Bits Bucket for November 28, 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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pull some equity out and shower yourself and family with a xmas you’ll never forget. you only live once right?
asset prices will continue to boom next year under master yellen.
‘you only live once’
the yolo philosophy that is popular among today’s youts and many irresponsible adults guarantees a life of debt slavery, chaining yourself to the hamster wheel of the dayjob, and enriching the banksters.
i am thankful that after i get paid tomorrow and i ‘throw money away on rent’ that i’ll have so much money left over that i don’t know where to throw it.
Yolo is also popular amongst the seniors also. Heck, YOLO is part of the reason for the bubble, it just got a name from the youths. It used to be called the “me” generation.
“Heck, YOLO is part of the reason for the bubble, it just got a name from the youths.”
FWIW, there is a county west of Sacramento called Yolo.
http://www.yolocounty.org/
“… chaining yourself to the hampster wheel of the day job …”
What’s neat about this day-job hampster wheel is the day job reloads the hampster with money on a regualar basis, every two weeks or so. But after he retires this reloading comes to an ends.
If the hampster would realize this before he decided to retire then he just might put off retiring for a bit, but unfortunately for the hampster he probably won’t discover this until after he walks out the door - and then this discovery will be a bit late.
Most likely the hampster will have to end up looking for another job but the next job he lands (if he lands one at all) will probably not even come close to matching the reloading that he enjoyed with his previous job. Couple this with the probability (something like 25 percent) that the hampster cashed-out his pension instead of taking the annuity screws the hamster that much more.
Correction: I meant to say that the probably is about 75 percent that the hampster cashes out his pension rather than takes the annuity.
From what I have seen this decision to cash out is often stimulated by the advice of a money manager who has an interest in getting for himself a cut of the cashout.
All.depends if the company you took the “cash out” will be around in 10, 20 or 30 years to pay the annuity…
This is true. This is one of the variables (one of many)one must consider when making his retirement funding decision.
I will say this: That many of those who take the buy out have proven to be totally incompentent when it comes to handling money and thus they don’t have any savings, and this, this not having any savings, not having any money is the driving force that induces them to take the buy out: They just cannot stand not having that money right away instead of allowing it to be dribbled out to them.
A retirement plan is a type of forced savings plan and many of those people who were not forced to have money saved will never have money saved. And if they are given an opportunity to cash out and blow this money that they were forced to save then this is exactly what they will end up doing.
I am all for freedom of choice and all that but some people cannot handle this freedom of choice thingy. Not saying that freedom of choice should be yanked away from these people but I am saying that they would be better of if it was.
I am told by people who never met me YOLO. Happened on this blog a few times. Happens when I say I can retire today and live very comfortable in Tucson. YOLO is their way of finding some way whatever to be negative. Their cure? They should eat a bowl of prunes.
‘you only live once’
It’s a great line to convince people to gamble their hard-earned life savings away on foolish investments in houses and Bitcoins.
New Wave of US Mortgage Trouble Threatens Banks
Tuesday, 26 Nov 2013 07:35 AM
U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country’s biggest banks.
The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along.
More than $221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 percent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding.
ONCE USED LIKE CREDIT CARDS
But some regulators, rating agencies, and analysts are alarmed. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a regulator overseeing national banks, has been warning banks about the risk of home equity lines since the spring of 2012. It is pressing banks to quantify their risks and minimize them where possible.
At a conference last month in Washington, DC, Amy Crews Cutts, the chief economist at consumer credit agency Equifax, told mortgage bankers that an increase in tens of thousands of homeowners’ monthly payments on these home equity lines is a pending “wave of disaster.”
NO EASY WAY OUT
Banks have some options for reducing their losses. They can encourage borrowers to sign up for a workout program if they will not be able to make their payments. In some cases, they can change the terms of the lines of credit to allow borrowers to pay only interest on their loans for a longer period, or to take longer to repay principal.
A Bank of America spokesman said in a statement that the bank is reaching out to customers more than a year before they have to start repaying principal on their loans, to explain options for refinancing or modifying their loans.
But these measures will only help so much, said Crews Cutts.
“There’s no easy out on this,” she said.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Banks have differing exposure, and disclose varying levels of information, making it difficult to figure which is most exposed. The majority of home equity lines of credit are held by the biggest banks, said the OCC’s Benhart.
At Bank of America, around $8 billion in outstanding home equity balances will reset before 2015 and another $57 billion will reset afterwards but it is unclear which years will have the highest number of resets. JPMorgan Chase said in an Oct. regulatory filing that $9 billion will reset before 2015 and after 2017 and another $22 billion will reset in the intervening years.
