Bits Bucket for April 16, 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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Hello Realtor®
From what I can see, in PHX this will be the summer of the slide. One small area that I watch has had the inventory double in the last 6 weeks. All roughly the same properties and specs. Only the lowest priced of these has a “pending” with backups claim. That one is about 50k less than the others and below the new FHA limit.
Without investors to prop it up, it is done.
This is sort of what we’ve been seeing with HA’s Movoto data. The prices have been dropping but the price per square foot has been constant. Perhaps that’s a natural stage in the turnaround.
Good. So there might buying opportunities coming our way.
One money losing depreciating shack isn’t enough?
Lol. Just kidding.
WSJ has an article today with Phoenix as the example - buyer is waiting for price declines and in an honest quote from a broker said more or less “buyers have disappeared and prices got out of line too quickly”.
House across the road from me in N. Scottsdale had a new coat of interior paint, add 100K to price, and flip in under 6 months back in 2012.
Round 2 is going to be breathtaking. There’s not enough industry outside of the Canadian equity machine to support rising prices in the valley of the sun.
“There’s not enough industry outside of the Canadian equity machine to support rising prices in the valley of the sun.”
Which brings to mind a question: How will Clownifornia homes sell in the eventual absence of all-cash Canadian and Chinese investors?
Phoenix prices up $4,100 up this month , +1.5% this month
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/arizona/phoenix/
Keep dreaming of a bubble in Phoenix. You should of bought a home when they were basically giving them away 3-6 years ago.
3-6 years? Man, you really had that market dialed in, huh? Are you sure it wasn’t 5 to 15 years ago? I’ve bought rent houses for less than you paid for your car. Some landlord. Enjoy your 3% returns while the IE crateers.
You could of bought rental homes in Phoenix areas in 2009-2011 for $40-$50 th and rented them out for $700 a month and made good returns
Im getting 15-19% returns on my INLAND Empire houses.i bought them when they practically free 2009 Jan-March.
Homes have gone up by$25,000 in Riverside since January 2014.
Housing is booming over here.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/riverside/
“Enjoy your 3% returns while the IE crateers.”
Any investment earning 3% is going to be a money-loser once interest rates revert to historic norms.
Problem is, KING, in Phoenix it’s tough to find rentals right now that cash flow out to cover a typical mortgage. If you’re paying cash that’s one thing, but I’d still have a hard time dropping $285k for a rental that will bring in $1500/mo.
You get better returns when you buy lower price homes.
http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/Massive-wealth-destruction-economy/2013/06/20/id/511043/?promo_code=13E5C-1&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
Queen is a troll. How do I know? He lies about the timing in the IE of the crash, dating it Jan-March 2009. Nobody was giving anything away then. The Press-enterprise and all the rest were still trying to convince people there was no bubble, soft landing, yada, yada.
A lying underwater troll with negative cashflow.
I agree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_(Lionel_Richie_song)
You once…… twice…. three lies my realtor……
http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNews/Stock-market-recession-alert/2014/02/03/id/550641/?promo_code=16610-1&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
Warning: Stocks Will Collapse by 50% in 2014
50%? Which would mean precious metals gain more than 80% and cash stays as…well…cash.
We certainly haven’t run out of stock market gloomsters just yet!
Comment by goon squad
2014-04-16 02:31:17
Hello Realtor®
Is that like Hello Kitty?
“02:31:17″
Just posting preemptively before the NAR hacks arrive for the day.
Realtors® Are Liars
Fears grow over China property flameout
By Charles Riley @CRrileyCNN
April 15, 2014: 9:39 PM ET
There are signs that China’s housing market may be significantly overheated.
HONG KONG (CNNMoney)
The risks of a blow up in China’s property market are rising, threatening a slowdown that could hurt global growth.
The sector is second only to the related problem of credit growth on a list of threats to China’s economy — according to economists surveyed by CNNMoney.
Talk of a property bubble in China is nothing new — economists have long fretted over the meteoric rise of home prices, and the runaway pace of new construction.
Media reports on “ghost cities” — newly constructed Chinese municipalities that were never occupied — led to frequent warnings of a crisis, which has not yet materialized.
The sector’s continued strength results in a kind of Rorschach test, where the same image is perceived very differently: Pessimists say real estate is emblematic of problems such as rapid credit growth and backward economic incentives. Bulls counter that the boom is sustainable, especially as hundreds of millions of Chinese migrate into urban areas.
The sheer size of the real estate sector — some 16% of GDP — underscores the importance of the debate for a world economy that is increasingly connected to China.
The fears of a slowdown have now returned, sparked by a flurry of reports from third and fourth-tier cities that suggest ailing developers are offering big discounts to unload property quickly. Even in some major cities, sales have slowed and homeowners are fretting over lower demand.
The far flung smaller cities account for almost 70% of all home sales, according to Japanese brokerage Nomura.
“In China, the true risks of a sharp correction in the property market fall in third- and fourth-tier cities, which are not on investors’ radar screens,” Nomura analysts wrote recently.
…
I was wondering what makes a city tier in China. Turns out, no one really knows.
What Makes a City Tier in China?
CHINA GENERAL INTEREST
We often hear of China’s first or second or third tier cities, yet what actually makes a city tier? The terms are so often used, yet there is actually no official formula for determining what tier a city falls in. Instead, everyone makes up their own rules.
There are a few common views on which Chinese cities fall in which tier, often pointing to population, development of services and infrastructure, and the cosmopolitan nature of the city. First tier cities are naturally the fewest and easiest to find common ground on. China’s four city municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) are candidates as a clearly-defined group of leading cities. Yet this group doesnt hold up in terms of the development and stature criteria mentioned above, and in their stead a different quartet is often put forward: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – four huge metropolises with well-developed property markets.
It becomes much more trickier when we move down to second tier cities…
- See more at: http://www.nzcta.co.nz/chinanow-general/1486/what-makes-a-city-tier-in-china/#sthash.7u9Ksse4.dpuf
Housing Glut Spurs Price Slump in China’s Cities
A spate of housing over-construction has led to a pronounced price slump in China’s mid-tier cities.
While property prices continue to climb in China’s showpiece metropolises, new data indicates that the story could be markedly different in the country’s mid-tier cities, which despite their modest sizes individually still comprise the vast majority of the country’s residential property market.
Figures from Nomura Holdings indicates that 42 per cent of Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities logged month-on-month declines in housing prices in the month of March, as construction surges ahead of population growth to satisfy demand from investors.
While these smaller cities with populations between 500,000 to several million remain largely unknown outside of China, their aggregate impact upon the country’s property market is immense, as they number over 200 in total and comprise around 70 per cent of national housing sales.
…
Does the chinese media discuss the US’s massive housing glut?
How do I clear my google-chrome cache?
