Bits Bucket for December 6, 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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“Houses depreciate, ALWAYS.”
You better believe it.
Renting is throwing money away.
When you buy a home, you build equity with every mortgage payment.
“Equity” is a fallacy. It doesn’t exist.
equity is one of the finer things in life!
And like a case of fine wine, equity is prone to quickly vanishing.
Enjoy it while it lasts!
Do not squander your opportunity at some equity. Do you think all the folks who overpaid for homes last time around have been made whole again? Time for them to jump on the equity bandwagon again?
And this equity is something that can be borrowed against, and this borrowed money can then be put back into the economy via spending and this spending will create jobs.
Unfortunately the jobs that will be created will be created somewhere else because the spending will be used to buy things that are made somewhere else.
So, borrow money here and you will save somebody’s job somewhere else.
But, no matter, as long as I get my cut.
Amy, I like your comment about rising interest rates causing a rise in the prices of houses. Please be sure to share such thoughts with your friends.
I linked my Twitter handle to my posts so everyone can read my MarketWatch articles and other real estate news that I re-tweet. Follow me on Twitter and keep up with the latest news about this housing recovery!
Be sure to re-tweet your findings that paying the bank higher interest rates will pull houses out of the slump they currently experencing.
If anyone tries to tell you that higher interest rates on mortgages will cause monthly payments to rise then you be sure to set them straight.
What slump? Just ignore the negative Nellies who only post that the sky is falling. The recovery may be uneven, but it is a recovery based on real and sustainable economic fundamentals.
A housing recovery is falling housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.
“The recovery may be uneven, but it is a recovery based on real and sustainable economic fundamentals.”
-1 Anyone talking about “fundamentals” in this zero interest rate, fed backed loans for houses and automobiles, “currency printing press” economy needs to be shagged thoroughly with a freshly cut Joshua Tree.
You absolutely reduce how much you owe with every payment. You might build equity.
There, I fixed it.
I pay exactly ZERO attention to how much my hypothetical equity is, because to get that equity, I either need to sell the house, or borrow more money, neither of which is something I would do. So the equity is irrelevant.
What matters to me is at what point I never need to make another payment to the bank, not how much “equity” is in the house.
This kind of thinking could in fact be why there are so many underwater borrowers who are not walking away.
“If you have to borrow money for 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.”
You can say that again.
“renting is throwing money away” - tying up your money in PITI and M compared to dollar cost averaging into stocks is throwing your money away.
This article is for Downlow Joe:
“The AIDS epidemic in America is rapidly becoming concentrated among poor, young black and Hispanic men who have sex with men.
Despite years of progress in preventing and treating H.I.V. in the middle class, the number of new infections nationwide remains stubbornly stuck at 50,000 a year — more and more of them in these men, who make up less than 1 percent of the population.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/us/poor-black-and-hispanic-men-are-face-of-hiv.html?hpw&rref=health&pagewanted=all
AIDS has always been a disease of overwhelmingly effected homosexuals and drug users.
It has never been a disease of the middle class.
It is more spin of the NYT.
It is hard for them to say “stop putting things up your *ss or drug needles in your arm”
It has never been a disease of the middle class.
Not even for the middle class homosexual with risky behaviours?
Yeah - middle class gay drug users.
Very common - I have them three of them of neighbors…
2B,
Do you live in Brazil?
Thanks, now have to cross barebacking off my list of hobbies unless Lindsey Graham starts returning my calls.
Liberace!
(Living in your skull rent-free since 2012)
Jeez Lib…. how original.
Downlow Joe has entered the building.
Sorry, you were just a hit it and quit it fling for him.
Question: How can you tell when the O-man is lying?
Answer: His lips are moving. (or the lips of his “spokespeople”)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/white-house-changes-story-on-obamas-uncle/2013/12/05/019e2064-5e2a-11e3-8d24-31c016b976b2_story.html
Bwa-ha-ha-ha. No wonder the guy was granted the right to stay in the US.
Can there be any way not paying the Ocare penalty can eventually cause criminal exposure? The IRS doesn’t mess around.
My question is, what if it does turn out that the O-man was never qualified to be president? Wouldn’t that invalidate all legislation he signed, any executive orders, etc.?
It would seem that the US has been hoaxed big time. Of course, wouldn’t be the first time.
It’s all a lie, this entire presidency. Lies upon lies upon lies.
His somehow not being qualified is an unreal internet theory that could never be proven, would never be acknowledged and even if it was would be ignored by the PTB. Counting angels on the head of a pin.
I think a similar argument was used by tax protestors over Grover Cleveland or somebody not being properly President. Look where it got them.
That birther stuff is a false flag operation by shills trying to discredit populist movements.
“It’s all a lie, this entire presidency. Lies upon lies upon lies.”
It truly is. A grand illusion of the scale I’ve never seen in my lifetime.
Strawberry…. good point on the birther charade.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that when the case first arose, officials looked for records of a meeting but never directly asked the president.
“When Omar Obama said the other day, and there were reports that he had said the other day that President Obama, back when he was a law school student, had stayed with him in Cambridge, I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him,” Carney said. “Nobody had asked him in the past, and the president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school and that he stayed with him for a brief period of time until his — the president’s apartment was ready.”
Biggest bunch of filthy, treasonous. liars. ever.
I don’t even know what the original story was that got changed to what it is now.
And how would ANY of this amount to treason or “not being qualified” to be President?
I asked a question: “what if it does turn out that the O-man was never qualified to be president? Wouldn’t that invalidate all legislation he signed, any executive orders, etc.?”
I asked a dang question, didn’t say ANYTHING about his birth, although at this point I’m prepared to believe just about anything of the filthy liar. The Lyin’ King.
So I’ll repeat, in case anyone may know the answer: WHAT IF it does turn out that the O-man was never qualified to be president? Wouldn’t that invalidate all legislation he signed, any executive orders, etc.?”
We are a psychotic people. Our economy is based on unimaginable debt accumulation and we ask about Obama’s birth certificate and we ask about Obama’s uncle. We never question our gross accumulations based on impossible promises to pay later. This is the Big Lie that America sits upon. To discuss that threatens our whole way of life.
“I don’t even know what the original story was that got changed to what it is now.
And how would ANY of this amount to treason or “not being qualified” to be President?”
Are you able to read? Because then you can strain your brains and answer your own question.
Yes, all the orders that were given that involved going into places such as Afghanistan would be null and void and everyone who died in these places would then be brought back to life.
“We are a psychotic people.”
Therefore I exist.
Theoretically there could possibly be a chance of an issue. Theoretically you could win the lotto. Such arguments are routinely ignored and swept aside and given short shrift because no one wants to go down that rabbit hole.
I get where you are coming from and don’t want to seem flip, but it’s far more productive to think about what you’re gonna have for lunch.
“Our economy is based on unimaginable debt accumulation”
True. Refine it brother…….. it’s the consumption junkie model.
“We are a psychotic people. Our economy is based on unimaginable debt accumulation and we ask about Obama’s birth certificate and we ask about Obama’s uncle. We never question our gross accumulations based on impossible promises to pay later. This is the Big Lie that America sits upon. To discuss that threatens our whole way of life.”
I dunno what “we” you’re talking about, because this has been discussed on this blog often enuf, including some choice posts on the subject by Whac-a in the past. And it’s important to me. But since you’re asking, what is it you’d like me personally to do about it? Because I’m open to ideas. I’ve contacted my reps on the subject. Often. But, you know, feel free to contribute some other ideas, I’m all ears.
Here’s my solution, in case you’re interested, but I don’t think you are, you just want to wag your finger at me. But I’ll give my solution, and I have in the past, BTW. Here it is: repudiate the debt. Period. It’s going to happen at some point, why not now? As Ben has said, none of this is EVER going to be paid back. So yeah, it’s been discussed on the blog.
“Because I’m open to ideas.”
Here’s an idea: Tune in, turn on, drop out.
Because everyone else is psychotic and is rushing to the edge of the cliff doesn’t mean you have to join them.
There are only like 3 or 4 qualifications to becoming president, all of them pretty basic. I’m pretty sure he met them all. That’s why there were questions about his place of birth, because that’s one of the qualifications.
I dunno what “we” you’re talking about
I think he’s talking about the average Joe who only cares about how the local professional sports teams are doing, when he isn’t watching reality TV shows.
But even more educated people seem to be content to stick their heads in the sand; as long as their house in Highlands Ranch or Broomfield appreciated another 50K, it’s all good. Don’t tell them that there is a bubble or that housing is overpriced … all you’ll get are rolling eyes.
As long as they can cling to their middle class lifestyles, with their leased luxury cars, low interest mortgages and credit cards, and annual vacations, they think that there’s no point in worrying.
“Yes, all the orders that were given that involved going into places such as Afghanistan would be null and void and everyone who died in these places would then be brought back to life.”
Yeah, that’s about as funny as a turd in a punchbowl, to quote Fat Elvis. But, you know, it just demonstrates how wise and witty you are. Tee-hee.
But, fair enough. Wouldn’t that qualify as war crimes? Or is your point “What difference does it make?”
Well, as usual, Colorado, you’re correct in this. I definitely took the comment personally, because I posted the story, and yes, I DO care about it, and I hardly think that makes me psychotic. Sometimes these seemingly small things are symptoms of much larger issues, and there’s already been the big fat treasonous like about “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan”.