At Wells Fargo, $4.5 billion of home equity balances will reset in 2014 and another $25.9 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017. At Citigroup, $1.3 billion in home equity lines of credit will reset in 2014 and another $14.8 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017.
Bank of America said that 9 percent of its outstanding home equity lines of credit that have reset were not performing. That kind of a figure would likely be manageable for big banks. But if home equity delinquencies rise to subprime-mortgage-like levels, it could spell trouble.
In terms of loan losses, “What we’ve seen so far is the tip of the iceberg. It’s relatively low in relation to what’s coming,” Equifax’s Crews Cuts said.
http://www.news.nom.co/new-wave-of-us-mortgage-trouble-7356574-news/ - 16k - Cached -
“New Wave of US Mortgage Trouble Threatens Banks”
Why didn’t the Transparent Negro make this clear a couple of years ago?
“ONCE USED LIKE CREDIT CARDS”
Well at least now they’re calling it like it is. Remember when the HELOC was an “ATM?”
Obama: Socialism for Agribusiness Moves Americans Out of Poverty
All the usual corporate players are behind passing this mammoth spending bill
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 27, 2013
Obama and crew are pushing for passage of a massive farm bill before both the House and Senate next week. Here is a tweet sent out by the White House today:
H.R. 2642, the Federal Agriculture and Risk Management Act of 2013, recently departed conference and will be acted upon by the House to confirm changes made in the Senate.
All the usual corporate players are behind passing this bill to make sure transnational agribusiness keeps receiving gravy from an increasingly beleaguered American tax payer.
Oxfam International, the NGO that has collaborated with globalist manipulator George Soros and takes money from the Rockefeller Foundation, worked over the summer to drum up political support for the bill.
The propaganda campaign rolled out by Democrats and a complaisant corporate media in favor of the legislation does not mention the expense and burden that will be imposed on average Americans as astronomical expenditures at the federal government level are headed for the stratosphere.
The so-called tea party faction in the House opposed to Obamacare tried unsuccessfully to bring their Democrat and big government Republican colleagues to their fiscal senses, but they were mowed down by the establishment.
Jerome Nathaniel writes for PolicyMic:
As the House and Senate convene to put together the massive legislation, it is important that we demand a Farm Bill that empowers farmers, businesses, and consumers with the means to grow, distribute, and afford nutritious foods in an efficient and affordable agricultural system. In order to ensure that the new Farm Bill fulfills those needs, everyone must let their legislators know that we are counting on them to: (1) Increase mandatory funding levels for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); (2) think critically about SNAP reform in a way that buttresses its trademark efficiency without taking meals away from those who need it; and (3) reconsider the way crops are insured and subsidized.
It is truly shameful how Democrats are exploiting the food stamp program and a diabolically increasing rate of poverty to push this corporate boondoggle. Like Obamacare, they have yet to see a corporate devised government hand-out they either don’t love or fail miserably to understand.
Big Ag has enjoyed federal largess since the last Great Depression and continues to receive disproportionate subsidies from government to this day.
“While the Big Ag lobby claims to stand up for small farmers, 74 percent of these subsidies went to just 4 percent of agribusinesses, with more than 60 percent of farms not even getting a dime,” Dan Smith, a tax and budget advocate, said when the farm bill went before Congress in June. The legislation was at that time rejected and is now up for a vote again after tweaks in Congress.
The tea party has announced it will oppose the sweeping five year corporate giveaway plan that is being sold as relief to poor folks.
“You are using taxpayer money to subsidize industries that are making record profits,” Dan Holler of Heritage Action told USA Today last month.
“If you are a Republican and you say social welfare programs are wasteful, you are hypocritical if you turn around and give subsidies to corporations,” said the president of Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips.
If the tea party Republicans are sincerely interested in rolling back socialist welfare programs, they would move to sweep all corporate influence out of Congress and address what the Federal Reserve and its monetarist and criminal bankster policies have done to the economy.
“By manipulating the money supply and the interest rate, Federal Reserve polices create inflation and thereby erode the value of the currency. Since the Federal Reserve opened its doors one hundred years ago, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power,” writes former Congressman Ron Paul.
“Far from promoting a sound economy for all, the Federal Reserve is the main cause of the boom-and-bust economy, as well as the leading facilitator of big government and crony capitalism.”
If Congress fails again to address these indisputable facts, the situation in America will only get worse – far worse.
Republicans may go back and forth with Democrats on huge funding bills, but like the lopsided debate over Obamacare it is obvious the bankster-controlled statists have the upper hand.
Any democrats with any fiscal sense get mowed down?
Oh wait
They don’t exist…
What did you do with Liberace?
“They don’t exist…”
Nor do the Replublicans, at least not anymore.
They don’t exist because the majority of voters don’t have any fiscal sense.
