Bits Bucket for September 16, 2013
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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NeoCons = Progressives
Did anyone catch John Stossel last night? I did, and I was shocked. There was a guest, Thaddeus Russell (unsure of spelling) who did just that - he equated NeoCons with Progressives.
He explained the imperialist/statist nature and drive of both.
Good to see someone in the media (a guest at least) who also recognizes that NeoCons = Progressives.
It can be tough being ahead of the curve. Lots of people think you’ve a screw loose when, in fact, you don’t.
They aren’t ahead of the curve; they are trying to bend it. I’vexseen this neocon-progressive meme several times now; must be Rush’s new jollies phrase. It’s bs.
They are tied together because they are both elitist, intelligentsia, statist types not looking out for the working man.
And this ties the ideology how? I can say that a cow is a washboard — and repeat it over and over until the familiarity renders it benign — but that doesn’t make it remotely true.
Until I get some sort of plausible explanation for this gibberish, I’ll continue to brand its proponents, whether cynical or simply ignorant– as propagandists.
I’m pretty sure it’s a deliberate meme. Notice that they have abandoned the word “liberal.” They’ve picked up (finally) that they need to begin destroying the word “Progressive” before it catches on as something Roosevelt-esque and therefore good.
It ties the ideology of big government on both sides. Both sides say it’s for humanitarianism. Just like the “War on Poverty.” All Progressivism.
I guess you fools forget Ronald Reagan gushed repeatedly about FDR, one of the biggest progressives, and the social insecurity program too.
“And this ties the ideology how? I can say that a cow is a washboard — and repeat it over and over until the familiarity renders it benign — but that doesn’t make it remotely true.”
Simple memes for simple minds.
Ms. Hansen can do it easier and repeat the meme “Progressives are humanitarian…Progressives are humanitarian…”
oops - she does not have to repeat it. She drank that kool aid long ago.
I don’t care about the ideology. I care about the working man wh has been screwed over and over by both the big business types on the right and left and the racial hucksters and the free cheese for all crowd.
But I agree, destroying the term progressive is a worthy goal.
Rush would be a neocon in my book.
http://www.picpaste.com/images-NlEUw6LP.jpeg
Rush is lucky his uncle was in his local draft board.
Oxide,
Highmindedness only works for the highminded.
William Kristol, Donald Kagan, Paul Wolfowitz
Richard Pearle ???
Samantha Powers, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Obama, Bush, Cheney, Hillarious…and so on……
Then perhaps the argument should be Elitists=Globalists and leave the implied populist vs PTB ideology out of the equation?
Samantha Powers, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Obama, are no more “progressives” than I am a neocon. Even by the classic Bolshevik definition– which is where I assume this silly rhetoric originates.
amantha Powers, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Obama, are no more “progressives” than I am a neocon.
Who defines who’s who? If you ask them, they will say they are “progressives”.
That’s rather my point.
In what way is John Kerry a neoconservative??? Has he ever described him self in that way. William Kristol is the son of the founder of the movement. He’s on Fox news. See if there is any similarity. Does he support war. The last I read the neocon movement was all for Vietnam and Iraq?.
Please define what you mean by neoconservative.
What I’ve seen
Use military action to project American values
Socially conservative
How about Susan Rice ?
Samantha Powers sounds like a good fit from what I’ve read.
“William Kristol, Donald Kagan, Paul Wolfowitz
Richard Pearle ???”
+1 Rattle the saber, send theirs to college, yours to war. Scum!
Macbeth, I’ve been saying that all along. George W. Bush, John McCain, Jon Kyl are equivalent to Hillary Clinton and Obama.
Woodrow Wilson was one of the first war mongers. Democrat. “Make the world safe for Democracy” The same bunch plead that it’s a humanitarian crisis so we have to send in troops.
Forget it Macbeth. The fools don’t want to admit it.
Summers is out.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/business/larry-summers-withdrawal-letter/586/?hpid=z1
By the way, the objection to him was that he would be more likely to taper QE than the other possible candidates.
So the teleprompter lied at the g20 meeting.
All hail the teleprompter!
Summers is out.
My head is spinning reading this “Alice in Wonderland” quote.
“Conservatives who favor a good sound business administration wanted the quiet, liberal academic Yellen because she’s closely identified with easy-money policies that have served Wall Street well.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/15/summers-fed-bernanke-analysis/2817101/
Conservatives = Crony Capitalists
IMO, Yellen has had a lock on it from the start….Acceptable to the majority in congress because she is qualified and a women…
Yellen will not get it.
It will be a Goldman alumn….take it to the bank.
It will be tougher for her to get in now, since Summers is out of the picture as a foil.
Old gameplan: Tout Summers as the presumptive favorite, then fast-track Yellen to nomination when the favorite succumbs to political attack.
New gameplan: Yellen is now clearly the frontrunner and favorite, and hence the logical target of preemptive political attack from anyone who wants to make Obama’s life difficult.
Now what?
Get some popcorn?
Oops! They let it slip as to who really runs the fed.
Jim Kunstler on the recent Summers news:
Zing!
All hail Kunstler (with honorable mention to Russian blogger, Alexi Pushkov who tweeted that the shipyard shooting was “just another example of ‘American Exceptionalism’”).
William K. Black was strongly against Summers because of Summers’ stance against effective regulation of the financial sector.
Jared Bernstein Tries to Reimagines Larry Summers As a Foe of the Bank
Posted: 08/30/2013 12:22 pm
Huffington Post
The essential requisite of being an effective financial regulator is to minimize the perverse incentives that produce the criminogenic environments that drive epidemics of accounting control fraud. I write to show that Bernstein’s column presents no evidence that Summers has ever fought to install effective supervisors as regulatory leaders and to support them when they take on powerful financial interests. Worse, Bernstein simply ignores the evidence that Summers was a leader of the fraud-friendly attacks on effective supervisors.
