Bits Bucket for December 20, 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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December 18, 2013 7:02 pm
Reality dawns for artificial world created by Fed activism
By FT Reporters in New York
General Views Of Trading At The NYSE
In the five years since the US Federal Reserve instituted emergency borrowing rates and began buying huge amounts of bonds, Wall Street has boomed, but the broader economy has recovered far more slowly.
The question now is whether the rally in equities to record highs and a solid recovery in home prices thanks to the Fed’s various renditions of quantitative easing will provide the foundations for a stronger economy in 2014.
“QE got rid of the headache, but we are hooked on the painkiller now,” says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. “It’s time the Fed moved away from having created an artificial world and allowed the economy to stand on its own.”
Half a decade of activist central banking has made an artificial world seem normal, however. The process of getting back to more traditional definitions of “normal” interest rates and economic activity will pose new challenges for investors, businesses, consumers and policy makers alike.
Low interest rates have helped companies and some homeowners refinance their debts at cheaper borrowing levels, a boon for the long-term health of the economy. Cheap finance has also fuelled an impressive recovery in car sales, housing and, in conjunction with a soaring stock market, helped private equity firms turn around some companies and exit their investments through initial public offerings.
But low interest rates also penalise the ranks of savers, at a time when the baby boomer generation is retiring and relies heavily on fixed incomes. Before the financial crisis, a retiree could lock in a 5 per cent savings rate by owning a five-year certificate of deposit from a bank. That rate now hovers around 1.3 per cent with little sign of it rising back to a level that will boost income.
The ready availability of cheap credit also delays the natural cycle of corporate bankruptcies, which results in a more efficient use of resources across the economy.
“QE has pushed up asset prices and enhanced income inequality, that’s a structural weakness for the economy,” says Chris Watling, chief market strategist at Longview Economics. “QE has also held back the long-term health of the economy as we have not seen the normal pattern of business deaths that is part of the creative destruction process.”
While emergency near-zero interest rates and the first round of QE stabilised markets and the economy in 2009, the missing ingredient of a robust recovery has been the reticence of companies to boost their capital spending. Scarred by the financial crisis, companies have focused on stockpiling cash and using excess holdings to pay dividends or buy back their shares, notably in the case of Apple.
“QE 1,2 and 3 has been implemented under the assumption that low interest rates will kick-start spending,” says James Sarni, managing principal at Payden & Rygel.
“QE has not been the answer to get people and companies spending and investing in their businesses. There remains a confidence problem as there is a high degree of uncertainty about the economic outlook,” he says.
…
All of a sudden after five years, the rocket scientists are figuring out that maybe this Bernanke Zirp stuff isn’t working.Duh!! Only private sector job formation, less govt. meddling and massive across the board tax cuts will solve this Keynesian mess.
Nonsense. The solution is more borrowing.
Interest rates will start going up soon, and when interest rates rise, home prices rise too. Now is a great time to buy a home and lock in a low interest rate at a low price.
“…when interest rates rise, home prices rise too.”
Why make up nonsense and post it here? Are you trying to prove to the whole wide world what a moron you are?
Yes, as interest rates rise home prices also rise because those ignorant people who are sitting on the sidelines will suddenly become Enlighted and they will decide to put their money down as they, at last, fully understand that if they do not buy now they will be priced out forever. This increase in interest by these now fully Enlightened, formally ignorant sideliners, will translate into MORE MONEY being poured into real estate, and, as anybody with even one mildly active brain cell will tell you, pouring money into real estate - or pouring money into anything - will make values GO UP!
It’s a lock!
If you change your mind about buying, I can give you that referral for a reputable Realtor who serves the San Diego market.
“reputable Realtor”
Oxymoron?
“Interest rates will start going up soon, and when interest rates rise, home prices rise too.”
This is the level of economic stupidity Realtors possess, people. Scary, isn’t it?
But Mr.Banker, how can anyone borrow any more? Everyone is tapped out. Unless we all just start up our own printing presses in the basement.
Borrowers who are tapped out need to work harder and work longer, perhaps begin to work a second job. As they work harder and longer they will obtain additional income. This additional income will add to their credit worthiness and adding to one’s credit worthiness adds to one’s ability to borrow.
Or maybe one should think of working smarter rather than working harder, and for those enlightened few who choose to think this way I have some money set aside that I will be happy to loan to you.
I’m talking about student loans, of course.
“Borrowers who are tapped out need to work harder and work longer, perhaps begin to work a second job.”
M. Banker you forget the illegal alien way to borrow. You use someone’s social security number, it is best to use young children’s numbers and open multiple lines of credit with various social security numbers. There is no need to ever run out of credit. If it looks like you will be caught it is just time to run back to Mexico and spend that money that you sent there through Western Union. Aren’t cash advances a wonderful thing?
I was always a little curious as to how many new F-350 trux that Ford/GM lost in the reverse mexodus.
Not enough, since the mexodus was not large enough.
Asia Times Online - Secret information: The currency of power
The transcript of the following interview was exclusively arranged for Asia Times Online. An audio file of the interview is published at the German financial web site “Die Metallwoche” here.
Thomas Drake, born 1957, is a former senior executive at the US National Security Agency who blew the whistle on a multi-billion dollar program fraud and cover up as well as the NSA’s secret unlawful surveillance program. The US Department of Justice prosecuted and indicted him under the World War I-era Espionage Act in April, 2010, under 10 felony counts including that he “mishandled documents”. The case against him ultimately collapsed. He eventually pled to one misdemeanor count for exceeding authorized use of a computer. He is a former airborne crypto-linguist and electronic warfare mission crew supervisor. From 1991-1998 he worked at Booz Allen Hamilton as a management, strategy and technology consultant and software quality engineer. In 2011, Drake became the recipient of the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Award.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GECON-02-231213.html
Realtors Just Love Those Government Housing Market Subsidies
By Gary Lucido
I guess it’s just the American way. Always have your hand out for the next government subsidy and the politicians in Washington are always too willing to cooperate in response to powerful lobbying organizations. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is no exception when it comes to begging for government housing market subsidies. With around 1,000,000 members the NAR is the world’s largest professional organization and has approximately a $155 MM budget. And look how much of that budget goes towards influencing the government to subsidize home ownership:
■Approximately $40 MM to “targeted state and local real estate and homeownership advocacy”
■Approximately $28 MM to “Government Affairs, Political Affairs, Economics & Research, Regulatory Affairs, RPAC, Public Affairs”
■And another $35 MM doesn’t really go directly to government lobbying but does go towards “advocating for REALTORS® and homeownership” - mostly through advertising
As a real estate agent you really have no choice but to join the NAR and pay their dues. So whether or not you believe in their causes you are supporting them. In addition to these amounts they also collect extra donations from realtors to support their pet causes.
Recently the NAR has had their underwear in a knot over two issues that they believe affects their livelihood.
Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act
First the NAR issued a Call To Action for their members regarding the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, which seeks to delay implementation of rate increases for the national flood insurance program (a government run program). As the name implies this legislation aims to keep flood insurance affordable.
FHA Loan Limits
The Federal Housing Administration, one of several government programs set up to subsidize homeownership, was created in 1934 to get the housing market back on its feet by insuring mortgages, thus reducing the risk to mortgage lenders and increasing the availability of homeownership to more people. As recently as 2005, in the heat of the housing bubble, they were insuring only 2.6% of all the new home purchases. However, in the aftermath of the bursting of the housing bubble their share of the market soared to 32.2% in the second quarter of 2010 as lenders became more cautious and homeowners had less money to put down towards buying a home. Since then FHA’s share of the mortgage market has scaled back to only 17.2% in the third quarter of 2013.
