Bits Bucket for February 3, 2014
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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Is the Denver market toast after the Souper Bowl?
At least they can “medicate” their disappointment away. I’m sure there are plenty of folks in Denver waking up today unsure of who won.
I really wanted Manning to win another Super Bowl, but that was the worst beating I have ever seen. It was literally over after the first snap. The Broncos didn’t show up, and for that I blame coaching. They weren’t prepared.
Been a bad weekend all-around. We just lost Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Agreed. Though I guess we should have seen that coming.
My wife noted that his untimely demise leaves a big hole in the cast for planned Hunger Games sequels.
Here’s the real estate listing for Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s apartment. The exact one where he died.
http://www.corcoran.com/nyc/Listings/Display/2704197
$10k/month just in rent. It has four (4) total rooms. (Look at the pictures and floor plan.)
This guy is (was) a legit multimillionaire actor and this is the type of place he was able to afford in Manhattan. I mean, yeah it’s a great location, but that price is still shocking when you look at what $10k/month would get you almost anywhere else in the world.
Didn’t know he was only 46. I always thought he had issues and he always looked in his 60’s. Great actor nonetheless.
Brandt: Her life is in your hands.
The Dude: Man, don’t say that, man.
Brandt: Mr. Lebowski asked me to repeat that: her life is in your hands.
The Dude: Oh, $hit, man.
Brandt: Her life is in your hands, Dude.
The NY Times wrote that he was using that apartment as an office, implying that he had a home somewhere else. But $10k/month for 1100 square feet is definitely crazy, regardless of location.
Yet a nice room can be had in nice areas of Brooklyn for $500/month.
“Yet a nice room can be had in nice areas of Brooklyn for $500/month.”
Maybe in Brighton Beach or East New York. And “nice” would be a very loose description.
It wasn’t an office, it was likely his “shooting gallery.” I don’t feel sorry for the guy at all. When you choose to shoot heroin into your arm on a Sunday morning in your bathroom, you made your bed and you will lie in it. I feel sorry for his kids and wife. His selfishness ruined their lives. I’m not a fan of junkies and addicts in general, much less those who are raising kids.
I read an article on his death yesterday, and while browsing through the comments saw a common theme of “you don’t choose to be an addict, it chooses you”. Nonsense. Drug addiction is a CHOICE. I happen to think that I’d probably LIKE heroin, so I see no point in ever trying it. What good could become of it? I make choices to stay away from things which threaten to harm me.
Why would his exact apartment be listed with any realtors if he was still renting it? And how did you find this listing?
Even a realtor would wait a week or so before re-listing the place; at least let’s hope.
Oxy, it’s not listed, it’s off market (It says this explicitly in the listing). But Corcoran is the broker and they list staged photos of everything they’ve ever leased so they can link to “similar properties” and also be ready to re-list when someone leaves.
And yes, that’s the exact apartment.
In Crown Heights too.
Interesting experiment: should we track this apt to see when it is listed? Would be an indicator of what a Realtor thinks is “too soon.”
This morning would be a great time for some hair-of-the-dog hangover stimulus treatment.
bummer dude. guess i’ll just have to keep ‘throwing away’ 13% of income on rent
“Why buy when you can rent for half the monthly cost?”
That’s right. Then buy later after prices crater for 65% less.
Is the Denver market toast after the Souper Bowl?
There goes the free equity.
And after that blowout, Peyton will personally stop by every residence, demanding that the free swag he handed out be returned.
It was literally over after the first snap.
I didn’t watch the game, as I went to visit someone who was hospitalized. I did listen a little on the car radio as I drove down to Denver. As soon as they botched that first play, I knew it was over and turned off the radio.
Surprised that nobody came up with a tee shirt saying “NOMAHA” or “Who’s your Papa John now????”
It was one incredibly dreary show, commercials and all. The one spot I thought was a parody and had me laughing at first turns out to have been serious. Really? The production values were horrendous. Fuzzy, indistinct shots poorly cut together with music that sounded like a Chinese funeral dirge. Or Conan’s bit “In the Year 2000″. Back in the day that would have been grounds to fire the ad agency. They’ll probably get an Addy award or some such thing. And then they top it off with a glowing red Coke bottle looking like some angry, engorged sex toy or middle finger. Geez. Up yours, America!
The ultimate globalist corporate fail.
For those who wonder why the Coke bottle was red, it’s more than a contrast thing. It’s because in marketing circles, the color red is supposed to induce spending. it’s also the color of commies, revolutionaries and the republican train wreck.
I still suspect it might have been a parody, though. On some level it came across as very tongue in cheek. If it had been totally serious, the production values would have been much better and the music would have been a lot more upbeat.
I saw one commercial where Bob Dylan was going to build me a car in Detroit.
My kids had no clue who he was ..
I shut it all off after the first quarter. Those first Ford Fusion commercials were ridiculous.
First commercial: We’re making history by showing two commercials back-to-back. This is the first commercial.
Second commercial: Here we are again making history by showing two commercials back-to-back. This is the sec…
oxide: oh screw off, I need to boil a chicken carcass. (which I actually did; am making Primordial Chicken Soup this evening.)
Believe me you spent your time far better.
Exactly. Dreary, dreary, dreary. The Red Hot Chili Peppers guy dragging his knuckles reminded me of a cross between Iggy Pop and Howard on the Big Bang Theory.
Do you own enough stocks to care about the ongoing crash?
Could you care less about the market swoon?
Jan. 31, 2014, 12:28 p.m. EST
Do yourself a favor: Care less about the stock market
Opinion: Most people don’t own enough shares for it to matter
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Getty Images
Market up? Market down? Don’t worry about it.
If you’re reading this you probably own stocks. Most readers of this financial publication do, directly or indirectly — usually through a brokerage account or through a pension or retirement account such as a 401(k).
Stock ownership seems as if it’s nothing special these days. Everyone appears to be in the game. And because everyone feels like a player, there is enhanced emphasis in the media on the stock market. In turn, many of us gauge how the economy is doing or will do based on the market’s value — even though we know we probably shouldn’t.
As a result, our collective spirits rise and fall on the market’s moves every trading day. Investors felt last year was great. If your measurement is the S&P 500 Index (SPX -0.65%), then yes, 2013’s 30% gain was cause for celebration. The recent 4% decline? Get nervous and, maybe get out.
The market is really just a yardstick of our confidence, right?
Actually, no.
…
Nobody wants to talk about this anymore. I want MyRA.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9-11-conspiracy-theorist-rudely-interrupts-super-bowl-press-conference-020214
MyRA actually is a pretty good idea for most people. Only 1/2 of workerse are offered a retirement plan at work and, of those, many are bad — poorly administered, high fees, etc. It may be hard for some of us to believe, but there totally are small businesses or other workplaces where the 401k options are made up mostly of high-fee funds like American Funds, etc. Screw that.
This article is an insult to the middle class. There are no pensions to speak of. SS is being attacked as a free sh!t army mooch entitlement at every turn. So now we are “masters of our own destiny” dependent on a rigged market to retire comfortably. Many workers in their early 60s saw their retirement fund cut by 1/3 or more. Of course they are going to worry about the market. The author should know this. Or maybe the author is just angling for more OPM?
Commie talk!
“perception is reality”
“i don’t want to grow up”
“good things happen to people who think positive”
2013 investing mantra: The stock market is up again today; RAH, RAH, SHISHK-BOOM-BAH!
2014 investing mantra: The stock market is down again today; who cares?
When you get dividends every few months and reinvest them in the shares, the compounding continues. That is the beauty of investing in assets that pay dividends……just like real estate that has a positive cash flow.
