Bits Bucket for May 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Here’s a point of view regarding bubbles:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-17/citi-bubbles-broken-feedback-loops-bricks-elastic
Here the term “broken feedback loop” is used. I like the term “price equals value”, which is pretty much the same thing.
Can anyone offer a mathematical distinction between “exponential” and “parabolic” price growth?
Oops…meant to say “hyperbolic” not “parabolic”…
Pseudo-scientificity at its very best.
All this hyperbolic, parabolic, -bolic stuff is a bunch of bollocks.
These are all very precise things in mathematics. The real-world data of economics simply cannot be fitted to this stuff.
(If you are talking about comets or galaxies, you actually can fit this stuff because of the laws of gravitation.)
They just mean a rapidly rising price in the last gasp of its upward trajectory — a hyperbolic (sic) way of talking about it using a hyperbola.
The important distinction is that in real world economics, things cannot go on to infinity, so they don’t.
Also in economics they just make stuff up as they go.
The important distinction is that in real world economics, things cannot go on to infinity, so they don’t.
Heretic!
What do you mean? The house prices are going to go up annually up to eternity. (47% annually in Calgary alone!)
Why do you have to pee inside the pasta?
nasty…. That gives me twisted visions of Lola and Liberace preparing raviolis or tortellinis.
Do not be dissing the raviolis and the tortellinis — we will duel at dawn if you do!
I will buy a house before I give up the above two things if ever it were to come to that.
I don’t diss tortellinis. I don’t want freaks preparing them or pissing in my cheerios.
If you ever diss tortellinis, I will hunt you down and force you to buy a house.
“All this hyperbolic, parabolic, -bolic stuff is a bunch of bollocks.”
Boy am I glad you are posting again!
me 2
Is the operative concept “hyperbola” or “hyperbole”?
If you have to ask, darling, …
Is the West DIRECTLY Responsible for the Massacres In Ukraine?
Posted on May 18, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog
Biggest German Newspapers Say Blackwater Behind Massacres
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/west-directly-responsible-massacres-ukraine.html - 73k -
That piece links to a zerohedge piece that talks about what I find so interesting about the Ukraine thing.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-11/400-blackwater-mercs-deployed-ukraine-against-separatists-german-press-reports
¨Finally, in this proxy war between west and east, to believe that the US won’t throw everything it can at Putin is naive, and as such the involvement of trained US mercenaries in Ukraine is beyond debate.
¨However what is certainly surprising and far more interesting, is the persistent attempts by the German press to discredit none other than their biggest “Developed world” ally, the US. It is almost as if someone (a quite wealthy and powerful someone) has material interests that diverge with those of the Obama administration, and hence converge with those of Putin. Alongside the emerging China-Russia axis, keeping tabs on just how close to Russia Germany is willing to get, is easily the most notable story in the entire Ukraine conflict.¨
Here’s another article about it, with a good comments section.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/opinion/why-germans-love-russia.html?_r=0
¨ If you have followed the German debate about the Ukraine crisis, you have witnessed another strange phenomenon: a parade of former politicians and public figures going on TV to make the case for Russia.
¨According to these august figures — including former Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Schmidt — NATO and the European Union were the real aggressors, because they dared to expand into territory that belonged to Moscow’s legitimate sphere of interest. And it seems part of the German public agrees…
¨… there is also a disturbing undercurrent among ordinary Germans that harks back to old and unfortunate German traditions. We have come to think of Germany as a Western European country, but that is largely a product of Cold War alliances. Before then it occupied a precarious middle between east and west.¨
Years ago many of us here at HBB used to “discuss” what money was (and what it wasn’t) but these discussions have pretty much died down.
I recently ran across a comment written by a blogger called “OC Sure” that, IMO, has something interesting to say about the subject.
So (FWIW) here it is:
“Money is the measure of work a person does to produce their product which satisfys the demands of other producers.
“Counterfeit is the impersonation of work done when actually none has been performed.
“Money was invented as a means of equalizing the measure of disproportionate work.
“For example, observe a transaction between a builder and a shoemaker. The builder needs shoes and the shoemaker needs a house but the builder wouldn’t trade a house for a pair of shoes nor would he accept 1,000 pairs of shoes for a house. So, money was invented as a measure for the exchange. Say that one monetary unit will equal 1 pair of shoes. Now the builder can give the shoemaker a unit for a pair of shoes. The shoemaker can sell a thousand pairs of shoes and then give the builder 1,000 units for a house.
“Now apply these definitions to your article. What you are calling the multiplier or leverage is not creating money but instead the creation of counterfeit. That is it is not the representation of the measure of work performed. Instead it is the impersonation of work performed; it took no labor to produce the measure of the multiplier and leverage, all it took was a pen stroke or digital blip. It represents no work and is therefore not money but instead it is counterfeit.
“What is the purpose of counterfeit? It represents the illusion of trading something for something when in fact it is the trading of nothing for something. Whomever trades nothing for something is a thief. Such is the corrupt nature of modern economics and how thieves steal from producers; they give them nothing but take something.
“The modern definition of money is wrong and modern thieves depend upon you not understanding the difference between money and counterfeit.”
At least we know what debt is.
Debt is slavery!
“What you are calling the multiplier or leverage is not creating money but instead the creation of counterfeit.”
Isn’t it more about the creation of more debt slaves?
Sounds like a bunch of bullshart. No offense, but this gets me where?
If someone hands me 8 dollars I can go out and buy a pizza.
“No offense, but this gets me where?”
Maybe it gets you thinking?
Thinking is overrated but cash is king.
Credit card price of gas at local Mobil station = $4.179/gal
Cash price across the street at Arco = $3.959
$0.22/gal gap between the credit and cash price at these two stations is the widest now that I have ever seen.
“$0.22/gal gap between the credit and cash price at these two stations is the widest now that I have ever seen.”
A good friend once said, “If you can’t afford to top-off with super you can’t afford to drive.”
Thinking what, that I should buy gold? I live in the real world, where people work, have families and buy houses. Where people save for their kids education and retirement from that work.
All this definition of terms hair splitting nonsense sounds just like tax protester rubbish arguments. In the real world people pay taxes or go to jail.
Aah, it’s good to know that more HBB than ever are in the “acceptance phase”. I count myself among them.
The facts are still uncomfortable but reality is what it is.
“I live in the real world, where people work, have families and buy houses. Where people save for their kids education and retirement from that work.”
And the earned money you use to do these things with competes with money that is gotten in other ways.
The greater the amount of other types of money the greater is the dilution of the value - the buying power - of your earned money.
“acceptance phase”
The news that Fannie and Freddie are about to get rebubbled without apology is nudging me back towards the anger phase, but I am fighting it…I’m just hoping and praying that this bites the Democratic Party in the arse in a really huge way in the next presidential election.
“And the earned money you use to do these things with competes with money that is gotten in other ways.
