Bits Bucket for April 18, 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
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The current L.A. Weekly has a story about some Chinese businessman, Huang, who bought his 23-year-old son a $5.8 million mansion in Pasadena.
Huang paid cash. His son is a USC student.
Last year Huang bought a nearby mansion in Pasadena for $3.7 million in cash, to serve as “interim housing” while he upgrades the $5.8 million mansion.
There’s apparently a Chinese website, Juwai.com, which advertises US houses for sale.
How many Chinese millionaires/billionaires are there? And is this a repeat of the Japanese mania in the 1980s (in which the Japanese got burned)?
It was a long time ago, but my recollection was that the Japanese mania was much more corporations buying high end commercial properties (Rockefeller Center, for example) as investments. I don’t recall it being a huge wave of residential property buying to that individuals with enormous personal wealth could have a bolt hole if their country imploded. Maybe there was a lot of residential as well, but I am not remembering it.
You’re correct on that point, as I recall it was mainly corporations doing the buying. And those Japanese that lived here to manage things, didn’t like it much, or so I seem to remember reading. There was that movie with Michael Keaton about the auto plant that sort of illustrated this, and I think it was based on some truth. So residential would not have been a big deal with the Japanese management class, especially if they wanted to go home.
But my point was, could be a similar phenomenon, just different methods and vehicles. My speculation is that the Chinese may lose very badly, even on an individual basis, as the Japanese did.
The Japanese bought residential property heavily in Hawaii in the 80’s, greatly driving up the prices there, but I don’t think that happened as much on the mainland. Of course, there were a lot fewer Japanese millionaires, and their home country was more stable than the China of today.
“…there were a lot fewer Japanese millionaires, and their home country was more stable than the China of today.”
And yet their country still went into a twenty-five year long real-estate-led depression after their bubble started to collapse, circa 1990.
China is going to make the Japanese experience look like a cake walk when it craters!
Is this Lola? I was thinking it was a deliberate parody account, like Sandwich Girl, but seems too rabid for that. And was Lola also Furlow(ed) from the halfway-house?
Yes, until they find Joe’s body.
“His son is a USC student.”
The man has millions, and his son is attending college in a fugg’n ghetto. Why not a really nice area like UC Irvine?
Inventory is less than half of what it was 6 years ago. Housing to continue to climb for few more years.
Housing shortage files big price increase in Dallas
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/residential-real-estate/20140417-housing-shortages-fuel-big-price-increases-this-year-in-some-dallas-area-neighborhoods.ece
Integrity shortage. Find some.
It’s about time someone started posting the truth on here. Read it and weep, boys!
Fetch me a bag of Cheetos…. and be quick about it.
Get me a sandwich. And when you are done, scrub out those toilets like your recent article said.
Go get ‘em, Amy. Fulfill your client’s dreams (lube ‘em up to the max) and them bring them to me so they can be finished off at the signing-on-the-dotted-line ceremony.
Grab me a beer lady
Samwich!
Inventory is less than half of what it was 6 years ago. Housing to continue to climb for few more years.
Buy series I bonds instead. Insure against the coming housing collapse.
Sellers’ market has few homes
Home sales in the Sacramento region were stuck in an odd rut in March, traditionally the start of the spring homebuying season. Even though prices rebounded to healthy levels not seen since before last decade’s housing boom and bust, the supply of homes on the market remained anemic.
Inventory, measured in the time it would take for all the homes listed to sell, dropped from 2 months in February to about 1.5 months in March, several data sources reported. Inventory that low makes for a strong sellers’ market but is bad news for buyers.
full story
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/16/6331084/sellers-market-has-few-homes.html
It’s time to start mowing the grass here in the Finger Lakes. Not seeing any shiny new For Sale signs popping up, just the weathered ones that didn’t sell from last year. This must be the “low inventory” thing I keep reading about. Maybe if there were more customers, they’d put more cartons of milk on the shelves?
A young relative of mine tried his hand as a Realtor last year. Not making any money and can’t find a job. He’s going to move away and sell (he hopes) the house his grandfather built.
“A young relative of mine tried his hand as a Realtor last year. Not making any money and can’t find a job.”
IMO he’s at the wrong end of the RE business. The realtors do all the hustling but it’s the lenders that reap the profits.
And the lenders don’t just reap one profit per transaction as the realtors do, they get to reap as profit each and every month as the monthly payment come flowing in.
Tell your relative to smarten up and become a lender instead of a lackey.
Or is Queenie Jingle Fraud?
http://calwatchdog.com/2014/04/17/split-roll-tax-bill-strikes-at-prop-13/
If they ever get rid of Prop 13, in whole or in effect, then you know we are in a Depression.
They won’t get rid of Prop 13.
The next Depression will come at the point when collapse is underway despite the realization by everyone that none of the real estate props will ever end, coupled with common knowledge that even the presence of permanent props is not sufficient to avoid price collapse.
Hello Realtor®
See above ^^
The market is booming;
But where are the buyers?
Inventory is looming,
realtors are liars.
25 MILLION excess, empty and defaulted houses CHECK
Housing demand at 14 year lows and falling CHECK
Housing prices inflated by 250% CHECK
Household formation at multi decade lows CHECK
Rampant housing fraud CHECK
Public denial formed and supported by a corrupt media CHECK
Population growth the lowest in US history CHECK
Immigration flat to slightly negative CHECK
Oh my word……
Housing is a depreciating asset.
I think I’m going to buy a 50th anniversary edition of a Ford Mustang. It will increase in value.
Wouldn’t even put a dent in your account.
I think I’m going to buy a 50th anniversary edition of a Ford Mustang.
Do it.
It will increase in value.
As the former owner of the most collectible Mustang (I think any American car actually according to the articles) of the 80s I wouldn’t go that far :-). Unless you never drive it. Which is pointless and the appreciation still won’t cover the storage costs. Just buy it and drive it like you stole it.
