October 17, 2013

Bits Bucket for October 17, 2013

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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325 Comments »

Comment by MacBeth
2013-10-17 03:14:04

The NeoCon-Progressive Party wins another round!

Not that anyone here was the least bit surprised.

More than 75% of Congress and the Wizard himself are more than happy to let the charade continue.

Meanwhile, the curtain they and the MSM hide behind continues to rot away…

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 07:50:42

Losing = winning.

Perils still lurk in wake of shutdown deal
Analysis
October 17, 2013 12:00 am
By Zachary A. Goldfarb / The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The deal Congress reached Wednesday to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling would avert a financial catastrophe but leave the weakened U.S. economy facing new threats.

…while the bipartisan deal ends a period of disruption that has slowed the economy — the shutdown removed more than $20 billion in direct government spending and related economic activity — it creates new perils, setting up other economy-shaking deadlines in just a few months.

It also does almost nothing for the nation’s existing economic challenges, including automatic spending cuts that are worsening high unemployment and a long-term debt challenge posed by mounting costs in health care and retirement programs.

Under terms of the bipartisan agreement, lawmakers in both parties are to spend the next two months trying to hash out a deal to alleviate some of these risks. But there is little optimism that effort will succeed, given that several similar bipartisan initiatives in recent years have failed over discord about taxes and spending.

“The U.S. economy dodged a bullet today. But the reprieve will be short,” Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS Global Insight, said in an analysis Wednesday. “Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on fiscal policy, and the stage is set for another showdown in January.”

For now, the biggest failure of the deal, analysts say, is that it will keep the government operating for only a few months, with a new need to fund agencies and raise the debt ceiling coming in the first five weeks of 2014. As a result, economists say, consumers and businesses are likely to hold back on spending and investment during the important holiday season, knowing that a similarly economy-shaking political showdown might be right around the corner.

“If people are afraid that the government policy brinkmanship will resurface again — and with it, the risk of another shutdown or worse — they’ll remain afraid to open up their checkbooks,” Standard & Poor’s U.S. chief economist Beth Ann Bovino said in an analysis. “That points to another Humbug holiday season.”

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 08:22:43

open up their checkbooks,”

This idiot probably has no clue that there are no checkbooks left.

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 08:40:57

Now now, we don’t have so many barn doors or stolen horses either. And how many of us are motivated by an actual hanging carrot?

What bothers me most about the “checkbook” metaphor is not the outdated paper checkbook (which I still use), but the concept that investors are investing with a checking account, i.e. money they hand on hand. BS. They are borrowing. Maybe a little less investing is a good thing.

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Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 08:12:03

Were you expecting any other outcome?

I have said it before and will say it again. Republican party will fold as they always do. No ifs or buts about it…it’s only a matter of when.

The sad thing about it is they get to bloviate in front of TV again in 3 months.

—————————————–

In 2006, in a party line vote the senate passed debt ceiling 52-48. No a single democrat voted for it. Just a think for moment if there were 3 more democrats in the senate we would have had our default in 2006.

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 08:35:09

It was known full well that the Dem votes would be worthless, so the Dems could unite in a protest vote no matter how they actually felt. Hence Obama’s 2006 no-vote and anti-ceiling statement, which has been making the rounds again. Do we know if that’s actually what he wanted, or was it calculation as political as the recent 41 votes to repeal Obamacare?

If there had been three more Dems in the Senate in 2006, the voting would have gone far differently. Actually the budget itself would have been very different.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 08:38:34

So why the efin’ big deal when Repubs/tea party pull the same stunt?

The end result is the same. The immoral & corrupt status-quo continues as usual.

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Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 09:02:19

The end result was NOT the same.

The Dem stunt against the debt ceiling was a protest show vote. It had no effect at all. Heck they didn’t even bother to filibuster. Same with the R’s Obamacare repeals. No effect.

Now, the current R stunt of not voting for a clean CR and debt bump actually DID have an effect. It shut down the gov, threatened US credit, and cost quite a bit to the economy.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:09:11

It shut down the gov, threatened US credit, and cost quite a bit to the economy.

That’s a feature not a bug afaic. 0.1 percent of shutdown is not a a shutdown, more like a paid vacation. The Fed will make the economy whole.

Admit it, as a whole, It had the same effect. The corrupt and immoral status-quo continues as usual.

 
Comment by Steadykat
2013-10-17 17:34:35

I’m confused. What is so wrong with the Government shutting down?

What “economy”?

 
 
 
 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 08:13:08

So what should we do?

The following has a certain appeal:
1) Repudiate the debt
2) Become energy independent
3) Become self sufficient and make our own stuff. No more “China-Mart”. More living wage jobs == less welfare
4) Withdraw our military from overseas, slash military spending
5) Take care of our own.

Comment by cactus
2013-10-17 08:57:30

The following has a certain appeal:
1) Repudiate the debt
2) Become energy independent
3) Become self sufficient and make our own stuff. No more “China-Mart”. More living wage jobs == less welfare
4) Withdraw our military from overseas, slash military spending
5) Take care of our own.”

its just a matter of time the trade imbalance and ballooning debt can’t go on forever, no more than home prices bubbling up.

Comment by Ben Jones
2013-10-17 09:26:21

Here’s what’s is funny to me. I read a poll yesterday that said only 13% of the public thinks the country is going in the “right direction”. Yet, the media would have us believe we are overjoyed to go $1 trillion further in debt to continue in this direction.

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Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 10:47:18

the media would have us believe we are overjoyed is trying to jive us into feeling happy to go $1 trillion further in debt to continue in this a direction we believe is the wrong one.

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 10:50:24

The percentage opposed to the status quo are a lot like the percentage opposed to Obamacare: it includes people who want to go further right AND further left. So it’s a useless question.

 
Comment by Dale
2013-10-17 11:53:44

…and then there was this gem at Yahoo Finance.

Mind Your Own Financial House, Not Washington’s
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/mind-own-financial-house-not-washington-190045163.html

Basically - don’t worry about the fiscally irresponsible govt. running up huge debts your children will still be paying off - mind your own bussiness. The spin has started. Too many ‘bad republican - bad tea party” stories rather than delving into what their issues really are. At least in the comments section people made it clear that “Washington” was their house as well.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2013-10-17 12:19:26

Anyone who was against more debt was helping our enemies. What do we call people who help our enemies?

 
 
 
Comment by United States of Crooked Politicians and Bankers
2013-10-17 12:34:39

“3) Become self sufficient and make our own stuff. No more “China-Mart”. More living wage jobs == less welfare”

Fat f***ing chance. This would mean the people in charge would have to give up their wealth. There will be a revolution before that happens.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 13:03:45

Oh, I know it’s not gonna happen.

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Comment by Steadykat
2013-10-17 17:39:51

I have found it much easier to deal with this crap since I have come to the conclusion that fixing “this or that” isn’t the plan.

I believe that the goal is to destroy the Country.

Illegal alien amnesty next on deck……….

 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 10:19:53

U mad, Macbeth?

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1411800/thumbs/o-RACHEL-MADDOW-570.jpg?2

(^^^ List of things the teabillies were “demanding” to end the shutdown. Not exactly much to be proud of. There was no principled reason for the teabillies to do this.)

Comment by Steadykat
2013-10-17 17:57:26

17 f’king trillion in debt and all you care to bitch about are the “teabillies” dancing around under your bed?

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 18:26:36

17 f’king trillion in debt and all you care to bitch about are the “teabillies” dancing around under your bed?

Relax…….Here’s the deal. You think you know about a number like 17 trillion. But you don’t. Why? Because half is fake and half is unknown. You’re just riled up about a number because the Tea Bag Holders want you to be riled up - for their benefit.

But, as opposed to being “freaked” about our “debt”. Americans now know about the “Teabillies”. The TeaParty is not an abstraction now as is the number 17.

The TeaParty is the water carriers of the robbers.

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Comment by Steadykat
2013-10-18 07:35:08

You should have directed your comment to blue eyes.

He’s the one that seems to be too distracted with “teabillies” to understand that everything coming out of Washington has the same amount of stink no matter what side of the aisle it originates from.

That was my point.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-18 07:53:23

That was my point.

Point taken

 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 18:28:59

Deficits don’t matter.

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Comment by AmazingRuss
2013-10-17 18:36:08

Settle down, Billy. Have a nice cup of tea.

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Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 04:49:43

Migrant worker “shortage” hits orchards in Traverse City area

Yet another bogus “worker shortage” story. The area teems with the unemployed, driving back & forth next to orchards overflowing with ripe apples, on their way to area casinos. Local rents are sky high. Gasoline there was $3.379/gal as of last weekend. Apples retail locally for over $1 a pound. The obvious solution for this “problem” is open borders “immigration reform.”

TRAVERSE CITY — Apples in many area orchards could go unpicked this season because of a shortage of migrant workers, area farmers and agricultural officials said.

“It’s very difficult to get the workers,” Benzie apple grower Mike Evans said Tuesday. “Mainly, I think it’s the immigration policy or lack of it. The other part of it is that we were short-cropped last year and migrant workers have found other jobs and didn’t come back.”

A March 2012 storm, followed by excessive heat and a late frost, wiped out 90 percent of the region’s tart cherry crop and much of its apple crop. Federal officials’ failure to agree on immigration reform policies also affected the migrant labor force in Michigan in recent years.

Evans said he has had migrant work crews lined up two or three times this season, only to have them disappear or not show up.

“They went elsewhere and some even went South,” he said. “I think some apple farmers are paying a lot to get crews this year.”

Nikki Rothwell, coordinator at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Center in Leelanau County, said not all growers and vineyards are affected.

“But there is a definite shortage,” she said, noting that worker shortages generally follow poor harvest seasons.

Some affected growers, particularly in the Grand Rapids area, are prioritizing and picking only varieties that have the best financial return, said Jim Bardenhagen, an area fruit and vegetable farmer and retired 20-year Leelanau County extension director.

Bardenhagen said several area farmers told him that only about half of migrant workers needed to pick apples in the region came to northwestern lower Michigan this year and that many are new to the work. He personally lost only one worker in his crew of three. Area crews generally can vary from about five to 30.

The estimated number of migrant workers statewide is 45,000, according to recent Associated Press reports. Kevin Benson, an agriculture employment specialist with the Workforce Development Agency, said the estimated migrant worker population in northwestern lower Michigan is often reported as 1,500 to 2,000, but the constant movement of migrant workers makes it hard to come up with more exact figures.

He attributed part of the shortage to many fluid factors, including an abundant apple crop this year — which requires more migrant workers at the same time the grape harvest is on — and the region is near the end of the migrant stream.

“Price of gas is a factor and sometimes workers find jobs along the way, plus it can be very cold here by November,” he said.

There are about 200 apple growers in the five-county Grand Traverse region. The harvest starts in late August and usually ends in early November in northern Michigan, if the weather cooperates. It’s still possible that area farmers will be able to get their whole crop off the trees, Bardenhagen said.

“It’s too early to tell up here whether some apples will have to be left on the tree,” he added. “It depends on the pickers and the market. Some downstate fresh market sellers already have said they have enough. If the processors say the same, that will leave a lot on the trees here.”

Rothwell said growers also have reported the higher number of new workers slowed the harvest and that they are seeing fewer families and more single male workers.

She said immigration reform has been a “huge” issue for growers.

“When Congress didn’t pass the farm bill this year, which typically passes easily, the concern was ‘Oh,no. What will happen to immigration reform?’” she said. “It’s a double whammy for the growers.”

Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 14:29:41

The problem is there is not enough money in it for the growers to pay enough to attract the workers.

They would have plenty of workers if they could figure out how to make 1% of the workers wealthy and pay the other 99% nothing. Nobody had to pay the 49ers anything to take the risk of travelling 3000 miles across hostile and unforgiving territory to pan for gold on the off chance of striking it rich.

 
 
Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2013-10-17 04:56:21

Gold is loving it! Printing dollars to Pluto!

Comment by Ol'Bubba
2013-10-17 04:59:39

Plutonium bullion?
Man, the storage costs would be astronomical.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:11:17

I do not know it provides its own security. Walk into a room filled with plutonium without shielding and you will not last long.

Comment by Carl Morris
2013-10-17 09:18:22

And it’s easy to track if somebody does make off with it :-).

