Bits Bucket for February 23 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
November 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Is it safe to assume S&P500 gains against the backdrop of rotten fundamentals reflect Fed manipulation of share prices?
Fed admits that stock market gains are tied to central bank manipulation
February 21, 2013
On Feb. 21, the president of the Federal Reserve’s regional bank in Dallas admitted in an interview that the recent gains in the stock market have come not through improvements in corporate fundamentals, or sustainable economic recovery, but instead through the artificial manipulation by the U.S. central bank in the markets themselves. Just as the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq have crossed highs not seen since before the credit crisis, the primary causation for the more than 30% rally in stocks has been the continuous inflow of money by the Fed to ensure stock prices remain high.
While this revelation has not been a secret to some investors and analysts, it gives concrete evidence as to why the stock markets have climbed with little resistance to levels nearing all time record highs, even as nearly every other economic indicator points the economy in deep recession.
Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars in stimulus money through its quantitative easing programs, and Operation Twist. A large portion of this money has been funneled by the Fed into the stock markets, and validated by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when he stated the positive results of QE was a rise in stock market prices. Since the Fed’s charter mentions nothing about using currencies to help support equity markets, and are primarily to use their monetary powers to stem inflation and lower unemployment, the central bank appears to have abandoned its mission during the past four years, and has focused on stocks as the primary indicator for creating economic growth.
With Q4 GDP falling into negative growth, and unemployment remaining higher than when President Barack Obama took office, the tens of trillions of dollars created from central bank easing has done little to halt, or fix, the current economic downturn known as the Great Recession. And with the head of the Dallas Fed today admitting today that the central bank has been artificially manipulating stock prices higher, even this economic indicator is nothing more than an artificially created monetary bubble.
…
Fed admits that stock market gains are tied to central bank manipulation
Yet anyone who is not all-in is stupid. The Fed giveth and the Fed taketh away.
A broad goal of boosting employment gives them a lot of leeway to pursue that goal. If an action they take can be claimed to be in support of increasing employment, it can be as interventionist, novel and discretionary as they please.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the Fed’s and government’s actions always benefit a small group of companies in the financial sector, both in terms of increasing profits and reducing/eliminating legal liability.
Gee, I wonder why.
Neuromance
Bingo ! Their targeted purchases have not helped the overall market - - only the index.
That is why so many retail investors are still underwater and are spooked from buying anymore.
Their targeted purchases have helped make the 0.1% as rich as Croesus. And the wealth created for the 0.1% (aka jobs creators) trickles down as jobs and higher incomes for everyone else in the economy.
So making the stock market always goes up helps satisfy the Fed’s employment mandate.
Definitely Fed intervention helps. But so too does the labor market. Probably it has never been better for employers since the great depression. Though the middle class customers have been shrinking purchasing by high end customers is way up. Interesting article on this the past month or so in NYT or WSJ. Also if you are big business there is so much regulation that you don’t have to worry much about competition from new entrants. In perverse way the climate for business is not half bad.
Probably it has never been better for employers since the great depression ??
Borrowing costs are near zero….
Anon
Seriously? Conditions are really the best ?
Markets are fragile to falling away for Canusa products.
Low cost working capital is adding 30% to manufacturing’s profits, and margins are only holding that thin line. What if - -
Green’s adoption of political terror no longer allows certainty of completing major projects ie power dams, pipelines, refineries (even after paying the process off).
Banks do not lend new money to Smallco - etc
I have a hard time understanding how a business model dependent upon fewer customers is superior to one with a much larger customer base, but I guess I’m just old fashioned. I’m still trying to understand this “new economy”.
It works when
“barely more than zero” times “a lot of sales”
is less than
“quite a lot” times “fewer sales.”
Especially when your fewer customers can be relied on to keep buying while the larger number of customers may go broke and stop buying at any time.
Understand one thing:
The Fed is of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.
This whole bailout/QE charade was nothing more than a massive backstop to stem the inevitable losses by wealthy insiders who made poor bets and would have been wiped out if the market was allowed to cleanse itself.
Off bold.
Do Sentiment Extremes Still Matter in a Fed-Manipulated Stock Market?
November 7, 2013 7:49 PM
Famous investor John Templeton said that: “Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria.”
This used to be the most important rule of thumb in investing - give investors what they want. When everyone wants to own stocks, sell them yours. When everyone wants to dump stocks, buy theirs.
This rule of thumb used to work pretty reliably until an unrelenting and indiscriminate buyer entered the market place – the Federal Reserve. No matter the price, the Federal Reserve will buy it.
Templeton’s observation was based on the assumption of finite demand. The Federal Reserve has created infinite demand.
Templeton’s rule of thumb has since been replaced by John Maynard Keynes’ euphemism: “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”
Does that mean that investor sentiment has become obsolete as a contrarian indicator?
…
On the outside chance the allegations are true that the Fed and other central banks are using the printing press to manipulate share prices, how should one allocate their investment dollars?
that’s the unanswered question on this board.I still like countries
sing-maly-norw-swiss and others
22151 homes selling in under a week as bama hires 13,000+ new IRS agents for bedside hc chatting.
The frustrating thing for me is that all conventional investing logic pretty much flies out the window if 800 lb financial gorillas are able to steer share prices wherever they please. It makes it quite difficult to navigate the shoals of uncertainty.
all my life
mm= 3%
10yr =6%
stocks 8-9% w divs
now?
mm=0
10yr 2.8%
stocks 18% ? w no growth or decent jobs
“now?
mm=0
10yr 2.8%
stocks 18% ? w no growth or decent jobs”
It’s different now, for sure! Makes investing a very confusing exercise…
If only we could be flies on the walls at the secret Fed meetings. I think the conversation goes something like this:
“The Bilderbergs called this morning. They need a dip today. Make it so.”
“OK, boss.”
“Meeting adjourned.”
I am 90% in cash and private debt. I have a private equity share in a small business loan fund (returning annualized 14%) and an equal size in a LendingClub portfolio (9% annualized). It’s hard to want to buy stocks with current PE. We may buy a position in vanguards short term bond fund (2% annualized) or a long-short bond fund like mwcrx.
Are IRS agents unionized? Lotta contribution potential if so
like all gov workers they are impossible to fire
will be key when gov takes your savings like they did in 4 countries recently
“…when gov takes your savings…”
As opposed to hammering returns on CDs down to 0% or so?
Exactly PB….Slow drip of devaluation…..Question is when and how does it return to the historical norm…
Taxpayers:
“They” have done a lot of things in other countries that can’t happen here. That’s because the “they” of other countries is different from the “they” of this country. No one is going to confiscate your savings account.
Yes, we can draw parallels between 0% interest and actual confiscation, but they are most certainly not the same thing. With 0% interest, you still have options of what to do with your money. Limited options that don’t seem like much of an option, but options nonetheless. With confiscation, it’s not yours, and you have no options.
I just don’t think it’s valuable to plan your finances as if you expect the US government to literally take all the money in your savings account. No need to stuff it under the mattress.
“all your money.” key word is “all.”
All your monies are belong to us.
Barron’s magazine had an article and it mentioned that stock market capitalization compared to the real GDP was at the 200%+ mark. Just before the 2008 crash it was only 160%+ It is just as bad as it was before the Internet crash. When the stock market is selling for three times the real economy you know it is just one big bubble. Of course social media and bio-pharma seem to be leading this one. I actually shares in one ISIS a San Diego one that has shot up to the moon recently. I actually am not making any more money on it since after it doubled I wrote options on it. Of course after the crash I will be happy that I did write on it. Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs are slaughtered.
Actually have shares
Pigs get fat….Hogs get slaughtered…
True, but I did not invent that saying. Wine is not spirit, it is fermented, but Hotel California is one of the greatest songs ever and only a very anal person objects to use of the poetic license expressed in the line we have not had that spirit here since 1969.
BTW, this is one result of Obama’s delay of the XL line from a Plattsburgh NY paper:
LOHR McKINSTRY Press-Republican
LEWIS — Canadian Pacific Railway is moving as many as 20 freight trains weekly containing Bakken crude oil through Essex County.
