The Housing Bubble

Odds are that Herr Gross has access to information denied you and I.

“Odds are that Herr Gross has access to information denied you and I.”

Really? It’s kind of funny then that he lost a bundle in bonds last year and I didn’t.

Gross’s Mistake on Fed Taper Echoes Across Pimco Funds
By Charles Stein and Alexis Leondis
Jan 3, 2014 11:44 AM PT

Bill Gross, the money manager known as “The Bond King,” misjudged the timing and impact of the Federal Reserve’s plan to scale back its asset purchases in 2013, spurring the Pimco Total Return Fund’s biggest decline in almost two decades.

The billionaire’s mistake was echoed by the largest funds at Pacific Investment Management Co., including non-traditional bond offerings designed to shield investors from interest-rate moves. Pimco mutual funds with more than $10 billion in assets on average trailed about two-thirds of peers in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Only two of the 11 largest funds from the firm beat more than half of their rivals last year.

“When you take a stand, you heighten the business risk when you are wrong,” said Joshua Emanuel, chief investment officer of Elements Financial Group LLC in Irvine, California, where he oversees $450 million.
…

Pimco, led by Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian and Gross, had record redemptions totaling an estimated $41.1 billion last year in the $237 billion Total Return Fund, which trailed 64 percent of peers and fell 1.9 percent, its biggest loss since 1994. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index declined 2 percent because of the Fed’s tapering program as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks surged 30 percent, prompting investors to flee traditional bond funds.

In this remake of the battle of David and Goliath, I’m rooting for David.

Cities Aim to Take Predatory Loans By Eminent Domain, Wall St Fights Back
By Matthew R. Lee

MAIN STREET, January 16 — In the aftermath of the predatory lending meltdown in the US there are families who despite paying their mortgages on time still owe more than their homes are now worth.

In response to this problem, the city of Richmond in California has been moving toward using eminent domain to take over the “under water” mortgages and reform them, so that families don’t lose homes and buildings don’t stand vacant.

Deutsche Bank, investors like Pimco and Bank of New York Mellon have sued Richmond’s move. Stock market industry groups have inquired into - that is, tried to undermine - Richmond’s other bond sales, in what one pro-industry observer off the record / not for attribution told Inner City Press would be a “capital strike.”
…

Liberace!

Some posters are just sore loosers.

It’s also one of those “runway foaming” measures, as hiding the distressed inventory reduces the proclivity of underwater owners to default, instead encouraging them to hold on to their falling knife properties forever.

Southwest is one of the major carriers out of Manchester NH and their business is down substantially. But I’m sure this is the same elsewhere. Who has the extra cash to fly to Vegas and pump their “disposable” income into the slots?

Ski places are another one. $70 for a lift ticket that’s only good for 4 or 8 hours? They use RFID tags/cards now to track how long your there instead of just charging based on when you started and letting you stay till closing.

Fast food restaurants have been begging for years to be allowed to accept food stamps. Not sure if they’ve made any headway.

“Ski places are another one. $70 for a lift ticket”

Depends where you go. For this year I bought:

4 days at Loveland @ $129 = $32.25/day
4 days at A-Basin @ $129 = $32.25/day
2 days at Winter Park @ $97 = $48.50/day

I skipped work today and skied A-Basin under a cloudless bluebird sky. The “big name” resorts charge about $115 for single day lift tickets bought at the window. That’s why I don’t ski there.

It seems to me that my grandparents created a social safety net because the Great Depression taught them a hard lesson. They Baby Boomers expanded it into a welfare state. Gen-X hardly had any kids because they couldn’t afford it, and Gen-Y is making up for that by having kids, but taking state aid to make it possible.

I know it’s racist, but you also have to consider that welfare was created by white people. They made an implicit assumption that most people in the country would behave as “white society” dictates, which means that you would be ashamed to be on welfare. That assumption is wrong when you have a country full of immigrants. Most of the immigrants in this contry come from places where poor people are oppressed by design, so they naturally feel that the rich people should pay to support them. It’s also problematic when you have a population of black people who come from a slave culture. While “white society” would dictate a culture that gives opportunity to the poor (not handouts), we have lots of people who don’t even consider that.

It seems to me that my grandparents created a social safety net because the Great Depression taught them a hard lesson.

FDR created a social safety net because he was a communist.

This country had seen many “Panics” prior to the “Depression” of 1929 and survived just fine. What was different? The establishment of the Federal Reserve in ‘13…

Northeasterner:

We are currently on the third version of the Federal Reserve. The Great Depresssion didn’t precede central banking in the United States. And no, this country has never had a communist President. If you think FDR was a communist, then I think you should visit a communist country.

The Great Depresssion didn’t precede central banking in the United States.

No where in my post did I suggest otherwise. I did however allude to the great depression being worse than other “panics” we had seen throughout the 1700 and 1800’s because of the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

And your right, we did have a “central bank”, prior, but it was shut down by Jackson.

As to FDR, no he was a “Democrat”, but his policies were very much socialist and borderline Communist as far as I can tell. He also got along just fine with Stalin during WWII… but keep thinking redistribution is right and necessary for a free people.

