Bits Bucket for October 16, 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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U.S. stock futures are up this morning, suggesting a fix is in. Or not?
With stocks trading near record high levels, it appears that stock traders view the U.S. debt ceiling situation with far more complacency than MSM writers, who seem to rank it up with the risk of an asteroid striking the earth and wiping out civilization.
Oct. 16, 2013, 8:03 a.m. EDT
European stocks sell off amid U.S. fears
LVMH shares slide after third-quarter sales update
By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets broke a four-day winning streak on Wednesday, as U.S. lawmakers struggled to hammer out an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before the country runs out of borrowing authority on Thursday.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (XX:SXXP -0.47%) lost 0.5% to 313.17, after closing at the highest level in almost a month on Tuesday.
…
More broadly, investors tracked developments in the U.S., where the government shutdown moved into Day 16 and the deadline for lifting the nation’s borrowing limit moved closer. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said the U.S. will run out of borrowing authority on Oct. 17 unless Congress agrees on lifting the debt ceiling. Senate leaders on Tuesday night restarted fiscal negotiations after House Republicans’ plans to vote on a proposal they had put forward fell apart.
Fitch Ratings put its AAA credit rating of the U.S. on negative watch late Tuesday, citing the prolonged congressional negotiations over a hike to the borrowing limit.
“Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default,” the ratings company said.
U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, but stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday.
…
JCP shareholders are being robbed blind. another example of corporate america not giving a rats @ss about shareholders.
They just issue more stock to get more of your cash when their decisions don’t pan out.
I guess they hired goldman to do a secondary swindling.
I finally made my big JCP order that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time since I can’t find what I want in the stores any more. It was not a good experience. The website doesn’t function well for someone who just wants to get in, buy a bunch of stuff, and get out. Lots of survey popups and such…with sound…very annoying. Plus when you try to buy several of the same item but in different colors the code malfunctions and you have to force it to reload the page.
Hopefully whoever takes their place will stock the same kind of stuff and do a better job.
JPC=girl scout uniforms as a kid. So sorry to see another American classic go down the tubes. And all for a buck. Mr. Sears was a marketing genius and that’s another tragic story. I miss America!
I remember buying school clothes in the second JCP store ever opened… it survived until they built a mall in town in the late 70s. Totally different experience.
dude ever notice how so many companies issue stock at a low price then buy it back near its peak?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/299964-j-c-penney-900m-stock-buyback-driven-by-managements-personal-interests
J.C. Penney (JCP) announced a $900M stock buyback on 25-Feb-11, and has completed $839M in repurchases through 30-Jul-11. Typically, stock buybacks help support stock prices; however, JCP has declined 17.80% vs. a 6.24% decline in the S&P 500 (as of 14-Oct-11) since the repurchase announcement.
October 16, 2013
Markets are banking on this debt deal: 7 charts
Tick tock. It’s looking like Congress will manage to cobble together a plan to raise the government’s borrowing limit before the Treasury runs out of operating room on Thursday. That takes near-term fears of a U.S. default off the table, though it’s also clear that it’s never over until all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.
Financial markets have largely taken the latest debt drama in stride. And why not? A certain degree of crisis fatigue has set in after the fiscal cliff, sequestration and the earlier loss of the U.S. government’s coveted AAA rating failed to lastingly stun markets, analysts note.
The picture could change Thursday, however, if lawmakers are unable to finalize a deal. While a default would probably still be a matter of days away, hitting the ceiling could serve to concentrate the mind, or at least the markets.
Here’s a look at how strategists think it might play out across financial markets.
–William W. Watts
…
Naw, just sucking them back in.
Suck them in one day, shake them out a few days later.
Think about this: The Wall Street guys, the traders, get rich by playing what is mostly a zero sum game. If they win then this winning is at the expense of somebody who loses. And that somebody who loses is most likely the “informed investor”, the guy who reads and listens to the news and then reacts to what he reads and to what he hears.
has a new generation of sheep showed up to support wall street during this phony rally?
Probably the same generation of sheep, a well-conditioned flock.
Raise prices and the sheep step in to buy. Drop prices and they rush in to sell.
In what other areas of commerce do people behave in this manner?
your exactly right. when people see prices going up they want in on the easy money. With the FED propping up the market it has made them look like geniuses again.
Right now the message seems to be that the FED will print money to support the market for a long time.
How long does this work?
How long? Asked and answered…..”for a long time.”
The next generation of sheep was pre-shorn by student loans.
Taking advice from the big trading companies (e.g. The Squid) is like a poker player telling you their hand, and suggesting you bet accordingly.
Good plan.
Citigroup CFO reveals bank has sold its short-term Treasurys
October 15, 2013, 10:29 AM
Bloomberg
John Gerspach
Citigroup’s chief financial officer is eyeing the trouble in Washington warily, has dumped short-term Treasury bonds and, oh yeah, is sort of frustrated with the Federal Reserve too.
The bank’s top number cruncher, John Gerspach, said in a call with reporters Tuesday morning that Citigroup is no longer holding Treasury securities that mature on Oct. 31 or earlier. The bank is also working to make sure it understands the “operational aspects” of bond trading and double-checking that it has “adequate liquidity” on hand. And it’s not the only bank that is dumping its holdings of short-term U.S. government bonds as the country veers nearer and nearer to default.
Gerspach said he was hopeful that Washington lawmakers would work out a deal to avert a default.
“However,” he said, “hope is not a plan.”
If the U.S. does default, he added, “we’re in uncharted waters” as far as the potential impact on economies around the world.
…
I think Fidelity sold all their short term T-bills a couple of days ago as well.
U.S. default: Stocks think it can’t happen here
October 15, 2013, 2:35 PM
A U.S. default isn’t in the cards, the way stocks are acting. They seem to be saying, “It can’t happen here.”
While the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA , S&P 500 Index SPX , and Nasdaq Composite Index COMP all pulled back slightly Tuesday, they’re all still hanging onto gains for the month.
Given the recent Nobel wins of Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller, ConvergEx Chief Market Strategist Nicolas Colas looked at the academic take on how stocks are approaching the threat of a U.S. default in a recent note.
On Fama’s approach to efficient markets Colas writes, “if there were even a 1% chance of a Treasury default, the VIX would be over 20 and stocks would be retreating, not advancing. Too much of the world’s financial system is predicated on Treasuries as 100% reliable collateral to believe anything else. Russian roulette with a 100 chamber revolver is still too dangerous a game.”
With Shiller’s long-run price-to-earnings ratio showing that stocks are overvalued, Colas writes: “You would think that the threat of a U.S. Treasury default would be just the kind of catalyst that could cause a pullback in an overvalued asset class. So far, no pullback, of course.”
…
Poll: Have you changed your portfolio because of the debt-ceiling turmoil?
October 15, 2013, 3:14 PM
The Oct. 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling is fast approaching. Take part in our poll.
Have you bought or sold stock specifically because of the debt-ceiling turmoil?
I was already positioned pretty conservatively since 2008 in all my legacy retirement accounts. My current job that I’ve been at for 2.5 years was going into one of those “retire in 2035″ mixture accounts. My only change was to take out a loan on about 50% of the new account only and sit on the cash and pay off any outstanding balances. So that much money got converted from a mix of stuff into cash in my local bank.
Despite little or no effect of debt default risk on stock prices, the 1-mo T-bill yield is at a 52-week high this morning. How can one financial market show extreme distress when another part shows nothing? You may as well pitch your finance theory book into the dumpster at a time like this.
T-bill due on Oct. 24 yields 0.679%, up 17 bps 5 min ago
- Ben Eisen
T-bills due on October 31 yield 0.662%, up 9.5 bps 6 min ago
- Ben Eisen
One-month T-bills spike on debt limit fears 8 min ago
- Ben Eisen
1 Month Treasury Bill
Market closed 0.50
Change +0.14 +40.00%
Volume 0
Oct 16, 2013, 8:14 a.m.
Previous close 0.36
Day low 0.26
Day high 0.50
Open: 0.36
52 week low -0.03
52 week high 0.50
U.S. Will Not Default on Its Debt, Rogoff Says
Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, talks about the outlook for U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations, the nation’s economy and the agenda of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington. Rogoff, speaking with Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance,” also talks about Federal Reserve policy and Europe’s banking system. (Source: Bloomberg)
The entire situation was a charade from the start. There was never any intention of defaulting. It was designed as a publicity stunt with both sides posturing until the very end, then patting themselves on the back for averting a crisis of their own making. Boehner fist-pumping to the media after both sides agreed to a deal made me want to vomit. What a f***ing joke.
Boehner fist-pumping to the media
Maybe he’s just glad it’s over. Boehner got raked over the coals by the Tea Party. They treated him like cr-p. Total disrespect for their leadership. Most Repubs should be furious.
Furious? Buh but Barak Hussssain Obama!
Avert a crisis and take all the attention off what they are actually doing which is borrowing more and kicking the can down the road. Maybe it was all political cover to keep maxing out the credit cards.
Debt Ceiling: The Five Scenarios of Default
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) –- Bloomberg’s Mike McKee looks at some of the moves that can be made on October 17th in the absence of a debt ceiling increase. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Money Moves.” (Source: Bloomberg)
J. Lopez United States
“Another day, another crisis averted at the 11th hour and another all time high for the S&P 500. We’ve seen this drama before.”
Responding to Senate Paves Way to End Debt Impasse on Oct. 16, 2013 at 1:18 p.m.
Deal? Or no deal?
Looks like no deal. Oh dear, the sky is falling, lol.
So long as Wall Street stock futures are up, where is the problem?
You’ve got a point, lol.
And the futures were WAY up when I looked last night.
It looks like the Senate is going to try its best to cook up an offer John Boehner can’t refuse.
More talks, but no deal yet as borrowing deadline looms
By Tom Cohen. Ben Brumfield and Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 8:38 AM EDT, Wed October 16, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Senate leaders remain optimistic about possibility of deal, GOP aide tells CNN
- If deal is not reached today, country runs out of borrowing authority
- House Speaker John Boehner may have to break Republican tradition to help end crisis
- President Obama says Boehner can’t control his own caucus
Washington (CNN) — The U.S. government taps out its credit cards at midnight, and there is no deal yet in Washington.
The wearyingly difficult process of trying to make a deal resumes Wednesday, as the government enters day 16 of the partial shutdown.
Legislators dropped hints on their way home Tuesday that Senate leaders will present a deal to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the partially shuttered government.
And a Republican member of the House of Representatives is holding out hope that Speaker John Boehner could break with a Republican tradition to put that deal on a fast track.
“I believe that John Boehner will likely be in a position, where he will have to essentially pass the bill that is negotiated between Sens. (Mitch) McConnell and (Harry) Reid,” said Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
…
I don’t believe a default would roil international financial markets as advertised, since the Fed stands ready in waiting to extinguish any flames of contagion that flare up in the event of default.
Fisher Says Fed Could Cushion Against a U.S. Debt Default
By Caroline Salas Gage - Oct 15, 2013 4:51 PM PT
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said the central bank could reduce the turmoil from any U.S. debt default, which he said is unlikely.
“I’m very confident” in the ability of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to “mitigate the chaos that might ensue should we default,” Fisher said today in a speech in New York. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
…
Oct. 8, 2013, 8:31 a.m. EDT
Meanwhile, back at the Fed …
Commentary: If the shutdown wears on, expect more Fed stimulus
By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — You can forget about the Federal Reserve tapering its purchases of long-term securities. The way things are going inside the Beltway, the Fed may well have to ramp them up, instead.
The government shutdown has halted many functions, among them data generation. Most of the data economists and policy makers live by emanate from Washington’s statistical mills. I am referring, of course, to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Commerce Dept., to name three. All of these are closed.
…
This just in:
Bubonic plague spreads across the globe, stocks soar on expected Fed loosening.
Exactly. And this is why the MSM pundits are so very wrong on the presumptive dire economic consequences of a U.S. debt default.
The Fed has it all contained.
The Fed has it all contained.
Like the subprime was contained?
Like the subprime was contained?
Subprime is _still_ contained…
…to planet earth.
They’re bending the beam. The question is, when does it break.
The Fed is injecting 85 billion a month, 1.02 trillion a year. In one year (October 2013 to present), its balance sheet has grown by 950 billion, suggesting most of that 1.2 trillion is unsterilized - they’re not selling assets to finance the new purchases, but printing money to buy.
45 billion of that is going to government, 40 billion is going to purchase MBS. So that’s going to Wall Street. Which is using it to get returns - invest, or less politely, speculate.
There’s a school of thought which says the Arab Spring was caused by rising food prices generated by just this sort of liquidity injecting. This buying program has definitely coincided with a very steep rate of increase in house prices.
The pro-inflation / debt-doesn’t-matter crowd will be right, right up to the time they’re wrong. It’s like urging people not to wear seat belts. More roomy, less confining. Right up until impact.
The pro-inflation / debt-doesn’t-matter crowd will be right, right up to the time they’re wrong. It’s like urging people not to wear seat belts. More roomy, less confining. Right up until impact.
And rather than the risk being spread around by being in separate vehicles…we’re all in one big C5A called “The Dollar”.
“They’re bending the beam. The question is, when does it break.”
Nice analogy. But why is the beam so rigid and fragile to begin with? Wasn’t it better back in the day when markets were made of flexible material like rubber, rather than the porcelain of which they are constructed today?
“The pro-inflation / debt-doesn’t-matter crowd will be right, right up to the time they’re wrong. It’s like urging people not to wear seat belts. More roomy, less confining. Right up until impact.”
The pro-inflation / debt-doesn’t- matter crowd has been around for 70 years. Nothing is going to change anytime soon. Get house, get tangibles, and get the hell out of the dollar while you can.