The highly flammable oil comes from Bakken Shale Formation fields in North Dakota, Essex County Emergency Services Director Donald Jaquish said a recent session of the Essex County Local Emergency Planning Committee.
“We used to have one tank car (of oil) a day. Now, we know there are 20 trains a week, 100 cars per train.
“What they’ve created is a pipeline on the rails.”
The tank cars (which first travel through Clinton County) are headed for the Port of Albany, he said, where they’re processed by Global Partners, a fuel shipper based in Waltham, Mass.
The crude is stored at the port in tank farms and transferred to barges that travel on down the Hudson River to refineries.
Global Partners got a permit from the State Department of Environmental Conservation in November 2012 to expand operations from 450 million gallons a year of gasoline, ethanol and oil combined to 1.8 billion gallons of crude oil.
‘NOT RESILIENT’
Jaquish noted the Bakken crude is the same type of oil that exploded when a 72-car train derailed on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing dozens of people and destroying the town’s business district.
He said each tank car carries about 30,000 gallons of crude oil.
“They are not resilient to any impact. They will rupture.”
EVACUATION PLANS
There have been train derailments in Essex, Ticonderoga and Port Henry within the last 10 years, Jaquish said, fortunately none involving any injuries. In Ticonderoga, thousands of gallons of canola oil spilled from a tank car that overturned.
However, a derailment of tank cars carrying Bakken oil in one of the communities along Lake Champlain could be catastrophic, he said.
“There are two public campgrounds in Port Henry, the Village Campground and Bulwagga Bay Town Campground, and they are of particular concern to us, because the railroad tracks pass nearby.
“We have developed an evacuation plan for those campgrounds.”
Tracks also run near the smaller Monitor Bay Town Campground in Crown Point, he said, and they also have a plan for that facility.
“It is just as bad as it was before the Internet crash.”
Is there any reason this cannot continue indefinitely, if the Fed chooses?
Why were they not able to prevent the 2008 crash? Answer that and you know why they cannot.
That may in fact be the intent Pbear…maintain the wealth effect while slowly debasing the dollar…Inflate away the debt…Problem is many, many millions are not on the Cruise Ship and will be left in the dust facing enormous cost for everything…
A new Gilded Age ?? Last one went through 50+ years…If so, will this one be the same ??
Instead of talking about cutting the social safety net maybe we should be discussing strengthening it…
Why were they not able to prevent the 2008 crash ??
Behind the curve instead of in front of it…But at the end of the day, didn’t they in fact stabilize it starting with Hank Paulson….
Instead of talking about cutting the social safety net maybe we should be discussing strengthening it…
The safety net is not strong when the things like the social security fund are almost bankrupt, Obama by adopting the Bowles/ Simpson recommendations could have both strengthened the economy and the safety net but he decided on the Mugabe path.
Behind the curve instead of in front of it…But at the end of the day, didn’t they in fact stabilize it starting with Hank Paulson….
George Soros does not agree with you or he would not be short the market.
Foolish “inflation” talk.
We’re in a deflationary spiral and it is good.
George Soros does not agree with you or he would not be short the market ??
Only one side of the bet now isn’t it….
The safety net is not strong when the things like the social security fund are almost bankrupt
That’s propaganda to serve the purpose of the Repub’s big donors.
Another GOP Talking Point Dies as Report Reveals that Social Security Is Not Going Broke
Republican claims that Social Security is going broke were dealt a blow by the latest Social Security trustees report, which found that the program will be able to pay every benefit until 2033.
The report echoed the same tone as last year. Social Security is fine for the next twenty years. The report also contained good news for Medicare, as it is now projected to be solvent until 2026. In a statement, Sen. Bernie Sanders stressed that these findings confirmed what the reality based political world already knew. Sen. Sanders said, “The report from the Social Security trustees confirms what many of us have known, that Social Security is not ‘going broke,’ that it can pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 20 years and that after 2033 there is enough in reserve to pay three-quarters of future benefits.”
Republicans have been claiming that Social Security is going broke for years in order to justify the privatization of the program. The right has also argued that Medicare needs to be replaced with a voucher system because it is going broke. It turns out that both of these claims are absurdly false.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/05/31/gop-talking-point-dies-report-reveals-social-security-broke.html
Obama by adopting the Bowles/ Simpson recommendations could have both strengthened the economy and the safety net but he decided on the Mugabe path ??
Obama, Obama, Blah Blah…..Why didn’t Reagan make SS recommendations ?? Clinton ?? Bush ?? You are blinded by “Black” Adan…
I may need to back off a bit on the racists thingy with you…It appears some may be but I just see you as a staunch conservative or maybe a tea party guy…So, sorry for the implication with the “Black”..
Staunch American, anti-globalist. Respect the Tea Party on many issues since they share my views on key issues such as immigration and the Federal Reserve.
that it can pay every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 20 years and that after 2033 there is enough in reserve to pay three-quarters of future benefits.”
Receiving three-quarters of what has been promised to me doesn’t sound that good, considering that I was reassured that the system was “fixed” back in 1983.
And why is 2033 the magic year in which it is ok to break the promises made?
Rather than paying three-quarters thereafter, perhaps we should change to seven-eighths for everyone starting immediately. Otherwise, it is a two-class system: paid in full, and paid in part.
Why didn’t Reagan make SS recommendations ??
You might want to revisit your history. The recommendations of the Greenspan Commission, appointed in 1981, did in fact report recommendations. Under REAGAN.
Prime:
The White House and the Congress are separate from the Federal Reserve. The President chooses a Fed chairman from a list that is provided by banks. Other than that, a President can’t take credit for recommendations made by the Fed Reserve. If the President acts on the recommendation, then that’s another thing.
It seems like maybe you are trying to say that Republicans deserve credit for a recommendation that was made by the Federal Reserve a while back. The globalist party has been in power for thirty years now, so pointing the finger at the two main factions of said party isn’t going to get us anywhere.
I stand corrected…Let me say it another way…Why didn’t he act on those recommendations ?? Point being if (and its a big if) the SS system was known to be potentially insolvent there are a number of Presidents that could have acted…Adan wants to point to the current president as the bagholder…
Otherwise, it is a two-class system: paid in full, and paid in part ??
Well, I would agree…..But we probably need to ask ourselves why that may be in play…I you are a boomer, you may have the ability to continue to work…Someone 80 years old is done…So, I suppose they are saying, keep working through your sixties so yo can plan for less SS…
People need to start preparing for retirement more than 20 years in advance. Not having a solution to SS just because the problem is 20 years away isn’t a valid excuse.
Why didn’t Obama act on Simpson/Bowles?
Because he is a terrible leader, is NOT a consensus builder, and destroyed any chance at bipartisanship in the first WEEK of his presidency (when he pushed through a stimulus package without ANY GOP ideas (which he asked for and received), and thus got not a single GOP vote).
He set the tone VERY early.
By the way, he also promised working on such a solution at the D Convention. So far in term #2? Nothing. He is still dealing with a weak recovery (negatively impacted by Dodd Frank) and the disastrous rollout of the ACA.
The Dems continual kicking of the can with SS is not doing anyone any favors. They have brainwashed their most loyal into believing that it’s all OK. My MIL (VERY left leaning) questioned my assertion that I will only be paid out 3/4 of what I was promised from SS. Her gut reaction was that I was wrong and that I must have heard that from a right-wing source. “You can’t believe everything that you hear.” was the quote, I believe.
I got silence when I told her I got the info from the SS Administration.
when (Obama) pushed through a stimulus package without ANY GOP ideas
Wait. Almost 40% of the stimulus package - 288 billion in tax credits/cuts are not GOP ideas? Massive tax cuts/credits are not “GOP ideas”? I guess not when they are targeted at the middle-class and poor. Tax cuts are only GOP ideas when they target the rich I guess.
Because he is a terrible leader, is NOT a consensus builder
I’d say he’s a pretty good consensus builder. He passed health-care reform that presidents had tried but failed to do for 50 years - and passed reforms that were more Republicanesque than the reforms proposed by Nixon. He also got elected twice by over 50%. I’d say that is building consensus with the American people in the face of the Repubs going off the reservation.
