Bits Bucket for August 1, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing
Housing Bubble II is upon us. With a twist. This time it is the big money that jumped into it, drove up prices, and moved affordability out of reach for first-time buyers. Now that the risks are piling up, driven by vacancy rates in that space of 50%, while interest rates are rising globally, the big money is starting to get antsy. Time to shift risk to someone else. It’s the kind of impeccably timed Fed-induced Wall Street engineering that we have seen so many times before. It will work out for a while, and then someone else will end up holding the bag.
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=7870#respond
Bloomberg reported today that Blackstone and some other outfit(the two outfits with the largest number of excess empty houses) and “the multitude of others are finding there is no profit in their model.”
They could have dropped by here for a conversation before they committed to their loss.
the taxpayers’ loss you mean.
$hitHouse Poet!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/american-homes-4-rent-tests-housing-reit-market-with-ipo.html
Where’s the quote that you note? Is there another Bloomberg article to which you refer?
Hey Liar…… There’s this thing called Bloomberg radio.
Try it sometime if you ever develop some personal integrity.
Oh, so that was a comment from some guy on Bloomberg Radio. Gotcha.
HA/RAL, my view is more aligned with your views than RW’s, but I have to say… you’re done here. RW pwned you in this instance.
I read in Liberace’s bio that he was a petty queen…… I see it was correct.
RAL, you’re done here. Slowly back out of the room, learn to make a graceful exit. This also happens a bunch with polly pwns you, you should really stop denying it.
There’s no question the biography is correct.
U go Liberace.
I feel like feeding the RAL today. Dont’ ask me why.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/nyregion/overhaul-and-a-hurricane-have-flood-insurance-rates-set-for-huge-increases.html?src=rechp&_r=0
Outrage as Homeowners Prepare for Substantially Higher Flood Insurance Rates
By JENNY ANDERSON
Published: July 28, 2013
For the last seven years, Palmer Doyle, a retired firefighter, has paid between $350 and $458 annually for federal flood insurance. He lives a block and a half from the water in Queens, but his premiums have stayed low because of a federal policy that had protected residents from sharp increases in flood insurance costs.
Now, though, the costs for Mr. Doyle are about to jump to as much as $15,000 annually over the next decade.
Like many in the New York region, he is facing a series of events that are having a stark impact on rates: an overhaul of the federal flood insurance program last year, the adoption of new flood maps for high-risk areas, and the impact of Hurricane Sandy.
“I could live with $1,500,” said Mr. Doyle, a resident of the Belle Harbor neighborhood. “But $9,000, $15,000? There is no way on God’s green earth I can pay that.”
As a result, government officials, grass-roots organizations and the residents are mobilizing to prevent the higher premiums from taking hold.
In Brick Township, N.J., local officials have paid a mapping expert to obtain certification in floodplain technology to challenge the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new flood maps.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed changes to make flood insurance more affordable and accessible.
Senators from flood-prone states, including New York, New Jersey and Louisiana, have offered amendments and bills to extend the time frame over which the steep rates go into effect.
“We have a lot of people around the country who are just beginning to learn about this,” said Dan Mundy, a resident of Broad Channel, Queens, who is a local activist and a retired firefighter. “When they find out about it, they flip out.”
There is a lot more, but that is the essense of it. Enjoy.
If they’re looking for sympathy you know where they can find it:
In the dictionary, right between sh1t and syphilis.
I’m tired of constantly paying for people to live in places where their houses are wiped out like clockwork, and then they expect everyone else to pay to rebuild their HOOOOOOOOOME!!
This includes everyone in hurricane country, tornado country, landslide/bank erosion country, and earthquake country.
If YOU choose to live there, then YOU take the risk and YOU rebuild your own house when it gets destroyed.
I say each city gets one major disaster per type per decade. Your city gets wiped out by a flood? Ok, we’ll help out once but that’s it. You get a mulligan the first time on your choice of places to reside. If you decide to stay after you’ve seen what can happen there, THAT’S on YOU not the taxpayers.
“Now, though, the costs for Mr. Doyle are about to jump to as much as $15,000 annually over the next decade.”
Why doesn’t he pay-off his mortgage and nix the flood insurance?
Here ya go liars, flunkies, junkies and donkeys……. Here it is again….
Bloomberg reported today that Blackstone and some other outfit(the two outfits with the largest number of excess empty houses) and “the multitude of others are finding there is no profit in their model.”
“no profit….”
That didn’t take long. It lasted long enough for the fund managers to collect a check. These hot money guys need something new to keep the juice flowing. I do wonder what it is. Not that I would like to chase it, rather I would like to avoid it.
“This includes everyone in hurricane country, tornado country, landslide/bank erosion country, and earthquake country.”
You left out fire country. But then, that doesn’t leave many places to live. Most of the Western US is prone to wildfires.
Tornadoes are possible in most of the US, but are limited in the area each one strikes. Moore has been especially unlucky and if another one were to strike there in the next decade, I might agree that perhaps we should rethink rebuilding there.
Earthquakes are rare and are unlikely to cause major damage in the same place within a few decades. I did see an interesting documentary on the pattern of earthquakes in Turkey. An earthquake on one part of the fault would release pressure at the point of the quake and increase it at another point, leading to an earthquake further along a few decades later. Building standards can do a lot to mitigate the damage caused by earthquakes.
Hurricanes cause most of their damage from flooding along the coast. There is a bit of predictability there that could justify not rebuilding. The same could be said for building in a river’s floodplain. There was a small city in Illinois that relocated to a hilltop from the floodplain.
It might be useful to buy out some disaster prone areas instead of allowing people to rebuild.
From Bloomberg:
“American Homes 4 Rent raised almost 44 percent less than the $1.25 billion amount estimated in an initial propectus by the company in June.
While American Homes 4 Rent has the benefit of strong leadership under Hughes and a diverse portfolio of almost 18,000 properties, it’s uncertain whether single-family owners can make money over the long term on par with other types of landlords, Dave Bragg, an analyst at Green Street Advisors Inc., said this week before the IPO. The two other REITs that have gone public - - Silver Bay (SBY) Realty Trust Corp. and American Residential Properties Inc. (ARPI) — are trading below their offering price.
American Homes 4 Rent and competitors such as New York-based Blackstone, which has invested more than $5 billion in about 30,000 houses, are betting they can build an institutional real estate class from U.S. single-family rental homes, which are mostly owned by mom and pop businesses.
Shares of other public single-family rental REITs have fallen as the companies have failed to show a profit, in part because they are acquiring houses faster than they can fill them with tenants.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/american-homes-4-rent-raises-705-9-million-in-u-s-ipo.html
Yeah…… That was the excuse on WBBR too but the houses are empty because they’re excess empty inventory. There is no demand…… Rental or otherwise.
Now that the risks are piling up, driven by vacancy rates in that space of 50%, while interest rates are rising globally, the big money is starting to get antsy.
Why am I not surprised?
Slim,
The 50% vacancy rate is purely a byproduct of the construction of the portfolio. American Homes 4 Rent has been buying about 1.5-2k homes per month over the past several months according to their amended S-11, and have had steady increases in the number of leases signed. Again according to their S-11, homes that have been available for rent for more than 30 days are at 90% occupied. Homes that have been available for rent for more than 90 days are 97% occupied.
This is on page 6 of their most recent S-11.
If the 50% was because of massive excess inventory, homes that were available to rent would not be at 90%+ occupied.
A person I know who has amassed a much smaller portfolio (about 100 homes) has slowed down his purchases considerably in light of higher prices and after completion of the rehab of the last homes, has a vacancy rate of less than 10%, similar to what he is experiencing in the apartments he owns in the same markets.
RW/RentalWatch The liar,
Even if occupancy were 100%, they don’t cash flow. They’re underwater just like you.
“50% vacancy rate is purely a byproduct of the construction of the portfolio…”
I wouldn’t have a lot of confidence in a business whose inventory was 50% unmarketable. From what you say they keep buying these dumps, rather than fixing up the ones they have to be rentable. This is a sound investment how?
They are fixing up the ones that they bought. You don’t get hundreds of millions to work by having one guy buy a house, then fix it, then rent it, then buy another.
You get hundreds of millions to work by having teams buying, teams renovating, and teams leasing. If you read the S-11, you’ll see that each month they sign more leases than the month before. In the last month, they signed almost as many leases as the number of homes they bought.
Occupancy levels will rise from 50% steadily unless they continue to buy more and more homes.
Its a game of real estate musical chairs. The guys running the game who own the chairs are sitting somewhere else long before the music stops
…and they own the DJ.
Wall Street Engineers Newest Frankenstein’s Monster For Housing
Housing Bubble II is upon us. With a twist. This time it is the big money that jumped into it, drove up prices, and moved affordability out of reach for first-time buyers. Now that the risks are piling up, driven by vacancy rates in that space of 50%, while interest rates are rising globally, the big money is starting to get antsy. Time to shift risk to someone else. It’s the kind of impeccably timed Fed-induced Wall Street engineering that we have seen so many times before. It will work out for a while, and then someone else will end up holding the bag.
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/7/31/wall-street-engineers-newest-frankensteins-monster-for-housi.html
“Blackstone is planning to bundle monthly rental payments of about 1,500 to 1,700 of its homes into structured synthetic products to be hawked by Deutsche Bank to its hapless clients, “people familiar with the matter” told the Wall Street Journal.”
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130731/ARTICLE/130739948/2107/BUSINESS?Title=Blackstone-works-on-securities-based-on-houses
Haven’t we seen this before???
Time to go long on lipstick in that these pigs will need lots of it.
It would be fascinating to see a chart of the money flows from this. It would look like a tree, with roots on one side and branches on the other. Each root strand is a rental payment. The trunk is the sum total of all the rental payments. Each branch is a financial product being sold. The size (cost) of the branches is certainly much greater than the size of the trunk, which is the actual cash value of the incoming money flow.
Why would people buy such a thing? Good question.
They are purchased by institutions such as CALPeRS, etc. Essentially, they are dumped on your retirement portfolio, like it or not. Oh, why the long face- you though that gorgeous portfolio manager in the skin tight suit dress was working in your interests?
That’s a big problem with retirement portfolios. There is no one operating in the fiduciary interest of current and future retirees.
“Oh, why the long face- you though that gorgeous portfolio manager in the skin tight suit dress was working in your interests?”
+1 Never thought that she was hiding a magic wand slathered with valve grinding compound.
That’s a big problem with retirement portfolios. There is no one operating in the fiduciary interest of current and future retirees.’
good thing i don’t have one then ;-0
all 401k all in index 500
hapless clients !!
hahahaha I wonder what Blackstone thinks of that quote !!
hmmm what if they can’t sell for a profit? will they let it lapse into foreclosure and the tenants stop paying the rent for years?
