Bits Bucket for September 19, 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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A man walks along the beach and discovers an ancient oil lamp that has been washed up by the surf. He gives it a rub and a geni appears and offers to grant him one wish.
“I want to live forever”, says the man.
“Sorry”, says the geni, “I cannot grant eternal life.”
“Okay”, says the man, “Then just allow me to live long enough to see the U.S. balance its budget”.
“You are indeed a clever bastard, aren’t you”, says the geni.
I’d ask for Morgan Fairchild.
“I’d ask for Morgan Fairchild.”
Morgan Fairchild>> Jeri RyanHousing Analyst
Best t’be hiding yer dubloons when t’ taxman come a-lurkin. Yarrrrr.
So his legs fell off.
That’s the punch line to the geni joke I know but if I had the first part in it wouldn’t get past the goalie. It had something to do with a dude making a wish for a certain part of his anatomy to touch the floor.
Or the time a white man told the genie; “I wanna be hung like a n_____er
Ask me about the guy who fell in love with a girl named Wendy sometime.
the house of cards is getting bigger with more stories added.
I think even many obama kool-aid drinkers are a little freaked out by the financial implications of Obamacare for their businesses and even for their personal medical care.
Granted, they should have been smart enough to see this coming - other people did - but they were blinded by their adoration of the perfect leftwing hero they had created in their minds.
—————————–
Health Premiums Up $3,065; Obama Vowed $2,500 Cut
Yahoo | 9/24/2012 | Investor’s Business Daily
During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.
But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama’s vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.
Premiums for employer-provided family coverage rose $3,065 — 24% — from 2008 to 2012, the Kaiser survey found. Even if you start counting in 2009, premiums have climbed $2,370.
What’s more, premiums climbed faster in Obama’s four years than they did in the previous four under President Bush, the survey data show.
In a debate with Sen. John McCain, for example, Obama said “the only thing we’re going to try to do is lower costs so that those cost savings are passed onto you. And we estimate we can cut the average family’s premium by about $2,500 per year.
At a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2008, Obama promised that “We are going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.
It just amazes me how dumb “smart” people are today. All those fancy degrees and not a lick of common sense to be found.
Most people were relatively happy with their insurance, the really poor had Medicaid, but it was those in the middle too rich for welfare and too poor to have their own insurance is what was needed to be addressed… maybe another payroll tax say 5%….so everyone would have some skin in the game….
and yes pre existing should have been covered many many years ago….by all policies.
Check out this funny quote. Typical. A “brave” Repub telling his fellow nut-jobs to buck-up. (But he didn’t want to be identified.) What a “party”.
“It’s time to put on the big boy pants,” said one House Republican who didn’t want to be identified. “Maybe this will wean us of the bed-wetters.”
House Republicans accuse Senate colleagues of caving on push to de-fund ObamaCare
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/19/house-republicans-accuse-senate-colleagues-caving-in-on-push-to-de-fund/
Speaking of bedwetters, the coastal elitist bedwetter libtard New York Times chimes in with an editorial: The March to Anarchy.
“On Wednesday, however, the full Republican caucus, leadership and all, joined the anarchy movement, announcing plans to demand the defunding of health care reform as the price for keeping the government open past Sept. 30.
What is worse, the House leadership also announced plans to make a series of demands of the White House in exchange for raising the debt ceiling in mid-October, threatening a government default if they don’t get their way. The demands, announced by the majority leader, Eric Cantor, are a goodie-bag of Republican priorities: approving the Keystone XL pipeline, delaying health reform by a year, and changing the tax code in ways that will undoubtably benefit corporations and the wealthy.”
The people I read (who were all generally confident that last time around that a compromise would be found) all seem to think a shut down is more likely than not this time. And not for raising the debt ceiling - that is the scary one - for the continuing resolution to keep the doors open after September 30th which is when the current continuing resolution is finished.
I don’t know that I expect to be staying home a week from Tuesday, but it isn’t impossible and isn’t even all that improbable.
In the meantime, the air is a little cooler, the weather is divine, and all the fall cultural stuff is starting up. Library of Congress is running its book festival this weekend. There is a free concert at the Museum of the American Indian. I got free tickets to a performance of Indian (subcontinent) dance by being on the mailing list for the National Academy of Sciences. And the Air and Space Museum has a display of DaVinci’s Codex of the Birds. DC is better once the summer is over.
By the way, the debt ceiling is “scarey” because that one can delay/reduce Social Security checks. That isn’t impacted by a shut down since they designate the very few people needed to get the payments out as essential personnel and they keep working. SS payments aren’t subject to an appropriations bill so they aren’t impacted by the lack of a bill to appropriate them. Oh, and it can impact payments on government debt, but old people not getting their money is a more immediate issue for members of Congress.
I want to visit in the fall. It is my favorite time of year.
Yeah, Polly, people do not realize the difference between a “no appropriation” shutdown and a debt default. The SS checks still go out if their is no appropriation because they are “entitlements”: their authorizations require not appropriations. But absent an extension of the debt limit, there is no legal framework to prioritize them or debt payments, or any other funds that the government has obligated. Employees, retirees, suppliers, holders of Treasury Notes are all equally entitled to the money that the government owes them. In the event that there is a Continuing Resolution and then government runs out of cash, I’m not even sure that the government has the authority to furlough people.
I don’t know that they even have procedures in place for dealing with a debt ceiling shut down. Money still comes in to the government in fits and starts so some stuff can keep happening, but what do you do? Tell the Justice Department that they can work next week and the EPA gets the one after that? I assume they would prioritize pay for serving military personnel over everything else, but other than that I have no idea.
We got pretty clear instructions about what to do in the case of a regular shut down when they signed a deal a few hours before it was going to happen in 2011. Most of us understand that one. I’m already looking around my apartment for projects to tackle if it happens. I’m not quite ready to think of it as “more likely than not,” but I am resigned to the possibility.
ISTR that last year, the administration said that the Treasury would simply pay bills each day until the money ran out. Whether they’d start the next day with yesterday’s bills or that day’s bills was unclear. They claimed that they had no authority to prioritize payments, and so would not do so.
They have to prioritze to some extent. Or maybe you wait to have enough money to pay an entire day’s bills before paying any of the bills from that day? It is true there is no legal authority to pay military salaries before loading up the SNAP cards, but something would have to happen. That is why I think the showdown, if it happens, will be next Tuesday, not mid-October. Or not. It is possible that the Congress critters don’t understand just how much of a mess the debt ceiling is, though I am sure Karl Rove and company are trying to educate them.
“Tell the Justice Department that they can work next week and the EPA gets the one after that? ”
I would like them to go home and not come back. It would be a giant step ahead.
Meh, it’s just in keeping with his Nobel Peace Prize operating basis. The guy gets off on shovin’ it up people’s posteriors.
Racis
Speaking of racis, one of the things I noticed watching the footage of evacuees during the Colorado floods was how relentlessly white they were, NTTAWWT.
“relentlessly white”
Hey can I use that?
I confess I don’t yet know how I want to use it; but something about the term seems pregnant with utility?
Thanks in advance.
What is stunning is the KookAid drinkers are still swilling the bottle.
The places that were flooded tended to be out in the sticks, and those places tend to be populated with white, John Galt types. If you want to see a lot of pickups with the “I’ll keep my freedom, my guns and my money - you keep the ‘change’” bumper stickers, now you know where to look.
Of course all these people are now hold their hands out, waiting for “aid” to rebuild.
It ain’t welfare nor wasteful spending when you’re the recipient!