In response to my comments about the Greenspan Commission of 1981 (reporting 1983):
The White House and the Congress are separate from the Federal Reserve. [...]
It seems like maybe you are trying to say that Republicans deserve credit for a recommendation that was made by the Federal Reserve a while back.
Wow, BigV, you really don’t have a clue what you are talking about in this area. You should bone up on the history before you open your mouth and remove all doubt.
The Greenspan Commission was formed in 1981 and reported its results in 1983.
Greenspan was NOT at the Federal Reserve during those years; Volcker was the Fed Chair, and Greenspan was not even working there IIRC.
See summary here:
http://www.thepresidency.org/storage/documents/Greenspan_Commission_and_Social_Security_Reforms.pdf
I stand corrected…Let me say it another way…Why didn’t he act on those recommendations ??
scdave, take a look at the link that I posted above for BigV.
Reagan DID act on those recommendations. They immediately went before Congress, and the 1984 reform was passed. The reason the retirement age has been creeping up since then is due to the compromise worked out then.
Unfortunately, the commission’s recommendations addressed all of the short-term shortfall, but only two-thirds of the long-term (75yr) shortfall of Social Security. That is why we still have an eventual day of reckoning coming.
Point being if (and its a big if) the SS system was known to be potentially insolvent there are a number of Presidents that could have acted…
Totally agreed—I blame them all, as the problem has been known for decades.
Post with the link hasn’t shown up yet, but should eventually.
I admit, I have not memorized all the years that different people entered and exited the Federal Reserve. That isn’t history; it’s reference material. If you were trying to make the point that Reagan did something, then it’s your responsibility as the author of the post to make that clear. What was the point in focusing your comment around Greenspan, if you were trying to extoll something that Reagan did?
Anyway, telling me that I “dont’ have a clue what I’m talking about” is really childish, and it makes you seem desparate. Like you are desparately trying to believe that Democrats caused Social Security to have problems, even while Republicans have heroically not been saving Social Security either. GWB Jr. wanted to make it private. So why don’t you bone up on your actual history, Prime? The reference material is not important.
That isn’t history; it’s reference material.
Confusing a SS reform commission appointed by the President with the Federal Reserve seemed like a significant error; I thought it was worth a response to help you understand what really happened.
Reagan did do something. Unfortunately, the “fix” wasn’t quite large enough.
I only mentioned Greenspan because that commission, appointed by Reagan, has become “the Greenspan Commission” in common lingo. That’s what it is called. Google it under that name, and you will find it.
Like you are desparately trying to believe that Democrats caused Social Security to have problems, even while Republicans have heroically not been saving Social Security either.
Bone up on your reading comprehension skills, then re-read what I wrote above. I didn’t blame either party on this subject; I blame them ALL. Every President; every Senator; every Congressperson. It has been a train-wreck waiting to happen, and they have all been kicking the can on it for decades. Shame on them.
Oh, now you insult me twice by telling me to bone up on my READING COMPREHENSION skills? Bone up on your WRITING skills, Prime. Make your point when you have one.
And don’t you ever tell me when to “open my mouth” either, you useless scum. I will open my mouth when I want. If you are too stupid to write a coherent sentence, then get off the internet already. I shouldn’t have to Google everything you write to find out that when you said “recommended by Greenspan”, you really meant “implemented by Reagan”. And it can’t be considered “common lingo” if people don’t commonly talk about it, fool. You probably looked it up after you wrote it, which explains why you suddenly have enough information to make sense of what you initially said, which was DIFFERENT from what you are saying now.
My, you are an egotistical one. I think you need to be smacked across the face.
Slime’s original incomprehensible comment:
I’m sorry Slime, can you expound on that? What exactly did you mean when you said that the recommendations did in fact report recommendations? Idiot.
Bone up on your WRITING skills, Prime.
Oh my goodness, you found a grammatical error—yes, I realized immediately after I posted that I had repeated the “recommendation” word both at the beginning and end.
But my original post was short, simple, and to the point. I gave enough information that if you wanted to understand what was being discussed, you could have found it in two seconds with Google. Rather than do so, you seem to assume that every poster should be required to fully educate every other posted on every subject as if the READER IS ENTIRELY IGNORANT.
That’s ridiculous on the face of it. Every single post would take forever to write.
And then you move on to threats of violence, when all I suggested was that you refrain from responding on subjects about which you apparently know nothing.
That’s still my suggestion. Do a quick Google before you look ignorant. Sorry that my suggestion got you all tied up in a knot, though!
“recommended by Greenspan”, you really meant “implemented by Reagan”.
No, I meant recommended by Reagan. The Greenspan Commission was appointed by Reagan to make recommendations; the recommendations were made by the committee, and the report was sent to Congress by Reagan. A President can do that with a report they commission, or they can sit on it (as Obama did with Simpson-Bowles). But the President cannot just “implement” something unless it is already allowed by current law. In this case, it required action by Congress.
Thus, the recommendations to Congress about how to fix SS were recommendations coming from Reagan.
To understand this in context (which you apparently didn’t), this was in response to a question from scdave:
I’ve spent enough time trying to educate you for one day, and I doubt whether I am having any effect, so I’m stopping now. Good day.
Shuddup slime, you shouldn’t be opening your mouth. You are an ignorant waste and you have nothing to contribute until you learn how to form a sentence.
The Greenspan Commission was appointed by both Congress and Reagan, if that matters.
What happens to donkeys?
I like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Denmark, and Ireland with more economic freedom than the USA. And a better regard for property rights than the USA. We are sinking into a France style of system, with hatred of achievers and punishment of them.
We are sinking into a France style of system, with hatred of achievers and punishment of them.
Totally. Just like France. Achievers are being “punished”. Punished I tell you. It’s horrible. People like Romney have to pay about 13% in income tax.
Look at this chart. The punishment is horrific.
http://www.google.com.br/imgres?imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scottgoold.org%2Fclasswar.php&tbnid=31MR3oOaZ4YrkM:&docid=qTmf3gbnjIy9jM&h=430&w=575
And:
“….average inflation-adjusted income per family climbed 6% between 2009 and 2012, the first years of the economic recovery. During that period, the top 1% saw their incomes climb 31.4% — or, 95% of the total gain — while the bottom 99% saw growth of 0.4%.
–Last year, the richest 10% received more than half of all income — 50.5%, or the largest share since such record-keeping began in 1917.” wsj dot com
The horror.
“economic freedom”
Yeah, I buy Bayer Spot-On from a warehouse in Singapore, run by a company with an HQ in England, and sold over Amazon.com. It’s completely illegal, but Singapore has economic freedom, so I get away with it. Bayer probably hates it though, since it puts the liability on them if my cat has a rare allergic reaction. Of course I would still just take the cat to the vet if it had a reaction, but the laws are written in a certain way to prevent certain unorderly events that would make certain industries less stable. Like the speed limit.
like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Denmark, and Ireland with more economic freedom than the USA.
Aren’t most of those commie countries with socialized healthcare? Also many have a higher minimum wage than we do.
I prefer no subsidies or socialism at all. But if I have to make a trade, I would allow socialized health care provided that we abolish all taxation.
I would allow socialized health care provided that we abolish all taxation.
Makes no sense.
SUN DEC 22, 2013 AT 06:30 PM PST
“PBS Drops a Bombshell on the Federal Reserve’s 100th Birthday Party,” by Pam Martens
(Publishing Note: Pam Martens has provided written authorization to the diarist to reproduce this post in its entirety for the benefit of the Daily Kos community.)
December 22, 2013
James Grant Appearing on PBS to Discuss the Power of the Federal Reserve, December 20, 2013
PBS promised a “debate” this past Friday night on the “benefits and dangers” of the Federal Reserve as the Fed marks its 100 years of existence tomorrow. Instead of a debate, two famous stock market historians made the same stunning announcement – that the Fed has decided its job is to push up the stock market.
