Bits Bucket for November 21, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Did you dump your bonds yet?
FYI, higher yields on long-dated Treasurys = LOWER prices
Nov. 21, 2013, 1:21 a.m. EST · CORRECTED
Benchmark Treasury yields spike to two-month high
By Ben Eisen, MarketWatch
[A previous version of this report misstated the direction of long-dated Treasury prices. The report has been corrected.]
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Yields on Treasurys with long maturities spiked Wednesday after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed the central bank is looking for ways to exit its bond-buying stimulus program.
The summary of the Federal Open Market Committee’s gathering in October showed some officials considered how the central bank would wind down, or taper, the program, including consideration of a calendar end-date, or putting a cap on the total amount of allowable bond buying.
After the minutes, the benchmark 10-year note (10_YEAR -0.04%) yield, which moves inversely to price, was up 9 basis points on the day at 2.799%, the highest yield since mid-September. The 30-year bond (30_YEAR -0.20%) yield jumped 10 basis points on the day to 3.906%, while the 5-year note (5_YEAR +0.15%) yield rose 2 basis points to 1.378%.
The differential, or spread, between the 5-year note yield and the 30-year bond yield widened to 2.52% in what’s known as a steepening yield curve, according to Tradeweb data. The spread was at its widest in over two years as investors priced in expectations that short-term interest rates would remain low even after the Fed tapered.
Nonetheless, some suggested that the minutes held little value for the market given more recent testimony last week by Janet Yellen, nominee for chairwoman of the Fed. Yellen indicated that the Fed was likely to hold off on changes to monetary policy until the economy was stronger, in contrast to interpretations of Wednesday’s minutes, according to David Robin, co-head of financial futures and options at Newedge.
“What the marketplace thinks pre-Yellen and what the market things post-Yellen are really two different things,” he said.
…
Oh those uppity Midwesterners…don’t they realize the Nation is controlled along the I-95 corridor?
Nov. 20, 2013, 2:42 p.m. EST
Federal Reserve weighs slowing bond buys soon
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal Reserve officials considered going back to a calendar date to end asset purchases or setting a total size to its bond buys, according to minutes from the October meeting released Wednesday that suggested the central bank is looking for ways to exit or at least slow down the controversial program in fairly short order.
By a 9-to-1 vote, the Fed on Oct. 30 continued the $85 billion-per-month asset-purchase program, otherwise known as QE3, and made little changes to the language in the statement. But those few changes obscured that behind closed doors, officials were throwing all sorts of ideas up against the wall.
Minutes from the Oct. 29-30 meeting showed that officials considered reducing the size of the asset-purchase program even “before an unambiguous further improvement in the [labor-market] outlook was apparent.” And “many members” — by members, the Fed is referring to voters — “stressed the data-dependent nature of the current asset purchase program, and some pointed out that, if economic conditions warranted, the committee could decide to slow the pace of purchases at one of its next few meetings.”
U.S. stocks (SPX -0.36%) gave up gains after the release of the minutes.
The long end of the bond curve saw diminished interest, as yields on the 10-year Treasury (10_YEAR +0.11%) rose 7 basis points to 2.78%. The 30-year yield (30_YEAR -0.08%) gained a full 10 basis points. Bond yields move in the opposite direction to prices.
“The battle lines are clearly drawn, with some at the Fed now itching to scale back QE unless the incoming data are awful; the cumulative rise in payrolls since QE3 started is enough for these members,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a note to clients. “We think [Janet] Yellen is not persuaded of this view but it will be hard for the doves if November payrolls are strong.”
The view reflected in the minutes was apparent in addresses over the last 24 hours from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, the latter of whom said a December reduction in bond purchases was “on the table.”
…
Bullard said today that there is room on the Fed’s balance sheet to INCREASE purchases. There is no taper coming ANYTIME soon.
There is always more room on the Fed’s balance sheet, as there are no constraints.
Sounds like the BULLShitters will continue running the DOW up for the foreseeable future.
A 300 mile stretch of I-95. Once you go below northern VA, you’re in 2Banana / People of Walmart territory and once you go above Boston there are more caribou than bankers/lawyers.
And it is from within this region that we, the “real journalists” shape the thoughts and beliefs of a nation
Guess you’ve never to been to Portsmouth, NH.
“Guess you’ve never to been to Portsmouth, NH.”
Two digit IQ and Jesus?
More like 500 miles.
People out at the end of the road always think they count too. But they’re usually wrong.
Mapquest north boston to manassas va on 95 . It’s not 300 miles.
We have a banker/lawyer bubble. They are a drain on the financial resources of every human being in this country.
I agree with this. The __really big issue__ with the U.S. right now is that the people who write the regulations and laws for the country really don’t want to be doing that, they want to go back to banking/lawyering ASAP and make 10x the money. There is _total_ industry capture by the rent-seeking sectors. And the people who vote to put people into office keep thinking that one party or the other actually makes any difference, given the actual way Washington is set up these days.
Hah hah…hadn’t thought of it but I guess it makes sense that elected office is kind of like jury duty for the 0.01% :-). Everybody has to take their turn to keep the gravy train rolling along…we don’t want any populists out there messing things up.
A good number are not in the 1%. But they are paid by the 1% .
In the same way;
have you made plans to dump the bond proxy better known as a depreciating house?
Houses are a very poor bond proxy, unless you know of a bond whose face value gradually declines to $0 as the maturity date approaches. (Come to think of it, with a decade or two of “higher than expected” inflation which “nobody could have seen coming,” maybe you aren’t that far off the mark…)
Nearly everybody expects high inflation.
Nearly everybody may be surprised.
The largest credit expansion in history is what we already lived through. What comes next is something different.
+1. Starting to think this more and more, as the green shoots turn to brown.
I’m positioned for whatever kind of shoots come next (green, brown, smelly, etc).
Life is a bond with a depreciating face value.
Try not to compound your inherent woes by purchasing an ever-depreciating house at a ridiculous Wall Street manipulated purchase price.
Got widening spread?
Daily Treasury Yield Curve Rates
Date / 1-mo / 30-yr
7/24/12 0.08 2.47 (spread = 239 bps)
…
11/20/13 0.06 3.90 (spread = 384 bps)
So what’s a steepening yield curve anyway?
November 21, 2013, 3:27 PM
As the U.S. bond market adjusts to an eventual shift in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, bond yields are forming what bankers describe as a steepening yield curve. This occurrence, which happens in every business cycle, is of great interest to lenders. For individuals, it’s good news if you’re buying long-term bonds for the interest payments. But not great if you’re getting ready to buy a house.
Here’s what’s happening. After the Fed on Wednesday released minutes from its October policy meeting — which suggested that the central bank was deciding how to wind down its bond-buying stimulus program — the longest maturity Treasury yields spiked higher while yields on some of the shorter maturities actually fell.
The Treasury Department issues securities with various maturities, which yield incrementally more as their maturities get further out into the future. When you plot them against each other, you get a yield curve.
When the differential in the yield between shorter maturities and longer maturities widens, it’s known as a steepening yield curve. When the differential narrows, the yield curve is said to get flatter. There are various ways to measure this so-called spread between the shorter and longer end: you could take the differential between yields on the (5-year 5_YEAR -0.73%) and 30-year (30_YEAR -0.59%), or the 2-year (2_YEAR -2.80%) and 10-year (10_YEAR -0.50%) yields, or use another variation.
A steepening yield curve is traditionally thought to signal an improving economy. And there’s some truth to that in the recent steepening action, given economic improvement in the U.S. and Europe, says Michael Collins, senior investment officer at Prudential Fixed Income.
“A steep yield curve is an indicator of stronger economic activity and rising inflation expectations,” he says. “The numbers have been pretty strong out of Europe. In the U.S. economy, there’s some fundamental underlying strength.”
But there’s more to it, he notes, as there always is when the Fed interferes with the market. To find out what, let’s look at the spread between the 5-year and 10-year maturity Treasury yields, where much of the steepening has taken place recently. In fact, that spread is at its highest since mid-2011. (See chart of the spread below).
…
FYI a “normal” spread between very short and very long rates is something like 3%. We’ve gone from far below normal to far above normal over the span of 18 months, and so far as I can tell, the short end is going to stay right where it is for at least several more years to come.