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:05:12

Bill, have you noticed that the premium in India is $100 Oz. There is not enough physical gold in the world. As soon as India is forced by the public to allow gold into the country. We go to the moon.

Comment by Steve J
2013-10-17 13:37:19

How can there ever be more physical gold in the world?

Comment by GinGary
2013-10-17 14:52:04

Gold Rush Season 18: The Moon

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 05:15:35

It’s “sell the news” time — or so the writers at Marketwatch dot com tell us.

At any rate, I wouldn’t get overly excited over any daily asset price moves over the next week or so, as recent U.S. political events may presage a period of unusually high volatility (including both up and down moves).

Futures: S&P 500 -0.1% DOW -0.4% NASDAQ +0.0%
Congress passes debt-limit bill to end U.S. shutdown
Default averted
‘Sell the news’ underway, more Washington derp | Stock futures drop

Goldman’s report, a currency play and more Washington derp
October 17, 2013, 6:36 AM
By Shawn Langlois

So, a mere $24 billion later, and it looks like those pinche berrinches in Washington D.C. have finally figured this whole thing out. Until they dust off the same script in a few months.

Overworked senators, in a touching display of pride over solving the crisis they created themselves, celebrated by breathlessly congratulating one another. Investors celebrated by pushing the Dow up more than 200 points. Today, however, “sell the news” is underway. Taking some profits only makes sense after that rally, but there could be more at play than that. After all, this is the proverbial can-kicker, and it could turn out to be the worst-case scenario.

Comment by Professorlocknload
2013-10-17 09:47:10

“After all, this is the proverbial can-kicker, and it could turn out to be the worst-case scenario.”

Yeah, a deep market sell off going into a con-gressional election would be a game changer. As it would not only prompt .gov to triple deficit spending, it would put the Fed into Hyper Drive, maybe upping QE to $300 Billion a month.

Default? Oh yeah, it’s coming. Just not the way most folks think it will. It will come in the form of a major currency devaluation. It’s in the works now, and has been accelerated since TARP and QE1. These things don’t happen as an event. They happen by process over many years, even decades.

We can stay in cash or get real. Go with faith and credit in governments, or proceed with history.

Below are a few currencies in just one small nation that have been outlasted by real assets. It will prove no different here, over time. (Continental Dollar?)

http://www.atsnotes.com/catalog/banknotes/italy.html

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2013-10-17 10:13:52

What do you consider “real assets”?

If you mean RE, t’s just that little of value cash flows, at least around here. Prices are way too high. Had I had more cash, I’d admit that 2010 (again, around here) would’ve been a possible entry point for multi-family property.

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Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:12:55

Default? Oh yeah, it’s coming. Just not the way most folks think it will. It will come in the form of a major currency devaluation.

Exactemundo!

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 12:15:57

Default and currency deval aren’t remotely the same. And if you think currency deval(hyper inflation) is anywhere on the horizon in the next 500 years, you’re deluded.

 
Comment by bluto
2013-10-17 13:08:58

HA are you willing to bet on that statement?

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 13:30:44

Default and currency deval aren’t remotely the same. And if you think currency deval(hyper inflation) is anywhere on the horizon in the next 500 years, you’re deluded.

I don’t see any other outcome with crazy Yellin at the helm of the fed.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 20:23:12

I’ll be happy to wager on it.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:19:27

Hello Bill. It does not look like my earlier comment will post, so I will repeat. Have you seen the premium on gold in India? The world has a shortage of physical gold and a glut of paper gold. For those that wonder how does this fit in a housing blog. The suppression of gold is the other side of the coin to the propping up of the housing market. The people printing money to make houses and stocks appreciate must not allow gold show that inflation is being caused by their printing. They suppress gold by selling gold that they do not own on the futures market. The interesting thing is more of the PTB seem to be getting on the other side of the trade and while still manipulating the trade, they seem to understand that they cannot hold gold much longer.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:30:44

Hold= hold down

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:51:07

“The suppression of gold is the other side of the coin to the propping up of the housing market. The people printing money to make houses and stocks appreciate must not allow gold show that inflation is being caused by their printing. They suppress gold by selling gold that they do not own on the futures market.”

Does this make you bullish on gold? I guess you never heard the old saying, Don’t fight the Fed?

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-10-17 07:12:29

Yes gold is in a “buy low” situation. I think it has more upside than stocks in the next five years, although I am long term bullish on stocks compared to precious metals.

This QE thing will go on another six years before we taxpayers will all run out of generosity. I would be overweight stocks and I am realizing some gains along the way to buy pockets full of gold every few months.

At this ate I will get to multimillionaire status within two years. I am very close! Glad I hung onto my former company stock.

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 09:10:59

So are you predicting that house prices won’t craaaater for another six years?

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 09:23:34

So you’re suggesting you’re not deep underwater and sinking?

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 10:54:59

*checks mortgage balance*
*check zillow value of house*

Sorry sweetie, not underwater yet. But check back, maybe tomorrow. :grin:

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 11:08:06

*Dishonest math CHECK
*Failed to find a buyer at dumb money price CHECK

No oxygen.

 
 
Comment by Get Stucco
2013-10-17 19:53:19

“I think it has more upside than stocks in the next five years, although I am long term bullish on stocks compared to precious metals.”

Why is this?

Presumably gold will not be seeing any increase in ‘earnings’ or ‘dividends’ over the next five years, so you must be expecting something to change in the outlook for the numeraire asset, the dollar, over the next five years.

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 05:58:02

It looks to me like we are witnessing a QE3 extension rally in Treasuries and gold. If correct, this development should also (in principle) help keep the stock market on a permanently high plateau.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 05:59:02

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Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:14am EDT

* U.S. debt deal seen stop-gap and this may weigh on economy

* Short-term bill market rallies as default averted

* Long-term bonds firm as business confidence may take a hit

* Fed may also delay plans to reduce stimulus

By Marius Zaharia

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries rallied in Europe on Thursday after a deal to avoid a U.S. default was seen as a stop-gap, sparking long-term growth concerns that could delay Federal Reserve plans to reduce bond-buying stimulus.

A last-minute deal to lift the U.S. debt limit paved the way for the U.S. government to re-open after more than two weeks, but it only secured funding until Jan. 15, raising the likelihood of another round of political brinkmanship.

The fact the agreement left unresolved fundamental issues of spending and deficits brought only short-term relief and raised long-term worries that the debt ceiling would become a structural drag on the economy.

This in turn was likely also to delay plans by the Federal Reserve to trim its vast bond purchase programme, giving an extra boost to Treasuries, analysts said.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 06:36:59

Then why is the stock market down 140 points today if the deal just means easier money? I think that it has to do with Cruz and polls showing he has increased his lead in the Republican nomination race. Bring on a Cruz vs. Hillary contest, who is going to look like the party of the old, in that one?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:41:00

Now wait a minute…the Dow Jones Industrials are only off 109 points, and already rallying back.

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:42:17

Dow Jones Industrial Average
Market open 15,271.29
Change -102.54 -0.67%
Volume 10.98m
Oct 17, 2013 9:41 a.m.

 
Comment by Combotechie
2013-10-17 06:43:57

Suck ‘em in, shake ‘em out.

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 06:43:35

I think that it has to do with Cruz and polls showing he has increased his lead in the Republican nomination race.

That is Awesome with a capital A! I can’t wait for the next Repub primaries. That just made my day.

Bring on a Cruz vs. Hillary contest

(Rasmussen has Cruz taking Utah)

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Comment by michael
2013-10-17 11:15:01

did you not get the memo…he told you to stop reading blogs…why are you still here?

 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:43:41

“…who is going to look like the party of the old, in that one?”

Do you mean ‘old white guys on Medicare,’ or some other definition of ‘old’?

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Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2013-10-17 06:51:17

Stocks down just for profit taking. I am going to realize some gains in 2014. But only to raise some cash to balance my lower income than this year. I am in taxpayer strike.

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Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 06:58:01

Is Cruz even eligible, given his Canadian birth? IIRC, the question never had to be fully answered. I don’t mean blogger opinions, I mean by official court ruling.

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 07:52:33

I’ve heard those birth certificates can be doctored.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 08:17:01

How cute….a birther in HBB.

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 10:57:54

What me? Oh no no, I want Cruz to be eligible, see, and to run, and win the nomination, yes yes oh yes. Lots of Dems do.

 
Comment by michael
2013-10-17 11:30:40

i don’t know guys…are you sure hillary is gonna run?

i’m not so sure.

 
Comment by Steve J
2013-10-17 13:38:44

Hillaries health is not that great.

 
 
Comment by scdave
2013-10-17 06:59:08

increased his lead in the Republican nomination race. Bring on a Cruz ??

Go ahead….Continue the circus….

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:49:16

Oct. 17, 2013, 9:46 a.m. EDT · CORRECTED
Fed’s Fisher urges Congress ‘to get act together’
By Greg Robb

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Congress should get its act together because financial markets “are restless,” said Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Fed, on Thursday. “The bond market is beginning to show us the back of its hand,” Fisher said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. Fisher said that Washington can’t look for the Fed to solve all of the economic ills “through ever-expansive monetary policy.” That would only make the situation worse, he said.

 
Comment by JingleMale
2013-10-18 02:03:26

Mickey and Minnie J6P won’t be happy when Pluto has all the money. That’s effin Goofy.

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 04:59:43

Many Democrats hope and many Republicans fear that Obamacare will become as popular as Medicare or Social Security. But both Medicare and Social Security are essentially Ponzi schemes. They promise everyone oversized returns and no one in the initial generations pays the real costs of the benefits. They are programs that work quite well until they collapse which probably people in their twenties and probably thirties will see. But Republicans always took a beating trying to make the two systems long term viable because it meant taking away the oversize return.

Obamacare took 500 billion from the seniors medicare and asks the healthy twenty year olds to subsidize the sick middle age people. It also actually does have minor wealth transfer from the rich to the poor. It never will be as popular as a Ponzi scheme, it has already angered the seniors and rich and will soon anger the young.

The irony is twenty somethings are being shafted by the two Ponzi schemes and soon will be shafted by Obamacare. I will feel bad for them except they voted for Obama. He has inflicted Obamacare on them and refuses to take the oversized returns away so there is something left for them when they return.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:03:21

Too early, many mistakes but two substantive changes: return=retire and will=would.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 05:28:49

Hey “Dan” ;) ,

You can start your typical housing inflation pimping any time now.

And how are your friends at the Fed? Doing well?

 
Comment by azdude02
2013-10-17 05:30:19

so when your old and dont have any money do you have to sell your house to pay for the mandatory insurance bills > 1000/ month?

If you dont have insurance I’m sure the next step is to lien your home for doctors bills.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 05:33:42

No reverse mortgage. lol

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Comment by Combotechie
2013-10-17 05:37:39

No dollar escapes.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 07:20:51

Reverse mortgage is a huge scam. Beware.

 
 
Comment by scdave
2013-10-17 07:08:49

next step is to lien your home for doctors bills ??

You ever see any major Illness care bills ?? How many houses can cover those kind of Liens…And, after they lien and they take your house where do you go ?? Under a bridge ?? Or is the alternative to just forgo the remedy and just die ??

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:31:19

“Or is the alternative to just forgo the remedy and just die ??”

I think that’s the idea. Obama advanced a milder version of this when he urged oldsters to just take a pain pill and forego the hip replacement.

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 08:12:50

Got a source for that Obama statement?

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 10:25:49

Sorry, it was a pacemaker, not a hip replacement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo

Of course, I’m totally confused what a pacemaker has to do with a pain pill. If he was talking about a hip replacement, it would make more sense.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 10:44:23

Got a source for that Obama statement?

I never heard of it either.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:06:14

Member of the audience. Jane Sturm: “My mother is now over 105. But at 100, the doctors said to her, ‘I can’t do anything more unless you have a pacemaker.’ I said, ‘Go for it.’ She said, ‘Go for it.’ But the specialist said, ‘No, she’s too old.’ But when the other specialist saw her and saw her joy of life, he said, ‘I’m going for it.’ That was over five years ago. My question to you is: Outside the medical criteria for prolonging life for somebody who is elderly, is there any consideration that can be given for a certain spirit, a certain joy of living, a quality of life, or is it just a medical cutoff at a certain age?”

