Bits Bucket for April 8, 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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Seems like inflation is really raging - food and gas costs out here in the sandwich isles are at the point where things break down methinks. There are already a large number of multi-generational households in these parts, which helps people weather tough times but not sure its going to be enough for those at the margin. I hear the fed wants inflation - WTF? Seems like we have more than enough and we’ll be looking like Zimbabwe in no time unless we let deflation rebalance our economy.
“…a large number of multi-generational households in these parts…”
American families doubling- or tripling-up help make more homes available for all-cash Chinese or Canadian investors to snap up.
“…a large number of multi-generational households in these parts…”
I had a repo account where the vehicle was a “no-show”, so I knocked. An amicable young guy answered, and I identified myself.
Q: Where’s the car?
A: My wife has it.
Q: Where’s your wife?
A: She ran-off with my father.
The father wanted grandchildren and he wanted to cut-out the middle man. You have a problem with that?
The seventies and eighties were tough on me, and sometimes it seemed like self-pity was closing in. Experiences such as the above taught me otherwise; I was naive and spoiled.
My wife mentioned that many of our normal items were up at the store. Most notably my rice!
I haven’t bought makeup in 15 years, but I was in the makeup aisle at Target recently and was stunned at the inflation there. Those little Cover Girl bottles are now $10-12 each. That’s the cheap stuff. I shudder to think what things cost at the Clinique counter in Macy’s.
I think Lola might be able to speak to this. Unless his chain was pulled too hard yesterday. Maybe he can Fedex you some from Brazil.
Why fedex it when he can just drop it off at her shanty?
His ankle bracelet will not allow him to travel that far from the half-way house.
Lola loves wearing bracelets.
I’m a keen watcher of prices and they’re definitely creeping up for some items - specifically Costco.
Is the California drought still expected to hammer produce prices this summer?
Quinoa jumped from ~ $3.50/lb. to $5 this past winter. Too popular for its own good. Back to brown rice and lentils I will go.
Yes it is even making the price of ancient grains crackers go up.
Hey Albuquerque Dan, Are you aware that American Eagle (gold, silver, platinum) and Gold Buffalo coins do not require 1099-B forms when you buy or sell (below $10,000 worth). It’s part of the IRS rule.
Well maybe at least gold and platinum. Not sure about silver.
I am consistently surprised at how expensive the regular-joe box snackies (Tricuits, Cheesits) are, especially since wheat and rice and corn are government subsidized. $3.79 or so for a 10 oz box? I would do better to buy ground beef. They must have a huge profit margin.
Designer multigrain snax are even pricier to capture the limo lib crowd. For those prices I would do better to buy grass-fed ground beef.
Hey Albuquerque Dan, Are you aware that American Eagle (gold, silver, platinum) and Gold Buffalo coins do not require 1099-B forms when you buy or sell (below $10,000 worth). It’s part of the IRS rule.
I vaguely remember reading about that but thanks for the reminder. I will probably switch to physical (platinum) instead of the miners later this year.
‘Designer multigrain snax are even pricier to capture the limo lib crowd. For those prices I would do better to buy grass-fed ground beef.’
I gave up on BocaBurger and MorningStar and GardenBurger products when I saw that they were getting marginally less expensive or even more expensive than chicken or ground beef meat per pound. Health kicks find alternatives. Actually, I am a glutton for peanut butter these past few years more than anything else outside of granola and vegetables. Point is, the body craves things, usually fats, carbs, salt, etc. and you can find things that satisfy that might not be as impulsive as simply getting a bag of cookies and hamburger and a Stouffer’s entree.
Poi is the new superfood. You heard it here first.
Eggs are up, bacon is up, beef is up - even cheap cuts of chicken are up.
That’s not inflation.
We just need a good old Great Recession 2.0 to reset prices. Deals were to be had 2009-2011.
Prices were still double long term trend 2009-2011.
Eggs are up, bacon is up, beef is up - even cheap cuts of chicken are up.
Get used to it. The climate is whacked. (But Adan is smarter than NASA)
Is the California drought still expected to hammer produce prices this summer?
Probably though not quite sure…What I read was that the farmers have a go/no-go call based on water availability…So even if we got more water than anticipated, they may have already made the no-go decision…
Scdave. Last I heard the water was being diverted for a minnow and the farmers won’t be planting in a lot of areas.
Last I heard the water was being diverted
Last you heard is the climate is whacked.
Forget about the Keystone pipeline. Lest build a nice clean water pipe to NOrthern Canada to our South West.
Why? That place isn’t worth it.
“There is nothing better for your wallet than a deflationary spiral.
Let the spiral proceed.”
You better believe it.
Wages are inflating that rapidly? Where?
food and gas costs out here in the sandwich isles are at the point where things break down methinks
Hasn’t the COL in Hawaii always been outrageous?
Hasn’t the COL in Hawaii always been outrageous ??
Yes….Even if you bake your own bread, you must import the materials by ship or plane and then only in relatively small quantities which drives the price even higher…On top of that, you need to then ship it or fly it to the outlying Islands which drives the price up further once again…
“Seems like inflation is really raging - food and gas costs out here in the sandwich isles are at the point where things break down methinks.”
Has the American Spring arrived?
Has the American Spring arrived?
Americans are sheeple. We’ve been taught to put up and shut up. We’ve already had a collective shrug over issues that would send Europeans to the streets. The closest we came was the Occupy movement, which perished in part due to the general public’s indifference.
Costly to send any goods to that location particularly perishables…
I looked through these slides last night.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-important-charts-in-the-world-2014-4?op=1
There are A LOT of different charts with very few repeats. The one chart that I saw 3 times was with new unemployment claims reaching NON-seasonally adjusted levels lower than in 2006 (matching the same week of the year).
The conclusion from all three economists was that inflation has already started.
There were other slides noting more slack in the labor market. We’ll see who is right, but it was striking that there were three guys who had the same graph.
How do all you folks who live in Renterville feel about your federal tax dollars helping out your neighbor with his affordable house purchase?
Bled dry.
And what is this “affordable house purchase” that you speak of?
Bled dry by the government you work for. Irony, or poetic justice?
Who really pays for affordable housing?
3 hours ago • Ron Fink / Commentary
The requirement to provide affordable housing along with several programs to administer it flows down from the federal government, through Sacramento, to the county and finally stampedes into Lompoc.
At each stop along the bureaucratic path, money is siphoned off for administrative costs.
Affordable housing is available to families who are considered cost-burdened and pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.
Apparently, that description fits a lot of families, because we have thousands of affordable and/or subsidized housing units in Lompoc.
