Bits Bucket for March 21, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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If you take on mortgage debt at current massively inflated housing prices, you’ll enslave yourself for the rest of your life.
“Debt is bondage.”~Suze Orman, May 11, 2013
In other words, don’t buy housing at these massively inflated prices. Don’t Be A Debt Donkey®
“I have so much money left over after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it”
You better believe it.
Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
Does anyone really believe house prices are going higher at this point?
To believe that you’d have to have a stake in the direction of prices and ignore the fact that prices recently started turning south, and the number of areas turning negative are growing.
They’re going higher where the oilfield industry is busting loose.
Speaking of oil- what a joke crude prices are. We have a glut of crude oil and yet it is over $100 per barrel right now. Crude should be trading at $30.
I was talking to an old sage a few days ago, and he knows a guy who is drilling up in the Bakken. He asked the guy when prices were going to come down at the pump because of all the oil they’re producing. The other old guy smiled wryly and said “never, we’re going to export this before that happens.”
“Drill baby, drill” was a LIE.
So the losses on housing are even greater in the Texas oil patch.
That’s good to know. Thank you.
“Drill baby, drill” was a LIE.
If it was not for the increased oil production in the U.S. we would be looking at $140 a barrel oil and five dollar gasoline because Obama’s intervention in Libya has taken off most of their production and supporting the Arab spring has taken off additional production in Syria. Moreover, if it was not for the economic activity caused by the drilling and the positive impact it is having on a trade deficit we would be in a recession. Drill baby drill was not a lie but it cannot completely undo other bad policies.
BTW drill baby drill included federal lands and not just private lands that Obama has no or little control over.
“If it was not for the increased oil production in the U.S. we would be looking at $140 a barrel oil and five dollar gasoline because Obama’s intervention in Libya has taken off most of their production and supporting the Arab spring has taken off additional production in Syria.”
Riiiiight, because $140 per barrel oil is completely sustainable, just like bubble real estate prices. Perhaps you were asleep when the floor dropped out of oil at $140+. The graph went straight down like a jet airliner full of steel with no engine power. There continues to be tremendous demand destruction at these prices. Your comments remind me of an old Foghorn Leghorn saying: “Kid’s about as sharp as a bowling ball.”
^+1.
Riiiiight, because $140 per barrel oil is completely sustainable, just like bubble real estate prices.
Wait a minute, for years we have heard from Obama only the recession caused the oil prices to drop, now you are saying that sufficient demand destruction will occur absent a recession? Thus, the rise in oil prices in oil prices from $40 to over a $100 measured by Brent since he took office is excessive?
Obama? You’re in a partisan induced stupor. Snap out of your boogeyman haze, troll.
Obama? You’re in a partisan induced stupor. Snap out of your boogeyman haze, troll.
For whom am I a troll?
“For whom am I a troll?”
I don’t know, you tell us Mr. Global Unwarming.
My views do not fit any political party, wish they did. I cannot be Mr. Global unwarming since we have not had warming for almost twenty years now.
The other old guy smiled wryly and said “never, we’re going to export this before that happens.”
but Bernanke told us a weak dollar wouldn’t hurt us
The sad truth is due to inflation that is being hid in the government numbers, $100 a barrel oil is becoming the floor on oil not the ceiling. See unlike many conservatives I believe in peak oil and we have already reached it when you are talking conventional oil. Oil from oil sands or from oil shale is much more expensive and requires much more energy inputs for energy outputs.
That should be shale oil not oil shale, they are completely different.
That’s not inflation my friend. Learn the difference.
My dividends and investment income combined pay all my housing costs.
Actually Suze was on PBS again on Monday night. She repeated that debt is bondage but later said that mortgage debt is okay if it makes you feel secure.
Feel? Feel? Feel’s got nothing to do with it.
Or maybe everything to do with it.
Suze is only about three ticks better than a prosperity gospell preacher. She is constantly saying that when you feel good abotu yourself, money will come to you. I think she actually means that people with confidence get better jobs and promotions, but she rarely says that because it would sound too much like hard work. Never mind skipping that fact that confidence isn’t enough to get a good job in a market like this. It will help, but it isn’t remotely enough.
Even Suze appears to be going back to basics. Monday’s show was an audience Q&A with a bit of lecturing in between. She has dropped the motivational talk, dropped the “save the daily $2 Sbux and it will compound to 46 million bux when you retire” routine, and didn’t mention that annoying “if your employer says be there at 8 get there at 7″ schtick.
She also emphasized all the living-will documents we need, largely because one of the begathon thank-you gifts was, surprise surprise, a living-will documents kit.
But I was stunned to hear her advice as to where to put the 8-12 month cash emergency fund. She said, put it in a Roth IRA where you can get to it anytime tax-free. Huh? Don’t you have to wait five years for it to be tax-free?
And if she championed debt and housing, you’d be quoting her.
Good to know your motive too.
“She repeated that debt is bondage but later said that mortgage debt is okay if it makes you feel secure.”
Bondage is okay if it makes you feel secure.
“feel” secure. Shackles feel secure too.
Because it needs repeating.
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-20 13:52:01
‘Nope, no traction yet.’
Yes, the cable news network effect. We used to hear stuff like that only on the Sunday political shows. But now there are several channels saying stuff like this all day and night. It’s reduced politics to spin, and that how most people think any more. This reinforces the idea that politics is a game. Us versus them. “Who’s winning today, Bob? Well it looks like Senator Whozit has managed to divert attention from the latest scandal with his new initiative, Barbara.”
What goes hand in hand with this view of politics, (red/blue) is some really absurd stuff slips by. One example; Obama can go on about minimum/low wages, and at the same time push for amnesty. There was a time when such blatant hypocrisy would be sniffed out by Joe Q Public. But no more.
The internet has many versions of this too. One I see is “Obama wants sharia law.” Oh, that’s so funny! Stupid Obama haters! Never mind this guy is a war criminal with the blood of hundreds of women and children on his hands.
And reducing politics to a game works. Notice how few of his supporters stood up and said anything about the drone assassinations when he ran the second time. Much less withheld their votes. Winning the game is more important than innocent lives and morality.
There are many ways to looks the forces in politics. One is the alliance of neocons and so-called progressives. What have necon McCain and Obama agreed on? Drones, NSA spying, the NDAA, Syria, Libya, amnesty, to name a few. Brush it off with some spin you picked up from TV if you like, but the record is there.
Great post. One of the reasons I don’t watch TeeVee.
Yeah but there’s nothing like an entire Sunday of NFL while lying on my back consuming groceries.
You could say the same thing about why aren’t journalists and networks up in arms that Glenn Greenwald has to report about the NSA from _outside_ the US? In the 60s or 70s, journalists would’ve been defending Greenwald’s reporting and been skeptical of gov’t secrets.
Now, networks aren’t asking the question, aren’t inviting on guests to ask the question, and some talking heads wrap themselves in the flag to defend the military and defend the spying programs.
Liberace!
They’re doing what gets them paid and advances their career. The game has changed since the 70s.
