February 13, 2014

Bits Bucket for February 13, 2014

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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218 Comments »

Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 02:20:40

Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:11:04

Luckily for U.S. homeowners, their equity is decoupled from the emerging markets crisis. Otherwise they could look forward to a future life under the sea, living with SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends in Bikini Bottom.

Comment by Carl Morris
2014-02-13 09:49:34

I always found the idea of crabs living in Bikini Bottom to be funny.

 
 
Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 06:21:48

Lying shill. HEE Haw!

Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-13 07:12:20

It is true for me.

Renting from 2006-2008 was actually quite uncomfortable. That is why I bought in 2008….a bit early in the down cycle, but I got a pretty good deal and I enjoy being able to own my home and do what I want around the house.

It is now a rental and I get good cash flow, the loan has been reduced $19,000 and the house is worth more than I paid for it by about $31,000 (which is just enough to cover the selling costs, so no big gain there).

Buying that house was not a great investment, but it is better than a savings account. I derive a great deal of satisfaction (and some cash flow) from owning it.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 07:15:08

Your underwater just like everyone else who bought a house in the last 14 years.

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Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 07:22:01

I have a friend who bought in Riverside in 08. Worst mistake of her and her husbands lives. Riverside market is similar to Sac. I watched it all from the sidelines during that time. If you bought in 08 in Ca you are way underwater donkey. HA does everyone here a favor calling out your shilling lies.

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Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 07:29:43

Everyone’s biggest asset is now falling again! The facelift didn’t take, just ask Amy (JingleBroke).

Inventory is rising with the early Spring in the PHX area, but the rope is too weak to get the donkey up out of the hole.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:07:19

“Amy (JingleBroke)”

Really? The thought that Amy Hoax and JingleMale were possibly the same poster hadn’t occurred to me.

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-13 08:48:40

I don’t know who Amy Hoax is, but she is not I.

The only handles I have used are JR in ‘05-06, Jingle Male, ‘07-’14 and Paladin in ‘07 - ‘09 (plus updates from time to time).

If I had listened to HA in 2008 (he wasn’t around), I would have $100,000 less cash in the bank and my balance sheet would be $750,000 lighter in net worth.

That is HA-HA advice I can do without.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 12:21:53

Don’t just make the claim… substantiate it AmyJingleBalls.

 
Comment by chilidoggg
2014-02-13 15:22:27

i don’t think you understand “net” worth.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 06:31:57

“The vacant lots that have been fallow since 2008 are being scraped of their weeds and new slabs are being poured …”

This sentence from a JingleBroke post yesterday reminded me of Amy.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 07:03:31

If you continue to rent, you will never be invited to march in the Deadbeat Parade.

Protesters March Downtown, Demand Bank Work With Longtime Homeowners

August 19, 2013 5:47 PM

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Protesters with Occupy Homes Minnesota raised their voices Monday against a bank set to foreclose on two homes in south Minneapolis.

The group marched to the offices of Chase Bank in downtown to demand the bank negotiate with two longtime homeowners who could lose their homes. Protesters blocked off city streets waiting for a representative from the bank to speak with them.

“We are about to march into the streets to keep our families in their homes,” said Cat Salonek, with Occupy Homes Minnesota.
The group’s numbers grew as they marched through the streets of Minneapolis, stopping by offices of lawyers they say protect the big banks responsible for taking homes from average Americans.

“We really want to stay in our homes, we’re a valuable part of our community,” said Jaymie Kelly, who is facing foreclosure.
She has been in her home for 33 years. She says she was tricked into a predatory loan after her husband died. She is awaiting a judgment from eviction court and could be out of her home in a week.

It was Kelly who got her neighbor connected with Occupy Homes.

“She was going through the same process with the same bank, so that’s when we were, like: Woah, if we can still do something, let’s do it; lets stand up for our homes,” said Jonathan Ceballos, who is also facing foreclosure.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/protesters-march-downtown-demand-bank-work-with-longtime-homeowners/ - 102k -

Comment by Biggvs Richardvs
2014-02-13 12:48:08

No sympathy. They drove house prices beyond a reasonable price with their greed and now want tax money from everyone else to help them out. The arrogance and self-entitlement of these people is astounding - how do they not have any shame? Don’t I deserve a ‘home’ too?

 
Comment by rms
2014-02-13 13:33:02

“She has been in her home for 33 years. She says she was tricked into a predatory loan after her husband died. She is awaiting a judgment from eviction court and could be out of her home in a week.”

So where did she spend the loan money?

 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 09:58:31

Amy Hoax: Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.

You know, there’s some truth to this. You’re not shackled to a rental like you are to a house/mortgage.

This has pro’s and cons.

Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-14 06:51:31

” You’re not shackled to a rental like you are to a house/mortgage.”

Shackled? I can break my lease anytime and it’s a one month break lease. It frees me to move close to my next job which has a higher salary and my commute costs would be very low (again). Still less than 77,000 miles on my Toyota small car turning 11 years old at the end of this March.

 
 
Comment by ragerunner
2014-02-13 10:00:19

What a sad view of what matters most in life

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 12:29:47

“Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.”

Or a debtor’s prison.

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:05:25

Hoaxster, I refer you to Ben’s blog today “The Urgency to Buy has Evaporated.”

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 04:09:00

“Get what you can get for your house today because it’s going to be less tomorrow for many years to come.”

That’s right. Housing prices are falling once again.

Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 07:38:45

Are you sending a Valentine to your landlord this year?

 
Comment by ragerunner
2014-02-13 10:18:26

I guess the rest can send their cards to the banks that have their mortgage.

 
 
Comment by Say what
2014-02-13 08:04:03

House prices were always falling, but now they are falling again.

The illogic is amazing.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:08:19

Wait a minute there. I thought real estate always goes up?

 
Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 08:13:23

Housing Analyst has zero credibility on this subject.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 08:27:45

it’s going to be less tomorrow

ALOT less.

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Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 08:50:17

Maybe your landlord should send you a Valentine to thanks you for all the equity he’s building every month when you pay rent.

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-13 08:51:12

HA has been saying that for a couple of years now……all the while housing prices increased 20-30%. He must have a good excuse….because he has no credibility.

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-13 08:57:03

….good excuse….

Oh, I remember now…it’s because there are so many investors buying.

It’s because the fed is easing monetary policy.

It’s because the home builders charge more than it costs to build a house….

Think about it. These factors are real and have measurable impact. It is just like the sub-prime lending, mortgage fraud and securitization scams all lead to the boom and bust.

Real estate goes up and down based on many factors. Only to HA, their fake factors if they contribute to supporting the market values and real factors only if they help the market decline. HA, HA, HA, Burdbrain thinking to the max.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 12:20:08

If you’re so confident, why are you $hitting all over yourself about what I say?

Enjoy your losses AmyJingleBalls.

 
Comment by Biggvs Richardvs
2014-02-13 12:53:25

“Maybe your landlord should send you a Valentine to thanks you for all the equity he’s building every month when you pay rent.”

Maybe your banker should send you a Valentine for all the capital he is building every month when you pay him interest. Oh that’s right - you get like a whopping 20% of that back on your taxes.

Paying interest on an asset whose price exceeds 3x median income(in most areas) is a really bad bet. You might do well to take an economics class sometime if you’re not sure exactly why that is.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by (Still) Waiting for the Fall
2014-02-13 04:54:51

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-13/blackstone-fueled-single-family-home-boom-lifts-chicago.html

From the article:

Chicago home prices climbed 11 percent in November from a year earlier, the biggest jump in almost a quarter century, according to S&P/Case-Shiller data. While gains are slowing across the country, the Windy City was one of nine areas in the group’s 20-city index to show a year-over-year increase in housing values.

“They flocked in the early recovery to places such as Phoenix and Las Vegas and parts of California, and Chicago and some other markets lagged behind a little bit,” said Lance Ramella, a senior vice president at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Naperville, Illinois. “Chicago just wasn’t providing that yet and now it is.”

Institutional investors, led by companies such as Blackstone’s Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), have bought as many as 200,000 U.S. properties in the last two years, taking advantage of real estate prices that fell as much as a third from the 2006 peak, and rising demand for rentals among Americans who lost their houses in the foreclosure crisis. Their reach has stretched from the hard-hit regions of California to small Ohio towns to the sprawling suburbs of Atlanta.

Chicago trailed some other markets for attracting investor interest because Illinois is a judicial foreclosure state, meaning home repossessions require approval by a court, slowing down the process, and there were fewer opportunities to buy distressed real estate in bulk, Ramella said. Prices in other cities fell further than in Chicago, making them more appealing.

Now that values in other areas have bounced back so much, buying there isn’t as attractive and investors have turned to other areas, such as Chicago, for better pricing, Ramella said.

“They’re looking for distressed property and a lot of runway for appreciation,” Ramella said. “We’ve got a lot more room to appreciate here.”

This is NOT going to end well…

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 05:51:01

Remember… CaseShiller excludes shortsale and default transactions as does zillow.

Blackstone and AMH are running 50% vacancy rates and burning through cash on these flawed business models.

Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-13 09:26:10

HA, Your numbers our based on mid 2013 information and are outdated (no surprise there, since you are stuck in 1998)

Colony Capital (15,000 homes nationwide)

3rd Quarter 2013 report:

Renovating 1,000 homes/mon and leasing 900 homes/mon (up from 650/mon in the 2nd Qtr)

Portfolio now 61% leased (3rd Qtr) .

There is no question CLNY did get out over their ski tips in mid 2013 with such rapid housing acquisitions, but their investor call in two weeks (2/21/2014) should give you a better picture of what is happening today. At 900 homes/mon, it won’t take long to fill up the 6,000 remaining housess (6.67 months if you are math challenged…..w/ apologies to Whac, who is very math literate.)

It sounds to me like they are having some success in this model. We can discuss it more in two weeks. I think they will do well and I purchased their stock last year at $19.80. I enjoy the 7% dividend yield and the 12% increase in value. I believe it will go higher.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 12:18:10

You’re being dishonest again.

I said AMH and Blackstone. So you yammer about Colony when there is no public access to verify your claim.

You are a very dishonest person.

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Comment by JingleMale
2014-02-13 22:38:09

Colony owns American Homes for Rent Burdbrain. You call yourself an analyst….try doing some….