And have websites always subcontracted out some of their functions? I see a lot of little functions that are “powered by ETR” or “fueled by zite” or some other crappy stoner hipster phrase. Are these the same people that deliberately shift the pix around while a website is loading, just to fool us into clicking the position where an ad will ultimately be?
Did you try a google search on your question?
Blue is right…
from the search on Google…”how do i clear my google chrome cache”
Use the “Clear browsing data” dialog to delete all your data…..
Can’t help you there, but that “fueled by zite” made me lmao.
Google the phrase “how do I clear…”
Seriously? Is that deliberate meta-irony?
Kinda like Lola complaining last night about HA and I responding to his posts, but then also claiming he ignores us with the JT extension.
Oh well, at least he has promised to leave and never come back if Messiahcare is repealed.
Seriously…. lately the hee-hawing reaches new heights everyday.
“I see a lot of little functions that are “powered by ETR” or “fueled by zite” or some other crappy stoner hipster phrase. Are these the same people that deliberately shift the pix around while a website is loading, just to fool us into clicking the position where an ad will ultimately be?”
There’s a special place in hell for these skinny-jeans-beanie-back-on-the-crown-of-the-head-wearing bitchy punks.
I’ve actually stopped going to several websites due to the massive ads which actually take over the whole screen. If that’s the kind of browsing experience that website is offering, I have zero interest.
Don’t use Google Chrome. It is nothing but spyware.
Googoo must get pretty bored monitoring my kids’ communications.
I would also think the same warning applies to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer - Microsoft is “progressive” Bill Gates - meaning “i love thugernment and be its lap dog.”
That’s right. And think about it. GovCorp had him right by the balls while he blubbered profusely in his seat back in the 90’s.
I’ll post the link shortly, but the big news is, the first scientific study of its kind has been conducted on the government of the US and it was concluded that the US is NOT a democracy (it was never supposed to be a democracy anyway) but is an oligarchy.
I’m not making this up. The study is going to be formally published in the fall, but excerpts have been provided ahead of time. Interestingly, a number of websites on both the right and left carried the story late yesterday, but NO MSM outlets. Fascinating. I wonder if the same folks that are so hysterical in support of warming will try to discredit the study. After all, the lies must continue.
An oligarchy. Completely makes sense to me. Actually, I think it’s great news that the correct name has been given to the form of government. Because when you can identify the problem, something can be done about it.
Anyway I’ll find a link and post it, but possibly some of you have already seen the story.
Linky.
http://rt.com/usa/us-democracy-oligarchy-policy-512/
Now we know who our “elected representatives” work for.
And now we know why Jon Corzine is still on the loose, not even a hint of prosecution.
Meanwhile, some dude was sent to prison for 18 months because he took a whiz on the Alamo.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/texas/alamo-urinator-sentenced-to-prison-765419
18 months in the slammer for what was basically a misdemeanor. While real crooks walk free without a care in the world.
Ozzie did that. I was there when it happened. Blimey.
I was reminded by an Irish immigrant many years ago that we did not have a democracy in the US. He said we should remember the words of our own Pledge of Allegiance: ‘… and to the Republic, for which it stands…’ He continued, ‘If it were a democracy, you’d have Al Gore as a President.’
Yes, it was supposed to be a Republic, or as some call it, a Representative Democracy. There’s a lot of representing going on for sure, but it’s not so much the people who are being represented.
Anyway it’s neither. It’s an oligarchy and that totally resonates with me.
It’s interesting how little direct democracy there is in the original Constitution. Only the House of Reps was to be elected directly by the people. Every other elected official on a national level was elected by a smaller group of people, including the president, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. And of course the Senate was the higher house, able to make treaties.
You have to remember that a lot of the guy who wrote the Constitution were rich guys who wantd an oligarchy.
In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability.
– James Madison
Anyway it’s neither. It’s an oligarchy and that totally resonates with me.
The oligarchs are already demanding that they get more votes than the unwashed.
Liberal socialists v. Business socialists. Everybody wants some of that golden goose egg from a Uncle Sugar.
Starve the beast.
Business socialist? This term always makes me laugh. You know the business elites propaganda arm has won when people equate business elites destroying democracy and taking control of gov to enrich themselves at everybody else’s expense as socialism. The same people who lament the power of the elites and talk like this would cost to make them stronger by lowering there taxes installing court members who vote that corporations are people and money is free speech. They support free trade and union busting which drives down wages and limits labor’s top in gov. They vote to top back regulation so companies can steal e stock market and dump costs such as pollution on the US tax payer.
I still don’t get what’s wrong with the term corporate socialism or in this case I guess “business socialism.” The right wing unilaterally equates any form of government assistance to individuals as socialism, whyy then is it not accurate to term assistance from the government (at taxpayers expense) to business as business socialism? I’m talking sweetheart deals, and “special” government pricing where we the people are charged double market value - having worked at a number of government vendors/contractors, I saw that shiite all the time.
Corporate/business welfare seems like a very apt term.
Business socialist?
This is a phrase I’d never heard anyone use before. I made it up this morning. Where else did you see it. It refers to privatizing profits but socializing losses.
Everybody’s gotta hand out. You libs like to fancy your NPR dream of socialism as some pure utopia. It’s all just more free $hit army socialism where the money can go to the minorities, public unions or the cronies. Never to the working man. And I don’t count cops that can retire with 20 years as the working man. More BS failed programs keeping your constituency in chains. Might as well hand the money to Cheney and Rumsfeld.
So minorities and union workers are not working men?
In what sense is well connected elites stripping wealth from the country socialist. Socialism suggests common ownership or control. You have been brainwashed to think everything bad is socialist. U likely have a lot more in common with most minorities and union workers yet u support the elites by opposing progressive taxation Single payer health care regulation of the sector or business in general. The problem is the elite have too much power and gop solution is to further concentrate wealth and weaken the only institution that can reign them in. The unregulated utopia will crush everyone via market manipulation and fraud . Just because regulation is usurped by the elite doesn’t mean it’s not a major tool to fix the problem.
And in other shocking news, the sun rises in the east.
The failure of democracy is apparent if you read the polls that ask Americans what policies they would like to see instead of which candidates or parties they prefer. What the government does differs greatly from what the people want.
A “scientific study” (I suppose that is an oxymoron these days) is just what one needs to discover the obvious.
Yeah, scientists don’t study social affairs. It’s probably a sociological study.
That we are an oligarchy is nothing new - we’ve posted about it years ago on this very blog. That said, if it gets mainstream media attention and gives food for thought to both the left and right and their respective roles in perpetuating said oligarchy(Hint: If you consider yourself either conservative OR liberal you’re part of the problem) , then it is a good thing.
