The Housing Bubble

Good luck to him though. Hope he gets to see the world and enjoy himself!

He got to see Afghanistan. I don’t know if he “enjoyed himself”, but the fact that he isn’t signing up for a second tour makes me think that he didn’t.

he isn’t signing up for a second tour makes me think that he didn’t.

I have read that first kill is the hard one. You kind of enjoy after that. Your nephew must not have mustered even the first kill. We don’t need the weeklings in our marine.

USA! USA! USA!

There is something called the Patriot loan which has a very low interest and helps veterans start a business.

The Corps is a tough place to be these days - they took it on the chin in the military reductions.

My son ended his term of enlistment Summer 2012. He said the Corps was doing everything it could to drum them out fast. Plus, there was little mercy shown to career officers just shy of their retirement marks. Did not sound like happytime.

I’ve been an employee at places that were going through repositionings, restructurings, whatever happy happy you want to call it. Not a pleasant place to be, whether military or civilian.

They already know how to fill out forms in triplicate.

You only have to go so far as healthcare.gov to see the problem with government contracting.

How likely is it that the best company for the job is also the best company at navigating the system?

How likely is it that the best company for the job would even bother going through the big process, when their likely status is that they have plenty of work already?

To win high profile gov’t contracts you need to know the ins and outs of the procurement process. The people writing the bid proposals have to be A+; the people interacting with the CO have to be A+; your lawyers have to be A+. These are multi-stage procurements and are subject to lots of laws and agency regs.

It’s become all about the game.

“Friend of mine retired over a year ago after 25 years in the Navy and just now got a job. So much for the front of the line.”

The feds usually have plenty of job openings available, but you frequently have to “man-up” and move to it.

I know a woman who got an IT job with the USDA, with no experience, just a quick and dirty online MIS degree. She was selected over experienced candidates. Her husband is in the Air Force.

True, not everyone who gets out of the military will get a FedGov job. Some don’t have any skills. Others are too broken.

Also, there is a lot of competition for FedGov jobs. Your friend got one after a year. For most civilians,it can take a lot longer, if they even get one.

Remember those temporary census jobs? My daughter signed up and took the test. From what she told me, unless you got a near perfect score you had no chance as veterans were given plenty of bonus points on the test. She did make it, but only because she aced the test.

Colorado was just making up his own definition of the word socialist yesterday. Of course, nearly all of the people who fell in love with that word around 5½ years ago also have their own definition. If he wants, he can use a definition which excludes his nephew.

Of course, nearly all of the people who fell in love with that word around 5½ years ago also have their own definition.

+1. Yesterday was very telling. The definition (and rationalization) changes daily. Some days it’s a transfer of wealth from one US citizen to another. Other days, a government takeover of private corporations or industry. Any others? And I can’t speak for InCo but I don’t think he was excusing his nephew; I think he’s wondering why certain people on here think they can excuse themselves.

“What does the 80 billion produce?”

84% less death than the 500 billion……

Wack both.

All you have to do is make them sit in English classes for their EBT card and i’ll bet 1/3 will quit, no need to cut….just demand we get something tangible in return like English literacy.

Good point DJ, and there we have the crux of he entire problem. No solution that requires accountability is ever really implemented. The LIEberL solution is always more money, not accountability. There are exceptions and safety valves to every accountability solution tried that end up undercutting and swallowing the rule.

My question for all the liberals here is, what do you do with someone who chooses not to work, not to avail themselves of drug rehab programs, not to put in effort towards bettering themselves?

On Veterans Day let me give you the solution that worked in generations past: Shape up or ship out.

I seem to recall 18% of food stamps are spent at Walmart.

Dj, have you considered the possibility the system requires LESS, not more smarter people?

Several people on this blog assume everything would be better if there were no dumb people.

How do you know it would not lead to more conflict?

Sweden vs. Sudan.

OK Dan, took me a while but I got it.

So are you saying if all the nonwhite people in the United States became as smart as all the white people; all the problems among people of the United States would be solved?

*your move*

“I seem to recall 18% of food stamps are spent at Walmart.”

Queue Pink Floyd:

“And did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it Riding the Gravy Train.”

Walmart = Riding the Gravy Train of EBT largesse.

‘The International Business Times reported Friday that the Department of Veterans Affairs had stopped releasing the number of non-fatal casualties of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, thus concealing what the paper called a “grim milestone” of 1 million injuries.’