Did you dump your bonds yet?”
yea months ago. But now I’m worried about stocks… I wonder what Christmas shopping season will tell us ? A slow down and Bonds might be a good bet again..
realtors have an overwhelming tendency to be unethical and dishonest
Realtors are a banker’s best friend. They hustle up the clients, do all the selling, then they take their cut - they take it all at once.
The bank, on the other hand, just sits around and accepts the commitments the FBs have made due to the persuasion of the realtors. The bank takes a cut right off the bat just as the realtors do, but also the bank takes a cut each an every year for as long as the FB is paying down the mortgage. And if guys such as David Leareah can convince FBs that any equity that happens to come their way should be cashed-out then so much the better because then the mortgage gets extended.
Life is good.
When I used to work for you at TARP bank back in 2004-2005, we would sometimes call bank customers with open HELOCs with little or no balances and probe them for ways they could increase their balances. The most common was to consolidate credit card balances. We would also suggest using the HELOC for home improvements, holiday spending, vacations, etc. For every $1,000 the FBs spent, or “activated” as TARP bank termed it, we received a $5 commission.
Strangely enough, the HELOC resets are just beginning now.
Dialing for dollars.
“For every $1,000 the FBs spent, or ‘activated’ as TARP bank termed it, we receive a $5 commission.”
Let’s do some math: $5 of $1,000 is one-half of one-percent.
You did the work for the bank - you did all the work for the bank - for a one-time fee of one-half of one-percent and the bank got the rest, and the bank does not get paid only one time as you got paid only one time but they will keep on getting paid year-after-year for many years to come.
When you say TARP bank, do you mean a bank that was later taken over by TARP? I’ve been thinking you had at some point actually worked for TARP, but that’s not right based on the timing.
I need to spend more time here so I won’t be lost like Mango when he returns.
I left TARP bank in 2006 to go to grad school, 2 years before they got TARP’ed.
What was your commission for convincing customers with no HELOC to open up a new one? Did you try to poach customers with mortgages from other banks?
Last summer I got a small spate of refinance offers from several banks. Their interest rates were no better than the one I have. Then the offers stopped, thankfully.
The commission rates were $1 for each $1,000 of new HELOC amount, and $3 for each $1,000 new fixed-rate equity loans. We also got $10 for cross-selling a credit card and $50 if we got a mortgage referral for them to refinance with TARP bank.
This was one of the worst jobs I have ever had, despite the ample compensation for minimal effort. I was smoking pot on a nightly basis working that job, it was a real motivator to go to grad school and get a real job.
“Their interest rates were no better than the one I have….”
The opportunity was to load up on more debt.
“The opportunity was to load up on more debt.”
kind of tough to do when she’s already up to her eyeballs with no way to get out of it.
Realtards hate guys like me. My total amount of assets in real estate is $28,000, including my Hawaii-based time share.
You’re on the LIEberal hit list.
Aren’t you just skeeeerd?
They hate me even worse. My wife and I passed up the opportunity to join the HI time share Ownership Society on several visits. We only stay in HI time shares when my BIL is too busy to use one of his scheduled reservations.
Maintenance fees make timeshares a buzz kill.
Not if your BIL pays them and he is kind enough to occasionally let you in on the benefits.
The idea of a time share never appealed to me. When I go on vacation, I’d rather stay in a different place every time.
My BIL’s deal gives him a selection of places to stay. Of course he pays a pretty penny for that, but he is one of the minority of Americans who literally makes way more money than he can easily figure out a way to spend.
Mine is Shell Vacations Club. I can stay in one of 20 or so Shell Vacations Club resorts all over the US, Canada, and Mexico. I have so far been to three in Hawaii and they are all great.
I am glad I have the timeshare.
Is it a bad sign for stock market gamblers when vampire squids begin to growl like bears?
Goldman: S&P 500 could drop 10% sometime during 2014
November 21, 2013, 5:00 AM
Goldman Sachs has released its its top ten market themes for 2014. It’s calling for U.S. growth to accelerate to 3% and another “solid year” for equities, notably in developed markets, with some caveats of course.
In a separate note released Wednesday, Goldman’s David Kostin and other strategist laid out their S&P 500 (SPX -0.36%) forecasts for next year, reiterating an end-2014 target of 1,900, a gain of 6% — its fair value estimate. (Note, that’s a little more sunshiny than that 12-month S&P target of 1,840 from Morgan Stanley, aka Bob Marley.)
Here are the caveats though. Goldman says given the big run in the S&P 500 — some 26% year-to-date — the index could fall 6% in the next three months and 11% over the next 12 months, to levels of 1,700 and 1,600, respectively. And the investment banks sees a 67% probability of a 10% drop at some point in 2014.
…
6 months out, 6 months out, 6 months out. The medicine is always 6 months out, but right around the corner.
Yahoo Finance last week headline said S&P 500 could go to 2,000 before any correction.
It’s beginnig to be like the Irrational Enquirer
Is it a bad sign for stock market gamblers when vampire squids begin to
growl like bearssqueal like pigs?How are your bitcoin investments holding up?
Some bitcoin trading and investing strategies as prices go crazy
November 20, 2013, 1:35 PM
By Cody Willard
Bitcoin is acting a bit cr-oizy. Well, more than a bit crazy, that bitcoin has swung from $350 to $900 in the past ten days.
Just today, bitcoin has traded from $450 to $750 on Mt. Gox and other exchanges. Volatility, anybody? There’s no major exchange like a normal currency and/or a stock or bond would trade on for $BITCOIN (yet), so it’s going to be wildly volatile for a long time, I would expect, even if it does end up becoming a de facto alternative currency.
If you haven’t bought any bitcoins yet, and want to do so, go read Bitcoin: Everything you need to know and why you might want to join in the frenzy and go read some of the news and latest scuttlebutt on bitcoin first. And then look to put in a bid to buy a first small tranche below $600 and then bid on another tranche down below $500. Don’t stress over the process and the time it will take to get it all filled and executed. This is a market truly in its infancy.
Finally, let me be perfectly clear – DO NOT RISK MUCH MONEY ON BITCOINS!! BITCOINS HAVE BIG UPSIDE POTENTIAL, BUT ALSO COULD BE A ZERO.
…
Fun fact, Mt. Gox was Magic The Gathering Online Xchange, a website setup for trading Magic The Gathering game cards. Then they turned it into a bitcoin currency exchange.
The wiki article is a fun read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt.Gox
They should have stuck to the Magic cards:
http://kotaku.com/rare-magic-card-sells-for-27-000-1468597823
What’s the difference between a negative deposit rate and the return you get after inflation on your savings account? Is it a merely matter of nominal versus real interest rates?
What’s a negative deposit rate anyway?
November 20, 2013, 1:20 PM
We’re hearing more and more about the idea that major central banks could turn their deposit rates negative in an effort to stimulate their economies. The European Central Bank is reportedly considering such a move, and officials at the Federal Reserve keep bringing up the idea.
So, what’s a negative deposit rate anyway?
To get a sense of it, you start with the more common phenomenon: A positive deposit rate. This is a policy tool whereby banks can park their reserves with central banks and in return pick up a small amount of interest. The ECB, for example, pays out 0.1% and the Fed pays out 0.25%. It’s kind of like a low-yield savings account for the banks.
The Fed introduced its rate in 2008 to help calm short-term interest rates during the financial crisis. Since then, banks have put $2.3 trillion worth of reserves into the system, according to Reuters. By depositing money with the Fed, they earn well more than they would using the fed funds rate, the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight.
Changing the deposit rate serves as one tool central banks can use to influence how banks spend their reserves. If banks can earn a healthy return depositing reserves at a central bank, they are likely to do so. But if they can’t, they’re likely to deploy their cash elsewhere, such as by lending to households and businesses, which would benefit the broader economy. So by making the deposit rate negative, the central bank is trying dissuade these risk-averse banks from locking up their cash.
…
One difference is the tax man doesn’t get his cut.
If there is a high rate of interest income then the tax man gets a large cut. If there is no interest income then he doesn’t get a cut.
The float is huge which makes the cut of the float huge IF there is a good return generated from the float. If there is no return generated from the float then EVERYONE - the tax man included - who depended on income from the float is hosed.
One is in your face and direct (taking money out of your account each month–if you have a bank account and money in it).
The other is insidious and indiscriminate (removing purchasing power in an unpredictable way over time, even if you are living paycheck to paycheck).
Has your dog signed up yet for ACA coverage?