How do you reinvest your rental income from lumpy, illiquid assets like rental properties? Seems like once you make a purchase, you are stuck with the sale price forever.
Re-invest it in the mortgage principle? Even at 4% compounded it’s looking rather good compared to other investments.
Yet the underlying asset is worth half the mortgage principal.
Once you make a historically overpriced purchase, you are priced in forever.
Once you make a historically underpriced purchase, you get consistent cash flow and nice addition to the balance sheet. Plus a lot more cash when you sell, doubling the invested cash used to make the purchase….in only 37 months.
Nothing cash flows at current or historical asking prices going back to 1999.
Jan. 31, 2014, 1:10 p.m. EST
Don’t dump stocks just because January was a loss
Opinion: Here are ways to rebalance risk if you believe the January indicator
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
The year-to-date decline in stocks points to a rough year for equities, according to the so-called January indicator, which is based on the historical tendency for the market’s direction in January to set the tone for the next 11 months.
Given that January has been a solidly down month for the market, followers of the indicator may be considering whether to unload some of their stocks or replace some of their riskiest bets with more-conservative holdings — such as stocks of the largest companies that are trading for relatively low price-to-/book ratios, a common measure of net worth.
The January indicator, also called the January barometer, traces back to at least 1972, when newsletter publisher Yale Hirsch first mentioned it in his annual Stock Trader’s Almanac. The indicator has continued to work just as well as it did before, which is in itself noteworthy. It is more common for stock-market patterns to stop working once they are discovered and lots of investors begin to pay attention to them.
…
the Real estate party starts today, get on board.
Global stocks fall after Wall Street’s rough week
Beth Belton, USA TODAY 3:51 a.m. EST February 3, 2014
Nasty sell-off in U.S. stocks last week continues in Asia as a new round of investor skittishness kicks in.
(Photo: Richard Drew, AP)
Stocks traded lower Monday in Asia, the first day global investors have had to weigh in since Wall Street’s week of losses that turned in the first down January for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 in four years.
In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 2% amid lingering jitters about weakness in the financial markets of some developing countries.
…
I have been predicting a pull back, just unsure of timing. I’m still not sure this is “it” (a sizeable drop, down to 12,000 or so). I’m agnostic about what will cause the drop, whether it will be “bad for America”, etc… when it comes, I’m going in big with money that can sit for 10-20 yrs. I’ve been telling people, only hit your 401k up to the employer match. Good law firms don’t do 401k match (they do profit sharing plans) so I’ve just been stacking cash for the last 2.5 yrs after this market got too heated.
The time for IRA stuffing is coming soon as well. (I thank Mittens for that inspiration.) Congress and the IRS have refused to do anything meaningful to close big loopholes open to aggressive types.
People were praying for rain today in church. Does it “count” that it is raining tonight, given it was already in the forecast?
Rain, snow expected to hit San Diego
Posted: Feb 02, 2014 7:33 PM PST
Updated: Feb 02, 2014 7:33 PM PST
SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Rain could fall up to the elevation of Pine valley, and snow might dust Julian and higher points, as a low pressure system moves toward the County, forecasters said Sunday.
The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory starting at midnight and expiring at noon Monday. The NWS expected rain to turn to snow early Monday at about the 4,500 foot level, which includes Cuyamaca, Mount Laguna and Ranchita.
And snow could dust Interstate 8 in East County early Monday,as the snow level drops to 4,000 feet, the NWS said. That would indicate possible snow at Julian, elevation 4,226, but not at Pine Valley, elevation 3,736.
“A colder low pressure system from the northwest will move across the Southern California coastal waters and adjacent land areas for tonight and Monday bringing showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms,” the NWS advisory said.
…
In the early 90’s (I forget which year) San Diego was facing a terrible drought. I remember how much Lake Hodges shrunk. Then it rained like crazy in March (the March miracle).
Maybe San Diego will get another March miracle this year.
Maybe San Diego will get another March miracle this year ??
Hopefully the whole state will…
Don’t count on it. There have been a number of Miracle March’s in the Sierra Nevada, a few in recent years. This year, though, is shaping up to be the perfect storm of no storms to speak of. The snowpack is dreadful, and the ski season a complete bust.
Does it “count” that it is raining tonight, given it was already in the forecast?
Given the quality of weather forecasts, it probably does.
Looks like the global credit orgy is finally melting down. 2008 may have just been a warm-up.
No problem.
Print, baby, print!
There is always room for a QE3 taper delay as needed going forward. The departing Fed chair left the door wide open for that one.
This cracked me up. Polly FTW:
Comment by polly
2014-02-02 15:07:00
DJ,
It isn’t the “dots.” You have a horrendous homonym problem in the original post. Your use of English is consistently terrible. If you ever want to get a job, learn to write. You can use all the time you spend whining about other people not being able to speak and write English to study. Get a GED book and start with that.
Just in case you were wondering, the “dots” are called an ellipsis, and they are used to leave words out of a section of text without changing the meaning. They do not indicate a pause to an educated person.
All our posts need to pass the housing cops scrutiny…… riiiight.
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.
Your defense is noble Mz. Craterton however the hee-hawing is unnecessary.
She’s homonymphobic.
She speaks for all educated people… I guess.
Hers is a tale, full of sound and fury … signifying nothing.
Please note that by educated, I meant having successfully completed the 10th grade.
Oooh, I love when somebody bashes using Willy the Shake!
Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly
http://www.copyblogger.com/grammar-goofs/
^^ polly consistently has the best smackdowns; this one against DJ was devastating. I wish she’d post on weekdays, as I don’t plan on becoming a weekend visitor.
I owe DJ a huge apology, because I called him out on that “thinning the heard” thing. It wasn’t my intention to hold him up to ridicule, and I should have known that singling out the malaprop would draw the sniping, given his past objections to ebonics.
As to ellipses and the use thereof, there is the original intent of the device and what it has come to mean. I use ellipses incorrectly, on purpose, ALL the time and yes, they DO sometimes indicate a pause, even to “educated” people. More often than not, actually. Especially in the production business.
With that said, DJ freely admits to his shortcomings and is not a poser. He’s the sort of hardworking, family oriented blue collar class person that Washington, Wall Street and the globalistas love to sh*t on. His world is slipping away in a devastating fashion, and he understands the sort of education he received. He’s of far more use to me in a fox hole than any law school graduate.
DJ hard working? He lives off his girlfriend and hasn’t had a day job in years. He blames his inability to get a job on “air headed chickypoos” and refuses to take advice on how to retool his resume, pick up skills, or recast himself for different positions.
He went through a rough patch, it’s not an ongoing operating basis for him and I understand it as I have been there myself, even though I know what an ellipsis is. I’ve never DJ’ed, but other parts of his work experience have been similar to mine.
You don’t understand working-class folks in the entertainment industry. Google John Cafferty. It’ll give you a different perspective. Maybe. Nah, it won’t. fuhgeddaboudit.
Grown men without savings don’t get to have 3-year long rough patches like DJ. And they don’t blame everything on outside forces like “chickypoos”. Moreover, polly nailed him for his hypocritical comments about people who don’t read/write well.
Please note that I honestly hope that what I said gets through to DJ. I have tried gentle, encouraging posts many times. They don’t work with him. He clearly has some work skills. A DJ has to be able to read people. Working on live TV production is hard work for long hours. But he is living in a world where good communications skills are essential, and I have never heard him admit that he needs to improve - just that the world needs to accept him for what he already is.
He never listens to any of us who tell him that walking around his neighborhood with resumes isn’t going to work if the companies only accept applications on line - and that it isn’t the fault of the receptionists or HR reps. Whining that the job search strategies of the 1990s don’t work in the 2010s is no way to live a useful life.
That plus you have a mean mood.