Great point, reminds me when hurricane Sandy hit the east coast and a few Oklahoma senators voted against any federal aid, but when Tornado’s hit Oklahoma it was OK fo THEM to receive federal aid, because it was “TOTALLY DIFFERENT”…
Personally, I think welfare, specifically in Cali, needs to be reined back big time, and real time limits placed, right now in Cali an undoc mom can receive cash aid+food stamps+medical for her kids from the time the child is born, until her last one emancipates. If they really know how to work the system she well let her daughters have kids young so she can also receive aid for the grand kids…
That being said, having a safety net is still a good idea, most of us are one disaster away from ruin….be it cancer, car accidents, or a natural disaster destroying your home. Its the people that make being on welfare their career that give it a bad name…
“Of course all these people are now hold their hands out, waiting for “aid” to rebuild.
It ain’t welfare nor wasteful spending when you’re the recipient!”
And why shouldn’t they have their hands out for the “aid”, if it’s available to them as US citizens? If everyone else, including illegals and their spawn, take whatever “aid” is available to them? What, they should spurn the money and have barn raisings?
When I lived in the mountains of Vermont, if you got stuck on the ice or snow during winter and needed a push or tow or jump, people seemed to appear from the woods to help you. I’ve heard similar stories about the Appalachians. These are the types of folks the bedwetters despise. I dunno if it’s the same in the mountains of CO, though.
“And why shouldn’t they have their hands out for the “aid”, if it’s available to them as US citizens?”
There is no reason they shouldn’t, as long as they realize there is no reason anybody receiving any aid “shouldn’t” take it. And, they should shut their pie holes instead of criticizing others since they are no different. I don’t blame the people on welfare, I blame the system. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
And why shouldn’t they have their hands out for the “aid”,
Because when everything is fine for them, they harp about big government and wasteful spending. These are the same bozos who want to secede and form their own state. Of course now they expect the rest of us to pay to rebuild their roads, homes and businesses. Funny how quickly that independent streak vanishes when disaster strikes.
“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
No players, no game.
If people paid in, no reason for them not to take out. I resent like crazy paying in to a system that distributes money to anchor babies, to foreign aid, to the military-financial-spy complex, etc.
But although I’ve never taken a dime in welfare, unemployement or disaster aid (yet), I’ve still probably benefitted from common infrastructure and other things, like the internet, beyond my lifetime contribution.
Don’t you guys know the Tea Party philosophy?
“Because when everything is fine for them, they harp about big government and wasteful spending. These are the same bozos who want to secede and form their own state. Of course now they expect the rest of us to pay to rebuild their roads, homes and businesses. Funny how quickly that independent streak vanishes when disaster strikes.”
Heh. You haven’t lived until you’ve listened to the griping of a Florida retiree on Social Security and Medicare.
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/White_people.htm
“The falsity of White history begins and ends with their desire to hide their true nature; that being that they are derived from Albinos. Their efforts to make all peoples of historical significance White, would appear to be their effort to make themselves the “New Normal” i. e. “See everybody important was White, therefore White is good - the best even!” This fabricated concept of themselves, is obviously so satisfying, and so ingrained, that it has become delusional. ”
Albinos
probably ancient Realtors too buying up all the land in Europe and Asia, North America, South America… Australia ? not sure about that place?
Albinos? Like being pale happened all at once as a severe genetic mutation? That is absurd.
Pale skin is more efficient at making vitamin D. When you move out of the ancestral sun belt, being better at making vitamin D (prevents rickets) was more important for reproductive success than being resistant to sun burn, so evolution selected for it.
There are African-Americans with Albinoism.
There are African-Americans with Albinism. There are Africans with Albinism. But people with pale skin from other parts of the world aren’t the descendants of people from Africa with Abinism. They are descendants of people from Africa who have evolved to have paler skin because the environmental conditions where their ancestors lived for many generations made the vitamin D benefits of paler skin an important factor in having children.
They are descendants of people from Africa who have evolved to have paler skin because the environmental conditions where their ancestors lived for many generations made the vitamin D benefits of paler skin an important factor in having children.”
Survial of the fittest verus survial of the sickest what a concept
no…it’s just all baked in.
“But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama’s vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.”
Just think how much more money is now flowing into the coffers of health insurers, and how much of that is flowing back into the campaign coffers of Democrat politicians!
family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama’s vow,
Of course, that’s under the old system. Obamacare has yet to be tried.
i think they are just baking obamacare in?
i think they are just baking
obamacareeven higher profits in?Fixed it.
Of course, that’s under the old system. Obamacare has yet to be tried.
Sad, but true.
“During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.”
Whether or not Obamacare turns out “well”, the timeframe he gave was for getting legislation passed, and by that measure, he delivered. I do know that I will pay about $200 a month for insurance that I don’t have now. That’s affordable, $400 is not. Whether it stays affordable is another matter, but whoever wrote this article is either clueless, or a deliberately obtuse partisan hack.
The fraudsters at NAR reports resales today. We already know they collapsed in August (peak selling month).
You think they’ll tell the truth?
The taper cancellation might serve to hammer down mortgage rates one last time. Consequently, home sales are destined to rebound after the Souper Bowl.
How large was the check from Fed to narScum?
I’d love to see a spike in mortgage rates.
Speaking of the NAR fraudsters, I see CNBC is now trotting them out daily to actually pimp their listings on TV. Absolutely disgusting, and a clear signal that the bubble is alive and well. The “housing as an investment vehicle” mentality is pervasive. Obviously there haven’t been enough losses to kill it. We need a real meltdown.
Absurd indeed. Add to it the daily round the clock NARfraudster commercials pimping the notion that there is “no inventory”. It’s a gas watching it.
The Decline of College
Townhall.com | September 19, 2013 | Victor Davis Hanson
For the last 70 years, American higher education was assumed to be the pathway to upper-mobility and a rich shared-learning experience.
Young Americans for four years took a common core of classes, learned to look at the world dispassionately, and gained the concrete knowledge to make informed arguments logically.
The result was a more skilled workforce and a competent democratic citizenry. That ideal may still be true at our flagship universities, with their enormous endowments and stellar world rankings.
Yet most elsewhere, something went terribly wrong with that model. Almost all the old campus protocols are now tragically outdated or antithetical to their original mission.
Tenure — virtual lifelong job security for full-time faculty after six years — was supposed to protect free speech on campus. How, then, did campus ideology become more monotonous than diverse, more intolerant of politically unpopular views than open-minded?
Universities have so little job flexibility that campuses cannot fire the incompetent tenured or hire full-time competent newcomers.
The four-year campus experience is simply vanishing. At the California State University system, the largest university complex in the world, well under 20 percent of students graduate in four years despite massive student aid. Fewer than half graduate in six years.
Administrators used to come from among top faculty, who rotated a few years from teaching and scholarship to do the unenviable nuts-and-bolts work of running the university. Now, administrators rarely, if ever, teach. Instead, they became part of a high-paid, careerist professional caste — one that has grown exponentially. In the CSU system, their numbers have exploded in recent years — a 221 percent increase from 1975 to 2008. There are now more administrators in that system than full-time faculty.
College acceptance was supposed to be a reward for hard work and proven excellence in high school, not a guaranteed entitlement of open admission. Yet more than half of incoming first-year students require remediation in math and English during, rather than before attending, college. That may explain why six years and hundreds of million dollars later, about the same number never graduate.
The idea of deeply indebted college students in their 20s without degrees or even traditional reading and writing skills is something relatively new in America. Yet aggregate student debt has reached a staggering $1 trillion. More than half of recent college graduates — who ultimately support the huge college industry — are either unemployed or working in jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees. About a quarter of those under 25 are jobless and still seeking employment.
young ex-marine sits next to me who joined my company a few months ago. he is an admin that supports 4 senior vps.