Federal Relations
Colo. man informed his dog has successfully signed up for ObamaCare
Published November 21, 2013
FoxNews.com
Colorado resident Shane Smith says his dog Baxter mistakenly received health insurance through a state-run exchange.kdvr
It’s a real shaggy dog story. While Americans across the country are struggling to sign up for ObamaCare due to problems with the federal health care website, at least one enrollee has successfully gotten covered through a state-run exchange: a Colorado man’s 14-year-old Yorkie.
Fort Collins resident Shane Smith told KDVR he received a letter last week informing his dog,Baxter, that a health insurance account had been opened for the pup through Connect for Health Colorado.
Smith told the station he had to sign up for coverage through the state exchange because his health insurance plan was cancelled under ObamaCare. He isn’t sure how Baxter wound up getting enrolled instead, but he said he did give Baxter’s name as a security question as part of the registration process.
“It was pretty funny. Typical ObamaCare, that they would insure your dog by mistake,” Smith told KDVR.
…
Are fleas a pre-existing condition?
Oh Baxter, you’re so wise, you’re like a miniature Buddha covered in fur. — Ron Burgundy.
OK, now that’s just too funny right there, I don’t care who y’are. LOLZ!
Even funnier, this Chao guy tells Congress that “up to” 40% of the website isn’t even built yet. Up to. He doesn’t even know exactly. And it happens to be the part of the website that allocates the payments, LOLZ!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101211556
They’re really making this up as they go along, what a bunch of morons.
“We don’t need no stinking payments or green cards either”!!
90 percent of the time it works every time.
Northeast Ohio home sales rise, but housing market slows as prices climb faster than incomes
Home sales are taking a hit as prices rise faster than household incomes. In Northeast Ohio, where price gains have been more moderate, sales rose from September to October and continued to surpass last year’s levels. But a national report released Wednesday shows a sales slowdown, even after the numbers are adjusted for seasonal buying patterns. (Associated Press file)
Michelle Jarboe McFee, The Plain Dealer By Michelle Jarboe McFee, The Plain Dealer
November 20, 2013 at 11:30 AM, updated November 20, 2013 at 4:13 PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Northeast Ohio home sales rose in October, even as national economists observed a housing-market slowdown caused by higher prices, depressed construction and limited listings.
Regional sales of new and previously owned homes jumped from September to October, according to data from Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service. Across the Buckeye State, though, sales dipped slightly from one month to the next. And a national report released Wednesday showed that existing-home sales dropped in October, even after the numbers were adjusted to account for seasonal softening.
Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, pointed to house prices that are climbing faster than household incomes.
“The erosion in buying power is dampening home sales,” he said in a written statement. “Moreover, low inventory is holding back sales while, at the same time, pushing up home prices in most of the country. More new home construction is needed to help relieve the inventory pressure and moderate price gains.”
Despite recent setbacks, home sales continue to top last year’s levels.
The majority of buyers can’t afford to make the purchase, so newly-minted homeowners are wealthier and fewer.
Across 15 Northeast Ohio counties, sales of single-family homes were up 14.9 percent in October, when compared with a year before. Condo sales were 10.4 percent higher, according to listing-service data.
The Ohio Association of Realtors said that statewide sales posted an 8 percent annual gain, reaching their highest level since 2006.
“While our string of consecutive monthly gains has been instrumental in our effort to rebuild an important sector of our economy, it appears that we’re entering into a more traditional housing marketplace … one that stabilizes and experiences ebbs and flows in overall activity,” Thomas Williams, the trade group’s president, said in a written statement.
Ohio real estate groups lump existing homes and new construction together, while the national Realtors focus on previously owned properties. The U.S. Census Bureau expects to release a report on October sales of new homes in early December — later than usual, because of a federal government shutdown that delayed data collection.
In a research note Wednesday, an economist at IHS Global Insight highlighted “gangbuster” price gains as the cause of “feeble” sales. After more than a year of price growth, fewer people are underwater — grappling with mortgage debt that exceeds the value of their homes. In turn, there are fewer distressed, bargain properties. And more would-be buyers are being shut out of the market.
“Now that the deals are disappearing, average and median prices are jumping while sales volumes slide,” Stephanie Karol of IHS, a research firm, wrote. “The majority of buyers can’t afford to make the purchase, so newly-minted homeowners are wealthier and fewer. Inventories remain tight, further constraining sales.”
…
Ahh, Cleveland. The land of where the jobs aren’t.
Unless you work for the Health Care Industrial Complex that is centered on the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University and University Hospital, there isn’t a lot (alot) left.
Two years ago Cleveland’s metropolitan population fell below that of Cincinnati’s, making Cincy the largest population center in Ohio. Soon, Cleveland will fall behind Columbus as well.
Maybe it’s time to stop using Cleveland as a reference point any more. The “Lake” cities (Clev, Detroit, Toledo, Erie, Buffalo, Rochester) continue to suffer. The “River” cities (Pitt, Cincy, Louisville, Nashville) and nearby (Columbus, Lexington, Indy) are where the action is in this part of the country.
I love visiting the museums at Univisity Circle. But as you said, appart from the Medical Industry there (my niece works in it), Cleveland’s future looks like a long, slow stagnation/decline.
Yes, I see regular grumbling on the Facebooks from (overly open) friends that are struggling, unable to find stable employment.
My wife grew up in NE Ohio. We’ve seen the same thing. But it’s hard for people to leave.
“hard for people to leave”
I am working on the nephew and nieces of Uncle Goon who reside in suburban Akron with parents not likely to leave anytime soon, trying to convince them that their futures will be brighter elsewhere. Nephew will be 14 soon, would like to take him to tour UC Boulder, CO School of Mines, and U Denver the next time he is here. He is smart enough that he could probably get a scholarship to cover what his parents can’t afford.
When I moved out of there in 2009 my apartment building was 60% vacant.
What town was that?
ALOT (sic) of duplex style houses scattered around the inner city. The unused square footage is unfathomable.
We may have discussed this here before. This was the Gold Coast in Lakewood, but on Lake Avenue, so one block south of the coast proper.
Ah, yes, I remember now. Lake Avenue…was it in one of those gold or brown bricked 6, 8, or 12-plexes West of 117th? Every time I drive through that area each of those places has a for rent sign out front.
When I mentioned empty (or half-empty) duplexes, Lakewood was one of the areas I was thinking of…
Building with approximately 40 units on Lake Avenue between West 117th Street and Cove, so directly south of the towers on Edgewater Drive. I had nice views of all the twinkly lights of those at night but no direct view of Lake Erie.
I lived on the 4th floor of a 5 story building, and it was kind of creepy with only 3 of 11 apartments on my floor occupied. I got stuck in the elevator foolishly without my cell phone after returning from a Christmas weekend in Chicago when the power went out, thought no one would be there to hear me and get me out being a holiday weekend but fortunately someone did in less than an hour…
That area is so bizarre. Don’t know how it’s stayed relatively clean and safe heading West given all that vacancy.
I also don’t understand how LLs can afford to keep those places upright. Must be old legacy money that have owned them for decades.
“Must be old legacy money that have owned them for decades”
This building was built in 1940 (God bless concrete slab construction, and its noise-proof properties between floors) and the owner inherited it from her father who built it, and staunchly refused to ever accept Section 8 tenants. I paid $600/month for almost 1,000 square feet there.
I paid $600/month for almost 1,000 square feet there.
I was an east-sider but that’s why I always liked the Lakewood/Rocky River corridor. If you can keep a good paying job (I was/am in automation), your dollar goes a long way in an area that’s relatively (for rust belt living) nice. I lived there for a year after college before being offered a transfer here.
I was an east-sider…
–> I was an east-sider growing up…
I miss the culture and diversity of the East Side. I had squad family in Cleveland Heights (North Coventry) and Shaker Heights (Van Aken and Lee) back in the day. I briefly worked at Record Exchange on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, maybe I sold you a CD…
It’s possible. Used to eat at that Mongolian place, Tommy’s, and visit Caribou fairly often. I think Tommy’s is still there; pretty sure the others are gone/changed names.
Lots of cool houses (speaking of old money) just south of there.
When did you work there? Don’t remember, did you grow up there?
Down in the Akron/Cleveland burbs. Driving up to Cleveland was an adventure when I was young, I remember driving up to Indians games and to go perch fishing on the party boats with my father. In adolescence, going to Coventry was an exotic adventure. Just hanging out on Coventry or seeing movies at the Cedar/Lee felt pretty wild.