They will ask the government for a bailout. To save the system and keep people from being thrown out on the streets.
In-VEST-or in my nabe has a couple of houses. One of which was rented to non-payers for several years. And, oh did they TRASH that place.
Those louts finally moved out last fall, on Halloween, and they left behind a nightmare. That house is a mess to behold.
The in-VEST-or owner doesn’t seem to have the money to repair the damage. Which we get to look at, day after day.
Stocks and homes are assets priced in US$ — their soundly shown price histories are inflation-adjusted (”real”).
Such are seldom seen, because: Well apparent therein are our nation’s serial, massive mispricings.
“The public be suckered” is both this track record and keeping it unseen. “Dow” is “Dow Jones Industrial Average”.
http://www.showrealhist.com/RD_RJShomes_PSav.html#fn1
We STILL have no idea of the real value of Level 3 assets held by Wall St.
At this point I am pretty sure Shaggy is working in the White House and writing for Jay Carney, Eric Holder and President Obama.
Shaggy - It Wasn’t Me (Official Music Video) 720p - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPObzJkWueY - 162k -
(Yo man) Yo
(Open up man) What do you want man?
(My girl just caught me)
You let her catch you?
(I don’t know how I let this happen)
With who?
(The girl next door, you know?) Man…
(I don’t know what to do) Say it wasn’t you
(Alright)
But she caught me on the counter
(wasn’t me)
Saw me banging on the sofa
(wasn’t me)
I even had her in the shower
(wasn’t me)
She even caught me on camera
(wasn’t me)
She saw the marks on my shoulder
(wasn’t me)
Heard the words that I told her
(wasn’t me)
Heard the screams getting louder
(wasn’t me)
She stayed until it was over
(wasn’t me)
Im having a brain fog this morning has any white guy wrote something similar?
BOLO
phony scandals
XKeyscore
“Why buy a depreciating asset like a house at these massively inflated asking prices? Rent for half the cost and buy later after prices crater for 65% less.”
Because renting is just throwing money away. Every mortgage payment builds equity when you own your home.
I was talking to one of my relatives up in CT the other evening, she has a house she purchased in ‘06, so it decreased in value during the bust. However, given all the blah-blah about the recent bubble, I thought maybe she might have a good chance at selling it and getting out from under.
She told me that the value has never come back to what the value was when she purchased it, so she still wouldn’t be able to recoup. And even if she could, she said that rents for a comparable property are higher than what she’s paying in PITI.
Go figure. If that’s really the case, you’d think her house would be “snapped up” immediately.
“She told me that the value has never come back to what the value was when she purchased it, so she still wouldn’t be able to recoup.”
What’s worse, interest rates are set to resume their upward ascent within the next twelve months. Her losses are gonna start biggering and biggering and biggering, despite Amanda’s assurances to the contrary.
Just curious- how can you predict future interest rates?
What’s worse, interest rates are set to resume their upward ascent within the next twelve months.
Just curious- how can you predict future interest rates?
Couple of points: 1. We are Japan. How long has Japan been ZIRP? How did that “Tapering” talk go?
2. If anyone has been paying attention, 1 Yr LIBOR has fallen to historic lows (currently .69%) over the last year. Many ARM’s are indexed to LIBOR (including the one on my multifamily). Mortgage rates have only risen if you were shopping for a fixed-rate loan indexed to Treasuries.
“…how can you predict future interest rates?”
A good start is to consider Fed’s announced future plans. Note the discussion is when, not whether, QE3 will end.
Naroff: Summers Would Likely Taper QE More Quickly Than Yellen
Thursday, 01 Aug 2013 03:54 PM
By Dan Weil
Of the two frontrunners to be the next Federal Reserve chairman, Lawrence Summers would likely taper the Fed’s quantitative easing more quickly than Janet Yellen, says Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.
Summers, a former White House economic adviser, would likely start tapering sooner if the process hasn’t already begun by the time current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke finishes his term Jan. 31, Naroff tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.
“Janet Yellen [currently the Fed's vice chairwoman] is much more concerned about the economy and unemployment and is worried that they could start doing it too soon,” he said. “And if they start doing it too soon, does that really set back the whole process of recovery?”
…
>Go figure. If that’s really the case, you’d think her house would be “snapped up” immediately.
It would, but she is still underwater and therefore has no incentive to sell.
Considering she goes further underwater every month is more than enough incentive.
Keep believing this Realtor™, folks, as a Realtor™ never, ever tells a lie:
- Renting is throwing away money.
- Owning is building equity.
- Real estate always goes up*.
* So long as QE3 continues forever.
keeping home prices high is central bankers duty. Of utmost importance to the economy.
‘Of utmost importance to the economy’
These bankers only care about money and power. They’ve throw millions of families under the bus when it suits them (and it’s not like they can reverse gravity as some groveling bank worshipers like to think). I mean, is your memory really that short; it just happened!
This morning I am going to change locks at an eviction. Then, if any of their stuff has value (to be determined by the sheriff deputy) it is to be set by the curb. Let me ask you bathroom poet; will Bernanke be there to offer some cab fare to the FB? Or maybe a ride to the YMCA? I kinda doubt it.
Here’s something I saw, and I’m not picking on any ones appearances:
‘Hemet couple in short sale bidding war’
‘Henry and Hermine Pawlowicz have felt the sting of short sale twice. Four years ago, the Hemet-area couple signed an agreement to leave their home to avoid foreclosure when the economy roiled from recession, cars got repossessed and the volume of business rolling through their Smog Check shop wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Then, Henry Pawlowicz’s hips gave out.’
“We ended up living on $436 in income a month,’’ he recalled. “We couldn’t scrape together enough to make the payment on the house. So, we lost the home we had for 40 years.” Relegated to life in a rental, the Pawlowiczes built their credit back up. Henry adjusted to his hip replacements. The two, Henry at 66, and Hermine, at 70, hunted for homes and looked forward to the day they could join a growing band of “boomerang buyers,’’ folks who’ve pulled out of the straits they were in to become homeowners once again.’
http://www.pe.com/business/business-headlines/20130731-real-estate-hemet-couple-in-short-sale-bidding-war.ece
The story goes on that they are getting clipped for an extra 30k or so. But read the details. Do you think they are paying cash? What are the odds these two will be working another 5 years, much less 20?
I had a boomerang a long time ago. If you throw it hard enough, and just right, you can stand in exactly the same spot and it will come whizzing right at you at neck level.
Let me ask you bathroom poet; will Bernanke be there to offer some cab fare to the FB?
Bathroom Poet!!!!!LOLZ
What is a “Smog Check Shop?”
Sounds like her SS was what they were living on. Now they have his and can afford a house.
What is a “Smog Check Shop?”
I think old cars in CA have to have emissions checked every other year.
“Boomerang Buyers” is a term which defines exactly how much the banking cartel is dependant upon large numbers of people to survive, and how credit score ultimately means nothing. The same suckers who lost everything the first go around are the very ones running up prices this next go ’round. You can buy a new car with a credit score of 400. It doesn’t even matter that there is a sucker born every minute. Suckers live 80 years, and you can fleece them like sheep ’til they’re dirt napping.
I think old cars in CA have to have emissions checked every other year.”
all cars new and old
Agree, Skroodle.
But they had been in their old house 40 years. Why isn’t it paid off? Maybe they took out a HELOC? I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they needed it for the medical costs. Still, IMO they shouldn’t get into a bidding war for a $145K short sale which probably needs $20K of work. They should be looking at $60K houses in Oil City.
And you should be looking at rentals in DC if you ever want to recover.
You’re just sour grapes because you missed the boat. I worked with a licensed Realtor® who helped me find the right home for my needs. And my interest rate is locked in at a low rate for 30 years. How much will your rent go up in 30 years?
I am glad it’s working for you.
Pass the bong, please….
Hard to tell if you are being sarcastic or not.
If interest rates go back to a historical norm of 6%…
Yes, you locked in a 30 year mortgage at 3.5% and that will never go up.
But you house value will be cut in half.
Higher interest rates mean future home buyers must pay more in interest which means they the amount they can pay for a house is less.
Inflation is coming.
Really?
Wages are going to double to meet massively inflated resale housing prices?
Have another drink Junkie.
This is just too funny to pass up!
“You’re just sour grapes because you missed the boat. I worked with a licensed Realtor® who helped me find the right home for my needs. And my interest rate is locked in at a low rate for 30 years. How much will your rent go up in 30 years?”
“You’re just sour grapes because you missed the boat.”
So- you’ve succeeded, right? You’ve now ‘won’ your dream house? Then what are you still doing on this blog? Second thoughts? Misery loves company, so you want to recruit some new friends? Are your sales so bad that this is the best lead you’ve got? Wow. Talk about a sh!tty market.
“I worked with a licensed Realtor® who helped me find the right home for my needs.”
NO, you worked with someone who took a correspondence course and then hosed you for an additional 3%. The used-house-salesperson on the sell side also hosed you for an additional 3% and then after you signed over the Big Check, they got together over drinks and laughed about it.
“And my interest rate is locked in at a low rate for 30 years. How much will your rent go up in 30 years?”
My rent won’t go up much at all or I’ll just move to a different rental house- there are thousands of them within a 10-mile radius of me. How much will your taxes increases total over 30 years? How much will your maintenance costs increase in 30 years? What will your neighborhood look like in 30 years? How much will your house decrease in value in the next 3 years? A shitload. No, seriously it will. Welcome to the real world. Thanks for stopping by.
I have been hearing inflation is coming for 7 years. The only inflation we have seen is due to Wall St. speculators in the form of bubbles.
“My failure to respect women is unacceptable”
You really need a new handle. This one sucks.
Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
“Welcome to the real world. Thanks for stopping by.”
You crack me up B&CG. Plus you forgot “We have some lovely parting gifts for you backstage….”
You really need a new handle. This one sucks.
Are you one of the pc guys? Don’t blame me, blame the voters of San Diego.
Not a pc type at all, just think it sounds stupid.
“And my interest rate is locked in at a low rate for 30 years. How much will your rent go up in 30 years?”
Do you have any idea whatever how far underwater your mortgage will be at the point interest rates revert to anywhere near historic norms?
Mark the historic moment on your calendars: 2banana and I finally agree on something he posted.
To paraphrase Chuck Schwab: The Fed is trying like hell to create inflation, and eventually they’ll be successful.
What do you think happens when the Fed buys $40B worth of bonds from the Federal government?
Uncle Sam takes that money and pays medicare bills, soldier’s salaries, contractor’s bills, etc. In other words, cash ends up in the economy…somewhere–each month.