Keep the lower and middle classes squabbling over their petty differences while the wealthy/powerful run off the the bank with all the money.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2014/04/16/chinas-economic-growth-rate-slows-but-is-still-among-the-worlds-best/
In the end it is all about IQ, Chinese workers are high IQ workers at low IQ prices. You know China is going to grow for quite a while. Now, Brazil that is another story and their 1.6% growth for this year reflects that reality. Probably will be my last post for the day, so maybe Lola can finally win an argument that is if no other conservative poster is available.
I agree you can probably buy more IQ for a buck in China, but China only beats us by one IQ point on average, and we beat Canada!
http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/
Actually, China beats us by two points. Math is hard.
We still beat Canada! And weŕe tied with France. I bet that pisses them off.
And every Chinese kid learns to take a derivative, whether innately “smart” or “dumb.”
Is every Chinese kid even getting an education? Even on the farms?
There is a bit of a problem with comparing IQs across countries like that. First of all, the IQ test only works when given to people who have had the same amount and type of education for their age level. I’m sure that people in the low-IQ countries probably haven’t had the same intellectual development opportunities as the rest.
Secondly, test questions are always culturally biased, even if the question-writer tries to make them sterile.
The third problem is that not everyone gets an IQ test. If the different countries are just reporting the results of on-file tests, then the numbers aren’t comparable due to sampling error.
You remind of this article from yesterday’s NYT about Chinese immgrants moving to Sao Paolo, Brazil’s largest city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/world/americas/immigrants-stir-new-life-into-sao-paulos-gritty-old-center.html?_r=0#
Also, those Foxconn jobs probably don’t require a lot of education of IQ, whatever that is.
The young people I’ve seen at QSMC, which is similar to Foxconn, are pretty good at what they do. They may be the cream of the working class crop, though. But they seems to learn to function as decent solderers and crude failure analysis people pretty quickly and don’t seem to be lacking in basic education. I get the feeling they paid closer attention and screwed around less in school than most American kids. They’re not super(wo)men. But I’d hire them.
“You know China is going to grow for quite a while”
Actually, we do not know that an economic boom based on massive credit expansion, fraud and corruption is going to continue to levitate towards the moon “for quite a while”.
Thank you. ADan’s head is up a dark, stinky place.
I see no reason to belive that Chinese people have higher IQs than white people.
Are they taking the test in a second or third language?
They certainly do quite often take graduate coursework in second languages.
Nor do I. But I do see massive evidence that they work much more concertedly to develop the gray matter God gave them.
District of CRATER
“Home sales fell again last month, the third month in a row of year-over-year declines. Compared to last year when the housing market started off strong, the past three months have been lackluster.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/wp/2014/04/10/homes-sales-in-d-c-region-fall-for-third-straight-month/
Yes. Housing Demand is cratering in Craterton DC.
Registration, confiscation, extermination
“Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to spend as much as $50 million on the 2014 elections aiming to push new gun control measures in 2014 through a new organization announced Wednesday.
“I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed,” Bloomberg said. “I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/16/bloomberg-aims-to-spend-50-million-on-gun-control/
‘fbi counterterrorism agents are visiting gun shops in south carolina to investigate ’suspicious purchases’ made by people who talk about ‘big government,’ according to a new report.
‘if you see some middle eastern guy come in, you don’t have to be so worried about that. what we’re really looking for are people talking about being sovereign such as sovereign citizens or people talking about big government,’ the agent reportedly said.
http://www.infowars.com/report-fbi-visiting-gun-shops-to-investigate-people-talking-about-big-government/
What a knucklehead. Crime is worse where the gun control laws are the strongest.
Besides God is only impressed by faith. He can’t buy his way into heaven.
Bloomberg is Jewish, not Protestant. Is there a Jewish heaven?
He is a secular globalist, set on enacting the same policy of disarmament done in Germany eighty years ago that led to some very unhappy endings for his alleged fellow tribesmen.
Fortunately, some of them don’t drink his nanny state koolaid and are resolved to prevent history from repeating itself:
http://jpfo.org/
I’m not sure what he believes but what he’s speaking is nonsense.
He’s a confused rich guy that feels guilty about being rich. Why doesn’t he find a nice charity, secretly donate a bunch and the shut his trap. Broadcasting that he’s doing this shows that he misses the limelight and the attention he’s getting is all he’s going to get.
Let him waste his money. For all the bluster you can easily own guns and the Supreme Court has upheld it as an individual right. This was not the case even a few short years ago when many high minded legal scholars would try to say otherwise. He’s a foolwithtoomuchmoney.
They could never seriously take away guns. They can’t even stop drugs from getting in to prisons, the most heavily controlled environment.
Yeah, not so fast. Justus John Paul Stevens lays out a blueprint to “fix” the Second Amendment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-five-extra-words-that-can-fix-the-second-amendment/2014/04/11/f8a19578-b8fa-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html
But that’s just my point. Stevens would have said it was a collective right back in the 80s. Now he is admitting it needs to be fixed (which can never occur if they couldn’t even ass the ERA).
huh?
It has to be “fixed” through an amendment. It used to be they all just pretended it was not an individual right. The SC finally said differently fairly recently in 2008. Now it is a constitutionally protected individual right (like it always should have been acknowledged as). Stevens proposing that fix is an admission that the battle was lost for the collective right theory.
We won guns, they won gays.
The only words need are:
If you are on any public property with an illegal gun..5 years no bail
End of story….the police can use infrared and catch them that way…..No 2nd amendment violated…
Welcome to the stagflationary depression of the Obama economy
“Grocery shoppers may soon need more green in their wallets to afford their next salad.
The cost of fresh produce is poised to jump in the coming months as a three-year drought in California shows few signs of abating, according to an Arizona State University study set to be released Wednesday.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/04/15/attention-shoppers-fruit-and-vegetable-prices-rising/
Let them eat i-pads
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/04/15/inflation-picks-up-speed-in-colorado.html
Three year drought, made worse by the Government that diverted the water away from the farmers.
The last time I drove up from LA to Sacramento there were all kinds of signs along the highway. Signs complaining about the water being diverted.
I’m thinking that we all better start planting our own gardens.
I think it was government that diverted the water toward the farmers to begin with. Mainly because government didn’t prevent farmland from being displaced by commercial and residential development.
Some say water rights were the origin of government.
Three year drought, made worse by the Government that diverted the water away from the farmers.”
They also didn’t pump water to reservoirs during rainy season because the pumps would impact a small fish the delta smelt.
Have to pump the water up to the reservoirs so it can be used later in the dry season.
Water is looking to be very expensive next year in California along with everything else.
Who cares? We’re Americans, we thrive on HFCS and our vehicles of choice are the size of small school buses. What’s the problem? So spinach is expensive, who am I, Popeye?
Eating fruits and vegetables is for the socialists and homosexuals.
You’re not a “Real American” unless you have ten pounds of partially digested red meat in your colon.