I have to get surgery on my right eye first - eventually it’s going to otherwise be very bad. Then I will be sharp enough to make the quick turns and braking required for that wild horse!
90% success rate on that operation and many people are surprised at how much sharper they could see after it. Will be done in a few weeks I’m sure.
The revenge of the Jedi! I brought my cholesterol level down by 16% in three months! It was elevated in January. My endocrinologist back in January suggested I do cardio 40 minutes a day. Well I was already doing a lot of cardio but dropped it down a bit.
So what I did do was 1) eat one whole grapefruit daily 2) eat steel cut oatmeal almost every morning, 3) exercise ten to twenty percent longer - in the cardio area. Swimming 3900 yards instead of 3400. Or be on the elliptical machine (with cardio workout selected to keep my pulse at 137) for at least 45 minutes.
Those were all I did. I also was more conscientious on eating a variety of vegetables.
Now I want to knock my cholesterol level to less than 190.
I did the blood test for my PCP last week and got the results today. He wrote a note on my lab results that they look great.
Health is the first priority. Career second. Relationships always on the back burner.
Bill, I am a steel cut oats convert too. When I take it off the stove, I mix in some flax seed. It adds a slightly nutty flavor and the flax actively reduces cholesterol.
Jingle Male,
I like to prepare my steel cut oats to how Starbucks makes theirs. I don’t like it crunchy. So at night I put oats into a boiling pot - just enough water to cover them in the morning and let the simmering continue for a minute. The turn off the burner and put a cover on the pot. The next morning after my workout, the oats have softened and soaked up much of the water. I add more water if necessary and let the pot simmer for ten minutes. Then pour out excess water. It’s the same as perfect oatmeal. As a bonus I know there is no added salt. Many places add a pinch of salt.
If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, you can’t ‘afford’ it nor is it ‘affordable’.
Renter for life.
Cheetos. NOW!
Only Obamacare could explain this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/17/poll-hillary-clintons-numbers-worst-since-2008-as-gop-brand-surges/
Yup, and if you click on the Washington Post article, and then click on link to the Fox News poll and scroll the numbers, you’ll see that:
Hillary’s “worst” numbers are about the same as they were in 2007.
The GOP “surge” is simply the recovery from their very low approval of last October, when they shut down the government. They’ve now recovered to where they were at the 2010 election. Maybe because they quietly caved on the budget and debt ceiling?
The Tea Party never cracked above 40%; they are now at 35%.
The Republican bench (Cruz, Paul, JEB!) can’t crack 35%.
Hillary still trounces all of the R bench in the Pres election:
Hillary 50 Christie 42.
Hillary 50 JEB! 42.
Hillary 51 Paul 42.
Not looking as bad for the Dems as it seems.
What happened in the 2010 election, I forgot.
Hillary is an unstoppable force of nature in 2016. She will carry all the womyn votes (51% of the electorate) and will receive at least 30 million votes from USA’s 20 million black voters. Add in 75 million new voters from the Shamnesty and there’s no way she can’t win.
East mediterranean ThugGov will get their way.
The more rabid Queenie gets, the more it shows he knows it’s toast.
You read my mind!
That’s exactly it.
You too would be $hitting basketballs if you were on the hook for depreciating junk with no hopes of getting out from under it.
Advice to Democrats: Don’t say “recovery”
yahoo | 4/18/14 | David Espo
Election-year memo to Democratic candidates: Don’t talk about the economic recovery. It’s a political loser….
Stan Greenberg, James Carville and others wrote that in head-to-head polling tests the mere mention of the word “recovery” is trumped by a Republican assertion that the Obama administration has had six years to get the economy moving and its policies haven’t worked.
As the EITC income tax refunds run out, the higher gasoline and food prices sap discretionary incomes, housing prices sag and there is no opportunity to refinance at a cheaper rate, growth is going to go slower not faster as we get into voting. Remember due to early voting, a lot that voting will be late September and not November.
Welcome to the Long Hot Summer.
Those refunds are probably already spent. One year, an accounting firm opened an office nearby and offered tax services. I was stunned at the number of people who showed up in the evenings in early February, toting kids and black sheep uncles and god knows what else. At first, I thought they were being really diligent about getting their taxes in order as soon as they recevied all the tax docs. Well duh.
They needed that refund. Early Februrary. That money is already gone.
The free sh*t army votes and gives generously.
That is all you need to know.
———————
Obama’s Plan: Taxes, Spending And Debt
IBD | 04/18/2014
Remember President Obama’s vow that, if re-elected, he’d pursue “balanced” deficit reduction? Either he forgot, or he hopes voters have, because a new report shows his latest budget is entirely unbalanced.
When Obama released his budget this March, he said it included “smart spending cuts” and closed “tax loopholes” that benefit only “the wealthiest Americans.”
Obama added that his budget would put “our debt on a downward path as a share of our total economy, which independent experts have set as a critical target for fiscal responsibility.”
As with just about everything Obama says, none of these claims turns out be true. When the Congressional Budget Office scrubbed Obama’s budget, it didn’t find a balanced or responsible plan at all.
In a report Thursday, the CBO says the 10-year deficit cut is half what Obama claims, and all of it — 100% — comes from tax hikes. Worse, Obama’s “road map” would leave us with a massive and rising national debt.
And unless Obama thinks balance means raising taxes and spending, his budget is about as unbalanced as you can get. It not only doesn’t cut spending; it also increases outlays by $338 billion.
That is one way to beat the high cost of housing in NYC…
———————
‘Homeless’ man evicted from heat-equipped spot inside the Manhattan Bridge by NYPD
upi | April 17, 2014 | Evan Bleier
NEW YORK, A homeless man in New York City was evicted from a spot he had made for himself inside the Manhattan Bridge by NYPD cops on Thursday.
When he was given the boot, “Joe” was forced to leave behind Chinese cookies, a gas heater, hot sauce and beer.
The raid on Joe’s lair was conducted when a city worker used bolt cutters to remove a red bicycle lock from the wooden shelter while 12 officers looked on.