Fairly white bread where I grew up, so Coventry was like another country. That was “where the punk kids hang out” and “you don’t want to go down there anyway because you have to go through black neighborhoods to get there.” Good times.
Perch fishing. lol. Did that with my dad as well.
Now this is an area where HA pricing may be too high!
Hello Donkey.
“The first month of big flood insurance changes and the autumn slow season cooled Tampa Bay’s housing market last month, though home prices still showed year-over-year growth, new sales data show.”
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/flood-insurance-woes-and-fall-slowdown-cool-tampa-bay-housing-market/2153482
Why didn’t prices decline by about 200 k to 300k per house in the area where insurance went from 2k to 30k per year??
So this FR disciple freely admits the goal is to force money into “riskier assets”.
Why?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/bullard-says-bond-buying-tapering-on-the-table-next-month-1-.html
Next phase in Blackstone’s 7.5 Billion dollar gamble;
http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe5d1c727367017c7c14&ls=fe1b1d777d6c017e741275&m=fefc1172766306&l=fed1157376640678&s=fe35157277640d7d711074&jb=ffcf14&t=
And what a gamble it is.
As we saw here yesterday, Blackstone paid a 275% premium for these depreciating shacks.
You think they figured that out yet?
This sums it up:
“‘I cannot imagine a greater threat to tenants across the country, ‘Preston said. ‘What do these investors know about being landlords? Nothing. Their goal is to suck as much as they can from the properties, drive up the price of their securitized interests, and then sell for quick profit. It’s a scheme cooked up by Wall Street that benifits nobody other than some investors.’”
What percentage of the economy is based, not on building a good product or offering a good service, but in scamming people to buy stuff based on lies and schemes and scams and outright fraud.
I’m not talking about people buying some useless animal shapes waffle maker for 40 bucks at Walmart, I mean something where the whole core of the business is frankly just one big fraud like a lot of financial advisors.
I’m thinking the same thing about our government.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/20/epic-fail-un-climate-talks-fall-apart-as-132-countries-storm-out/
This story shows you that the claimed AGW by the UN was always about money. The “poor” nations which includes Brazil and China wanted massive transfers of wealth from the US to fix a problem that the US did not even cause. China is going and will continue to go green not because they believe in AGW but because they are running out of coal and the alternative sources are cheaper than importing coal. However, it sure would like us to pay for its energy as would the multi-national corporations that build factories there and other poor countries.
This is for Goon: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/11/20/three-knockout-game-attacks-reported-in-philadelphia-area/
Obama has his own version, it is the ACA. He has knocked out the health care system with one punch.
Why do articles like this neglect to mention the racial backgrounds of the assailants and victims, and that across numerous incidents, they are a distinct pattern?
What is the media’s motivation for neglecting, possibly intentionally omitting, this information?
And, if you feel that asking these questions is racist, why do you feel that way?
In this case, there’s a video clip that goes with the article. That video shows images of some of the suspects and some of the victims, so viewers can see for themselves what they look like.
Asking those questions is not necessarily racist. You could be a journalism student who’s curious about how news organization decide which demographic information to include when describing subjects of their stories.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/renisha-mcbride-detroit_n_4227760.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/jonathan-ferrell-shot_n_3937175.html
I wonder what the race of the victims are in these cases and the race of the MURDER?? It seem that White people can only notice the actions of people of color, and readily ignore the EVIL ACTS of their own people.
My response to someone with your state of mind is normally to ask “who do you want me to believe, you or my lying eyes?”.
Your eyes would have to be lying to you if you keep them closed all of the time….
I am sure the link will post soon but I find it very interesting that the “poor” countries have walked out of the global warming talks due to the rich countries not opening their wallets wide enough. Remember when you look at UN reports on global warming the countries have a vested interest in “finding” warming. Even the data supplied by the countries is suspect which is why I trust satellite date far more than ground data, but I do use NASAs ground based data when I compare 1998 to now, only because I do not want people trying to discredit me with the data. However, the satellite data does show cooling since 1998.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/20/the-97-consensus-myth-busted-by-a-real-survey/
There is a chart in today’s Wall Street Journal that shows China’s annual coal consumption has increased from about 1.5 billion tons in 2000 to over 4 billion tons today.
This planet is going to be an ecological utopia when it’s populated by 10 billion of God’s miracles a few decades from now.
And, who do we favor immigration-wise? The most prodigious reproducers on the planet, and I don’t mean just the folks from South of the Border. I’m talking Chinese, Indians and Africans as well. And we reward them for massive reproduction.
Keep on breeding ‘em (cues up Monty Python’s “Every Sperm Is Sacred), and don’t worry about the consequences, the Lord will provide.
I’l most likely be dead by the year 2100 when things get really, really bad.
And no, I’m not some kind of Al Gore bedwetter, in that I (correctly) believe that we are beyond the tipping point with regard to the ecological destruction of this planet, and that no changes to human behavior can reverse its inevitable destruction.
I don’t owe your grandchildren a future, I just wanna get my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames
There are days I feel like that myself, when I say yep, go ahead, farc your brains out and plop all over the place, the sooner the better, and make this place a worse shothole than where you’re from, but do it fast.
“I just wanna get my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames”
My quote now. Thanks.
It’s a Jim Morrison quote.
I recall an interview some time ago with a panelist that made a statement about how the earth has it’s own way of healing itself. It knows when there are too many people and natural disasters are it’s way to “thin the herds”. You look at the recent typhoon in the Phillipines and the Indonesian Tsunami and you start to think that this guy may have a point. The earth will not allow 10 billion people to survive. Disease, Famine, Wars, Realtors and Bankers, Cataclysmic Storms will keep the population in check.
“Scientists have established at least two time bombs that could lead to a mega-tsunami hitting the U.S. East Coast.
The first is a submarine landslide at the edge of the continental shelf off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina where unstable sections of the shelf could collapse into the trenches of the deep ocean. Should that occur scientists believe an 18-foot-high tsunami would propagate towards the coast and strike in a matter of hours.
The second time bomb is a mega-tsunami caused by a massive landslide as a large section of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands in the Eastern Atlantic, collapses into the ocean following a volcanic eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma. If (when) this occurs, modeling results indicate a wall of water up to 300 feet high would race across the Atlantic and reach the East Coast in about nine hours with devastating effects.
However, there are growing concerns that the ideal conditions for just such a landslide - and consequent mega-tsunami - now exist on the island of La Palma. However, there is no agreement on the probability of this occurring in the near future other than to note it is much less likely than large earthquake-driven tsunamis typical of the Pacific basin.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/could-a-tsunami-strike-the-us-east-coast/2011/03/14/ABIb9AV_blog.html
You are driving looking through the rear view mirrBloomberg)
Updated: 2013-11-14 11:29
Counter:20
China is expected to build more renewable power plants through 2035 than the U.S., European Union and Japan combined, according to the International Energy Agency.
The share of energy sources including hydropower, biomass, wind and solar in world electricity supply will rise above 30 percent in that period, “drawing ahead of natural gas in the next few years and all but reaching coal as the leading fuel for power generation in 2035,” the Paris-based adviser to 28 nations said in its annual World Energy Outlook report yesterday.
Wind and solar photovoltaic technology will boost renewable output by 45 percent, helping it account for almost half of the increase in global power generation through 2035, the IEA said.
Energy-related emissions will rise 20 percent in the period, meaning global temperatures probably will advance more than 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 Fahrenheit) in the long term, above the maximum of 2 degrees internationally agreed as the safe limit, it said.
or and not the windshield. I am talking about the future and the direction they are now taking since they are running out of coal:
We really need more batteries. Everything can be run off batteries, and there are no greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen is not a greenhouse gas is it? With enough batteries, we can stop burning coal and gas completely.
Sounds like a Tommyknocker idea…
Had a pasting problem. Goon, because China increased its use of coal so rapidly it is quickly running out of coal and it is changing its energy mix quickly.
Bloomberg)
Updated: 2013-11-14 11:29
Counter:20
China is expected to build more renewable power plants through 2035 than the U.S., European Union and Japan combined, according to the International Energy Agency.
The share of energy sources including hydropower, biomass, wind and solar in world electricity supply will rise above 30 percent in that period, “drawing ahead of natural gas in the next few years and all but reaching coal as the leading fuel for power generation in 2035,” the Paris-based adviser to 28 nations said in its annual World Energy Outlook report yesterday.