“No where in my post did I suggest otherwise.”

Yes you did.

“but keep thinking redistribution is right and necessary for a free people.”

Nowhere in my post did I suggest that. The social safety net is available to everyone, which means that it is not redistribution. Furthermore, we have it because the majority of people in the country want it. Representative democracy.

Sorry if I’m feeding the Trolls,

But wanting to not have kids and other people starving in the streets and using a small portion(10%) of our government resources to provide a safety net does NOT make FDR or anyone else a communist.

I got no objection to being more strict about who qualifies and rooting out abuses(your mythical/archetypal food stamp lobster or whatever), but the wealthiest nation on the Earth should not have kids starving in the streets. It looks bad for the neighbors and lowers our property value.

Plus we could get cited by the COA (Country owners association).

the wealthiest nation on the Earth should not have kids starving in the streets.

You really don’t get it do you? And you think government redistributing wealth is the way to keep people from starving? I guess you never saw what the grocery stores in the Soviet Union looked like…

The government controls the production of food (via regulation and subsidies), making costs higher than they should be. The government controls labor, i.e. work, via minimum wages, environmental regulation, labor laws. The government controls the cost of money, i.e. investments via the FFR, bond buying, etc, and you want to talk to me about a “social safety net to protect people from starving”? You know how you don’t starve? You grow some food… how did all those Americans survive prior to the new deal? Helpless sheep is what we have today in America…

The Great Depresssion didn’t precede central banking in the United States

You misconstrued what I wrote and you don’t want to own up to it because an over-educated liberal woman like you would think that is showing weakness in this male-dominated society of ours. I said the establishment of the Federal Reserve preceded the Great Depression. I did not say “Central Banking”.

‘Bernanke kept a valuable promise that he made as the governor of the Federal Reserve board to the legendary Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman. Friedman and Anna Schwartz had shown in their work, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, that the Fed was responsible to a great extent for the Great Depression. On Friedman’s 90th birthday in 2002, Bernanke said, ‘I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.’

http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=8158

“You misconstrued what I wrote and you don’t want to own up to it because an over-educated liberal woman like you would think that is showing weakness in this male-dominated society of ours.”

OK, undereducated redneck male, why don’t you tell us the big diff between the first, second, and third central banks in the United States? Also, can you please explain how you manage to connect the Federal Reserve to the Great Depression (other than a lack of monetary easing), and how the lack of a central bank would have enabled people to grow food?

Can you elucidate us (in an undereducated way that still shows strength in this male-dominated society) how FDR could have caused food to grow from the dust bowl, or caused people to suddenly own the land necessary to grow food, or reversed the migration from agricultural land to urban centers?

The social safety net has nothing to do with the Federal Reserve Bank. It is there to prevent deflationary spirals, independently and separately from the Federal Reserve, in such case that the Federal Reserve alone cannot do so. I learned this by a combination of history and autobiographical accounts from my grandparents. They lived it. Anarchy sounds great from a distance.

FDR created a social safety net because he was a communist.

Darn….What an absence of any substance whatsoever… read your sentence. That’s what you got? Contemplate English, history, economics and definitions.

Then try again maybe.

I guess you never saw what the grocery stores in the Soviet Union looked like…

? Those days were wrong and gone. Quit comparing outdated foreign BS to current American reality.

What does a grocery store look like to a hard working American on min wage?

Better than your example?

Your last few posts are so contradictory as to be senseless.

1. You complain about the Free Sh!t Army and the Weflare state and all the usual BS that comes out of your Beemer’s a.m. hi-fi. That’s the cry of the Rushbot dittohead who doesn’t make much money but who will strike it strike it rich “someday.” And then nobody better take your money away. Such folks are usually on the receiving end of the welfare state.

2. You long for the days of “pensions, comfortable retirements, affordable healthcare, affordable education, a stable job, one wage earner households, and a safe future in which to raise children.” That’s the cry of the liberal. So which is it? And oh by the way, the destructive policies which dispensed with the pensions et al were NOT enacted by the greatest generation or brought on by the welfare state. It actually WAS the boomer generation who forced people into 401Ks, broke unions, raised prices of “needs” to what the market would bear (forcing women to work), outsourced entire states’ worth of jobs to China and India in the name of pleasing the shareholder and celebrating that greed is good, and bought the politicans who enabled the mess in the name of being “business friendly.”

3. Perhaps if you didn’t get fixated on my assets
You mean the ones you got from Daddy? You say you didn’t have a “real job,” but only a real job pays enough for someone to save up $200K in 10 years — unless you lived at home for free and never paid a dime in taxes. If you had earned those assets yourself, you would have been overjoyed if we fixated on them. And if you had wanted us to listen to your message — whatever it is — then why did you bring it up at all?

I guess you didn’t win the money in an IQ contest. As for looking in the mirror, I hope you have one so that you see the Indian H1-B standing right behind you with a shiv and a pink slip.

The smoke and ashes are the uncertain future that we are facing due to the crappy desicions previously made.”