When cops yelled “Police department, Police department,” they got no response, so Emergency Service Unit officers began using a saw on the structure.
That’s when Joe, who was dressed in white pajamas, emerged.
“He’s fine. He’s fine. He didn’t answer. No one got hurt, thank God,” a senior officer told the New York Post.
Bill, the mining companies have caved in South Africa and now are willing to double wages for the lowest paid workers. Vey bullish for platinum and palladium over the medium and long term. Of course, the end of the strike is short term bearish.
Two of the world’s top platinum producers, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, on Thursday announced a new wage offer to end a 12-week strike in their South African mines.
The proposal from the two miners would push the minimum wage to the R12 500 ($1200) demanded by unions by July 2017.
The firms had initially rejected the demand by the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), threatening job losses as the strike waged on.
Over 80 000 workers downed tools across South Africa’s platinum industry on January 23, vowing not to return to the shafts until their minimum monthly wage was doubled.
Impala Platinum said in a statement “the proposed increases will ensure that the minimum cash remuneration for entry level underground employees will rise to R12 500 by July 2017.”
The union has been demanding the wage increase since a violent strike in 2012 when 34 mine workers were killed by police in Marikana.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin - the world top three platinum producers - had insisted the demands were unrealistic and would put mines out of business.
“Anglo American Platinum urges AMCU and its members to seriously consider this offer,” said the company in a statement.
Amplats said it had lost approximately 225 373 ounces of platinum in the last 12 weeks of the strike.
Lonmin, which was also affected by the strike, is now the only company that has not presented a settlement.
Intermittent wage strikes since 2011 have plagued the platinum industry in South Africa, which holds around 80 percent of the world’s known reserves.
Amcu could not be reached for comment on the new settlement. Talks between the union and producers were scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
Yes I think a strong basis has formed for the white metals. Not my time to buy yet. I just bought a bunch of gold quarter ounce eagles! Have to wait for the Fall. I Don’t have enough Platinum and in 2014 will probably buy 3 ounces of platinum for every ounce of gold I buy.
An interesting rebuttal to the permanent democrat super-majority argument of the free sh*t army and amnesty…
—————-
Time Bombs in Democratic Coalition
Townhall.com | April 18, 2014 | Mona Charen
The president’s approval rating has been tumbling downhill. Obamacare, the poor economy and now also foreign policy are considered weaknesses. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that 58 percent disapprove of his handling of foreign affairs. Nearly twice as many Americans believe the economy will worsen in the coming year as say it will improve. The Institute of Politics at Harvard reports that among voters between the ages of 18 and 39, 57 percent disapprove of Obamacare. By a 2-1 margin, voters under 30 believe that the quality of their care will get worse as a result of the law.
The grand alliance of minority groups, young voters, public employee unions and women that propelled President Barack Obama to two comfortable victories may be fraying.
Though the Democrats encourage the fiction that members of their coalition have the same interests, this is not the case. Children, especially black and Hispanic children, have an interest in school choice and charter schools. The teachers unions have an interest in preventing reform of the public schools.
Asian-Americans have an interest in eliminating racial quotas in education, as quotas tend to set ceilings, rather than floors, on their acceptance to college. Black and Hispanics think (though it’s a matter of vigorous dispute) that their interests are served by maintaining racial quotas. (Count me among the doubters: Proposition 209 in California, the 1996 referendum that outlawed racial preferences, actually increased the number of black and Hispanic graduates at the University of California.)
Asian-Americans now constitute about 15 percent of California’s electorate. Since the 1990s, they’ve leaned toward the Democrats. They gave Obama 72 percent of their votes in 2012. This has confused some Republicans, who note that Asians tend to uphold the kinds of values Republicans champion: high rates of marriage, self-reliance, entrepreneurship and educational achievement. It may be that Democrats have done a better job courting them. Or it may be that Asians’ liberal views on gay marriage, immigration and abortion incline them toward the Democrats.
But recent moves by Democrats in California to reinstate preferences in higher education have met with a backlash. Writing in The American Magazine, Abigail Thernstrom notes that when a constitutional amendment was proposed that would have overturned Proposition 209, Asian-Americans rebelled and forced Assembly Speaker John A. Perez to table it. This is the first time Asians have broken with the Democratic Party over this issue.
In New York, one very liberal Democrat, Mayor Bill de Blasio, met resistance from a slightly less liberal Democrat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when he struck at charter schools. Charters are precious to voters who are strongly attached to the Democratic Party — blacks and Hispanics. They are anathema to another loyal Democratic constituency — the teachers unions. The sound you hear is the cracking of an alliance.
The Republicans will win in 2014, but as we correctly predicted, within a decade voters will get to “choose” between the Free Sh*t Party and the More Free Sh*t Party.
All free sh*t of course will be paid for by Whitey.
The asians are turning white…
Same with a lot of hispanics.
You think a handful of Asian and Hispanic Uncle Toms who “are turning white” are gonna outnumber the Free Sh*t Army? That’s a laugh.
Will the last white taxpayer in USA please turn out the lights, thank you.
There is no FSA without the free sh!t. When the groups have to start fighting each other for slices of that shrinking pie, then things get good. Happens in unions all the time, old dudes screw younger ones come contract time to keep or increase theirs.
Who gets the bone when there is only one, public unions or illegals?
This has confused some Republicans, who note that Asians tend to uphold the kinds of values Republicans champion: high rates of marriage, self-reliance, entrepreneurship and educational achievement. It may be that Democrats have done a better job courting them. Or it may be that Asians’ liberal views on gay marriage, immigration and abortion incline them toward the Democrats.
If you look at major gatherings of Republicans, such as Tea Party rallies or the debates during the 2012 campaign, it appears that the GOP is a club for non-Hispanic white Christians, espcially those in suburbs or rural areas, except, of course, people like Donald Trump and the Wall Street billionaires. Many Asian-Americans may look at the party and think, gee, they don’t like blacks, they don’t like Hispanics, and they don’t like gays. They probably don’t like us Asians either.