Consuela Mack’s Wealthtrack program on PBS had invited James Grant, Editor and Founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, and Richard Sylla, the Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets at NYU’s Stern School of Business. The opening scene for the program shows Sylla in a party hat lighting the candles on the Fed’s birthday cake while Grant snuffs them out – suggesting that Sylla would be making pro-Fed statements while Grant would take the opposing view.
What happened during the program, however, was that both men made the candid and bold accusation that the Federal Reserve, for the first time in its history, has assigned itself the job of propping up the stock market.
…
Conspiracy theory is once again conspiracy fact in the $hithole we call Amerikka.
Conspiracy theory is once again conspiracy fact
Funny how that happens over and over. I wear my tin-foil hat proudly. Cue Scdave: Tin foil is not really tin, it is aluminum these days. Aluminum foil hat does not quite have the same ring.
This is the effect of government spying on news reporters. Said reporters have lessened their own lap-dogginess. The truth is out there. hahaha.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2013
Crudele: It Looks Like the Fed Is Manipulating the Stock Market
NyPo’s John Crudele writes:
Ben Bernanke’s Fed has been so successful in pumping up the stock market, in fact, that just about everyone with any gray matter left on Wall Street has officially protected himself by uttering, “bubble.”
As you might have heard, the stock market is making record highs almost daily (as it did Monday, for the 48th time this year). And prices are up 25 percent this year alone.
This despite the fact that corporate earnings (which are supposed to determine stock prices) are weak.
The biggest recent pop in stocks, in fact, occurred last Wednesday, right after the Federal Reserve said it was going to scale back on its quantitative easing (QE) program by $10 billion a month.
Through this highly unorthodox QE policy, the Fed has managed to keep short-term interest rates exceptionally low. This has benefited banks, Wall Street, investors and Washington, which probably couldn’t afford to fund itself if borrowing costs reached normal levels.
But it has taken trillions out of the pockets of Americans who rely on savings. It has been called — by me and many others — the greatest effort to make the rich richer and the poor poorer in history.
So reasonable people were worried that the stock market wouldn’t be happy when the Fed decided it needed to cut back on QE. But, amazingly, stock prices rallied very strongly last Wednesday nevertheless.
Why? The official explanation we all gave at the time was that despite the tapering, the Fed was still being very accommodating on interest rates, and Wall Street needn’t worry.
But something else may have been going on. And if you were watching stock prices right after the tapering announcement, you would have noticed that the market fell sharply before suddenly climbing.
It looked like someone suddenly got an insatiable hankering to own stocks. Could it have been the Fed, or one of its Wall Street proxies?[...]Maybe the Fed or one of its secret Wall Street agents was actually buying stocks!
…
The Fed Is Manipulating The Stock Market And It Should Be No Surprise
LEE ADLER, THE WALL STREET EXAMINER
DEC. 9, 2010, 9:45 PM
Lee Adler is the editor and publisher of The Wall Street Examiner
A number of pundits noted that according to the Fed’s recent data dump about its emergency operations during the 2008 “episode,” the Fed took stocks as collateral. The only thing that surprises me is that people are surprised by the fact that the Fed backstops stock prices. Bernanke even announced in his Washington Post op-ed the night of the QE2 announcement that a key goal of QE2 was to push stock prices higher. In my work tracking the Fed over the past 8 years in the Professional Edition Fed Report, the correlation between TOMO and POMO and the direction of stock prices was very strong. The linked chart is a little dated, but you get the idea.
…
The banks in the USA were insolvent. Of course that would effect their stock prices. The Fed made them solvent by buying up their bad paper. Of course that would effect their stock prices the other way. Why did the Fed do this? Because they are owned by the banks, not by you and me. They do not work for the USA, they work for the banks.
Remember back in 2005 or so when we kept hearing;
“The federal govt won’t let housing prices fall?”
Now THAT is funny!
Why did the federal government let housing prices fall?
Because they are not omnipotent. This country was founded on the principle that government is not capable of controlling markets. And some other things too. It’s been shown time and time again.
Because once the fall started, they couldn’t stop it (despite trying). You can’t force people to buy an asset with leverage when it is falling in value.
But it can and was incentivized and millions more became runway foam.
Now there’s nothing left but the cryin’.
Why The Crash of 2016 Will Happen - Thom Hartmann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06WOhNgXBZw
Please fast fwd to 4:40
Hartmann implies that the end of enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust act led to the transformation of family/small business into corporate ownership of American business. Does this statement hold water?
Effective January 1, 2014, Maricopa County’s maximum FHA mortgage limit will be reduced from $346,250 to $271,050 for Single Family Residence (SFR) home purchases. This reduction applies to all counties in Arizona with the exception of Coconino, where the FHA loan limit will drop from $450,000 to $362,250.
If you buy a house now before this shakes out, you are an idiot.
What is that rhyme about where are the buyers.
It’s a bit tough to have any kind of qualification standards whatever along with a conforming loan limit on “affordable housing” at which almost no buyers qualify.
Oh, silly mango. Don’t you know that all the rich people are buying houses with cash in AZ? They don’t need mortgages. And rich people LOVE Arizona because the weather is perfect. It’s to the moon again!
They need reduce that limit to $100,000. After that it will take a few years for neighborhoods in Phoenix to be owned by people who accept full responsibility for their own financial decisions.
+1. What’s a marginalized, first-time home buyer doing with a 300k home? Why are we subsidizing this crap?
It’s been more than four decades since I lived in a neighborhood where no one locked their doors at night. My parents took us on family vacations leaving the door unlocked - in California - in the 1960s. There was no subsidized housing. Loans? They might have been G.I. Bill loans - but to those who have gone “to hell and back”- a different breed of Americans, who, once they got back, tended to be kind to their fellow man instead of rip him off.Or game the system.
I can understand the character, Dominique Francon, who smashed a figurine that she regarded as beautiful because she did not think most of the world deserved to see such beauty. Why build a castle in the middle of a cesspool? Go the easiest way and go on strike against this ugly irresponsible society.
There was no subsidized housing. Loans? They might have been G.I. Bill loans
My parents bought a house in Orange County with an FHA loan in the early 60’s. Too bad they didn’t keep it. They paid 20K back then, the zestimate is 630K for it now, which is insane.
Biggest credit bubble in history.
This FHA limit was probably our #1 reason for delaying a good year. It took a bit of digging, but we found that just after the crash some 40% of buyers were using FHA in Riverside, CA, and even in 2013 the figure was still a sizable 20%.
^
How long you going to go on with this charade?
Waiting “a good year” strikes me as insufficient. The RE market moves surprisingly slowly; it might take a year or two AFTER the FHA limits change for the market to re-price based on the shift in the demand curve. Sellers adapt (too) slowly, chasing the market down.
So then sales will collapse cause sellers wont let go unless they can get their wishing price? I don’t think its going to take anywhere near as long as last time. There are always those who have to sell. And the psychology is more like being told remission ended than the first diagnosis of cancer.
“If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.”
You better believe it.
CA Notice of Defaults Rise 53% YoY; Prices and Demand Fall
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=25251
Sacramento Housing Demand Plummets
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/13/6156195/home-sales-plummet-in-january.html
“Manhattan Rents Drop for Fifth Straight Month”
http://www.millersamuel.com/press/manhattan-rents-drop-for-fifth-straight-month/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/realestate/on-the-market-in-new-york-city.html
Politico - Ted Nugent sorry for ‘mongrel’ remark
“Controversial rocker Ted Nugent said his remarks calling President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel” crossed the line on Friday, after his campaign appearance with Texas’s Republican gubernatorial hopeful caused a stir.
Nugent was asked by conservative radio host Ben Ferguson on his show if he would apologize to the president.
“Yes I would,” Nugent said according to audio aired on CNN. “I did cross the line. I do apologize, not necessarily to the president, but on behalf of much better men than myself, like the best governor in America, Gov. Rick Perry, the best attorney general in America.”
Time for a beer summit?
Better yet, they can go to Colorado and toke up.
Comment by albuquerquedan
Better yet, they can go to Colorado and toke up.
———————————————————————–
“They?”
I don’t think so. Ted is a white man and as such he gotta tote that white man burden. He can’t blame a subhuman for acting like a subhuman.