Obama: “I don’t think that we can make judgments based on people’s ‘spirit.’ Uh, that would be, uh, a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules that, uh, say that, uh, we are going to provide good quality care for all people. End-of-life care is one of the most difficult sets of decisions that we’re going to have to make. But understand that those decisions are already being made in one way or another. If they’re not being made under Medicare and Medicaid, they’re being made by private insurers. At least we can let doctors know — and your mom know — that you know what, maybe this isn’t going to help. Maybe you’re better off, uhh, not having the surgery, but, uhh, taking the painkiller.”

 
 
 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 06:40:23

Obamacare took 500 billion from the seniors medicare

“In fact, AARP representatives say that Medicare will become stronger once the ACA is fully in effect. “Medicare’s guaranteed benefits are protected in ways they hadn’t been protected in the past,” says Nicole Duritz, AARP’s vice president for Health Education and Outreach.” yahoo dot com

it has already angered the seniors

“Stop Obamacare and keep the government out of my Medicare!”

and rich

They’re always “angry” when having to contribute to the country that enabled them to be rich.

and will soon anger the young.

Until they get sick.

and asks the healthy twenty year olds to subsidize the sick middle age people

Kind of like Blue Cross. Or a family. Or a society. Oh yea, kinda like all the other civilized countries. every one except USA until the ACA.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 09:45:23

How much did the AARP make on Obama care? They are not an unbiased source.

 
 
 
Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 06:51:18

Everything will be fixed with higher taxes!

 
Comment by HBB_Rocks
2013-10-17 06:56:49

But Republicans always took a beating trying to make the two systems long term viable because it meant taking away the oversize return.

——————–
BS. There have been many ideas pushed to improve the viability of social security, including removing income caps (caps at around $110k) but Republicans haven’t been gung-ho about trying that out. They only seem to be intrested in either making it optional, removing the business-copay, or privatising it.

 
Comment by Steve J
2013-10-17 13:41:40

Ponzi scheme?

Isn’t Social Security a ‘pay as you go’ system?

 
Comment by CarrieAnne
2013-10-17 16:48:35

“Obamacare ……asks the healthy twenty year olds to subsidize the sick middle age people”

Funny, since that was the paradigm back when insurance costs were incidental instead of a painful proportion of take home pay.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 05:14:53

Todays Bloomberg View hit a bullseye

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/shiller-s-lesson-housing-was-never-a-great-investment.html

The money quotes;

home equity just isn’t a great place to put your money

Remember…. “equity” is a fallacy. It doesn’t exist.

The biggest cause of the housing bubbles of the last decade was excessive credit expansion, but the common fallacy that houses are a good way to accumulate wealth also was to blame. Maybe Shiller’s prize will remind us of that.

Houses are a horrible investment. They are depreciating assets that result in loss every.single.time.

The live broadcast has much more info than print. Listen to it.

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 05:44:13

What is the purpose of credit ratings? Or do they basically serve no useful purpose?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 05:45:52

DAGONG DOWNGRADES US TO A- FROM A
By Christopher Langner
Thu Oct 17, 2013 4:02am EDT

SINGAPORE, Oct 17 (IFR) - Chinese rating agency Dagong has downgraded the United States to A- from A and maintained a negative outlook on the sovereign’s credit.

The agency suggested that, while a default has been averted by a last minute agreement in Congress, the fundamental situation of debt growth outpacing fiscal income and GDP remains unchanged. “Hence the government is still approaching the verge of default crisis, a situation that cannot be substantially alleviated in the foreseeable future,” Dagong said in a press release.

Dagong’s ratings are hardly followed outside of China. The agency also classifies most countries it follows very differently from major agencies such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

For instance, like the major agencies, Dagong rates Norway Triple A. However, the US was rated A and the United Kingdom has an A+ rating with Dagong, while Moody’s for one, has the UK at and the US at Aaa, the highest level on the New York-based agency’s scale.

Yet, the Chinese agency is not alone in pointing out that the creditworthiness of the United States is not as good as it once was. Yesterday, Fitch put the Triple A rating it gives to the US under negative watch.

In August 2011, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US to AA+ after a protracted debt ceiling debate in Congress brought the government to the verge of a shutdown.

 
Comment by azdude02
2013-10-17 05:50:48

to extort bribes out of people with money?

 
Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 06:52:47

The same thing happened with movie ratings. Rotten Tomatoes is a joke, overrun by shills.

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 09:23:51

Ditto for Yelp. I read that businesses are paying Chinese and Russians to write phony reviews — good reviews for themselves, bad reviews for the competition — on Yelp. Then Yelp will offer to “improve” your rating… for a fee.

 
Comment by michael
2013-10-17 11:49:45

i quit caring about a stranger’s opinion on movies when siskel and ebert gave Dune two thumbs’ down. and they also never had anything good to say about john hughes.

Comment by Steve J
2013-10-17 14:59:52

Dune sucked.

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Comment by AmazingRuss
2013-10-17 18:44:12

Agreed. Total butchery of the story, horrible sound track.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 05:51:23

and now back to business as usual

washington post - documents reveal nsa’s extensive involvement in targeted killing program:

‘the file is part of a collection of records in the snowden trove that make clear that the drone campaign — often depicted as the cia’s exclusive domain — relies heavily on the nsa’s ability to vacuum up enormous quantities of e-mail, phone calls and other fragments of signals intelligence’

 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:01:32

hope and change

washington post - study: poor children are now the majority in american public schools in south, west:

‘a majority of students in public schools throughout the american south and west are low-income for the first time in at least four decades, according to a new study that details a demographic shift with broad implications for the country.

the analysis by the southern education foundation, the nation’s oldest education philanthropy, is based on the number of students from preschool through 12th grade who were eligible for the federal free and reduced-price meals program in the 2010-11 school year.

the meals program run by the department of agriculture is a rough proxy for poverty, because a family of four could earn no more than $40,793 a year to qualify in 2011.

children from those low-income families dominated classrooms in 13 statesin the south and the four western states with the largest populations in 2011, researchers found. a decade earlier, just four states reported poor children as the majority of the student population in their public schools.’

Comment by In Colorado
 
Comment by Overtaxed
2013-10-17 08:48:36

“washington post - study: poor children are now the majority in american public schools in south, west:”

See: Birth statistics by IQ

And the issue here will become quite obvious. The higher your income and IQ, the fewer children you are likely to have. And, of course, income and IQ are becoming more and more correlated every year. So, by proxy, children become more and more the prerogative of the lower classes of this country.

Unless something changes substantially over the next few decades, that number will just continue to rise. Even so, it’s shockingly high today. 50% of children are in poor families? The number of poor households is nowhere near 50%!

Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 08:57:42

Idiocracy is here :)

Smart people don’t have kids, they have pets and hobbies (and lots of money!)

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 10:21:00

50% of children are in poor families? The number of poor households is nowhere near 50%!

IDK. 50% of Americans make less than $500 a week. That means a lot make a lot less. If the poor with kids have an average of 1.5-2 kids I could see how that math could work out to 50% of America’s kids being poor.

Some of the upper-middle class might be “overtaxed” but over 150 million Americans do have bigger problems

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 14:51:20

Is it poor families having more children or is it families with more children becoming poor or a change in the amount that qualifies a family for free or reduced priced lunches?

Were the families poor when the children were conceived? Did families with children get more strongly impacted by the recession?

With regard to your IQ and poverty correlation: Do children of the formerly middle class become less intelligent as their families drop below the poverty line?

 
 
Comment by michael
2013-10-17 12:21:12

most of the white people who have kids i know back in my hometown in the MS delta are homeschooling their kids.

Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 14:53:39

Good point.

Are charter and private schools included in the statistics? Perhaps we are seeing middle class flight from the public schools.

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:02:23

Will the recent political fight affect the “risk-free” status of U.S. Treasuries?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:03:54

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.

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:08:36

Lest this story seems moot, note we may get to relive the debt ceiling showdown as soon as February 2014.

What could happen if the U.S. defaults?
Here’s an update on default talks in Washington.
By Andrew Tangel and Walter Hamilton
October 15, 2013, 11:15 a.m.

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.

What is the debt ceiling?

The debt ceiling is a borrowing limit, similar to the spending cap on a credit card.

It places a lid on how much the United States can borrow by selling Treasury bonds. The federal government routinely spends more than it takes in through taxes and other income, forcing the Treasury Department to sell bonds to finance routine governmental operations.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling could prevent the government from having enough money to pay its bills.

Creditors such as Social Security recipients and Treasury-bond investors would be paid eventually. But failing to make timely interest payments to bondholders would be a default.

Why is the debt ceiling issue so important?

The ability of the U.S. to pay its debts on time is a critical symbol of the nation’s financial sturdiness and reliability.

Treasury bonds have long been considered “risk-free,” a testament to the strength of the U.S. economy and the belief that, no matter what, the United States would make good on its IOUs.

T-bonds are a building block of the global financial system and a benchmark for transactions across the globe. For example, home mortgage rates closely track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.

“Treasuries are the basic bedrock of the financial system,” said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, a brokerage in New York. “The risk-free rate is the most important notion in public finance, because everything builds up off of that.”

 
Comment by scdave
Comment by AmazingRuss
2013-10-17 18:51:39

The 800 lb canary.

 
 
 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:06:07

Would somebody explain to me the point of a “debt ceiling”? Is it just so the two halves of the same party can have drama queen pageants because they’re starved for attention? I mean, why even bother having a “ceiling” if they’re just going to raise it anyway?

Comment by Combotechie
2013-10-17 06:09:19

It’s to demonstrate to the world that we Americans are financially prudent.

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:15:46

Have we ever NOT raised the debt ceiling? At what point does the whole popstand blow?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:20:38

If you trust the writers of the LA Times debt ceiling quiz, the answer is “yes.” I’d be interested in the details if anyone can track down the story.

Quiz: Test your knowledge about the debt limit
By Jim Puzzanghera
January 15, 2013, 7:28 a.m.

The White House and Congress are battling over raising the nation’s debt limit, which is the statutory ceiling on federal borrowing. The law prohibits the government from exceeding the limit, but the Treasury Department can use accounting maneuvers to stave off a default temporarily after the limit technically is reached.

Test your knowledge of the debt limit with this quiz.

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Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 06:58:14

In 2006, in a party line vote the senate passed debt ceiling 52-48. No a single democrat voted for it. Just a think for moment if there were 3 more democrats in the senate we would have had our default in 2006.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 06:09:38

Just another neo-con(dem/republican duopoly) scam. And don’t forget…. it’s for international consumption primarily but it serves to bolster the false believe that there is a difference between these two scumbag outfits.

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:17:09

They don’t always raise it.

Comment by Combotechie
2013-10-17 06:28:58

It’s only raised when it is reached and not before.

A sign of discipline!

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:35:26

Priceless!

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Comment by Bluestar
2013-10-17 06:17:22

If the US population were to flat line or even shrink then the concept of a debt ceiling would make sense but when the population is expected to continue growing then a better metric would be a ratio of debt to income (tax receipts). I don’t think a debt to GDP is a valid metric because there are too many non-economic items embedded in the GDP.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:16:24

More Hope and Change

Rasmussen - Right Direction or Wrong Track:

“The number of U.S. voters who feel the country is heading in the right direction has fallen to the lowest level of the Obama presidency.

Just 13% of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending October 13. That’s down from 17% the week before and the lowest finding since the week of October 20-26, 2008, when George W. Bush was still president.”

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:18:09

Does Rasmussen have a prediction yet for the outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:22:32

My predictions:

1) Madam President Hillary Clinton

2) Permanent Democrat supermajority in perpetuity from now on

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:27:57

Nyet, nyet.

Hillary doesn’t have a chance, really. Besides, it would appear she’s not well.

As to a “permanent” dem supermajority, not gonna happen, nothing is “permanent”, except death and taxes. That supermajority always breaks down. And don’t look now, but nationalist parties are starting to make serious inroads in Europe. So much so, that they had to start arresting members of Golden Dawn in Greece. That’s how serious it is.

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Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:52:05

The squad correctly predicted that when the Permanent Democrat Supermajority (2014-2030?) splits into factions, it will be the Free Sh*t Party versus the More Free Sh*t Party. The 0.1% will still own and control everything, of course. Fiscal conservatism as a political platform is DEAD.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:56:02

and canusi correctly predicts that before we even get there, the land mass currently occupied by the US will have broken down into at least four or five countries.