I was in a fantastic mood yeserday. I honestly thought it was time to try to give the dj a push again. His complaints about other people’s lack of skills have been increasing, but we haven’t heard anything about him trying to find work at all. I admit he hasn’t been whining about wanting the government to give everyone in the country $3000 recently, but that is only one of his rants. I think he really does have the ability to get a job, but he isn’t going to find it if he can’t write up to a 12th grade standard and refuses to do anything to look for one except walk around his neighborhood with resumes.
snob
No, you wanted to dig your heel into him. Your mood is about how wonderful you are.
Never share a foxhole with an antisocial person.
hardworking, family oriented blue collar class person that Washington, Wall Street and the globalistas love to sh*t on.
What about that guy in Washington that lent some money to GM so that those family-oriented blue-collar class persons aren’t sh*t on? I recall he got sh@t on himself.
‘that guy in Washington that lent some money to GM’
Did he lend them his money? Cuz I can go around lending your money out to people all day.
lol.. leave it to BJ to keep it real…
“It’s been so cold in DC, I saw a politician with his hands in his OWN pockets.”
Ben, you forgot yourself there for a moment.
The premise - which is not subject to question - is: “What you think of as ‘your money’ is in fact ‘MY money’, because I know so much better than you about how it should be dispositioned”.
Standard govvie operating principle. Get it now?
Solution: Can 1.8M out of the 2.0 M. The remaining 200K will not have time to imagine all the ways they can spend your earnings better than you.
+1 Palmy…
“With that said, DJ freely admits to his shortcomings and is not a poser. He’s the sort of hardworking, family oriented blue collar class person that Washington, Wall Street and the globalistas love to sh*t on. His world is slipping away in a devastating fashion, and he understands the sort of education he received. He’s of far more use to me in a fox hole than any law school graduate.”
In the good ‘ol days it would be perfectly normal for peeps like dj and polly to make a go of it; he’d do the hard work while she did the smart work, a synergy. Doctors used to marry nurses too, but then a serious social stratification occurred possibly when women entered the workforce in greater numbers.
he’d do the hard work ??
Yeah…That is so 60’s…Now, hard work is done by the slew of immigrants working for $15. per hour…Hard work is not a gateway anymore…
I don’t care who you are, “horrendous homonym problem” is awesome.
I love polly.
We had to draw pictures of a pair of homonyms for every letter of the alphabet for homework in 5th grade. That assignment took forever. Talk about a way to really grind a word into your common use vocabulary.
I thought it was 4th grade, but they forever ground into my brain:
“Antonym means opposite,
synonym means same,
homonyms are like to, two, and too,
how many can you name?”
Invisible Hand of the Free Market:
“The federal government has long relied on outside contractors to provide it with weapons systems and other goods. But starting with the Reagan administration, there has been a determined shift of work from government employees to private contractors, on the theory that they could do it better and cheaper. For a time, that was true. Much of the early outsourcing was for lower-skilled clerical and maintenance functions for which government workers received pay and benefits well above the market rate. Or it was for the design and operation of new computer systems that automated the work of government and had never existed before.
But in recent years, much of the outsourcing has been driven by politics and ideology.
To demonstrate their commitment to “shrinking” the size of the federal government, both Republican and Democratic politicians set about shrinking the federal workforce and then capping it at 2 million workers, despite continued growth in the economy, the size of the federal budget and demand for government services.
“This obsession with small government is a sham,” declares Daniel Gordon, who headed the Office of Procurement Policy in the first Obama term before joining the law faculty at George Washington University.
In the end, taxpayers are not only indirectly paying the higher salaries they refuse to pay directly to government employees — they also wind up paying for the contractors’ profit and the costs of winning and managing contracts.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-federal-outsourcing-boom-and-why-its-failing-americans/2014/01/31/21d03c40-8914-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html?tid=hpModule_14fd66a0-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239
“But starting with the Reagan administration, there has been a determined shift of work from government employees to private contractors, on the theory that they could do it better and cheaper.”
That’s right. Private contractors are bootstrapping private sector entrepreneurs who always do it better and cheaper.
This is one of the most comprehensive articles on this topic that I have seen. Reposted from yesterday’s bits so Downlow Joe and other weekday HBB posters can comment.
Posting Drudge links about food stamp and disability fraud may give some HBB posters the warm fuzzies, but government contractors cost U.S. taxpayers over $500,000,000,000 a year.
I see the TSA employees are now unionized. American Federation of Government Employees union, much like AFSCME, I guess. Bad enough trying to get rid of one without a union, with one it becomes impossible.
So we have the worst of both worlds. Money pouring out the door to contractors and retire in place govt workers who will never quit or be fired despite terrible performance.
If the employees of the contractors make more than the federal employees they must have something better than unions.
Connections.
Comprehensive? I read it. It is an article by a columnist.
The media doesn’t touch this topic because it’s a big yawn.
Show me a better article/column on this subject.
“That’s right. Private contractors are bootstrapping private sector entrepreneurs who always do it better and cheaper.”
+1 And Private contractors vote better too.
I think that’s the real issue. The perception is that govt employees tend to vote D and contractors tend to vote R.
“contractors tend to vote R”
they overwhelmingly do in this office. obama is absolutely hated here. ronald reagan has almost god-like status to many here. and alot of these same passionate individuals are double dippers, or better yet, triple dippers, yet fail to recognize any hypocrisy in this, lolz.
yet fail to recognize any hypocrisy in this ??
hypocrisy is what they do best…
I’m an absolute hypocrite and I’m willing to admit it.
“…they also wind up paying for the contractors’ profit and the costs of winning and managing contracts.”
Forgot to mention the administrative burden within FedGov to manage gobzillions of outside private contracts…
“administrative burden within FedGov to manage gobzillions of outside private contracts”
Without getting into too much detail, that is essentially what I do all day (while successfully multitasking to share my incalculable depth of wisdom with the HBB).
As a contractor, I support the Federal staff in the negotiation of contracts between the government and private contractors, with the goal being for the contractors to perform to the terms of their contracts at the lowest cost possible to the taxpayer.
“Without getting into too much detail, that is essentially what I do all day (while successfully multitasking to share my incalculable depth of wisdom with the HBB).”
Would it be more efficient to manage in house employees under direct control of management, or a bunch of freewheeling contractors spending Uncle Sam’s money on whatever for God knows what purpose?
In this office contractors are about 2/3 of the analyst staff. We have contractor team leads who do not assign work but who are more of an HR role. The contractors’ boss is the onsite Project Manager, who is the direct liasion with contractor HQ back in metro D.C. and with the federal Branch Chief located here.
So you’re bilking the taxpayers for six figures while posting on the HBB. Great gig!
Administrative burden is correct. FedGov has to pay up when they lose a bid protest by a contractor. That means they pay lawyer bills for the contractor’s private attorneys. It also means, they have to invest time and money into re-bidding the contract, when routinely takes several months to a year or more.
The big rip off with contractors is that they really do NOT carry much risk. If there is a cost overrun, the fed gov’t has to pay. If the procurement is terminated early, they still pay a termination fee. If work is done poorly, often there is no recourse against the contractor.
If contracting culture didn’t exist in DC, a lot of the work they do wouldn’t even exist. There is a ton of “make work” simply bc contractors, unlike fed employees, have a personal profit motive and will use PACs, industry groups, and personal relationships (revolving door of congress) to ensure money is budgeted to them. This largely explains all the TSA stuff, the various “homeland terrorism” emphases, and high-tech snooping. Very little of that is staffed or managed by actual gov’t employees; it’s run by the big contractors/consulting firms.
Do you have to fill out time cards with job numbers ?