Look for QE to eternity. Inflation is their only savior. If $1.2 trillion a year doesn’t do it, they’ll try $4. If that doesn’t do it, they will try $8 trillion. Some $trillion, some day will give them their wish, and the poor sap left holding dollars will be the un-seat belted loser.
Oh, no — not the “weapons of mass destruction” card!
Buffett: Debt limit is ‘political weapon of mass destruction’
Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013 | 8:06 AM ET
By: Alex Crippen | Executive Producer
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, says not raising the debt ceiling is an “improper” weapon to use against the American people. This is like “poison gas,” he added.
Warren Buffett said Wednesday the threat to not raise the nation’s debt limit “after you’ve already spent the money” is a “political weapon of mass destruction” comparable to poison gas and shouldn’t be used by either party.
“I know it’s been used in the past, but we used the atomic bomb back in 1945 but we decided we weren’t going to do something like that again,” he said hours before the government’s midnight deadline to raise the debt limit or possibly default.
Buffett called on both sides to pledge not to use the debt limit as a weapon. “There are plenty of weapons that can be used,” like filibusters, he said.
…
Buffett worried his “infesments” might take a hit?
Warren made all his money because he understands how constant devaluation of currency works.
“Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, says not raising the debt ceiling is an “improper” weapon to use against the American people. This is like “poison gas,” he added.”
Poison gas [is] what’s needed on Wall street.
According to CNN, the sky is falling in exactly 14 hours and 6 minutes. There is even a ticker.
I don’t know how anyone can watch that $hit. Any of it.
KISS nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
It’s about time.
I agree, and I didn’t even like them except the 45 with Beth on one side and Detroit Rock City on the other side. B sides don’t get much better than that.
Dynasty (the disco release) is some refined stuff. Even Frehley sounded like a guitarist instead of a guy who plays guitar occasionally.
Hands down; Dr Love has em all beat.
Classic call and response. Never gets old.
Yes sir! Gene at his best!
I saw Paul Stanley doing the “bird dance” at a wedding I was invited to……It’s just never been the same. I guess we are all getting older.
KISS was cool when I was a kid, and then I grew up. Not a big fan.
I saw Paul Stanley doing the “bird dance” at a wedding I was invited to……It’s just never been the same.
Yeah, same with Vince Neil on a reality show.
Have they stopped the countdown ticker yet?
This shouldn’t be a problem.
EBT To Shut Down Nationwide Starting November - FreeRepublic
http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/3079167/posts?page=141 - - Cached - Similar pages
22 hours ago
Somebody this weekend posted “testing 1-2-3″ about the “glitch”.
Matt Bracken posted on another blog yesterday that after EBT goes down there will be riots nationwide that make “1968 look like a picnic”
This past weekend of EBT horrors was just a trial-run…
I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a densely populated urban area when EBT goes down, i.e. the Northeast I-95 corrider, South Florida, or Los Angeles.
Remember Reginald Denny?
Remember Reginald Denny?
I was thinking about him while driving my rental car through Oakland during the Zimmerman trial.
I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a densely populated urban area when EBT goes down, i.e. the Northeast I-95 corrider, South Florida, or Los Angeles
I thought that you were so proud of yourself for living in an area with a high walk score. Are you reconsidering that now?
What are you… keeping score?
“I was thinking about him while driving my rental car through Oakland during the Zimmerman trial.”
You probably recall he was driving through South Central LA, not Oakland, when attacked?
Sometimes I think about Emmett Till when I hear my neighbor speak with furious confused anger about our socialist, Muslim, n!gger president.
i did not post this comment (10-16-2013 08:11) but it aptly summarizes what could happen when they pull the plug on ebt:
http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/more-on-snap-shutdown/#comment-55752
this article (from reuters, who dianne feinstein would consider ‘real journalists’) notes that the state of north carolina is already cutting off the free sh1t army’s free sh1t:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99F00Y20131016?irpc=932
You probably recall he was driving through South Central LA, not Oakland, when attacked?
Of course, and he got off the interstate and I didn’t. But still…just something to think about as I drove along :-).
“Of course, and he got off the interstate and I didn’t. But still…just something to think about as I drove along :-).”
I used to have similar thoughts in my younger days when driving along the interstate through East Saint Louis.
Speaking of East Saint Louis, I always thought Mike Tyson’s strange speech was just him, but a guy I was with in the army from there talked almost exactly the same way. At first nobody could understand him, even another black guy from just across the river, but eventually we all figured out what he was saying after spending a year or so with him.
Why would they need to “test” a shut down? It’s easy to make it happen.
Why would they need to “test” a shut down? It’s easy to make it happen.
Why would the government use secret, undeclared tests of biological agents in the US in the 50’s and 60’s?
Secret Testing in the United States
Simple, the government had questions that needed answers. The same types of questions, I would imagine, for any complex system… like the effects and timelines of an unprecedented EBT shutdown.
Just saying, how hard is it to pull the plug?
“like the effects and timelines of an unprecedented EBT shutdown.”
What did they really learn during the 12 hour shutdown? Which happened mid-month. If they really wanted to learn something, they would have done it at the beginning of the month, when the cupboards were bare.
Sometimes a SNAFU is just a SNAFU.
If you take on mortgage debt at current massively inflated housing prices, you’ll enslave yourself for the rest of your life.
“Debt is bondage.”~ Suze Orman, May 11, 2013
Don’t Be A Debt Donkey®
25 MILLION excess, empty and defaulted houses CHECK
Housing demand at 14 year lows and falling CHECK
Housing prices inflated by 250% CHECK
Household formation at multi decade lows CHECK
Rampant housing fraud CHECK
Public denial formed and supported by a corrupt media CHECK
Population growth the lowest in US history CHECK
Immigration flat to slightly negative CHECK
Oh my word
“Realtor allegedly steals $15,000 of jewelry from home up for sale”
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/23603232/2013/10/03/realtor-allegedly-steals-from-home-on-sale
“Bowie realtor sentenced in mortgage fraud scheme”
http://www.gazette.net/article/20130828/NEWS/130829053/bowie-realtor-sentenced-in-mortgage-fraud-scheme&template=gazette
Local Realtor honored as charity volunteer
Rhodes assists Make-A-Wish
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/oct/07/no-headline—goodneighbor/
They’re not all devils.
Realtor® Good Neighbor Award Winners Improve Lives, Build Strong Communities
WASHINGTON, DC–(Marketwired - Oct 1, 2013) - One of the many ways that Realtors® strengthen communities and the lives of their neighbors is through volunteer work, and for 14 years the Good Neighbor Awards program has recognized Realtors® who do just that. The five individuals named as this year’s REALTOR® Magazine Good Neighbor Awards winners demonstrate how Realtors® value helping those in need and that many of them are committed to selfless service.
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/realtorr-good-neighbor-award-winners-improve-lives-build-strong-communities-1836741.htm
Speaking of fraudsters…..
I’m shocked I tell you…….shocked….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME&feature=youtu.be
“Milford realtor charged with fraud”
http://youtu.be/njbrYYndYBg
Are other nations taking the U.S. debt ceiling deadlock lying down?
9 MINs ago
China Real Time Report
As Washington Dithers on Debt, China Calls for ‘De-Americanized’ World
The fiscal impasse in Washington has rattled markets around the world. As the deadline approaches for a deal that could avert a U.S. default, China’s official Xinhua news agency issued a commentary calling for a “de-Americanized world.”
Stripping out the hyperbole, there may be a lot of sympathy for a little bit of that.
China is on fairly firm ground when it talks about its pocket book. Beijing’s concerns over the fate of its U.S. investments are much like the worries of other holders of U.S. assets. They don’t like to see money needlessly thrown away. And they don’t like what they see as a cavalier attitude among some elected officials in Washington to the responsibilities of a nation that provides the world’s reserve currency.
China had $3.66 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves as of the end of September—a big chunk of which was in U.S. dollar—and it has a lot to be worried about if the political gridlock in Washington blocks a temporary solution on the U.S. debt ceiling and government payments aren’t made. A drop in the value of the dollar—or in U.S. Treasurys, which make up much of Beijing’s dollar holdings—would mean a nasty hit for China, as well as other investors.
The official news agency turned to one of China’s policy objectives—a less dominant role for the dollar in the global reserve-currency system—while avoiding mention of the flip side of that policy, a greater part for the yuan.
“What may also be included as a key part of an effective reform is the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States,” Xinhua said.
…
Looks like China isn’t happy. Will that be your post in answer to the question?
Time will tell.
I look for China to express its displeasure by moving in on Taiwan. Mark my words.
Chain reaction is going to be VERY interesting. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer president.
I think Mr. Kill List is about to discover that he ain’t all that.
“Come together
Right now
Over me”.
Yeah, no thanks.
That guy has a Cult Of Personality going that would rival Kim Jung Il. Its amazing to watch his zombie army line up to adore him. Most of them are so ignorant that they don’t even realize how badly they are being played. But they’ll get it soon enough.
realize how badly they are being played. But they’ll get it soon enough.
I doubt that they will ever “get it”
He sure has been quiet in recent days.
“He sure has been quiet in recent days.”
Given that the primary Republican strategy was ‘get Obama,’ stepping out of the way seems like a reasonable response.
“watch his zombie army line up to adore him”
I was opening some junk mail yesterday and got this letter and application to get an Obamaphone from Assurance Wireless.
“As a Colorado resident, you may qualify for Assurance Wireless based on your household income or if you participate in any of the following programs:
-Medicaid
-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
-Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
-Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
P.S. We’ve enclosed an application for a friend, family member or neighbor who lives at a different address in Colorado and may also qualify.”
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20131015_171729_371-OQ1N4VYF.jpg
The pubes offered a one year delay in implementation of the law. And that’s where Mr. Kill List screwed the pooch. He should have taken that offer, gracefully, instead of twitting the opposition, throwing a hissy and sucking his thumb. His failure to do so has created a wider raft of difficulties for him and for the crats, especially on an international level. He way overplayed his hand.
Given the fact that Obamacare is already a miserable failure, the pubes will now have plenty of ammunition to say “We told you so” in the months and years to come, if it lasts that long. Which it probably won’t.
‘where Mr. Kill List screwed the pooch’
And the media talking heads will say, “But it’s his signature achievement!” like he’s some kinda king with a snow man in the front yard. How come I have to pay for the rest of my life for some clowns “signature achievement”?
About Mr. Kill List. Don’t forget who we are dealing with here; a murderer of children. And he sleeps fine at night, I’m sure. They have a name for that I think.
“The pubes offered a one year delay in implementation of the law. And that’s where Mr. Kill List screwed the pooch. He should have taken that offer, gracefully”
You have got to be kidding, right? Having the roll out now means that the inevitable problems with initial sign ups (Medicare Part D was a mess too) will be nearly a year old when the mid-term elections come up and millions of people who previously didn’t have health insurance will be 9 months into having it. Waiting a year means that the inevitable problems with the sign up would be all that had happened by early November and no one would actually have new coverage.
The likelihood of accepting a one year delay was LESS than accepting a full on repeal. Anyone who thinks about it for more than 5 seconds could figure out why.
And China is doing some fairly harmless posturing. If they invade Taiwan before the end of the month, I’ll eat my hat (the nice one I got in London). It is as if you think that Communists don’t know anything about propaganda.
‘when the mid-term elections come up’
You make it sound like we’re all pawns in a sort of game for these politicians.
“You make it sound like we’re all pawns in a sort of game for these politicians.”
Are you suggesting otherwise?
That guy has a Cult Of Personality going that would rival Kim Jung Il.
You guys don’t get it. It’s not that Obama’s personality and policies are so great - they’re not. It’s just that the radicals on the right scare the cr@p out of most Americans. Obama much more represents the vast majority of Americans than does the Tea Party.
Given the fact that Obamacare is already a miserable failure,
That’s like saying the American League is already a miserable failure in the 2013 World Series.
They are politicians, Ben. That is how they roll. The motivation for the offer to delay for one year was motivated by the exact same dynamic (start up woes being the only thing that would have happened) that caused the offer to be rejected. When the politicians who offered the one year delay were asked if they would like the system any better in one year or would promise not to obstruct if they got the one year delay, they refused to answer.
‘the radicals on the right scare the cr@p out of most Americans’
Romney! Bahh!
Chain reaction is going to be VERY interesting. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer president.
AKA:
As long as Obama is hurt, I don’t care about the dollar, America’s borrowing costs, our national reputation, our domestic tranquility, our excessive political discord, our people’s hostility level, our national security, our jobs, our people and our world standing?
‘As long as Obama is hurt, I don’t care about…’
Most people don’t care about anything you mentioned except jobs. If we have jobs, most things are taken care of. Yesterday there was a big layoff at a manufacturer in Flagstaff. (I happen to know many of those people had recently bought houses). Yesterday we cleaned out a foreclosure. Like most times, we hired a day labor guy. He is an unemployed construction worker from Georgia, on his way to Texas to look for work. Today, I’m headed out of town to get a rental cleaned up after the tenants stopped paying rent and left. I contacted a lady who does cleaning; she told me she needed money to “buy food”. I don’t think she was kidding. I called to confirm the time last night and she told me a friend would have to drive her as her head gasket had blown and “now I don’t even have a car.”
So what’s Obama’s big plan for jobs? Higher house prices, or course! Buy a house, rents are skyrocketing, shortages! While the banks and GSE’s sit on millions of empty houses, or let deadbeats live rent free for years.
People are hurting out here and have been for years. But what Obama/Bernanke and now Yellen give us are higher housing costs, and now, an insurance bill. Great! Thanks a bunch!
And you wonder why some of us don’t really care if Washington has to do without a leaf-viewing tour or a panda on the internet.
Most people don’t care about anything you mentioned except jobs…So what’s Obama’s big plan for jobs….higher housing costs, and now, an insurance bill. ?