See also the book “This Town” by Mark Leibovich.
Zima, I wish you wouldn’t re-post items like this.
We all know that NeoCons=Progressives is nothing but nonsense. Absurd thoughts such as that don’t have “traction”.
I am in dire need of creating a different “meme”, and this time not out of thin air. Thinking aloud here….perhaps I should conduct a poll first, before conjuring the new meme? Ideas?
Neocons/progressives= two sides of the same coin.
The 1% = ticks.
The working man = the deer.
The 1% are not a class, far too few to be considered that in my mind. It is NOT class warfare.
More like leeches than ticks, Lola.
Leeches inhabit areas near or in water. They feel quite at home amongst scum.
When Occupy Wall Street said this in 2011 they called it “class warfare”.
Now they call it “Kristallnacht”.
Get with the program.
Wait, why are the owners of companies somehow less as people than the workers? I really don’t understand this.
The summary execution of the Hedge Fundies would be no loss.
And Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
Why not? You’re not a business owner, yet you make lot of money.
Your societal ROI is nowhere near that of a good, $30/hour massage therapist.
If you executed people who own things (i.e. the 1% or really the .1% by assets) why would anyone put big money on the line anymore?
You do realize that capital formation and private property rights are the foundation for a well functioning capitalist system, right?
Whether you want to believe it or not, the people who invest their money are essential in capitalism, whereas the workers are mostly interchangeable cogs. This is how capitalism works and it’s why it works so well in a market based system. The workers are free to work if they want to or not if they don’t want to, just like the investors are free to invest or not invest.
Oh, yes. You are part of the INVESTOR class!
Interestingly, you get to participate in that while also being a fiscal drain upon those who actually generate a profit in the open market.
Noted.
And as I said, your societal ROI is less than that of a good, $30 message therapist.
“Why not? You’re not a business owner, yet you make lot of money.”
This isn’t correct. Family businesses & I’ve been outed as a rental prop owner (RAL prefers the term slumlord).
“Your societal ROI is nowhere near that of a good, $30/hour massage therapist.”
The Koch Brothers and other big clients disagree. We help them protect their investment in R&D and compliance w/ environmental regs. Free market, bro. Clients decide what we’re worth.
The 1% are not a class, far too few to be considered that in my mind. It is NOT class warfare.
I’m sure Marie Antoinette, the Czar and others thought the same thing.
This is how the 1%er pigmen view the rest of you:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/02/1032550/-Chicago-Board-of-Trade-Dumps-McDonalds-Employment-Applications-on-Occupy-Chicago-Protesters
The krill have lost the thrill.
The krill have lost the thrill
Because they have no money to put in the till?
‘Because they have no money to put in the till?’
It’s jail if no bail, so they better not fail!
The Krill is Gone.
The ticks have grown and are about the size of footballs now. How many ticks can the middle class host handle.
Again at the end of the day some ticks will be more worthy than others and the rest will become tick food as well, they just don’t know it yet.
How many elites in Russia vs the US. We’re moving toward more and more concentration of wealth and power.
Dam unions
‘Dam unions’
They brought us the SouperBowl though, right?
‘Dam unions’
Damn, union leaders. Because union’s best purposes are to force the Democratic party to limit immigration and prevent imports from destroying industries. Since they failed these two missions, they were deserted in droves since unions cannot exist when there are vast armies of surplus labors. Because they became an appendage of the Democratic party and supported globalists for president they failed their membership.
labors=laborers
“labors=laborers”
At first I thought you were using the word “labors” like Joe uses “poors” and “olds.”
“labors=laborers”
How un-Canadian.
Labours = labourers !
Eh?
Wow…rooting for your college football team or even a pro team is infinity times nobler than rooting for the red or blue team……..
{eyes wide open}
May be the proles are smarter after all….
Wow…rooting for your college football team or even a pro team is infinity times nobler than rooting for the red or blue team
At least Peyton can be entertaining, even when he blows it.
Peyton was at his most entertaining in a 2006 Sprint cell phone commercial. It’s still on YouTube.
How is Pimco holding up after last year’s bond market swoon?
Pimco Replaced by TCW as Manager of $1.3 Billion Fund
By Alexis Leondis
Mar 20, 2014 2:41 PM PT
Pacific Investment Management Co. was replaced by TCW Group Inc. as the manager of a $1.3 billion bond fund offered by Columbia Management Investment Advisers LLC, as the world’s biggest bond firm reorganizes management and faces client redemptions.
The fund, previously known as the Pimco Mortgage-Backed Securities Fund, will become the TCW Core Plus Bond Fund, according to a statement today from Los Angeles-based TCW. The fund, offered within a variable annuity strategy from Columbia and created in 2010, invested in highly rated mortgage securities and sought to provide investors with total return through income and capital appreciation.
Pimco, based in Newport Beach, California, has been under pressure in the past 12 months amid investor withdrawals from its mutual funds and underperformance by its largest fund, Bill Gross’s Total Return. Former Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian said in January he was leaving the firm, which triggered a management shakeup, and led to reports of Gross as an autocratic leader.
Pimco, which manages $1.9 trillion in assets, had record net redemptions of $30.4 billion from its mutual funds last year, according to research firm Morningstar Inc. Gross’s $236 billion Total Return, which slumped 1.9 percent last year, lost $41 billion to withdrawals in 2013, according to Morningstar.
…
ft dot com
Last updated: March 18, 2014 8:31 pm
EM central banks sell US government bonds
By Michael Mackenzie in New York
Central banks sold US Treasury debt at the start of the year, according to the latest official data released on Tuesday, as stress among emerging market countries intensified.
Declines in Treasury holdings were seen for Thailand, Turkey and the Philippines, which sold $3.9bn, $3.3bn and $1.5bn respectively during January.
Sales were offset by China increasing its holdings by $3.5bn to $1.273tn as yields, which move inversely to price, fell sharply during the month.
Meanwhile, Belgium is now the third-largest foreign holder of Treasury debt, after increasing its buying by $52.5bn to $310.3bn in January. The country has steadily grown its Treasury portfolio from $167bn in August, but purchases may be on behalf of other countries using Belgium as a financial centre.
Treasury holdings by Russia ticked down to $131.8bn from $138.6bn at the start of the year. Last week, a record weekly drop of $105bn in Treasuries at the Federal Reserve by foreign central banks sparked speculation that Russia may have shifted its holdings to a third-party custodian in order to avert western sanctions over the Crimea and Ukraine.
“It will be quite intriguing to see what the [Tic] data looks like in a few months given what we have seen from the latest custody holdings,” said Alan Ruskin, strategist at Deutsche Bank.
…
World News
03.20.14
Did Russia Just Dump a Huge Amount of U.S. Government Bonds?
The Fed’s latest data shows that its foreign account holdings dipped $118 billion in two weeks and Russia’s central bank is the likely culprit.
The conflict between the U.S. and Russia over the Ukraine is escalating rapidly. But the warfare is mostly rhetorical and financial.
