Bits Bucket for May 28, 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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Seattle, WA Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY; Inventory Balloons
http://www.movoto.com/seattle-wa/market-trends/
San Diego, CA Housing Prices Dive 13% YoY; Housing Demand Crumbles
http://www.movoto.com/san-diego-ca/market-trends/
Colorado Housing Demand Craters 9% YoY; Declines Accelerate
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CO-home-value/r_10/?disambig=10911&pri=10#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D4%26rt%3D6%26r%3D10%26el%3D0
Online article comment on Bloomberg piece titled The Hidden Risks in Your Local Housing Market:
Mortgage Pro — “Remember…. Current asking prices of resale housing are 250% higher than long term trend and have a long way to fall.
Find out more at thehousingbubbleblog.com”
Someone’s putting some cheese in the mousetrap, huh?
Year Over Year Housing Demand Craters In 53 Of 58 California Counties
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-home-value/r_9/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D4%26r%3D9%252C3101%252C1286%252C2841%26el%3D0
Wall Street Journal - Silicon Valley Fans San Francisco’s Flames
Companies Are Driving Rents to Near Record Prices
“San Francisco’s office market has grown white hot…”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304811904579588310059513506
“Flames”, “white hot”, and as Ben posted on the other thread, “red hot”.
Don’t get too close to a Realtor or office leasing agent, because you might just spontaneously catch fire…
I’ve heard that San Francisco is a flaming place.
Yesterday, I called a realtoR, thinking that she was a property manager. She answered her phone, but then immediately sent me to voice mail, which was confusing. She called back a few minutes later and explained that right after she answered, she also received an incoming call on the other line from California. She acted like I should take it for granted that OF COURSE she would hang up on me with a call coming in from freaking California.
Are equity locusts returning to AZ? What will happen to AZ prices when the equity locusts fall down the donkey hole?
To whom are the New Home Builders going to sell all those shacks they’ve been throwing up? It sure ain’t investors. Have their lending arms returned to fog a mirror for anyone willing to sign?
Has their experience last time convinced them that no matter what they do this time they will be bailed out?
Some Toll brothers tool was talking about “pent up demand” today, so I’m sure they think they’ll be selling to all of those imaginary people.
By the way, “pent-up demand” is one of my least favorite terms used by the shills. It’s disgusting.
Its like saying there is pent up demand for 85 degree sunny weather 365 days a year.
85 is too hot for a former Vermonter, at least 365 days a year, San Diego weather is fine.
We’ve come a long way Jack.
From Movoto:
“Every indicator of housing market activity and prices we know is slowing or falling outright,” Shepherdson said.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/27/5850363/dfw-home-prices-reach-new-high.html
Sad Panda boohoo for Brazil
Amid Unfinished or Canceled Infrastructure Projects, Hopes Wane That Soccer Tournament Could Spur Long-Term Growth
http://online.wsj.com/articles/hope-fades-in-brazil-for-a-world-cup-economic-boost-1401242039
The World Cup is becoming like the Olympics: an expensive boondoggle for the host country. Now when a country is awarded hosting a cup they go and spend a king’s ransom building new stadiums and upgrading existing venues.
The worst part is when games are played in nearly empty stadiums because
1) The expected number of foreign tourists didn’t show up
2) The locals can’t afford the tix.
That said, I expect Brazil to get more tourists than South Africa did last time, at least in the major venues. The smaller, secondary venues, not so much.
The World Cup is becoming like the Olympics: an expensive boondoggle for the host country.
And Brazil has both of those between now and 2016. Probably a mistake for Brazil’s balance sheet but they will benefit Rio de Janeiro with all the Fed money pouring in.
But anyone who thought that all the grand infrastructure planned would all happen does not know Brazil. It’s funny to see FIFA and the Olympic Dudes get all freaked out about Brazil “being behind schedule”.
Behind schedule? Who’s schedule? A European or American schedule? lol……There’s only one schedule down here boys and it’s not yours. It’s theirs. It’s Brazil’s and it’s not quite the same as a German’s schedule. Live and learn.
And the Lola Cup is an empty mouthwash bottle.
Behind schedule? Who’s schedule? A European or American schedule?
The games have to be played on a certain date and the facilities need to be ready, there is only one schedule. This is not like drilling an oil well where Brazil can say October or December it does not matter.
The games have to be played on a certain date and the facilities need to be ready, there is only one schedule.
“There is only one schedule” is an American concept. Now Americans can stop our feet and scream this at Brazilians and they will look you in the eye and swear that they understand and agree to it and write it down as the one schedule, but months later the American will come to realize that there were two schedules all along, as there is now.
Brazil is “behind schedule” but the games are scheduled and will go on.
How can this happen? Because there have always been 2 schedules - FIFA’s and Brazil’s. Live and learn.
No Lola you learn. It is a simple fact the games are not on a flexible schedule they are on a fixed schedule that has to be met.
It is a simple fact the games are not on a flexible schedule they are on a fixed schedule that has to be met.
No, no my self-important, whitePride gringo. You’re missing the deeper point.
You don’t understand Brazil. Brazil is not the USA. “Schedule” does not mean the same thing here. They say it does but in reality, it does not mean the same thing. And they know it, but you, FIFA and the Olympic dudes don’t know it yet.
Again:
Brazil is “behind schedule” but the games are scheduled and will go on. How can Brazil be “behind schedule” but the games go on as scheduled?
Live and learn. (The gringos watching the “beautiful game” with wet paint on their butts will understand)
Back on your meds Lola, you are becoming increasingly delusional again, must of have gone to a Brazilian barbeque in D.C. again.
Live and learn. (The gringos watching the “beautiful game” with wet paint on their butts will understand)
Exactly. They’ll be “finishing” just hours before the first kick off, instead of the 3-4 months before that FIFA wanted. Half the restrooms in the stadium won’t work and the electricals in the concession stands will be flaky. Some escalators might not work. The pop and the beer sold in the stadium will be warm, but no one will care.
the beer sold in the stadium will be warm,
Stop right there. There are even somethings that Brazilians will not tolerate.
BTW, it was illegal to sell beer in Brazilian futbol stadiums until FIFA made Brazil change their law. I don’t know it that’s cool or scary now.
An American journalist asked a Brazilian politician how could the Cup preparations be “so behind schedule and over cost” and the Brazilian looked dumbfounded at the journalist like she just asked the dumbest question in the world and he said something like “all major construction projects go over cost and behind schedule in Brazil, why would this be any different?”. And then the American journalist looked even more dumbfounded than the politician. Classic culture difference.
Brazil went bananas with regard to the Cup in comparison to South Africa in terms of dollars spent.
I went to a soccer game in Sao Paolo once in 98/99ish, good time although we couldn’t root for the visiting team which is who the people I was with were supporting. Something about not wanting to upset the home team fans.
The stadium was huge.
Watching a soccer game is like watching paint dry.
Only if you have a short attention span.
It’s sissified football
No Hope and Change for these Goons
Wall Street Journal - New Costs From Health Law Snarl Union Contract Talks
Workers and Employers Tussle Over Who Should Pay for New Costs Tied to Affordable Care Act
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303749904579580604081967202
Forward
I thought union goons already had gold plated insurance. I know mine didn’t change in cost, but I have a $200 deductible plan that already covers everything imaginable.
From the article:
Unions and employers are tussling over who will pick up the tab for new mandates, such as coverage for dependent children to age 26
That mandate is hardly new, it was one of the first ones to kick in when the law was first passed a few years ago. Do WSJ “journalists” do any real research?
Because the union contracts did not expire until now?
Good old unions.
They force obamacare on the rest of us and either expect to be exempt or have some one else pick up the costs.
Hard to tell whom is more evil - banks or unions
Is this a union lifeguard in the picture?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/27/still-ice-on-lake-superior-never-before-seen-in-satellite-era/
Maybe that climate change thing is turning into climate cooling. Since Phoenix is expecting 105 deg F this weekend, I’m all for some cooling.
Hard to tell whom is more evil - banks or unions
That’s a no brainer: the banks. Unions have been steadily losing power, bankers are gaining power.
Hard to tell whom is more evil - banks or unions
That sounds some good nonsense to try to confuse J6P.
Do WSJ “journalists” do any real research?
Not as much as they did before. The WSJ is now owned by NewsCorp/Rupert Murdoch so research, facts, math and science on political stories are becoming optional.
The story makes no sense. Union healthcare plans are notorious for being gold plated. They already covered all the Obamacare mandates, which aren’t all that generous to begin with.
Compared to what I have an Obamacare Bronze Plan is junk insurance, and I’m not in a union shop.
has owning home become the american nightmare?
For Mr. Banker it’s a dream come true.