The greater the amount of other types of money the greater is the dilution of the value - the buying power - of your earned money.”
Thanks for the tip Captain Obvious.
It won’t. It’ll get them a lot of votes actually. It will work.
Hoping is not the same as cold-blooded analyzing.
If the economy we lived in was largely an Earned-Money-Economy then whoever earned the most money would prevail in the marketplace over those who earned less money, hence the incentive for a person would be to earn more money.
But when the economy morphs into a Borrowed-Money-Economy the incentive shifts from earning money to borrowing money because, in such an economy, whomever it is that borrows the most money is the one who prevails in the marketplace.
Earned money cannot compete against borrowed money in a Borrowed-Money-Economy because in such an economy the amount of money that can be earned is limited while the amount of money that can be borrowed is not.
Great. We all know the theory now. So what?
What’s the plan for living in a borrowed-money economy?
I believe that was the point.
Juan-the-strawberry-picker was able to buy an $800,000 McMansion in Fresno not because he was able to earn $800,000 but only because he was able to borrow $800,000.
“What’s the plan for living in a borrowed-money economy?”
The plan is simple: Wait it out.
Does anyone here think this craziness is sustainable?
I do not.
However the market can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent.
I have a really solid idea of how it might play out. Digging through some of that now. Not ready to hand over the keys just yet.
It’s got legs.
It may take the better part of a decade and all the ranting and breast-beating won’t do any difference at all. The die is cast.
“It may take the better part of a decade and all the ranting and breast-beating won’t do any difference at all. The die is cast.”
Guys like Gary Shilling say were about half-way through.
“were’ = “we are”
Deleveraging it’s called. Despite all that seems to be going on around us deleveraging is what is really happening.
Not disagreeing with you merely recasting the context.
Everyone here wants it to happen yesterday. It will probably take the better part of a decade.
This game has very long legs.
If you have been here since 2005, who will even remember in 2025?
“This game has very long legs.”
Nevertheless at some time the game will come to an end.
Those who are betting that it won’t are going to endure the joy of living through some Interesting Times.
They can still do very well in the decade though.
The point is that as an investor, you have to not only nail the long-term but nail a few of the short-terms along the way as well.
Nobody cares that you were the genius 20 years ago. Let’s talk about today.
This is not to say you need to buy a house (absolutely EFFIN’ not!) but being on the other side (hint, hint!) may not be such a bad idea.
Here’s something interesting …
Deutsche Bank is scrambling to raise capital.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-18/deutsche-bank-scrambles-raise-capital-will-sell-%E2%82%AC8-billion-stock-30-discount
I would believe nothing that I read in
ZeroHedgeZeroBrains unless it came certified with fifty lawyers and a mountain of documentation.They single-handedly lower the IQ of libertarians by about 100 points.
One other point:
When (not if) a Borrowed-Money-Economy morphs back into an Earned-Money-Economy then those jobs that depended on borrowed money are going to go poof right after the borrowed money goes poof.
Think realtors, for example. Think of how dependent the income that realtors get to enjoy is on the availability of borrowed money.
Think of what will happen to those people who decided to abandon steady, good-paying jobs so as to become realtors so as to become suddenly and extraordinarily rich.
Think Karma.
Think of what will happen to those people who decided to abandon steady, good-paying jobs so as to become realtors so as to become suddenly and extraordinarily rich.
Work for a decade and retire rich, of course!
What is this, rocket surgery?
“Work for a decade and retire rich, of course!”
This only works if you save what you earned. And if you are one of those who think the easy money will go on forever then you probably won’t be much of a saver.
Not 100% even of realtards can be idiots, right? That’s quite impossible.
I’ve met a few smart ones. I’m sure you have as well. They know the gig just as surely as we do. They’re just foaming their own personal runway.
“I’ve met a few smart ones.”
So have I. But the list of smart ones doesn’t include the ones who left steady, good-paying jobs so as to get suddenly rich by selling real estate.
But the list of smart ones doesn’t include the ones who left steady, good-paying jobs so as to get suddenly rich by selling real estate.
Yes, I’m sure I spend all my time of my waking hours thinking about those losers. That’s definitely the ticket to success.
“Borrowed-Money-Economy morphs back into an Earned-Money-Economy…”
The period between is the “ashes” Economy. Debt manias may morph into uglier debt manias but they don’t morph into something honest. They burn to the ground, then something honest can rise. It will be like a phoenix, not a butterfly.
It has been easy to make money in the mania and still is, for some. Like Combo said, it will be good to have put something in the larder so as to relax when the party dies down.
In the meantime, like mom said, don’t play on the railroad tracks.
“Yes, I’m sure I spend all my time of my waking hours thinking about those losers.”
Nor do I spend all of my time thinking about those losers but I do spend some of my time thinking of them because some of these losers who left good paying and steady jobs to become realtors are people I used to work with.
losers who left good paying and steady jobs to become realtors are people I used to work with.
Disposable. Unless they are acquaintances. In which case, they are disposable acquaintances.
The plan is simple: Wait it out.
Hunker down, bunker down?
Cash for clunker down.
If the quit job for realtor made lots of money and has it in the bank then he is smart (or lucky and smart).
Money in the bank is the score being kept.
“It may take the better part of a decade and all the ranting and breast-beating won’t do any difference at all. The die is cast.”
That part I get.
The part I don’t get is why it can’t go on forever? In case any temporary collapse hits in a decade (or whenever), why can’t all the normal rules be suspended (again) and whatever means necessary used to bail out the collapsing financial entities du juor?
Bailouts forever is what I foresee. Tell me why this is not the case if you have another vision.
“It may take the better part of a decade…”
Always.
“…but being on the other side (hint, hint!)…”
The other side of home ownership is…rentership?
Like in San Diego, where fire precedes green shoots.
The other side of home ownership is…rentership?
That’s number one, yes.
But there’s also numbers two, three and four.
When (not if) a Borrowed-Money-Economy morphs back into an Earned-Money-Economy then those jobs that depended on borrowed money are going to go poof right after the borrowed money goes poof.”
What’s going to change it ? Some reset like the black death ?
Had a chance in 2008 ? but nope now its back to the same old game.
Hopefully you are not a born again used house seller!
Hopefully you are not a born again used house seller!
You talkin’ to me?
You TALKIN’ to me?
Surely you have got to be joking, my good man! I should deck you out just for thinking that out loud.
If you have been here since 2005, who will even remember in 2025?
Us, the way things are going.
Us, the way things are going.
Hang on to your horses then!
It’s gonna be a while.
Just helping to narrow down the prospects. Besides, you shouldn’t strike an old man for making a joke.
“who will even remember in 2025?”
I will, but I’m weird like that.
Easy lending leads to rent increases.
realtors are liars
Frontline is presenting Part 1 of a two part series about the NSA and you can watch it here if you would like:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/
(Run time is 2 hours.)