HR as even used him to help them establish a veteran recruting program. he was interviewed on TV and was told by the producer that he was really great on camera and HR was having him review and sign off on their program materials.
anyhoo…the veteran specific job postings came out…cooks…bus boys…basic low wage jobs. he complained that every single decent entry level job required college.
i told that’s because your government wants everyone to go to college and take out a lot of debt to do so…in time…those cooks and bus boys will need degrees.
he told me that was stupid and how he could run cricles around all those HR people (he was a recruiter in the marines). i told him the simple truth is…the federal goverment (espcially now since it got baked in during the obama adminstration) makes a shit ton a money on student debt.
the world is simply upside down.
Federal government doesn’t make anything…colleges are the ones making $$$.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/student-loan-scheme.jpg
You link says Sallie Mae makes a profit, but nothing about the Feds.
“Obama’s changes are big wins for the government and taxpayers. He basically cut lenders like Sallie Mae out of the loop by eliminating the subsidies. So all the loan profits that used to go to private lenders now goes back to the government.”
at the end.
i posted a link but it has not come through…its probably just some anarchist propagnada anyway.
anyhoo…the veteran specific job postings came out…cooks…bus boys…basic low wage jobs. he complained that every single decent entry level job required college.”
That’s just stupid
i told that’s because your government wants everyone to go to college
Your government doesn’t want everyone to go to college. However, most parents do want their kids to go to college.
College acceptance was supposed to be a reward for hard work and proven excellence in high school, not a guaranteed entitlement of open admission
It depends on the college. The colleges where quality employers recruit are very selective about who they admit. For instance, the University of California routinely turns away applicants with 4.0 GPAs and high SAT scores.
But yeah, there is a lower tier of mediocre schools, especially private schools, that will accept ANYONE.
Said it before but I’ll say it again, the schools that are most worthy of 4 years’ attendance absolutely do not need student tuition as part of the deal. Will they take it from rich kids? Yes. But they will offer heavy discounts to get the most competitive applicants and matriculants possible, because they know that the real way to build an endowment and a strong reputation is to create alumni donation feedback.
As a child of the 70s I remember huge corporate training programs especially in IT but also in medicine (sales) for many of us early 80s undergrads. They wanted you green so they could train you their way and they didn’t have to pay competitive salaries for people who already had some experience. Most people I knew in those programs didn’t leave for 5-10 years. Some of us were offered help getting our MBAs or other master’s program.
I know some companies still offer some sweet perks but mostly you see they’ve shifted the education cost almost completely to the worker.
“The National Association of Realtors® are the Pied Pipers of FINANCIAL SUICIDE”
~Goonsquad, Sep 17 2013
The Fed decided to keep QE going for a while longer yesterday.
Why? Why now?
Mid terms are next year. There is no real political reason.
The dollar immediately sank. Gold, stocks and bonds had big rallies. Real Estate prices are sure to follow higher (at least for the short term).
Maybe the Fed sees the debt limit not being extended by the Republicans in the house and want to back stop it.
Maybe the Fed sees the some kind of spending reductions by the Republicans (Sequester II) in the house and want to back stop it.
Obama talked about not tapering now while in Russia (hmmm - who really controls the independent Fed?)
Eventually, the market is going to tip the hand of the Fed. Who knows what it will take ($6/gallon gasoline?) or when it will happen.
Eventually (end of the year?) - there will be some kind of Taper. Probably announced on Friday afternoon (after markets closed) of a long weekend with lots of other big news items going on.
So the implications:
The housing bubble will continue to grow and grow
Bonds will be a winner (for the short term)
Stocks will be a winner (for the short term)
Gold will be a winner (for the short term)
The rest of the economy will still be mired in recession.
Unemployment will not drop.
Companies will not hire or invest.
The diving board moved higher for the black swan event that is sure to come…
Maybe we are in a deflation. Maybe the empire of debt is crumbling.
No maybe’s about it. The truth is obscured and the professionally groomed propaganda narrative is overlaid for everyone to tap dance on.
They’re out of options.
Yep.
Gold does well in deflation since the Fed stays busy printing.
Gold sucks during deflation because people do not have the cash to buy the stuff.
Note the number of “We buy gold!” places springing up everywhere.
people do not have the cash to buy the stuff.
Oh, we’ll still have the 1%ers, perfectly happy to snap up the assets we 99%ers can no longer afford. See stocks, houses, etc.
Don’t the “We buy gold!” places pay cash?
Gold sucks during deflation because people do not have the cash to buy the stuff.
Dollars suck during deflation because people do not have the Yuan to buy dollars.
In a nearby dying mall, the we-buy-gold outfits used to be kiosks in the mall hallway. Now they’ve upgraded to being in the store spaces vacated by other businesses.
Got a “we buy gold” store diagonally across the intersection from my California digs. Amusing!
Aparantly things are getting worse while on QE. So how prolonging QE is going to make things any better?
It’s this kind of thinking that prevents you from being allowed to run the Fed.
So how prolonging QE is going to make things any better ??
Its not about making it better its about not letting it get worse…The U.S. & World economy is bifurcated and fragile…
It’s getting worse while on QE…so we must do moar QE not to make economy any worser?
It’s getting worse while on QE
How so?
Don’t let the truth get in the way of your lies Alpo.
I’m still waiting for an answer, drunkie.
You sound confused today Alpo….. You better backcheck my profile and lay off the sauce.
Indeed!
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
Albert Einstein
“Maybe we are in a deflation. Maybe the empire of debt is crumbling”.
I think we will face an inflationary depression. The demand for dollars is going to decrease as we are printing more dollars. The BRIC nations along with Japan and China
are trying to reduce their trade in dollar denominations. This will lead to a lower demand for dollars. We import most of our goods. So our imports will become more expensive. Our wages and good paying jobs are not increasing and hence we will face an inflationary depression.
They use to call it stagflation. Now we operate under behavioral economics so the public has been conditioned to accept their lower standard of living without meaningful resistance. The government monitors us constantly (with the help of our corporations) and quickly crushes any attempt to organize. 99.9% of all violence is directed against our fellow citizens and not the leaders who put us into this situation.
Maybe we are in a deflation.
That is easily remedied: print new money and mail checks to every household.
But that’s not the game. The game is to concentrate all the wealth in the hands of the few.
The game is to concentrate all the wealth in the hands of the few.
That seems to explain what’s been happening since the 1980’s.
Why? Why now?
September and October stock markets traditionally cave in to any negative news. So the Feds wanted their faithful followers fooled (FFF). It might work to keep the market from crashing at least through October 31.
3 days from a tropical paradise to Mad Max…
Good thing Mexico basically bans guns for the law abiding or things could get a lot worse…
——————
Looting hits Acapulco as Mexico storm death toll reaches 80
Reuters | 9/18/13 | By Luis Enrique Martinez and Alberto Fajardo
Tens of thousands of people have been trapped in the aftermath of two tropical storms that hammered vast swathes of Mexico. More than 1 million people have been affected. Acapulco’s airport terminal was under water, stranding tourists.
Shops were plundered in the city’s upscale neighborhood of Diamante, home to luxury hotels and plush apartments, where dozens of cars were ruined by muddy brown floodwaters. Marines were posted outside stores to prevent further theft. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t looting from need of food. It was stealing for stealing’s sake,” said Mariberta Medina, head of a local hoteliers’ association. “They even stole Halloween and Christmas decorations and an outboard motor.”