FHA was never intended to insure all the mortgages out there - just those of people needing an extra bit of help - people with lower down payments (as low as 3.5% vs. 10 - 20% normally), shopping at the lower end of the price range. In order to control their involvement in the housing market the FHA set loan limits on the homes they would help people buy and these loan limits were temporarily raised during the housing crisis in order to help the housing market recover.
As with most government programs that subsidize anything the FHA has been losing money lately. In fact, for the first time ever it had to ask the Treasury for $1.7 B to support them. And since the housing recovery is well on its way the FHA is in a position to try to scale back their operations and recover some of their losses. So they are raising their insurance rates (the homebuyer pays this) and lowering their loan limits again effective January 1.
The loan limits are set differently for different areas of the country depending upon housing costs. Chicago had been allowed loan limits of $410,000 for single family homes but that is being scaled back to $365,700. The loan limits on 2, 3, and 4 flat buildings are also being reduced.
No surprise the NAR is troubled by these actions so they joined with a special interest coalition in sending a letter to the FHA “urging them to reconsider these changes and asking for more transparency in the process of determining the limits”. The letter includes the usual appeals about the American dream of homeownership and the fragility of the economic recovery.
I guess this is just how Democracy works.
http://www.chicagonow.com/getting-real/2013/12/realtors-just-love-those-government-housing-market-subsidies/ - 72k -
realtors are frauds
If you’ve been sitting on the fence, now is a great time to buy a home.
You can tell the echo bubble is getting long in the teeth when Realtor®s start posting their stopped-clock “there has never been a better time to buy” sales pitches on the HBB.
There has never been a better time to borrow.
You are correct, this graph proves it:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=MORTGAGE30US
FHA faces $1.3 billion capital shortfall, audit finds
By by Margaret Chadbourn
Published: December 13
The Federal Housing Administration, which recently received an infusion of funds from the Treasury to cover projected losses, still faces a $1.3 billion capital shortfall, an independent audit released Friday found.
The annual analysis calculates the solvency of the FHA’s mortgage insurance fund under a range of economic assumptions.
FHA Commissioner Carol Galante declined to comment at a briefing for reporters on whether the agency might need a second straight taxpayer subsidy. The government mortgage insurer received a $1.7 billion infusion from Treasury in September, the first time it has needed aid in its 79-year history.
The report could raise concerns about the prospect of more taxpayer dollars being tapped to stabilize the housing sector, which was at the epicenter of the 2007-09 financial crisis and recession. Nevertheless, it showed the FHA’s finances improving from the $16.3 billion shortfall that was projected a year ago.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), who heads the House Financial Services Committee, seized on the audit to argue the need to reduce governmental involvement in housing.
“A broke FHA is a broken FHA,” he said. “The American people want to end the destructive cycle of boom, bust and bailout that Washington housing policies have helped foster.”
Democrats noted that the agency’s financial health was improving, and said it must work to ensure that affordable loans are available for first-time home buyers.
David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association and a former FHA commissioner, said the agency’s troubles could soon be behind it.
“Today’s report, while recognizing FHA’s current shortfall, shows clear improvement over last year and is a sign that the [insurance fund] is headed in the right direction and could soon be positive,” he said.
1 Comments
Prof-Dr-G wrote:
12/14/2013 7:10 AM EST
Only in Washington could a 1.3 billion shortfall be classified as an imporvement.
What’s a $1.3 bn shortfall after you have already blown trillions of dollars on housing market reflation? This amounts to no more than a politician’s p!ss!ng into the wind.
another 2 billion bailout to homeowners who were duped:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ocwen-settlement-20131219,0,3061881.story#axzz2o1kYVjoV
Mortgages set to get more expensive:
http://business.time.com/2013/12/19/fannie-and-freddie-make-mortgages-more-expensive/
Liberace!
52.243-1 Changes–Fixed-Price
As prescribed in 43.205(a)(1), insert the following clause. The 30-day period may be varied according to agency procedures.
(c) The Contractor must assert its right to an adjustment under this clause within 30 days from the date of receipt of the written order. However, if the Contracting Officer decides that the facts justify it, the Contracting Officer may receive and act upon a proposal submitted before final payment of the contract.
“The biggest impact, though, will be felt from rising prices and mortgages rates. After jumping about 12% this year, home prices should rise another 5% in 2014, says Fratantoni. He also believes that as the Fed tapers its bond buying, 30-year fixed mortgage rates will jump from around 4.5% today to 5.5% in 2015. Both those paces far outstrip pay raises expected to be just 3% next year, making a mortgage that much tougher to get.”
I think there are a lot of questionable assumptions in that paragraph. Houses will rise another 5% in 2014? I don’t think so, I think they will track rents and I do not see a 5% rise in 2014. I will leave it to HA to state whether rents will rise or fall, I will just guess they will track rents. Second, a 3% wage gain? The military is getting a 1% pay raise as our many federal workers and they are a major part of the economy, state and local governments are strapped and industrial production is weak, I do not see a 3% wage gain. Only a 1% increase in mortgages, not if we really cutback on QE3.
I agree, the assumptions on price are pure speculation.
The key takeaways for me all suggest prices would move downwards to match tougher mortgage terms and conditions:
- Interest rates rising = prices should fall because the likelihood of a real rise on HH income is small.
- Tougher credit scoring limits = less people will qualify at all, prices should fall to match demand.
- More fees associated with Fannie/Freddie backing = banks will pass that to borrowers.
- More regulation required for banks to do biz with Fannie/Freddie = less banks will be in this business or they will do less volume.
My disagreement with RAL has always been about these trends being across-the-board vs varying based on location. Some areas are more sensitive bc the residents are already having income or credit distress, while others are relatively insulated because of high levels of actual home ownership or high household incomes.
I agree, the assumptions on price are pure speculation.
Then why are you posting speculation?
You know very well that housing depreciates and housing prices don’t “go up”.
25 MILLION excess, empty and defaulted houses CHECK
Housing demand at 14 year lows and falling CHECK
Housing prices inflated by 250% CHECK
Household formation at multi decade lows CHECK
Rampant housing fraud CHECK
Public denial formed and supported by a corrupt media CHECK
Population growth the lowest in US history CHECK
Immigration flat to slightly negative CHECK
Oh my word……
Several of my clients who are first time home buyers sent me Christmas cards to thank me for helping them buy the homes of their dreams this year.
Give them few years…you will receive death threats.
In a few years the houses just might end up being mine.
“Give them few years…you will receive death threats.”
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. so true!
I, too, thank you for your efforts. The monthly payments these clients of yours send to me help me keep me enjoying the lifestyle I have grown accustomed to living.
Please think of extending your efforts a bit so more monthly payments can be sent my way.
The beauty of this, at least for me, is you, the realtor, do all the hustling of getting the client to commit and for this you get a fee - you get to maybe split 6 percent of the sale. I, on the other hand, do no hustling of my own, get a fee for the hustling you performed, also get a fee when he commits, PLUS I get to extract monthly payments from the buyer for as long as he has a mortgage.
I don’t feel that way at all. My job is about helping people, helping them buy the home of their dreams, making their dreams come true. Any commission I receive for this is secondary to the warm feelings I earn from helping people.
