The Housing Bubble

never trust realtors

Sebelius got civilized.

Mighty big caveat.

Soaring Housing Costs Driving Educated People From Big Cities

More of America’s highly-educated people are leaving huge cities and going to cheaper areas in the West and South. What is driving the shift? A big factor, says Redfin, a national real-estate brokerage, is soaring housing costs.

Caveats aside, the data could actually overestimate affordability. Some prospective home-buyers may be sitting on oodles of cash, but many aren’t—and instead have loads of debt. Redfin is assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that borrowers don’t have any student loans, car payments, or credit-card bills to pay—things that lower credit ratings and hike up borrowing costs. If such debts were included, “these numbers would plummet,” Redfin analyst Tommy Unger says.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/04/04/soaring-housing-costs-driving-educated-people-from-big-cities/

Are you planning to buy the dip today?

Hope and Change. Really?
bernardgoldberg.com | April 9, 2014 | Bernard Goldberg

Let’s start with the premise that all politicians, to one degree or another, are cynical, hypocritical and are not always honest. But Barack Obama makes even the worst of that crowd look like the virtuous Mother Teresa.

To pass ObamaCare he misled the American people over and over again, assuring them that if they liked their doctor they could keep their doctor, that if they liked their insurance plan they could keep their insurance plan.

This year he pushed for a higher minimum wage even though a non-partisan Congressional Budget Office study concluded it could cost the economy 500,000 jobs. And he emphasized how a higher minimum wage would especially help women – the key demographic Democrats need to win elections, like the ones coming up in seven months.

Now he’s at it again, this time signing two executive orders supposedly designed to close the pay gap between men and women.

“Equal pay is not just an economic issue for millions of Americans and families,” the president said. “It’s also about whether we’re willing to build an economy that works for everybody, and whether we’re going to do our part to make sure our daughters have the same chances to pursue their dreams as our sons,” he said.

How much of this has to do with the midterm elections? Everything.

Since I’ve written about the myth of the pay gap before, I’ll be brief. Men, on average, make more than women because men tend to work longer hours; men tend not to take time off to raise children or care for elderly parents; men, more than women, work in dangerous jobs – in coal mines and oil rigs — that pay premium wages. In 2012, men were victims in 92 percent of all workplace deaths. Higher risk. Higher pay.

So yes, men earn more than women but there are legitimate reasons. If women really did earn less for doing the same work, wouldn’t every employer in the country hire only women? Imagine how much employers would save doing that if women make only 77 cent for every dollar a man earns – or whatever the latest phony number happens to be.

(A quick side note: Turns out that women who work at the White House earn 88 cents on the dollar compared to male staffers. The president didn’t bother mentioning that in his remarks at the White House signing ceremony.)

We are all slaves to the government.

And as government gets more and more into debt - it will do anything (except cut spending and reduce its own size) to keep the money following to the free sh*t army.

Hope you didn’t have a parent who the government thinks may owe money from 50 years ago. Maybe we can go to the North Korean “Three Generation” rule…

Don’t pay your ever increasing property taxes to pay for the public union goon insane pensions - you will see who really owns your house.

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Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts
Washington Post | 4/10/13 | Marc Fisher

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

The only explanation the government provides for suddenly going after decades-old debts comes from Social Security spokeswoman Dorothy Clark: “We have an obligation to current and future Social Security beneficiaries to attempt to recoup money that people received when it was not due.”

“It was a shock,” said Grice, 58. “What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can’t prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus.”

The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, advises Americans that “family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets.” But Social Security officials say that if children indirectly received assistance from public dollars paid to a parent, the children’s money can be taken, no matter how long ago any overpayment occurred.

“The craziest part of this whole thing is the way the government seizes a child’s money to satisfy a debt that child never even knew about,” says Robert Vogel, Grice’s attorney. “They’ll say that somebody got paid for that child’s benefit, but the child had no control over the money and there’s no way to know if the parent ever used the money for the benefit of that kid.”

