Bits Bucket for October 22, 2013
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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I haven’t seen much of the all-cash, 50% over-asking-price offers from filthy-rich, diamond-encrusted, frothing-at-the-mouth, uber-wealthy Brazilian/Chinese/Russian investors lately. Why aren’t they swooping-in to snap-up everything available and keep prices of The American Dream soaring ever skyward? Did they all become Obamascare Navigators in order to milk that bubble? What happened to Housing Bubble 2.0?
A ZH article suggests many Chinese investors might be keeping it on their home turf. Maybe they and other foreign wealth were taking notes when the Japanese parked their excess funds in US real estate in the 80s?
China’s attempts to curb runaway inflation in its housing market - which in a country in which the relatively young capital markets lack the breadth and depth of their western equivalents remains the only venue in which to park any of the excess cash generated from the global central bank liquidity avalanche - continue to be met with failure after failure. Overnight, the China Statistics Bureau reported that in September new home price across the country’s 70 tracked cities, rose in virtually all of them, or 69 compared to a year ago. On a monthly basis, or compared to August, new home prices rose in only 65 of China’s cities, compared to 66 in the month prior.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-22/china-new-home-prices-rise-69-70-cities
“A ZH article suggests many Chinese investors might be keeping it on their home turf. Maybe they and other foreign wealth were taking notes when the Japanese parked their excess funds in US real estate in the 80s?”
It’s too late to change course at this point…these folks made their beds and will enjoy sleeping in them.
Chinese buyers flood U.S. housing market
By Les Christie @CNNMoney July 8, 2013: 12:53 AM ET
Chinese buyers accounted for 18% of the $68.2 billion that foreigners spent on homes during the 12 months ended March 31, according to the National Association of Realtors.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Flush with cash, Chinese homebuyers are flooding into the U.S. housing market, and paying top dollar.
“The Chinese came out really huge in the past year,” said Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, a New York-based appraiser.
Chinese buyers accounted for 18% of the $68.2 billion that foreigners spent on homes during the 12 months ended March 31, according to the National Association of Realtors.
At a median price of $425,000, the Chinese are also buying more expensive homes than other foreign buyers, who spent a median of nearly $276,000 on U.S. homes. And nearly 70% of those pricey Chinese deals were made in all cash.
Nowhere is the influx of Chinese homebuyers felt more strongly than in California, where more than half of the homes sold to foreign buyers went to Chinese nationals.
…
Top 5 countries for foreign buyers of U.S. homes
Source: National Association of Realtors
Country % of sales to non-U.S. buyers 2013 Median price spent
Canada 23% $183,000
China 12% $425,000
Mexico 8% $156,000
India 5% $300,000
United Kingdom 5% $250,000
I still don’t know whether the Chinese are buying these properties as investments, or as “safe houses,” and why California? If they wanted quick ROI, they should have taken advantage of the over-crash in Phoenix and Vegas. If they wanted a safe house, they could have bought entire blocks in dozens of Oil Cities, in states with more water and fewer taxes. But… high cost California? I guess it’s because that’s where the Chinese community is established, and where the better colleges are for the kiddles to live in the safe house.
Or it could be money laundering.
These buyers are using real money and know when the risk-reward scenario changes, so they stopped buying. It is a smart move which makes sense to me. There will not be a housing bubble 2.0 like the housing bubble 1.0. There may be a slowdown in sales and a plateau in prices, but there will be nothing like the last bubble.
The problem in 2005 was that if you could fog a mirror, pick a strawberry and/or sign a “creative” loan application, the banks would lend you $1,000,000 for a $750,000 purchase, which had a real value of only $375,000. See the FBI story about Cynthia Suratos Lorica in my post yesterday. She was involved in 72 transactions a bragged about it to everyone….all the way to a felony prison sentence and likely deportation back to the Philippines.
That kind of BS is not happening any more.
Plateau heh? LOLz
The price correction resumed JingleBalls.
Enjoy
JingleBail is the biggest shill on the blog.
Plateau?
“…There will not be a housing bubble 2.0 like the housing bubble 1.0. There may be a slowdown in sales and a plateau in prices, but there will be nothing like the last bubble.”
AhhhhhHaHaHaHaaaa!! And yet MORE fodder for the FB Quoteboard! Lemme’ guess- ‘Because its different this time’- right? Am I right? No wait- ‘Its a whole new paradigm’? AhhhhhhhHaHaHa!! Folks, you can’t MAKE shit like this up, but you CAN understand where it comes from:
“…Although only a few observers have noted the vested interest in error that accompanies speculative euphoria, it is, nonetheless, an extremely plausible phenomenon. Those involved with the speculation are experiencing an increase in wealth–getting rich or being further enriched. No one wishes to believe that this is fortuitous or undeserved; all wish to think that it is the result of their own superior insight or intuition. The very increase in values thus captures the thoughts and minds of those being rewarded. Speculation buys up, in a very practical way, the intelligence of those involved.
This is particularly true of the first group noted above–those who are convinced that values are going up permanently and indefinitely. But the errors of vanity of those who think they will beat the speculative game are also thus reinforced. As long as they are in, they have a strong pecuniary commitment to belief in the unique personal intelligence that tells them there will be yet more. ..Strongly reinforcing the vested interest in euphoria is the condemnation that the reputable public and financial opinion directs at those who express doubt or dissent. It is said that they are unable, because of defective imagination or other mental inadequacy, to grasp the new and rewarding circumstances that sustain and secure the increase in values…”
-John Kenneth Galbraith
A Short History of Financial Euphoria
My point exactly, B.C.G.
It is not different this time.
This cycle is just like every other housing correction after a busted bubble. The bottom is hit and it takes another 15 years for another cycle.
There was a housing peak in 1990, a bottom in 1997.
The next peak was 2005, the bottom was 2010, so when we get to 2025, you may have another bubble.
What is happening now is much different from 2005. Unleveraged buying by investors is much different from a strawberry picker agreeing to a monthly house payment equaling 3 times his annual income. One can be patient and collect income, the other is guaranteed to fail. Much different market pressures.
The bottom is in front us my friend. And its a long way down from here.
The late 80s bubble was driven by fraud and deregulation resulting in the S&L scandal. Bank executives actually went to jail.
The 1998-2006 bubble was again preceded by massive financial deregulation and fraud, and again accompanied by fraud. No bank executives went to jail.
This boom/bubble has been driven by massive government market manipulation - the GSE’s buying 100% of mortgages out there, USDA, VA, FHA all massively intervening, and of course the Federal Reserve stepping into buy 480 billion of mortgages a year. There’s another angle here too - the control that the FIRE sector has over the government.
These aren’t primarily consumer demand driven phenomena. IMHO the demand for real estate is always pretty strong. The limitation is whether a buyer can get OPM to finance the purchase.
It does seem that with every iteration of this bubble, the government becomes more corrupt and the grip of the financial sector over the government becomes stronger.
The truly amazing thing is now that the government - i.e. the taxpayer - takes all the risk, while the profit flows to Wall Street. Truly amazing. The increasing control of the FIRE sector over the government is an undercurrent that many have missed.
Real estate is like a casino. The end buyer is encouraged to take on the debt - the promise to pay - and if he’s lucky maybe flipping the house can make him some money. But the “House” - the lenders and brokers - are the ones who are reliably becoming enriched. In a house purchase, follow the cash flow.
So while previous misallocation cycles were allowed to organically correct through collapse, inventory bloat, true price discovery and market clearing mechanisms, you feel that large enough doses of directionless liquidity, centrally-planned inventory allocation and moral hazard has fixed this one right up? Despite how much higher than normal trends, you think prices will stay this elevated once the kool aid gets pulled? Despite true unemployment levels, declining wages and lower household formation numbers? Despite actual inventory levels? Despite boomers adding inventory as they downsize? Despite huge corporations who can liquidate their REO-To-Rent holdings at the drop of a hat if want to free up capital or if they suddenly need to fund redemptions? Despite the ‘bubble’ warnings from some industry experts? You are pretty comfortable that this will all just ’settle a little, like a souffle’? Just like last time? Time will tell…
Jingle:
You noted a while back how builders recently dropped a lot of land contracts in the Sacramento market. I was able to contact a connected housing guy there and he confirmed. Apparently the underwriting was too aggressive to get approval (too many price increases assumed, too rapid a sales rate assumed, etc.). Apparently sales are settling into more “normal” levels, as opposed to 2005/2007 levels, so there is no justification for buying land at prices that require such a rapid sales pace.
People have forgotten that a normal level of sales at a subdivision is 3-5 homes per MONTH, not 8-10. The price you can pay for land looks a lot different if you underwrite selling 4 per month instead of 10 per month.
A “housing guy” eh?
You’re a phoney.
“housing guy” = “market study professional with a couple of decades of experience with deep contacts in the market”
And I wasn’t talking to you.
LOLZ
Those are great qualifications. “deep contacts in the market!”
And heres a bulletin for you Liar:
Every post you make is scrutinize by more than one and we will be responding to every one of your misrepresentations.
No, the “deep contacts” are just a byproduct of decades of being in the business in that market. If you want to find out if rumors in a particular market are true, these are the people you seek out.
Or else you are relegated to listening to rumors and guessing, as opposed to finding people who have direct knowledge of cancelled contracts, etc.
Thanks RW for the additional observations. I see this as a good sign that we will have a more normal marketplace.
I must say that my SFR portfolio vacancy has been less than 1/10 of 1% over the last 5 years, rents are steady, increasing upon turnover, cash flow is steady and the market value has increased 30%, so the ROI on equity would be over 25% annually if I chose to sell (which I won’t, because I like the cash flow).
When you post on this blog, everyone gets to respond. HA is a laugh a minute with his responses. That’s why we refer to him as HA……hahahhahaha.
“Bank executives actually went to jail.”
They won’t be going to jail this time. The government is trying to make a deal with JP Morgan so that there will be no criminal charges, only fines. That’s right, these crooked CEOs can melt down an entire economy based upon fraud, and they don’t even so much as have to go to court, let alone prison. However, if some down on his luck serf steals some food from a grocery store for his family, he’s going to do hard time. See any problems here? To make matters worse, you’ve got scumbags like Jack Welch complaining on TV about these fines and how they’re hurting the economy, but nothing about how badly the fraudsters hurt the economy. It’s time for good old fashioned lynchings, because nothing else is going to change this situation.
“No, the “deep contacts” are just a byproduct of decades of being in the business in that market. If you want to find out if rumors in a particular market are true, these are the people you seek out.
Or else you are relegated to listening to rumors and guessing, as opposed to finding people who have direct knowledge of cancelled contracts, etc.”
———————————
Oooh… a real insider and he’s got all the answers!
You’re a fool and a fraud.
The S & L shutdownd started Feb 14, 1983 in tiny obscure Locaville. Combined, its was the largest liquidation to date by the FDIC and FSLIC. Thought I’d post to give some perspective how long the S&L crisis went on.
And yes, our Banksters went to jail.
Saw a blurb in the paper where the former mansion of the mastermind Banksta was back on the market and in need of major repairs. I thought you’d get a kick out of that, HA.
“I see this as a good sign that we will have a more normal marketplace….”
Who can fathom why you post here. You lied about being Palladin, and just go on and on….
“Bank executives actually went to jail”
That they did. My father was one of them. I’ll never know the whole story as I was a pre-teen at the time, but I seriously doubt any fraud on his part was of the level of today’s fraud by common homeowners who lie on loan docs, take out the equity, then intentionally default. My dad drew 10 years from the feds based off shady & often circumstantial evidence and the government’s intimidation of witnesses. He even won appeal at the 10th Circuit to retry the case…they sent it back to the same corrupt federal judge who refused to hear it (yes, federal judges do have that power).
Even as early as the late 1980s I knew how corrupt the US Government was. People are now just learning.
All the housing crime syndicate media happy talked has ceased. Now maybe we can start discussing the truth about housing. Start here;
-Resale housing prices are grossly inflated at 150% higher than trend
-Excess empty housing inventory in the 25 million range
-Construction cost(material, labor, profit) is pricedlower than existing housing asking prices
That talk is far from over if my Sunday paper is any example. There will never be the truth when it comes to real estate. People are too emotionally invested. Those emotions make them prey in this era of spin.
25 million empty houses….???
Population of the US? 2010 = 310 million 2030 = 375 million.
We need those houses for the 65 million people coming to America.
Please don’t tear them down…..they cost too much to rebuild.