Mr Realtor, did you deliver your little calendars and Christmas candles to the doorsteps yet?
We sent gift baskets to our clients this year.
http://www.realliving.com/Premier-Realty
Baskets for the financial basket cases. lolz
The stock market always goes up. Have you been priced out forever by now thanks to sitting on the sidelines while others prosper by just putting money into stocks and waiting?
Witchy volatility, BlackBerry reports and Facebook gets S&P 500′d
December 20, 2013, 6:29 AM
By Shawn Langlois
The best the bears could do after that rally on Wednesday was to run the Dow up another few more points. That bodes well for the stretch-run toward 2014. If traders aren’t taking profits after that plump hump-day explosion, then what will it take?
…
they sure do cherry pick which companies get in the s&p so it always looks like it is going up.
My 50% match at work really forces me to invest, at least up to the match, 6% of my income is the max. I am lucky since the employer also provides a defined benefits retirement. So I do not have to count on the defined contribution plan. I guess it is really a bet that the PTB will not allow, at least in nominal terms, the market to drop more than 33%. I am five years away from being able to take money out without penalty so here is hoping they can keep the scam going for a little while longer.
My 50% match at work really forces me to invest,’
that’s cool I don’t get a match just a company stock purchase plan
with a 15% discount. rolling 6 month periods buy then sell repeat.
not so great for taxes like a 401K
TSA Launches ‘Fun’ Website For Kids
Cartoon video erroneously teaches kids airport security is a breeze
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 19, 2013
The TSA has launched a new “fun” website for kids in order to “help all passengers understand what to expect when going through airport security.”
The extent of the “fun” is an animated YouTube video which depicts TSA agents as polite, cuddly dog cartoon characters, a word search, and a print out of a TSA badge which can be colored in.
The mother and father characters in the video attempt to assure their child that the TSA checkpoint is not scary at all, that airport security is a breeze, and that “TSA officers are here to keep us secure.”
The video makes no mention of full body scanners or the invasive pat downs for which TSA workers have become notorious. It’s just “stop, screen and go!”
Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the multitude of horror stories involving the TSA will of course come to the conclusion that the cartoon scenario is not so much sugar coated but a completely deluded fairytale. Unsurprisingly, comments for the video have been disabled.
In many cases, the reality of TSA security for children, especially if they are disabled, has been quite a departure from that depicted in the cartoon, as the videos below illustrate, but don’t expect any of them to appear on the TSA kids website anytime soon.
http://www.infowars.com/tsa-launches-fun-website-for-kids/ -
dianne feinstein should volunteer all her grandchildren to demonstrate how helpful and kid-friendly the tsa is
One of the best articles on gold manipulation that I have ever read. In a very concise article it covers history, includes what China is doing and predicts the future:
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldForecaster/1387573200.php
Great post Dan! Though it amazes me how people forget China is buying up pgysical gold, and the peanut gallery calls it a “worthless relic.” the Chinese are not stupid. Nor the Indians.
You know that is seldom that the little guy gets the advantage of knowing that a stock or other investment is deliberately being held down in price. The big boys can and often do hold down a stock including using a friendly media to allow them to buy a position on the cheap. We are being allowed to accumulate the real asset and stocks on the cheap.
We know that this is occurring. You protect yourself by a disciplined approach to buying gold which allows you buy more when it is cheap. I use the writing of call options on PM stocks and moving to platinum family stocks when the PTB are raping gold and silver. However, honestly I am not writing options on gold and silver when the present options expire worthless in January (good for me). I think we are very close to the parabolic move in gold and silver. Unfortunately, I think the manipulators will profit from that too since they will know when the manipulation will stop.
However, with gold mines closing all over the world and Asia vacuuming up gold, I think even the manipulators know they are reaching the end of the line.
Don’t look now but gold has recaptured the 1200 level. I remember last year when gold was trading around 1400 and whac asked at what point do you buy physical gold I said below 1200. We have been there twice and so far bounced off that level. I really think that has to be the bottom since at that point too many gold mines lose money even if you ignore the sunk costs. Over the longer term it is a much higher number since it takes fresh investment to make up for the depletion of the mines. Very hard for the paper manipulators to go below 1200 and to some extent I think the big banks don’t even try.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/shanghai-gold-exchange-contract-volume-surges-on-price-slump.html
Yes like that first post you put above, the Chinese love the manipulation of gold prices downward.
If the ignorant average American won’t take gold, there are hundreds of millions of citizens from dozens of other nations who value gold and will trade.
When you build up opposing asset classes to a very impressive amount, there will be times when you worry about the cycles of the asset too high. And your assets get unbalanced. Within the class you should sell the biggest gains and either move to the losers of that same class or the losers in other classes.
We read here and on financial blogs that stocks are manipulated up. Precious metals are manipulated down. But there is only so much manipulation the PPT can do until stock prices and gold prices reverse. And they will at some point.
My ex company stock has been my biggest winner. Staffing. For the last five years.
From my own observations here is what I see. I have been low balled. Even though my recruiter charged my former client the same price per hour he cut my rate. I was arranging for him to lend me out to my current company but he was cutting my rate again. I called bull. The fact is my former company is growing by leaps and bounds, buying other companies and recruiting newbie consultants. the newbie consultants do not know how to price themselves and are undercutting the veterans.
This is what will happen with all staffing firms. When you undercut so much, it won’t be lucrative to go consulting versus the direct hire salary and benefits. This happened to me.
So to make a long story short, staffing companies will do great until they lose their staff and direct hire jobs become popular.
When / if ObysmalCare gets repealed, it will be a big blow to staffing firms as well.
When these events happen I don’t know. I don’t want to take the gamble and be completely in a “Lucent” or “Worldcom” situation with my stock. So sell bits and pieces here and there.
I can handle the taxes. Let the government crooks profit too off of my investments - for a time. I will still profit more than the government crooks.
do hold down a stock including using a friendly media
What do you call this.. “trash and cash?” To be followed, of course, by pump and dump.
“Police have arrested four children in connection with a string of alleged “knockout game” attacks in Brooklyn, the NYPD said.
A 14-year-old girl and three other children, aged 10 and 11, were arrested in connection with three assaults that took place between October and November.”
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131219/crown-heights/four-young-students-arrested-alleged-knockout-attacks-police-say
I am an avid runner/jugger/walker in my hood. Lately whenever I pass a group of kids in the street while I am running/jogging, in my mind I am already making an escape plan. Is that wrong? I know I am not an ideal “knock out game” target…but I have started to look any group of kids with suspicion lately.
Lately? I’ve been doing that for decades. I guess that’s racis.
It is. It is also sensible. Hard to reconcile the two unless we define differently than we do right now.
But you are a girlie girl. I am a man’s man….so I thought anyway. With a group of men with various shades of brownish hue, I have been careful in the past (I know I am a racis)….these days I don’t even trust the 10 or 12 year olds white kids with their skateboards. My nabe is a city and has nice mixture of races.
in my mind I am already making an escape plan. Is that wrong?
—————————————————————————–
Yes its wrong because if you run, you are shifting the problem onto the next innocent person.
Relax your body and if anything happens, go for the neck.
Most people have weak neck muscles; a short sharp twist is usually all it takes to break one.
Move to FL, get a permit, carry a gun. Problem solved.
The first time this happens in a state where people are allowed to carry and a thug (kid?) gets his head blown off, that should be the end of this problem.