That’s what I remember about government work. Looking for a fat job number no thanks
Yeah, one of the big issues for contractors is trying to make as much of their employees’ time “billable” as possible. They play fast and loose on this. For example, they’ll find work to do in the hangar even when no maintenance needs to be done. They’ll bill full days to “maintaining the hangar” or cleaning up, but it will come out later that they were doing laundry runs, watching DVDs, or out going for joy rides in the dunes with army or contractor-issued vehicles. (Usually this comes to light when an accident happens.) A lot of the bases that contractors work on are pretty cushy. Plenty of A/C, all different kinds of chow, safe locations.
Obama: ‘Not even a smidgen of corruption’ in IRS scandal
By Meghashyam Mali |
FEBRUARY 2, 2014 AT 5:52 PM
President Obama on Sunday said that Internal Revenue Service officials responsible for the targeting of Tea Party groups made “boneheaded” decisions, but denied that the agency was used to go after the administration’s political opponents.
“There was some boneheaded decisions,” the president told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, but dismissed the suggestion that there was corruption.
“Not even mass corruption, not even a smidgen of corruption,” said Obama.
“You have the 501(c)(3) law, which people think is kind of confusing, and we know that the folks did not know how to implement [it.],” the president explained.
Obama blamed coverage of the IRS scandal by conservative groups and outlets for the continued controversy.
O’Reilly asked Obama about numerous visits to the White House from then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, questioning if the agency’s scrutiny of political conservative groups may have been directed from above.
“Mr. Shulman as head of the IRS is constantly coming in because at the time we were trying to set up healthcare.gov and the IRS is involved with making sure that works as well as part of the overall healthcare team,” said Obama.
“No. 2, we’ve also got the IRS involved with some of the financial reforms to make sure that we don’t have taxpayer funded bailouts in the future,” Obama continued. “We had all these different agendas in which the head of the IRS is naturally involved.”
Obama, though, added that he “did not recall meeting with him [Shulman] in any of these meetings, that are pretty routine meetings.”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-not-even-a-smidgen-of-corruption-in-irs-scandal/article/2543319 - 154k -
the washington examiner is not written by real journalists
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Examiner
You’ve got a real problem with the use of the English language Mr. President. It should be “there were decisions” not “there was decisions”. Further on you struggle with keeping your tenses consistent. Please do get some learnin.
Never mind the verbs. Obama will catch hell for a noun like “smidgeon.”
He could’ve said “skosh”.
You’ve got a real problem with the use of the English language Mr. President. It should be “there were decisions” not “there was decisions”. Further on you struggle with keeping your tenses consistent. Please do get some learnin.
Maybe he’s trying to appeal to the average American. You know, the ones that call the upcoming concocted holiday ValentiMe’s Day.
“ValentiMe’s Day.”
DING! DING! DING! We have a wiener! Today’s intentional intensive purposes award goes to: IN COLORADO!
“And to the republic of Richard Stans”.
We have a wiener!
Yeah, that’s the POINT of ValentiME’s day.
Today’s intentional intensive purposes award goes to: IN COLORADO!
oooh oooh! Do I get a leftover Papa Johns’s Pizza or Cheese Sticks?
I’m workin’ on it, bro’.
I want Peyton to deliver them to me in an old beater Toyota Corolla.
Hey, I resemble that remark!
Dude, what you need now is a Papa John’s double cheeseburger pizza:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140203_164911_263-jenudq4N.jpg
Anyone here try the cheeseburger flavor Pringles? It’s like eating McDonalds in a can
As long as he didn’t close any traffic lanes or have the IRS go after liberal groups…
The “real journalists” of American could care less…
Speaking of real journalists, a nugget from a piece in the Atlantic linked from Google News discusses Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Dear Leader:
“The Fox News approach to journalism doesn’t just drive liberals crazy. It’s also bad for all who want Obama to be held accountable. It makes conservative opposition to him dumber, less informed and less effective than it would otherwise be, because O’Reilly’s whole schtick is based on contrivance more than substance.”
Bill O’Reilly has a problem with perception, honesty, and reality. He’s stuck in his own personal narcissistic echo chamber.
“could care less”
DING DING DING! The runner up for today’s intensive purposes award goes to: 2BANANA!
“DING DING DING.”
Herd that.
I thought that whole segment before the game was oddly timed and an overall awkward interview. What was the purpose of it in the first place, to piss people off before the big game?
The highlight of the entire evening was Reneé Fleming singing the national anthem. No turtured notes or autotune needed there!
‘As long as he didn’t close any traffic lanes or have the IRS go after liberal groups…’
Leave Krispy Kreme alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
Back in the USA. At least sort of caught up on sleep. Time to catch up at work and maybe do a little job hunting too. Not going back to China immediately like it was previously looking like. Super Bowl was kind of funny…I’d have preferred that Denver win, but you gotta give it to Seattle for never letting up and never letting Peyton do his thing.
There it is. PM doesn’t make mistakes….. until he’s up against a lightning fast defense.
Agreed. The Broncos can run up the score against weak teams.
To be honest, I was surprised they made it to the big one. Now they have another blowout to add to the hall of shame.
A record 5 SB losses. Go Broncos!
And the best part about it? Little brother has more SB rings.
The worst part about the loss is the empowerment of the Brady jock-sniffers who deride Manning.
A couple of young bucks at work were excited new meme that Manning’s generation of QB is, like, so over with. Bring on the new read-and-scramble athletes like Vick/Kaepernick!
New York Times - The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding, Just Ask the Business World:
“As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.”
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
The future belongs to Lucky Ducky
Welcome to the recoveryless recovery
It doesn’t matter if the pie isn’t growing, As long as their share of the stagnant pie grows, its all good.
Maybe they do understand that we live in a finite world with finite resources.
“a finite world with finite resources”
The purpose of 21st century crony capitalism being for the 0.01% to own/control 99% of these resources.
It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.
And if you complain about it, why that’s just “class warfare” against the bootstrapping producers.
If you even dare to acknowledge “the club”, then people who think that they are members will decry you as a whiner. It’s an attempt at demoralization. Don’t fall for it.
Oh, Corporate America understands this full well. They gave up on saving the ship decades ago and intead quietly arranged for guards around the lifeboats.
The parasites have killed their hosts.
Two kinds of people in this world. Those that pay interest and those that collect it.
Another day of stocks down, gold up. ISM index was predicted 56 but managed just over 51. When the stocks make the big correction gold bulls will be happy.
I thought the futures were up this morning (at least they were at 5am PST…)?
Oh bugger…another hangover with no hair-of-the-dog cure in sight…
Price Chg %Chg
Dow 15,561 -140 0.89%
Nasdaq 4,056 -49 1.19%
S&P 500 1,765 -18 0.99%
GlobalDow 2,365 -25 1.04%
Gold 1,263 +23 1.87%
Oil 97.43 -0.04 0.04%
What sent the GDOW over the cliff this morning? Oh, I see…it was the lousy weather.
Feb. 3, 2014, 10:22 a.m. EST
Weather blamed in surprisingly downbeat ISM report
By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The surprisingly sharp drop in the ISM manufacturing index in January stemmed in large part from unusually poor winter weather last month, executives indicated. “A number of comments from the panel cite adverse weather conditions as a factor negatively impacting their businesses in January, while others reflect optimism and increasing volumes in the early stages of 2014,” said Bradley Holcomb of the ISM. The index was only expected to fall a few ticks but instead sank to 51.3% - the lowest reading in eight months - from 56.5% in December. “Good finish to 2013, but slow start to 2014, mostly attributed to weather,” said an executive at an energy company. And an executive at a firm that makes metal parts said: ” “Poor weather impacted outbound and inbound shipments.”