You wouldnt know how much it cost to rebuild. Your a sucker.
Now combined with an additional 35 MILION excess empty houses than have just begun to empty as boomers expire and population growth at record lows, there’s going to be a whole lot of excess empty houses for decades to come.
“….a whole lot of empty houses…”
What are you going to do with the additional 65,000,000 people in the U.S. between 2010 and 2030? (which is less than a 1% annual rate of growth, BTW)
Put them in tents? HA, hahahahaha, good one.
So many excess houses and so little use for them…..HA, hahahaha, another good one…..
You can’t see the forest for the trees….HA!
“(which is less than a 1% annual rate of growth, BTW)”
U.S. on Pace for Slowest Decade of Population Growth Since 1930s
By Frank Bass - Dec 30, 2012 9:00 PM PT
The U.S. population is on track for its slowest decade of growth since the Great Depression.
The Census Bureau estimates there will be 315.1 million people living in the country on New Year’s Day, a 0.73 percent rise from last year’s estimate and 2.05 percent more than the most recent census count in April 2010. At the current pace, the nation’s population will grow by 7.3 percent during the decade, the lowest level since the 7.25 percent increase recorded between 1930 and 1940, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
…
Keep quoting lie machine……. Pimp
Friends mom had to move out of her house it was getting too much the stairs the yard……lots of lookers sold in i think 7 or 8 days they sold it as is no updating…but everything works roof would need replacing in 5 years. But a nice basic house with land..could be a tear down but very livable as is…
A long walk to rte 7 and the shopping areas, easily doable on a bike….(cue slim) the biggest hill is actually the driveway..
http://www.coldwellbankermoves.com/property/details/3688829/MLS-99042732/Ridgefield-CT-06877.aspx?
$349,000 for 1200 SF. That’s not going to make Housing Analyst very happy!
On the market for 467 days?
Might as well make it 467 years at that price.
Yeah that’s a mistake it sold in a week… yes it is butt ugly but a very good location ridgefield is a pretty well to do little town.
1200 sq ft that’s normal for a family .or it should be and fat kids well they were on the wrestling or football team. dont remember many who stayed home all the time…you get 4-5 people in 1200 sq ft, you WANT to go outside as much as possible.
That is one butt-ugly house.
I think it has potential. Our home was a mess, and smelled from being a dog breeding kennel. Now it is pretty. Or course, it took an imagination and a Brinks truck. lol
I can’t stand the architecture and roof design. There is nothing that can change that without spending a fortune.
Inchy, you paid $250/ft2 for a smelly dog kennel? Then doubled down?
Has anyone else noticed that Christmas advertising seems to have started already? Doesn’t it usually wait until after Halloween? Or is this (pre-Halloween toy pushing) a trend I missed last year/last few years?
Frankenstein Housing will remain a 365 day advertising event until housing prices roll back to post-Christmas day pricing or early 1990’s levels.
Let the goys have christmas as soon as they want. That’s all they have left….we have taken everything out of them.
^
)
(waiting/watching for responses
A true banker would have said goyim.
K “oxide”
Uhh… oxy was correct, of course it’s goyim. Aren’t you in NY area? You should know this.
Goys is what a southerner or midwesterner who doesn’t know any real jews would say.
BTW, yes Liberace has entered the building. And lives in your skull rent-free apparently.
K……. “Oxide”
I’m old enough to remember when the Christmas rush politely waited until post-Thanksgiving.
The pre-Halloween push is not new. The trend was going that way anyway, but IIRC it really took off during the 2008 Great Recession credit collapse and the reappearance of layway. Gotta buy the stuff early so you can pay it off before Christmas morning. Then the stores used the layaway excuse to push everything early. They want to capture that finite pile of holiday dollars before another store does.
And is it just me, or is there a lot more tacky Christmas decor than there used to be? Wal-Mart and HD fill their entire gardening sales floors with it. They display more sparkly Chinamart Christmas junk than ALL of the patio furniture, pool supplies, wheelbarrows, seeds soil and flowerpots etc combined. There’s enough for people to throw old stuff out and buy new stuff every year.
And is it just me, or is there a lot more tacky Christmas decor than there used to be?
Perhaps what you’re calling tacky is actually all that many people can afford now?
I can’t agree, Carl. Cheap decor has been around for ages. There just seems to be a lot MORE of it… and it’s been designed into collections, engineered to collect all your money. You pick one of several color schemes, and gee gosh, there in front of you is a collection of pieces: ribbon, garland, tree, ornaments, skirt, wreaths… well of course you have to collect-’em-all. That adds up to ALOT of money.
Craft stores aren’t much different. Same color schemes, same collections — only all the stuff is sold separately in even smaller pieces so you can spend even more money for the priviledge of taking it home and assembling it yourself.
Maybe it’s better to just spring for the life-size blow-up light-up plastic manger set and be done with it.
I remember when the push was mostly after Thankgiving, but I have been getting emails from Staples that look like they are plugging Christmas gifts and the paper had an insert from Toys R Us this Sunday that was not primarily focussed on last minute costumes. Seems a little odd for Toys R Us to eat into Halloween sales by reminding people that Christmas is coming. I don’t frequent Home Depot or Walmart, so that sort of thing doesn’t really get my attention.
As for the Jews/Goyim thing, Hannukkah is REALLY early this year. First night is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It will be over by December 5th. My brother asked for something vintage for my nephew, so that was all ebay and is in the mail. I found something interesting for my niece on the first furlough day at the gift shop at the National Building Museum, so I am pretty much done with holiday shopping except for a few gift cards. Might still pick up a book or two for the kids. Hopefully the National Geographic warehouse sale will be back in DC this year. However, the stores don’t adjust Christmas/toy advertising for the dates of Hannukkah. And they never have that I can remember.
Hannukkah is REALLY early this year. First night is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It will be over by December 5th.
Does that mean we can tell our Jewish friends Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays?
Sometimes I tell my Brazilian Friends Happy Thanksgiving or even happy 4th of July and some know what I’m talking about.
(BTW, They have a 4th of July here too)
You can tell your Jewish friends anything you want, though, as your post implies, it is a little rude to wish them well specifically for a holiday they don’t celebrate when there is a holiday they do celebrate currently happening or about to happen and you know about it. I suggest you adjust your wishes to the known preferences of your friends.
In my house, Christmas eve usually involved donating blood (one of the synagogues in town sponsored it because they had the time and there are blood components that best used within 3 days) and going to a party at our friends’ house down the street. Christmas day was a general go to Grandma’s house day, just like most days when no one in the family had to go to work. Classic Jewish Christmas is usually some combination of volunteering (shelter, nursing home, whatever), going to the gym (if your gym is part of a Jewish Community Center), going to a movie and eating Chinese food. Not a bad day as days go.
And want did you donate to Palestinian relief?
it is a little rude to wish them well specifically for a holiday they don’t celebrate when there is a holiday they do celebrate currently happening or about to happen and you know about it.
That’s kind of my point. Hannukkah is over early so after it’s over telling a Jewish person Happy Holidays will be just like saying Merry Christmas. Because the only Holidays left will be Christmas and New Years. Hannukkah will not be part of the Holidays at that point. I’ve had Jewish friends celebrate a secular type Christmas like most Americans and some having nothing to do with it. I guess “Happy New Year” is the safest bet.
Sounds like you celebrate Christmas more Christian than most Christians.
The DCJCC organizes a whole day with scores of volunteering opportunities all over the DC area. I’ve done it several times. Helped paint a shelter once (badly organized, I won’t do that one again). Helped make a party for a bunch of kids who go to an after school program once (you never saw a little girl so excited to get a crummy $7 game of chutes and ladders in your life). I once signed up to make a party for some families with kids being treated at the NIH, but had to back out because I had a terrible cold and you just don’t want to expose families with really sick kids to germs like that. There have been a few others.
A lot of people who aren’t Jewish have started to come to the event over the years. They want to get a bit of the commercial out of Christmas and it is way easier to do it when someone else is doing the organizing and you aren’t just showing up with your family and hoping there is something to do.
The one thing I won’t do is sub in for regular workers at a nursing home. I think the homes do it to avoid having to pay overtime to their regular staff. I’ve talked to too many people who are delighted to be getting the extra pay to work on a holiday in my life. Making an extra party for the residents or visiting with them or singing for them? Fine. Pushing them to or serving their meals so the owners don’t have to give the regular workers time and half? No thanks.
Helped paint a shelter once (badly organized, I won’t do that one again)
LOL, Painting and “badly organized” do not go well together. And almost everyone thinks they can paint.
Until they start.
The actual painting is the last 25% of the project. I spend most of the time and effort prepping the walls and taping down the tarp and covering trim.
It was announced earlier this year I think on sites like Marketwatch and Bloomberg that the Christmas season would be expanded due to diminishing discretionary income among the masses.
See, if you are relegated to a cash only existence you have 12 instead of 8 weeks to get those gifts. This also assumes that people would not be shopping year round in an attempt to help affordability maybe because they are tied to the Black Friday and other sales.
It all reminds me of my “Learning” class in school when we were chaining behaviors w/rats in the Skinner box.
And tax season will be shortened.
You must have been missing the trends. I stopped by our local Home Cheapo and the Christmas trees and decorations are already out. Not to mention the Christmas music was already playing over the speaker system. That was weird. OTOH, the same day, we stopped by another Home Cheapo a couple of towns north of us (looking for something they had in stock that our local store didn’t). There, the Christmas stuff wasn’t out yet (not that I saw, anyway) and they were playing regular Muzak. Go figure.
Eventually, retailers will have screwed the pooch on this Christmas thing. When it becomes commonplace and the merch is available whenever, there will be no holiday season “boost”.
Christmas music at this time of year may be a new development. I don’t think that I’ve run into that before.
Costco has been selling Xmas stuff for a month now, Walmart for two weeks.
Costco’s early Christmas makes me want to technicolor yawn. And Christmas music already? The older I get, the more I withdrawal from the hoopla. I love the music and the decorations, but we’re doing it two weeks before Christmas. I prefer to live in the moment. Less time in front of me than behind me.
People have way too much stuff. Myself included.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day
The Church of Stop Shopping is a New York City based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands.
http://www.revbilly.com/
This year all 3 holidays are in the stores. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Christmas seems a few weeks earlier than last year. You’re right, Polly. Why not just start the holiday season retail cycle in Sept. wth
“Anyone who bought a house from 1998-current is better off walking away. Houses depreciate rapidly and when you overpay for one of these depreciating monsters, the losses skyrocket.”
You better believe Mister. And when they’re financed? The losses are irrecoverable.
“Unlike houses, I don’t expect the value of our cars to go down by more in value than one would expect over the normal course of depreciation.”
Exactly. Even if you paid materials and labor (no profit) for a newly constructed house, it’s going to depreciate at a known rate.
Alternately;
If you have no idea what the value of materials, labor and profit is and you pay a massively inflated price, there is no ceiling to the rate of depreciation.
You don’t make sense.
“….there is no ceiling to the rate of depreciation.”
I think you must mean there is “NO FLOOR”. But even that would be wrong. The floor is zero.
This is my call out Housing Analyst day. First ever. Never again. Big waste of time. HA, hahahahhaha!
This is my call out Housing Analyst day. First ever. Never again.
You don’t like shooting fish in a barrel?
That’s right. And the rate of depreciation on your debt dump just keeps going up up up.
Enjoy your losses.
@rio
i did answer two of your posts last night, but they didn’t make it through. you did the same thing to SFbayarea. you got him mad enough to say things he was ashamed of and he never came back. thing is, i’m not ashamed of what i said.. but sooner or later i may get banned. if that happens, you win. i believe that’s what you’re up to here. you try to get some posters mad enough to leave or get banned. you want to silence their voices. at least it looks like what you’re trying to do..
She’s not very successful at silencing anyone.
You really have to go out of your way to get banned here, tj. In fact, the #1 rule is never slag the blogger. That’ll get you banned, and with good reason, since this is a labor of love for Ben and not a money maker.
Just ignore posters who get under your skin and move on. You do have some good points to make, make ‘em.
thanks..
i actually have been ignoring some of the childish attacks, but guys like rio do really irritate me.
i don’t envy Ben’s job as moderator. i couldn’t do it. i’d get too frustrated with everything.
“guys like rio do really irritate me.”