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-02-13 23:06:48

‘Colony owns American Homes for Rent Burdbrain. You call yourself an analyst….try doing some’

I don’t think so. You are confusing some names.

‘Colony American Homes, a major property owner in South Florida, postponed its initial public offering as stock market jitters reach real-estate investment trusts, the Wall Street Journal reported.’

http://therealdeal.com/miami/blog/2013/06/06/colony-american-delays-ipo-amid-stock-jitters/

But they do have a lot of houses available if you’re interested.

http://www.colonyamerican.com/Apartments/module/ajax_properties/

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-02-14 04:56:16

You are correct Ben. My Birdbrain moment. I was writing on the fly.

Colony Financial (CLNY) owns Colony American Homes. Their last report to shareholders shows the above related statistics on their home ownership and occupancy rates and it may be found here:

http://ir.colonyfinancial.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=232682&p=irol-presentations

I apologize for the mistake and for inappropriately berating HA. Boo, hoo, hoo, for me, yeah for HA. HA! He gets one begrudging HA! ;)

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-14 10:20:31

You got caught lying again. It’s no mistake.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:12:41

“They flocked in the early recovery to places such as Phoenix and Las Vegas and parts of California, and Chicago and some other markets lagged behind a little bit,” said Lance Ramella, a senior vice president at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Naperville, Illinois. “Chicago just wasn’t providing that yet and now it is.”

Everyone now wants the chance to chill their butts off in the Windy City!

Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 06:22:53

The new Detroit.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:26:30

I am saving that title for LA.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:40:04

Anyone who has driven around the old area of LA that lies away from the shiny downtown office towers can certainly appreciate your point.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 05:38:50

Honey, do you smell gas?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/usa-kentucky-explosion-idUSL2N0LI0C720140213

Pimp that natgas! Kentucky Fried! It’s cheap and crispy.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:11:49

Yes but it is like a said a few days ago, I have more issues with the large pipelines than with the connections to the house. Whether you use NG or not they can endanger you just like the El Bruno explosion.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 09:04:40

BTW, it is good that the East will be above normal in about a week because these numbers are getting scary:

Summary

Working gas in storage was 1,686 Bcf as of Friday, February 7, 2014, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decline of 237 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 863 Bcf less than last year at this time and 631 Bcf below the 5-year average of 2,317 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 315 Bcf below the 5-year average following net withdrawals of 106 Bcf. Stocks in the Producing Region were 232 Bcf below the 5-year average of 845 Bcf after a net withdrawal of 89 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region were 84 Bcf below the 5-year average after a net drawdown of 42 Bcf. At 1,686 Bcf, total working gas is below the 5-year historical range.

 
Comment by cactus
2014-02-13 13:57:26

I have more issues with the large pipelines than with the connections to the house. ”

An Engineer I know who works for a gas company told me the gas in the large pipelines is at a very high pressure, I know in the house its quite low.

 
 
 
Comment by Dudgeon Bludgeon
2014-02-13 05:52:46

More Chinese millionaire news…

http://thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=142474&sid=41562685&con_type=3

Canada slams visa door

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Canada has abolished a controversial program that gave wealthy immigrant investors, many from the mainland, a fast track to citizenship.
The Immigrant Investor Program offered permanent Canadian residency in exchange for a five-year loan of C$800,000 (HK$5.64 million).
The end of the program was revealed in the 2014 federal budget unveiled by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
The government’s line in reaching the decision was that the program “significantly undervalued Canadian” permanent residency.
It will be replaced with a couple of new programs.
One will match skilled immigrants with labour market needs and the other with the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Fund, which will lock arrivals into investing money rather than committing the C$800,000 to a five-year, zero-interest loan to one of Canada’s provinces.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:07:24

Is the EM crisis finally over now, with blue skies and clear sailing ahead?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:28:18

Asia Markets
Perils Mount As Debt Costs Swell in China
Dangers Include Slower Growth, Weaker Profits and Potential Defaults
By Shen Hong
Feb. 10, 2014 5:29 p.m. ET

SHANGHAI—Borrowing costs for Chinese companies are rising strongly, a shift that could herald weaker corporate profits, slower economic growth and even the first defaults by indebted corporations on the mainland.

Driven by a surge in borrowing in recent years, Chinese companies amassed an estimated $12.1 trillion of debt at the end of last year, according to Standard & Poor’s. That compares with an estimated $12.9 trillion for U.S. businesses, now the world’s most indebted. The ratings company estimates that debt at Chinese companies is poised to exceed the U.S. total this year or next.

“The leverage in the corporate sector is already very high and does pose a latent risk to the entire economy,” said Shuang Ding, an economist at Citigroup Inc. Challenges for companies are mounting as the government tightens credit and investors demand higher interest rates to fund borrowers.

“The double whammy of an economic slowdown and rising borrowing costs will cause problems for companies already struggling with sliding profit margins,” Mr. Ding said.

China’s corporate debt has risen more rapidly than its economy has expanded over the past five years. According to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., China’s corporate debt was 124% of gross domestic product in 2012, up from 111% in 2010 and 92% in 2008. J.P. Morgan economist Haibin Zhu said the number likely rose further in 2013.

Corporate debt in comparable emerging economies is 40% to 70% of GDP, while in the U.S. the figure is 81%, according to J.P. Morgan.

While heavy debt loads can hurt companies, there is also concern about the impact on lenders. In China, banks tend to hold loans on their balance sheets and are the biggest buyers of corporate bonds.

“High corporate debt is the biggest vulnerability for the Chinese financial sector, followed by shadow banking and local government debt issues,” Mr. Zhu said.

Rates have even risen for some of China’s most important borrowers. China Development Bank, a state-owned lender charged with helping to develop the nation’s economy, saw the rate it pays on five-year bonds rise to 5.75% this month from 4.97% in late October and 4.16% in January 2013.

For the Export-Import Bank of China, which helps finance the flows of goods into and out of China, the rate on its three-year bond rose to 5.44% in February from 4.80% in October and 3.62% in February 2013.

The increase in borrowing costs was driven in part by a rise in rates on government bonds. The yield on China’s benchmark 10-year government bond reached 4.75% in late November, the highest since January 2005 and up from 3.68% at the end of 2012, according to WIND Info and Thomson Reuters. The yield has since fallen to 4.51%. For short-term bonds like the ones sold by Evergreen, the average interest rate on new issues now stands at about 6.26%, up from 4.38% at the beginning of this year and 2.77% in 2005.

With a rate of 9.90%, Evergreen’s latest debt issue is effectively a junk bond, said Wang Ming, a partner at Shanghai Yaozhi Asset Management, which oversees two billion yuan in assets. “If [Evergreen's interest rate] rises above 10% next year, how will they be able to honor repayment?” Mr. Wang said.

Evergreen declined to comment on the interest rates it is paying or its ability to repay its debt. “The bill sale was a market exercise. We do everything according to the rules of the market,” said an official at Evergreen’s finance department, who declined to comment further.

Evergreen said in the prospectus for its December bond issue that if the shipbuilding industry stays weak, “the company’s profitability will likely keep sliding, which will affect the issuer’s repayment ability.” Evergreen’s net profit dropped to 45.9 million yuan in the first nine months of 2013 from 324.7 million yuan a year earlier.

The slide has made Evergreen’s debt situation worse. At the end of 2010, the firm’s earnings equaled 33% of its outstanding debt, while a year later the figure fell to 12% of its debt. At the end of 2012, Evergreen’s earnings equaled just 7% of outstanding debt. Figures for 2013 aren’t publicly available.

No corporate bond in China has ever failed to pay off, though some issuers have been bailed out. “We keep guessing when we will see the first bond default in China, and I think it might be possible to see one or two cases this year,” said Yaozhi’s Mr. Wang. He declined to comment on his own portfolio, but advised investors to avoid “bonds issued by risk-prone small companies, especially those in sectors burdened by overcapacity, such as the shipping and solar industries.”

Even if there are no defaults, if many companies are forced to cut spending to raise cash for debt repayment, that could cause the economy to slow.

Rising money-market rates and bond yields have also translated into higher rates on bank loans, which account for the bulk of corporate lending in China. Smaller, private firms have been hit the hardest. According to Lily Li, financial director of a medium-size, privately owned pharmaceutical firm in Shanghai, banks are now charging at least 8% for a one-year loan, compared with a little over 6% a year ago. “The cost of borrowing from banks is becoming really unbearable now. We won’t die, but it’s really too much pressure for us,” Ms. Li said.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:30:52

Business Day
The Limbo of Asian Markets
By KEITH BRADSHER
FEB. 12, 2014
Cargill is racing to finish a cocoa-bean processing plant in Surabaya, Indonesia, where local demand is high. Andri Tambunan for The New York Times

SURABAYA, Indonesia — The docks at big Indonesian ports like this one are quieter these days, as China’s demand for raw materials has begun to cool.

But drive an hour inland and the agricultural giant Cargill is racing to finish a cocoa-bean processing plant, while a large instant-noodle factory is running full tilt to meet the demand for convenience food from Indonesia’s large and growing middle class. “We’re having quite a tough time keeping up,” said Tjun Sulestio, a general manager of the noodle factory, run by PT. Suprama.

The contrast in many emerging markets between signs of a looming currency crisis and strong domestic demand is visible around the world. Stock markets and currencies have fallen in recent months in places like Buenos Aires; Jakarta, Indonesia; Manila, and Istanbul, as investors have worried that weaker Chinese growth and a United States Federal Reserve that is pumping out fewer dollars will cause a global stumble in many developing nations.

Like limbo dancers struggling to shuffle under a low bar before standing upright again, emerging markets must shuffle along under weak commodity exports and capital outflows before they can recover their balance and let strong domestic demand for products like cars, electronics and instant noodles carry their economies forward again. The question is whether their consumers and businesses will continue to spend, or whether international troubles will spill into domestic economies in ways they cannot control.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:32:53

Emerging market sell-off: why did it happen and is it a buying opportunity?
The fast-growing economies of Asia and Latin America were supposed to be the future - but their stock markets have crashed.
Emerging markets such as (left to right) Brazil, Russia, India and China - the ‘Brics’ - have struggled this year
By Richard Evans
6:43AM GMT 12 Feb 2014

Many Isa investors have poured money into emerging markets in recent years, attracted by the idea that these fast-growing nations offer better prospects than the sluggish, debt-burdened West.