 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 07:03:51

Sorry, but the statists would never allow that. They would sooner have a de facto Mexico-Inside-the-USA than to allow any secession. Assuming no TEOTWAWKI scenario happens, within the next century, USA population will hit 500 million, 85% of which will be poor or working poor. Idiocracy will be here sooner than you think :)

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:09:37

“Sorry, but the statists would never allow that.”

Allow’s got nothing to do with it. As Mother Russia found out.

 
Comment by Overtaxed
2013-10-17 08:56:01

“it will be the Free Sh*t Party versus the More Free Sh*t Party”

ROFL.

Don’t count out the EVEN MORE free sh*t party.

:)

 
Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 14:12:52

The squad correctly predicted…

It’s a good thing that the people who make predictions on this blog don’t work in meteorology.

 
 
Comment by Steve W
2013-10-17 06:30:12

Perpetuity is a long time. Would you have considered yourself a Democrat in 1860?

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:36:07

Neither then nor now.

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 06:31:05

Did you get your medical pot card in Cali? I will predict 2014, minor Republican gains in both the house and senate. Silver predicted similarly earlier, we will see if he revises his forecast. BTW, that is my prediction not Rasmussen and I never predicted a Romney victory. I stated only that he could win based on Rasmussen’s polling. I even stated a few days before the election that I could not predict the winner.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 06:49:38

I never predicted a Romney victory

Yea right. As per your style on many issues, you twisted, convoluted, bent, turned, newspoke, and weaseled so many trends, stats and figures that “pointed to” a Romney victory that it wasn’t even funny.

Own up. You were wrong again.

 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 07:13:36

Of course you could predict the winner if you had read a more intelligent and cunning analysis, such as that by Princeton’s Election Center or by Nate Silver.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 09:38:31

Rio, wrong like I was on slow down in Brazil? Wrong like I was on the pause of global warming? Wrong like I was when I said the Arab Spring would be a disaster? I could go on and on but you just want to point out one time you think I was wrong even if it is not true. Never made a prediction on the election other than maintaining it could be close when most of the board had it over in January. Just post a post where I said clearly that I thought Romney would win. Not one where I said he could win based on ahe Rasmussen poll, one where I said he would win.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 10:45:02

Rio, wrong like I was on slow down in Brazil?

Yes, wrong. You implied it would be very bad. Don’t feel bad though. FPSS said it would be a great depression here in 2012-13. It’s almost 2014. Not feeling it but even I said Brazil would slow down.

You also implied that because a few thousand workers were exploited in Brazil’s sugar industry that the entire ethanol/sugar industry consisting of millions of workers was run by slave labor. That’s like me saying because police found some “slave labor” sweatshops in LA that the entire USA garment industry (manufacturing, wholesale and retail) consisted of slave labor. Your sense of numbers, trends and stats are way off and totally clouded by your politics.

Wrong like I was on the pause of global warming?

Yes wrong. You conflate a pause with none. About 90% of scientists disagree with you.

I said the Arab Spring would be a disaster?

“Disaster”? Bold call. When has that region not been a “disaster”? That region has been a disaster for 100 years or more. But IDK. Is the Muslim Brotherhood being ousted and outlawed a disaster? Do you think the Arab Spring had anything to do with Iran moderating the past few months? There are a lot of things going on there that may or may not involve the Arab Spring.

Just post a post where I said clearly that I thought Romney would win.

“a post”? a? One? Just one post? As I say, you clearly do not understand the meaning of numbers, trends and statistics.

I could go on and on

Not only “could” you go on and on, but you do go “on and on”.

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 12:55:05

“100″ years???

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 13:00:25

“100″ years???

I’m being kind. How many centuries ago did the Arabs lead in math and science? To lead, then abandon and then turn away from and become ignorant of math and science is a disaster for a society.

But maybe that’s what you meant.

 
 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-10-17 07:14:48

I agree Whac. On the bright side, taxpayers will realize their weapon is not voting, but just curtis g down their incomes.

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Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-10-17 07:16:07

Cutting down

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 08:25:07

Isn’t that being done for them, whether they want it or not?

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2013-10-17 10:55:25

Isn’t that being done for them, whether they want it or not?

LOL. Too true.

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 15:15:53

“curtis g down their incomes”

Thanks for the correction. I thought I had missed some new slang expression. :)

 
 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 07:11:41

If the GOP doubles down on Cruz or someone similar, I don’t need Rasmussen (the best pollster, haha, **sarcasm**) to tell me how that is going to end.

Meanwhile, I’m going to continue to point out that Chris Christie is about to win re-election in a fairly blue wealthy/coastal elitist state by 30% in a couple of weeks. But GOP convention delegates are weighted towards southern states. Because that’s a great plan.

See, for example, this explanation of how the GOP comes up with how many delegates each state gets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_National_Convention#Delegations

This gives states with no media, small populations, and entrenched special interests an outsized say in the nomination. It makes NC more important than NJ. It makes TX more important than CA. It makes FL more important than NY. Just LOL at this system.

“Comparing the three states in terms of population, California gets one delegate for every 221,171 residents, Texas gets one for every 168,124, and Wyoming gets one for every 19,876″

LOL, Wyoming GOP primary voters are ~12 times as important in the GOP nominating process as CA GOP primary voters. This is nuts, since WY should be a GOP slam dunk anyway.

Bottom line, the GOP really doesn’t give two fucks about real high-income people who work hard for a living. They care more about Cletus from Tripoli, Tennessee than they do about John from Arlington, VA.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:20:24

John from Arlington, VA

John from Arlington is the actual parasite in this corrupt immoral status-quo. He should be working on the field than shuffling paper (while making a decent money) for the military industrial complex.

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Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 10:13:05

What if John from Arlington VA is a veterinarian or grocery store manager or a retired factory worker?

The point is, the GOP primaries are designed so that special interests can exploit cheap advertising in poorer markets in the south and mountain west.

The GOP primaries are typically wrapped up much faster than the DEM primaries. This really isn’t advantageous to them from a competitive stand point. The only advantages are:

a) Bigger rewards to power brokers in deep red states
b) Cheaper advertising for special interests/PACs

It isn’t inconceivable that the GOP could field a candidate who could win states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or California. If the GOP was serious about having a candidate who could compete in more states, they wouldn’t hand out so many delegates to states that are irrelevant in the general election.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 11:10:15

I don’t claim to know anything about the Too Old & Stupid Party, but honestly why select a fake democrat while there’s already going to be a real democrat in general election? May be that’s what they are thinking?

Also let’s look at a common thread in GHW Bush, Dole, McCain, RMoney. I think they were all considered moderates so we all know what heppened there.

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 15:23:57

Romney was one of the more conservative Republican candidates in the 2008 election. By 2012, he wasn’t conservative enough. The outsized emphasis on smaller and more conservative states that Suite Joey points out has swung the Republican party hard right.

The “real” Americans in the rural areas feel like they have no influence in government. The reality is that they have more influence than urban voters.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 16:36:08

Didn’t one of those four guys get elected twice?

 
Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 16:37:45

I read what you wrote too quickly. GHW Bush was elected once.

 
 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:25:04

Hemant Lakhani?

Chris Christie is a despicable, low life of a human being.

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Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 11:01:49

Chris Christie is a despicable, low life of a human being.

———

His performance as US Attorney for New Jersey and as governor suggest otherwise, brother.

Also, he took down Corzine before it was chic to mock Corzine as a symbol of evil (former CEO of Goldman before Blankfein).

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:41:26

What performance?

 
 
 
 
Comment by azdude02
2013-10-17 06:19:21

it is the same old bought and paid for politicians.

is this why dylan ratigan got fired:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU2B_HgyKNU

Santelli / Ratigan on the next ticket?

Comment by Bluestar
2013-10-17 09:11:18

The era of the Clintons is over (finally!). The seeds of the financial meltdown were planted under his watch and there are plenty of Democrats that don’t trust them. I think her term as Sec. of State was the price of their support in 2008 pure political payback. Remember that Larry Summers was a 8 to 1 favorite for FED chair but it was the left wing of the Democrat party that shot him down and we ended up with my pick, Janet Yelen. I would note that unlike Bernanke, Yelen has made it clear she wants to use her power to raise lower/middle class wages and not inflate asset values. She’s no fan of supply side economics.
I think the tea leaves are pointing to Elisabeth Warren for 2016 with a Hispanic V.P. like Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro for VP.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:41:42

I would note that unlike Bernanke, Yelen has made it clear she wants to use her power to raise lower/middle class wages and not inflate asset values.

Again you are projecting your hope and dreams. How many times have we gone that route? How many times do we have to be fooled before we accept that the status-quo is not going to change with people like her? What proof do you have that Yellin actually will do what she said she would? She has been on Fed for sometime now…no action of her should you give you any confidence. Honestly even if she were to want to do that, how can she raise wages? Can she directly deposit on our bank accounts? I hope I will not hear you compain about raising inequlities once Yellin takes over. I hope you will own up to the fact and admit you were wrong and spare us with your conjectures.

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Comment by Bluestar
2013-10-17 10:41:53

True. Yelen is the rotating head of the private banking group AKA The Federal Reserve and as such it is their #1 priority to maintain the status quo. I think it’s stacked like 7+12 bankers to 1 chairwoman so at best she get’s to deliver the the rate change announcements and the Q&A meetings. But here’s what I think what she will do; She will give politicians cover when they actually try to tip the playing field back to even. All I can say is there is a long and deep record of what she thinks about monetary policy. Bernanke also had a history and he lived up to it. He was known as Helicopter Ben long before he was put in office by Bush, with Greenspan’s strong encouragement I might add.
It would be foolish to dismiss her ability to influence legislation that affects the wage inequality issue.

“Seventeen academic papers of Janet Yellen’s that you need to read”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/09/seventeen-academic-papers-of-janet-yellens-that-you-need-to-read/

We all know that QE will eventually stoke inflation. So far we are still getting ‘official’ low inflation numbers because the way inflation is calculated. I think it would be easier to get some wage inflation rather than trying to just raise taxes on the top tier and I think that’s her plan.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:39:14

Seventeen academic papers

I think there’s a very simple reason they are “academic.”

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2013-10-17 06:21:46

But the number of households helped by the settlement has fallen short of the original predictions, and critics complained that too much relief was given to people who gave up their homes in short sales and not enough to help people retain their homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/business/fewer-homeowners-than-expected-helped-by-mortgage-settlement.html

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:23:05

Next up, Comprehensive Immigration Reform! Ugh.

Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:31:59

our differences only make us stronger

if you don’t want your kids going to a school full of ms-13, you are racis

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:46:36

Any parent who would send their kids to public school these days should be arrested for child abuse. Wanna see the future of Amerika? Take a gander of the mug shot of the Florida girl who was arrested for cyber stalking the girl who committed suicide over being bullied by schoolmates. Even better, catch a load (and I do mean load) of her portly parents. Seven kids. And a trailer that looks like it’s about to cave in.

Ain’t that Amerika
For you and me!

Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:57:29

See also my pending post about students being sent home from a NorCal high school for wearing American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

“Aint that Amerika”

Yes, it is America. It is our demographic destiny :)

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Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 07:09:47

This entirely depends on where you live. There are many great public schools in this country.

Even in places where there are bad public schools, often you see the scam of the “public charter school,” which doesn’t let the bad kids in.

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:42:58

“This entirely depends on where you live. There are many great public schools in this country.”

Provided you can run the gauntlet of feral classmates. Those “great” pubic schools are becoming infected as well. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there’s always lots of heavy breathing over the “Plant High School District!” by realtors flogging overpriced homes in South Tampa, the “elite” area (I have to laugh, because the idea of an “elite” area in Tampa Bay is something of a joke, but, whatever). Anyhoo, the high school just had one of its students shot in the leg for some reason or another, and the news featured some befuddled prepster kid on camera saying “Like, wow, I mean, it was, like, wow, I couldn’t believe it, like, wow.”

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 07:52:42

Even in places where there are bad public schools, often you see the scam of the “public charter school,” which doesn’t let the bad kids in.

Out here “charter” schools are LDS parochial schools.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 08:02:03

Provided you can run the gauntlet of feral classmates.

My kids went to public high school and they had no issues with that. I think Strawberrypicker is right, it depends on where you live. That said, little old Loveland is very racially homogenous. There are Hispanics, but once the housing boom ended most of them pulled up their stakes and moved on.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 08:27:16

“My kids went”

“Went” being the operative word here, Colo. The fact that this Plant High School had such an incident shows the contagion is spreading.

