Bits Bucket for December 13, 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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To Muggy - Respectfully, may I suggest that you consider this as your next gig:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/meet-tutor-who-makes-1-250-hour-2D11733545
You’d be a natural. What tales the kids could tell upon getting older! You and your family would travel. You would become a prized asset, in contrast to being a member of the contestant pool in the Hunger Games - as we are all now, with the bifurcation of society. You think your employers would ever allow you and your family to want for health care?
The downside: you will be managing the progeny and will become a sounding board for the master. A fine line, best negotiated by remaining analytical. You may find it beneficial to dispassionately consider alternative courses of action. Just thinking out loud, as it were, as you chat about the children’s progress. As Aristotle to Alex the Great kind of thing. You better believe that Aristotle, on occasion, had a brandy with Philip of Macedon.
None of us likes to come to grips with the fact that we are lackeys. The fact is, the .01% have got us licked, and the trend is accelerating.
My recommendation: consider holding your nose, and riding the gravy train.
A thought experiment. It is better to ride the wake of a behemoth, than to serve as chopped meat at the pleasure of a sea of petty bureaucrats playing D&D with you.
All you need is one year in good standing. The rest will be proffered, as if from an assembly line. You will become a status symbol.
Respectfully, if you don’t have degrees from extremely prestigious universities, you don’t have a chance of getting a job at an outfit like that. Being young, unencumbered by family obligations (or willing to shirk them) and attractive is certainly required. Also have to be willing to put up with bratty children and obnoxious parents 24×7x52 but absolutely no job security at all.
It isn’t worth it.
And if you do have such degrees 70-120 k in a metro area ain’t exactly getting over. I think the nannys of the rich and famous gotta be making around 50k.
The typical salary for a full-time tutor today has jumped to between $70,000 and $120,000 depending on the requirements. But Tutors International has placed one tutor who is making $400,000 a year and another who was paid $80,000 for just 16 weeks of work.
Man bites dog story.
… or he could move to a state that pays teachers well instead of Flori-duh.
Liberace!
ISTR New York being such a state. During the time I was in Rochester (early 90s as college co-op), I remember hearing of educators being paid well. Is that still the case, or has the income and tax trade-off made it a wash relative to other states?
If still the case, he’s conveniently from there which might be another reason they’ve considered moving back.
15 new reasons they want to kill you.
Seriously how long can this go on?
Drone strike kills 15 civilians heading to wedding in Yemen…
What’s scary about this is that what goes around, comes around. I don’t know how we’ve managed to avoid this, but sooner or later, we’re gonna get some of this in the US, too.
Which the PTB can use as an excuse for even more intrusive government as they move us to the Fascism which is a welfare state with government and business dictating our lives.
Another day when I will not be able to post or even read the comments but I will finish with this point. Islam has been trying to conquer the world and create a worldwide caliphate for over a thousand years. Many if not most muslims are willing to spread the faith via the sword. That is why I do not want Muslim immigration, Islam is not compatible with democracy. The PTB will tell you otherwise since they want one world government.
However, Islam and world-wide caliphate is not the real threat to our democracy it is the PTB that want Fascism and want to relegate religion to a non-role in government since it always has been a check on unlimited power just as it was in the Soviet bloc. Osama picked his primary target of the trade
center
because
he knew that it was the financial powers that were the true threat to Islam and his way of life. Not the Christian churches.
I think that both the caliphate and the Fascism are evil and a threat but it is interesting how the PTB use Islamic radicals to advance their agenda.
I’m friends/colleagues with gobs of Muslims (here in the US) and they are no different than you and me. They want to get laid, drink good scotch, have a nice family and live the American Dream just like everyone else.
The boys in the Middle East are different. You have a chronically underemployed young generation who have nothing else to do, and are quite willing to listen to evil theocrats. Any religion can be used for evil and it is clear that’s what the powers-that-be over there are doing. It’s wonderful that we keep droning wedding parties, nothing like adding fuel to the fire.
I still think the way to peace is a) lay broadband cable across the middle east and b) provide free sports channels and Playboy channel to everyone. War over.
My ex girlfriend is Muslim, enjoys songs by Leonard Cohen (Jewish), and is far less violent than ANY American Christian.
I think that’s the idea, they’d love to provoke such an event in the US, that’s how panty-sniffing nutz they are. Why else would they do these things and the open the immigration doors wide to hostile jihadists and foreign radicals? Home grown terrorism! Boo-yah, that’s the good stuff right there.
Yes, the US is under attack. By its own government, which means this is not really a US government, but some globalist clusterfark of insane panty-snorters.