In Glenarm, Ill., Brenda and Mike Samonds have spent the past year trying to figure out how to get back the $189.10 tax refund the government seized, claiming that Mike’s mother, who died 33 years ago, had been overpaid on survivor’s benefits after Mike’s father died in 1969.

The Social Security spokeswoman said the agency uses a private contractor to seek current addresses and is supposed to halt collections if notices are returned as undeliverable.

Thirty-six years later, with no notice, “they snatched my Maryland tax refund,” said Verbich, a federal worker who has lived at the same address in Glendale, Md,. for 30 years and regularly receives Social Security statements there. The feds insisted that he owed $172 but could provide no documents to back up the claim.

There is always a crisis that needs bigger and bigger government, more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes to solves…

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If you think the sky is falling, check out the prophecies of the 1970s
Washington Examiner | 04/10/2014 | Michael Barone

The list of failed prophecies from the 1970s is rather long. The conventional wisdom of the time was more than usually unreliable.

Example: the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth report in 1972, predicting that the world was running out of oil and other natural resources. For a while that seemed right, as the 1973 and 1979 OPEC oil price hikes led to gas lines in the United States.

But in the longer run, as the Club came to recognize, engineers and entrepreneurs found more oil and other natural resources and figured out how to get them to market. Capitalism works, and in ways planners don’t expect.

Another common assumption in the early 1970s was that Britain was a fusty, antiquated country that had to join the modern, up-to-date Common Market (now the European Union). Europe’s war-devastated economies had actually grown faster than Britain’s in the quarter-century after World War II.

Fast forward to today. It is Europe that looks out of date, with zero economic growth and economies smothered by sclerotic regulation, overlarge welfare states and the poorly conceived euro.

Britain got rid of much of that under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. And thanks to Gordon Brown, it wisely avoided the euro. Now it’s growing solidly while the continent lags.

A third bit of conventional wisdom from the 1970s is that Asia generally and China in particular could never grow because of the burden of overpopulation.

But Asia’s state-led capitalism and Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of that model in 1978 has made Asia the growth capital of the world. Hundreds of millions have risen from poverty.

As for the population bomb, the biggest problem for Asia and China today is low birth rates and a contracting work force. These stopped growth in Japan and may do so elsewhere.

There are common threads running through these mistaken projections. One is the extrapolation of recent trends far into the future. History doesn’t proceed like a straight line on a graph; sometimes the lines bend.

Another is the assumption that progress means ever-larger states and increasing superintendence by international elites.

But much unpredicted progress has occurred when nations freed markets from the grip of centralized states and private sectors produced innovation that the supposed experts failed to anticipate.

This prompts a question: Which of the widely accepted prophecies of today will seem as invalid today as the Club of Rome report? I have my own nominations, made with some confidence since actuarial tables tell me I will not be here in 40 years.

We are told that “the science is settled,” when it is in the nature of science never to be settled, but always to be subject to verification and revision. I think we’re in for more of that.

Panic after Chinese city declares tap water toxic
Residents of provincial capital in west China flock to supermarkets to stock up on mineral water after government admits water supply contaminated by potentially deadly toxic chemical

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10760027/Panic-after-Chinese-city-declares-tap-water-toxic.html

It amazes me anyone in China is still alive, never mind healthy.

Report: 85% of pensions could fail in 30 years

Matt Krantz
23 Hours Ago
USA Today

You might have thought your public pension was on shaky ground, but you’re likely still being too kind.

Influential and well-regarded hedge fund Bridgewater Associates Wednesday warns public pensions are likely to achieve 4% returns on their assets, or worse. If Bridgewater is right, that means 85% of public pension funds will be going bankrupt in three decades.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101572727 - 105k -

Bill if you are out there check out the price of palladium. It just hit $813 an ounce.

Bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes will solve the affordable housing problem…

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Feds sue Long Island Town of Oyster Bay, allege housing discrimination against blacks
Newsday | 04/11/2014 | ROBERT E. KESSLER. AND TED PHILLIPS

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Town of Oyster Bay and Town Supervisor John Venditto Thursday for allegedly discriminating against black people in two affordable housing programs — one aimed at first-time buyers, the other at senior citizens.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Central Islip, prosecutors said both programs violated the federal Fair Housing Act because preferences were given to residents, or their children, living in the town, which has few black residents. To ensure that black people were not discriminated against in the selection process, the town should have given equal treatment to prospective occupants from the larger, more diverse metropolitan area, the complaint said.

“Housing programs designed to help young families and senior citizens purchase homes should be available to people of all races, including African-Americans,” Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement Thursday. “To the extent residency preferences prevent families and senior citizens from purchasing homes because of race, ethnicity or color, the preferences violate federal law and cannot be tolerated.”

Jocelyn Samuels, the acting attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement, “if municipalities wish to adopt residency preferences such as those imposed by the defendants, they most do so in way that does not discriminate against people based on race.”

Ten Countries Racing to Buy American Homes
Wall Street 24X7 | 04/11/2014

International homebuyers are attracted to the United States for a number of reasons. These include favorable housing prices, good weather, the country’s relative economic stability and an attraction to America in general. As the housing market improved and home prices rebounded, the interest of foreign buyers in U.S. properties has soared.

Interest in U.S. property increased dramatically in a number of countries between 2009 and 2013. In all, interest in home buying, according to housing market firm RealtyTrac, increased by 95% or more in 10 countries, and at least doubled in nine of these nations. Interest in U.S. property by residents of the United Arab Emirates rose 352%, the most out of any country. Based on subscription data provided by RealtyTrac, these are the 10 countries where interest in buying American homes is on the rise.

Overseas buyers likely see value in the U.S. housing market. In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, said, “The U.S. real estate market is coming off of a rough patch and entering recovery mode. And so international buyers see it as a great time to jump in and catch the U.S. market on the upswing.” According to the Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index, the U.S. housing market is just beginning to rebound from its lows set in March 2012.

Another likely important factor in driving international interest in U.S. homeownership may be America’s reputation as a relative safe haven for investors. For many buyers, Blomquist noted, the U.S. represents “the most stable country out there.”

These are the countries racing to buy American homes.

10. Germany
9. Sweden
8. Canada
Residents may also find U.S. properties attractive because some consider Canada’s housing market to be overvalued by some.

7. Australia
6. United Kingdom
Detractors of the program have expressed concerns that home prices in the U.K. could rise to unsustainable levels.

5. Italy
4. France
Simultaneously, many observers and residents have criticized President Francois Hollande’s socialist policy decisions and the resulting high taxes. A number of reports indicate that residents may be leaving the country due to high taxes and tough regulations.

3. Hong Kong and China
A relatively wealthy population, and concerns about wealth protection, may encourage Chinese residents to consider U.S. property.

2. Switzerland
Also helping to make U.S. properties more appealing, or at least more affordable, is the considerable appreciation of the Swiss franc against the dollar over the past five years, up nearly 27% in that time.

1. United Arab Emirates

If only we had a government program to fix this…

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U of M study sees signs of mortgage redlining in Twin Cities
MPLS | 4-9-14 | JENNIFER BJORHUS

Minority residents in the Twin Cities are much more likely than white people of similar incomes to be rejected for a mortgage, whether they’re buying a home or refinancing. If the home sits in a diverse or mainly nonwhite neighborhood, the application is also more likely to get the boot.

Those are the findings of a new study from the University of Minnesota Law School suggesting that mortgage redlining remains alive and well in the Twin Cities. The report suggests that while banks may have justifiably tightened up credit standards, they have swung so far that they are cutting off credit not just to questionable borrowers but to people whose income would appear to qualify them for a loan.

Myron Orfield, the study’s author and head of the law school’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, said the findings surprised him, given the economy’s improvement and the scrutiny mortgage lending and foreclosure practices have received since the real estate collapse.