In his January 27, 2008 article, Summers called for the opposite of stringent supervision - he favored gimmicking the accounting rules so the banks did not have to recognize their losses or establish adequate loss reserves.
Summers’ critics may often use the shorthand expression that Summers has served the interests of the “banks,” but if those critics are at all astute they really mean that Summers has served the interests of the banks’ CEOs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/jared-bernstein-larry-summers_b_3844076.html
no one can stop the inflation train.
“no one can stop the inflation train.”
First stop, the deflation station.
Summers is out.
+1 Great news for main street.
By the way, the objection to him was that he would be more likely to taper QE than the other possible candidates.
Likely dirty laundry that he didn’t want aired, IMHO.
What do you call paying $175,000 for a house and then selling it for and sold it for a buck?
——————————–
Newark residents say house owned by Cory Booker is in disrepair, filled with squatters
nj.com | September 15, 2013 | Michael Linhorst
NEWARK — On a block of Court Street in Newark between the Gigi Foushee Towers public-housing project and the abandoned, decaying Krueger-Scott Mansion is a boarded row house with a “NO LOITERING” sign above the door.
Until a few months ago, the building was owned by Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker — now in the home-stretch of a run for the U.S. Senate — who paid $175,000 for it in 2009.
Less than three weeks after Frank Lautenberg said he would retire from the U.S. Senate — formally opening up the race for his seat — Booker sold the property, one of two he purchased while mayor, for $1. The gift to Newark. Now, the nonprofit Booker founded in 2003, was “an opportunity to give back to Newark,” his campaign said on Friday.
To neighbors who’ve complained about the overgrown backyard and the squatters who live inside, the property stands as a marked contrast to Booker’s public image as an urban crusader, a politician building a national reputation by confronting inner-city blight.
“He bought it and promised to be a good neighbor, but that hasn’t occurred,” Robert El, who owns the row house attached to Booker’s, told The Record of Woodland Park. “Shortly after he bought it, the squatters started moving in.”
James Wigfall, who lives in the housing project around the corner, said the squatters are not a surprise when “you leave a building vacant long enough.” Asked what he thought of Booker as a neighbor, Wigfall laughed. “No comment,” he said.
States Have an Incentive to Promote (Not Stop) Disability Fraud; So How Much Fraud Is There?
Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis | September 11, 2013 | Mike “Mish” Shedlock
I suspect fraud is in the neighborhood of 25-50% (and higher would not surprise me one bit). The reason is that States Have an Incentive to Promote (Not Stop) Disability Fraud.
This all goes back to 1996 when president Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it”. He did indeed do just that, and fraud is the result.
Why?
The federal government pays disability, but states pay part of welfare costs. This creates a huge incentive for states to actively promote disability fraud (simply to get people off state-sponsored welfare programs).
Fraud escalated dramatically in the wake of the housing crash as jobs became scarce.
…
There’s a reason PCG goes to all this trouble. The company gets paid by the state every time it moves someone off of welfare and onto disability. In recent contract negotiations with Missouri, PCG asked for $2,300 per person. For Missouri, that’s a deal — every time someone goes on disability, it means Missouri no longer has to send them cash payments every month. For the nation as a whole, it means one more person added to the disability rolls.
…
I wrote about this aspect on August 20 in Why Work for $7.25 When Welfare Pays $15.00 in 12 States and $8.00 in 33 States? Is a Low Minimum Wage the Problem?
…
I guess 25-50% of disability claims are fraudulent, but higher would not surprise me in the least given back pain has soared from 8.3% to 33.8% and “mental illness” is at 19.2%. Combined, that is whopping 53% of disability claims!
So are you saying only the elites are allowed to game the system?
Much respect for every regular Joes’ hucksters & scammers…they have learnt from the best.
Thanks for excusing this behavior from both.
I see disability fraud all the time…Its Rampant….
Plenty of money y’all, plenty of money. Just keep spending and spending. We are all being looked after buy real smart guys with our best interest at heart. Just do what they say.
One of the commenters claims that SS now accepts claims from disabled military and that is helping drive the numbers up.
What a train wreck.
The useful idiots are learning a hard lesson. Which may be a good thing - long term.
What ever happened to “equal treatment under the law?”
——————————-
ObamaCare Subsidies: Not For Low-Income Young People
Investor’s Business Daily | 09/16/2013 | John Merline
Young people making as little as $20,394 won’t be eligible for any ObamaCare subsidies, thanks to the way that the subsidies are calculated, according to a study released on Monday.
The study also found that, overall, young people will get far less generous subsidies from ObamaCare than older people.
This finding could spell trouble for the success of ObamaCare health exchanges, which depend on young people buying insurance to keep the overall market stable.
wall street journal - a generation ‘lost’ in the job hunt:
‘the recovery has left many young people behind. the official unemployment rate for americans under age 25 was 15.6 percent in august, down from a peak of nearly 20 percent in 2010 but still more than 2-1/2 times the rate for those 25 and older — a gap that has widened during the recovery.
this generation’s struggles have few historical precedents, at least in the u.s. the recession of the early 1980s was comparable but followed by a rapid recovery. the economic legacy of the great depression was erased to a large degree by world war 2 and the boom that followed. no similar rebound looks likely this time around.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323893004579057063223739696.html
I was in the workforce in the 80’s. I didn’t think the “recovery” back then was all that. Better than this one? Sure, but that doesn’t say much.
los angeles times - amid slow economic recovery, more americans identify as ‘lower class’
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lower-class-20130916,0,5616335.story
1000 times better than now. Unemployment nowhere near as high. Nowhere near as many on disability, welfare, for stamps, etc. Not to mention home prices not astronomical and getting worse.
Plus as a bonus, fraud was not an accepted part of life for the majority of society.
+1…I agree…Add to that, the introduction of the 401k as your backstop in retirement, the raiding of SS, out of control health care cost…
Plus in the ’80s we were really getting going using new technology gadgets. It was the lightbulb or telephone or something. Plastics in the ’50s…transistors in the 60s…LCDs in the ’90s…I’ll think of it. Then we got into financing everything under the sun.