Sad. Acapulco was gorgeous back in the day, although there was always poverty behind the gleaming resort facades. We took a family trip there one time when I was a pup in 5th grade. Stopover in Mexico City, where the airport bathrooms were filthy, and I mean disgusting.
Acapulco had a big resort area called Las Brisas, all pink cement and tile houses built into the hillsides above the bay, most with their own swimming pools and the resort had its own private beach with a roving mariachi band to entertain the guests. Lots of bottle agua, we were cautioned every day not to drink the water unless it was bottled, otherwise Montezuma’s revenge would strike. We were also cautioned to swim at the public beach only at certain times, my memory’s a little fuzzy on this, but as I recall, pollution of a bacterial nature came and went with the tides.
But at night, with the hillsides around the bay all lit up, it was breathtaking, at least to a pup.
Relative to everyone else, while staying in Acapulco you were a One-percenter.
Las Brisas was a pricey resort when I lived down there … out of our budget.
I think it was pricey when I was there, but being a pup, i was mainly interested in the swimming pool and beach where I spent most of my time. This was back in the 1960s. Our hosts were 1%ers, pretty much.
Hey I was there too about the same time. Remember the pink jeeps with the cloth canopies? I stayed at one of the big hotels and use to sneak out at night and go hang out at the “Kipp’s” Big Boy hamburger joint on the main strip. I don’t think it was a actual legal Big Boy restaurant but they had the big fiberglass statue just like back in the states. After high school I took a road trip back to Acapulco and hooked up with a group of rich kids from Mexico City who thought my 64′ GTO was the coolest thing they ever saw. On the way back I stopped in Mexico City and one of the guys invited me to stay at his house. Turned out his ‘house’ was a whole city block complete with 15′ walls and the buildings inside all had glass walls overlooking a stream that wound through the property. The air outside was grey from all the smog but inside the compound everything was indoors, including the pool and indoor tennis court. Good times…
“Remember the pink jeeps with the cloth canopies?”
I do! That’s how you got around the neighborhood and back and forth from the beach/dining area. I also recall the mariachi band playing “Sweet Sue” during lunch. In Spanish. It always sounded like “es tostados, es tostados, Sweet Sue, Sweet Sue”. They had that natural “pool” that used to fill up and recede with the tide.
My mom liked to look around at Peggy Pena’s, the upscale ladies’ boutique, and then she’d get some back alley seamstress to make the exact same garment for a third of the price.
When you’re a pup, that sort of thing seems terribly unfair, and I told her so. Boy, did that piss her off, she’d tell me the seamstresses were happy for the money and to shut my mouth.
“es tostados, es tostados, Sweet Sue, Sweet Sue”.
Come to think of it, that’s probably what they really were singing, because looking back, I realize all those smiles and Mexican Minstrel Show moves were mostly phony as hell, and who can blame them? They probably despised the Americano tourists with a passion and made up stuff to sing that was either nonsense or outright diss, just like the Mexican workers here in the US put their lunch scraps and garbage in the walls of the homes they’re working on.
Ton of papaya trees in Las Brisas, and I also remember the hard but short afternoon rains.
I used to travel up and down the west coast of Mexico and Baja. I encountered what you saw: Architectural wonders of modern houses and resorts maybe a block or two away from abject poverty. The people were very friendly. The geographical beauty was unparalleled. Fond memories.
But our war on drugs spurred the cartels to grow more powerful. The last time I was down there was in Tijuana in 2003 and even then I was hesitant to go across the border.
I have no interest of ever going to Mexico again in light of the drug cartels running the country.
And you would have thought that they could have fixed the water problem by now. People have been getting sick in Mexico for hundreds of years it seems. And yet they keep going. Makes NO sense to me whatsoever.
I never had a problem with the water because the all-inclusive resorts have their own purified water. It’s safe at those places. And elsewhere you buy a twist-off top water bottle just like here in the states. You can buy a bottle carrier, kind of a stretch fabric. Cool and smart in hot Mexico.
But as USoMH says, I will no longer go there. I read in newspapers of American tourists who were set up by corrupt cops as smugglers and forced to bribe with money. Not worth going down to beautiful Mexico.
As long as US DEA, Border Patrol, and the Demopublicans wage the war on drugs, Mexico will be under siege and be a trap for any gringo tourists going down there.
But you can bet it will change almost overnight if we legalized drugs and thus put the cartels out of business.
OTOH, remember N’awlins after Katrina? Pretty much the same, probably worse.
Stop being racis.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people” - Kanye West, 2005
Easy for you to say, living in a whitopia state. Are there Footlockers in Colorado?
We have black people here. I’ve met all three of them!
Something tells me Shaun Donovan has placed a bullseye on CO for his Affirmatively Affirming Affirmation HUD program.
Uncle Ruckus goes to Footlocker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl4RSUdcIQE
We have black people here. I’ve met all three of them!
It actually feels that way in Loveland and Ft. Collins.
Something tells me Shaun Donovan has placed a bullseye on CO for his Affirmatively Affirming Affirmation HUD program.
We’ll see if they actually want to live in non DenverColorado. Heck, I once had a black coworker at HP in Ft. Collins who commuted from Denver. He didn’t want to live in Ft. Collins because it was “too white”
Tesla working on driverless car:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/09/17/tesla-to-get-in-the-driverless-car-game/
I post this here, because, IMHO, this will have a dramatic impact on housing demand once the technology is perfected and released. Let’s say, 10 years from now, you can buy a car that will drive itself with complete autonomy; no input at all required from the driver.
Imagine the flight from the cities once this technology becomes widely available. Yes, people love the city because you have so many options, and love to live there because it’s such a PITA to get there from the burbs (parking, driving in, etc). But, picture this with a driverless car. No parking problem; just hop out of the car and then call it later to come pick you up (it can park where ever it wants to, a mile away, or just keep driving around like a taxi until you’re ready). No traffic stress getting in/out; sure, there will be traffic, but you’ll be in the back seat asleep/working/talking on the phone/etc. The car will deal with the traffic, not you.
The driverless car will usher in an a shift in the way people live and work over the next decade that’s going to be very significant; not as much as the invention of the car or airplane, but probably 3rd on the list of “changing our lives” from a transportation perspective. IMHO, this will be blow to city living and good for sub-urban enclaves. It will also have a dramatic impact on professional drivers of all types (truckers, taxis, limos, etc), within 20-30 years, likely eliminating almost all those positions. And, finally, for those who have a long commute to work, think of all the time you can get back in your day? Answer e-mails, take calls, hold WebEx sessions… All from the backseat of your car. That will be a lot of hours put back into the day for a whole lot of people.
Not for those of us who get car sick
not if gas is $ 6.00 a gallon.
not if gas is $ 6.00 a gallon.
Which part of Tesla “The Electric Car Maker” did you not get? Car runs on battery, charged from grid which runs on Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Wind, etc… no gas needed.
oh i forgot…everyone can afford a tesla.
I’m still waiting for the conveyor belt shower/dress/breakfast line like in the Jetsons.
It will also have a dramatic impact on professional drivers of all types (truckers, taxis, limos, etc), within 20-30 years, likely eliminating almost all those positions
Seems highly unlikely to happen. Reminds me of all the stories about flying cars. I won’t hold my breath.
Flying cars exist, but are fantastically expensive and pretty dangerous. No good solutions. Driverless cars are pretty much just a software and maybe a bit of infrastructure problem. We tend to do well with solving that kind of problem.
So what happens if you’re cruising down the freeway at 70 mph and the computer crashes? Even if it has a watchdog, I doubt it will reboot in a second or two.
