June 3, 2014

Bits Bucket for June 3, 2014

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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105 Comments »

Comment by Carl Morris
2014-06-03 01:04:40

Hahah…the first HBB ad I see is for buying properties in Mongolia.

“Real Estate Investments in Mongolia High Yield Investment Opportunities”

Wow…this is getting so ridiculous.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2014-06-03 05:47:46

Don’t be one of those who gets left behind:

http://www.mongolia-properties.com/mongolia/real-estate

Scroll down to the chart and imagine yourself endlessly riding the dotted line into prosperity.

Leverage is the gift that will make it happen.

Leverage: The gift that keeps on giving.

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-06-03 15:38:03

LMAO at that chart. It is predicting that rents will more than quadruple in 6 years in Mongolia. Oh yeah, Mongolia is IT baby. Everybody wants to live in Mongolia.

Comment by aNYCdj
2014-06-03 16:50:38
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Comment by Carl Morris
2014-06-03 19:19:18

riding the dotted line into prosperity

That’s beautiful.

 
 
Comment by jose canusi
2014-06-03 05:55:07

What would really be ridiculous is if you were in China (possibly like other subcontractors) when things come to a head with the US diplomatically and were incarcerated. Think it can’t happen?

Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:26:07

How many Americans would be in China at any given moment? Tens of thousands?

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-06-03 15:41:04

Any American working in China right now is greedy, and greed can come back to haunt you when you least expect it.

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2014-06-03 19:20:34

Think it can’t happen?

Oh I think about it. Anything can happen.

 
 
Comment by MrsLolaSoros
2014-06-03 06:19:44

Ask Wang, he’ll tell you, we just bought property behind the Great Wall, on the good side! — Al Czervik, Caddyshack.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-06-03 07:32:12

I hear there is plenty of available inventory in Ordos.

Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2014-06-03 09:01:34

Well, they’re not making any more Ordos, you know…

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-06-03 15:43:45

Unfortunately, they are. There are dozens upon dozens of Ordos’ sprouting up as I type. Oh, the pain.

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Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 16:13:39

Holy crap — my banner ad is for leasing a Honda CRV at $1999 per month with $2999 due at signing. I didn’t even go to any dealership websites; I just pasted an article. Google must be reading my text.

And WTF on the CRV. Why would I pay over ten thousand bucks for a car that I have to give back three years later? That’s half the price of the car down the toilet! Even the 72-month financing is a better deal. What is WRONG with people!

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 16:35:17

You got an ad that was targeted at the site content. I have an ad for Mormonism right now. Dunno where that came from.

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 16:37:41

Oh, it came from the TS Eliot conversation. “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”, so let’s talk about the magic underwear then. Google is smart.

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Comment by jane
2014-06-03 21:57:15

Funny you should mention. My banner ad is for a Real Estate training course.

In my search for Oil City, I have written quite a few scathing follow up notes to used house sellers. My common plaint seems to be about the ol’ bait and switch.

Thankfully, in the Oil City towns, no used house seller has been ignorant and arrogant enough - as they are here, in NOVA - to tell me straight to my face that I will make money through tax savings, so I should not factor cost into the equation.

Words cannot describe the contempt in which I hold the used house salesmen and realtwhores in Northern Virginia. I am offended they would think I am so stupid.

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2014-06-03 04:31:08

Just borrow more - and get in the property ladder!

And embrace the new obama economy!

———————

Expenses went up in 2013 for families
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | May 27, 2014 | Ann Belser

A survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average income for families of all sorts decreased from 2012 to 2013 by $103 to $65,069 before taxes, but their expenses went up by $777 a year to $51,408.

The biggest share of the increased expenses of the average American household went to transportation, which cost a total of $8,999 a year, or $494 more than the previous year, as a result of purchase prices going up.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-06-03 07:04:19

the average income for families of all sorts decreased from 2012 to 2013 by $103 to $65,069 before taxes,

If we let the rich get way richer, it will trickle-down to us. We just need to keep doing it. The sheltered rent-seeking rich will create jobs. It will work someday. Really.