Hard to see the next updraft.
The job market in the early ’80s was FAR worse than this one….in the Industrial Midwest.
The early 80s was the period of destruction of the old heavy industry base of this country, which was heavily centerd in the Great Lakes region.
I graduated from a top MW Business school with an undergrad degree in Finance in ‘83. Absolutely no jobs to be had by anyone in my graduating class unless you went to Dallas or out West.
But as pointed out, the recovery that started in the mid-80s was relatively robust.
This economic downturn…. hardly noticable to most people in the Industrial Midwest.
Which includes Western NY.
“this generation’s struggles have few historical precedents,”
———————————————————————
Yes they do.
Post slavery, black people have ALWAYS had a difficult time achieving full time justly compensated employment.
I never understood the long term negative consequences of it until it started happening to white people because they had the LANGUAGE to describe it.
White descriptions of their experiences with long term unemployment are much more clinical because they use logic instead of emotion.
What you are saying isn’t logical.
Really? It rang true to me.
Carl,
I have been around the block a time or two, and my experience is that people of all walks of life and ancestral background are able to use their human brain and understandable logical language as much as any other, despite hardship and discrimination of all sorts.
“…this generation’s struggles have few historical precedents, at least in the u.s. the recession of the early 1980s was comparable but followed by a rapid recovery.”
I was one of the under-20 folks in the early 1980s facing a dismal job market. However, upon reflection, I worked every year of the decade, though mostly part-time in the background of going to school.
Bigger and bigger government and higher and higher taxes and more and more regulations will solve it…
———————————-
Employment gap between rich, poor widest on record
Associated Press | Sep 16, 2013 8:11 AM EDT | Hope Yen
The gap in employment rates between America’s highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press.
Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families—those earning less than $20,000—have topped 21 percent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s Great Depression. …
The findings follow the government’s tepid jobs report this month that showed a steep decline in the share of Americans working or looking for work. On Sunday, President Barack Obama stressed the need to address widening inequality, warning that proposed budget cuts will worsen the gap. …
Hope Yen?
She sounds like Abe’s monitory policy.
there seems to be a lot of confusion of when the tapering will occur. They make it sound like they will pull the punchbowl away all at once. what happens if they only pull like 10 billion a month away? But hey they still tapered.
I’m expecting a reverse tapering program, where they reduce QE by -$5 billion every six months or so. $100 billion per month by fall 2015! An actual reduction of $10 billion would see bond traders starting the zombie apocalypse.
2016 is a mid term election.
Those in power want to stay in power.
Next question…
People think that the Fed will taper and the market will crash. But if the market suffers too much when they begin, the Fed will slow/stop the tapering process…immediately.
But stock prices are unreasonably high, so it only makes sense that when it begins to crash, they will continue, regardless of any pause in tapering.
They’ve signaled the taper so much and so often by now that if they merely hint the taper is going to be smaller or more gradual than anticipated, they will stimulate a tempered taper relief rally in stocks and bonds.
they will stimulate a tempered taper relief rally in stocks and bonds.
Yep—I’ve been thinking that that relief rally may be a good time to get short again.
They make it sound like they will pull the punchbowl away all at once. what happens if they only pull like 10 billion a month away? But hey they still tapered.
The plan is to gradually reduce the bond purchases, not end them suddently. That’s why they use the word taper.
so hawk vs dove– sell off 200 billion a year vs 300 billion?
over 10 years ?
Will apartment overbuilding lead to lower rents, or will they sit on empty units forever?
“will they sit on empty units forever?”
Not forever — just until they can sell ‘at a higher price.’
My daughter lives in LA area. LL raised the rent again in September. She had problems with the bathroom toilet that the LL had to fix last week. The LL came by and inspected and saw that they had a new baby. She got a letter in the mail afterward raising the rent again on October first by 10% because there is another person living in the house. They’ve been renting the same place for six or more years. They’ve had rent increases every year.
They are just bitter renters.
Tell them to buy now and get on the property ladder.
And stop being bitter renters.
Better yet, tell her to get out of the LA area. Especially now that she has a kid.
But, but if they live in LA, the can get annual passes for Disneyland! That has to make up for placing your kids in gang infested schools.
That’s interesting.
My counterparts working on a project on the bay in the SF bay area had their rents dropped twice in 24 months. They’re on a 1 year lease with monthly extensions.
This is also the case with an entire crew of guys working on a project in Arlington County Va. Rent reductions.
They would like to raise the rent where I am, but they can’t because there are too many empty units (slips) already.
Know a LL in Central Cal who reported reductions in Sec 8 share of her tenants rent. South Bay Area.
‘They’ve been renting the same place for six or more years. They’ve had rent increases every year.’
Can she find a less expensive place to live? Believe me, I sympathize with her. Guess my ultimate question is whether she needs to stay in the LA area or California at all.
She is looking to get out of the LA area. She has a great job at Cedar’s in Beverly Hills and can go anywhere with her experience but her husband is not as mobile. They hope to be out of LA within 6 months.
My rent has been raised every year I have been in current apartment. Rent is still below what I would consider fair market. The LA apartment might still be a good deal despite the rent increases. If the persons leaves for a lower cost area but gets a job for much less what is the gain? Need see to the rent increase in context. The 10% raise for another person sounds reasonable. More wear and tear especially with kids and much more water usage from increased laundry.
Encourage her to pay any price, bear any burden to continue living in the most wonderful place on earth. And to stop complaining about it. /sarc
I remember reading something from the city, there are strong renter rights here, that rent can not be raised for a birth of a child. There are strong renter protection laws in LA but she has to live in the city- not county of. Also, might depend on whether she has rent control or not. I would contact the city.
http://lahd.lacity.org/lahdinternet/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=CohLSEKsZMk%3D&tabid=146&language=en-US
If the property falls under rent control, no allowable increase for the first child, but it is allowed for any subsequent children.