Fly by wire airliners has gone down due to bugs and crashed systems that couldn’t be rebooted, and they have all kinds of redundant systems.
a software and maybe a bit of infrastructure problem
Judging from the crashes of both that seem to happen so regularly in other parts of my life, why should driverless cars be more reliable?
What if a bug caused a 1000 car pile up?
All good points…but I doubt that will stop it. The only thing that seems to stop such progress permanently is no way to make it cheap enough.
“So what happens if you’re cruising down the freeway at 70 mph and the computer crashes?”
That sucks?
On a serious note, driverless cars won’t be the end of accidents. And yes, people MAY be able to avoid the accidents that the driverless cars will get into (at least in the beginning). However, much like an airliner accident (tragic, no fault of those onboard) this will just be a cost of doing business for a far safer (in aggregate) method of travel.
Computers locking up/rebooting? LOL, not in any kind of system that would be used in a driverless car. I used to work on systems all the time that had uptime measured in years, without a single interruption of service. And, if the system I worked on fell through the floor and was destroyed, there’s another one 10KM away that will take up operations instantly and without disruption. That’s the kind of system that will be used in a driverless car, not a “Windows PC” like you guys are thinking.
“What if a bug caused a 1000 car pile up?”
First off, this should be nearly impossible as, in all systems I’ve seen tested/mentioned, the cars are all independent of one another. A car could have a bug and hit someone in the next lane, but the pileup scenario would require 1000 cars to all malfunction at one time. That’s wildly unlikely. But, yes, accidents will still happen; they will just be dramatically less likely.
Think of it this way, what you guys are saying right now is what people were saying at the invention of the calculator. Sure, TODAY, people can drive better than computers. But computers double in capacity every 18-24 months, a few more doublings, they will be able to dramatically outperform us in the task of driving; as they currently can in the task of figuring out the square root of 78,343. And, 15-20 years from now, it’s going to be laughable; a computer will drive better than the best Indy car drivers of today.
Can it field dress a deer?
” It will also have a dramatic impact on professional drivers of all types (truckers, taxis, limos, etc), within 20-30 years, likely eliminating almost all those positions.”
Each vehicle will need a human overseer in case of malfunction or accident, even if he/she isn’t usually driving it.
“Each vehicle will need a human overseer in case of malfunction or accident, even if he/she isn’t usually driving it.”
In the beginning, yes. After a few years of development, human overseer “optional”. A few more years after that, and we’ll look at a human driving a car like we do a motorcycle going 150MPH in the rain riding a wheelie through traffic. “Who’s crazy enough to try to drive their own car, it’s SO dangerous”.
Wall Street Journal - GOP’s Food-Stamp Bill Faces Tight Path:
“A House Republican plan to scale back spending on food stamps is drawing resistance from some GOP lawmakers who say the proposed cut is too big, and others who think it doesn’t go far enough.
The bill would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by nearly $40 billion over 10 years. The government spent about $80 billion on food-stamp programs last year.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324807704579083492913102568.html
A House Republican plan to scale back spending on food stamps is drawing resistance from some GOP lawmakers who say the proposed cut is too big
Told ya! It’s just posturing for sound bites on Fox News, nothing more.
Out of curiosity….
What cuts is ANY democrat proposing in ANY government program…?
You don’t get it. Neither side cuts the budget. It grows regardless of who is in charge.
Confirmed by Dick “deficits don’t matter” Cheney.
Quit harshing his hate buzz.
The Syrian Attack budget.
Do you want to see any Democrat propose to cut any program just for the sake of cutting something? What If a Democrat got drunk some and proposed eliminating the navy altogether? Would that be a good thing?
So who is buying all these houses at inflated prices?
Why does every new graduate want a job with the government?
————————————–
Women Waiting Tables Provide Most of Female Gains in U.S.
Ian Katz & Alex Tanzi - Sep 19, 2013 - Bloomberg
It’s almost 6 p.m. on a Friday and the tables near the bar at The Hamilton in downtown Washington are getting crowded. That means waitress Victoria Honard is busy.
Honard, 22, who graduated from Syracuse University in May, works about 25 hours a week at the restaurant while looking for a job related to public policy. She moved to Washington four days after graduation with the hope of finding a position at a think tank or policy-related organization, she said, and has applied to about 20 prospective employers.
“The response has been minimal,” said Honard, whose degree focused on education, health and human services. “There are two ways of looking at it. I could be extremely frustrated and be bitter, or I can make the most of it, and I’m trying to take the latter approach.”
Unemployment data appear to reflect big advances for women. The jobless rate in August for females 20 years and older was 6.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008, compared with 7.1 percent for men. As recently as January, the rate was 7.3 percent for both genders, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The downside is that the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men, according to a study by the National Women’s Law Center using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Soft Spot
Of the 125,000 jobs women gained last month, 54,000 were in retail, leisure and hospitality, and just 24,000 in professional and business services. Many of those are part-time, 34 hours or less a week.
Food services and drinking places have added 354,000 jobs this year alone. “The place jobs have grown the most has been in these parts of the economy that women have traditionally filled more easily,” said Diane Swonk, who studies labor trends as chief economist for Mesirow Financial Inc. in Chicago.
“They are taking jobs as baristas in Starbucks and other jobs that used to go to people without college degrees,” Entmacher said. “It’s an anecdote but it’s also a fact.”
“If they’re in a two-income house they’re more willing to drop out and take care of the children because it costs too much for day care,” Swonk said.
At the Hamilton, two blocks from the White House, Honard often waits on lawmakers and government officials, giving her a glimpse of people she would like to work with someday. This summer she served a member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, to whom she recommended a glass of New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
She decided to move to Washington because it’s an obvious destination for those working in public policy and she enjoyed the city during an internship with a charter school organization two summers ago.
She decided to move to Washington because it’s an obvious destination for those working in public policy
LOL. Most people move to Washington to grab power or to be close to people who have power.
The Washington Post article I posted below notes that median household incomes in D.C. increased from $53,995 in 2000 to $66,583 in 2012.
Why D.C. Is the Richest Region in the Country
All that marble in D.C. shouldn’t make you feel patriotic.
John Stossel | March 27, 2013
The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn’t done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama’s presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money—your money—flowing. Now the Senate wants to add a trillion dollars of new taxes, even more than President Obama seeks. Despite our growing debt, the Senate wants to fund things like the Senate barbershop, which loses a third of a million dollars every year.
It’s like they live in a private bubble.
…
john stossel is an anarchist!
Why does every new graduate want a job with the government?
Because they know that in the private sector:
Pay sucks
Benefits suck
Job security sucks
or because there are no private sector jobs?
but obama told me bigger and bigger government, higher and higher taxes and more and more regulations would lead the way to prosperity…
Did George Bush tell you that too?
or because there are no private sector jobs?
There are plenty … in low wage sweatshop countries.
This mornings email headline from RealtyTrac;
“What inventory shortage? 4.5 million homes just resurfaced.”
Like we’ve maintained, you can’t hide 25 million excess empty houses.
Yeah, and they all need $40K of work, which cancels out any price drop.
In flyover, I’m surprised that anybody tries to fix up a house at all. It’s one thing to fix up a $300K house for $50K. But the same house might be $140K in flyover and need the same ~$45K of work. You’re better off demolishing the thing and buying one of Housing Pimp’s $55/sq ft crap shacks on your lot.
LOLZ… Donkey Donkey Donkey….. The reality that you got ripped off on a 30 year old shack finally set in?
Nope, no sinky yet. Estimated value is still higher than the price I paid. PITI is still less than rent. But thank you for requesting updates!