I’m pretty sure rio’s a she. But, no matter, they count on irritating people to the point of implosion.
rio used to get to me, too, until I realized what the game was. Now I find her a fascinating character and there are lessons to be learned from her posts and her presence here. Scary, yes, but lessons nonetheless.
yeah right…. enough of the hand under the table.
A wise man/woman once described him/her as wastrel. Very fitting…ignore you must.
Now I find her a fascinating character and there are lessons to be learned from her posts and her presence here.
yes, but if she/he isn’t countered, some people will believe her/him. the big lesson to be learned is that rio preaches an evil doctrine.
Getting an early morning start on your ad hominem attacks, tj?
I’ve often wondered, as sort of an experiment, how effective it would be to target one poster - one chosen at random - and trash and belittle every post he/she made.
How much power can one person, an unknown person at that, have over the well-being of a complete stranger just by the use of words on a message board?
How much power can one person, an unknown person at that, have over the well-being of a complete stranger just by the use of words on a message board?
it might be an urban legend, but i’ve heard that some kids have committed suicide from cyber bullying.
How much power can one person, an unknown person at that, have over the well-being of a complete stranger just by the use of words on a message board?
None at all. But I am sure some gullible fall for every word of certain posters. Since most post articles and opinions of others to validate their own, it’s hard to have power over you that way. If someone comes with his or her own data, thought process and writing on a regular basis, I can see those people commanding power.
“If someone comes with his or her own data, thought process and writing on a regular basis, I can see those people commanding power.”
There’s no better way to get under group thinkers’ skins than to pour the cold water of independent thought into their echo chamber.
“How much power can one person, an unknown person at that, have over the well-being of a complete stranger just by the use of words on a message board?”
You’d be surprised. I found out the hard way back in 2006 shortly after the massive national colonization demonstrations. Which, btw, I just found out were actually funded by a Soros charity organization. Which blew my mind, because I tend to pooh-pooh those who cry wolf about Soros, it seems so overblown. Apparently not. Many, if not most, of those demonstrators got paid for occupying the streets of major cities. Phew, that must have been one helluva payroll to get out. Now that they’re not getting paid, the colonization demonstrations are a tad more anemic.
Just ignore it. He/she/it is just another narcissist, so enamored with the sound of their own opinions that they keep shouting them at everyone on the street. After reading the first couple of posts you realize that there is no objectivity or real analytical skill involved, just some idealistic elitist insisting that their opinions must be right and anyone who disagrees is somehow inferior. Its like the neighbor with an idiot dog that barks all the time- its just dissonant background noise with no actual meaning. Whenever I see the name anymore I just use the magic scrolling mouse-wheel and try to find something worth reading.
Many, if not most, of those demonstrators got paid for occupying the streets of major cities.
you know what was really funny about the paid protesters? when asked, they couldn’t tell you what they were posting about. they were easy to pick out because nearly all their posters were the same and professionally made.
err.. posting=protesting
2006? What demonstrations?
jose canusi,
When the Tea Party was launched they had Fox News running commercials and sending their paid personalities (Beck, Hannity) to headline their events.
I was at 6 OWS demonstrations in two different cities and my personal, on the ground experience doesn’t fit with your assertions. I’m not saying your wrong but blanket accusation of “many, if not most, of those demonstrators got paid for occupying the streets of major cities” can’t be proved one way or the other. The one time we got any material support was when a Iraq vet came by with pizza and and a case of water. What WAS missing was any democratic politicians showing their faces. I think they were scared of be shown as sympathetic of this movement.
Welcome to Behavioral Economics.
Obama saved American Capitalism, official unemployment numbers are back DOWN to Nov. 2008 levels, stock markets are at ALL-TIME highs and the rich have never had it so good.
Was that right after the Germans bombed pearl harbor?
If someone comes with his or her own data, thought process and writing on a regular basis, I can see those people commanding power.
Exactly. And that power really bothers some people - especially if they lack the ability above and the data does not support their assertions.
There is a reason only the far-right is whining about me today. But in fact, yesterday I had two supporters on the right, supporting my opinions. This is because I used history and facts and figures to present my case.
One even conceded he doesn’t usually agree with me but I was correct yesterday regarding protectionism.
There are those on the right who are objective too.
yes, but if she/he isn’t countered, some people will believe her/him.
Just be aware that if you really subscribe to that philosophy, others will find you easy to manipulate by constantly posting things you feel you must counter just for the amusement of watching you run around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to counter it all.
Google “someone is wrong on the internet” to see how this has been mined for humor.
I didn’t mean copying and pasting like minded articles as providing facts. Of course you misunderstood, I wasn’t expecting anything else from you.
I will go on to ignoring you.
“…official unemployment numbers are back DOWN to Nov. 2008 levels…”
Oh bugger…
US Unemployment Edges Down As People Continue To Leave The Workforce In September – Analysis
By Dean Baker — (October 22, 2013)
The US unemployment rate edged down to 7.2 percent in September, the lowest level since November of 2008. The Labor Department’s establishment survey showed a gain of 148,000 jobs. With modest upward revisions to the prior two months’ data, this brings the average rate of job growth over the last three months to 143,000. This compares with an average rate of job growth of 186,000 a month over the last year.
In spite of the September drop in unemployment, the employment-to-population rate (EPOP) remained unchanged at 58.6 percent. This continues the pattern that we have seen throughout the recovery as the unemployment rate falls mainly because workers leave the labor market. The unemployment rate is now down by 2.8 percentage points from its 10.0 percent peak in October of 2009. However, the EPOP is up just 0.4 percentage points from its low point in June of 2011. Over the last year the EPOP actually edged down by 0.1 percentage point, while the unemployment rate dropped by 0.6 percentage points. This drop in labor force participation is now occurring at an equal pace among men and women, with the participation of both dropping 0.5 percentage points in the last year.
…
On the whole, this is not a very encouraging report. It reinforces the notion that the economy had slowed in the third quarter. This is before any negative effects of the shutdown.
I will go on to ignoring you.
As you just did?
(You know you can’t help it.)
nearly all their posters were the same and professionally made.
The liberals use the sudden shift into correctly spelled signs as the metric to pinpoint EXACTLY when the Tea Party movement was taken over by the moneyed interests.
Yet at the same time they seem reluctant to admit there was a time before it was taken over by moneyed interests.
This continues the pattern that we have seen throughout the recovery as the unemployment rate falls mainly because workers leave the labor market. ”
where are they going ?
Wow…subsidies to buy houses? ”
why should prices obey the laws of a economic free market when there isn’t a free market anymore ?
Because prices obey the law of supply and demand.
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
Bruce Lee
Blue Star, this is off topic slightly (but kind of housing related).
Do you see better solar panels coming online in the future? Or is that whole sector melting down from Chinese oversupply of cheap ones?
Also, are utilities going to stop allowing people to sell back to the grid (bc such “selling back” is usually unusable to the utility)?
I expect solar panels to double their output in the next 5 years. In 2011 the industry average was 14% efficient so by 2020 we should see the industry average close to 30%. There is just one thing holding back a solar revolution - cheap storage.
The House Republican just cut the DoE renewable energy R&D budget by 50% and shifted the money to nuclear weapon systems. Meanwhile the Germans have committed billions to making solar energy storage their #1 goal.
American utilities are trying to use a 19th. century business model in a 21st. century economy. You want to see the future, look to the internet. The internet is distributed, decentralized, stateless. That’s the future, that’s where we are going.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/electricity-utilities-could-lose-half-their-market-to-solar-and-storage-65218
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/rwe-sheds-old-business-model-embraces-new-energy-reality-52967
The House Republican just cut the DoE renewable energy R&D budget by 50% and shifted the money to nuclear weapon systems.
Brain dead Congress Repubs. I swear sometimes I think they have far lower IQ’s than their Dem counterparts.
Is that possible?
Thanks. As we discussed previously, I don’t sunlight like you do in TX, so solar doesn’t make sense for me now. Payoff period too long, absolute output too low to be able to sell much back to grid.
So for now I just added a lot of insulation (blown in cellulose) and some thermal mass (ripped up carpet, put down hard floors).
Neighbor across the street went with a huge solar system. I told him I’d turned down the same type of system bc the ones in 5-10 yrs should be vastly better. The cost of the inverter was also going to add like 2k to the cost; someday there will be battery/storage systems. Also told him he would’ve been better off automating his thermostat and switching his elec water heater to gas. He was too susceptible to good marketing, the solar guys put on a full court press.
“omment by Bluestar:
jose canusi,
When the Tea Party was launched they had Fox News running commercials and sending their paid personalities (Beck, Hannity) to headline their events.
I was at 6 OWS demonstrations in two different cities and my personal, on the ground experience doesn’t fit with your assertions. I’m not saying your wrong but blanket accusation of “many, if not most, of those demonstrators got paid for occupying the streets of major cities” can’t be proved one way or the other. The one time we got any material support was when a Iraq vet came by with pizza and and a case of water. What WAS missing was any democratic politicians showing their faces. I think they were scared of be shown as sympathetic of this movement.”
Bluestar, OWS wasn’t what I was talking about. I was referring to the colonizers ( using the term in place of “illegal immigrant”, because these folks are far from “immigrants” of any sort) who demonstrated for shamnasty back in 2006. OWS came much later, as I recall. The Reconquista demonstration didn’t have much to do with the Tea Party, either.
Energy efficiency will get you the biggest bang for the buck. I have list of things that I have used to slash my consumption of electricity:
#1 Bought a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure electricity usage of every appliance and device in my house so I could monitor where I was using the most energy.
#2 Installed a electric timer on my water heater.
#3 Installed power attic vent with timer & thermostat to reduce attic heat. By adding a timer I was able to control the fan from 11:00AM thru 8:00PM when the attic was at maximum temperature.
#4 Installed a 5000BTU (530 Watts) air conditioner in my home office and raised my setback HVAC thermostat to a higher temperature during the day.
#5 I used a induction cooktop and pressure cooker to save time and energy in the kitchen.
#6 Slashed use of my desktop PC by using my Tablet for checking emails and web browsing.
#7 Consolidated all my battery chargers to a power strip which I leave turned off unless needed.
#8 Use zoned air conditioning to cut cooling demand by 70%.
#9 Installed LED lights in primary living areas.
#10 Installed 60,000 BTU fireplace insert (EPA rated at 76% efficiency) with forced air circulation.
#11 Installed real-time smart meter reader http://rainforestautomation.com/raven
#12 Installed solar panels and shifted high demand loads to 11AM through 4PM.
Still on my list:
When my roof needs replacing I will be putting foil covered foam sheets under a reflective white roof.
Replace my old metal frame windows with triple insulated glass panes.
Add a solar water heater system that uses the back side of my solar panels to collect hot water while boosting the PV output 10%.
I think the tricky issues with increasing energy efficiency come when you’re replacing something perfectly good with something that’s still pretty expensive.
Switching from regular bulbs to CFLs (eventually LEDs) is a no brainer. But when it comes to windows, mine are aluminum frames but no rush because I just don’t consume enough energy where they’ll end up paying for themselves yet. There are comfort improvements, so I might start with rooms on the main floor.
“How much power can one person, an unknown person at that, have over the well-being of a complete stranger just by the use of words on a message board?”
No. You guys have it wrong. It’s not just words that give power. It is facts, figures and the ability to use them in a persuasive manner. But the first thing is, is that you have to be correct in your basic assertions.
There is a reason that the only one’s whining about me are on the far-right. And it’s a good reason. That is because I use facts, figures and American history to disprove a lot of their tripe. They cannot counter it with facts and figures of their own and It makes them really mad. So be it. If they want a friend, they can get a dog. Dog’s listen to unfounded BS. I usually don’t.
For example:
Yesterday I used facts and figures and examples regarding the ACA wavers in business and Congress. Those on the right did not like the facts I presented and it made them mad.
I also used examples showing that American founders were protectionist whereas the “free-market” false religion parrots had no idea of thus and it was a shake to their cage. And it made them mad.
Hint: If facts and figures presented in a persuasive manner make you mad, maybe there is something wrong with many of your opinions that you cannot support by facts. Does that make you mad?
When you get your facts correct, I agree with you; for instance, yesterday regarding the founding of this country being somewhat protectionist, or what I refer to as “sensible”. The problem is, you try to pass a lot of opinion off as fact. Worse, you talk a lot of collectivist clap trap about how money should be taken from Joe to ensure Sam gets this or that. Then you hide behind all the “good” you say it does completely ignoring that it takes a police state to enforce your happy go lucky communist ideal.