State law requires that 10 percent of any new housing project with over 10 units be set aside for affordable housing-eligible clients.
There are two ways for developers to meet this requirement — build houses onsite, or contribute funds to the Housing In-Lieu Fee Program, administered by the Lompoc Affordable Housing Trust Fund (LAHTF), which was established to allow a developer to pay a fee equal to the cost of building a house, as an alternative to providing affordable-housing units onsite.
Recently, the city administrator said staff is working on a payment assistance program for low-income families to buy homes. This program allows people to get low-interest loans from the LAHTF.
Why was this such a revelation, and why should we support it?
…
or contribute funds to the Housing In-Lieu Fee Program
State mandated slush fund, wonderful.
Are you sufficiently disadvantaged in life to qualify for home ownership?
Housing Bill Threatened by Rift on Help for Disadvantaged
By Cheyenne Hopkins and Clea Benson
Apr 7, 2014 9:01 PM
Efforts to overhaul the U.S. housing-finance system could hinge on how far Congress is willing to go to ensure that young, low-income and minority homebuyers can get mortgages.
A bipartisan bill drafted by Senate Banking Committee leaders Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo relies on incentives to persuade financiers to lend to groups with higher risk profiles. Consumer and civil-rights organizations are pushing instead for a mandate that those groups must be served, a concept that has become a political flash point since the housing bubble burst.
Key Democrats on the banking panel whose support is needed to pass the measure may vote against a bill that doesn’t include a mandate, especially as mortgage borrowing has dropped among blacks, Latinos and first-time buyers.
“There’s not enough attention to affordable housing goals” in the draft, Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in an interview last week. Brown said he is discussing the bill’s language with colleagues ahead of an April 29 hearing where the measure will be amended.
The debate goes to the heart of political divisions over whether the government is to blame for the housing collapse, and any move to include a mandate could jeopardize the votes of Republicans. Some Republicans and free-market advocates say the real-estate bubble was caused by Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac’s affordable-housing goals, which require the companies to buy loans made to borrowers in underserved communities.
Shut Out
Civil-rights groups and consumer organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition say unscrupulous subprime lenders, not the affordable-housing goals, were to blame for the deteriorating lending standards that caused the bubble. Without a mandate, these groups say, disadvantaged buyers could be shut out of the market, hurting the broader economy.
“Access to the market for first-time homebuyers and people of color is extremely limited,” said Julia Gordon, director for housing finance and policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington advocacy group with ties to the Democratic Party. “We’re not living in a nirvana right now, but it’s crucial not to go backwards.”
…
So we’re going to tell the mortgage companies that they should encourage mortgages for people that might not be able to afford them???
What is this? Groundhog Day?
Yep. Subprime Sam is back in the game, trying to encourage low-income families to buy houses they cannot afford in order to financially ruin themselves.
You would think he would have learned a lesson in the 2007-08 financial panic, wouldn’t you?
low-income families to buy houses they cannot afford
Show me an advertisement for a bank or originator offering mortgages to low-income families. No, not “subprime” or low FICO score. Low income.
That said, low-income families should not be buying housing unless they have the wherewithal to go Oil City (even that’s dicey; the Fixr tells us that there are few Lucky Ducky jobs to be had in flyover, especially for minorities). They need medium-quality fixed-price apartments within a bus distance of a near full-time lucky ducky job. The problem is that they turn into slums fast.
And you’re one of the SubPrime Sally.
Maybe this is the reason for the FHA loan limit drops. They know it will trickle down, collapsing all the levels
originator offering mortgages to low-income ??
Let me pose a question because this has become a problem for many especially self employed who’s income gyrates a lot…Dodd/Frank is the reason…
#1. Q; Farmer owns 640 acres of prime farm land in the central valley of California…Land is worth roughly 5-mil, he has $750,000. in reserves, owns his equipment worth $400,000. and wants to re-position his land to grapes…His credit score is 780…His tax returns show zero income over the last couple of years because he has let the land go fallow…He needs $750,000. to re-plant in grape vines and wants a new 1st mortgage…Should he be able to get one ??
So what’s the problem !! We democrats need these people on the government plantation. Put them in a house and recapture some of that undocumented income that might have gone to drugs. We get property taxes, they need to buy,buy,buy on the ‘how mucha month it gonna cost me plan’ and we get sales taxes. We have locked in cheap labor (maids, gardners,field hands,etc) we have added them into our voting bloc. And we have added another privileged class.
Methinks Mr. Banker will be the only winner.
Yes, because it should be a priority of government to get minorities to buy houses just prior to another crash in prices.
it should be a priority of government to get minorities to buy houses just prior to another crash in prices.
Sounds like a TrickleDown plan as I’ve been saying all along.
Retire Fannie and Freddie: Our view
The Editorial Board, USATODAY 8:28 p.m. EDT April 7, 2014
Since the financial crisis of 2008, nearly all institutions that got federal bailout money have paid it back. Taxpayers even turned a profit.
No repayment has been more of a shocker than the Lazarus-like rebound of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When the housing bubble burst, they were in such desperate shape that the government essentially nationalized them, putting them into conservatorship and pumping $187 billion into them.
The fact that the companies have repaid that sum is prompting calls for the government to get out of the way and send them on their merry way.
That would be a huge mistake — one that would put both taxpayers and homeowners at risk.
In good times, Fannie and Freddie have a sweet deal. With implicit and explicit guarantees from government, they can borrow for less than others and dominate the business of bundling home loans into portfolios to sell to large investors, making mortgages cheaper and easier to get.
The problem is what happens during times of crisis. The same guarantees also ensure that taxpayers will have to back Fannie and Freddie in the next crisis. That, in turn, increases the chances there will be a next crisis.
After ducking the problem for years, many in Congress now seem intent on fixing it. The most promising effort comes in the form of a bipartisan plan offered by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs, Sens. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.
Their measure, scheduled for a committee vote this month, would phase out Fannie and Freddie, allowing traditional banks to take over the business of securitizing home loans. To protect against future collapses, those banks would be required to raise financial cushions sufficient to cover the first 10% of mortgage defaults in a given portfolio. Taxpayers would only step in once the 10% threshold was reached.
This buffer would protect taxpayers from all but the most colossal of financial crises — even bigger than the 2008 bust.
It would also discourage the kind of crazy lending (”No job? No income? No assets? No problem!”) that brought the economy to the brink of catastrophe.To avoid losses, investors buying bundles of loans would insist on knowing what was in them.