Then, of course, you have to remember that many of the Asian cultures have a great deal of respect for education and scholarship and science in general. I could imagine that they’re somewhat dismayed when they members of Congress question things like evolution and global warming.
Question things like global warming? I think many Asians are intelligent enough to see that Al Gore and the Democrats have sold them a bill of goods on that one for decades and now they are paying the highest electric bills in the history of the country because of it.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warming-background-articles/2000-years-of-global-temperatures/
Yes, like global warming. Unfortunately for you and your paymasters, most Asians aren’t redneck know nothings who don’t believe in science. That’s what those high IQs will do for you.
¨the GOP is a club for non-Hispanic white Christians, ¨
And all third parties are quickly made to look like Christian-whites-only nuts in armed rebellion. Weĺl never throw off the two-party yoke if we independents can’t get past that perception.
There was the Green Party that got some attention when it nominated Ralph Nader back in 2000. Nader’s a non-religious Arab-American and his running mate was an American Indian.
It is not about running a city for the benefit of its citizens, creating excellent schools, plowing streets or keeping crime low.
It is all about power.
And the bigger government on all levels becomes, the more power it takes.
————–
Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class
City Journal | April 16 | AARON M. RENN
This is the Democratic Party’s new top-bottom coalition, one in which the traditional middle class—white ethnics, blue-collar manufacturing and trade workers, small business owners, and others—has no part.
These “left-outs” are the urban equivalents of Reagan Democrats. Their instinct to vote Democratic may remain, but the economic interests that once bound them to the party have largely disappeared, leaving them politically unaffiliated. They are open to voting for a compelling Republican, such as Rudolph Giuliani—particularly if the city in which they live appears to be spiraling downward.
In other words, these independent-minded, urban middle classes are quintessential swing voters. They can create political trouble for an unsympathetic mayor—and that’s why leaders in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere aren’t going to lift a finger to try to halt their flight. Indeed, in Chicago, even the black middle class is bailing. The city’s leadership appears unconcerned.
To the extent that the middle class abandons Chicago and New York, the Democratic Party’s stranglehold in such places will only tighten. In this light, the dramatic changes in Chicago since 1970 shouldn’t be seen as merely an accident of fate, but rather as a political result directly tied to the interests of the Democrats running America’s third-largest city. Urban liberal politicians may see value in continuing to beat the “tale of two cities” drum. Just don’t expect any of these big-city mayors to reach out to the middle class any time soon.
The talking point I keep hearing from Rio…
—————-
Republican Killers: Blaming Republicans for deaths could be a sign of a tactics to come
National Review | April 17, 2014 | Andrew Johnson
As the 2014 midterm elections ramp up, liberal media have are pinning the death of a Florida woman on Republicans.
Literally.
“Democrats Need to Start Blaming the GOP for the Death of Charlene Dill” is the title of a recent piece by Brian Beutler at the New Republic, and others are agreeing with him.
The reason Beutler and others are attributing Dill’s death to Republicans is because she fell within the “Medicaid gap,” meaning her she earned too much money to be eligible for Medicaid but not enough to qualify for subsidies to buy a private health-care plan. In Florida, Republican lawmakers opted not to expand the program over concerns that the federal government would not follow through in funding in the coming years.
The talking point I keep hearing from Rio…
Yes the paid troll leads the way.
Says the GOP troll, talking to the “other” GOP troll.
Hey Danny, you forgot the typo to correct and double your per-post income!
Series I bond purchase limits have been raised. I did not know this back in 2012 or maybe I was not interested in it. But an individual now can buy $10,000 worth of Series I bonds.
If you get a federal tax refund, up to $5,000 of it can be requested in the form of paper Series I bonds. That is the only way you can get paper I bonds. Some tax strategies are to overpay your federal taxes (maybe by not declaring enough exemptions??) and then get the refund in the form of paper I bonds.
The predicted variable rate on I bonds purchased this May 1 through October 31 is 1.83%. So if you have I bonds from twelve years ago with a fixed rate of 3%, your combined rate the next six months is 4.83%. Not bad. The predicted fixed rate is between 0 and 0.4% - which I don’t like. I have started to buy I bonds again but only because the fixed rate now is not 0%.
I bonds is a great counter investment to your precious metals insurance policy. When you can load up on both asset classes you will feel more financially secure against a potential stock market collapse.
I bought some I-bonds in Oct 2001 that paid inflation + 3.5%.
Sounds great, but I bought them with money borrowed at 6.25% so I’m not sure if I broke even. I would have done really really well if they had acrrued real inflation and not funny figures.
Yeah yeah, I’m a debt donkey. I coulda refinanced but I kept thinking I was about to sell a house or inherit some money. Mainly I didn’t want to hand over those inflated fees to Mr Banker.
In those days you could have bought up to $30,000 of electronic Series I bonds and another $30,000 of paper Series I bonds.
About for the paper, some people would buy a paper Series I bond with a credit card the 1st of the month, then pay off the credit card before the end of the month to get one month bank or credit union interest (was around 5% annualized those days, then also get the first month’s savings bond interest. So you could have bought $2,500 worth of paper series I bonds per month that way and get a smidge advantage in free interest.
Those were the good old days. Back before I was a poster boy for the before pictures of Botox.
I was just starting in consulting so I was starting to make a lot of money in 2001. That fall the fixed rates (after November 1) were at 3% and I missed out on the 3.6% earlier.
I hope you kept your series I bonds from that era and not sold them. Even if you paid them by credit card, if you paid off that card soon enough (within a year) the 3.6% stayed 3.6% for all these years and you more than made up for that lost year.
3.6% is golden.
Oh yes I kept those bonds. But it wasn’t a credit card, it was a “gasp” mortgage. I got 2 mortgages that day, one was a 15 yr on a rental property and it is close to paid off (obviously), for the other, I broke my cardinal rule and got a 30 year loan because it was my home and I wanted the deduction. Since I pay my own health/dental and insurance and am also charitably minded, the interest worked out to being almost fully deductable.