You are reading too much news its freaking you out.

Its been this way for some time now

oxide:: You mean the ones you got from Daddy? You say you didn’t have a “real job,” but only a real job pays enough for someone to save up $200K in 10 years — unless you lived at home for free and never paid a dime in taxes. If you had earned those assets yourself, you would have been overjoyed if we fixated on them

He actually said he’s a programmer who’s moved about every two years.

Second - this is a very plausible scenario. If you’re making around 100K and renting an apartment, it’s not too difficult to save around 20K a year.

For a person right out of college? It is perfectly possible that he has spent time living with his parents. I know some well compensated college grads who have done just that.

I realize the powers-that-be, Keynesians and such, get really irritated when the “little people” dare to try and build wealth. Fed and government policies are designed to build wealth only for the big boys and keep the little people living hand to mouth and in debt. Regardless - some of them manage to build moderate middle class nest eggs without ensnaring themselves in debt.

” some of them manage…”

Yes, but not likely the ones who think they are in a hopeless situation.

I didn’t say it was implausible. I said it was implausible unless he had a real job, which he obviously did.

For what it’s worth, I’m not “ensnared” in debt.

Absolutely you are. In fact if you believe what you say, you wouldn’t be saying it here.

Oxide:

People do not choose between “being a consertative”, and “being a liberal”. Even you probably have some secretly conservative opinions. That’s just a psychological construct designed to get you to vote for the political club of your choice (as long as it’s dem or repub).

wow did you see how under oxide’s skin that post got? Simple truth really pissed her off. 4 years of stem education isn’t easy. Everyone here is always railing about how not everyone can do stem. It’s amazing to me that a lot of stem people, basically some of the smartest people on the planet, are in these 100k jobs that are basically the old equivalent of blue collar. 100k and you can barely afford a median priced house if you wanted to.

Then the guy says he has 200k saved. Big whoop, what is 200k anyway. Apparently any idiot who bought a house in 2000 in san diego and sold it in 2005-2013 made 200k to put in their savings account. Oxide gets pissed at him for saying as one of the smartest people on the planet, after working for 10 years, he can only put the same savings in the bank as some idiot who was just born 10 years before him.

Then she tries to rejoice about how good his life must be, and what a great place the olds have left him, since after 10 years he has enough savings to barely afford 1/3 of a house despite working his ass off the entire time.Yeah oxide, berate the guy more. It’s not like 40% of all his earnings over that 10 year period went to government programs a good portion of which are subsidizing your assinine purchase at this very moment.

I can see how it’s getting under your skin. You’re terrified that these people will get sick of subsidizing the dead weight, because you feel like you or yours are the dead weight that need carrying. God you better pray these STEM people don’t figure out how to start paying each other in bitcoin or gold outside the tax man’s reach because then you will be in a deeeeeeeep hole.

mathguy:

IIRC, Oxide is a PhD-level scientist.

Lab tech.

I’m disgusted with BOTH Victor and Oxide.

This thread is unbelievable. Victor whines when he can’t have BOTH a very high-paying job and a low priced house. Jeez, talk about a whiny, entitled personality. (Yeah, you are just like Joe).

Want a cheap house and low taxes? Take a 50% salary cut and live out in the country. Otherwise, shut up. You can’t have everything NOW, Boy Prince. There are tens of millions who would love to have your “problem”. Why not give them your job and salary? Don’t want to?

As for you, Oxide, you leech off society, then tell others who are seeing their take-home slashed to pay for your personal largesse that they can always go the Oil City route. And, you expect them to do so joyfully after you ream them with your latest social pet project ObamaCare) that they don’t want and didn’t approve of.

You elitist pig.

You just threw a 90 yard touchdown pass.

MacBeth - If it offends you THAT much, then keep scrolling. Obviously there are people here that saw the point that I was trying to make.

“Obviously there are people here that saw the point that I was trying to make.”

I skimmed your lengthy post during my lunch hour, but I understood that you were not complacent with the status quo, the lack of a meritocratic system. I was glad to see someone else venting since I see way too many brow-beaten, gawd fearing zombies in my corner of the world.

Keep rocking the boat!

‘You mean the ones you got from Daddy? You say you didn’t have a “real job,” but only a real job pays enough for someone to save up $200K in 10 years…’

$130K a year is plenty of dough to buy a BMW, provided you haven’t financially strapped yourself by purchasing an overpriced money pit with a mortgage.

“Its been this way for some time now”

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9
King James Version (KJV)

“He actually said he’s a programmer who’s moved about every two years.”

It’s hard to follow opportunity if you strap yourself to an overpriced crap shack in a deflationary environment.

“Everyone here is always railing about how not everyone can do stem.”

I hadn’t noticed that, although I believe it, having tried to teach people mathematics who simply don’t have the necessary amount of grey matter.

However, I would bet any sum of money that STEM workers are disproportionately represented on the HBB relative to their share of the general population by a statistically significant amount.

‘The smoke and ashes are the uncertain future that we are facing due to the crappy desicions previously made. The inability to settle down in a geographical location even if we wanted to. Also note- the money I have may be worth jack schitt in 20 years.”