Worse, you talk a lot of collectivist clap trap about how money should be taken from Joe to ensure Sam gets this or that.
It’s not clap-trap. It’s the history of our country. Taxation, (including highly progressive taxation) duties and tariffs are part of who we are as a nation. You can’t re-write history to concur with your economic opinions.
ignoring that it takes a police state to enforce your happy go lucky communist ideal.
Wrong. Why would a police state be needed? USA was not a police state in the 50s and 60s when top tax rates were more than double of those today. Your history is off.
you try to pass a lot of opinion off as fact.
Everyone has their own opinion, however I present more cold-hard facts than 90% of posters on this blog - including you.
You post more BS than 10 realtors combined and everyone knows it.
But do go on denying it. It makes for great laughs here.
It makes for great laughs here.
Then why do my posts make you seem like you’re crying inside?
Actually, come to think of it. Most your posts seem like you’re crying inside.
Is that why you lash out like a child so often? Are you not happy? If not, I’m sorry.
everyone knows it.
EVERYBODY
This is classic:
“Wrong. Why would a police state be needed?”
you call me wrong, then wonder aloud why it is so.
“Wrong. Why would a police state be needed?”
you call me wrong, then wonder aloud why it is so.
You missed the point. There is a police state but it isn’t to enforce progressive taxation. There was much less of a police state 30-60 years ago when we had much higher progressive taxes. The two need not appear together and they did not appear together during a large part of our American History.
IMO, the police state now is to protect corporatism, crony-capitalism, the growing wealth-gap and the police-state itself.
Do you not agree with much of that?
“Wrong. Why would a police state be needed? USA was not a police state in the 50s and 60s when top tax rates were more than double of those today. Your history is off.”
Top tax rates were higher, but few people actually paid the highest rates (I’ve seen an estimate as low as 3 people), and there were massive deductions available for all sorts of things, so on an apples-apples basis, saying “double” is a gross exaggeration.
From 1950-1963, the income tax receipts as a percent of GDP were lower than in the Reagan years (with lower tax rates, but fewer deductions).
It are these Maddow-ish talking points that are really frustrating.
The tax code is in dire need of reform:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101133393
This is ridiculous. The more complex you make the code, the easier it is to exploit.
Maddow-ish talking points that are really frustrating.
Because you are incapable of countering them?
but few people actually paid the highest rates
Irrelevant to the fact that the rich paid a much higher effective tax rates. Few people pay the highest rates today. My God, Romney paid like 15%. Today’s deductions for the rich are off the charts.
Today’s government spending levels are indeed too high, at least relative to the average level of tax revenue the government has generated over the past 60 years. Unless Americans are willing to radically increase the amount of taxes they pay relative to GDP, government spending must be cut.
Today’s income tax rates are strikingly low relative to the rates of the past century, especially for rich people. For most of the century, including some boom times, top-bracket income tax rates were much higher than they are today.
Contrary to what Republicans would have you believe, super-high tax rates on rich people do not appear to hurt the economy or make people lazy: During the 1950s and early 1960s, the top bracket income tax rate was over 90%–and the economy, middle-class, and stock market boomed.
Super-low tax rates on rich people also appear to be correlated with unsustainable sugar highs in the economy–brief, enjoyable booms followed by protracted busts. They also appear to be correlated with very high inequality. (For example, see the 1920s and now).
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates?op=1#ixzz2iUSjjdoH
Just ignore posters who get under your skin ??
Exactly !!
It’s a joy to expose liars. Outside of Rental Watch, “rio” is likely the most egregious liar in the history of this blog. Take pleasure in schooling liars.
Why get mad at a person either pretending to live in a beautiful area of Brazil or actually living there but wasting so much time posting on a blog about housing thousands of miles away (the saddest option).
What is she, a nanny for some kids that she ignores that she can post so much?
What is she, a nanny for some kids that she ignores that she can post so much?
Capitalism’s been good to me. Besides, I go weeks and months at a time not posting anywhere.
A couple months ago “Housing Analyst” implied he’d be able to “school me more” if I were just around more. He’s a little funny when he’s not foaming at the mouth or calling people his little names.
wasting so much time posting
This blog is not a waste of time. It’s one of the better one’s around. It’s got a few nut-jobs on the far right and some 12 year old’s who are trying to finish “Atlas Shrugged” but they are funny too.
And you’ll get schooled today too. No different than any other day.
Anyone who doesn’t agree with your propaganda is a “right wing nut job”
Anyone who doesn’t agree with your propaganda is a “right wing nut job”
Not at all. That’s just silly. There are many here on the right who’ve I’ve debated who are not right-wing nutjobs. Many.
I was just referring to the actual right-wing nutjobs and the challenged 12 year old’s trying to finish “Atlas Shrugged”.
so what is it rio…you a chic or a dude?
A fraud.
to live in a beautiful area of Brazil or actually living there but wasting so much time posting on a blog
Why can’t one do both? BTW, look at those girls going into the water.
RIO DE JANEIRO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Linktel Corporate, a Brazilian telecommunications operator, has just signed a partnership with Orla Rio to deploy a Wi-Fi network to offer internet access on the Rio de Janeiro beaches. The project, “Orla Rio Digital,” will provide free Wi-Fi for the local population and tourists. This service takes place as part of the preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. By the end of 2012, the service will be available in Leme and Copacabana beaches. In 2013, it will be extended to Leblon, Ipanema, São Conrado and some parts of Barra da Tijuca.
Wait, what happened with SF homeowner or whoever she was?
Can someone briefly explain? (I’m slow, obvs)
what happened with SF homeowner or whoever she was ??
She did the unthinkable sacrilegious thing like buy a house for her family…Got beat-up over it led by the master idiot…She brought some good dialogue regarding her general area where she lived but she likely got tired of some of the personal attacks that gets thrown around here…
(she bought) a house for her family…Got beat-up over it led by the master idiot…
Yep. That is what happened to SF homeowner.
Awwwww….. Poor liars.
Doesn’t make sense though. She knew prices in SF were insane. She took a calculated risk given her job, her age, her partner, her kids, etc. I don’t see why she’d care that much what RAL thinks?
She knew prices in SF were insane.
She’s paying less to “own” than to rent, and her house has probably “gone up” 150K in 2 years.
Could it go down? Sure. But will renting a like house in our life-times in SF be cheaper than her mortgage?
None of us know, but I’d surmise no. Besides, she now has chickens.
I don’t think she care what anyone thinks. She may have just decided she wanted to take a breather from blogging. I disappear for months myself. There are finer things in life than sitting in front of a computer.
Suite Joey Blue Eyes: She knew prices in SF were insane. She took a calculated risk given her job, her age, her partner, her kids, etc. I don’t see why she’d care that much what RAL thinks?
The enabling factor was the massive purchase subsidy she received from local government, which was just a pass-through payment from the taxpayer to the FIRE sector. Individually she got a great deal and apparently did manage to buy for less than the retail cost of owning, thanks to the subsidy/pass-through payment.
Arlington county just outside DC, is the richest county in the nation. They are considering initiatives for affordable housing as well.M. Which will simply be price supports, wherein the buyer can receive a subsidy, courtesy of taxpayers, and the subsidy goes to the FIRE sector.
Heck of a free market. No rules or rules written by the House to enrich the House, and grants from the citizenry to the House.
We continue our descent into a banana republic.
The enabling factor was the massive purchase subsidy she received from local government,
Wow…subsidies to buy houses? Simply WOW if it’s tru.
American Exceptionalism at best.
@ Rio… I doubt she’s paying less than she would to rent, because now she has to pay the taxes directly and handle maintenance. Of course, now she can make the place nicer than a rental would be. People should just admit that owning isn’t really about “pay less than renting”, it’s about other things.
@neuro … I’m familiar with home buying subsidies. Our house is only in my wife’s name because she’s a teacher and at the time we weren’t married, so she qualified for special programs from the city & state. The conditions for the loan program were living in the house 5 yrs (or you repay the “forgivable loan”) and having to attend a class and a sitdown with a representative from the program. LOL.
And the NumbSkull could have rented the same place for half her current carry cost.
Now whose fault is that and who is the dumb one here? Should we have lied to her and told her she did the right thing to keep her from taking her ball and going home?
Not gonna happen.
And the NumbSkull could have rented the same place in Tulsa for half her current carry cost in San Francisco.
neuromance:The enabling factor was the massive purchase subsidy she received from local government,
bankers’ cryptonite:Wow…subsidies to buy houses? Simply WOW if it’s tru.
American Exceptionalism at best.
Demonstrates who’s running the show.
They’ll shut down NIH or DOE in a heartbeat. Ain’t no way they’re gonna stop pumping public money to Wall Street.
When the SHTF, you get to see who’s really running things. The bailouts were crafted by a Goldman Sachs CEO (Paulson).
With every crisis, the FIRE sector tightens its grip around the government. It serves both politicians and the FIRE sector.
‘who’s running the show’
‘The lead ship in the class is slated to launch any day now — a milestone briefly delayed by the recent government shutdown. The Navy is building three of the Zumwalts over the next five years and deploying them to the Pacific to counter China’s fast-improving military.’
‘That’s assuming the $7-billion-apiece Zumwalts don’t simply capsize the first time a powerful wave strikes them from behind. ‘On the DDG-1000, with the waves coming at you from behind, when a ship pitches down, it can lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water-and basically roll over,” naval architect Ken Brower told Defense News.’
‘Originally envisioned for shore bombardment, the ship’s size and power plant that can produce 78 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 78,000 homes.’
in Tulsa
No. In Sanfrancisco where housing prices are grossly inflated.
She was stupid. Very stupid.
The next crash will happen (when Elisabeth Warren is elected Pres. in 2016) and we will see the market decline by 5000 points (to about where it is now). At that point the big money will step in and take all the important stuff private. The only thing left will be ‘hollow’ companies, those with no intellectual property, high debt and a small number of employees.
You’re not paying attention here. The crash already resumed.
She was stupid. Very stupid.
Then how could you have made her look as smart as she seemed?
Speaking of stupid…..
Wow…subsidies to buy houses? Simply WOW if it’s tru.
American Exceptionalism at best.
No wonder some people love their governments just a little more.
No wonder some people love their governments just a little more.
Is that investing in education?
I still can’t believe it…..this country is fooked beyond repair.
“thing is, i’m not ashamed of what i said..”
Ted Cruz after reading “Green Eggs and Ham” on the Senate floor. 2013
Romney! Bahh!
Why did he choose Green Eggs and Ham anyway? Wouldn’t he do better with Atlas Shrugged or Who Moved My Cheese or Agenda 21?
Why did (Cruz) choose Green Eggs and Ham anyway?
His audience was 90% Tea Partiers.
i would have chosen “the sneetches”…if limited to dr. seuss that is.
He was reading to his young daughters who were watching at that time.
No wonder the stenographer suddenly went berserk. I would too if i listen yo these blowhards longer than 10 seconds.
I listened to Cruz’s voice for the first time yesterday, he really sounds like a chipmunk. Why are people so afraid?
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/09/dershowitz-tex-cruz-one-of-harvard-laws-smartest-students/
The last thing America needs is another smartest lawyer or a smartest banker from Ivy league.
well we have had one that everyone thinks is stupid…we traded him for one that think’s he the smartest…maybe one that actually is the smartest is next…or we could go with the one who thinks she deserves it the most.
i must admit…i read an article recently where hillary was stumping for some guy in VA…she was critical of obama’s style…i kinda liked it.
you want to silence their voices….. sooner or later i may get banned. if that happens, you win.
I’ve been thinking. No way tj. I’d lose if you were banned, and it is not my “game”. We’re a like team. You and me……Like a comedy team. You’re like the “straight-man”, I’m the closer.
With a “straight-face”, (that is often unbelievable to witness) you set up the jokes with outlandish assertions that defy reality and American history, and then……
I deliver the punch line.
I’ve been thinking.
you mean conniving. what i said was true, and you didn’t know how to react to it. it took you some time to come up with a good lie.
I’d lose if you were banned
this is the best you can do? you know you’re lying. you’d like to drive conservatives away one by one. like i said, you already did it to SFbayarea. he was a good contributor too. must make you feel real clever.
and it is not my “game”.
it’s exactly your game.
You and me……Like a comedy team.
your misdirection can’t change the truth.
You’re like the “straight-man”, I’m the closer.
don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.