Earlier this month, after the U.S moved to impose sanctions on top Russian officials and bar Russia from the G-8, Russia’s stock market plummeted and the value of its currency, the ruble, fell against the dollar. In response, Putin adviser Serge Glazyev said Russia would strike back through financial means. “We hold a decent amount of Treasury bonds—more than $200 billion—and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner,” Glazyev said earlier this month, per this Barron’s report. “We will encourage everybody to dump U.S. Treasury bonds, get rid of dollars as an unreliable currency, and leave the U.S. market.”
…
Did Bond yields go up ?
I dunno, but I have a feeling you’re about to tell us, complete with linky.
At least Professor Bear always links to articles written by real journalists.
The Infowars website and some of the Drudge links that get posted here are not from real journalists.
PB provides a good service, IMO. He often posts things that are otherwise behind a paywall. I can read his posts on the train and decide if I want to look at the rest of the articles when I get to work.
Most of what he posts actually _is_ what should count as real journalism. People who understand the markets and report without much personal commentary.
The Infowars website and some of the Drudge links that get posted here are not from real journalists
Yes, that is why we can actually read articles without a liberal bias. Granted they will have some other bias but reading both together you get closer to the truth.
So, which candidate from either of the major parties would be most likely to buck the system and take on the bankster class? If only Ron Paul were a little younger. Unfortunately so far it doesn’t look as if his son Rand is quite the same man his father was/is.
“take on the bankster class”
You’re ten days early for April Fools.
Clearly Hillary is your man!
Is her slogan more balls than Obama?
My worry is that Ron or Rand or pretty much whomever at that level is simply a self aggrandizing sociopath who cares more about their own power and ambition. Maybe each are slightly different favors, but ultimately the same sh!tp!e. I think Ron Paul got off on being the outsider crank voice in the wilderness.
I think it comes with the territory.
Ron Paul was/is not an altruistic saint. He said things that appealed to his constituents, who reliably voted him in since the mid-70s.
His son has a different constituency. Thus, he must say things that appeal to that constituency to reach the elected office he desires.
Politicians have to be bullsh•tters. They have to convince disparate groups to vote for them, more than their competitors. They have to raise money in order to gain access to the tightly controlled media marketplace (consider the power and control implications there). They have to influence/lead the herd. Those who are best at it win the game.
The best option with a politician is choosing the one who is the least bad, IMO.
“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.” - Mark Twain
Power corrupts.
So if Ron Paul doesn’t even make the cut with you, who does that leave you with? Nobody?
Politicians have to be bullsh•tters. They have to convince disparate groups to vote for them, more than their competitors
Maybe I need more coffee but I read his point to be that someone like Rand Paul is the best we can hope for since nobody can be in politics and be perfectly pure. Compromises have to be made to get both the votes and money to win. I agree and yesterday when I said that the perfect should never be the enemy of the good, I had his exact point in mind.
Ron is the man. There is not a replacement for Ron yet, which is sad. By the time ‘16 rolls around Gary J won’t have been in government for quite some time, not sure how he’d rally much support in a GOP primary, or if he’d even try.
Yes, Joe continue to support any republican candidate that does not actually exist, it makes you look bipartisan.
Busted! Joe is a fraud….don’t trust any thing he says.
BINGO
Ya know Joe….. the minute someone lets you out of your cage, you show your true colors. Back in your cage.
There are three or four Ron Pauls per century.
H.l. Mencken, Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater, and Ron Paul.
All in common were very disgusted with the system.
So, which candidate from either of the major parties would be most likely to buck the system and take on the bankster class?
The one riding on the candy crapping unicorn?
The one riding on the candy crapping unicorn?
Joe, would support that candidate even if she or he was a Republican. He is bipartisan.
Elizabeth Warren, but she isn’t running.
Oh, please.
What’s her views on easy money policies of the Fed? Thought so.
Oh gawd school marm. E Warren is an evil “progressive” and you know it.
Washington Post - Living paycheck to paycheck: it’s not just for the poor
“The Wealthy Hand-to-Mouth,” by economists at Princeton and NYU, finds that roughly a third of American households — 38 million of them — are living a paycheck to paycheck existence. These are families who hold little to no liquid wealth from cash, savings of checking accounts. But a staggering two thirds of these households are not actually poor — while they resemble poor families in their lack of liquid wealth, they own substantial holdings ($50,000, on average) in illiquid assets. Because this money is locked up in things like their houses, cars and retirement accounts, they can’t easily dip into it when times get rough.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/21/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-its-not-just-for-the-poor/
The “wealthy hand to mouth” are the debt donkey demographic in a nutshell. And they are exactly what Mr. Banker wants. Don’t be a debt donkey.
Because Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
Funny thing is, the demo who reads WaPo and NYT would only ever dream of comparing themselves to 1%ers (in terms of assets, not income). So they can have millions in the bank and still feel poor compared to their peers.
WaPo/NYT are basically the UrbanBaby of news orgs. (UrbanBaby is famous for threads where lawyer/doctor/professor families with 300k incomes bit#h about being destitute bc their neighbors and friends are hedgies or PE bros.)
‘WaPo/NYT are basically the UrbanBaby of news orgs. (UrbanBaby is famous for threads where lawyer/doctor/professor families with 300k incomes bit#h about being destitute bc their neighbors and friends are hedgies or PE bros.)’
That site looks a first-world problems meet up place.
Here’s the NYT talking about $100k parental income = too poor to afford college for 1 kid:
—————————-
Consider a family of four, earning $100,000 in income and having $50,000 in savings. The E.F.C. says that this family will contribute $17,375 each year to a child’s college expenses. A $100,000 income translates into take-home pay of about $6,311 monthly. An E.F.C. of $17,375 means the family must contribute about $1,500 a month — every month for four years. But cutting family expenses by 25 percent every month is unrealistic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/opinion/a-quick-way-to-cut-college-costs.html?_r=0
But what about the huge federal scholarship programs Congress regularly trumpets? Most are not available to middle-class families; only federally subsidized loans are. And at 3.86 percent subsidized interest rates — plus loan origination fees — federal education loans are available on less attractive terms than car loans.”
Middle class is so poors If they have 3 kids they an sell the least promising for body parts to pay for the other 2.
So much for the “housing recovery” meme. Apparently, even NAR is now admitting that a ridic % of home sales these days are all cash — to flippers, landlords, private equity, etc.
Young people are not doing what they’ve been instructed. They are not buying homes.
Check out the link & excerpt below… RAL, this should cheer you up for the weekend, man. Jingle, try not to wet your panties over this.
—————-
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-20/stick-fork-housing-recovery-spoiler-alert-blame-record-student-debt
“The NAR essentially confirmed this (something Zero Hedge readers have known for nearly a year), when it reported that “all-cash sales comprised 35 percent of transactions in February, up from 33 percent in January and 32 percent in February 2013. Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 21 percent of homes in February, compared with 20 percent in January; they were 22 percent in February 2013. Seventy-three percent of investors paid cash in February.
Read that last sentence again: 73% of investors, i.e. speculators who now account for a greater portion of total purchasers than first time home buyers, paid cash!