You got ripped off and don’t even know it. Sad. Worse yet you can’t even be honest about rent.
Why lie? I mean really…. what is the purpose of lying other than making yourself feel better….
In flyover, I’m surprised that anybody tries to fix up a house at all. It’s one thing to fix up a $300K house for $50K. But the same house might be $140K in flyover
Either way you end up with a fixed up home. One cost $350,000, the other $190,000. Why is one price justified and the other price not?
Wall Street Journal - What You Need to Know Before Buying a House:
(interestingly, the link on the WSJ home page was changed from “Sobering Facts on Housing)
“All year long, we’ve been hearing that the housing market rebound is upon us. Yes, there has been some marked cooling in the market in the past couple of months, but by and large, the stars have remained aligned.”
Aligned? BS
“the best you can say right now is housing has leveled off after a 13-year roller-coaster ride that has seen massive government and Federal Reserve efforts to spur demand. Is that a recovery?”
No. It’s not
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323906804579036763834997586.html
Wall Street Journal - Detroit Residents to Voice Pension Fears to Bankruptcy Judge:
“U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes granted an unusual audience to 93 people, most of them retired city workers who fear the bankruptcy will mean Detroit won’t pay their pensions in full, but some with other grievances. They are seeking to block the city’s bid for Chapter 9 protection, which would allow it to restructure an estimated $18 billion in liabilities.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324807704579083512061435866.html
You are forced to join a public union as a condition of employment
You are forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment
Public unions are the largest campaign contributors and supporters in Detroit.
Public unions run their own candidates and no candidate without public union support will ever win in Detroit (and every other major city in closed shop states).
Democrats have won every election in Detroit based on that support for the last 60 years.
After winning office - the democrat politicians delivers sweetheart public union contracts as a reward for their support.
And this goon blames the city not “bargained in good faith”
But Bill Walton, a 58-year-old former city building supervisor, said the city never bargained in good faith with him and now pleads with the judge to stop the city and its planned pension cuts “because being over 50 years of age, employment opportunities are not so plentiful” in Detroit.
If only the city had planned on actually funding the pension plans, this could all be avoided.
The free sh*t army doesn’t care about finical sanity.
All it cares about is more and more free sh*t.
And will vote for anyone who promises to give them more free sh*t.
It kinda works like this:
F*ck you pay me
Goodfellas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ydqjqZ_3oc
You like last weeks newspaper with your free shut army line.
They were - but around 1990 when you have more pensioners than active employees (see graph in article linked below), the results are baked-in.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013130801004
GREAT ARTICLE!! Thanks for posting it!
From yesterday’s Bits Bucket:
” Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-18 22:18:20
What the Syria intervention threat couldn’t do, Fed intervention easily accomplished. Any doubt in the minds of gold bugs about who their best friend ever is has been permanently laid to rest as of today: It’s Ben Bernanke.”
Yup. And to be replaced by their next friend Janet Yellen.
Progressives are a gold bug’s best friend.
The future belongs to Lucky Ducky, as reported by the Washington Post:
“For the first time since 2007, the median household income didn’t fall last year, according to new data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. But that slim bit of good news highlights just how much the Great Recession cost the average family, as the median household income remains far below 2000 levels.
Since the turn of the century, the median household income has fallen by 6.6 percent, from $55,030 in 2000 to $51,371 in 2012. Thirty-five states have seen a statistically significant decrease in their median household income, the new Census figures show.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/09/19/household-incomes-stabilize-but-still-below-2000-levels/
More Lucky Ducky news:
“measures of social and economic well-being in the United States have slipped compared to other advanced countries. But it is even more poignant to recognize that, in many ways, America has been standing still for a generation … in fact, the standard of living of most Americans has fallen decidedly behind.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/business/americas-sinking-middle-class.html
Some of the charts in the article don’t appear, but an interesting one does: Median household income by state.
Guess which states are in the basement, with significantly below average medians? You guessed right: business friendly, southern, right to work states. Even mighty Texas is below the national average.
I would rather earn $50,000 anywhere in Texas than $100,000 in NYC.
Any stats on purchasing power and quality of life?
Have you ever lived in Texas?
I have.
It sucks.
Have you ever lived in Texas?
I have.
I did, but left in 1967. Up until then it was wonderful. I have heard that things have changed a bit since then.
I have heard that things have changed a bit since then.
Unfortunately, they pretty much have changed everywhere.
My biggest problem with Texas is the crime. My car was vandalized in a shopping mall parking lot. A couple of guys tried to mug me. A guy tried to sell me drugs in broad daylight in downtown San Antonio.
Plus the summer weather … simply unbearable. It’s unfathomable to me how anyone could stand living in Houston in the summer.
I would never consider going back there.
LOL!
How do you manage to survive in Colorado?
It really is that much better :-).
No it’s not. Do NOT move here. Spend all your tourist money here, and then GO HOME!
No it’s not. Do NOT move here. Spend all your tourist money here, and then GO HOME!
What he said!
You do have to have some cojones to live in Texas.
Colorado some cheese doodles and an oz of kush gets you by.
You do have to have some cojones to live in Texas.
Is that code for being crazy?
You do have to have some cojones to live in Texas.
Or at least just really enjoy marinating in your own sweat…or never go outside for half the year.
Rick Perry was on Crossfire yesterday opposite Maryland Gov O’Malley.
TX has been running ads in Maryland touting its low taxes and encouraging people to move. I’m actually grateful, it’s like when people from the Northeast move to FL… they get our trash, mostly. It’s overall a good deal for MD.
The good jobs that require college degrees are much more plentiful here, but the low-wage jobs where you are treated like chattel, well, those are in TX
LOL! I used to live in Baltimore. I know what it’s like in Maryland.
+1
I live in Baltimore now, I could throw a stone in any direction and hit a good job for a college grad.
Oh noes, we have blacks living in our ghettos, oh noes. I bike between my house and Penn Station /Camden Yards every day, guess how many ghetto blacks I see? Essentially zero. You have to go up towards North Avenue or something. It’s terrible but yeah, very segregated. All I see is young white peeps.
Same thing in DC, I walk along Massachusetts and NY Avenues between Union Station and the White House. Again, all I see is young white ppl with a smattering of asians.
Massachusetts and NY Avenues between Union Station and the White House.
Wow, the area between Union Station and the White House used to be one of DC’s death holes. The 150-year-old brick townhomes along North Capitol street were meth labs, crack houses, and Joe’s Grocery Store of horrors.
I guess somebody finally figured out that you could commute from those old townhomes to the Capitol Building — on foot.
The area between Union Station and the White House is from “zero” street (North Capital Street) to 16th street between H and the Mall. That includes Chinatown, Penn Quarter, Metro Center, Federal Triangle, gobs of huge federal buildings, the Canadian Embassy, a bunch of museums, the Shakespeare Theater, etc. That was never a death center. North Capitol from Union Station to the Mall has office buildings, parking, the Senate office buildings, parks with cherry trees and fountains, restaurants and hotels.
Now, North Capitol up towards U street? Yeah, that wasn’t so nice a decade ago. Now it is fine. I take a bus that goes through that area when I wan to get to 14th street in the evening. Never a problem. I chat with the other riders and give recommendations to tourists. Justice Sotomayor lives on U street. So does an accountant friend of mine.
Never fear- the economy is in “recovery” and the wise men say that all is well. The economic ‘experts’ are all-knowing and ever-truthful. They could never be mistaken or lie just to cover up how bad things really are.