People who do things like this really deserve very little/no mercy. They are predators and need to be put down as such. They are worse than hit-men because, at least in that case, there’s a profit motive. In this case, these people are killing/hurting for fun. Classic psychopath/sociopath. Too bad they didn’t channel their “talents” and go work on Wall St.
didn’t channel their “talents” and go work on Wall St.
It’s the brownish hue that prevents them from getting in the wall st in the first place.
They are not “thugs”, they are to be referred to in the media as “youths” or “students”.
http://i.imgur.com/NV7AeZx.jpg
It’s the brownish hue that prevents them from getting in the wall st in the first place.
Come on what is the average IQ on Wall Street and the average IQ of a street thug? A high IQ does not ensure you will be honest or even a decent person but it does decide whether you will steal with a fountain pen or a gun.
“move to florida”
You misspelled Floriduh.
“If I had a son, he’s look like Trayvon” - President Barack Hussein Obama
“It’s the brownish hue that prevents them from getting in the wall st in the first place.”
Not really, Indians seem to have no problem getting in to Wall Street, despite a dusky hue.
Indians are rare at the higher levels but ubiquitous in operations depts and other back office types of things. Quants are an interesting exception. But there really aren’t a lot of Vikram Pandits out there. Almost all white bros.
Give them time they will move up in ranks. The truth is most people do value people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. However, that is just people that we have time to interact with for a protracted period. When we encounter strangers we generalize so if we see a group of blacks we are more likely to take a defensive posture. Nothing wrong with that, sorry for not being PC. I have never been mugged but I came close a couple times. It was only the extra caution and the presence of mind to lean again a fire alarm that saved me once and making sure my back was against a wall when I was with my girlfriend another time that allowed me to protect both of us.
Here in NM race seems to be even more flexible and Hispanics and Native Americans do not even consider you to be white once you are friends with them. To them white means a WASP that acts superior. It is probably only on a blog such as this that an honest discussion of race can occur.
Here in NM race seems to be even more flexible and Hispanics and Native Americans do not even consider you to be white once you are friends with them.
The “New Mexicans” I have met consider themselves to be “Spanish” and thus “white”. From what they have told me they consider themselves distinct from south of the border Mexicans.
The “New Mexicans” I have met consider themselves to be “Spanish” and thus “white”. From what they have told me they consider themselves distinct from south of the border Mexicans.
That is true but I am talking about white in the sense of WASP. I had a conversation with someone at what was essentially an Irish wake. He said his brother in-law said he would never let his daughter marry a “white” guy. The guy who is a WASP stated back but I am married to your sister. The brother-in-law then stated that I don’t mean you, you are family. I have native American friends make white jokes around me but to them white does not mean just skin color. It is hard to explain unless you live in NM, I guess. Even our food is not Mexican and is not Tex/Mex it is unique.
Careful Dan. You’re making us sound too good. We don’t want to be overrun by californicators like CO, ok? NM is a horrible, violent state. Citzens carry guns! It’s like the old west in the movies! Stay away if you value your lives! Hot as hell in summer and lethal cold in winter. Brrrrrrrr! Dangerous! Poverty! Bad for children!
When transvetites and realtors show up in your town, you know you’ve been californicated.
Silly me I thought Obamacare was suppose to get the uninsured, insured not make the insured, uninsured. Government by executive fiat for the change also, we don’t need no stinking constitution:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/obama-aides-say-more-to-gain-coverage-under-aca-than-canceled.html
Dan- Note that Obama and statists win yet again. How? By trashing the Constitution yet again.
Cause a crisis AND dismiss the Constitution simultaneously.
It’s a win-win if you’re a NeoCon-Progressive Party member.
Yes, the way they “think” it is all good.
We’re going to end up with single payer which is fine. And I say this as someone who barely pays anything for gold plated benefits, so it’s not something that will help me personally.
If you really want to understand what both parties have done that truly undermines the idea that was once America, try these:
- Destroy any sense of unique national identity; anyone can be an American, therefore being an American means nothing. The GOP has been sucking corporate c*ck for so long, they encouraged this 100%. And Democrats are happy to scoop up most of the new voters. Win/win for both.
- Patriotism means waving a flag around and making references to Founding Fathers, who at the same time, were evil white supremacist patriarchs
- Replace culture with consumerism. You “need” multiple cars. You “need” to live in a generic POS tract house in a POS suburb. Etc.
- Push social Marxist ideas of egalitarianism while also pushing Postmodern ideas that there is nothing is true
- Add in a soulless and ruthless capitalist economic system. Spread memes like “bootstrapping” and “job creator” which mean nothing. Get middle class people to align themselves with the real owners of America and sell out their own interests. I.e. Mitt Romney pays no taxes for a decade, but is seen by many middle class people as a hero and patriot.
- The only way out is to take out loans to pay for college. But, of course, this is a lie, bc you still have to go to the right college or know the right people to get a cushy job (translated: not doing the actual grunt work… e.g. tax policy or patent law, not actually coding or designing)
- In college, you learn about how evil you are just by existing since you are white. This is bc we let the government fund colleges without discriminating in favor of quality, i.e. you can borrow just as much for UMass as you can for MIT or Harvard.
- Ruthless capitalist society is punctuated by social justice programs aimed at helping out young people… as long as they are the right skin color. But if you’re a poor white southerner, screw you, you’re out of luck.
- Some shallow, soccer-mom Christianity sprinkled here and there in the north with evangelical/fundy churches in the south. No one does introspection or improves themselves, just a lot of back patting and confirmation of prejudices. Allows southern politicians to pander social issues voters to vote against their economic interests. Bc of how the GOP awards delegates, it ensures that the south decides the GOP nominee, even though in the general election this is a hindrance.
“We’re going to end up with single payer which is fine.”
That certainly was the plan but I think the plan is failing. It counted on the insurance companies taking the blame for the crappy insurance and high premiums. However, the terrible roll-out placed the blame on the government and people are not buying that it is the insurance companies that are to blame for the bad insurance policies, despite some trying to make that spin. The plan might have worked had Obama done a competent job of supervising the website launch. A flawless website would have supported the narrative that government was competent but the insurance companies are obstructing the implementation. The disaster of a launch has convinced most people that government should not be in charge of healthcare, exactly opposite of the message Obama wanted to send.
Good post, Dan. And yup, it’s very easy to blame the government instead of private industry, which is how we got the meme of government screwing up everything it meddles in.
Thank you but I am not sure if you fully understand what I am trying to say.
No, I think I understood. Dems Lemme guess, they passed the mediocre Obamacare to make the insurance companies look evil, as part of a plan to institute single payer. But the insurance companies were underhanded in playing their usual games, but this time with Obama to use as a whipping boy. Now the gov looks evil, which builds the case where we go back to the status quo and the insurance companies can go back profiting off the sick so they can pay multimillions to the shills in AHIP.
Go ahead, GOP, repeal Obamacare. Take the insurance away from those with pre-existing conditions. Take insurance away from 24-year-olds. Give people back the insurance plan they thought that they liked and wanted to keep. I dare you.
“I dare you.”
Make no mistake….. they’re not afraid to do the right thing irrespective of your “dare”. I’m certain they’re not worried about it either.
Good post, Dan. And yup, it’s very easy to blame the government instead of private industry, which is how we got the meme of government screwing up everything it meddles in.
Oxide won the internet today. We can all stop blogging now.