A good read for anyone who likes that throw-up taste in their mouth.

Divorce Beltway Style

Column: The Democratic breakup that exposes Washington’s rotten core

BY: Matthew Continetti
April 11, 2014 5:00 am

In 2009, with the inauguration of Obama and the dawn of unified Democratic control of Washington, business boomed. Revenues at Tony’s firm close to doubled, and revenues at Heather’s firm increased by 50 percent. The money has continued to roll in. The Podesta Group had some $13 million in lobbying income in 2013, sporting clients such as Lockheed Martin, Wells Fargo, U.S. Airways, Walmart, and the National Biodiesel Board. Heather Podesta + Partners made some $4 million, lobbying on behalf of health companies, the American Beverage Association, Brookfield Power, DeVry University, and others. A portion of that money was recycled, contributing to Democratic campaigns, opening up avenues of influence: Tony gave some $45,500 in 2013, all to Democrats; Heather some $95,798 to Democrats, Democratic committees, and liberal groups.

As government expands, extending its reach to every aspect of business, every sector of the economy, private citizens and corporations require sherpas to lead them through the mountains of regulations and tax provisions, to discover exemptions and special favors and other forms of relief or favoritism to improve the bottom line. And who better to act as sherpas than the relatives of the Democrats who impose the regulations and tax provisions in the first place, who better than the lively proprietors of a family business operating in the luxurious and morally uncomplicated world of the caste of limousine liberals who dominate politics, culture, news, and finance.

The next year, Washington gadfly Tammy Haddad reported on Heather’s fortieth birthday for Politico. “Attending a Tony Podesta party is a pretty good way to start a new year,” Haddad wrote, “but a party to celebrate his wife Heather’s 40th birthday at their new showcase home is a great way to start a new decade.” It was downhill from there. Like Elvis, with whom she shares a birthday, Heather Podesta, Haddad said, had “become a rock star in the Washington power scene as a top lobbyist.” There were red-velvet cupcakes. An Elvis impersonator gyrated for guests. Democratic Congressman John Larson and “Terry Lierman, chief of staff to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, took a tour of the provocative and sometimes whimsical artwork with Jane Oates, John O’Leary, Conrad Cafritz, and Hilary Rosen.” Also there was Jonathan Silver, “the Energy Department’s new money man,” who gave the American taxpayer Solyndra, and who coordinated strategy with John Podesta’s Center for American Progress.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/divorce-beltway-style/ - 62k -

The IRS Scandal Comes Into Focus - Wall Street Journal

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp lays out damning evidence of Lois Lerner’s targeting of conservative groups.

Lois Lermer has pleaded “the fifth” twice because she was breaking the law. Rep. Elijah Cummings is also involved. Who else? Time will tell.

This is just another example of Chicago style politics being played on a national scale. Using the IRS in a political manner is a serious offense that will not go unpunished, even if the MSM is trying to ignore it.

Is it “go time” yet?

http://www.infowars.com/blm-feds-assault-more-protesters-as-first-amendment-area-taken-down/

http://www.infowars.com/blm-rangers-brought-in-from-out-of-state-for-nevada-ranch-emergency/

http://www.infowars.com/rancher-cliven-bundy-speaks-i-dont-recognize-them-having-any-jurisdiction-or-authority-over-this-land-video/

Family Dollar Inc., to close stores as shoppers pinched

Apr. 10, 2014 @ 11:18 PM
The Herald-Dispatch / 2014

NEW YORK — Dollar stores are feeling the pinch from mounting financial pressures on low-income shoppers.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/business/x51938857/Family-Dollar-Inc-to-close-stores-as-shoppers-pinched - 57k -

“After nearly five hours on the phone waiting to speak with someone, I’m convinced that an Obamacare specialist is like Bigfoot or Norm’s wife on “Cheers.” I’ve heard the tale, but there’s no proof they actually exist.”