For us bankers, victory is at hand.
“Fear or Cheer on Booming Housing Data?”
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/fear-or-cheer-on-booming-housing-data-BU6URPBvR_6RZlU1PxTrBw.html
The last line in the video’s text:
“A good time to be a banker.”
“…(3) reconsider the way crops are insured and subsidized.”
How many gobzillions are getting shoveled into farmers’ pockets these days through subsidized crop insurance?
“While the Big Ag lobby claims to stand up for small farmers, 74 percent of these subsidies went to just 4 percent of agribusinesses, with more than 60 percent of farms not even getting a dime,”
Just another entitlement program that 2-fruit exclaims about…
Oh right…2-ti-fruity has an axe to grind when it comes to WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY…
Exactly…..
“How many gobzillions are getting shoveled into farmers’ pockets these days through subsidized crop insurance?”
Not to mention the porous Mexican border, farming’s labor.
So what kind of toxic treats will your mother laws be making today?
Mine will make and attempt to force feed me hideously over-spiced stuffing with so many nuts in it’s like chewing rocks.
Your thanksgiving nightmare?
Nuts are sposed to be healthy so its good for you.
Oyster dressing is on the menu here. Good stuff.
Your thanksgiving nightmare
A National Association of Realtors Thanksgiving celebration:
http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/files/styles/card_wide/public/201301/Jonestown.jpeg
Deviled eggs, yea or nay? I vote yea!
I don’t like;
Turkey and anything sprouting out of a turkeys a$$
Stuffing
Cranberries
Gherkins or other strange shapes
Froot “salad”
Chestnuts… roasted on an open fire or frying pan
Pies with anything but apples
Expect Devastating Global Economic Changes In 2014
Wednesday, 27 November 2013 02:45
Brandon Smith
By any reasonable measure, I think it is safe to say that the last quarter of 2013 has been an insane game of economic Russian Roulette. Even more unsettling is the fact that most of the American population still has little to no clue that the U.S. was on the verge of a catastrophic catalyst event at least three times in the past three months alone, and that we face an even greater acceleration next year.
Globalists have been openly seeking the destabilization of U.S. sovereignty, and they have openly admitted that the destruction of the dollar and our economic foundations will aid them in their goal. It is important to never forget that international financiers WANT to absorb America into a new global economic structure, and that the U.S. must be debased before this can be accomplished. Here are a few reasons why I believe 2014 may be the year they make their final move…
Obama promised that preexisting healthcare plans would be retained by Americans and that the Affordable Care Act would not do damage to established insurance models. He made this promise knowing full well that he could not or would not keep it. This dishonesty has resulted in rebellion by Democrats who have sided with Republicans to pass a bill which obstructs the erasure of existing health coverage.
States once disturbingly loyal to the White House are now moving to limit the application of the Obamacare structure.
The White House had foreknowledge that the program was nowhere near ready, yet, they moved forward anyway. Why wouldn’t they stall? Why would Obama knowingly unleash his “opus” before it was finished? He had it in the bag, right? He won, right? All he had to do was build a functioning website and keep his promises at least long enough to sucker the majority of Americans into the system. Instead, he throws the fight and hits the canvas before he’s even punched? Why?
It all sounds rather insane if you aren’t aware of the bigger picture, and I’m sure the average Democrat out there is wide-eyed and bewildered. Some might blame it on “ego”, or “hubris”, but this makes little sense. Obamacare is an American socialist’s dream. With a simple working public interaction model, Obama would be worshiped by leftists for decades to come as the next Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Hubris should have ENSURED that the White House launch of Obamacare would be flawless.
Once you realize that this is not about Obama, and that Obama is nothing but a middle-man for the globalists, and that the actual implementation of Obamacare never mattered to the establishment, the fog begins to clear.
The impending approval by the Senate of Janet Yellen, a champion of the printing press, would suggest to many that QE-infinity is assured. We know that the black hole generated by the derivatives implosion cannot be filled (debts still exist in the quadrillions of dollars), and that the Fed will have to print endlessly in order to slow the deterioration of the the banking sector. We know that none of the currency flows created by the Fed are trickling down to main street, which is why credit remains mostly frozen, real unemployment counting U-6 measurements remains at around 25%, food stamp recipients have risen to around 50 million, and the only sales boosts to property markets are those caused by big banks buying bankrupt houses and then reissuing them as rentals.