But they had a rude shock last month when share prices in many parts of the developing world fell suddenly and sharply, dragging other markets down with them. Some said the development marked a dangerous new phase in the global financial crisis.

Many investors will be wondering whether they should therefore cash in their emerging market holdings – even if it means making a loss.

A more bullish group will be asking whether the falls in share prices have opened up opportunities for bargain hunters, especially if the setbacks prove to be just a flash in the pan.

Below we aim to identify the causes of the latest shock to investors’ nerves and decide whether we are in for another drawn-out crisis or whether the markets can quickly recover their poise.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:14:03

Are your Bitcoin holdings holding up well?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:16:30

Markets
Fragility Of Bitcoin Uncovered By Glitch

Problem is a Technical Issue Relating to Third-Party Transactions
By Robin Sidel and Michael J. Casey
Updated Feb. 11, 2014 7:58 a.m. ET

Vulnerabilities in bitcoin’s transaction network were thrust into the spotlight Monday.

A major exchange for the virtual currency blamed an underlying software glitch for its technical problems. The statement from the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox exchange underscores worries about bitcoin’s payment network, which relies on computers and software to move billions of dollars of the virtual currency around the world.

“We have been concerned about Mt. Gox for a while, and the issues over the past couple of days sealed it for us,” said Jeremy Bonney, a product manager at CoinDesk, a data provider that on Monday dropped the exchange from its prominent bitcoin price index just three months after adding it.

Bitcoin supporters quickly dismissed the idea that a technical glitch could unsettle the global computer network. But although bitcoin software developers have worked on the problem for more than a year, its association with Mt. Gox’s problems threatens to dent bitcoin’s reputation in technology circles. Until recently, most of the issues surrounding the virtual currency had been related to its potential use in criminal activities.

Regulators and governments around the world are scrutinizing bitcoin and its potential ties to money laundering and other illegal activities. Canada is the latest nation to consider regulations to keep a handle on its usage, according to officials there.

Bitcoin prices fell sharply Monday after Mt. Gox, which abruptly halted customer withdrawals Friday, issued a statement that gave no indication of when it would resume operations and warned of the broader technological problem. Officials from Mt. Gox couldn’t be reached for comment.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:18:15

Hackers attacks bitcoin exchanges
Robin Sidel
The Wall Street Journal
February 12, 2014 6:33PM

THE two largest bitcoin-trading exchanges came under attack from hackers, leaving customers unable to withdraw their money in the latest development to roil the fledgling virtual currency.

Slovenia-based Bitstamp said it halted customer withdrawals to deal with the issue. BTC-e, a bitcoin exchange based in Bulgaria, said it was experiencing delays in crediting certain transactions. During such outages, some trading can continue, but customers aren’t able to gain access to their money.

Both exchanges described the problem as a denial-of-service attack, according to comments made by the companies on their websites. In denial-of-service attacks, hackers essentially disable a website by flooding it with information requests.

The two exchanges account for 56 per cent of bitcoin trading volume, according to bitcoincharts.com, which tracks trading activity.

The attacks underscored the fragility of the five-year-old currency, which is created by computers and isn’t backed by a central bank.

“This is a very big deal,” said Jaron Lukasiewicz, chief executive of Coinsetter, a New York-based bitcoin-trading platform that remained open as usual. “The two largest bitcoin exchanges aren’t processing withdrawals — that essentially shuts the ecosystem down.”

Details about the incident were limited, although Bitstamp linked the problem to a “transaction malleability” issue that prompted the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox exchange to halt withdrawals last week. BTC-e didn’t elaborate on its problems in the statement on its website.

Mt. Gox has blamed its issue on a glitch in the bitcoin software that could potentially give rogue traders a way to falsify transactions. It said Monday the problem wasn’t limited to Mt. Gox.

After the Mt. Gox news arose, “somebody, somewhere in the network decided it would be fun to start mutating transactions,” said Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group that promotes the use and development of bitcoin.

Bitcoin prices fell sharply for a second consecutive day. The price of a bitcoin dropped roughly 4 per cent to $US650, based on the CoinDesk price index, which collects data from Bitstamp and BTC-e. At the beginning of February, one bitcoin was worth about $US850, according to the CoinDesk index.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:33:43

THE two largest bitcoin-trading exchanges came under attack from hackers, leaving customers unable to withdraw their money in the latest development to roil the fledgling virtual currency.

I said when you did post many warnings that I expected that someone would find a chink in the armor and be able to hack the currency and make it worthless. I thought that it would be a government with all its resources but it appears to be non-governmental hack but who knows. All the fiat currency countries have a reason to destroy the competition. Gold is just much harder to undermined. Heard a Chinese expert on Bloomberg radio today, she stated that she did believe that China was buying gold to create a convertible currency. She also believes that its economy is growing about 6% per year, lower than the official numbers but higher than I believe. My estimate is more like 4 to 5% a year based on electricity and oil consumption.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 10:01:37
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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 11:48:22

Gold just crossed the $1300 level, I am surprised the PTB have not tried to do more to hold it down. Only reason I can think of is they know if they do not bring on more gold production they will run out of physical and they will have to cover their shorts at $2800.

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:40:41

You should not be surprised. The PTB is not omnipotent. They can be effective only for so long. After all I refer you to the runup from 2001 to 2011. The PTB could not control it.

Market cycles are the wrench of hard reality and impervious to artificial forces after some point. The demand from Chinese and Indians. The costs going up for miners. The tiring bull market in the general stock market and the search by veteran investors for safe havens after riding this long 59 month bull. And finally a new Fed boss that is the same as the old boss.

Lots of market events shifted directions in December and January.

Got popcorn?

 
 
Comment by Biggvs Richardvs
2014-02-13 13:22:08

Dan - I don’t think they devalued it. A DoS attack simply halt the ability to conduct transactions, but the BTC people possess still has value and will be fungible when the functionality of the exchange is restored. Of course the fact that transactions are halted may cause a loss of faith/convenience which could affect the price, but not to the extent of total loss of value.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:19:26

You may be correct but I thought the hacking had created problem larger than just a temporary inability to access. It has created problems with verification of the actual owner of the bitcoin.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:20:37

Russian authorities say Bitcoin illegal
MOSCOW Sun Feb 9, 2014 4:24am EST

Some of Bitcoin enthusiast Mike Caldwell’s coins are pictured at his office in this photo illustration in Sandy, Utah, January 31, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

(Reuters) - Russian authorities have issued warnings against using Bitcoin, saying the virtual currency could be used for money laundering or financing terrorism and that treating it as a parallel currency is illegal.

“Systems for anonymous payments and cyber currencies that have gained considerable circulation - including the most well-known, Bitcoin - are money substitutes and cannot be used by individuals or legal entities,” the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on February6.

It added that Russian law stipulates that the rouble is the sole official currency and that introducing any other monetary units or substitutes was illegal.

Russia’s central bank also said on January 27 that Bitcoin trade was highly speculative and that the unit carried a big risk of losing value.

“Citizens and legal entities risk being drawn - even unintentionally - into illegal activity, including laundering of money obtained through crime, as well as financing terrorism,” it warned.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 06:23:26

A uniquely hackable medium of exchange!

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 06:34:32

Nobody who reads here can say I didn’t warn them early and often on Buttcoin.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:54:20

Buttcoin, is that Rio’s medium of exchange?

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 14:27:00

Buttcoin, is that Rio’s medium of exchange?

Albuquerquedan,
You’re wasting your time. You should fantasize about someone you’d stand a chance with. I’m sure, if I were gay, I would not like you as a person anyway. A smug racist and a compulsive liar are bad enough, but now you’re creepy too.

You might try Craigslist, but tone down your creep factor.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:48:02

I knew you were stalking the website.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 15:18:48

I knew you were stalking the website.

No. I was here, at the beach. Life’s good. (Thank you God)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0baIIRYhBOw

And had a nice Wednesday morning bike ride here. (but what’s with the Buena Vista Social Club music?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbhR_6wE1TQ

And I might go here next week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7yJMwbww4Y

And looking forward to Carnival in a couple weeks. (Warning puritans, this is Brazil)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akJO_mZp6Ow

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:33:54

A smug racist and a compulsive liar are bad enough, but now you’re creepy too.

Yes, just like Obama if you are losing a debate call people a racist and say they are lying about you. Nice you can include youtube video, it must help keep you from thinking about the weather in DC where you are or is it Philadelphia, how many times did you vote in the last election?

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 17:03:41

Yes, just like Obama if you are losing a debate call people a racist and say they are lying about you

But I win when debating you. I just call it as I see it. You say dumb stuff with nothing to back it up. And your math is off.

it must help keep you from thinking about the weather in DC

Would you like to make a very large wager (in Dollars, gold or Reals) about me living in Rio? I would. But why are you so jealous? Come on dude, you live in Albuquerque-the most beautiful “big” city in that part of New Mexico (As if you really live there. Who would live there if they were bad at math?) Albuquerque dude……. where the women are the most….uh….something I’m sure.

I live in Rio de Janeiro. Big deal. They can’t even put the “i” before the “e” in the name down here. And they walk at a zombe pace everywhere. But why would you be jealous? Because my house is paid off and almost tripled in a bubble? Because I can walk to “The Sexiest Beach in the World” in the swanky part of town in “The World’s Most Beautiful City”? With some of the most beautiful women in the entire world? Everywhere. What’s the big deal? (For everyone else, I’m not bragging, I’m funnin’ around with A-Dan - he’s fun. I miss USA a lot, but I’m pointing out where I think Albuquerque is coming from - jealousy and anger at me….sorry adan. But my offer of a large bet on where I live is open to all)

RDJ baby!

Rio de Janeiro - Most Beautifully Sited City

Rio de Janeiro is undoubtedly one of the most stunning settings in the world. Sitting on the southern shore of the magnificent Guanabara Bay, it is possibly the most beautifully sited city on the planet. Rio de Janeiro is a marvelous city with breath-taking view.

http://apexplanet.blogspot.com.br/2013/01/rio-de-janeiro-most-beautifully-sited.html

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 20:43:06

Lola…. the page by day, on the DC tranny stroll by nite while dreaming of Rio.