Same story when buying mortgage backed securities…that money ends up in the hands of investors–who are currently looking for safety, not risk/growth opportunities. So THAT money is ending up buying safe investments, keeping yields very low.
For now, there is still massive fear (how many times have YOU heard someone predicting the next crash/disaster? I’ve lost count), and so debt levels continue to decline, the velocity of money is hovering around all-time lows, and levels of capital in bond-like investments is very high.
If you expect the US to remain in a long-term economic malaise, then you’ve got nothing to worry about from inflation–all that money will stay dormant.
If you expect the US to get beyond this period of deleveraging, and begin stronger job growth, then inflation very well could rear it’s ugly head as all that capital that has been pumped into the economy comes out to play.
Will we get hyperinflation? I don’t see how.
Will we eventually get inflation higher than 2%? Seems like a reasonable bet.
Was your recent post indicating you would vote for Carlos Danger serious?
Geez Anthony sexting with a name like weiner is just so clueless, couldn’t you have done something more normal like Mortgage fraud?
“…sexting with a name like weiner is just so clueless…”
It’s a comedian’s wet dream.
It’s hard to keep a Weiner down.
Article on Childless cities…There is also a housing eliminate to it…Here is an excerpt;
In California, particularly, state and local officials push policies that favor the development of apartments over single-family houses and town houses. But by trying to cram people into higher-density space, planners inadvertently help push up prices for the existing stock of family-friendly homes. Such policies have already been practiced for decades in the United Kingdom, making even provincial cities increasingly unaffordable, as British social commentator James Heartfield notes. London itself is among the least affordable cities in the world. Even middle-class residents have been known to live in garages, converted bathrooms, and garden sheds.
Full Linky;
http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_3_childless-cities.html
plus one for childless cities. when can i move to one?
and i wouldn’t mind paying the same level of municipal taxes, as long as it went to libraries and other culture-related spending for adults, not the bottomless pit suckhole of cash that is the public skool system.
suckhole of cash that is the public skool system.
Skool administrators and teachers are adults iirc.
They don’t “teach” anything, and the only thing they “administer” is taxpayer-funded babysitting for the products of low-investment parenting, with free lunches and bekfusses for all.
Case in point, the Boston school principle who was recently hired and just resigned because she was outed for plagiarizing her first letter to teachers in her school as well as her CV introduction.
That’s right, the person in charge of public education at this particular school was caught plagiarizing… irony knows no bounds.
“plus one for childless cities. when can i move to one?”
I have no kids, and generally like them, but I have to say that I can be annoyed by parents who allow their screaming heathens to affect stranger’s daily lives in an adverse way. Just yesterday I was at my local credit union, and some lady’s kid was running around the whole place and squealing like a wild banshee. I could not believe it. The mom made token attempts to corral the kid, but almost seemed to think it was cute. The kid was like 4 or 5. I would have never gotten away with that as a child. When the 4 of us went anywhere like that with mom or dad, we were instructed to keep our mouths shut, and be seen but not heard. I wanted to tell the lady that if I had acted like that at that age, I would have never been allowed to go to the bank again. I am 43 now, so perhaps I am turning into an old curmudgeon.
I am interested in a condo building near me because of its age restrictions: no kids under age 16 allowed.
Breeders are even worse koolaid drinkers WRT breeding than loanowners are with housing. They are a cult, and many of the ones I know are constantly broke, always whining for sympathy when some “surprise” kid-related expense comes up and dents their nearly-empty bank account or gets plopped on the credit card balance.
“Breeders are even worse koolaid drinkers WRT breeding than loanowners are with housing.”
Parenting is not for the faint of heart. The way you feel about kids, you should not have one. I’m glad I did. To each his own.
Ditto. Laffin’ my arse off with mine right now, and he’s 500 miles away cooking a late dinner for himself and his dad.
Not all kids are brats. Not all brats are kids….
Been reading the blog more than commenting but I really cant let this topic go by without agreement on the observation about lazy/bad parenting.
I see it all the time here in Citrus Heights, CA.
(Sacramento suburb).
Mostly it’s the low income parents who either don’t care, don’t know, don’t want to know, or crave the attention they (mistakenly) think that people will instantly melt with adoration for their hell spawn.
Just like the dog owners who beeline straight for me & my 3 kids, when out in public, because they think EVERYONE just LOVES their little pride & joy!
I do like dogs, owned many myself, but also respect other peoples space. I’ve noticed you don’t dare ask the owner to use caution about an approaching critter or you’ll get the stink eye from the desperate lonely grey haired dowager.
Whats even more obnoxious is the attention-getting behavior when people bring their pets into retail areas not designed for them, like Lowes, Home Depot, etc.
Heck, why not just bring in a camel? Figured I’d bring in my pet emu next time. There’s a cee-ment floor, right !? No harm done.
flame away.
I want to hear more about the emu.
You”ll get no flames from me.
It’s not just kids and pets, but people themselves as well.
Well, Americans, anyway.
I often think about the contrasts between the Japanese tsunami disaster and Katrina and how people reacted.
Japan - orderly lines
New Orleans - murder, pillage and plunder
Extreme examples, to be sure. Nonetheless…
My kid threw a tantrum in a store once. Once.
I didn’t hesitate - I just dropped the basket of groceries, picked her up over my shoulder and left. I sat her down and explained in language that a 3/4 yr old could understand that her behavior was unacceptable and that she wouldn’t be able to go to the store with me anymore unless she promised never to do it again.
She kept her promise(10 yrs old now).
I experienced that once, too. I was intrigued that nobody tried to stop me. I could have been a kidnapper. It was also in a grocery store. Maybe everyone was glad to get rid of the noise.
Never underestimate the value of a well-placed foot into the trajectory of an out-of-control brat.
Highways and cheap gas have allowed families to move out to the suburbs.
Will telecommunication advances allow them to stay there, even if gas prices are high?
wall street journal - obama’s creeping authoritarianism:
‘the political left, historically inclined by ideological belief to public policy that is imposed rather than legislated, will support mr. obama’s expansion of authority. the rest of us should not.
the u.s. has a system of checks and balances. mr. obama is rebalancing the system toward a national-leader model that is alien to american tradition.’
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324136204578639953580480838.html
Cracks me up, but I suppose the WSJ has to keep fighting the guy. Authoritarian? He’s been about as ineffective and useless of a president as I’ve seen. Not sure how much of this is his fault, the R’s fault, the D’s who hate him fault, but this guy hasn’t been able to do diddly other than the Affordable Care Act. Remains to be seen what will happen with that.
Really a disappointing 5 years.
he has made race relations a lot worse, so give him credit for that ok?
These presidents are evil cheerleaders for the cause of the evil men they answer to. The latest cheerleader has been the most evil by far. And the next one will be more evil.
This nation is a shadow of its’ former self. Evil, corrupt, murderous.
his nation is a shadow of its’ former self. Evil, corrupt, murderous.
Makes one wonder how much longer it can last. I remember when it seemed like the USSR would last forever, then one day … poof, it was gone.
+1, Colorado. Certain conditions, governments, companies, organizations, etc. can continue on for a long time, steadily drifting downward towards extinction, but eventually the end comes and when it does, sometimes it seems as if it happens fast. But it was headed there for a long time.
We’re almost there, IMO. I don’t really want to see it happen, but sometimes I think it would be better than this steady drip-drip-drip. Or hiss of leaking air.
Now that the gov’t is spying on its own citizens, bending them over to bankers and globalist aims, contemplating amnesty for millions of illegals, pitting races against each other, shredding the Constitution and the rule of law, what’s the point of the US?
I will never forgive. I will never forget.
Government officials are morons, but at the same time can run a program to spy on 300 million Americans and 5 billion other people?
The reason no one knew the USSR was going to collapse was because the CIA didn’t have a clue it was going to happen. And the CIA spent years and billions studying the USSR.
“Government officials are morons, but at the same time can run a program to spy on 300 million Americans and 5 billion other people?”
No. Government officials are sick whacks, but they’re not the ones running the programs. It’s private contractors, remember? They’re very good at what they do.
Government officials are morons, but at the same time can run a program to spy on 300 million Americans and 5 billion other people?
Try searching for “pressure cooker” and shopping for “backpacks”
on google and see what happens…
Recent article about a family whose wife was looking for pressure cookers while the husband was looking for backpacks on google. They received an unannounced visit from jack-booted thugs known as DHS.
Good example…they raided a house where nothing was going on. Perfect waste of time. Can you imagine how much paperwork was involved to get that raid organized?
Multiply that by every city in the country and the cops won’t even have time to set up radar traps.
Having been a worker on several DOD projects, although the engineers were smart, management were all retired military and all their titles seemed to be due to who they were related to or served with. It was a very unique type of nepotism.
All the projects I worked on were years late and millions to billions over budget.
Having read about the revolving door between government officals at the NSA and senior executives at their contractors, I have no doubt they have their very own form of nepotism which will not be conducive to running efficient programs.
For politicians the revolving door is K-Street.
For retired military with the right connections it’s DOD contractors.
For the rest of us, it’s the usual: friends or family or alumni. Everyone else gets to suck it.
“This nation is a shadow of its’ former self. Evil, corrupt, murderous.”
No more so than we were before. But it’s now been brought out in the open.
exactamundo!
The greed/curruption has always been there. It’s just that we replaced morality with legality. Everybody wants to be legal…..lawmakers & lawyers fooked this country beyond repair.
Tammany Hall
Cost of one bolt. DoD
http://i.imgur.com/lOqvKC9.jpg
He was also able to cram through Dodd Frank before he lost his majorities.
You know, that crazy-complex law that was supposed to bring in tougher mortgage standards (so banks need to eat what they kill), and take some gambling out of the banks (Volcker Rule)?
How are those two goals doing?
Oh yeah, the latest is that they appear to be close to TAKING OUT THE DOWN PAYMENT REQUIREMENT for the QRM.
In the meantime, we have no Volcker Rule yet.
But we have thousands upon thousands of new regulations that have slowed investment…which slows job creation.
>But we have thousands upon thousands of new regulations that have slowed investment…which slows job creation.
Examples?
I should have said thousands and thousands of pages of new regs, but here is some information…
First you need to accept that investment into new ventures creates jobs. Then you need to accept that a lot of this investment comes from private sources…in many cases, organized sources that do nothing but choose such investments (and are presumably better at it than someone who does not choose such investments each day).
If you believe that (as I do), then you need to understand how Dodd Frank impacts the investment of private capital.