I agree jobs are what most people care most about. And Obama hasn’t done too much about that. Americans are hurting. And Obama’s housing polices are more of the same cr@p. But I also compare the history of Democratic job policies vs Republican and IMO, the Dems come out on top. It can be debated but I also believe Romney’s policies would have done worse for the average American than Obama’s.
From Bloomberg dot com:
Since 1961, Republican presidents have served for 28 years while Democrats have been in office for about 23 years. Clinton said total job growth over that period amounted to 66 million. “What’s the jobs score?” he asked the crowd in Charlotte. “Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million!” he said.
The Facts: Clinton’s math is correct. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for the month each president took office, Democratic presidents presided over the creation of 42.3 million jobs and Republican chief executives saw 23.9 million.
Republican Tax Proposals
The Claim: Clinton said Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s tax plan would lead to middle-class tax increases, deep spending cuts or higher deficits. During his speech, Clinton said Romney’s plan could lead to $250,000 tax cuts for people making more than $3 million. Or, he said, it would “obliterate the budget” for education, clean air, clean water and national parks. Or, he said, Republicans would increase the deficit.
The Background: Romney’s fiscal plan calls for a balanced budget in 8 to 10 years. He would cap spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product, increase defense spending, cut tax rates and eliminate tax breaks. He hasn’t specified most of the spending cuts or any of the tax breaks he would eliminate, and independent analyses have found that the math is almost impossible.
“So what’s Obama’s big plan for jobs? Higher house prices, or course! Buy a house, rents are skyrocketing, shortages! While the banks and GSE’s sit on millions of empty houses, or let deadbeats live rent free for years.
People are hurting out here and have been for years. But what Obama/Bernanke and now Yellen give us are higher housing costs, and now, an insurance bill. Great! Thanks a bunch!”
It has to be the lamest of lame economic recovery plans ever hatched in the course of history. Where is the academic economic establishment to question it? I guess the Fed bought all of their silence?
So what’s Obama’s big plan for jobs?
Bring in 50 million additonal workers in the country. That will help employment I believe. LOL
“Bring in 50 million additonal workers in the country. That will help employment I believe. LOL”
It will also create labor supply to fill all the jobs that will be lost when the minimum wage is jacked up to the level required by Democrat politicians.
“Bring in 50 million additonal workers in the country”
Aren’t a lot of them already here?
Greatest Risk Right Now Is China, not DC: Cortes
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Veracuz TJM Founder Steven Cortes discusses China’s waning exports and rising inflation. He speaks with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Yep….Remember, China has ventured into the never tried this before arena also…Don’t just assume that it all works out neatly..
Oct. 16, 2013, 10:43 a.m. EDT
Why the U.S. should be downgraded
Commentary: America doesn’t deserve to be Triple-A
By Michael Casey
The world has lost its faith in the U.S. It no longer deserves to be a Triple-A credit.
This was encapsulated in the nods of agreement that were seen in a packed auditorium at a Washington conference of international bankers on Friday when a visibly angry BlackRock Inc. CEO Laurence Fink told the audience that the U.S. is not a “principled nation.”
When men and women who control tens of trillions of dollars in U.S. investments are indicating they’ve lost their faith in America, it goes to the very question of whether the U.S. deserves to be at the center of world finance. So, whether or not Fitch Ratings follows through on the “Negative Watch” status that it placed on its top-notch U.S. rating Tuesday, it’s clear now that the dysfunctional American political system no longer justifies a Triple-A rating from anyone.
It matters not whether the U.S. is actually forced into a devastating default–still an extremely unlikely event. Triple-A credits do not behave like this.
In top-rated countries, politicians do not use instruments like the federal debt ceiling as an extortionist political tool. In allowing that to happen, the U.S. is abrogating its responsibilities as issuer of the world’s reserve currency and as protector of the “risk free rate.”
…
In top-rated countries, politicians do not use instruments like the federal debt ceiling as an extortionist political tool. In allowing that to happen, the U.S. is abrogating its responsibilities as issuer of the world’s reserve currency and as protector of the “risk free rate.”
This is all bull. Utter lies and utter propoganda. Nobody’s defaulting. US will have all the money to service its debts without the debt limit increase.
So what would make bankers reallly happy?
1. US sould be responsible with its finances and lower its debts?
OR
2. US should keep the ponzy going like there’s no tomorrow?
‘the dysfunctional American political system no longer justifies a Triple-A rating’
Let’s see; we the people have government obligations of between $100-200 trillion, depending on who’s counting. And if we don’t have the government borrow and spend more, we should have our government credit card taken away?
Bottomline, more debt you issue quietly, the higher credit rating your country will have. Thanks for the clarity.
This is all bull. Utter lies and utter propoganda. Nobody’s defaulting.
It is not propaganda. Read it again.
You are conflating and/or being confused by two separate subjects. USA does not need to default to be seen as “abrogating its responsibilities as issuer of the world’s reserve currency and as protector of the “risk free rate.””
Because it is a fact that:
“In top-rated countries, politicians do not use instruments like the federal debt ceiling as an extortionist political tool.”
Now these are facts, not “lies”.
“In top-rated countries, politicians do not use instruments like the federal debt ceiling as an extortionist political tool.”
Of course not. Read it an weep MOFOS!
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.
It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.
Another tidbit about 2006 debt ceiling debate was it passed 52-48 party line votes. No democrat voted for the debt ceiling raise.
You have to wonder, were there only 3 more democrats in senate, we would have had a default in 2006. Interesting…….
It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills.
We can pay our own bills. We’ve never missed paying a bill.
It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government
Just now? Do you know how long countries have been borrowing or issuing bonds?
In other countries, politicians don’t use single issue funding disputes as reasons to not pass a budget. In any other country, the funding would have been delayed for a negotiated period of time to be revisited (say in 3 months) and automatically kicked in unless specifically voted down. The repubs would go for this counting on specifically voting it down, and the dems would go for it counting on a couple repubs switching sides to vote for it. The dems not being willing to negotiate implementation delay, even for a few months is what is really killing the budget.
Really, how come dems have not passed a continuing resolution for 1 month of funding/debt ceiling, and no obamacare to at least make things work while obamacare is negotiated. Currently they get no obamacare AND none of the government operates, so they are getting none of what they want. They could have had the same no obamacare for this one month, but with all the rest of the govt functions at normal levels. They are being petty so they can win on one issue, to the detriment of all other issues.
Currently they get no obamacare AND none of the government operates,
The got Obamacare, it never stopped going forward. Most of the government did not close.
They are being petty so they can win on one issue, to the detriment of all other issues.
I can swear you are talking about the Repubs there about 3 weeks ago. But they lost it all. It’s over. That’s what being “petty” got the Repubs. The Repubs should be furious at the Tea Party. They hung their speaker out to dry and gave the Repubs one big black eye.
“The dems not being willing to negotiate implementation delay, even for a few months is what is really killing the budget.”
The Senate (Democrats) passed a budget in April. The House (Republicans) refused to have a conference committee to resolve differences for 5 months because they wanted this confrontation when they had a government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis to use to bludgeon the Democrats into submission.
The Tea party Republicans in the House wanted a government shutdown. They hate government. Shutting down government is their objective. Making it ineffective is a step on that path.
If the Democrats had given in on any delay in exchange for not shutting down the government, the next step for House Republicans was to demand entitlement reform in exchange for raising the debt ceiling for 6 weeks. And in 6 weeks they would have had some other Republican policy demand.
Republicans have always wanted to eliminate Medicare and Social Security, but they couldn’t do it even when they controlled all branches of the federal government during the Bush administration. So their strategy has become to get Democrats to enact their policies. That is a double win for them, because then they can blame the Democrats for cutting popular programs.
The really bizarre move was Republicans passing Medicare Part D during the Bush administration when they controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. Where was the Tea party outrage at that socialist, entitlement program?
I expect brinkmanship to continue. It suits Republicans. They don’t have to fight Democratic policy initiatives when there is a budget crisis. They get lots of publicity that plays well in their home districts.
And why would Republicans ever want to be the majority party? They get to enact their policy by playing hardball. They dodged single payer and got their Heritage plan in Obamacare. They got budget cuts in the sequester. They got most of the Bush tax cuts made permanent. They are likely to get some form of entitlement reform in the upcoming negotiations. Deficits only matter when there is a Democrat in the White House. And they never have to take responsibility for anything.
“The massive inventory problem grows by the day as the boomer demographic continues to age out permanently. And being the depreciating asset housing has always been, combined with massive and growing inventory means falling prices for the next two decades or more.
Housing is still massively overpriced.”
Rental rates are the least costly option when compared with buying at current inflated asking prices of resale housing. Exit housing and exit quickly.
“Mortgage Applications Near Flat as Purchase Demand Falls”
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/10/16/new-mortgage-demand-falls-amid-government-shutdown-housing-market/
Considering housing prices are massively inflated, collapsing demand shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
Oh my goodness…..
Distressed Sales Drag Down Housing Prices
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/10/distressed-sales-drag-down-housing-prices
What will all the DC Debt Donkeys do?!!!!
From Wikipedia:
South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States, and is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA with a population about 1.7 million.
Using the maps function, I get that area as approximately 191 miles from Washington DC with an estimated drive time of 3 hours in light traffic.
How does this have any impact on people living in the actual DC area? Is this one of the places you consider commuteable to DC?
So just how many millions of excess empty houses does Fannie and Freddy really have?
Tell us.
The article I posted earlier this week didn’t have anything to do with Fannie or Freddie. It was only discussing FHA guaranteed loans that were on the books of four large banks.
Now, answer the question. What does the price of housing almost 200 miles from DC have to do with DC housing prices? Are you suggesting that this is a commutable distance to DC?
Answer the question.
How many millions of excess empty houses do Phoney and Fraudie have on the books.
Well, as I said, I don’t know. But I strongly suspect the answer is zero or very close to zero. You want to know why? Because Fannie and Freddie buy loans, securitize them and sell the bonds. The only reason for an entity that usually owns loans to actually own houses is if they foreclose on the loans. But Fannie and Freddie don’t have any reason to do that. They sell the loans in the form of bonds. And their bonds have an explicit government guarantee now, so there is no reason for people not to buy their bonds.
So, there is your answer.
How answer my questions. How does a reduction in price of some houses 191 miles south of Washington DC impact the value of the houses in the immediate area of DC? Do you consider an area that is over a 3 hours drive away from DC to be a “commutable” area?
Not much of answer considering Phoney and Fraudie sell excess empty houses directly to the public.
Now would you like another chance to answer?
Polly is right on this one. The Fed owns most if not all empty houses and there are 30 millions or more empty houses.
“Now, answer the question. What does the price of housing almost 200 miles from DC have to do with DC housing prices?”
I’ll take that one.
Both are artificially inflated by federally guaranteed lending by the FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, USDA, and probably five other programs whose names I don’t know off the top of my head.
“And their bonds have an explicit government guarantee now, so there is no reason for people not to buy their bonds.”
Isn’t there a risk of massive losses when and if the Fed scales back their $40 bn a month in MBS purchases?
Is the Fed buying the bonds at above par prices? You are talking like someone who is actively trading bonds in a bond fund. But if you don’t like the “market” price of a bond that is guaranteed, you don’t have to sell it. Just hold it until it is paid off at par.
There is a risk that a new political party will rise up, win the House, get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and win the White House and that they will do that based on a platform of letting Fannie and Freddie go hang themselves, renouncing the guarantee and whatever else it would take to get the backing off the bonds. However, I would not hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
“There is a risk that a new political party will rise up, win the House, get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and win the White House and that they will do that based on a platform of letting Fannie and Freddie go hang themselves, renouncing the guarantee and whatever else it would take to get the backing off the bonds.”
Why worry about zero probability strawman scenarios?
The Fed has already announced they will taper QE3, and the markets have responded so far by selling off long-term debt, including long-term Treasurys and MBS. Do you expect this recent development to remain indefinitely arrested from here on out?
this one’s for in colorado
wall street journal - oracle faces increased pressure on pay:
‘institutional shareholder services, the biggest u.s. proxy advisor, said oracle corp. investors should vote against nearly the entire board and reject changes the company is seeking to its stock compensation plan in protest of what i.s.s. considers excessive pay.
the recommendations follow months of dissatisfaction among mainstream investors over years of high pay for chief executive larry ellison that may produce a showdown at this month’s meeting.
some shareholders complain that mr. ellison, who founded the software company and beneficially owns about 25 percent of the company’s shares, continues to receive tens of millions of dollars of stock options every year — even when oracle’s performance has been mixed.’
Ellison has been very good to himself.
That said, Oracle’s profit margins are very handsome.
Oh no Martha!
California Home Sales And Prices Fall As Mortgage Rates Rise
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=24218
7 crazy side effects from the shutdown
By Michael Pearson, CNN
updated 2:07 PM EDT, Thu October 10, 2013
(CNN) — You know about the obvious impacts of the government shutdown: federal workers idled, offices closed, funding disrupted for all sorts of activities.
But some of the impacts are less obvious, more outrageous, or a little bit of both.
Here’s a sampling of some of the spinoff effects of the shutdown showdown in Washington:
…
“Realtor Gets 26 Years For Mortgage Fraud”
http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/realtor-gets-26-years-for-mortgage-fraud/
“Nevada Foreclosure Rate Sent Through The Roof”
http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/oct/09/sharp-rise-nevadas-foreclosure-rate-new-short-sale/
This guy has a warning for U.S citizens that are thinking about moving to central/south American
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9DqrYUnCcE
Its interesting that he feels he needs to start off with an apology; even though it appears he is just being honest?
You need guys like this because the shills have taken over the expat info industry. I even suspect some may be collecting checks from the respective governments.