Get used to it junior. I am 55 in May and lived in eight places from coast to coast since 1985. That’s like a new location every four years. So you think yours is the only generation that cannot stay in one place?

Section 8 destroyed many neighborhoods, including my parents’ when I was 19 years old. I knew right then that real estate was not a sure winner on long term happiness. You have to move every few years to move away from the trash. But the problem is the expense. This has been the reality in the boomer generation.

And don’t laugh at that, the average person my age saved less than $100,000. You cannot retire on that in the USA.

Oh, did I mention the lyin’ Gen-X loser blamed everyone else for his failure? He used to go into these foam at the mouth rages when his schemes started collapsing the business, diverting attention away from himself. Bwah-ha-ha-hah.

Ironic, your generation is responsible for turning the inability to accept blame into an art-form. The disgusting plasticity of culture is a Baby Boomer invention - crystallized into the form of latch key kids concerned for their Facebook accounts.

Bwa-ha-ha-hah, Rio, is that YOU?

Jose:

Boomers voted for the representatives who decided to get rid of tariffs. Without tariffs, there is no executive who can thrive without offshoring, regardless of that executive’s age.

Millenials now have an uphill battle. We have to try to buck the free-trade-loving power structure that has a vise grip on everything. It’s especially hard because younger people are being taught in public schools that globalism is “inevitable” and “enlightened”, and you’re a racist if you come up with any reason not to embrace it.

Yesterday, Yahoo had an article about a Chinese man who prefers to do business with the UK, since the UK is more “open”. Well, that’s great for mister Chinaman, but how is the UK doing? Not so well. They are open to being taken advantage of. Would you be surprised to learn that Chinaman is a total Boomer? They had a pic of him. Chinese Boomer. Millenials will have to work hard to dispel the myth of “Free Trade” between America and the various dictatorships of the world.

I’m sure you’d be shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED to know that Pat Buchanan has a very good article on Free Trade. Some excerpts below, but I tell you, this first one about how Beijing thinks WE should pay for the cleanup of China’s crap is a real howler:

“As the Chinese factories fouling Asia’s air arose to meet the demands of Western consumers, says Beijing, the West should help pay the cost of cleaning up their polluted and poisoned environment.”

“Seems that, despite the academic consensus that free trade is win-win for all, free trade is not free.”

“Free trade appears to be the policy of fading nations.

Perhaps it is time for a profit and loss statement of its costs and benefits.

Undeniably, free trade has been a bonanza for the top 1 percent and many among our top 10 percent.”

“The tombstones of countless dead towns across America should read: Killed by Free Trade.

Tenured economists on college campuses call this “creative destruction.”

The stagnant wages of two generations of U.S. workers also help to explain the crisis of Social Security and Medicare. For, as workers’ wages fail to rise, or fall, so, too, do their contributions in payroll taxes.”

“If, as Simpson-Bowles contends, our largest entitlement programs are heading for insolvency, free trade played a lead role in that American tragedy.

And where is the liberal morality in passing laws to ensure U.S. workers a living wage and clean and safe conditions, and then, through fast track and free trade, signaling their bosses that they can evade these laws by shutting factories here, moving their plants to Asia, paying coolie wages, and subjecting Asian workers to conditions that would earn a U.S. industrialist a tour in Leavenworth?”

http://takimag.com/article/dr_pangloss_free_trader_patrick_buchanan#axzz2r8dbHqOM

I just looked up “coolie”. I don’t thing the author should have used that term. Otherwise, it sounds like a good piece.

Oh, did I mention the lyin’ Gen-X loser blamed everyone else for his failure?

Good gosh. I’ve been away for awhile. Read a little today.

A lot of you guys are really freaking out all over the place. Dang.

Bwa-ha-ha-hah, Rio, is that YOU?

No. Busy lately…..but you show I’m valid……as we know.

“Oh, did I mention the lyin’ Gen-X loser blamed everyone else for his failure?”

Blaming others is a requisite part of failure.

Do you already have work authorization in another country

I think most Americans just don’t have a clue of how unbelievably hard it is to get the equivalent of a Green Card in other countries. Compared to most, we hand them out like Halloween candy.

Of course, if you show up with a big bag of money, most countries will roll out the red carpet for you. But if you need a job it’s a different story.

And speaking of foreign countries, news from the front lines in Mexico. What I am hearing is that the country is on the brink of anarchy and complete lawlessness, far worse than even a year ago, and it’s not just because of of the cartels, though they do play a big role.

My brother called me with some sobering news. Some friends of his moved to Cancun years ago, as it was one of Mexico’s safest places. He received word from them that their 19 year old son was killed by the cartels. Apparently he worked for them, selling drugs to tourists and tried to cheat them. What is interesting is that his family was what would be considered upper middle class. Not wealthy, but doing OK, his dad had mid level managers job. So why was he pushing drugs instead of going to college? Because he made a lot more money than a college grad did (most make about 1K USD a month).

Think twice before taking a vacation down there.