If you thought signing up for his health insurance was hard, try canceling

By Drew Johnson
The Washington Times
Thursday, April 10, 2014

I never wanted to be a pawn in President Obama’s absurd and irresponsible attempt to mandate, regulate and complicate the American health care system. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a choice.

I was a casualty of Mr. Obama’s Big Lie. You know the one: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” By the time my plan vanished, the only individual health insurance plans available had been captured by the tentacles of Obamacare.

Signing up for insurance under Obamacare was harder than making sense of Donald Trump’s hair. It took more than 20 attempts over four days just to get on the “Health Insurance Marketplace” website and shop for insurance. The plan I found most similar to my canceled plan cost nearly $1,000 more a year, and my deductible increased from about $2,000 to more than $5,000. So I was forced to pay almost twice as much for a whole lot less insurance.

It’s surprising there’s not a link to buy a solid-gold eight-track player on the Healthcare.gov site — everything else for sale in Mr. Obama’s marketplace is also ridiculously overpriced and pretty much useless.

Signing up for Obamacare was a tremendous hassle. But even that experience was a joy compared with what I went through to cancel my coverage.

On the same day that I was counted as one of the 7.1 million Americans that Mr. Obama energetically exploited during his Obamacare victory lap, I was able to enroll in a group insurance plan through my employer. I was free from the shackles of my terrible Obamacare plan — or so I thought.

When I tried to terminate my plan, my insurance company told me that plans purchased through the marketplace could only be canceled through the marketplace. That started a brutal three-day fiasco.

When someone finally got around to picking up the phone, I was told that only a “specialist” could cancel a plan. So I was transferred, where I waited and waited. A prerecorded message came on about every 10 minutes recommending that I call back after the open-enrollment period ended on March 31 should I need to make changes to my account.

It was April 3.

After more than two hours on hold, the call was cut off owing to “technical difficulties.” Two hours wasted by the president’s dumb idea.

After nearly five hours on the phone waiting to speak with someone, I’m convinced that an Obamacare specialist is like Bigfoot or Norm’s wife on “Cheers.” I’ve heard the tale, but there’s no proof they actually exist.

Ultimately, on my umpteenth try, three days into the process, I was finally able to get into the Healthcare.gov site, wade through several pages and cancel my plan — although, unlike with most insurance plans, I couldn’t get a prorated refund on the days I had paid for but wouldn’t need. One last $100 slap in the face.

It was difficult to sign up for Obamacare, but nowhere near as hard as it was to leave the program. That raises a serious question: Was Obamacare designed to inflate its numbers by holding enrollees hostage in the program once they signed up? From my experience, that certainly seems to be the case.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/10/johnson-health-care-on-hold/ - 88k -

This is what many have been saying all along.

The Right Searches for Obamacare Replacement, Finds Obamacare

“We’ve already reached the most conservative common denominator.” (The ACA)

……A growing recognition among Republicans that they can’t bank on organizing the midterm campaign around relentless Obamacare opposition has party elders looking at contingency plans….. ……..Obamacare was The Heritage Foundation plan, and the John Chafee plan, before it was the Mitt Romney plan, and the Mitt Romney plan before it was the Democratic party plan. They just didn’t want to admit it. All that stuff about socialism and a government takeover of health care was just a feint to avoid admitting that the GOP is basically OK with massive, persistent uninsurance.

….But now that Republicans need to come up with something that doesn’t kick a bunch of people off their new plans or their old plans, they’re finding that there’s no more conservative way to structure the system. We’ve already reached the most conservative common denominator.

……….Talking Points Memo wins our quote of the week award for scoring this anonymous reckoning from a GOP congressional aide.

“ If you want to say the further and further this gets down the road, the harder and harder it gets to repeal, that’s absolutely true. As far as repeal and replace goes, the problem with replace is that if you really want people to have these new benefits, it looks a hell of a lot like the Affordable Care Act. … To make something like that work, you have to move in the direction of the ACA. You have to have a participating mechanism, you have to have a mechanism to fund it, you have to have a mechanism to fix parts of the market.”