Good thing you-know-who isn’t reading old threads or I’d never hear the end of it.
Hey - this could make a great movie…
————————
British pensioners to be told how long they have to live so they can manage savings
Financial Post | 18 April 2014 | Peter Dominiczak, The Telegraph
Pensioners will be given estimates of how long they have left to live to help them manage their savings, a minister has disclosed.
Steve Webb said that the Government wants to provide pensioners with a rough life expectancy when they reach retirement to allow them to make better financial decisions.
Experts will take into account factors including gender, where a pensioner lives or whether they smoke, the pensions minister said. Life expectancy should be part of “guidance” given to help people decide how much to save.
But critics fear that people could end up struggling financially if they spend all their money soon after retiring.
The free sh*t army comes in all shapes and sizes…
———————
Twitter gave me PTSD
Daily Mail | 17 April 2014 | Sara Malm
Melody Hensley was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 16 months ago following online abuse, which she says is the result of her being an outspoken feminist and atheist.
She caused upset to many military veterans and their families and friends when she claimed her PTSD from Twitter trolls was as bad as mental anguish suffered by those who do active duty.
Ms Hensley, head of an organisation promoting secular ideas, has suffered from PTSD for more than a year, according to her Twitter account.
She claims to be harassed by a cybermob of ‘more than 400 people’ which led to her diagnosis.
On her Twitter feed Ms Hensley outlines her history of PTSD in several posts, saying she was bedridden for the first six months following her diagnosis, and that she has been so distressed about the online hatred she fears leaving her house unaccompanied.
Classical liberal view that all pain is the same, someone steals your parking space and you are just as much a victim as if you have been tortured as a POW for five years. She was nuts when she first stated advocating and she is nuts now, no difference.
She was nuts when she first stated advocating and she is nuts now, no difference.”
yea I think so
LOL
Reddit cracks me up.
http://imgur.com/gallery/o62wiuJ
The unknown Paul has 42% support against her? That is a very strong showing, I doubt Obama did so well against her more two year prior to primary election and he ended up beating her. I think Bill Clinton is very worried looking at those numbers.
Remember President Dukakis? Wait he lost despite having a 17 point lead after the Democratic convention. A Democrat only having a 9 point lead over a Republican is dangerous territory.
The Dukakis/Bentsen ticket lost the election by a decisive margin in the Electoral College to George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle, carrying only 10 states and the District of Columbia. Dukakis himself blames his defeat on the time he spent doing gubernatorial work in Massachusetts during the few weeks following the Democratic Convention. Many believed he should have been campaigning across the country. During this time, his 17-point lead in opinion polls completely disappeared, as his lack of visibility allowed Bush to define the issues of the campaign. Dukakis has since stated[23] that the main reason he lost was his decision “not to respond to the Bush attack campaign, and in retrospect it was a pretty dumb decision.”
Notice that the Bush blow-out of Dukakis is called only a decisive margin despite his winning of 40 states but Obama’s win in the MSM is often described as a landslide despite being far less decisive.
The 1988 election? Seriously?
You been hanging around down in the basement archive room of the Department of Stuff Nobody Gives a Sh*t About (Or Can Remember) too long, Danny boy
You been hanging around down in the basement archive room of the Department of Stuff Nobody Gives a Sh*t About (Or Can Remember) too long, Danny boy
Those that do not remember history are bound to repeat it. When our schools stopped teaching about how and why the Greek and Roman democracies failed, we began the process that has lead us to the point where a complete failure of our democracy is possible.
The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
Cicero, 55 A.D.
I was really looking forward to a 100 post thread of you and Rio discussing the economic and political legacy of the Reagan administration today (for the 20the time).
Instead this Dukakis nonsense, and it doesn’t even mention the stupid tank photo or the Willie Horton commercial.
Let’s talk about Thomas Eagleton, Dannyboy, or Wendell Wilkie for that matter.
Martin Van Buren!
Martin Van Buren!
Too much money creation in the Jackson administration resulted in bubbles which collapsed and caused a Panic and depression. It does sound familiar. Who will be the Martin following Obama is a good question.
Martin Van Buren announced his intention “to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor”, and retained all but one of Jackson’s cabinet. Van Buren had few economic tools to deal with the Panic of 1837. The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, with the failure of banks and then-record-high unemployment levels. Some modern economists have argued that the Panic was caused by the bank policies of the Jackson administration, with the power to create money being distributed into decentralized banks, most of which would then continue to cause a massive inflationary bubble.[17]
P.S. text from Wikipedia. But it was Reagan’s fault says Rio.
Also from Wikipedia:
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins. Speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame.[1][2] On May 10, 1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value. Despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for approximately seven years. Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices.[3]
So Ben, were you being sarcastic or do you see the parallels between the two eras?
I used to kid rio about MVB. My point was Reagan is ancient history from an economic standpoint. Back then, monetizing the debt would have been unthinkable. Now they’ve been doing it for how long? We live in an age of central bank-ism. Multi-trillions created and sloshing around the globe distorting just about everything. We can talk about tax rates and regulation, but it won’t amount to much until we address the elephant in the room.
Ben, I think that there is a difference between thinking that Ronald Reagan is having a significant impact today and thinking we can learn something from history. To Rio, it is like Reagan is still in office and the fact that we have numerous presidential terms since him including Democrats does not matter. I would not put up with a Republican that tried to blame the failure of his or her presidency on FDR and I think it is absurd to blame Reagan for Obama’s failure even if some of Reagan’s policies persist.
You are right about monetizing debt being unthinkable but it is interesting that even the private debt created by banks caused an inflationary spiral in real estate, back in 1837.
The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled,…
To me, this sounds awfully modern to be written 200 years ago. It turns out that it is.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/cicero.asp
You should stop reading whatever dopey right wing website you got that from.
I meant to write that it sounds too modern to be written 2000 years ago.