The tap water will keep me out of Mexico much more than a cartel ever will.

“And speaking of foreign countries, news from the front lines in Mexico. What I am hearing is that the country is on the brink of anarchy and complete lawlessness, far worse than even a year ago, and it’s not just because of of the cartels, though they do play a big role.”

Thanks for the report, Colorado. One of my biggest fears is that the anarchy crosses the border, I guess in a sense it already has, and not just because of Mexicans.

I guess the only choice the good citizens of Mexico have is to take the law into their own hands, as the vigilantes are doing. I expect we’ll be seeing some of the smug Americans who retired in Mexico come back with their tails between their legs. If they even make it out.

From what I’ve learned, beheadings are the national pastime there. Another big story that the MSM avoids, not only to protect the sucker tourist companies but also “The Ones’” poor foreign policy record.

P.S. wasn’t Trump pushing some crap down in Mexico a while back?

Yes Hick, President Obama is responsible for corruption in Mexico, even though he does not participate in Mexico’s political or economic system. You’re such a carrot.

From the Mexican perspective, there isn’t much difference whether an R or a D sits in the White House.

Legalizing weed nationwide (in the US) would put a big dent into the Mexican cartels (as would legalizing it down there as well).

Watching Mexico sink into anarchy and violence has been heartbreaking for me.

What has he done to stop the spread of violence over the border into the US. Nothing. Ask Holder about his gun running operation.

History is a biatch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal

Hick:

His administration has deported more than any other. Holder, while a liar, did not actually have a gun-running operation. He was trying to entrap gun runners.

Which ended up with US border agents being killed. But it’s not Obamas fault he was too busy playing golf.

“What difference does it make” - St. Hillary Clinton

The purpose was to entrap the dude doing the procurement. Illegal in the US, but not illegal in Me-he-co. You complain that Obama is doing “nothing” to stop the spread of violence, but you point to a program that was meant to help stop the spread of violence. I’m sorry that the border agent was killed by a Mexican criminal with a gun, but something tells me that more agents would be killed by more Mexicans with guns if these programs were not underway.

The Liar in Chief doesn’t take responsibility for anything, and liberals always have an excuse to cover his a$$.

“Watching Mexico sink into anarchy and violence has been heartbreaking for me.”

Colorado, that was heartfelt and you have my deepest empathy on this.

I don’t always offer excuses for Obama, and don’t call me a liberal. I will tell you what I am. Who do you think you are, anyway? The Label Keeper?

You probably voted for Mitt Romney, that sad sack.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, looks like a duck, its most likely a duck! And I would take Romney any day over the loser we have to deal with now.

I hate posers who try to act like ducks when they’re really not. Sometimes I will see people calling geese ducks. I am a duck, and I love ducks.

I think most Americans just don’t have a clue of how unbelievably hard it is to get the equivalent of a Green Card in other countries.

I know. To get a green card to Brazil even, I jumped through hoops. Money, time, FBI reports, etc, etc. Interviews, time, and money.

I would take Romney any day over the loser we have to deal with now.

But that day will never come. Ever. How does that make you feel?

If you have a spouse with a “career”, then I think it would be easier to move. If you jointly pick a city, and both of you start applying, then your chances of finding a job will be double. The other spouse (with his “career”) will eventually find one too.

If you have a spouse with a “career”, then I think it would be easier to move.

I don’t know. I mean, if you’re both engineers and moving to silly valley, then sure. But if you’ve made a place for yourself with a firm you might not want to quit. Sure, your spouse has a job waiting, but not you. You’ll arrive, unemployed and will need to find a job asap before you become “stale”, which means you might not find the job you like.

‘If you have a spouse with a “career”, then I think it would be easier to move. ‘

Read Henry David Thoreau. A variation on his “marching to your own drum” is true: You have to wait for the parade to march to the beat of someone else’s drum, but when you march to the beat of your own drum your parade starts when you want it to.

This is never taken into consideration by the media. They feed us lies that two people can live cheaper than one (in marriage) - but that is seldom true because over half the marriages end in expensive divorces and then the idea of moving every seven years and buying every seven years is costly too. By staying single and renting small, financial freedom is attainable at a much earlier age. And I heard of a guy who made quite a lot of money while young in California but wanted the slow pace and moved to the midwest. He does whatever he wants at his own pace.

I was born later in the 1960s.

Up until 4th grade, I knew of no one with divorced parents. By grade 5, divorces were happening all over.

I remember padlocks and chains on my high schools doors - locking us in throughout the school day.

I don’t remember man on the moon, but I remember well Watergate, gas lines and the fall of Saigon. My childhood memories of society were of collapse, not success.

Until Reagan came along, the only happiness I remember at a societal level was the Bicentennial. And that’s it.

It was OPEC, Nixon resigning, losing Vietnam, the Carter years, Iranian hostages, a general decadence among adults (ME generation), pet rocks and mood rings.

Thank you for sharing that MacBeth. For real.

My late adolescence and early adulthood are defined by: Columbine High School, Dot Com collapse, 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, and the 2008 collapse.