It’s all one big lie, after lie, after lie, after lie.
“There are only like 3 or 4 qualifications to becoming president, all of them pretty basic. I’m pretty sure he met them all.”
Really? You’re pretty sure, huh? So, when he makes a pronouncement of some sort in the future, I’ll just look to you to tell me which ones are true and which ones aren’t.
“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan”.
I got burned by that one, that’s for sure. At a time when I can least afford it. But more than O-man, I don’t even want to tell you what I really think of that POS Roberts playing pocket pool underneath his black robes. “justice”. What a joke.
“Or is your point ‘What difference does it make?’”
My point is this is bigger than any one of us and that there is little anyone as an individual can do to alter events but there is plenty that anyone as an individual can do to understand events. And once one gains understanding then he just might be able to cope - or maybe even prevail.
And I am not just talking about the President.
“My point is this is bigger than any one of us and that there is little anyone as an individual can do to alter events but there is plenty that anyone as an individual can do to understand events. And once one gains understanding then he just might be able to cope - or maybe even prevail.
And I am not just talking about the President.”
Thank you. Sorry I bit your face off. These things do matter to me. Understanding is important, it’s actually the utmost importance. Understanding leads to resolution. You are right.
“Here it is: repudiate the debt.”
The problem with that is it means you have to stop borrowing. That would be painful and immediate. “We” can’t process that, so let’s talk about the President’s Uncle. Let’s have a big emotional argument about it.
“We are a psychotic people. Our economy is based on unimaginable debt accumulation and we ask about Obama’s birth certificate and we ask about Obama’s uncle. We never question our gross accumulations based on impossible promises to pay later. This is the Big Lie that America sits upon. To discuss that threatens our whole way of life.”
Blue Skye -
When do you think this actually began, and why? 1913? Great Depression? World War II?
“The problem with that is it means you have to stop borrowing. That would be painful and immediate.”
So? Like people have never experienced anything painful and immediate?
“Let’s have a big emotional argument about it.”
Emotional? The fukker lied about it. Lying through his teeth. But you want to accuse me of “emotional”, fine. so I’ll take the emotion out of it. As far as I’m concerned, to deal with this liar in thief, like the one before him, whatever he says, I believe the opposite. Starting with his lyin’ lies about “NSA Reform”, his latest. Which means he’s going to put the NSA on steroids. Which means if you think it’s bad now, you ain’t seen NUTHIN’ yet. Who does he think he’s kiddin’? Walmart shoppers, maybe. The last guy who called for “spy reform” and meant it was assassinated.
“But more than O-man, I don’t even want to tell you what I really think of that POS Roberts playing pocket pool underneath his black robes. “justice”. What a joke.”
He is a corporate republican that pretends he is a conservative. The dirty not so secret fact is corporate America has wanted to dump health insurance costs on the government (taxpayers) for years.
Really? You’re pretty sure, huh? So, when he makes a pronouncement of some sort in the future, I’ll just look to you to tell me which ones are true and which ones aren’t.
————-
I don’t even know what that means. You asked, “what if it does turn out that the O-man was never qualified to be president?” and I said there are only a few qualifications.
US Constitution, Article II, Section 1:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.
—————————–
Do you really think he’s going to come out and say he’s not 35 years old and not a natural born citizen or lived in the US for less than 14 years?
Really?
Yes, I do know that about corporate “America”.
Anyway, continuing my riff about NSA “reform”, (I can’t even think that without dissolving into fits of bitter laughter) any president who really wanted to accomplish that wouldn’t say a word. He’d just do the necessary without telegraphing his intentions. Quickly, quietly and forcefully. The last one who was unfortunate enough to even make a peep about it, bought the farm.
“Do you really think he’s going to come out and say he’s not 35 years old and not a natural born citizen or lived in the US for less than 14 years?
Really?”
Good lord a’mighty, have you even READ what I wrote? NO! I expect him to LIE about each and EVERY freakin’ thing he tells the citizens of the US. It’s ALL one lie after another after another after another.
“The fukker lied about it.”
My point is that the collective in this country wouldn’t have it any other way. There is a link between debt and dishonesty or delusion. Sort of a financial bankruptcy and moral bankruptcy go hand in hand thing. I can’t think of a catchy way to express this.
We had a man on stage a couple of years back, who I think no one questioned his honesty. He got booed and pushed off the stage. Then we got back to debating really stupid stuff. Bankrupt nation.
“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan”
Well, FWIW, I was able to keep my plan and the price barely changed. YMMV.
“Then we got back to debating really stupid stuff.”
I’m objecting to this word “we”. I am not part of that “we”. It was a “they”.
If you’re referring to Ron Paul, the Simon Bolivar of the US, I get what you’re saying, but that’s a whole ‘nother riff for me. Ron Paul is a wonderful man, a great philosopher and a man of principle. Unfortunately, he would have been better off in an advisor role to someone who was willing to do the necessary to win, because he didn’t have the stomach for it. And didn’t have a Walshingham to do it for him.
“NSA “reform”,
Whew, I’m a little slow on the uptake today, because I just couldn’t understand where the O-man was going with his latest raft of regurgitation. And then it dawned on me: it was that Harvard poll about millenials and their disenchantment with the Lyin’ King. O-care was a big part of that, of course. And they ain’t playin’. BUT, one of the other things in the poll that was a big issue with millenials was the NSA spying and the treatment of Snowden.
And voila! The Lyin’ King makes noises about “spy” reform. Because maybe if he can diddle the millenials into thinking he means it, he really, really means it, they’ll sign up for O-care. Scam, scam, scam, lie, lie, lie. Like a rug. Got Karastan?
As individuals “we” all get to share the results of the elections.
Obama was given a proctosigmoidoscopy by Hillary and Romney and their vast opposition research groups. They all wanted the presidency badly. Also, the MSM doesn’t fawn over Obama like it did Clinton.
Summary: After two grueling campaigns, if the oppo teams couldn’t find anything, it’s almost certainly not there.
Answer: His lips are moving. (or the lips of his “spokespeople”)
There’s a quicker way to tell when he is lying…..”the letters start moving left to right on the teleprompter.”
Gawd, wouldn’t I just love to see some teleprompter operator mess with him a little and speed it up and down, scramble the words a bit, etc. That would be priceless.
Carl,
“Having had a week to evaluate him, while he can be a bit sadistic (kind of in an army drill sergeant sort of way) I don’t think he’s a sociopath. There is a method to his madness…but the fact that he can bring in his 150+ IQ people who live to work is definitely working against me. Not easy competing against the whole world’s 0.1%.”
What the heck do you do that your boss has such a tap of high IQ people ready to take your job? I hope you’re well compensated, we have positions open in the company I work for (large cloud computing vendor) that are all 100K+ and certainly aren’t only for the 150+ IQ folks (or else I wouldn’t have a job!).
In our discussion of IQ yesterday, I wasn’t really talking about the competition up at the levels you’re seeing; I was more concerned by the face that about 1/2 the country is <100IQ and the vast majority of jobs that pay well are looking for people that are 115+ (15-20% of the population). That’s a huge mismatch, there simply aren’t enough people with the skills and IQ to do the jobs that lots of companies in my area are looking for and yet, at the same time, there are a tremendous number of people without work that would love to have a job that pays what our most junior people make. How does this play out long term? If you extend this and wind up with 80% of the jobs that require 110-115IQ to perform adequately and yet, at the same time, only 20% of the population has the base requisite IQ? The answer, for sure, is “not well”. However, I’m more interested in how this will actually work in practice, how will we deal with the increasing gap between the needs of employers and the abilities of employees?
Now, when you get into the range of intelligence that you’re talking about, that’s a whole different realm. There are almost no candidates that can fill that criteria, and they should be able to pretty much write their own tickets for what they want (pay, benefits, etc). Any position that has a bunch of 150+ IQ people lining up has to be pretty amazing. From my understanding, the vast majority of people at that intellect level wind up in college settings (teaching/researching) and as research scientists at big companies (pharma, tech, etc). I’m sure there are also a lot of them sitting on Wall St today (those that are money motivated anyway) figuring out a new way to shave .00001 cents off a transaction by writing a slightly faster algorithm to buy/sell stocks…
My IQ is 180 and my best bowling score is 130.
Oops…may be I mixed it up. I haven’t done either in a long time.
What the heck do you do that your boss has such a tap of high IQ people ready to take your job?
Remember that Carl lives and works in Denver. We get a lot of young, smart and pretty things who move out here for whatever reason (to ski I suppose?) and it shows in the competition for tech jobs, which is stiff. I get plenty of head hunter calls for jobs, but not for jobs in metro Denver.
100K+ salaries out here are rare for mid-level staff. You need to be a “principal engineer” or an “architect” to make much more than 100K. I’ve seen my share of jobs posted that want 10+ years experience and and have a huge laundry list of skills requirements, including domain knowledge, that don’t even pay 70K. Another local phenom: contract to hire. It seems like a disproportionate percentage of jobs posted here are of that type. I once saw a contract C++ job advertised for $14/hr.
I’m sure that Carl’s description of would be replacements as having IQ’s of 150 was tongue in cheek, and that what he really meant is that contrary to what is portrayed in the media as a “skills shortage” that he is seeing a surplus of young, skilled and smart people willing to work for cheap.