This guy has a warning for U.S citizens that are thinking about moving to central/south American
Good lord. What a wasted 14 min of my life listening to this dude. He took almost a quarter of an hour to say:
1. You’re never going to master the language. (true)
2. You’re never going to make friends. (not true)
3. You can get ripped off. (Duhh)
4. You might be more accepted if you marry into it. (Duhh)
5. You’re always going to be the outsider - “the gringo”. (True but that’s good sometimes and has its advantages if one lives in a big city)
6. Rent for a year. (Hell, rent for 5)
The dude’s boring and way too slow to come to a point even in English, I can’t imagine how boring he is in Spanish. No wonder he can’t make any friends. So some of his advice is good but I can see why he had his problems “down here”.
BTW: He’s got a house to sell ya. (What a sales pitch.)
ALERT: Government Freezes EBT Funds: Orders States to Withhold Transfers to Food Stamp Recipients
By Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
October 16, 2013
This weekend America witnessed a limited crash in the computer systems that manage electronic benefit transfers across the country. Within hours of the crash panicked food stamp recipients who were left with no way to feed their families rushed grocery store shelves to obtain everything they could while the system was down.
The outage lasted less than a day, but it proved what many already knew, that America had become a nation so dependent on government subsidies that any glitch in the system could lead to total pandemonium.
But if you thought that isolated incident was bad, imagine what could happen next month.
We say next month because the USDA, which oversees the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), has just issued an order to SNAP agency directors calling for their respective States to implement an emergency contingency program because of government funding issues. In a letter obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center food pantry, the USDA is directing state agencies to, “delay their November issuance files and delay transmission to State Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) vendors until further notice.”
What this means is that should Congress fail to increase the debt ceiling this week, come November there will literally be millions of people in the United States who will have exactly zero dollars transferred to their EBT cards.
What will happen to the nearly 50 million people who depend on these benefits to survive?
Think this past weekend and multiply it across the entirety of the United States of America.
In the State of Utah the immediate effect of the USDA’s contingency plan will be a freeze in benefits for 100,000 people. Richard Phillips, a homeless man who depends on the government’s monthly distributions, warned what would happen next:
It’s going to cause problems… because then you’re going to come to find out that you’re going to have people starting to steal and do what they have to do to survive.
Video Report via
Here is the USDA letter in full:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/10/mac-slavo/government-to-cut-off-food-stamp-users%E2%80%A8/ - -
Good idea to have several weeks (or months) of food on hand for when this happens
November 2013 food stamp riots = Zombie Apocalypse
Got 7.62×39?
Mysterious FEMA Region lll Alert Has Folks on Edge
by Lisa Cerda (obviously not a Feinstein approved journalist)
23 Aug 2013
CERDAFIED - Following the bread crumb trail of FEMA orders, retired State Senator Sheldon R. Songstad of South Dakota State issued an “Emergency Fema Region 3 Alert!!!,” on August 13th.
Region three is comprised of; Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Songstad’s research turned up some very interesting facts. Each item on its own could go unnoticed, but the collective facts may be worthy of your attention and scrutiny. The U.S. government appears to be preparing for a major event. It appears that this event is being staged for approximately Oct. 1st. Let’s look at the numbers and dates.
UN Peacekeepers began training the 4th week of July and will complete their nine week training by October 1st. They are learning English, as well as US weapon systems and Urban Warfare training.
How many troops are training? 386,000 troops!
The Center of Disease Control ordered $11 million worth of antibiotics. Where are they going? FEMA Region lll. When are they due? October 1st. This coupled with the fact that the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting, its second such meeting in its history, to discuss MERS Coronavirus. This is quite unsettling. The WHO determined that a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.
Periodic testing of GPS and Communications satellites is normal, but coordinating their testing for the first time, with a testing date of September 29th, is noteworthy.
All DHS agents MUST now qualify with sidearm, shotgun and AR 15’s by September 28th. Less lethal qualifications are not mentioned. Has one eye brow raised? The DHS will receive 2800 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP’s) that must be delivered by October 1st.
All National Guard units will complete their annual two week training in riot control and disaster assistance. All units MUST have their training complete by September 30th. However, the Eastern-based Coast Guard units will not be performing their usual training in the Gulf, this year they will be trained in Virginia and Delaware for 10 days beginning September 26th.
Coincidently, the Emergency Broadcast System will begin daily testing beginning on September 25th thru October 2nd. All of this kind of reminds me of the bomb sniffing dogs being trained at the Boston Marathon for the first time ever.
FEMA purchase orders deserve a little attention too. They ordered over $14.2 million for MREs and heater meals and 22 million pouches of emergency water, to be delivered to Region III by October 1st. An additional order of $13.6 million worth of MRE’s and heater meals will be delivered to Austin by October 1st.
Our U.S. military will not be permitted leave from September 28th thru November 5th. NORCOMM’s yearly training for civil unrest is suspended until September 27th. To be performed in northeast coastal areas. Date for release of QE3 report has been moved to October 16th.
Over 300 school systems will be issued a 3 day emergency kit for each student in September.
The retired Senator’s national preparedness research was sparked by a comment Donald Trump made during a recent appearance on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” Songstad included a video version of his findings with his notice. His video is going viral.
How concerned should we be? Or perhaps the question is….How prepared should we be? Perhaps the answer is……Better prepared than the government.
http://www.citywatchla.com/in-case-you-missed-it-hidden/5584-mysterious-fema-region-lll-alert-has-folks-on-edge - 193k
I wonder what meetings Sheila Jackson Lee has been sitting in on?
Texan Congress Woman Sheila Jackson Says “We have martial law”
October 9th, 2013
Congress woman Sheila Jackson, Rep. (D – TX), said today on the House floor:
“We have martial law, what that means, and my colleagues know what that means, is that you can put a bill on in just minutes.”
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/texan-congress-woman-sheila-jackson-says-we-have-martial-law_102013 - 84k -
CBC recommends Sheila Jackson Lee for Homeland Security post
By Jessica Chasmar
The Washington Times
July 29, 2013
Just two weeks after Janet Napolitano announced her resignation as Secretary of Homeland Security, the Congressional Black Caucus has suggested Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston fill her spot.
Mrs. Jackson Lee currently serves as a ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, a position that the caucus said she “stands as a strong and honest ‘voice of reason.’”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/29/cbc-recommends-sheila-jackson-lee-homeland-securit/ - 96k
When EBT goes down, within days it will devolve into an urban race war. The DHS will be ordered to stand down and not interfere with non-white looters (de facto reparations). Any white gun owner who defends themselves against non-white assailants will be arrested for hate crimes and sent to FEMA camps.
You’ll see
“Over 300 school systems will be issued a 3 day emergency kit for each student in September. “
This seems perfectly reasonable for any area of the country. My children’s schools used to request parents to send in an emergency kit at the beginning of the school year. Earthquakes are our emergency. Schools with large numbers of low income students would not be able to expect such contributions from parents.
Should we expect schools not to prepare for emergencies?
I am skeptical of the foodstamps shutdown. So far the only proof is a xeroxed memo which could be a fake. And while the USDA website hasn’t been updated since the shutdown, the state websites, the guys who actually administer the program, have been silent on the issue.
Then again, if this is for real, then maybe those who complained of the sky falling because of a government shutdown were right after all.
When EBT goes down, you should be happy you don’t live in Southern California any more.
When EBT crashes, I will flee to the hills and conduct a real-life reenactment of critically acclaimed film Red Dawn, except that it will be urban zombies, not commies, who are attacking.
WOLVERINES!
The pandemonium was caused by Walmart honoring EBT cards without limitation. People saw an opportunity to get more than they were allocated.
What would people do if their EBT cards were permanently cut off? That depends on the person. Some will beg. Some will steal. Some will get help from neighbors or food banks or churches. Some will dumpster dive. Some will get depressed and commit suicide.
yahoo news linked from drudge:
‘president barack obama said on tuesday that stalled immigration reform would be a top priority once the fiscal crisis has been resolved’
The geological phenomenon better known as cratering has resumed activity.
Denver Post piece:
“Fast-food workers cost taxpayers nearly $7 billion in welfare costs each year, according to a study issued Tuesday by the University of California at Berkeley.
That’s because the workers at restaurants such as Wendy’s and McDonald’sare forced onto the public dole from wages that are too low for them to get by, the study found.
The study defined public assistance as including food stamps, Medicaid for adults and children, temporary assistance for needy familes, or TANF, and the federal earned income tax credit.”
Wages aren’t “too low”.
Prices are too high as a result of price fixing.
I had a Croissanwich from Burger King (coupon for $1.29) this morning and it was delicious.
With the amount of money your saving every month from throwing your money away on rent, you could buy us all breakfast everyday and still watch your bank account balloon.
Where’s our mules?
Still busy signing up for the health insurance?
So which one of you mortgage sales fraudsters will be the first to crack and begin telling the truth?
[It's practically standing still now. They've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship, and they've been taken a hold of down on the field by a number of men.] It’s starting to rain again; it’s—the rain has slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it just, just enough to keep it from — It burst into flames! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It’s a glitch —and it’s crashing! It’s crashing terrible! Oh, my, get out of the way, please! It’s burning and bursting into flames, and the—and it’s falling on the mooring-mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is one of the worst glitches in the world. [Indecipherable word(s)] It’s–it’s–it’s the flames, [indecipherable, possibly the word "glitch"] oh, four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it … it’s a terrific glitch, ladies and gentlemen. It’s smoke, and it’s flames now … and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity and all the exceptional U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants are screaming around here. I told you, I can’t even talk to people whose friends are on there. Ah! It’s–it’s–it’s–it’s … o–ohhh! I–I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it’s just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk, and the screaming. Lady, I–I’m sorry. Honest: I–I can hardly breathe. I–I’m going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that’s terrible. Ah, ah—I can’t. I, listen, folks, I–I’m gonna have to stop for a minute because I’ve lost my voice. This is the worst glitch I’ve ever witnessed.
LOLZ
Debt Donkeys….. take a look. Now go outside and look around the perimeter of your depreciating millstone of a house.
This is what it’s going to look like over the coming years.
http://www.saveoursuwannee.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/home_ph1_BIG.jpg
Since when was price fixing legal? Has the Sherman Antitrust Act been repealed and nobody reported it?
How could a U.S. default both pay off for long-term bond owners, as some say, and lead to a spike in mortgage rates, as others say.
One of these two groups of prognosticators is wrong.
Oct. 16, 2013, 10:03 a.m. EDT
U.S. default could pay off for bond investors
Commentary: Debt, budget debacle boost fixed income’s appeal
By Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — With the U.S. government toying with default, Congress looks like the gang that couldn’t spend straight. The irony is that obstinate elected officials might be just what bond investors need to avoid their own painful debt dilemma.
Bond investors, especially newly minted income-minded buyers who have flocked to bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds since the 2008 financial-market meltdown, should understand that the U.S. won’t go broke if the debt ceiling is not raised by Thursday’s deadline.
The U.S. Treasury evidently has enough cash to make payments through October, according to many objective estimates. After that, though, all bets are off. Important obligations — perhaps even military pay or disability benefits — would be deferred and both U.S. and global economic growth would take a hit. So could stocks.
Yet higher-quality bonds, perversely including Treasurys, could benefit as investors seek the most stable and safe assets.
…
Oct. 16, 2013, 6:14 a.m. EDT
Mortgage rates could spike if U.S. defaults
The worst-case scenario for housing if the debt ceiling is breached
By AnnaMaria Andriotis
Mortgage rates could skyrocket if the U.S. government defaults, housing analysts say.
Democrats and Republicans have two days to reach a deal before the government breaches the debt ceiling. Should a default occur, mortgage applicants could face a worst-case scenario that includes rates that rise by as much as one to two percentage points within a day or so, says Stu Feldstein, president of mortgage-research firm SMR Research. “Interest rates would go through the roof immediately,” he says.
In order for such a spike to occur — and last more than just a few days — several scenarios would have to play out. Besides defaulting on its debt, the U.S. government would have to signal that it isn’t planning on making its payments soon or it would have to take the position of not intervening to stabilize the mortgage market. Analysts say complete inaction is unlikely since a severe increase in rates would lead to a drop in mortgage applications that would stall the housing recovery.
Home buyers, however, should be aware of the link between a government default and mortgage rates. A default would lead to an increase in Treasury yields, which serve as a benchmark for determining rates on many mortgages. The Treasurys impacted first would be those with the shortest-term duration—which would make adjustable-rate mortgages more expensive for borrowers, says Brad Hunter, chief economist at Metrostudy, a housing market research and consulting firm. These loans are given to borrowers with an initial teaser-like rate, which is normally fixed for a number of years; once that rate becomes variable, it’s often pegged to the one-year Treasury yield. That yield has barely budged in the last couple of weeks, though experts say a default would send it climbing.
…
Oct. 16, 2013, 10:38 a.m. EDT
Short-term Treasurys signal jitters on debt deal
By Ben Eisen, MarketWatch
T-bills yields spiked higher Wednesday morning, with the October 24 maturity jumping over 0.70%, before falling lower.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The short-term Treasury market telegraphed jitters over a deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit Wednesday as dealers and clearing houses edged out of the debt, sending yields on bills maturing at the end of the month on a brief spike to fresh highs.
Both parties were said to be close to reaching a deal in the Senate Wednesday to temporarily raise the debt ceiling and reopen the federal government. The House would then bring the Senate bill forward for a vote.
That would alleviate pressure on a Thursday deadline after which the Treasury Department would not be able to engage in further borrowing. Strategists largely agree that the government would have enough cash, even in the absence of borrowing, to avoid payment delays on Treasury bills until later in October or early November.
Nonetheless, the firms who facilitate trading on the short-term bills have seen little upside in taking risks on a payment delay if a deal isn’t reached.