+1 Bookmarked for later w/dark-beer. Thanks!
Where the world’s unsold cars go to die:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-16/where-worlds-unsold-cars-go-die
Holy Crap! The visuals are incredible, field after field of new or almost new cars. Seems as if England more or less has the lock on this enterprise, although Spain and Russia are featured, too.
These are the lengths they go to, to support automobile prices. As the author said, these cars could be sold for $2,000 apiece, but they won’t do that.
And you thought housing shadow inventory was bad.
This gets to the core of the issue right here. And I’d like to know how many of these are defaults.
Ghost cars.
Much like Ghost Cities: Build them and they will come.
Or, maybe not.
Jesus that’s stunning.
There’s your price fixing supply mismanagement scheme that you all like to whine about and call “inflation”.
And you all thought empty cities in some agrarian chinese province was a red herring.
I had NO idea about this, it’s a shocker for sure. What it tells me is that this is part of supporting the debt model of our current (snort) economic system. Sell cheap cars for cash? Feh. We have a better idea, and if you won’t buy em at inflated prices, we’re gonna stuff ‘em away, so there.
What boggles the mind is how they can even afford to do this, and the vast scale of it.
They monsters who decided to build and put these in bulk storage are the same monsters who own the printing presses.
It also starkly reveals how the BIG LIE depends upon concealing stuff like this from people. In many areas if people really knew what was going on there’d be riots. Amounts being spent and wasted in education, law enforcement, whatever.
Amounts of welfare benefits paid to illegals, amount of phony disability claims, oxycodone prescriptions, etc.
It’s like I said about price discovery yesterday. The reason they need to hide stuff like this is that they know what happens to the balloon if people see it.
I can see how the politicians and powerful justify it in their minds as necessary to help a fat weak populace though.
Makes me want to go find Lee Iacocca’s grave and piss on it.
F*ck bailouts for private business. This is the result.
Supply side economics!
This is the tip of the iceberg. When you look at it everything is over produced - even food to some extent (that they used to destroy crops to maintain prices).
One thing that caught my eye is that all these appear to be gas guzzlers.
I don’t know if you noticed but there’s a little bit of sleight-of-hand even in that article.
The distant shots are from Google Earth (presumably objective) but the near shots are stock photographs (presumably completely made up).
So what gas guzzlers? The fake photos?
Ultimately all sites no matter what are about getting “eyeballs”. You shouldn’t turn off your thinking apparatus.
I also noticed in the photos that there are loads of domestic US brands in foreign lots.
Apparently one of the big problems with supply-side economics is that once you have a massive supply glut that should make the price of everything more affordable for households, the PTB conjure up the political hobgoblin of deflation and take every imaginable measure to hide inventory in order to throw a wrench into the market price adjustment process.
The result: More money for the banksters, massive resource misallocation and wastage for the rest of humanity.
Ultimately all sites no matter what are about getting “eyeballs”. You shouldn’t turn off your thinking apparatus.
That’s another thing that pisses me off, this whole eyeballs equals ad dollars fraud. Clicks ain’t revenue.
I must be growing old. Stuff like that doesn’t even register with me any more.
Re: gas guzzlers? fake photos…
Just an observation as HA pointed out - what are US cars doing in the UK? I thought that UK being in Europe liked European cars - compact and cheap or stylish and expensive.
My point is there are Japanese or Korean made cars. Is appears to be a broad sweep of the brush to make a statement that all countries have millions of unsold cars.
I actually think the satellite photos are from Mars Explorer.
Re: gas guzzlers? fake photos…
Matt Hardigree agrees,
That Zero Hedge Article “The visuals are strong, the headline is clear, and you almost don’t have to read the article to viscerally understand the problem. I, more than anyone, get the appeal of this story because it seems to largely rip off an article I wrote — including the images and headline — more than five years ago (which itself was largely a rehash of a Guardian article)”
And original article from 2009
Where Are Automakers Stashing Unsold Cars
So it’s fake?
HAH.
I can’t say I knew but the stock photographs nailed it!
People believe what they want to believe.
ZerohedgeZeroBrains strikes again!No, no, Kitty Litter, you have to READ the article. Nowhere does he say the photos are fake, the photos are real (he used some of them himself), but they’re OLD (2-3 years or more) and what they actually represent is NOT channel stuffing, but the way that the auto industry moves product. The only exception being the Carpocalypse, when indeed there was massive inventory sitting idle here and there.
It’s not necessary to photoshop, just put a different spin on an actual photo. Which is what ZH did, and I fell for it, hook, line and stinker. That’s the end of ZH for me as a source of info, that’s for sure. It was a good lesson.
I apologize to the blog for posting the (un) original story.
But then again, I’m the one who wanted to believe Andy Kaufman was still alive.
Here’s where the US housing inventory goes to die: West Palm Beach.
http://www.bing.com/?FORM=MFEHPG&PUBL=Google&CREA=userid1743go51d367c64cb6b50c6d8b0b7fe5f35618
“I apologize to the blog for…”
Nah. Reminds us to test things we hear and read.
“As the author said, these cars could be sold for $2,000 apiece, but they won’t do that.”
They won’t do that because these cars are the “comps” and, just as it is with houses, the going prices of the comps establish the going values of what the comps represent, which is every other comparable car.
All scams hit a wall.
If a guy owes a bunch of bucks on an expensive car he is buying on the magical-monthly-payment-plan and he discovers that he can walk away from the car he is buying and buy a comparable car for a much cheaper price then this is what he will do.
And when he does that the value of the loan that is associated with the car he walked away from gets destroyed.
Just like in real estate.
I had a buddy of mine tell me the other day that he had never paid off a car, he just rolls whatever he owes into the new car loan. He drives cars 3 yrs old or less.
These are the best people to hang out with. Preferably have them take you out to dinner.
They will think that they are doing you a “favor” because they get to brag while you pretend to be “poor”. Meanwhile you are enjoying that $100 bottle of wine on their tab.
You remind me of a question that occasionally comes to mind: Where do they store container ships during a capacity glut?
Container shipping outlook bleak as tonnage glut continues
By Lee Hong Liang from Singapore
Wednesday, 09 April 2014 01:11
The outlook for the global container shipping market remains bleak as analysts continued to blame the severe tonnage glut that is not expected to diminish any time soon.
With roughly 85% of the world’s existing orderbook for containerships to be delivered by 31 December 2015, there will be a need to scrap 25% of all boxships of more than 3,000 teu in order to maintain the current ‘overcapacity’, according to Alan Murphy, chief operating officer and partner at SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.
And despite global demand registering positive growth of 4-6% a year, it is still not enough to absorb the excess shipping tonnage, Murphy told delegates at the TOC Container Supply Chain conference held in Singapore on Tuesday.