With a “straight-face”, (that is often unbelievable to witness) you set up the jokes with outlandish assertions that defy reality and American history, and then……
you’re one of those ‘guys’ that can’t get through telling a joke, without laughing so hard at his own joke, that he can’t tell it. people wind up just looking at you, rather uncomfortably.
I deliver the punch line.
to crickets chirping.
you’re going to ‘open some minds or open some heads’, right? i mean, people like you fit right in with bomber bill. with mao and stalin.
and all the while claiming how compassionate you are. you’re a wreck of a human being and you know that too. you know it but you can’t face it. so you hide behind a facade of caring about everyone. of doing good. almost everything about you is fake. your pseudo knowledge and compassion doesn’t hold up if you look a little deeper.
you need the crutch of illusion to keep moving. you paint a false picture for everyone to see, but i’ve noticed that some here aren’t buying it. you need to sell harder, closer.
you need the crutch of illusion to keep moving.
Dude. I got thru 2 of your “responses”. Good Gosh.
If your going to be anyone’s comedy partner….write shorter posts.
Most times, you are boring as he!!.
(but that’s a good thing I guess)
write shorter posts.
yes, that would fit your attention span.
Turns out mortgage lending and commercial lending are substitutes, not complements.
Who’d've thunk?
greenspan says he has high praise for yellen in his new book.
So did Yellin for Greenspan. If they haven’t been whitewashed already, read some praises Yellin had for Greenspan.
Housing Bubbles and Monetary Policy
Presidents Speeches
Presentation to the Fourth Annual Haas Gala
San Francisco, CA
By Janet L. Yellen, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
For delivery October 21, 2005 8:55 PM Pacific Time, 11:55 PM Eastern
Note: These remarks are based closely on a portion of those President Yellen presented on September 27, 2005, in London to the Conference on U.S. Monetary Policy convened by the European Economics and Financial Centre.
Tonight I would like to focus on how the Fed, or central banks, more generally, should respond to asset price bubbles. This is one of the few policy issues where the Fed’s approach has come in for real criticism. I thought it might be of interest to this audience since, one way or another, it has probably touched the life of almost everyone here in the Bay Area. I saw that in memorable ways when I returned to MBA teaching at Haas in the fall of 1999 after a stint in Washington including 2½ years as a Governor of the Fed. During one class, I heard some background buzz. A student in my global macroeconomics class was chattering away on his cell phone. I looked his way and frowned. He apologized, explaining that he was finalizing the details for his internet startup to go public. Those were heady days in the markets, in the Bay Area, and at Haas. The Fed suspected there was a stock price bubble developing as early as 1996. I was still at the Board when Greenspan made his famous irrational exuberance speech. The Fed chose not to try to burst the bubble. Instead, it did its very best to pick up the pieces when the bubble finally popped. I think that effort was pretty successful. But many observers wonder if we erred and think the Fed should have tightened monetary policy sooner.
The question is not one of purely historic interest. Today, it’s not stock prices but house prices that have been soaring. Those of us who live in the Bay Area know that you can’t get through a cocktail party without some discussion of an eye-popping price somebody just got for their two-bedroom, one-bath handyman special.
But the Bay Area isn’t the only place in the country, or the world, for that matter, where soaring house prices have raised concerns about national economic stability. In the U.S. as a whole, the share of residential investment in GDP is now at its highest level in decades, and this sector has been a key source of strength in the current expansion. The question for policy is: will this source of strength reverse course and become instead a source of weakness? Put more bluntly: Is there a house-price “bubble” that might deflate, and if so, what would that mean for the nation’s economy? What, if anything, should policy do beforehand? Fortunately, there is a large scholarly literature on asset price bubbles and monetary policy, and Haas faculty in finance, economics and real estate have made important contributions.
The literature generally defines a bubble as a situation where the price of an asset—in this case, housing—is significantly higher than its fundamental value. One common way of judging whether housing’s price is in line with its fundamental value is to consider the ratio of housing prices to rents. This is analogous to the ratio of prices to dividends for stocks. In the case of housing, rents reflect the flow of benefits obtained from housing assets—either the monetary return from rental property, or the value of living in owner-occupied housing. Historically, the ratio for the U.S. has had many ups and downs, but over time it has tended to return to its long-run average. In other words, when the price-to-rent ratio is high, housing prices tend to grow more slowly or fall for a time, and when the ratio is low, prices tend to rise more rapidly. I want to emphasize, though, that this is a loose relationship that can be counted on only for rough guidance rather than a precise reading.
Currently, the ratio for the U.S. is higher than at any time since data became available in 1970—about 38 percent above its long-run average. Of course, the ratios vary widely from place to place in the U.S. and in different countries. For Los Angeles and San Francisco, the price-to-rent ratio is about 75 percent higher than the normal level, while for Cleveland the ratio is very near its historical average. For the U.K., the ratio is more than double its long-run average, whereas in Japan it’s only about three-quarters of its normal level.
Higher than normal ratios do not necessarily prove that there’s a house-price bubble. House prices could be high for some good, fundamental reasons. For example, there have been changes in the tax laws that reduce the potential tax bite from selling one home and buying another. Another development, which may be making housing more like an investment vehicle in the U.S., is that it’s now easier and cheaper to get at the equity—either through refinancing, which has become a less costly process, or through an equity line of credit. These innovations in mortgage markets make the funds invested in houses more liquid. There are also constraints on the supply of housing in a number of markets, including the Bay Area. Probably the most obvious candidate for a fundamental factor is low mortgage interest rates. Even so, the consensus seems to be that the high price-to-rent ratio for housing cannot be fully accounted for by these factors. So, while I’m certainly not predicting anything about future house price movements, I think it’s obvious that the housing sector represents a serious issue for monetary policymakers to consider.
How, then, should monetary policy react to unusually high prices of houses—or of other assets, for that matter? As a starting point, let me note that the issue is not now (nor during the stock market boom) whether policy should react at all. As part of its analysis of demand in the economy, central bank models have long incorporated the wealth effect of house prices and other assets on spending; it is just one of many factors, including fiscal policy, exchange rates, and so on, that affect demand. The debate lies in determining when, if ever, policy should be focused on deflating the asset price bubble itself.2
In my view, it makes sense to organize one’s thinking around three consecutive questions—three hurdles to jump before pulling the monetary policy trigger. First, if the bubble were to deflate on its own, would the effect on the economy be exceedingly large? Second, is it unlikely that the Fed could mitigate the consequences? Third, is monetary policy the best tool to use to deflate a house-price bubble?
My answers to these questions in the shortest possible form are, “no,” “no,” and “no.” In the most thorough possible form, my answers might take a few hours, and would give full play to the many gray areas that are involved. Since the short answer is not satisfactory and the thorough one overwhelms our time limits, I will compromise and give just a brief explanation for my trio of “nos.”
…
“First, if the bubble were to deflate on its own, would the effect on the economy be exceedingly large?”
Strike one!
I am sure their private conversations are more substantive and informative. This kind of banality has to be for the public consumption.
Anyone read the Maestro’s latest tome?
American mortgage lending
Home sickness
Weak mortgage earnings are weighing on profits. That may be a good thing
Oct 19th 2013 | NEW YORK
AFTER the mortgage-refinancing binge comes the hangover. On October 11th Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase announced third-quarter earnings that were dented by a decline in their mortgage business. Similar news followed on October 15th from Citigroup and the following day from Bank of America. The rise in interest rates from historic lows in April, despite a recent hiatus, has ended a period when taking out a new home loan to pay off an old one was a riskless, lucrative step for borrowers and lenders alike.
The increase in rates is a direct response to the Federal Reserve’s signals that it may soon curtail its bond-buying scheme, which is intended to suppress long-term borrowing costs. A higher price for money is not just toxic to the mortgage-refinancing business, and thus bad for banks, it also hurts house prices. That would suggest that it hurts the economy as a whole as well. But a new paper by two professors at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and a third at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School argues otherwise: that efforts to boost housing loans have impeded the flow of credit to more productive uses.
…
The implication is that the many policies that encourage lending for property investments do so at the expense of other, potentially more deserving borrowers. That would be a drag on the economy and perhaps also on banks’ future profits. But the paper also raises hope that the present, increasingly hostile climate for housing finance may have a hidden benefit: mitigating a damaging distortion in the system.
Hmmm, looks like a delay on the individual mandate may be in store anyway, due to the glitchfest with the ACA website (and probably other issues as well.) I think it probably depends on how much smoke gets blown up Obama and Sibelius’s butts by “contractors” promising to “fix” the pig. If they bring on a bunch of folks who are realistic and willing to be honest about the problem, there’ll probably be a delay. If they bring on a bunch of dicklicker sycophantic contractors who tell them what they want to hear rather than how it really is, no delay.
I think the technical glitches are easy to fix. The bigger question is after they fall short on their rosy projections (which always happens on anything), what’s next? I don’t think you can do much without congress, can you? Can Bernanke or Yellin directly pump money into O’care? I won’t past that these criminals.
“I think the technical glitches are easy to fix.”
Forbes has two articles on the situation, and apparently, the technical glitches are no easy (or quick) fix, not on the back end, anyway. Apparently it’s a major clusterfark.
I didn’t read the Forbes so I can’t comment on that.
It may take 6 months or a year, the technical problems will be fixed. My point was when they fall short on their projections, what happens to it?
Ars Technica’s take:
The result of the headlong rush to October 1 was a system that had never been tested at anything like the load it experienced on its first day of operation (if it was tested with loads at all). Those looking for a reason for the site’s horrible performance on its first day had plenty of things to choose from.
First of all, there’s the front-end site itself. The first page of the registration process (once you get to it) has 2,099 lines of HTML code, but it also calls 56 JavaScript files and 11 CSS files. That’s not exactly optimal for heavy-load pages.
Navigating the site once you get past registration is something of a cheese chase through the rat-maze. “It’s like a bad, boring video game where you try to grunt and hack your way through to the next step,” one site user told Ars.
And they hire verizon to fix the IT problems? Something doesn’t compute…..
They hired verizon enterprise services, probably to manage a bunch of servers and load balancers.
I got that. Is verizon enterprise service the best they could do?
You’re assuming there are better? Oh man… It said they picked them because they already have the appropriate goverment contracts and relationship with the group setting up the site…
“dicklicker sycophantic contractors”
Why do you hate invisible hand of the free market?
What are you, some kind of commie?
Cueing up Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”
From NY Times:
“One major problem slowing repairs, people close to the program say, is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the exchange, is responsible for making sure that the separately designed databases and pieces of software from 55 contractors work together. It is not common for a federal agency to assume that role, and numerous people involved in the project said the %%u agency did not have the expertise to do the job %%u and did not fully understand what it entailed.”
Go Fed agencies.
On the one hand, …
On the other hand, …
Breaking News: September Non-farm payroll at 148,000 vs 193,000 in previous month; unemployment rate at 7.2%
China central bank may tighten cash supply as home prices fuel inflation fears
A man sits in front of the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, in Beijing October 17, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
By Kevin Yao and Xiaoyi Shao
BEIJING | Tue Oct 22, 2013 7:40am EDT
(Reuters) - China signaled concern on Tuesday that ample credit could fuel inflation as a report showed house prices jumped the most in nearly three years, with double-digit gains in major cities.
A policy adviser to the People’s Bank of China told Reuters the authority may tighten cash conditions in the financial system to address the inflation risks, while the central bank refrained from supplying cash to money markets for the second day running.
If it also avoids injecting cash at its next money market operation on Thursday, the effect will be a net weekly drain of 58 billion yuan - the second biggest since February.
“(Policy) will only be tightened slightly as inflation is rising. There are some concerns on bank lending,” said Song Guoqing, an academic member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee.
“Policy fine-tuning will rely mainly on open market operations and I cannot see any possibility of changing interest rates or bank reserve ratios.”
Song’s comments and the sharp rise in house prices highlight Beijing’s policy quandary.
On the one hand, policymakers want to avoid a buildup of market and economic imbalances, such as a debt-fuelled property bubble.
On the other hand, they are reluctant to use more potent instruments to control the imbalances in case they also blunt a modest economic recovery ahead of a crucial policy meeting next month.
China’s house prices in September rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest rise since January 2011, calculations of official data by Reuters shows. The CSI300 of leading Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listings fell 1 percent as investors braced for possible measures to calm the property market.
…
Economnists are the guys who include decimal points in their forecasts to show to the world that they have a sense of humor.