 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 10:02:41

Here’s a list of cryptocurrencies: http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2013/11/27/the-top-30-crypto-currency-market-capitalizations-in-one-place/

It’s good Bitcoin is getting the trial that it’s getting. It needs to be able to stand up to real world tests, not just theoretical ones.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 10:51:41

It can be hard to real world test something that is entirely imaginary.

 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 18:39:54

Blue Skye: It can be hard to real world test something that is entirely imaginary.

Well… it’s a logical construct. Like a tractor in Farmville. Or treasure in some online game.

Currency is a logical construct. Slips of paper to which we ascribe value. One slip of paper has a “1″ written on it, and another has “100″ and we value the slip with “100″ on it more than “1″. There are a variety of reasons we value it, foremost in that, because others value it, we can give it to people to purchase goods and services we want. But it’s still a logical construct, our valuing the slip of paper.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 06:21:10

Private non-farm payrolls finally rose to just over the peak level in 2007 just before the recession. That’s about 116,000 vs a low of 107,000 at the end of 2009. Yet the percentage of the population on food stamps is still at 19%, up from 8% before the recession. Mortgage applications are at the lowest they’ve been since the bubble started to deflate.

60 million people on food stanps! By definition, too poor to provide for their own nutrition. How many technically having income above the poverty level but up to their eyeballs in debt service. We are a very fragile society.

Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:28:32

The 1%, the 0.1%, and the 0.01% got theirs, and that’s all that matters.

And as far as they’re concerned, the $80 billion of annual spending on food stamps to keep the rabble in line is the equivalent of the scene in Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part I” where the king drops a coin into a bucket of p*ss as a tip to his valet.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:21:05

And as far as they’re concerned, the $80 billion of annual spending on food stamps to keep the rabble in line is the equivalent of the scene in Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part I” where the king drops a coin into a bucket of p*ss as a tip to his valet.

True dat.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 10:23:55

It’s better than that, as the struggling middle class pays taxes to foot part of the foodstamp bill, knowing well that they might someday use a SNAP card themselves.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-02-13 10:46:43

As an added bonus, there will be many politicians and radio hosts talking to their consitutents and listeners about how your taxes are getting spent on feeding people who can’t or won’t work to feed themselves. This puts some members of the 99% in conflict with other members, which is required for the 1% to run the country as they see fit.

 
 
 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 06:56:56

real journalists at the washington post discuss matt drudge’s relationship with hillary clinton, note that matt drudge is not a real journalist, you should only trust journalism written by real journalists

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/02/12/matt-drudge-and-hillary-clinton-a-history/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394

 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:00:28

comcast and time warner to merge in $45 billion deal

as predicted by fugazi in the song ‘five corporations’

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JoAYOBDdJMM

Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 10:05:31

This is, to me, a dark development.

Control of the media is a huge prize, either by a corporate entity or a government entity. It offers money and power like little else.

This media consolidation is a step in the wrong direction. Part of the “coup by installments.”

Comment by measton
2014-02-13 15:16:47

Note this has everything to do with net neutrality.

Comcast can now favor their own content over say Net Flix amazon pbs etc etc. That’s why Comcast is buying content providers. They own the pipes and they will soon crush other content providers.

 
 
 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:08:00

hope and change in a reuters piece linked from drudge

’severe pollution in beijing has made the chinese capital ‘barely suitable’ for living, according to an official chinese report, as the world’s second-largest economy tries to reduce often hazardous levels of smog caused by decades of rapid growth.

pollution is a rising concern for china’s stability-obsessed leaders, keen to douse potential unrest as affluent city dwellers turn against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has tainted much of the country’s air, water and soil.’

Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 07:10:49

So NOW they want to be business unfriendly.

Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:16:48

this planet’s gonna be a real ecological utopia when it’s populated by 12 billion of god’s little miracles.

just keep on breeding and go buy that new i-phone, it’s all good bro.

Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 07:33:40

When modern medicine is not available to masses, it will only take one good global epidemic to clear the decks.

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Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:36:34

“I just wanna get my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames” — Jim Morrison

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:15:09

He died young while his father who was an Admiral lived into this 90s and was healthy most of the time.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:17:46

When modern medicine is not available to masses, it will only take one good global epidemic to clear the decks.

Particularly if the .01 percent decide to genetic engineer a disease to get rid of the “eaters”.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:24:22

genetic=genetically engineer

 
Comment by RonaldsRottenHamburger
2014-02-13 08:34:24

Why would they do that? Then they won’t be able to ride on the backs of slaves anymore.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:51:38

The eaters do not produce anything, the slaves work.

 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 09:02:56

as correctly predicted, within a few decades less than 15 percent of usa will enjoy a standard of living that is middle class or greater.

the 1%er pigs need the lucky duckies, and will provide them just enough bread and circus to keep from rioting.

they also need the <14% who serve as their fluffers, the professional class dedicated to maintaining the wealth and comfort of the 1%.

these fluffers will toil in the service of the 1%, chasing the carrot that they too will one bootstrap their way into the 1%.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 09:08:33

When modern medicine is not available to masses, it will only take one good global epidemic to clear the decks.

A really nasty flu could do it.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 11:21:08

Absolutely. The Spanish Flu should be a reminder, but most people probably think that could never happen again, if they’ve even heard of it. Why not? Tuberculosis has made a comeback, and some other things. MRSA is rampant, heck, the Tampa Bay Bucs had to deal with it. The surprise to me is that something like this hasn’t happened yet.

Sorry to be such a downer, but we’re far more globalized than in the early 1900s and yet that epidemic was global, even then.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 12:30:04

The flu can and does kill, most people don’t really realize that, unless it hits close to home. I remember when I wuz a wee pup, my mother almost died from it, I think it was the early 60s and the memory is etched in my mind.

This was back in the day when doctors still did house calls. The doc was in and out of the house and I recall my father looking very anxious and grave. He was the only one allowed in their room, other than the doc. My grandmother cried softly to herself when she thought no one was looking. We were not allowed to make any noise, not one peep and my brother got a whuppin for laughing out loud at something. It really was touch and go.

And then she went into crisis and the turn came for the better. Later when she told about it she said she remembered coughing up some crap about the size of a golf ball and immediately started to feel better and the fever went down. But we almost lost her.

That said, the flu can be absolutely fatal to anyone over 50 or even 40 who is not prepared. One contact with a youngster who has it and you can be in for a very rough ride. Which is why, when I used to work for a vendor that sold to big box stores and had to visit the stores, I took great care to avoid family groups during flu season and even around the time school started.

Want to mow down a bunch of boomers? Expose them to youngsters during flu season. In fact I think it’s sort of nature’s way of letting the young weed out the old when vaccines and medications aren’t available.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 12:32:10

Sorry to be such a downer, but we’re far more globalized than in the early 1900s and yet that epidemic was global, even then.

You actually brought joy to Prince Charles and Goon.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 12:37:32

Actually Prince Philip goes further (caution not from a real journalist source):

Paul Joseph Watson & Steve Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, May 12, 2008

Nazi collaborator and racist advocate of mass genocide Prince Philip, a man who has often expressed his desire to return to the earth as a “deadly virus” to thin the human population, says that there are too many people in the world as he attacked large families in a television interview set to air this week.

“The duke hints that curbing family sizes may be the best means of keeping the soaring cost of staple food products, such as bread and rice, in check,” reports the London Times.

“Food prices are going up,” he tells his interviewer, Sir Trevor McDonald. “Everyone thinks it’s to do with not enough food, but it’s really that demand is too great – too many people. Basically, it’s a little embarrassing for everybody. No one quite knows how to handle it. Nobody wants their family life to be interfered with by the government.”

Overlooking the fact that Prince Philip himself has four children and eight grandchildren, the article couches his comments in the fallacy that HRH is an “eco-warrior” and completely fails to point out that the Duke of Edinburgh’s enthusiasm for culling the human herd actually stems from his warped advocacy of eugenics.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
 
 
Comment by mathguy
2014-02-13 13:29:05

again, you please be the first standing in line for the life opt out program

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:20:58

Ladies first Lola.

 
Comment by cactus
2014-02-13 14:23:43

The high cost of living is curbing population growth I think ?

I guess if Prince Philip was in charge he wouldn’t give out free school lunches or WICK, section 8 or welfare.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 14:42:32

I think I read somewhere that the British ruling family, Mountbatten, is actually of German descent, the original family name being Battenburg (or some such thing, I’m writing from memory here). I thought Prince Phillip was Greek, though. There have always been rumors of Nazi sympathys in the family, but I must say, having lived in the Northeast, some upper crusty types have been known to hold similar views. Pretty chilling. The Rockefeller family has also been rumored to support, uh, population control.

But I do believe in responsible reproduction, as in “if you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em”. To do otherwise is cruel. I also think it’s cruel to keep someone who is, for all intents and purposes, dead, on a feeding tube for years. And jamming hordes of people into tight quarters in inhumane conditions is a travesty. So is bombing the crap outta villages and settlements with no thought for the children and families.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:08:09

But I do believe in responsible reproduction, as in “if you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em”. To do otherwise is cruel.

Agreed. But I think there is something much more sinister going on. This same group of people that in public advocate “diversity and open borders” hold these views where even genocide is permissible. I think they intend to use these people that they perceive as tools to achieve what they want, one world government controlled by the .01 percent and then would have no problem disposing of low intellect people in a third Reich manner.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 15:18:56

“Ladies first Lola.”

Uh, dan, I’m pretty sure mathguy was referring to me, not you. However, I think he misunderstood, I wasn’t saying that this flu stuff was something I WANTED to come about, I was just saying how depop COULD come about. And it would be far from pretty.

As to being the first standing in line for the opt-out program, I do speculate that if TPTB were to go that nutz as to actively make an attempt at culling the herd here in the US, boomers would most likely be the target, so as to ease the financial strains brought about by entitlement programs, people on disability and such. Since I’m an arse-end boomer, I’d be one of the targets. I’m not saying it’s right, or that it would happen, but when you read some of the things that some of the bitter Xers write, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

Colorado pointed out that all it would take is a really nasty flu, and I tend to agree with him. Combined with vaccine and medication shortages.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:22:34

If so ,sorry Mathguy. Too many handles to keep track of and I knew Rio was looking for payback due his smack down yesterday.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:36:34

However, there have been other posts from Mathguy that suggest to me that they are one in the same.