“…there are indications that the severest phase of the recession is over…”
- Harvard Economic Society (HES) Jan 18, 1930
“… the outlook continues favorable…”
- HES Mar 29, 1930
“… the outlook is favorable…”
- HES Apr 19, 1930
“…by May or June the spring recovery forecast in our letters of last December and November should clearly be apparent…”
- HES May 17, 1930
“… irregular and conflicting movements of business should soon give way to a sustained recovery…”
- HES June 28, 1930
“… the present depression has about spent its force…”
- HES, Aug 30, 1930
“We are now near the end of the declining phase of the depression.”
- HES Nov 15, 1930
“Stabilization at [present] levels is clearly possible.”
- HES Oct 31, 1931
“Stabilization at [present] levels is clearly possible.”
- HES Oct 31, 1931
Well, that’s hardly a confident prediction of good times ahead!
I don’t “like” this
Washington Post - Facebook’s Zuckerberg talks immigration, national security at D.C. event:
“Comprehensive immigration reform, Zuckerberg says, is as vital to this country’s economy as reforming the rules to allow highly skilled workers to work in the U.S., and he believes it makes sense to do both at the same time.
“Eleven million people is a lot of people who are being treated unfairly right now,” he said to applause.
Unfairly? Cue the sad violins. PUKE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/facebooks-zuckerberg-talks-immigration-national-security-at-dc-event/2013/09/18/34155d40-20aa-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html
In other words, another open borders proponent.
Yep. Another squid with nothing but contempt for the citizens of the country that gave him the opportunity to prosper.
But, he is where he is because people don’t say “NO!” to the guy. He’d be nothing and I mean nothing if there was a mass defection from Facebook, and that wouldn’t really be so hard to accomplish. You have no idea how many people I’ve heard say their FB page is indispensable to their lives or businesses. “I need it to keep in touch with my family and friends” “My boss requires it”. “I need it for marketing”, blah, blah. Puke. He is a creation of the masses.
I cancelled mine. I never felt compelled to share the inane details of my life on it, and found what others shared to be mostly boring.
Although I never was a member, in the beginning, before everyone’s info was restricted only to friends and members, it was interesting to read about some of the folks I used to know in my old home town where I grew up. I might have wanted to contact some of them, but I figured what was the point, really. I’ve moved on and so have they.
And while there might have been some long lost acquaintances I might have wanted to re-connect with, the thought of being located by an individual or two from my past I wouldn’t want to hear from held me back. It was a wise decision, after having heard about some FB adventures a couple of my friends have had.
i use it as a means for my parents to watch my 2 children grow up since we live 700 miles away.
And while there might have been some long lost acquaintances I might have wanted to re-connect with, the thought of being located by an individual or two from my past I wouldn’t want to hear from held me back.
Interesting. Maybe that’s why I like it more than most HBB types. I’m not worried about anybody finding me. Hence the use of my real name here.
This is hilarious:
http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/07/7-ways-to-be-insufferable-on-facebook.html?m=1
Yes, it is totally UNFAIR that these people are citizens of a different country. Maybe they should petition their beloved home countries to change their socio-economic systems, such that people can actually get jobs over there. It is so UNFAIR that the United States is the only country expected to produce jobs for everyone in the world.
No, you don’t get to be a princess when you grow up:
“Unemployment data appear to reflect big advances for women. The jobless rate in August for females 20 years and older was 6.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008, compared with 7.1 percent for men.
The downside is that the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men, according to a study by the National Women’s Law Center using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-19/women-waiting-tables-provide-most-of-female-gains-in-u-s-.html
Paul Craig Roberts was talking about this (college grads waiting on tables) as far back as 2000. This nothing new.
Yep. It’s a bubble…for sure!
Bulletin Median U.S. home price in August up 15% from year earlier »
Sept. 19, 2013, 10:01 a.m. EDT
Existing-home sales rise 1.7% in August
By Ruth Mantell
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Existing-home sales rose 1.7% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million, the highest level in more than six years, as buyers rushed to lock in mortgage rates before they increased any further, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an August sales rate of 5.2 million, compared with an unrevised rate of 5.39 million in July. Looking forward, rates that continue to rise will eventually pull back home purchases, NAR added. Mortgage rates started increasing in early May on speculation about the Federal Reserve tapering its massive asset-purchase program. On Wednesday, Fed officials said they will not taper yet. Also Thursday, NAR said the median price of a home was $212,100 in August, up 14.7% from the year-earlier level, the largest growth since October 2005, as pricier homes saw large annual sales growth. Inventories rose 0.4% to 2.25 million homes available for sale, representing a 4.9-month supply at current sales rates. NAR added that all-cash deals remained high in August, while there were relatively few first-time buyers and distressed sales.
Does anyone believe NAR any more?
“Home Sales Data Doubted”
“Realtor Group May Have Overstated Number of Existing Houses Sold Since 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476604576158452087956150.html
It’s a good thing me and everyone I know all got 15% raises this year, otherwise buying a house might become unaffordable.
From the release:
Existing-home sales in the West declined 2.3 percent
In consideration of NAR, triple that decline and you’ll be closer to the truth. On the coast? Collapsing demand by 20% minimum.
existing-home sales in the Northeast were unchanged
In other words, they fell but couldn’t admit it.
I still see new inventory coming on every day. I think the NY courts may finally be making moves against those that haven’t made a payment in 3 years.
Emerging economic data are casting doubt on the Fed’s taper postponement.
Leading-indicators index points to faster U.S. growth
• Philly Fed manufacturing index jumps to highest level since March 2011
The DJIA dropping the day after the Fed’s taper head fake cannot be a good sign for the Wall Street bovine herd.
If the stock market is dropping the day after surprise electroshock stimulus therapy, just imagine what will happen once they get serious about taking away the punch bowl?
What’s worse, no matter what plans the Fed henceforth announces, the day they actually commit to a QE3 taper will inevitably be a negative shock to markets, as they have established a precedent for saying they will taper but not following through.
The Fed has lost all credibility
By Stephen Gandel, senior editor
September 18, 2013: 5:31 PM ET
Ben Bernanke just pulled the biggest fake out in the history of the market. Now he and the Fed will have to pay for it.
FORTUNE — The Federal Reserve’s exit from its bond-buying experiment in monetary policy was never going to be pretty. It just got a lot messier.
If you were watching the market on Wednesday afternoon, you might have gotten the impression that the Fed made another great move. The Dow (INDU) shot up over 150 points on news that the Fed was not in fact going to pull back on its bond purchases. But if you were watching Ben Bernanke’s press conference, you would have seen something very different: a train wreck.
The Fed chairman struggled to explain why he had spent the summer, starting in late May, signaling pretty clearly that the Fed planned to pull back on its bond buying stimulus program in September only now to say never mind. In fact, Bernanke now says that it might not even happen this year. And remember when he pledged the Fed would end its bond purchases when the unemployment rate hit 7%? Yeah, he didn’t really mean that either.
…
The bond market is on track for its’ worst year in 40 years…….. And bond market cycles are………drumroll please………..40 years long.
You still have time to prepare…….
What happened to Liberace? Was he banned to the parlor? But I don’t hear the harpsichord…..
Downlow Joe’s wife caught him in the act with some dude he met on Grindr so she took his i-phone away.
LOL, HA, I was thinking the same thing yesterday. I think you ran him off, lol.
Are ya feelin’ lonely?
Liberace’s charade is quite entertaining……
Goon, you think they get freaky to symphony music?
Living rent free in your skull, buddy.
Really I had to travel to Charlotte for work earlier this week to talk about the procurement for this driver’s license and facial recognition systems under REAL ID Act. Speaking of Charlotte, holy cr*p that area is overrun with fat people. Off the charts.