‘Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) had a simple question Wednesday for three of the Obama administration’s top Afghanistan specialists: How many American troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year?’
‘None of the witnesses at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Afghanistan had an answer.’
‘How much is the U.S. spending in Afghanistan? Mr. Rohrabacher asked. No one could say.’
‘Democrats and Republicans both expressed frustration with Mr. Karzai, who surprised American and Afghan officials last month by refusing to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement that both countries spent the last year negotiating.’
“The patience of the Congress and the American people is wearing thin,” said Rep. Ted Deutch (D., Fla.), the committee’s top Democrat.’
‘All three sought to assuage lawmakers concerns about Mr. Karzai and U.S. policy. Mr. Rohrabacher delivered the hearing’s most caustic criticism.’
“I think we are groveling again,” he said. “Maybe this is the grovel administration… This is insanity and it’s time for us to get our butts out of that country, not for their sake, but for our sake.”
I am liking Karzai everyday. He’s been in power in for 12 years now…and that in Afghanistan. Just think about it… And he’s doing it by amassing massive wealth for himself and his cronies and running the ring around the US warmongers.
I ate ate an Afghan restaurant owned by a verge very close relative of Karzai on the east coast. A very trendy and upscale place.
Dam iPad. But you get the gist. Ate at a restaurant owned by brother or sister of Karzai.
Joe Canusi, it is called “blowback.”
For our marines occupying Lebanon, in 1983 terrorists blew up U.S. marine barracks, killing hundreds.
For our involvement in the Gulf war, Al Quaeda, who we heavily armed in the 80s to fight Russia bombed the World Trade Center in the early 90s and killed 3000 U.S. and foreign citizens gain in 2001.
Google search former CIA gent Michael Sheurer’s website, I think it’s called noninterventionism.com - he was highly involved in anti terror and got out after 2001 and has been trying to tell all the Americans why the interventionist policies caused all this mess and grew terrorism against us. Not coincodentally, Michael Shereur has supported Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns.
You are right. The terrorists do not rest and they will deliver new forms of blowback, maybe with their own drones.
“Google search former CIA gent Michael Sheurer’s website, I think it’s called noninterventionism.com - he was highly involved in anti terror and got out after 2001 and has been trying to tell all the Americans why the interventionist policies caused all this mess and grew terrorism against us.”
All roads eventually lead back to Israel. Crusades.
“Housing is a depreciating asset and a loss, always. Your losses are magnified tremendously if you finance it.”
BINGO
the Realtor is not your friend
SHILLS ARE GROWING ON THIS BLOG.
Eh huh.
Truth shills.
Note to Uncle Fed:
My first reaction is sell, sell, sell. you don’t want to be an absentee landlord.
But we don’t have enough information. How long is your gig? Do you want to return to the old turf?
All I know is you are getting a 10% roi compared to cash out. Make sure you include a generous maintenance fund. Did you count the tax exclusion for owner occupied? The 20% roi based on purchase price is irrelevant.
With the increase you give I can only presume the house is in CA, which is not a reality based real estate market. Some parts have apparently become the reserve currency for the entire pacific rim.
So if your gig is short term and you love your old house and location, then hang on to it. Just don’t think of it as an investment.
If you plan to be footloose for a while then settle somewhere else then sell, sell, sell.
you simply have to be in stocks and homes to get any return on your money. cash is trash.
How can that be considering houses are rapidly depreciating assets?
Your ability to generate income is your greatest asset. Investing is secondary. Now, if you have an incredible talent and ability to generate income through these means than you, my friend, have the best of both worlds.
I’m sure all those home builders who’ve been building hand over fist and have inventory coming on line now in places like Queen Creek appreciate that the conforming loan limits aren’t going to drop in 2014.
I’ve also been told by Amy Hoax that interest rates are sure to rise.
“places like Queen Creek”
The epitome of “drive til you qualify”, have fun spending 4 hours a day in the car to go to work to get the money to pay for the overpriced house that’s in the right school district because it’s for the children, the children you never get to see because you spend all your time in the car and at work.
Denver Post - Multiple stabbings, fights after Broncos game at Mile High in Denver:
“Four people were stabbed in the parking lot of Sports Authority Field at Mile High following the Broncos’ loss to the Chargers on Thursday night.
The game — won by the Chargers 27-20 — finished about 9:25 p.m. And the apparent fights broke out on the west side of the stadium in a parking lot.
It was the second Broncos game this season that was followed by a violent incident. A man dies after an altercation in Kansas City on Dec. 1 after the Broncos beat the Chiefs.”