Why the super-rich get richer — and you don’t
Opinion: Few of the benefits of growth have trickled down to us

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-i-think-the-top-01-are-looting-the-economy-2014-02-21

At $44,000 per year, the average income of 99% of Americans has barely budged in real terms since 1970 (flat bright blue line at bottom.) Meanwhile, the average annual income of the top 1% (dark blue) has more than tripled to $1.3 million, and the average for the top 0.1% (light blue) has multiplied more than five times to $6.4 million.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Amid all the talk about why incomes for most Americans aren’t growing and what we could or should do about it, there’s been relatively little discussion about the other half of the inequality equation: Why the incomes of the very rich are booming.

The facts shouldn’t be in much dispute. No matter how you measure it, the incomes of the top 1% are growing much faster than the incomes of the bottom 99%, and they have been for a generation. The incomes of the top 0.1% and 0.01% are growing even faster .

A handful of people are getting fabulously wealthy, while hundreds of millions are running as fast as they can just to stand still. Many are falling further behind. Although opportunities to move up the income ladder may not be disappearing as some have feared, there is no evidence that those who are being left behind have greater opportunities than in the past to reach that exalted place at the top of the heap.

Comment by scdave
2014-06-03 07:17:25

+1 Rio…Nice post….I am sure two-fruit will blame Obama for this also…

Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:29:28

The tag team begins and its not even wacky wednesday. Lola’s up kinda early!

I blame Obama. I blame Bush, Clinton, Reagan, whoever. I blame all the tools of the rich. It continues on all of their watches. Lola is paid to only blame one side.

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Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 08:10:53

I consider myself pretty conservative — probably better said, classical liberalism (skeptical that gov’t will be able to redistribute effectively). I think the problem is not that we “let the rich become even richer” but that the gov’t is sort of set up to provide vast advantages to those who already have capital and power.

Think of how we have “privatized” so many essential gov’t functions. Or think of how corporations pretend to dislike regulations, while secretly lobbying and submitting comments from their lawyers on every new regulation. They don’t really dislike regulations, they just want the regulations to favor first movers (established players).

I was doing some work on diesel engine emissions (tier IV is the new standard but many of our clients can’t meet it for their specialty products, like golf course mowers/aerators or airport tug vehicles). It was astonishing how many different reasons we came up with to request “hardship relief” from the regulations. And how much the client pays us to do this. Meanwhile, can a small business afford to do this?

My experience in gov’t contracting law was similar — the bigger you are, the more you can afford to “play the game”, keeping smaller players out and keeping your margins sky high. Because once you’re considered the established provider, you get so much leeway it’s not funny. Overshoot your budget? No problem, request a change order or litigate to show changed circumstances.

So it’s not just smaller gov’t we need. The two parties are sick and serve to fellate their special interests at the expense of the economy as a whole. More transparency and less arcane backroom dealing is what we’d really need. Also a populace that is educated and stable enough to give two f’s.

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Comment by MightyMike
2014-06-03 11:29:51

Also a populace that is educated and stable enough to give two f’s.

We also need a populace that will turn off the TV, put away the smart phone, and get out and work together for the changes that they want. We saw a little of this during the Obama years with OWS and the Tea Party. Unfortunately, that level of commitment is pretty uncommon these days.

 
Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 12:19:02

OWS was onto something with demanding a Tobin Tax and campaign finance reform. Those two things alone could have brought down the 1%.

That’s a question I would like to ask Obama after he leaves office (when he’s freer to answer): who convinced DHS to coordinate the nationwide simultaneous hose-down of OWS, did Obama know about it or sign off on it, and why?

 
 
 
Comment by reedalberger
2014-06-03 08:56:03

“”Why the super-rich get richer — and you don’t”"

The answer? Why it’s authoritarian communism of course.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2014-06-03 09:14:15

Does this analysis track the incomes by age group?

In other words, is there an effect for more folks retiring (and having their income drop considerably)?

 
Comment by Housing CEO
2014-06-03 09:29:57

Let’s have more cheap money and negative interest rates.

 
 
Comment by Blackhawk
2014-06-03 07:06:51

Seems like everything is getting more expensive.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-06-03 07:19:43

Seems like demand is collapsing .