“Dealers are avoiding the sector and clearing banks are unwilling to finance paper that matures by the end of year, causing a fairly chaotic environment,” said Thomas di Galoma, co-head of fixed-income rates trading at ED&F Man Capital Markets, in a note.
…
Phoenix Housing Demand Collapsed A Full 36% YoY
http://picpaste.com/pics/4050d5599b7734c70abf77a7ec454da0.1381934135.png
Phoenix rental rates, list prices, sale prices all resumed falling in the last 30 days.
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/AZ-Phoenix-home-value/r_40326/#metric=mt%3D19%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D8%26r%3D40326%26el%3D0
Definitely off-topic but something I found quite interesting as a friend and I just returned from a trip to NYC. We stayed in a Brooklyn brownstone for $100 a night (which split two ways wasn’t too shabby at all!). Is the city that desperate?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/15/ny-airbnb-tourists-lodging/2991783/
Looks like hoarding money wasn’t such a bad idea after all:
‘Furloughed federal workers have been all but assured that they will be paid once the government opens again. Even so, let me offer some advice to those people with jobs that they thought were secure. Do what you can, as soon as you can, to create an emergency fund. Make it a priority.’
‘The Washington Post asked people to participate in an online survey about how the shutdown had impacted them. Almost two-thirds said it had affected them daily or threatened their livelihood. Here’s what some workers wrote:
— Calif.: “Check to Check, like most folks these days. Furlough put me back even deeper.”
— Colo.: “Just worked out our budgets though Nov. 15 — half a paycheck this pay period and at this point no paycheck by Nov. 1 — currently over $300 in the hole and seeking delays to monthly payment for car, insurance, credit, student loans, mortgage.”
— Va.: “No work equals no pay. No savings equals bad, really bad.”
— Mass.: “I am a federal employee supporting a spouse in graduate school with student loans of my own to pay. Even if I get back pay, paying the immediate bills will be a significant challenge. One of the reasons I was attracted to this job was because of its ‘stability.’ ”
Let’s put this guy in charge of some a-bombs or something!
‘No savings equals bad, really bad’
Do people who work for the Federal government realize how out of touch they seem to the rest of the country? Out here in the fields, we’d eat the damn panda.
Look…. beware. These people are Free Sh*t Army candidates. And they want your cash Mr. Jones. And you too Goonsquad. And Bill in LA too. They want to empty your pockets. Their pockets have been empty (along with their skulls) their entire lives so you guys(and me) are entirely out of character and they want to correct that. Make no mistake, as soon as their govt henchmen are done shaking us down at their behest, their pockets will still be empty and they’ll still have nothing but debt to their names.
They are junkies. The Free Sh*t Army is comprised of junkies riding the backs of donkeys. They switch up from time to time and they are one and the same.
‘currently over $300 in the hole and seeking delays to monthly payment for car, insurance, credit, student loans, mortgage…does anyone have some boxes?’
These people are Free Sh*t Army candidates. And they want ..their jobs back.
American’s aren’t “lazy”. That is just a right-wing whitewash deflection to take your eye off the ball so as to not have to pay-back something AFTER they sent our jobs away. They took our jobs so they could profit more and now they call us lazy. BS. Most prefer to work. Proof?
When America had jobs in the 90s the unemployment rate was 4.4% and was considered close to “full employment” by many economists.
So if American’s are lazy, why was everyone working?
Americans should respect and love their fellow countrymen more.
Don’t let the far right divide us more.
“Don’t let the far right divide us more.”
(1) The PTB want open borders because that gives them cheap labor and the social costs are picked up by the tax payers. The Tea Party is against open borders.
(2) The PTB want fiat currency and the Fed so they can control the supply of money to their benefit. The Tea Party is against that and wants a gold backed currency since that controls inflation, the killer of the middle class and does not create bubble economies.
(3) The PTB want deficit spending since it keeps their corporate profits up, they intend to leave the country when it collapses. The Tea Party wants government within its means.
The PTB want to destroy the Tea Party so it could remove them from the opposition to open borders and for the other reasons listed. Obama is already talking about pushing the immigration fight again since he hopes the Tea Party has been weakened.
So should I fear the Tea Party or Obama and the PTB pawns in the Democratic and Republican party? A lot of wing nuts are members of the Tea Party but they may just be the only thin reed to gasp to protect democracy. I wish what happened with Syria would happen more often and the left would join with them. I think the need to crush them became more urgent when they finally stopped a war that only the globalists wanted.
changing things up again eh?
A lot of wing nuts are members of the Tea Party but they may just be the only thin reed to gasp to protect democracy.
“Gasp” all right. They’re gasping now. Keep drinking the KoolAide.
(PS. Rasmussen has the TeaParty winning the White House in 2016)
“Rasmussen has the TeaParty winning the White House in 2016″
That was a low blow.
It does not matter he does not want to address the substance of the comments. One other fact, both Romney and Obama did draft a very similar health plan. The PTB want to remove the cost of health care from the employers to the taxpayers. The taxpayers will now pay for the illegals’ care instead of cost shifting which forced the employer to pay more for the employees’ care due to the increased number of illegals.
Obamacare will allow that rising cost benefit to no longer be paid by the employer without most people understanding how their “wages” are being cut.
One other fact, both Romney and Obama did draft a very similar health plan.
This occurred to me last week when Northeasterner said that there was no mandate for Obamacare because only 52% (or whatever) of the voters voted for Obama in the last election. How many voted for a third party candidate? It must have been around 2% or 3%. So you had actually a good 97% of the voters voting for a supporter of Obamacare.
That’s quite a mandate.
Pathetic.
They should have read Dave Ramsey, Mr. Money Mustache, et cetera.
Don’t ink your name to albatross mortgage debt slavery.
Don’t have kids, addictions, expensive hobbies.
Bill in Los Angeles = WIN.
During a checkup, Joe his doctor “Do you think I’ll live to be 80, doctor?”
He replied, “Well, do you smoke or drink beer?”
“Oh no”, Joe replied, “I’ve never done either.”
Then the doctor asked, “Do you eat grilled steaks or barbequed ribs?
Joe replied, “No, I’ve heard that red meat is very unhealthy.”
“Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf?” asked the doctor.
“No I don’t,” Joe replied.
Then the doctor asked, “Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or mess with women?”
“No,” said Joe, “I’ve done none of those things.”
The doctor looked at Joe and said, “Then why do you want to live to be 80?”
Is Joe’s last name perchance “Smith”?
Possibly, I personally know 5 people named Joe Smith.
“Furloughed federal workers have been all but assured that they will be paid once the government opens again.”
…….and that lump sum-back pay couldn’t come at a better time…..Christmas shopping……a big screen on every wall.
Interesting: “Socialist” Norway has $120,000 **per person** in it’s sovereign wealth fund.
Also mindblowing for teatards: Basic accounting principle: A = L + OE. Having a large amount of liabilities does =/= broke. Every single teatard I’ve talked to complains about the national debt. WE ARE NOT BROKE, NOT EVEN CLOSE!
That said, the relative amount of debt absolutely matters. And how you spend your money matters a great deal — does it create assets? Or does it promote rent-seeking, subsidization, or other negative/inefficient economic outcomes?
In other words, mass transit, roads, telecom infrastucture, airports, medical research = assets. Bombs, wars, subsidies to farmers and big agra = wasteful and counterproductive. And entitlements? They are __all__ just income transfers, whether they be SS/MC or EBT/Section 8. All of them inherently unproductive. The question is what level of safety net society ought to provide or not provide. Another fact is that money and medical care given to unproductive older people is just dead weight, period. Pretty hard to be for SS/MC and against WIC or EBT (if you are intellectually consistent).
Actually, Norway’s SWF is worth nearly $800B, which would make it $140k per person. I just checked wikipedia’s list of largest SWF’s.
Dang! The SWF I married is from the wrong European country!
Ba dump bump…
What’s all this commie blather?
Government contractors = $500,000,000,000+ a year (I just love typing out all twelve zeroes when I type that). Food stamps = $80B+ a year. I showed the Obamaphone letter/application (picpaste link above) to one of my Drudged-out colleagues just for the LOLZ, almost gave him a heart attack.
You’re old enough to get over that youthful idealism bullsh*t, so get over it already.
As poet, mystic, and drunk Jim Morrison once said, “I just wanna get my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames”
$500,000,000,000+ a year (I just love typing out all twelve zeroes when I type that).
This one goes to eleven…
(or at least, that’s all I count, unless you missed one)
Oops, should be twelve digits / eleven zeroes. But you get the point.
Another fun way to rephrase that is Government Contractors cost taxpayers over HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!
Which is coincidentally (to Downlow Joe’s post) about equal to the GDP of Norway
Pretty hard to be for SS/MC and against WIC or EBT (if you are intellectually consistent).
Another misinformation.
I am for abolishing all, but you know very well that all working people contibute to SS and MC. If you tell people you will get some service in return, they will most certainly expect some of it back. I see no problems with that. The best thing would be to make SS and MC optional….if you don’t pay, you are on your own.
With your example, no country is broke. Greece isn’t broke, Argentina is broke, US isn’t…no country is. You have to wonder what the fuss is all about anyway?
In addition to fish oil, Norway also exploits its natural resources and has built a large financial reseve because to it. What’s the point of comapring apples to oranges?
“Get some of it back”? LOL, just LOL.
The average boomer will get about $300k more from SS/MC than they paid in. Yes, that is inflation-adjusted.
SS and MC are also structured as PAYGo programs, not as savings programs. They use trust funds that issue IOUs which are paid off by YOUNGER people. They also operate under the assumption that HC costs won’t increase faster than inflation (LOL) and that future generations will be willing and able to foot increasingly large bills to pay for the old people.
And no, I didn’/t say “no country is broke”. I said it all depends HOW you spend money and what assets you have, what receivables you have, etc. Re-read it, teabilly.
‘They use trust funds that issue IOUs which are paid off by YOUNGER people’
Sounds like a Ponzi scheme.
I don’t think that’s a bad assessment. I think operating as PAYGo made SS more politically favorable at that point in history. But if it’s PAYGo, it certain is not a system where people are saving for their own retirements. The whole thing is predicated on ever-greater abilities of younger generations to foot the bill.
I’m not against SS in theory, I think some kind of minimal subsistence income just makes sense in the modern world. But it’s BS to treat SS/MC as something wholly different than EBT or WIC. It’s different, but if you look below the surface, it’s more similar than people want to admit.
“I think operating as PAYGo made SS more politically favorable at that point in history.”
It would have made a lot less sense had anyone back in 1935 foreseen the increase in average life expenctancy from 65 years to circa 80 years. That extra 15 years of PAYgo funding coupled with the oncoming tsunami wave of Baby Boom retirements is why the SS program is one of the subjects the politicians should be discussing as they try to figure out how to manage the national debt.
Good point PBear. Also worth thinking about is that Depression and WW2 kept the “Greatest Generation” retiree somewhat smaller than would be expected. Meanwhile, Boomers were a huge generation who didn’t have to pay much SS/MC taxes (bc smaller amts of retirees during their working years) and now will live forever and drain out way more money than they ever paid.
“…drain out way more money than they ever paid.”
Having paid in 15.3% since 1983 or so, I’m losing you on that point.
Boomers were a huge generation who didn’t have to pay much SS/MC taxes
I’ve already paid more than 200K to SS. I expect to work (and pay) for 20 more years. I’d hardly call that a pittance.
I’ve been paying into it for more than 45 years. I’ve paid the max for 35 years. Hardly a pittance indeed. Not that I think there will be means to pay the “expected” benefit, but not like I was a free rider.
They use trust funds that issue IOUs which are paid off by YOUNGER people.
You got that bit entirely backwards.
The trust fund _HOLDS_ IOUs, which are US government bonds. They hold these bonds because they have been running a large surplus between 1983 and 2009, after the 1982(?) attempt to reform the system and avoid the actuarial time-bomb.
It doesn’t issue IOUs; they are currently in the process of redeeming the ones accumulated over the past two decades.
Prime, you are correct. They hold the IOUs.
Does not change my point that SS and MC are a transfer payment from younger workers to older people. It’s so funny to see intellectually dishonest people talk about how they PAID FOR THEIR BENEFITS. Unless they die pretty early into retirement, they did not. This is even true for rich people, bc SS/MC taxes top out once your income is in the low 6 figures.
The point here is, SS/MC are just transfer payments to an especially vocal/active special interest. Remember when Romney/Ryan were going to change SS and MC… but only for people below 55? That was specifically to get some “free shit army” boomers to say “well, I got mine, so I’m all set” to go along with it.
Let’s make it a just system….make SS, MC, O’Care all voluntary. If you don’t pay, you are on your own. Who’s with me?
Can we make paying for the military optional? Paying for wars?
Yes and HELL YES!
I suppose a truly defensive military is needed, may be about 10% of what we have today.
Let’s make it a just system….make SS, MC, O’Care all voluntary. If you don’t pay, you are on your own. Who’s with me?
Then we’ll end up with a zillion old lucky duckies on welfare.
I suppose a truly defensive military is needed, may be about 10% of what we have today.
Can we make that voluntary as well?
Prime, you are correct. They hold the IOUs.
Does not change my point that SS and MC are a transfer payment from younger workers to older people.
Here’s another thought. Imagine if a person bought large quantities of savings bonds during his working years and then sold them after he retired to pay his bills. You could say the same thing about the situation - taxes collected from younger people still in the workforce were going to that guy.
The average boomer will get about $300k more from SS/MC than they paid in. Yes, that is inflation-adjusted.
You shouldn’t lump the two programs together like that. People get more of Social Security than they paid in, but they don’t get alot more and that’s the way that a retirment program should work anyway. The real problem is with health care inflation.