‘All that can be said with any certainty is that as of last December more than 900,000 service men and women had been treated at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics since returning from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the monthly rate of new patients to these facilities as of the end of 2012 was around 10,000. Beyond that, the picture gets murky. In March, VA abruptly stopped releasing statistics on non-fatal war casualties to the public. However, experts say that there is no reason to suspect the monthly rate of new patients has changed…

“VA stopped preparing and releasing these reports on health care use and disability claims involving the 2.6 million U.S. service members who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan without warning, claiming unspecified “security” reasons.”

It is the results of their buying overpriced shacks at the wrong time abetted by the REIC, then having the value drop drastically, sometimes in half. Many lost mucho savings, had to take out retirement money, etc. Yes they made bad choices in buying a house. Nothing to do with wives running off.

But it is true, if the sheep didn’t line up to “serve”, things would be different, we couldn’t occupy nations or fight endless wars or spend billions on tanks and planes the military doesn’t even want.

As long as that’s the best job/career you’re offering, why would you expect them not to?

As long as that’s the best job/career you’re offering, why would you expect them not to?

As GS-fixer has said before, being a military grunt is about the only middle class, blue collar job left. Plus it can lead to a civilian FedGov job later.

As GS-fixer has said before, being a military grunt is about the only middle class, blue collar job left. Plus it can lead to a civilian FedGov job later.

That’s interesting. My impression was that young guys were joining up to get money for college of a trade school.

So what interval do you do? I know we used to do 200’s on the 3 minutes back in the day. When I got to college we practiced long course a lot and I couldn’t do repeats on the 3 minutes without the turns. (I walked on for swimming but quit after freshman yr to focus on crew. I only ever got to swim in meets against terrible teams like Rutgers or Providence.)

I had to pick between 200IM and 200 free in HS/USS because of the way our meets were structured. Usually our divers completed their 5 dives in under 15 minutes, not enough time between the events. I could only do both events when we had a combined guys/girls meet, which I hated because those would take 4 hours.

Swimming is good for aging. Just needs to be paired with some weight bearing exercise and some stretching with bands.

Interval…I have to get back to using a water resistant watch. 3 minutes is an awesome interval. I am 54. To put this in perspective I did 100 yard intervals about 3 years back starting on 1:55 and ending at 1:47. Near the end I would have very little rest.

Weights…I do a push ups workout the days I swim. The alternate days pull ups then biceps on machine.

On the interval topic, when I trained with the masters swimming the coach would start us out on easy intervals. Then he’d tighten up the time toward the end. Another workout is ladders. I forgot how that went. We would do mostly 50s and 100s. Yeah I only called 200 yard swims “sprints” based on that I was doing boring distance continuous 2 mile swims four days a week for 3 years. Breaking it up makes it more interesting.

I did not train in high school or college. From what I read, you have to do training when you are young to develop the cardiovascular system to go super fast. It’s not too late to improve cardio in swimming, but it’s too late for me to be a racer. And I’m under 6 feet tall, which really handicaps me in any race.

And the weight exercises are basically my way of getting back the strength I used to have. I have done remarkably well in pushups. But I have a long way to get back where I used to be in pullups. If you had only two upper body exercises you wanted to do, those would be pushups and pullups. Pushups for chest, pullups for back and shoulders. Both work your core strength. The former also really works the triceps if you position your hands right. The latter also works the biceps.

Then there is diet. The mark of success is when you can do more reps than the previous time you did that same exact workout. I have been rotating different pushups workouts every three weeks and will tighten it to every two weeks.

Bill I think i found someone for you:

http://libertariangirl.org/

http://www.youtube.com/TheLibertarianGirl

I studied biology in university (one of my degrees). I wonder, in the case of lung capacity, how could they tease out lung capacity with simply the ability to improve lung capacity (which might be consistent with people who are good at, and therefore like to swim–the better you are at something, the more likely you are to do it)?

Very cool field of study though…very cool.

Oh, and just for fun. Evolution is a myth. The earth is 4,126 days, 14 hours and 21 minutes old. Dinosaurs aren’t in the bible because everyone who was writing down their observations got eaten by a T-Rex, and their notes were lost.

Rocks, what is the mechanism for adaption that results in a change in morphology/structure?

Mutation?

If so, is it in your DNA or your childs?

Not 100% sure, that’s what this major study is for.