I know that everywhere I’ve worked in the past 10 years that whenever we had an opening we’d get a deluge of qualified applicants and we could cherry pick the ones we liked the best.
“100K+ salaries out here are rare for mid-level staff. You need to be a “principal engineer” or an “architect” to make much more than 100K.”
BS
Check on glassdoor. And I was speaking about Denver, not Boston nor Silly Valley.
I’m talking about denver too.
A principal in a firm or any eng or arch who have an equity stake in the firm are earning far more than $100k. Try $500k.
Different meaning for “principal” in the software/IT industry vs. the building industry. In IT, “principal” is just another way to describe “senior”. In large companies, they don’t have equity stakes, though they may be offered stock options, and the salary would range from $100k-150k. The equivalent role Housing Analyst is describing in the tech world would be either a VP Product Development, Senior Research Fellow or Chief Scientist or some such. A Principal Software Engineer is a senior software developer who may have architectural responsibilities beyond coding, but is still an individual contributor.
FWIW, no one in the tech field makes $500k unless they are in Enterprise Sales (and had a very good year) or a CEO/CTO of a large company (10,000+ employees). The average senior executive probably brings in $250k salary and bonus. Stock may add to that. You do see lower rung employees make money when companies go public, but for every company that goes public and hasn’t diluted the shares pre-IPO so much that you can actually make money, there are 10 or 20 that fail and those options end up worthless.
FWIW, no one in the tech field makes $500k unless they are in Enterprise Sales (and had a very good year) or a CEO/CTO of a large company (10,000+ employees). ”
Yea I think that’s right.
He said principal eng or archi.
“FWIW, no one in the tech field makes $500k unless they are in Enterprise Sales (and had a very good year) or a CEO/CTO of a large company (10,000+ employees). ”
I’d also agree with that. I don’t think that I know anyone other than the executives (owners) of some of the companies I’ve worked for/with that make over 500K. The “top” for most of these positions would be around 250-300K, and you’d have to be truly exceptional to get there. Now, if you add in stock/options, you have lots of engineers who COULD make more than 500K, but it’s a roll of the dice, you might make a ton of money, you might just spend the next 100 years writing 3K off at a time on your taxes for the phantom “profit” that went to 0 before you could sell it (ask my buddy about this one, what a nightmare).
The only thing I’d disagree with; 500K isn’t “out of this world” for a good enterprise sales rep. There were several at my old company (another large CSP) that went into 7 figures (more than the CEO’s salary). A good sales rep at MSFT/Cisco/VMware with “fertile” account can get over 500K. It’s rare, but not at all unheard off. Certainly a lot more common than a 150 IQ!
“100K+ salaries out here are rare for mid-level staff. You need to be a “principal engineer” or an “architect” to make much more than 100K.”
100K salaries working for a “direct consumer” are rare in my area as well. You’d have to be pretty far up the chain to make that much at a mid size company working in their IT shop.
100K salaries, however, aren’t at all rare in the consulting world. In fact, I’m not sure I know an IT consultant that makes less than 100K as a full time employee. We have folks on staff that have a base over 200K, and a lot in the 150K-200K range.
The big thing in IT (if you want to make a max $$), get out of working for a company who’s primary business isn’t IT. You’re a cost center, and you’ll never be paid as well as you would in other industries. Working directly for a manufacturer (Dell, HP, Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, etc) in a customer facing role (pre-sales, post-sales implementation, sales, etc) will get you to 100K really quickly. The biggest stumbling block for many talented engineers, you have to be able to speak English well, and you have to be able to talk to people (presentations, lunch meetings, CIO discussions, etc). Probably 80% of the people we don’t hire is because they either don’t speak English or don’t present well.
We have pretty much “open” hiring. If we can find someone with the skills, we hire them. We typically require a 4 year degree in IT/CS for anyone with less experience. Also most positions require some combination of VCP, CCNP/CCIE, and some major storage certification (NTAP, EMC, etc). Basically, you have to know the infrastructure stack, storage, network and compute.
These positions are NOT easy to fill and we lose people often to competitors (who, apparently, are willing to pay even more). The most common attrition is to the vendors (VMware, EMC, etc) because those jobs are typically considered “easier” than working at a CSP (company that provide cloud computing resources).
The downside; almost all of these jobs require travel and long hours. However, the majority of them allow work from home, so that’s really does help balance the travel requirements.
The downside; almost all of these jobs require travel and long hours.
There’s always a catch.
100K salaries are common in Chip design
PotAto chips or corn chips?
CMOS
We have pretty much “open” hiring. If we can find someone with the skills, we hire them.”
IT for hire that’s why you need to present
To answer the questions, I’m dealing with a hired gun type who brings in his own “tiger team” wherever he goes. They seem to be mostly Asian and very smart. I’m not exaggerating about 150+. Every time I’ve been measured it’s been high 130s and these guys make me look stupid. If for no other reason, because I need a bit of time to digest what I’m seeing and they can analyze (correctly) instantly. This guy and his people are all in San Jose. He’s firing long time employees that are probably 120ish IQ on average in order to make space for his people. They all drive nice cars and would appear to be well compensated.
So anyway, critical point here…I’m in the Denver area and my office is mostly people kind of like me. And we’re being pushed out by people in San Jose that the company never would have attracted on their own, but they seem to come together as a package. It’s kind of like corporate raiding in the 80s, except it appears to be based on “fixing” underperforming tech companies pumping up the value quickly, selling for a lot of money, and moving on. The question is do the companies stay “fixed” when they move on?
Carl,
You need to get the heck out of that environment.
Unless they are paying you a few 100K over market to try to compete with these folks, you could take your IQ and skills elsewhere and make a very comfortable salary without this tiger team breathing down your neck! 
Thanks. But I also have no interest in the constant travel type of job that you have described either. I got an MBA because I’d really like to move into something customer facing but that does not have to be on the customer site except during emergencies. We’ll see if I ever find that. If I move into the position that I hope I get today, it actually won’t be that far off from that.
” If I move into the position that I hope I get today”
Best of luck Carl!
And yes, the constant travel does take a toll on me after awhile, it’s been great, I’ve been home for 2 weeks now and loving it! Funny, no customers want to see me for the next few weeks; works out well for me, I’m more productive when I work remotely anyway, but so many customers still want to “see” the guy in a suit sitting in the office.
What disrupters, one time cameo posters and down low shills will show up today?
Who will be spending my tax dollars posting to an internet blog while at work?
“down low”
See above New York Times article.
At least Joe isn’t costing me tax dollars by his posting.
I’m not at work now.
And yes, Downlow Joe is costing you tax dollars, by creating bid protests that inflate the expenses of government contracts.
Read the FAR and DFARS and learn something about how government contracting works.
And his hourly rates are very high.
“And his hourly rates are very high.”
Only for some things. Not everything.
Also keep in mind, we do a lot of work with defending contractors accused of overbilling, underperformance, fraud, using counterfeit parts (surprisingly common… contractors will buy knockoff auto or helicopter parts), violating foreign laws, and so forth. If a contractor hires a big law firm to defend them, it’s unlikely the case will get anywhere. And when it settles, even if the settlement seems large, it’s probably small considering what happened.
Other work involves Requests for Equitable Adjustment, meaning forcing the government to pay MORE than agreed with the contractor because of cost overruns. This tends to happen with missile systems and aircraft.
Responding to gov’t subpoenas is also a full time job for some people but I do it rarely. Basically a contractor gets asked for all documents related to “XXXX” and you have to come up with BS reasons not to produce any juicy stuff. It’s a lot of billable hours if you get that type of work but you gain almost no marketable skills doing it.
IMO the whole system is screwed up massively. The gov’t has stopped doing a lot of core functions and given a lot of the work to private companies. The contractors lobby the hell out of the government because they want more work… the work isn’t TECHNICALLY done by the government but it is certainly a government expenditure. For example, much of teh work you think of as being done by the IRS or the Dept of Ed or the Dept of Agriculture of the Dept of Defense… done almost entirely by contractors. The number of bid protests and the workload of the CoFC has gone up dramatically in the last 10-20 years. Not just 50% or 100%, probably multiple hundreds of %. Just 10 years ago, there had only been like 200,000 bid protests in the history of the GAO. The last B number (bid protest #) I saw was over 410,000.
All your base are belong to government contractors:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/us-government-now-can-pay-individual-contractors-almost-1-million-annually/2013/12/05/11cbd59e-5dee-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html
goon, I started beating on that drum last year… Private contractors can make unlimited amounts of money but the government can only _directly_ be billed a certain amount. Previously that was ~750k/yr, IIRC.
Insert some rando 2Banana rant: “Well at least there are no pension costs!!!11″
2banana doesn’t mind the 150k government “security contractor” working alongside the $40k/yr army specialist, etc. etc. And yes, this is very common. Remember Snowden? Just a random guy with a GED making $200k/yr as a CONTRACTOR for Booz Allen… working next to NSA people maybe making half of that.
Even worse, without the profit motive and the private companies, there would be a LOT less overreach in terms of government expenses. When you have federal employees doing work, they aren’t aggressively pushing for expansion nearly as much as private contractors. They’re not taking agency officials to lunch, they’re not sitting down on K street with lobbyists and congressional staff.