Another analyst Alphaliner forecast that new tonnage hitting the waters will be at an average of 360,000-470,000 teu per quarter going into 2015, up from 345,000 teu per quarter at present, pointing to capacity growth of 7-8% on compounded average basis.
“There will be no peace for container shipping with this massive build up of new capacity,” commented Tan Hua Joo, executive consultant at Alphaliner.
…
“Where do they store container ships during a capacity glut?”
Wherever they happen to be. If the ship just unloaded some cargo then they wait where they are for a reason to go somewhere else. If there is no reason to go somewhere else then they usually stay where they are, maybe out of the harbor and anchored offshore.
At least this is how I understand it. It costs some big bucks to move these ships around and using the philosophy of “Wherever they go, there they are” they generally stay where they are until there is a compelling reason (as in $$$) to go somewhere else.
It seems to me that I read something about a location somewhere around the Indian Ocean where container ships are parked when not in use.
There is a graveyard of ships in India (where labor is cheap)where ships are run aground so they can be salvaged.
Maybe this is what you read.
Ooooops, it’s Pakistan, not India.
Go here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324339/Worlds-biggest-ship-graveyard–huge-tankers-cruise-liners-scrapped-shorefront-workers-toil-2-day.html
“Go here:”
When I turn fifteen I want a job at that place.
When I turn fifteen I want a job at that place.
That’s what they all say.
I read somewhere that India banned this stuff so the market went to Pakistan and Bangladesh?
I’m not sure. Don’t have the cite. There was definitely a ban somewhere.
That reminds me of a National Geographic article type exposé . Toiling away for 2 pounds per a day? Man, do we have a long way to go on the wage scale here in the sell-out USA. So much so, makes you wonder if the only thing keeping things stable here is that the bankers have not figured out yet how to get the rest of the world to do our jobs. Give it time though.
“So much so, makes you wonder if the only thing keeping things stable here is that the bankers have not figured out yet how to get the rest of the world to do our jobs. Give it time though”.
Exercise patience. We’re furiously working on and are committed to solving this problem.
Excellence in all domains. Hunky!
Who will pay top dollar for a five year old new car?
http://jalopnik.com/that-zero-hedge-article-on-unsold-cars-is-bullshit-1578124255
The favorite excuse used by GovLovers, communists, Empty Pockets and lying lawyers for this bottomless expanding hole of a system we’re in is HowMuchAMonth.There is a ceiling for each howmuchamonther and most of them have pushed through it and are crammed between the roof deck and grid and grids offer very little support. No fresh supply of new howmuchamonthers grinds the machine to a halt.
-cratering demand
-cratering gdp
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6598216937_8b6002895a.jpg
“The favorite excuse used by GovLovers, communists, Empty Pockets and lying lawyers for this bottomless expanding hole of a system we’re in is HowMuchAMonth.”
+1 Meanwhile Lawrence Summers is betting on “Innovation.”
Interesting stuff!
Here in Southern California we have a state senator that is running on a platform of protecting us, the citizens of the state of California, from the federal government’s NSA.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-and-politics/20140106/sen-ted-lieu-introduces-bill-that-would-allow-california-to-thwart-national-security-agency
(”One county, indivisable …”)
“I share Senator Lieu’s concerns over NSA surveillance,” said Erwin Chemerinsky , dean of the School of Law at UC Irvine. “But California cannot stop it or interfere with it since it is a federal program. It is no different from a state saying it would not help the federal government carry out an order to desegregate schools. States cannot interfere with or impede the achievement of a federal objective.”
Nonetheless, Lieu, a Georgetown University Law Center graduate, said he is undeterred. He noted the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution bars unreasonable searches and seizures and believes that if Congress doesn’t want to limit the NSA, California should.”
Good for him. I hope this moves forward. Of course you’ll always have the naysayers like the law prof. But people are getting to the point of “f*c the law” and I don’t blame them. They see corporations, politicians, foreign nationals, etc. all doing as they please.
That is a bight side and he is a democrat. This is how Democrats were in the 70s, in favor of the right to privacy.
But there were war mongering Demos such as LBJ and the current obamanation.
To be fair to the Reps, the shining times were when Goldwater had the nomination in ‘64. And then the Reagan small government rhetoric.
And there is talk that the DOD (Obama Administration) wants to downsize to where it was in post WWII.
To me, that’s good enough for a vote for the first time, for a Democrat. But 1) I am not a Californian and 2) voluntaryists do not vote.
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola
Well, I left home just a week before
And I’d never been to a doctor before
But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
And said, “Dear boy, you need a good Health Plan”
Well, I’m not the world’s most masculine man
But I just got coverage for a mammogram
Cause a Lola, L-L-Lola, L-L-Lola
Lola, L-L-Lola, L-L-Lola
Just a refinement of yesterday. Collective effort by the HBB denizens with generous modifications to the words and the meter to give it some verve.
Lola in favela;
Craving ATM moolah.
Soros is the Don;
Lola’s just the pawn.
Round his ankles pants,
All he does is rants.
Favela boys his dreams,
Entry thrust he screams.
Now another blackout
Infrastructure out?
No, it is the boy
Lola’s just the toy.
Lola thinks it’s odd,
The boy using his rod.
Yet completely awed
About the Soros god.
Except the god is crass
Did a number on his @ss.
Bravo Bravo
Spying is meant to crush dissent, not catch terrorists. In case you had any doubt.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-05-16/spying-meant-crush-citizens%E2%80%99-dissent-not-catch-terrorists
“Daniel Ellsberg notes that Obama’s claim of power to indefinitely detain people without charges or access to a lawyer or the courts is a power that even King George – the guy we fought the Revolutionary War against – didn’t claim. (And former judge and adjunct professor of constitutional law Andrew Napolitano points out that Obama’s claim that he can indefinitely detain prisoners even after they are acquitted of their crimes is a power that even Hitler and Stalin didn’t claim.)”
Because it’s hard out here for a pimp.
Welcome to the USSA. Now enjoy your punishment and that’s an order.
“Welcome to the USSA.”
+1 Indeed.
The brainwashed cult of university trained automaton authoritarian brown shirts have been very successful over the last 25 years.
They have to be stopped, we are running out of time.
Call the cops at your peril:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/08/call-cops-peril-paul-craig-roberts/
“The worst people in the country are in our public institutions. This is why there is so little sympathy for the public sector unions now under attack by the Republicans. Americans look at their county commissions, their city councils, their criminal justice (sic) system, their governors, state legislatures, Congress, and the White House, and all that they see is evil and corruption.
There is nothing else there.”
Pretty good summation.
“545 vs. 300,000,000 People
By Charlie Reese
“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
“Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
“Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
“You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.
“You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
“You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.
“You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.
“You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
“One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
“I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
“I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.
“Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
“What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
“The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
“It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
http://www.examiner.com/…/charley-reese-s-final-column-on-how-washington-d-c-operates - 134k
Totally agree.