Here is a brief summary:
http://www.mofo.com/files/uploads/images/summarydoddfrankact.pdf
And more detail:
http://www.mofo.com/resources/regulatory-reform/
If you are an equity investment fund of more than $100MM (or so, I’m going to get the number wrong), even if you utilize ZERO leverage, you now need to register with the SEC. This includes hiring a compliance officer, creating a compliance manual, etc.
Funds of this size had nothing to do with the crash, and are not systemically risky since they are not leveraged or big enough.
If you are a big investment advisor ($billions or more), and you take one dollar of outside capital, you need to register and fill out much longer forms (crazy long).
Large family offices that are experts in certain types of businesses/investments would often form partnerships with other families to increase the number of investment dollars available to them. Post Dodd-Frank, a lot of these family offices returned the capital to third parties to avoid the regulation. The most public example of this was Soros. Despite his own money being the vast majority of his fund, he needed to return all outside capital to avoid the regulations.
Even some small funds (less than $100MM), need to register with the SEC as an exempt advisor (how does that make sense?).
For a time, they were trying to figure out how to NOT rope in Venture Capital firms into the regulation, and they thought the logical way to do this was to separate entities that invest equity only, not debt. Well problem there, VCs often invest as convertible debt. The worked out an exemption for VCs, but they need to meet certain criteria that they were not subject to before…this changes how they would have invested otherwise.
My wife is aware of a large entity that was considering using their knowledge and capital to team up with outside investment capital. Dodd Frank was the impediment.
Big deal right, fill out a few more forms…get over it, right? Here is the summary on the new morass that these investment funds need to navigate:
http://www.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/12_13_InvestmentAdvisorRegistrationPrivateEquity_FINAL.pdf
The law is making it very expensive to manage small amounts of capital…and so starting up a fund is much more expensive. I haven’t seen data on this, but I suspect it will result in big funds getting bigger, and consequently, smaller users of capital having a hard time finding capital. If you are a $1B fund, you can afford the legal bills and extra overhead, but are you going to invest $5MM in a small venture? If you are a $100MM fund, you might be willing to invest $5MM…if you can afford to deal with the regulation.
You’ll note that I haven’t talked at all about mortgages, derivatives, mortgage backed securities, Volcker Rule, etc.
I’ve only talked about investing EQUITY into risky ventures.
Dodd Frank was a way for the Democrats to get their hands into the one part of capitalism that they didn’t have good visibility into…private capital–and the law was very effective at throwing sand in those gears–didn’t stop the gears, but slowed them.
At the same time we still have no Volcker Rule, big banks are even bigger, there is no QRM requirement–over three years later.
Reinstating Glass-Steagall would have been much better, and more effective, but the banks wouldn’t like that, would they?
I even have my EXTREMELY left leaning MIL (retired teacher) talking about how Dodd Frank is bad. She’s asking why all this isn’t publicized more? Well, it was talked about during the Republican debates–which she didn’t watch.
Romney: “I was with the head of one of the big banks in New York. He said they have hundreds of lawyers working on Dodd-Frank to implement it. Community banks don’t have hundreds of lawyers.”
Ever tried to get a big New York bank to loan $1MM to a small business? That is the realm of community banks.
This is the same if you replace the words “big banks” with “big funds” and “community banks” with “small funds”.
What obama has taught us that if a president doesn’t like a law…
All he has to do is ignore it and sign EO to do exactly the opposite.
Can’t to watch the democrats scream and yell when a republican president does it to them.
Tis sport to watch the engineer…
When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.
Richard M. Nixon
Obama = more Nixon than Nixon.
…and I now think I know the title of the next Rob Zombie tune.
How is the QE3 outlook shaping up after the latest FOMC meeting?
Business
U.S. Fed sticks to current monetary easing amid modest growth
English.news.cn 2013-08-01 05:09:38
WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) — U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will continue the current monetary stimulus moves to bolster the slow economic growth and job creation, as the latest data showed that U.S. economy grew at a sub-par 1.7 percent in the second quarter.
U.S. economic activity expanded at a “modest pace” during the first half of the year. Labor market conditions have shown further improvement in recent months, on balance, but the unemployment rate remains elevated, the Fed said in a statement after wrapping up its two-day policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed’s powerful interest rate setting panel.
“Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has been strengthening, but mortgage rates have risen somewhat and fiscal policy is restraining economic growth,” noted the statement.
…
U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will continue the current monetary stimulus moves to bolster the slow economic growth and job creation
Gee, that’s a big surprise … not.
Translation: “We can’t understand why the 1% aren’t creating more jobs but they say they need more money.”
All Bubbles Bernanke knows is pump. He is going to pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and pump, and…
US Jobless claims plunge to lowest in nearly six years
Published: Thursday, 1 Aug 2013 | 8:30 AM ET
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, touching a 5-1/2 year low, suggesting a steadily improving labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 2,000 more applications received than previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to rise to 345,000 last week.
…
If we keep having numbers like this, we should get to $150 oil in a few short months. Recovery is here, wooohoooooo!
Can’t we, in some instances, substitute fracked nat. gas for far less$?
Shut up and pay. The speculators need bigger yachts.
They are already converting fossil power plants to natural gas, so yes, there is some substitution. But converting transport to natural gas is IMO too big an undertaking.
And I wouldn’t count on cheap natural gas for long. Companies are looking at piping frack gas overseas where it can command a higher price.
>The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, touching a 5-1/2 year low, suggesting a steadily improving labor market.
I just learned a very interesting thing this year about my state UE.
You can file for UE, and yet it may STILL be considered part of a previous claim.
So much for the “new claim” numbers.
China, Europe manufacturing data help lift stock futures
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK | Thu Aug 1, 2013 8:24am EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, after economic data in Europe and China boosted hopes for the global economy and kept alive expectations for continued economic support from global central banks.
China’s official PMI for manufacturing rose to 50.3 in July, above expectations it would fall to 49.9 from 50.1 in June, suggesting a pick up in activity as growth in new orders increased.
…
But a rival HSBC report on China’s manufacturing was much more gloomy, falling to 47.7 in July, the weakest reading since August 2012, from 48.2 in June and tempered growth expectations.
…
Chrysler July auto sales up 11%
Jayne O’Donnell , USA TODAY 8:53 a.m. EDT August 1, 2013
Chrysler Group sold 140,102 vehicles in July, an 11% jump over the same month last year, the company said Thursday. The gain topped Wall Street estimates and was Chrysler’s best July in seven years.
The automaker reporter better-than-expected second-quarter earnings Tuesday, posting a 16% gain, $507 million, year over year. It has had net income gains for eight straight quarters.
Chrysler’s Jeep, Dodge, Ram Truck and FIAT brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in July compared with the same month a year ago. The Ram Truck brand’s 31% jump was the largest sales gain of any of the company’s brands in July.
Reid Bigland, Chrysler’s U.S. sales chief, noted that the all-new Fiat 500L was also “off to a great start” with 962 units sold in its first full month on sale.
…
The really sad part of this news is that people still buy Chrysler products.
Home Prices Jumped 12.2% in May
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Home prices jumped 12.2 percent in May compared with a year earlier, the biggest annual gain since March 2006. The increase shows the housing recovery is strengthening.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released on Tuesday also surged 2.4 percent in May from April. The month-over-month gain nearly matched the 2.6 percent increase in April from March — the highest on record.
…
I’m so happy I bought when I did! I’m building equity with every mortgage payment, no more throwing money away on rent for me!
Give it a rest. Rent is not throwing money away if that is what works for you (may need to move, live in a very expensive place to buy, etc.). The people on this blog are not stupid, they can do math.
^lolz^
Building equity with every mortgage payment?
You just told us you have a recent 30 year mortgage.
Your equity with each payment is about a meal at McDonalads.
Now - what you are really happy about is your perceived “appreciation” of the value of your house.
This “appreciation” will evaporate with the end of the obama bailouts, the obama QEs and $1 trillion deficits.
So PLEASE - do not take out any home equity loans.
“what you are really happy about is your perceived “appreciation” of the value of your house.”
I’m fairly certain that Miss Bynes is being sarcastic.
Sorry but you’re wrong. At 3.625% my first mortgage payment was 33% principal. And my payment will be over half principal in 11 years, but I’m going to make extra payments so it will happen sooner than that. At a 5% interest rate it would take 16 years before the payment is more principal than interest.
I’m so happy I didn’t listen to all the negativity here. My Realtor® told me I was lucky to buy when I did, and he was right about predicting that prices and interest rates were going up. If I had waited another few months my choices for the home I wanted to buy would be more limited.
And you’re underwater how many tens of thousands so far?
I put over 30% down so I’m certainly not underwater. If you don’t want to buy a home then don’t buy one. But don’t be surprised when your landlord raises your rent again.
“I’m so happy I bought when I did! I’m building equity with every mortgage payment, no more throwing money away on rent for me!”
You know how bad sales REALLY are when used-house-salespeople have time on their hands to shill and troll on blogs. And this is supposed to be a housing rally? Riiiiiight…
You’re underwater and you couldn’t dump that depreciating shack for a fraction of what you paid.
Good luck sucker.
“You’re underwater and you couldn’t dump that depreciating shack for a fraction of what you paid.
Good luck sucker.”
Ahhhhhhhaaahaaahaaa! Play that FB their theme song.
http://www.sadtrombone.com/
I dumped my shack at a fraction of what I paid just like HA warned. But the fraction improper; it was greater than one. Regardless I got what I could cuz I believe in time it will be less. HA is just the first two letters of a word he lives. Where is RAL??
^Nailed^It.^
And Mike the drama queen weighs in with his worn out raft of bull$hit.
“I’m so happy I didn’t listen to all the negativity here.”
Sorry, I had truly though you were being sarcastic. If you got 3.6% and the house didn’t cost more than 3x your steady, secure income and you’re actually going to live there for many years, it sounds like a great deal. All evidence does point to falling prices down the line, but if all the above is true and you like your house, then it really doesn’t matter!
That’s all you got? HA!
Went rafting yesterday with my nephew visiting from France.
He would have drowned had I a worn out raft made of bull$hit.
I sold a house for more than I paid for it.
It happens. Noone can ever bank on appreciation but it happens.
You didn’t sell at a profit,
you didn’t raft,
you got no niece….
You’re a fraud and a drama queen.
You a “not” bot?
I did too raft with my French nephew yesterday. His name is Julien.
When my sister got remarried a Frenchman I inherited several French nephews.
Fun part yesterday was rafting right to the back of our store on the river.
Rode my bike back to truck (1999 Ram 2500, same veggie hauler I used to load with veggies and now I do it again, with its teensy weensie sipper Cummins diesel). Mechanic told me I may roll to half a million miles with it, so I have minimal complaints.