The basic idea of darwinian evolution is that genetic drift is essentially random, but this study says that certain characteristics are inheritable (not sure which all are yet- could be a lot!) and able to be passed from parents to offspring. The original study focused on things like weight and disposition (yeah that’s right), and they are included as well but very difficult to study across generations.

They are not sure of the triggering mechanism (usually trauma or hard times is a strong trigger in the original study) but athleticism is also a trigger, and things like muscle definition and lung capacity seem to be able to be passed on for multiple generations.

This is all still very theoretical -it’ll be a long time before the results come out.

I have heard of it but I thought it related to extreme stress such as famine not someone just getting exercise but since we did not know the exact parameters I guess it is in theory possible but so is winning the lottery.

A lot of the increases we could see in lung capacity (VO2 max) could probably be achieved by better regulating surfactants which help inflation of the lungs & keep them from collapsing.

From what I understand, increasing the actual surface area of the lungs during a person’s lifetime would basically be impossible without causing a whole cascade of problems.

Someday someone will probably break all of Michael Phelps records by exploiting scientific advances.

Rocks, is there any truth to telegony?

Ever eaten government cheese, NE? I have, while attending public school, while BOTH parents worked their a$$es off for scraps.

Good for you. You managed to work through adversity and achieve some measure of success. Have you ever once stopped to think that every dollar the government took from other hard working families to pay for your government cheese was a dollar that could have gone to their children instead of you?

Government: Picking winners is what you do.

Have you ever once stopped to think that every dollar the government took from other hard working families to pay for your government cheese was a dollar that could have gone to their children instead of you?

Yes, because the taxes that I now pay go to others of similar circumstance, that they may one day also pull themselves up and achieve success. I’ve paid back far more than I ever ate of your cheese (and bread), NE. I don’t obsess over a small percent who game the system. Speaking from experience, most people taking your cheese would rather not.

But I keep forgetting, your $250k job is in the, never-never-never-NEVER-took-a-dime-from-hard-working-families-to-move-it-forward, IT industry.

Glass houses, NE. Glass houses.

I think you are an anomaly from the past. Not in having eaten government cheese, many, including me, have done that. That is how it worked years ago when your hard working parents got a little help. Today it isn’t about helping hard working people. It is about handouts to no-working people and what that does to our society and it’s future.

And it isn’t a very few gaming the system, it is the system. We all seem to agree that if it is some larger percentage then that is wrong and should be stopped. What percentage would you need to beleive are in the gaming the system category before you did let it worry you? Because I see it as at least 30 percent plus.

I think you are an anomaly from the past. Not in having eaten government cheese, many, including me, have done that. That is how it worked years ago when your hard working parents got a little help. Today it isn’t about helping hard working people. It is about handouts to no-working people and what that does to our society and it’s future.

How do you know this? Do you actually have any facts? Given the trends in the economy over the past 40 years, the opposite may actually be true. A larger portion of our poor and near-poor population may actually be working than they were in decades past.

Then Mike you also agree with me that if there is the rampant fraud then there should be a solution. This is why the 30 percent figure troubles you so. See we have similar values, just a dispute over the facts. What percentage would you need to see to think the same as we do that it is a problem?

And like the government or some university study is going to actually track the fraud out there?

Are you admitting that you have no evidence that things are different now than they were when you were a kid?

Also, when you mention 30%, which program are you talking about? Northeasterner mentioned government cheese. I assume that he meant food stamps or perhaps the school lunch program. Are you saying that 30% of the spending in those programs is fraudulent, meaning that it goes to people who don’t qualify?

Some close friends (who we have known over 20 years) have three sprogs, to which I am Uncle Goon. As the sole squad sibling is sprogless, and likely to remain so, those three will get everything. Unless of course they grow up to be junkies or ungrateful little twits, in which case I’ll just will it all to the Foothills Animal Shelter.

http://foothillsanimalshelter.org/

The only reason I want to have a kid is to pass along the estate. But if I don’t have a kid, then I can just blow it. So which is more enjoyable or fun?

And with no kids who do you trust to take care of you when you can no longer do it yourself? Or do you have a plan for that like some here?

My parents have been taking care of my great aunt who is in assisted living. She is 87 and has Alzheimer’s, though she is otherwise healthy. So things like medication, finances, etc. are the responsibility of my parents.

I can’t tell you how much time and energy has been spent over the last 7 years in taking care of that elderly loved one… What I can tell you is that if you reach that age and have no one who is willing to help care for you, I guarantee your life is going to be a living hell for however long it lasts.