Liberace!
“that area is overrun with fat people”
Spoken like a true bedwetter coastal elitist.
Charlotte’s got the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Cars go fast in circles and make loud vroom-vroomy noises!
Aren’t you the one always crowing about how Colorado has the lowest rate of obesity, or something like that?
He was being sarcatic, I think he agrees with me on the fat people thing. It’s why he also threw in the NASCAR = good sport meme.
It’s hard to keep track with that stuff. Sometimes his anger towards the coastal elitist bedwetters is sincere, such as on the topic of gun control. He’s erratic. Maybe he should cut back on the purple drank.
So prepare yourselves for the next round of pandering Free $hit Shout-Outs by the elite proxies pretending to be serving the “public interest” as housing fundamentals resume their deterioration.
How many millions of excess empty houses does Freddie and Fannie have on the books?
Well, PB nailed it. I asked when the stock market would finally start to crash on fundamentals, and he said “as soon as you dump your short position”, but in more polite terms. I sold that short yesterday, and now the market is red when everyone should be partying hard with Bernanke’s punch.
I AM THE COUNTER-INDICATOR.
I AM THE COUNTER-INDICATOR.
Keep us updated on your investments, please.
They were just waiting for you to unwind your position before unloading their overpriced stocks.
Don’t Fight the FED
Anyway I think the markets are going up? However I did foolishly Sell AEP going into the meeting THINKING there would be some kind of reduction in debt buying by the FED bank.
whatever. I think I’m 60% stocks and 20% bonds and 20% cash.
REIT are considered small cap stocks by my Mutual Fund and therefore go in the 60% stock weighting.
looking at RFMD
Got a nice 5% bump on my REIT holdings yesterday…
Don’t Fight the FED
That’s all you have? Same old fraud huh?
yep that’s all I have. It will work until it doesn’t anymore. This crisis proved one thing to me, that people want order and don’t want to make hard choices so they let the FED and government do what they will to avoid hard choices like ” living within your means” and “spending what you can pay back” instead its expand the money supply and HOPE the economy will grow to catch up with the debt. It won’t
I THINK if you have an expanding population you can grow debt for maximum employment and be pretty sure the next larger generation can handle the debt. Zero growth in population I don’t see how this can be done without debasing the debt ?
Population centers should contract now with far outlying areas de-populating first and resources re directed to denser areas.
Like Water and Power and mass transit. the cheap energy age is over. even with better technology to extract fuel governments will tax it so much it will never be cheap again.
http://terriblerealestateagentphotos.tumblr.com/
Terrible Real Estate photos. Realtors can’t even point and shoot.
But they still want their 6%
Too funny…
This property would make an ideal restoration project. Just as soon as you’ve emptied it of all its contents and burnt it to the ground.
“Wells Fargo to lay off 1,800 mortgage employees
September 19, 2013 | Updated: September 19, 2013 1:56pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo plans to lay off an additional 1,800 employees from its mortgage department, after cutting about 2,300 jobs from the same unit in August.
Spokesman Alfredo Padillo said Thursday that the San Francisco-based bank is cutting jobs in the mortgage department because fewer people than it expected are refinancing their mortgages. The jobs are in locations across the country…”
So if NARscum were honest with the public,they’d seasonally adjust prices….. But they’re not.
Oh…… Prices seasonally adjusted? They fell. When defaulted properties are included? They fell a lot more.
“Don’t buy unless you’re going to stay there for a long time”
That simply means your losses as going to be so large that you’ll need decades to coer them up.
Its a wonderful sounding Housing Hooker lie isn’t it? Well I just heard “Jed” from trulia say it out loud on bloomy.
“If you buy now, you’re going to stay there for a long time, because your losses will be so large that you’ll need decades to recover from them.”
It is not so much the lie that intrigues me, as it is how well it plays. It would only get rotten tomatoes if there weren’t millions still in the mania grasping for any sort of validation.
Translation: Buying robs you of your freedom to move.
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO - NEIL SEDAKA - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQD3At3E7TA - 153k -
Come on come on
Cram my big mortgage down
Come on come on
Cram my mortgage down
Paying rent is hard to do.
Don’t take my house away from me
Can’t you see I’m used to livin free.
If you do then I’ll be blue
’cause paying rent is hard to do.
Remember when I refied twice
My wife her brand new boobs they sure looked nice
Think of all that we’ve been through
’cause paying rent is hard to do.
They say that paying rent is hard to do.
Now I know I know that it’s true
Don’t say that this is the end.
Instead of paying rent
I wish that we were Robo signed again.
I beg of you don’t say goodbye.
Can’t we give that HARP another try.
Come on banker let’s start a new
’cause paying rent is hard to do.
Come on come on
Cram my big mortgage down
Come on come on
Cram my big mortgage down
Paying rent is hard to do.
The same house buying advice applies now as applied two millenniums ago, during the Roman Empire:
CAVEAT EMPTOR!
JOURNAL REPORT: WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Updated September 18, 2013, 5:28 p.m. ET
What You Need to Know Before Buying a House
Yes, the market is looking up. But don’t let the euphoria obscure the flashing yellow lights.
By DAVID CROOK
Are the good times back again?
All year long, we’ve been hearing that the housing rebound is upon us. Yes, there has been some marked cooling in the market in the past couple of months, but by and large, the stars have remained aligned.
The economy is recovering, unemployment is inching down and the Federal Reserve is trying to keep interest rates low, helping create the greatest buyers’ market in anyone’s memory. Things are looking brighter for sellers, too. The often-quoted S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index is chronicling the biggest price increases in half a decade.
It no doubt makes a lot of people want to jump into the housing market again.
And perhaps they should. But…
We’re also hearing the siren song that led so many buyers astray during the bubble: that real estate is a great way to build wealth and financial security. And we’re seeing home buyers, like retail stock investors rushing after a hot IPO, moving into a housing market that has already been plowed through by institutional and corporate buyers.
So, don’t let the euphoria over a recovery obscure the market’s flashing yellow lights. Like all economic booms, this one carries the instruments of its own destruction.
With that in mind, here are five of those yellow lights to keep in mind before you decide how much to bid on that house—or whether to bid at all. ☠
…
“No doubt, the corporate buyers have created a great business. But few individual home buyers, lured by the headlines of a new real-estate boom, understand that the house-owning math of investors is 180 degrees from the rest of us who are buying a place to live in.
And don’t forget: You’re bidding against these buyers, and the odds are stacked against you.”
+1 Everything is rigged against the feckless buyers.
I used to like to dance but some lady at the end of my block smoked cigarettes. Now my doctor says I can’t dance anymore because of her.
I smoked for 10 yaers and now I have to keep my head in a jar when I sleep.
Marc Faber: Fed’s Money Printing About Protecting the Elite
Zero Hedge
September 19, 2013
With rumors this evening of the White House calling around for support for Yellen, Marc Faber’s comments today during a Bloomberg TV interview are even more prescient. Fearing that Janet Yellen “would make Bernanke look like a hawk,” Faber explains that he is not entirely surprised by today’s no-taper news since he believes we are now in QE-unlimited and the people at the Fed “never worked a single-day in the business of ordinary people,” adding that “they don’t understand that if you print money, it benefits basically a handful of people.” Following today’s action, Faber is waiting to seeing if there is any follow-through but notes that “Feds have already lost control of the bond market. The question is when will it lose control of the stock market.” The Fed, he warns, has boxed themselves in and “the endgame is a total collapse, but from a higher diving board.”
+34