That would be uncivilized.
Being a subhuman gets you a free pass to engage in all kinds of behaviors a full human gets called to account for. Its like having diplomatic immunity.
I think Obama should punch that guy. Maybe after his Presidency is over though.
Better do it when the secret service is around him or he will get his azz kicked.
after his campaign appearance with Texas’s Republican gubernatorial hopeful caused a stir ??
I thought he was suppose to be dead or in jail….Liar;
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediamatters.org%2Fblog%2F2013%2F04%2F09%2Fted-nugent-doubles-down-on-claim-he-will-be-dea%2F193547&ei=RRAKU_WLK5PboAT_hoH4Cw&usg=AFQjCNFgk74OJR2yKRZCG2cvAeoV4jP2VQ&sig2=S3g2znehDOp07C-0DQUZ3Q&bvm=bv.61725948,d.cGU
“subhuman mongrel”
…..”subhuman mongrel? That’s what the Nazis called Jews leading up and during World War II ….To justify the genocide of the Jewish community. They called the Jews unter menschen, or subhuman mongrels, if you read some of the literature that the Nazis put out. There’s a long history there of that specific phrase that he used involving the president of the United States.” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer
Ted was playing to a large part of the Republican base that is obviously racist as I think are major candidates Ted campaigns for. Repubs lost big twice and many are still trying to figure out what 2X4 hit them. You can see it in Ted’s comments about Obama “weaseling” his way into office. (Twice?) They can’t accept that a black man won two elections with over 50% of the vote. (very rare)
So they justify it by saying Obama somehow “weaseled” his way into the office because it lets them deny the reality of today’s America.
Most Americans would be appalled if a large factor of a major party in another country was so obviously racist and hate filled. Well, let’s take a look at ourselves America. We have it.
Well, let’s take a look at ourselves America. We have it ??
Thats the bad news….The good news is they are dying off…They are headed to the basement in American politics as irrelevant…Just wait until Texas rolls over…That will be the shot heard around the country…
I might add, I wonder how Hilary will go over with the creep…
Nugent has had been married twice and has eight children….In 1978, Nugent, now 40, began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa’s parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian, an arrangement that Spin magazine ranked in October 2000 as #63 on their list of the “100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock”
Why would any politician, I don’t give a crap how conservative you are, stand along side this guy…
The freedom movement needs more fearless individuals talking trash and using alinsky style tactics against the most dangerous and deadly enemy the world has ever seen…The global progressives.
Plus, he can play a mean guitar.
One of my good friends in his 40s married an 18 year old. He was very good to her, she to him also, and they loved each other like a story book for 30 years. She still mourns his death. Be careful how you judge.
I think those comments would be more appropriately directed to the real power in the white house…Valerie Jarrett.
Ted’s comments are nothing compared to what we hear from activists in the progressive movement.
Sub-Prime Lending Skyrockets To Cope With Unaffordable Housing Prices
http://www.businessinsider.com/wells-fargo-getting-back-into-subprime-2014-2
“Dumb, lying realtors”
https://christopherfountain.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/dumb-lying-realtors/
Have you heard the latest?
JingleFraud’s latest claim is that he’s a “general contractor”.
JingleFraud’s latest claim is that he’s a “general contractor”.
Missed that… When did he say that?
Odd you should respond.
Odd why?
Are you confusing the cast of characters again?
Run boy…. run fast.
p.s. To help you keep track:
I’m not in CA, I don’t live in Sacramental, and I didn’t buy any houses during the downturn.
I live in Seattle, WA; there are other posters here who have met me at an HBB/SeattleBubble meet-up, and I’m sure would confirm that, though they are not daily posters so probably won’t see this.
I haven’t owned a house since I sold my last one in 2003.
Wow, just realized that I passed the 10-years-a-renter mark last month!
Not unusual, HA. “General contractor” is starting to become slang for anyone who hires separate outfits to do home repairs, rather than hire an umbrella company to arrange all “the trades” for you. Of course it’s well understood that there’s a real meaning to a licensed general contracting company.
If you’d like to debt donkey on me, that’s fine. But that’s the direction the language is going for everybody, and if you don’t like it you can pound Sakrete by the Mack truckload.
Help me out here MzCraterton….. You hire joes concrete to cast some curbs and sidewalk around your garage makes you The Contractor?
I can’t wait to read the contract language.
Well MzCraterton?
“General contractor” is starting to become slang for anyone who hires separate outfits to do home repairs, rather than hire an umbrella company to arrange all “the trades” for you. Of course it’s well understood that there’s a real meaning to a licensed general contracting company.
I think the statement above is simply ridiculous. Where do you get this garbage?
It’s another absurdity of hers. Let her yammer more about it.
I wait in anticipation.
Have you recently refi’d your mortgage?
Or better yet, do you plan to do so in the near term?
The dead-tree edition stltoday.com BUSINESS headline is “Mortgage firms regroup as refinancing free-falls.” That extra adjective, “free-”, completely changes the meaning from the boring online edition headline.
Mortgage companies regroup as refinancings fall
8 hours ago
By Lisa Brown lbrown@post-dispatch.com 314-340-81270
CEO Doug Schukar and COO Linda Pring talk to a potential new employee about opening a new office for USA Mortgage outside of the St. Louis area on Thursday morning, Feb. 20, 2014. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Just as Jane Fraser was named CEO of CitiMortgage nine months ago, the mortgage industry was undergoing a seismic shift as refinancing activity began its free fall.
The O’Fallon, Mo.-based unit of Citigroup, the country’s third-largest bank by assets, relied on mortgage refinancings to account for a bulk of its business for several years. But as interest rates began to rise last year, refinancings fell, prompting changes in business models and layoffs for many companies, including CitiMortgage.
“The day I started at CitiMortgage was the day the market started responding to the Fed, and inevitably was the end of the refi boom,” Fraser, who became CEO in May 2013, said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch.
The change has been dramatic. Refinancings accounted for 78 percent of all mortgage applications a year ago, and that’s since dropped to 61 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Washington-based trade organization.
The average interest rate for a 30-year loan, while still at historical lows, was 4.33 percent last week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, up from 4.28 percent a week earlier. A year ago, the average interest rate for the same loan was about 3.5 percent.
The sharp decline in refinancings was one of the reasons Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America gave for the layoff of more than 280 employees in St. Charles County this month. Nationstar Mortgage, which is based in Lewisville, Texas, also said this month that it’s laying off 115 people at its office in the Westport area that opened last year, leaving only a couple dozen workers at its facility. Last fall, Wells Fargo laid off 126 employees in its consumer mortgage loan processing division in St. Louis.
“This is the new normal,” said Eve Janis, president of the St. Louis Mortgage Bankers Association. “You don’t have people knocking down your door to refinance anymore.”
…
“You don’t have people knocking down your door to refinance anymore.” ??
And I have suggested this before….With almost everyone sitting on Sub-4% 30 year loans likely never to be seen again, who the hell is going to move if they have a choice ?? Its just going to be too costly….
Good. Less competition for all those new homes that are just sitting there, waiting for a good family to buy them.
“With almost everyone sitting on Sub-4% 30 year loans likely never to be seen again, who the hell is going to move if they have a choice ?? Its just going to be too costly…”
That’s great for empty pockets and tire kickers without two dimes to rub together.
In the meantime….
If you do not cash out all your home’s equity then you are not handling your finances efficiently.
‘If you do not cash out all your home’s equity then you are not handling your finances efficiently.’
Did DL actually say something like that? I am tooooo lazzzyy to google it, but I seem to remember he did make that quip.
blockquote>”If you paid your mortgage off, it means you probably did not manage your funds efficiently over the years,” said David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/28/business/fi-homedebt28
…. and in the same article, Lending Tree CEO called having a paid off house, “unsophisticated”. The irony is that dumping all your money into a depreciating asset at current massively inflated asking prices actually is quite stupid. If I were stoopid enough to buy a house today, I’d execute with as little of my own cash possible.
Either way, buying a house then or now is a recipe for irrecoverable losses.