“You’re not a “Real American” unless you have ten pounds of partially digested illegally grazed upon BLM land red meat in your colon.”
Why are you apologizing for the statists?
You’re not a “Real American” unless you have ten pounds of partially digested red meat in your colon.
Don’t forget the Cheetos, which you can wash down with HFCS Pepsi (and not that sissy “Throwback” swill made with cane sugar). And don’t get me started on imported cane sugar Mexican Coca-Cola. How unpatriotic can you get!?
“imported cane sugar Mexican Coca-Cola”
I’m having one with lunch today. It is surprising how few people know that it even exists or what the difference between it and USA Coke is.
Unrelated anecdote, the heaviest person in my department drinks three Diet Cokes at work every day like clockwork. She is always complaining about feeling sore and sick and tired.
Partial to Jarritos, over here…
I can’t even comprehend the diet soda thing. In fact, I don’t understand drinking soda of any kind on a daily basis. I drink less than a dozen per year. I think the stuff is horrible for the body.
Morbidly obese people ordering diet soda is comical. It’s like an alcoholic switching from Whiskey to Wine. The answer is NO MORE SODA.
I’ve heard it mentioned that both George Carlin and Tim Russert were big Diet Coke drinkers. My daughter rolls her eyes at me when I tell her to avoid it, just in case.
Here’s one article…
13 February 2011
Diet Soda and Sudden Death
If Diet Coke were a problem there’d be bodies in every street. C’mon you killjoys. Fat people drink it, skinny people drink it. Everyone drinks it. No worse than coffee.
Fat is calories in > calories out. It is physics. If you were drinking 3 cokes a day and switched over to diet cokes that’d be a difference of about 400 less calories a day. You would lose a pound of fat every nine days, all else being equal.
It is sad seeing all these people with emotional problems killing themselves with food. Show me a fatty coming out of a concentration camp.
You know what is bad? All these pills doctors got everyone popping.
Eating fruits and vegetables is for the socialists and homosexuals.
Whoa, whoa, dude! Are you saying that Popeye was a limp wristed commie homosexual?
Actually, when you consider his taste in women, that doesn’t sound so far fetched.
Pimping the Shamnesty
“Latino and immigration advocates are warning of political peril for President Barack Obama and Democrats in the fall election unless the the president acts boldly and soon to curb deportations and allow more immigrants to remain legally in the country.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IMMIGRATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-15-15-56-30
“Latino and immigration advocates are warning of political peril for President Barack Obama and Democrats”
Oh, oh, I’m SOOOOOOOOOOO scared.
I bet the O man is quaking in his boots. He doesn’t care.
Article I posted recently notes that the Mexodus has waned and that the new wave of illegal immigrants are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras.
I am looking forward to their cultural and technological contributions to USA that will surely rival, if not exceed, those made by German, Irish, Jewish, Italian immigrants over a century ago.
That’s wonderful news. We can always use more MS13 members. It’s so comforting to see them at the park where children play.
On the bright side, there are only 6 million Salvadorans in the old country (vs. 120 million in Mexico). Or look at this way, there are already far more illegal Mexicans in the USA than there are Salvadorans in the world. We could send all the illegal Salvadorans to Florida and no one would probably notice the difference.
“New?” DC area laborers have been Dominican and El Salvadoran for years.
I think he cares and frankly it’s only thing left as far as his “legacy” is concerned.
Dubya’s legacy is the worst of any President. He parlayed that into an easel with a whisky bottle holder. What will Obama do?
GWB killed the conservative dream. Obama is killing the liberal dream. Thank God for both.
Excellent point.
I bet the O man is quaking in his boots. He doesn’t care.
Indeed. Who are they gonna vote for instead? The GOP?
It’s a laugh riot that the GOP thinks that they can get Latino votes by talking about “acts of love” and caving in on shamnasty. NEVER gonna happen. They MIGHT, and it’s a big MIGHT, get a few disgruntled Venezuelan immigrants and such, but very few Mexican or Central American migrants would even look at the GOP twice to bet on in a dog show.
There is so much disinformation about all this. I’ve mentioned before that when Arizona had its first referendum on restricting illegal immigration in 2003, it passed with overwhelming Hispanic support. It appeared that they aren’t fond of being unemployed or taxed to give freebies to illegals any more than anyone else.
I was a 100% open borders libertarian at one time. Then I moved close to the Mexican border for 5 years (where one could freely easily go back and forth into both countries), and came to the conclusion that our welfare system is incompatible with open borders. And BTW, most Mexicans I’ve known are family oriented and religious.
Mike, IMO you can have a government safety net or unrestrained immigration. But you can’t have both.
Mike, IMO you can have a government safety net or unrestrained immigration. But you can’t have both.
+1
I’d be fully in favor of opening the borders and taking over Mexico.
We should offer to buy Mexico. With the Rule of Law instilled, over 2 generations, it could be a paradise. 10 more states admitted 50 years after purchase. Beachfront condos for everyone!
“Latino and immigration advocates”
What does Latino have to do with immmigration? Most people in the world are not Latinos. Why are immigration advocates so racist?
What? Someone put the words Latinos and immigration advocates together in a sentence and that means immigration advocates are racist?
Why would a person include Latino advocates in the same sentence as immmgration advocates, while leaving out all the other types of advocates? What is a Latino advocate? Is that like a Caucasian advocate?
I clicked on the link. The article starts with the words “Latinos and immigration activists …” So it refers to Latino people in general and immigration activists. So Jose made a mistake copying it over.
How is that any less racist?
What are you saying, that the writer is racist for lumping all Latinos together. You think that it would have been better to write, “Some Latinos…” ?
Comment by chilidoggg
2014-04-15 06:49:53
Does anyone know a website where I can find total return for a dollar invested in a stock like Ford, GE, etc., over a period of time that I can edit, e.g. 1946 -1976, 1984-2014, etc.?
Comment by HBB_Rocks
2014-04-15 07:58:10
Yahoo Finance, pick a stock, go to ‘historical finances’ The ‘adj close’ column is in today’s dollars (adjusts for splits, inflation, etc) so you can compare to the past.
It’ll give you the start and end prices for whatever date ranges they have. GE for example goes back to 1962.
You’ll have to calculate your returns yourself. It’s got a button to download it all into Excel, so calculating returns should be pretty easy.
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-04-15 08:23:06
Yes, that is what I use. So easy.
Thanks for the link. That’s not really what I want. I can find a lot of sites that will show me total return for the last ten years.
“…last ten years.”
Finance.Yahoo.com will show you the return over any time period you wish to check. for example Ford on 1/1/1984 was $2.23/share. On 1/1/2014 is was $15.84.
$15.84/$2.23 = 710% increase.