So what explains this collapse in the traditional housing pathway, where people buy houses to live in them? Simple. Record debt. Only not the credit card debt variety which historically was the biggest impediment to large purchases and was among the reasons for the 2007 credit bubble pop. This time it is all student debt.”
I’m not paying $250 a square foot for some sh*t shack in south Denver, now, or ever.
Will be down in the Salida area this weekend, may go check out that riverfront property on the Arkansas River.
See also WaPo piece I posted about the “wealthy hand to mouth,” the broke azz loosers who need a facepunch of mustachianism.
MMM’s latest post beat WaPo to the punch on that topic. But you should really check out urbanbaby sometime. It’s a pretty fun place for trolling.
I posted something a while back, posing as a Williamsburg resident (paraphrasing): “I only about once a month, to visit family in Quogue, so a car isn’t important to me. I need to buy a new car, but if I buy something other than a hybrid, would I look LMC to get anything less than A7/7 series/E class?”
They not only blasted my fictional poster for even considering a lesser car, they were questioning my family status bc of relatives in a “lesser” town in the Hamptons.
This about trolling and the “reptiles” post from yesterday say a lot.
Hold up a single blade of grass and you can tell which way the wind is blowing.
Downlow Joe breaks out in a rash if he travels more than ten miles from the Northeast I-95 corridor.
One of my favorite law boards trolls urban baby a lot, I enjoy participating from time to time. All it takes is 1 short post and they become unhinged over there at UB, no additional follow up posts are necessary.
“Reptiles” is just the inverse of when I say “shitlibs”. They are shorthand for dogmatic party-suckups. If your default position in any given election is to back the candidates of one party or the other, you’re a reptile or shitlib to me.
BTW, it’s rich hearing you say “Donkey” or “debt donkey” or other variations 100x a week. Or referring to Rio as Lola. But then turning around analyzing my terminology? Calm down, RAL.
Or referring to Rio as Lola.
He does not refer to his father as Lola, he refers to Rio as Lola, that is quite different. Lola fit his description of Rio as a tranny. Actually, if I would have created a persona for Rio it would have been Roxanne since he is obviously a paid troll or in the vernacular a whore for a Soros group or paid by a Congressperson to post talking points.
In our house it is/was considered friendly banter. I also refer to myself as a bedwedding elitist, what’s the big deal? As I said yesterday, not everyone takes things personally. My dad is a reptile (in the way I use that term) bc he is a 90% or so reliable Republican. Doesn’t mean I think less of him, or of you, btw. Hyperbole can be fun, do you think I really think the NY Yankees are the evil empire? Or that the people at my firm who do Koch Industries work are Koch Fluffers? Relax.
We went over this a short while back when I had effusive praise for Romney as a dad and family man, even though his presidential campaign was so bad as to be enraging. I could give other examples, but the Romney one comes to mind.
I also refer to myself as a bedwedding elitist, what’s the big deal?
Joe, the entire board refers to you as a bedwetting elitist, even the people that politically agree with you. I guess the big deal is most people that read you calling your parents reptiles would not take that as friendly banter since we would not have seen their reaction. But I will concede that everyone comes off as harsher online than they are in person since we cannot see their body expressions when they are being tongue in cheek.
I’m not paying $250 a square foot for some sh*t shack in south Denver, now, or ever.
Denver is and always will be a cow town. The prices people are paying defies belief.
“Denver is and always will be a cowtown”
I wish it would stop pretending it wasn’t. To me it feels like Columbus, Ohio (another cowtown, I lived there for eight years) with less overweight people and better outdoor recreation.
If I want “culture” I’ll fly to Chicago.
If I want “culture” I’ll fly to Chicago.
The culture of the knockout games?
“Denver is and always will be a cowtown”
“Tumbleweeds overtake neighborhood”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkcBwnEDQTc
Stop calling ideas memes.
A meme by any other name would smell as sweet.
Meme! Where art thou?
Using the term “meme” is my acknowledgment of Oxide’s contribution to the blog.
Good post Lib but you’re guilty of the same thing the housing liars are; either deliberately or by omission and that is inventory.
No matter how one attempts to obscure, twist or hide it, the excess inventory is massive, empty and growing. It’s easy to skip over the issue of inventory and it’s deliberate in most cases but it is the fundamental issue in all of this. There wouldn’t be a HBB, A housing bubble, wacked out lopsided fundamentals(permits, starts, resales) and homepath and homestep websites if massive excess inventory didn’t exist. We have far too many houses.
Enter: Hedge Funds
I am not guilty of lying about inventory. I believe there’s a ton of inventory. I’m just not sure how much of it is livable right now or is located in places near sustainable employment. There’s a ton of inventory in places like Detroit, for example.
I don’t see how I’m disagreeing that much. If the inventory is 15 mil or 25 mil, that really doesn’t make a huge difference. The point is, there is slack so one should not expect price increases (in real terms).
“I’m just not sure how much of it is livable right now”
I’m sure. Most of it is.
“located in places near sustainable employment.”
It’s distributed quite evenly. Aside from that, you know how quickly employment centers become Detroit don’t you?
“The point is, there is slack so one should not expect price increases (in real terms).”
How slithery.
“I’m sure. Most of it is.”
I don’t disagree. Again, we’re arguing about whether there are 20M or 18M empty houses. We’re not talking about it making a huge difference. You just claim to know what the #s are, whereas I say that it’s such a large number, it’s not worth fighting about.
“It’s distributed quite evenly. Aside from that, you know how quickly employment centers become Detroit don’t you?”
Sustainable employment means more than just where there are jobs now. It means where the water, energy, transportation systems make sense and where it isn’t literally dangerous to live. You want to pretend that the vacancy % would be the same in the shitty parts of CA as in Silicon Valley? Come on now.
“The point is, there is slack so one should not expect price increases (in real terms).”
“How slithery.”
If someone buys a house today in 2014, I think the nominal price may be higher if they sell in, say, 2034 or 2044. If you want to call me a liar on that, go ahead. But I agree 100% that the house should not “appreciate” (price inc in real terms). I also agree that the house will not make them money. They will pay property taxes, insurance, energy costs, maintenance, etc. As an investment, a personal residence is a terrible joke. Housing is an expense, not an investment. Tell me how this is “slithery”.
You’re exposing yourself again Liberace.
You’re exposing yourself again Liberace.
Please HA, that creates a visual that only Lola could love.
your obsession with joe and rio is getting creepy, dannyboy.
So Goon you have never joked about Joe?
The goon is parroting RAL. It’s funny.
This relatively recent Rio thing is creepy, it’s like it’s become personal. We get it, you don’t have similar views.
It is beyond that, I think he is Saul Alinsky clone that uses personal attacks to ridicule people thereby diminishing his opponents, so I preemptively attack him. It is personal between us. He began the personal attacks years before I began to respond in kind. When I saw HA inflame him with the tranny attacks, I had to join in although I am not sure how it even began.