PS-The PTB are scrubbing some of this stuff.
“The Lies Realtors Tell”
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-lies-realtors-tell-8569435.html
Are you planning to soon rattle the labor force through your exodus?
Behold the source of future fundamental U.S. housing demand (or lack thereof):
Boomers turn on, tune in, drop out of labor force
8 hours ago • By VICTORIA STILWELL
Bloomberg News3
Retiree watches the Mississippi River roll by. (File photo)
When Robin McLane’s generation hit public schools in the 1950s, there were never enough classrooms or teachers to accommodate the bulge, she said. So she’s not surprised about the latest shock that boomers are delivering to the U.S. economy.
“People all around me, relatives and friends, are either retiring, or they’re finding it’s very difficult to find work anywhere from 55 on,” said McLane, 65, of Portsmouth, N.H., who retired as a high school literacy specialist in June. “For me, I was ready to move on.”
The share of Americans in the labor force, known as the participation rate, is hovering around an almost four-decade low as the population ages and discouraged job seekers give up looking for work.
Federal Reserve research shows retirees are at the forefront of the recent exodus, which blunts the impact of policy aimed at boosting the economy and workforce.
In the two years ended 2013, 80 percent of the decrease in labor force participation was due to retirement, according to calculations by Shigeru Fujita, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. And while the number of discouraged workers rose sharply during and after the recession, the group’s ranks have been roughly unchanged since 2011.
That tilts the debate on whether the participation rate can fully rebound alongside the improving economy, as retired workers are unlikely to re-enter the workforce, said Michelle Girard, chief U.S. economist at RBS Securities, in Stamford, Conn. A tighter supply of workers means wage pressures would build faster than otherwise, something Fed Chairman Janet Yellen may watch as a leading indicator of inflation, Girard said.
“Even when the employment situation improves and the job prospects improve, it’s unlikely that this group is going to be enticed back into the labor market,” Girard said. “The implication is, well, if they’re out for good, you may not have as much slack in the labor market as you think.”
The labor-force participation rate for all ages was 63 percent last month, within 0.2 percentage point of its lowest level since March 1978, according to Labor Department data.
Workers who are marginally attached to the labor force — people not looking for work who would still take a job if one were available — have a 62 percent transition rate into the workforce, separate Fed research shows. In contrast, those who have dropped out, do not want a job and are not looking for one have a 5 percent transition rate.
…
Maybe its a good thing for the boomers to get out of the way…Open up more jobs…
Meh, those jobs will be either offshored or not backfilled at all.
Jobs are not a zero sum game - it’s a progressive lie that they are zero sum. You either have the experience or you don’t. I turn 55 in May and while being on top of my health (particularly avoiding obesity and following the exercise advice of my doctor and eating healthy). And I am certainly not anticipating shutting down my own skills. I have plenty of energy to keep going and I like to work. I like working where I am at but anticipate going back into consulting all along the large pacific coast metro areas.
Jobs are not a zero sum game - it’s a progressive lie that they are zero sum.
It’s a “conservative” lie that it’s a progressive lie that jobs are zero sum game.
Real and authentic conservatives knew and know that we gave away the farm to benefit the few.
And there is nothing close to conservative about that.
“Real and authentic conservatives knew and know that we gave away the farm to benefit the few.”
Who is the “we” you speak of? The globalist progressives from both the left and the right? If that’s what you mean, I agree.
Who is the “we” you speak of? The globalist progressives from both the left and the right? If that’s what you mean, I agree.
He’s probably referring to Republicans who vote against killing the offshoring tax break.
“The implication is, well, if they’re out for good, you may not have as much slack in the labor market as you think.”
I’ll believe it when I see salaries going up.
Wages will be flattish until all of a sudden, they’re not. Just like rents for commercial properties.
I expect we will see the start of wage inflation by the end of 2014.
^
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Your posts are more outlandish by the day RenTrollHogwash.
I’ll believe it when I see salaries going up.
Ditto. They can and will continue to offshore. The only place salaries are going is down.
Oh sure, there’s really much less slack in the labor force than generally realized. That’s why wages are climbing so fast. Not!
This sound imprudent. Get ready for cost-push inflation in food prices.
Feb. 22, 2014, 4:26 p.m. EST
California farm drought crisis deepens
Agricultural heartland won’t get any federal irrigation water this summer
By Andria Cheng, MarketWatch
Reuters
An irrigation channel in California’s Central Valley, where farmers are already hammered by a three-year drought, learned they won’t get any federal irrigation water this summer.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — In a move that will likely signal higher food prices nationally, a federal agency says California’s drought-stricken Central Valley — hundreds of thousands of acres of the most productive farmland in the U.S. — won’t get any irrigation water this summer.
Friday’s announcement by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation follows an earlier warning of no irrigation deliveries from the California State Water Project and leaves Central Valley farms and cities with only wells and stored water to get through the worst drought since the state began keeping records in the 1800s.
Statewide, some 8 million acres of farmland rely on federal or state irrigation water.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency following reports that the water content of snow in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada, whose spring runoff is stored in reservoirs and moved by canals to other areas of the state, stands at 29% of normal.
“This low allocation is yet another indicator of the impacts the severe drought is having on California communities, agriculture, businesses, power, and the environment,” said Michael Connor, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “We will monitor the hydrology as the water year progresses and continue to look for opportunities to exercise operational flexibility in future allocations.”
…
Pricey veggies this summer. Pass the Cheetos and the HFCS laden soda pop, please. It’s what Americans already eat anyway.
Yes its going to be a big problem…Still hoping for a really wet March….
Supposedly a big rain coming this week. It’s so dry!
It seems like most of the produce is from Mexico anyway. It was probably a mistake the push the farmland out into the desert, just to make way for commercial and residential buildings.
was probably a mistake the push the farmland out into the desert ??
Most fertile farmland in the country…California aqueduct…surely not a mistake…Next closest is Texas @ 9.8 Bil…
Rank State GDP Percentage of U.S.
1 California $27.3 17.3%
The farmland near the coasts was better, and didn’t require pumping of water from elsewhere. We used to sprinkle seeds on the dirt in our back yard in San Diego. A little later on, we would end up with tomatoes and eggplants.
Well, if I had my way we would never have had the California Aqueduct…But, it did create a economic giant in the central Valley…
Do you find the prospect of cascading debt default into depression hi-larious?
February 23, 2014
All 208 times the Fed laughed amid 2008 chaos
As recession loomed in 2008, here’s what the Fed found funny
Ben Bernanke is no Jerry Seinfeld. But the then–Fed chairman sprinkled in a little stand-up as he worked to prop up the economy during the 2008 crisis. According to transcripts of the 2008 Fed meetings released Friday, there were 208 laugh-out-loud moments at the otherwise somber Fed. Jokes about nonlinear dynamics may not get most people rolling in the aisles, but the first rule of comedy is: Never waste a crisis. Members of the Federal Reserve cracked obscure jokes to help get through the stress. Sometimes, these are innocuous moments in which the Board of Governors appears to be releasing stress. At the Jan. 29-30, 2008, meeting, Bernanke’s comment, “I wonder if I could entice anybody for a cup of coffee,” was greeted by laughter.
Other times, the jokes might cut it in a post-midnight “Saturday Night Live” sketch. On the following pages are 11 of the laugh-out-loud moments from the height of the crisis. You may (or may not) find them funny.
— By Quentin Fottrell
I have always believed that the Zimbabwe scenario is more likely since the government will print money like crazy to prevent that, but it has no power to stop inflation. See also what is going on in Argentina and the Chavez created paradise.
There is no power to prevent deflation.
yup
The scary thing is that almost everyone is printing and piling up huge amounts of debt. Even might China has feet of clay.
But as the saying goes: following the money. Where are the world’s elites stashing their cash? Where are they buying mansions and residency visas? Where are the moving their families?
Exactly Colorado !! Cleanest short in the dirty laundry….
Now, on the other hand, if they are all fleeing does that portend something really bad may be on the horizon ??
Short = Shirt
I think it’s funnier to say “short” though. It’s a double entendre and crude at the same time.