A Storm Of Septic Proportions
As I have always pointed out, economic collapse is not necessarily an event, it is a process. The most frightening elements of this process usually do not become visible until it is too late for common people to react in a productive way. All of the dangers covered in this article could very well set fires tomorrow, that is how close our nation is to the edge. However, the culmination of events so far seems to be setting the stage for something, an important something, in 2014. If the worst is possible, assume the worst is probable. The next leg down, or the next economic carpet bombing. Maybe slightly painful, maybe mortal. Sadly, as long as Americans continue to remain dependent on the existing corrupt system, global bankers can pull the plug at their leisure, and determine the depth of the wound with scientific precision.
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1837-expect-devastating-global-economic-changes-in-2014 - 42k -
Good article and makes you think
And as I have said for years
Loose fiscal policy always leads to war or a.change of government.
Always.
Obama had added more to th national debt than all other previous administrations combined. And including for inflation.
Leads to….
enslavement. But that’s what socialism does best.
We don’t have to agree to enslavement. We can say no.
“We can say no.”
But if the policies that lead to enslavement are policies that voters vote on - vote on either directly or indirectly - then it’s not enough that you yourself say no, the majority of other voters must also vote to say no.
“then it’s not enough that you yourself say no,”
It’s enough for me.
I agree Palmy. It’s like when I hear people accept that they are living in a ‘Constitutional Free Zone’. I say “You may be but I’m not”.
We’ve created a system where in order to say no to slavery you have to intentionally live at a much lower standard of living than your peers while the jackals circle and pull at anything you manage to set aside. And everything you see and read tells you that you’re the stupid one.
Nice cursory assessment, Carl.
Damn that was truth in poetry.
Obama had added more to the national debt ??
Paying for the previous party has been expensive….
Always an excuse and blame the other guy.
No excuse….Its a Fact/Jack…
They get 2 more two term presidents before they have to acknowledge the Messiah has any blame. Don’t you know, it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s not like there is anything Obama can do. He has no power. He can’t appoint anyone to head the fed or veto any spending. He is utterly powerless as POTUS. Cripes in heaven.
Your just blind to the facts Jack…You Dudes love holding up Obama as the culprit because “first”, you dislike the man and “secound”, you won’t acknowledge your own Hypocrisy of not holding Bush & his team accountable…
I am in the middle of a Barons article right now someone here on the board posted today written by Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital…In his 24 years of writing memos to investors he is proudest of the won he wrote in February, 2007…Thats two years before Obama took office Dude..
Enlighten yourself and read the friggen thing and we are not even talking about the other small potatoes during the Bush years like “two” friggen wars that cost us a couple of Trillion in Chinese money..
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oaktreecapital.com%2FMemoTree%2FThe%2520Race%2520to%2520the%2520Bottom%252002_14_07%2520A%2520Revised%252008_07.pdf&ei=e4-XUqXMJMXjoATgm4KoAQ&usg=AFQjCNE0bplYgo1FjSP7O9GN7uYXbdiyCQ&sig2=iDBp5Y3ViNMaagcD2dShNQ&bvm=bv.57155469,d.cGU
Better yet, read the one that someone else on the board posted today;
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904642604579223961257360926.html?mod=BOL_da_wsbm#articleTabs_article%3D1
Look of course Bush has some blame. But Obama is in his second term and rather than changing anything he is continuing with what Bush did and stepping on the gas. Rather than focusing on fixing the economy and jobs, he’s trying to implement a vast social welfare scheme that is going to dig the hole that much deeper. Wave the flag for your guy all you want. Bush ain’t my guy, I’m conservative not Republican. The whole of partisan politics is a scam to bilk the middle class for the benefit of the rich anyway.
At least admit that Obama deserves some of the blame having been in office for 5 freakin years already.
“No excuse….Its a Fact/Jack…”
Stating your opinion over and over does not make it a fact. And that IS a fact, Jack!
I am no Obama Cheerleader and I dought you will find any post I have made contrary to that…
What I am though is a realist and the reality is that Bush ushered in the great recession and wrecked havoc on our nation in many, many ways…The behemoth of NSA was created by him…
You want something better than Obama ?? Need to have a better alternative than McCain or Romney…
And two-fruit will say thats because of the free-chit army that voted for him…It may be true that they did but that did not carry the day…Its the independents that carried him through and I dought that high percentage of them are in the “free-chit-army”..
And yet nowhere in this do you say, yeah Obama deserves some blame also. Not even a claim that it is 90 percent Bush but still 10 percent Obama.
Bush crated the NSA? You sure? I read a Dan Brown novel all about the NSA and it’s spying operations. It was fiction, but it was clearly based on things that had leaked out into the news. Digital Fortress, published in 1998.
I’m certainly not going to search through all your prior posts to look for something cheerleading Obama, but I do note that the NSA now works for Obama and he could end any NSA shenanigans with the stroke of a pen.
SCDave, I agree with you. Obama could never do any wrong and white people are guilty at birth for what their ancestors did.