Whac can give you a formula for the annualized return over the 30 year period, which will be around 6.75%/year. So one dollar invested in Ford stock in 1984 = $7.10 today (on 1/1/2014)
And if you can’t do that kind of basic math, you don’t need to be looking at historical stock prices (unless you are in school and doing this for a project), but rather just write a check for Vanguard VTSMX and be done with it.
$15.84/$2.23 = 710% increase.
That’s a 610% increase.
I’m talking about including reinvested dividends.
The quarterly dividend payouts are included in the data.
Census Survey Revisions Mask Health Law Effects -NY Times
WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data for more than three decades, is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama’s health care law in the next report, due this fall, census officials said.
Like I’ve said, you can’t trust any of the numbers anymore.
Chicago: More Crime, Less Policing - Townhall
Michael Schaus | Apr 16, 2014
A woman’s body was found bound, and gagged, in an empty commercial building in Chicago. Another woman’s body was found beaten, and stuffed inside of a mattress. A man was shot in the head, while driving, on the Far South Side. All three aforementioned victims have something in common: They’re officially classified by the Chicago Police department as “non-criminal” death investigations.
They don’t call it “Crook County” for nothing.
You see, they don’t really have to make it safer, they just have to fiddle with the data.
Used to be GIGO. Now it’s SISO. Shills in, shills out.
What’s wrong comrade? The truth hurts?
?? I was agreeing with you that the numbers are fudged.
Sorry. I miss judged your comment.
Like I’ve said, you can’t trust any of the numbers anymore.
It’s been decades since the government’s official numbers were anything resembling trustworthy. And it’s gonna keep getting worse. Eventually, we’ll be told that unemployment is down to 4% and wages are up when half of our neighbors are on disability or welfare. And it won’t matter who controls Congress or the White House.
I mostly agree except that the MSM keeps the other side a little more honest.
A couple of years ago we saw pictures of folks with water bottles and blankets protesting in the park. Last week we saw pictures of men on horseback riding into the range with side arms, rifles, satellite radios and flack jackets, some of them ready to snipe buffoon park rangers. Which way do you see this trend going? I think we are close to the “interesting” times thing.
Hope and Change
“In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security issued a nine-page report detailing the threat of domestic terrorism by the white power movement.
The report singled out one factor that has fueled every surge in Ku Klux Klan membership in American history from the 1860’s to the present: war.
Military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potantial emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists carrying out violent attacks,” the report warned.
The agency was “concerned that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/opinion/veterans-and-white-supremacy.html?_r=0&referrer=
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
Only more regulations and higher taxes and bigger and bigger government can save us.
Online article comment blames talk radio:
“When you have two afternoon bloviators constantly making thinly veiled racist comments, insinuating that America is being “taken over” by non-whites, insulting our president by only using his last name, suggesting that it’s necessary to “take back America,” and making their audience of older, less educated, bigoted, xenophobic and gullible white males feel victimized, what do you expect their reaction is going to be?”
Recruiting Obama Youth to train them for the jihad of Social Justice™
http://www.infowars.com/wash-state-school-district-sets-up-homeland-security-class/
But I thought that military people were mostly nonwhite these days.
The report singled out one factor that has fueled every surge in Ku Klux Klan membership in American history from the 1860’s to the present: war.
Military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potantial emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists carrying out violent attacks,” the report warned
If this is valid, it’s another good reason to cut back on the wars.
Question Of The Day:
When will the Brazilian Tranny be furloughed from the halfway house?
Seriously guys, stop this nonesense!
He’s up for a good time release date right before the fall elections. Only 6 more months. If he can keep his nose clean. But if they find Joe’s body …
Here’s my question; does Rio think we don’t know spin when we see it? He posts some talking point stuff about Obamacare and then spends half the day pounding the table about it. Jeebus, if there’s anything people in this country recognize it’s propaganda. Like when you are flipping around on the TV and realize a show is really an elaborate advertisement.
He doesn’t even live here, and he’s going to tell us how we feel about something? That’s like me telling him what Brazilians think about a subject.
Spinmeisters and their minons like Lola, realtors and such have been getting away with the hubris for a very long time elsewhere.
Welcome to the Housing Bubble Blog.
He posts some talking point stuff
All his posts are like that. Doesn’t contribute to anything seriously. With that said, no reason for name calling….just ignore his posts as I do.
no
Pot calling kettle black , ayh!
IMO, there is some pretty unhealthy personality stuff going on there. One can recognize traits and behaviors but never explain logically what is illogical.
He posts here because he gets a reaction. A self acknowledged genius who has no ideas of his own. He feels empowered by putting everyone else on the defensive, the kind of person who quickly becomes unwelcome where ever they go, but doesn’t realize it. Easily provoked into a rage. That’s about all the fun you can have with him.
During 2008 election I heard Obama said something like “these guys take a pride on being stupid” at his right wing detractors. I didn’t think much of it when I heard it. Few days later I was listening to a right wing talk radio, was it Hannity or Levin I can’t recall. But this guy was going on and on about Obama being elitist, and out of touch because he eats arugula or some salad like that. He’s never heard of arugula and he was going to eat more steakes and potatoes and some $hit like that. To be honest my jaw dropped and I was really embarrassed for this man and kept on thinking Obama was at least right about this guy taking pride on being stupid.
Long story short, Rio is that guy now.
“Here’s my question; does Rio think we don’t know spin when we see it? He posts some talking point stuff about Obamacare and then spends half the day pounding the table about it. Jeebus, if there’s anything people in this country recognize it’s propaganda.”
I don’t know about that last sentence. But as for Rio, he does seem to respond to spin with more spin of his own but it’s usually with a good mix of humor and links to support his position, even if they’re talking points. Not sure why there’s hostility toward him. I mean really, there’s more than one person here who “posts some talking point stuff about *something* and then spends half the day pounding the table about it.” Ain’t it so?
‘Ain’t it so?’
He’s a paid troll dude. It ain’t about ideology. It’s a paycheck on my bandwidth.
“He’s a paid troll dude. It ain’t about ideology. It’s a paycheck on my bandwidth.”
If so, I hope he was paid well.
Tranny halfway house, not much different from Tyranny house worth half. So on topic.
We should be more senstitive to transexuals. It’s not their fault they were born with the disorder in the first place.
Plastic surgery does not cure mental illness.
My friend Paul AKA Alice is living proof.
LOL HA!
hire? it’s a 1099 commission deal- journalists are all interns now
Steve Capen, a real-estate agent in St. Petersburg, Fla., decided last week to hire another agent for his company after seeing stronger buyer demand.
La Mesa, CA Housing Inventory Balloons 25% As Prices Drift Lower
http://www.movoto.com/la-mesa-ca/market-trends/
Price per square foot is up 5% from last year. And I wouldn’t call inventory going from 100 to 125 “ballooning.” Lol you’re such a cartoon character.