“scary”? lol…. Seriously?
I have always believed that the Zimbabwe scenario is more likely
The Zimbabwe scenario is in the bag because the Zimbabwe situation was identical to the USA’s.
Examples:
Zimbabwe called their currency the “dollar”. Just like we do. Coincidence? Zimbabwe was also the biggest economy in the world. Zimbabwe possessed by far the world’s largest military and its 12 Zimbabwe naval carrier groups based on all three of its coasts projected Zimbabwe’s strength world-wide.
Also, the Zimbabwe dollar was the world’s reserve currency. I remember traveling to South America in the 90’s and everyone would try to keep some Zimbabwe dollars stuffed under their mattress for a rainy day. Gold, oil and all the world’s commodities were priced in the Zimbabwe dollar. I remember seeing the Zimbabwe flag on t-shirts in Peru and kids would listen to Zimbabwe music on their “designed in Zimbabwe” Walkmans.
I recall that the entire world was loaning Zimbabwe money at almost 0% interest rates and could not get enough of Zimbabwe debt. Why? Because the Zimbabwe debt was backed by the full faith and credit of Zimbabwe itself. Zimbabwe also had cutting edge, major world-class industries and a highly educated population. Both countries had black presidents and Zimbabwe was the largest agricultural producer in the world because the climate and landscape was as varied as America’s.
The Zimbabwe scenario is in the bag because the Zimbabwe situation was identical to the USA’s.
Lola!
What’s new in DC?
Wolfgang Halbig
“Requests for public records under the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act can result in threats of arrest under felony harassment charges. This is what former Florida State Trooper and school safety expert Wolfgang Halbig discovered after repeatedly telephoning and sending the series of emails, a portion of which appear below, to Newtown, Connecticut state and U.S. federal officials demanding more information on the Sandy Hook School massacre of December 14, 2012.”
http://memoryholeblog.com/2014/02/19/wolfgang-halbigs-quest-for-truth/
Wolfgang Halbig 2nd Sandy Hook Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MhJXw64bhc
12/25/2009 for $0
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/02/14/strange-purchase-date-price-sandy-hook-homes/ - 228k -
Let them eat Big Gulps
“Read the farm bill, and a big problem jumps right out at you: Taxpayers heavily subsidize corn and soy, two crops that facilitate the meat and processed food we’re supposed to eat less of, and do almost nothing for the fruits and vegetables we’re supposed to eat more of. If there’s any obligation to spend the public’s money in a way that’s consistent with that same public’s health, shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/farm-bill-why-dont-taxpayers-subsidize-the-foods-that-are-better-for-us/2014/02/14/d7642a3c-9434-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html
This reminds me of an ancient Dennis the Menace comic strip. Dennis is watching the news on TV (which has a graphic about a bag wheat crop) and moans “Why can’t something bad happen to the carrot crop?”
I don’t want my money subsidizing broccoli! Besides, there is no good reason to believe that corn, soy, and meat are bad for you. You reference “processed foods” without fully explaining how processing hurts you, or what type of processing you’re talking about, or how corn and soy are more likely to be processed than anything else.
I think a diet of pure vegetables would be less healthy than one that includes corn, soy, and meat. If you want to drink Big Gulps, then fine, but that’s unrelated. They aren’t made of corn, soy, and meat. They are made of sugar, water, carbon dioxide, and a few accessory chemicals.
Right you are. It’s actually quite simple. More calorie intake than calorie consumption equals obesity. Easier to blame food, farmers, government, advertising, development geared toward the car, etc.. than the people who are responsible. Those who overeat.
More calorie intake than calorie consumption equals obesity.
So, just what is the formula for “calorie consumption?” Without knowing that, your equation is crap. In fact, it’s hugely complex and depends on the hormones. The paleo theory is that — after a short transition to realign the hormones — our bodies consume fat calories at a higher rate than carb calories. That is, it’s possible lose weight when eating more and exercising less. I know; I did it.
Eat Cheetos…. they’re a great diet food.
Now we know why you’ve been in such a snippety mood lately. When you don’t eat carbs, your brain goes into starvation mode.
The paleo theory, like most diet theories, is Broscience.
or what type of processing you’re talking about,
Technically, if you grind your wheat into flour, it’s been “processed”.
If you want to drink Big Gulps, then fine, but that’s unrelated. They aren’t made of corn,
False, they are made mostly of corn; other than water, the first ingredient is high-fructose corn-syrup, and HFCS is just corn carbohydrates processed into a different form.
I knew someone would bring up high-fructose corn syrup. That’s just corn sugar. It’s a byproduct of corn, but it isn’t “corn”. It lacks all the other parts of the corn, besides the sugar. If you got rid of corn, then they would use the next-cheapest alternative. High-fructose beet syrup or something. Or maybe cane sugar, which isn’t better for you.
It’s a byproduct of corn, but it isn’t “corn”.
So by your terminology, gasoline is a byproduct of oil, but it isn’t “oil”.
Got it.
Long-chain corn starch is broken up into shorter molecules in a bio-reactor. What is produced is processed corn; it is not a “by-product” of corn, because the corn is gone when the HCFS is created. A “by-product” is something that is left over from normal processing; for example, the corn-husks or cobs are good examples of by-products, as they are left over and the corn remains. The HFCS is not a good example of a by-product, as the corn is fully consume by the process.
It is not that dissimilar to how long carbon-chains of oil are broken up into shorter-chain gasoline (or diesel or fuel-oil or jet fuel) by a process called “cracking”.
From wiki:
You should fill your tank up with oil.
From Merriam-Webster:
by–prod·uct
noun \-ˌprä-(ˌ)dəkt\
: something that is produced during the production or destruction of something else
: something that happens as a result of something else
Prime, you are so dumb. You don’t even understand fiberoptic cables, much less the difference between “corn” and “high-fructose corn syrup”. You can’t even write. Then you expect everyone to take responsibility for doing hours of unguided research, just trying to figure out if you meant something that you didn’t say.
THEN you have the nerve to insult people and tell them not to open their mouths. Let me know how that tank full of oil works out for you.
Uncle Fed, you’re still wrong. You said that Big Gulps were not made from corn. They are. They strip away the corn parts to extract the sugar, but corn is still the starting feedstock.
And it is NOT corn sugar. The HFCS market has been trying to change the name for ages but the FDA won’t let them. The reason is simple: There already is a “corn sugar.” It’s Karo corn syrup and you buy it to make homemade desserts. It’s a very viscous and sticky liquid. The processed HFCS is a thin syrup which is chemically processed.
Oxide:
High-fructose corn syrup isn’t corn. It’s a corn byproduct, and it isn’t dextrose, but it sugar from corn. If you think corn is the same thing as high-fructose corn syrup, then I think you should try eating high-fructose corn syrup in place of corn, and see if you notice a difference.
Besides, my point was that if we got rid of corn, then sodas would be made with some other form of sugar. Corn just happens to be the cheapest source of sugar right now. People shouldn’t think that if an unhealthy byproduct can be produced from a plant, then the plant itself is just the same as said byproduct. Corn is good for you, and many pioneers survived solely off of it.
by–prod·uct
noun \-ˌprä-(ˌ)dəkt\
: something that is produced during the production or destruction of something else
That’s a fine definition, so let’s use it.
So, BigV, how about you tell us: what are they producing or destroying when they make HCFS as a by-product?
Lester Appleton Young
David Pinocchio Lereah
Lying Larry (fun)Yun
Three hemmroids on the ass of society
UK Guardian - Is San Francisco losing its soul?
“The big pay cheques of the tech boom are changing the City by the Bay as Twitter and Google millionaires take over its bohemian haunts. Could this be the end of the city as we know it?”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/is-san-francisco-losing-its-soul
My son works in the city…A burger at lunch with tip runs him around $23.00….He did say that it was a pretty good burger though…
‘A burger at lunch with tip runs him around $23.00′
You are joking right?
No…He just told me that the other day…Probably trying to hit me up for lunch donations…. :>)
Pfft! That train left the station a looooong time ago. The place hasn’t been affordable for decades.