Throughout nature, there are examples of feedback loops and cycles, whether we’re talking animal populations, algae blooms, climate, solar activity, tides, and yes, even markets. There is no getting around the ubiquitousness of cycles… and yet, progressives and statists think they can manage affairs better, nay smarter, than nature. Why do markets work? Because markets have a natural corrective mechanism to address extremes in values. What does the government have? What is the feedback loop that government relies upon to determine what is the correct action?
Answer: Nothing. There is none. Governments attempt to distort cycles by suppressing the natural feedback loops which help to alleviate extreme values. Is the government more powerful than billions of years of nature? No.
Healthcare is expensive because of insurance, government regulation, government interference, government subsidies, etc. Laws mandating things like price and coverage do nothing to address affordability, availability, quality, or any other metric we care to discuss. What all these laws and regulations do is make healthcare more affordable, until the entire system collapses.
Take the day off, oxide… you won the internet today. You gave us the reason why everything is broken and effed up in this country. Stupidity, ignorance, and hubris…
Go ahead, GOP, repeal Obamacare. Take the insurance away from those with pre-existing conditions. Take insurance away from 24-year-olds. Give people back the insurance plan they thought that they liked and wanted to keep. I dare you.
There is a third way Oxide. While it does involve repealing Obamacare it does not return to the status quo. It involves true competition between insurance companies nationwide and other adjustments such as tort reform that I have mentioned earlier. Due to competition, companies such as JetBlue and Costco do arise. Costco is cleaning Walmart’s clock. Treating their customers and employees well does work. Even Walmart was not a bad employer when its employees were getting rich on stock options and advancing rapidly due to Walmart’s expansion. True free enterprise works better than many people imagine. I believe in anti-trust laws but want competition to set the day to day rules. Competition instead of regulation makes sense and it is less likely that the regulators will get captured by the industries that they regulate and become the problem instead of the solution.
‘Go ahead, GOP, repeal Obamacare.’
Hoo-boy have things changed. No more “you can’t stop this train”. “It’s the law of the land”.
Before it’s all done, Democrats will vote to have this thing repealed. Heck, Obama has already tabled 70% of it.
A-dan, iIf tort reform and selling insurance over state lines is such a great idea, then why haven’t the Republicans followed through on it?
The R’s could comission a dozen studies to show how well it could work. R’s could release talking point through their meme network. They always have a forum on TV where they could talk it up. And don’t tell me that the Dem Senate wouldn’t allow a vote. That didn’t stop the R’s from holding over 40 votes to repeal Obamacare and “replace” Obamacare with, well, nothing. So why haven’t they had even ONE vote on this silver bullet that I’ve been hearing about for four years straight?
progressives and statists think they can manage affairs better, nay smarter, than nature.
We all know how nature manages its affairs. I’ll leave it to you to decide what is “better” and “smarter.”
Go ahead, GOP, repeal Obamacare.’
Hoo-boy have things changed. No more “you can’t stop this train”. “It’s the law of the land”.
I am not accusing of Oxide but there is a tactic on the left that is borrowed from communism. It is to convince its opposition that resistance is futile. Obviously, a writer on Star Trek incorporated it into the Borg characters. Communism use to claim that science was on their side and eventually the communist system would win out. Communism was the natural evolution of capitalism and could not be stopped. Thus, you should not to try to stop it and you should be intelligent and join early and rise up through the ranks. I saw Obama using this in 2012 and I think he did get a weaker candidate to run against him because he even convinced many of his opposition that he could not be defeated. The fact that he was fighting for his survival just weeks before the election against Romney shows the fiction of that narrative.
That Obamacare cannot be repealed or if it is repealed it will lead to single payer is just the continuation of this old tactic which has been around since 1917. Sorry folks the Berlin wall fell since communism is contrary to human nature.
‘That Obamacare cannot be repealed or if it is repealed it will lead to single payer is just the continuation of this old tactic’
Yeah, a big policy disaster and we’re going to enact something that the Democrats couldn’t get passed when they held the White House and both congressional houses. Sure.
They do this with globalism too. All my business professors (every one a socialist) said globalism is inevitable. It’s the end of the nation state. That was back in the 80’s.
I imagine that many people other than Communists have probably employed that strategy. I remember that there was a news item on CNN just before we invaded Iraq. From what I remember, it was a video of the Air Force testing a new bomb which was the biggest non-nuclear bomb in existence at the time. The strategy was probably to have CNN and other networks broadcast that test to convince Iraqi general to just surrender instead of fighting the American invasion.
“I am not accusing of Oxide”: this should read I am not accusing this of Oxide, I need to make sure the type over is not on when I fix things.
“The disaster of a launch has convinced most people that government should not be in charge of healthcare, exactly opposite of the message Obama wanted to send.”
Bingo
“So why haven’t they had even ONE vote on this silver bullet that I’ve been hearing about for four years straight?”
They suggested an alternative to Obamacare in 2009 (including the legislative language: 200+ pages), which included this, but they had no control of any legislative branch so it couldn’t go to a vote. After they got control of the House, the ACA had already been shoved through, so job one was no longer getting an alternative, but to get rid of the ACA.
BTW, the biggest problem with competition in insurance is that currently it is legal for a hospital to get reimbursed one amount from Medicare, another amount from Blue Cross, and yet a third amount from a private individual.
Guess who pays the most? (individuals)
Guess who pays the least? (Medicare)
And the difference is not a few percent, it’s massive. The reason is a volume discount in the contract negotiations. What this means is with huge consolidation in the insurance industry over the years, we have created a huge industry that is benefiting from ologopolistic pricing practices at the expense of smaller competitors and individuals.
You either need to stop the differential in pricing (make it illegal to charge different amounts for the same items), or break up the large insurance companies.
If you could create competition in the insurance industry, you would find insurance industry profits go down (one of the biggest complaints of the old system), without handing over the reigns to a government controlled single-payer.
progressives and statists think they can manage affairs better, nay smarter, than nature.
We all know how nature manages its affairs. I’ll leave it to you to decide what is “better” and “smarter.”
Human beings spent most of their evolutionary history as hunter/gatherers. You even talk about your diet that plays on this fact. I follow a similar diet with lots of salmon since mankind grew up near the oceans and had lots of seafood in the diet. When someone usually a man or men killed a large animal, he/they and their family(ies) received the lion’s share of the meat. Only when there was plenty to share did they then give that to other clan members. Socialism tries to totally ignore this fact which is hired wired into our brains and “say from each according to ability to each according to his needs”. So the successful hunter either due to intelligence or hard work gets no more meat than the lazy or the stupid person. Sorry human beings naturally revolt against such a system particularly the best and brightest, hence the Berlin wall. The Soviet Union was never able to create the “new man” which would accept this distribution.
Similarly Obamacare is asking young people and other healthy people to pay for the older sicker population and get no benefit for being healthy. Obama’s people are on the air stating how unfair it is for people that have won the genetic lottery to expect to have cheaper insurance. Which ignores the efforts many people make to stay healthy but even if it does not violates the lion’s share principal that is encoded in our genes. Obamacare will just keep getting more unpopular because of it and the Democratic party will just lose more elections until it decides to cut its loses.
‘We’re going to end up with single payer’
Well you should know, as the small talk at the symphony represents the heart beat of the nation.
“Ruthless capitalist society is punctuated by social justice programs aimed at helping out young people… as long as they are the right skin color. But if you’re a poor white southerner, screw you, you’re out of luck.”