Can you blame them? Who knows how much home equity went poof after St. Peyton Manning failed to deliver manna from heaven?
You should have seen the block parties after home games at Football Factory State University back in the day. Couches and mattresses dragged into the streets and set on fire, cars flipped over, students throwing bottles and rocks at the police, police responding with tear gas and “knee knocker” bullets, good times …
Men raised without fathers. Breakdown of the traditional family unit. Lack of discipline and respect.
It really is that simple… be sure to thank the feminists and progressives for their “politically correct” destruction of our society.
Mmmmm … I would say that the typical student at CU Boulder was raised in an upper middle class home by both parents.
Heck, back when I was at UCSD, the rowdy kids (who got plastered every Friday night) were from unbroken homes, while many who behaved were from broken homes.
Whatever you do, never trust realtors
http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/buyers-basics/
Amy and MW is very disappointed with you.
I have 3,662 followers on Twitter. How many followers do you have?
Oh right, you don’t have any, because nobody listens to your negativity.
You’ll be hearing from them soon.
HA prefers quality over quantity.
And WTF is Twitter? Should I care? Is it owned by the NSA? If so, I should not care.
Current Drudge banner headline is that it snowed in Cairo for the first time in 100 years.
Articles about snow = global warming doesn’t exist.
Exactly what Koch wants you to believe.
So, if Koch doesn’t want me to believe in Global Proven Science, then I must believe, in order to be a better person?
The Kochs live in Aspen so they don’t have to breathe this:
http://www.colorado.gov/airquality/air_quality.aspx
I support good air quality. But that’s a different subject.
I’ll likely never run into anyone who lives in Aspen.
“Exactly what Koch wants you to believe.”
Man made global warming. Exactly what the Authoritarian Communist Movement wants you to believe.
I think Yahoo runs these articles just to stave off people’s anger:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/americans-have-never-been-so-wealthy–really—213820271.html
You vent on a message board with a comment and then go back to routine life. It is either that or Yahoo really is some kind of Ministry of Truth mouthpiece.
Words mean things. It must be a matter of semantics. I felt like it is a patronization to say we are wealthy.
Correction: the 0.1% have never been richer or paid less taxes or owned less congressmen.
Provocative headlines and articles gets you eyeballs and clicks.
That’s all.
That’s the Drudge Report business model.
Drudge posts articles that stoke alleged conservatives into outrage, but never wanders too far off the corporate plantation.
FHA Actuarial Report Finds Agency Still Unable to Cover Losses
By Clea Benson Dec 13, 2013 10:30 AM ET
Bloomberg
The Federal Housing Administration remains unable to cover projected losses in the $1.1 trillion portfolio of home loans it backs, an independent actuary said in an annual report.
FHA is unlikely to raise the premiums it charges borrowers again this year because its rates are getting too expensive for the first-time and moderate-income homebuyers it’s designed to serve, Galante said.
[ed. note: Riiiiiggght. Those same first time and moderate income homebuyers who are taking out 625,000 dollar (or larger - exceptions are allowed with the new rules) loans? The FHA, Fannie and Freddie are what years of buying politicians gets you. It is seriously like nothing more than an elaborate kickback system. The reason Wall Street won’t be folded into the government is because politicians couldn’t then get the massive contributions from it.
I found the FHA’s mission statement recently. It says nothing about low or moderate income buyers.. Its director claims one thing, but its actions indicate quite another.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-13/fha-actuarial-report-finds-agency-still-unable-to-cover-losses.html
Uh oh…….
Feds say they disrupted suicide bomb plot by worker at Wichita airport
A 58-year-old airport worker was charged Friday with allegedly planning a suicide bombing at a passenger terminal at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Kansas.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/13/21891923-feds-say-they-disrupted-suicide-bomb-plot-by-worker-at-wichita-airport
58 year old NSA operative / NSA Manchurian Candidate to provoke more gullible Americans into wanting to give up more freedom for more security.
In these morale building ops, you’ll note the intel community rarely messes with anybody who has standing, or enough of a circle to make noise after the fact. Easier to use people if they’re isolated, lack means, and are not overly analytical. In short, FBI trots out ops like this when they can get away with it. Or (in the kindest construction), since they can’t catch the fish, they’ll net the fry.
Let’s try an equally likely construction.
Boss tells guy the fake explosives are fire retardant. Orders guy to get hisself and his fire retardant to the xyz location double plus quick. Hot landing coming in, could go left. Jump on it. Truck’s already loaded, waiting for him. Guy goes where he’s supposed to go and all hell breaks loose. Uses his 20 minutes/week of phone time out in the hallway trying to get through to an investigative (! cough, cough ) journalist.