“All he had to do was build a functioning website and keep his promises at least long enough to sucker the majority of Americans into the system. Instead, he throws the fight and hits the canvas before he’s even punched? Why?”
Posted: 4:07 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013
140 lucky Fla. homeowners divvy up $6 million in Hardest Hit money
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Florida’s landmark mortgage reduction program doled out an average of $41,360 to each of 140 underwater homeowners approved since the plan opened in late September.
The Florida Housing Finance Corp., which oversees the state’s $1 billion Hardest Hit foreclosure prevention fund, announced the benchmark Wednesday, noting nearly $5.8 million had been disbursed since Sept. 25.
This story continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyPalmBeachPost.com. Continue reading/get access here »
‘ (Reuters) - The Bank of England moved to head off the risk of a bubble in house prices on Thursday, making a surprise announcement that it would put the brakes on a scheme launched last year to boost mortgage lending.
Shares in British construction firms tumbled after the central bank said it would refocus the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) on helping small firms that find it hard to borrow.
Britain’s economy and its housing market have staged an unexpectedly strong turnaround since FLS was launched by the BoE and finance ministry in July 2012 to spur lending to home-buyers and businesses.
Another, much-criticized, government program to aid the housing market, Help to Buy, remains in place.
“We did not see an immediate threat coming from the housing market but we are concerned about the prospective evolution of the housing market,” BoE Governor Mark Carney said.
“The concern is where this could go. We definitely see some short-term momentum,” he said, adding the BoE was prepared to take “larger measures” to tame rising house prices if needed.
Carney said it would “no longer be appropriate or necessary for us to have our foot on the accelerator” in terms of spurring mortgage lending. “It’s better to shift into neutral.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boe-focus-housing-carneys-first-000737680.html
That’s not Carney like.
‘That’s not Carney like’
It sure isn’t, and it’s not like central bankers to admit something like this. Will they raise interest rates, or is this a cover-your-ass move?
What I’ve found interesting is there is some honesty about real estate bubbles with overseas central bankers, but it’s way too late. New Zealand in particular has an aggressive bubble popper; but prices there are already at all time highs, and he talks about “preventing” a bubble.
I wonder if Carney will send a telegram back to Canada to warm them?
‘…but prices there are already at all time highs, and he talks about “preventing” a bubble.’
It’s typical for central bankers to start talking about bubble prevention once they have reached undeniably ginormous size. I expect the same from Janet Yellen.
While we are the subject of Bubbles;
http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe611c72726705757515&ls=fe1b1d777d6c017e741275&m=fefc1172766306&l=fed1157376640678&s=fe35157277640d7d711074&jb=ffcf14&t=
Evictions might be soaring but it’s not outpacing housing and mortgage fraud in California.
He wants to live in technology bound California and pursue the musician and artist lifestyle? Robert Davis needs to “man-up” and move, and don’t play the veteran card unless wounded with a permanent disability.
“Davis had avoided eviction by finding technical faults in the Ellis Act papers. He’s not sure what will happen next time. ‘They need to do something extra in San Francisco to make sure this isn’t such a slam dunk for the Realtors’, he said.”
” … slam dunk for the Realtors.”
Lol. I love ignorance such as this. The realtors aren’t the ones making a slam dunk but apparantly they are the ones taking the heat.
Meanwhile me and my buddies get to skate.
Dumb ‘em down and keep ‘em dumbed down and you too can find out a way to end up rich.
I think Mark Carney is doing it right. Take away the little programs as a warning, while saying he can increase the rates -
Don’t forget how Ben Bernanke promised that “subprime will be contained” to $200 bn.
A full 2.5 months of QE?
Dave This has always Pissssed me off…..
These old time rent controlled tenants who are Not sick or disabled living for 40 years a way under market rent and having little to no savings when the LL wants to sell the building or it becomes even temporally inhabitable and they have to move.
—Actually that’s not a lot of money to give up a cheap lease…not by NYC standards, maybe more like $20-30,000.
And before all you Hot heads get mad…
Rent control/stabilization comes with the property like any kind of easement you have to pay the tenants to give up their guaranteed renewal lease so, if you dont like it Don’t Buy it.
————-
They are required to pay displaced tenants up to $5,201 each, plus an additional $3,473 to those who are elderly or disabled. They then can’t rent the property again for five years.
A substantial but marginally effective first step in reducing government interference in housing. “Shifting into neutral” means developing a plan to pull all price supports and executing it.
Ever wonder why we have socialized housing? Simple…
It becomes a cash cow for governments. There is no need for free-market slavery when you can nationalize it.