 
Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:31:57

Tablets are not. Computers are not. They are trying every trick in the book to keep prices up, just like houses.

Shop frugally and eat like a king. Albacore tuna regular can 99 cents. Loss leaders is where it’s at.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2014-06-03 08:27:41

I’ve tapered off buying quinoa. Had my line in the sand crossed after the price went up. Getting that way with almond milk now. If I had the pocket change, buying almond orchards would be a long-term investment for me, yes it would.

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-06-04 03:04:31

Don’t buy them in California! There’s no water!
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/11/6395024/california-almond-farmers-lured.html

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Comment by azdude
2014-06-03 05:35:27

what will be the catalyst for the market to tank and the FED print some more money to bailout overleveraged banks again?

It must be nice to make risky bets and then be bailed out when they finally go south. You simply cant lose in this scheme.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2014-06-03 05:38:32

“It must be nice to make risky bets and then be bailed out when they finally go south. You simply cant lose in this scheme.”

Yep.

Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 06:23:35

Have you submitted your living will yet?

 
 
Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:33:57

Is it time to press the button?

 
Comment by rms
2014-06-03 14:24:52

“what will be the catalyst for the market to tank and the FED print some more money to bailout overleveraged banks again?”

Won’t happen ’cause the Kenyan said, “Never Again!” He even pointed with his left index finger, so you know that he was really serious.

 
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2014-06-03 05:40:36

Was it presented by this guy?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdi-fRExc

 
 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 06:18:16

McNear, Obama’s college girlfriend, wrote him a letter discussing her term paper about T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” He responded with the following:

“I haven’t read ‘The Waste Land’ for a year, and I never did bother to check all the footnotes. But I will hazard these statements—Eliot contains the same ecstatic vision which runs from Münzer to Yeats. However, he retains a grounding in the social reality/order of his time. Facing what he perceives as a choice between ecstatic chaos and lifeless mechanistic order, he accedes to maintaining a separation of asexual purity and brutal sexual reality. And he wears a stoical face before this.

Read his essay on Tradition and the Individual Talent, as well as Four Quartets, when he’s less concerned with depicting moribund Europe, to catch a sense of what I speak. Remember how I said there’s a certain kind of conservatism which I respect more than bourgeois liberalism—Eliot is of this type. Of course, the dichotomy he maintains is reactionary, but it’s due to a deep fatalism, not ignorance. (Counter him with Yeats or Pound, who, arising from the same milieu, opted to support Hitler and Mussolini.) And this fatalism is born out of the relation between fertility and death, which I touched on in my last letter—life feeds on itself. A fatalism I share with the western tradition at times. You seem surprised at Eliot’s irreconcilable ambivalence; don’t you share this ambivalence yourself, Alex?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/02/obama-t-s-eliot-_n_1472524.html

Comment by MacBeth
2014-06-03 06:48:28

Funny that the “key demo” remains 24-49 after all these years.

You’d think that demo would be moved higher by 10-15 years since younger people have all that debt and can’t buy anything anyway. Why spend advertising budgets on people who can’t afford to purchase what you’re peddling?

Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 07:09:33

A lot of advertising is aimed at people who buy things for corporations. That’s still squarely within the target demo. You’re trying to influence a rather small group of people from within that big pool.

On the consumer side of things, think of housing, food, cars… a 30 yr old is going to be buying these things for much longer than a 50-60 yr old. When you’re trying to expand or protect your brand, you’re not necessarily concerned with today’s purchase (you can drive short term purchasing much more effectively with lower prices or coupon type offers). Advertising is brand image and is for the long haul, which is why tv ads for products/brands are almost never focused on low prices.

Comment by Northeastener
2014-06-03 22:11:04

Meh. Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. The 20-somethings are broke because they have huge student loan debt and can’t find good paying jobs. The thirty-somethings are broke from getting married, having kids, and buying their first over-priced home. The forty-somethings are broke after buying their second over-priced home, raising 2.3 kids and putting them through college, and now they need to play catch up on retirement savings. That leaves 50-somethings and retirees…

All the “brand” “lifestyle” marketing isn’t going to change that reality. Time for marketers to wake up to the new economy and adjust their target demographics.