Contrary to what you might hear from anti-bailout ranters on cable news, Fannie and Freddie came late to the subprime party and didn’t cause the financial crisis. But they did make it worse, and they remain bizarre hybrids: government-sponsored enterprises that are also publicly traded, for-profit corporations. Better to replace them with a backstop similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which protects depositors by routinely bailing out endangered banks using an industry-financed fund.
The change would add some costs. With markets shouldering more of the risks, borrowing costs would likely edge up. And 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, now 80% of all home loans, would likely be harder to find.
But that’s a small price to avoid a rerun of 2008. The Senate banking leaders’ plan would help make sure that doesn’t happen, and protect taxpayers if it does.
17 HRs ago
MoneyBeat
In Washington, Friends of Fannie, Freddie Are Multiplying
Investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be building a more vocal and organized support network in Washington ahead of a key Senate vote to consider legislation that would overhaul the companies.
By Nick Timiraos
Investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be building a more vocal and organized support network in Washington weeks ahead of a key Senate vote to consider legislation that would overhaul the companies.
On Monday, a new tax-exempt group calling itself the Coalition for Mortgage Security said it would campaign for legislation that protects the rights of investors in the bailed-out mortgage-finance companies. The group echoed the position of many hedge funds and other investors that are suing the government over its oversight of the companies, arguing that changes to their government bailout agreements violated property rights.
The group, which isn’t identifying any of its members or donors, uses language on its website that is strikingly similar to the Obama administration and Senate lawmakers who are advancing a bipartisan bill to a committee vote later this month. The group says it wants a bill that “responsibly winds down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
But that language obscures a fundamental disagreement: the group doesn’t support the Senate bill, offered last month by Sens. Tim Johnson (D., S.D.) and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), which would enshrine the Obama administration’s 2012 policy to prevent the firms from recapitalizing themselves.
The administration began requiring the firms to send all of their profits to the Treasury as dividend payments last year. Investors, including prominent hedge funds and institutional investors, that began buying the firms’ stock after many others left it for dead in 2008 say the changes amounted to illegal self-dealing between the Treasury and the firms’ federal regulator. The Treasury is fending off more than a dozen lawsuits.
The new coalition describes itself as a “bipartisan, grassroots organization.” It is organized under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, meaning it is tax exempt so long as it is primarily engaged in promoting social welfare and doesn’t have to disclose its donors. Such vehicles have become a popular way for special interests to spend large sums on political campaigns with fewer disclosures.
The group says it has made a “significant” digital advertising purchase in media outlets this week. It has hired SKDKnickerbocker, the public relations firm co-founded by Anita Dunn, a former top White House communications official, and has named as its director Ken Blackwell, a Republican politician who served as Ohio’s state treasurer and secretary of state.
In an interview, Mr. Blackwell wouldn’t discuss the group’s members, including potential support from large investors in Fannie and Freddie. “I’ve never been known to carry anybody’s water but the water of home buyers and responsible players who understand the importance of homeownership in our country,” he said.
…
ft dot com
April 7, 2014 11:26 am
Pressure grows for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wind-down
By Gina Chon in Washington
An organisation committed to winding down mortgage finance groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac launched on Monday with a call for the US government to respect investors’ rights as more groups push mortgage finance reform on to the agenda for the November midterm elections.
The Coalition for Mortgage Security, which includes former housing and urban development undersecretary Ken Blackwell as one of its directors, declined to provide information about its funding but echoed the views of several hedge funds fighting the government over the value of their shares.
Under the 2012 revised terms of the $188bn bailout of Fannie and Freddie, all of the income from the companies must go to the US government.
Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme Funds and other investment funds that are shareholders of the companies are suing the US government over those changes. The coalition said the government should “reverse course and abide by the original terms of the deal that respects the rights of investors, as well as property owners”.
“The rule of law is the basis for American capitalism and must be acknowledged and respected in order for properly functioning capital markets,” said the coalition, which is launching a national media campaign this week. “The rules of the game cannot be changed in the middle of an inning.”
There are several bills in Congress that would wind down Fannie and Freddie, but most of them do not address how investors would be paid. None of the bills may pass this year, but interested parties are still setting themselves up to be part of the debate next year.
…
Awesome question, dude.
That should be like the 11th part of the Bill of Rights or something.
Right now I would like to hang onto the first ten. Step outside of your first amendment rights area and we will take you out:
http://www.infowars.com/federal-snipers-train-guns-on-family-for-filming-cattle/
Lola says it is a living document. If times evolve to mean that freedom of speech = watch what you say, well, that’s how the Mango bounces. And good people will again be tricked into supporting dictators in defense of the Republic.
Yes and this is the type of decisions that are made if you accept the living document analysis, decisions where the law is what ever people think is convenient at the time:
http://bastiat.mises.org/2014/04/us-supreme-court-endorses-involuntary-servitude/
Would the first ten *amendments* exist if the Constitution wasn’t subject to change?
Fine than change it as stated in the constitution through the amendment process and not how some judge thinks we have evolved.
Process matter to me. It took a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote. We certainly had involved as a country since the time the constitution was created, women had independent existences by the 20th century. But a woman’s right to vote as a constitutional right did not exist until that amendment was passed. Numerous states had given women the right to vote before that amendment. Sorry gay marriage as a constitutional right should have gone through the same process. There is no logical check to the power of judges if their decisions do not have to be based on the intent of the framers of the constitution. Decisions based on a living document are entirely subjective. The reason we have so many 5-4 supreme court votes is because constitution law is increasingly subjective. The supreme court has become a political body because they cannot even agree of what they should be looking at to make their decisions.
Nothing screams self-immolation like paying a life time of earnings for a rapidly depreciating asset like a house because of impatience.
Why does Subprime Sam discriminate against low-income families by encouraging them to mire themselves in a lifetime of unaffordable home debtorship?
Are your stock market investments tumbling?
Markets More: Markets
Stocks Are Tumbling
Sam Ro
Apr. 7, 2014, 2:22 PM 3,456 10
Stocks are in the red in the U.S. And once again, the momentum names of the Nasdaq are leading the way down.
The Dow is down 153 points, or 0.9%.
The S&P 500 is down 22 points, or 1.1%.
The Nasdaq is down 70 points or 1.7%.
This extends the big sell-off we saw on Friday.
Amazon.com, Google, and Facebook are among the underperformers.
According to Goldman Sachs’ David Kostin, the big hedge funds are among the investors exposed to these losers.
“These high growth/high multiple stocks feature prominently on our list of “stocks that matter most” to hedge fund performance,” noted Kostin. “Having outperformed by 230 bp through February, our VIP basket dropped 2% in March while S&P 500 climbed 0.8%. Long positions trail by 98 bp YTD. Short holdings created problems by rising 130 bp more than S&P 500 YTD.”