For debt donkey loanowners, a lifetime of incalculable losses.
The losses are easy to calculate, but the debt donkeys who buy to high never want to make the calculation. Just refer to the discussion yesterday involving crickets.
Between Mz. Craterton running scared and Lola exposing herself in public, yesterday was priceless.
Waking up from his blind stupor, crawling over a disgusting carpet to a keyboard soaked in tears and spittle, Lola spews his fury.
Angry Lola… angry angry Lola…. She gets angrier and angrier with each passing day.
As “she” gets older walking the streets of D.C. in heels gets harder and harder.
“Angry Lola… angry angry Lola…. She gets angrier and angrier with each passing day.”
….just wait until they stop paying her to post….you will see anger.
Which makes me wonder why these outfits pay for such ineffectual consultants. They’re getting banged harder than a home buyer with a zero down mortgage.
I chose not to respond to yesterday’s conversation because we had had similar conversations before.
And you ran from then topic then too.
If I adopted that policy with Lola, I never would get to respond, since he only has so many talking points he gets paid to promote.
“For Mr. Banker it’s a dream come true.”
You are absolutely correct!
Slavery used to be the result of force, of coercion; Today slavery results from persuasion.
And the best part of this is:
Today the ownership of the slave is retained by the slave; The care and feeding of the slave is performed by the slave himself. However the production of the slave still moves from the clutches of the slave on over to the clutches of somebody else. In the olden days this somebody else was the slave owner, nowdays this somebody else is the lender.
Progress.
It is a wonderful tool of control, this Matrix. Convince people they do not have enough as their bellies grow and their minds turn to mush.
Just because they’re fat doesn’t mean they aren’t up to their eyeballs in debt.
Oven, baker. STAT.
But I can paint the walls any color I want!!!!!
You should paint bars on the walls, because if you buy a house today it will be like living in prison.
Just ask HBB’s own Amy Hoaxide, she’s only got 22 years left to serve…
But it will finance my retirement!!!!!
You forgot the coming refi and or equity extraction.
But to her credit at least she isn’t moving every 5-6 years and buying another albatross. I think the market is based on this model of people moving more frequently during the times when they’ve been pretty much been paying only interest and paying off the transaction costs.
she’s only got 22 years left to serve…
Which goes by in the blink of an eye in a full life. Anyone in their 20-30’s can’t really understand this yet.
Spend your free time in your 20-30’s doing this:
http://exploretherockies.org/2014/05/27/mt-moran-skillet-glacier-grundlefest-2014/
Or spend your free time elbow deep in mulch, paying interest, mowing, paying property taxes, shoveling, and counting down the seemingly innumerable days until you’re done paying off Mr. Banker like some pathetic Willy Loman?
I intend to pay off the house and retire at about the same time. At which point, I may choose to sell the house, “extract the equity,” and buy a cheaper house outright in cheaper area and keep the profit in reserve. If the house is worth 0 (unlikely), then I can choose to age in place and pay only the taxes. Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do?
Or are all of you living in a box while you save up to prepay your next 22 years of rent?
“Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do?”
This message sponsored by the National Association of Realtors®
Spend your free time in your 20-30’s doing this:
She’s spending less than rent. She could do both. And some people could not care less about running around a mountain or trying to swim in freezing water. Some people would rather tend to their garden and texture the den.
We are all different.
Prove it.
No, we are not living in a box. We simply understand that sometimes it’s better to rent, and other times it’s better to buy. Since so many indicators are pointing to downward prices right now, the rent option seems better.
Indicators are pointing toward prices which may shift downward… but how far? Down to 2012 prices? In which case, I lose nothing by buying. And how long will it take for these prices to go downward? Another 5 years? At a certain point, it costs more to rent and wait for the bottom than it costs to buy a little above the bottom. I was at a point where I was losing ground by waiting.
Actually Rio, I DID do both. I rented for my 20’s and 30’s, and bought in my 40’s. Goon thinks we’re living in Logan’s Run, and is too young to know what Logan’s Run is.
Why is calculated your losses to depreciation so dreadful for you?
Afraid you might find out you’re screwed?
“I lose nothing by buying.”
That’s the dream of a lifetime, until it isn’t anymore…
Here’s what the amount of excess reserves held by banks looks like:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EXCRESNS
If I understand this correctly, the Fed pays the banks interest on the excess reserves the banks hold - which is a sure-thing return. And at the same time the Fed is bitching because banks are being stingy by not loaning out money to prospective borrowers - which is something less than a sure-thing return.
Which would make sense to a banker if he had any concern at all about prudently handling the money that is placed in his trust; A sure-thing return from the Fed beats the hell out of a something-less-than-a-sure-thing-return from an ordinary borrower - UNLESS this ordinary borrower is somebody who has a good chance of paying the money back, which may be doubtful if he needs to borrow money in the first place.
The ones who are good risks are the deep pocketed corporations who can borrow cheap and then use this borrowed money to buy back their stock. And this is good for the banks, good for the corporation but not so good for the economy in general because the money borrowed doesn’t go into financing any sort of production.
This is my view but I am a bit fuzzy on the ins-and-outs of all this so I welcome any comments or corrections on what I just posted.
This is my view but I am a bit fuzzy on the ins-and-outs of all this so I welcome any comments or corrections on what I just posted.
Combo, you forgot one piece. What happens to the money now in the pockets of former shareholders, who sold to the company buying back their stock?
That money doesn’t go “poof”. It goes somewhere. Under the mattress? Into a bank account? Hookers and blow?
Likely it’s going into overseas tax havens. Or to buying stock in other companies. But wherever it is, it exists only as digits on a computer.
It would be better for the economy in general to spend the money on hookers and blow.
It would be better for the economy in general to spend the money on hookers and blow.
I know Oxide you have a mortgage payment to make but you need to pay Ben if you want to advertise. Is dealing blow a new sideline?
I know Oxide you have a mortgage payment to make but you need to pay Ben if you want to advertise. Is dealing blow a new sideline?
Really Adan? That? That’s like something a dumb 12 year old would come up with.
Memo:
You……..Are……..Not……….Funny
Seems you have a vested interest in Mz Craterton huh Lola?
They may be working the same street corner. Lola is the like the black hooker in risky business sending her boys that don’t want to take a walk on the wild side.
That money doesn’t go “poof”.. It goes somewhere..Hookers and blow?
I doubt it.
They probably just waste it on something.
With Oxide it is a joke since she does have a good sense of humor. With you, we don’t want you promoting your “goods”.
Bad joke tho. make fun of her bad math or something… no one jokes about your anal warts…
You have the wrong guy mathguy, you must be thinking of Lola or Joe. It is Oxide that suggested a few weeks ago that she might be “selling” something to pay her mortgage I am just going along with the joke.
There is a lost post but Oxide was the first to suggest that she might be “selling” something to pay the mortgage only going along with her own joke. Don’t know who’s butt you are finding warts in but I can assure you it is not mine. Of course, if Obama continues to screw working Americans we might all have them but so far so good. One of the advantages of being exclusively hetro.
don’t take offense! hopefully my point was made… not all jokes are funny
They probably just waste it on something.
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered - George Best
I read the other day that the Fed thinks if they pay higher interest rates on these excess reserves, it will boost the economy!
Associated Press piece linked from Google News:
“Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden a fugitive and challenged him to “man up and come back to the United States.”
Man up? What a dingleberry.
I’m in the middle of Glenn Greenwald’s new book and it is quite disturbing.
Will post some choice excerpts in the next few days…
Stunning hypocrisy coming from a corrupt coward like Kerry.
When’s he gonna hurry up and release that list ? I want to see if certain names are on it.
Spoiler:
“Realtors Are Liars” didn’t make the cut for King Ciroc Obama’s spying list.
Liberace!
Liberace!
But Goon made the list for revealing state secrets, Obama’s role in the Malaysian airplane disappearance.
Man up or get a drone strike…
John Kerry’s friend joins the Board of Ukrainian gas producer, same company as Joe Biden’s son
18 May 2014
Vice President Joe Biden‘s son and a close friend of Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson have joined the board of a Ukrainian gas producer controlled by a former top security and energy official for deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.
Hunter Biden, a lawyer by training and the younger of the vice president’s two sons, joined the board of directors of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings Ltd. this month and took on responsibility for the company’s legal unit, according to a statement issued by the closely held gas producer.
His appointment came a few weeks after Devon Archer —college roommate of the secretary of state’s stepson, H.J. Heinz Co. ketchup heir Christopher Heinz—joined the board to help the gas firm attract U.S. investors, improve its corporate governance and expand its operations. A State Department spokesman declined to comment.
http://www.hangthebankers.com/…/ - 67k -
“I’m in the middle of Glenn Greenwald’s new book and it is quite disturbing.”