Ral bot says “You did not and you lost money on your house too”
You can have my raft though as you must be “up debt creek without a paddle” or maybe you just don’t have them oars in the water; not sure which. HA!
green shoots ?
Is “assisted growth” somehow worse than “genuine growth”? What’s the difference and why does it matter? For instance, we could pay people to dig holes and fill them back in, and they would still stimulate the economy with consumption expenditures.
Bulletin Initial claims for unemployment benefits hit five-year low »
Investor Alert
Aug. 1, 2013, 9:02 a.m. EDT
El-Erian: Fed is punting; bonds safer than stocks
By Ben Eisen
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The policy statement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday is “punting” on the wind-down of the central bank’s bond-purchase program, said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of asset-manager Pimco, on CNBC Thursday. “It encourages the notion that we may get this handoff from assisted growth to genuine growth,” El-Erian said. Despite a probable scale-back of the bond-purchase program later this year, the Fed’s short-term interest rates are likely to remain low, making short- and intermediate-term bonds look attractive, he said. However, equities have priced in a lot of positive news that is not fully supported by fundamentals, creating more worries for stocks. These comments parallel a CNN Money commentary El-Erian wrote on Wednesday.
‘if a plague of misdeeds, foul-ups and coverups like these were tied to a republican president and his administration, the liberal media would be in outraged, feeding-frenzy mode. recall how the washington post went all in on watergate to bring down richard nixon. but given their fealty to obama (personally) and his leftist agenda (ideologically), they have a remarkably short attention span these days and an awfully high threshold for wrongdoing.
the credibility of the liberal media as objective journalists and watchdogs of government is now zilch. they should be ashamed.’
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_23769999/obama-crises-certainly-not-phony
Thay are all phony scandals because Obama is phony. End of story.
The latest Snowden leaks leads me to believe all of the influential reporters in the US have been compromised.
That’s why Glenn Greenwald lives in Rio and is free to write what he wants.
greenwald on dc media:
‘they are far more servants to political power than adversarial watchdogs over it, and what provokes their rage most is not corruption on the part of those in power but rather those who expose that corruption, especially when the ones bringing transparency are outside of, even hostile to, their incestuous media circles’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/24/greenwald-beltway-media-types-are-courtiers-to-power/
It’s one big fuc*in’ club, and you ain’t in it.
Exactly.
If you think the media is liberal, you don’t understand the meaning of the word. The media is as pro status-quo as you can get - the very definition of conservative. This applies whether the commander in chief has a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ after their name.
Wake up already and realized you’ve been charmed by a two headed snake.
s/realize/realized
Exactly, BR.
I laugh when I hear about “liberal media.”
Since when are big corporations “liberal”?
They do however, have their own agenda, and that is to CREATE news and controversy. They are the biggest chit stirrers history has ever seen.
If Fed chair were an elected position, would you vote for Yellen, Summers or another candidate?
A man is best for the Fed chairman’s job. Their brains are better adept at scientific reasoning.
Despite flaws, Summers is the best candidate for Fed chair
By Nicholas Wapshott
July 30, 2013
The two-horse race to replace Ben Bernanke as the Fed chairman appears to have come down to gender. In a letter to the president, about a third of Senate Democrats have made clear they would like Bernanke’s deputy Janet Yellen to replace him, primarily — though they do not openly say it — because she is a woman.
The White House, it seems, would prefer Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary who was also director of Barack Obama’s National Economic Council. Summers is a distinguished economist, a former chief economist of the World Bank and briefly, until he was subsumed by controversy, president of Harvard University. (Summers writes a monthly column for Reuters.)
It is true there are not enough women in top positions. It is true, too, that Janet Yellen is a distinguished economist with considerable reserve bank experience. But her gender should not in itself be enough qualification for her to be awarded with one of the most important jobs in the nation.
The Fed chairmanship has always been a powerful position, but when there is gridlock in government thanks to the Republican majority in the House deciding to pass no new measures whatever — Speaker Boehner defines his job as repealer-in-chief, not legislator-in-chief — the Federal Reserve is the sole provider of economic policy. For that pivotal post we need the best person for the job.
…
“…and briefly, until he was subsumed by controversy, president of Harvard University.”
Does anyone know the details of this story?
Summers was seen as heavy-handed and also made a few remarks while he was Pres of Harvard re: “we might have to admit at some point that the research seems to show that less women are studying the sciences because there really are gender differences”. (that’s a paraphrase)
He is also an aspie and somewhat of a blowhard. He alienated some key administrators and H ended up kicking him to the curb in favor of Faust. I think Faust is the first Pres of H that doesn’t have an H degree (she went to Bryn Mawr and Univ of Pennsylvania).
when was the last time you saw a woman repair electronic equipment?
Ever see a TV repairwoman? Any Women at the Geek squad? Only in a Broadcast TV station…and only a very few….
Damn NYdj, your right. Women are useless when it comes to doing things outside of the laundry or kitchen.
when was the last time you saw a woman repair electronic equipment?
At my former place of residence. Among other things, my landlady set up, ran, and repaired computer networks.
Except that DJ’s woman is the one who works to pay for his rent and to put food on his table, since he’s been cheated out of jobs by air headed chickypoos!
Sounds like dj has it good. I am tired of working and caring for myself my entire life. I think I might like to try out one of these positions as deadbeat boyfriend who stays home all day. Only I’m kind of choosy, so I am looking for the wealthy professional lady to take me under her wing. Someone like Polly sounds good (but private sector where the real money is at). I will just liquidate everything I own, give her the hundred grand or so, and it’s “honey I’m yours, good luck.”
I’m going to read this one as a compliment, so thank you very much (but no thank you).
All silliness aside, I’d not do well sitting at home. I need to be out earning money to be happy. Sometimes, though, the thought of never having to do anything again sounds delightful.
Then there was the $1.8 Billion of Harvard’s endowment Summers lost through mal-investment. Moral of the story: Never get on the wrong side of Cornell West.
Both Yellen and Summers would pursue the same policies, although Summers would be more arrogant and condescending in the process. The introduction of gender into this discussion is a distraction meant to keep the left from raising serious questions about the role of the Federal Reserve.
The introduction of gender into this discussion is a distraction meant to keep the left from raising serious questions about the role of the Federal Reserve.
Do you expect anything else from the flim-flam administration?
A man is best for the Fed chairman’s job. Their brains are better adept at scientific reasoning.
The federal reserve is an immoral make belief system…so don’t you think women are the natural candidates?
I think my former stepmother should run the Fed™ on that basis:
Can spend non-existent monies like there’s no tomrrow -check
Can have zero accountability - check
Can shower her close friends with the above benefits an nobody else - check
Can spend unfathomable amounts of money they don’t actually have and end up with absolutely nothing to show for it? - check
Yep, I think she’d be perfect for the job.
And as a totally awesome extra added bonus: She was a RealTOR.
basically you need someone who can print a lot of cash and buy a lot of treasuries.
Ooh, ooh! Pick me! I can do that!
How much does the job pay?
Can you talk for hours and not say anything?
Do you belong to the tribe?
Do you have a PHD from an Ivy league school?
“Can you talk for hours and not say anything?”
How hard can it be?
“Do you belong to the tribe?”
Uh, nope.
“Do you have a PHD from an Ivy league school?”
I’m not getting the job, am I?
I’m not getting the job, am I?
We will let you know. Don’t call us, we will call you.
“basically you need someone who can print a lot of cash and buy a lot of treasuries.”
Isn’t there a gentile available who can do this?
crickets
Abraham Foxman and Morris Dees are listening, and they have added your name to the “list”.
5..4..3..2..1…
Abe Foxman, where are you?
“Abraham Foxman and Morris Dees are listening…”
I’m rather confident that these financial parasites are using PRISM against their host benefactors; no surprise here. My point is that these folks are such a small minority cohort, but they represent 100% of our available choices. Where are they hiding the empty pea-pods?
Obama defends Summers to congressional Democrats, says he’s not close to Fed chair decision
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Ylan Q. Mui, Published: July 31 E-mail the writers
Lawrence Summers has shaped economic policy for two Democratic presidents, presiding over an unparalleled run of success during the Clinton administration and helping to pull the economy back from the brink during President Obama’s tenure.
But as the White House considers nominating him to head the Federal Reserve, Summers is facing the greatest resistance from an unlikely source — his own political party.
With the grumbling against Summers growing, Obama on Wednesday mounted an extraordinary defense of his friend and old adviser in the halls of Congress. He told Democrats that Summers deserved credit for helping restore the economy and expressed frustration with the campaign against him. Many Democrats have endorsed Summers’s rival, Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, to lead the central bank.
…
has shaped economic policy for two Democratic presidents, presiding over an unparalleled run of success during the Clinton administration and helping to pull the economy back from the brink during
Do they really belive this kind of nonsense?
oxide does.
“oxide does”
So do many other donkeys.
Why?
Because they believe in the system to the extent of their faith that the system will save them.
Heres a bulletin. The system will crush you like it’s crushing others. Alone, you will be crushed.
Nothing a BK won’t fix.
Yeah because going bankrupt and living out of suitcases in a motel room is a height everyone seeks to reach.
Aw’ c’mon. I know people who BK’d, and they aren’t living like that at all.
Actually no. Oxide does not endorse Larry Summers. Leaving aside his regulatory stance, which sucks, Summers is a PR disaster.
I think people are starting to catch on that the real reason for Clinton’s success was the productivity and job boost which came from the increase in computer speed which allowed for fast typing and data manipulation, along with commercialization of the Internet. Any President would have done well in that environment. The R’s, thinking that happy days of increased financial margin were here to stay, convinced Clinton (and Bush II) to remove some of the safety net and safeguards and lower taxes.* We saw the end result in 2008.
If it’s any consolation, DailyKos (the lib website) is also against Larry Summers. Personally I think we could use some totally new blood in these positions instead of the usual round robin of advisers. And who would this new blood be? I don’t know. If it’s a name that a layperson like me would recognize, then by definition it’s not new blood.
—————-
*It was at this point — if not before — that the US departed from Keynesian economics. We don’t know if Keynes would work, because we’ve never tried it on a macro level.
Keynes is only mentioned by people who want to spend money that they do not have.
You mean debt junkies?
That was a fascinating analysis, oxide. Had never considered it in that light, but it certainly makes sense. It was pretty obvious to me that Bush 2 was going to inherit a financial sheetstorm, but more from the tech bubble, rather than the proliferation of computerized manipulation of the economy.
Thanks for this.
“With the grumbling against Summers growing, Obama on Wednesday mounted an extraordinary defense of his friend and old adviser in the halls of Congress.”
Isn’t this cronyism, “his friend and old adviser?”
Alan Blinder.