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Comment by Oddfellow
2014-06-03 07:30:29

¨ there’s a certain kind of conservatism which I respect more than bourgeois liberalism—Eliot is of this type. Of course, the dichotomy he maintains is reactionary, but it’s due to a deep fatalism, not ignorance¨

That’s an interesting statement right there. It might show why Obama has been such a disappointment to many of those on the left who earlier supported him.

Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 12:14:36

I looked up several definitions of “bourgeois liberalism.” In general, the connotation of the word “liberal” was a lot closer to libertarianism in Eliot’s time than it is today. As an offshoot, the liberalism of the bourgeois was roughly the middle class of small businessmen who wanted government to leave them alone to amass their fortunes. So Obama’s disrespect for bourgeois liberalism isn’t as righty as it seems.

 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 16:32:02

He wasn’t talking politics. He was talking about living a measured life, as opposed to hedonism. Have none of you read Eliot? I have quoted him on this board.

Comment by jane
2014-06-03 22:04:12

I have read T.E. Eliot. And believe he is not sufficiently revered.

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Comment by Oddfellow
2014-06-03 22:41:36

He’s essentially saying he’s a middle-of-the-road kind of guy, whether you take it philosophically or politically. A conservative, sort of, but more out of caution than narrow-mindedness. And that’s pretty much how he’s governed. More apollonian than dionysian. Bush 2 was more the dionysian.

Comment by nh transplant
2014-06-04 10:48:26

My God the bull chips are flowing freely in this thread.

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Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 06:33:00

Apparently cable news ratings are way down across the board. What really stood out to me from this article is that the _media_ Bill O’Reilly viewer is 72 years old. That is not a typo. Seventy-two.

Out of 2 million viewers for his show, only 300k are “in the demo”, which means 24-49 yrs old. (I’m willing to bet well over half of those are over 40.)

Despite lower overall ratings, MSNBC beats Fox News among people “in the demo” and particularly under 40. Which is why I always think it’s funny when people are like “MSNBC has less viewers, they will go out of business”. Oh really? You think Comcast (NBC Universal’s owner) doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing? LOL.

Overall TV is just being crushed by the internet and by streaming (N-flix in particular).

—————————

…Another key factor coming from May ratings is just how old Fox News viewers are. Take for example, Bill O’Reilly’s show, “The O’Reilly Factor.” O’Reilly had his lowest month since 2001 in the key demo, with 308,000 viewers. Yes, O’Reilly is still the No. 1 program in cable news in both total and demo viewers, averaging 2,136,000 total viewers in May. But the majority of those viewers are over the age of 55. In fact, the median age for O’Reilly is now just over 72 years old. The average Fox News viewer overall is 68.8, while the average ages of MSNBC and CNN viewers were 62.5 and 62.8, respectively.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/may-cable-news-ratings-spare-no-one-189393.html

Comment by MrsLolaSoros
2014-06-03 06:43:42

Get back to your slums and fix those poor people’s plumbing and heat.

Comment by MacBeth
2014-06-03 06:49:53

No need….Polly’s got that base covered.

 
 
Comment by 2banana
2014-06-03 06:49:24

Who votes?
Who has the money?
Who controls what?

 
Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 06:50:56

You reading the same article?

Still, Fox remains strong when compared to other networks. For May, in the key 25-54 demographic, MSNBC averaged 103,000 viewers, while CNN averaged just 99,000. The only show to crack Fox’s numbers in the top 10 for the 25-54 demo came from CNBC, with “Shark Tank,” which averaged 210,000 25-54 viewers, placing ninth overall.

Comment by Housing CEO
2014-06-03 06:59:57

I don’t give you know what about Fox or MSNBC. J-j-j-lier is always busy with his propoganda.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-06-03 07:17:27

propoganda: Tax cuts/public policy for the rich will benefit all of us.