“I can’t tell you how much time and energy has been spent over the last 7 years in taking care of that elderly loved one… What I can tell you is that if you reach that age and have no one who is willing to help care for you, I guarantee your life is going to be a living hell for however long it lasts.”

+1 There was wisdom in the “man called horse” elderly castoff.

No guarantee your kid will be around to take care of you. Your kid will have career and kids too, or do you assume everything is all about YOU? Buy LTD insurance

No guarantee your kid will be around to take care of you. Your kid will have career and kids too, or do you assume everything is all about YOU? Buy LTD insurance

LOLZ. That’s why you have 2… 2 is 1, 1 is none.

Seriously, that statement is probably why our society has so many issues today. Family is key. Without family, what are you? An individual among billions…

Even Goonsquad admits that he is an uncle. He has family, just no offspring of his own.

No guarantee your kid will be around to take care of you.
——————————————————————-

thats what immigrants are for.

Yes, and how many of the elderly have been robbed, raped or killed by the current crop of immigrants?

Nor’easterner, 2 kids, $500,000 to raise em

Yes, and how many of the elderly have been robbed, raped or killed by the current crop of immigrants?
——————————————————————–

I don’t know.

But what I do know is some white person ran the numbers and DECIDED the cost is acceptable for the benefit.

Was it you Dan?

“thats what immigrants are for.”

That’s the deal. I know some very bright second generation Americans who give me hope - so why worry about the so called lack of people? Color of the skin should not matter. The white skins are disappearing and if we disappear completely big deal. There will still be humans to improve the quality of life on earth and colonize space (hopefully) to give the human species longevity. A big asteroid could wipe out ancestors of ours on earth but those on other planets or colonies who are self sufficient will survive. That is the point.

My point was “what if your kids have other plans?” They have a busy life.

My dad lived six more years than my mom. The last 7 months he had LTC at his house. A friend would pop in almost daily. My oldest sister was living there too but no help. My dad had 24/7 care the last few months.

My sister was around only because my dad gave her things and she did not want a job. She had two kids, one an adult and one in high school at the time. They lived there too, sponging off my dad. If not for their neediness, they would have not been there.

I had my aunt in an assisted living home the last two years of her life after my uncle died. She was bipolar schizophrenic and had years before recovered from breast cancer. But she had a very bright room with three windows and a separate door to outside. The home took good care. I would pop in for a half hour or so every couple of days. I had my own life. Work, a girlfriend (and that meant relationship maintenance). At the same time my dad was dying of cancer and I would go fly to California from Arizona every other weekend to pop in.

But it was a short visit relatively. Stay all weekend. And so I presume you who say having kids will be a way to get taken care of when you are very sick and old and terminal - I betcha you don’t have Long Term Care insurance or intend to get it. So you expect a younger relative to be with you 24/7?

They have their own lives. You are intending to negatively affect others - the bad type of selfishness by making others a slave to you. Sounds like a liberal.

A preppy poet. Hard to believe. According to the movie “The Doors”, they made Jim Morrison get off on violence. I did not believe it. Oliver Stone had to do something quirky to mess it up I guess.

Jim Morrison was said to have a genius IQ. I think he wrote “Horse Latitudes” in public school. He studied the great poets and was impressed with great poets such as Blake (of course) and Rimbaud. Not sure but I think Wallace Stevens was also an influence.

Now you tell me how many boys in high school today could do what Jim Morrison did at their age?

Many cancers are caused by a viruses, so I think it is quite likely. But cancer itself is not a virus.

It’s a cunundrum. When societies attempted to do the same they were very totalitarian. The first to try to weed out the inferior ones were the Romans. They would take sickly babies and leave them out somewhere to die. Hitler tried the same too.

The humane approach? I don’t think there is a humane way to stop genetically inferior people from having kids.

The humane approach? I don’t think there is a humane way to stop genetically inferior people from having kids.

The more we learn about genes the more we should question the concept of “genetically inferior”.

What I am seeing in NM is gas prices about 2.85 but diesel around 3.71. I think in a very short time period gasoline will jump closer to the 3.71. These short term gluts mean nothing. Brent crude is still well above 100 dollars a barrel not far from where it was when the national average for gas was almost $4 a gallon. About ten dollars less which would translate into 25 cents a gallon or $3.75.

My conjecture is that QE3 inflated commodities, including gold and oil. When the taper happens, let’s compare notes to see where things settle out.