They remain empty for a long time….at least that’s what I see in my nabe. And they are building more next to the empty ones….seriously you can’t make this stuff up. That must be the american exceptionalism.
Gerry Lipkin, ceo of valley national on bloomy this a.m. discussing rate impact on mortgage apps. A dramatic turn of events no doubt. Tune in for some vindication.
This is just getting underway so either;
a) get what you can get for your house while you still can.
b) Sit tight and hold onto your cash.
wall street journal - home-sales frenzy eases:
‘after a yearlong rally, the u.s. housing market is showing signs of cooling as higher prices and interest rates, a slowdown in investor purchases and shortages of homes for sale weigh on one of the economy’s brightest sectors.’
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323342404579077141054009338.html
see also mike whitney’s latest:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/13/is-the-housing-recovery-over/
And the slow down occured in the summer peak months. How will they spin this?
Precisely golden. Precisely.
UT-San Diego said the slowdown was “normal” and “seasonal.” Never mind that a 9.5% drop in San Diego County home sales from July through August most likely never happened before.
Great Whitney post.
You know what’s interesting about the truth in all this…. Those at the top and their proxies in the media outlets clearly have a stake in misrepresenting the truth, covering it up or plain old lying about it. They’re paid to do so.
Then there is the other group~ Those who don’t or can’t profit from it yet willingly and deliberately disregard the misrepresentations knowing exactly what they are, even at their own peril.
Strange world.
Easy. Everyone is now claiming that it’s normal for prices and sales to decrease in August. That is just not true.
White House Takes Stock Of Financial Crisis Five Years Later
by September 15, 2013 8:02 PM
2 min 29 sec
Five years ago this week, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and America’s financial crisis began. On Monday morning, President Obama will mark the anniversary with a speech in the White House Rose Garden. The White House ahead of the address, assessing how the government’s efforts to stabilize the economy turned out.
Obama’s economic adviser, Gene Sperling, summed up the conclusions in a conference call with reporters. “These very difficult, bold and politically controversial measures that the president took in 2009 have uniformly performed better than almost anyone could have projected,” he said.
The report goes item by item through government interventions that cost taxpayers billions of dollars at the time. For example, the hugely unpopular was forecast to cost $350 billion. Ultimately, Sperling says, the government put in only $245 billion. Today, according to the report, the banks more than paid back the government investment. “So in a sense, taxpayers rather than losing hundreds of billions of dollars, made a $28 billion profit,” said Sperling.
…
And, coincidentally, five years is the statue of limitations of most financial fraud crimes…
Bank fraud is 10. Most are still on the hook.
What a spin! The banks paid off the government debt with money that they borrowed from the Federal Reserve, at 0% interest, using junk MBS as collateral. Do you guys think the Federal Reserve would be considered “too big to fail”?
wall street journal - house gop bill seeks deeper food-stamp cuts:
‘the house gop bill would cut spending on the supplemental nutrition assistance program by about 40 billion over 10 years, according to congressional aides from both parties. that is twice the amount that house republicans aimed to cut as part of a bill scuttled in june amid moves by house conservatives looking to make broader changes.
food-stamp costs surged during the recession, doubling to about 80 billion last fiscal year from 40 billion in 2008. about 48 million low-income americans received food stamps in 2012, with an average monthly benefit of 133.
the additional 20 billion in savings would come from a measure ending states’ ability to waive a federal requirement that ‘able-bodied’ people without dependents must work at least 20 hours a week or be in job training in order to receive food stamps.
republicans have said the bill would sharpen the program’s focus to provide benefits to those who need them most — and the threat of losing food stamps would motivate people to become more self-sufficient.’
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323342404579077471810553650.html
Decent paying jobs
the threat of losing food stampswould motivate people to become more self-sufficient.’60%+ of all recipients work.
The GOP is posturing, they have no real intent to reduce food stamp spending. The speeches are for consumption on Fox News. The Food Industrial Complex wants food stamps to remain unchanged.
The GOP is posturing
Exactemundo! The GOP will do no such a thing. They will not reapeal Obama care….they will not stop wars…they will not stop illegal immigration….they will not do anything that will benefit the average joe.
another paragraph from the other wsj article i posted above:
‘the costs of a ‘lost generation’ go beyond the impact on young people themselves. a 2012 analysis commissioned by the corporation for national and community service, a federal agency, estimated that the 6.7 million american youth who are disconnected from both school and work could ultimately cost taxpayers 1.6 trillion in lost tax receipts, increased reliance on government benefits and other expenses. look at broader economic and social effects such as lost earnings and increased criminal activity and the impact tops 4.7 trillion, the researchers estimated.’
‘look at broader economic and social effects such as lost earnings and increased criminal activity and the impact tops 4.7 trillion, the researchers estimated.’ ‘
So what. My stock is at all-time high. Woo hoo. USA! I got mine. Oops, my stock is down now.
But tie public benefits to birth control policy? The outrage!
Not to mention the decreased spending.
Give a man a fish, feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.
Give a man free fish for 3 years, be prepared to feed him for life.
give a man a match, keep him warm for a day.
set a man on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life.
(Palms heart, smiles heavenward.) Thank you, goonie. That’s going into my permanent archives.
Keep setting the poor on fire by inculcating them in poverty and hopelessness. Thanks progressives!
Those EVIL republicans. How dare they! We need to vote them out of office immediately!
Who cares if government has $1 trillion debts/year and borrow 46 cents of every dollar spent?
FYI - is this a real cut to the program or is it a “cut” to the projected growth of the program (government double-speak for no real cut at all).
the additional 20 billion in savings would come from a measure ending states’ ability to waive a federal requirement that ‘able-bodied’ people without dependents must work at least 20 hours a week or be in job training in order to receive food stamps.
The right to keep and play xbox shall not be infringed…
‘among the 254 counties where food stamp recipients doubled between 2007 and 2011, republican mitt romney won 213 of them in last year’s presidential election, according to u.s. department of agriculture data compiled by bloomberg.’