I have many friends that I disagree with on politics and prefer to disagree without being disagreeable but there are exceptions to every rule and he is one of the exceptions.
You’re clueless Liberace. And a fraud.
P.S. with Joe, it is not personal. He even encourages some of the jokes.
your obsession with joe and rio is getting creepy, dannyboy.
BTW Goon, your obsession with fluffing the Koch brothers is similarly creepy. Are you looking for a new “position” with them? Tell the truth, which one of the brothers makes you horny baby?
When I saw HA inflame him with the tranny attacks, I had to join in although I am not sure how it even began.
Neither you nor HA seem capable of controlling yourselves when Rio posts. Rio’s responses are mild in comparison. Joe is right, this thing you guys have about Rio is creepy.
You can position yourself as neutral, but you’ll never get into Onwentsia.
‘Rio’s responses are mild in comparison’
You don’t see the ones that aren’t.
I am not RAL.
I must say there is just something about Lola that interests me intensely. I can’t help but analyze his posts that are so full of contradictions and lies. When he gets mad the lies flow so freely but occasionally he lets a little truth slip in and ends up tripping on his own BS.
My best guesses are that he is:
1. High on the autism spectrum;
2. Possibly Alcoholic; and
3. Experiencing some form of self-loathing related to an immutable characteristic of race/ethnicity/gender.
Who in hell is “RAL” anyways? I’m accused of being RAL at least once a week.
Not that soaring ObamaCare costs, foisted upon tens of millions without their consent, has nothing to do with a worsening housing outlook. For if they did, surely our media would say so.
Also, not that skyrocketing ObamaCare costs, foisted upon tens of millions without their consent, has nothing to do with crappy retail numbers from Thanksgiving on. For if they did, surely our media would say so.
That tens of millions are paying upwards of 100% more in monthly premiums in exchange for lesser coverage and much higher deductibles has nothing to do with slowdowns in cable television, clothing, housing, travel
After seeing an additional $100-$500/mo. disappear from their paychecks, the populace’s inability to spend can be blamed on one thing: The Weather. Yeah, that’s it.
ObamaCare = financial hardship for tens of millions not having experienced long-term financial hardship before.
foisted upon tens of millions without their consent
Ooh ooh, who wants to give the civics lesson on representitive republics and the Constitutional power to tax?
Ooh ooh, who wants to give the civics lesson on representitive republics and the Constitutional power to tax?
Had Obama called it a tax from the beginning, I might find merit in your argument. But when the legislation called it a penalty, he fought anyone that called it a tax on the middle class since he promised no middle tax increases and then at the last minute he changed calling it a penalty to a tax no I do not buy it. When we properly respected the constitution, the first thing Congress did before it passed any law is identify the authority that gave Congress to pass the law. This was identical to what every lawyer still has to invoke federal court jurisdiction identify the basis for federal court jurisdiction. Sorry, the proper response from Roberts should have been: you identified this as a penalty not a tax and it looks like a penalty, the law is unconstitutional but you can pass a new law where you clearly assert that you are invoking the taxing power of the Congress.
to do to invoke
Remember all the way up to the Supreme Court the argument was over whether under the commerce clause Congress had the right to mandate that an individual buy insurance. A rather novel argument since before this people could avoid the reach of Congress just by not engaging in interstate commerce even when construed broadly. Our constitutional “scholar” president had Congress pass the ACA under that alleged authority not its taxing power authority.
Real journalists at the Washington Post advocate redistributionary policies
“anti-inequality rhetoric has grown in recent years. But it’s not the growing wealth of the wealthy that Americans are angry about, at least not in isolation. It’s the growing wealth of the wealthy set against the stagnation or deterioration of living standards for everyone else.
One implication of these polling trends is that if the 0.1 percent want to be left alone — or at least not pursued by pitchforks and guillotines — they should probably support policies that promote the upward mobility of other Americans.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catherine-rampell-income-inequality-isnt-about-the-rich–its-about-the-rest-of-us/2014/03/20/0afe81ea-b040-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html
Screw policies, I say bring on the guillotines.
And Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.
Hmmm.
Seems time to issue my Geographic Distribution Wealth Vs Voting Patterns meme. It’s been many a moon since I
Better retract such idiocy. After all, we all know that the 1%’ers of the country are all Republicans who live in red states.
It’s a fallacy that the coastal regions of this country are the wealthiest. And that in many instances, the coastal areas are heavily liberal.
some of the red state 1%ers actually like build stuff people want.
the coastal elitist 1%ers for the most part build nothing, they are the parasite class. you could wipe out the entire town of greenwich, ct and nothing that matters would be lost.
“you could wipe out the entire
town of greenwich, ctcounty of Fairfield, CT and nothing that matters would be lost.”You’re forgetting about who owns the companies. Greenwich is for owners. The poors in Are Country could not fund the MegaCorps that employ them. (BTW, you and I both know that Colorado is not Are Country anymore.)
The right to private property is a fundamental part of capitalism. Without the owners or their willingness to invest money, not much else matters.
The vast majority of owners in our society are in the wealthy coastal states. What does production have to do with anything? Are you advocating destroying people’s rights to invest capital as they see fit?
The other part about the people who “produce nothing” is that they too are responding to free market incentives. Rightly or wrongly, our society values the services of a lawyer who can do environmental regulation or register a shelf offering for MegaCorp more highly than it values some schlub who can drive a big rig. And, let’s be real, no one invests serious money in countries that lack a well-functioning legal system. You can have all the resources and manpower in the world and still be a sh#thole country like Russia, China, or Brasil. What makes the coastal elites invest in the US is, among other things, a functioning regulatory system.
Greenwich is for owners. The owners of our society are based on the coasts. Ownership/private property is essential to a capitalist system.
Capital formation does not happen in countries with poorly functioning systems for respecting the rights of private property. And owning shares in companies or owning them outright via PE (which is huge in Greenwich) is the essence of private property.
It really doesn’t matter what Cletus from Kansas can do if George from Greenwich won’t supply capital to his company.
Capital formation does not happen in countries with poorly functioning systems for respecting the rights of private property. And owning shares in companies or owning them outright via PE (which is huge in Greenwich) is the essence of private property.
It really doesn’t matter what Cletus from Kansas can do if George from Greenwich won’t supply capital to his company.
It matters greatly when George from Greenwich gets his capital to invest from the Federal Reserve at 1% while lending to Cletus from Kansas at Prime + 1%…
What do middle men have to do with Capitalism? Why wouldn’t the Fed want to lend directly to Cletus? Answer that and you begin to understand what is wrong with the distribution of capital in this country… and it is this problem of access to capital that creates a 1% vs. 99% divide.
People who have millions invested in 401k’s, IRAs, family trusts, and hedge funds EARNED THAT MONEY.
They aren’t borrowing it from the Fed. (By definition, only a small set of institutions can borrow directly from the Fed anyway, perhaps you should take an upper level Econ course.)
It’s sickening how some people pretend to stand for freedom, but question or deny the rights of the affluent to deploy their capital and control it as they see fit.