What sent the GDOW over the cliff this morning?
I thought it was Peyton’s fault.
Did you see the vehicle sales numbers ?? They tanked…
Over 15M is NOT tanking.
Estimate was 2.5% down….Real number was 7.5%…I would suggest thats a huge miss…Its not about the numbers its about the direction of the numbers my friend…
Who needs a new vehicle when you got a reliable 2003 Japanese economy car wit still less than 77,000 miles?
Most of the “sales” were to channel stuffing at the dealers and the other “purchases” were through sub-prime auto loans. This didn’t end well 6 years ago and it will certainly not end well this time.
A heart-warming tale of a real estate empire turned bad… and the .01%-er divorce that followed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/business/breakup-at-740-park-avenue.html?hpw&rref=business&_r=1
———-
“On a December evening in 2009, as the walls closed in, Ms. Swig padded through apartment 2/3 D, with its 37-foot-long living room, south-facing views, planted terrace and library. She later contended in court filings that she found Kent lying drunk on the floor of one of the bedrooms, and that he became “enraged” and “motioned to strike her”; she dialed 911. (A lawyer for Mr. Swig confirmed that the police were called, but denied that Mr. Swig did anything to provoke the call.)
Friends and associates say she blamed him for everything — for the financial losses, the social embarrassment, the smashed Murano vase. Before long, the unthinkable happened inside 740 Park Avenue: Word went out that the Swigs might face foreclosure.
Liz and Kent Swig, both 53, have now reached the season of divorce. Their duplex was listed last month, for $32.5 million, through Mr. Swig’s luxury property firm, Brown Harris Stevens. “Located in one of Park Avenue’s most distinctive prewar cooperatives, this magnificent corner 16-room duplex apartment is certain to impress,” the listing reads. Their home in Southampton on Long Island — a seven-bedroom contemporary on 4.2 waterfront acres — hit the market for $26.5 million. “
Saw that article yesterday.
$100M in assets required to qualify to buy a co-op in 740 Park.
One of the residents is a Koch.
That building would be an appropriate target when it’s “Go Time” to take out the 0.1%er parasite pigmen, assuming there isn’t a helipad on the roof.
Netflix has a good documentary on the history of 740 Park, going back to the days of the Astors, Rockefellers, etc. (IIRC, it’s just called “740 Park: The Richest Building in the World”.) There have also been at least a few books written about the building over time. For all their love of the “heartland”, “bootstrapping”, and the tea party, you have to love that the Kochs choose to live in buildings like this, with their income shielded from income taxes as much as possible. And that the advocacy for fighting against “tax increases” (read: getting rid of loopholes) comes from tea party congressmen from the south and Midwest.
Steve Schwartzman lives in that building, probably the biggest name in private equity (Blackstone founder, not to be confused with BlackRock). He’s one of the big names in the “carried interest” argument.
Definitely no helipads in that area of Manhattan, they’re all along the West Side Hwy, Park Ave just east of Cent Park. In that area of Manhattan, “air rights” are a big issue. It’s really hard to build tall buildings around there because you could violate someone’s air rights (basically their view). Good apartments in that building overlook Central Park South. Pretty close to the Metropolian Museum, Sheep’s Meadow, the lake, etc.
And that the advocacy for fighting against “tax increases” (read: getting rid of loopholes) comes from tea party congressmen from the south and Midwest.
I’m sure that there are plenty of rugged individualist congress people from the Mountain time zone who also defend those loopholes.
“When poverty knocks at the door, love flies out the window.”
The other day, a guy in the navy suggested we had no need for aircraft carriers. Yesterday I read that NASA was building a $350 million tower it didn’t want. Now this:
‘The end of the tank? The Army says it doesn’t need it, but industry wants to keep building it.’
‘Critics say the companies are trying to fight off what should be inevitable: a wind-down of a product that the country doesn’t need.
“It looks like they’re protecting profits and using scare tactics about jobs,” said Angela Canterbury of the Project on Government Oversight. “It is really making us less safe when we’re throwing money that’s hard to come by at programs that don’t meet what should be our current national security strategy.”
There seems to be something about how the federal government operates that completely ignores the actual functions it is supposed to perform.
I posted a link last week regarding ALL the aircraft carriers in the world. The united states, by the numbers, has like 2/3 of the aircraft carriers in the world.
But it really gets interesting when you look at the size and capabilities of carriers. For example, countries like Italy and Spain have carriers… but they are smaller than ANY of our carriers. China has 1 (one) carrier. We have about 2 dozen, with more on the way, and our 8-10 largest carriers are 2x the size of what other countries have and carry >2x the planes.
A lot of countries (e.g. India, Brazil) have a “carrier” that is 3-4 decades old and were castoffs from the former USSR.
If you’re asking, “Why do we build so many”… the answer is private contractors. General Dynamics builds all this stuff (with subs, obviously) and they’re the #1 or 2 def contractor, they own a lot of congress people (e.g. Darryl Issa), esp the GOP leadership in the House. So we will keep building, regardless of any real need, forever and ever.
This notion that they’re just built is BS. The fact that we have that many is deliberate. “Jobs” is one of many excuses.
‘the answer is private contractors’
Oh really? So these private contractors make all the decisions? Or the politicians are so weak kneed that they spend billions (you realize each billion is a thousand million) on useless stuff so General Dynamics gets paid?
Why that’s practically saying we don’t have a government. And if so, shouldn’t restoring a true government be the most important matter facing us as citizens? Surely Obama knows about this state of affairs. Golly, maybe the President should get out that pen he’s always talking about and do something about it.
No doubt Obama has failed by not standing up to DOD and the contractors.
Also no doubt he should be vetoing these things and going public about why he’s doing it. And then let the contractors and the tea party congress buy their ads and try to make their cases that we really need more carriers. Obama should at least be making them do this. But he’s wimped out, big time.
I remember in the Pres debates, Mittens actually said we should be building more ships, because (by total number) we have less now than any point since the 70s. Well yeah, but the ones we have now are much larger and faster and Japan and Germany basically don’t have navy/air force and Russia’s is a joke.
‘Obama has failed by not standing up to DOD and the contractors’
You describe a situation that’s not believable. Here’s a guy who says he’s good at killing people. He’s the commander in chief, and we are at war. If there is one area where he could exert executive power, it’s the military. And you’d have us believe he’s afraid to take the MIC on?
So assuming I’m right for a minute. What other scenario might exist to explain why this stuff goes on, the main stream media reports on it, and nothing changes? Could it be that this president, and any president who could possibly be elected in this system, is beholden to the powers that feast at this table? If that’s true, we have a much bigger problem.
Yes, I think that’s the problem & no one will talk about it. If you talk about it, you are “unelectable”. See, for example, why Ron Paul was “unelectable” but Rand Paul is electable (not that he’ll win for sure, but he wouldn’t be excluded from debates and he could attract corporate money unlike his dad).
Could it be that this president, and any president who could possibly be elected in this system, is beholden to the powers that feast at this table? If that’s true, we have a much bigger problem ??
Well sure….And yes, we do have a bigger problem…How do we defang the DOD…Just look at the article you posted on Tanks yet we still build them…Can we apply some common sense here ?? Is there really a role for a “tank” in future conflicts ?? Do we need 2,286,000 military personal ??
As of 31 January 2013, 1,429,995 people were on active duty in the armed forces,[3] with an additional 850,880 people in the seven reserve components
If you’re a Congresscritter who likes stroking and contribution dollars, then the MIC will give you strokes and contribution dollars, millions of them.
If you’re a Congresscritter who likes to stand up for the middle class, then the MIC will give you middle-class jobs, millions of them.