+1 Giving Israel bulk data on U.S. citizens since 2009.
Why didn’t the NSA stop the Santa Barbara shooter?
“Why didn’t the NSA stop the Santa Barbara shooter?”
Which one?
Slideshow: Gunman Shoots and Kills Six in Isla Vista
12:33 AM PDT May 24, 2014
Witnesses described seeing a black BMW speeding through the streets, spraying bullets at people and various targets near El Embarcadero and Segovia Roads and the top of the loop along Del Playa in Isla Vista.
Xavier Mozejewski told NewsChannel 3 reporter Victoria Sanchez that he witnessed some of the violence and described it as an “old western shoot-out.”
Michael Vitak, a student from the Czech Republic, told Sanchez what he witnessed.
“Guys in a BMW. Maybe they were trying to prove they’re tough,” Vitak said during a live televised interview. Vitak saw them shooting at two girls; one was shot dead, the other was critically hurt.
“I heard shots, screams, pain,” said Vitak. “All emotions. I hope she is going to be fine,” he said.
One woman identified as Sierra told Sanchez she was approached by two men in a black BMW. The driver flashed a small black handgun and asked ‘”Hey, what’s up?”‘
Sierra, who was visibly shaken, said she thought it was an airsoft gun and kept walking. She said seconds later, she felt something buzz by her head and quickly realized they were bullets. Three or four of them.
Sierra said she ran into a nearby home filled with strangers and explained what happened. She looked down and saw her iPhone had been shattered.
http://www.keyt.com/news/shooting-in-isla-vista/26152454 - 124k -
Man up? What a dingleberry.
Is that how low we have fallen? Our secretary of state resorts to puerile shaming tactics?
Yes, he should “man up” and allow himself to be abused by the US government, as a punishment for being true to the people. Not.
Drudge link for ABQ Dan
“Fort Lauderdale police believe hundreds of young people made their way to the beach for one reason this Memorial Day, to cause trouble.
Fort Lauderdale Police were in riot gear as a large crowd of young people moved through A1A reportedly causing mayhem.
Fort Lauderdale Police officials said a group of young people came to the beach to fight and when police quickly broke it up, they scattered through the streets.”
“young people” = I bet if Obama had sons and Mugabe had grandchildren in the U.S., they would look like them.
Mugabe’s got to be pretty to be old. Some of his grandchildren, if he has any, could be middle aged by now.
But what does Mugabe have to do with anything?
The policies he believes in are the policies that Obama believes in and the policies that Obama’s church in Chicago believed in as preached by Rev. Wright.
Is there any evidence for that? It sounds like more statist claptrap from you.
Is there any evidence for that?
1. Huge deficits
2. Easy money
3. Attacks on successful businessman while playing the racism card.
I think there is plenty of evidence both in Zimbabwe and the U.S.
What is this racism card nonsense? When has Obama attacked businessmen while play the racism card?
1. Huge deficits
2. Easy money
3. Attacks (mythical “Chicago Welfare Queens”) while playing the racism card.
Why do you keep bringing up Ronald Reagan’s presidency?
“young people”
We know you don’t like “young people” Adan and we know you think that people who look like you are superior to “young people”.
He ran an entire campaign playing the race and gender cards demonizing everyone that opposed him as racist and sexist. Of course he did it through surrogates but for example he had Biden saying the Republicans wanted to put blacks in chains and that is not the race card?
We know you don’t like “young people” Adan and we know you think that people who look like you are superior to “young people”.
Really on my birthday a female friend around 30 treated me to lunch.
We know you don’t like “young people” Adan and we know you think that people who look like you are superior to “young people”.
Of course, if you mean young people as code words for thugs, then I don’t like thugs or the people that defend them and do feel superior to them.
He ran an entire campaign playing the race and gender cards demonizing everyone that opposed him as racist and sexist. Of course he did it through surrogates but for example he had Biden saying the Republicans wanted to put blacks in chains and that is not the race card?
That’s interesting. I ask for an example of Obama attacking businessmen and you mention a criticism of the Republican party. I went and looked up that Biden chains story. There was a long discussion of what he said and what he meant to say. It wasn’t very interesting to read. The vice president was using somewhat extreme language to what everyone knows, which is that Republica administrations tend to be bad periods for those on low incomes.
The whole you did not build this business comment was an attack on businessman and businesses are disproportionately white and yes he did demonize their unwillingness to “share” more. Biden’s comments are clear race playing and the fact that you are even trying to suggest it wasn’t means that you really do not want to know or hear the truth.
The whole you did not build this business comment was an attack on businessman and businesses are disproportionately white
Pure Adan propaganda.
In “You didn’t build that” Obama was saying you did not build all of the American infrastructure, laws and protections that make it possible for people to build their business.
An unbiased person with an IQ of 90 could have figured out what Obama was talking about. You Adan either don’t have an IQ above 90, you are hopelessly biased or you are a pure liar for political purposes.
And it was in his surrogates in the media that made businesses paying more as racial justice:
http://news.yahoo.com/wealth-gap-widens-between-whites-minorities-040224418.html;_ylt=A0SO8zcMSYZTuz8AXBJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzYzA0MzVpBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDI4Ml8x
An unbiased person with an IQ of 90 could have figured out what Obama was talking about. You Adan either don’t have an IQ above 90, you are hopelessly biased or you are a pure liar for political purposes.
The other possibility is that he gets all of news from Fox News and similar outlets and actually believes whatever they tell him.
When I first heard that Obama made that little speech (which was something stated earlier by Elizabeth Warren) what occurred to me is that it wasn’t likely to sway the swing voters much. It turns out that it was a good move because it caused the GOP to spend a lot of time praising business owners, who are not as popular as right wing politicians think they are.
It’s interesting, Dan, that the thought that occurred to you was that that black guy Obama was critcizing white business owners. Or maybe “black guy” is not the term that you use.
Are Lola and the Shills the wacky Wednesday band?
The evils of white privilege…
A Drudge link about diversity in Utah, the BYU football won its only national championship with great help from the Tongans, however Utah may have paid a high price for that championship.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/26/tonga-crips-gang-utah/9463661/
“He’s a very bad boy…….”
“No, he’s a good boy. Just a little messed up.”
That article didn’t appear to have any reference to BYU football. What’s the connection?
The Tongan connection to BYU is well known particularly in Utah, so well known that it does not even need to be mentioned in the article. Even high school teams were quite eager to go hold of Tongans. I heard a story in the 1970s which can only be called a cultural clash. A man had a pony which could no longer take care of but he wanted it to go to a good home. So he put an ad in the paper announcing a free pony. A Tongan called and the man asked why he wanted the pony. The Tongan said it is for my little girl’s birthday. He told the Tongan come and pick it up, he was happy since the pony going to a little girl is exactly what he wanted. The Tongan arrived took the horse and started to walk it to his pick-up truck. However, he then grabbed a 2 by 4 bashing the horse over the head killing it. He threw the body in the vehicle and drove off. The man called the police who stopped the Tongan. He told them he wanted it for his daughter’s barbeque and did not think he had done anything wrong.
If he can pick up a pony, I would definitely want him on my football team. I’m wondering how the guy who gave the pony away thought the Tongan was going to get it home in a pick-up truck.
I’m wondering how the guy who gave the pony away thought the Tongan was going to get it home in a pick-up truck.
I don’t know and the person that told me about this did not even know for sure how this was resolved. Many Tongans are big and strong and yes you do want them on your football team. Mormon boys many of them quite big are in awe of their strength.
I should say the white Nordic type Mormons, the Tongans are often converts.
I believe Vanilla Ice sang about A1A in the first rap song to hit #1, Ice, Ice, Baby.
BTW, South Africa knows how to put the goon, in union goons, I like to see Lola cross that picket line:
http://business.iafrica.com/news/941290.html
Speaking of Lola, she seems to think that the fact that whites make up 75% of the handful of rampage shooting but only about 63% of the population is very significant but the fact that blacks make up 13% of the population but 50% of the murderers should not be noticed. That ten of thousands of blacks commit murder should be ignored since most blacks do not commit murder but the fact the tens of whites commit rampage murder should be an indictment of all white males and a proof of white privilege. Of course, if Lola only posted when he had a well reasoned argument we would not hear from him/her.
Federal task force proposes measures to deal with Detroit housing blight
Detroit — Money isn’t the only obstacle to ending blight in Detroit. A federal task force also is calling for a host of state and city policy changes.
The Blight Removal Task Force detailed its much-anticipated recommendations on Tuesday, stressing that “aggressive action” is needed to raze buildings and deal with nuisance properties.