ROTFLMAO Combo, that is 100.00000% funny.
A bad jobs number is favorable for Wall Street, as it signals a taper delay and longer anticipated period of extraordinary intervention.
Check out the 10-year Treasury bond yield reaction to the bad jobs number.
Short story: It’s dropping like a large stone tossed into the sea.
Wall Street and their MSM buddies can spin the news anyway they want to.
I was referring to how stock futures have a puzzling way of always going up on “worse than expected” job numbers.
Bulletin » U.S. stock-market futures add to gains after payrolls report
Critical intelligence before the U.S. markets open
Netflix, a can’t-lose jobs report and why one bear still sees a 40% drop
October 22, 2013, 6:13 AM
By Shawn Langlois
The jobs report is here, and, no matter what it says, the numbers should boost stocks. Really? Really. That’s what Goldman Sachs seems to be saying, anyway. “Any positive number will be discounted because it came before the D.C. theatrics, and if it’s weak, it confirms that tapering should be put off longer,” the broker wrote.
…
At this point, with the S&P taking out new highs, investors borrowing record amounts of money against their puffy portfolios, and a noted bear catching flack for leaning bullish, there’s a lingering love affair going on with stocks.
But what happens when that love dies? One bear who’s not changing his stripes (er, fur?) is John Hussman, and he put his delicate touch on where we’re headed in his weekly note: “If you picture a small child throwing a stone upward and out over the edge of the Grand Canyon, you’ll get a general idea of the market trajectory that we expect over the completion of this cycle,” he wrote. More from him below.
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The economy: So, we finally hear about September jobs, though the shutdown and delays have taken some of the anticipation out of it. The data hits at 8:30 a.m. Eastern and is expected to show a net increase of 185,000 jobs, up from 169,000 in August. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 7:3%. At 10:00 a.m., we’ll also get the Richmond Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity for October, along with construction spending for August. Read: Spotlight on the economy.
…
The call of the day: Now is as good a time as any for John Hussman, always a great read, to reiterate his call that the markets could lose almost half their value over the next few years. “Even if a speculative ramp occurs, it’s not at all clear that speculators will actually be able to get out with much – the first few days off the top are likely to wipe out months of gains in one fell swoop – but again, we have to at least allow for an already reckless situation to become even more reckless over the short run, as the crowd seems to have a bit in its teeth,” he wrote.
One interesting metric he used to bolster his case is the fact that the S&P 500′s current price/revenue ratio is at 1.6, “twice its pre-bubble historical norm.” In 1987, before the epic meltdown, that number was hovering at less than 1.0, he said, and peaks in 1965 and 1972 never breached 1.3.
I wonder if mark cuban is happy about those 1 million shares of JCP he bought at 13 . Quick way to lose 6.5 million dollars.
I want to buy as many PCLN shares as I can.
This market is ripe for a huge sell off. there are no shorts to cover either.
Cuban hit the jackpot when Yahoo paid him billions for basically nothing. It will take a lot to make him unhappy.
SocGen: Fed funds could reach 6% by 2017
October 21, 2013, 4:09 PM
The timetable for scaling back the Federal Reserve’s bond buying has been thrown into flux by the government shutdown and debt ceiling debate, but Societe Generale economists still see an aggressive plan to raise benchmark policy rates as a distinct possibility.
Although the economists say the so-called tapering could be delayed until next spring — a projection in line with many other market forecasters — that doesn’t necessarily derail the expected timeline for raising the fed funds rate, which they peg around 2015, according to Michala Marcussen, global head of economics at Societe Generale.
If nothing knocks that off course, fed funds, currently held at just about 0%, could rise to 6% by 2017, she said in a CNBC interview Monday. That is, assuming Washington doesn’t get in its own way on fiscal issues. She said:
Marcussen told CNBC back in June that the benchmark 10-year note (10_YEAR -2.45%) yield could hit 5% in 2017, and that prediction hasn’t changed due to the debt ceiling debate, according to the news service.
…
Maybe pouring $40 billion a month in QE3 down the mortgage backed securities purchase rat hole isn’t adding much to jobs growth?
Unemployment drops to 5-year low, but job growth disappoints
October 22, 2013, 5:57 a.m.
Job seekers meet with recruiters earlier this month in San Mateo, Calif. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
By Don Lee
WASHINGTON — The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low of 7.2% in September, the government reported Tuesday, but employers continued to show reluctance in hiring as they added a moderate 148,000 jobs over the month.
The Labor Department report, delayed 2 1/2 weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown, reflected an economy growing at a lackluster rate. The latest job gains matched the pace since the start of summer but came in below Wall Street’s forecast for an increase of about 175,000 jobs.
The disappointing growth is likely to reinforce the hesitance of Federal Reserve officials to begin a withdrawal of its monetary stimulus program. Fed policymakers are weighing a cutback in its $85-billion-a-month purchase of bonds, but officials have been waiting for stronger employment growth.
The economy added on average about 195,000 jobs a month in the first half of this year, but growth has slowed since then to about 143,000 a month, enough to keep up with population growth and new job entrants but much too slow to absorb many of the 11.3 million officially unemployed or help the nearly 8 million part-time workers who want more hours.
The unemployment rate has been inching down this past summer, but that’s partly the result of workers dropping out of the labor force. The labor force did not shrink in September. The latest jobless figure is the lowest since November 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession.
Job growth in September was led by retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and temporary-help industries — with each category adding more than 20,000 jobs. The construction sector added 20,000 jobs, its strongest gain since February. Manufacturing was flat, and the once-booming leisure sector, which includes hotels and restaurants, lost 13,000 jobs over the month.
Government payrolls rose by 22,000 in September, though federal employment shrank by 6,000.
The 16-day partial shutdown of government offices and facilities, which began Oct. 1, had no direct bearing on the September employment data, but surveys and anecdotal reports indicate that the uncertainty over the budget stalemate weighed on employers and possibly their hiring decisions last month.
…
“Maybe pouring $40 billion a month in QE3 down the mortgage backed securities purchase rat hole isn’t adding much to jobs growth?”
i know…it should be $ 100 billion a month!
Why limit it to that? Why not $400 billion a month?
sounds good to me…go for it!
In due time.
Oct. 21, 2013, 8:48 a.m. EDT
Fed’s Evans: Good reports needed for Dec. taper
By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve could begin to reduce the pace of its $85 billion a-month asset purchase program in December but would need several good economic reports before acting, said Chicago Fed president Charles Evans on Monday. Evans all but ruled out a move at the central bank’s meeting later this month, calling it “a tough one” given the lack of economic data from the federal government shutdown. Asked in an interview on CNBC about a move at the next Fed policy meeting in December, Evans replied: “I think we need a couple of good labor reports and evidence of increasing GDP growth and it is probably going to take a few months to sort that one out.”
…
Hope and Change
Denver Post - MillerCoors to fire 200 companywide, 30 Golden jobs impacted:
“MillerCoors — facing heightened competition and declining production — announced Monday it is laying off 200 workers and eliminating 160 unfilled positions.
Thirty jobs will be cut at its Golden plant, according to MillerCoors spokesman Jonathan Stern.
“MillerCoors has seen a decline in sales in the last several years and is likely trying to match its cost structure to its lower volumes,” said Thomas Mullarkey, an analyst with Morningstar Inc.”
Because your beer sucks?
Fewer commercials may have prevented these job cuts.
“MillerCoors has seen a decline in sales in the last several years”
Because your beer sucks?
Here’s the thing about beer imo. It depends on the temperature outside. When it’s almost 90 degrees and 80% humidity, (As it is today by the water) one wants something like a Coors Light instead of an Anchor Steam or an IPA. Most all the beer in these tropics is a light Pilsner - and for good reason. An IPA today in the sun would kind of suck but in the cooler months in the USA, it’s great.
Coors sucks
The best beer from Colorado is Ska Brewing Co’s Modus Hoperandi
Forward
It’s not only Coors. All beers suck.
All beers suck.
You are consistent about your objectivity on many issues.
‘A bad jobs number is favorable for Wall Street’
Giant meteor plunges toward Earth, stocks soar on Fed statement.
Would the Fed increase QE3 or taper it in the event a giant meteor was approaching Earth?
I think we need more money printing so the primary dealers have more money to ramp up the stock market and make themselves richer as more americans get their 200 food stamp checks.
Not a bad idea. We can wrap the earth with Money, it might just repel the meteor.
Hmmmm….was that what central planners thinking all along?
They might be smarter than we give them credit for.
Denver Post - Downtown Denver is booming, but it is a tale of two cities:
“The downtown population has boomed, increasing 142 percent since 2000. Businesses are relocating to downtown, hotels are rising and the city center is becoming a playground for millenials.
There is another side to the boom, apparent in the doorways at night, where homeless people set up instead of heading to shelters. And the city continues to wrestle with what to do about public drug use that has offended tourists and residents.
City officials are balancing the need for more affordable housing with the demand from people who will pay top dollar for downtown lofts. Homeless advocates say the lack of transitional housing, shelter space and services has created an almost intractable problem in the downtown area.
Once a sleepy city that shut down at night, downtown Denver’s streets now come alive after 5 o’clock.
Denver has become the No. 1 destination city for millenials, people born between 1981 and 2000, according to the Brookings Institution.
Three-quarters of the downtown population is white, nearly 60 percent has a college degree, and the average age is 33 with an average annual household income of $76,263. A fourth of them don’t own a car.”
Yeah, I think Denver is pretty desirable for young people. Other than CHI, it’s considered the only livable city in Flyover.
You see this trend in a lot of cities, though. All the white or college educated kidz want to live in teh same area with other similar people. Weekends are like frat parties on Canton Square in my ‘hood. The old white retirees (from when the area was blue collar) who haven’t sold yet do the whole “you kids get off my lawn” type of thing. They love that their property values have risen and that the police care about the area now. But they complain about parking, biking, higher property taxes that come with higher prop values, and they try to stop new licquor licenses or live music licenses.
Meanwhile, go 2-3 blocks north of Patterson Park (10 min walk north of my area) and it’s ghetto for the next mile or two.
It’s pretty racist when you think about it. The police and city treat the areas completely differently. Petty crime, drug dealing, and graffiti are tolerated to the north of the line but to the south people are bidding up real estate and fighting over scarce parking spots for their 3 series. Another hobby of people who live down by the water is lobbying against new light rail or bus lines. People got MAF when the circulator buses started going from downtown to Fell’s Point.
All the white or college educated kidz want to live in teh same area with other similar people.
These are the true racists people of all. They may vote Obama but they will live at least 10 miles from Darnell.
More like 3-5 blocks in a city.
If you live 10 miles from Darnell, you have NO interaction with him. If you live 3-5 blocks away, you’re still part of the same ecosystem and you’re aware of it. Low T suburban people try to deny it entirely.
you’re still part of the same ecosystem and you’re aware of it.
Aware of it? Ha!
And they are still racists.
true racists people of all. They may vote Obama
Everyone knows that the regular racists vote Obama but “true racists” like “true Americans” only vote Repub.
Don’t you watch FOX?
Well summarized by an anecdote I heard on another blog:
A college education gives you the correct attitude about minorities, and the means to move away from them.
I don’t that a college education provides such means to most people anymore. There are too many college graduates out there. Remember the tales from the underclass about all of the college graduates working at Starbucks and living in Mom’s basement?
Also, which colleges teach attitudes about minorities and what attitudes are taught? They must be some of the weaker colleges.
Denver is pretty desirable for young people. Other than CHI, it’s considered the only livable city in Flyover.
It think I’d rather live in KC than Chicago and I know them both.
KC was ranked 15th in America’s “Best Cities”
Chicago 28 th
Denver 6th
http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-09-26/americas-50-best-cities#slide37
Not as many marriagable women. Too many rednecks. Too suburban-y. MO and KS have socially conservative state governments = “next!” to young people.
Those slideshows are worthless for the most part.
Don’t be;
……….. Tempted by the fraud of another………..
…….tempted but the fraud is discovered…….
…….. What’s been going on………
Squeeze is excellent.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cuJ1AefhWzE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcuJ1AefhWzE
If you ignore the vampires and zombies, the housing market looks pretty normal.
Defaults, foreclosures at 7-year lows
Normal rates likely in 2014, economists say
By Roger Showley
5:46 p.m. Oct. 21, 2013
Foreclosures and defaults in San Diego County continued to fall, sinking to seven-year lows in September, DataQuick reported Monday.