Govt is the gatekeeper and enabler. Banks are the henchmen with oh so innocent motives and sunny optimistic appearance. The debt slaves are drafted into service, the money flows to banks, government takes their 50% cut and sends to Pentagon.
You see…. the banks are essentially government entities…. like the IRS.
Would you like to know more?
58% of the federal budget goes towards entitlements
19% of the federal budget goes toward the military
Was the money taken from people? YES
Was the money redirected from the people it was taken? YES
Would you like to know more?
Is 40% borrowed and will have to be paid back one day by our children: YES
Was all that money spent to buy the votes of the free sh*t army: YES
Would you like to know more??
Hate the game, not the player yo
Repost from a few weeks ago:
“The avalanche of cash that made Washington rich in the last decade has transformed the culture of a once staid capital and created a new wave of well-heeled insiders.
The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible. They are the entrepreneurs attracted to the capital by its aura of prosperity and its super-educated workforce. They are the lawyers, lobbyists and executives who work for companies that barely had a presence in Washington before the boom.
During the past decade, the region added 21,000 households in the nation’s top 1 percent. No other metro area came close.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/capital-gains-spending-on-contracts-and-lobbying-propels-a-wave-of-new-wealth-in-d-c/2013/11/17/6bd938aa-3c25-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html
We need more of it and we will get it.
But I thought it was all going to govt contractors by a 6 to one margin?
“Would you like to know more?”
Those who want to know already do.
The debt slaves are drafted into service
I always thought the debt slaves were a 100%-volunteer outfit; or did I miss my draft notice somehow?
Yesterday WBBR had some new quotes of that idiot Greenspan regarding stock indices…. “it’s not a bubble”… “it could be a bubble ‘later’”…
No organic growth/falling demand, mediocre profits, mediocre revenues yet we have equities at record levels yet it’s not a bubble.
Riiiiight.
Fed Deja Vu? Yellen Doesn’t See A Bubble
By Dunstan Prial
Looking Out
Published November 20, 2013
FOXBusiness
Janet Yellen, sworn in
REUTERS
If a group of Senators, some of them Republicans who have strongly opposed the Federal Reserve’s long-running easy-money policies, didn’t question Janet Yellen’s fitness to run the Fed, I won’t either.
During two hours of testimony last week before the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen’s qualifications to replace current chairman Ben Bernanke when his term ends on Jan. 31 never came up.
What did come up – repeatedly – were questions related to the wisdom of maintaining those aforementioned easy-money policies if the economy doesn’t show significant signs of perking up in the near future.
Yellen’s response was hardly surprising; as Fed chair she will continue, or even boost, the policies introduced under Bernanke – the bond purchases known as quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates – if economic conditions justify such measures.
No breaking news there. Yellen is a monetary policy dove, a key supporter of Bernanke’s unprecedented initiatives since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis.
The only aspect of her answer that surprised me – and many others eyeing the hearings – was Yellen’s conviction that Fed policies aren’t yet contributing to the inflation of asset bubbles, notably in U.S. stock markets.
…
GovCorp, your masters, hide behind the left/right, lib/conservative schtick. And they throw alot of money at keeping everyone taking sides on it.
PART ONE: Trans-Pacific Partnership – A New Era of Economic Enslavement
November 26, 2013 By 21wire Leave a Comment
TRADE AGREEMENTS – PART I
James Hall
21st Century Wire
The latest proof of the Globalist plan for total economic imprisonment is available for scrutiny. Thanks to whistleblowers, the clandestine trade missions of international corporatists must contend with public blow-back.
Recently, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text, Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The TPP Agreement along with the Table of Contents and supportive documentation provides the evidence.
“The truth today, however, is that the United States is neither a democracy nor a republic. Americans are ruled by a corporatocracy: a partnership of “too-big-to-fail” corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials.”
World economic agreements vary little based upon partisan political ideology. The corporate business outsourcing strategy and the offshoring of jobs are the inevitable results of every phony trade deal enacted for decades.
The real objective of TPP is to codify in law and treaty the special treatment that favored industries or well-connected interests exert upon the global economy.
When monopolies eliminate competition, the marketplace suffers a crowding out of main street businesses. With the demise of familiar business enterprises, the multinationals expand without hindrance. Entrepreneurial small business is seldom in a position to fill the void left when the muscle of international finance decides to control a business sector.
Setting environmental standards, intellectual property, and pharmaceutical formularies, behind closed doors endangers the public. Imposing rabid global warming penalties, perpetual expanding of copyright privileges and banning natural holistic supplements and vitamins, all intend to strip choice from consumers or to burden the population with irrational tax obligations.
In an outstanding account, by Don Quijones his article, The Global Corporatocracy is Almost Fully Operational, provided the essential context and ultimate consequence.