Then those that expose the system for what it is get lampooned and despised by the MSN media.
We need to throw them all out, especially those that have beenin DC the longest.
The majority of voters are the ones who elect their kind to these 545 offices. I don’t dislike Pelosi, Reid, McSame, Obama, Boehner, McConnell, Biden, Scharpton. I dislike the people who made them famous.
Everyone who punches a card in November should see this
http://www.incommunion.org/img/pogo.png
Yes, good summation. And it goes beyond some concept of 535 people or such nonsense. It is all about the moneyed interests. And there are a lot more than 535 of those. The locals all the way up to the top of the Feds, conspiring to suck government dollars and pay off their friends for more power.
Who is going to be sympathetic to someone who can retire in their mid 50s on 75 percent plus salary? One of the thousands of 20-30 yr olds who are standing in line for that job?
Think about the next 20 years.
Boomers turning 65 in droves and even being the lucky generation a HUGE percentage have nothing for retirement.
8000 boomers a day turning 65. Almost 3 million a year. How many houses is that on the market?
The war on drugs is lost and the criminal organizations behind the drug trade continue to thrive stronger than ever along our southwest border and further into the country.
The illegal alien population has effectively been legalized through sheer inertia and erosion.
No end in sight to globalization, offshoring.
Government is fiscally weak at all levels. There isn’t any money for jobs programs, bail outs, pensions, many services.
Most major cities are on the verge of fiscal collapse.
I think this gets into the “no dollar shall escape” scenario. Think about it. For guys like Bill In Irvine and others, the system knows exactly how much cash individuals have worked hard for and saved. They know the aggregate anyways and they want that cash spent to weaken the individual and grow the state and the monsters running the state. And they’re going to continue price fixing until that happens.
They’ve got a long row to hoe.
No end in sight to globalization, offshoring.”
I just read there might be at average manufacturing wage 25 dollars and hour USA versus 5 bucks and hour China and Mexico may even the wage differences out once transportation is factored in.
Only for stuff sold in the US though. we’ll see not holding my breath.
I just read there might be at average manufacturing wage 25 dollars
Only if they’re union. I seem to recall the Boeing was going to pay its South Carolina workers, who will assemble 787’s, $14/hr.
Stocks are telling you a bear market is coming
Opinion: Expect a choppy, sloppy end to the six-year bull run
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocks-are-telling-you-a-bear-market-is-coming-2014-05-14?link=mw_story_kiosk
Indeed. How many subtle ways do I need to suggest we should be discussing exit points instead of counting your money?
We’ve been hearing these gloomsters prognosticate on the death of the bull market for month after month. Maybe their stopped-clock prediction will eventually come to pass, and maybe not…who knows?
You don’t have an exit plan?
I don’t much talk my book here, pal!
+1 Pbear….
+25
People want narratives not odds but investing is about odds. They will pick the narrative and rag you about it even when on an odds basis you have been doing excellently.
If you have an asset allocation plan and stick to it, that is your exitplan. If there is another March 2009 low point around the corner, and I do think there is, I am going to move maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars back into stock funds. Because a 50% drop will make my treasuries, municipal bonds, and gold stsh way too much like an old man’s portfolio.
Spit it out.
Does your family save more than $0 a year? If so, you are doing better than the median U.S. household, which saves nothing, nada, null, zilch, zero a year.
Family savings potential appears to depend on proximity to DC.
Middle class can save, even in San Diego
By Dan McSwain
5 p.m. May 17, 2014
A surprising number of working Americans have the opportunity to live a middle-class lifestyle and still build wealth through ordinary savings — even in San Diego and other high-cost cities, according to a hopeful new study.
In fact, the median household in San Diego County is capable of socking away $4,488 a year, or more than 9 percent of after-tax income.
If that doesn’t seem like enough, consider that the median American household saves precisely nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.
Put another way, half of Americans are running on a financial wheel to nowhere, when many could actually get ahead. The key is adjusting some spending habits, and it doesn’t require living like a monk.
This enlightening contrast of possibility vs. reality comes from the personal finance website Interest.com, which hired an economist and statistician to sift through spending and income data from the 2012 Consumer Expenditure Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In San Diego, the median after-tax income was $48,755, a figure that included paychecks, pensions and self-employment earnings. As for spending, the median was $44,268, including housing, food, transportation and the complete range of reported expenditures.
“We had really feared that in a majority of the cities, especially the highest-cost cities, that people were in a no-win rat race,” said Mike Sante, managing editor of Interest.com. “But we found there was at least a reasonable opportunity to save. Even in San Diego, you can save somewhere near 10 percent of your after-tax income.”
That’s not to say living in paradise is easy.
San Diego’s $4,488 in potential cash leftover each year was fifth from the bottom among 18 major cities in the study’s savings opportunity ranking, just ahead of Detroit at $4,188.
Low incomes made saving in Phoenix the toughest, with spending exceeding earnings by $1,136. On the other hand, a median income of nearly $74,000 placed Baltimore at the top of the rankings with a $24,250 annual savings opportunity, followed by Washington, D.C., at $19,967.
…
This is ridiculous. More click bait nonsense from interest.com. It shows the expenses in PHX as $40.5K a year, with an income of $39.5K. San Diego has expenses of $44K with an income of $49K.
So only an extra $3.5K in expenses for San Diego? But house prices are double?
If that doesn’t seem like enough, consider that the median American household saves precisely nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.”
It sounds like the government is pushing another problem on us it wants to solve.
Does your family save more than $0 a year? If so, you are doing better than the median U.S. household ??
Go to Bloomberg Video….Search Gundlach & Tom Keene…Its a 20 minute interview with much discussion on housing demand and the boomers savings…I have watched it a couple of times….Well worth it…
i watched it too. 35 million housing units coming on the market as boomers expire.
You all should watch it.
Gundlach: ‘New Normal’ Is Actually ‘No Normal’
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/gundlach-new-normal-is-actually-no-normal-OU3HbruOQoe7gsmbogodgA.html
One thing seems obvious: People who choose to live in areas where they earn barely enough to pay the rent or the mortgage aren’t likely to save much.
Apparently this goes for both San Diego and Detroit.
“One thing seems obvious: People who choose to live in areas where they earn barely enough to pay the rent or the mortgage aren’t likely to save much.”
+1 The consequences: “Mother has come to stay.”
My BIL was asking me about how refinancing works this morning. He must have big plans for a dead grandma, paid for beach house, and a chitload of cocaine.
Hillary and Ben Bernanke on the Economy
Policy of virtually giving away money to favored institutions may go on and on into the indefinite future
Hunter Lewis
mises.org
May 18, 2014
Hillary Clinton’s speech yesterday revealed some of her thoughts about reviving the economy.
She said she was trying to “encourage more companies to come off the sidelines and, frankly, for some to use some of that cash that is sitting there waiting to deploy.”