Why the GOP Won’t Admit Supply-Side Econ Has Failed

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/12/04/Why-the-GOP-Wont-Admit-Supply-Side-Econ-Has-Failed#page1

There is little evidence that the Bush tax cuts, or any other tax cuts directed at the so-called job creators, have had a noticeable effect on economic growth. And the promise of broadly shared prosperity has not been realized. Most of the gains from economic growth in recent decades have gone to the top of the income distribution while the inflation adjusted wages of the working class have been relatively flat….The failure of Republicans to deliver on their promise that tax cuts would be mostly self-financing is a large factor in the deterioration in our long-run fiscal outlook,

House GOP Blocks Nonpartisan Report that Debunks Tax Cut Mythology

http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/house-gop-blocks-nonpartisan-report-that-debunks-tax-cut-mythology-121104?news=846121

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluding that tax cuts for the wealthy have not yielded economic growth but have contributed to growing economic inequality was quashed by Republican senators unhappy with its conclusions.

The September 14 report was cited widely in the media and attacked mercilessly on the right. According to Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and other senators “raised concerns about the methodology and other flaws,” including the report’s use of the terms “Bush tax cuts” and “tax cuts for the rich,” which Republicans complained were politically biased. Under pressure, CRS withdrew the report from circulation on September 28.

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Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:51:46

Nice ancient articles. Is anything with the word “Congressional” in it nonpartisan?

House GOP Blocks Nonpartisan Report that Debunks Tax Cut Mythology

Enjoy that “House GOP” limit while you can, soon they will control the Senate also.

 
Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 08:40:21

Do you think the GOP are going to get the “needed” 60 votes to pass a bill?

 
Comment by Housing CEO
2014-06-03 09:13:58

Why the GOP Won’t Admit Supply-Side Econ Has Failed

I think it should but we all know it’s a stupid party for a reason. The tax issue should be about your right not about economy.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-06-03 07:27:23

Lawyers are liars

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Comment by june without goon
2014-06-03 07:01:28

Taking a break from ghosting to post some local newz

Denver Business Journal - Denver home prices reach all-time high

“Denver-area home-resale prices rose an average 9.1 percent in March from a year earlier, and also were up 1.4 percent from February, reaching an all-time high level, according to the latest monthly S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index.

Denver’s Case-Shiller home price index for March was 148.20, meaning that local home resale prices averaged 48.2 percent higher than they were in the benchmark month of January 2000.”

It will be 92 and sunny here today, with winds gusting to 30 mph, perfect weather for wildfires. Today’s air quality forecast is “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and there is an ozone action day in effect.

Denver is a toilet. Don’t move here. You’ll be really disappointed if you do…

Comment by In Colorado
2014-06-03 07:41:36

Denver is a toilet. Don’t move here. You’ll be really disappointed if you do…

Peyton is washed up. The food at Casa Bonita sucks. Westbound I-70 into the mountains is a parking lot.

You’ve been warned. Stay away.

Comment by Carl Morris
2014-06-03 19:30:11

The food at Casa Bonita sucks.

Hahah :-). That’s always been true. But you don’t go there for the food. You only go there to take your out of town relatives with kids to see the cliff divers.

 
 
 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 07:04:59

Crafty billionaire: “Insider trading shouldn’t be a crime. I’m not doing anything hundreds of other people aren’t doing.” (paraphrased)

———————-

http://nymag.com/news/features/steven-a-cohen-2014-6/

Even billionaires have feelings,” Alexandra Cohen had taken to saying. Her husband, Steve Cohen, is the billionaire in question. He’s one of the most successful hedge-fund managers in history—“the Michael Jordan of trading,” in the words of one Wall Street observer. He’d built SAC Capital Advisors into one of the most profitable hedge funds in the world while amassing a net worth estimated at $11 billion. Cohen was never known for his attention to feelings. He had a reputation for brusque, money-talks-bullshit-walks office interactions. He was the opposite of a ­sentimentalist—if one of his traders missed his numbers, he was gone.

But that was before U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, suspecting him and his firm of insider trading, began pursuing Cohen as if he were a crime boss. Federal agents bugged his home phone and raided the offices of former employees who’d started their own hedge funds. They subpoenaed millions of pages of SAC documents while working their way up the chain of command, flipping one former employee after another. They even had one past portfolio manager attempt to infiltrate Cohen’s company by getting himself rehired, though Cohen didn’t take the bait.