 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 15:37:44

mathguy tends to be short, concise and to the point. rio, not so much. I don’t think they’re the same person.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 15:47:15

However, there have been other posts from Mathguy that suggest to me that they are one in the same.

Then you are about as perceptive as you are smart. The only similarity I have with Mathguy (besides being smart) is we both know how to rip you a new one. So naturally, you’d think we were the same.

I don’t think they’re the same person.

Because you’re not an idiot with a low EQ.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:49:55

You are correct on that point. But notice today immediately after I called Mathguy out as Rio, Rio surfaced on the board. If you do make your style the same as Professor Bear does when he adopts a new persona or like goon does it is fairly easy to identify. However, I do not think either one of them does it to deceive anyone that they are a different person. Having said that, as a joke I would not put Amy Hoax past Goon. It is a great parody that he is certainly capable of pulling off.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 15:55:24

I knew Rio was looking for payback due his smack down yesterday.

Like this smackdown? Are you that bad at math Albuquerquedan, or were you intentionally lying again as you do and did on Dec 5th, thinking it would slide?

Comment by Albuquerquedan 2014-02-10 10:45:32
……there was very little increase of the debt to gdp ratio under Reagan …….

Wrong: (Proof below) There was a huge increase in the debt to gdp under Reagan. In fact, Debt/gdp had been trending down since WWII. Reagan exploded the debt - tripled the debt and put America on its current path of high debt. Here’s the facts of your latest smackdown:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/US_Federal_Debt_as_Percent_of_GDP_by_President.jpg

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 16:50:50

If you measure the debt in terms of per capita income Reagan in eight years moved it from 53% to 84%, Obama in four years moved it from 130% to 189%. I stated because of the strong economic growth during the Reagan era the overall debt moved very little. We can argue over “little” all day but a 59% increase in four years is far higher than a 31% move in eight years. Reagan restore the economy, Obama has left a debt to per capita income ratio that will take decades for this country to overcome. An epic success Reagan administration compared to an epic fail Obama administration now you can go back to all back position of calling me a racist for pointing on the dictator is wearing no clothes. n

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 17:01:42

Has not posted yet but this is connected to another post during Reagan per capita income moved from 7,787 dollars to 13,123 during Obama’s (admittedly four years not eight) it has only moved from 26, 964 to 27, 754, thus my point due to Reagan causing incomes to rise rapidly the debt to per capita income ratio only grew at a small fraction of the rate year over year compared to Obama. Need to sign out and hit the road, I have a long way to go and a short time to get there.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 17:10:51

We can argue over “little” all day

No we cannot argue over “little” all day. When you said “……there was very little increase of the debt to gdp ratio under Reagan …….” you either lied, were dumb to the subject or blinded by your fetish with Reagan.

Look at the chart I posted. When the debt/gdp ratio had been falling fast since WWII and began to steeply rise under Reagan, that is a monumental sea change in the nation’s economy that we are living with today. Reagan tripled the debt and had it rising sharply compared to GDP. It’s just math.

“……there was very little increase of the debt to gdp ratio under Reagan …….” is a flat-out false statement.

 
 
Comment by measton
2014-02-13 15:18:44

War famine disease = population control for a world that doesn’t believe in birthcontrol.

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Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 15:34:46

I used to think so, too, but these factors have the exact opposite effect. I know, I know, it’s counter-intuitive, but it has to do with survival of the species. A family with three children assured of a good income, decent living conditions, future prospects for the children, etc. will usually be content with the three children. Take away the income, destabilize the family, throw them into poverty or subject them to war, crime, famine and disease, and you will find frantic reproduction taking place, in order to insure the survival of the species.

Hence the reaction of the Irish to the potato famine and other stresses on their survival. This can also be seen in places like Africa and India.

I’ve not seen any figures, but I’d be willing to bet that reproduction among Mexican immigrants to the US tends to fall off if they become more secure and prosperous.

There is one other factor, however, and this is that when you reward certain activities, such as government subsidies for children based on income, you’ll have less income and more children, on the basis that you get what you reward. That’s just how it works, and can you really blame people for taking advantage of it? Survival is important and people will do anything to ensure it.

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 16:12:11

That’s just how it works, and can you really blame people for taking advantage of it? Survival is important and people will do anything to ensure it.

I cannot blame people for doing it. However, just like a lifeboat can only take so many people before it sinks, this country can only take so many unskilled people before it will be destroyed. It is a cruel choice when there is only room for 50 on board the last remaining lifeboat and there are 100 people on the sinking ship but the number of people that want to come to this country far exceeds the carrying capacity of the country and hard choices must be made.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 07:12:43

Remember… The value of a house is entirely founded on input costs. And current asking prices of resale housing are 200%+ higher than input costs(lot, labor, materials and profit).

Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 08:16:02

Same lies, different day. Do you really think anyone here believes you?

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 08:43:24

He is too modest. Costs are going down. The biggest housing bubble in history has left us awash in production capacity everywhere.

 
 
Comment by Captain Credit Crunch
2014-02-13 08:26:14

Recall that one dimension to the input of land is it’s location. New houses are mostly built in the outlying metro areas and less desirable geographically (commute time). So, that puts some upward pressure on resale homes in better areas, especially for places that are built out like West LA. But, you are overwhelmingly right for the Inland Empire, there’s not much reason except hot air that makes resale homes twice the price per sq. Ft. I like the floor plans of newer homes, as well.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 08:32:12

Not really.

Generally, there isn’t much value to raw land.

Comment by Captain Credit Crunch
2014-02-13 09:41:32

You are disagreeing with the idea that there is such thing as desirable locale? And that most of the desirable locations were built upon first and thus no longer available? This seems silly.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 10:48:25

What about a locale (with no infrastructure) would make land valuable in and of itself other than as an object of speculation?

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 11:58:01

“no longer available”

LOL

 
 
 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 08:44:44

Hey Captain,

Leverage is not a good hedge in deflation.

 
 
 
Comment by azdude02
2014-02-13 07:14:43

have people finally figure out that saving money in a bank at .01% interest is not very smart? Do they finally get the FEDS mandate of manipulating asset prices to jump start the economy?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 07:27:54

R u sayin that now is the time to get some home equity going?

 
Comment by Ronnie'sLeftMango
2014-02-13 07:31:35

See above. Everyone’s biggest asset has been dropping for months.

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:46:08

I don’t mind earning .11% (that’s what my 6 month T-bills are getting, not 0.01%) as long as it’s still positive and in the face of a 5 year bull. That money I have just into T-bills is from a 500% gain on stock that I sold and I owned that stock for just under 25 months. Do the math - how many years worth of 10% annual gains is 500%? I could even accept 0.01% for several years for that amount I put into T-bills.

Because I expect the stock market to crash by at least 40% in the next couple of years. And real estate will tank a lot too.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 07:21:47

Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution

Zero Hedge
February 13, 2014

At first we thought Reuters had been punk’d in its article titled “EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap” which disclosed the latest leaked proposal by the European Commission, but after several hours without a retraction, we realized that the story is sadly true.

Sadly, because everything that we warned about in “There May Be Only Painful Ways Out Of The Crisis” back in September of 2011, and everything that the depositors and citizens of Cyprus had to live through, seems on the verge of going continental. In a nutshell, and in Reuters’ own words, “the savings of the European Union’s 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says.” What is left unsaid is that the “usage” will be on a purely involuntary basis, at the discretion of the “union”, and can thus best be described as confiscation.

The source of this stunner is a document seen be Reuters, which describes how the EU is looking for ways to “wean” the 28-country bloc from its heavy reliance on bank financing and find other means of funding small companies, infrastructure projects and other investment. So as Europe finally admits that the ECB has failed to unclog its broken monetary pipelines for the past five years – something we highlight every month (most recently in No Waking From Draghi’s Monetary Nightmare: Eurozone Credit Creation Tumbles To New All Time Low), the commissions report finally admits that “the economic and financial crisis has impaired the ability of the financial sector to channel funds to the real economy, in particular long-term investment.”

The solution? “The Commission will ask the bloc’s insurance watchdog in the second half of this year for advice on a possible draft law “to mobilize more personal pension savings for long-term financing”, the document said.”

Mobilize, once again, is a more palatable word than, say, confiscate.

And yet this is precisely what Europe is contemplating:

Banks have complained they are hindered from lending to the economy by post-crisis rules forcing them to hold much larger safety cushions of capital and liquidity.

The document said the “appropriateness” of the EU capital and liquidity rules for long-term financing will be reviewed over the next two years, a process likely to be scrutinized in the United States and elsewhere to head off any risk of EU banks gaining an unfair advantage.

But wait: there’s more!

Inspired by the recently introduced “no risk, guaranteed return” collectivized savings instrument in the US better known as MyRA, Europe will also complete a study by the end of this year on thefeasibility of introducing an EU savings account, open to individuals whose funds could be pooled and invested in small companies.

Because when corporations refuse to invest money in Capex, who will invest? Why you, dear Europeans. Whether you like it or not.

But wait, there is still more!

Additionally, Europe is seeking to restore the primary reason why Europe’s banks are as insolvent as they are: securitizations, which the persuasive salesmen and sexy saleswomen of Goldman et al sold to idiot European bankers, who in turn invested the money or widows and orphans only to see all of it disappear.

It is also seeking to revive the securitization market, which pools loans like mortgages into bonds that banks can sell to raise funding for themselves or companies. The market was tarnished by the financial crisis when bonds linked to U.S. home loans began defaulting in 2007, sparking the broader global markets meltdown over the ensuing two years.

The document says the Commission will “take into account possible future increases in the liquidity of a number of securitization products” when it comes to finalizing a new rule on what assets banks can place in their new liquidity buffers. This signals a possible loosening of the definition of eligible assets from the bloc’s banking watchdog.

Because there is nothing quite like securitizing feta cheese-backed securities and selling it to a whole new batch of widows and orphans.