And verily, jesus said, put not your faith in hybrid vehicles, and let corporations fund your governement’s politics, for it is just, for the poor shall rippeth you off.
Stupidians 10:20
Sometime Dan brings documents to the archive room of the Department of Stuff Nobody Gives a Sh*t About and even they are not interested.
Maybe if more people did care about learning lessons from history we would be in far better shape.
“Dukakis himself blames his defeat on the time he spent doing gubernatorial work in Massachusetts”
I remember the reason being that ill-advised ad where he’s driving a tank. I’ll have to see if that’s up on youtube. Made many cringe.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/7-5-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-mexico-n84121
When you take a look at all the major war conflicts of the 20th century, the majority of Presidents involved were Democrat! Woodrow Wilson (WW1), FDR (WW2) Truman (WW2 and Korean War, wow, that’s a two-fer!) LBJ (Veetnam). And then there’s Clinton’s vicious skirmishes in Eastern Europe.
Comes the millenium, we have GWB, Republican, going into Iraq and Afghanistan. And conflicts around the world furthering under Obama, Democrat.
I’m not a fan of the whole dem-rep back and forth sniping, but I believe there is such a thing as the War Party. It is neither Democrat or Republican, but works on both sides to see which one can be involved. So far, Democrats have done a better job of caving. And I think Democrats often blame Republicans for that which they themselves do. Let’s not forget that Democrats were the party of Jim Crow, of the Klan, of segregation.
Bankers are Behind the Wars
Washington’s Blog
April 18, 2014
All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars
More and more people are indeed seeing the connection between corporate banksterism and militarism ….
Indeed, all wars are bankers’ wars.
This article was posted: Friday, April 18, 2014 at 7:01 am
http://www.infowars.com/bankers-are-behind-the-wars/ - 77k -
Of course this has been going on for centuries. Bankers’ wars, yes, absolutely. But other industries that profit as well, such as the Dupont gunpowder and ordnance based fortune. (If I recall, Dupont got its start during the Revolutionary War and further benefited from the War of 1812.) And various cultural and religious groups.
I am an ardent admirer of Queen Elizabeth 1, Good Queen Bess, who navigated the banker/financier/war party European intrigues and alliances like walking a tightrope. Of course, she had her minister Walsingham to do the necessary things to maintain her position. But during her reign, England experienced peace and prosperity and that’s why she was much loved. She well knew that war would weaken the country, and she also knew that keeping her head depended on not being dragged into some international marital alliance. Thus she took her case to the people through her declaration of marriage to England.
I sort of enjoy looking at historical figures and trying to strip away the myths, and just see the man or woman behind the myths trying to survive and do some good (or evil, as the case may be).
I find Jesus Christ (the man, not the myth) to be absolutely fascinating. I’m sure he’d be horrified to know what has been done in his name. “Who do men say that I am?” he once asked his friends and followers, and I imagine that this question was posed with some amusement.
I like to think of him as one of the original Jewish activists, an advocate for the people who gained a sort of political status which pissed off the powers that be in those days. I mean, you’ve gotta admit, it was pretty ballsy to confront the banksters in the Temple and kick apart their kiosks and get in their faces and call them out. I think that’s the real reason he was crucified.
The “miracle” of the loaves and the fishes? That’s how it’s recorded, but in fact I bet he scurried around with his buddies and raised a sh*tload of food and set up a food bank and distributed it to those in need. And he stressed the importance of caring for children and of providing for the future generations. He was a pretty decent dude, seems like to me. Just been twisted by history, is all.
+ 1 Jose.
Jesus as dumpster diver? That’s a pretty cool way of interpreting the miracle.
“such a thing as the War Party”
Why do you hate the Job Creators?
Regards,
goon.squad.ctr@xxx.mil
lol, kickass torrents?
The military is only a useful job creator when it is dropping bombs on the factories of our world competitors, thing Germany and occupied Europe and Japan. When they are bombing mud huts in Afghanistan, not so much.
hidden in this story is the fact that even if the alarmists worse prediction on the amount of warming occurs (as likely as Denver winning a superbowl) the Greenland ice sheet will stay largely
be stable: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/2-7-million-year-old-soil-found-deep-beneath-greenlands-n83596
Fact you say? Like most things in this world, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The ice sheet is 100,000 years old, therefore the dirt at the bottom is 2.7 million years old. Gotta love “science”.
as likely as Denver winning a superbowl
Uh … you are aware that they have already won the Souper Bowl, two times in fact.
DAY ZERO!
A year ago, the Examiner reported that government controlled 99% of the mortgage market in 2012.
Again last year(2013), the numbers haven’t changed.
This sends flawed - deceptive - signals to the buying public. This is a completely government-backed, government-driven market. If there was profit in the MBS at these price levels, you’d see more private involvement. There’s been virtually no private involvement since 2008.
======================
P.10: MBS issuance (and thus mortgages purchased to create those MBS) by the GSEs as percentages of the total issuance.
P.20: Current and performing modified loans. The longer the time frame, the more the number of current and performing loans drop at a consistent rate.
P.31: Single Family mortgage originations - value.
Information only gets to the retail investor after it’s been pored over by the insiders.
U.S. Warns Money Managers of More Russia Sanctions
By Christopher Condon and Elisa Martinuzzi Apr 18, 2014 8:46 AM ET
Bloomberg
The Obama administration told asset managers last week that it was planning additional sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
Officials from the Treasury Department and the National Security Council met in Washington with mutual-fund and hedge-fund managers, according to a person who attended. Their comments sent a message that more sanctions are on the way and that investors, if they were concerned about the impact, should manage that risk, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions weren’t public.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-18/u-s-said-to-have-warned-money-managers-of-more-russia-sanctions.html
================
“Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confidence, while in possession of material, nonpublic information about the security. Insider trading violations may also include “tipping” such information, securities trading by the person “tipped,” and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information.”
https://www.sec.gov/answers/insider.htm
================
Congress can move with blinding speed when its in members’ interests.