Wind and solar photovoltaic technology will boost renewable output by 45 percent, helping it account for almost half of the increase in global power generation through 2035, the IEA said.
Energy-related emissions will rise 20 percent in the period, meaning global temperatures probably will advance more than 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 Fahrenheit) in the long term, above the maximum of 2 degrees internationally agreed as the safe limit, it said.
I left the last paragraph in the article just for you Goon not because I believe it. I don’t believe Bloomberg believes it either but he sure would like to get his hands on US taxpayer money designed for energy projects in third world countries where the billionaires invest their money.
Only in Colorado do we have an editorial in a major newspaper (written by real journalists) that warns of the hazards of making your own hash oil at home:
http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_24565076/home-hash-oil-is-public-hazard
Saw some guy driving up to Seattle yesterday that was lighting a bowl as he was driving.
Some yet-unnamed dudes apparently making hash oil blew up their apartment building recently east of Seattle - just over a mile away from my house:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022222545_bellevuefirehempxml.html
Really bad for the other residents of the building (one of whom just died this week; she was the first female mayor of the city of Bellevue) too.
Even though that area is right across from Microsoft HQ, there are some real third-world living conditions going on inside some of those apartments (thanks to our new diverse immigrants).
Really bad for the other residents of the building (one of whom just died this week; she was the first female mayor of the city of Bellevue) too.
Wow. I heard the about the former mayor yesterday on the radio during the ride back to Portland but all they said at that time was, “complications from escaping a fire in her building” or some such.
JFK was assassinated 50 yrs ago. I doubt there’s anyone here who believes that the best people become president, but for some reason there seems to be a mystique around JFK in the media and among the public.
I saw this WaPo feature on JFK’s school records and I wanted to cry:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/20/jfks-harvard-application-with-essay-and-other-school-records/?tid=sm_fb
His grades were terrible, he drew a WSJ-style picture of himself in the space alloted for the essay, and the application parts completed by JFK were written in large cursive and show a lack of any penetrating thoughts whatsoever. His father (who was Chairman of the SEC at the time) even admitted that JFK was lazy and unfocused in his recommendation letter. The Harvard application was completed just months after JFK unenrolled from Princeton claiming to be sick. So he’d already blown one opportunity but got a 2nd because of his father’s connections.
Never forget — this was the type of hubris that led to lazy thinking and got us involved with Vietnam and the building up of twin-headed financial and military industrial complex we have today. So I say, screw JFK.
Liberace!
Downlow Joe has entered the building.
“So I say, screw JFK.”
Maybe you should hook-up with Lola. JFK had an IQ which was only slightly above average. However, he was a decent President since he knew his limitations and surrounded himself with very intelligent people. His tax cuts did help the economy and while his early foreign policy weakness almost caused a nuclear war, he did create a framework for the USSR and the US to avoid future problems. He is overrated but hardly worthy of scorn.
“He is overrated but hardly worthy of scorn.”
Vietnam. Nuclear proliferation, nearly a nuke war. Massive build-up of the rent-seeking parts of the economy (particularly financial institutions and military contractors). Other than that he was mediocre. Unfortunately those few things count for a lot. Other than Iraq, Afghanistan, The Patriot Act, and Medicare Part D, GWB might’ve been an above average president as well.
Don’t have time for a point by point rebuke but there is one thing that is quite clear and puts him miles above Obama. When he was elected there was a wide divide between Protestants and Catholics in this country, by the time of his death that divide had been greatly closed. He did it by acting as the president for everyone not just the group that elected him. He or his minions did not play the religion card every time someone questioned a policy. He did not intervene in a thug’s case (Martin) but refuse to comment on unprovoked attacks by blacks on whites throughout the country. Why isn’t he announcing that the Attorney General is being told to assign more resources to investigate and prosecute these obvious hate crimes?
When he was elected there was a wide divide between Protestants and Catholics in this country, by the time of his death that divide had been greatly closed. He did it by acting as the president for everyone not just the group that elected him. He or his minions did not play the religion card every time someone questioned a policy.
What you call a wide divide between Protestants and Catholics is generally called anti-Catholic bigotry by historians. It’s hard to find anything that JFK did to contribute to the decline of that bigotry, which had been going on for some time.
Also, it’s a myth that Obama plays the race card whenever his policies are criticized.
It’s also not true that he intervened in the Trayvon Martin case. There was no intervention.
Trayvon Martin was a cherubic 12 year old angel who was innocently skipping home from the candy store when blonde haired and blue eyed Klansman George Zimmerman (emphasize “Zimmerman”, it sounds more Germanic and “Master Race” that way) assaulted young Martin by rudely headbutting his face into Martin’s (clenched only in fear) tiny, pre-adolescent fist.
That an interesting handle there - real journalists. How many journalists does it take write one of these blog posts?
Vietnam. Nuclear proliferation, nearly a nuke war. Massive build-up of the rent-seeking parts of the economy (particularly financial institutions and military contractors).
Vietnam: A minor war under Kennedy less than Libya really. He created the special forces to deal with such wars and hardly can be blamed for the escalation under Johnson, the person that tried to micro manage the war and escalated it to over 500,00 troops in Vietnam.
Nuclear proliferation? Really? Nuclear weapons removed from Cuba by the Russians and US nuclear weapons removed from Turkey. The first talks to end the nuclear arms race began with him, he was killed with less than three years as president so what he could have accomplished will never be known. Massive build up of military contractors, I would like to see the evidence of that, show me the budget, once again it was Johnson that tried to have guns and butter at the same time.
President Kennedy died too early to guess how things would have worked out on issues such as Vietnam. But I stand by the statement he reduced the issues between protestants and Catholics and the composition of our present supreme court shows that, how many Catholics on the Supreme Court before Kennedy and how many now?
“I doubt that anyone here believes that the best people become president …”
IMO the price of running for the office is too high (and I am not talking just about money) and the best people do not want to pay this high price.
Plus, the people who run and get elected seem to have some sort of psychological hang-up that drives them to seek the office. These people HAVE to have power and they will pay any price to get it. And there never seems to be enough of it for them, there’s never enough power. No matter what power they finally get to claim as their own they will always want more.
The kids at elite American universities are still disproportionately the children of the rich, so not much has changed.
Yes, I notice Princeton is getting the meningitis vaccine not approved by the FDA, for their precious student body. If it was Podunk U, meh.
I was way too young when he was shot, so I do not have any phony admiration for JFK. Anyone under the age of ten at the time of his death has no knowledge of him.
I remember it really well. I was in the fourth grade, just turned nine. Just missed seeing Ruby kill Oswald by a few minutes (was at church.)
Sometimes I wish that JFK had lived, if only for the possibility that the worst Billy Joel song ever, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, may have never been written or recorded had JFK lived.
Lol!!!!!!! Although I like the song.
A list is not a song.
I like that ‘rock n roller cola wars’ is the thing that makes him say “I can’t take it anymore”.
classic shmaltz song.
“JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?”
Nothing of note. And at which point you should have put down the microphone, stepped away from the piano, and retired.
“Only the good die young” was a song. “We didn’t start the fire” is garbage.
You got something against AIDs, crack, and Bernie Goetz?
“Sometimes I wish that JFK had lived, if only for the possibility that the worst Billy Joel song ever, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, may have never been written or recorded had JFK lived.”
Goon, you remind me of Dude, “I hate the Eagles”.
A beloved liberal hero killed by a Communist. JFK with all of his faults was probably the last Democrat elected to high office who was not simpatico with authoritarian Marxist ideology.
You may be on to something there. Many on the left do despise him for his anti-communism.
“America Is a Terrified Country”
Nobody tells it like it is like the man himself.
http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-america-terrified-country
Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at M.I.T., not a “real journalist”
Washington Post reports that cokehead Congressman Trey Radel voted “yes” on bill to allow states to drug-test recipients of food stamps, LOLZ.
He was so zonked that he did not know he was voting, let alone, what he voted on. By golly, he is a lawmaker do why not vote yes to make a be friggin law?
“Washington Post reports that cokehead Congressman Trey Radel voted “yes” on bill to allow states to drug-test recipients of food stamps, LOLZ.”
Doesn’t matter because the food-aid is intended for needy children.
Ah! This was such an irresistible morning to buy more shares of GDXJ! Done! $32.49. Its 52 week high was $90.24 and it yields above 7%.
All time high was a ad above $122.