Until Reagan came along, the only happiness I remember at a societal level was a society that was on the brink of coming together as a nation, that was trying to unite and not divide for the sake of money.

“My late adolescence and early adulthood are defined by: Columbine High School, Dot Com collapse, 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, and the 2008 collapse.”

When you read a bit of U.S. history, you begin to realize that every generation of Americans lived through their own era’s version of all the big events that defined your youth.

Gimme some of that “trickle=up” poverty of Obammy.
Where were you? Earth?

Obama inherited the worst depression since the Great Depression, a gutted manufacturing/economic base and worsening wealth-inequality due to the Supply-Side trauma that is metastasizing as we speak.

But yea.

You’ll never get into Onwentsia.

realtors are liars

Housing depreciates rapidly and is always a loss

And I apologize for feeding into it.

If any of you are prayin’ folks, please pray for Ed Snowden. A remarkable man who sacrificed all for the people. He deserves our reverence and honor, and whatever protections we are able to afford him.

“which apparently happens quite frequently here”

You mean the internet?

Yes, that too. More in reference to that smithers guy from yesterday-talk about jumping the shark.

The intention of my posts were to elucidate the hardships newer generations face.

Your generation faces no hardships. In fact, you don’t know what hardship is. You didn’t stand in a food line during the Great Depression. You didn’t get drafted to face German or Japanese machine guns in WWII. You didn’t get drafted to face masses of North Koreans charging you in the dead of winter. You didn’t get drafted to fight in the hellish jungles of Viet Nam. In fact, since the draft ended, every conflict since has been fought by volunteers… so no hardship for you there.

You work in technology, so you aren’t exposed to the elements in your work like many. You work in a field that has been growing steadily since the last tech bust from 2001-2004, so you haven’t experienced a difficult time finding employment. I’m pretty sure you have no idea what hardship is.

Northeasterner:

Are you aware that most Millenials are fed up with all the wars that this country has been waging? If the Boomer Congress were to declare a war and start drafting people, they would be voted out immediately. Sick of dum wars. Also, I am super offended that you are using my grandfathers’ service as an excuse to deny that we have problems today in this country. Different problems from before. We need to address today’s problems today.

Victor is explaining to Boomers the economic difficulties faced by his generation. He probably mentioned his own financial comfort because he’s sick of Boomers accusing him of being a “commie loser”, just because he’s trying to address a problem. Victor is doing better than his peers. Victor and his peers (collectively) are not doing nearly as well as the Boomers. This is because of Boomer policies. He would like for Boomers to see the error of their ways, and to stop doing it.

As for “knowing what hardship is”, if you’re a Boomer, then you don’t.

I, for one, expect no Boomer to take responsibility for anything. The generation as a whole is incapable of admitting error, taking responsibility, or giving a dam about anyone other than themselves. I prefer to simply push them aside and take over. Get out of the road, Boomer.

Seriously? Totally went over your head, didn’t it?

I did not imply hardship as in manual labor or dead-end career paths (that is a choice isn’t it?) or even being drafted. Hardship as in: this country is quickly becoming completely insolvent, and opportunites for everything I previously discussed are not there for future generations because. Hardship as in: guess who is footing the bill for today’s f-ups?

I’m a Gen X-er. I served. I was unemployed for a significant amount of time in 2003 due to the tech bust. I did what I had to in order to support my family. I worked and I didn’t complain.

All I hear from Gen Y and Millenials are complaints, and yet they haven’t earned anything and they certainly haven’t seen hardship that other generations have.

Opportunity will always be present for those with the desire to succeed and the balls to take risk. You haven’t studied history (typical of this generation, who thinks they know it all because they have iPads, Google and Wikipedia) if you think there will be no opportunities in the future because of our “insolvency”. Who holds the debt and how can they collect? Who is playing the pawn on the chessboard right now against that debt holder? Like I said, a generation of entitled whiners who have never suffered setback or hardship…

Since Gen Y/Millennials need everything handed to them anyway, here is the answer to the question I posed above about our debt holders. Hopefully you’ll put a string of coherent thoughts together and come to some useful conclusion other than “national debt->insolvent->no future”.

China and Japan are our largest debt holders. Japan is rattling it’s saber against China and tensions are rising. The US is Japan’s ally in any conflict against Japan. Think 1914…

Northeasterner:

I believe that Gen Y and X are generally lumped in together as “Millennials”. Y has it worse than X anyway. Did you major in history or some sort of techie-type subject?

Northeasterner: The irony is quite rich here. One complaining about another’s complaint.

So when is this rite of passage when a millenial has earned the right complain? Also, please enlighten us what hardships must occur before we are allowed to truly “complain”. Let me know which page in the history book I can find this information.

Thanks

So when is this rite of passage when a millenial has earned the right complain? Also, please enlighten us what hardships must occur before we are allowed to truly “complain”. Let me know which page in the history book I can find this information.

Typical “know-it-all” attitude, yet has no idea of the hardship of prior generations or much of history at all. What have you done in your life that makes you think you deserve anything more than the other 300+ million meatsacks in this country or the 6+ billion meatsacks in the world today? What sacrifices have you made? What cause did you serve? What hardships did you endure? What makes you special? Here’s a hint… you’re not special. You’re not a unique snowflake.