The trendline, according to University of San Diego real estate economist Norm Miller, points to normalcy in 2014.
The figures:
• Foreclosures totaled 146 in September, compared with 148 in August and 497 in September 2012, a 70.6 percent year-over-year decline. The last time the total was lower was in August 2006, at 134.
• Defaults totaled 466 in September, compared with 537 in August and 1,050 in September 2012, a 55.6 percent year-over-year decline. January 2006 had a lower figure of 462.
At the depths of the real estate crash that started in 2007, San Diego saw foreclosures soar to a record 2,004 in July 2008 and defaults to 3,832 in March 2009.
In the last “normal” market in 2000-2001, DataQuick reported monthly mortgage defaults in the 400-550 range and foreclosures in the 20-80 range.
The lows occurred a few years later as prices soared and homeowners refinanced to take advantage of low interest rates. Then when easy credit evaporated, homeowners were stuck with unaffordable mortgages and began falling into default.
Miller said the numbers indicate that some homeowners are still in distress, because they are unable to refinance their mortgages. Their equity still hasn’t risen sufficiently above the outstanding balance to the 20 percent level that banks typically require before agreeing to refinance.
“Keep in mind before we play violins for them, that a lot who are stuck have first and second mortgages,” Miller said. “They pulled all the equity out of their home and are living in homes with no money (invested). … It’s really the lender who’s getting stuck. They’re the only ones with real money in the deal.”
Miller said the number to watch is the default rate, which is a leading indicator of the health of the lending environment.
“If it starts going up, foreclosures will definitely go up,” he said.
…
Don’t look now, but the reinvigorated Democrats are making a case for Fannie Mae’s survival. Where is the Tea Party when you need them?
Bloomberg News
Fannie Mae Survival Back on Table as Congress Drafts Plan
By Clea Benson and Cheyenne Hopkins
October 15, 2013
The consensus in Washington that Fannie Mae (FNMA:US) and Freddie Mac should be dismantled is weakening amid opposition from hedge funds, regional banks and others who could benefit if the companies survive in some form.
President Barack Obama and lawmakers from both parties have called for the two mortgage-finance companies to be replaced by a new U.S. housing system. While the official position hasn’t changed, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators writing legislation is grappling with how to ensure that changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t disrupt the recovering housing market.
Some Democrats said they are leery of engineering a switch that would liquidate the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, leaving it to private entities to risk their own capital on home loans.
“I’m not sure that eliminating the GSEs totally makes sense, as some have suggested, and so I have an open mind on it,” Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democratic member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in an interview last week. His comments came after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said in August that the companies shouldn’t be dismantled.
…
I bet some hedge funds are paying major bribe money to Congress folks in anticipation of making a mint when Fannie Mae’s stock soars on the wind-down cancellation announcement.
they have been marginalized by the MSM and republican status quoers.
where is the OWSers when you need them too?
Ah yes, Bob Costas the kind hearted liberal who uses his platform of Sunday night football to spew his beliefs from gun control to the Washington Redskins racist name. But when a city kid from DC who has one brother in jail for attemted murder and another on the 49ers gets his first national spotlight interview after playing a great game screws up by calling Peyton Manning ‘Tom Brady’ the elite Costas wastes no time in mocking and laughing at him.
What a POS.
Colts player accidentally called Peyton Manning ‘Tom Brady’
By Chris Chase – October 21, 2013 at 12:38am EDT
“Well, we had a good week of practice. We prepared really hard for Tom Brady. So I think it just carried over from practice into the game.”
Tafoya showed her professional bonafides by completely ignoring the slip-up during the rest of her brief talk with Davis. Bob Costas, on the other hand, gleefully pointed out the error when Tafoya threw it back to him.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/10/colts-tom-brady-peyton-manning/ - 122k -
Colts CB Vontae Davis’ crazy ‘We prepared really hard for Tom …
http://www.stampedeblue.com/2013/10/21/4861570/colts-cb-vontae-davis-crazy-we-prepared-really-hard-for-tom-brady - -
This has the Costas comments.
Bob Costas…the guy who ruins Olympics for every american?
Sunday night football
LOL. Is it any better than afternoon football? American Football, what a waste…..
“Is it any better than afternoon football?”
It was this week, even the kicker was hittin’.
VIDEO: Colts punter Pat McAfee lights up Broncos’ Trindon Holliday
By Daniel O’leary / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, October 21, 2013, 2:45 AM
You’ve heard it a thousand times before from football announcers during a big return: “Just the kicker to beat!” But what happens when the kicker beats the ball carrier?
Colts punter/place-kicker Pat McAfee put an absolutely vicious hit on Broncos return man Trindon Holliday near midfield on Sunday night.
VIDEO: Colts punter Pat McAfee lights up Broncos’ Trindon Holliday …
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/colts-p-mcafee-destroys-broncos-return-man-article-1.1491399 - -
i think they should change their name…i also think costas is a douche.
I think they should change the name too. Take out “red” and put in another color. Would you name a team like that? Yeah, it’s racis.
As for Costas, IMO it’s unfair to take advantage of his position on sports TV to use as a political soapbox of any stripe. If Costas wants to go full-on lib, he should give up his sports platform, as Olbermann did.
Take out “red” and put in another color. Would you name a team like that? Yeah,
Off-WhiteSkins.
AKA the TP.
(come on, lighten up peeps….that was funny!)
Damn, what a sunset. Can you believe, from many of Rio’s beaches, (on the East Coast of South America) the sun sets over the Atlantic. Really. Just like when going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal, one is going in an easterly direction. Crazy huh?
washington honkies…now that would funny.
“Yeah, it’s racis.”
It seems the Redskins have already had some problems with being racis. They have already tried to un-racis their fight song. (it’s worth clicking the link and scrolling down to the bottom to see the fat white dude playing the tuba, he is obviously a fat racis tuba player)
Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
Fight for old D.C.!
Run or pass and score — we want a lot more!
Beat ‘em, Swamp ‘em,
Touchdown! — Let the points soar!
Fight on, fight on ‘Til you have won
Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah!
Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
Fight for old D.C.!
The original words were:
Hail to the Redskins!
Hail Victory!
Braves on the Warpath!
Fight for old Dixie!
Run or pass and score — we want a lot more!
Scalp ‘em, swamp ‘em — We will take ‘em big score
Read ‘em, weep ‘em, touchdown - we want heap more
Fight on, Fight on — ‘Till you have won
Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah!
http://haruth.com/r/RedskinsHailtotheRedskins.html - 9k -
History and facts shall not be re-written, no matter anyone’s politics.
Yesterday someone told me our founders did not approve of protectionism when in fact they did and it was actually called “The American Way”. Imagine that. This is not opinion. These are facts. The American Way as our founders saw it: Protectionism, investment in America and a sound currency promoting commerce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_System_%28economic_plan%29
“The American System, originally called “The American Way”, was an economic plan that played a prominent role in American policy during the first half of the 19th century. Rooted in the “American School” ideas of Alexander Hamilton, the plan “consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other ‘internal improvements’ to develop profitable markets for agriculture.”[1] Congressman Henry Clay was the plan’s foremost proponent and the first to refer to it as the “American System”.
A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the American System was advanced by the Democratic-Republican Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams. The System was a new form of federalism that included:
Support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government
Maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue
Preservation of the Bank of the United States to stabilize the currency and rein in risky state and local banks
Development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues.”
The people we elect in the US don’t even get to have a say in trade. It’s all been moved to global bodies. No one in DC dares to challenge it. We can sit around all day and talk about these things and it won’t amount to a hill of beans until we get out of the WTO and NAFTA.
History (not propaganda) is cool.
Frank Bourgin’s 1989 study of the Constitutional Convention shows that direct government involvement in the economy was intended by the Founders.[16]
“….The American School of economics represented the legacy of Alexander Hamilton, who in his Report on Manufactures, argued that the U.S. could not become fully independent until it was self-sufficient in all necessary economic products. Hamilton rooted this economic system, in part, in the successive regimes of Colbert’s France and Elizabeth I’s England, while rejecting the harsher aspects of mercantilism, such as seeking colonies for markets. As later defined by Senator Henry Clay who became known as the Father of the American System because of his impassioned support thereof, the American System was to unify the nation north to south, east to west, and city to farmer.[15]
Frank Bourgin’s 1989 study of the Constitutional Convention shows that direct government involvement in the economy was intended by the Founders.[16] The goal, most forcefully articulated by Hamilton, was to ensure that dearly won political independence was not lost by being economically and financially dependent on the powers and princes of Europe. The creation of a strong central government able to promote science, invention, industry and commerce, was seen as an essential means of promoting the general welfare and making the economy of the United States strong enough for them to determine their own destiny.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_School_%28economics%29
Anyone here play GTA V? We have a crew of people at work and we’re waiting for the stock market (called BAWSAQ in the game) option to go active on the online version. I’ve been practicing manipulating the market in story mode. It’s pretty cool.
It’s weird how much GTA V is like real life in some respects. You can work really hard holding up liquor stores and stealing cars but you’ll spend so much time hiding from cops that you can’t compete with the top players. The top players spend their time running scams and computer fraud. You can buy/sell high end cars and condos too, you just have to know what is in demand.
I was inside this other guy’s condo last night and he had a great view of the Vinewood Hills (name for Hollywood in the game) and the canyons. I felt like a poors bc I don’t own a condo on there yet. Then on my way out, I went through his garage. He had like a dozen supercars in there. I wanted to steal the Bugatti but the game won’t let you pull out a weapon or steal anything from another player’s private residence. So I had to settle for drinking an entire bottle of red wine he had set out in his kitchen.
‘Rachael Sacks isn’t making life any easier for herself-or the wealthy. The 20-year-old college student who penned a piece in Thought Catalog about the perils of being a rich girl is now lashing out at her critics. She wrote an expletive-infused follow-up piece called “I’m the Rich Girl You Love to Hate and You’re All Idiots For It.”
‘I don’t deserve all of your attention,” she wrote. “What I am is a scapegoat for the current issues in our economy and honestly, it doesn’t phase [sic] me.”
“I don’t look down upon ‘poors’ or rich people either,” she wrote. “It’s all just a matter of talking about these things that makes everyone so uncomfortable and it’s disgusting to have to live up to others’ stereotypes of what they should be.”
‘From a broader perspective, Sacks has touched a raw nerve in America-that of the self-pitying rich. ..Sacks said she grew up with plenty of friends who were much richer than she was, and that she only grew up with “a decent amount of money.” But she takes the whiny-rich-people genre to a new level, saying her wealth makes her a victim in a society that has to “pretend to be poor” to be respected.’
It’s weird how much GTA V is like real life in some respects. You can work really hard holding up liquor stores and stealing cars but you’ll spend so much time hiding from cops that you can’t compete with the top players.
Which group is the game prison full of?
happy-days-arent-here-again-2013-10-22
Oct. 22, 2013, 9:56 a.m. EDT
U.S. economy faces host of big new problems
Commentary: Dysfunction in the Beltway dents the recovery effort
By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch
The end of the latest kerfuffle in Washington marks the beginning of new problems for the U.S. economy.
It was the last thing the fledgling recovery needed. Fourth-quarter economic growth was already laboring under a number of uncertainties, mostly political in nature. Now the shutdown and debt ceiling scare have all but knocked the economy for a loop:
– we’ve suffered lost wages;
– lost jobs;
– lost confidence.
Wages were lost both in and out of government (except for those “nonessential” federal workers who wound up getting a two-week paid vacation). And because many private sector activities were affected adversely, lots of jobs were either lost or simply not created.
The loss in confidence should not be taken lightly. As we have seen time and again whenever the government was shut down, citizens are replete with worries, such as ‘When will I get my government check?’ ‘Who will defend us if we are attacked?’ ‘What happens to other government services?’ Many times these concerns caused cutbacks in spending and a dip in overall economic activity.
As a consequence, you may expect fourth-quarter growth in gross domestic product to be shaved by a half-point or more – bringing the rate of growth down to 2% or less. Some of this might also carry over into the first quarter – especially since this brouhaha could well see a return engagement come early 2014.
In this environment, both stocks and bonds will have major headwinds. Stocks will have to deal with the fallout from the government shutdown and bonds from our brush with default.
All of this occurred because the current crop of pols that inhabit Capitol Hill never learned how to get along with others when they were children. Unless and until the system is changed, you may expect more political brinkmanship in the future.