Insane and out of control public unions (usually at local and state level) are wrong.
Insanely awarded contracts (good old boy network) are wrong.
The government racking up $1 Trillion a year in deficits is wrong.
The government borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends is wrong.
Why do try to defend public unions by pointing out wrongs in other places?
Is it because public unions are largest campaign contributors in HISTORY?
Is it because they support democrats 99-1 with all their bribe money and volunteers?
I see - the ends justify the means.
Pay no attention to these wrongs by public unions - there is some contractor making $250k.
How about they ARE BOTH WRONG?
We are paid indirectly by you because if you win a bid protest, GAO can award costs. Of course, the costs are capped at something artificially low, like $150/hr. But the client still pays us the full amount (runs as high as 900/hr for top partners, but “only” 300-400 for most associates).
We also file bid protests to:
- hold up procurements, forcing the agency to take “corrective action” which means reopening the bidding and giving our client a chancse
- force the delay of a new procurement all together (you can protest prior to the contract being awarded, if you think the evaluation terms are unclear or unfair). This is wonderful when your client is the incumbent.
- force the government to reconsider a client to be a “small business” or other group that should’ve received favorable treatment or a set-aside
- (Hypothetically, bc lawyers would NEVER do this) Drive up the costs of the competitors. If a competitor is a smaller company that can’t afford to hire a big firm for a 3- month battle at GAO, just filing the protest and then getting 3-4 attorneys admitted to the protective order can force a smaller competitor into a corner. Even if they win the current procurement at issue, they have to work their legal costs into their overall business structure.
“Hypothetically, bc lawyers would never do this”
Just LOL, who am I kidding? We’ve done that one ^^^ twice in the two years I’ve been doing this work. One of the competitors of our client built a custom facility prior to beginning to break into a new market. Their sunk costs were (and are) tremendous. They won some bids on decade-long contracts over the past 2-3 years but they have not been able to use the facility yet because each of the contractors is on hold, even one where their contract was cleared in court. (The mere fact the contract was battled in court made it a political football, so the state legislature in question hasn’t set aside the money to start the contract. Our client is incument and continues to work and get paid.)
That wasn’t even directed at you goon. I wasn’t really thinking of contractor types in the private sector being paid with tax dollars cause they can be fired for goofing off and not producing.
“one time cameo posters”
You like that BS eh? Scumbag housing fraudsters are good for those.
I was thinking about that guy the other day who went on and on about the robots causing 50% unemployment in 20 years. Not very realistic, but nice topic. Possibly designed to distract.
The sanctimonious whining one time post by “awaitingInPa” clearly was.
Nope…I am not a housing fraudster. I have been around for many years on the board, I just don’t post often. Things get too nasty too quickly among some of the regulars here, and I don’t see a reason to get involved in all that noise.
I believe housing is overpriced. I was just voicing frustration, as I can’t believe how long this fake economy has been going on.
As I pointed out, the house the sold quickly had lost as much in “equity” in the past few years as we have paid in rent…yet it is still way above 1998 prices.
Your frustration had the ring of truth to me.
Strawberry posted - “Can there be any way not paying the Ocare penalty can eventually cause criminal exposure? The IRS doesn’t mess around.”
My understanding is that the penalty or credit (subsidy) will function like any other tax credit or penalty on a taxpayer’s income tax return.
So if a taxpayer was subject to the penalty, and would otherwise have a refund from their w-2 withholding, the penalty would be taken from the refund. If the refund is insufficient to cover the penalty, the return will show a balance due. It will be an IRS civil collection matter.
If the taxpayer does not pay the balance due, the IRS may seize the balance due like any other tax debt, by way of bank levy, wage garnishment, intercepting federal payments (VA, soc sec, etc), following proper procedural notice.
The chance of being criminally prosecuted for a civil tax debt is very very low.
Once you own a home every bill is actually a lien.
eh, not really. If a creditor gets a judgment, then yeah, they can file an abstract and create a lien. Not all creditors go through the effort to get a judgment due to cost, time, no certainty in recovery.
Even if a creditor has a lien, they are in line behind any other lien holders, they have to go through foreclosure to enforce the lien, etc.
Is “I got healthcare” just a box you check on the return?
I was thinking of local government. Tree roots pushing the sidewalk up? A compulsory notice arrives. Ditto for sprinkler back-flow prevention valve, tumbleweeds against the fence, mailbox, snow removal, etc., they have a captive audience.
Princeton jazz professor composes ‘Ballad for Trayvon Martin’
“Ballad for Trayvon Martin for Orchestra and Jazz Quartet,” written in honor of the 17-year-old who was shot in 2012 in Sanford, Fla., by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman, will receive its world premiere tomorrow.
The Princeton University Orchestra and the University Concert Jazz Ensemble will perform the work on a program that also includes Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, Beethoven’s “Egmont” overture and a world premiere of “Teatro di Strada” by David Sanford. Conducted by Michael Pratt, with senior J.J. Warshaw leading the Beethoven, the concert will take place in the Richardson Auditorium and will be repeated Friday.
According to Branker, the work is intended “to be a form of healing and something that could be seen as a composition of hope — one that speaks to all of us to continue to work together so that children of any race, ethnicity or religious affiliation never have to meet such a tragic end.”
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2013/12/princeton_jazz_professor_composes_ballad_for_trayvon_martin.html
A jazz professor! Now down before your HYP masters.
Bow
“before your HYP masters”
LOLZ that these same coastal elitists who sad violin for Saint Trayvon are getting a dose of “Justice for Trayvon” upside the head, as noted in article about Yale / New Haven below.
You wanna see some who really does look like he could be O’s son? Check the photos of this Chism guy up in Mass who offed the Danvers schoolteacher.
What does the New Haven situation have to do with the Trayvon Martin case?
What does the New Haven situation have to do with the Trayvon Martin case?
Why is it your political ideology won’t let you admit that perceived “white-on-black” violence gets national media attention from the establishment pushing it’s multicultural agenda while “black-on-black” and “black-on-white” violence is generally ignored?
Even if that is true, how is it relevant to my question?
Even if that is true, how is it relevant to my question?
Go away! ‘Batin’!
The 24 blacks killed by other blacks over the last two weeks in Chicago don’t even get a commercial jingle?
Michael Pratt is the head of the music department & the conductor of the symphony at P. Very nice guy but probably a shitlib given that he was a huge Leonard Bernstein fan and likes modern and atonal classical music.
Very weird program… New World Symph, Egmont Overture — 2 very popular and traditional selections — and then those 2 pieces? Very weird.
P used to be the most “conservative” Ivy, in the sense that it wasn’t very politically active and about 50% of the students are from 1%-er parents (a big chunk of the rest are asian or athletes). Maybe shitlibs have overrun the alma mater. The horror…
Back and my day people would’ve joked about such a thing. Times have changed in a decade.
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” — President Barack Obama
“Yale students and New Haven residents are experiencing the arrival of a new crime pattern that has gained national attention in recent weeks — the “knockout game.”
The game refers to attacks on pedestrians by groups of young adults. The assaulters approach their victims on public streets, hit them and run away. After speaking to the New Haven Police Department, Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins notified the campus community about the violent new trend in an email on Nov. 21. There were seven reported cases of street violence in New Haven this November that could be linked to the “knockout game.”
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/12/05/police-respond-to-knockout-threat/
Coming soon:
“The Bernhard Goetz Knock Down Game”
Obama should have a beer summit in the Rose Garden so the victims can apologize to their assailants.
if he does, he’d better invite a bunch of white cops from New England who understand what apologizing to assailants is supposed to look like.
“Obama should have a beer summit in the Rose Garden so the victims can apologize to their assailants.”
+1 …for being successful.
I don’t think goon squad likes Black people. He’s always posting something negative about them.
D’you see the ESPN article re: political tension in Brazil leading up to the world cup?
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10079392/generation-june
Sounds like things could get very interesting next year.
Thomas Sowell (who is black, btw) discusses the knockout game and its racial context:
http://m.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/11/20/a-very-dangerous-game-n1748751/page/full
Are you that it’s worth reading that guy? I think that some people would insist that he wouldn’t score well if he was given and IQ test.
“Why buy a house now when prices are falling? Buy later, after prices crater for 70% less.”
Owning a paid off home is a critical component of retirement planning.
Rents will continue to go up every year, but having a paid off home gives you the security of not being at the whim of a greedy landlord.
Thank you for the Toxide advice.
the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. Come clean today, face your problems. Debt slavery is a hard issue to face.
“Get what you can get for your house today because it’s going to be much less tomorrow for decades to come.”
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
When you buy a home, you own a piece of the American Dream.
Do you get to spend the weekend painting the walls too?
“Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.”
Ugh, ugh…don’t stop Amy…I’m almost there.
Homeownership is an investment in community.
You can plant flowers in front for the picket fence, and wash your car in your own driveway.
Imagine your princess decending the grand staircase on her wedding day.
You deserve to get away from it all.
Welcome home..
Good job Toxide.
You can also do a cash-out refinance or draw funds on a HELOC to give your princess the wedding of her dreams that she deserves.
Get this……
WBBR radio this morning… guest alludes to 2014. Host says “are you suggesting civil unrest next year?”. Guest states, “2014 will be our own Arab Spring”.