I’d vote for Sheila Bair.
Me too. Her ancestors and my ancestors are both from Kansas. And she writes childrens books to arm kids with financial knowledge before Megabank, Inc has a first chance to fleece them.
‘american homes 4 rent, based in agoura hills, california, sold 44.1 million shares for 16 each, according to data compiled by bloomberg
the company, with almost 18,000 properties, is the second-largest in the u.s. homes-for-rent market, after blackstone group lp, and is going public at a time when investors are cooling on the fledgling industry. american homes 4 rent raised almost 44 percent less than the 1.25 billion amount estimated in an initial prospectus by the company in june.’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/american-homes-4-rent-raises-705-9-million-in-u-s-ipo.html
$16/share was at the low end of the IPO estimate.
based in agoura hills, california’
right down the street why doesn’t this suprise me
This house was just reduced by $10,000. Any sucker that had bought this 1 week ago would have instantly lost $10,000 in “equity”.
http://www.trulia.com/property/3124103382-2506-Treymore-Dr-Orlando-FL-32825
This house was just reduced by $10,000. Any sucker that had bought this 15 days ago would have instantly lost $10,000 in “equity”.
http://www.trulia.com/property/42749541-14050-Deep-Lake-Dr-Orlando-FL-32826
This house was just reduced by $14,500. Any sucker that had bought this 1 week ago would have instantly lost $14,500 in “equity”.
http://www.trulia.com/property/3122812023-1701-Winding-Oaks-Dr-Orlando-FL-32825
This house was just reduced by $10,000. Any sucker that had bought this 3 weeks ago would have instantly lost $10,000 in “equity”.
http://www.trulia.com/property/1046172529-1013-Marisol-Ct-Orlando-FL-32828
In each of these cases, roughly the first 14 months worth of “equity” would have instantly evaporated in light of those price decreases, all of which happened within the last 3 weeks. On the other hand, the buyer would still have flushed the interest, HOA fees, taxes and maintenance costs down the toilet for that same 14 months. Awesome proposition, huh? And commonplace price reductions like this are in the middle of a ‘housing feeding frenzy’? Buy now or be priced out forever? I think not. Toss me the bong, Amanda- I think you’ve had enough.
When my Arvada based coworker told me that would be buyers sent her “love letters” I told her that was a classic sign that we are in a housing bubble. All I got from her was a blank stare. I had to explain to her what a bubble was and what housing price fundamentals are. She had never heard of the 3X rule and like so many others she simply assumed that housing is supposed to be unaffordable. She had no problem with the fact that her modest house sold for 6X of the median Denver metro HH income and she firmly believes that the prices are sound and sustainable and is expecting more appreciation from her next house.
what a looser. she belongs in highlands ranch with all the other real housewives of orange county wannabes.
She’s actually a nice person and in many ways isn’t image conscious (she drives a 10 year old Camry).
“Nice” people don’t move to Highlands Ranch.
Friends don’t let friends move to Highlands Ranch.
Did she make the new buyers promise to take care of the squirrels?
Don’t know much about denver suburbs. Visited denver a couple of times (mostly downtown) and liked it.
So, Arvada is crap and Highland Ranch is posh?
arvada is not crap, just older housing stock. highlands ranch was built up in the 1990’s-2000’s mostly by california equity locusts who recreated orange county in south metro denver (not to be confused with the bedwetter libtard california equity locusts who drove up boulder house prices). the real money is in cherry hills village.
Highlands Ranch sounds like White Marsh and Bel Air in Baltimore area. Bill in LA used to live in WhiteMarsh before taking his contractor bootstraps to LA. White Marsh is not the “real money”, it was people in the 90s and 00s deciding that they would leave their established inner-ring suburbs and take on big mortgages to live in “luxury” (LOL) McMansions. The real money is in places like Pikesville or Roland Park. It never moved, it was never trying to be something it wasn’t. And Pikesville people don’t spend all their money on their house.
if you oppose the actions of chicago jesus, you are a racist:
‘the core group of republicans who are pushing the house toward a showdown with the white house over the debt ceiling and government spending is made up of 41 members — all white men except for two.
more than half are from southern states, their average re-election vote was 65 percent and most have served for fewer than five years in the house.’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/house-republicans-set-to-defy-obama-mostly-white-men.html
I welcome the shutdown.
The empire that hands contracts to Taliban and Al-Qaeda while pretending to fight against them MUST go down.
Grant to Caesar what is Caesars……. and out the back door, work against it.
“Grant to Caesar what is Caesars……. and out the back door, work against it.”
HA, that is truly awesome. Thanks for reminding me.
only southern white guys understand that massive deficits will eventually lead to ruin and bankruptcy?
or that some politicians only care about the SHORT term votes of the free sh*t army…
How can it lead to bankruptcy when you can simply print more money?
Ask Zimbabwe how that worked out…
Is a federal government shutdown back on the table?
Pelosi: Americans would lose in government shutdown
July 31 2013 1:53 PM EDT — After meeting with President Obama Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi said the American people would lose if the government shut down. (CBS News)
Americans = Pelosi and her cronies
‘the recovery in las vegas — much like the one lifting the nation — is shaping up as fragile and tentative, stirring concern among economists and many of the region’s biggest boosters. and it is signaling what appears to be a fundamental reordering of the economy in this closely watched part of the country.
more than 39.7 million visitors came here in 2012, a record. but those visitors spent notably less money per trip than during the last upturn — $1,021 per visit last year, compared with $1,318 spent by each of the 39.2 million visitors in 2007′
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/us/as-las-vegas-recovers-new-cause-for-concern.html?pagewanted=all
more than 39.7 million visitors came here in 2012, a record. but those visitors spent notably less money per trip than during the last upturn
I suspect that the same is true with new car sales. People are finally throwing in the towel and getting a new car, but from what I’m seeing they are buying smaller and cheaper cars than they would have in the past. More compact sedans and hatchbacks and fewer SUVs. Though if the bubble hangs in there for a few years we might see the house ATM make a comeback and the new Escalades could reappear on driveways.
Interesting theory. So if we start seeing Escalades or Expeditions or Hummers again, time to sell the house, get the cash, and rent for a while?
I think gas prices are driving the move towards smaller, cheaper cars.
Even my neighbor drives a small Mazda to work every day and lets his Dodge 2500 with ginormous Cummins diesel engine sit in the driveway.
Ginormous heh? Lmao
The Cummins is the smallest diesel of the 3.
Nothing says “stupid” like an Escalade.
almost…on the west coast that is trumped by an Escalade w/ “rims” and various expressions of allegiance to the Oakland Raiders…a stock Escalade almost looks highbrow in these parts ;-)_
Surprisingly good political test that measures your inputs and gives a non R/D label.
Try it out and post your results!
http://www.politicaltest.net/
‘liberal patriot’, whatever that is. our highest score in any category was 69 percent for secular vs. fundamentalist.
liberal patriot = a white lefty who’s also a racist
my highest score was secular, followed by anarchistic.
secular anarchist = authoritarian lefty who slaves for the 1%ers but pretends he’s better than the rest. Racis if white and pompous in general.
wtf? my next highest score was capitalistic.
i also don’t see how you go from anarchism to authoritarian. i’m basically the opposite of authoritarian.
the label the quiz assigned to me was “nationalist liberal”.
with the exception of “globalism is always good” all my answers on economics were pro-free markets, against gov’t owning things, and against gov’t controlling things. (my answer on the globalism is always good question was disagree slightly, bc clearly the details matter, it’s not an unequivocal good thing.)
Lib…. Go here—–> dailykos.com
Lib = authoritarian lefty (also racis if white)
apparently I’m liberal cosmopolitan, which tells me I’m probably gay. I’ll confess to my wife tonight.
“apparently I’m liberal cosmopolitan,”
You don’t have a Pony collection or anything like that, do ya?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/bs-ae-brony-culture-20130730,0,4181814.story
(excerpt)
it uses the word liberal in the traditional sense, something to keep in mind.
i think i’m a classical liberal. but this quiz called me a national liberal, which is different from cosmopolitan liberal bc of the immigration issues.
a patriotic and authoritarian Socialist
Second round: (using more neutral answers)
a bourgeois patriot
Funny thing though, each time the results states that over 70% of participants were more extreme than I.
Now THAT’S scary!
Patriotic social democrat.
Realtors don’t lie, they mislead.
Republican report concludes Holder misled Congress on reporter targeting
Published July 31, 2013 / FoxNews.com
House Republicans, in a lengthy report on the Justice Department’s leak investigations, formally accused Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress with “deceptive” testimony that he knew nothing of the “potential prosecution” of the press.
The 70-page report was released late Wednesday by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. To coincide with the release, lawmakers also wrote a letter to President Obama calling for a “change in leadership” at the Justice Department.
“The deceptive and misleading testimony of Attorney General Holder is unfortunately just the most recent example in a long list of scandals that have plagued the department,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement.
The report delved into the department’s aggressive investigations over various security leaks, but focused in large part on the FBI affidavit seeking a search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s emails in connection with one such probe. The DOJ sought access to the documents by arguing Rosen was a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case, citing the Espionage Act.
Yet on May 15, shortly before the document was made public, Holder told the House Judiciary Committee that he hadn’t heard of any effort to prosecute reporters.
“With regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I have ever been involved, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy,” Holder said. He discussed the issue amid concerns about the DOJ grabbing phone records from Associated Press offices.
The newly released House report concluded that this comment was “deceptive and misleading.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/31/republican-report-concludes-holder-misled-congress-on-reporter-targeting/ - -
Being less untruthfull to Congress seems to be what everybody is doing these days.
Plausible deniability is Politics 101 these days
IRS Chief Counsel’s Role in Tea Party Targeting Under Scrutiny
by Michael Patrick Leahy 24 Jul 2013
The ongoing scandal involving Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status took a step closer to the White House last week when testimony from retiring IRS tax law specialist Carter Hull before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee pointed investigators directly to the agency’s Office of Chief Counsel.
Though Hull did not specifically name IRS Chief Counsel William J. Wilkins as the person who ordered him to send Tea Party group applications to his office “for further review,” Hull’s testimony brought the Obama political appointee to the forefront in the ever expanding scandal.
On July 18, Hull testified that in March 2011 Judy Kindell, a senior technical advisor to Lois Lerner, then the head of the IRS tax exempt division, “told me to forward my recommendations [concerning the approval of Tea Party group applications for tax exempt status] to the Office of Chief Counsel for their review.”
Hull was asked if Ms. Kindell agreed with his earlier recommendations that the IRS had sufficient information at that time to make a determination on the Tea Party groups applications for tax-exempt status.
“She did not say whether she agreed or not. She said it should go to chief counsel,” Hull told the committee.