Sales are drying up for you kiddo. No more suckers to rape rob and pillage. Why not go back to waiting tables? At least it’s honest work.
I’m not a realtor, but go ahead and keep thinking that anyone in here who isn’t a complete gloom and doomer like you is one. I promise I pay more in taxes than you even earn. Again, I agree that prices are bubbly and that they will come down. But thinking that areas like San Diego will see a 50% decrease in prices in insanity.
And let’s not stray from the point here which is that cost of construction plus land cost = home value. Your argument is that homes can be built for $50/sq. ft. Most of the rest of us think that number is somewhere between $125 and $200 per sq. ft. So please, do enlighten us as to how your “company” makes this happen. Because the only type of housing you can buy for $50/sq. ft. is a trailer/mobile home.
“Gloom and doom”?
Don’t be silly kid. Falling housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish.
“most of us”? What would you possible know about contracting?
Well let’s see, my dad was a carpenter and is now an engineer. My uncle owns a huge construction company in Seattle. My best friend is a residential contractor. And I work in insurance so a big part of my job is estimating the construction costs of homes and commercial buildings. I have access to a number of cost estimators and local contractors. And I have 5 clients who are in the construction industry. All of them agree that it costs at least $125/sq. ft. to build in California, and that’s the low end.
What do YOU know about contracting?
If that’s the case, why are you begging me to help you?
Because you said you can do it for $50/sq. ft. That’s a great price. If it sounds to good to be true, it’s worth investigating.
I’m getting sick of this chit. I know of houses being built for $39/sq ft in Flagstaff right now. I’m had bids given to me at $48. So lets dispense with the crap for the millionth time. If you want to pay $120/sf, do it!
Anyway, who gives a crap what it costs to build? Get a foreclosure for $25/sf. And if you don’t know how to do that, that’s your problem.
Keyword “Flagstaff.” HA says his company can build “anywhere” for $50/sq. ft.
$39/sq. ft. sounds unbelievable as well. Care to post a link to this development?
$25/sq. ft.? Care to post a link to these listings?
Here’s a new development in Flagstaff. Looks like the cost is $150 - $200 per sq. ft. Maybe the land there is really expensive and you’re only talking about construction cost lol.
http://www.capstonecos.com/
They build these boxes of air for cheap and sell them to people like you for a lot more. How do you think the Toll Brothers got those Picasso’s on their walls? And people who know where to find good investments don’t hand them out to anybody.
Oh, BTW, that link you have there; both of the developments featured went bankrupt a few years ago. They couldn’t give those lots away.
So the question remains, how does one like me who wants to have their home built, get a builder to do it for $50 sq. ft.?
You have it built on dirt-cheap land . . .
In places like Seattle and San Fran, it’s the land that costs so much, not the mccrapshack built on top.
I suggest that is what is driving the high $/SF figure.
” I promise I pay more in taxes than you even earn.”
Federal Income taxes we presume.
Perhaps you would like to extend that challenge to me, as I call your BS.
I will take that bet for one troy ounce of gold.
A person with your obvious intelligence is either making $56,301 or $320,536. Hard to call.
I will take Polly or Muggy or Palmy to weigh the evidence and collect the bargain. Now you are the one who has to put up or shut up.
It is very entertaining reading the posts bottom to top!
This Furlow character is suffering from what I like to call Bubble Vision. Bubble Vision is when you are too young or stupid to realize that bubble real estate prices, not low prices, are the anomaly, so you compare everything to the bubble peak when valuing property. That’s a sucker’s bet, but sheep like him are lining up for the slaughter. Most of those infestors who bought the last several years are of the same ilk. They will, for the most part, have their collective @sses handed to them in short order.
To properly value a property, one has to go back to the nineties and see what that same property sold for to get an idea of fair value. Before you go blathering on about inflation, etc., look at wages to wake up and smell the coffee. If that doesn’t clear things up, not even a 2×4 to your dense skull could wake you from your stupor.
This Furlow character
Character. Exactly. Winner of shill of the day.
Tampa, FL Prices Dive Lower 6% As Housing Demand Collapses
http://www.movoto.com/tampa-fl/market-trends/
Ruskin, FL Housing Demand Collapses 30% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/FL-Ruskin-home-value/r_33774/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D4%26rt%3D8%26r%3D33774%26el%3D0
Herndon, VA Housing Prices Crater 11% YoY; Inventory Explodes 52%
http://www.movoto.com/herndon-va/market-trends/
If you hate allergies, take Nasacort OTC. Off topic, but I’m just trying to help you people.
They say allergy season is going to be a rare bitch this year in the NE.
I have never had allergies in my life, until NOW. I have it bad. THANKS, Phoenix.
Avoid “valley Fever”!
Arlington, VA Housing Prices Collapse 29% YoY; Demand Craters 20% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/arlington-va/market-trends/
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/VA-Arlington-home-value/r_30258/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D8%26r%3D30258%26el%3D0
msm is so negative on housin - I’m wondering if it’s time to go long
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/a-not-so-sunny-spring-for-housing-140453522.html
2 articles on yahoo today alone
Negative?
Don’t be silly. Collapsing housing demand resulting in falling housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
This is bubble think. If house prices aren’t rising double digits, something is “wrong.” Because if it isn’t rising double digits, all these gamblers might want out!
Consider the concept of “cascade”. This wasn’t Oxy’s two year bubble. It was a five decade bubble. The biggest ever. Well, OK, the Crusades was a longer running mania. Anyhow, we are witnessing the apex of bounce one. If you are trying to catch the top of the bounce and miss, you will certainly have several more chances in years to come.
Local realtors are not too happy about this:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_24438138/trelora-founder-promises-real-estate-industry-shake-up
I wonder how long until they crush Trelora? I’m sure “buyer’s agents” will steer their clients away from any house listed by Trelora.
Those Trelora punks will never get a seat at the Roundtable of Excellence:
“The people who sold most of the residential real estate in metro Denver in 2013 met at the Infinity Park Event Center Thursday to recognize the best among them at the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ 36th Roundtable of Excellence Awards.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2014/04/denver-metro-association-of-realtors-namebest-of.html
So I tried emailing Housing Analist at the email that he gave me, but he never replied with his company name or any particulars on his company’s construction method, whether or not they build on site or in a factory, etc. I’m still interested in getting a house built for $50/sq. ft. here in San Diego, but he just won’t give me any real information.
Maybe someone else will have better luck? All I got was “send your plans and specs when you’re serious.” Who sends full plans and specs to a builder without knowing ANYTHING about that builder? He won’t he even say what company he works for.
I told you to send the plans and specs…. over and over and over again. And each time you responded with some excuse.
Would you like to review your emails publicly?
You mean me asking you for your company name and you replying with “send your plans and specs when you’re serious?” Or me accusing you of living in your mom’s basement? Lol
In all seriousness, just give us your company’s name and contact info so that we can call and do our due diligence. Giving us a Gmail address is not a professional approach.