Accept that you came of age in a period of relative prosperity in the wealthiest country on earth. Accept that the wars of this generation have been waged by a mere 1% of our population and those volunteers bear the burden of that sacrifice. Accept that you came of age in a time when food was plentiful and health taken for granted. Then maybe you’ll start to understand why I scoff at your complaints.

There is a saying an old person once told me - maybe it was a friend of yours, “Don’t throw rocks if you live in a glass house.”

I’m glad people complain. It helps to start conversations that may lead to solutions. I wonder what it’s like in China, where you are not allowed to complain.

Am I allowed to mention here that my Jewish grandfather volunteered in WWII because my great-aunt was murdered by Nazis? He fought a just war for a just cause, and he explicitly lauded the New Deal to me many times. In other words, signing up for the military does not give you an exclusive right to my opinion.

He reiterated his experience because he did not want me to think that our relative stability should be taken for granted. He wanted me to remember the errors that caused the problem in the first place:

1) Nazi Germany could not have happened if people were allowed to openly criticize the Nazis.

2) If it weren’t for unemployment benefits, social security, disability, medicare, and yes SOCIAL WELFARE, then he and grandma probably would have eaten their shoe leather to lessen the pain of death by starvation.

But

I don’t like it when Boomers complain about not having enough stuff for themselves, while simultaneously demanding that Millenials hand over an ever-increasing piece of the pie.

I may not be able to totally go the Blue Plan, but the sooner you realize you’re going to be better off living below your means, the better. This goes for anybody.

My Millennial baby sitter drives a brand new Camry and has an iPhone.

I’m over generational sniping. That’s because I live in Florida, and instead now direct my anger at Canadians.

And people from Ohio. What is it with those people?

And people from Ohio. What is it with those people?

That is funny. I’ve met quite a few Ohioans, and they were all pretty crazy.

When I was young, I mowed lawns, worked on a farm putting hay bales in the barn, pumped gas and worked in a press. From what I’ve seen now, no one hires the neighbour kid to mow lawns, farms are as automated as most factories, gas bars are mostly self serve and presses are shutting down. What jobs are left that kids used to do are taken by adults desperate to makes ends meet. How can kids now a days get some experience working and make a few bucks?

Maybe there’s more opportunity than I think, but I’m not seeing it.

I’m pretty sure you have no idea what hardship is.

Northeastener, just explain to him how “life isn’t fair”.

You like that.

What sacrifices have you made? What cause did you serve?

Thank you for serving but….get off your soapbox. You “served”. You were paid well with the benefits. Fishermen die 10X as much as soldiers who “serve”.

Fishermen serve their country too.

“My Millennial baby sitter drives a brand new Camry and has an iPhone.”

My favorite coffee barista drives a turbo VW and has an S4.

“When I was young, I mowed lawns, worked on a farm putting hay bales in the barn, pumped gas and worked in a press. From what I’ve seen now, no one hires the neighbour kid to mow lawns, farms are as automated as most factories, gas bars are mostly self serve and presses are shutting down. What jobs are left that kids used to do are taken by adults desperate to makes ends meet. How can kids now a days get some experience working and make a few bucks?”

My father started working full time at 16, and he continued until his mid 70’s when the fire department carried him out of a basement warehouse strapped to a stokes litter. A real job now means $50k of college debt, first.

I wonder what it’s like in China, where you are not allowed to complain.

As far as I can tell you can complain all you want, except maybe about the govt. But nobody is going to listen. And no work, no rice.

The observations I’m making are one thing and the way I live my life is another. We have a modest house less than a mile from the school where my wife teaches. She teaches at the school she went to as a child and her parents live 1 block from that school. This was not an accident, it was wanting to be close to family. Yes, for now I commute to DC, but I would never move here.

My point in posting was that I had read something that directly contradicted a longstanding 2Banana/Slithers claim, that the south is the land of opportunity for young people. Just yesterday Slithers was telling us about all the young people he meets he just wanted to escape those evil northeast unions and high taxes. LOL, the truth is that most northeasterners who move to the south were not paying a ton of taxes and those taxes would be offset by higher wages and more availability of higher-paying jobs down the line. Obviously there are exceptions.

If Slithers had said that young people move to the south for a more relaxed QOL or to be more family-oriented, I would not argue. If he said that the congestion and stress of a city is off-putting, I’d agree. But the claim about jobs and taxes and costs ignores that people are apples and oranges–the people moving to the south are not the ones that he’s trying to claim.

I know plenty of techies who make six figures who have relocated to Texas from the northeast.

There was also a recent article in the WSJ on where the new millionaires are. Yes, you get the usual libtarded blue states like MA, NY, CT, and CA. Yes, you get the centers of government power like MD and VA. But you also get ND and other fly-over states due to the shale-energy boom. And as I said above, TX is big in energy and tech now. Same goes for CO with tech.