They aren’t borrowing it from the Fed. (By definition, only a small set of institutions can borrow directly from the Fed anyway, perhaps you should take an upper level Econ course.)
Joe, the point is even if you cannot directly borrow from the Fed if you have inside information of when the Fed is going to adjust interest rates, you can benefit. That is a major problem with the Fed and how it encourages crony capitalism and short term speculation instead of long term investment.
>It’s sickening how some people pretend to stand for freedom, but question or deny the rights of the affluent to deploy their capital and control it as they see fit.
Just because you sprinkle perfume on cow dung doesn’t mean it isn’t still Bulls**t. And I’m calling it. This statement is bulls**t. It’s based on 100% a lie:
>They aren’t borrowing it from the Fed.
Uhh, yes they are.. at 0% discount window rates and selling the Fed crap unperforming assets at the rate of $80-70-60 billion per month.
How can you possibly not get that Fed policy for the past 6 years has been the biggest confiscation of wealth from Joe Citizen in the history of the country? Even bigger than the 28% income tax and 15% Social Security tax confiscations.
If behavior can hint at economic winds, here is a hint for you: I continue to buy silver, and have also been acquiring/learning machining, machine tools, and aluminum/steel metal stock. I built a cnc mill, and am developing automation and robotics projects in my spare time. I continue to work at my decent paying software job, and save as much money as possible while remaining comfortable, investing it in a diversified (including outside the stock market) set of assets. I am doing it all in a rented house that costs a fraction of what purchase costs would be.
People who have millions invested in 401k’s, IRAs, family trusts, and hedge funds EARNED THAT MONEY.
I think a lot of people who have money in family trusts INHERITED that money.
They aren’t borrowing it from the Fed. (By definition, only a small set of institutions can borrow directly from the Fed anyway, perhaps you should take an upper level Econ course.)
How many 401K investors are providing capital to corporate America? Here’s a hint, very few, because the vast majority of Main St. investors don’t/can’t participate in IPO’s or secondary offerings. Also, those companies raising money via bond sales are primarily targeting big money managers, aka hedge funds, bond funds, etc. Where are those funds getting the monies to apply leverage to their investments? The primary dealers who are working with the Fed.
Sorry, Hos. I don’t need to take an upper level Econ course to see how our capital allocation is effed up by middle men for the benefit of the .1%. But thanks for once again exhibiting for us that elitist attitude towards those with only a Bachelors degree…
Sorry, my post above left out the implication that Main St. investors that buy or sell a security aren’t part of the capital allocation process. The initial investors, which are almost always “institutional”, are, but after that, the trading is seeking a return that is outside of the capital-allocation process for the company that issued the security or debt.
Joe this is one point I agree with you on. Hating Romney for his 15% tax rate will result in hate toward the white collar professionals who saved for years in 401ks, Roths, and stocks.
When people hate success they hate success in all income brackets. Undeniable truth.
I offended Faster Pussycat rather markedly when I told him that what Hurricane Sandy did to NYC would have no more effect on Missouri residents than what the Joplin F-5 tornado had on NYC residents.
Boy! He was none-too-pleased by that comment.
When an elitist believes he or she to be the center of everyone else’s universe, then he or she is bound for a let down.
Pride goeth before a fall.
So you also don’t respect owners, eh?
BTW, here is the geographical distribution of income in the US:
http://www.city-data.com/#mapOSM?mapOSMzl=4&mapOSMc1=37.3&mapOSMc2=-96&mapOSMs=income3&mapOSMfs=false
If you could find a breakdown by county level, it would be even more obvious.
The real king of the world is Google Images.
Income, house values, property taxes, and some ratios. Scroll down for individual maps.
http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com/2013/01/map-math-united-states-of-ratios.html
Interesting maps. Validates my assertion that property taxes in Chicagoland are too damn high. Of course that correlates with excellent suburban schools, since the school portion of our taxes accounts for 2/3 of the total bill. Doesn’t explain the city of Chicago, however.
^^ oxide, that is an excellent link
It is an excellent link Oxide and the author was wondering about what was going on in the Northwest. I think when it comes to Portland, OR. you see the impact of tax policy. If you have a high income particularly if that income is being generated due to investments, you would have to be a fool not to live in Vancouver Washington instead of Portland. Just across the border no income tax vs. high state income tax.
The invisible hand of the free market strikes again…
Time Warner top execs will rake in huge severance payments if the deal to sell the company to Comcast goes through. The CEO has only been on the job 2 months, but would rake in ~$80 Million dollars.
Link & key excerpt below:
———————————–
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/for-time-warner-cable-executives-billowing-golden-parachutes/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=twr&_r=0
Mr. Marcus will receive nearly $80 million if the deal closes, a severance payment that amounts to more than $1 million a day in compensation for the less than two months he ran the company before agreeing to sell.
Huge golden parachutes are common in big mergers and acquisitions. But the payment to Mr. Marcus, 48, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing on Thursday, is all the more spectacular because he had been chief executive for such a short period.
Should the deal close, Mr. Marcus will receive $56.5 million in stock, $20.5 million in cash and a $2.5 million bonus if Time Warner Cable meets its performance targets by the time of the deal’s completion.
Did this guy EARN THAT MONEY?
With all the #LeanIn and #BanBossy stuff going around recently, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more mention of the current administration being the first time in history that the Pres/VP are each only the 2nd most intelligent person in their respective marriages.
I think either of these two women are a lot more inspirational to women than Sheryl Sandberg (born on 3rd-and-a-half base). Sheryl is the George W Bush of CEOs. How would any ordinary woman relate to her extreme privilege?
“Sheryl is the George W Bush of CEOs. How would any ordinary woman relate to her extreme privilege?”
Hardly. It is true that she came from a reasonably prosperous family, but not one that was outrageously wealthy or connected. And after all, Joe, they DID live in North Miami Beach and she went to public school there. She want to Harvard, yes. It would seem that her connection to Larry Summers while there was a bit of luck, yes. But from what I have read, she earned that luck, which opened the door at Google. And again, here she was head of google’s income producing activity, which did quite well while she was at the helm.
I am a firm believer that things come from the top down in any organization and if Google did well during her tenure, then she had a hand in it, even if her role extended only to bringing on good people to increase the income. She was a whole lot smarter than Bush and she did NOT have the family connections.
Shrewd, perceptive, VERY hard working. And has a supportive husband. But she wasn’t handed anything on a silver platter that I can see. And trust me, if she was, I’d be just the person who’d point it out with a great deal of mean spiritedness.
The GWB part was hyperbole. But she was born in DC to shitlib northeastern (NJ) parents who had a multimillion dollar house in N Miami Beach. Obviously there are awesome public schools–most of HYP students come from public schools, not private. (The biggest Ivy feeder schools are well-known high performing publics.) Her dad is a doctor and her mom literally a French-speaking fancypants. We’ve talked about it before, she had a ton of family connections (remember, her parents were in DC for a while). She ends up extremely lucky to be Larry Summers’ protégé bc she was @ Harvard right before he went into the Clinton admin.