…
Dennis Gartman: ‘Scared’ and getting out of stocks for now
April 8, 2014, 5:32 AM ET
The recent pullback for markets, driven by momentum-stocks in the technology and biotech space, has just scared one big bull out of the markets.
Dennis Gartman, who edits the Gartman Letter, told CNBC in an interview late Monday he recently ‘got scared’ and moved his equity exposure to near zero from 100%. He said he’s sticking with gold and cash to ride out the “long-awaited and much-needed correction.”
Gartman, who earlier this month was still holding his bullish stock stance, basically got freaked out by 15 minutes on the markets Friday. In that short space of time, he said the market turned like he’d never seen it turn before. Friday was quite a day, with heavy selling of biotech and Internet stocks, pushing the Nasdaq Composite (COMP -1.16%) to its worst day in two months. The S&P 500 SPX (-1.08%) and Dow industrials (DJIA -1.02%) also dropped 1.3% and 1%, respectively, that day.
Gartman said he won’t be buying stocks again until they get much cheaper.
…
This looks like a repeat of last year. It’s usually sell in May and walk away, now it’s sell in April. But really, what kind of “correction” are they looking for? The most I’ve heard is 10%. That’s only down to 15000. Heck, that’s still high enough to lock in gains.
I’ve been predicting a big correction since the Fall of 2012 in stocks. I still think they are way overvalued and are due to the loose money of the Fed.
And when the market corrects, the longer overdue that correction the bigger the correction. The alternative is cash and precious metals. Like Gartman says.
I was given some intel stock in the 90’s which split and split. if the market is going to crash my intel stock is higher than it’s been since the late 90’s! 26.00 and yes I pay tax on the dividends!
I still think they are way overvalued and are due to the loose money of the Fed.
Which, contrary to the repeated head fakes regarding tapering and what not, I doubt will be going away any time soon.
April 8, 2014, 6:31 a.m. EDT
5 warning signs of a stock market bubble
Opinion: It turns out that the current sentiment is unlike that of March 2000
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — The stock market slide in recent days, after the S&P 500’s 30%-plus surge last year, doesn’t represent the bursting of a bubble.
That’s crucial to consider, given the comparisons made by some pundits between the current market and that of March 2000, when tech stocks started evaporating.
Whatever else you might say about today’s stock market, it is nowhere near as overheated as it was 14 years ago. And that’s not a subjective view. My conclusion is derived from a data-driven focus on objective measures that were identified by the leading academic study of investor sentiment. That study, by Jeffrey Wurgler and Malcolm Baker, who are finance professors at New York University and Harvard Business School, respectively, was titled “Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market.”
The professors identified five indicators of investor sentiment that, over the past half century, were highly correlated with investors’ mood swings between the extremes of pessimism and exuberance.
Not surprisingly, the indicators showed a record level of investor optimism in March 2000. The picture they’re painting today is far different.
…
“The picture they’re painting today is far different.”
Let me get this straight: The picture today is so much more bleak than it was in March 2000 that stocks can only go up from here?
Man arrested for expressing free speech outside of designated “First Amendment Area”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 7, 2014
Federal snipers with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trained guns on members of a family yesterday after they dared to stop and take video footage of cattle outside the bounds of a designated “First Amendment Area,” before arresting one of the men for non-compliance.
Watch out folks, your rights might be next. Since when does the BLM need snipers?
Just heard his on the local news - rather disturbing IMO
Since when does the BLM need snipers?
Good to see that the feds are providing jobs as militarized police to our returning soldiers. So much for our men and women in uniform standing with the citizens and not obeying the PTB and doing their bidding.
Then again, this is nothing new. National Guardsmen opened fire on students at Kent State decades ago.
Land of free my azz.
Keep flapping that big mouth and we’ll see if they let you board the plane to Paraguay when it’s Go Time, buddy.
I’ll just tell them that I’m an illegal and a member of MEChA and La Raza. They’ll quickly apologize and give me a free Escalade.
and give me a free Escalade
Which I will take with me to Paraguay, since I won’t need an exit visa unlike those who only have US Passports.
we’ll see if they let you board the plane to Paraguay when it’s Go Time, buddy.
Who need a plane?
a designated “First Amendment Area”…
unpossible!
When I went to Cal State Fresno in the early 90s they had a free speech zone - apparently the rest of the campus was off limits for free speech?
Condescending Climate Changers - Breitbart
“What we need from the IPCC is a balance that recognizes that the need to change must take into consideration the costs of that change – especially for those in developing parts of the world. We need to prepare to adapt to inevitable change. We need less ideology and more common sense.”
This article is a good representation on how many of us think about climate change. Even though we might have different opinions on the magnitude of our effects on the environment, all of us appreciate clean air and clean water.
Warmists gonna warm
Meanwhile, some internet website called the Science Recorder linked from Google News says:
“Researchers from Florida State University have discovered new evidence that permafrost thawing is releasing copiuscopious amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by way of plants.
The findings, featured in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in an article titled, “Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production,” suggest that this release could speed up global warming trends.”
Florida State should focus on its concussionball team and not on what some pointy headed science people say. This is America. If you want a bunch of science, go to Europe with all the other socialists and gays.
I do not know why it has not posted but I have the link to this study by Florida state. I do not want to repeat that post so I have another from WUWT:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/08/lewandowsky-says-we-must-fear-uncertainty-and-act-on-it-because-science/#more-107187
“Warmists gonna warm”
No, Warmists gonna tax.
Wall Street Journal - How Climate Change Conquered the American Campus
“While many parts of the U.S. economy struggle to recover from the Great Recession of 2008-2009, one domestic industry is experiencing a technology-driven expansion in which American innovations have led to countless new company startups, a surge in hiring and some of the highest-paying entry-level jobs for graduating college seniors.
How are the nation’s universities responding so students might prepare for a promising career in this growing and intellectually challenging field? By largely ignoring it. Why? Because the industry is oil and gas.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579481200046204022
It’s amazing how these facts are minimized.
The plain fact is that our modern world needs energy and there are only 4 “reliable” sources.
1) Coal, plentiful but too dirty.
2) Gasoline, cleaner but too many products of combustion,
2) Natural gas, cleaner but still somewhat dirty.
3) Nuclear, clean but the wastes are hazardous forever.
Sorry folks, if you want to charge the batteries on your Tesla, you gotta choose between these 4. None of the green technologies are viable quite yet
FWIW, wind power accounts for 14% all electricity generated in Colorado and the number keeps growing.