This is an Amazon review of a book that was well ahead of its time:
Culture maverick Jim Goad presents a thoroughly reasoned, darkly funny, and rampagingly angry defense of America’s most maligned social group - the cultural clan variously referred to as rednecks, hillbillies, white trash, crackers, and trailer trash. As The Redneck Manifesto boldly points out and brilliantly demonstrates, America’s dirty little secret isn’t racism but classism. While pouncing incessantly on racial themes, most major media are silent about America’s widening class rifts, a problem that negatively affects more people of all colors than does racism. With an unmatched ability for rubbing salt in cultural wounds, Jim Goad deftly dismantles most popular American notions about race and culture and takes a sledgehammer to our delicate glass-blown popular conceptions of government, religion, media, and history.
@joesmith
all of the above is correct.
america isn’t a country, it’s a game.
That’s quite a screed there, Joe. It represents your own view of the world as much as it does the state of America in 2013. From your past postings it appears that you consider people who don’t have a job whose salary is in the top ~2% to be chumps or losers. So even if some of the problems that you describe could be addressed, the vast majority of the population is screwed.
Michelle is giving hj’s if you sign up for AbysmalCare before midnite tonite.
But you’re gonna regret it.
Is Michelle Lola in drag?
Lola and Liberace runs with that crowd. They’ll be there too I’m sure of it.
Michelle is giving hj’s if you sign up for AbysmalCare before midnite tonite.
But you’re gonna regret it.
Hard to know whether it is the AbysmalCare or the hj’s you will regret more. High chance of getting Hep or HIV from either one.
I challenge any 14 year old girl to knock me out with 1 punch.
I’ll close my eyes and give her a free shot; if she fails, she must accept a dose of “12 D” (my shoe size) from me.
She probably would not try that with either you or me. Unfortunately, she might succeed with a 76 year old woman and there have been more than a few incidents like that.
Innocent young children are playing a “game” and you respond with violence.
Sounds like you need some diversity training.
Spook:
You seem to obsessed with girls/women, in a very negative way. Now you are getting violent with adolescent girls. Granted, you aren’t the first guy on the internet to make these disturbing types of comments, but it isn’t healthy anyway.
There is nothing worse than a person who thinks they can’t be punched.
Sorry spook, but this attitude is WHY black people experience so much of the racism that you often mention.
Sorry spook, but this attitude is WHY black people experience so much of the racism that you often mention.
i wonder if you’ll ever see how racist your sanctimonious comment really is..
Hey Mexico:
You are a bigot to begin with. The statement that I just made is something for Spook to think about, unlike the racist, sexist, bullying comments that you make all day long.
Cheers!
Let me clarify it in simple logic for UF;
Responsibility is the consequence of accountability.
Males learn to “respect the bicep” at an early age; indeed, concepts like honor, integrity, fidelity…may have been born of attempts by males to “broadcast” and acknowledge: “I am accountable and responsible for my words and actions because I know I can be punched”
This agreement among men is the begining of civilization.
I need the understanding and agreement of other men in order to unball my fist long enough to learn how to play guitar.
*bro hug*
glad it only took you nearly 3 hours to think of a response.
You are a bigot to begin with.
your comment was racist. but of course you don’t see that. if you did, you wouldn’t have made the comment.
The statement that I just made is something for Spook to think about
you should be thinking about your racist comment instead.
unlike the racist, sexist, bullying comments that you make all day long.
i make racist comments all day long? i can’t remember any. can you show me one? can you remember one, sort of, in general? i’d like to hear it.
remember spook black people come from all over the world and live in peace…..so we focus on the American ones and we are called every evil racist word in the book.
Some last-minute Christmas gift ideas:
http://trayvonmartinfoundation.org/official-trayvon-martin-merchandise/
Geez, WTF b up with Jamie Foxx?
http://www.infowars.com/jamie-foxx-kill-all-the-white-people/
When the American “Hutus” are done with the white people then they can start with the American Tutsis which are lighter skin and better educated blacks. Whether Tutsis are actually a tribal distinction is actually in dispute in Rwanda. Whether they were just killed for being taller, lighter, better educated and wealthier or for an ancient tribal distinction, I guess does not matter since it probably made very little difference to the people that were hacked to death.
How many American Hutus are there?
Since American Hutus= violent street thugs, and I invented the term I would say very few.
‘In a Freedom of Information Act victory, a federal judge has slapped the Obama administration for its secretive ways and ordered officials to turn over a bland-sounding foreign policy document. Chastising what she called “the government’s unwarranted expansion of the presidential communications privilege at the expense of the public’s interest in disclosure,” U.S. District Judge Ellen Seal Huvelle ruled the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development is not exempt from FOIA.’
“The government appears to adopt the cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted to convey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight, to engage in what is in effect governance by ’secret law,’” Huvelle wrote.’
‘The Center for Effective Government, formerly known as OMB Watch, filed a FOIA request in 2011 for the document. It is not classified, and has been widely distributed within executive agencies. The Obama administration nonetheless sought to keep the document to itself, claiming an executive communication privilege under FOIA.’
‘This is an important case; as Huvelle noted, it’s the first time an administration sought to apply the executive communication privilege to an executive directive. The administration’s legal posture, Huvelle declared at various time, was “limitless” and “unbounded.”
People are using Obamacare as an excuse for everything. The staffing comany that I work for just told me that they decided not to offer the health insurance that I was supposed to get at a 50% discount anymore. Supposedly, it’s cheaper for me to get it through Obamacare, so that’s why. It will be cheaper “for me”.
The lady started telling me about how affordable Obamacare is at only $500/month per person. Um. What insurance was the staffing company going to offer that was > $1,000/month per person?
Whatever. She probably doesn’t realize that Obamacare will require staffing companies to provide insurance next year. Not that I really want to pay for such an overpriced service, but I’m just saying. They’re using it as an excuse. It would be better if they would just say “We don’t offer health insurance anymore because insurance is way too expensive”. It’s better when people are honest.
Honesty?
“If you like your health insurance - you can keep your health insurance”
Honesty?
That bigger and bigger government with higher and higher taxes with more and more regulations will make ANYTHING more affordable.
See:
Health Care
Housing
Higher Education
Employing someone
etc.
Helpful information for people considering relocating to the Inland Empire:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_empire
http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-bernardino-riverside-counties/
Hubby and I have considered relocating from Sacramento to the Inland Empire. We could never afford to live near the ocean, but all of Southern California is just so glamorous!
The Salton Sea would probably work for you.
Sactown and Inland Empire are both shitholes. Of all the places that had huge property bubbles, I understand those the least. Vegas, PHX, I can kind of understand. SD, SF/SV I can definitely understand. FL for old people, I can kind of understand (although for younger people, it’s still ??????).
The entire state of CA is an impoverished $hithole.
“California Most Impoverish State In The US”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate
(geography adjusted)
DC actually tops the list but that particular nest of corruption isn’t a state…. thank God.
But Joe you just need to follow the lifestyle of the locals to appreciate an undiscovered “gem” like the Salton Sea. A few days on meth and you will think you are living in Annapolis.
The real “Voodoo Economics” is doing more of what got you into trouble, to get you out of trouble: More debt pushed on the public plus cosmetic reform of the financial sector.
William K. Black interview (video, SFW): Defanged current version of Volcker Rule is essentially useless.