Also, if you want to consider Medicare to be a transfer from the young and the middle-aged to the old, you could extend that analysis to everything. Public K-12 education and state universities represent a transfer from working people to kids. The national parks which have been getting so much attention lately are a transfer from people who never use them to people who do, not to mention those business owners who are located just outside the parks.
“The average boomer will get about $300k more from SS/MC than they paid in. Yes, that is inflation-adjusted.”
And therein lies the crux of the problem…and no one wants to face the basic math. Whenever I try to discuss the cold-hard math with my far left leaning MIL, I get the equivalent of fingers in the ears, singing “la la la”.
See the comments above, many fingers in ears.
“The average boomer will get about $300k more from SS/MC than they paid in. Yes, that is inflation-adjusted.”
Did you inflation adjust inputs as well as payouts?
The Social Security payouts that I have calculated show break even at 78, regardless of when you begin collecting. Someone with a family history of living well past 78 who is also healthy, would be better off to wait until 70 to start collecting.
I would expect chained CPI to push that out past 78, but I don’t have any idea of how far.
“Socialist” Norway also gives new parents a full year’s off for getting their baby’s life off on the right foot. Probably a good idea to incentivize parenthood that way, as I am pretty sure the weather that far north is not exactly conducive to procreation.
Probably a good idea to incentivize parenthood that way, as I am pretty sure the weather that far north is not exactly conducive to procreation.
Huh? Nothing better than snuggling by the fire…
take away the oil and I am not sure whaling would be quite as generous.
How about finland, sweden, denmark?
The Captain and Tennille
They should have been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If Hall & Oates can get nominated, Captain and Tennille deserve to be even more so …
I had a dream about them ( Capt & Tenn) last night. Random. Much like my posts sometimes. Here, some Revolting Cocks (NSFW):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT21xkCsF_g
“I had a dream about them”
Last night I had a dream I was checking out a 1969 corvette. The lady selling it was smoking a big huge cigar and told me she just had the rear end rebuilt. I pulled the cover off and look and saw a circular saw blade where the ring gear should be. Wacked out.
Freud would have a field day with that :-).
It was weird because I don’t dream or at least I don’t remember them but this one I did only because she and the car were smokin’ hot.
Thoughts on Toto?
I swam in the reigns of Obama?
Calling RAL….
—————————————
http://www.mrlandlord.com/landlordforum/display.php?id=14100302
Frankly I’m thinking of divesting myself of my apartments.. I can earn about a 30% equity profit. I was hoping to wait for them to double in value and let my partner sell them after I kick the bucket.
We have several large REIT owned, government subsidised, apartment properties in our market. They literally are giving away rentals.
I’ve owned my properties for 4 and 5 years now and we have constantly had vacancy and retention problems. (We are in a winter season resort town in AZ.) I have never had full occupancy. My units rent for $395-$425 for a 1 bedroom and $495 to $525 for two bedrooms, though I discount the 2 bedrooms down to $450 for single seniors. They are nice properties.
The competitions latest advertising - “FREE FIRST MONTH and NO DEPOSIT!” (On a 7 month lease.) Plus pet charges waived, just a $99 “processing fee” (service animals free). I don’t allow pets.
In other words, move in for free, bring your pit bulls, provide no deposit and don’t have to pay for 30 days.
PLUS they pay water, sewer, trash, AND FREE CABLE! This on a two bedroom apt for $480 a month. That means before taxes, maintenance, capitol repairs and mortgage they net about $350 per unit.
Plus they have a pool.
I really don’t see any way I can compete anymore. I’m losing ALL my interested parties to these properties. I’ve had two units vacant for three months! So have many other smaller properties except the total slum/druggie properties.
Anybody have any ideas? I can’t drop my rates any more and still make it worthwhile to service the properties.
LOL, some of the dimmer commenters on that board are telling the guy to “plant some flowers, paint the doors, add shutters” or “add hookups for washer/dryers” etc.
Hahahahahha.
I told the guy to retire and sell, esp. since he’s in his 60s, I believe.
Sorry I did not quote any RAL material in my post to him.
Sounds like Tucson, Arizona. You can swing a dead cat and hit an empty rental.
I’m fearful that LL is going to try and “compete” for the business with those corporate types who purchased properties dirt cheap in bulk. It doesn’t sound like much of a competition worth winning. He says rentals for 1 BR are like $400/month. When you’re competing for that crowd, it can’t be good for your financial health.
I have been noticing the banks are beating earnings estimates with loss loss reserves.
also a lot of tech companies are coming up with bogus accounting to beat earnings.
If you look at revenue at a lot of these tech companies there is basically no growth.
You buy stock for company growth not bs accounting gimmics.
do your homework people.
Tell me about JP Morgan’s earnings… they were released last week.
Here’s a quote from the NY Times Dealbook post:
“Dennis Kelleher, the head of Better Markets, an advocacy group focused on financial industry reform, was a partner earlier in his career at the large law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He blames the bank for its prodigious legal bills.
“This massive morass that JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon find themselves in is of their making,” Mr. Kelleher said. “Improve your behavior and you won’t need to hire so many lawyers.”
JP Morgan’s 3rd qtr losses are due to $9 Billion (with a B) in legal fees paid to its corporate lawyers.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/jpmorgan-reported-third-quarter-loss-on-legal-costs/?_r=1
LOL @ JP Morgan.
Liberace has entered the building!
What was Downlow Joe’s motivation when he posted that Slate dot com article about the dude whose wife had cancer and a mastectomy and didn’t want to have sex anymore, and decided to have sex with men?
Eh heh…. Along with a few other out there posts along the same lines from a couple other fraudsters.
My motivation was making fun of shitlibs, IIRC.
Sum ting wong. My broker will not let me buy DOG or SH or TBF now. They stopped allowing QID and other leveraged short and long ETFs a few years ago. Now the 1x shorts. Hmmmm? I wonder why all of a sudden?
Too bad we can’t short the GOP. Have you seen the recent polls of their popularity.
You know how they could turn this around? The GOP could actually try to fix Obamacare so it works. The 1st. thing they should do is stop calling it Obamacare and start using it’s proper name, the Affordable Healthcare Act. Do they really want to enshrine Obama’s name in a program that will probably last for decades? That’s incredibly stupid in my opinion. Next they should focus on slashing the administrative overhead and dismantle the insane pricing of the pharmaceutical industries. That’s how you win elections, making peoples lives better not worse.
Now is the time to buy GOP futures, as their popularity is subject to the zero bound, which they are fast approaching.
NBC/WSJ Poll: GOP Approval Rating At All Time Low
Obama-congress
AP Photo / Harry Hamburg
Caitlin MacNeal – October 10, 2013, 7:00 PM EDT
Just 24 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of the Republican party, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday.
The survey reflects a record low in approval for the GOP for NBC/WSJ poll, which dates back to 1989.
The poll also found an increase in support for the Affordable Care Act with 38 percent of respondents approving of the law — up from 31 percent in the same poll last month.
The GOP took a big hit over the shutdown. Americans blame Republicans over Obama for the shutdown by a 53-31 margin. Seventy percent said that Republicans were placing politics ahead of the country’s best interest. Fifty-one percent said that Obama is putting his agenda above the country.
A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 28 percent of Americans view Republicans favorably, also an all-time low for that poll.
…
permanent democrat supermajority
king barry = president for life
Actually they can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_political_parties_in_the_United_States
The list is at 98 right now. Maybe if the Tea Party can drag down the GOP with them then we could have a nice round number like 100.
Cool. Thanks for the insight.
After the Republican party splits apart and becomes irrelevant, I foresee the Democratic party doing the same thing. With no common enemy, the greens and socialists and Hispanics and blacks will each want to have greater influence on policy. After a few years of chaos, the two party system will reform around different coalitions.
I don’t know if I’d short the GOP… I think they can only go up from here. I can’t figure out how it will happen, but I think they’re at basically their low point in popularity. Chris Christie is going to smash his Dem opponent in a coastal blue state next month but right now the 2Bananarama types seem to be in love with Ted Cruz and Palin bc they tell them what they want to hear.
“2Bananarama types seem to be in love with Ted Cruz and Palin bc they tell them what they want to hear.”
2banana is MIA. Must be on a bender about now…
‘2banana is MIA. Must be on a bender about now…’
LMAO
Yayy! Red beat blue (or blue beat red, I dunno). The government is authorized to borrow another trillion dollars, which will last a few months. Man, it sure feels good to know we are soon to be another trillion in debt!
Senate Leaders Reach Bipartisan Deal
House GOP Leaders Contemplating Vote on Senate Plan Later Today
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303680404579139212598765046
WASHINGTON—Senate leaders on Wednesday struck an 11th-hour agreement to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and fully reopen the federal government, putting lawmakers on track toward ending a stalemate that worried investors world-wide and provided striking evidence of congressional dysfunction.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) has said he would bring whatever deal the Senate crafts to the floor of the House…
…The Senate deal gives GOP lawmakers almost none of the policy gains they had sought, but enough House Republicans are expected to join with Democrats in order to pass the measure.
“The Senate deal gives GOP lawmakers almost none of the policy gains they had sought…”
Hopefully the GOP lawmakers enjoyed their moment on the world stage pointing a big bazooka at the international financial system.
What did they get out of this?
1. Record low Republican party popularity rating in polls.
2. Large jump in popularity of the Affordable Care Act.
3. Extreme ire among economic leaders of other countries with westernized economies.
4. Questions about continued status of U.S. Treasury bonds as risk-free security in international financial markets.
5. Massive incentives for international financial system to hasten the demise of the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status.
I guess this article is moot for now, at least up until the next point in the political cycle when the Congress needs to act on raising the debt ceiling?
What could happen if the U.S. defaults?
October 15, 2013, 11:15 a.m.
Here’s an update on default talks in Washington.
By Andrew Tangel and Walter Hamilton
NEW YORK – The prospect of a U.S. debt default has unnerved investors, corporate executives and foreign leaders.
What’s so troubling about Congress failing to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by Thursday? Here are basic facts about the debt ceiling and the potential consequences of a default.
…
Temporary debt-ceiling deal is the worst-case scenario: PineBridge’s Schomer
October 16, 2013, 11:55 AM
Bloomberg
A protester in front of Bear Stearns headquarters in New York in March 2008.
Traders are bidding up stocks and other so-called risk assets on expectations Washington will manage to put together a deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, ensuring the U.S. won’t default.
But for Markus Schomer, economist at PineBridge Investments, that is the worst-case scenario.
Schomer, in a telephone interview, argued that another debt deal that kicks the can down the road, setting up yet another fiscal showdown in a few months, is potentially a worse outcome than a default. While missing payments certainly “wouldn’t be good,” he contends it would probably spur the kind of market carnage that would force politicians to come up with a long-term deal. And that, he believes, would be better for the nation’s fiscal outlook, as well as for near-term economic performance.
Schomer reaches back to the darkest days of the financial crisis for some compelling corollaries. Here’s one: A temporary budget deal would be much like the collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008, he says. While many at the time mistakenly thought the investment bank’s demise marked the bottom of the crisis, it was merely a way station on the path to a meltdown, which culminated in the carnage that followed the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
A default, on the other hand, would be more comparable to the Lehman drama, he says. While that was an ugly episode, it did create the impetus for the TARP program, which was “the first step out of the crisis.” A deep market selloff is often credited with convincing lawmakers to pass the controversial legislation. Once it was in place, markets were poised for the current bull rally, which got under way a few months later in March 2009, Schomer notes.
The fact that an economist sees the prospect of markets revisiting Lehman as a potentially positive turn of events is yet another sign of just how dysfunctional Washington has become. But Schomer makes some compelling points.
…
They got cemented in the public’s mind as the party that did all they could to stop Obamacare. It better work damn well or the Dems will take ALL of the blame. We’ll see this next year whether more people are happy with it than hate it. That number will tell you who does well in 2014 elections.
The Tea Party is like the Viet Cong. They will lose every major battle but still win the war. The focus is on debt reduction and Obamacare due to the fight. What happens six months from now when the young people do not sign-up and the premiums shoot through the roof and the taxpayers are asked to pay more. The Tea Party will be remembered as the only people that tried to stop the train wreck.
obamacare will fail with or without the tea party.
the real wake-up call won’t be until winter/spring 2015, when the sheeple file their 2014 taxes and realize they aren’t getting refunds and owe uncle sugar alot of money.
the obamacare penalty/tax is not 95 dollars, it is 1 percent of income in 2014, increasing to 2 percent in 2015, and 2.5 percent in 2016.
The Tea Party is like the Viet Cong.
Mostly all old now, collecting government benefits and yelling at kids to “get off their lawn”.
Dan, remember you are talking about Americans here. The tax payer won’t do squat. Do you see any protest for the 4 trillion dollars we wasted in Iraq/Afghanistan? A complete waste of money and we got NOTHING to show for it. At least the money spent on healthcare stays in the country. One of the biggest reasons our debt went up so fast when Obama came into office was because he put the wars back on the books. And don’t forget that 2/3rds. of the stimulus was tax cuts (reduced tax receipts).
If “no one signs up”, why would premiums “shoot through the roof”? I mean, besides the fact they’ve been doing that for decades anyway. And if no one signs up, who would taxpayers be subsidizing?
Colorado, I said when no young people sign up. I think plenty of very sick middle age people will sign up. The insurance companies on the exchange are counting on the young people to subsidize them.
How would it be any different than what is happening now? IIRC, oldsters will be charged more than the young, pretty things anyway.
I still say that anyone who refuses to buy insurance be turned away from the ER if they show up.
Anyway, aren’t the bulk of the uninsured young people to begin with? Older people usually have better jobs, and thus insurance, whereas the young lucky duckies don’t. So if they don’t sign up, there won’t be much difference from the status quo.
If Obamacare does turn out to be a train wreck, then it we will try something else. Our current system has been a train wreck - increasing premiums and decreasing benefits for years.
Hillarycare!