On Tuesday the connection between Wilkins and the White House was strengthened when several media outlets reported that Wilkins met with the President at the White House on April 23, 2012, just two days before the IRS issued a revised set of BOLO (”Be on the lookout”) instructions to IRS agents reviewing tax-exempt applications that appear to target Tea Party groups for more stringent review standards.
Also on Tuesday, True the Vote, a Tea Party group that focuses on preventing voter fraud and was one of the groups subjected to IRS targeting, announced that it is suing Mr. Wilkins, adding him to the list of defendants in the lawsuit it filed against the IRS in May of this year.
Wilkins, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, has been a partner with Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Door (also known as WilmerHale), the prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, since 1988. According to Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Wilkins has donated generously to political candidates over the years, most of them affiliated with the Democratic Party. In 2008 he represented Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s Chicago church, the one which President Obama attended for twenty years, on a pro bono basis before the IRS. President Obama named him Chief Counsel at the IRS in April, 2009.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/24/IRS-Chief-Counsel-s-Role-in-Tea-Party-Targeting-Under-Scrutiny - 62k -
All of them should be reviewed.
Why are we letting some skate thru?
BOLO
XKeyscore
From the dailybeast
Islamic authorities sentenced a Liberal journalist to 600 lashes and seven years in prison, after he questioned the role of religion. David Keyes reports on the latest outrage in the Kingdom.
In June, seven men were convicted and sentenced to prison terms up to ten years for writing posts on Facebook about political protests.
Also in June, two prominent women’s rights activists, Wajeha al Huweidar and Fawzia Al-Oyouni, were convicted and sentenced to a ten-month prison term on charges of inciting separation between a husband and a wife. Reportedly, they had tried to help a Quebec woman escape her abusive husband and bring her to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh. In fact, the Saudi government had been consistently harassing these women and used these trumped up charges to finally silence them.
And the list goes on.
The 23-year-old poet and writer Hamza Kashgari, who was accused of insulting the prophet Muhammed after he tweeted three short messages on twitter describing an imagined meeting with the prophet, has spent almost a year and a half in prison, and his fate is still uncertain.
Khaled al Johani, a teacher in Riyadh, was thrown in prison in 2011 after he gave an interview to the BBC, calling for democracy in Saudi Arabia. He was released last year.0
if the Saudi king was really interested in dialogue and respect, he might have started in his own theocratic, gender-apartheid dictatship. Why did he need to fund a $20 million a year center in Austria when his own country bans Christians from importing Bibles and building houses of worship?
He didn’t even mention the flow of money to al Queda and funding of religious madrassas in Pakistan or financially supporting Pakistans nuclear program.
Chevy Volt 25k after tax break, Nissan Leaf 21-22k
Not having to purchase gas for 4 months priceless.
Not having to purchase gas for 4 months priceless.
priceless?
I fill up (maybe) twice a month. $50 a fill-up.
Price for not having to purchase gas for 4 months = $400.
Or about 1/2 the average monthly property tax for an average New Jersey homeowner…
Hush, those are our allies you are talking about.
Next you will be reminding people that 18 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 where from Saudi.
and all were young men from the middle class who all belonged to the religion of peace and tolerance…
But we ignore that as the TSA does full body cavity searches in 90 year grandmas from Alabama…
Domestic terrorism is the new hotness. Seems 12 years of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Idontgiveafuckistan was too expensive. As we scale back our foreign adventures, the collection of three-letter agencies is turning all it’s resources on monitoring the domestic US population. Not like we don’t have a document that protects an individual’s right to free-speech, search and siezure, etc.
Here are a few metatag keywords for you NSA… just make sure you don’t shoot my dog when your jack-booted thugs no-knock raid my house…
meta name = “keywords” content=”pressure cooker”, “backpack”, “bomb”, “jihad”, “plot”, “plan”
Weren’t the Boston bombing brothers from Chechens?
So was Dubya’s good friend, Shiek Kissyface.
keith is back over at housingpanic.com.
is cash trash?
link?
i’ve tried posting the link but it has not come trough…you could try googling housingpanic blog dot com
House panel probing whether IRS-FEC ‘inappropriately’ shared confidential tax information
Published July 31, 2013 / FoxNews.com
A House committee is asking the IRS to turn over emails between the agency and the Federal Election Commission after discovering a series of 2009 inter-agency exchanges in which embattled IRS official Lois Lerner might have inappropriately shared confidential tax information.
The exchanges are related to the conservative groups American Future Fund and American Issues Project and were discovered during investigations into the IRS excessively targeting Tea Party groups and other politically-oriented organizations applying for tax-exempt status, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The committee requested the information in a letter sent Wednesday to acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.
“The American public is entitled to know whether the IRS is inappropriately sharing their confidential tax information,” wrote committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. “During the course of the committee’s investigation of political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service, the committee identified electronic mail between a high-ranking official at the IRS and the Federal Elections Commission that brings into question whether the IRS has inappropriately shared confidential tax information with the FEC.”
Camp is asking for IRS-FEC email exchanges from 2008 to 2012 and set an August 14 deadline.
Lerner is the director of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Division who has declined to talk with congressional investigator and was put on paid administrative leave.
Copies of the six exchanges show Lerner’s name several times as the sender and receiver. And in the first email, the sender is identified as an attorney in the FEC’s enforcement division although the person’s name is redacted.
In the exchanges, the attorney acknowledges he cannot ask for information about tax-exempt applications, but asks whether American Future Fund and American Issues Project had received exempt status.
Lerner replies in a Feb. 3, 2009 email: “What can we do to help here.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/31/house-panel-probing-irs-fec-possibly-sharing-email-about-tax-exempt-statutes/?test=latestnews - -
Tax-exempt status is public information. Has been for decades.
http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Exempt-Organizations-Select-Check
I have said it before and I’ll stick by my prediction that Obama will go down as one of the top 5 presidents of all time. Even though the average American’s standard of living will continue to decline for at least another decade the people who write the history books will enshrine Obama as the savior of Capitalism. The stock market has doubled in record time, housing prices will be higher than the peak of the Bush years by the time he leaves office, US oil/gas production would soar and he finished our wars in the middle east. If someone had told me that in 2008 I would have laughed at them but here we are.
If you’re not better off now than in 2008 it means you’re just dumb or unlucky.
the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades!
Even Dick Cheney had nice things to say about Obama on FoxNews a couple of months ago.
If you’re not better off now than in 2008 it means you’re just dumb or unlucky.
Things weren’t that bad in 2007 either. Please spare us with your wishful thinking.
I must grudgingly agree with you Blue. But not for the reason I’d have liked…
If you’re not better off now than in 2008 it means you’re just dumb or unlucky.
And if think anyone is fooled by this anchoring tactic, you’re the only fool here.
Listing #13009300
$499,500 (LP)
Price/SqFt: 342.12
4331 Mill Valley Rd, Moorpark, CA 93021 Active
Beds: 3* Baths: 2 (2 0 0 0) (FTHQ) Sq Ft: 1460* Lot Sz: 5663sqft*
Area: SMP Yr: 1981
2006 almost there …
……..Making the inevitable correction back to early 1990s prices even more painful.
I know we’ve been talking about this subject for years, but I just experienced it first-hand.
Been advertising my web design/redesign services locally, and got a call from a real estate agent/broker. Specializing in condo sales (a peak bubble indicator if there ever was one).
The peak bubble thing didn’t jump out at me as much as how DUMB she sounded on the phone. We’re talking box of rocks DUMB here.
She asked if I was familiar with all the rules and regs regarding what a real estate person can/cannot say in advertising. In all honesty, I don’t. Furthermore, isn’t she required to know such things?
Long story short: We aren’t doing biz together. And I can’t help thinking that I dodged a bullet.
Oops! I meant to say:
In all honesty, I’m not.
Slim wahhhh you could have dressed her up in a bunny suit and the headline:
Let’s bunny hop into your NEW HOME!!!!!
Dumb person with money? Sounds like you dodged an opportunity there.
@AmazingRuss: She didn’t sound like she had a lot of money. And I know from past experience that real estate people want the greatest marketing materials on the planet. But they’ll nickel and dime you to death on your fee.
>But they’ll nickel and dime you to death on your fee.
Yep. Just like a lot of mom and pop and small business owners.
Every one of them penny wise and pound foolish.
>Long story short: We aren’t doing biz together. And I can’t help thinking that I dodged a bullet.
You did. I had more or less the same experience several years ago but managed to take their money before they got too weird.
I will NOT do business with realtors ever again.
New Snowden leak: NSA program taps all you do online
By Amanda Wills,
updated 6:37 AM EDT, Thu August 1, 2013 |
(CNN) — You’ve never heard of XKeyscore, but it definitely knows you. The National Security Agency’s top-secret program essentially makes available everything you’ve ever done on the Internet — browsing history, searches, content of your emails, online chats, even your metadata — all at the tap of the keyboard.
The Guardian exposed the program on Wednesday in a follow-up piece to its groundbreaking report on the NSA’s surveillance practices. Shortly after publication, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former Booz Allen Hamilton employee who worked for the NSA for four years, came forward as the source.
This latest revelation comes from XKeyscore training materials, which Snowden also provided to The Guardian. The NSA sums up the program best: XKeyscore is its “widest reaching” system for developing intelligence from the Internet.
The program gives analysts the ability to search through the entire database of your information without any prior authorization — no warrant, no court clearance, no signature on a dotted line. An analyst must simply complete a simple onscreen form, and seconds later, your online history is no longer private. The agency claims that XKeyscore covers “nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet.”
As The Guardian points out, this program crystallizes one of Snowden’s most infamous admissions from his video interview on June 10:
“I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email.”
While United States officials denied this claim, the XKeyscore program, as the public understands it, proves Snowden’s point. The law requires the NSA to obtain FISA warrants on U.S. citizens, but this is pushed aside for Americans with foreign targets — and this program gives the NSA the technology to do so. The training materials claim XKeyscore assisted in capturing 300 terrorists by 2008.
The Guardian article breaks down how the program works with each activity, from email monitoring to chats and browsing history, and includes screenshots from the training materials.
The Guardian reached out to the NSA for comment prior to publication. The agency defended the program, stressing that it was only used to legally obtain information about “legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests.”
“XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA’s lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system,” the agency said in its response. “Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA’s analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … .
“In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring. Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law. These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully — to defend the nation and to protect U.S. and allied troops abroad.”
XKeyscore is the second black mark on the NSA’s record in the past few weeks. The Guardian’s first story uncovered PRISM, a highly controversial surveillance program that reportedly allows the security agency to access the servers of major Internet organizations including Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, YouTube and Skype, among others.