The goal is to cut the amount of time necessary to demolish blighted homes.
Reducing interest rates
The interest rate is 12 percent for the first year and shoots up to 18 percent after 18 months.
The rate “chases people from homes, they become vacant and blighted in a matter of weeks and lose all value they might have had,” said Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski.
Previous efforts to change the law in Lansing have gone nowhere. State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, is sponsoring a bill that would waive the penalty, keeping the rate at 12 percent. It passed the House and is pending in the Senate.
“Our general feeling here is anything will help,” Szymanski said.
“People get to a point where in three years they owe more in taxes, fees and interest than the property is worth. It’s difficult to make the argument to them that they should pay that.”
Reforming auction
Properties with three years of unpaid taxes are sold at auction by county treasurers in Michigan.
During the first sale, bidders must pay all back taxes and fees. Those are waived during the second sale, where bidding starts at $500.
Critics long have contended the sale encourages land speculation and a cycle of blight in Detroit and other urban areas, since the initial investment is so low.
In Wayne County, nearly 80 percent of 18,568 properties bought in the last two years of auctions were delinquent on taxes, according to records from last fall.
Mayor Mike Duggan on Tuesday spoke in favor of eliminating the second auction.
In 2011, the Wayne County treasurer inserted a “reverter clause” into deeds that requires that taxes be current and properties be secured, demolished or maintained.
Szymanski said the county is preparing to enforce the clause, which accelerates the process of taking back the properties.
There are about 6,000 to 7,000 properties that would be reverted, about 88 percent are in Detroit, he said.
The move would land the properties in the hands of the Detroit Land Bank.
The report said 118,000 properties citywide are on track for tax foreclosure.
“Detroit cannot afford to put more than a quarter of the city on the auction block,” the report says.
“Collectively, these properties carry more than $500 million in unpaid taxes. There has to be a better way.”
PS - Detroit has some of the highest property taxes in the nation
You want Detroit to come back?
Ban public unions.
You want Detroit to come back?
Ban public unions.
I just kind of want Detroit to go away.
I’m looking for a white Detroit politician to blame this on, but google only goes back 50 years.
I just kind of want Detroit to go away.
Close your eyes and pretend it doesn’t exist.
Once the high IQ people leave an area and leave low IQ people in the area it is very hard to bring an area back. While there is a certainly a racial angle to the Detroit story, there are plenty of rural areas where the population is virtually all white where this same dynamic still plays out. Absent some catalyst, it is hard to see Detroit coming back. However, I think that Detroit might make an interesting experiment. Within the Detroit area, the federal government could set up a tax haven. Perhaps an area with a 10% federal corporate tax rate, and we could see whether that promotes solid economic growth.
Eliminate crime and Detroit will come back.
It really is that simple!
“Once the high IQ people leave…….”
Pretty much explains Kansas. Or Oklahoma. Or pretty much everyplace between the Rockies and the Missouri River.
Exhibit “A”……my daughter’s new in-laws, as they bitch about the FSA, while drawing/double dipping on multiple government employee pensions.
In years past, those of average or below average intelligence could find work in manufacturing all over the. US. What happens when the US outsources much of it’s manufacturing to cheap foreign labor? Less demand for less skilled and less educated workers and a hollowing out of the middle class.
STEM workers and health care workers are the new “middle class” …
Perhaps an area with a 10% federal corporate tax rate, and we could see whether that promotes solid economic growth.
No, all it will do is lure multinationals to establish their headquarters in a file cabinet to take advantage of the tax break. The real work will still be done in right-to-work-for-less states, or overseas.
And this is a moot point anyway. The State of Michigan cannot override the Federal tax laws.
I do not say that Michigan could override federal tax law, of course, the federal government would have to create exceptions in the tax law for Detroit and similarly situated cities. The law could be crafted to base the exception of the number of employees within the area. Of course, we could just keeping paying the people in the area SNAP and welfare benefits instead of trying something that might just work.
This would be amazing.. Max of 5% income tax on anyone residing in Detroit… It would become the new “rich town” de juer.
Would be great to revitalize the town so it could take advantage of its natural resources.
Did somebody say CRATER?
“The hesitant housing recovery has surprised and concerned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues at the the central bank. It’s not clear how much they can do about it.
The trouble from the Fed’s perspective is that many of the forces holding housing back are outside of its control. While the Fed can influence mortgage rates through its conduct of monetary policy, it can’t do much, if anything, to counteract the other causes of faltering demand: lagging household formation, stingy lenders and wary borrowers.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/yellen-concerned-by-housing-slowdown-she-has-scant-power-to-cure.html
Lagging household formation? There is no “pent-up demand”
Stingy lenders? Because strawberry pickers need $500,000 “starter homes”
Wary borrowers? No, they’re just smart enough to not commit FINANCIAL SUICIDE
Maybe she could drop interest rates to zero, bailout banks to allow them to lend without standards and institute new and massive government housing programs….
Oh wait…
I wanna cheap house. Why can’t Janet see that I need a cheap one? Mr. Baker wants me to get an expensive one, but I don’t care about him. Perhaps Janet is more fond of Mr. Baker than of me. That makes me sad.
Colossal bill to deal with Detroit blight - your contribution will be gratefully accepted
The Detroit Blight Removal Task Force released a report yesterday:
It will take $850 million to clean up residential neighborhoods and nearby retail strips over the next five years, and about $2 billion total when adding in huge commercial edifices such as the Packard Plant and the Michigan Central Station.
About $456 million in federal money and from other sources has been identified, leaving a gap of about $394 million still needed to clean up the neighborhoods. That money could come from savings from the bankruptcy, officials said.
Generating money from a bankruptcy, is that like a free lunch?
The task force concluded that Detroit suffers with 84,641 blighted or nearly blighted structures and vacant lots, of which some 40,000 are so bad off they should be demolished and cleaned up immediately. Also, 93% of the tens of thousands of tax-foreclosed Detroit properties held by the city, county and state are in really bad shape and should be knocked down or cleaned up, the report said.
Has any of the task force members ever personally cleaned up a blighted property?
The removal of blight is seen as a first, obvious way to improve the city’s image and spur development once Detroit exits Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, possibly by the fall.
Detroit’s bankruptcy feels for many like a fresh start for a city that for decades has endured relentless image-bashing as a decaying, crime-ridden, irretrievable and once-great urban center. So much of that reputation has been tied to home abandonment and eventual wide-scale blight, which not only breeds crime and other social ills but also just looks bad.
‘Good looks’ are all-important.
“Isn’t this a great day?” Detroit Mayor Duggan told the audience of at least 200 civic leaders who attended the two-hour release ceremony at Focus: HOPE. “This blight has gone on for years. It’s gotten nothing but worse.”
Yup, it’s a great day.
The report’s introductory letter includes: “Blight is a cancer. Blight sucks the soul out of anyone who gets near it, let alone those who are unfortunate enough to live with it all around them. Blight is radioactive. It is contagious. Blight serves as a venue that attracts criminals and crime.”
Substitute “greed” and “extravagance” for “blight” and they might be on to something.
San Francisco, Boston, NYC today…. Detroit tomorrow. It’s reality.
Insane public union goon pensions problem solved?
No?
Then you have no fresh start.
Apparently, all the doom and gloom hasn’t chased everyone away from Detroit.
“Amid efforts to revitalize Detroit’s downtown, some residents are finding they can no longer afford to live there.”
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/27/real_estate/downtown-detroit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Get Riotard to donate. He’s supposed to want to share the wealth isn’t he?
Come on Riotard. Are you going to walk the walk of your wealth redistribution rhetoric or what? Or does “sharing the wealth” apply to only sharing other people’s wealth?
He’s too busy lobbying to have birth gender named a preexisting condition.
Are you going to walk the walk of your wealth redistribution rhetoric
Well, actually.
Unlike your crock of schlock talk but no walk, I’ve never balked to walk my talk.
I also walk much of your Locke talk, of which there’s a lock you’ll never walk.
(Which makes your hypocritical squawk talk, easy to mock.)
Don’t give up your day or night job because as a poet you suck and you know it.
Eminemango
Substitute “greed”
And what is greed. I think the definition varies greatly by individual and even by racial group. I have a number of minority friends and I have on numerous occasions floated them non-interest loans. They are actually successful people that make incomes similarly to me but unlike me they do not have assets. The reason they needed loans, the entitlement behavior of their relatives. Despite these people causing their own problems, they think that their more successful relative owes them help. My friends actually do believe not helping them would be greedy and behavior not consistent with the group. This same entitlement behavior spills over into government with many thinking just because someone like Bill may have a few million, he is greedy for not wanting to share more.