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-14/food-stamp-cut-backed-by-republicans-with-voters-on-rolls.html
Do people who collect food stamps vote republican or democrat?
Do you have that stat?
‘a tennessee congressman who supports billions of dollars in cuts to the food stamp program is one of the largest recipients of federal farm subsidies, according to new annual data released by a washington environmental group … representative stephen fincher, a republican and a farmer from frog jump, tenn., collected nearly 3.5 million in subsidies from 1999 to 2012 … during debate on the farm bill in the house agriculture committee last week, mr. fincher was one of the biggest proponents of 20 billion in cuts to food stamps in the legislation. at time he quoted passages from the bible in defending the cuts.’
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/politics/farm-subsidy-recipient-backs-food-stamp-cuts.html
Do people who collect food stamps vote republican or democrat ???
My bet is they don’t vote at all…Thats why the GOP still carries those counties…
My bet is they don’t vote at all…Thats why the GOP still carries those counties…
They vote…if they are white male they vote Republican…if they are minorities and female, they vote Democrat.
This is a false stat and you should know it. It misrepresents because counties are not uniform in population. By this measure Romney also won the election overwhelmingly.
“The county by county maps can appear startling at first glance, but county results can be deceiving. While more counties may have voted for Romney, the overall vote in a particular state could still be in favor of Obama. This is particularly true in states which are largely rural with the majority of their population centered in just a few counties.”
Google : A Tale of Three Maps: How Obama Won States While Losing Counties
So what?
Anyone else foresee a big problem when connecting the dots on these two data points?
By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel
7:20 p.m. EDT, September 13, 2013
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-new-homes-orlando-20130913,0,1590169.story
“The pace of home construction in the Orlando area, which slowed to a crawl during the housing slump, is now outpacing that of almost every other metro area in the country…”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-homeowner-equity-20130904,0,4588765.story
By Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel
5:12 p.m. EDT, September 4, 2013
“…Only two other U.S. metro areas had lower rates of financially sound housing stock: neighboring Polk County and gaming mecca Las Vegas… Orlando tied with Tampa for having the third-highest rate of “seriously underwater” homes among the country’s 97 largest metro areas. As of early September, 43 percent of the Orlando area’s 249,000 mortgaged homes were worth at least 25 percent less than the mortgage owed on them, the report showed…”
They’re building with abandon. Just last night I viewed a Lennar “project” online, just went of Sanford.
Price: Was 385,775
Now 395,900
Like that’s going to motivate anyone to buy. By my best guess, asking prices are up about 50-100k over the past year. The losses are going to be breathtaking.
Can you imagine overpaying by $100k(it’s actually far more than that) and then stack financing costs ontop? say $160k loss (principal and finance costs)?
That’s 5+ years of after tax median income.
Nuts.
We took the backroads from Orlando to Clermont yesterday afternoon to take my MIL to brunch. What 6-months ago had been a nice drive winding through orange groves has become a monstrosity and a disaster in the making. The bulldozed the groves flat on both sides for about 3/4 of a mile and are building two new subdivisions. These will join the other 4 partially-filled subs (still limping along after Bubble1.0 popped) on that same road about 3 miles away. Bear in mind that this is a 2-lane, winding road with a max speed limit of 45 mph and the nearest connecting ‘main road’ (an artery that can get you out to a highway) is 3 miles in either direction. The hundreds of cars forced to commute from/to these Garage Mahals every morning and evening will be amazing to see. It will move about as fast as the Macy’s Parade.
Who is going to buy those garage mahals? $10/hr Disneyworld workers?
You have been paying enough attention to the right wingers on this blog. Those McMansions will be bought by union goon retirees from high tax northern states.
They must be as numerous as those mythical Chinese and South American buyers!
There is a global correction on the horizon. The time is here. The time is now. While everyone is is looking over there, the correction is just developing legs….. 180 degrees in the opposite direction you’re looking.
If you let yourself get bamboozled by hucksters in the last few years, I don’t know what to tell you. You were here…. you knew precisely what was happening. And you ignored it at your own peril.
Dead.Cat.Bounce.
Sept. 16, 2013, 9:37 a.m. EDT
Stocks open sharply higher on Summers withdrawal
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks opened sharply higher, lifting the S&P 500 to within half a dozen points of its record, as Wall Street celebrated Larry Summers taking his name out of the running to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. “Summers had been a critic of quantitative easing, and global markets are thrilled he will not be in charge of taking away their ‘fix’ too quickly,” wrote Nick Raich, chief executive officer at the Earnings Scout.
…
Time to put a few chips into my pocket.
Were you betting on a Summers withdrawal?
P.S. I was in Seattle last week. If it were that nice every week of the year, I would seek employment up there and relocate.
Seattle traffic is as nasty as any I’ve seen down there…Lucky for you the rain’s a comin’ soon to discourage any such notion of yours.
And no, didn’t make that bet, but I’ll use the uptick to scrape a few off the table…
P.S. I was in Seattle last week. If it were that nice every week of the year, I would seek employment up there and relocate.
Tsk, tsk—you never call, you never write…
Next time, let me buy you dinner or a beer or somesuch.
Remember….
Given the record amount of inventory that they’re struggling to manage(manipulate), a stream of new entrants(suckers) is necessary to keep it from collapsing.
The stream of suckers evaporated.
Lose the religion and *THINK*.
This one’s for you Liberace. Dump the harpsichord and get with it. Listen to it.
http://youtu.be/vACTNJdzRvc
downlow joe will not be listening to any rick james.
the closest he’d get to rick james would be listening to crusty old neil young records. neil young and rick james played together in canada in the 1960s before either of them got famous.
Was it Liberace’s “go time” today? Hearing some rumble in the jungle.
Lib is watching some muscled mechanic swap out alternators on his Honda Civic.