Buy when everyone thinks gold is dead. Sell when everyone wants it.
Buy gold when it’s totally out of the news (and when Central Bankers are totally out of the news).
We certainly aren’t there at the moment.
The more you push the beach ball underwater, the more it wants to bounce into the air.
BTW, when the MSM is resorting to running stories on how we will be mining gold from asteroids to depress gold, I think we are very close to the end of this round of manipulation.
There really is an asteroid mining company. It is posting job ads on LinkedIn. Software jobs. They expect to mine precious metals from asteroids. I am skeptical.
I was watching a episode of Big History the other day and learned a few things;
We humans put a high value on gold because it’s shiny. They had some genetic scientist showing research where humans developed their love of gold thousands of years before the idea of money was invented. In fact the America’s had tons of gold but never used it as a form of currency preferring shells, knotted rope and animal skins. Only the Europeans and Jews made it into money, everyone else made art objects with it.
Second thing I found out. It’s not rare at all. If all the gold was brought up to the surface it would cover the planet to a depth of 13 feet solid. Most of the gold we have on or near the surface can be traced back to huge asteroid strikes millions of years ago.
Today the biggest owners of gold are not Jews or Europeans. They are the Chinese and Indians.
ObamaCare’s Union Favor
The White House may let Big Labor dodge a reinsurance tax.
Nov. 17, 2013 6:04 p.m. ET
The Affordable Care Act’s greatest hits keep coming, and one that hasn’t received enough attention is a looming favor for President Obama’s friends in Big Labor. Millions of Americans are losing their plans and paying more for health care, and doctors are being forced out of insurance networks, but a lucky few may soon get relief.
Earlier this month the Administration suggested that it may grant a waiver for some insurance plans from a tax that is supposed to capitalize a reinsurance fund for ObamaCare. The $25 billion cost of the fund, which is designed to pay out to the insurers on the exchanges if their costs are higher than expected, is socialized over every U.S. citizen with a private health plan. For 2014, the fee per head is $63.
The unions hate this reinsurance transfer because it takes from their members in the form of higher premiums and gives to people on the exchanges. But then most consumers are hurt in the same way, and the unions have little ground for complaint given that ObamaCare would not have passed in 2010 without the fervent support of the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the rest.
The unions ought to consider this tax a civic obligation in solidarity with the (uninsured) working folk they claim to support. Instead, they’ve spent most of the last year demanding that the White House give them subsidies and carve-outs unavailable to anyone else.
But don’t expect ObamaCare favors unless you helped to re-elect the President. In an aside in a Federal Register document filed this month, the Administration previewed its forthcoming regulation: “We also intend to propose in future rulemaking to exempt certain self-insured, self-administered plans from the requirement to make reinsurance contributions for the 2015 and 2016 benefit years.”
Allow us to translate. “Self-insured” means that a business pays for the medical expenses of its workers directly and hires an insurer as a third-party administrator to process claims, manage care and the like. Most unions as well as big corporations use this arrangement.
But the kicker here is “self-administered.” That term refers to self-insured plans that don’t contract with the Aetnas and Blue Shields of the world and instead act as their own in-house benefits manager.
Almost no business in the real world still follows this old-fashioned practice as both medicine and medical billing have become more complex. The major exception is a certain type of collectively bargained insurance trust known as Taft-Hartley plans. Such insurance covers about 20 million union members, and four out of five Taft-Hartley trusts are self-administered.
There’s no conceivable rationale—other than politics—for releasing union-only plans from a tax that is defined as universal in the Affordable Care Act statute. Like so many other ObamaCare waivers, this labor dispensation will probably turn out to be illegal.
And by the way, this favor harms all other taxpayers. The IRS assesses the reinsurance tax in annual tranches; it must collect $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion 2016. So the smaller pool of ordinary people without a union card will pay a larger individual share of the same overall amount.
Count all of this as one more illustration of the way that ObamaCare has put politicians in control of health care. Some people get taxed but others don’t, some people get subsidies but others don’t, and some have to pay more so Mr. Obama can deliver favors to his political constituents.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579182061106839366 - 95k
Government picking winners and losers. Socialists and statists should be hanging from tree limbs by now…
More evidence of America’s Lucky Ducky future:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-21/home-care-aides-making-10-an-hour-seen-growing-in-u-s-.html
Here’s some bitcoins for ya.
http://i.imgur.com/FAVyM.gif
Twerking on steroids!
Ducktaper on?
Nov. 21, 2013, 8:47 a.m. EST
Jobless claims at lowest level in two months
Applications for benefits drop 21,000 to 323,00; Veterans Day effect?
Stories You Might Like
Gold futures extend losses after economic data
U.S. stocks rise after jobless-claims drop
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of Americans who applied last week to receive unemployment benefits posted the biggest drop in nearly three months, though the decline may have been more pronounced because of the Veterans Day holiday.
Initial jobless claims fell by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000 in the seven days ended Nov. 16, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to slip to 334,000.
…
The reporter in the video says “This is a Nation wide effort it’s not just Phoenix” so that should make eveyone feel better.
Phoenix Residents Freak Out Over DoD Military Exercises
Nothing to see here… DoD trains for “urban operations”
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
November 20, 2013
The Department of Defense has been conducting training exercises in several cities in Arizona in preparation for “urban operations,” unbeknownst to its citizens.
“Right now the military is in the middle of a big training exercise over Phoenix for the second night in a row. People are calling the 3TV News room wondering what’s happening,” claimed the 3TV news anchor.
Phoenix residents were so alarmed to hear swarms of military helicopters flying overhead that they phoned their local news outlet to ask if they had somehow crossed over into a warzone.
“They were very close to the buildings,” one witness told 3TV News. “…they would go back up and they would take off and just fly and then they would stop and then go again.” The interviewee was unable to tell what type of helicopters were used as the exercises were conducted under cover of night.
Phoenix PD confirmed to 3TV News that the DoD was indeed conducting training exercises “trying to get military personnel certified in urban operations so that when they go overseas they are prepared.”
That the military owns plenty of abandoned buildings and mock towns for training purposes was not questioned by local news.
KTVK says other Arizona cities should expect military helicopters in the near future, as locations in Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tempe have also been chosen as training grounds.
This article was posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 12:18 pm
http://www.infowars.com/phoenix-residents-freak-out-over-dod-military-exercises/ - -
Infowars dot com is not written by “real journalists”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJFvIeufrpo - - Cached - Similar pages
18 hours ago …
They didn’t mention what other cities.
Target does poorly, are all retailers slowing down ?
“Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 0.9 percent, near the low end of Target’s expectations. Tesijee noted that food and health care items continued to outpace the overall business. Electronics did well, but home and the fashion business posted small declines.
Target said that shoppers continued to consolidate their trips, but spent more on each trip. But the discounter also noted that some shoppers were even cutting trips for fear it would tempt them to spend too much, a behavior it first saw during the recession.
Bad News: Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwiches Now Racist…
Make it stop!
Via Portland Tribune:
Verenice Gutierrez picks up on the subtle language of racism every day.
Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year.
“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” says Gutierrez, principal at Harvey Scott K-8 School, a diverse school of 500 students in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood.
“Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.”
Guitierrez, along with all of Portland Public Schools’ principals, will start the new school year off this week by drilling in on the language of “Courageous Conversations,” the district-wide equity training being implemented in every building in phases during the past few years.
Through intensive staff trainings, frequent staff meetings, classroom observations and other initiatives, the premise is that if educators can understand their own “white privilege,” then they can change their teaching practices to boost minority students’ performance.
Last Wednesday, the first day of the school year for staff, for example, the first item of business for teachers at Scott School was to have a Courageous Conversation — to examine a news article and discuss the “white privilege” it conveys.
Most of the staff are on board, but there is some opposition to a drum class being offered to middle school boys of color at Scott School.
Keep reading…
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/09/10/bad-news-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches-now-racist/ - 28k -
Anything a white person does or says, ever, is racist.
It doesn’t matter if your ancestors got off the boat post-1863, or if they were slaves themselves as indentured servants, you are a racist.
We strive every day to disseminate this message. We’ve already won in academia, now we’re working on the broader media at large.
And keep paying your cable television bill, so you can fund the message that reminds you of what a hater you are.