This echoes the naïve idea embraced by the Obama administration that economies are fueled by ever more borrowing and spending. But this is not how jobs are created.
Jobs are created when businesses deploy their cash savings wisely. It is always the quality of investment that counts, not the quantity. If high quality investment opportunities are lacking, often because of government interference with the economy, businesses actually help us all by refusing to waste their cash on projects that will blow up in short order and just create even more unemployment in the long run.
When this false recovery, fueled by all the wasteful spending, blows up, as it will eventually, what will pull us out of the next crash? It will be those businesses and individuals who have refused to play at the casino, who have saved and put money away, who will be able to step in, invest, and start a genuine, not a phony, recovery process.
Hillary’s viewpoint is as crony capitalist as President Obama’s. They both complain that government has done favors for business and business in turn must do favors for government. Favors start with campaign contributions, but extend to more hiring, especially before an election. Who cares about quality of investment, or long run results? “In the long run we are all dead,” as Lord Keynes, the godfather of crony capitalism, helpfully reminded us.
Hillary further stated that “as secretary of state I saw the way extreme inequality corrupted other societies.” This is a clever reversal of the truth . It is corruption, in particular crony capitalist corruption, that creates the worst kind of inequality, in which the poor, the young, and the middle class fall further and further behind while rich government cronies thrive.
There was more nonsense in Hillary’s speech. She boasted about how 23mm new jobs had been created during her husband’s administration and the government’s budget balanced, without mentioning the role of the dot-com bubble in making it all look good until the mini-crash of 2000. In truth, today’s rotten economy had its origin under the Clinton administration, but who will believe this when the 2016 election rolls around?
This speech has been called “populist” by the press, and much of it purported to be. Hillary said that “some are calling [today’s economy] a throwback to the gilded age of the robber barons.” This is ironic coming from Mrs. Clinton, who is the master manipulator of the crony system, and of late has been busily giving speeches on Wall Street and elsewhere for as much as $450,000, and often for $200-250,000, usually with a private jet thrown in for transportation.
Mrs. Clinton has been doing this since leaving the secretary of state job. Ben Bernanke waited for two months after leaving the chairmanship of the Fed, but is now cashing in the same way. He has spoken at an Abu Dhabi conference, on a private telechat to Japan, and at select Wall Street dinners hosted by the likes of JP Morgan Chase at posh restaurants such as Le Bernardin. His speech fee is also reported to be around $250,000 with private transportation extra.
According to participants in the dinners, Bernanke suggests that the Fed a) wants reported inflation of at least 2% and b) will hold interest rates down for a long time. In effect, then, the present policy of virtually giving away money to favored institutions may go on and on into the indefinite future.
Meanwhile another report today reveals that savers lost $750 billion in interest they could have earned since 2008 if the Fed had not repressed rates. This estimate is very much on the low side, and much of this money came right out of the pocket of the endlessly abused middle class.
It is a shame to see Ben Bernanke enriching himself among the people he enriched as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Prior to this, as much as he contributed to the corruption rampant in this economy, he had not personally benefited from it.
This article was posted: Sunday, May 18, 2014 at 9:09 am
“She said she was trying to “encourage more companies to come off the sidelines and, frankly, for some to use some of that cash that is sitting there waiting to deploy.”
Such as maybe build a few thousand more ghost cars?
Or how about building some container ships?
…for some to use some of that cash that is sitting there waiting to deploy.
Firstly, what cash?
This BS gets trotted out during every recession. Every single time. Without fail.
Companies borrow money and it looks like cash on the “asset” side of the balance sheet. You need to look at the “liabilities” side too.
Companies are not altruistic entities. They need an ROI and if they don’t have it, government or no government, they ain’t going to be deploying their assets at all.
This is what we call, blowing wind. It sounds good, lots of people will clap, the media will report it as a “good thing” but it won’t change anything at all.
Jobs are created when businesses deploy their cash savings wisely. It is always the quality of investment that counts, not the quantity. If high quality investment opportunities are lacking, often because of government interference with the economy, businesses actually help us all by refusing to waste their cash on projects that will blow up in short order and just create even more unemployment in the long run.
This sounds more like religious belief than anything supported by facts. There are probably many millions of jobs in this country supported by people wasting their money.
Put mises.org on the long list of right-wing websites to be ignored.
mises.org is not right wing.
It is anarcho capitalist. Right wing = religious oppression and war mongering. Mises.org is non-interventionist and it is not religious at all. The late Murray Rothbard was one of the top scholars of the Mises organization, and he was a radical libertarian.
Your ignorance MightyMike is astounding.
It is typical for a “progressive” to label a libertarian as right wing.
Yes, I’m ignorant of the nature of that web site. I haven’t bothered to read it, only the excerpts from it that people have posted here.
As I wrote, this kind of economics owes more to a kind of religious belief than it does an observation of how economies work, so it’s interesting that interesting that you associate the right wing with religiosity.
Also, the irrelevant ad hominem attacks on Hillary and Bernanke, the misunderstanding of what Keynes meant when he said that we’re all dead in the long run, and the general, “anti-government” sentiment in these kinds of articles would all appeal strongly to the typical consumer of Fox, Rush, Breitbart, etc.
“this kind of economics owes more to a kind of religious belief than it does an observation of how economies work”
Example is requested. And this must be some Austrian economics text you provide and then a proof that it is religious and not based on observation.
There is a fundamental flaw with this model and it behooves smart people to understand it.
Even in theory it doesn’t work.
It requires perfect humans who make perfect laws and are perfectly incorruptible.
Only in your dreams! It’s a geek’s fantasy land.
In the real world, you have imperfect humans who make imperfect laws and are not only corruptible but also venal. They will get bought out and the law will march on till the next one gets bought out and so on and so forth. The will do horrible things just out of sheer spite — rationality be damned.
Not to mention the simple matter of getting politicians killed like in the Third World, etc.
So von Mises has completely failed at the basic psychological premise about how humans actually work. Everything after that is a total fantasy.
It is closer to a religion than you think.
You are talking about Keynesianism, not Von Mises. Keynesianism expects a perfect world to follow its perfect model. Try again.
I gave an example above at 11:47:27.
Now that the NAR is once more happy with appraisals, is it safe to assume appraisal fraud is alive and well again?
Posted on Saturday, 05.17.14
Washington Report
Appraisers getting some respect
By KENNETH R. HARNEY
kenharney@earthlink.net
Not long ago they were the punching bags of American real estate, accused of rank incompetence, wrecking home sales and failing to pick up on signs of the housing turnaround.
That was then. Today appraisers are suddenly getting much more favorable reviews.
But wait a minute: Have appraisals actually improved in accuracy in any measurable way over the past several years? Nobody really knows. There are no nationally published statistical audits that gauge appraisal accuracy. However, one major industry group regularly surveys its members’ sentiments on appraisals, and lately things have been looking up.