And topping it all off is a proposal to address a global change in accounting principles that will make sure that an accurate representation of any bank’s balance sheet becomes a distant memory:

More controversially, the Commission will consider whether the use of fair value or pricing assets at the going rate in a new globally agreed accounting rule “is appropriate, in particular regarding long-term investing business models”.

To summarize: forced savings “mobilization”, the introduction of a collective and involuntary CapEx funding “savings” account, the return and expansion of securitization, and finally, tying it all together, is a change to accounting rules that will make the entire inevitable catastrophe smells like roses until it all comes crashing down.

So, aside from all this, Europe is “fixed.”

The only remaining question is: why leak this now? Perhaps it’s simply because the reallocation of “cash on the savings account sidelines” in the aftermath of the Cyprus deposit confiscation, into risk assets was not foreceful enough? What better way to give it a much needed boost than to leak that everyone’s cash savings are suddenly fair game in Europe’s next great wealth redistribution strategy.

This article was posted: Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 5:44 am

Tags: economics, foreign affairs

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 07:28:54

“Europe Considers Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution”

AKA communism

Comment by azdude02
2014-02-13 07:53:52

why keep money in a bank?

Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:42:55

T-bills are far better than any bank or credit union. Unless you are near a stock bottom then you better have lots of cash at hand in your favorite brokerage account!

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Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 08:54:57

Mobilize, once again, is a more palatable word than, say, confiscate.

If they try that, there will be a capital flight and people will hide their money. There is a much easier way: the ECB can print lots of money and lend it out at near zero interest rates. In fact, I think the only reason this is being suggested is that it will make easier to sell a European QE later down the road.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 09:28:28

If they try that, there will be a capital flight and people will hide their money

Got gold or platinum?

Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 10:36:00

Correct - hard assets. And they don’t just have to be PMs. I have mentioned how people would hoard rebar and bags of cement when inflation was high in Mexico

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Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 10:06:56

Money printing means existing holders of currency give up a little of its value and the recipients of the dollars gain buying power they didn’t previously have.

Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 10:52:11

Money printing means existing holders of currency give up a little of its value and the recipients of the dollars gain buying power they didn’t previously have.

True, but history shows that the citizenry will tolerate it.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 07:41:00

Alexandria, VA(DC area) Housing Prices Dive 16% Y-o-Y

http://www.movoto.com/alexandria-va/market-trends/

Comment by Captain Credit Crunch
2014-02-13 08:33:22

I have noticed that viewing the graph on a price per square foot basis almost always yields a smaller decline. It’s less than 10% this way. I’m guessing this means the mix of houses listed has either shifted to lower end housing or the high end has dropped its price disproportionately more. Thoughts?

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 11:59:11

Could be anything. Doesn’t matter. Prices are falling and have a long way to fall.

 
 
Comment by Jane
2014-02-13 14:04:07

Music to my ears. My joy would increase were I to hear news of massive government rifs.

Comment by oxide
2014-02-13 17:59:55

You won’t see rifs; Congress just passed a budget which got rid of sequestration. And over the past couple years, the “rif” strategy has become pretty clear: they are counting on massive attrition in the next decade. I saw one survey where upwards of 20% of some divisions plan to retire in the next 5 years. Management is already encouraging knowledge transfer from senior to junior employees, and employees are being moved around in such a way as to backfill highly paid employees with employees who make less. The result will be fewer workers, or at least cheaper workers.

 
 
 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 07:49:02

Speaking of the 1%er pigmen, here Bloomberg reports on Manhattan. Article notes that for residences listed for more than $20 million last year, the average asking price per square foot was $4,977.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-13/manhattan-trophy-home-sellers-test-buyer-limits-on-price.html

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 07:50:53
 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 08:00:12

Phony scandals posted an article about Justice Clarence Thomas’ comments that Northeastern liberals are racist.

Here real journalists correct the narrative on racism

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/opinion/blow-thomas-speaks-blindly-about-race.html?hpw&rref=opinion

Clarence Thomas is not a real journalist. Only real journalists who have been cleared by the Media / Academia Race Hustlers Industrial Complex are authorized to talk about racism.

Comment by MightyMike
2014-02-13 10:59:55

The quote yesterday was “The worst things that have been done to me, the worst things that have been said about me, [were] by northern liberal elites, not by the people of Savannah, Georgia.”

The person who springs to mind is Anita Hill, who is from Oklahoma.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:11:40

Damn polar vortex balled up retail sales!

Feb. 13, 2014, 9:52 a.m. EST
Sales at U.S. retailers sink in January
Business slow at most stores; December sales also weaker
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales at U.S. retailers fell sharply in January and December turned out to be worse than initially reported, offering more evidence the economy may have softened toward the end of the year.

Sales dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.4% last month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 0.1% decline.

Unusually cold and snowy weather in January appeared to dim the desire of Americans to shop, but the weak retail report also suggested that poor conditions were not the only thing holding consumers back. One example: Sales at Internet stores, which should not be affected by the weather, fell 0.6% in January.

What’s more, sales in December and November were both revised lower. December’s originally reported 0.2% increase was cut to an outright decline of 0.1%.

U.S. stock futures (ESM4 -0.35%) were notably lower after the retail data, as well as a separate report showing an 8,000 increase in initial jobless claims.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:37:02

One example: Sales at Internet stores, which should not be affected by the weather, fell 0.6% in January.

Actually, they should go up during bad weather. If you can’t go to the brick and mortar, you should buy online.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:41:42

That was my thought exactly! BTW, I forgot to include the sarcasm tags in my post that blamed the bad retail figures on the weather.

 
 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 08:55:18

0.1% is noise.

Sales are up YOY.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 08:56:26

No raises == less consumption.

Comment by real journalists
 
 
 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 08:21:28

Article for Downlow Joe discusses gay conversion therapy and the Ex-Gay movement:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/opinion/ending-gay-conversion-for-good.html?_r=0&referrer=

Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 08:38:25

And yet the mayor of NYC is married to a “former” lesbian…

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 09:10:41

Tongues are wagging about that.

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 09:44:11

You are such a cunning linguist.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 09:50:30

+1, most heterosexual males have an inner lesbian that they need to let out from time to time.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 10:59:11

You are such a cunning linguist.

Ew!

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 08:31:31

PEs to Consider:

Amazon: AMZN : The PE of Amazon is 592, Valuation is $160 Billion
Linked In: LNKD : PE of Linked In is 837, Valuation is $23 Billion
Facebook : FB: Facebook PE is 106, Valuation is $165 Billion
Priceline : PCLN : PE of Priceline is 36, Valuation is $64 Billion
Hertz : HTZ: PE of Hertz is 37, Valuation is $12 Billion
Starbucks : SBUX : PE of Starbucks is 483, Valuation is $57 Billion
Boston Beer (Samuel Adams) : SAM : PE of Boston Beer is 43, Valuation is $3 Billion

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 08:42:42

OMG talk about incipient stock price collapses!

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-02-13 09:53:53

What I still can’t figure out after nearly three decades of market watching is, what keeps U.S. share prices indefinitely propped up at ridiculous high valuations?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 10:50:26

Federal Reserve. When this mini-high tech bubble bursts so will the reflated housing bubble. They are joined at the hip with once again California being the epicenter.

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 08:41:55

The irony is the corrupt press has never been happier…

—————

Finland No. 1, US sinks to 46th in global press freedom rankings
Yahoo | Feb. 12, 2014

The U.S. plummeted 13 slots to 46th overall “amid increased efforts to track down whistle-blowers and the sources of leaks,” Reporters Without Borders warned in an annual report.

Here, in order of rank, starting with No. 1 Finland: Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, Estonia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Jamaica, Canada, Poland, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Namibia, Belgium, Cape Verde, Cyprus, Uruguay, Ghana, Australia, Belize, Portugal, Suriname, Lithuania, Britain, Slovenia, Spain, Antigua and Barbuda, Latvia, El Salvador, France, Samoa, Botswana, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Papua New Guinea and Romania.

Comment by real journalists
Comment by rms
2014-02-13 22:02:09

“A real reporter, declared Madame Feinstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, is “a salaried agent” of a media company like the New York Times or ABC News, not a shoestring operation with volunteers and writers who are not paid.”

If you’re not on an editor’s leash you’re not a “real reporter.”

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 08:44:20

How to move to Socialism 101:

1. The government creates a crisis through over-regulation
2. The government blames the private sector for the crisis
3. A large segment of the population — the lazy and unproductive who are looking for something for nothing — agree with the government
4. The government then takes over more and more of the economy.

——————————

Argentina’s Fernandez slams supermarkets for ‘price speculation’
Reuters | 2/12/14

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez criticized supermarket chains and said they could face consequences for what she claimed was price speculation on basic products, as the government tries to keep a lid on inflation.

Fernandez said consumers had denounced supermarkets for not complying with a recent voluntary agreement between the government and food suppliers to contain the price of goods including beef, sugar and yerba mate tea.

“We are going to take all the measures that we have to,” said Fernandez in a speech at the presidential palace broadcast on television on Wednesday.

Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 08:46:19

And in the US examine:

Health care
Housing
Student Loans

to see this in action…

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 08:48:55

I signed up for LinkedIn but have never really been on it. All those PEs are horrible but the media ones are the worse. How can FB continue to grow rapidly now that it has lost its cool status? Are the barriers to entry for possible competition to these companies high enough to justify these PEs. I do not think so, but people can make money off the bigger fool for quite a while.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 09:04:58

I did a first pass at the taxes with the H&R Block software last night. One thing I noticed on the W2 is that it now shows how much the company paid towards the health insurance. In our case it was almost a whopping $18,000. Which is more than a full time minimum wage income.

What is especially interesting is that this coverage is not considered “Cadillac”. It would have to cost $27,500 to meet that definition.

So what kind of coverage did those $400 a month family plans actually offer?

Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 09:12:49

Be sure to thank all of your single colleagues for subsidizing your family plan insurance.

And your child tax credits.

And your multiple exemptions.

Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 10:57:11

And your child tax credits.

Kids are too old for those now, and I sure do miss them. But yes, I do thank my single colleagues for their subsidies. As for other exemptions, like the MID, you don’t need to be married or have kids to get that.