Does that mean we can close all of our coal and nat gas fired power plants? Of course not, but the less we burn, the cleaner the air will be. The brown cloud, while mild by Chinese standards, is still nasty.
How many raptors have been killed by the turbine blades? How much co2 was expended moving the blades across the country and constructing the wind turbine. Wind power is the competitive by some measures with fossil fuels. Once again, if Obama would have implemented something like the T. Boone Pickens’ plan NG vehicles with wind power from the great plains we would be far better off as a nation.
Wind and solar are great, just can’t base a modern life on then yet.
I like solar for Florida, we had a solar hot water heater at one house we lived in and wow, that water was scalding!
The problem, though, is rainy season during the summer. We had less available hot water during the summer than during the winter/spring months where is was sunny much of the time. We did have a bypass switch to go to electric utility, but we never had to use it.
How many raptors have been killed by the turbine blades?
How many birds die due to air pollution?
How much co2 was expended moving the blades across the country and constructing the wind turbine.
How much co2 was expended building fossil fuel power plants and transporting their components across the country?
How much co2 was expended transporting the fuel? Everyday I see long trains hauling hoppers full of coal.
How many birds die due to air pollution?
In the U.S. I would say very few since I am confident that the EPA would be publishing a study to support wind turbines. I am not saying that a wind turbine produces more co2 than burning coal just that wind turbines do use fossil fuels in an indirect manner.
http://mothersagainstturbines.com/2014/04/07/the-wind-industry-and-their-dirty-deeds-they-harm-with-impunity/
Mothers against turbines dot com?
You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, Dannyboy.
Let’s stick with the real journalists, thank you.
I used it just because I knew how fond you were of mothers.
I know Dude does not like the Eagles but I do:
http://savetheeagles.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/raptors-attracted-to-windfarms-2/
if Obama would have implemented something like the T. Boone Pickens’ plan NG vehicles with wind power from the great plains we would be far better off as a nation.
Chump change. If Reagan would not have gutted Carter’s energy plan, we’d have been light years ahead of your non-stop, agendized b!tching about Carter. It’s not even on the same map.
Speaking of Tesla, what do you want for $100,000, it is as reliable as a Yugo:
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20140408&id=17506062
Bad link try this one instead:
http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/lemon-law-king-vince-megna-sues-electric-car-maker-tesla/article_669bb903-520a-57b5-948b-fcc165d735d6.html
I know but they’re so beautiful and I know because I get to see quite a few in Scottsdale. Hopefully they’ll figure out that little problem with electrical fires. Maybe a few more millions in research will help.
The plain fact is that our modern world needs energy and there are only 4 “reliable” sources.
“Modern” of 50 year ago is not “modern” of today. Why? Technology, research and investment.
“all of us appreciate clean air and clean water.”
Unless you’re BP, Duke Energy or the like, because they don’t give a crap about taking a dump in the water, whether it be the Gulf of Mexico or North Carolina’s rivers.
With that said, I was thinking about this warmist hysteria. Sunday night Ann Curry did an NBC special on global warming, and of course it mainly presented the hysteria. And of course GE owns NBC, so it’s not surprising, GE stands to profit mightily from warmist hysteria. Got LED and Mercury Squiggle light bulbs?
If this were are real phenomenon, there’s plenty that can be done on an immediate basis that really wouldn’t disrupt lives too much. For example, do we really need the 24/7 retail business cycle? No need for Walmart to be open past 9:00pm as well as other enterprises. Just gas stations and convenience stores, that’s it. There are many other ways to ease that 24/7 retail cycle, especially since you can buy stuff on line now. Heck, even closing stores on Sunday would help. When I wuz a pup, that’s how it was. In fact I remember when some department stores daringly stayed open until 9:00 on Thursday nights. That was shopping night. Nobody suffered.
Do we really need to make EVERYTHING out of freakin’ plastic? How about we go back to making parts and stuff that last, that’ll ease the demand for petroleum and allocate it more to fueling vehicles and homes.
Oh, and clamp down on illegal immigration and benefits for broke breeders.
Development: when you chop down trees en mass, and replace it with miles and blocks of particle board housing, there’s less foliage for cooling and cleaning CO2. Before you start building new developments and new roads and further burden the infrastructure and water supply, fill up the existing housing, instead of sitting on it and letting it rot away. Jeebus.
Those are just a few thoughts I had.
“clamp down on immigration and benefits for broke breeders”
Racis
Speaking of racis, guess who was a mob informant for the FBI back in the day?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rev-al-sharpton-worked-fbi-informant-80s-report-article-1.1748744
His is losing a lot of street cred over this. He should have been denouncing the don’t snitch campaigns. But he stood by while “don’t snitch” became part of black culture and now he is outed as a snitch. Poetic justice.
Trees that were not planted are a rarity here on the Front Range, so here the opposite actually happens. Houses are slapped together on the prairie and loads of trees are planted in yards and neighborhoods.
When my east coast sibs visit, they are always amazed at how “forested” people’s yards are. In my brothers NC nabe no one has a single tree in their yard.
“In my brothers NC nabe no one has a single tree in their yard.”
lol, de-forestation seems to be a Southeastern development fetish. Something about trees and houses drives some people around the bend. Seriously. Especially in retirement communities. Some HOAs will demand that people take down very nice trees on their property, they don’t like the messy leaves and the roots interfere with sprinkler systems. Don’t get me started.
I guess that solves the problem of raking all those yucky leaves in the Fall.
Yes, heaven forbid the HOA’s lawn service should have to blow them away. Or, (gasp) re-route the cheap PVC sprinkler pipes.
Actually, my brother doesn’t have a built in sprinkler system. He says it’s not needed. Then again, his and all his neighbors’ lawns look pretty ratty compared to the manicured lawns in my semi-arid part of the world.
Do we really need to make EVERYTHING out of freakin’ plastic? How about we go back to making parts and stuff that last,
As a material, plastic lasts longer than metal or wood. But plastic breaks with mechanical uses. Unfortunately, the 1980’s compromise — plastic with metal moving parts — doesn’t work either. The moving parts rust away.
I think it depends. Some of those old wood slatted Venetian blinds are still around. As opposed to those plastic mini-blinds that chip off after a few years.
And wood fence vs PVC fence? That depends, too.
Washington Post - Pentagon not properly tracking ‘revolving door’ data, report says
“The Pentagon has failed to maintain a complete database of generals and other high-ranking officials who consider joining defense contracting firms after leaving the military, according to a report released last week.
The database was required under a 2008 law passed by Congress because of concerns about a “revolving door” between the Defense Department and private industry, as well as potential conflicts of interest created when top brass seek jobs with companies that do work for the government.