We might ask the question why did Eisenhower just warn America about the military industrial complex. Why didn’t he do something about it? The answer is that he was merely the president of the United States and they were the military industrial complex. He’s been dead for over 40 years and they’re still going strong.
ask the question why did Eisenhower just warn America about the military industrial complex ??
Maybe his way of saying he was powerless against it and if it continued we would be a democracy in name only…
I might add that he was a star General and Supreme Commander…I think he new a bit about the inner workings of the MIC…
I’ve noticed an interesting data point: No matter how blatantly an issue is implying that there is a problem in the campaign finance system, no one, not a one, winner or loser, will talk about it.
It’s uncanny.
It’s because all pols are tainted. There may be a loser in some race or a pol who’s been burned, and just as the conversation would be logically headed to the corrupt finance system, the convo veers away.
Uncanny.
In fact, they will let loose the dogs of war upon any member of the public who draws attention to campaign finance by occupying a public park.
“Darryl Issa”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa
that’s double L darrell to you buddy.
have you read ‘this town’ by mark leibovich? one of my favorite parts of that book is about former darrell issa aide kurt bardella. i was googling around trying to remember his name and stumbled on this:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/kurt-bardella-firm-trey-radel-staffers-100342.html
so kurt bardella gets fired by issa, quietly rehired by issa, and then starts his own p.r. firm, which scoops up the ‘talent’ from retiring cokehead congressman trey radel.
d.c. is so sick, how can you stand it there?
Where are you getting your info?
————–
The Navy Is Dropping Down to Just Two Deployed Carriers
Medium.com
The U.S. Navy is about to cut in half the number of aircraft carriers it keeps ready for combat. Starting in 2015, just two American flattops will be on station at any given time, down from three or four today.
The change is spelled out in a presentation by Adm. Bill Gortney, head of Fleet Forces Command. The U.S. Naval Institute published the presentation on its Website on Jan. 24.
The new “Optimized Fleet Response Plan” represents an effort to standardize training, maintenance and overseas cruise schedules for the Navy’s 283 front-line warships, in particular the 10 nuclear-powered carriers.
The OFRP is also meant to save money and keep the Navy functioning under budget cuts mandated by the sequestration law.
That means less than a quarter of the combat fleet—possibly fewer than 70 ships—will be deployed at any given time, down from 81 today. The Navy keeps around two-thirds of its combat power in the Pacific, equal to around 45 deployed ships under the OFRP.
That’s 2 carriers PER STATION.
Look at this graphic:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers-2012.gif
No other national has the equivalent of even 1 Nimitz Class carrier.
A fully loaded Nimitz carrier by itself would be the 5th most powerful airforce in the world.
Production of more carriers is continuing, btw. Forward. Shame on both Obama and the tea party. They are united on this issue.
Shame on both Obama and the tea party. They are united on this issue ??
They are defenseless against the MIC….Changes in the MIC will come from decisions made within the MIC…
Ben, here is the graphic with all the carriers in the world, to scale:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers-2012.gif
In terms of planes/firepower, think of this: Just one Nimitz class carrier alone would be the 5th most powerful airforce in the world.
Here’s a shortlist of congress/senators that GD and defense contractors in general own, off the top of my head:
Rand Paul (gee, he’s a little bit different than Ron on defense spending…)
Darryl Issa
Michelle Bachman
Ted Cruz
Joe Barton
Gus Bilarakis
Tim Scott
Mike Lee (guy who defeated Bob Bennett)
Joe Wilson
Goehmert (forget his first name)
What I’ve been hearing for a while is that in a real war the surface navy becomes useless or coral reefs. But they are handy for showing presence and beating up areas close to the coast in anything less than that. So do they justify the cost to operate? Probably not. To build more? Definitely not.
So the sole purpose of these hulking pieces overpriced rusty junk is so the US can be the BigD***Daddy until real war breaks out.
I believe it.
We have to borrow this money, BTW.
We have to borrow this money, BTW ??
Yeah…And when we borrow the money the only thing it produces is the jobs to build them…Then, we blow them up, wear them out and borrow more money to build more…
At the end of the day, what do we, as a society, as a country, have to show for this investment ?? Big dog bragging rights is about all I can think of…
I thought having the biggest army is what gets you reserve currency status.
“I thought having the biggest army is what gets you reserve currency status.”
+1 Good point.
FWIW, those carrier groups loitering in the middle-east are the only thing allowing the jooz to sleep well. Same goes for the japz as China would certainly enjoy payback. South Korea enjoys our protection too.
The Army says it doesn’t need it, but industry wants to keep building it.?
This is the “free chit army”….Biggest entitlement program we have…
The defense budget won’t be cut until we have Ronin Farrow as SecDef or at least Sec of State. I hope this happens in our lifetimes.
why do you hate the job creators?
Let the Germans build the tanks.
Let the Germans build the tanks ??
They are smarter than that….
Because German tank expertise lost them two wars.
Sounds like money well spent.
One war. And it was not the tanks that lost it.
Oh…. they won WW2? I see.
Truth.
“There seems to be something about how the federal government operates that completely ignores the actual functions it is supposed to perform.”
It is the same on the local levels. It is a money grab, and nothing more.
To put this in perspective.
Thanks to the US Government’s INSANE spending and deficits levels…
A rise in interest rates will mean we will spend more money on servicing the debt than on national defense.
——————-
US severely exposed if rates rise: Erskine Bowles
CNBC | 02/03/2014 | Matthew Belvedere
The United States spends about $230 billion a year in finance payments to creditors—a level that could more than double if interest rates returned to more normal levels, anti-debt crusader Erskine Bowles warned on Monday.
If interest rates were to return to a median level they were in the 1990s, we’d be spending not $230 billion a year but $650 billion a year,” the former co-chair of the president’s debt commission said.
—————–
Military Spending - 19% of the Federal Budget ($670 Billion) per year
Entitlement Spending - 58% of the Federal Budget ($1.65 Trillion) per year.
In 2010 (last year figures are available) - the deficit is 62% if GDP - a figure not seen in 60 years.
Where does it end? Look at Greece and Argentina today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_deficit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
Entitlement spending = Social security and Medicare are, by far, the bulk of this.
So if we’re going to get serious about entitlements, that’s the __low hanging fruit__.
Does anyone here think either of the 2 parties is going to go after Medicare or SS? If they do, will they do anything meaningful now, as opposed to exempt everyone who is already over 50? Doubtful. Boomers will continue to collect insane “entitlements” paid for by young people.
$2.3 Trillion out the door every year…. poof. Gone. None of it has anything to do with defense or helping people.
It “just happens” says the LIEberals.
because obamaphones and public labor unions are bankrupting this country.
you do realize that 70 percent of the pentagon’s costs for services are contractors?
Entitlement Spending - 58% ??
Why do you lump in SS with SNAP ?? Why do you lump in Medicare with Welfare ??
Two of those programs you must pay into during your working years…The other to are giveaways…How do you reconcile calling all of them “entitlements”…??
Then return the SS “contributions”.
because when your brain has been addled by drudge report links for so long everything starts to blur together, with selected exclusions of course.
and 2brony won’t ‘reconcile’ anything, it’s like a drive-by graffiti tagging, just reposting the same tired, stale, drudge links, throwing some sh1t against the walls of his cage and seeing what sticks.
Matt Drudge and 2B aren’t the problem.
Misleading people about what the real problems are? In my book that’s pretty unhelpful.
Discussing 2.3 Trillion going out the back door year after year is misleading?
Nice work on getting the new job and a raise, BTW. I just got my first higher check since my promotion and raise last week.
Would you consider us to be the “real problem” ?
Are you the decision maker?