“What did they get out of this?”
Since nobody answered my question yet, I will answer it myself:
This is a Republican victory. For a Republican, losing equates to winning. It’s gonna happen in the 2016 election as well, when President Clinton trounces her Republican opponent.
Wait for it.
I answered your question, as did Dan. They got being burned into the mind of people as opposing Obamacare. To a lesser extent also as opposing more and more govt spending. Sheesh you’d think people on a blog devoted to pointing out how crazy housing prices got with a lot of help from the government would be for less spending. Instead it is ignored or deflected. But what about the military spending, what about the farm subsidies, what about corporate welfare? I say let’s end all that waste also.
Your comment above about losing equating to winning makes no sense. They wanted to lose so Hillary could win? Wut? You seem to be on all sides of the issues. I agree with a pox on both their houses, but that doesn’t seem to be your balance.
“Your comment above about losing equating to winning makes no sense.”
Let me try again:
Well, Kentucky got a $2B earmark out of it, so I guess McConnell won…
In other news, here’s something fun. I was on teevee this past weekend!
Cool. Guess what the web video ad was before your interview? A fricking BMW commercial! Priceless.
That’s television for you. Those car ads pay the freight.
Sigh…
Awesome!
Sweet!
I don’t think this is any big deal. In fact, I expect the RNC to draft him as one of their nonviable 2016 presidential candidates.
Texas Paper Retracts Cruz Endorsement
1:43 pm
Emmarie Huetteman
WASHINGTON — One year after endorsing Ted Cruz for Senate, The Houston Chronicle took back its support for the Texas senator on Wednesday, calling him “part of the problem” in Washington.
In an editorial called “Why We Miss Kay Bailey Hutchison,” the newspaper wistfully compared Mr. Cruz to his predecessor. It praised Ms. Hutchison, a Republican, for her dedication to doing what was best for the state, as well as for her willingness to work with Democrats — an ability “neither sitting Texas senator has displayed.”
“Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution,” the editorial said.
…
Republican Congressmen have turned cannibalistic.
Senate Paves Way to End Debt Impasse
…
“We took some bread crumbs and left an entire meal on the table,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “This has been a really bad two weeks for the Republican Party.”
Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, took a swipe at Senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, as well as House members who linked further funding of the government to gutting the health care law, which is financed by its own designated revenues and spending cuts.
“Let’s just say sometimes learning what can’t be accomplished is an important long-term thing,” Mr. Burr said, “and hopefully for some of the members they’ve learned it’s impossible to defund mandatory programs by shutting down the federal government.”
But while Mr. Cruz conceded defeat, he did not express contrition.
“Unfortunately, the Washington establishment is failing to listen to the American people,” he said as he emerged from a meeting of Senate Republicans called to ratify the agreement.
…
But while Mr. Cruz conceded defeat, he did not express contrition.
Classic sign of a narcissist.
Or of a TEA* Party member.
* Totally Extreme Anarchist
I think Ted’s persona is just a schtick. Looking at his bio, I don’t see any way he was that wildly successful if he was this careless narcissistic person all along. He is betting that GOP primary voters in 2016 will go for his Sherman-style approach and he knows he has no real political risk in TX anyway. His Senate seat is pretty secure and the primary electorate looks a lot like 2Banana. Also, the GOP weighs the Southern primaries more heavily than the Northeast and West Coast — they assign more delegates based on areas that have higher GOP registrations. And never forget, TX is a big prize in GOP primaries, lots of delegates.
If I’m Chris Christie, I wouldn’t even bother running if Cruz is in the race. Just wait a few yrs and take Menendez’s Senate Seat.
Well, it was just last year the GOP primaries included two guy from Texas and one Georgia (sort of). They were all beaten handily by a guy from Massachusetts.
I heard that Ted Cruz’ fundraising is way up. No link, just rumor at this point. But it makes sense. I think he is simply milking the Tea Party cash cow.
In football, this journalist would get penalized for spiking the ball.
Op/Ed 10/11/2013 @ 3:49PM 27,844 views
Boomerang! Poll Reveals GOP’s Government Shutdown Bolstered Obamacare’s Popularity By 20%
The polls giveth and the polls taketh away.
After years of false narratives, misstated data and a remarkably successful campaign to poison the Affordable Care Act in the hearts and minds of the American public, Republicans have finally run into the one force that could improve the perception of healthcare reform in the eyes of the people….
Themselves.
According to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this week, the GOP-Tea Party efforts to defund or delay Obamacare—the demand which directly led to the government shutdown—has brought about a seven point increase in popularity of the law.
Immediately prior to the shutdown, only 31 percent of Americans believed Obamacare was a good idea. Today, that number is 38 percent, just one percentage point lower than the peak approval number of forty percent that was achieved in July 2012.
The poll could explain why Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)—one of the two leaders of the movement to use the defunding of Obamacare as the mechanism to hold the government hostage—has, according to uber-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, declared that his party is now “past” Obamacare and has “moved on” to different issues to argue over in the battle to re-open our government.
Who can blame the Senator for wanting to “move on”? When you’ve got a sure-fire loser—and the Cruz/Lee strategy (if there ever was one) is now provably a sure-fire loser—why not attempt to move the goalposts and see if you can get a few people back on your side?
…
Thanks for posting a link to the same poll twice on the same day. A poll 6 days old.
I was merely trying to make the point that the 47 percent have spoken, confirming Republican victory.
NBC/WSJ poll: Shutdown debate damages GOP
By Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor, NBC News
The Republican Party has been badly damaged in the ongoing government shutdown and debt limit standoff, with a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finding that a majority of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, and with the party’s popularity declining to its lowest level.
…
And one year until next fall’s midterm elections, American voters prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress to a Republican-controlled one by eight percentage points (47 percent to 39 percent), up from the Democrats’ three-point advantage last month (46 percent to 43 percent).
…
A brief video illustrating the relationship between you, and the Wall Street investment bankers.
John Candy plays the role of Goldman Sachs.
http://tinyurl.com/y9aaj54
That’s awesome! And with a federally guaranteed loan from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the FHA, every American can own a “full house.”
more like a royal flush.
“Yeah, I’m getting the hang of this……”
http://dvhu1327i3h2y.cloudfront.net/file/pic/photo/2013/10/16/10/1d17ec55a9b1ff9c85998ae53d56bf61_500.png
(after looking at his hand) “Go on, bluff me, c’mon!”
lulz
The -fixr Analysis……. Latest 787 report, re: missing panel.
(IMO) some Dip$hit Air India (?) mechanic or ground service tech didn’t secure the panel correctly. Note on photos the lack of damage to the structure and fastener receptacles around the area where the panel is supposed to be.
(As an old timer mech who had spent years working overseas once told me: “Not enough generations between the water buffalo and the airplane….)
Airplanes lose panels in flight all of the time, 99.5% of the time because they didn’t get latched/secured. No matter how simple you make the latch. Most smaller panels are hinged at the front, so the airflow blows them shut if they aren’t latched. Unfortunately, you can’t do this with all of the access panels.
Also….these panels for the most part aren’t “structural”. The airplane will still fly, even if half of them are missing. Of course, it will be noisy, and suck fuel, and create some buffeting in the airplane, etc……
(Best way to tell if a panel is “structural”? It won’t be hinged. It won’t use quick disconnect screws/fasteners. It will usually have screws or bolts all the way around the perimeter of the panel, with 1 inch spacing between fasteners. Most will have a aluminum or steel placard bonded to it, saying to the affect: “Do not Fly/Do not run Engines with this panel removed”)
Unfortunately, when an airplane starts to get the 787’s rep, the story is “B-787 loses pieces in flight”, not “Dumbazz at Air India causes part to get blown off of airplane”
Why bond investors don’t hate Congress
October 16, 2013, 5:53 PM
There they go again. U.S. lawmakers brought America to the brink of default before working up a last-minute deal on Wednesday to keep the government running for, oh, another 13 weeks or so. The congressional gang that couldn’t spend straight sure knows how to kick the can squarely down the road.
The irony is that obstinate elected officials might be just what bond investors need to avoid their own painful debt dilemma.
The Senate deal funds the government until Jan. 15, and extends the country’s borrowing ability – the debt ceiling – until Feb. 15.
Then it’s deja-vu all over again. To be sure, Congress is supposed to ink a long-term budget plan before Dec. 13 — but how much full faith and credit can anyone have in that?
U.S. stocks and bonds rallied sharply on the budget news, and late Wednesday House Speaker John Boehner told an Ohio radio station that House Republicans won’t block the Senate plan. “We fought the good fight, we just didn’t win,” he said.
Truth is, in this fight nobody won. The federal government shutdown and the debt debacle has damaged consumer and corporate confidence. Already Washington’s wobbling has some analysts pegging 2013 U.S. growth estimates closer to 2% than their pre-debt crisis forecast of 2.5%-3%. That’s not a trivial revision.
“The economy has been picking up, and what we don’t know is how much the goofiness in Washington has reversed that,” says Paul Nolte, managing partner at Chicago investment firm Dearborn Partners.
…
This just in:
If I were Republicans in the House I would do this before the final vote:
I would tell everyone (but the TP because they won’t) to vote for the Senate’s bill. Because the TP will try to defeat everyone who votes with the Dems on this bill - unless there are many Repubs voting with the Dems.
This will lessen the TP’s future influence. which will help the Repubs in the public’s mind.
Thoughts?
We’re still waiting for you to develop a thought.
We’re still waiting for you to develop a thought.
No. Not even close.
You are floundering in your fog.
My conceptual question was too much for you - both on a political and an intellectual level. And it confuses you because I’m offering potential aid to my political (currently pimp-slapped) “adversary”.
I’m sure you’re confused right now.
Still waiting…..
Barack Hussein Obama was born in Africa.
And that’s all you need to know about that.
Thoughts? Yes, I’m sure the 1% appreciate your support.
Senate vote:
81-18
Let’s do the math.
“Let’s do the math.”
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - 211k -
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/real-estate/homes-for-sale-near-nations-median-price-1.aspx?ec_id=cmctre_comm_lifehp
Chase Bank Limits Cash Withdrawals, Bans International Wire Transfers
Capital controls imposed on small business owners
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 16, 2013
UPDATE: Chase Bank confirmed to Infowars that all business account holders were being subjected to these new regulations. Given that even a relatively small grocery store or restaurant is likely to turnover more than $50k a month in cash payments, this appears to be part of a wider move to shut down businesses who mainly deal in cash. Chase told us customers would have to upgrade to much more expensive accounts to avoid the capital controls, meaning larger corporations will not be affected. The bottom line is that banks think your money is their money and will do everything in their power to prevent you from withdrawing it in large quantities.
Chase Bank has moved to limit cash withdrawals while banning business customers from sending international wire transfers from November 17 onwards, prompting speculation that the bank is preparing for a looming financial crisis in the United States by imposing capital controls.
Numerous business customers with Chase BusinessSelect Checking and Chase BusinessClassic accounts have received letters over the past week informing them that cash activity (both deposits and withdrawals) will be limited to a $50,000 total per statement cycle from November 17 onwards.
The letter reads;
Dear Business Customer,
Starting November 17, 2013:
- You will no longer be able to send international wire transfers. You will still be able to send domestic wires and receive both domestic and international wires. We’ll cancel any international wire transfers, including reccurring ones, you scheduled to be sent after this date.
- Your cash activity limit for these accounts(s) will be $50,000 per statement cycle, per account. Cash activity is the combined total of cash deposits made at branches, night drops and ATMs and cash withdrawals made at branches (including purchases of money orders) and ATMs.
These changes will help us more effectively manage the risks involved with these types of transactions.
Another letter (PDF) received by Peak to Peak Charter School, an Elementary School in Colorado, states that the option to send both international and domestic wire transfers has been withdrawn from Chase business savings account holders.
Chase Employees Admit Orders from Top to Limit Cash for ‘Unknown Reasons’
Chase information center employees admit ‘orders from the top’ were issued to limit finances for reasons that even they do not know
Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
October 16, 2013
Following the documented reports that Chase bank had been limiting overall cash withdraws from various accounts and freezing wire transfers, I decided to get to the bottom of the issue and call the nationwide Chase information line. What I found is that not only did every business account owner receive a document detailing strange measures to limit their overall account usage to a $50,000 maximum and the complete restriction of wire transfers, but that even the Chase employees themselves had no idea why the measures had been instituted.
Instead, they simply told me that the orders ‘came from the top’ and that not even the highest level managers at the information center knew why they had been instituted. But what’s more, I was also told that these ‘regulations’ may also hit other banks around the country. When speaking to the supervising manager on the account caps and transfer restrictions, I was told that the entire thing could be the result of ‘regulation’, which may have actually stemmed from government higher ups.
The supervising manager even went on to answer my question as to why Chase customers are not allowed to access their own finances, telling me that it is possible for customers to ‘pay a fee’ to withdraw their funds after ‘upgrading to a platinum account’ for an unspecified amount of upgrade costs. Now remember, this entire lockdown was initiated over ‘risks’ and the continued ‘safety’ of the bank’s finances. So what are they so afraid of when it comes to giving customers their own finances?
The reality is that banks are gearing up for a Cyprus-style scenario, where even your own finances are held captive by the mega banks through either regulation or orders from the top. Specifically, the mega banks absolutely hate cash payments and deposits, because they deal only in debt-based digital numbers on a screen. I would encourage everyone to immediately transfer their finances out of Chase bank, but don’t expect a lengthy delay in this policy when it comes to infiltrating the other mega banking establishments.
So we have another prediction. When are we going to experience this Cyprus scenario?
Garage Door Etiquette
For those of us living in SFH neighborhoods, don’t you find it slum-like that people leave their garage doors open for hours for no apparent reason?
A clean garage or not, it bothers me to no end, and brings down the neighborhood. Does this bother anyone else?