Snowden’s information led to a public outcry for transparency, and the U.S. government pushed to declassify more information about PRISM in an effort to paint a clearer picture about the program.
Snowden has been charged with espionage. He is currently holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport while his request for asylum is under review by Russian immigration authorities, according to Snowden’s lawyer.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/31/tech/web/snowden-leak-xkeyscore/index.html -
I can’t wait until they get to the part about the NSA recording and storing every cell phone call in the country (but not listening to them hahahahahahahah).
No doubt.
At this point I’m guessing they have everything connected, too.
Here’s Skroodle using his credit card at the gas station, two minutes later he took a cell call on the interstate…
It’s, uh, disturbing to say the least. And if Snowden is the real deal, then yes he is a freaking hero.
This whole “Yellen or Summers” thing is a bit like our political system. The PTB make choices suitable to them, then present them to us and we’re supposed to choose from their vetted choices.
Instead of price discovery, you get price “recovery”.
psssssst…… hint: this isn’t going to end well for those in debt and without cash.
your full of beans again.
And it will be especially painful for you.
I didn’t get a chance to respond to the post yesterday about Yellen
counterfeitingprinting as rampantly as Bernanke:Comment by phony scandals
2013-07-31 17:39:46
“I don’t see any way for them to stop printing.”
It’s better this way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsgnG-TNXPk - 128k -
I see your Thelma and Louise financial cliff and raise you one Robot Chicken:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TACHnX-UZBY
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130801/sutton-place/woman-plunges-death-from-sutton-place-luxury-condo-cops-say#slideshow_modal_slot_1
Energy East - 1.1 mbd and 11 billion to build, operational by 2017 = Jobs, lots of jobs.
Gateway - another 1 mbd will happen too once the foreign enviro backers lose.
These projects will energize all of Canada as cheaper crude can be taken from the line from sea to sea for local use / upgrading - something the Keystone could have done for middle USA.
Maybe more jobs will stop our housing price decline.
However, there is enough oil needing delivery methods so maybe in the future Keystone will be reconsidered.
What’s lost in these numbers is the fact that the US is now the #1 carbon producer in the world, literately billions of tons of fossil fuels are either consumed or exported every year.
EIA: U.S. May Oil Use -0.8% vs Year Earlier
Crude oil output rose 15.3% to 7.317 million barrels a day, but dipped 54,000 barrels a day from April. As domestic crude oil output has surged with increased use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal techniques to extract crude from shale deposits in North Dakota and elsewhere, crude oil imports continue to drop.
Crude imports in May fell 13.2% from a year earlier to an 18-year low of 7.737 million barrels a day for the month, EIA data show.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130730-710529.html
Coal fueled 37 percent of U.S. power generation in May, up from 34 percent a year ago, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data compiled by Bloomberg Industries. Natural gas made up 26 percent of power production in May, down from 32 percent a year ago.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/calpine-curbs-buybacks-as-leverage-increases-corporate-finance.html
Exxon misses earnings estimates:
Exxon says oil and gas production fell 1.9 percent in the quarter, while refining margins slipped and output fell because refineries were undergoing maintenance.
Separately, rival Royal Dutch Shell reported a 57 percent drop in second-quarter net profits as it suffered from attacks on its operations in Nigeria and it significantly wrote down the value of its shale oil fields in North America.
In addition, Europe’s largest oil company abandoned long-term targets to increase production to 3.7 million barrels a day by 2014 and 4 million per day by 2018. The company has been investing heavily in new production facilities since an accounting scandal forced it to write down its proven reserves in the early 2000s.
Production of oil and gas equivalents fell 1.3 percent from a year earlier to 3.06 million barrels per day.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100928297
Fun fact: Did you know you loose 25% of the energy of natural gas (already one of the lowest BTU equivalent fuels available) when you factor in the energy needed to compress and freeze it?
RAL, your thoughts on this house in DC?
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15-Dupont-Cir-Nw_Washington_DC_20036_M60022-88989?row=1#modal_PhotoGallery
Down Low Joe….. Where is ral these days?
Do you know of a small country looking for an embassy?
I’ve walked by this building dozens of times. Such buildings always have a plaque with an association name, or a national flag and an embassy name. But this place had no ID on it whatsoever. Once, and only once, a dozen years ago, did I ever see anyone enter it: two old white guys in serious suits. I immediately skipped up the steps and asked the doorman what the heck went on in there. The doorman answered that it was a “private club,” and said nothing else. To this day I don’t know what it used to be.
A small country probably couldn’t afford it.
“over 36k sf include ballroom”
(nudge nudge)
CIA Had “Dozens” of People On Ground During Benghazi Attack, Agency Making “Unprecedented Attempt” To Keep Details From Leaking Out…
August 1, 2013 5:42 pm
CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.
Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.
Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.
CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.
Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.
The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.
It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.
In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”
Another says, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”
“Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that,” said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.
In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.
“If somebody is being polygraphed every month, or every two months it’s called an issue polygraph, and that means that the polygraph division suspects something, or they’re looking for something, or they’re on a fishing expedition. But it’s absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly, or bi-monthly,” said Baer.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd asserted in a statement that the agency has been open with Congress.
“The CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi,” the statement said.
“CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want,” the statement continued. “The CIA enabled all officers involved in Benghazi the opportunity to meet with Congress. We are not aware of any CIA employee who has experienced retaliation, including any non-routine security procedures, or who has been prevented from sharing a concern with Congress about the Benghazi incident.”
Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.
A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.
While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.
The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
“I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it’s an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way,” said the Republican.
“We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn’t any national security issue involved with regards to that,” he said.
Wolf has repeatedly gone to the House floor, asking for a select committee to be set-up, a Watergate-style probe involving several intelligence committee investigators assigned to get to the bottom of the failures that took place in Benghazi, and find out just what the State Department and CIA were doing there.
More than 150 fellow Republican members of Congress have signed his request, and just this week eight Republicans sent a letter to the new head of the FBI, James Comey, asking that he brief Congress within 30 days.
Read: White House releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails
In the aftermath of the attack, Wolf said he was contacted by people closely tied with CIA operatives and contractors who wanted to talk.
Then suddenly, there was silence.
“Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you’re subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you’re forced to come before Congress. Now that’s all changed,” said Wolf.
Lawmakers also want to about know the weapons in Libya, and what happened to them.
Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.
It is clear that two U.S. agencies were operating in Benghazi, one was the State Department, and the other was the CIA.
The State Department told CNN in an e-mail that it was only helping the new Libyan government destroy weapons deemed “damaged, aged or too unsafe retain,” and that it was not involved in any transfer of weapons to other countries.
But the State Department also clearly told CNN, they “can’t speak for any other agencies.”
The CIA would not comment on whether it was involved in the transfer of any weapons.
Programming note: Was there a political cover up surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans? Watch a CNN special investigation — The Truth About Benghazi, Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.
Posted by Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston
Filed under: World Lead
http://weaselzippers.us/ - 116k -
Old news.
Comment by ahansen
2012-11-13 12:36:23
The cover-up, such as it was, is that the embassy apparently served as a clearing house for heavy weapons from Libya to support the American-backed (al Qaida) Syrian rebels. The CIA station was a mile-and-a-half away from the embassy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32997.htm
Yup, such as it was. Sunday talk shows, Osama Bin Laden is dead and al qaeda is on the run, it was a youtube video and we will bring to justice whoever made it to justice, what difference could it possibly make now but if someone who knows what happened talks about it….
In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”
‘Agency Making “Unprecedented Attempt” To Keep Details From Leaking Out…’
I have only one thing to say to anyone who leaks such details:
Dasvidaniya.
“In other words, they may be enemies of the United States, but that is not enough to keep them from getting government contracts,”
Reuters, 30/07 06:09 CET
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army has refused to bar 43 individuals or companies from getting U.S. contracts in Afghanistan despite information that they support the Taliban or other enemies of U.S. forces, a government watchdog said on Tuesday.
John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said he was concerned by the Army’s refusal to follow his office’s recommendations to prevent alleged supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda from getting or keeping U.S. government contracts.
“I am deeply troubled that the U.S. military can pursue, attack and even kill terrorists and their supporters, but that some in the U.S. government believe we cannot prevent these same people from receiving a government contract,” Sopko wrote in an introduction to his office’s quarterly report on the U.S. reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.
The Haqqani Network is an Islamist insurgent group that operates on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The report said SIGAR referred 43 contractors’ cases – most of them Afghans – to the U.S. Army for suspension or debarment, but all were rejected, “despite detailed supporting information demonstrating that these individuals and entities are providing material support to the insurgency in Afghanistan.”
“In other words, they may be enemies of the United States, but that is not enough to keep them from getting government contracts,” the quarterly report said.
http://www.euronews.com/newswires/2050694-us-army-wont-bar-contractors-linked-to-afghan-insurgents-watchdog/ - 60k
“In other words, they may be enemies of the United States, but that is not enough to keep them from getting government contracts,”
This is not aiding the enemy because…?!
WTF?!!!!!!!!!!
Yet people have a hard time getting jobs because of low credit scores.
Here is our government at work
Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, and Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, are working on the first rewrite of the tax code since 1986. Instead of revising the existing tax law, they’re taking what they call a “blank slate” approach. They proposed sweeping away the tax code’s thousands of loopholes, then asked their colleagues to submit written requests for the deductions they want put back in, assuring them that the requests would be kept private. The response: silence. Senators didn’t want word to leak that they’d supported special tax breaks.
It’s easy to see why. Many of the loopholes that have crept into the law—for oil companies, private equity managers, Hollywood—are hard to defend. There’s no way to pretend they help kids, or create jobs. They just go to people and corporations that donate money. So to get lawmakers to hand over their wish lists without fear of reprisals from voters, lobbyists, and other senators, the committee’s staff has come up with a novel way to let senators do their donors’ bidding in secret. In a July 19 memo obtained by Bloomberg BNA, the committee assured senators that their loophole requests will be locked up—physically locked up—for 50 years.
According to the memo, just two paper copies of the requests will be stored in safes on Capitol Hill. Two digital copies will get filed in password-protected computers. Only Baucus, Hatch, and 10 staff members will have access to the documents. Each copy will be given a unique ID number so it can be tracked. Eventually the papers—stamped “Committee Confidential”—will be secured at the National Archives in a special vault, separate from the committee’s other records, until Dec. 31, 2064.
Assured that their wish lists will be buried, more than 60 senators have now submitted tax proposals to Baucus and Hatch, according to Neary, who says committee staff has received more than 1,000 pages of secret suggestions.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/
senators-tax-loophole-requests-will-get-special-vault?campaign_id=yhoo