I’m not the real problem anymore, as I don’t work for gov contractors in this position. But yes, I would consider our ethical/moral flexibility to be a problem. At least when you admit it, though, you aren’t one of the ones simultaneously complaining about the budget and entitlement spending while living off of gov’t largesse. I’d be happy to go do something with more redeeming value as soon as people get serious about stopping the real waste of money.
Because *I* am the problem. Did you pay your 2013 income taxes yet? Because you and all the other
taxpayerssuckers need to pay me and all the double dippers around me.I’m going full on Bill in Los Angeles, gonna ride this gravy train until the wheels fall off.
And *you* will pay
I’m going full on Bill in Los Angeles, gonna ride this gravy train until the wheels fall off.”
Haha at first I read you were going to tax BILA full on until his wheels fell off..
After 6 years of renting I got my mortgage deduction back thanks to the bizarre tax code.
2200 a month x 12 = 26400 a year in rent and my tax break from renting oh that’s right I don’t get sh$t
Now I pay 1450 a month x 12 = 16800 plus 8K property tax = 24800 a year and I get to write most of that off my gross income. about 500 bucks a month goes to principle so 18.8K deduction from my gross pay plus I can take state income tax off. cool. Plus deduct SDI and other stupid stuff like car registration.
I don’t know what the deprecation on the house is I can’t take it I don’t rent it out. Last i checked the house actually went up in value but I did buy it “as is a short sale” so I figure it stays the same price forever because I can’t predict the future.
So far its a WIN
disclaimer
” I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
In case we gloat about being so smart its really just luck ..
Boasting of the mortgage deduction is like bragging how you won $1000 at the MGM while losing $5000 at the Luxor.
“If Bill in Los Angeles had a son, he’d look like overpaid government contractor”
Because Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
RAL is correct. MID is not a tax break to be particularly proud of. It’s not something the genuinely well-off rely upon. It requires you to pay loads of interest in order to receive rather limited advantage (which is barred by the AMT anyway!).
MID = not winning.
also… 8k property taxes? ummm, wow bro. It better be a palace, for that price.
Normally, I abhor anything HA says, but that analogy was pretty clever; so I will give credit where it’s due.
And Joey, 8k prop tax in many areas only covers a cookie cutter 3br/2ba 1500 sq house.
Whoops ..
4k a year you can pay forward another half a year to jack it up to 6K if you want the extra deduction.
“MID = not winning.”
Renting from Blackstone isn’t winning either.
“If Bill in Los Angeles had a son, he’d look like overpaid government contractor”
Because Bill in Los Angeles = WIN”
That’s pretty funny .
Although I think hes ‘winning” because he doesn’t have kids and can live cheap and save his money.
“Renting from Blackstone isn’t winning either.”
I think you mean BlackRock, man. They’re the ones that have gone apes&$%t on the real estate buying.
Blackstone has basically the same profits as BlackRock but with 1/10th of the assets under management. Basically, Blackstone is Neimann’s and BlackRock is Walmart.
With rental rates a small fraction of buying, rental from anyone is a bargain.
Although I think hes ‘winning” because he doesn’t have kids and can live cheap and save his money.
You betcha.
I’m overlooked because I am mediocre. I dress mediocre, I live among minorities, I drive an old car.
This state is a materialist state, although very socialist.
The California motto is “If you are not a progressive big spender you are not sexy.”
But I met some old timer Californians when I was a teenager. It was a one time meeting. They were my dad’s friends, an elderly couple with lots of wealth in the citrus industry. A chunk of their income in the 1970s was tax free municipal bonds bringing in $30,000 income per month - back in the 1970s.
My dad’s friends (good examples and bad examples) impressed me more than anything I ever saw on television. I observed. I learned. There is balance. You have to have some hidden way to enjoy your wealth. For me it’s travel and fine wines. But I still budget. I started saving the more expensive bordeaux and consuming the low end Bordeaux. It will take a few years.
Right on Housing Analyst! We renters are raking in the savings!
Nice to see high yield corporate bonds get a lift as a flight to safety category. I “throw away” $100 per month on that mutual fund and my income, reinvested, is another $83.the $83 is a little more than my energy bill. How much in energy bills are the “smart” Amy Hoaxsters paying?
Bill,
You’re a perfect example of how renting, saving, delaying consumption and working hard results in a large accumulation of wealth.
There isn’t a LoanOwner on the planet who wouldn’t trade places with you. Freedom, wealth and career. It doesn’t get any better than that.
“A chunk of their income in the 1970s was tax free municipal bonds bringing in $30,000 income per month - back in the 1970s.”
It would be tough adjusting to that lifestyle, but I think I could really pull it off with some old fashioned determination.
I know it is hard to deal with reality, facts and logic when you are a progressive…
FYI - Food stamps, welfare and obamaphones are NOT entitlements. They are part of discretionary spending (just like the DoD).
—————-
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid expenditures are funded by more permanent Congressional appropriations and so are considered mandatory spending. Social Security and Medicare are sometimes called “entitlements,” because people meeting relevant eligibility requirements are legally entitled to benefits, although most pay taxes into these programs throughout their working lives. Some programs, such as Food Stamps, are appropriated entitlements. Some mandatory spending, such as Congressional salaries, is not part of any entitlement program. Mandatory spending accounted for 57.4% of total federal outlays in FY2012, with net interest payments accounting for an additional 6.3%. In 2000, these were 53.2% and 12.5%, respectively.[24]
The federal budget is calculated largely on a cash basis. That is, revenues and outlays are recognized when transactions are made. Therefore, the full long-term costs of entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and the federal portion of Medicaid are not reflected in the federal budget.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
Tutti Fruity:
The only people who read your comments are people who already agree with you. This is mainly because you begin each with a blurb that insults anyone who might not agree with you. It’s kind of a bad technique.
How do you reconcile calling all of them “entitlements”…??”
As I get closer and closer to getting my money back from these forced savings plans ( SS ) I have a bad feeling the Government is going to make me prove I deserve this “entitlement”
My reward for saving in 401ks since the 1980’s when I started working.
I have a bad feeling the Government is going to make me prove I deserve this “entitlement” ??
Your feeling is likely correct….
Should that happen, take the money out of the 401K and pay the taxes. Make it vanish. You will have several years to figure this out between age 59 1/2 and when you begin colleting SS.
Polly would know more, but “entitlement” is a technical term meaning that it is always funded until the law is repealed. The SS law doesn’t have to be re-passed or re-newed like a defense budget or the farm bill. Of course, those against SS and Medicare seized upon a different connotation of the word “entitled.”
I would gladly take all my SS payments with some nominal rate of return back in a lump sum but I realize that was not the program…I paid in so my grandparents and parents and their like would have some guaranteed income safety net in their old age…It has worked in my personal case…My mother & MIL only income is from SS…
Problem now is a combination of many things beginning with demographics…Its also a issue of the hollowing out of the middle class and the swelling ranks of the dependent…Not enough people left paying in or people that make enough to contribute very much…The program won’t work under those sets of metrics…
I suspect we will see “means testing” and the raising of the retirement age to 70 over time…
That is the technical meaning using technical budget language. The problem is that only very severe budget wonks restrict their use of the term that way. I’ve been seeing the term “appropriated entitlements” around, but it is really a misnomer. If getting it (or the amount you get) is dependent on the size of the pot of money that Congress decides to give the program or how a state decides to implement it, it isn’t really an entitlement.
It might be interesting to find out if the sources of bananas articles are using the technical meaning or some other meaning, but I’m not going to take the time to chase it down. If they are using the technical meaning, then food stamps aren’t even part of the percentage he keeps posting.