Sorry, it was the rugged individualism of America that made her great and limited government is part of that. Entitlement behavior on a personal and governmental level makes everyone poorer and that is the path we are presently on. BTW, I am a good judge of character and have virtually always received my money back although I did suffer the lost of opportunity to make money with that money.
Apparently Detroit real estate only goes up, but not so high as to escape negative numbers.
Washington Post - Strong gains in home prices of the previous two years are slowing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/strong-gains-in-home-prices-of-the-previous-two-years-are-slowing/2014/05/27/7fc5815e-e5d3-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html
Why?
Because there are no buyers. There is no demand. There is no household formation. There are no jobs.
If you are new to the HBB or a lurker, all you need to know is that everything about this alleged housing recovery is fake, there are no economic fundamentals to support it, it’s all a big LIE!
“…everything about this alleged housing recovery is fake, there are no economic fundamentals to support it, it’s all a big LIE!”
Don’t forget about the $40 bn / month in QE3 housing stimulus. The proximate source of the Echo Bubble is in plain view.
Realtors® are liars.
Oh my word…… I think you’re right.
it’s a message that needs repeating.
as more and more potential used house buyers question the total lack of economic fundamentals behind today’s real estate market, some of them may find their way here.
and when they do, they need to learn that this isn’t the city-data forum. this is where they can learn the truth.
and realtor trolls will be promptly taken to the woodshed to get spanked.
And I enjoy reading it…….repeatedly.
Alfred J. Fisher mansion in Detroit for sale again after asking price raised; estate auction today
The massive Alfred J. Fisher mansion in Detroit is back on the market with a bigger $1.5-million price tag and an everything-must-go estate auction set for this afternoon.
The property itself already has attracted at least one potential full-price cash offer. If such a deal happens, it would represent the largest sale price in at least a decade for a Detroit house that is still in use as a single-family residence.
Real estate experts speculate that such a unique and well-kept property could sell for three to four times as much — if not more — if situated in a suburb.
What would it be worth if situated in San Francisco?
Built in the upscale Palmer Woods neighborhood during the Roaring ’20s, the Tudor Revival-style mansion at 1771 Balmoral Drive has nearly 16,500 square feet, including 15 bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool and extensive outdoor gardens.
Does it have
slaves serfsa permanently indentured staff of servants to maintain it?It initially listed at $1.2 million in early April, but was pulled off the market amid a foreclosure-related lawsuit. Those legal matters have since been resolved.
George and Christine Michaels, the mansion’s owners for the past 35 years, bought the property for $125,000 in 1979 and did substantial renovations.
Can you say peak oil or finite resources:
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/133287/Big_Oil_Spending_More_Getting_Less_in_Production
Given that housing is a private good, is there a proper role for government meddling with housing markets? Other countries’ housing markets seem to do better than the U.S. market without GSEs.
How does the free sh•t army vote in those countries?
I dunno.
But one big thing seems to be missing from the political discussion on housing: Just how many low-income and minority families have seen their household finances irreparably damaged due to getting lured by government-sponsored financing into buying a home with a loan they have no hope of ever repaying.
It’s rather like the Democratic party housing advocates have shot one of their most favored constituencies and left them for dead, under the banner of “affordable housing” policy.
This whole housing bubble thing affected lots of people, including whites and non-poor people. Weren’t the GSEs guaranteeing mortgage up to $700k at one point?
But it had a disparate impact on minorities and minority neighborhoods. Their neighborhoods crashed far more. Moreover, the white housing areas have recovered much more.
Given that housing is a private good, is there a proper role for government meddling with housing markets?
No. Without government involvement housing would just be another consumptive item and would be far cheaper. However, government taking an active role both through the tax code and in subsidizing interest and risk distorts the market and increases the price.
“Without government involvement housing would just be another consumptive item and would be far cheaper.”
That’s right.
And this, in turn, suggests that fewer minority and low-income households would now be hopelessly buried in unrepayable debt. Why is it that government programs often have such a malicious effect on the intended beneficiaries?
Why is it that government programs often have such a malicious effect on the intended beneficiaries?
Even asking that question, will put you on the road to become a libertarian. I have asked that question in my mind for decades and never reached a satisfactory answer, one answer is the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the other more sinister and conspiratorial is that the programs are designed to create more dependency thus assuring the reelections and the accumulation of power by the people that designed them.
While I have some libertarian instincts, I don’t buy into the notion that we could function very well as a society without at least some government programs (e.g. freeways are nice, military, police and fire protection essential, etc).
The problem I have is with programs which aim to rob group A to provide group B with a private consumption good. Like housing policy, for example…
I think the framers of the constitution felt exactly as you feel, everything you have mentioned would fit the type of limited government they believed in and could be funded with the limited taxation they believed in. A government sales tax on all but the most basic goods could adequately fund limited government. They funded government with tariffs and that could be the other answer. People could avoid taxes by not consuming and no body would be essentially robbed.
Government policy towards housing worked for a long time, until the Banksters figured out a way to leech on it. Securitization is where it’s at. Where the banksters walk away with cash, no matter how low the chances the loan will actually be paid back.
Along with the homebuilders and their associated employees/vendors/contractors, realtors, and state/local/Federal government, who also have incentives for inflating the cost of real estate.
The old saying about “When the only tool you have is a hammer……” comes to mind.
STOP this crazy talk
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can solve any problem
And save us all
Why is it that government programs often have such a malicious effect on the intended beneficiaries?
Even asking that question, will put you on the road to become a libertarian.
Government programs have a malicious effect on the intended beneficiaires because the private companies who administer the programs pretend to add value but in truth use those programs as their personal gambling casino or fee extraction vehicle, screwing the recipients in the process. Private sector is still mad that Social Security is still government administered. They wanted those carveout fees, dammit!
Asking the question might put one on the road to libertarianism, but answering the question will put one on the road to socialism.
Answering the question wrong might put you on the road to socialism or the road to serfdom, but answering it correctly will lead to more growth and more wealth for everyone.
the framers of the constitution felt exactly as you feel, everything you have mentioned would fit the type of limited government they believed in
Let’s look to real history. The main reason for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was to form a stronger federal government so the USA could become a country able to compete and thrive in the world. The very limited Government Articles of Confederation were not cutting it, and there was a real chance the American experiment would fail. George Washington and the whole gang knew this. Limited government was threatening the survival of our new country.
So in light of the main goals of America thriving and competing in the world, and acquiring legitimacy, it is no wonder that our Government has grown. It had to for us to compete and thrive in a big, fat mean old world out here. These were the goals of our founding fathers.
The world grew and we had to too. And our Constitution provided room for the needed and anticipated growth. If all our government did was freeways, military, police and fire protection, we’d be a two-bit joke country, maybe many inconsequential countries or speaking something like German, Russian or Japanese.
It was not only “rugged individualism” that built the USA into the world’s superpower. It was also a stronger federal government and Constitution designed to adapt to the times that our founding fathers left us with. And it worked for a long time.
but answering it correctly will lead to more growth and more wealth for everyone.
That’s what Reagan said about TrickleDown and that’s what the Repubs still say about TrickleDown.
Hint:
It didn’t work, People don’t believe it as much now, and the tide is turning on the big SupplySide lie.
Does this mean that answering the question will make you a member of the national socialist party?
“Nazi” is derived from the first two syllables of “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei”, the official name of the Nazi party, sometimes abbreviated to NSDAP. In English the official name would be the National Socialist German Workers Party, and its members were sometimes called “National Socialists”, but “Nazi” was so much easier to say.
It didn’t work, People don’t believe it as much now, and the tide is turning on the big SupplySide lie.
People were willing to try something new until Obama’s six years showed how miserably the alternatives to supply side economics work. Obama has made Reaganomics even more popular deal with it.
Other countries’ housing markets seem to do better than the U.S. market without GSEs.
Better? I keep reading stories on this blog about how housing is even bubblier and less affordable in other countries.
Yeah, they don’t need GSEs. They just have direct government programs to “help” them buy houses (I mean “force”).
- Gold down
- Stocks down
- Treasury bonds continuing to rally
What’s a bear not to like?
RISK OFF!!!!!!
Dollar manipulated up to create that situation, our goods are not competitive. Now, I admit they do it smart like yesterday with a huge spike in the morning to force gold lower and then slowly allowing the dollar to fall back some but still the high dollar is killing what is left of U.S. manufacturing including old high techs such as HP, that is what is not to like.
including old high techs such as HP ”
Agilent is high tech spun off years ago from HP.
HP is a failing business passed around to various 1% ers to try and run much like old royalty got control of various colonies in the day.
they don’t know what they are doing isn’t meg Whitman in charge now ?