Well, I have never received a “cheque” for anything, but San Francisco hasn’t been affordable to dual-income households with advanced degrees in practical subjects for a couple decades now.
I’m flying up to San Francisco later this afternoon. We have to go across to Oakland and drop off our bags at the hotel. I am not sure but the guys seem to be the type to want to go back across to SF for some good beer pubs. Going to be a long evening. I’m glad they don’t take our product demo plan as seriously as I do.
Bitter underwater sellers and starving realtors….. a deadly combination.
Proceed with caution.
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140223_061619_493-s3XFBGjl.jpg
lolz
Those things are now proven to eat cars too:
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/24784515/museum-plans-to-display-sinkhole-damaged-cars
Mz. Craterton spends the day with her mortgage broker.
http://www.picpaste.com/EeyorePiglet02.jpg
At least Mz. Craterton appears to be in a good mood for a change.
“mz craterton”…. LOLZ
Was there supposed to be a major peak of interest rate reset for ARMs happening right now? My guess is it is not much news as interest rates are low. Hence, not much to see/hear?
My guess is it is not much news as interest rates are low ??
Likely part of the big picture plan….
Yes. This happened to my parents. The reset occurred last November, but their payment actually declined in a small way. However, the interesting part is that the resets now occur every November for them. So, as rates rise, their payment will ratchet up. If most contracts were formed in such a way, then this could be a more continuous force going forward should rates carry upwards.
Is it fair to say, taking out an ARM when interest rates are high is a better hedge? You are taking a shot at lower payments in the future if interest rates drop. That is once again, if ARMs are offered when interest rates are high. Trying to cut through the mumbo jumbo, theoretically one could negotiate an ARM and its terms with a bank, couldn’t they or are they mostly formatted packages not unlike those calling plan contracts a cellular company offers?
These are interest only HELOC’s issued 2004 and later that now require full payment after amortizing for 10 years. And yes… there is a tsunami of them.
Buckle your seatbelts because they are the next wave of foreclosures.
‘And yes… there is a tsunami of them. ‘
Shirley it won’t be that bad?
“Buckle your seatbelts because they are the next wave of foreclosures.”
The taxpayers are lubed-up and ready for action.
But we’ve already been through this. If the wave is big enough to endanger the banks, solutions will be provided at taxpayer expense.
“I’m calling it a soft landing — a return to what is considered to be more normal market conditions,”
Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist, California Association of Realtors, 2006
“Maybe we need something new. That’s all I’m prepared to say”
“I’m sorry I ever made that comment.”
“When I get my new term, I’ll let you know.”
Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist, Cal. Assoc. Realtors
When asked about her “Soft Landing” prediction, 2006
Instead of “prepared” misrepresentations, how about just speaking truthfully about this debacle that is housing? Who is “preparing” these tall tales for you to read and why?
“The worst is over.” -Leslie Appleton Yun, February 1, 2007
Never trust a word from realtors
http://srweb.sar.dc.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/NEWS/702020382/1036/BUSINESS01
“Remember. A housing recovery is falling housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.”
You are correct.
Remember this?
On October 15, 2007 ReMax CEO and Federal Reserve Hack Margaret Kelly says, “guaranteed appreciation” on CNBC.
http://youtu.be/TD2_NmPevVs
http://www.kc.frb.org/speechbio/bod-bios/kelly.cfm
A DebtDonkey gives new meaning to leverage…..
http://picpaste.com/pics/369a832f609353eacf1d88cf6d63fb04.1393170409.jpg
Oxide can’t comment until SOMEONE unbuckles her from that cart, or at least gives her a smart phone.
They’re not making any more Toronto
“Listings have been in short supply all across the city. The drought is pushing up prices in the Greater Toronto Area.
According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, the average price in the first two weeks of February jumped 7.8 per cent to $547,107 from the same period in 2013.
At the same time, listings shrunk 6.1 per cent from a year earlier. Sales edged up 1.3 per cent in the first half of February compared with the first half of February, 2013.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/real-estate/the-toronto-market-is-hungry-but-houses-are-in-short-supply/article16998029/
Blue, saw your message… Absolutely.
My contact is hbb muggy at gmail dot com (no spaces)
Co-worker wanted to buy shares of this a few weeks ago, basically right after a major run-up. It has all the signs of pump and dump and a market cap that is crazy:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=canv&ql=1
Not plugging the stock. I’d take my chances with a GOOG or FB before I’d put any money in this one. I think I recognized the classic tell of a pumped up stock. Most of its news all comes from one place, Globe Newswire, and the company has maybe 5 employees and has a very vague business plan and revenues are ?? what amount?
Going back to bitcoin, I think if the maw of WS can figure how to fleece J6P on it, then watch it get all the greenlights to be foisted upon us.
Going back to bitcoin, I think if the maw of WS can figure how to fleece J6P on it, then watch it get all the greenlights to be foisted upon us.
You have a good point there. Due to the low volume, bitcoin CAN be easily manipulated (pump-and-dump, short-to-crash-then-buy), and I would expect WS to play those games.
Expect even more volatility in $BTC in the future…
Toothpaste is outta the tube w/ bitcoins. Wonder if it will take the same path of designer drugs -ie- one step ahead with each crypto-currency iteration with regulation. Every time a new designer drug came out, legislation had to be made to outlaw it. Probably laws have gotten adept now in prose to cover any crypto-currency at all. Next step would be to get into another cyberspace platform that is not regulated?
Sorry to hear about your loss, PB—assuming I read between the lines correctly.
I’m off to help out my mother for a couple of weeks of rehab after a recent hospitalization. Not sure what my blog-reading time will look like over that period; I wouldn’t be surprised if it were significantly reduced.
See you all when I can…
Thanks. In some ways the situation was as good as possible: Family member almost made it to 90, died peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by loved ones.
Downside: By now, a lifetime of saving has been exhausted on end-of-life care.
Going for a bike ride at the beach! I’ll go past this Rio streetcam at about 4:40-4:45 on a white bike with black saddlebags. I’ll wear a white shirt and black ball cap. I’ll wave!
http://www.vejoaovivo.com.br/rj/rio-de-janeiro/rua-bolivar-42-copacabana.html
I’ll go past this Rio streetcam at about 4:40-4:45 on a
Eastern Standard time, about 10 min from now.
How much did he want to wave at the camera Lola? 10 pesos?
Saw the wave in the video, but couldn’t screen grab it.
Go to funeral… screen grab blogger from Rio… typical Sunday.
http://picpaste.com/Rio-DOpQ2K15.jpg
I saw it. Appears to be some 14 year old soccer kid riding home from practice.
Nice try Lola.
Go to funeral…
I’m sorry. My condolences to you, PB and both yours.
We’re good. If you are going to have a funeral, have a big family gathering with lots of good food and celebratory remembrances of the departed. You may find this a much more uplifting experience than mourning in tortured isolation.
Why do the first three letters of the word ‘funeral’ spell fun?
You were one minute late, btw.
…screen grab blogger from Rio…..You were one minute late, btw.
lol……I know. It’s “pre”-Carnival and I got blocked by a street samba party. I should have walked instead. The city is crazy now. Peace.
Good news and bad news from a landlord in my circle:
GN: The renter of their house is going to make an all-cash purchase.
BN: The renter is a drug dealer and the neighbors are on to it.
So there are three LLs in my clan with whom I crossed paths this weekend, all with homes they (coincidentally, I’m sure) plan to sell in different major U.S. markets this spring.
The first, mentioned above, needs to deal with a sale to a drug dealer who is playing all kinds of cat-and-mouse games with the deal.
The second, mentioned earlier this weekend, needs to sell a place in The OC before the summer or else face capital gains tax consequences.
The third, in the PNW, also needs to sell before the summer or face capital gains consequences.
In all three cases, they waited until home prices “came back” before trying to put their homes on the market.
But not to worry; even though these three households are the first I know if in my extended clan to sell since 2008, and they all are moving their homes on the market at exactly the same time six years down the road, I’m sure this is purely coincidental and there are few other desperate sellers trying to offload before prices drop again later this year.
…know of…
All higher power is corrupt