When the National Association of Realtors conducted polls sampling its million-plus members in the spring and summer of 2010, more than 40 percent of respondents reported having problems with appraisals.
Within the realty field, criticism of appraisers was rampant and scathing. Appraisers allegedly too often:
• Used rock-bottom priced foreclosures and short sales as “comparables” for valuing houses where there was no financial distress. Those low appraisals blew up perfectly good sales or forced angry sellers to renegotiate prices with buyers.
• Traveled long distances beyond their areas of geographic competence, and inevitably were out of touch with local conditions.
• Paid scant attention to evidence that local home prices were on the increase, such as pending contracts, numbers of properties that sold for above list or that experienced multiple bids.
Worst of all, critics charged, poorly trained appraisers who had flooded into the industry during the boom years now were getting the bulk of the valuation assignments from appraisal management companies — primarily because they would work for cut-rate fees.
In the latest monthly survey, NAR pollsters found that just 24 percent of members reported having significant issues with appraisal results. Granted, that’s still nearly a quarter of all agents in the sample. But it’s down significantly from where it was a few years ago.
…
“When housing prices finally reach a sound bottom is when all this will end. Not a minute sooner.”
You can say that again.
“Muggy should buy a waverunner. It is both a cure for the “waiting for the bubble to pop for real” blues, and a reasonable mid-life crisis expense.”
Absolutely.
(Psssst … buy a used one.)
Rent it a few times this summer. Then ask yourself if you will use it more often than those “few times.” If not, figure out the cost of renting it. In five years can you see yourself still owning it? What if your values change and you prefer golf instead?
I rented a waverunner for one hour. I ejoyed it immensely. Had a blast. I was young, fit, tan, and buzzed all around the Sea of Cortez by Cabo San Lucas.
But after I got back ashore I still thought it was fun. But did I ever do it again? No. I had no space for it and I lived in a high desert. The nearest lake was a 45 minute drive away and that’s where my jet ski friend would take his all the time. Then even he sold his jet ski because of 1) maintenance was too laborious and 2) he moved to Arizona.
Is there anyone else who wishes to address the board?
Wolfgang?
It’s all Ben’s fault.
“It’s all Ben’s fault.”
Ben didn’t sign in, and he certainly didn’t read the card.
I’m sorry, Ben didn’t check in, and as we know…
Everyone Must Check In
Hello, board.
How’s it hangin’ ?
Are you “board” yet?
Woman ‘Hunting Asians’ Beats 4-Year-Old With Crowbar in Walmart: Police
3 days ago
by Los Angeles Times
A woman faces charges, including hate crime allegations, after allegedly striking a 4-year-old girl in the head at a Wal-Mart in San Jose, police said Thursday.
The woman, identified as transient Maria Garate, was booked into the Santa Clara County jail without incident after Tuesday’s attack, said an official with the San Jose Police Department.
Garate faces charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Both charges carry a hate crime allegation. Evidence suggests Garate targeted the family because they are Asian, the district attorney’s office said.
Garate did not enter a plea at a court appearance Thursday, said Sean Webby, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.
Click here to read the full story at LATimes.com.
KTLA 5 News with Alhaji Ayuba
May 15 at 8:21pm ·
Police say Maria Garate walked into a Walmart store in San Jose armed with a crowbar on a mission to “hunt Asians.”
The first victim, a 4-year-old girl who was shopping with her father, was struck twice in the head, police said. Her father tried to fight off the 20-year-old woman but was also badly hurt.
After her arrest, Garate allegedly told investigators that she was upset that the child did not die.
http://ktla.com/2014/05/15/woman-hunting-asians-beats-4-year-old-with-crowbar-in-walmart-police/
Our diversity makes us stronger.
This was PBear in PBaby-mode.
The news that Fannie and Freddie are about to get rebubbled without apology is nudging me back towards the anger phase, but I am fighting it…
So lean back, take a deep breath and reflect. What is the logical outcome of all of this? And how would you profit?
Hint: It’s not buying a depreciating asset.
“And how would you profit?
Hint: It’s not buying a depreciating asset.”
I said angry, not crazy.
But I think I am beginning to catch on. I’ll take a shot at it and let you know if a few months how it turned out.
There is more money to be made by sitting back in a sofa and thinking.
Thinking deeply not the shallow stuff you get on the news, etc. You have to be ahead of the curve before it even shows up in the news.
True that!
The nice thing about personal finance (and being debt free) is that asset allocation strategies are uncorrelated with macro events. So that when you periodically rebalance, it is usually at a time when the MSM is busy showing the race card on Don Sterling, and you end up being ahead of the curve before the real bad economic numbers roll in.
This can only be done under the luxury of being debt free. It’s but one way to keep your own costs under control and maximize your freedom. I was thinking of other ways this morning. And of course it’s fitness and nutrition. A sedentary flabby person who eats junk is at the mercy of death panels and government many years earlier than they could be.
“There is more money to be made by sitting back in a sofa and thinking.”
Isn’t that pretty much how Keynes made a lot of dough? Lying in bed reading the financial news and reflecting on it, then getting out ahead of the next herd movement?
“So lean back, take a deep breath and reflect. What is the logical outcome of all of this? And how would you profit?”
I wanna get rich. Tell me how.
Spend less than you make. A LOT less.
Is there an easier way?
If you have to ask, buddy, …
Just checkin’, you know?
“Is there an easier way?”
Make a lot more than you spend?
On second thought:
Inherit a lot more than you spend!
When did they start teaching our military how to build IEDs anyway?
“you have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law enforcement techniques.”
Police Now “Armed For War” Against Returning Veterans
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 16, 2014
In an interview with Fox 59, a Morgan County, Indiana Police Sergeant admits that the increasing militarization of domestic police departments is partly to deal with returning veterans who are now seen as a homegrown terror threat.
In a chilling story entitled Armed for War: Pentagon surplus gives local police an edge, we learn how a Mine Resistant Vehicle (MRAP) which was once used during the occupation of Afghanistan will now be “patrolling the streets of central Indiana,” according to the report.
Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department states, “When I first started we really didn’t have the violence that we see today,” adding, “The weaponry is totally different now that it was in the beginning of my career, plus, you have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build IEDs and to defeat law enforcement techniques.”
Downing goes on to relate how citizens approach the vehicle when it stops at gas stations to express their concerns that the militarization of police is about arming cops with the tools required for mass gun confiscation programs.
“We were actually approached when we’d stop to get fuel by people wanting to know why we needed this…what were we going to use it for? ‘Are you coming to take our guns away?’” said Downing. “To come and take away their firearms…that absolutely is not the reason why we go this vehicle. We got this vehicle because of the need and because of increased violence that we have been facing over the last few years….I’ll be the last person to come and take anybody’s guns.”