If this quote represents even a single strand of Republican party thinking about of the new reality, it is a vindicating moment for Affordable Care Act supporters, and one of those rare occasion where saying “I told you so” serves more than just knife-twisting purposes. Republicans are finally owning up to the fact that, once universality has been enshrined as a principle, something like ACA is the most conservative way to structure it as a practical matter, without throwing existing insurance systems into rapid disarray.

crater

“Uniquely (Red State) American”

This woman might have died because of Republican politics, but it is a FACT that thousands of people will die because of Republican politics.

Uninsured woman with 3 jobs dies because Florida refused Medicaid expansion

http://www.examiner.com/article/uninsured-woman-with-3-jobs-dies-because-florida-refused-medicaid-expansion

Sometimes it really sucks to say, “I told you so.” The Supreme Court created an “insurance gap” when it ruled that states don’t have to accept Medicaid expansion. In states that refused expansion, people in this gap are royally screwed. And now, in Florida, Charlene Dill has paid the ultimate price for this political screwing over of the poor. Anything but “lazy,” she worked three jobs as a single mother. She had a documented heart condition that was treatable, but could not afford to go to the doctor. And today, she’s dead, and if Governor Rick Scott had accepted Medicaid expansion — like he originally indicated he would — Charlene’s three children would not be orphans.

This was inevitable, and it will happen again and again until all states have expanded Medicaid. It cannot be any more clear: Republican Governors who refuse to expand Medicaid are killing people.

The Republican stonewalling of the ACA is hard to see as anything other than willful evil. It goes much deeper than one dead woman in Florida. We’re talking about millions of people who are suffering, right now, today, with conditions that are treatable. Some will die, and others will live in pain that could be prevented. People will lose their jobs over their illnesses. Some will lose their houses. Families will be torn apart. This is real world suffering that is directly caused by Republicans.

And it gets even worse. These detestable hypocrites are quietly reaping increased profits from the ACA. The Koch brothers are happy to rake in millions of dollars from the program, and other corporations will soon enjoy similar benefits, after the president surprised everybody and kept the sluices open for the insurance industry after initially promising to cut excessive subsidies to companies. When it’s payments to corporations, the proof is in the pudding. Republicans love that part of the ACA. They just can’t be bothered with the little people’s health.

Speaking of the little people’s health, let’s talk for a minute about what a great deal Medicaid expansion really is. For states who have expanded, the Federal Government is paying 100% of the cost of expansion. All of it. Zero cost to states, and millions of people with health coverage that is… let’s say it again… paid entirely by the Federal Government, with no cost at all to the state. After 3 years, the states will be required to foot a whopping 10% of the bill. To call it a no-brainer is almost comically missing the point.

Who is it covering? Not unemployed people. Not the “moochers” or “welfare queens” the Republicans so love to demonize.

The Supreme Court created an “insurance gap” when it ruled that states don’t have to accept Medicaid expansion.

That part was clearly unconstitutional and Obama should have never designed a plan which at a minimum was questionably constitutional. In fact, by calling in a mandate not a tax the whole thing should have been struck down but due to political cowardice Roberts did not. However, as I said previously any chance that Obamacare would lead to universal coverage died with the decision to strike down the Medicaid expansion.

Robert McLeman: Why this “greeny” supports pipelines

The alternative to pipelines is dangerous. At this very moment, a trainload of flammable fossil fuel products is rumbling through my home county (and probably yours, too), past schools and homes, and over fields, forests and streams. The products are carried in anonymous, black rail cars, and you have no legal right to know what’s inside.

We therefore must ensure that the future transportation of oil and gas is done in the safest way possible to protect the ecological health of our natural environment and the general well-being of the Canadian public. That means we will still need pipelines.

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http://news.nationalpost.com/tag/olivia-chow/&ei=HT5IU-qKCKihkQK42YG4Aw&wsc=pb

I’m going to jump the line on Goldman Sachs and start investing in tents, cardboard, and sleeping bags.