Despite that mandate, the Pentagon’s database remains “of marginal value,” according to the report released by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General, which concludes that the Pentagon “may not have fully complied with the intent of this law.”
LOLZ
The real LOLZ here is government attempting to maintain its own database. I think that any H1-B could program a web crawler which could ID all of them in a heartbeat. You could probably do it through the VA and Linked-in with a little Goog.
Worthless housing…. worthless worthless housing. It’s worth less and less with each passing day.
The “Human Barbie” Valeria Lukyanova says that standards of beauty have declined “because of the race-mixing.”
The racis Russian in an interview with GQ says “Ethnicities are mixing now, so there’s degeneration, and it didn’t used to be like that.”
She must have missed the Super Bowl Coke commerical.
Do a Google image search for “human barbie” to see this enhanced humanoid, if I was in a sinking boat I would grab onto her for flotation
LOL, race mixing doesn’t seem to have harmed the attractiveness of the Brazilian people.
LOL, race mixing doesn’t seem to have harmed the attractiveness of the Brazilian people.
I think I will withhold judgment to we see a picture of Lola in drag. Seriously, since beauty is caused by symmetry in features, ethnic and race mixing can often times increase beauty.
Yep. Ugly is ugly, no matter what the race. And of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode where this gorgeous woman was in the hospital for plastic surgery so she could look hideous like the rest of the folks in the society in which she was living.
Her symmetry is beautiful in a green shirt and bikini bottoms, but if the shirt comes off, the supernumerary nipple ruins the symmetry.
I think I will withhold judgment to we see a picture of Lola in drag.
You’re dumb because I’m American not Brazilian. And one heck of a good looking dude for my age. I’m talking almost George Clooney type movie-star looks. Yep. And a body of a 30 year old American. Can you imagine that from a Gringo in Rio? Who’s funny too? Yea. It’s good.
But if you want a Brazilian tranny, you know the porn sites I’m sure. (I have nothing against Brazilian Trannys. I think they lead a very hard and short life. I’d never make fun of them. They are God’s children too.)
DC Soros neckbeard good lookin.
Coming in for the Happy Ending once some Big Bear at the halfway house finally gave up the computer.
Do a Google image search for “human barbie” to see this enhanced humanoid, if I was in a sinking boat I would grab onto her for flotation
I took the bait and looked. What has been seen, cannot be unseen.
Holy Creepy, Batman!
Now you know what the Ukranian civil war is all about.
Kate Upton will work fine for me, I am old school.
She is just ahead of her time from an evolutionary perspective:
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/what-will-humans-look-like-in-100000-years
Linked from Drudge
“Contrary to recent reports, America’s children are still struggling with obesity and there has been no decline in the epidemic among young people, US researchers said Monday.
In fact, the problem is getting worse in a small subset of the heaviest children, among whom the trend has about doubled, said the findings in JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the American Medical Association.
Childhood obesity is of particular concern because it can lead to lifelong health problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, experts say.”
http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/58e49a92-842a-467f-a0c5-cfde0a3fe0cb
Michelle Obama reduced obesity, the debate is over.
Contrary to recent reports, America’s children are still struggling with obesity and there has been no decline in the epidemic among young people, US researchers said Monday.
A visit to any WalMart will confirm this. Locally, this problem is very prevalent among Hispanics. You rarely see a Hispanic youngster around here who isn’t tubby.
Are you like racis against Spanish people dude?
For some reason, the Super Bowl Coke commercial depicting America’s utopian multicultural future didn’t feature any kidz like these future Olympic champs:
http://www.picpaste.com/fat-kid-mcdonalds-769134-769471-qNibQSvC.jpg
Kidding aside, Mexico has become very obese. When I lived there, it wasn’t like that. The Mexican government has banned the consumption of junk food at schools.
I think the real problem is that because of air pollution and rampant crime, Mexicans, especially their children, are staying cooped up at home with nothing to do but watch TV. No going outside and playing an impromptu soccer game with your friends anymore. If you play soccer, it will be on your GameStationBox.
How does that account for the stateside fatties of Mexican descent? It’s so bad with some of the kids around here that their eyes are like slits in their faces, kinda like Chubby on the Little Rascals.
How does that account for the stateside fatties of Mexican descent?
I think many are new arrivals and have brought their new “ethic” with them. Others have eagerly latched onto our own bad diets and habits. Plus Mexican food isn’t exactly healthy anyway.
Chris Christie for President. Fat is the Number One issue. Reducing obesity rates across the board by 20 percent will lead to a productivity boom of the same magnitude as the invention of email.
I’m pretty sure that the government was the pioneer in all of the nutrition research that led to modern day obesity. It all started with feeding the troops in WWII.
Thank government for email and Cheetos.
I bet that dude knows how to eat. Big honkin’ sammiches, boxes of Krispy Kremes, Supersized bags of Cheetos, ice cold 2 liter bottles of Coke….. heavenly.
And he can always buy bigger pants!
Thank government for email and Cheetos.
Don’t forget the HFCS!
“Don’t forget the HFCS!”
See also the movie “King Corn”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115/
Class warfare from the New York Times:
“After months of wincing in the face of negative ads funded by the industrialists David and Charles Koch, Democrats believe they have finally found a way to fight back: attacking the brothers’ sprawling business conglomerate as callous and indifferent to the lives of ordinary people while pursuing profit and power.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/us/politics/to-hit-back-at-kochs-democrats-revive-tactic-that-hurt-romney.html
Re-post from last week - Charles Koch: I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303978304579475860515021286
So glad I don’t watch TeeVee, the 2014 and 2016 election cycles are gonna be ugly.
The more angry the Democrats make the Koch brothers the more money they will be willing to spend to defeat Democrats, that does not seem to be a sound strategy to me.
DemoFrauds and Corrupticans…. two hemorrhoids on the same stinky bunghole.
Which one hurts the most?
The more angry the Democrats make the Koch brothers the more money they will be willing to spend to defeat Democrats, that does not seem to be a sound strategy to me.
At least it will get spent and put back into the economy.
Thank God we can fast forward through ads. I will be taping everything during the election cycle.
The more angry the Democrats make the Koch brothers the more money they will be willing to spend to defeat Democrats, that does not seem to be a sound strategy to me.
I think it really does, or you would not lie about what you think.
50% of Americans now know who the Koch Bros are - maybe double from a year ago.
Math dude, which you are not good at.
(Rasmussen has the Koch Bros popular in Idaho.)
Worthless housing…. worthless worthless housing. It’s worth less and less with each passing day.