I’m still not sure how this is supposed to empower Maria in Mississippi or Becky from Bridgewater State U.
“She ends up extremely lucky to be Larry Summers’ protégé bc she was @ Harvard right before he went into the Clinton admin.”
And that was “luck” that she herself made and trust me, if she’d been a slacker like GWB, Summers would have ignored her. Even the companies that shrub’s daddy went to in order to get some gainful employment for his bad seed didn’t really want to bring on GWB. Not only that, GWB sunk like, what, three enterprises of his own? And an entire country?
Come to think of it, Sheryl would probably make a good US pres.
“I’m still not sure how this is supposed to empower Maria in Mississippi or Becky from Bridgewater State U.”
Now there you may have a point. If Maria or Becky is a dim bulb, they’re not going to be empowered by anyone’s story. If Maria or Becky is bright enough to see what really happened with Sheryl, they can begin to figure out a way to MAYBE make it happen for themselves. And I say MAYBE.
Except she’s not the CEO of Facebook. There is no reason to elevate her even higher than she has actually risen. For now she’s just the GWB of COOs.
“GWB of COOs”
I don’t even know how you can compare her to GWB in any way, shape or form. She had NO family connections, she is very intelligent and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, and she found her own jobs and excelled at them. The connection to Larry Summers she herself cultivated.
She is no dumb, well connected slacker by any stretch.
“no family connections”
This is a laugh riot, you need to read her book, man. I did a book report on it here.
I admitted the GWB thing was hyperbole (see above). But the idea that Sandberg had humble origins is hilarious. Harvard in those days (grade inflation) gave summa to literally 200 grads a year. They still do more grade inflation than Y or P and the move to stop grade inflation didn’t catch on until way after Sandberg anyway.
“But the idea that Sandberg had humble origins is hilarious.”
Yes, it is hilarious, because I didn’t say she had humble origins. I said:
“It is true that she came from a reasonably prosperous family, but not one that was outrageously wealthy or connected.”
Garden variety upper middle class. She made her own connections.
I guess the subtle sarcasm didn’t come through…judging someone when you don’t even know enough about them to know the position they hold is silly.
No one will claim that she started in a ghetto, but she wasn’t handed her position on a silver platter, she worked hard for her position. There are oodles and oodles of examples of people who started at the same place as Sandberg from a socioeconomic standpoint, and haven’t come remotely close to accomplishing what she has accomplished.
The BanBossy stuff is simply stupid. This is just one more step towards the wheels falling of the PC bus.
Are you some kind of closet MGTOW now?
^^ Colorado, you might be cited for “microaggression” if you said that within earshot of your corporate HR people. Better watch out!
(sadly, this is not all that sarcastic, NYT has an article on “microaggression” in today’s paper)
I understand the rules at the office. I never discuss these sort of topics with coworkers. I just do my job and say “How about that Peyton? Go Broncos”
I had a bossy women boss but she got replaced by the Engineering manager who was Chinese. She was too bossy.
She actually was pretty good but High Technology is actually Chinese or Indian run now , not this silly American stuff.
The software companies may or may not follow hardware ?
Now this is real journalism
“Though the men claimed to be turned on by men and women, in the lab their bodies told a different story. Most bisexual men appeared homosexual in their genital arousal.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/magazine/the-scientific-quest-to-prove-bisexuality-exists.html
As Seinfeld said, they need to pick a team.
“they need to pick a team.”
Like Donna.
by Warner Todd Huston
20 Mar 2014
Authorities in Washington State believe that a series of murders of prostitutes in 1990 were committed by Washington resident Douglas Perry. Now Perry has been captured and charged with the murders, but Douglas has become “Donna,” a transgender woman who claims that she is not responsible for the murders because Douglas no longer exists.
Donna’s novel defense is that as a male she was prone to violence so she had gender reassignment surgery in Thailand a few years ago in order to purge herself of those violent tendencies. Further, since she is now a woman, she is a wholly different person and therefore she isn’t responsible for what her former male self did.
In interviews, Perry told police that Douglas never stopped killing, but “Donna stopped it.”
Donna further told authorities that she would not confess to murder because she didn’t do it. Donna also claimed not to know if Douglas killed the prostitutes in 1993. “I don’t know if Doug did or not, it was 20 years ago and I have no idea whether he did or did not,” she said.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/19/Transgender-Woman-Says-Her-Male-Alterego-is-a-Murderer - 72k -
Well, why shouldn’t “Donna” get away with it?
What IS the definition of “is” anyway?
Isn’t there a happy medium?
Let’s punish Douglas and free Donna.
Free Chelsea Manning!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Chelsea_Manning_with_wig.jpg
Hey trannies or putative trannies worked out in the military so well, we should make it an official policy to allow them into the military. We also need to do something about all that Camo, it is not like its the new black. I think that the unstylish clothes are discouraging woman and trannies from joining, the uniforms are having a disparate impact, we should have Nordstrom change the uniforms, something retro eighteenth century might work, the English sure knew how to dress for a battle back then.
Need coffee, woman=women
“Let’s punish Douglas and free Donna.”
RITCHIE VALENS
“Donna”
Oh, Donna, Oh, Donna
Oh, Donna, Oh, Donna
I knew a girl
Douglas was her name
Now he’s a she
It’s never been the same
‘Cause Douglas was a murderer
Oh Donna, where can Doug be
Where can he be
Now that Dougs gone
She’s left all alone
All by herself
To wander and roam
‘Cause Douglas was a murderer
Oh Donna, where can Doug be
Where can he be
Oh, Douglas, Oh, Douglas
Oh, Douglas, Oh, Douglas
Donna — Ritchie Valens - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNUr6pLxGtE - 155k -
More real journalism for the Koch fluffers
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/politics/koch-group-seeks-lasting-voice-for-small-government.html
And preemptive rebuttal:
“Only more and more regulations and bigger and bigger government can save us”
Giant Marcellus Shale Formation Coming of Age
The shale underlies parts of nine states - New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, plus small areas of Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Ontario, Canada.The shale underlies parts of nine states - New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, plus small areas of Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Ontario, Canada.
http://m.bismarcktribune.com/bakken/breakout/giant-marcellus-shale-coming-of-age/article_6d279fa2-b075-11e3-9767-001a4bcf887a.html?mobile_touch=true
IMO the oil industry boom will be coming to all of the states listed above (if the states allow) bringing high paying jobs and plenty of money into the economy.
It might even result in “higher prices” for homes and rentals.
In SE NM people are renting out their family RV’s, bringing in extra cash, because there are a shortage of rental properties.
“It might even result in “higher prices” for homes and rentals.”
In the meantime, housing prices continue to fall in the Marcellus Shale formation areas of western NY state.
You were saying Blackawk?
HA.
They’re falling now, but that’ll probably stop if the oil/ natural gas boom hits. I’ve seen the changes happening in southeastern NM and I’ve heard about oilfield engineers starting to collect in Northwest NM.
It’s easy to see what’s happening now.