Congress votes to eliminate key requirement of insider trading law
by Deidre Walsh
April 12, 2013
CNN
Washington (CNN) – The U.S. House on Friday eliminated a key requirement of the insider trading law for most federal employees, passing legislation exempting these workers, including congressional staff, from a rule scheduled to take effect next week that mandated online posting of financial transactions.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/12/congress-votes-to-eliminate-key-requirement-of-insider-trading-law/
How I would like to know as I invest in companies such as SWC whether the government is going to place sanctions on Russian exports of palladium. It is so nice that members of Congress and their staff will know that information while I am trying to figure out whether to write a call on the stock and they will be able to buy that call or not with that insider information.
You know what? Why not just start calling and writing your $enator or Repre$entative and ask them. Tell them you need the information since you are one of their con$tituents and an investor and you need it to make an informed decision. After all, they supposed to $erve you.
Members of Congress won’t be the first to know. It would be better to call the White House or John Kerry. However, even they probably haven’t decided yet. The situation in eastern Ukraine is pretty volatile.
You could start a club. Get everyone to sign a contract agreeing to vote for the Senator who is willing to leak information for trading purposes. Make sure to get an NDA.
A little levity today…..The BIGGGG news
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/rosie-odonnell-loses-50-pounds-shares-before-and-after-photo-2014174
I have not seen a single house go pending in the hood where I peep. One seller took the for-sale sign down, but it never went pending. It’s been vacant for at least a month. I guess they’re waiting for the big bubble that will never happen. Bad advice from a realtoR, probably.
Same here near Sac. Check this house out:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1967-Stephens-Ln-Woodland-CA-95776/16517085_zpid/
Homes identical to this one were going for under 200K three years ago. Yes HA, I know that was still overpriced. Should be interesting. All of the houses in this neighborhood have that cheap siding (t-111 or something similar) and there is a certain water damage that can only be seen when the sun is at a certain angle to the house. Water gets in under the siding and it forms a kind of bubble (so to speak). Not visible except for maybe one hour a day. This house has it. Notice the price drop too. I still predict a 250K sale.
For your essay:
What do the top 10 and bottom 10 have in common?
Extra Credit:
Which states have destroyed their middle class and anyone with a family?
Which states are people voting with their feet and leaving?
Where would you want to raise a family?
—————–
These Are America’s Most And Least “Taxing” States (And Everything Inbetween)
Tyler Durden - 04/18/2014 - zerohedge
One of the most consistent debates emanating out of Washington in the past 6 years has been that dealing with income tax. Whether high, low, “fair” or “unfair”, said discussions, however, focus solely on tax paid at the Federal level, and largely ignore that “other” key tax: state. Which is surprising, considering some states such as California demand a total contribution amounting to a third of the highest marginal Federal tax bracket, which could make some wonder if those bracing sea breezes are really worth it. But what about the other states? Here is the full breakdown of the states with the top income tax rates, those with the lowest, and all the states inbetween.
Here are the highest “taxing” states in the US:
California 13.3%
Hawaii 11%
Oregon 9.9% (a, b)
Minnesota 9.85%
Iowa 8.98% (b)
New Jersey 8.97% (a)
Vermont 8.95% (tie)
Washington, D.C. 8.95% (tie)
New York 8.82% (a, c)
Maine 7.95%
And the lowest:
Pennsylvania 3.07%* (a)
North Dakota 3.22%
Indiana 3.4%* (a)
Michigan 4.25%* (a)
Arizona 4.54%
Colorado 4.63%* ** (d)
Kansas 4.8% (a)
New Mexico 4.9%
Alabama 5% (a, b): tied with Illinois*, Mississippi, New Hampshire* (c) and Utah
Listing only income tax rates is lame. States get a large portion of their revenue from sales taxes.
Regarding where I’d want to raise a family - I think that Arizona has one of highest high school dropout rates in the country. I bet that, if you looked into it, the public schools in the Alabama and Mississippi are not great. Living in Utah has got to be difficult if you’re not a member of the dominant religion.
On the other hand, the cost of living in most of those first 10 states is very high.
Pennsylvania might be a good choice. People write about Oil City, but there are some very nice suburbs around Pittsburgh where the cost of renting or buying is still pretty low. The Pittsburgh metro area has also had an unemployment rate lower than the national rate for the past six years.
The fake obama economy and the obama housing bubble v2.0 is about to hit the wall…
—————————-
Housing Bubble 2.0 Veers Elegantly Toward Housing Bust 2.0
testosteronepit - 04/17/2014 - zerohedge
They’re not even trying to blame the weather this time. “Housing affordability is really taking a bite out of the market,” is how Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors explained the March home sales fiasco. “We haven’t seen this issue since 2007.”
In Southern California, the median price soared to a six-year high of $400,000, up 15.8% from a year ago, as San Diego-based DataQuick reported. It was the 24th month in a row of price increases, 20 of them in the double digits, maxing out at 28.3%. Ironically, prices per square foot are increasing fasted at the bottom third of the market (up 21%), versus the middle third (up 15.9%) and the top third (up 14.3%).
Ironically, because at the bottom 65%, sales have collapsed.
People, wheezing under the weight of their student loans and struggling in a tough economy where real wages have declined for years, hit a wall. Private equity firms and REITs, prime beneficiaries of the Fed’s nearly free money, gobbled up vacant homes sight unseen in order to convert them into rental housing, and in the process pushed up prices - exactly what the Fed wanted. But now high prices torpedoed their business model, and they’re backing off. So sales of homes priced below $500,000 plunged 26.4%, and sales of homes below $200,000 collapsed by 45.7%.
These aren’t poor people who stopped buying them but two-income middle-class families who’ve been priced out of the market. Thanks to the Fed’s glorious wealth effect, however, sales of homes ranging from $500,000 to $800,000, increased by 2.9% from a year ago, and sales of homes above $800,000 increased by 5.4%. In total, 35% of the homes sold for $500,000 or more. But combined sales, due to the collapse at the low end, dropped 14.3% from a year ago to 17,638, the worst March in six years, and the second-worst in nearly two decades.