So I’m really looking at places in the Northern Virginia area! $2000/mo rent seems to be normal, and is nothing great.
Something I notice is that a lot of the rentals have Repair Deductibles listed? $75 or $150 and such.
I also inquired about a commercial space, wonder if it would be possible to live in a commercial flex space. But I notice that those prices are even higher.
I might have to just take the other route and achieve higher salary.
$2000/month rent is far more affordable than $4000k in principal, interest taxes insurance and depreciation.
I just looked around in Arlington where I lived and top shelf condos are available for $2000. Maybe you have your sights set too high.
Something I notice is that a lot of the rentals have Repair Deductibles listed? $75 or $150 and such.
What is a repair deductible? I thought LL’s were supposed to pay for fixing everything.
I think they’re trying to change that. From the research I did you pay that out of pocket towards every repair, like any deductible. If it catches on widespread kiss “landlord fixes it all” goodbye.
Law says the landlord must keep certain things in check, but how does a signed contract affect that and where are the cutoffs.
Not in our lifetime.
I’m in MD, not Northern VA, but my landlord will come and change the lightbulbs in the light fixtures they provided (dining area and kitchen) for no charge. They came to replace the battery in my smoke detector (it is hard wired, the battery is just the back up) at 10 PM at night. No charge.
Look for older buildings. Ones that care more about getting a good tennant rather than just filling up an empty building.
“I’m in MD, not Northern VA, but my landlord will come and change the lightbulbs in the light fixtures they provided (dining area and kitchen) for no charge.”
You must be a real hottie.
‘I also inquired about a commercial space, wonder if it would be possible to live in a commercial flex space. But I notice that those prices are even higher.’
The lesson I have learned and is worth repeating is having minimal stuff is GOOD. I have too much stuff. If I had less stuff, I could live in a dorm size place and save even more $$. Of course, the cachet of having few possessions is laughable in this society. Oh, and it is not worth even letting people know what you have or how much money you have. The comfort is in knowing you could take up and leave for a job many states away or take off a month to travel because you have bags of cash and all that and not much material stuff to worry about.
Currency is the cornerstone of the modern economy. Not banks. Not Wall Street and its casinos.
There’s been an effort to conflate currency and banks. To treat banks as the sancrosanct cornerstone of the economy. At their core, they are supposed to provide secure databases and physical vaults for currency. And to make loans.
This desire to save the financial sector - the top of it at least, the connected insiders - from any disruption, is sheer cronyism. Nothing more.
I think the Federal Reserve adding trillions in mortgages to its balance sheet should be considered part of the Wall Street bailout.
Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer
We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street.
By Andrew Huszar
Nov. 11, 2013 7:00 p.m. ET
Wall Street Journal
I can only say: I’m sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed’s first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I’ve come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.
You’d think the Fed would have finally stopped to question the wisdom of QE. Think again. Only a few months later—after a 14% drop in the U.S. stock market and renewed weakening in the banking sector—the Fed announced a new round of bond buying: QE2. Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, immediately called the decision “clueless.”
That was when I realized the Fed had lost any remaining ability to think independently from Wall Street. Demoralized, I returned to the private sector.
[FYI: Wall Street Journal is notorious for paywalling articles once they get some traffic. It's not paywalled right now.]
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884
I think the Federal Reserve adding trillions in mortgages to its balance sheet should be considered part of the Wall Street bailout
Yes, it is important part of the bail out. Wall Street has enjoyed low interest rates which guarantee profits only due the Federal Reserve buying bonds. It also has kept the deficits down due to “profits” from the GSEs and lower costs to finance the debt. Finally, the Obama administration and its allies in the MSM like to talk about the public debt of the U.S. which does not include the debt held by the Federal Reserve. Of course, if the Federal Reserve tried to undue its increase in holding both the public debt and the deficits will explode and interests rates will soar. As bad as people think the fiscal shape of the US is, it is much worse. Obama had really bankrupted the U.S. we just have not realized it. We are the walking dead.
Can a society really increase the purchasing power of its populace by decree?
I’m thinking of the money printing. Granted - that goes to a limited group of people for the most part - Wall Street. So, it can increase its members purchasing power.
Currency is supposed to represent the value of everything it can purchase. Take a small town which prints its own money, cut off from the rest of civilization. Stable prices means that the amount of currency in circulation is keeping pace with the value of all that can be purchased with it. Increase the stuff that that can be purchased with currency and the currency becomes more valuable. Increase the currency in circulation, and it becomes less valuable, and prices go up.
Injecting more currency into circulation will simply drive up prices ultimately. Initially, those closest to the currency fountain will have higher purchasing power.
So - it seems unlikely that a society’s purchasing power can be increased by decree.
What the Quantitative Easers seem to forget that it’s not the slips of paper or database entries that people want. It’s actually the purchasing power represented by those slips of paper and database entries that people want. Losing track of that basic point can lead to destructive outcomes.
Is WS itching to have some international tail-wagging-dog event happen so they can pile-drive a sell-off with plausibility and then rinse and repeat? The cynical side of me thinks that all WS wants is get all people on the wrong of the boat to their delight. And now looks like an especially good time to harvest profits.
You know I think that the story raises a question that applies to 2016 as well. Will these voters return in 2016 when there is no longer a black man on the ballot? While the PTB try to convince Republicans that the only thing they can do to win the presidency is to approve of amnesty, the truth is all they probably have to do is to put a Hispanic on the ballot, in either the President or VP position.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/democratic-poll-warning-midterm-disaster-140100926.html
Si se puede.
I’d better renew my MEChA and La Raza memberships so I can get my free Escalade when Antonio Villaraigosa and Cruz Bustamante are inaugurated.
Free Escalade does it come with bullet proof glass?
I would sell it upon arriving in Paraguay
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-08/housing-bill-threatened-by-rift-on-help-for-disadvantaged.html
They don’t get it…the government should be OUT of the mortgage market altogether. If you can’t afford the house, you don’t buy the house. If you don’t buy the house, there is a little less demand and lower prices on the margin, which helps those folks who can buy without government intervention.
They don’t get it…the government should be OUT of the mortgage market altogether. If you can’t afford the house, you don’t buy the house. If you don’t buy the house, there is a little less demand and lower prices on the margin, which helps those folks who can buy without government intervention.