Or, maybe it’s all the same to him. Guy’s wife ran off with a drummer and the kids won’t come anywhere near him and his single wide. Doesn’t have enough money for cable. Spends his off time on the cheapest entertainment available – the internet. Finds a honeypot that has people with whom he’s got something in common. They’re all as PO’d as he is. On his work days, he goes off to work, a welcome break. This day, he gets an urgent call to take the load of chemical retardant to the terminal. He smiles. Someone has already deposited $500K in a numbered account. He’ll keep his mouth shut. Be out in ten. Meanwhile, he’ll get to watch TV again.
A number of commenters noted their suspicion of timely orchestration. Designed to be trotted out before the House Intelligence Sub-Committee (or whatever) next time a morale boost is in order. Or, to substantiate double plus good budget increases with which to buy more materiel with which to hound citizens.
Psychopaths will do anything to maintain control. With a badge and a gun, they have quite a bit of leeway to recast things to their liking. They do get mighty PO’d if a source of narcissistic supply tries to harsh their mellow.
White House Front Group Vows to Target Alternative Media
Media Matters set to intensify attacks against Drudge, Infowars in concert with Obama advisors
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 13, 2013
White House front group Media Matters has vowed to target “alternative online outlets” as part of its new “strategic plan” to exert media influence in coordination with the Obama administration.
Image: Media Matters CEO David Brock (YouTube).
Claiming that its war with Fox News is over and that “to a large extent, we won” (despite polls showing Americans trust Fox News over any other mainstream network), Media Matters has finalized a blueprint which outlines a shift to focus on “new, increasingly influential targets, including Spanish-language media, social media streams, alternative online outlets and morning and entertainment sources.”
In other words, Media Matters, whose employees brag about writing MSNBC’s prime time content and attending strategy calls with Obama advisors on a weekly basis, will now turn its big guns on the likes of Infowars, Alex Jones and the Drudge Report.
Given how Media Matters’ supposed “victory” over Fox News has left Fox as the most trusted name amongst network media outlets, we welcome the attention. While grandstanding as some kind of bastion of credibility, Media Matters has failed to recognize that by aligning with an administration which recently hit record low approval figures, the operation has completely discredited itself.
Media Matters is the closest thing America has to actual state media. This organization is nothing less than a conduit for Obama administration spin doctors, who in turn set the talking points for the likes of MSNBC and CNN. This is why Media Matters’ attacks on Drudge and Infowars are about to intensify.
A 2012 Daily Caller investigation into Media Matters discovered that in 2010 founder David Brock and then-Media Matters president Eric Burns “traveled to the White House for a meeting with Valerie Jarrett, arguably the president’s closest adviser.”
The investigation also revealed that an Obama administration representative meets with Media Matters reps at the Common Purpose Project meeting at the Capitol Hilton on 16th Street in Washington every Tuesday evening to conduct “a weekly strategy call with the White House”.
Media Matters itself hardly registers when it comes to Internet traffic. However, by following orders from the White House, the organization is able to project its influence. One employee bragged about how Media Matters works with the White House to control big media networks. “We were pretty much writing their prime time,” a former Media Matters employee said of the cable channel MSNBC. “But then virtually all the mainstream media was using our stuff.”
Media Matters is tied at the hip with Think Progress as part of John D. Podesta’s Progressive Media propaganda campaign, described as a “war room for promoting the foreign and domestic policies of Barack Obama.” Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, also helped found Media Matters. The organization also received a $1 million contribution from billionaire globalist George Soros back in 2010.
Podesta, who headed up Barack Obama’s presidential transition team, founded The Center for American Progress, which is tasked with “driving the White House’s message and agenda”.
Media Matters’ decision (in concert with the White House) to shift to focus on “entertainment sources” is also an admission of defeat.
Tacitly acknowledging their failure to influence Americans via traditional means, Media Matters and the Obama administration have abandoned political avenues in favor of targeting entertainment-obsessed zombies who get their opinions from the likes of Kanye West and Beyonce, attempting to ‘brand’ White House policies as ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’, just as Obama himself was just a manufactured brand.
In line with the White House move to utilize ‘sex symbols’ and other Hollywood airheads as a promotional vehicle for the disastrous Obamacare rollout, Media Matters will now attempt to police and control entertainment media because the Obama administration recognizes they’ve lost the fight for the minds of people who are concerned with hard news.