It is about John Beale EPA/ phony CIA employee and global warming. Apparently, John Beale was head of the global warming part of the EPA and his work made it in to the “science” that led to the promulgated EPA rule. Before you reach that you will see that the amount of sea ice for this time of year is quite high.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/20/newsbytes-for-global-warming-campaigners-2013-was-the-year-from-hell/#more-99655
Interesting quote from a link that will post soon:
Last month we told you about John Beale, the Environmental Protection Agency employee who bilked taxpayers out of almost $900,000 by pretending to be a secret agent. Telling EPA colleagues that he was a CIA operative, Beale was paid for long absences while on imaginary missions for “Langley.” Now there is a disturbing new question about John Beale that goes to the heart of the EPA’s mission. Are we now supposed to believe that in contrast to his other lies, the work Beale chose to perform at EPA is the product of careful and honest analysis? What Congress needs to examine is whether the policies that the head of EPA says were shaped to a large degree by Beale were also based on fraud.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/19/claim-november-2013-is-the-warmest-ever-but-will-the-real-november-2013-temperature-please-stand-up/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/us/politics/harry-reid-health.html?_r=0
I think Harry saw the secret Obamacare sign up numbers and the demographics and nearly had a heart attack.
Ha-ha just saw that. It would be nice if he stayed there.
The link that is about to post does not get you directly to the article but here it is, so did Obamacare cause Harry to have a heart attack or just an anxiety attack?
WASHINGTON — Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, was hospitalized Friday after falling ill in the morning, his office said.
Mr. Reid, who just turned 74, was going to remain in the hospital as a precaution. As a result, he will not be presiding over the Senate’s final day of business this year.
The Senate, which has been going through a tumultuous last two weeks as Republicans and Democrats feuded over nominations and legislation, resolved the stalemate late Thursday night and agreed to finish up on Friday. Senators will return in early January.
Mr. Reid’s spokesman, Adam Jentleson, said the senator’s condition had improved.
“Early this morning, Senator Reid was not feeling well and as a precaution decided to go to the hospital,” he said. “Tests have been conducted and everything is normal. He is alert, resting and feeling better.
“Doctors have asked that he remain in the hospital for observation so he will not be working today.”
God does have a sense a humor.
This happened to Reid right after he said he wanted to rule for eight more years…
Same thing happened to the people who built the Titanic…
Checked again and the link worked.
“We’ve got boatloads of cash…..You’ve got nothing but a rapidly depreciating house and decades of expenses and debt…. lmao!!!!
LOLZ
http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/5-most-intelligent-dog-breeds-144300530.html
Herding dogs are insanely intelligent. My girlfriend once had a mixed herding dog adopted off an Indian Reservation. Intelligent to the point of being diabolical. I don’t think it hurt that his kind had to dodge cars and coyotes for years and only the most intelligent passed on their genes. We, also, had a golden who had to be fed a pill so we would put it into a hotdog. Of course, we had to give one to the herding dog too. He would not eat it at once, he would set a trap for the golden. The golden would attempt to eat it and he would charge out of hiding and drive the golden off. Once other sign of his intelligence but a bit sad was that we inherited the dog when my girlfriend’s friend had domestic violence issues and had to give up her dog. It took me a while to figure it out, but he would hide when either my girlfriend or I would open up a beer. He equated beer with domestic violence. Took me a while to convince him that an open beer did not mean violence was imminent. I have never had any trouble with animals or small children, they both instinctively like me and they are naturally honest. Deceiving adults are a whole other story.
I guess genius barney frank has joined CNBC as a contributor. You have got to be kidding me.
Really, he belongs on MSNBC.
No…. he belongs on the VillageVoice Channel with the rest of freaks and charlatans.
Once=One other sign
I pose a question to the HBB’ers, and especially to those lawyers, constitutional or otherwise, on the blog:
What legal right does the President of the United States have to determine his administration will not enforce laws as passed by Congress?
Additionally, what legal recourse is there to ensure the Executive Branch enforces laws as passed by Congress. If the responsibilities of the Executive Branch are not being upheld, what legal course of action is there, other than impeachment?
It seems that King Obama has declared that all who had their insurance dropped because of Obamacare need not be penalized by the IRS if they do not sign up for new insurance. How is this legal? The law is very specific… carry insurance or pay a penalty tax.
Challenging non-action by the executive branch is very difficult. There are many legitimate reasons for not enforcing a law such as lack of resources etc. I once won a motion against a Federal Agency and the federal attorney was livid since he stated he had been all over the country and always won on the theory of prosecutorial discretion. I convinced the judge that it was a total abdication of the agency’s duty and used a footnote in a supreme court case to convince him he could act in such a circumstance and he did not dismiss the case. It is an uphill fight. Quite frankly the constitution envisions that people will keep their oath of office. The framers knew that even the constitutional framework would not save us from truly corrupt leaders. Basically the two protections are elections and impeachment for a failure to enforce laws. It is too late to vote him out and impeachment at this point is not politically viable.
‘how is this legal?’
because he is the messiah and you are a racist? check out those columns yo
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01014/13-greek-columns_1014197c.jpg
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101289467
A new low for HA.
See in the comment section a poster under my name “Rental Watch”, and the telltale sign of HA…the claim of “With 25 million excess empty houses and growing by the day, they better get on the ball.”
I thought I’d note that this is not me before he tries to claim that it is…
Hint: It’s not me.
Another hint: I’m glad to see the truth getting posted somewhere besides the HBB.
A month ago I was rear-ended at a stoplight by a woman texting. Tonight I was rear-ended at a stoplight, and the other driver fled.
If it makes you feel any better, I heard about a guy who walked directly into a bear while texting.
The next time someone sees Sleepless in Seattle posting, please tell him I said “PGP encryption. Enigmail + Thunderbird is good.”
Janet Felon….
Louder, wider, deeper.
On the first day of Christmas a housing liar lied to me, I live in his head rent free.
Harry Reid: Government Needs to Steal More from the Middle Class
If Reid really cared about poor people and a dwindling middle class, he would help us get rid of the Federal Reserve
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 20, 2013
Corporatists and banksters controlling government and the money supply is the problem. Illustration: David Dees
Senate Majority Leader, Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, wants the government to steal more money from the middle class and dole it out to the victims of the Federal Reserve created economic depression.
“Even as the economy creates jobs, too many Americans find themselves on the sidelines watching as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class are getting squeezed and squeezed,” Reid said on Thursday.
“There is no greater challenge this country has than income inequality. And we must do something about it.”
Reid’s solution to income inequality is to tax and borrow more and give money to the unemployed. Democrats like to tell you this money will come from the super rich. But they know the super rich don’t pay taxes. From offshore tax havens to shell games, foundations and equity swaps, the rich rarely if ever pay taxes. Large multinational corporations with teams of lawyers don’t pay taxes either. GE, for instance, avoided paying taxes by socking $108 billion overseas.
So when Harry Reid talks about redistributing more money to the unemployed, he’s talking about taxing the middle class. He’s also talking about taxing the small businessman who can’t afford fancy tax lawyers and does not have the option to move money to the Cayman Islands or Lichtenstein.
According to recent Small Business Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, around 85 percent of all new jobs are created by small business. If Harry Reid and the Democrats raise taxes on small business, the net result will be less capital for business and less jobs created. Higher taxation leads to business cutting expenditures and laying off people. Harry Reid and the Democrats will create even more unemployment and misery.