And he put his finger on a new culprit: potential move-up buyers were stymied because they’d refinanced their current home at a “phenomenally low” interest rate. They can’t afford to abandon their relatively low payment, which they already stretched to reach, and buy a much more expensive home – a move-up home during a pandemic of inflated home prices financed at a higher mortgage rate. They’re trapped by the consequences of the Fed’s policies:
They could sell, but they can’t afford to buy!
Some analysts, tired of looking silly blaming the weather, started blaming low inventories. So inventories were flat in the 19 markets overall compared to March last year; no reason for plunging sales. In Boston, Portland, and Austin inventories dropped. But in the cities where the sales plunge has been particularly nasty, inventories skyrocketed: up 41.9% in Phoenix, 28.9% in Ventura, 25.7% in Riverside, 24.8% in Los Angeles, 23.1% in Sacramento, 21.3% in San Diego.
You get the idea: rising inventories, rising new listings, soaring prices, and plunging sales. Something has to give.
Unlike stocks, housing is subject to the real economy. When the price at the bottom half of the spectrum soars beyond what people can afford even with today’s still extraordinarily low interest rates, and beyond what makes sense for speculators that fix them up and rent them out, then demand stalls. Homes sit. Sellers get frustrated. People who need to move can’t move because they can’t sell their house for the price they want. People who want to move up can’t. Pressure builds. And eventually, the prices that the Fed conspired to inflate into the stratosphere, well…. This is like so 2006.
“two-income middle-class families who’ve been priced out of the market.”
Reporting for duty!
Internet and Broadcast Media Hate Bill Introduced in Senate
So-called hate speech has a wide and often political interpretation
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 18, 2014
Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, has introduced The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 (S.2219) in the Senate.
“We have recently seen in Kansas the deadly destruction and loss of life that hate speech can fuel in the United States,” Markey said, “which is why it is critical to ensure the Internet, television and radio are not encouraging hate crimes or hate speech that is not outside the protection of the First Amendment.”
The legislation proposes updating a twenty year old report on the role the internet, radio and TV allegedly play “in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.” The report would then be submitted to respective committees in the House and Senate for action.
So-called hate speech has a wide interpretation. In addition to going after people who do not follow politically correct etiquette (for instance, Christians who oppose homosexuality), hate crime definitions often include political speech unacceptable to the establishment orthodoxy.
Liberals now routinely characterize patriot groups as part of the hate constellation that includes the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists. For instance, media attention, according to Mother Jones, the George Soros funded magazine, put the Oath Keepers “on the radar of anti-hate groups. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center both name-checked the group in their reports on rising anti-government extremism.” The group does not espouse hatred against racial minorities, homosexuals, or other government preferred groups. It was established to advocate members, who are current and former U.S. military and law enforcement, disobey orders given if they believe those orders violate the Constitution.
The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely conflates racial hatred with so-called anti-government extremism. For the SPLC and liberals in general, distrust and even hatred of the government is a crime on par with racism or homophobia. Many leftist libs insist tea party and patriot groups are “channeling the spirit of Timothy McVeigh,” thus conjuring dangerous hatred the government must address.
Beyond the rhetoric and boundless hyperbole espoused by people who defend government and are on a crusade in favor of minorities, there is a more practical objective to Sen. Markey’s proposed legislation – to deny their political enemies the right to practice the First Amendment and utilize broadcast and internet technology to disseminate it.
Markey’s legislation demonstrates how lovers of the state and the power it wields often capriciously over the individual never rest in their authoritarian quest to silence political enemies.
This article was posted: Friday, April 18, 2014 at 1:42 pm
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Cop Shoots Himself Trying To Kill Dog. Riverside California - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHsIwQkAJxw - 129k - Cached - Similar pages
1 day ago
White House Counterterror Chief: “Confrontational” Children Could be Terrorists
Obama adviser tells parents to be suspicious of their own kids
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 18, 2014
Image: Lisa Monaco (White House).
White House counterterrorism and Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco gave a speech this week in which she urged parents to watch their children for signs of “confrontational” behavior which could be an indication of them becoming terrorists.
During the speech at at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday night, Monaco, who replaced John Brennan last year in overseeing the executive branch’s homeland-security activities, said that parents need to be suspicious of “sudden personality changes in their children at home.”
“What kinds of behaviors are we talking about?” she asked. “For the most part, they’re not related directly to plotting attacks. They’re more subtle. For instance, parents might see sudden personality changes in their children at home—becoming confrontational.”
Monaco lamented the fact that, “The government is rarely in a position to observe these early signals,” encouraging parents to act as watchdogs to detect radicalization in line with President Obama’s goal of combating homegrown extremism.
Over the last decade, the federal government has broadened its definition of what constitutes potential terrorism to such a degree that the term has lost all meaning and is clearly being used as a political tool to demonize adversarial political activism.
Indeed, only yesterday Senator Harry Reid caused outrage when he labeled supporters of Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy “domestic terrorists”.
Although such tactics pre-date the 2009 release of the MIAC report, the Missouri Information Analysis Center document was perhaps the most shocking in that it characterized a whole swathe of conservative Americans as domestic extremists, including Ron Paul supporters, people who own gold and people who display political bumper stickers.
A Homeland Security study leaked in 2012 upped the ante even further, demonizing Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.
Lisa Monaco’s speech and the federal government’s track record in assailing both banal behavior and political activism as potential “terrorism” serves as a reminder that the war on terror has now been focused inwardly against innocent Americans, making it all the more harder to detect actual terrorists.
What about kids detecting changes in their parents? Your mom or dad is probably a terrorist too.
I would have married this broad.
media.ebaumsworld./mediaFcomiles/picture/44057/80511103.jpg
Here’s a better link
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk269/ItsKeiraKeira/cheeto.jpg
Those are poofy Cheetos. You need the crunchy ones.
Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking while I was looking at that photo.