How much are your housing costs going to be in 5 years? 10 years?
It already “hit”. They’ve been drilling and extracting for 3 years now yet housing prices are still falling.
What are your losses to housing today? How are you going to limit those losses over the next 5 years? 10 years?
I save about $300 per month and my costs are fairly predictable going out 20 years.
I have no intention to sell as I could rent it out and have cash flow.
Overall I expect inflation over the next 20 years so I’ve created a predictable hedge that’ll allow me to retire in comfort.
I don’t expect you to see it my way as I know nothing about your situation. Do you really expect for deflation? I see people paying cash for homes and then renting them out for the maximum amount possible.
So you see, this is my “plan” and it has nothing to do with feelings. I’ve managed my future so I can afford to retire.
You don’t “save” anything.
And you expect wages to triple to meet grossly inflated housing prices too. Gotcha.
HA. Do you expect your wages to increase to meet your rental costs? My costs are fixed.
Do you expect wages to triple to meet grossly inflated housing prices?
Your costs are “fixed”….. at a level 2x monthly rent.
What does it mean for enginners to “collect” in Northwest NM? Collecting stuff to leave?
I am not a great fan of Farmington but it is a short trip to Durango, Ouray or Telluride from there. It is not a bad place to live. It is superior to most Oil City plans.
Engineers that lead to the beginning of oilfield investment in an area.
Companies send out their engineers, map out what they expect to find and where it might be found.
I know there’s a lot of natural gas in northwest NM and I suspect they want to figure out if they can extract enough crude oil to make an investment in the area.
In other words the boom might be coming to northwest NM.
Wrong again.
Field development begins and ends with geologists and contract drilling outfits.
A friend of mine used to live in Farmington, he said the dating pool of 21+ women there was all single moms and meth tweakers.
Young women desperate to get out of town, you see crisis, I would see opportunity or are you still hung up on Koch fluffing?
It sounds like he sees two things that he wants to avoid - children and meth.
Living in your head rent free, Dannyboy.
Farmington gets eight inches of rain per year. Not enough to support a self-reliant lifestyle.
IMO, the objectives of the Oil City plan are to have enough land to grow yer veggies/coupla chickens, and enough water / high enough water table to dig yer well and be able to hand pump in a pinch.
With eight inches of rain and the depletion of the Oglalla reservoir (? terminology), the place is a fail as an Oil City destination.
That’s just my criteria - YMMV.
In SE NM people are renting out their family RV’s, bringing in extra cash, because there are a shortage of rental properties.
Prediction: new housing will be built to house the boom time workers, even if it’s just mobile homes. Eventually the boom will bust and those surplus homes will be worthless.
“Eventually the boom will bust and those surplus homes will be worthless.”
All excess, empty and defaulted houses are essentially worthless.
I think that in a proper metro area, if prices come down enough, there will be takers for surplus housing.
But boom towns become ghost towns. And the value of a house in a ghost town is zero.
Giant Marcellus Shale Formation Coming of Age”
I told my youngest to be a water scientist, he will be needed.
After they pollute the sh%t out of potable water
Have you seen the articles about how if you use water that has been used for fracking to treat mining waste water, you end up with a relatively clean product?
From a Jan. 12, 2014 Mining.com article:
It seems two wrongs sometimes can make a right.
Also a naturally occurring process, acid rock drainage is a major environmental challenge in heavily mined areas. ARD takes place when abandoned underground metals mines become flooded and is also associated with coal mining, particularly in the US.
In the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – vast amounts of water are injected at high pressure down wells to crack open tight shale deposits, but some of this water – 10% to 30% – then flows back up the well bringing with it radioactive materials from deep under ground.
Much of the naturally occurring radioactive materials found in wastewater created by fracking may be removed by blending it with water contaminated through acid mine drainage, according to a new Duke University-led study.
On top of that the process also reduces the overall salinity of the blended fluids, making the treated water suitable for re-use at fracking site and thereby reducing the demand for fresh water.
The way they deal with the water in NM, they haul it to an EPA approved dump where the water is evaporated and the solids collect.
how about some jokes to lighten things up for the weekend?
if you add the letter o to obama’s name it becomes ‘obamao’ like chairman mao.
if you add the letters rx it becomes ‘obamarx’ like karl marx.
and if you aren’t laughing coffee out of your nose by now, take the obama campaign ‘hope’ logo, change the h to an n and replace the o with the o logo so it says ‘nope’.
you can make his name into an acronym so it spells out:
one
big
ass
mistake
america
You want some jokes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYW7GnYEAik
Rodney was one of my favorites.
Everyone Must Check In
Did you read the card?
Ritchie Valens - La Bamba / YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKX5neksd9A - 156k -
Ever wonder what the La Bamba lyrics actually mean? Well I did, and after doing a little bit of research I stumbled into a few sites discussing the song. The original song was said to be the name of a dance, which has no direct English translation, and is presumably connected with the Spanish verb bambolear, meaning “to shake” or perhaps “to stomp”. Translations around the web are controversial, but this is the best translation I could find. See the debated Spanish to English translation below. (Not Verified)
I voted twice for Obama,
I voted twice for Obama,
Yes I did
And now he say gracia.
I get to stay in this country.
Arriba y arriba
Ay arriba y arriba, por ti seré,
And a free phone.
And a free phone.
He gave me lots of dinero.
He gave me lots of dinero, soy capitan.
Soy capitan.
Soy capitan. (I think Soy capitan means and a SNAP card)
My Obama,
My Obama,
My Obama,
ba…
I voted twice for Obama,
I voted twice for Obama,
Yes I did
And now he say gracia.
I get to stay in this country.
Arriba y arriba
Ay arriba y arriba, por ti seré,
And a free phone.
And a free phone.
My Obama,
My Obama,
My Obama,
ba…
Hey!
I voted twice for Obama,
I think he means he voted twice for Obama each election not twice over all.
http://news.yahoo.com/hawaii-law-lets-police-sex-prostitutes-005316540.html
In related news, the entire Denver vice squad resigned and moved to Hawaii to get “laid”.
But it might prevent this by the police departments:
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers
Barack Hussein Obama
Say it with a hisssssss, it sounds scarier
Blackstone hates your freedoms.
http://blog.goldenwestmanagement.com/tag/blackstone/
And they also hate YOU!
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/03/14/blackstone-to-dial-back-buying-binge/
If you look directly at the picture of the guy in the article, you will want to punch him in the mouth. He has that kind of a mouth. Hard to explain. You have to see the picture.
He does have that Indian Reservation border town used car salesman look to him.
Do you guys remember back when we defined the four stages of the exuberance half of the housing bubble?
Stage 1 - Snapping
Stage 2 - Snatching
Stage 3 - Scooping
Stage 4 - Swooping
Well, Blackstone only made it to the snatching phase. Unless there is a cadre of other people available to take up where they left off, I fear we may be headed back down to the snapping phase for a while, at least until the shadow inventory burns up. Lots of overbuilding everywhere.
What are “freedoms”??
That sounds really quaint.