There is, however, an upside to Reid’s demand, at least for Democrat career politicians. It will create more Democrat voters. Many of them will not have jobs. But they will vote for Democrats in order to continue receiving unemployment insurance and food stamps. Amnesty is basically the same thing. It will create millions of new Democrat voters.
If Reid and the Democrats really cared about poor people and a dwindling middle class, they would get rid of the Federal Reserve, throw out the bankers who designed the last so-called recession, and restore honest money instead of fiat currency based on nothing and exploited by fractional reserve criminals.
Corporatists and banksters controlling government and the money supply is the problem. Harry Reid knows this. His top election donors include JP Morgan Chase, AT&T, MGM, Comcast and big gambling casinos.
That’s who he answers to. Not the American people.
This article was posted: Friday, December 20, 2013 at 8:35 am
I’m breathing a bit easier now.
Within the last 30 seconds of today’s trade I sold 500 out of my 6,500 (neighborhood) of shares of my former company stock. Held that stock just a few months more than two years. 466% gain!!!!!!!
After taxes are taken out it’s $10,000 gain. Not bad.
AmyHoax, did you make a 466% gain on your house you lived in for just a little over 2 years?
Cash is king.
More shares to sell next month. This company stock popped today by more than 6%. I got the wild hair to just take the dam capital gain tax. State and local combined will be around $3900 but the batch of shares cost me only $3,000. In essence it was a $14,000 gain.
So I freed up $13,000. Next big day for that stock I will free up another $13,000. Will put half of it in very short duration T-bills and be ready for Tax day.
Cash is king. So is physical precious metals.
Bill=PRO
HA. Thanks. You get a feel for it. Greed is good to some degree. Then too much of it and it kills the host. Be fearful. Too many are greedy on stocks and real estate.
Yeah…. seeking return can be deadly. I’ll take 10% all year long and I’m happy with that.
BTW….. I just broke even on dodfx… I bought in 07…. you baastard!
I buy $1200 worth the last week of December every year after distribution. It is easier for me since it is in my Vanguard voyager. Transaction fee for non - Vanguard fund is high. Yet when I reevaluate DODFX versus any comparable Vanguard international fund it always tops Vanguard. Vanguard is great on domestic funds though.
I have a love hate relationship with individual stocks. The potential gain is great - like I have. But the potential loss is great. I have 1700 shares that I bought in early March of 2009 for $2. Near the rock bottom on that company. Rock bottom was $1.38. The price of that company stock is between $30 and $40 today. I just don’t want to be too specific.
I’m much more comfortable with stock mutual funds. With individual stocks I do not dollar cost average. You have to time. Timing also goes against my grain.
I dollar cost averaged into precious metals since 2001. Worked well for me. And stock mutual funds since 1989. Worked well for me. My cost basis is L-O-W.
“oxymron”
No, just moron, sans qualification.
Bill, what is the word/term that applies to the post-accumulation phase? Is it safe-withdrawal-rate? Minimum required distribution?
“Minimum Required Distribution” - I’m not there yet. Starts anywhere from 5 years from now (minus 22 days) to 11 years from now (minus 22 days).
Safe withdrawal rate - Practiced that with my long time girlfriend. That’s about it.
The term is “it’s only a gain on paper until you realize it.”
I have not done a tally of my IRAs and savings assets lately. I might have enough critical mass right now to fund 30% of my expenses if I utilize a 4% annual draw-down. Not a big fan of money now that I think about it. I have to figure out a way to pass on the money in form of PMs to heirs. There lies the paradox. In the years to come, equity and other assets might be nominally much higher leaving PMs in the dust. Why would Mr. Market abandon the barbarous relic so carelessly?
Well vfiax, which tracks the the S&P 500 index gained an average 7.68% the last ten years and VFIAX gained 4.24% annually since 11/2000.
Two ways to look at this: If the 2000 to 2003 depression was an undershoot, then the S&P 500 is very near what you can expect annually. One more year of a 30% or more gain would make its ten year average perhaps 10% annually. Or not - there could be a big hit. Since inception in August 1976 the VFINX fund gained an annual 10.99%.
My guess is there is less upside for stock funds than there is for PMs.
I’m no big fan of money myself. I have less than 5% of my net worth in securities and cash that yield less than 0.2%. This does not include higher yielding notes, TIPS I bought years ago, Savings bonds I bought mostly years ago, and municipal bonds.
Want to pass PMs to heirs? You take some cash out over several months, store it in a fake spray can or tin can of food, then when it reaches critical mass you take that bunch and go to a coin dealer that wil accept cash. You buy metals. Most likely $5,000 or less worth. Store them in an intelligent hiding place. Repeat the process. No one stranger knows what you did. When you pass it to errors you first look at either your right arm or your left arm. You follow the arm to where it becomes a hand. You notice the hand can hold coins. You drop coins from your hiding place to your hand. Carry the coins to beneficiaries and drop the coins in their hands.
What is complicated about that? Who knows besides you and your beneficiaries?
Same thing with good quality liquor.
Same thing with fine wine.
Same thing with treasured violins.
Same thing with stamps.
Do you see a pattern yet?
Well vfiax, which tracks the the S&P 500 index gained an average 7.68% the last ten years and VFIAX gained 4.24% annually since 11/2000.
Two ways to look at this: If the 2000 to 2003 depression was an undershoot, then the S&P 500 is very near what you can expect annually. One more year of a 30% or more gain would make its ten year average perhaps 10% annually. Or not - there could be a big hit. Since inception in August 1976 the VFINX fund gained an annual 10.99%.
My guess is there is less upside for stock funds than there is for PMs.
I’m no big fan of money myself. I have less than 5% of my net worth in securities and cash that yield less than 0.2%. This does not include higher yielding notes, TIPS I bought years ago, Savings bonds I bought mostly years ago, and municipal bonds.
Want to pass PMs to heirs? Then do so. Simple. I’m going to pass good quality liquor and wine to heirs. My Precious Metals will go to finance my vacations and to my favorite charities (for finding cancer cures and heart disease cures and the cure for the mental disease known as “progressivism.”)
‘My Precious Metals will go to finance my vacations and to my favorite charities ‘
Yeah, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy accepts inheritance gifts and/or trusts or something. Maybe some day I can have a lean-to named after me if I will them enough $$ or PMs or an antique trinket,etc.
Years ago, I think Albert Camus got me caught up in a whole solipsism funk. I am going through it again. Money seems imaginary.
Just curious why it seems to me that you don’t think it’s freaky that the stock market performance the last 5 years is very high, like in the last half of the 90s but many people are not talking “bubble.” Instead they laugh at gold and swear it is NOW a good time to sell gold.
VFIAX, for example, for the last five years (since Obama’s first inauguration) gained 10% annually. My own 401k from my old company gained 17.9% annually since January 1 2009.
So assume I am just dumb lucky. Forget my 401k. The S&P 500 is near it’s annual average.
Upside potential does not look good.
I’m calling regression to the mean as a rule. So, some sell-off possible. The saying about not going broke by selling too soon? The market has managed to spin things that me as a J6P investor thinks that we have a goldilocks moment just strolling by and saying hello and duping me into thinking that nothing bad in the market can happen now.
Yeah, no more Really Bad Days™ in the market. Yeah, how likely?
“Regression to the mean as a rule.” That’s the best way to put it.
Stocks 10% annual
Gold 8% annual
Long term treasuries 6% annual
Real estate 4% annual
Tbills in this range annual
Inflation 3% annual
Cash zero
It is all in my spread sheet.