You’ve got the problem my friend. Not us.
Stick with suckering people into insurance they don’t need.
Who is “us?” What company do you work for? I would sincerely like to contact them and ask some questions. I don’t think I’m asking for too much.
I told you before you can ask me…. your reply?
“grow some hair on your balls”.
You never said your company name. Please tell all of us now, for the record. You lose all credibility about your $50/sq. ft. figure if you can’t at least tell us your company name.
Company name has nothing to do with it kid.
The point that I take away from HA’s $55/sq. ft. statement is that the structure object itself varies little in price. That there are other factors causing the price variation.
As a similar example take a Chevrolet Impala. It costs $25,000 around the country. Then imagine in some locations it cost $25,000 and in others it costs $175,000. Price variations certainly exist, but to build and get that car to the CONUS costs a certain amount. My takeaway is that a similar dynamic exists with comparable housing.
The largest disparity in bid prices we’ve observed is a function of how hungry contractors are. If there is alot of work and everyone is busy, prices double, if not prices halve. Case in point;
Project: Arlington County, VA, 2005,- Engineers estimate was $210 million. 3 bidders showed. Back on the street in 2006, revised to $325 million. 7 qualified bidders showed. Low bid was just under $500 million.
Project: City of NY DDC, 2009,- Engineers estimate was $240 million. 38 bidders at pre-bid. 38 bidders qualified. Low bid was $125 million by a very qualified contractor from Kansas. Yes…. Kansas! And they successfully built the job on time. And they earned a very hefty profit.
Contracting can be extremely lucrative or you can lose your ass in hurry. But houses? There is no risk. None. Unless you’re a moron and you build empty houses. It’s a very bad idea.
So I did a Google search of the email address that HA gave me, and it came up with another blog with him spewing the same nonsense. This was in 2012, and he was using $60/sq. ft. at the time. I guess your company has found a cheaper way to build? Lol.
You’ve been at this a while, eh? At first I thought you were just some kid trolling, but you seem decently intelligent. I’ll figure out your angle eventually. You have A LOT more time on your hands than I do though.
Mom, MEATLOAF!
That’s interesting. Nothing like that comes up on google.
You’re grapsing.
Lol yes it does. Anyone who has your email address can Google it. Post it again for everyone if you’re so confident.
Darrell, Dean, whatever your name is.
why should he give you anything ‘furlow’?
you obviously don’t really want to build a house, you want to discredit him. my advice to him would be to never give you his company name, even in private mail. no telling what someone with an agenda like yours would be willing to do.
if you truly wanted to do business with him you would have contacted him privately and assured him that your correspondence would be private from then on.
HA would be wise to give you no info about anything.
And why is this “obvious?” I am looking at land and talking to several different contractors currently. I am absolutely going to build a house.
The fact that HA is saying he can build for $50/sq. ft. is comical to me, but I’d be a fool to not at least look into it. How can I do that if he won’t even give me his company name? What exactly would I be able to do with that information to hurt him?
And let’s get one thing straight, HE is the one who threatened to take our private conversation public. HE is the one who has made him private email available for us. I merely want to find out if he is for real or if he is a troll. It’s becoming obvious which one that is.
And why is this “obvious?”
people that try to do business don’t take your tone.
I am looking at land and talking to several different contractors currently. I am absolutely going to build a house.
you never had any intention of having HA build it for you. only a fool would think otherwise.
The fact that HA is saying he can build for $50/sq. ft. is comical to me
then you think the owner of this board is comical too.
How can I do that if he won’t even give me his company name?
how can you expect to get a company name from someone you’re hostile too?
What exactly would I be able to do with that information to hurt him?
are you in the habit of giving info to your enemies?
And let’s get one thing straight, HE is the one who threatened to take our private conversation public.
he wasn’t trying to get info out of you.
HE is the one who has made him private email available for us.
i’m sure he doesn’t want someone he’s hostile with to use it.
I merely want to find out if he is for real or if he is a troll.
if that were true you wouldn’t have publicly challenged him.
It’s becoming obvious which one that is.
he didn’t just show up here. he’s been here for a long time. just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean that he’s a ‘troll’.
What HA is doing is analogous to me saying I can write anyone’s car insurance for $10/month. The average person pays $50-$100 per month. And then when I’m asked what company I work for and how I’m able to do it for that cheap, I tell you to send your declaration pages to a personal Gmail account.
How can anyone take this guy seriously if he’s not willing to prove his claims?
Let’s not forget how he skews the numbers that he cites. “La Mesa inventory balloons as prices crater.” Yes, list price is down slightly, but the price per square foot is up and the number of available homes is 125 compared to 100 this same time last year. Does his description match reality? No. Sadly, it rarely does.
He clearly has an agenda.
Believe whatever you want. The credibility of the numbers he quotes ad infinitum have been discussed here and validated even by our blog host many times over. He is not trying to get you to buy anything from him. He doesn’t pretend to be a sales guy. Why would he post his professional information on a blog? You want a cost estimate for a real house, go ahead and send him the information. If you are just mocking, what’s the point?
Others of us have posted similar warnings that house prices are many multiples of house construction costs. Builders and UHSers are ripping into the foolishness and stupidity of the manic herd. Pay $250/ft2 and up if you want to. We can’t stop you.
Oh, and please borrow so much money to do so that you will slave for 30 years just to pay it off!
I can tell you aren’t very bright.
Has it dawned on you yet that had you just sent over the specs on the house you were looking at, that he would provide you a quote with company information on it? At this point, he won’t quote you anything. You will never get any bona fides as to whether he is legit or not.
Now you are just taking up space. Stop talking.
Has anyone announced they were gonna build a big f@#%!&n thing?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/17/885023/-Build-the-Big-F-n-Thing#
ATF Attempts Bulk Collection of Customer Data From Gun Stores
Agency likely creating a centralized gun registry by fiat
Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
April 16, 2014
Barely a month after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided a California gun parts manufacturer for its customer data, the agency is now trying to force a Maine gun store owner out of business after he rejected an ATF agent’s demand for his customer records last year.
The ATF is targeting gun shops for their customer data. Credit: Dannielle Blumenthal / Flickr
Despite not being charged with any crimes, Phil Chabot, the owner of Pac N Arms in Sanford, Maine, received a “notice of revocation” of his gun dealer license after he prevented ATF investigator Wayne Bettencourt from “scanning a copy of every page” of his customer records, according to Chabot’s attorney Penny Dean, who also added that the ATF has not even scheduled a hearing regarding the revocation.
“If he was really this bad person like ATF says he is, wouldn’t you have a hearing right away to revoke his license?” she said to the Portland Press Herald. “He has disputed every one of their allegations.”