Nice try here by MarketWatch to hide the global credit bubble behind the smoke screen of calling attention to especially ginormous bubbles…
Where’s the bubble? Tech, London housing, say Bloomberg subscribers
November 21, 2013, 12:02 PM
Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at brokerage ConvergEx Group, wants to ban the bubble talk for the next decade. He put it this way in a note sent Thursday:
Call it a lazy word all you want, Nick, and perhaps it might apply to doomster Marc Faber, who sees bubbles everywhere, but Alan Greenspan might have saved the rest of us all some grief if he’d thought a bit more about it, rather than saying you can only spot one after the fact.
We at MarketWatch have already offered up our thoughts on where the next bubble might lie (bitcoin, anyone?), and now Bloomberg subscribers are weighing in. Here’s where they see bubbles forming:
…
What is the structure of a bubble? A ramp up in asset prices, then a drop. Limited-information end purchasers typically lose while high-information insiders typically profit. A de facto transfer of wealth from outside Wall Street to Wall Street.
People who think bubbles are good are as usual, looking at a small time slice, typically the bubble ramp up, and ignoring the longer term (sound familiar?). And even in that ramp-up, what is actually happening to the standard of living of the average person? A willingness to go deeper into debt because of the purported “wealth effect”?
Another large social undercurrent I’ve noticed is that policy makers typically favor policies which a) make the population easier to govern and b) give themselves more power.
c) Transfer wealth from the distant provinces to the power center.
More people are going to J.C. Penney (JCP) lately, unfortunately a lot of them are thieves.
CEO Myron “Mike” Ullman told analysts that inventory “shrinkage” in J.C. Penney exploded in the third quarter, hitting gross margins by 1.1%, more than what was seen in the prior 3 months. Based on the income statement, that suggests that the amount of inventory that simply disappeared from the stores grew by more than $300,000 during the period.
Ullman blamed the loss on J.C. Penney’s replacement of clunky sensor security tags to a more modern radio frequency, or RFID method of inventory tracking. The sensors had to go because they interfered with the RFID system. Apparently it was easier for shoplifters to walk off with product without having paid during the transition process.
Shrinkage is just an industry term for products that somehow disappear between the time a retailer buys it, and when it gets rung up at the register. According to industry estimates about 20% of all shrinkage can be blamed on bad bookkeeping or crooked vendors. The rest is assumed stolen.
The National Retail Federation says thieves made off with more than $20 billion worth of product in 2011. Shoplifters get the blame, but the NRF says employees were to blame for almost $15 billion of property stolen that year.
Industry-wide shrinkage accounts for 1.5% of all products sold every year on average. J.C. Penney’s shrinkage rose by nearly that much in the 3rd quarter alone. It’s a stunningly high price to pay for transitioning to an RFID system that’s already more expensive than what it replaced.
When J.C. Penney chose to implement a return policy that didn’t require receipts in the middle of the switch to RFID, it became open season for shoplifters and crooked employees. With much of the store inventory untagged, thieves had the choice of taking product straight out the door or going straight to the cash register for a gift card of the same value.
After massive layoffs and a 70% drop in the stock price over the last two years, employee morale at J.C. Penney is so bad the company reportedly sought out the help of therapists last summer.
Based on the spike in theft, it looks like at least some workers decided on a different sort of therapy to lift their spirits. Regardless of what happened to the missing product, it’s safe to say J.C. Penney still has plenty of work to do on improving day-to-day operations.
Of course, the “shrinkage” has nothing to do with the fact that all of the stores are running understaffed, including the shoplifter patrols.
My eldest used to work for Dave and Barry’s. What a Charlie-Foxtrot.
No inventory control, zero theft control personnel. Literally, the only thing the suits were worried about was getting the crap on the shelves faster. The only way they got any stuff back was if the mall cops arrested them for stealing from someone else.
Typical new paradigm business plan. Maximize the gross and sales numbers, and minimize the expenses, keep the plates in the air long enough to get to the IPO.
Then let the new owners/stockholders pay to figure out and fix everything wrong with the business.
In the -fixr’s continuing series of highlighting US military debacles…..where the guys carrying the rifles bailed out blunders of the Generals/Admiral’s/planners.
This is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Tarawa.
- Even after scouring the Pacific, the Navy could only find enough Amtracs (all of the early, unarmored model) to land the first wave of the landing force. Everyone else would have to come ashore in Higgins boats (the landing craft with the droppable bow ramps). Higgins boats need about 4-5 feet of water to operate.
- Reports by British and New Zealand military officers who had lived on the island for years (and islanders who paddled out to the fleet the day before) reported that on the days planned for the landing, there would probably be as little as two-three feet of water over the reef.
- The pre-landing naval and air bombardment was poorly coordinated, or didn’t happen at all. This created a 30 minute gap between the lifting of the bombardment, and the Marines hitting the reef.
-The Amtracs got across the reef, as expected, and were immediately hit by cannon and machine gun fire (over 100 of which were sighted on/around the North landing beaches and seawall). The Higgins boats couldn’t cross, so they dropped their personnel and supplies on the reef, 500 YARDS from shore. To come ashore, the Marines had to wade thru chest deep water, with no cover whatsoever. Or wait on the surviving Amtracs to come back out and carry them in. Over half of the amtracs were destroyed before the first day ended.
-One of the landing beaches was a cove on the west side of the island, subjecting anyone coming ashore there to cannon and machine gun fire from 3 sides. The middle was behind a seawall, where any Marine that got ashore. The east beach was around a pier that extended out to the reef, from which the Japanese fired on the Marines coming ashore on both sides.
One Marine said “It felt like standing in the middle of a pool table, without any pockets”
Most of the Marines radios were destroyed inoperable, leaving them unable to report what was going on, or know that the Marines on the west end of the island had managed to get a decent foothold inland.
That night, the Marines expected the Japanese to do one of their patented night-time counter-attacks. Fortunately for them, the initial bombardment had destroyed all of the phone lines, so one could not be organized.
Day two:
With most of the Amtracs destroyed, the Marines coming ashore on day two had to use Higgens boats. See Day 1 on how that worked out.
Eventually, 76 hours after landing, the Marines “secured” the island, suffering as many casualties as the six month long Guadalcanal campaign.
-It also created the formula proved repeatedly across the Pacific…..
Very few Japanese prisoners, and
For Every Japanese defender = one US casualty (1/3 to 1/2 of them KIA)
To add insult to injury, many of the Tarawa KIA were subsequently “lost”. When exhumations started post-war, graves were relocated, missing, marked graves help no remains, etc. Many Marines that were buried as “known dead” were subsequently changed to MIA. Most of the remains recovered on Tarawa postwar were reburied as “Unknown”
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Fixer,
You might enjoy a book I read a while ago called, A Walk towad Oregon by Alvin Josephy Jr. You can get a harcover copy from a private seller on Amazon for a penny plus the shipping.
And I’d recommend it to anyone.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101218932
So, if California’s insurance commissioner won’t allow Obama’s plan to allow insurance policies disallowed by the ACA to continue, will ANY state?
A holdup for federal dollars.
Will the last person to leave Seattle please shut off the lights.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/seattle-city-councilmember-elect-shares-radical-id/nbxbC/
“The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.”
I can’t stop laughing every time I think about her winning that position.
Seattle voters deserve everybody they elect!
This week, Sawant became Seattle’s first elected Socialist council member. She ran on a platform of anti-capitalism, workers’ rights, and a $15 per-hour minimum wage for Seattle workers.
HBBers should get lots of lulz on that one.
David Bowie performs Velvet Underground song “Waiting For The Man” (written by Lou Reed, R.I.P.) in Santa Monica, CA 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_3Msuriy1w
Sam Simon, an executive producer of The Simpsons is terminal w/ colon cancer. His foundation in Malibu trains service dogs for the deaf and gives help to the handicapped free including free trained service dogs. He also has a trust set up to feed the hungry. He plans to continue to give away his vast fortune helping people posthumously. What a great dude. Stanford grad.
We are getting a dog. Sam Simon Foundation dogs that flunk the service training are called “career change” dogs. We have them on our radar to adopt one.
WGAF
“QE-to-infinity-and-beyond”
So far as I am aware, I coined that one right here on the HBB.
Glad to see that meme take flight!
Federal Reserve System – “QE” to Infinity and Beyond!
Added by Daniel Worku on November 20, 2013.
Saved under Brandi Tasby, Business, Daniel Worku
The Federal Open Market Committee is stuck between a rock and a bigger rock when it comes to the idea of the “FED Taper.”