“The new generation of trade treaties goes far beyond what was envisaged for NAFTA and GATT. What they ultimately seek is to transfer what little remains of our national sovereignty to the headquarters of the world’s largest multinational conglomerates. In short, it is the ultimate coup de grâce of the ultimate coup d’état. Not a single shot will be fired, yet almost all power will be seized and transferred into private hands — and all of it facilitated by our elected representatives who, by signing these treaties, will be permanently abdicating their responsibilities to represent and protect the interests of their voting constituencies.”
Bill Moyers claims the ‘trade agreement’ is being intentionally hidden from public view:
If you have the courage to face the dire implications of this globalist scheme, view the video TPP & One World Government. The bare honesty may be too much for the “PC” crowd.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/11/26/part-one-trans-pacific-partnership-a-new-era-of-economic-enslavement/ - 59k
Karl….. Gibson has a huge azzed float and set in the Macys parade. In the center is a scaled up Les paul custom the size of a couple billboards.
I hope it’s not made out of illegal wood :-).
I am in Oregon for a few days for relative visit. Dang cold but a nice change. It is like Fresno in January. “Progressive” mecca Portland.
Maybe you have time for a last minute housing bubble blog get-together…
Hey Realtor.
“Dang cold but a nice change.”
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Next week a cold front is expected to pull the mercury down another 15-degrees!
I love Portland for the holidays. Few are from here so the roads magically free up as the bugs scatter back from whence they grew up. And fewer Californians come than leave during this period. For a few weeks at least, it’s a manageable place to be.
Safe travels.
And cold? Just went out. It’s frikkin balmy here.
You northerners froze off all your nerve cells. I saw a barefoot gal at the beach and checked my yahoo weather. It was 57 degrees. People die of exposure at those temps.
Spent time on the road. We are now on the Southern Oregon coast. Took dozens of sunset photos on the shore.
We were lucky to find a restaurant close by that had decent food. We spent too much time on the beach that it was hard to see the pathway and steps up to the car. Very good way to spend TGD.
Beach had very few visitors. My sister is an excellent landscape photographer and every couple of months or so flies in a small plane and takes ariel photos.
We drive back to Portland Saturday
“We drive back to Portland Saturday”
You should consider a visit to the Air Museum in McMinville, OR. You’ll pass it on your way to Portland. Worthwhile, IMHO.
http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/
The brazilian tranny got slapped silly by ABQdan, Jethro and strawberrypicker last nite.
He and his hot Brazilian wife are going to appear on the high net worth streetcam with the street urchins from the Brazilian traveling company of Oliver later today. They will be riding a float made of mangos, sand, and wine bottles and weeping over their bumm Thanksgiving.
And So It Begins: New York City Sending Out Gun Confiscation Notices
Nov 27, 2013 | Robert Farago
Posted on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:32:08 AM
by Kip Russell
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3095999/posts -
Wow…That appears to be pretty oppressive…How do you modify a rifle that uses a clip ?? Its the clip that holds the extra rounds not the rifle…Do you spend Hundreds of dollars modifying your fathers rifle that may only be worth $50…
“Kid, whad’ya get?” I said, “I didn’t get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage.”
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.
Alice’s Restaurant lyrics - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPx2t7xoF1k - 132k -
Today -
‘(Reuters) - Raoul Weil, a former UBS banker charged by U.S. authorities five years ago for allegedly helping rich Americans dodge taxes via secret Swiss bank accounts, has agreed to go to the United States to face trial after being arrested in Italy, Weil’s lawyer and judicial sources told Reuters’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-ex-ubs-banker-weil-162932547.html
‘December 11, 2012: Settling charges it gave drug lords and terrorists access to the U.S. financial system, British banking giant HSBC (HBC) agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion on Tuesday and accepted responsibility for inadequate anti-money laundering compliance.’
‘While the settlement shatters records in terms of monetary penalties, HSBC executives are avoiding criminal prosecution even though officials have accused them of helping countries break the law and the bank of becoming the “preferred financial institution” for drug cartels.’
http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/12/11/hsbc-settles-money-laundering-probe-for-record-12b/
If you work at avoiding taxes, you might go to jail. If you launder drug money, you just have to give the government a cut.
NSA Dragnet: Snowden Leak Reveals Mass Spying During G8, G20 Summits
US may have illegally monitored foreign dignitaries as well as wider population
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Nov 28, 2013
The latest revelation to come from the Edward Snowden leaks highlights how the NSA conducted a mass spying exercise with the co-operation of Canadian authorities during international meetings in order to further certain policy goals.
In a report by The Canadian Broadcasting Company, it is revealed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government colluded with the NSA during the 2010 G8 and G20 summits in Toronto.
