman transfers and NoVA CC transfers which don’t count in the U.S. News & WR numbers.
If you can get into a top school and you are from a middle class family, you will pay less to attend the top school or, at the least, you won’t pay much more than a state univ. This is particularly true if you have siblings. Even though my siblings went to Annapolis (free), my parents were able to put on FAFSA that they had 3 kids in college at the same time. LULZ. My fin aid estimates for HYP MIT UPenn Duke etc were such that Penn State would’ve cost more. Again, LULZ.
In recent years, Princeton eliminated student loans entirely, whatever the parents can’t pay, they will pick up the tab. Harvard and Yale followed and now basically all the top schools do this.
UTex wasn’t sued last year but it went to the U.S. Supreme Court last year. I stated that badly.
Yeah right. The “Ivies” charge $100k/year, and often do not make into the top 10 list. It’s all about the connections, my brother. The Ivies are not going to ruin that by letting a bunch of poor folk.
hope and change
‘the bicyclist doesn’t remember seeing the youths run at him as he pedaled home late tuesday afternoon on the metropolitan branch trail, but he certainly recalls one knocking him off his bike and at least a dozen others piling on, punching and kicking him in the head.
what the 37-year-old can’t understand is why they did it.
they didn’t take his 500 bicycle. they ignored his cellphone. they didn’t want the 20 in his wallet. in fact, the victim said, ‘i didn’t hear a word.’
‘i would be fine if they took my things, that i understand,’ said the man, recovering at home from broken bones above his left eye and bruises too numerous to count. ‘but violence for violence’s sake is troubling.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/bicyclist-attacked-on-dc-trail-by-up-to-15-youths-police-say/2013/06/12/2e9a9d80-d366-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html
It would be a hate crime - except pigmentation was reversed…
The article doesn’t specify the race of the victim or of the “youths” who attacked him.
They probably were a bunch of Amish kids or Chinese-American kids.
Let’s get one thing straight: there’s only ONE color that matters, and that’s the long green.
As to this phenomenon of feral dog packs attacking lone individuals, there’s more of this than you realize, but the MSM suppresses it heavily.
In the end, however, the problem is not really race vs. race, although that’s how it looks. For whites today, the problem is really other whites, feral elitists who use policy and law to suppress those who might rise up against them. In this case, feral elitist whites use other races to stifle and eliminate competition and uprising. This is going on in Europe and the US at this time. Whites have a long history of being cruel to other whites, just look at England and Ireland, the Viking raids, Russia/Soviet Union,etc. Ditto for other races, Japan vs China, the tribes of Africa, the massive human sacrifices of the Mayans, etc.
In the end, it’s just man’s inhumanity to man. Period. Racial overtones is just a more contemporary wrinkle for the depraved elites, a little extra added depravity bonus.
Keep the people fighting amongst themselves, that’s the overriding policy.
There have been periods of history when races, religions, etc. lived side by side in harmony and peaceful trade. Read the history of the Andalucia region of Spain under the Ottoman Empire.
What kind of cultural relativist nonsense are you spouting off here?
Did you smoke a fat spliff of Obama Gold rolled up in a COEXIST sticker for breakfast this morning?
And, you know, there’s very good money for certain people and groups in interracial unrest and violence. The profit motive pretty much ensures that the problem won’t be solved, because it would deprive some people and groups of a meal ticket. You think Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson want to see harmony? Morris Dees at the Southern Poverty Law Center? National Council of LaRaza? Etc., etc. You think the CIA or the NSA or any of their private contractors wants the “terrorism” problem solved? It’s in their interest to stir the pots available to them. And stir they do.
Anyone know the history of the DuPont Corporation? Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:
DuPont was founded in 1802 by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, using capital raised in France and gunpowder machinery imported from France. The company was started at the Eleutherian Mills, on the Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware two years after his family and he left France to escape the French Revolution. It began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe. The company grew quickly, and by the mid 19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military, supplying half the powder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Eleutherian Mills site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and is now a museum.
“Did you smoke a fat spliff of Obama Gold rolled up in a COEXIST sticker for breakfast this morning?”
ROTFLMAO, goonie, you always crack me up. Loved your comments on your colleagues from back East. Wish you’d repost, I about split my sides laughing, because I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about.
‘You think the CIA or the NSA or any of their private contractors wants the “terrorism” problem solved?’
Jeebus, we’re arming Al-quaida in Syria right now.
“Jeebus, we’re arming Al-quaida in Syria right now.”