As for the insurance, it’s part of my compensation package. Then again, I know more than a few young pups at the Santa Clara campus who are paid more than I am, so it’s all good.

Still, 18K for a plan, that’s a lot of dough.

 
Comment by cactus
2014-02-13 14:41:29

Be sure to thank all of your single colleagues for subsidizing your family plan insurance.

And your child tax credits.

And your multiple exemptions.’

Government needs kids otherwise they wouldn’t have this, who else will fight their wars ? Old people ?

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 10:57:17

I would certainly trust her with my personal financial information and social security number (not):
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/371043/colorado-health-exchange-director-indicted-fraud-theft-jillian-kay-melchior

Comment by In Colorado
2014-02-13 11:13:51

And she was involved with housing fraud. Nice!

Oh well, at least the Colorado website worked from the get go.

 
 
Comment by cactus
2014-02-13 14:36:16

My company faces a fine because the medical insurance they offer is too good compared to Obama care.

Its getting better and better ..

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 09:23:58

The whole thing can be found at China Mining but the key parts:

Reuters)
Updated: 2014-02-12 13:51
Counter:44

A high-yield investment product backed by a loan to a debt-ridden coal company failed to repay investors when it matured last Friday, state media reported on Wednesday, in the latest sign of financial stress in China’s shadow bank sector.

The product, which raised 289 million yuan ($47.7 million) from wealthy clients of China Construction Bank (CCB) , China’s second-largest lender, was created by Jilin Province Trust Co Ltd and backed by a loan to a coal company, Shanxi Lianmeng Energy Co Ltd.

“It matured on Feb. 7, but CCB passed on an announcement from Jilin Trust saying ‘We currently can’t be certain when (Lianmeng) funds will be returned,’” the official Shanghai Securities News quoted an unnamed investor in the trust product as saying.

Though the maturity date has already passed, producing a technical default, Jilin Trust appears to be working to recover investor funds.

“Restructuring isn’t bankruptcy. As far as we know, there is no problem with the firm’s assets. The firm is in negotiations with investors,” the paper quoted an unnamed Jilin Trust official as saying.

Jilin did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment on Tuesday morning.

Chinese markets were on edge last month when a similar product created by China Credit Trust Co Ltd warned investors that it might not pay off on time when it matured on Jan. 31. That product was also based on a loan to an indebted coal producer in Shanxi.

In the end, however, investors in China Credit Trust’s “Credit Equals Gold” product recovered their principal when an unnamed investor stepped in to purchase collateral assets.. In this case, default has already occurred, the paper said.

The popularity of investment trusts and other so-called wealth management products has exploded in recent years, with banks and trust firms marketing them as a high-yielding alternative to traditional bank deposits.

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 09:47:56

200,000 Golden Elephants.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 09:49:09

“A report made by a vindictive ex-wife that Witaschek kept firearms in his home led to two searches of his home.”

Gun owners beware: DC man faces jail for having empty shotgun shell

January 23, 2014
by Michael Dorstewitz

A successful Washington, D.C. businessman with a spotless criminal record is preparing to go to trial for possessing a single, misfired and inoperable shotgun shell in his own home.

When Mark Witaschek isn’t working as a financial adviser, he enjoys hunting. Unfortunately for him, he also lives in a city with gun control laws so draconian, possessing an empty shell casing is punishable by one-year incarceration and a $1,000 fine, according to The Washington Times.

His firearms are kept at his sister’s house in Virginia. The shotgun shell he kept at home as a keepsake — something to remind him of an incident that occurred during a hunting trip.

A report made by a vindictive ex-wife that Witaschek kept firearms in his home led to two searches of his home. The first yielded live ammunition — a felony subject to the same two-year sentence as for possession of an illegal firearm. But it was conducted without a warrant and thrown out by the judge.

The Washington Metropolitan Police was smarter the second time out, and arrested him on the basis of the misfired shotgun shell and a pack of sabots — sleeves having no propellant that are wrapped over a projectile before it’s rammed into a muzzleloading gun.

Gun owners beware: Man pulled over, harassed for having permit but no gun

Several plea offers have been made by the prosecutor and rejected by Witaschek. He rightfully feels as though he’s done nothing wrong. So he and his lawyers are preparing for a costly trial — costly to him and costly to the taxpayers.

The Washington Times notes an equally outrageous set of circumstances connected to the case:

A year ago this month, the attorney general for the District of Columbia let NBC News anchor David Gregory off scot-free for possession of a “high capacity” magazine because doing so “would not promote public safety.”

Now, Irvin Nathan refuses to use that same prosecutorial discretion for an average citizen who violated a bizarre technicality that makes empty casings and shells a crime as serious as having an illegal firearm.

“Since the night my home was invaded and family terrorized by a militarized D.C. police force, I am more afraid of what government is doing than I am of any of the people I encountered when I spent the night in jail,” Witaschek told The Times. “The Second Amendment was meant to guarantee individuals the right to protect themselves against government — as much as against private bad guys and gangs.”

The problem with “gotcha” gun control laws like those in Washington, is that rather than focusing on the criminal, they’re designed to make criminals out of law abiding citizens like Witaschek. That’s not justice — it’s stupidity.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/01/23/gun-owners-beware-dc-man-faces-jail-for-having-empty-shotgun-shell-96062 - 106k -

Comment by 2banana
2014-02-13 10:08:51

When socialists control government:

Own a single shotgun shell and go to jail = “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 10:10:28

“The Second Amendment was meant to guarantee individuals the right to protect themselves against government — as much as against private bad guys and gangs.”

Actually, it was primarily designed to protect us against government as was the first.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 10:52:56

“a vindictive ex-wife”

There is only one tried and true way to avoid having one of those.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 11:06:09

Actually two, but homicide is illegal.

 
Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 11:07:01

There’s more than one way. Guns & Roses wrote a song about it:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p1_4QKByKSI

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 13:18:45

911 What’s your emergency?

My ex-husband is dating my best friends younger sister, or um I mean he has guns in his house and I’m afraid he is going to do something horrible.

Ok Ma’am we’ll get the SWAT team right over there.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 13:30:01

“a vindictive ex-wife”

“There is only one tried and true way to avoid having one of those.”

Be on the Men’s Doubles Luge team?

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 13:45:38

So blame it on Rio, I think you thought of a third way.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-02-13 15:04:40

“a vindictive ex-wife”

The best way to avoid that is marry a good women and be good to her. And be lucky. I got lucky. (knock on wood)

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 20:44:58

How old is he?

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Comment by cactus
2014-02-13 14:50:59

The Washington Metropolitan Police was smarter the second time out,”

They were going to get him one way or another. scary

 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 10:24:05

I was just reading an article on financial regulation. The author identifies two general approaches - rule-based and general principle-based.

I think a combination of the two are the way to go. And the over-arching general principle should be: “STOP FINANCIAL POLLUTION.”

Financial pollution is costs imposed on those outside the transaction. Just like regular pollution, when a factory dumps effluent in the river.

The financial sector likes to portray itself as gunslinging risk takers, but they only do it with other people’s money and if there is a big enough crisis, their bought politicians and the central bank bail them out. Very much a “Heads I win, Tails you lose” proposition created by captured legislators.

So, to stop that financial pollution, there should be a focus on limiting the consequences of a financial transaction to just the participants, not imposing the cost on those outside the transaction. That should be IMO, the guiding principle behind financial regulation.

Comment by real journalists
2014-02-13 10:50:28

the above argument has been effectively classified by the p.t.b. as ‘class warfare’

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2014-02-13 10:55:15

Finance is fruitless if you can’t impose a drain on the resources of others. It would be an oxymoron.

 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-02-13 10:29:18

“ANOTHER reason why bubbles inflate is that there is little reward for not taking part. When the bubbles burst, central banks slash interest rates to bail out borrowers. But in so doing, they penalise savers who had kept their money in cash and avoided the bubble assets. In theory, the prudent could benefit because they could buy assets at rock-bottom prices (as Warren Buffett did in 1973-74). But governments also step in to prop up asset prices (in housing, for example) so the great bargains don’t appear.

….

There really is no reason other than political pressure for the Fed to take us from bubble to bubble by cutting interest rates to near zero and flooding the market with liquidity. Ironically, the lesson friom the Great Depression - that letting the banks go under is not a good idea - has been so well absorbed by the Fed that it is played for a patsy by the banks.”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2010/06/saving_prudence_and_economics

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 12:29:33

Ya gotta laugh….. Now that prices started down again, the realtrolls are coming out of the woodwork…. just like in 2007.

It’s time to go back to your stock in trade whatever it might be… tending bar, waiting tables, etc.

Comment by Amy Hoax
2014-02-13 13:15:03

Get a life.

The grownups are having a conversation here, you are excused to leave the table.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 14:18:15

HeeHaw debt-donkey HeeHaw!!!

 
 
 
Comment by RonaldsRottenHamburger
2014-02-13 12:32:02

The Yellen saga is just beginning.

As is typical with women, she’s taking the middle, consensus, road by tapering — which means the Fed is STILL injecting money directly through its spigot to the Primary Dealers and rest of the ‘top feeders.’

She will be judged on whether she reverses the taper. Ben did so twice.

If she stays steady on her course, the markets might actually muddle through 2014.

I expect disruptions from:

1) Puerto Rico — it’s issued more ‘municipals’ than Manilanders can imagine.

It pimped many for the dons of Wall Street.

Most Americans are not aware that PR bonds are/ have been DOUBLE tax exempt. This means that they sell very well to residents of NY, MA, RI, ME, etc. Many take the form of ‘sheathed’ corporate bonds. That is, they are actually backed by corporate enterprises. PR has over flowed with such ‘Revenue Bonds.’

Airport development bonds are a classic example of a Revenue Bond. The indenture will specify that the issuing government does NOT stand at risk for payment: only landing fees and duty free shop revenues are pledged.

A default by PR — which is really a junk bond issuing entity — should be the leading edge of wide spread municipal defaults.

I note that most stock market investors refuse to watch the junk bond market. The somnolent propaganda networks omit any talking-head action where they are concerned.

Somnolent propaganda: “Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Move along.”

It’s the absolute inverse of agitprop. It’s to keep the proles with the flock: Baaa, baaa.