Of course it raised all prices but that was offset by manipulation of gold. That is why when you asked in the spring at what price you should buy gold I said below 1200 it got down to 1180. I have hidden in the platinum family of pm but before the fed seriously tightens gold will be back to the 2000 level.

“…before the fed seriously tightens gold will be back to the 2000 level.”

How can you predict this? Do you have insider information on when they really plan to taper?

No, but they do not want to deal with the headlines that gold is at another all time high. They have manipulated gold down every time people have been able to point to gold as an example that their printing is causing inflation. I have used these times to hedge my positions and/or change my mix of PMs. Right now I like 1. platinum/palladium 2. silver 3. Gold but soon I will pick 1. Silver 2. Gold 3. Platinum/palladium

My wife (aka “the coupon queen”) managed to pay $2.889/gal (after discounts) to fill the tank on our minivan today at one of those Escondido stations.

Nov. 11, 2013, 2:14 p.m. EST
Gold futures extend slide on Fed taper fears
By William L. Watts and Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures slipped Monday, unable to shake off last week’s surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report and related expectations that the Federal Reserve will move soon to scale back the flow of monetary stimulus to the economy.

December gold futures fell $3.50, or 0.3%, to close at $1,281.10 an ounce in floor trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest finish since Oct. 15.

Silver, meanwhile, dropped four cents to end at $21.28 an ounce.

Typhoon Haiyan was downgraded to a severe tropical storm as it hit the coast of Vietnam. Relief workers say flooding and landslides are still a concern. Francis Markus of the International Federation of the Red Cross talks about the damage Haiyan is causing after massive destruction in the Philippines.

“Gold’s fragile floor is being tested,” wrote strategists at Citibank, led by Suki Cooper, in a note.

The much stronger-than-expected rise in October payrolls and the European Central Bank’s surprise rate cut last week helped push gold toward three-week lows. Stronger economic data reinforced ideas the Fed will begin to scale back its program of bond purchases.

Gold had rallied strongly in the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, peaking in September 2011 at just under $2,000 an ounce. Gold’s gains were attributed in part to never realized fears that aggressive monetary easing by the Fed and other central banks would trigger a sharp spike in inflation, debasing paper currencies. Instead, central banks now find themselves more worried, on balance, about disinflationary pressures and the potential threat of deflation.

Meanwhile, physical gold demand remains softer than expected for this time of year, with demand in India subdued, the Citibank strategists noted.

Further rounds of stronger-than-expected macroeconomic data could expose gold to more weakness in the absence of support from the physical market, they said.

Ole Hansen, commodities strategist at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen, said bulls may take a modicum of solace from data showing that flows into gold exchange-traded products turned slightly positive last week after nine consecutive weeks of decline. “This potentially shows that institutional investors have now either left the metal or reduced their exposure to acceptable levels, which removes one of the key groups of sellers seen this past year,” Hansen said.

But a gold rebound still needs speculative traders, such as hedge funds, to step in, he said, noting that large speculators actually cut net long futures and options positions in the week ending Nov. 5.

Gold posted a 2.2% decline last week, extending its slide Friday in the wake of the jobs data.
…

But oil is up today and the Feds will not stop propping up housing prices until gold takes off, you see you cannot win until Bill and I win big. Too bad for you.

“…you see you cannot win until Bill and I win big. Too bad for you.”

Is this your own humble opinion, or did Rasmussen run a poll?

P.S. Don’t know about you, but evidently Bill is highly diversified, i.e. not foolishly putting all his beans in the ‘gold prices always go up’ basket.

If you paid attention, you know that I have not placed on my eggs in a basket. And it is my opinion not Rasmussen.

on=all

Why is the gold price tumbling again? Are Chindians getting the heebie-jeebies over getting stuck with falling knife PMs?

Gold - Electronic (COMEX) Dec 2013
Market closed
$1,278.00
Change -$3.10 -0.24%
Volume 10,627
Nov 11, 2013 10:50 p.m.
$ 1,281.10
Day low $1,276
Day high $1,282
Open: $1,281.40
52 week low $1,183
52 week high $1,765

What I wonder is, given how gold predictably bubbled up the slope of hope with the onset of quantitative easing in March 2009 straight up to its bubble-era peak of $1900, what leads gold bugs to believe it won’t simply retrace to under $1000 when QE3 is tapered away?

Or is the presumption there will not be a taper?

Californias foreclosure moratorium is the only reason Phoneys numbers are what they are.

How many millions of houses does Phoney and Fraudie conceal?