Federal Reserve System news has had investors riveted lately. Many eyes around the world are fixed on the central banking institution as it prepares to undergo a change of leadership. As Janet Yellen, the candidate to succeed Bernanke, sits in the wings, there are big issues facing the institution which have investors, banks, and nations around the world eyeing its every move. As we begin to sail the murky financial waters of a globally integrated economic system one of the topics commanding world-wide attention is the “Fed taper.” With the actions that the Federal Reserve System has showed us so far however, when it comes to quantitative easing (“QE”) the Fed’s actions seem to suggest that their plan can be summed up in a famous movie quote, “To infinity and beyond!”
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“Fool Me Once…“
How many suckers fell for this scam?
Global shares plummet after Federal Reserve indicates it will stop quantitative easing that has kept US economy afloat
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 07:20 EST, 20 June 2013 | UPDATED: 09:59 EST, 20 June 2013
Global shares have plummeted after Federal Reserve indicated it will stop the quantitative easing that has kept US economy afloat.
Markets were roiled today by a suggestion from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the central bank may be done with its monetary stimulus next year.
While stocks and commodities took a pounding on the news, the dollar surged.
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There you have it. What’s good for my staffing company stock is bad for gold
“Precious Metals Decline on Upbeat Jobless Claims, David Einhorn Discusses Gold”
http://tinyurl.com/ox6cxyp
And vice versa:
The staffing company I was in is similar to RHI but was not RHI - here is a big thing
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=2y&s=RHI&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=GLD%2C+&ql=1
Cycles. Market cycles. I’m slowly selling my former company staffing stock and slowly increasing my exposure to precious metals.
BTW, my former staffing company’s performance the last 2 years dwarfed RHI’s shameful performance, which would have been good if not for my former company’s existence!
There is something fishy about this investment idea.
Investing in frontier markets
Fishy tale
The story of a dollar-bond issue in Mozambique is a parable of easy money
Nov 23rd 2013 | MAPUTO |From the print edition
A bankable business
A DESPERATE search for bonds that pay a decent rate of interest and a keen desire for exposure to economies that are still growing quickly have taken rich-world investors to some exotic places. The raciest bets are made in so-called frontier markets, poorer places with even less mature financial sectors than emerging markets. Africa is full of them. Rwanda and Tanzania, for example, have found willing buyers this year for their debut issues of dollar-denominated bonds. The farthest edge of the investing frontier has now reached Mozambique.
In September Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas raised $500m on behalf of EMATUM, a state-owned company in Mozambique. Credit Suisse advanced the $500m; slices of the debt were then sold as loan-participation notes, maturing in 2020, at a yield of 8.5%. VTB, a Russian bank, raised a further $350m for EMATUM shortly afterwards. Such a deal can be done more quickly and with less fuss than a typical bond issue. VTB had already raised $1 billion for Angola in a similar fashion. Those notes are included in J.P. Morgan’s emerging-market bond index, an industry benchmark.
The concern is less about the way the money was raised than how it will be used. Mozambique is poor. Its budget is part-funded by grants and low-interest loans from rich countries. Its public finances were solid in part because it has been granted extensive debt relief. When such countries borrow in private markets, it is usually to fund projects, such as toll roads, airports or power stations, which might have broad enough benefits to justify the expense. But EMATUM is a tuna-fishing venture that came into being just a few weeks before the $850m was raised in its name.
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Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwiches Are Racist.
Totally racist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4
Music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSwxecCw_Ys
How is the eurozone recovery shaping up?
France May Slip Back Into Recession
By JACK EWING
Published: November 21, 2013
FRANKFURT — Hopes that the euro zone could be emerging from years of torpor suffered another setback on Thursday when an indicator of economic activity in the region slipped unexpectedly and suggested that France could be sliding back into recession.
Tires at Michelin’s factory in central France. Growth in France is crucial to the economic well-being of the entire euro zone.
The indicator, a survey of purchasing managers published by the research firm Markit, fell to 51.5 in November from 51.9 in October, according to preliminary data, as the decline in France offset further improvement in Germany. Economists had expected the composite index for the euro zone, which tracks both manufacturing and service sectors, to rise to 52, according to Barclays.
A reading above 50 is considered a sign that the euro zone economy is growing. But the index for France fell to 48.5 in November from 50.5 in October, the latest sign of shrinkage in the French economy, the second-largest in the euro zone behind Germany’s. It would be difficult for the euro zone to grow with any vigor if France were in recession.
Over all, the survey data suggested that, even though the euro zone as a whole pulled out of recession in the second quarter of this year, the recovery lacks momentum and is vulnerable to shocks, such as a sag in demand from China and other emerging markets.
“Any improvements were largely confined to Germany,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. “France, on the other hand, showed further signs of being the ‘sick man of Europe.’ ”
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21 November 2013 Last updated at 07:10 ET
Eurozone business activity slows as recovery falters
Eurozone business activity slowed in November, a closely watched survey suggests, casting doubt on the strength of the region’s economic recovery.
The Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), compiled by Markit Economics, fell to 51.5 from 51.9 in October.
This is the second successive month the rate of growth has slowed, leading Markit to conclude that “momentum is being lost again”.
A score above 50 indicates growth.
The composite index measures business activity in the manufacturing and services sectors combined.
Taken separately, the manufacturing PMI rose to 51.5, from 51.3 in October, while the services PMI fell sharply to 50.9, from 51.9.
A spokesman for Capital Economics said the composite figure “suggests that the region’s anaemic recovery may be losing more steam” and that it has “virtually ground to a halt”.
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21 November 2013 Last updated at 08:02 ET
Eurozone ministers are ‘losing patience’ with Greece
Athens protesters Greece’s attempts to cut the public sector wage bill by slashing jobs has been fiercely resisted at home
Eurozone finance ministers are losing patience with Greece, said the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, as the country submitted its 2014 budget.
Greece will exit its six-year long recession next year with 0.6% growth, the budget said.
The debt-laden country has received international bailouts since May 2010.
At The Hague, Mr Dijsselbloem told a Greek newspaper, the Ta Nea daily, that “many finance ministers of the eurozone are starting to lose patience”.
Greece’s deputy finance minister, Christos Staikouras, said the country’s economy would shrink by 4% this year, below the 4.5% predicted.
He said: “For the first time, the major sacrifices made by the Greek people are paying off, with the first signs of recovery this year.
“The conditions are being created for Greece’s return to international markets within 2014.”
Slowing growth is bullish optimism, for it can only mean there will be alot more helicopter drops of quantitative easing to come — ALOT!
Last updated: November 18, 2013 11:58 pm
Bitcoin hits $785 with a little help from Bernanke
By Delphine Strauss in London and Stephen Foley in New York
Utah Software Engineer Mints Physical Bitcoins©Getty
A US Senate hearing on the “risks, threats and promises” of virtual currencies sparked a new leg up in the price of Bitcoin, the experimental currency which has risen by more than 5,000 per cent in value this year.
An intervention by Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, enabled Bitcoin’s enthusiasts to put the spotlight where they believe its potential value lies: as a cheaper alternative to the current system for transferring money around the world.
Mr Bernanke, in a letter to the Homeland Security committee, pointed out the Fed’s longstanding view that while virtual currencies pose money laundering and other risks, “there are also areas where they may hold long-term promise”.
Participants at the hearing, who included representatives of the US Treasury and Department of Justice, also emphasised that clamping down on illegal activity paid for by Bitcoin was not meant to curb financial innovation.
The price of a single Bitcoin, which was $13.50 at the end of 2012, surged more than $200 on Monday on the Mt.Gox exchange, setting a record high trade of $785.
Law enforcement officials and regulators moved to stop the use of Bitcoin as a currency for dealing drugs by shutting the underground website Silk Road and have warned Bitcoin entrepreneurs that they must introduce anti-money laundering procedures to also avoid being shut down.
Many Bitcoin businesses are finding it hard to persuade traditional banks to deal with them in the US, but enthusiasts believe that a balanced discussion of “risks” and “promises” in Congress will help thaw the climate.
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the Treasury’s financial crimes enforcement network, said it would continue working to prevent virtual currencies being used by criminals.
“But it’s also important that we step back and recognise that innovation is a very important part of our economy,” she told the hearing.
Mr Bernanke’s letter recalled a discussion in Congress as early as 1995, in which Alan Blinder, the Fed’s former vice-chairman, said that such innovations held promise if they “promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system”.
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