And as you know… that spring has turned into multiple arab springs.
Has anyone done the brewery tour in san diego? I have been drinkn some fine beers with my equity of late. Ballast point Sculpin IPA is to die for. I might get another refi and buy 100 cases as a hedge.
“drinkn some fine beers with my equity”
Enough beers that you dropped a vowel.
YOLO!
Ballast Point Yellow Tale Pale was one of my favorites. that brewery that makes Arrogant Bastard Ale is somewhere in SD as well, forget the name.
stone?
That’s it. There’s a place called Pizza Port up north off the 101, maybe luecaida or Solano beach area. They do their own brew and had some real good brews. Pizza’s good too.
Managed to get on for a moment…pasting in comment I made last night regarding my week in San Jose, plus letting everyone know I’m off to see the wizard :-)…
Got in a little earlier tonight…too early to comment on tomorrow’s thread. So just a little update for the people who care. Boss obviously made his decision but hasn’t shared it yet. But he’s a lot more smiley and relaxed when he sees me now, which I think means he knows whether I get a check or a job tomorrow morning and now he can think about other things.
Having had a week to evaluate him, while he can be a bit sadistic (kind of in an army drill sergeant sort of way) I don’t think he’s a sociopath. There is a method to his madness…but the fact that he can bring in his 150+ IQ people who live to work is definitely working against me. Not easy competing against the whole world’s 0.1%.
But it’s been an interesting experience despite the discomfort. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the army it was almost a little fun to test my ability to endure massive amounts of Special High Intensity Training. And it was fun having to resist the urge to explain that this sort of thing is exactly why I live in a trailer park on a nice middle class salary…but I’ll save that one for a funny story for him later if I stay on.
My only dilemma is that if I stay on but it sucks I’ll feel guilty about leaving too quickly now due to how my friend stuck his neck out for me.
There is also the question of whether or not the next job will be even more “Hunger Games” (great metaphor) than the current one. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.
Desk job drill sergeant. Sounds pretty abusive.
I worked for a screamer years ago. He cried when I gave my notice.
The one I quit on was bitter and called me ungrateful.
Funny :-). No, there’s no screaming going on. When I say drill sergeant I mean the constant implications that a person is incompetent, not carrying their weight, a weakness that needs to be purged from the body, etc.. Drill sergeants are experts and cranking up the anxiety level in order to see what the person acts like under pressure. So is this guy. But it’s hard to instill the desired level of anxiety into someone whose housing costs are about $350 a month.
So basically he just insults through implication and we play our game. Still no word, but there’s only about 2.5 hours until I leave for the plane. If I stay on I’ll owe my friend big-time.
Having said all that, this company does have serious problem and this guy may actually be the first to make a real change for the better. So I’d like to be around to see it. I just don’t like subjecting myself to that level of stress if I can avoid it. He and “his” team, on the other hand, seem to thrive on it.
If you insulted him really well, he might welcome you aboard.
I’ve thought of that…a little hesitant to try it, though :-). T-30min and still nothing.
More proof that Big Government is totally incompetent.
Now think of the millions of illegals doing th exact same thing.
————————-
Dozens of Russian Diplomats Charged With Defrauding Medicaid
The Wire | 12-5-13 | Danielle Wiener-Bronner
U.S. authorities have charged 49 Russian diplomats and their spouses with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, alleging that they stole $1.5 million from the American government via a years-long Medicaid scam.
According to a criminal complaint made public today, the former and current diplomats lied about their income and citizenship status in order to qualify for the health benefits, which they used towards pregnancy care, births, and post-natal medical needs. They were also charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and make false statements relating to health care matters, reports the Associated Press. The complaint notes that medical costs associated with 92 percent of births to Russian diplomats (58 out of 63, from 2004 to 2013) were illegally covered by the U.S. government.
The FBI conducted an 18-month investigation which led to the charges, and found that the families spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury goods and vacations while exploiting Medicaid funds. Only 11 of the diplomats charged are currently in the United States. The State Department would need permission from the Kremlin to prosecute the defendants, as they are protected by diplomatic immunity.
Lying on benefits applications is SOP. You don’t think all those Section 8 women are really living alone do you?
How/Why do Russian Diplomats get ANY kind of American welfare?
The Russian diplomats did something no other person living in USA would do; they lied on the application with the knowledge that Medicaid would not check on the facts.
Spending money or time on checking the facts would disrupt that excellent low administrative overhead ratio in two ways; it makes the numerator rise and the denominator fall. Easy solution: just write the checks.
The success of the program will be defined by how many users or customers you have.
You mess with Putin, you get burned!
Right back at you, America!
xa xa, хи хи, гы-гы and бу-гы-га-га
The State Department would need permission from the Kremlin to prosecute the defendants, as they are protected by diplomatic
immunity ??
Good luck with that….
did they ever go after any of the folks who pulled a bunch of cash out of their homes and then did the old short sale trickeroo?
“did they ever go after any of the folks who pulled a bunch of cash out of their homes and then did the old short sale trickeroo?”
They couldn’t.
They were all victims of predatory loans who got sick due to the stress of not paying for a place to live for 3 or 4 years and lost their jobs or had their pressure cleaning business go under.
Besides, you can’t repo a 2005 vacation or an ex-wife’s boob job.
if they were victims why weren’t any of the predators put in jail?
I luv the smell of public unions getting napalmed in the morning.
It smells like reality…
———————————-
Detroit and the impact on pension reform
William McGurn - December 6, 2013 - The New York Post
‘Nothing distinguishes pension debt in a municipal bankruptcy case from any other debt.”
These thirteen words come from a ruling this week by US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. In strictly legal terms, they’re part of a larger decision that does little more than confirm the obvious: Detroit is bankrupt.
But make no mistake. The judge has set off a seismic shock that will reverberate far outside Detroit. For he has confirmed something fairly radical in the world of public employees: the law applies to workers for a bankrupt city much the same way it does to workers for a bankrupt company.
In Detroit, much of the ire from city workers has been directed at Judge Rhodes. That’s misplaced. A far better target would be their own unions.
For years, public-workers unions have behaved as though their cities’ financial and pension crises aren’t their problem, largely because they’ve deemed their pensions as sacrosanct. In Michigan this sense of unreality was encouraged by a state constitutional amendment (similar to one in New York) which the unions and the political class took as a guarantee that pensions couldn’t be touched even if the city went belly-up.
The obstacle is almost all political. The Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon puts it this way: “The norm for city and state unions has been to press for maximum pension promises — even if it meant accepting unfunded liabilities.”
This was entirely rational, by the way, given the assumption that taxpayers would ultimately have to make up any shortcomings. It also made sense for the unions because part of the old deal was union representation on the boards of these great big pension funds, which gave them enormous political clout.
As for the public workers, many accept this arrangement because the deal they get is unbeatable by anything in the private sector — where, as the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas points out, “There is no way a cop or a firefighter could retire after 22 years and be confident of supporting not only himself but a surviving spouse for another 40 years.”
Leaders of public-employee unions will fight this every step of the way. These, of course, are the same people who assured their members it didn’t matter if the cities they worked for were going to hell — they would get theirs no matter what.
The hits keep coming…
http://www.city-journal.org/2013/cjc1205sg.html
evidently they need more revenue for their worker bees? This is playing out all over CA.
“Remember what I told you? Debt is bondage”~Suze Orman, November 09, 2013
Renters don’t get to deduct their rent payments from their federal income taxes.
When you buy a home, your mortgage interest payments directly offset your federal tax liability.
Rental rates are half the monthly cost of buying even with the pittance that the mortgage interest deduction is.
Getting some tax relief on massive losses does not make said losses profitable.
Live modestly and take the standard deduction.
But it’s worthwhile only if you buy an expensive enough abode.
Ms Hoax and Mr. Banker - how cheap is too cheap when buying a ball-and-chain? I want my tax advantages, too. It’s only fair!
I get nervous when I see bondage and Suze Orman on the same line.
The show is filmed in Brazil to harpsichord music.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/12/03/india-gold-smuggling-idINDEE9B20HY20131203
Interesting article. The most amazing fact is to prevent gold smuggling the Indian government is paying more in rewards for a tip than it pays to stop smuggling heroin or cocaine. It shows just how much governments fear gold when they are running the fiat currency scam. It also shows, I believe, just how much the PTB in the globalist syndicate are attempting to preserve the U.S. reserve currency/fiat currency scam. They are running scared since there is not enough physical gold to meet the demand and they have suppressed gold with paper gold selling which needs to be covered eventually.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/12/brattons-endorsement-of-stop-and-frisk.html
Japan Has Fallen Back Into Fascism After 68 Years
Japanese Senator Shouts “This is The Way the Reign of Terror Begins” … Then Others Physically Restrain Him
Washington’s Blog
December 6, 2013
The Empire of Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945.
Image: Japanese Flag (Wikimedia Commons).
68 years later, Japan has fallen back into fascism.
Despite large protests outside of the Japanese Senate.
Xinua reports:
Meanwhile, protests comprising more than 7,000 demonstrators continued around the Diet building, mobilized by civic groups, unions and concerned individuals, following similar scenes Wednesday that saw more than 6,000 anti-secrecy law opponents march around the Diet building hand-in-hand.