We moved out of an HOA lifestyle, thinking adults police themselves. I hate HOA dictatorships, but people are oblivious to neighbor etiquette, as I am finding out.
I’ve never heard of that piece of etiquette. Was it a rule in your HOA?
Oh yeah, MightyMike. There was a fine for not having the door open for a reason. 2 hours was the limit, iirc.
Pete and Strawberry
Thanks for the feedback, but I have Adirondack Chairs as part of my curb appeal, to sit in for the neighborhood connection thing. My faux carriage garage door is always closed. Not just the Vette, but because it looks like a more polished home. I’m picky about neighborhood presentation, I guess.
I think neighborhood etiquette includes a closed garage door, and mowing your lawn.
These people directly across the street have no kids w/ bikes or such to justify a need for an opened garage door.
“A clean garage or not, it bothers me to no end, and brings down the neighborhood. Does this bother anyone else?”
I actually like it. Very 1976, part of my formative years. It seemed to be the norm then, even in upscale areas.
I like it too. All those closed doors and closed houses where neighbors don’t know neighbors seem too sterile to me.
It’s slum-like because thats what you live in.
Dow chart looks like it tried to make another top and is getting tired. Maybe time to dollar-cost outta some funds?
Only in ‘Merika.
Disruption on the House Floor as Measure Passes
Oct 16, 2013
11:54 pm
Ashley Parker
WASHINGTON — And just when it seemed as if things could not get any more bizarre in the Capitol, a House stenographer, shouting and protesting, was dragged off the House floor as the House voted to pass the Senate deal, 285 to 144, late Wednesday night.
According to members who witnessed the incident, the stenographer, who many lawmakers and aides said they recognized, got up on the dais in the front of the chamber and began shouting. At first, lawmakers and aides thought she was a protester, and the presiding member used the gavel to try to bring the House back to order.
“The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God. It never was,” the stenographer said as she was carried off the House floor, through the speaker’s lobby and into the hall. “It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written byFreemasons that go against God.”
House staff members and aides were visibly shaken as they tried to calm her down. “Come on, sweetheart,” one said as a group tried to get her into an elevator and Capitol police officers came streaming toward the House floor.
…
Was the stenographer perhaps a Tea Party member?
Gridlock Has Cost U.S. Billions, and the Meter Is Still Running
By ANNIE LOWREY, NATHANIEL POPPER and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: October 16, 2013
WASHINGTON — Containers of goods idling at ports. Reduced sales at sandwich shops in downtown Washington. Canceled vacations to national parks and to destinations abroad. Reduced corporate earnings forecasts. Higher interest payments on short-term debt.
Even with the shutdown of the United States government and the threat of a default coming to an end, the cost of Congress’s gridlock has already run well into the billions, economists estimate. And the total will continue to grow even after the shutdown ends, partly because of uncertainty about whether lawmakers might reach another deadlock early next year.
A complete accounting will take months once the government reopens and the Treasury resumes adding to the country’s debt. But economists said that the intransigence of House Republicans would take a bite out of fourth-quarter growth, which will affect employment, business earnings and borrowing costs. The ripple from Washington will be felt around the globe.
“We saw huge effects during the summer of 2011, with consumer confidence hitting a 31-year low in August and third-quarter G.D.P. growing just 1.4 percent,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief United States economist at Standard & Poor’s, referring to earlier brinkmanship over the debt ceiling. “Given that this round of debt ceiling negotiations” took place during a shutdown, she said, “the impact on the economy could be even more severe.”
Economists say the shutdown and near breach of the debt ceiling would be unlikely to derail the recovery, now that Congress resolved the impasse late Wednesday. In the weeks after the government reopens, there should be a modest rebound as employees spend their paychecks for the days they were on furlough and the government rushes to process backlogged orders.
Still, many businesses might not recover all the money they would have made had the government operated normally, said Shai Akabas of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a research group based in Washington.
The two-week shutdown has trimmed about 0.3 percentage point from fourth-quarter growth, or about $12 billion, the forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers, based in St. Louis, recently estimated. Standard & Poor’s is more pessimistic, estimating that the shutdown will cut about 0.6 percent off inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, equivalent to $24 billion. Most analysts are predicting that growth will remain subpar, at an annual pace of 2 percent or less.
…
ft dot com
Last updated: October 16, 2013 5:42 pm
Treasuries risk losing superpower status
By Michael Mackenzie in New York and Ben McLannahan in Tokyo
As any comic book superhero knows, with great power comes great responsibility. Yet the world’s foremost economic superpower is failing to heed this maxim, with potentially grave long-term consequences for US Treasury bonds.
True, US borrowing costs remain at historic lows. And, on the face of it, with a deal reached on the US debt ceiling, all looks well among foreign investors, who hold nearly half the Treasury’s $12tn in marketable debt.
But the crunch point in the political debate over the debt ceiling – and the threat of default which Warren Buffett likened to unleashing “poison gas” – has only been deferred. And, to the annoyance of big Treasury holders such as China and Japan, this is the third round of fiscal wrangling since 2011.
With Washington set to vote on a deal late on Wednesday to extend the debt ceiling by several months, the point at which the US runs out of money to meet obligations to bondholders is only likely to be delayed to February 2014.
All of which fans fears that we are near a pivotal moment when foreign investors could adopt a harder line on buying Treasuries.
“The world has seen enough of Washington’s dysfunction and while a retreat from Treasuries can’t happen in one fell swoop, it’s a thought process that has already begun,” says Eric Green, economist at TD Securities.
“You can’t blame them, the US hasn’t demonstrated a capacity to manage its reserve role, it’s a privilege we are abusing.”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the long-term unexpected consequence of the debt ceiling debate is that the Chinese government, and maybe others, conclude that they are overly reliant upon the asset class and thus must wean themselves off Treasuries slowly, over a decent period of time,” says Gary Jenkins, founder of Swordfish Research.
“Such a move would result in less demand for Treasuries, which considering the probability of the US getting a handle on their finances would not be good news for US borrowing costs,” says Mr Jenkins.
As it stands, foreign investors account for $5.59tn of the $12tn in outstanding US Treasury debt, according to the most recent data from the Treasury. China leads the way with holdings of $1.28tn, followed by Japan at $1.14tn.
In the year to July, China increased its holdings by $117bn, while Japan bought an additional $15bn, according to the US Treasury data.
A gradual retreat by sovereign wealth funds, reserve currency managers and other central banks in the coming years, would probably come at a time when the Federal Reserve starts pulling back from its massive bond-buying efforts that have kept Treasury yields low.
…
Fixed Income
US Treasurys? No thanks, I’ll take bank debt
Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013 | 12:37 AM ET
Katie Holliday | Writer for CNBC.com
Has bank debt become more attractive than U.S. Treasurys? That’s what recent market developments indicate.
The TED spread, which measures the difference between interest rates on interbank loans and U.S. government Treasury bills, turned negative for the first time ever on Wednesday, indicating that investors are more willing to buy bank debt over U.S. Treasurys.
…
So long as the Fed keeps its QE3-to-infinity in place forever, bubbly asset prices should pose no problem.
Has Robert Shiller been reading our posts?
South China Morning Post
Business›Economy
Nobel-winning economist sounds alarm over ‘bubbly’ global housing prices
Robert Shiller warns that a shift to a ‘more speculative attitude’ and easy monetary policy create risk of markets making same error that triggered 2008 financial crisis
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 October, 2013, 10:57am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 October, 2013, 10:59am
Robert Shiller coined the term ‘irrational exuberance’. Photo: AFP
One of three US economists who won this year’s Nobel Prize for economics on Monday for research into market prices and asset bubbles expressed alarm at the rapid rise in global housing prices.
Robert Shiller, who shared the 8 million Swedish krona (HK$9.6 million) prize with fellow laureates Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen, said the US Federal Reserve’s economic stimulus and growing market speculation were creating a “bubbly” property boom.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences lauded the economists’ research on the prices of stocks, bonds and other assets, saying “mispricing of assets may contribute to financial crises and, as the recent global recession illustrates, such crises can damage the overall economy”.
This was the case in the collapse of the US housing market, which helped trigger the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
Markets are at risk of committing the same error now, Shiller said after learning he had won the Nobel Prize.
“This financial crisis that we’ve been going through in the last five years has been one that seems to reveal the failure to understand price movements,” Shiller said.
Bubbles are created when investors fail to recognise when rising asset prices become detached from underlying fundamentals.
Shiller and other economists warn that prices in some markets have risen too far, too fast because of the Fed’s ultra-easy monetary policy. The benchmark US Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit a record in September, though it is generally not considered overvalued based on expectations for corporate earnings results or economic growth.
Shiller’s work led him to suggest in 2005 that the US housing market might be overheating. He helped create a closely watched gauge of housing prices, the S&P Case/Shiller Index.
In June this year, he pointed to a potential new housing bubble in some of the largest US cities.
“It is up 12 per cent in the last year. This is a very rapid price increase right now, and I believe that it is accelerated somewhat by the Fed’s policy,” he said.
China, Brazil, India, Australia, Norway and Belgium, among other countries, were witnessing similar price rises.
“There are so many countries that are looking bubbly,” he said.
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‘There are so many countries that are looking bubbly’
Hey Shiller, now that you got a Nobel prize, there’s a paypal donation key on this blog that did the work for you.
The thing I am missing in my (so far) scant reading of the academic finance literature is any really good models for the distortionary effect of extraordinary central bank intervention to prop up asset prices. If Professor Shiller or anyone else has written on this subject, I’m highly interested.
Count me among the extreme skeptics regarding the ability of markets to do properly their job when central banks are pulling levers behind the scene to bail out failed banks and to prop up asset prices.
And please spare me the anti-free-market strawman posts. We have no idea about how free markets would work in this country, as the Fed has run the economy as a command-and-control operation at least dating back to Alan Greenspan and probably before.
We’ll Get Kick-the-Can Down Road Deal: Sethi
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Douglas C. Lane Managing Director Sarat Sethi discusses the U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling negotiations with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Oct. 16, 2013, 10:44 a.m. EDT
Mortgage lenders ease credit score standards
Home buyers no longer need perfect credit to score a loan
By AnnaMaria Andriotis
Michael D Brown / Shutterstock.com
To get a mortgage lately, home buyers have had to jump through hoops, performing back flips and other acrobatics while lenders grade their credit worthiness with the eye for perfection of an Olympic judge. But they can finally breathe a little easier, data shows. Banks are increasingly willing to overlook credit scores that aren’t quite gold medal material.
The average credit score among borrowers who received a mortgage in September was 732, down from a peak of 750 a year prior, according to new data released today by Ellie Mae, which provides mortgage lenders with loan origination systems. That’s also the lowest average credit score since the company started tracking this data in August 2011. In addition, a greater share of borrowers have lower credit scores. Thirty-two percent of mortgages doled out in September went to borrowers with an average FICO credit score (the measure used by most lenders) of less than 700 compared with 17% a year ago, according to the findings. The changes suggest a critical shift is under way in the housing market, which could help more applicants gain access to home loans. “It does seem there’s a little bit of an opening that’s going on,” says Brad Hunter, chief economist at Metrostudy, a housing-market research and consulting firm. “Lenders are being more lenient.”
Lenders pulled back on giving mortgages to borrowers with less-than-perfect credit in 2008 as the number of borrowers who foreclosed on their homes spiked. That’s left millions of would-be home buyers shut out of the housing market. The findings suggest that some borrowers who were unable to gain financing as recently as a year ago could get mortgage approval now.
To be sure, the bar to getting a mortgage remains high. Applicants who were denied a mortgage in September had an average FICO score of 696, according to Ellie Mae—a score that’s relatively stellar by most counts. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Before the recession it was common for borrowers with credit scores in the 600 range and below to get mortgages.
Ellie Mae’s data comes from lenders that input mortgage applicants’ information in its software, which processes applications. The data represents 20% to 30% of all mortgage applications in the country.
The recent loosening of credit standards comes as lenders are trying to boost demand for mortgages. Until recently, large numbers of homeowners were refinancing to lower their mortgage rates — a trend that slowed down as mortgage rates started rising earlier this year. Since May, applications for refinancing have dropped 70%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In turn, some lenders “are willing to loosen somewhat to try to increase their purchase volume,” says Mike Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association. The pace at which borrowers’ average credit score dropped intensified starting in May. Since then, it has declined 11 points compared with a six-point drop from January through May, according to Ellie Mae.
On another level, willingness to accept lower credit scores underscores a delicate balance of give and take that lenders employ. When one risk factor is eliminated (or significantly declines), some lenders are willing to take on more risk elsewhere. Consider the following: As home values increase, there’s less of a risk that borrowers will end up owing more on their mortgage than their home is worth, and therefore less of a risk of borrowers intentionally walking away from their home. As those risks have lessened, lenders have become more comfortable taking on risk elsewhere—in the form of somewhat lower credit scores, says Fratantoni.
For borrowers, the Ellie Mae data offers some insight into where those with less-than-perfect credit scores can find a mortgage. Home buyers who get mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which require a small down payment, have lower credit scores—694 on average—than those who get mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, whose credit scores average 758, according to Ellie Mae. While FHA mortgages have for years had lower credit score requirements than other home loans, lenders say this requirement has loosened even further in recent months. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which includes the FHA and which is closed due to the government shut down, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition, homeowners who want to refinance encounter lower credit hurdles. Homeowners who refinanced into Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages in September had an average credit score that was 23 points lower than home buyers who received financing that month. That spread has been growing all year; at the end of the first quarter it was just four points. That’s partly because borrowers who refinance tend to have more equity in their home, which makes them less of a risk to lenders who in turn allow for more flexibility when it comes to credit scores, says Stu Feldstein, president of mortgage-research firm SMR Research.
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