Of course, I’m a bit jaundiced. Hillsborough County Schools has a terrible problem system wide with pedophile teachers and other staff. And actual incidents of classmates buggering other classmates. It’s disgusting. I wouldn’t put my kid, if I had one, in a Hillsborough County Public school. The next county over, Polk, has even worse problems with what is laughingly called “bullying”. Not to mention the female students shooting each other over boyfriends and such. Actual beatdowns caught on tape. And it has nothing to do with “racial”, in Polk County, these are all “white girls” who have, by example, descended to the level of feral rats.

Now in Pinellas County, it’s black students ganging up and pulping one white student on da bus, putting him in the hospital.

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2013-10-17 09:44:18

That said, little old Loveland is very racially homogenous. There are Hispanics, but once the housing boom ended most of them pulled up their stakes and moved on.

Boulder has a lot of Hispanic kids in the schools even though the town is mostly white. The white adults just have very few kids. So my son’s schools have been pretty heavily Hispanic, but no complaints here. There seems to be some self selection going on and you don’t really see gangster types in the Boulder schools. And I like that they don’t seem so stressed about everybody must go Ivy League like the yuppies are. The only cultural issue that concerns me at this point is that the girls might be too complacent about getting pregnant.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 10:53:30

“Went” being the operative word here, Colo.

My son graduated a year ago, so the experience is recent.

That said, schools in nearby Greeley are different. My son is studying to be a HS teacher, and has already arranged to student teach in Loveland, and not in Greeley where his college is located.

 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 07:20:53

“Any parent who would send their kids to public school these days should be arrested for child abuse.”

More like don’t live around violent WTs or minorities and teach your kids to have self-respect and a strong identity. This isn’t that difficult.

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Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 08:04:00

More like don’t live around violent WTs or minorities

Bingo. Unfortunately, these days, most of the jobs are in urban centers where the undesirables congregate.

 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 08:48:05

More like don’t live around violent WTs or minorities and teach your kids to have self-respect and a strong identity. This isn’t that difficult.

You don’t have kids, Joe… so how do you know what is difficult and what is not in regards to teaching kids?

 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 10:03:16

Are you kidding? My wife teacher 3rd grade science at a Title I school in a middle income area in a city.

IN A CITY. You know, where the undesirables supposedly are. Her school is not in a gentrified area. It just has really good administration and attracts good teachers as a result.

The above is her opinion too, FWIW.

Parents: Stop being brokebacks.

 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 15:36:00

“3rd grade “

Most 3rd graders have a reasonable measure of self esteem - before hormones mess with their brains.

 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 07:24:39

This is from an article about that Florida bullying case:

“A man who answered the phone at the 14-year-old’s Lakeland home said he was her father and told The Associated Press “none of it’s true.”

“My daughter’s a good girl and I’m 100 percent sure that whatever they’re saying about my daughter is not true,” he said.

At their mobile home, a barking pit bull stood guard and no one came outside despite shouts from reporters for an interview.”

—————-

ROFL. Flori-duh. Trailer park. Pit bull. Detached/absent dad.

News at 11.

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 08:45:22

Oh, yeah, it’s a classic. But it doesn’t QUITE fit your narrative, Joe. Check out the GMA clip with the parents, and you’ll see what I mean.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 08:56:28

Now, in Connecticut, where people are a lot more intelligent, they do it differently. No drip-drip-drip attrition for them. In Connecticut, it’s some racially “homogenous” nut case kid pumped full of Prozac, Thorazine or whatever, have his mom make sure that he has ready access to high powered guns, make sure the school is a “gun-free zone” and then the kid goes in and blow everyone away wholesale.

Wait, wait, didn’t something similar happen in Colorado, too?

And for an extra added bonus, they get the dad of one of the blown-way kids on camera when he thinks the camera hasn’t started to roll yet, cracking jokes. Now THAT was really, really weird, especially how fast his expression changed when he realized the camera was rolling. I think you can still find the footage on youtube.

 
 
Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 10:55:18

And a trailer that looks like it’s about to cave in.
Most house trailers that I have visited have heavy steel beams under the flooring, to allow them to be transported over the roads without caving in. Regular houses, when transported over the roads, must have additional huge beams put under their structure, to prevent their standard balloon structure from giving way while they are towed. Trailer floors are far more solid than those of most balloon framed structures. The walls & roofs, not so much!

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Comment by rms
2013-10-17 07:16:22

“if you don’t want your kids going to a school full of ms-13, you are racis”

Back when I was k-school material California decided to implement a school busing program designed to mitigate racial segregation. My parents had bought into a good school district, and they were well beyond “upset.” Subsequent elections were not kind to those in rose colored sunglasses.

Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 08:50:17

If I wanted to live next to and associate with people not in my socioeconomic class, I would. I don’t. I certainly don’t need the government forcing me to integrate. Yet one more reason to despise liberals…

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Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 16:56:27

The illusion is that not associating with other socioeconomic classes will protect you and your children from gangs and drugs and other ne’er-do-wells.

 
 
 
 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 07:06:21

I doubt it will happen. They have to “win” in next legislative battles….immigration reform is dead until 2015 IMO.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 08:08:35

This is one area where the Dems can easily blow their lead, as shamnesty isn’t all that popular with the electorate.

Which is interesting, as the GOP (and its proxy, the Chamber of Commerce) loves illegals as a source of cheap labor. They just like keeping them illegal, so they can’t vote. The problem with their plan is that their anchor babies are US citizens and grow up and vote Democrat.

Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 10:56:24

They just like keeping them illegal, so they can’t vote.
Piffle, they’ll wind up voting anyway.

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Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 16:58:06

“They just like keeping them illegal, so they can’t vote.”

It goes beyond voting. They want to have a compliant labor force.

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:25:12

Did the government shutdown have a discernible impact on housing?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:27:19

Lifestyle 10/16/2013 @ 2:53PM
Shutdown Hasn’t Hurt October Asking Home Prices So Far

Trulia’s Chief Economist Jed Kolko took a close look at asking home prices in the first half of October to see if the shutdown of the federal government has had an effect. As it turns out, prices are up 1% versus September nationally. Locally, prices changes are no different in metros more dependent on the federal government, like Washington DC, compared with metros less directly affected by the shutdown.

How has the two-week shutdown of the federal government affected home prices? The main sales-price indexes won’t tell us until 2014: homes going under contract in October will close in November (or later), and November sales prices will get reported starting in January. But the Trulia Price Monitor shows how asking prices – a leading indicator of sales prices – are trending almost in real time, adjusting for both the mix of listed homes and for seasonality. This morning we analyzed asking prices between October 1 and October 15.

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:28:59

Government shutdown pinches home builders
A worker installs a roof on a home under construction in New Paltz, N.Y. (Mike Groll / Associated Press / October 16, 2013)
By Don Lee
October 16, 2013, 10:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON — The government shutdown, now in its third week, is pinching the housing market — but just a little.

A key index of home builders’ optimism slipped to 55 this month, from 57 in September, the National Assn. of Home Builders said Wednesday. The survey was conducted during the first 10 days of the month.

But that was a relatively small drop. The latest reading is still close to the highest level since early 2006, and analysts say the paralysis in Washington has had less of a hit on the market than some feared, so far anyway.

One worry was what would happen with furloughs at the Federal Housing Administration, which insures about a quarter of all single-family home purchases. Though some delays have been reported, private insurers have stepped up to offer quicker approvals and to accept paperwork that was meant for FHA loans, says Celia Chen, a housing analyst for Moody’s Analytics.

Nor has the limited staffing at the Internal Revenue Service hampered activity much, says David Crowe, chief economist of the home builders group. In some cases, lenders are using other sources to confirm income data, he says. And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are letting lenders put off IRS verification.

As long as Congress resolves the debt-ceiling problem and reopens the government soon — and hopes of a deal were rising Wednesday — “I think we’ll be back on an upswing because the fundamentals are still there,” Crowe said.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 09:40:34

Short term? Maybe.

Long term? No. Except to the extent the Republicans lost their ability politically to oppose Yellen (if they were even going to do so anyway).

In other words, no effect on housing, and even if you think there was a short-term effect, that is pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:24:10

“Long term? No.”

True. The thing that dooms housing prices long-term is dismal fundamentals plus over-inflated prices once again, only five years since the fall 2008 financial collapse. The two-week government shutdown is a data blip in this larger causal scheme.

 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:30:09

even more hope and change

christian science monitor - can schools ban american flag t-shirts?

‘racial tensions and gang problems were plaguing a northern california high school when three students arrived for classes in 2010 wearing american flag t-shirts on cinco de mayo.

unpleasant verbal exchanges and altercations marked the previous year’s cinco de mayo celebrations at live oak high school in morgan hill, 20 miles south of san jose. so when students told administrators that trouble was a possibility because of the american flag attire, the students were ordered to turn their shirts inside out or go home.

the three students have since graduated, but a federal appeals court in san francisco on thursday will consider their lawsuit alleging the school violated their free speech and equal protections rights guaranteed by the u.s. constitution.’

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:30:24

After myriad bailouts, did the Greeks ever resolve their economic situation?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:32:19

“Only” slumping by 4%+ = stability?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:35:08

This rate of economic shrinkage would be utterly catastrophic anywhere else; I guess it’s different in Greece?

Burning question: Is it “good” to stabilize after a 25 percent drop in national economic output?

Greek think tank says economy close to stabilizing after six-year slump
A man takes pictures in front of the parliament in central Athens October 8, 2013. REUTERS/John Kolesidis
By George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS | Mon Oct 14, 2013 9:59am EDT

(Reuters) - Greece’s economy may shrink by up to 4.2 percent this year but is close to stabilizing after six years of sharp contractions that have wiped out about a quarter of output, influential think tank IOBE said on Monday.

Greece now needs to ensure that wage hikes do not exceed productivity growth and keep public sector spending in check to avoid the return of large fiscal shortfalls, the independent Athens-based think tank said.

In its quarterly report, IOBE said the 183 billion euro economy was set to shrink by 4.1 to 4.2 percent in 2013, revising down a forecast made in July of a contraction of up to 5 percent. The new projection is more in line with the latest estimates by the country’s foreign lenders.

“The Greek economy is very close to a stabilization point,” IOBE said. “The twin deficits which reflected its chronic pathology are approaching a balanced level, and the six-year recession seems to be gradually reaching its end.”

 
 
 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:33:26

How did the reps like their Cruzafixion?

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:37:23

Losing = winning

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:39:13

Ooh, ooh, wait, I’ve got a better one: Cruzifiction.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 06:42:20

Cruz means Cross in Spanish, hence “Santa Cruz” = “Holy Cross”

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 06:51:17

The reps got cruzified!

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:40:00

Rick Ungar Contributor
Op/Ed 10/16/2013 @ 4:06PM
The Houston Chronicle Un-Endorses Ted Cruz

Last week, I published an article here on Forbes.com entitled, “Ted Cruz’s Shameful Betrayal Of Texas.” In that piece, I noted that Senator Cruz’s desperate and misguided campaign for attention—a campaign successful in propelling his own name recognition to new heights—has done absolutely nothing to benefit the state that gave him his job.

As one might expect, the piece brought the condemnation of many a Tea Party traveler, incensed that I failed to see what Cruz has done for the folks back home—despite there being little evidence that the Cruz agenda has much of anything to do with the good people of Texas.

Who would have guessed that, just one week later, the conservative Houston Chronicle—the newspaper that handed Cruz a critical and key endorsement in his campaign to become the next senator from the Lone Star State—would agree with me by way of publishing something you just don’t see every day—an un-endorsement of Senator Cruz?

Under the title, “Why we miss Kay Bailey Hutchison”, the editorial board of the newspaper published on op-ed Tuesday evening wherein they write —

“One reason we particularly believe that Hutchison would make a difference in these hectic days is that if she had kept her seat, Cruz would not be in the Senate.

When we endorsed Ted Cruz in last November’s general election, we did so with many reservations and at least one specific recommendation – that he follow Hutchison’s example in his conduct as a senator.

Obviously, he has not done so. Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution.”

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 13:01:46

Obviously, he has not done so. Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution.”