Meg Whitman is in charge and charging like the light brigade.
Better for her to run HP than California…
False. A high dollar is good for the workforce of America. The lack of tariffs on slave worker nation imported goods is what is killing U.S. Manufacturing. A race to the bottom is not what we want.
A high dollar is good for Wall Street and people that want to travel abroad or buy a house abroad. Period. It kills manufacturing competitiveness. Obama pushed the dollar lower so things would be better in Ohio before his re-election and has let it increase since then killing the rust belt.
(A high dollar) kills manufacturing competitiveness.
Only with lack of proper tariffs.
Obama pushed the dollar lower so things would be better in Ohio before his re-election and has let it increase since then killing the rust belt.
Ahhh part of the Republican meme that Obama “tricked” or “weaseled” his way into the Presidency. That a “man like him” could never have gained office without “trickery”.
“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame, enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago Communist-raised, Communist-educated, Communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America.”
Longtime Republican campaigner Ted Nugent 2014
Corporations aren’t the only ones buying and selling things. You sell your wok every day when you have a job. It’s better to have that dollar be worth more when you earn it. It’s also better for being able to buy food, energy(fuel), clothing… you name it. You’re right, it makes it more expensive for foreign countries to buy our amazing products. It’s just arguing for a better lifestyle for foreigners to let them get our products for cheaper though.
Do you really want a worse lifestyle for working americans to support a better lifestyle for communist dictators?
mathguy is right.
Yesterday stocks up
today stocks down
Tomorrow stocks up
Friday stocks down
Monday stocks up
Tuesday stocks down
and so on
Monday stocks up
Tuesday stocks down
and so on”
Exactly only big trends are worth worrying about like when is this thing going to break again ? And then it will go up again, repeat etc.
I’m getting unsolicited letters to buy my house just like back in 2005 with my condo which I sold for a nice profit and then moved to Phoenix.
Crazy huh the big cycle of funny money from the FED causes this we just have to play it for what it is.
Might sell out and go back to Phoenix and rent this time with a nice big pool.
Stocks down?
Might this news be freaking out Mr Market?
Commercial Real Estate
China’s Property Slump Worsens
Government Tries to Help but Buyers Hold Back
By Esther Fung in Ningbo and Lingling Wei in Beijing
May 27, 2014 5:38 p.m. ET
Property tycoon Pan Shiyi compared China’s property market to the Titanic. Above, construction workers reinforce bolts on a building in Ningbo. Xinhua/Zuma Press
NINGBO, China—China’s property slump is deepening despite growing government efforts to give home sales a lift, adding to concerns over the health of the world’s No. 2 economy.
Cities ranging from Tianjin in the north to Nanning in the south—Ningbo lies in between—have eased government restrictions on home buying and lending for purchases in recent weeks. The central government is also helping, entreating banks this month to lend more.
Authorities hope to reverse a downturn that has led to a 9.9% nationwide drop in housing sales by value in the first four months of the year, compared with a year earlier. Construction starts for housing have fallen 24.5% over the same period.
They are aiming to lure back buyers such as Ye Zhengwei, a 29-year-old branding consultant in Ningbo. But Mr. Ye isn’t biting.
“I wouldn’t buy another home even with the loosening of restrictions,” said Mr. Ye, who bought his first apartment in 2012 for 14,000 yuan ($2,250) per square meter. Now, a developer is offering a comparable home nearby for 25% less.
“I’m a victim of oversupply,” Mr. Ye said.
Market watchers are awaiting figures for May to see whether the slump deepens or shows signs of moderating. China Real Estate Index System, a data provider, is expected to release May price figures for 100 Chinese cities this weekend.
Property developers face a view among consumers that Chinese real-estate prices have peaked. Potential buyers are holding off on purchases. Summer Fan, a 29-year-old Ningbo civil servant, has tried for three years to sell her two-bedroom investment property to buy a new apartment near a good school for her 3-year-old son.
“My last offer was 800,000 yuan” nearly a year ago, Ms. Fan said. “I regret not selling then. I hope the market recovers soon.”
Experts say that in addition to consumer sentiment, longer-term factors are in play. They cite overbuilding in a number of markets outside the richest cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as slower growth in incomes and in the broader economy. The per capita disposable income of urban households increased 9.7% in 2013, compared with 12.6% in 2012.
“The downturn this time is more serious compared to 2008 and 2011,” said Barclays Bank analyst Alvin Wong.
Weakness in real estate is seen as a significant threat to China’s decelerating economy because the industry is intertwined with so many other sectors, including steel, cement and household appliances. Property investment directly contributes 12% to the country’s gross domestic product, analysts said. The total is more than 20% if items such as wages paid to construction workers and output from related industries are included.
…
The per capita disposable income of urban households increased 9.7% in 2013, compared with 12.6% in 2012.
I think that the market has priced in a lot worse than that.
‘Mr. Ye…bought his first apartment in 2012 for 14,000 yuan ($2,250) per square meter. Now, a developer is offering a comparable home nearby for 25% less.’
Same thing is happening right now in Las Vegas.
‘The Hangzhou government will hide the cooling trend in the real estate market. Any price decline more than 15% below the list price will not be entered into the online registry. Developers are not forbidden from cutting prices and no sales will be stopped, though at least one developer expressed concern that advance sales permits may not be issued if the price cuts are deemed too large.’
‘Hangzhou held a 4-day real estate exhibition recently. Attendance was 230,000, but only 32 homes were sold. These numbers are an improvement from 2013 and 2012. One state-owned developer said that price cuts cannot cure the market. The government must step in and ease buying restrictions, ease borrowing limitations, reduce bank reserve requirements, allow people to borrow for second and third homes, etc., in order to instill confidence in the market…He said buyers have no bottom line, if you cut 10%, they want 15%, if you cut 15% they want 20%. His firm has used price cuts of 10% and he hasn’t sold a home in 3 months. He said with government support, they can survive, but small private firms are not so confident.’
‘A real estate agent said that even if sales pick up, price cuts will kill the firm. He said the government is more nervous than the industry because if land sales stop, they might not even be able to pay the wages of government workers. He expects, and hopes, the government will do something to rescue the market.’
‘Dr. Ye Hongwei, Assistant Director of the Real Estate Investment Research Center, Zhejiang University, said the national government would not ease policy. He said there are really only two areas that might ease: buying restrictions and credit limits. The credit limits are set at the central government level and are unlikely to ease. The buying restrictions are set locally, but so far only small cities have enacted these policies. Wenzhou has seen prices fall for 30 straight months and there has been no real easing (aside from a small change last August). He said easing in Hangzhou is unlikely: it is a sensitive real estate market and a bellwether for the national real estate market.’
‘The ultimate cause of the problem was excessive credit growth. The subsequent steps were all aimed at dealing with that policy mistake. Similarly, after 2008 the government encouraged people to buy cars to boost economic growth, then in 2012 everyone is complaining about congestion and rising pollution levels in Beijing. Now this is the headline: China to scrap millions of cars in anti-pollution push. The bill for 5 years of malinvestment is coming due.’
Son in Law (and the rest of the contractors) were told last Thursday that they were being kicked to the curb.
Seems that the aerospace OEM that he was building a new prototype for, has forgotten how to design airplanes. The first flight of the first prototype was about a month ago, seems that they’ve already figured out that they “missed” on the aerodynamics, bigtime. (All those fancy computer design tools aren’t worth squat, if you don’t know what you are doing)
So, everybody in the experimental department assembling the prototypes get the axe, while they get it sorted out. Too bad all the contractors will have moved on before that happens. The OEM will get to pay for OJT all over again, with a new batch.
For whatever reason, nobody seems to be able to design a transport category aircraft using composites in the primary structure, instead of metal. They all end up being heavier than intended, when the airplane is actually built. Which leads to multiple problems.
If I were a trader on inside info, I’d be shorting this company’s stock, big-time……….except, in the current environment, proof that an airplane company that can’t seem to design airplanes would be looked upon by Wall Street at as a positive. If the project gets cancelled, the stock goes up, because they will quit wasting money on new product development.
In the meantime…….the guy I do some contracting for finally gets his airplane out of the mod/paint shop. To do so, he had to become the defacto owner of the shop.
No small businesses in America generates bigger, more expensive Charlie-Foxtrots than the corporate airplane business.
Composites are still pretty much a black art.
That is why this industry has not been automated and off shored out of existence… Yet
I was under the impression that a lot of the composite biz already is offshored. IIRC, the fuselage for the 787 is made in Japan.
Beech Starship……..came out heavier that designed/expected.
Beech Premier I…….ditto
Hawker Horizon/4000…….ditto
Boeing 787……. see above
SIL’s project……. same old song.