I will move the family to NH rather than stay in this cesspool of socialism that is MA. Barring that, it will be NC or TX.

“libtarded”

You seem undereducated.

You seem undereducated.

You seem obtuse. Does it bother you that I piss on liberals and Democrats in a vulgar concatenation of the two words?

Yes, Northeasterner, your vulgarity is offensive. Maybe if you could study history a little more, then you would realize that vulgarity has always been offensive.

Offensive to whom? Over-educated liberals? Women?

Vulgarity has it’s time and place… and value. To think otherwise is to be naive and isolated from the real world all around you… also a typical liberal attitude.

Yes, it is typical for liberals to think that vulgarity is offensive, while conservatives (like you???) think it’s appropriate to be as vulgar as possible during a debate about economics on the housing bubble blog. In addition to the puke-liberals, puke-women are also flawed because we tend to be less vulgar, and more intellectual. The powerful conservative cave man reigns triumphant in his hairy vulgar ways. And burping.

Ben has already said that this is a family blog. His mom reads it. So shush. Go call Rush Limbaugh and be as vulgar as you want.

It’s obvious that you have never listened to Rush. He is not vulgar at all. The problem is that the things he points out are poison to the ears of liberals, and they have been trying to bastardize him for years. Ever hear of the”Hush Rush ” bill? He is still on the air much to the lefts frustration. I suggest you should only comment on things you know about.

You’re over-generalizing again. If you look up the Research Triangle on Wikipedia, you’ll see that there are a significant number of software and pharmaceutical companies located in the area, along with Duke University and a dozen other colleges

You’re right, Raleigh isn’t Hicksville, but it also isn’t representative of the south either.

I will move the family to NH rather than stay in this cesspool of socialism that is MA. Barring that, it will be NC or TX.

Wow.

You’re brave.

You’re gonna have to rent a U-Haul maybe.

Silly Coloradan. People in southern states refer to people from the north-east as yankees.

Yes, I know that, just wanted to mention that for the benefit of those who’ve never lived out this way.

The scorn for California is jealousy over its shapliness.

Sure, why not? It has nothing to do with the California attitude. That said, Coloradans despise Texas more than any other state.

Actually they call them damn yankees. And yes, we are aware of the Colorado attitude toward Texans. Probably is rooted in the fact that Colorado used to be a part of Texas and we have bought so much of it back.

California isn’t shapely. It looks like a couch potato with a lot of cellulite ripples on her butt.

Well of course southerners hate Yankees. The Yankees showed up and took away their “states’ rights.”

“Damn Yankees” are the ones that do not go home after their visit.

Back in the ’60s my grandfather was offered a promotion by his employer. The problem is that he would have had to move from New Jersey to Georgia. Years later he would explain why he declined the promotion. The reason was that the locals would have called him and my grandmother “damn Yankees”. It doesn’t matter how you’ve lived there, he would say. Even after 20 years, they would still be called damn Yankees. I don’t know how he know this, but apparently he was right.

Well of course southerners hate Yankees.

“Yankees” ???

“Yankees” are America at it’s best imo.

Hell, many of my formative years were in Kansas. “Free State” Kansas. The state that fought the first fights of the Civil War.

And I’m a “Yankee” to the South? And from Kansas?

Give me a break.

‘Even after 20 years’

The deep south is the friendliest place you will ever visit. If a yankee stayed anywhere near that long they’d be practically family.

Revolving Door

Although the influence powerhouses that line Washington’s K Street are just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol building, the most direct path between the two doesn’t necessarily involve public transportation. Instead, it’s through a door—a revolving door that shuffles former federal employees into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists just as the door pulls former hired guns into government careers.

Featured Revolver
Timothy Geithner
Former Treasury Secretary

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who oversaw the Obama administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis, is taking his first spin through the revolving door to join private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Geithner follows the lead of former Treasury heads Robert Rubin and John Snow in making the move from Pennsylvania Ave. to Wall Street, where financial firms pay top dollar for former top government officials’ experience and connections.

Geithner took charge of Treasury in early 2009 as the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression was still playing out.

http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topzips.php - 60k -

that’s saying the company is OK with attrition and I wouldn’t count on a legit raise. Maybe COL.’

Whats a legit raise ? All we get is COL ~ 3% if we are lucky. often we get the 3% in RSU restricted stock options which we can cash after one year !

And often we don’t even get that. You have to job hop and tech companies hate that so they makes these deals with each other. Its not new.

Call out corruption where you see it, but don’t for a second think that Democrats are immune. Unfortunately I don’t see Joe Smith discussing the Democratic corruption scandals rocking Boston right now… nor do I ever see him post about such things.

How does the status quo in the Washington, DC, metro vote, Joe?

Oh, yeah. That’s right. 85%+ Democrat.

And which metro area is the wealthiest in the USA? Oh, yeah. That’s right. Washington, DC.

Corruption is not a left vs right argument. Let’s mock all politicians and business “leaders” that get caught. Let’s do more to catch them. The big story right now happens to be about a Republican. Mock this man - he even blames his wife for it (as a weak legal ploy, anyway).