Hutchison = Bend over and quietly take the pouding
Cruz = Bend over and scream while taking the pouding

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Comment by Bluestar
2013-10-17 14:04:59

Hutchison = Bend over and quietly take home billions in Federal contracts back to Texas.

Hutchison = Smart
Cruz = Gen. Custer

 
 
 
Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 07:11:32

But McCain supports it!

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:13:06

Animated piece of rotting meat. Ugh.

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Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 13:15:35

Animated piece of rotting meat = Democrats’ ideal republican.

 
 
 
Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 07:13:26

Please explain what you mean by this. Do you mean they intentionally lost so they could stay the minority party, which in turn helps those who are in control of the party?

Or is it just snark.

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:19:59

Mean by what? Cruzafixion? I was just coining a word for what happened.

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Comment by Strawberrypicker
2013-10-17 07:29:22

Sorry, not that, I meant it to post below the “losing =winning”

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:35:06

Oh, I think whack-a must’ve read some of the post-mortems, there was one rep who said they didn’t lose, they’ve lived to fight another day and they focused attention on the problem and they can still de-fund obamakare and implementation of the program will show it for what it is and it will be so miserable the dems will get voted out and blah blah blah.

 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 13:03:21

Well technically, Lee didn’t “lose” Gettysburg either. The battle was a tie in the sense that no ground was gained or lost. Yet history paints the battle as the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 13:16:57

Well technically, Lee didn’t “lose” Gettysburg either. The battle was a tie in the sense that no ground was gained or lost.

Gettysburg was a huge defeat for the South - numerically and psychologically. The South retreated. The South lost a higher percentage of troops and a much higher percentage of troops that could be replaced. Bobby Lee also lost his reputation as “unbeatable”. It was generally all downhill for the South from Gettysburg.

“Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Robert E. Lee as commander.” Historian Shelby Foote

 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:27:11

“Oh, I think whack-a must’ve read some of the post-mortems,…”

You’d be wrong. I generally refrain from reading political clap-trap, and my posts here are shot from the hip.

 
 
 
 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 07:02:42

So what’s the deal? Are we going to have this movie repeated early next year? Please say it ain’t so.

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 07:12:04

Oh, you betcha! The Beltway drama queens love it when they’re the focus of national attention. Nothing like Brian Williams doing some heavy breathing and hand wringing over the goobermint.

 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 06:39:22

and yet even more hope and change

associated press - social security increases are historically small this year:

‘for the second straight year, millions of social security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come january.

preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of roughly 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an analysis by the associated press.

next year’s raise will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven’t gone up much in the past year.’

Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 16:45:46

Well what do you expect? Elect a socialist as president and the government takes over the job of calculating inflation.

 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 06:40:19

Sad state of high DC prices/rents.

“All I want is a studio apartment near a DC Metro stop for $1400/month”

http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=2389026&mc=29&forum_id=2

Not going to happen anytime soon. $1600 might be doable.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 07:47:01

Patience Liberace patience.

Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 08:19:52

The wife is onto him, apparently.

He needs a studio pied-a-terre in D.C. for all his downlow hookups on those evenings when he is allegedly working late…

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 08:37:10

Aw, c’mon, Joe should be celebrating today, Cory Booker just made the US Senate! I guess because he did such a bang-up job with Newark? Or was it Camden? I forget. The US has so many chithole cities, it’s hard to keep track.

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Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 10:25:13

Stanford football player, Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law grad, chose to forego big money to take on social issues, rescued people from a burning building, generally a fratty alpha dude. Yeah, that actually is the type of bio I want our leaders to have. I really would want them to take on law enforcement issues (like Christie) or social issues/poverty/community services (like Booker). Not sit around glad-handing donors and playing golf.

As far as turning around Newark… it is objectively better than it was 6 yrs ago. But what progress were you expecting? To turn a rough city into Manhattan in 6 years?

True, Newark is in a better location than Detroit, but without Booker it still could’ve ended up on a road to being Detroit or Gary, IN or something like that. Instead, it’s not on that path, even if no one is going to confuse Newark with Franklin Lakes if they take the wrong exit off the GSP.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 12:01:27

Liberace…. do you do private gigs too?

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:32:50

chose to forego big money to take on social issues

I have always equated that as he found an easier way (politics) to get rich and famous quickly without putting tons of hours week in and week out.

rescued people from a burning building

I have helped endless old ladies cross streets in my relatively young life. If not a senator from NJ, that oughta at least make me a congressman from NJ, right?

 
Comment by MightyMike
2013-10-17 16:47:13

Why is being a football player in college a good thing?

 
 
 
 
Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 09:43:29

If he’s not picky about his Metro stop, I’m sure he can find something in Southeast.

Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 10:17:46

People in the thread were saying he could probably get a basement apartment for that amount.

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:45:19

Turns out vampire squids some times cut expenses, too.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 06:46:45

Goldman Sachs compensation cutting surprises analysts
October 17, 2013, 9:42 AM
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

That Goldman Sachs Group (GS -2.00%) reported a big drop in fixed-income revenue — 44% to be precise — wasn’t a big surprise.

What was a surprise was that it slashed compensation expenses by 35%.

“It was the comp accrual that really surprised us,” said Brennan Hawkins, analyst at UBS, in his initial read on earnings.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 07:57:57

They will make it up with bonus?

 
 
Comment by Combotechie
2013-10-17 06:57:34

They cut the expendables.

The expendables: The business schools churns ‘em out then Wall Street burns ‘em out.

 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 07:01:58

All you need to know about Ted Cruz and the 2 dozen House Teabillies, summed up in one graphic:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1411800/thumbs/o-RACHEL-MADDOW-570.jpg?2

I still can’t believe that ending Net Neutrality was on of their demands.

OH YEAH, THEY’RE TOTALLY “FOR THE PEOPLE”. THEY REALLY HAVE THEIR FINGER ON THE PULSE OF WHAT AMERICANS WANT.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:29:12

Which just goes to prove once more, WINNING = LOOSING for Teabillies.

 
 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 07:22:14

Paid vacation ended for non-essential employees?

Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 07:29:12

Our contractors have been working (and getting paid!) during the partial shutdown.

And we actually hired two new staff this week :)

Feds drool, contractors rule!

 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 07:46:20

Bankruptcy about politics rather than math
Stockton may go out and then back into insolvency
By Steven Greenhut
3:50 p.m. Oct. 16, 2013

SACRAMENTO — “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” concluded journalist-politician Upton Sinclair in a memoir recounting his disastrous loss in the 1934 California gubernatorial race.

A utopian who wanted to build cooperatives on vacant properties, Sinclair nevetheless seemed to grasp a down-to-Earth reality: Policy is more about economic interests than numbers. One cannot, say, trim back any public payment without expecting pushback from its beneficiaries – no matter how troubling the long-term financial scenario.

This brings us to debates about the pension liabilities that are threatening California’s future finances. The state’s best numbers-crunchers are banging their heads against the wall. They understand the data and read the audits – and see a train wreck coming. But no matter how dour the numbers, the status quo prevails.

For instance, Stockton-based watchdog Dean Andal, a former Republican Assemblyman and Board of Equalization member, walked me through some disturbing line items about Stockton’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy. As I wrote in Sunday’s U-T, the City Council recently approved a Plan of Adjustment to get back on sound footing.

But based on an internal May forecast from the city’s mediation, Stockton could soon again be upside-down even after approving the plan. “By the fourth year, they return to insolvency,” Andal said. “It has statewide consequences because other cities have the same structural issues. It’s not possible to become solvent again unless you break PERS (Public Employment Retirement System liabilities).”

City officials say the document is old news. Their new data shows small shortfalls for a short time, and then growing surpluses to 2031-32 and beyond. Set aside, for a moment, whether officials who have been incapable of foreseeing the housing bust or other short-term problems can churn out an accurate prediction for decades into the future.

How accurate are their numbers in the here and now? Andal complains that the city won’t release the background on how the firm it hired arrived at the numbers. So does Vice Mayor Paul Canepa. “I can’t get that report and I keep asking for this stuff,” he told me. “Why is it that way? It is ‘trust us, trust us, trust us.’

Comment by cactus
2013-10-17 09:21:44

This brings us to debates about the pension liabilities that are threatening California’s future finances.”

higher taxes ahead or maybe they will be called fees ?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 12:49:54

The state you most have to watch is Obama’s old state Illinois, unfunded pension liabilities about 240% of annual revenue. It is going to end badly very soon.

 
 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 09:49:29

We can only hope this ballot initiative is successful:

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_24316652/san-jose-mayor-others-push-statewide-pension-ballot

In short:

In private industry, a business can’t change what you have already earned toward your pension, but they can decrease how that benefit grows in the future.

In public industry, they can’t change what you have already earned AND the public can’t decrease how your benefit grows in the future.

So, if you start out earning 2.5% of your annual salary as your pension in the future and you work for 10 years, you will have earned a pension payment equal to 25% of your salary upon retirement. However under the current law, the government cannot reduce the 2.5% to something lower for the rest of your career…you are grandfathered in to the 2.5% rate.

I’m assuming this is why Jerry Brown didn’t try to take away the ability for current employees to “spike” their pension…they get to keep their ability to spike, no matter how repulsive, and even though their “spiking” might not happen for another 20 years.

 
 
Comment by measton
2013-10-17 08:12:57

According to “Inequality for All,” a new film that Reich narrates, the wealth gap in the U.S. is as wide as it was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. The richest 1% of Americans own more than 35% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% control just 2.5%.

At first glance that sounds like good news for the wealthy in this country, but Reich disagrees. “The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy because [then] the middle class has more purchasing power and could help it grow,” he says.

Related: “We have Become a Nation of Hamburger Flippers”: Dan Alpert Breaks Down the Jobs Report

The annual income of the typical American household has fallen 9% since 1999, according to a recent report from the Census Bureau. Much of the decline was due to the Great Recession; since the recession ended in 2009 incomes for all Americans except the top 1% have hardly changed. Incomes grew by only 4% for the bottom 99% but surged by more than 31% for the top 1%. And last year the top 1% accounted for 22% of the nation’s income; the top 0.1% took home half of that.

“The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy because [then] the middle class has more purchasing power and could help it grow,”

The problem with this statement is that the elite care not about money anymore they care about power. They are happier with the largest share of a smaller pie at this point. They can dole it out in small portions for large favors from our gov and get people to work for a smaller piece when they are desperate .

Comment by jose canusi
2013-10-17 08:40:37

Thanks for posting this. I’ve been following Reich recently. I had him all conflated with Larry Summers, which sort of jaundiced my view of him, but I’ve been listening to his interviews and I think he’s possibly one of the most important economists of our time.

Comment by rms
2013-10-17 12:16:45

“I’ve been following Reich recently.”

Last winter I watched many of his hour long video presentations on youtube. Unfortunately Reich is a member of the establishment, so he remains vague when assigning blame for the financial crash and reticent regarding housing priced well beyond household income. He also avoids unpopular poverty issues and never cites the poor for being partially responsible for their station in life.

Reich could easily spend a trillion dollars of other people’s money.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:48:57

That’s why I don’t understand Reich, Schiller, Stiglitz, etc. at all. At least Krugman is honest about what he wants.

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Comment by goon squad
2013-10-17 08:41:24

Income/wealth inequality in the USA is my favorite topic of discussion on HBB.

I have been predicting for years now that it will only get worse.

The squad reiterates its correct prediction that within a generation, less than 15% of the USA population will enjoy at or above what could be considered a middle-class lifestyle.

The future belongs to Lucky Ducky :)

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:26:33

With Obama and Yellin, we will get there in 3 years.

 
Comment by measton
2013-10-17 10:16:50

It’s not a linear decline. As the elite control more of the wealth their political power goes up exponentially.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 12:10:41

You’re confusing “weath disparity” with price fixing. If price fixing weren’t rampant, wealth disparity wouldn’t be an issue.

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Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:32:39

“I have been predicting for years now that it will only get worse.”

Maybe it’s different this time, but the last time (circa 1928) when the income disparity got this wide was just before a Great Crash on Wall Street where high rolling financial market gamblers lost it all and jumped off tall buildings rather than face their gambling losses.

But I know the Fed has it all contained this go-round, so we needn’t worry about a repeat.

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 08:36:44

The fed reserve pimps and apologists magically hit the reset button today on the HBB.