Indiana seems to be a major trial balloon for the militarization of law enforcement given that the Indiana National Guard has also just purchased two military UH-72 Lakota helicopters which will also be used by local police and the DHS for “homeland security missions”. Downing’s claim that armored tanks are necessary to deal with violent crime doesn’t jive with actual statistics which suggest that violent crime is in fact on the decrease.
Downing’s admission that the armored vehicles are partly about combating the threat posed by returning veterans correlates with similar rhetoric at the federal level.
An April 2009 DHS intelligence assessment listed returning vets as likely domestic terrorists. Just a month later, the New York Times reported on how Boy Scout Explorers were being trained by the DHS to kill “disgruntled Iraq war veterans” in terrorist drills.
The FBI has also repeatedly characterized returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as a major domestic terrorist threat.
It seems to have been completely forgotten by police departments, the media and Americans in general that having military-style tanks patrol the streets is symbolic of a collapsing banana republic or an authoritarian Communist state.
Perhaps the main reason why police officers are being trained that veterans are a major threat is because returning vets are in a perfect position to recognize that America is beginning to resemble an occupied country like Afghanistan.
Such warnings have come from people like former Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino, who was stationed in Fallujah and trained Iraqi soldiers. Martino went before a New Hampshire city council meeting last year to assert that the Department of Homeland Security is working with law enforcement to build a “domestic army,” because the federal government is afraid of its own citizens.
Indeed, the city’s Police Chief justified the necessity for the acquisition of an armored ‘Bearcat’ vehicle by citing the “threat” posed by libertarians, sovereign citizen adherents, and Occupy activists in the region.
http://www.infowars.com/police-now-armed-for-war-against-returning-veterans/ - 68k -
http://www.city-data.com/forum/work-employment/2119780-miraclelously-landed-under-table-paying-job.html
CRAAAAAAAAAAATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
It’s getting exciting again.
The housing hoodlums sure are getting nervous. They’re desperately trying to censor and obscure the data and shut down the free flow discussion of it.
“It’s getting exciting again.”
Yes. It is.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=M2V
Holy suffering….. that chart is stunning. It’s much like the labor participation rate chart.
The fundamental question is; Do you have cash and no debt?
(you better hope so.)
For a closer look, here’s what the one-year chart looks like:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=M2V
Well that didn’t seem to work. Click on the “1 yr” option and see for yourself.
From last year’s third quarter to this year’s first quarter the slide has been steadily and relentlessly steepening.
Put these three charts together;
M2 Velocity
Labor Force Participation rate
Mortgage purchase apps
Now how does that align with prices of everything?
“Labor Force Participation rate”
Where are the jobs?
https://www.google.com/search?q=labor+force+participation+rate+chart&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=JnJ5U67JD4_voASLyIKIBg&sqi=2&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=805#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=we-9ue_D1AZGkM%253A%3BPh2WWcqWHdd-BM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.aei-ideas.org%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F02%252F021612jjordan.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.aei-ideas.org%252F2012%252F02%252Fthe-plunging-labor-force-participation-rate-is-now-officially-a-thing-in-u-s-politics%252F%3B986%3B639
https://www.google.com/search?q=meteor+crater&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=JFl5U8ezKM6IogSY0YCgBw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1600&bih=805#imgdii=_
Will Manhattan fit in there?
Cynical Guide to US Business:
1) Big business wants regulations. It helps keep the start-ups and little
guys from eating at their market share
2) Students will always be encouraged to go to college and get into
STEM. That way, business has a very large population to pick from
and keep wages in check.
3) Business talks about minimum wage being a bane to their profit
margins, but as per #1 note above, they would not be able to handle
the flood of competition with the new businesses and workers who
bid their labor out more.
What did I miss? I know there are other aspects that business in the USA omits from their declarations.
Silent Cal didn’t say very much, but when he did speak his words could be profound:
“When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results.” - Calvin Coolidge
http://www.dumb.com/quotes/unemployment-quotes/
This is going to get really sad.
May 18, 2014, 11:09 p.m. EDT
Is China risking Japan-style lost decade?
Opinion: Nomura warns of post-bubble bad loans
By Craig Stephen
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Conventional wisdom says that if Beijing doesn’t want a bursting property bubble, it simply won’t have one.
Despite mounting concerns as China’ real-estate market reverses, don’t expect to see property fire sales, bankruptcies or banks reporting ballooning bad debts. A simplistic argument perhaps, but it appears to have held so far.
Another interpretation is that this is simply denial as China refuses to mark its property assets to market: The trouble will emerge, however, as its hamstrung banks are forced to rein in lending, cutting off their life support to the wider economy.
This was one lesson from the painful aftermath of Japan’s property bubble back in the 1990s, and one which Nomura argues — in a new report — is relevant to China. It says there are now many similarities between China’s property market today and Japan’s two decades ago.
The obvious parallel is the scale of the property boom. Both Japan and China let property lending race ahead of GDP growth and experienced overheating economic activity, coupled with aggressive bank lending.
But perhaps the most important similarity between these two property markets is behavioral: an institutional failure to publicly face up to an ugly bad-loan situation as the market reversed.
In Japan’s case, a weak regulatory regime and lax accounting meant there was an unwillingness to impose discipline, and no financial institutions were forced into bankruptcy.
Although direct lending to real estate at the time was less than 20% of the nation’s total loan portfolio, over the next decade Japan’s banks eventually wrote off a cumulative 25% of all outstanding loans, according to Nomura estimates. This period gave rise to Japan’s “zombie banks,” which took much of the blame for the country’s infamous “lost decade” of growth.
Likewise in China today, there is widespread skepticism that Chinese banks are revealing anything close to a true picture of their non-performing loans. Between loans regularly rolled over, murky lending to well-connected state-owned entities and the explosion in shadow banking, it all contributes to a similarly opaque environment.
Recognizing bad debts effectively becomes a political compromise. Nomura estimates half of Chinese banks’ loans books include some sort of property collateral.
Another similarity they highlight is the levels of hubris. Back then, Japan was the “next big thing” in the global economy — the world’s largest creditor nation, collecting accolades for everything from its economic performance to its corporate management ethos.
China meanwhile has been told it is only a matter of time before it overtakes the U.S. to become the world’s largest economy, and it could even one day see the yuan usurp the greenback as the world’s reserve currency.
Perhaps then, we shouldn’t worry about ghost cities of uninhabited investment properties, since they will eventually fill up, and all those problematic loans will take care of themselves. The worst Beijing appears to countenance is that GDP growth will slow to 7%.
This line of thinking suggests investors should not just be looking for fresh signs of a real-estate slowdown, but also be alert to China encountering a Japan-style economic hangover.
…
“Perhaps then, we shouldn’t worry about ghost cities of uninhabited investment properties, since they will eventually fill up, and all those problematic loans will take care of themselves. The worst Beijing appears to countenance is that GDP growth will slow to 7%.”
Keep the faith: It’s a lock, it’s in the bag, it’s under control.