Unreal, isn’t it? It’s all hard to take in, but all anyone needs to know is their actions, that’s how you know who and what people are. THAT is screaming insanity right there. Ding-ding-ding here comes the wagon type stuff.
The US is doing away with itself, and I suppose that’s as it should be given the state of affairs. Any organism that does this much harm always does itself in one way or another. That’s what this is about.
“Jeebus, we’re arming Al-quaida in Syria right now.”
Nah let’s talk about Bmb Bomb Bomb Iran…….
“Loved your comments on your colleagues from back East.”
+1 Me too.
Can’t leave the MID out to dry now, can we? Think of the job creation!
Gonna go barf in a closet now….
Just a few droogs out for a bit of the old ultraviolent.
The article doesn’t specify the race of the victim or of the “youths” who attacked him.
So 2banana must have ESP.
That’s right by the train tracks from Union Station heading back to Maryland. I try not to bike or walk more than a block or two from Massachusetts Avenue.
The funny thing is, there are a lot of new condos in that area. I took some pictures of all the cranes back in March (I think) and posted them here.
DC outside of the nice/touristy areas is very unsafe. The “safe” areas are getting larger though, as development pushes out from downtown towards some formerly-terrible areas. In the pictures to this story you can even see the shiny new condos in the background.
“About an hour before the attack, a lawyer riding home on a MARC commuter train said kids threw rocks at the last two rail cars as they passed the same spot. “Everyone ducked,” said the lawyer, Peter Gimbrere, who commutes on the Brunswick line to his home near Barnesville, in northwestern Montgomery County. He said at least two windows were cracked.
Terry Owens, a spokesman for the Maryland Transit Administration, confirmed that youths were seen throwing rocks at Train 875, which departed Union Station at 4:24 p.m. He said he had not heard reports of damage. He also said officials learned of the incident Wednesday from a passenger. D.C. police said they did not know about the rock-throwing incident.”
——————————————-
I usually take the 5:20 and I’ve never seen anything like this.
Buy now, before mortgage rates go even higher!
June 13, 2013, 9:59 a.m. EDT
30-year mortgage rate highest in more than a year
By Ruth Mantell
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.98% in the week ending June 13 - the highest rate since April 2012 — up from 3.91% in the prior week, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly report. A year ago, the 30-year rate averaged 3.71%. The rate has increased for six weeks, rising more than half of a percentage point since early May. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.10% in the latest week from 3.03% in the prior week. The average rate on the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 2.79% from 2.74%. And the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM remained at 2.58%.
June 12, 2013, 7:57 a.m. EDT
U.S. mortgage applications rise 16%
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Wall Street’s been stopping selloffs at 3%
U.S. stock futures point to a rebound
By MarketWatch
The total number of mortgage applications filed in the U.S. last week jumped 16% from the prior week despite an increase in interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.
The market composite index was up 5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended June 7 from the previous week, according to the weekly survey covering more than three-quarters of all U.S. residential-mortgage applications. Last week’s results included an adjustment for the Memorial Day Holiday.
The refinance index increased 5% from the prior week. The seasonally adjusted purchasing index also advanced 5% from a week earlier.
…
Amidst all of the gibbering idiots and RE fluffers hyperventilating about the RE Recovery (aka Bubble 2.0), behold the Second Coming of RE in all its majesty…
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/06/Furniture%20Sales.jpg
Because they can’t afford furniture after overpaying by 33% for their mortgage debt albatross shitbox?
It costs a ton of money to properly furnish and decorate a big house. And even if you have the money, you have to be interested enough to make a project of it. It’s much better to just have a well-furnished small house… huge windows and high ceilings are tough. Big rooms require big rugs and the cost increases exponentially once you get into the larger rug sizes. Having a bigger 1st floor means more wood floors to take care of (you can use carpet upstairs in the bedrooms though).
Been one helluva week. Triple-digit temperatures during the day and murder at night. This one happened in our neighborhood park:
Bullets fly in the park: Family wants to know who killed “Biggie”
I will consider mine to be a happy life if I never have to see the body of another murder victim. My heart goes out to this family. And I stand in awe of the Tucson police officers who responded to this incident. Professionals, every one of them.
So you saw the body, Slim? Gruesome. I hope nobody shoots at you, although a person named Biggie might be more of a target.
Housing Recovery? Not so fast! YoY Furniture Sales Go Negative; Foreclosures Rise
Confounded Interest | 06/13/2013 | Anthony B. Sanders
I constantly hear “The housing market is back!”
Is it?