“We say, ‘Show us the evidence.’”
The ATF accused Chabot of making “straw sales” to an intermediary on behalf of a convicted felon, but Chabot said that the ATF’s attempt at mass collection of his customer data during its investigation “appeared to be little more than a thinly veiled attempt to create a registry of my clientele.”
An ATF spokesperson, Debora Seifert, even admitted that ATF investigators are allowed to copy only records that are alleged to contain errors or information related to a criminal investigation, a statement which indicates that a dragnet collection of customer data is clearly not allowed.
And the ATF recently raided Ares Armor in National City, Cali. for its customer data as well.
The company’s owner, Dimitrios Karras, said that the ATF targeted his company under the false claim that Ares Armor was making AR-15 lower receivers, which are classified as a firearm, and then reverting them back to unfinished receivers not classified as firearms according to the law.
Even though the ATF was informed of their mistake, according to Karras, the agency proceeded with the raid anyway in order to gain access to customer records and to seize the company’s inventory of unfinished receivers, known as 80% receivers.
“They said either give us these 5,000 names or we’re coming in and we’re pretty much taking everything, which is a huge, huge privacy concern and something we are not willing to do,” he added.
By harassing gun stores across the nation for their customer data, the ATF is likely creating a gun registry by fiat because gun dealers keep the most comprehensive records.
“Well, because of this system, which is all relying on manual records, it’s not like CSI on TV,” a retired ATF agent, David Chipman, told NPR when asked how the agency tracks firearms. “Someone at the ATF National Tracing Center has to call the manufacturer of that gun. They have records of when they sold it to a wholesaler. ATF then calls the wholesaler. The wholesaler has records.”
“And then ATF calls the dealer from which the wholesaler sold the gun. And then that dealer goes to this record that we talked about earlier, which is kept on paper form in their business records.”
These business records are exactly what the ATF wants.
This article was posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 2:10 pm
New Emails Show Lois Lerner Was in Contact With DOJ About Prosecuting Tax Exempt Groups
Katie Pavlich | Apr 16, 2014
According to new IRS emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from Judicial Watch, former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner was in contact with the Department of Justice in May 2013 about whether tax exempt groups could be criminally prosecuted for “lying” about political activity.
“I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ … He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs. I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS,” Lerner wrote in a May 8, 2013 email to former Nikole C. Flax, who was former-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller’s chief of staff.
“I think we should do it – also need to include CI [Criminal Investigation Division], which we can help coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it make sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?” Flax responded on May 9, 2013.
“These new emails show that the day before she broke the news of the IRS scandal, Lois Lerner was talking to a top Obama Justice Department official about whether the DOJ could prosecute the very same organizations that the IRS had already improperly targeted,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The IRS emails show Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is now implicated and conflicted in the IRS scandal. No wonder we had to sue in federal court to get these documents.”
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/04/16/breaking-new-emails-show-lois-lerner-contacted-doj-about-prosecuting-tax-exempt-groups-n1825292?utm_source=TopBreakingNewsCarousel&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=BreakingNewsCarousel - 71k -
she’s been sentenced to a fat pension
On a lot of those federal forms, such as the forms you fill out to get a passport, there is a message that states that entering false information and submitting it to the government is a federal crime.
Apparently some folks in the government thought that some group or groups may have entered false information on IRS forms. So there was a discussion with DOJ regarding whether it might be appropriate to file charges. If that’s the end of the story, DOJ must not have filed any charges.
I can’t see what the big deal is here, phony.
I think it became a scandal when people found out that only groups using words such “Constitution” and “patriot” were being targeted. I think the laws against tax fraud have to be enforced, but the enforcement should be across the board. I don’t know how much of this is trumped up.
When I am hiking, I am pretty sure some moose or deer or other hiker probably was upstream in the water I drink and yet this occurs:
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/25266957/portland-plans-reservoir-flush-after-teen-cited
Or it could be like if you were a guest drinking water at an LA hotel last year - some of the taste of dead body…
http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/163050/3_seriously_creepy_circumstances_surrounding
If I remember that correctly, the investigators do not know how she ended up in the cistern exactly and video footage is creepy to say the least of her in the elevator. It is a messed up world we live in.
Water, minerals, subdivisions and Reid LLC. Whats really going on in Bunkerville?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?utm_campaign=RSS&feature=youtube_gdata&utm_source=rss&v=javctnH4uCQ&utm_medium=sendible
Lots of things going on behind the scenes. But “progressives,” like my boss, who consider themselves “deep thinkers” are actually shallow.
One thing is for certain: No matter how hard or fast U.S. housing prices drop from here on out, Realtors® will continually try to mislead greater fools into catching themselves falling knives.
Just watch and wait if you don’t believe me.
ft dot com
March 21, 2014 7:06 pm
Workaholic ex-bankers impose long-hours culture on new colleagues
By Emma Jacobs in London
City workers during the morning rush-hour in the City of London
Bankers’ punishing hours are no longer merely of concern to the families of financiers – the fallout of their all-consuming office culture is spreading as they take their hard-driving ways to new workplaces.
They become so used to their long hours that they are blind to the stresses and, when they leave banking, impose their schedules on new colleagues, concludes a forthcoming survey in Sociological Quarterly written by a Goldman Sachs investment banker-turned academic.
“Bankers intensified the pace for all at their new environment,” writes Dr Alexandra Michel of the University of Pennsylvania, after following the careers of junior bankers over 12 years. “As leaders, they implemented work practices . . . which had the sometimes unintended consequence of causing people to work excessively hard.”
When a former banker took over one small human resources consulting firm, office hours escalated because he imposed the bank’s culture on the new organisation. Such a routine was rarely intentional she found, in her peer-reviewed research, but rather because the banks’ way of working “skewed perceptions”.
Even if bankers want to find work-life balance, they have a hard time doing so because banks’ intense work practices become deeply ingrained in bankers, she concludes.
She cites one banker who moved with his wife and children to Arizona for a better work-life balance: “I have made a comfortable life for myself here,” he says. “There is hardly a day when I have to be in the office later than 11pm.”
Another reflected: “I did leave banking partly to have a better life and to see more of my family. But my standards of what constitutes normal had been so distorted from banking that what I thought was now a normal life still turned out to be unsustainable in the long run.”
…
Meh, it could have been worse. He could have moved to Arizona and developed allergies. Say Whac, have you ever witnessed a eustachian tube draining? It’s gross.
“…a eustachian tube draining?”
Somewhat miraculously, despite having helped raise four children from infancy to teenager-hood, I have never seen that.
I am allergic to whatever is in the Mojave Desert. But very fee problems in Arizona. The Palos Verdes tree outside my apartment is a problem for my sinus unless I keep my windows closed.
A marketplace of opportunities:
http://maine.craigslist.org/lab/4426704349.html