Documents marked “Top Secret,” highlight how the US embassy in Ottawa was transformed into a spy centre compound for a week as president Obama met with 25 foreign dignitaries and leaders.
The NSA was aided by its Canadian counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC).
While the documents do not specifically state who the target of the huge operation was, it is thought that the exercise is most likely a repeat of what occurred in Britain just a few months earlier during the 2009 G20 summit in London. There, as other NSA leaks have revealed, the U.S. and Canadian intelligence agencies, along with Britain’s GCHQ are said to have hacked the phone calls and emails of multiple foreign politicians and diplomats.
The document pertaining to the Toronto summit states that the NSA’s goal was, at least in part, “providing support to policymakers” at the meetings, namely providing what would have been private information to the Canadian and US leaders in order to give them an advantage during negotiations and debates.
The documents once again highlight how the NSA surveillance dragnet extends beyond simply protecting against security threats, and has become a commonplace tool for the US government and its allies, The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The so called “Five Eyes” have had a surveillance agreement dating back to the 1950s, it was only revealed to have existed in 2005.
If true, the latest revelations would once again show how the NSA and its partner spy agencies are routinely breaking the law. Under Canadian law, a warrant must be issued in order for the government to conduct covert surveillance on anyone, including foreign visitors. Foreign spy agencies also do not have jurisdiction on Canadian soil.
“If CSEC tasked NSA to conduct spying activities on Canadians within Canada that CSEC itself was not authorized to take, then I am comfortable saying that would be an unlawful undertaking by CSEC,” says Craig Forcese, an expert in national security at University of Ottawa’s faculty of law.
“[The CSEC is] undermining democracy here at home, while deeply damaging Canada’s international reputation as a fair and honest partner,” said Steve Anderson, executive director of OpenMedia.ca, a Canadian civil liberties group.
The US government has refused to comment. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has also refused to comment, citing national security.
And nothing but crickets, even here. Our freedoms are quickly eroding while everyone is busy shopping and posting on Facebook.
South Carolina Police Grab Innocent Cell User’s Data Through ‘Tower Dump’
Mikael Thalen
Infowars.com
November 28, 2013
Sheriffs in Richland County, South Carolina are currently defending the use of a controversial investigation method that grants them access to thousands of cell phone user’s data.
The technique, known as a “Tower Dump,” allows law enforcement to request all call, text and data transmissions from any specific time period from a cell tower’s provider. Search warrants obtained by WLTX News uncovered Richland County Sheriffs use of the technique during several cases including a 2011 vehicle break-in outside a sheriff’s home.
Although police must obtain and present a search warrant to cell providers in order to access the data, the amount of information gathered, especially on those not suspected of a crime, presents a clear constitutional violation.
“To turn over everybody’s telephone data to the police unrelated to any suspicion of crime, I think that’s an unreasonable search and seizure,” First Amendment attorney Jay Bender told WLTX. “I don’t think that’s permitted by the Constitution.”
Under South Carolina evidence retention laws, if a suspect is convicted of a crime in which a Tower Dump was used, police can hold onto all information gathered for up to seven years, including the data of all innocent cell users.
According to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, innocent cell users have nothing to fear but apparently wave their rights once their data connects to a cell tower.
“Somebody’s innocent phone tower data, we don’t need that, we don’t want it, we don’t care for it,” Sheriff Leon Lott said. “We’re not infringing on their rights. When they use that telephone they understand that that information is going to go to a tower.”
South Carolina resident and counter-terrorism consultant Keith Pounds says he supports Tower Dumps, but argues that legal constraints regarding the technology’s use by law enforcement is shaky at best.
“Inform us or at least those couple of hundred or couple of thousand people, innocent people, inform them that hey, we acquired your information for this particular crime. We’re going to purge the data and get rid of it,” Pounds said.
Currently, information on the number of law enforcement agencies using Tower Dumps is unknown, but many suspect the use is wide-spread. Unfortunately, Tower Dumps are only one of many techniques slowly chipping away at the Fourth Amendment.
Just last month, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing revealed a 2010 NSA pilot project that used cellphone towers to map peoples’ locations unknowingly, providing yet another example of the dangers of unchecked surveillance powers.
Other cell phone data harvesting techniques used by law enforcement were uncovered earlier this month in Seattle, where a Homeland Security funded mesh network was found to be recording mobile device users’ information, including the last 1,000 places visited. Exclusive documents obtained by Storyleak and Infowars revealed a multitude of local and federal agencies tied into the mesh network, allowing groups such as the Seattle Fusion Center to track unsuspecting residents.
Originally appeared at Story Leak.
This article was posted: Thursday, November 28, 2013 at 11:53 am