Some of Wall Street and Silicon Valley’s best minds are packing it all in for greener pastures. And they’ve found those pastures in…trailer parks.

“Trailer parks have unusual economics,” says Anthony Effinger, the author of an article on the topic for Bloomberg Markets. “It’s a supply and demand curve that’s super attractive to investors.”

There certainly is demand for trailer homes—they’re often the cheapest form of housing which means a lot in an economy with ever-growing wage disparity– roughly 6% of American’s lived in trailer homes as of 2012. The supply of designated trailer parks is also quite low because, “nobody wants a trailer park in their town or county,” says Effinger.

Related: Investing 101: Defining Pullbacks, Corrections and Bear Markets

Dan Weissman, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and a private hedge fund, now owns five mobile home parks. “The greatest part of the business is that we go to sleep at night not ever worrying about demand for our product. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” he tells Bloomberg Markets.

“What’s at work here,” says Effinger, “is the shrinking middle class.” People with bad credit and criminal histories are often unable to rent or buy homes, and are forced into trailer parks—where owners are usually willing to overlook credit and criminal activity (the average trailer home in America rents at $390 a month).

THIS IS THE MONEY QUOTE

“The greatest part of the business is that we go to sleep at night not ever worrying about demand for our product. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” he tells Bloomberg Markets.

Marie Antoinette didn’t get it either.

County Commissioner Says Bundy Supporters “Better Have Funeral Plans”

War of words over standoff with feds intensifies

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014

Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins has caused outrage by remarking that Utahns planning to travel to Nevada to support Cliven Bundy in his standoff against the feds “better have funeral plans”.

“I was just told by commissioner Collins of Clark County NV that all of us folks from Utah are a bunch of “inbred bastards” and if we are coming to Clark County NV to support Cliven Bundy we all “better have funeral plans”. We should “turn our asses around on mind our own f-ing business”. Now there’s some classy leadership for you,” wrote Bushman on his official Facebook page.
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“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”

Breaking: Sen. Harry Reid Behind BLM Land Grab of Bundy Ranch

BLM attempted cover-up of Sen. Reid/Chinese gov’t takeover of ranch for solar farm

Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014

The Bureau of Land Management, whose Director was Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations.

The first segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.

Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled “Cattle Trespass Impacts” directly states that Bundy’s cattle “impacts” solar development, more specifically the construction of “utility-scale solar power generation facilities” on “public lands.”

In 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.

And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.

“[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert,” he wrote. “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada.”

“His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”

“Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests,” she added. “BLM has proven that they’ve a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they’ve had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development. Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area.”

“If only Clive Bundy were a big Reid donor.”

Update: The Drudge Report, the #1 news aggregate site in the world, has now picked up this story. Unfortunately for the BLM, the documents they wanted to delete are now exposed for the world to see.

This article was posted: Friday, April 11, 2014 at 2:24 pm

Kleptocracy

“rule by thieves”

“The Palm Harbor man hasn’t paid a cent on his home since 2002, back when gas cost $1.61 a gallon, Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq and Kelly Clarkson was the first American Idol.”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/meet-the-palm-harbor-man-who-is-12-years-behind-on-his-mortgage-payments/2174708

I thought you are supposed to be an outsider, not a hipster, if you do not fly on SWA? I normally fly US Airways. But only fly SWA occasionally, mostly for business because my boss would have it no other way.

Well my flight is delayed an hour. Last time I flew SWA same route it was delayed. This morning TWELVE HOURS AGO SWA called me and said my flight would be 30 minutes late. When an airline calls you that early, you know it is bad. This same rout, I have flown more than a dozen times, probably two dozen on US Airways. Never a delay.

Oh, and I do not have an iPhone. My boss does and most people at work do. I am no hipster. And I am flying home to a red state (Arizona) with RKBA there. I certainly am no hipster.