Cowards and frauds.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 08:41:53

Wasn’t Grayson floating Ron Paul’s idea that the Fed should forgive 2.5T that the US owes to the Fed? Sounds like a good idea to me…why no discussion on this?

 
Comment by measton
2013-10-17 08:42:17

China’s exporters face a difficult time in coming months as demand from emerging markets slows, the Chinese trade ministry warned on Thursday after the latest trade data showed sales to Southeast Asia slowed sharply in September.

But China is ready to take measures to support its exporters to ensure the trade sector grows 8 percent this year as targeted, Commerce Ministry Spokesman Shen Danyang said, allowing exporters to see “mild growth” in the next few months.

“Although developed countries showed signs of recovery in recent months, some emerging economies are starting to lose growth momentum,” Shen told a press briefing.

“Many risks, such as capital outflows, currency depreciation and rising inflation pressures also exacerbate the economic slowdown in emerging countries,” he said.

The comments follow disappointing trade figures for September released at the weekend, which showed China’s exports falling 0.3 percent, in stark contrast to market expectations for a 6 percent rise.

The problem is decreased demand due to a shrinking middle class in Europe and America leading to decreased demand leading to fewer people in developing world rising out of poverty.

The solution of course is
Tax the middle class and upper middle class with income taxes, ACA, payroll taxes, unregulated markets, inflation etc

Cut taxes and regulation on the elite, bail them out of bad situations, so they can continue their wealth adn power stripping behavior.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 08:46:21

D.C. Area Fall Housing Market is Prime for Buyers
Evers & Co. president says buyers should buy now to avoid increasing housing costs.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11239082.htm

Washington, DC (PRWEB) October 16, 2013

The Washington-DC real estate market continues to show signs of a strong fall season, which is a prime time for buyers who want to stay ahead of housing prices and interest rates that will likely increase in the spring. September 2013 numbers show that prices have risen by 9 percent, compared to 2012 numbers and should continue to increase well into 2014. Dollar volume of sales also increased by 7 percent and the number of days on the market decreased by 31 percent compared to 2012 numbers.*

“Anybody who thinks they should wait until next spring to buy should think about the fact that prices are going to be higher by next June,” says Donna Evers, president and broker of Evers & Co. Real Estate. “This is especially significant because

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 11:09:09

A realtor said that?

Are realtors liars?

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 13:14:55

Probably not a lie. She wants people to buy, using her agency, NOW rather than buy later through some other agency. Better a surer but smaller commission now than risking a slightly larger commission later.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 15:01:23

Leave it to a donkey to run from the questions. LOLZ

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Comment by Taxpayers
2013-10-17 16:36:55

no slow down in gov spending so DC RE is moving along

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 08:47:47

Southern California housing market slows after torrid rebound
Los Angeles Times-by Andrew Khouri-2 minutes ago
“The market was starting to get too hot for a lot of people to touch,” said Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 09:12:43

CA and Brazil. Two steaming $hitholes.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 09:55:27

I didn’t smell piss in the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo but I did in LA.

Sad but true.

Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 10:24:52

My wife went to law school in SF and used to walk through the tenderloin…plenty of human waste there, despite it being in SF.

I’m saying that you probably didn’t walk through the right parts of Rio/Sao Paulo if your goal was to smell urine.

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Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 10:46:49

I think you are right, but I didn’t have to go that far from downtown LA to smell urine.

 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 11:00:01

UC Hastings? Is that in a bad area of town?

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 11:06:52

Candidly, I don’t think you need to go very far from downtown in any large city to smell urine…you just need to know where to look (and smell).

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 11:19:33

downtown in any large city to smell urine

Nah..not my experience. I thought Queens, NY was the worst before but didn’t smell urine there. I will confirm when I am there next time.

 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 11:20:33

Again I am talking about blocks and blocks of urine smell in LA…not a pocket or 2.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 12:24:27

I think it depends on the climate. The more conducive a climate is to NOT dying of exposure if you sleep outside, the more likely you’ll get bathroom smells outside.

 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2013-10-17 22:44:19

I always thought SF was one of the dirtiest places I’d been when I’d visit friends there. As “failure” says about LA, not just pockets like the Tenderloin, either. Market, SOMA, Noe Valley, Sunset, Richmond, Nob Hill, North Beach, even areas close to Pacific Heights. Litter and urine smells everywhere.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-18 00:00:19

@Suite Joey Blue Eyes-

Yeah, Hastings. It’s not in the best part of town, but she used to take the train back to the mid-Peninsula, and needed to hoof it through the tenderloin to get to the train station.

She had plenty of stories of being late to the train and needing to jump over human feces when running.

 
 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 10:51:14

CA and Brazil. Two steaming…

Not bad. You’re a little funny sometimes. :)

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 11:52:12

Truth can be funny sometimes. wink wink.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 12:10:39

steaming $hitholes…..wink wink

I’m sooo hurt.

I’m at a friend’s very nice house an hour south of Rio in an old-school fishing village sitting on a balcony with a 220 degree view of the Atlantic. They still have horsecarts to move stuff here. It’s about 73 degrees and looks like it might rain - too cool to jump in the pool but perfect sleeping weather later and I like a cool rain. Especially in the tropics. I hear thunder. CNN international is talking about the “shutdown”. Think I’ll turn it off and catch a movie in English on cable later. “Something about Mary” was funny last night.

Oh shoot. I was just told dinner is ready. It smells so good. Sometimes “steaming $hitholes” have their advantages.

wink wink

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 14:01:04

I like a cool rain. Especially in the tropics.

Man…..Dinner’s over and I’ve moved to the 3rd floor veranda. What a view. It looks so cool right now! In my shorts it’s even a little chilly - not even steaming humidity! Love it. Ocean and sky so dark, gray and “dreary” at sunset - almost like maybe Scotland. (if I ignore the jungle and palm trees)

Good people here and there. Thanks for the blog Ben.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 14:58:51

The truth hurts sometimes. wink. wink.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 16:09:28

The truth hurts sometimes.

That’s why you are so frustrated to the point of anger. Just accept it and move on. no wink

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 18:22:49

And the truth angers and frustrates sometimes. wink wink.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-10-17 09:30:28

Oct. 17, 2013, 8:08 a.m. EDT
House flipping makes a comeback
More investors are turning a profit on high-end properties
By Quentin Fottrell

Flipping houses went out of fashion around 2008, along with flip phones and sub-prime mortgages. But real estate data shows the practice is on the upswing — among million-dollar homes.

For the market as a whole, flips of single family homes fell 13% in the third quarter, according to new research from RealtyTrac, with investors earning a gross profit of nearly $55,000 on each property. But at the higher end of the market, homes seem to flip as quickly as a griddle full of hamburgers. Flipping increased 34% among homes worth $750,000 and over, 42% among $1 to $2 million houses, and 350% for properties worth between $2 and $5 million.

“We’ve seen a notable increase in sales of properties costing $1 million or more,” says Walt Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

Flipping tends to be most common in cities with a large supply of expensive homes. (To qualify as a flip, a home must be purchased and subsequently sold again within six months.) In fact, more than three-quarters of all high-end flipping took place in five markets: The New York metro area and Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego.

The trend is an extension of a return to the market among wealthy Americans, studies show. In August, sales of million-dollar homes were up 33% on the year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, accounting for 2.4% of all sales in August versus 1.8% a year earlier. Other studies are even more bullish than that: Sales of million-dollar homes increased 37% on the year in the first half of 2013, reaching the highest level since 2007, according to DataQuick, a company that analyzes nationwide property data.

What’s behind these quick turnarounds? “Flipping happens when prices are rising rapidly even if price levels are low,” says Jed Kolko, chief economist for real-estate firm Trulia.

There is also reason to think that flipping will continue to decline for the market overall, says Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA’s Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate. Cooling demand on the back of a recovery in house prices in some markets should make it a less profitable and markedly riskier venture, he says. In fact, increasing home prices and falling foreclosures have already led to a marked decrease in “middle- to low-end bread-and-butter flips,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-10-17 09:57:23

From AFP good news and a way to break the bottleneck with CNG:

New York City (AFP) - General Motors said Wednesday it will launch a car next year with the ability to operate on both gasoline and compressed natural gas, taking advantage of abundant US gas supplies.

GM chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson unveiled the new dual-fuel Chevrolet Impala at an energy summit in Washington marking the 40th anniversary of the OPEC oil embargo.

The 2015 model year sedan will be offered to customers beginning in mid-2014. GM says it will be the only manufacturer-produced full-size bi-fuel sedan in North America.

Comment by Bluestar
2013-10-17 10:55:30

That CNG has failed to catch on has always been a puzzle to me. Here in Texas the only passenger car available for years was a Honda Civic (which was only sold in limited markets). Sales were slow and I think they stopped selling them after 2012 because I don’t see any 2013/14 models listed. Chicken and egg problem I think. They need a cheap home compressor station to break through I think.
Good luck GM.

Last year, out of 14.5 million new cars and trucks sold in the United States, just 20,381 ran on natural gas, estimates Dave Hurst of Pike Research. For context, automakers sold at least 50,000 plug-in electric cars.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 12:19:54

Is CNG less costly per mile than gasoline?

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 13:23:06

Is CNG less costly per mile than gasoline?

In Brazil, a little, yes. They have millions of cars and buses that run on the stuff - and plenty of “gas” stations.

They sound funny during fill-ups.

For all its faults, (there are many) Brazil gets behind national interest programs in a way that ignorant Americans would call “socialism”.

The Brazil oil industry could not stop Brazil to become energy independent (LOL, maybe because at that time PetraBras was “nationalized”) and every rational option for energy was explored and pushed with public and private money.

Thus Brazil’s current energy independence.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 14:53:11

Brazil? Who cares?

Let’s see the math.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 16:11:15

Brazil? Who cares?

Let’s see the math.

But you don’t deal in math. You deal in anger and denial of the years and years of the reality that you live in.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 18:20:46

In other words, you have no idea.

 
 
 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 12:45:01

Domestic demand for gas is falling. If it weren’t for the EPA, we’d probably see $2.5/gal regular.

FWIW, I just bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with a 370hp Hemi V8. I’m averaging about 18 mpg in my commute and I just don’t care. I can drive over or through everything, tow/haul whatever I need, and do it in complete comfort and luxury. Al Gore, the EPA, and environmentally-minded liberals can KMA… the free-market has spoken.

Comment by oxide
2013-10-17 13:20:33

And it will speak again when we hit peak oil. But enjoy today.

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Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 13:38:02

And it will speak again when we hit peak oil. But enjoy today.

We already hit peak oil globally. However, we have a domestic supply glut due to the fracking boom in the US combined with a terminally slow domestic economy driving demand for gas down.

Bottom line is long term, gas prices will rise, but over the long run, we’re all dead anyway. Might as well enjoy our place in history while we still can. I’m tired of compromising on what I drive because of the EPA manipulating markets, terrorists making political statements in the Middle East, and Goldman Sachs raping Main St… they can suck my dual exhaust.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 13:51:51

I’m tired of…the EPA manipulating markets, terrorists making political statements…and Goldman Sachs raping Main St

Good point. I’d rather have the EPA manipulating Goldman Sachs to rape terrorists.

 
Comment by measton
2013-10-17 14:18:05

I’m tired of compromising on what I drive because of the EPA manipulating markets, terrorists making political statements in the Middle East, and Goldman Sachs raping Main St… they can suck my dual exhaust.

I’m sure due to the money you and others like you send them they are laughing all the way to the bank. I’m not sure how you think you are making them suck your dual exhaust.

 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 18:51:05

That’s my point. They’re laughing regardless. Might as well live life and enjoy what you drive… If you’re like me and actually enjoy driving. If you just need inexpensive, efficient transport, then by all means, buy a Prius or a Civic. Me, I’m done with that.

Besides, “Big” Al Gore uses more fuel and dumps more carbon in one flight in his private 777 then I probably will all year.

 
 
Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 19:00:34

18 mpg is not terrible. If you don’t drive much, mileage is not as important as other factors.

I drive a small car, which I like because it is easy to find parking and it leaves lots of space in my garage. 99% of the time, I don’t need anything bigger. For the other 1%, I can rent what I need. I stay home when it snows. In Massachusetts, that might be an issue.

Of course, you need a big car for go time. :)

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Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 11:08:05

From Detnews 10/1/13:

DETROIT, MI- General Motors Co. will offer bi-fuel compressed natural gas versions of its 2015 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickup trucks, officials announced today.