Notice a trend?
To these problems, you can add:
-Aluminum scrap generated during manufacturing is recycleable/worth something. Composite scrap is hazardous waste. But that’s not a problem, when you move all of the autoclaves to Me-hico.
-Not nearly as easy to assemble/repair. NDT trained specialists needed to inspect structural integrity and repairs. Significant damage can be transmitted a long way from the actual damage (composites don’t “flex” much)
- Much tighter tolerances required of finished components.
Seems that the aerospace OEM that he was building a new prototype for, has forgotten how to design airplanes.
Yup, it’s what happens when you fire all the expensive guys with the tribal knowledge and replace them with cheaper, less experienced, young pups. I’ve seen this in the software biz too. Arrogant and inexperienced teams that can’t get a product to work reliably. One that stands out in my mind was a team that got a mulligan on a project. After burning 2 years developing a flawed design they got to scrap it and do it over from scratch. Guess what? Version 2, while better, was still unacceptable. The project was cancelled and a boss was fired.
According to SIL, the CEO was down on the shop floor calling all of the troops working on the aircraft (and I quote) “F##king worthless”…….never mind that these guys have been working 60-70 hour weeks for two years, and it’s all blowing up because the engineering sucks.
It’s okay to tell contractors that, apparantly. The trouble started when he rolled some company employees/members of the Machinist’s bargaining unit into the collective “F##king worthless”.
Multiple grievances files. The Mother Ship wacked his pee-pee. Expect a “retired to spend more time with the family/pursuing other interests” announcement any day.
Haven’t had this much fun since the Divisional President at my former employer tried to beat the crap out of the Six Sigma guys. (Quote from a guy who was there: “The Six Sigma guys were in his office f##king with him………because they can”. ROTFLMAO
There’s another argument in favor of unions. Those who don’t have a union just have to put up with the a-hole bosses.
the CEO was down on the shop floor calling all of the troops working on the aircraft (and I quote) “F##king worthless”…….
CEOs are superior beings. Talent. Supply and demand for superior beings touched by God. Job Creators…..Creators….If we just pay them more, they will Create, create jobs and our lives will get better.
(This message was approved by the RNC)
The CEO got a huge raise. You didn’t. Here’s why.
http://www.wral.com/the-ceo-got-a-huge-raise-you-didn-t-here-s-why-/13677770/#GTk0zOmpVxw08E2S.99
While pay for the typical CEO of a company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index surged 8.8 percent last year to $10.5 million, it rose a scant 1.3 percent for U.S. workers as a whole. That CEO now earns 257 times the national average, up from a multiple of 181 in 2009, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and Equilar.
Those figures help reveal a widening gap between the ultra-wealthy and ordinary workers around the world. That gap has fed concerns about economic security — everywhere from large cities where rents are high to small towns where jobs are scarce.
Read more at http://www.wral.com/the-ceo-got-a-huge-raise-you-didn-t-here-s-why-/13677770/#GTk0zOmpVxw08E2S.99
Exactly what Boeing is doing right now, moving over 1000 engineering R&D jobs (the jobs, not the people) to other states from WA.
It’s a good time to be a CEO . . .
You want to talk socialism or people power? Get those laid off employees together and build a competing company to Boeing. Then compete for all their contracts with the inside knowledge of which programs could be run more profitably that the stupid way Boeing was mandating it in the first place…
That’s life. How do you think Detroit, Cincinnati and Buffalo became what they are? All these cities go through cycles. Including Seattle.
In the meantime…….the guy I do some contracting for finally gets his airplane out of the mod/paint shop. To do so, he had to become the defacto owner of the shop.
Sounds like something out of Atlas Shrugged, almost…
In the airplane paint/mod/refurb bidness, the customer usually has to pay a big bunch of the money up front, before the work starts. This becomes problematic when the shop is burning cash, and uses your money to pay for work in progress, instead of buying components/materials for your aircraft.
Essentially, he’s paying for everything twice. Plus, he had to pick up the payroll for the people he needed to bring in to finish his airplane.
Still up for grabs…..who is going to deal/pay for the hazmat disposal issue. The guys running the place, not liking over-regulation and being true Galtians/Libertarians, didn’t feel the desire/need to pay for the disposal of the hazmat.
So they told the employees to stack it all in a hangar storeroom, until it became someone else’s problem. In this case, the Airport Authority/State of Texas.
“So they told the employees to stack it all in a hangar storeroom, until it became someone else’s problem.”
Ahh, the invisible hand…
What is the real problem with Housing Bubble era thinking?
The big-name economists who have bought into the Housing Bubble paradigm have lost sight of the fundamental equilibrium relationship between home prices and incomes. The traditional perspective of housing as a consumption good providing shelter to owner-occupant households has been supplanted by a New Era view that owning homes is the sure path to investment gains.
Since the leaders of government agencies with an interest in housing policy have generally bought into the view of housing as a financial investment, rather than a source of shelter, policies have been adopted to try to drive increases in the investment “value” of housing, and metrics (e.g. Case-Shiller/S&P Index, Zesstimates, etc) have been devised to measure the success of government programs to increase the value of housing.
Although the fundamental equilibrium relationship between household incomes and home prices has not gone away, it is routinely ignored by the stumped experts who can’t figure out why the flow of housing market transactions is in the toilet again. Why is it whatsoever surprising that policies engineered to pump up home prices would end up pricing most U.S. households out of the market?
The fact that, after six years, the pooh-bahs running the show haven’t figured out that falling incomes = falling house/car/retail sales tells you all you need to know about their intelligence.
Or that their income streams depend on the various fantasies associated with home ownership.
Worse - due to their cheap free money policy they have actual pulled in future demand and burned it all.
There it is.
“The big-name economists who have bought into the Housing Bubble paradigm have lost sight of the fundamental equilibrium relationship between home prices and incomes.”
Oh I think they’re smarter than that, but in their greed they’ve decided to loot their country’s treasury via guaranteed mortgages because they don’t know what else to do other than wait for “American Innovation” to rescue the economy. Off-shored jobs, obesity, retiring boomers, etc., add up to a perfect economic storm.
They may indeed be smarter than that, in which case their official pronouncements to the contrary are thinly-veiled lies.
The Bilderberg 2014 Guest List
By majestic on May 27, 2014 in News 23
Perhaps preempting the usual criticism of secrecy by the likes of Alex Jones and others who picket Bilderberg Group meeting places and try to identify the arrival of notable guests, the organization has released the invited guest list for its annual meeting, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 29 May to 1 June 2014. Of course no doubt there will be those who claim that there will be attendees of the meetings who are not on this list, so they’ll still be outside looking into the limousines.
Even more helpfully, there’s a published agenda:
The key topics for discussion this year include:
Is the economic recovery sustainable?
Who will pay for the demographics?
Does privacy exist?
How special is the relationship in intelligence sharing?
Big shifts in technology and jobs
The future of democracy and the middle class trap
China’s political and economic outlook
The new architecture of the Middle East
Ukraine
What next for Europe?
Current events
Here are the confirmed attendees as of 26 May 2014:
disinfo.com/2014/05/bilderberg-2014-guest-list/ - 66k -
Blomberg Radio, 5/28/2014 11:59am. : “The housing market is entirely artificial. Geithner is wrong. We never forced the banks to clear the market.”
~Don Albert, Westwood Capital
Android auto correct sucks. Corrections:
Bloomberg radio WBBR
Dan Alpert, Westwood Capital
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-28/s-and-p-throws-teslas-surging-shares-on-the-junk-heap#r=rss
Toxic housing. Toxic toxic housing. Housing becomes more toxic with each passing day.
The Daily Ticker
“The growing wealth divide in the U.S. economy is now playing out in the U.S. housing market, and that could be a problem for its future. While many wealthy Americans have been purchasing homes — increasingly with all-cash deals — others are having a hard time affording one to buy or rent.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan calls it “the worst rental affordability crisis this country has ever known.”
A recent study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that almost half of all renters are paying more than 30% of their income in rent–more than double the percentage in 1960.
Lisa Sturtevant, vice president for research at that National Housing Conference, a nonprofit focused on affordable housing for all Americans, explains what’s been happening: “A tighter mortgage market is making it increasingly difficult for middle class folks to get home loans, which is pushing a whole group of folks into the renter side, which increases demand on that side and pushes up rents.”
The upshot: both lower income and middle class renters are having a hard time, says Sturtevant.
Sounds like NINJA loans will be making a comeback.
And how did you arrive at that conclusion?
I can easily qualify for a friggin mortgage. I just don’t want to get one because I want to see if the recrash happens over the next 12 months. Maybe that’s what’s going on.