Here’s the problem: we know how to fix the dysfunction inside the Beltway, but it requires approval by the same pols that created this mess in the first place!
…
Here’s the problem: we know how to fix the dysfunction inside the Beltway, but it requires approval by the same pols that created this mess in the first place!
I think a big part of the solution would be term limits for Congress, but that’s exactly the problem. Everybody wants to get rid of everyone else’s Congressman, but that would require the approval of Congress.
Earlier this month, I got a call from my mortgage lender. This altruistic lender was wanting to lower my rate!
Well, I sure hadn’t initiated the call, and I know that lenders don’t lower your rate without charging a boodle of money in fees.
So, I asked them to send me something in the mail. My e-mail address was requested by the caller. I refused to disclose that address. Instead, I asked for a refi offer in the U.S. Mail, sent to the address that’s listed on the mortgage.
Guess what I have yet to receive in my postal mail? A refi offer, that’s what.
I was listening to my favorite AM right wing radio show at lunch and heard two back-to-back commercials for Refi. One was a new twist, some company offering to refinance your can loan. Promised to cut 2% from your loan rate AND give you a 90 day extension on your next payment. Also heard a radio ad offering to teach you how to flip houses. Won’t be long before we start hearing ads to give you top-dollar for your organs. I hear a low millage kidney is worth $15,200.
3PM EST and the bond market is up 9 basis points and climbing….
bad news coming, otherwise the smart money would be looking to get a better return. Sounds like the cattle are beginning to move toward the gate. Ether that, or Chairman Ben is buying up treasuries faster than he can print the money for them.
Would it be wiser at this point to follow the smart money into bonds or the dumb money into stocks?
Would it be wiser at this point to follow the smart money into bonds or the dumb money into stocks?”
Screw bonds ( treasuries at least ). Buy stocks like MO that pay a much higher dividend than bonds.
Smart Money whats that ? Like Blackstone that bought up every crack house from San Diego to Sacramento ?
This is not investment advice
Bonds may do really well if a recession is imminent.
October 22, 2013, 3:45 p.m. ET
Treasurys Gap Higher After Soft Jobs Report
By Carolyn Cui
Treasurys rallied Tuesday, sending 10-year yields to a three-month low, after a weak reading of payrolls for September further eased market fears that the Federal Reserve would begin tapering off its stimulus program anytime soon.
At 3 p.m. EDT, benchmark 10-year Treasury notes jumped 27/32 in price to yield 2.512%, the lowest yield level since late July. The 30-year Treasury bonds added 1 10/32 in price to yield 3.609%. Bond prices move inversely to their yields.
The Labor Department said U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs last month, below market expectations. The country’s unemployment rate ticked down from 7.3% in August to 7.2%, the lowest level since November 2008.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected total nonfarm payrolls would rise by 180,000 and the unemployment rate would stay at 7.3% in September.
The September payroll growth continued the recent trend of declining employment growth in the U.S. Over the past 12 months, the average nonfarm payroll growth has been around 185,000, but average increase over the past three months fell below 150,000.
“It’s not a picture of a strengthening labor market on trend,” said Jake Lowery, a fixed-income portfolio manager with ING U.S. Investment Management.
For the bond market, the weak jobs report is likely to reinforce investors’ expectations the Fed would keep its hand for several more months. As investors are skeptical of the quality of the upcoming October payrolls print given the data collection issues due to the shutdown, the consensus is the Fed won’t have enough information to make a decision by December.
“We were basically right where we were three months ago. What it does make it clear is that the Fed is not going to taper in December,” said Rajiv Setia, head of U.S. rates research at Barclays Plc.
…
Food stamp riots to commence on November 1:
http://www.infowars.com/uh-oh-47-million-food-stamp-recipients-are-having-their-benefits-cut-back-on-november-1st/
For just one day I would like to see infowars and zerohedge do the 6 o’clock national TV news shows.
The truth will set you free!
“The government says that a family of four will be getting 36 dollars less per month starting on November 1st.”
About 1 dollar per day less. There will be a lot of unhappy grumbling, but I doubt there will be riots.
Watch Obama ‘evolve’ on legalization of Marijuana.
“For First Time, Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana”
And now for the first time, a clear majority of Americans (58%) say the drug should be legalized. This is in sharp contrast to the time Gallup first asked the question in 1969, when only 12% favored legalization.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/165539/first-time-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana.aspx
If he pushes this into federal law then all the pot heads will erect a 420′ tall monument to “The One”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)
‘a 420′ tall monument to “The One”
Like this monument?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/21/article-2470492-18E0CF2000000578-596_634×469.jpg
Come on Ben, that Gallup poll is great news and could signal the beginning of the end of the DEA and our corporate prison system.
You have reached the point where no matter what the issue or subject is you just want to fling poo.
I thought it was funny. Out here in the fields, we aren’t waiting for the Feds to legalize anything. In Flagstaff we have sign spinners in front of medical marijuana clinics. There are hydroponic shops all over the place and my tobacco shop probably sells more bongs, pipes, papers and paraphernalia than cigarettes.
No, Obama runs the drug war as ruthlessly as his drone war. Ask the people in Honduras. And the Latin American leaders have been begging Obama to consider legalization, and he shoots it down. This from a guy who admits he smoked pot and ‘did a little blow’ in the past.
Speaking of smoke shops. The one down the street from me (and just behind the high school) just dumped their entire line of tobacco and now is exclusively selling electronic cigarettes.
Report: 30-day use of e-cigarettes by youth up 500 percent
http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/10/22/report-30-day-use-e-cigarettes-youth-500-percent-webermorgan
Texas still has some of the worst laws on the books.
Possession of more than 400g hash, felony, 10 years to life.
I’m imagining Spinal Tap and a napkin spec that says 420″.
Bluestar….
This blog is going to remain autonomous.
Just some friendly advice.
Facts vs Propaganda:
Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare
UPDATE I re-reported a Fox News segment on Obamacare — it was appallingly easy to see how it misleads the audience
Sean Hannity Gets Fact-Checked Hard On Obamacare Claims
Sean Hannity has been fact-checked, and the results aren’t pretty.
In an article posted on Salon on Friday, Eric Stern “re-reported” a recent episode of Fox News’ “Hannity” during which host Sean Hannity invited six guests to tell their Obamacare “horror stories.”
According to Stern, there was a lot more to each of the guests’ stories than Hannity let on. Stern decided to conduct his own investigation by separately interviewing each guest, and what he said he found was not that the guests were cheated by Obamacare, but rather that they had tried very little, if at all, to participate in the ACA.
Stern accused the Fox News host of using “fake evidence” to “exploit people’s ignorance and falsely point to imaginary boogeymen,” deeming it all a part of the “Fox News lie machine.”
Paul Cox and his wife Michelle, for example, appeared on the show claiming that their construction business has been hit hard because of Obamacare, giving them no choice but to significantly cut employee hours. Stern noted that Obamacare has no effect on any business with less than 50 employees.
“In our brief conversation on the phone, Paul revealed that he has only four employees. Why the cutback on his workforce? “Well,” he said, “I haven’t been forced to do so, it’s just that I’ve chosen to do so. I have to deal with increased costs.” What costs? And how, I asked him, is any of it due to Obamacare? There was a long pause, after which he said he’d call me back. He never did.”
The two other couples interviewed by Stern both claimed that the new policies offered by Obamacare would cost them considerably more than their previous insurance rates. After doing his own search on the Obamacare exchange website based on the couples’ circumstances, Stern found that this was just not true.
“I don’t doubt that these six individuals believe that Obamacare is a disaster; but none of them had even visited the insurance exchange,” Stern wrote. “Hannity is not entitled to point to Paul’s behavior as an “Obamacare train wreck story” and maintain any credibility that he might have as a journalist.”
Twitter, as usual, was up in arms over Stern’s findings:
Link exposing nutjob lying propaganda:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/18/inside_the_fox_news_lie_machine_i_fact_checked_sean_hannity_on_obamacare/?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare
UPDATE I re-reported a Fox News segment on Obamacare — it was appallingly easy to see how it misleads the audience
Rio, did you charge Sean Hannity first, last and security for that space he has in your head?
My good friend Sean and I am enjoying a drink up in the vast empty space.
Join us Jethro…. there’s tons of room up here and living is free.
Rio, did you charge Sean Hannity first, last and security for that space he has in your head?
You are off-base and blogging against Americans.
Did you read the story? Do you understand the propaganda implications for such a high profile “journalist” to be given a pass to lie so before millions of ignorant Americans? This a classic, huge story of being caught in an intentional institutional lie.
(A lie being promoted by billionaires who hate Americans)
If you can’t see this through your “politics”, then you “phony scandals” are the the real phony.
“You are off-base and blogging against Americans.”
That’s gonna land me in a FEMA camp isn’t it.
“If you can’t see this through your “politics”, then you “phony scandals” are the the real phony.”
I have not done anything wrong, I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this blog or any other congressional committee.
I’m asserting my right not to testify, I know some people will assume I’ve done something wrong. I have not. One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals.
“exposing nutjob lying propaganda”
“‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/obamacare_forces_insurance_companies_to_scrap_some_plans_create_new_ones.html
http://jacksonville.com/news/2013-10-22/story/florida-blue-cancel-300000–over-obamacare
WTI Crude Falls Below $98 for First Time Since July
By Mark Shenk - Oct 22, 2013 2:02 PM PT
West Texas Intermediate crude fell below $98 a barrel on speculation that the government will report U.S. supplies rose to a three-month high. The grade’s discount to Brent was the steepest since April.
Futures dropped 1.4 percent. Inventories climbed a fifth week, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts before the Energy Information Administration data tomorrow. Stockpiles gained 4 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 11, the agency said in a delayed report yesterday. Brent oil traded in London rose 0.3 percent on concern that a labor dispute at a Scottish refinery may curb the flow of North Sea crude.
“It looks like tomorrow’s report will show another big build in supply, which would keep the pressure on the crude market,” said Kyle Cooper, director of commodities research at IAF Advisors in Houston. “The market could be trading in the low $90s before long.”
…
Texas dad alleges bullying in 91-0 football game
BETSY BLANEY, AP
3 hours ago
Texas high school coach Tim Buchanan benched his starters after only 21 plays, kept to a conservative ground game and even allowed the clock to run uninterrupted after halftime to hasten the final whistle. Still, his Bearcats won 91-0.
Now the coach is facing formal accusations of bullying.
The impressive victory for undefeated Aledo High School, a football powerhouse in suburban Fort Worth that has put up similar numbers against other schools, has forced an investigation after a parent from the opposing team filed a bullying complaint. The complaint, which must be investigated under state law, says Buchanan should have done more to prevent the lopsided score.
“It wasn’t good for anybody,” Buchanan said of the Friday win over Western Hills in a Class 4A matchup. “I’ve sat and gone over and over and over it on what we could have done differently. The score could have very easily been 150 to nothing.”
Western Hills coach John Naylor told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he disagreed with the bullying allegation, which Buchanan said suggested his coaches “should have made their players ease up and quit playing that hard.” Naylor did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday.
Under state law, Aledo’s principal must investigate the complaint and prepare a report. The complaint was filed with the school district, which the law requires to provide bullying complaint forms on its websites.
Got froth?
Is China turning into California? Or is it the other way around?
22 October 2013 Last updated at 00:52 ET
China home prices rise by a record in four major cities
A wide view of the Shanghai commercial and residential property market Shanghai’s new home prices rose by 17% in September
China’s four major cities saw record rise in new home prices in September, stoking fears of a housing bubble.
Prices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw their biggest jump since the government changed its calculation method in January 2011.
Property remains a popular investment choice in China and prices have now risen for nine months in a row.
Analysts say Beijing has so far held back on imposing fresh curbs due to concerns over slowing economic growth.
However, data released last week showed that China’s growth rate picked up in the July-to-September period - the first rise in three quarters.
Many believe that with the economy picking up and property prices continuing to rise, policymakers may soon implement measures to control speculation in the sector and also keep price rises in check.
Data released by the by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed that new home prices rose in 69 of China’s 70 major cities in September.
In the capital city of Beijing, new home prices were 16% higher in September than they were a year earlier. In Shanghai, prices rose by 17% compared to a year earlier.
The southern manufacturing-based cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw prices rise by 20%.
…
Outside the Fed’s circle of wagons, is there anybody who fails to perceive the terrible damage to housing price stability their QE3 mortgage interest rate policy has wrought?