I was reminded of this story last night:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bank-fires-worker-cardboard-dime-laundromat-50-years-article-1.1147824
Nowadays we have Facebook, e-mail and other trails that are logged and recorded. Gee, wonder what future shock lies in store for youthful indiscretions done now?
Bigger and bigger government, higher and higher taxes and more and more regulations will save us all…
Big banks have been firing low-level employees like Eggers since new federal banking employment guidelines were enacted in May 2011 and new mortgage employment guidelines took hold in February, the newspaper said. The tougher standards are meant to clear out executives and mid-level bank employees guilty of transactional crimes — such as identity theft and money laundering — but are being applied across the board because of possible fines for noncompliance.
Eggers did not get too big. He failed.
I bet he’s learned his lesson and won’t pull that stunt again.
Yeah, he probably learned his lesson 50 years ago, after he was ARRESTED for it. Doesn’t really seem like an arrest-level offense to me.
Dimes had silver back then.
Hey Goon Squad, it’s open season on Govt. goons today. At least 10 down so far at the Washington Navy Yard according to Fox News. I bet they kill the shooter so we will never know what tipped the guy over the edge. From the news reports so far this guy was a experienced killer and had body armor and maybe a full automatic gun. Former police or military training seems likely.
I bet they kill the shooter so we will never know what tipped the guy over the edge.
Even if s/he was recording chanting “Allahu Akhbar” this will turn out to be just another workplace incident, I’m sure.
You are so wrong. This guy was a true patriot willing to lay down his life to make the government smaller.
LOL
I’m not a government goon, but I work in a building full of them.
Government contracting costs the U.S. taxpayers half a trillion dollars annually.
Who are the real welfare queens? Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, the dozens of other “big players” and the hundreds and thousands of smaller subcontractors that the big boyz tack on to their bids to get a bigger scoop of that government gravy. The for-profit, private-sector company I work for didn’t exist 18 months ago, it was created to be a sub to help a medium-sized contractor win the bid.
Regards,
goon.squad.ctr@xxx.xxx.mil
I’m not a government goon, but I work in a building full of them.
Do you guys wear vests so would be shooters can distinguish between gov’t goons and the John Galts in the building. Goons could wear bulls eyes on their backs or something, to avoid mix ups.
We wear orange reflective bootstraps so that anti-goon shooters don’t inadvertently take out any “job creators” when they go on the rampage.
The best way to keep some nut job from killing people is to make is harder for law abiding citizens to get guns. If only this nut job had plowed down the people on a sidewalk with a car the liberals would have sighed with relief that the victims did not die from “gun violence.”
And the Liberal Left-Wing-nut-jobs can’t seem to grasp that most of these attacks take place in areas where they have created ’soft’ targets: Supposed ‘gun-free zones’, schools, college campuses, ‘gun free cities’, etc. How well is all that anti-gun legislation working in Chicago and D.C.?
Oh please. Why is is that we, the most armed nation in the world, have the most shootings? Why doesn’t it happen with the same mind numbing frequency in other civilized countries?
Do they have more violence in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Us has 90 guns for 100 people followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.
France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.
Although Finland, Switzerland, etc have half the gun own rate than USA…they also don’t have half the mass shootings as USA. So guns are not the only thing in play here. I am willing to bet that Nigeria has more gun violence per capita than Switzerland and Finland.
Can you tell me where to find a credible statistic on gun ownership in Nigeria??
How many guns do people who can’t afford food buy?
You know Nigeria is in the middle of a civil war, how does that affect your analysis.
How much does poverty influence gun violence.
I’m all for gun ownership but using stats like that does not advance your cause.
There is clearly more gun violence in developed countries which have higher rates of gun ownership and looser regulations.
In Nigeria, only a few people own guns. They use them to exact domination on the defenseless masses, who lack arms.
That was a rooter news from 2007. All valid points, but I nevr saw your people apply same to US? Poverty, gangs, drugs of illegal and legal kinds, and so on.
Contractors rule, feds drool.
Oh wait…
Officials: Suspected Navy Yard shooter was defense contractor; 13 people killed in rampage
…
At the time of the rampage, he was working as a Defense Department contractor, but it was not clear if the information technology worker was assigned at the Naval Yard, according to two defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
…
Are government contractors still preferred under any and all circumstances to full time fed employees?
.
After a yearlong rally, the U.S. housing market is showing signs of cooling as higher prices and interest rates, a slowdown in investor purchases and shortages of homes for sale weigh on one of the economy’s brightest sectors.
Brandon Sullivan for The Wall Street Journal Michael Legatt, left, discusses the inspection of a North Phoenix home Sarah and Zack Withers want to buy.
While few economists and industry watchers believe the housing recovery will stall, there is growing evidence that the exuberance that prompted bidding wars and led to double-digit price gains is easing. Redfin, an online real-estate brokerage, said its agents had multiple bids on 61% of its homes in August, down from 76% in March.
“It’s clear there will be some moderation in demand,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. He noted that the use of electronic “lockboxes” used by listing agents, an indicator of foot traffic at homes on the market, showed a “measurable decline” during August.
“It’s clear there will be some moderation in demand,” said Lawrence Yun
(fun)Yun is so fun.
Strange he doesn’t mention that “demand” is a fraction of the peak and sitting at 1997 levels.
Why do you think that is Cactus?
Strange he doesn’t mention that “demand” is a fraction of the peak and sitting at 1997 levels.
Why do you think that is Cactus?
”
because of this
By Rick Newman | The Exchange – Fri, Sep 13, 2013 4:42 PM EDT
..
Where Did 6 Million Missing Workers Go?
The other reason is a surprising pullback in the portion of Americans who even want to work. The labor-force participation rate is declining for a variety of reasons, such as younger people going to college or graduate school instead of looking for a job, and out-of-work middle-aged people who simply give up looking for a job and become labor-force dropouts. Economists have been expecting the participation rate to inch up as the economy recovers. But it hasn’t.