True, house prices are rising since 2012 according to FNC, Case-Shiller, Loan Performance and FHFA home price indices.
But Year-over-year furniture sales have turned negative, not a good sign for housing (unless everyone wants to live in empty houses).
At least auto sales are increasing. Perhaps people are parking Chevys in their living rooms instead of furniture.
And foreclosures are heating up again. Completed foreclosures jumped 11 percent nationally in May from the previous month, with monthly increases taking place in 33 states, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
But if we look at the general trend, we see a decline. The bump in foreclosures comes from the end of state moratoria of foreclosures.
Doug Duncan, the chief economist for Fannie Mae said that he sees interest rates rising by 100 basis points over the coming year. I believe him!
We have a regular passenger we take to Sac airport. He bought his house a couple of years ago. I picked him up last week, saw ZERO furniture in his living room, not even a TV. Kitchen looked normal. I asked him about his living room, and he said in his thick Chinese accent that his and his wife’s job situation, while good, is not necessarily stable, and that it’s possible that they may or may not have to move in a couple of years, so they don’t want to fill the house up with stuff that will make moving more of a pain later.
I keep getting ads in the mail for furniture stores, window companies, carpet cleaners, BBQ grills, drapes, and nick-nacs. I wonder what it all means.
ft dot com
June 13, 2013 4:03 pm
Watch out for the rate hike hit to banks
By Gillian Tett
Regulators and bankers are assessing how damaging a US rate increase might be
Earlier this year, officials at America’s mighty Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation engaged in a bout of brainstorming with bank leaders about interest rate risk. The message was sobering.
Back then, in April, the FDIC did not seriously expect US rates to jump soon. Little wonder: at that stage, the 10-year yield was still below 2 per cent – and sinking – while Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve chairman, seemed committed to quantitative easing.
But if rates were to rise, the fallout could be painful, the regulator warned. Or as Dan Frye, an FDIC official, told the bankers: “If rates started going up today it could have serious consequences for some of our banks … a lot of banks would get hurt.” Indeed, the FDIC felt so uneasy about the issue that it begged banks to start scrutinising their balance sheets, in readiness for that day.
Investors – not to mention bankers – should take note. After all, a rate increase is no longer an entirely hypothetical idea. On the contrary, in the past couple of months 10-year Treasury yields have jumped 60 basis points, amid speculation that the Fed could embark on a “tapered” end to QE next year.
That increase has already inflicted painful losses on bond investors and some hedge funds. And though banks have remained out of the spotlight, as bond market volatility rises, the issue raised by the FDIC is now looking doubly pertinent; notably, what regulators and some bankers are trying to assess is just how damaging a rate increase might be – not just for big banks, but small ones too.
Opinions are mixed. In theory, a return to more normal levels of US interest rates in future years should be beneficial for many banks. After all, low rates typically cause banks’ net interest margins to shrivel. And in the past two years the margin squeeze has been so painful that some Fed officials say banks actually want QE to stop, as soon as possible. “In my district, the banks are saying that low interest rates are killing them – they want higher rates,” says one regional Fed president.
But there is a crucial catch. Precisely because of that margin collapse, many banks have quietly been adopting novel – if not desperate – strategies to boost earnings. Some have been extending more long-term loans, often at fixed rates, or investing in risky bonds or complex structured products. And that could potentially create big losses if rates rise, particularly if this swing occurs dramatically, as in 1994.
…
The rates are rising, the rates are rising!
PS
Dear Stock Market: Hurry up and crash already.
Isn’t it weird how the Nikkei has tumbled 20% over the past three weeks and 30-yr U.S. Treasury bond prices are down by 10% since the start of May, yet the headline U.S. stock market indexes are all about where they were at the start of May?
Oh my Dog!
Dog Butt Looks Like Jesus Christ In A Robe (PHOTO)
Posted: 06/13/2013 12:39 pm EDT | Updated: 06/13/2013 1:07 pm EDT
Jesus is always with us.
He’s on our toast. He’s in our fish sticks. He hangs out on our tortillas, our sting rays and our receipts. So is it that surprising, then, to find his holy visage on not one, but two dog butts?
Reddit user Feature_Creature posted a rather old photo of a pug’s butt that appears to show Jesus’ face, as well as his hands, legs and a long flowing robe. Like the writers at Jezebel — which posted the photo today — this is the longest we’ve ever stared at a dog butt.
And it’s not even the only one!
User internet_history also posted a photo of a holy dog butt, “Which is a true miracle if you ask” him:
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