And the impassioned pleas of Japanese Senators (via Xinhua):
So outraged was opposition lawmaker Hirokazu Shiba in the committee meeting Thursday, that he rose from his seat and shouted “This is the way the reign of terror begins!” His fervor led to his fellow lawmakers having to physically restrain Shiba, as tensions in the meeting reached fever pitch.
The secrecy bill is headed for passage Friday. Indeed, the bill has likely already passed by the time you read this.
Another Japanese Senator said:
“The path that Japan is taking is the recreation of a fascist state. I strongly believe that this secrecy bill represents a planned coup d’état by a group of politicians and bureaucrats,” he warned.
Just like the U.S. Japan is responding to crises of its own making by banning journalism.
The Guardian notes:
Whistleblowers and journalists in Japan could soon find themselves facing long spells in prison for divulging and reporting state secrets, possibly including sensitive information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster ….
“It is a threat to democracy,” said Keiichi Kiriyama, an editorial writer for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper ….
“It can be used to hide whatever the government wishes to keep away from public scrutiny,” said Mizuho Fukushima, an opposition MP. ….
[The] justice minister, Sadakazu Tanigaki, refused to rule out police raids of newspapers suspected of breaking the law.
Indeed, the number 2 government official said last week that protest equals terrorism.
Foreign Policy notes that the U.S. is largely behind the bill:
Washington, for its part, has long supported stronger secrecy laws in Japan ….
The proposed measure is part of a larger effort by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to move away from Japan’s pacifist past and establish a stronger military posture that is congenial to, or in line with U.S. preferences, according to Samuels. Among other initiatives, Abe plans to create Japan’s version of the U.S. National Security Council, the coordinating body of American foreign policy, and is pushing to reinterpret Japan’s constitution to expand its military’s limited self-defense role — giving it the authority to aid the United States and other allies, if they’re attacked.
The state secrets bill similarly seems to resemble U.S. policy.
Indeed, the U.S. controls a good deal of Japanese policy.
This article was posted: Friday, December 6, 2013 at 6:02 am
Tags: economics, foreign affairs
While not denying that this is true, it is amusing to see a Chinese news agency report on it, as Japan is still far freer than China.
Bingo! But let’s not forget what Japan did to China. China has a historical beef with Japan, so if it can fling a little poo in that direction, it will.
Funny thing about Japan, it is almost impossible to own a firearm there…
They have plenty of sharp knives.
Obamacare Reg Treats Congress That Spent $3.5 Trillion as a ‘Small Business’
Terence P. Jeffrey
CNS News
December 6, 2013
An Obamacare regulation issued by the Office of Personnel Management in October treats the U.S. Congress—which employs more than 11,000 staffers and which spent $4,329,000,000 on its own operations and $3,454,253,000,000 to fund the full government in fiscal 2013–as a “small business.”
OPM did this so that the Treasury can pay federal subsidies of up to $11,378 per year to help members of the House and Senate and their staff buy health-insurance plans in the Obamacare “Small Business Health Options Program” (SHOP) Marketplace set up for “small employers” in Washington, D.C.
The regulation treats this federal tax subsidy paid by the U.S. Treasury as if it were an “employer contribution” made by the owner of a small business.
Subsection D of Section 1312 of the 906-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is entitled: “MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IN THE EXCHANGE.”
Full article here
Look….. This insurance debacle might seem small right now but you wait…… Already people around me signing up for this are pissed about the increase in cost….. There will come a time soon when everyone will get it stuck up their a$$ on this thing….. soon.
Some animals are more equal than others. Like I posted before, it’s fine for the average American to see increases in premiums because of this law (just another type of tax), but it would be “unfair” for Congress and Congressional staffers to take a financial hit like everyone else, so they get preferential treatment.
Almost everyone I know, all middle and upper middle class, is taking a hit in some way because of the ACA. Higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher co-pays, their doctors are now “out-of-network”, etc.
Higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher co-pays, their doctors are now “out-of-network”, etc.
LOL. What’s new? Sounds like every year of the 20+ years I had Blue Cross of CA.
Got Reality?
I don’t disagree that the old system of private health insurance was broken. However, the only benefits of the ACA like pre-existing conditions and subsidized coverage for the lower class comes at a steep price for the middle class…
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-sign-ups-in-california-are-disproportionately-older/article/2539611
The ACA and its death spiral.
Rules congress should live by:
No pension. Savings and Social Security ONLY
Healthcare - They get to wait in line with all the illegals
Housing - they get to live next to Section 8 housing
Guns Control - They get to live without any. To include their private security details.
Travel - They get a full body cavity search every time they fly.
Insider Trading - They get to go to jail too.
Sexual Harassment Laws? Obamcare? Overtime Laws? Union Laws? Etc. NO EXCEPTIONS FOR CONGRESS (like they have now).
Make them live under the same laws the rest of have to.
2banana’s definitions:
Conservatives - More than happy to live under the same laws they want for everyone else.
Liberals/Progressives - Expect to be exempt from the laws they want for everyone else (they are for the little people). Also expect to exempt from all they taxes to pay for their laws and regulations.
HARP, i need somebody,
HARP, not just anybody,
HARP, you know i need someone, HARP.
When i was younger, so much younger than today,
I bought three condos thought I’d flip them in a day.
But now those days are gone, i’m not so self assured,
Now i find i’ve changed my mind since the price dropped through the floor.
HARP me if you can, I’m Upside Down
And I do appreciate you being round
HARP me, get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please HARP me
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
My wife and her new boobs have vanished in the haze
So every now and then I feel so insecure
Wish I knew what I know now back in 2004
HARP me if you can, I’m Upside Down
And I do appreciate you being round
HARP me, get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please HARP me
Hardest Hit Fund: Updates and Principal Reduction
By Betsalel Cohen May 04, 2013
Background: HARP, HAMP, and Hardest Hit Funds
In 2009, the Obama administration established the Making Home Affordable program to help solve the housing crisis. A number of programs were set up to help borrowers suffering severe financial difficulties and/or a steep drop in the price of their property. Among the main programs are the following:
1.Loan Refinance for Underwater Borrowers: HARP
2.Loan Modification for Financially Distressed Borrowers: HAMP
3.Short Sale or Deed-in-lieu Program for Underwater Borrowers: HAFA
The Obama Administration also established, in 2010, the Hardest Hit Fund (HHF). The HHF has a $7.6 billion budget over 18 states and Washington, D.C., areas that especially suffered from high unemployment, a drastic drop in home values, and a large increase in foreclosures.
The HHF varies from state to state, and is run through the state’s Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs). Most states have programs to help financially distressed borrowers reinstate their loans and/or assist borrowers with their monthly payments for a limited time. Some states also have other programs that deal with mortgage refinance, mortgage modification, and assistance to transition to more affordable housing.
The Conflict: No Principal Reduction for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans
Three main problems existed in the Hardest Hit Funds that prevented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loans from participating in the programs:
1.New Liens: The Hardest Hit Fund programs usually involve a new 0% loan to the borrower, which is forgiven after a certain period of time elapses, if the borrower fulfills all of his commitments and eligibility requirements. In exchange for the aid, a lien is registered on the borrower’s property. (The new lien is in an inferior position to the existing mortgage loans).
2.Principal Forgiveness: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not allow for principal forgiveness in their loans. The PRA (Principal Reduction Alternative) program, for example, requires for principal reductions in a loan modification, but Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans are excluded from the program. Some HHF programs, such as California’s Keep Your Home California, allow for principal reductions, but require lender participation.
Changes in HHF regulations and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Guidelines
Due to changes made by the states and the GSEs, certain states are allowing for principal reductions in their HARP and HAMP loan modifications.
Hardest Hit Fund changes included state legislation that abolished the need:
1.To register a lien on the property.
2.For lender forgiveness in the loan.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changes included the following:
1.May Guidelines and HARP: These guidelines allow for the use of HHF funds toward a HARP loan, as long as no lien is placed on the property. The funds can be used to pay down the balance of the existing loan at the time of the refinance and/or pay for closing costs including financing costs, and prepaids/escrow costs. According to the Nevada HHF Web site:
•”Nevada is the ONLY state that currently offers principal curtailment in conjunction with HARP 2.0. The Nevada Hardest Hit Fund is at the forefront of this initiative to provide the extra assistance to help families stay in their homes. ”
2.Sept 2012 Guidelines and HAMP: These guidelines specifically instruct servicers to accept funds from HHF that are part of a loan modification program and meet further Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac requirements. For example, if there is a change in payment schedule only, and the borrower meets the HHF eligibility, then the servicer must accept the funds. If the borrower is in the midst of a HAMP modification, then the servicer must follow rules regarding the application of funds and using a principal forbearance (pushing off payment of the loan), until a permanent HAMP is in place. The HHF funds can only be applied to amounts allowed in the principal forbearance.
Hardest Hit Fund: Will it Help Me?
The Hardest Hit Fund is limited in scope. In order to see if you can benefit from the program, I recommend that you:
1.Check out the Bills.com article about Hardest Hit Funds and see if your state participates.
2.If it does participate, then check out the state’s website and see what types of programs are offered and what the eligibility requirements are. Many states only offer the HHF for unemployed.
3.Contact the representative, as shown on the official state Web site.