These changes might sound technical or arcane, but they’re actually momentous. Slowing population growth and a shrinking workforce almost inevitably lead to reduced economic output, which translates into fewer job openings for ordinary people, lower pay and stagnant living standards. For middle class people wondering why it has gotten so hard to get ahead, this is part of the answer.
There’s also the question of whether we’re measuring a new and difficult economy by old and outdated standards. The unemployment rate is probably the single most watched economic statistic, and it has been getting generally better, dropping from a peak of 10% in October 2009 to 7.3% today. The unemployment rate is so important that the Federal Reserve has said it won’t begin to raise interest rates until it falls to at least 6.5%.
But if the unemployment rate fails to capture millions of missing workers, maybe it’s not the right number to target. On the current trend, the unemployment rate could hit 6.5% in 2014 or early 2015. The jobs gap will still be sizable by then, however. Unless there’s a rapid and unexpected surge in hiring, in fact, the Hamilton Project estimates the jobs gap will be in place for years after the unemployment rate hits the Fed’s target.
The real question may be whether a slow-growing economy with fewer jobs is the new normal. If it is, living standards could stagnate indefinitely, unless unforeseen innovations arrive to shake the economy out of its funk. That could happen, but it’s probably not a good idea to count on it.”
No Cactus.
Even if there were full employment demand would still linger at 1997 levels… and slide.
Now why do you think that is Cactus?
Even if there were full employment demand would still linger at 1997 levels… and slide.
It seems pretty clear that full employment would boost demand. Demand is definitely affected by incomes, as those without them should not be in the market to buy.
full employment has nothing to do with it. What makes you think a job at the median income is going to change grossly inflated prices? People already with a job can’t afford a SFR without committing financial suicide.
People without a job can’t afford a house at any price, even a reasonable one.
“While few economists and industry watchers believe the housing recovery will stall…”
Cheerleading until the bitter end.
They must be related to the hard core Giants fans who didn’t bail and leave the game while the Broncos steamrolled them.
This is bad, if the Bongos keep this up it’s going be “All Broncos, All The Time”
Diane Feinstein approved journalists…..
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/09/20130916_time.jpg
At least they know what Americans really care about.
“At least they know what Americans really care about.”
+1 Don’t forget the hooters girlz and 4-dr diesel pickup trucks.
The STEM Crisis Is a Myth
IEEE Spectrum | Aug 30, 213 | Robert N. Charette
You must have seen the warning a thousand times: Too few young people study scientific or technical subjects, businesses can’t find enough workers in those fields, and the country’s competitive edge is threatened.
It pretty much doesn’t matter what country you’re talking about…. the predicted shortfall of STEM (short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workers is supposed to number in the hundreds of thousands or even the millions. …
The situation is so dismal that governments everywhere are now pouring billions of dollars each year into myriad efforts designed to boost the ranks of STEM workers. President Obama has called for government and industry to train 10 000 new U.S. engineers every year as well as 100 000 additional STEM teachers by 2020. And until those new recruits enter the workforce, tech companies like Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft are lobbying to boost the number of H-1B visas—temporary immigration permits for skilled workers—from 65 000 per year to as many as 180 000. The European Union is similarly introducing the new Blue Card visa to bring in skilled workers from outside the EU. The government of India has said it needs to add 800 new universities, in part to avoid a shortfall of 1.6 million university-educated engineers by the end of the decade.
And yet, alongside such projections, you’ll also find reports suggesting just the opposite—that there are more STEM workers than suitable jobs. One study found, for example, that wages for U.S. workers in computer and math fields have largely stagnated since 2000. Even as the Great Recession slowly recedes, STEM workers at every stage of the career pipeline, from freshly minted grads to mid- and late-career Ph.D.s, still struggle to find employment as many companies, including Boeing, IBM, and Symantec, continue to lay off thousands of STEM workers.
IEEE Spectrum | Aug 30, 213 | Robert N. Charette”
Pay off congress and flood the ranks of STEM specialists with H1B slaves ( can’t quit until you get the Green card ) show these MATH geeks who is really in charge.
And why don’t most Engineers write good applications notes anyway…
IBM is just laying off Americans, in order to bring over workers from overseas. Their goal is no Americans outside the corporate HDQ.
Don’t you think it’s weird that India isn’t trying to import any engineers (the E in stem), but they want to build 800 universities to produce engineers? Why is that? Why do these engineers have to come FROM India, and go TO the US or EU?
Y?
“The situation is so dismal that governments everywhere are now pouring billions of dollars each year into myriad efforts designed to boost the ranks of STEM workers.”
Why don’t they do the same for the expensive medical profession?
Because they have a union: the AMA
OK, if tapering doesn’t finally cause a stock-market crash, then I am going to dump my short position. This is annoying.
seems like anyone who has tried to short this rigged market over the past 5 years has lost a lot of money.
At some point wall street will come clean and say the economy isnt growing. they will have their short positions in place as they watch mom and pop run for the exits again.
“they will have their short positions in place as they watch mom and pop run for the exits again.”
The time to make money in short positions is when the last Main Street investor has thrown in the towel and gone long into stocks, based on the common knowledge that ‘the stock market always goes up.’
We’re not there yet.
Today Forbes reported the 400 richest Americans are now worth $2 trillion. That sets a record, Forbes said, and marks a jump from last year’s total of $1.7 trillion. The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member is now $5 billion. They own this world and we just live in it.
The market may not be rigged but it is actually a good indicator of how good the rich feel about their growing wealth. At the current rate of wealth accumulation they could just take the whole thing private in a few years. Wouldn’t that be great? Once they take it private no more public filings or quarterly reports.
If you want to short something try shorting government debt with TBT and TMV.
They own this world and we just live in it.
“SARASOTA — What would you do if you just bought a 6,000-square-foot waterfront mansion for more than $4 million in cash?
If you’re Tampa Bay Lightning owner and hedge-fund multimillionaire Jeff Vinik: Tear it down.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/tampa-bay-lightning-owner-jeff-vinik-buys-sarasota-mansion-to-tear-it-down/2142241
It’s Mr. Vinik’s prerogative. The land below it is worth a lot since it’s gulf-front.