2) Overseas financial fiascos. Japan, Red China, Europe, Turkey, Venezuela … it’s a competition to see who can take their nation totally over the cliff.

It’s what you’d expect when you put Wile E. Coyote in charge. In the case at hand, he’s been cloned.

3) A cash flow crisis within the American Medical-Pharma-Insurance Cartel. Fundamentally, the cash is not flowing. The Insurance Cartel is freaking out over liquidity issues: retail defaults are a rash all over the nation. This reality is suppressed.

The Insurance Cartel is trying to force price rollbacks down onto the Medical Cartel. These are epic in scope. Because they are line-by-line price rollbacks, the specifics overwhelm public analysis and discussion. The Medical Cartel has as many price points / craft services as Walmart. We’re talking terrabytes of database detail.

As you might imagine, both Cartels love that grit. Like two lawyers in a small burg, they feed on it. Vast armies of paper chasers push the digits to and fro. This overhead is then passed on to the nation at large.

My dentist used to have but ONE office employee. That was thirty-years ago. Now every dentist in town has a staff chasing payment. A hefty percentage of dental charges are no longer going to him/ her — just to pushing bits.

4) Some hostile power is engaging in “Telefon” with our power grid. If it were to be as disrupted as Japan’s, the follow on impacts would be epic.

Let’s start with food: America is THE global exporter of food. Electric power is used at every step of the way. Foodstuffs can’t even make it onto the ship if the grid is down. Grain elevators are not wired like the Pentagon or your city hospital. It’s regular juice — or nothing.

That’d be bad news for the Ummah. The desert nations are, by far, the main market for food exports. Adverse price moves would re-birth the Arab Spring.

On present trends, the only thing that’s going to hold down Ummah food demand is a population collapse — the hard way. (Somalia, writ large.)

Globalization is leaving the Ummah behind. From Turkey to Kazakhstan, they’re living the nightmare.

I can see Yellen flip-flopping entirely if any of these nasty events unfolds.

She is also a top tier regulator of the American banking system — by statute. I await some attempt to rein in the pervasive corruption of the mega-banks. As it stands, the sociopaths are running the tables.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 14:16:21

“The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state controlled police and the military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an ‘equalizer.’ Egalite implies liberte. And always will. Let us hope our weapons are never needed - but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny… If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government - and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.”

- Edward Abbey
in his book, Abbey’s Road (1979)
“The Right to Arms” p. 132

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:32:09

From Wikipedia, Abbey would fit right in on this blog:

In autumn of 1987, the Utne Reader published a letter by Murray Bookchin which claimed that Abbey, Garrett Hardin, and the members of Earth First! were racists and eco-terrorists. Abbey was extremely offended, and demanded a public apology, stating that he was neither racist nor a supporter of terrorism. All three of those Bookchin labelled “racist” opposed illegal immigration into the United States, contending that population growth would cause further harm to the environment. Regarding the accusation of “eco-terrorism”, Abbey responded that the tactics he supported were trying to defend against the terrorism he felt was committed by government and industry against living beings and the environment.[32]

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:56:03

About Hardin mentioned in the article:

In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories on “Mainstream Science on Intelligence,[6]” an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on issues related to race and intelligence following the publication of the book The Bell Curve. Like many of the other signatories of that editorial, Hardin was also a grantee of the Pioneer Fund, which funds controversial research on the topic of race and intelligence and is frequently described as promoting scientific racism. On February 11, 1998 he debated Christian philosopher William Lane Craig at University of California, Santa Barbara.[7][8]

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:56:50

I remember reading Hardin’s work in the 1960’s. I decided to decline working for a corporate resource law firm because of reading works like his Tragedy of the Commons piece.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 14:58:38

Also from Wikipedia about Hardin:

Garrett James Hardin (April 21, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American ecologist who warned of the dangers of overpopulation. His exposition of the tragedy of the commons, in a 1968 paper,[1] called attention to “the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment”.[2] He is also known for Hardin’s First Law of Human Ecology: “You cannot do only one thing”, which expresses the interconnectedness of every action.[3][page needed]

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 15:12:46

“The tragedy of modern war is not so much that the young men die but that they die fighting each other–instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.”

“Liberty cannot be guaranteed by law. Nor by any thing else except the resolution of free citizens to defend their liberties.”

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

“A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business; supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.”

“Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it fulfills only a third of the role.”

Edward Abbey (1927-1989)

Comment by jose canusi
2014-02-13 15:43:30

In all fairness, sometimes it’s amateurish as well as ridiculous.

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2014-02-13 15:52:50

Certainly, the last two administrations have demonstrated that.

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2014-02-13 16:19:45

Two?

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-13 14:27:01

California Foreclosure Starts Skyrocket 57% Year over Year

http://www.realtytrac.com/images/reportimages/california_foreclosure_starts.jpg

 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-02-13 18:36:22

Homeland Security to Activate ‘National License Plate Recognition Database’

UK version of spy system was used to target political activists

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 13, 2014

The Department of Homeland Security is set to activate a national license plate tracking system that will be shared with law enforcement, allowing DHS officers to take photos of any license plate using their smartphone and upload it to a database which will include a “hot list” of “target vehicles”.

The details are included in a PDF attachment uploaded yesterday to the Federal Business Opportunities website under a solicitation entitled “National License Plate Recognition Database.”

The system will “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources (access control systems, asset recovery specialists, etc.) and uploaded to share with law enforcement” in order to help locate “criminal aliens and absconders.”

In other countries that have activated license plate tracking networks, such as the United Kingdom, political activists have been targeted by having their vehicles added to a “hotlist” after attending protests. One example led to a man being questioned under anti-terror laws after he traveled to take part in an anti-war demonstration.

As the image above illustrates, the cameras are also used by local governments in Australia to keep records of people who violate parking restrictions. Critics of the system in Australia have condemned it as “a Pandora’s box for abuse of power, mistakes and illegal disclosure,” stressing that the technology allows authorities to record “your number plate at a certain time and location,” allowing police to “compile an extraordinary amount of data about you. This includes your name, address, contact details, driving history and licence status.”

“Innocent people are increasingly being treated with suspicion due to the tiny chance that some offence may be committed,” writes David Jancik.

The DHS’ database will allow authorities “to determine where and when the vehicle has traveled,” using data compiled “from a variety of sources nationwide,” including “metropolitan areas” within the United States, suggesting the system may be linked in with regular surveillance cameras as it is in the UK.

The system will also allow DHS officials to take a picture of any license plate via their smartphone, upload it to the database and immediately receive an alert if the plate is on the watchlist.

“The NLPR data service should provide details on clarity of photos provided. The Government would prefer a close-up of the plate and a zoomed out image of the vehicle,” states the solicitation.

The system must also have the capability to “flag license plates and conduct searches anonymously so that other law enforcement agencies may not have access.”

Given rampant concerns that the Department of Homeland Security, which is ostensibly introducing this system in the name of catching illegal aliens, is in fact an increasingly bloated federal bureaucracy designed to target the American people, the notion of the DHS enjoying access to a fully integrated nationwide license plate tracking grid is chilling, especially given the fact that the agency has funded reports which characterize “liberty lovers” as potential terrorists.

The DHS also recently awarded the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority $7 million dollars to outfit its buses with high tech 360 degree surveillance cameras. The federal agency is simultaneously supporting the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’ lighting systems that double as surveillance hubs which can record conversations.

“Do not kid yourself. This is tracking of an individual that can be accessed at a whim,” writes James Smith. “Yearly, officers are terminated for accessing the LEDS/NCIC database for looking into the histories of ex-lovers, future spouses, and potential sons/daughters-in-law. And with license plate tracking toy (not a tool), they will know where you are, as long as you have driven into the cross hairs of this new weapon for tyranny.”

Comment by Muggy
2014-02-13 20:31:42

My wife was pulled over by a sheriff who had his hand on his gun — she was completely freaked out– and he checked her papers. Then he stated that our tag was incorrectly flagged and let her go.

Pinellas has been using a similar system for some time. I have mixed feelings about this.

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:36:02

Eternal vigilance plus withdrawal of consent in as many areas with regard to government as possible is the only way the taxpayers can be effective against this police state. While withdrawal of consent will not directly stop this idiotic spying by local cops on every innocent American motorist, it will put enough pressure on other areas of government operations to effect the resources of the cops.

Agitate by dropping out.

Part of the big strike against this establishment is by
1) not marrying - that requires governnent. - the government not only gives you a “marriage license” but gets a lot more info about you and can now use your spouse as leverage against you.

2) Not owning a SFH. The government wishes everyone to buy - this is partly why I think Amy the Hoaxster has the support of all statists. By being a property owner in a cozy neighborhood it tends to make people not rock the boat and to conform and to take whatever government delivers up the rear - and offer a jar of vaseline to the government.

3) Not voting - this is difficult for most of you here on the HBB. You think your votes count. They do - they count for supporting this apparatus of big government. What if the percentage of eligible voters drops to less than 30%? Government would get worried - very worried and react in the wrong way with even more force and the 70% would be even more radical against this state.

4) Avoiding taxes as much as possible.

I am for the revolution. A non-violent one. Thomas Jefferson permitted us all in the first couple paragraphs of the declaration of independence. Don’t be afraid to say you are for a revolution against big government. After all, in California in 1978 many people publicly claimed they were revolutionary taxpayers and revolting.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-02-14 06:51:34

Good stuff… Thank you.

 
 
 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2014-02-13 21:13:33

Magic number figure for me - cross another $100,000 boundary - this time the part of my portfolio that is outside stocks and stock mutual funds. By that I mean government securities, physical precious metals and cash.

If the stock market gets a 70% cut I will still have a net worth of $1 million.

Diversification is king.

And I did post a few times in 2013 that gold has precedence in going opposite of the stock market indexes. The last five weeks have proven this to be the case. Hence why my assets outside of stocks have gone up.

The even nicer thing is to have as extra two gold ETFs and a small gold mine company stock. Currently short term investments and up 17.66%.

Adding insurance against a stock market collapse is showing up as a good strategy - before the collapse. Remember we had 59 months of a bull market in stocks. Very rare. These bull markets don’t last forever without a big crash. And big crashes in gold stocks don’t happen without huge runups the next year or two.

 
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