However, if you are having trouble paying your mortgage, then you should also explore all your foreclosure alternatives, including programs that are appropriate for your type of loan including HARP, HAMP and HAFA programs for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans. There are
Speak to your lender and look into modification or short sale alternatives. Although it is positive news for homeowners that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are allowing any principal reductions, it is too limited in scope to help most borrowers. According to the LA times, only about 8,000-9,500 borrowers will benefit from the September change. Only people who make an effort will benefit from the programs available.
http://www.bills.com/principal-reduction-hardest-hit-fund-harp-and-hamp-updates/ - 114k -
Here’s and in-depth study of the results of 30 years of Supply-Side economics by the heavy hitting Tax Analysts. It is factual, pages long, well organized and researched, and includes 147 footnotes.
Reaganomics: A Report Card May 1, 2012
http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/2BEBD14445F182F1852579F10058AA9F?OpenDocument
In 1980, America elected Ronald Reagan president, and with Reagan came Reaganomics, the conservative economic philosophy that has dominated government policy for over 30 years.1 William Niskanen,2 one of the chief architects of Reaganomics, described the major policy objectives: to reduce the growth of government spending; to reduce the marginal tax rates on income from both labor and capital; and to reduce regulation.3 These policy changes were supposed to balance the budget, increase economic growth, and create healthy financial markets.4 The primary means by which conservative politicians and economists sold the American public on Reaganomics was through the idea of supply-side tax theory or trickle-down economics, which promised that tax cuts for the wealthy and big business would boost investment and economic growth. That would in turn create greater economic opportunity and prosperity for all.
…….XI. Conclusion
…..Reaganomics, judged by the standards set forth by its ideological proponents, has been an economic failure — except for the very richest Americans. The policies have left the country with huge debt and near-record levels of income inequality. The financial system nearly collapsed two separate times within two decades. Yet, listening to the voices of leading conservatives these days, it seems the overwhelming opinion is in favor of more deregulation and preserving or even expanding on the Bush tax cuts. The generous explanation is that these conservatives are unaware of the economic data. A slightly less generous reading is that for many conservatives, ideology trumps reason. The more cynical view is that Reaganomics achieved exactly what was intended — to concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the very few — and the talking points were just well-crafted propaganda to bring along enough voters to win elections. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Analysts
Cross dressing Lola!
Wow! Footnotes!
How about Mangos?
Wow! Footnotes!
You are probably too scared to read it. And if you even did read your brain would ignore the facts because:
“A slightly less generous reading is that for many conservatives, ideology trumps reason.”
P.S. I only have a papaya today.
Lola,
You seem to use the word “fact” alot but your posts remain fact free.
Why is that?
“You are probably too scared…”
Don’t be silly. I didn’t even read what you quoted.
Sorry Rio we did not have thirty years of Reaganomics, since beginning with the Clinton administration and Bush II we had bubblenomics, where companies and people do not make money by producing things, they made money by asset bubbles and the demand created by borrowing against them. These occurred after Clinton sold us out to China with a trade deal. Companies such as GE and GM cared more about their financial units than their manufacturing units.
I posted the China deal history and the report that said it would cause a financial crisis. I also posted yesterday the corporate tax rates for the world, and while the rest of the world were dropping the rates in Reagan fashion, Clinton raised the rates. But hey we had the Internet bubble and an explosion of consumer debt so who needed manufacturing.
Reagan is only responsible for his years in office and he had record that Obama can only dream about, Twice the job creation, far less debt added, measured by the GDP or in real dollars, and the ultimate foreign policy success since he brought down the Soviet Union. Obama has failed domestically and in his foreign policy.
Sorry Rio facts are stubborn things.
Reaganomics calls for low corporate taxes to give us a competitive advantage and promote investment. We had low taxes compared to the world when he was in office. We now have the highest corporate rate in the developed world. But according to Yu and you we are practicing Reaganomics, I do not think so.
http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/ask-for-the-corporate-rate-or-not
Reaganomics calls for low corporate taxes
With all the tax breaks, USA has the lowest effective corporate tax rates in 40 years.
With Tax Break, Corporate Rate Is Lowest in Decades
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204662204577199492233215330
WASHINGTON—U.S. companies are booking higher profits than ever. But the number crunchers in Washington are puzzling over a phenomenon that has just come into view: Corporate tax receipts as a share of profits are at their lowest level in at least 40 years.
Total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the lowest level since at least 1972. And well below the 25.6% companies paid on average from 1987 to 2008.
Cannot read the whole article but I am sure that the tax break is the fact that they many lost money in the recession and had tax credits coming to them. That always occur after a recession, that is a very dated article. So how much does Soros pay you to post misleading articles or are you some Congressional employee pretending to live in Rio?
http://taxfoundation.org/article/us-states-lead-world-high-corporate-taxes
Haha schooled by his own linkees!
He mentions “globalization” zero times.
He mentions “demographic” a few times, but not in context of how this era is different than prior eras.
He mentions “baby boom” zero times (in the context of “Progressive Era” growth, which started in the great depression…a low point).
He mentions “free trade” zero times.
He mentions “China” zero times.
These are all things that have changed enormously over the past 30 years. We need deeper thinkers than someone that can simply amass 147 footnotes.
I am glad you had and took the time to read it.
“So do you really think wages are going to double or triple to meet inflated prices of everything? Of course not. Prices will fall by 50% to meet existing wages as demand continues to collapse.”
Exactly.
Sorry Rio we did not have thirty years of Reaganomics,
Of course we’ve had 30 years of SupplySide/Reaganomics = cut the rich’s taxes, funnel money to the rich, deregulate the financial markets and off-shore jobs=Reaganomics. What do you think we’ve been living. We did it for 30 years. It did not work.
Rio, how long did you have to dig to find a complete nobody to support your position?
It was publised by Tax Analysts dot com some heavy hitters. You just don’t like the facts.
Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit organization, Tax Analysts is a leading provider of tax news and analysis for the global community.
More than 150,000 tax professionals in law and accounting firms, corporations, and government agencies rely on Tax Analysts’ in-depth federal, state, and international content each day.
Tax Analysts has the industry’s largest tax-dedicated correspondent staff, with more than 250 domestic and international correspondents. http://www.taxanalysts.com/
Tax Analysts board of directors includes:[5]
Chairman Martin Lobel of Lobel, Novins & Lamont;
John L. Buckley of Georgetown University Law Center;
Edward W. Erickson of North Carolina State University;
Thomas L. Evans of Kirkland & Ellis;
Lawrence B. Gibbs of Miller & Chevalier;
Larry R. Langdon of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw;
Richard G. Larsen of Ernst & Young;
Michael J. Murphy of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan;
Pamela F. Olson of PricewaterhouseCoopers;
Deborah H. Schenk of the New York University School of Law;
Arthur W. Wright of the University of Connecticut; and
Eric M. Zolt of the UCLA School of Law.
Lola,
That’s got nothing to do with my post. Stop spamming.
It was publised by Tax Analysts dot com some heavy hitters. You just don’t like the facts.
Sorry it is not facts it is opinion masquerading as facts and your list is not a heavy hitting list in the world of economics. We were not even practicing Reaganomics in 2005 as I have shown by a corporate tax rate.
We were not even practicing Reaganomics in 2005 as I have shown by a corporate tax rate.
You showed squat. USA is practicing Reaganomics on steroids - has been for 30 years.
U.S. companies face the highest official corporate tax rate in the world. But there’s a big difference between the rates set out by law and the cash that’s actually collected.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/01/news/economy/corporate-tax-rate/
…..Large, profitable U.S. corporations paid an average effective federal tax rate of 12.6% in 2010, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
…U.S. corporate tax collection totaled 2.6% of GDP in 2011, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That was the eleventh lowest in a ranking of 27 wealthy nations.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/16/tax-reform-american-jobs/1632495/
Ronald Reagan is an evil god who stands over us all like Cristo Redemptor controlling all subsequent presidents, even two term Dumbocrats.
Sorry it is not facts it is opinion masquerading as facts
147 footnotes from legit sources. Looks pretty factual to me. Debunk the facts, not the fact presenter. You can’t.
You are engaging a false argument -The genetic fallacy-because you can’t counter the facts - this a common tactic from someone who is wrong. Another tactic is to lie by omission as you did yesterday.
The genetic fallacy, also known as fallacy of origins, fallacy of virtue,[1] is a fallacy of irrelevance where a conclusion is suggested based solely on something or someone’s origin rather than its current meaning or context. This overlooks any difference to be found in the present situation, typically transferring the positive or negative esteem from the earlier context.
The fallacy therefore fails to assess the claim on its merit. The first criterion of a good argument is that the premises must have bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim in question wiki
Rio, Ronald Reagan was not the president in 2005 and we were not practicing Reaganomics in 2005, I do not need to read an article that starts with such a false assumption. And you are the last person that has the right to use your argument since you have always attacked people for linking to Drudge etc. Such a deceitful hypocrite.
Rio is a paid distractor. He’s only sometimes male.
From the study:
“During the 28-year period of Reaganomics, the GDP grew from $5.83 billion to $13.16 billion, a CAGR of 2.95 percent, less than two-thirds of the growth rate during the Progressive Era. Per capita GDP grew from $25,700 to $43,296, a CAGR of 1.88 percent, about 60 percent of the growth rate during the Progressive Era. At the same time, the share of income going to the richest Americans exploded back near the levels last seen in the late 1920s (see Table 2).”