Glad to see he’s stimulating the economy.
“Today Forbes reported the 400 richest Americans are now worth $2 trillion.”
Isn’t that amount around 2/3 of the Fed’s balance sheet?
P.S. $2,000,000,000,000/400 = $5 bn in wealth, on average.
I admire them for that. I am certainly not wanting to decrease my net worth. Why must they?
Who said anything about anyone wanting to decrease their net worth (other than you)?
The market is poised to crash shortly after you unwind your short position.
“No More Hesitation” – Homeland Security and Police Dept. Request Targets For Shooting Practice To Help Desensitize Law Enforcement To Shooting Average Americans…
Posted on February 20, 2013 by sundance
The Department of Homeland Security has ordered and is storing billions of rounds of ammunition. Recently they ordered a series of practice targets called “No More Hesitation“. The purpose of shooting lifelike targets is to condition a person to shoot a real person without hesitation.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/02/20/no-more-hesitation-homeland-security-and-police-dept-request-targets-for-shooting-practice-to-help-desensitize-law-enforcement-to-shooting-average-americans/ - 356k -
Charlotte police kill ex-FAMU player who may have been running to them for help
By Jessica King and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN
updated 8:22 AM EDT, Mon September 16, 2013
Read more on CNN affiliates WBTV, WSOC, WCNC and News14Carolina.
(CNN) — Police in North Carolina shot and killed a man running toward them Saturday morning — but he may have just been looking for help after a car wreck.
Officers responded to a “breaking and entering” 911 call at a home in Charlotte.
The homeowner told dispatchers that a man had been knocking on her door repeatedly.
Police say that when they got to the scene, a man matching the caller’s description ran toward them.
One of the officers fired his stun gun, but it was “unsuccessful.” Another officer then opened fire, police said.
Jonathan Ferrell died at the scene. He was shot several times.
He was unarmed.
Police now believe Ferrell was seeking assistance after crashing his car.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/justice/north-carolina-police-shooting/index.html -
Housing slump: Real estate market crumbles as economy slows
The real estate market in cities across India is crumbling as the Indian economy slows.
KEITH BRADSHER & Neha Thirani Bagri, NYT News Service | Sep 11, 2013, 11.49AM IST
MUMBAI: The Orbit Grand, a block-size complex designed to have at least 26 floors of elegant apartments, an extensive array of ground-floor stores and abundant parking for the chauffeured cars of residents and shoppers, was supposed to be a diadem of India’s real estate market.
Now it is turning into a symbol of the slumping fortunes of property developers and owners in a once-promising emerging economy. Construction of the Orbit Grand has almost completely stalled at the 10th floor, the tower crane at the site seldom moves and the builder has defaulted on its loan.
“There’s no real work going on right now. There’s just a minimum number of workers coming in to do small things,” said Alam Sheikh, an electrician who is one of just 14 builders left at the site.
…
Housing is the best investment, as the housing market is sure to do better than stocks.
Where have I heard that before?
No Confidence in China Markets Inflates Housing Bubble
By Bloomberg News - Sep 16, 2013 1:12 AM PT
Matthew Zhou and his wife spent 1.6 million yuan ($261,000) to buy a two-bedroom apartment last month in eastern Shanghai after seeing no potential for long-term returns in China’s financial markets.
“Home prices keep rising, so I’d rather buy a place now than put the money in the stock market,” said Zhou, a 30-year-old information technology engineer at a state-controlled bank in Shanghai, who plans to leave the home empty while the couple live with her parents. Gains in equities “could never outpace the growth of home prices,” he said.
The willingness of people like Zhou to shun other investments in favor of property shows why residential prices have defied a more than three-yearlong government campaign to rein them in and is among the forces crippling efforts by the central government to deal with an expanding housing bubble. New home prices in major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, rose more than 10 percent in July from a year earlier, compared with a more than 10 percent drop in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) during that period.
“Prices have been rising because China doesn’t have developed financial markets,” Yao Wei, a China economist at Societe Generale SA, said in an interview in Hong Kong. “Now, with the economy slowing, that has worsened as other investments don’t yield good returns compared with property.”
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Property Index, a gauge tracking property shares traded in Shanghai, rose 0.4 percent at the close today. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2 percent.
…
Got debt-fueled wealth gains?
Business Briefing
Canadians richer but saddled with record debt burden
Michael Babad
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 13 2013, 7:32 AM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 13 2013, 3:14 PM EDT
Canadians are getting richer, but are saddled with troubling levels of debt, underscoring the vulnerability of some families when interest rates inevitably rise.
National net worth rose 3 per cent in the second quarter of the year to $7.3-trillion, Statistics Canada said today, climbing on a per-capita basis to $207,300.
Among Canadian families, household net worth rose 0.7 per cent, to $205,900 on a per-capita basis, led by rising property values.
But at the same time, a key measure of consumer debt rose again to a record level, having declined over the previous six months, raising questions again about the ability of some households to juggle their finances. While it may be some way off yet, interest rates will rise, which is why the Bank of Canada and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have urged Canadians to mend their ways, particularly on mortgage debt.
According to Statistics Canada, mortgage debt stood at about $1.1-trillion by the end of the second quarter, up by $18-billion, while other consumer credit hit $500-billion.
The key measure of the debt burden – credit market debt to disposable income – rose in the quarter to 163.4 per cent from 162.1 per cent in the first three months of the year. That’s seen to be a dangerous level.
Economist David Onyett-Jeffries of Royal Bank of Canada prefers to look at the complete picture, however, rather than just that ugly debt measure.
“While the household debt-to-asset and debt-to-income measures deteriorated slightly in the quarter, this largely reflected the seasonal bounce in mortgage borrowing in the spring that is associated with the higher volumes of housing market activity during the peak home sales season,” he said.
…
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