I suspect more than a few of us posters here are holding out for the recrash (or maybe forever, effectively speaking).
Building the Permanent Democrat Supermajority
“Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Denver on Tuesday and called on lawmakers in Washington to pass comprehensive immigration reform before the August recess.
Biden said the “vast majority of the American people” support the need for immigration reform.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25846028/biden-pushes-immigration-reform-during-denver-visit
This story completely ignores that this is happening so they can commit dream act fraud and any attempt to give amnesty to children will open up the floodgates:
http://news.yahoo.com/waves-immigrant-minors-present-crisis-obama-congress-132420165.html
The vast majority of Americans also support some limits on abortions, severe limits on public unions and balancing the budget.
And nearly every time gay marriage is put to vote by the people it gets defeated…
Say it is so…. Joe
“Building the Permanent Democrat Supermajority” or tearing down the American working class?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Man-Graphic-Edition/dp/0061967645
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/inside-the-ring-directive-outlines-obamas-policy-t/?page=all#pagebreak
The use of the military against U.S. citizens including thinking about going after Bundy.
The use of the military against U.S. citizens
That directive -DSCA 3025.18.-came out a year after Obama took office. You can bet it had been worked on for years before Obama took office and is a spawn of the Patriot Act. But not too much is new that I can see.
Wiki on the DSCA 3025.18.
An early instance that had a major influence on shaping how the military responds was the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion. It set the stage for establishing the fundamental principles codified in our current laws. Because of the excise tax on whiskey, the taxpayers revolted against the federal government. Violence against tax collectors grew to such a level that it prompted Presidential intervention. During August to November 1794, federal troops deployed to Western Pennsylvania as a show of force. Throughout this threat to federal authority, President Washington’s guidance was that the military was to support the local civil authorities, not impede them or control them in any way. This underlying principle remains imbedded in the present laws, systems, and processes of how the military interacts within the DSCA environment.
Now:
The provision of DSCA is codified in Department of Defense Directive 3025.18. This directive defines DSCA as:
“Support provided by U.S. Federal military forces, National Guard, DoD civilians, DoD contract personnel, and DoD component assets, in response to requests or assistance from civil authorities for special events, domestic emergencies, designated law enforcement support, and other domestic activities. Support provided by National Guard forces performing duty in accordance with Reference (m) is considered DSCA, but is conducted as a State-directed action also known as civil support.”
In the thank your lucky stars category…
I’ve been priced out of downtown Detroit
By Les Christie @CNNMoney
May 27, 2014: 10:39 AM ET
“It seemed unfair to be forced to pay more,” said Andrew Kopietz, who was priced out of his downtown Detroit apartment.
Amid efforts to revitalize Detroit’s downtown, some residents are finding they can no longer afford to live there.
Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy last July, has received millions of dollars from individuals, corporations and other organizations to help save its neighborhoods.
One program, called Live Downtown, has attracted as many as 15,000 new residents to the downtown area, according to the mayor’s office.
Under the program, local companies, including Quicken Loans and Blue Cross Blue Shield, give employees $20,000 loans that will be completely forgiven if they buy and stay in a home downtown for five years. Renters there receive $2,500 their first year and $1,000 the second.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/27/real_estate/downtown-detroit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/homeseller-reluctance-worsens-u-s-inventory-shortage.html
I think I’ve noted this dynamic before (which is infrequently reported). Since homes are fundamentally a place for people to live, ultra-low inventory changes the overall dynamic of the housing market.
With 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses, 4.4 million of which are in CA, I don’t think we need to worry about inventory.
Hundreds, probably thousands, of variables describe the differences in houses. Empty crap boxes are not a substitute for a new house of my chosen design, in my chosen location. We ain’t hav’in that hippie CSN&Y love the one you’re with garbage.
They’re all crap boxes. Every last one of them. Including yours.
Ultra-low inventory spurs building sprees. My ex-landlord says he’s been hearing rumors of massive overbuilding (again) in Phoenix. He also says that he put an old mobile home up for rent, got 40 applicants, and had to turn 39 down. WHAT IS GOING ON?
That’d be great if inventory were low.
I can confirm the massive overbuilding. But there is also a huge amount of used inventory and it’s still growing.
Your lies are getting tiresome.
Are you accusing me of lying now, anklepants? Is that what you do to people who convey information that you wish were untrue? You would be better off accepting reality. The rental market in Arizona is very tight. It’s odd.
I just consolidated into a single house in Phoenix.
1) The rental market is going INSANE in Arizona. People are renting houses without even seeing the insides first. They are throwing down deposits and first-month’s rent on crack houses at the first showing. They are paying rental premiums of up to $4,000 in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale. This is a place where the median wage is $16.48/hr. Lots of landlords just never got back to me when I contacted them about their ads. Other landlords were rude, and then called me the next day to say it was already rented.
2) Phoenix charges tax on rent. TAX!!!! I thought this was supposed to be a “low tax” state.
That’s at odds with housing demand cratering 25% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/AZ-Phoenix-home-value/r_40326/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D8%26r%3D40326%252C112345%252C111818%252C112547%26el%3D0
Maybe the normal residences can’t afford to buy at these prices, so they’re renting instead. Maybe they expect a crash.
High rental demand = high short interest in owner-occupied housing…
The only reason rental inventory might be down is because all the “investor landlords” are running for the exits trying to sell.
I hope you are right about that.
Collapsing demand, rising inventory… what’s not to like?
BTW, Arby’s is live-streaming a brisket being smoked. I signed up to see if I could win a prize, but I never got the promised e-mail.
http://www.13hourbrisket.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=brisket-email#/
Here is a list of retail chains who had steep declines in earnings or lost big $ in the 1st Qtr of 2014:
Chico’s Women’s Clothing- they also own White House/Black Market
Wal-Mart Costco
Kohl’s Staples
Best Buys Aeropostale
Sears JC Penny American Eagle
Home Depot Lowe’s
Dick’s Sporting Goods (Golf sector hit hard)
TJ Max Target
McDonald’s Gap
Urban Outfitters Coldwater Creek filed BK
Dollar General Office Depot closing 400
Macy’s stores
retail-death-rattle-grows-louder/
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/05/25/retail-death-rattle-grows-louder/
List also has retailers I know of. I follow it.
Best Buy as well.
Fry’s Electronics (privately held - (So Ca Cactus knows them) is probably hurting as well
Is it too late to get on board with the latest long-term Treasury rally?
ft dot com
May 28, 2014 6:32 pm
Government borrowing costs fall to fresh lows
By Ralph Atkins in London and Michael MacKenzie in New York
Government borrowing costs tumbled to fresh lows on both sides of the Atlantic on Wednesday, with US Treasury 10-year yields hitting levels last seen in June and Spanish equivalents reaching new record lows.
Investors scrambled to catch up with this year’s unexpected bond market rally, apparently at odds with forecasts of a pick-up in economic growth.
…
“From a fundamental perspective you do scratch your head at low yields,” said Eric Green, analyst at TD Securities. “In a world starved for yield, US Treasuries look good. The European Central Bank is tugging rates lower.”
Long-dated US Treasuries led the moves, with the yield on 10-year government bonds falling to 2.44 per cent and the 30-year bond dropping below 3.30 per cent. Bearishly-positioned investors were having to cut their trades and buy Treasuries, dealers said.
“A lot of people are being pushed out of short positions. It is very expensive to be short fixed income,” said Iain Stealey, senior portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management. “It does look like it [the rally] has got some momentum behind it.”
Spanish and Italian yields rose sharply last week, but have since regained the ground lost. Spanish 10-year yields closed on Wednesday at just 2.82 per cent, the lowest since at least the early 1990s. Italian 10-year yields closed at 2.93 per cent, barely above the 2.90 per cent level below which they fell earlier this month.
“We’ve seen a bit of a relief rally – with the European elections now out of the way and the results digested, investors are engaging again with the periphery,” said Peter Goves, bond strategist at Citigroup.
Hints by Mario Draghi, ECB president, of another cut in official rates in June, as well as targeted support for banks lending to small businesses, have further boosted investor confidence. Mr Goves added: “A rate cut has largely been anticipated. It is about what Draghi does or does not do beyond that. Everything points to a more constructive outlook for the eurozone periphery.”
In turn, declining European yields have supported the rally in US Treasury prices. Even after recent falls, US interest rates remain higher than in Japan, Germany and other parts of Europe. Traders said foreign demand for Treasuries was strong early on Wednesday.
With long-dated bonds having generated double digit returns so far this year, demand for Treasuries from investors whose bond portfolios follow indices has been an important market driver. Pressure is mounting on bond investors to balance their portfolios against their market benchmark by buying more bonds, traders added.