All true but we have moved from a country that believes in equality of opportunity to one that insists of equality of result. It does not matter if your credit history shows that you should not buy a house if you belong to a group that is less likely to have a good credit history. Of course, when they lose the house due to their inability to pay for it, we will need another government program to undo the damage caused by the government regulation and so we move down the road to serfdom.
the government should be OUT of the mortgage market
True. (because this is simple for you to figure out)
we have moved from a country that believes in equality of opportunity to one that insists of equality of result
False in the big trend picture. (Which you’re bad at)
In small-ball, you could argue we’ve move to the equality of result. If that result is the poor person owning a shitty house while rich people own houses too.
But if you argue that the “result” is the poor person now being able to own the 5 million dollar mansion that the banker owns, well then you have to go back to the drawing board of your failed Koch Brother slogans.
Your latest dumb slogan (that is all over the rightWing web,
“we have moved from a country that believes in equality of opportunity to one that insists of equality of result”
does not hold water.
If the gov is so worried about laundering money, why not come out and say people have to turn their money in for new money? Anyone with illicit cash hoards will create a paper trail when they come to the bank to get the new greenbacks. All the resources spent and federal agents shot dead for what again?
http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/08/technology/bitcoin-holder/index.html?iid=HP_LN
IIRC, that was a problem for organized crime in Europe. They were sitting on a ton of soon to expire currency they couldn’t launder into Euros.
‘IIRC, that was a problem for organized crime in Europe. They were sitting on a ton of soon to expire currency they couldn’t launder into Euros.’
There you go. The boogeyman is bitcoin but really the activity of laundering is the problem. Purge the illicitly obtained cash and set back the traffickers. But somehow we know that that won’t happen because it would cause too much trouble for the poor and middle class who struggle to get money. People would get confused and probably go into foreclosure /s.
From iafrica.com, it shows just how wide spread the housing bubble is, while realtors want us to think that real estate is just all local markets. This might of been true when lending was done locally but now that the money center banks are involved real estate bubble occur world wide, example South Africa:
Jesse Colombo in Forbes and Moneyweb has provided warnings that South Africa’s economic bubble is likely to burst. He sees SA as vulnerable because of its large current account and trade deficits, high inflation, significant dependence on foreign capital inflows and slowing economic growth.
Acknowledging the “slight dip” in the housing market in 2008 and 2009 at the time of the global economic troubles, Rawson said this could largely be attributed to the simultaneous dumping of “loads of property on the auction market” by the banks owing to mortgage loan defaulters or where there were no cash buyers.
“I don’t think they (the banks) will make this mistake again.”
The next factor supporting a stable property investment platform is demand. SA still has a large need for housing, especially in the lower price sector.
Colombo, however, argued that South Africa’s housing price surge in the last decade was financed by a mortgage lending boom that was growing at a 30 percent annual rate at its peak in 2006, causing household mortgage debt as a percentage of disposal income to rise from 27 percent to just under 50 percent from 2003 to 2010.
Colombo puts it bluntly. He feels South Africa is experiencing an economic bubble that shares many similarities to those that caused the downfall of many Western economies in 2008. A low interest rate environment inflates credit and asset bubbles, which has occurred in South Africa
It’s a bubbly world after all! Everyone knows that housing is by nature utterly unaffordable and you’d better get on the property ladder or you’ll be left sucking your thumb while everyone gets rick.
I wonder how you say “Let your house work for you.” In Afrikaans?
South Africa link:
http://business.iafrica.com/news/911838.html
http://news.yahoo.com/look-pension-problems-major-us-cities-212843664.html
If you paid more than $55-60 per square foot for a resale house, you’re paid far too much.
Very interesting data and proof that during the last five years the government has increasingly becoming the bag holder on mortgages and total mortgage debt has dropped only 10% from its highs and is increasing back to the all time highs:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/releases/mortoutstand/current.htm
Oil creeping up again: $102.53 today. How many newly discovered fields? How long is the Bakken field supposed to last?
Oil creeping up again: $102.53 today. How many newly discovered fields? How long is the Bakken field supposed to last?
It will last decades but we should be at peak production within five years. Peak oil does not mean you run out of oil it just means when you hit maximum production. For conventional oil, we are past peak oil, and we will have reached peak oil including shale oil by 2020. Then, we will have to use increasing amounts of oil sands and oil shale.
And it get more expensive to drill. You need a LOT of capital to exploit the Bakken fields. They peter out after a year and have to move on and duplicate efforts.
Everyone Must Check In
Check.
Off to see the FWB, she is so sweet and nice, wonder what’s for dinner tonight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rZbCa2Ixk
They were ahead of their time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8eok-KPcG0
Had a nice lunch with colleagues today that I normally don’t get to eat with. The conversation quickly turned to housing. One colleague lives in a wealthy area… her neighbors haven’t paid in 5 years. 4,000sq.ft. + on 2 acres.
Here’s a curveball: they added on to it!
Here’s a curveball: they added on to it!
And they probably took a loan to add onto it
Then borrowed more to fill it full of worthless $hit.
Dumb donkeys.
Zillow for my area looks like it got chicken pox. Looks like everyone is trying to sell into the dead cat bounce.
GOT. MY. POPCORN. READY.
Where I am, Zillow seems to have stopped updating as often. I used to be dismayed every two-three days; it hasn’t updated since 4/4. They’ve also changed the format so there’s no longer a date attached to the last estimate. In addition, they’ve added a forecast price for the year ahead (8.1% increase for my rented hovel.)
Is not renting for half the cost of buying a good thing?
Bette Midler
Crater Beneath My Slab
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
It must have been cold there in my crapshack,
to never have sunlight on your face.
You were content to let me walk, that’s your way.
You always were a payment behind.
So I was the one with all the glory,
while you were the one with the clogged drain.
A beautiful box without utilities for so long.
A beautiful blue tarp to hide the pain.
Did you ever know that you’re my zero,
and everything I can’t rehab?
I can bounce higher than a dead cat,
’cause you are the crater beneath my slab.
It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I’ve got it all here in my deed.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be renting without you.
Did you ever know that you’re my zero,
and everything I can’t rehab?
I can bounce higher than a dead cat,
’cause you are the crater beneath my slab.
Oh, the crater beneath my slab.
You, you, you, you are the crater beneath my slab.
Bounce, bounce, bounce, away. You let me bounce so high.
Oh, you, you, you, the crater beneath my slab.
Oh, you, you, you, the crater beneath my slab.
Bounce, bounce, bounce, high against the sky,
so high I almost touch the sky.
Thank you, thank you,
thank God for you, the crater beneath my slab.
Bravo!
The biggest trash heap in the world: Twice the size of Texas
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
And social conservatives are worried about abortions and want to force every couple to have more kids to make that 20 times the size of Texas?
biggest trash heap in the world: Twice the size of Texas
Man cannot affect the environment on a large scale.