You can repeat the lie over and over but there has not been 28 years of Reaganomics. The Urban Institute and the Brookings Institute just wants more welfare spending and they are the organizations behind the Tax institute. When people even use terms like the “progressive era” you know what ideologues they are. Both FDR and Obama failed to rejuvenate the economy with domestic spending, now if we have a world war which destroys are competitors we might be able to exceed the growth that Reagan achieved during his term but Obama will never see 8% + growth for a quarter like Reagan did.
Brazil is failing the last thing we need to do is borrow the leftist policies they are using. Let the Urban Institute advise them.
Rio, how long did you have to dig to find a complete nobody to support your position? Yu pretty effed up. Qualifications of the author:
H. Nelson Yu has operated an investment advisory business, Yu Investment Management, since 2000. He worked for Paine Webber and Smith Barney from 1991 to 2000. He is in his third year at the University of Oregon School of Law. Yu wishes to thank professor Nancy Shurtz for her assistance with this report
Yu is so successful in the investment arena, he abandons that career and goes to a Law School Ranked 91st in the country:
http://law-school.findthebest.com/d/d/Oregon
Yes, the debate is over, Yu has spoken.
Yes, the debate is over, Yu has spoken.
Argue Yu’s facts. You can’t because they are facts. But you don’t like Yu? OK here’s one from Reagan’s own right-hand-man. One of Reagan’s biggest proponents of “Reaganomics”.
Reaganomics architect: “Capitalism has failed”
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/10/16/pcr-review/
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is unquestionably one of the world’s leading political economists. His many awards include induction into the French Legion of Honor for his historic contributions to economics.
Dr. Roberts is still widely viewed as an apostle of free markets. He is perhaps best known as the Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of the Treasury who ushered in supply-side economics and helped downsize government. When such a towering figure of free-market thinking says that laissez-faire capitalism has failed, it signals a seismic shift in his own thinking, or in history’s trajectory. Or maybe both.
Paul Craig Roberts says it’s the world, not himself, that has changed. He argues that the shift to supply side thinking – and subsequent slashing of tax rates and freeing up of markets – was a good idea at the time: the late 1970s. The big problem of the 1970s, Roberts says, was “as a result of inflation pushing up nominal incomes and saddling taxpayers with higher tax rates.” In those circumstances, cutting taxes to free up money for the markets reversed the vicious circle of higher taxes – less investment – a smaller pie – even higher taxes that was then ravaging Western economies.
This guy is obviously not a socialist. So when he says that free market approaches have failed, and it’s time for governments to jump back into economies in a big way, he must have some compelling reasons.
Those reasons should not be mysterious to anyone who has witnessed the implosion of the American economy during the past two decades. Roberts’ key points include:
*Markets are not self-regulating – they can only function if a referee ensures fair play, which is why deregulation has ushered in an era of pervasive looting and criminality.
*By deeming the biggest private financial institutions “too big to fail,” the market’s punishment for bad decisions is removed, encouraging limitless irresponsible and criminal behavior by the biggest players in the no-longer-free market.
*The destruction of labor unions has removed the power balance between labor and capital necessary to a viable free market.
*Jobs offshoring, which “has destroyed the productivity advantage of first world labor,” hollows out the real economy and cuts the connection between markets and human welfare.
Roberts argues that Americans have been socially, educationally, politically, and economically dispossessed by the new robber barons. Orwellian legislation including the NDAA with its indefinite detention provision, he says, has repealed the Bill of Rights and led to “the degeneration of American democracy into a police state.” (Elsewhere Roberts has noted the role of the 9/11 inside job in the destruction of American democracy.)
….. Roberts has come full circle from his role as the growth-oriented free-market champion of the Reagan years. Let’s hope the world listens, and heeds his advice even more than it did the last time around.
“(Elsewhere Roberts has noted the role of the 9/11 inside job in the destruction of American democracy.)”
So like you he is off his meds?
Paul Craig Roberts says it’s the world, not himself, that has changed. He argues that the shift to supply side thinking – and subsequent slashing of tax rates and freeing up of markets – was a good idea at the time: the late 1970s. The big problem of the 1970s, Roberts says, was “as a result of inflation pushing up nominal incomes and saddling taxpayers with higher tax rates.” In those circumstances, cutting taxes to free up money for the markets reversed the vicious circle of higher taxes – less investment – a smaller pie – even higher taxes that was then ravaging Western economies.
So you agree that Reagan had the right policies for the right time. Now, we are getting where.
Lola is just a raving mad dog, spending time and efforts on getting soused and posting for Lenin.
Let’s understand this though…… Lola is a LIEberal, first and foremost.
I don’t know if people caught it, but apparently there are now fewer banks than there were at anytime after the great depression.
Another benefit of Dodd Frank…make the big banks bigger, AND reduce competition. Great.
Failed banks do not just close like they did 100 years ago. The FDIC gets bigger banks to absorb them. The sheep are less disturbed that way.
Helpful information for new home buyers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/buying-a-new-home-an-experienced-real-estate-agent-is-essential/2013/12/05/284cdec2-458d-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story.html?tid=hpModule_6032d2d6-919e-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239
What buyers?
Remember…. Housing demand is at 16 year lows… and falling.
“In my opinion US marginal tax rates were appropriate where Reagan left them. Their further reduction by Bush/Cheney and Obama are not necessary policy adjustments but rewards to the mega-rich who underwrite political careers and provide grants to economics departments and think tanks.” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts , Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
Is he talking about personal or corporate rates? You need to provide the context of the statement.
Hey Rio, why don’t you go find a real job selling reverse mortgages to little old ladies down in mango land.
Car And Student Loans Account For 95% Of All Consumer Credit Issued In Past Year
http://blog.sfgate.com/pender/2013/12/04/student-debt-averaged-29400-for-class-of-2012/
do rising stock prices create jobs?
Doesn’t seem to matter. People are getting very smug about their rising stock prices. Reminds me a lot of the 1990s or the mid 2000’s with housing. A lot of wealth is being created vis a vis stocks, and people are spending it. Of course, the gains may prove to be temporary. But there are a lot of people around me saying “this time is different” because of the Fed backstop. QE has been a failure except where the stock market is concerned. Interestingly, the very asset that the Fed is buying (MBS and Treasuries) has not done very well this year.
I don’t observe that much stupid money and concomitant stupid talk…. yet. In fact I’ve heard none.
“Car And Student Loans Account For 95% Of All Consumer Credit Issued In Past Year”
I believe it. I know a young lady at the coffee shop who drives a 2011 Honda Odyssey Touring for crikey sakes; damned thing cost north of $40K. How do they fugg’n do it? Jeebus, talk about a nightmare!
Yeah, it’s crazy. And the funny thing is that the people in the 40+k Odysseys see our 70k-new-but-bought-used-for-26k Mercedes minivan-looking-thing and think we’re the snobs.
Something from yesterday I thought deserved a reply:
Comment by AmazingRuss
2013-12-05 16:59:32
It folks are generally incompetent because they are generally morons, just like the rest of the population. They don’t bother me nearly as much as doctors who can’t apply critical thinking to reach a diagnosis.
You’re thinking of desktop support. Your average Best buy / Genius Bar level wannabe. That’s not IT.
They guy that drives out to the data center at 2am when the DC provider had complete power/ups failure, diagnoses and fixes multiple network, firewall, load balancing, database, and custom server issues across 3 continents with less than 3 hours sleep in 48 hours, brings several hundred systems back online to deliver services to hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers. Singlehandedly.
THAT is an IT guy.
Call us morons again, and we’ll replace you with a python script.
From CNBC a few minutes ago, sure the website is fixed and Obama did not know that uncle, at least in the biblical sense, at least from what we know right now:
An estimated 10 percent of all enrollments now being made on the federal Obamacare marketplace contain data errors that could delay people from actually getting health coverage, officials disclosed Friday.
And that error rate for enrollments submitted via HealthCare.gov and then sent to insurers before December was an estimated 25 percent, officials revealed.
50,000 in NJ sign up for Internet gambling, 741 for Obamacare…..
National Review Online ^ | 12/5/2013 | John Fund
Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2013 6:55:11 PM by njslim
And indeed, fifty thousand people signed up online for New Jersey’s gambling sites in the first week. That compares with 741 who signed up for Obamacare during all of October. Yes, the Obamacare website has been plagued with problems, but the disparity between the two programs is still eye-popping.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3098676/posts - -
Another source:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/1-in-4-obamacare-enrollments-affected-by-technical-bug-first-month/article/2540329
Even more problems since the website was fixed:
http://news.yahoo.com/feds-39-gives-states-incomplete-medicaid-data-232423445.html
From market watch:
Foreclosure activity on homes worth $5 million surged 61% year over year through October, according to data released Wednesday by RealtyTrac, a real-estate data firm. In sharp contrast, overall foreclosures fell by 23% during the same period. While the number of these high-end foreclosures is relatively small — fewer than 200 homes, compared with 1.2 million properties overall — they may also represent a buying opportunity for high-net-worth home buyers, says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
Hey RioTard…. Hows your brother EddieTard these days?