It might be interesting to find out if the sources of bananas articles are using the technical meaning or some other meaning
He plays fast and loose with the numbers, like his favorite, that 46% of the budget is borrowed. The source of that was a single month, which the the article he quoted extrapolated out to the entire year. Never mind that not only are none of the other 11 months that bad, but some even have surpluses. Yet that doesn’t stop him from trotting out the canard.
The sad thing is that I agree with him, deficits are bad. But he doesn’t do the cause any favors by using bogus numbers.
Realtors aren’t liars; Promise!
SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk..
NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.
BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the
milk away…
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.
SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND VENTURE CAPITALISM You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who
sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on
one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving
you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.
A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want
three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market
it worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and
milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.
A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.
A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.
AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the #$%$ out of you and invade your
country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy….
AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.
A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive
Cowabunga?
SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.
you need at least 4 cows for the analogy.
you have 4 cows. the state takes them and give you and your neighbor 1 cow each. anyone with 3 cows or less gets subsidized 2 cups of milk each day.
COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.
you have 1 cow. the state takes it and gives you chit to stand in a long line to possibly get some milk.
A show of hands from the board please:
How many of you are giving a presentation for Black History Month at a local school near you?
Does driving by a bus stop full of school kids with my windows down while listening to Public Enemy count?
Not giving a presentation, but I went to a really interesting lecture at the Washington Historical Society last week by Hari Jones who is the curator at the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum about spy networks in the Civil War. It is going to be on C-Span sometime this month.
I also saw a preview of a documentary that will be on PBS in June about the Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 over the weekend at the Smithsonian. They are going to make it available to schools this week for a program for Black History Month. Very interesting. Two of the participants were there for a discussion after the program.
Noone has asked yet.
However I watched a PBS Malcolm X documentary on youtube few days ago. Damn it, that was in January…I still have to do something this month I guess.
Comment by my failure to respect is unacceptable
Noone has asked yet.
————————————————————————–
Thats your job. YOU go to the school and YOU ask them if YOU can give a presentation; if they say no or try to stiff arm you, ask them what their presentation is going to be?
If they don’t have an answer, or their presentation is weak, tell them, and explain why yours is better.
Prepare to cry havoc and release the R word if necessary.
Black people are not as smart as they should be because someone benefits from stupid black people.
It sure ain’t me.
I gave a presentation on Arbor Day. Is that close enough?
I am the wrong color. What do I know?
In the 60s when I was in grade school, our class, about 95% white, went on a field trip to a corresponding school of mostly black children for an afternoon. We did not take classes but had different activities, like team-building and so on.
Before that point I never met any black person. I was too young to have any notion on them. But I met some nice kids and they were not really different from us. I think that is what the whole lesson was about. It was a way to have us experience before any prejudices take hold.
Buy a house. It’s for the children!
http://picpaste.com/th.jpg
Here is a picture of a baby realtoR.
http://picpaste.com/thCA75MGUG.jpg
Baby
http://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5117414/il_fullxfull.27249722.jpg
Adult
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/234/d/3/Jail_Bird_by_rwpike.jpg
Here’s a REALTOR® surrounded by satisfied home buyers:
http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/files/styles/card_wide/public/201301/Jonestown.jpeg
U.S. stocks slammed; Dow sinks 300 points, S&P 5% below peak
Saw that. Reminds me of, uh, well, you know.
It’s deja vu all over again!
It’s just a “smidgen”.
Tis but a flesh wound!
If only I had waited until January to short the stock market, rather than falling for the old “We’ll taper in September” trick. It’s almost as if the important people had been given a secret memo that September is code for January.
Oh well, at least I will have a buying opportunity coming up. If the market falls by 5% every month, then I should be buying stocks in another nine months or so. I hope the crash accelerates because I don’t want to wait that long.
Better to be a year early than a day late.
You did well. A huge drop is likely.
Jack Bogle’s market advice: ‘Don’t do something; just stand there’
February 3, 2014, 10:20 AM
Investors should sit tight even after stocks endured a beating in January. That’s the takeaway from a Jack Bogle column published on Monday.
Vanguard’s founder and retired CEO offers a warning against trading too much due to a rocky market.
…
the slowdown nobody saw coming, LMFAO. Here we go again. time to hose the retail investor.
But if your asset allocation in stocks crossed your limit, do somthing!
My team beat the Seahawks and the Broncos this year.
Who are they?
Pats. Who else?
Colts
Colts
We have a winner.
They also beat the 49ers. Problem was they lost to the Mullets, Lambs, Bungals and got crushed in Foxboro again.
Gibson Guitar’s new line is a middle finger to Holder’s unjust Justice Department
Joe Saunders
bizpacreview.com
February 3, 2014
The Gibson Guitar company is fighting the “powers that be” – making “Government Series” guitars for sale out of wood confiscated in a Justice Department raid but eventually returned to the company.
In a 2011 raid on Gibson facilities in Memphis and Nashville, heavily armed SWAT teams seized up to $3 million worth of wood the Justice Departmentclaimed had been imported illegally from India. It was the second time the company had been targeted in two years, and it started a criminal case that wasn’t resolved until July, 2012, when the government dropped all charges against Gibson and the company agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty and contribute $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
At the time, the raid drew mockery from Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and country singer celebrity Charlie Daniels, as well as an army of Gibson supporters in tea party groups and elsewhere.
As part of the agreement, Gibson demanded the supposedly illegal wood be returned — and last week it unveiled a new guitar line made from it: The Government Series II Les Paul.
The company, owned by no-nonsense conservative Henry Juszkiewicz, made its motives clear in a news release announcing the guitar:
Great Gibson electric guitars have long been a means of fighting the establishment, so when the powers that be confiscated stocks of tonewoods from the Gibson factory in Nashville — only to return them once there was a resolution and the investigation ended — it was an event worth celebrating. Introducing the Government Series II Les Paul, a striking new guitar from Gibson USA for 2014 that suitably marks this infamous time in Gibson’s history.
Even though the Gibson raid was national news, its possible political motivations were largely unexplored by the mainstream media.
Juszkiewicz is a donor to Republicans like U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Lamar Alexander; his company got invaded by government agents for using wood imported from India. Meanwhile, according to Investor’s Business Daily, competing guitar maker C.F. Martin & Co. made guitars from the exact same wood yet escaped Justice persecution. It’s worth nothing that C.F. Martin CEO Chris Martin is a reliable Democratic donor, according to IBD.
The “Government Series” guitars start at about $1,000 retail and include a certificate of authenticity signed by Juszkiewicz, who maintained from the beginning that the company had done nothing wrong.
“We feel that Gibson was inappropriately targeted …,” he said in a news release announcing the settlement of the criminal case and reported by the Heritage Foundation. “… [T]he Government used violent and hostile means with the full force of the U.S. Government and several armed law enforcement agencies costing the taxpayer millions of dollars and putting a job-creating U.S. manufacturer at risk and at a competitive disadvantage. This shows the increasing trend on the part of the Government to criminalize rules and regulations and treat U.S. businesses in the same way drug dealers are treated. This is wrong and it is unfair.”
All of the Government Series guitars contain wood that was confiscated in the raid, so supplies are limited.
Here’s a bet they sell out – fast.
This article was posted: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 5:33 am
Tags: domestic news
Thanks for posting. I had forgotten about this case but wondered what would happen.
One firm downgraded my former company’s stock to a hold from a buy. Then five hours later another upgraded from a hold to a buy. The stock took off but traders thought more about their stake and the stock closed up by 0.44% - it was up by almost 7%.
Yeah staffing. I think the cycle is changing. Good to sell the shares I did not need to hold.
liquidate all your holdings bill.
Tempted to liquidate all the holdings I bought above $13 per share. Today’s price is $30.
But most of my holdings are below book value per share and that is $11.