The Detroit-based said the heavy-duty trucks and all-new dedicated compressed natural gas versions of the 2014 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size passenger vans, should be available in 2014.

The obstacle so far has been few available CNG fueling stations. CNGprices DOT com has maps of stations where the general public can fuel up. One in my area is selling CNG for $1.95 gge (gas gallon equivalent pricing). The bi-fuel capability will allow many more drivers to have the option to save ALOT on fuel costs, depending on where they live & how far they usually travel.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-10-17 12:49:46

The obstacle so far has been few available CNG fueling stations.

How much would it cost to install one at home?

 
 
 
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 10:58:41

Serious question.

Do you donate money to someone’s congressional campaign just because he is your close relative? I don’t vote and frankly R & D party politics makes me sick, but I have an uncle who’s gearing up for next year’s primary. What’s the social etiquette?

Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 11:13:38

I don’t know what the proper etiquette is…as a general rule, I try to leave $ out of family situations to the greatest extent I can, so I would try to NOT talk about it. However, if he brings it up, you can either go the easy route and donate a small sum, or go a harder route and decline.

However, there is a middle ground:

We are being hit with a similar situation where some good friends are on the fundraising committee for the school where both of our kids go. They are trying to hit us up for a larger donation than we made last year (when we donated anonymously).

She asked recently whether they can “count on us” for our donation. Our response is going to be that “we intend to donate this year, and haven’t determined the amount, but in any event, we wish to keep our involvement and level of donation anonymous.”

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 11:23:26

Can you make a political contribution anonymously?

Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 11:42:32

I think that may be the problem with my solution…I don’t think you can (which I think sucks). It’s a big reason why I don’t donate to political campaigns. From a business perspective, I don’t want to offend any potential clients who might find out that I supported x, but didn’t support y.

That could be your out…that you don’t make political donations since there is no way to make them anonymous, and you would prefer that any political support you provide is anonymous.

It’s one frustration with the spin machines out there…people have no problem with anonymous voting, why can’t there be anonymous private donations without creation of these crazy legal entities?

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 11:49:31

It’s one frustration with the spin machines out there…

lmao. Now that’s the height of comedy coming from you.

 
Comment by Resistor
2013-10-17 16:04:27

“I don’t want to offend any potential clients who might find out that I supported x, but didn’t support y.”

Why? FIRE voting repub and public service voting Dem is the rule.

Ain’t no thang…. rational self-interest an’ all…

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Suite Joey Blue Eyes
2013-10-17 11:05:11

I read Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” over the past week. Here is my short review of the book and why you shouldn’t read it:

She grew up very wealthy and connected, Facebook is a natural monopoly such that even a chimp could do her job, and she denies some very basic biological differences between men and women. She got very, very lucky in her draws throughout life. She’s the last person anyone should take career advice from.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:18:24

I would have said that much without reading it.

Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
2013-10-17 12:19:43

And I don’t evn know who this Sheyl Sandbag is.

 
 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 12:22:31

As a professional woman in SV, my wife bought the book, and I don’t think has read it. My wife bought it because she was surprised at some of the things Sandberg was saying in interviews (and wanted to see if the book reflected the same–which my wife thought unrealistic, or not). Candidly, I think my wife is frustrated with the whole idea that a woman and mother can “have it all” (being a professional and mother). Something has to give.

In my wife’s experience, being a mother DOES impact professional development, even if you “lean in”. My wife has been very successful for a few important reasons: 1) she busts her *ss; 2) she speaks her mind at work, where others might hold their tongue for fear of upsetting someone; 3) when opportunities arose for her to “get her foot in the door” to a different role at her work, even if she was already busy, she took the opportunity and seized the opportunity to get her hand into another role; and 4) see #1.

She has a pretty damn cool position currently, which I personally think is pretty impressive since she took 3 real maternity leaves (6 months each).

My wife would say: 1) As a professional and mother, you can’t have it all, and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you think you can…you will always feel like you are not doing all you can in one realm (work) or the other (home life)…get over it, it’s the reality of being a working mom; 2) No one will look out for your professional career except you, so take ownership of it, be an advocate for it, and work your butt off to advance your own career; and 3) Be respectful of everyone (”advancement at all costs” is off the table), because it’s a small world, and purposefully stepping on toes to get ahead will come back to haunt you.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 13:24:15

I think my wife is frustrated with the whole idea that a woman and mother can “have it all” (being a professional and mother)

They can’t imo. Never could, never will.

Comment by Happy2bHeard
2013-10-17 17:14:55

Fathers never could either. Most professional men give up a lot of fathering to succeed in their careers.

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Comment by rms
2013-10-17 18:39:50

“Most professional men give up a lot of fathering to succeed in their careers.”

+1 Good call, and so true.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 12:32:03

LOLZ on “career advice”. Everything comes down to having three types of capital: financial, political, technical. Can anyone guess how it all fits together?

Those with the money, own it. Those with the political connections, run it. Those with the technical ability, work for the owners and the bosses. And if you don’t have any of the three types of capital? You’re out of luck, as there is a glut of unskilled labor in the world, most of it willing to work cheaper than you.

All “career advice”, from high school on is about building one or more of those three types of capital. What more do you need to know?

Comment by Northeastener
2013-10-17 13:42:49

And no, mothers can’t have it all. Mothers will always have to make sacrifices, for their family or their career. Competition from those who either don’t have families yet or are willing to put them aside for career advancement will always be present.

In fact, if you’re asking how do you achieve a work-life balance, then you’ve already lost… lots of hungry people behind you willing to sacrifice everything for their career. And that doesn’t even get into the discussion between the sexes…

Comment by Rental Watch
2013-10-17 15:00:13

“lots of hungry people behind you willing to sacrifice everything for their career.”

There are fewer and fewer of these people with the younger generations (although perhaps we are creating more with current economic circumstances).

The key is balancing how much you pay (in time away from family) for the financial success you receive. For each person, this balance is different and changes over time.

If you don’t often think about how to create the balance that works for you and your family, then you ARE lost.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-10-17 16:12:49

The key is balancing how much you pay (in time away from family) for the financial success you receive. For each person, this balance is different and changes over time.

Bravo. That was good.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-10-17 11:10:13

“DC Rents Are Falling. Are House Prices Next?”

Short answer: Yes

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/11/dc-rents-are-falling-are-house-prices-next.html

 
Comment by Resistor
2013-10-17 16:42:37

Off to Delaware for my biannual meetup with my high school buds. I’m looking forward to the absurd “New Subdivisions!” along the way.

 
Comment by tresho
2013-10-17 19:45:15

People’s Daily Online
Robert Shiller, the winner of 2013 Nobel Prize in economics, believes that the real estate bubble is a serious problem in China.

The U.S. economist Robert Shiller, who has become one of the three winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize for economics, has visited China several times and has observed on several occasions that a housing bubble is inflating.

According to Shiller, house prices were 100 times the income of ordinary people in Shanghai, meaning that these people would need to work for 100 years to buy an apartment. In this case, the reason why they still wanted to buy an apartment was their expectation that house prices would continue to rise. This gambling mentality was leading them into completely irrational buying decisions.

At the 2011 Davos Forum Shiller talked again about China’s housing bubble. With U.S. real estate prices falling, many people had lost their houses or been forced to leave their hometown to seek work. At the same time the U.S. debt ratio had reached the highest level ever. Shiller worried that the same thing would happen in China. Currently, Chinese households’ debt ratios are also very high. Some experts now doubt whether the U.S. government can maintain its stimulus policy. If China’s real estate bubble bursts like America’s has done it will badly affect the Chinese economy.

Comment by Get Stucco
2013-10-17 20:55:20

“According to Shiller, house prices were 100 times the income of ordinary people in Shanghai, meaning that these people would need to work for 100 years to buy an apartment. In this case, the reason why they still wanted to buy an apartment was their expectation that house prices would continue to rise. This gambling mentality was leading them into completely irrational buying decisions.”

Hopefully they can keep that Chinese housing bubble pumped up on a permanently-high plateau at 100 times income forever. If it ever collapses, the result will make the U.S. housing bubble collapse, including failures of Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, Countrywide, Ameriquest, Wachovia, New Century, etc etc etc, look like a picnic in the park by comparison.

I suggest 100-year mortgages to provide the financial means to pay off homes over a century-long, multiple generation time horizon.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:40:56

Coming soon to China!

I’d love to know how those 100 year mortgages are working out for Japanese buyers who used them to buy in 1995, just before the onset of eighteen years of incalculable losses.

What Is the Longest Mortgage?
by Tom Streissguth, Demand Media

The 100-year mortgage has already been introduced in Japan and Europe.

In the United States, the standard mortgage term is 30 years, although many mortgages are set at 15 years. The high cost of homeownership, however, has discouraged many people from buying or entering the market. To lower monthly payments, longer term mortgages have been introduced in Europe and in Japan where, in 1995, 100-year mortgages were first made available. Although these loan terms remain quite rare in the United States, the longer term mortgage may be coming to a real-estate market near you.

 
 
Comment by Get Stucco
2013-10-17 21:02:15

“With U.S. real estate prices falling, many people had lost their houses or been forced to leave their hometown to seek work. At the same time the U.S. debt ratio had reached the highest level ever. Shiller worried that the same thing would happen in China.”

Why is this a big concern? Isn’t this losing of homes and leveraging up of households to the utmost possible degree exactly what the banksters want?

Does anyone besides me recall when U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson visited China’s leaders to offer helpful financial advice? One can’t help but wonder whether whatever information was shared helps to explain the one hundred to one ratio of Shanghai home prices to incomes we see today.

Comment by rms
2013-10-18 06:47:27

There’s a reason they call it, Shanghai.

***

shang·hai
transitive verb \’sha?-?hi, sha?-’hi\
1: to bring (someone) onto a ship by force
2: to make (someone) do something by using force or tricks

 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:45:16

Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but some time soon, THIS SUCKER’S GOING DOWN.

Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:46:21

China Housing Sales Jump as Demand Defies Government Curbs
By Bloomberg News - Oct 17, 2013 9:46 PM PT

China’s home sales jumped 34 percent in September from the previous month, as the government refrained from adding to property curbs, emboldening buyers.

The value of homes sold climbed to 691.1 billion yuan ($113 billion) last month from 514.6 billion yuan in August, based on the difference between the National Bureau of Statistics data for the first three quarters of the year and the first eight months. Housing sales in the first nine months surged 34.5 percent to 4.54 trillion yuan from a year earlier, according to the data.

The government in March stepped up a three-year campaign to cool the housing market by ordering the central bank to raise down-payment requirements for second mortgages in cities with excessive cost gains. Some Chinese cities are facing increasing pressure to meet the annual home-price targets they set earlier this year, and to cap gains at the growth rate of local disposable incomes.

“Home sales have been gathering pace since the end of August after banks loosened lending” as the government tried to stem an economic slowdown, Luo Yu, a Shanghai-based analyst at advisory CEBM Group, said by phone. “Buying demand remains strong although more people are taking to the sidelines” after prices surged.

 
 
Comment by Whac-a-Bubble™
2013-10-17 23:48:53

Do the Chinese real estate investors realize they are borrowing a page from Japan’s real estate investing playbook of the early-1990s, just before prices collapsed?

JPMorgan Sells Chase Manhattan Plaza in NYC to China’s Fosun
By David M. Levitt & Kelvin Wong - Oct 17, 2013 10:16 PM PT

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) has agreed to sell 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, the tower built by David Rockefeller, to Fosun International Ltd., the investment arm of China’s biggest closely held industrial group, for $725 million.

Fosun, which invests in properties, pharmaceuticals and steel, is buying the 60-story, 2.2 million square-foot, lower Manhattan tower, according to a statement it filed to Hong Kong’s stock exchange.

China’s developers and companies are expanding in overseas property markets as the government maintains curbs on housing at home to cool prices. Greenland Holding Group Co., a Shanghai-based, state-owned developer, this month agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in a residential and commercial real estate project in Brooklyn.

“There’s a lot of excess capital in China that needs a way out at the moment,” Simon Lo, Hong Kong-based executive director for Asia research and advisory at property broker Colliers International, said in a phone interview today. “Also, by investing in markets like New York, they believe they can gain from the recovery of the U.S. economy and real estate market.”

 
 
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