As Bharara’s web closed around him, Cohen complained to associates that his success had made him a target. “I’m not doing anything different than a hundred other people have done,” he said to a colleague. “It’s not who I am, it’s what I am.” He called Wall Street peers, trolling for sympathy: “I feel like I’m watching a bad movie and I’m the star,” he’d say. On vacation one year, he ran into a fellow hedge-fund manager: “It’s not fair,” he complained. “Why me?”

Comment by In Colorado
2014-06-03 07:43:36

On vacation one year, he ran into a fellow hedge-fund manager: “It’s not fair,” he complained. “Why me?”

Life sucks … then you die.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2014-06-03 07:46:10

Yeah, Wall Street is warm and fuzzy, people. Really makes me believe they operate on a wash,rinse,repeat method of accruing from the krill and krill-masters.

 
Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 08:33:00

Even billionaires have feelings…he called Wall Street peers, trolling for sympathy:

“And no feelings… And if you need a friend, get a dog.” — Gordon Gekko.

Comment by Housing CEO
2014-06-03 09:11:38

You know that Gordon Gekko was a fictional character.

There are no feelings as long as you are raping others. Once you are on the wrong end of the stick, suddenly there’s this outburst of feelings from every pore.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-06-03 11:38:30

I think that Harry Truman said the same thing about life in DC. Of course, he might have stolen that line from someone else.

 
 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-06-03 19:01:33

“It’s not fair,” he complained. “Why me?”

Because you are the PERFECT scumbag to take the fall, you miserable piece of human trash. Now get to prison, b!tch.

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-06-03 07:20:25

The US Housing Market’s Darkening Data

http://www.investing.com/analysis/the-us-housing-market%27s-darkening-data-214843

When looking at residential real estate, we often tend to focus almost solely on recent price movements in assessing the health of the housing market at any point in time. But as both homeowners and income-earners in the larger economy, of which the housing market is an important component, to really understand what’s going on, we need clarity into the larger cycle driving those price movements.

The more we look at today’s data, the more it looks like that we are in a new type of pricing cycle — one that homeowners and housing investors have no prior experience with.

And the more we learn about the fundamentals underlying the current cycle, the harder it becomes to justify today’s home prices on any sustained level. Meaning a downward reversion in home values is very probable in the coming years.

Comment by FavelaTuro
2014-06-03 07:55:43

This doesn’t sound like Lola, and he’s up too early. Has someone stolen her moniker?

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-06-03 07:36:21

June 3, 2014, 5:00 a.m. EDT
Too much of your retirement money in stocks?
Many retirement savers have 100% of their IRAs in equities
By Richard Eisenberg
This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.

Recently, I was alarmed by new data showing how people in their 50s and 60s are investing for retirement.

Roughly a third of “consistent traditional individual retirement account (IRA) investors” in their 50s — 31% of those age 50 to 54 and 29% age 55 to 59 — have 100% of their IRA money in stocks , according to the Investment Company Institute, the trade group for mutual funds.

A quarter of these IRA investors (defined as ones with IRA accounts in every year between 2007 and 2013) age 60 to 64 have all their IRAs in stocks, too.

A lack of diversification?

Not what you’d call a well-diversified portfolio, on the face of it. “It does seem high, no doubt about it,” said Wade Pfau , Professor of Retirement Income at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., the largest nonprofit educational institution devoted to financial services.

Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2014-06-03 08:48:48

In 2000 I new a guy and his wife, both in their late 50s, who worked in my department at my wage-slave job. The guy told me he and his wife were planning to retire but the stock crash spoiled their plans.

It was a lesson I never forgot.

While I’m not planning on leaving the workforce for at least another 12 years, unexpected health issues may change that plan. Even though I am into long term care insurance and disability income insurance - (I’m insured up to my eyebrows), and very much I’m into nutrition, fitness, and regular doctor checkups.

 
 
Comment by ibbots
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 08:48:30

crater

 
Comment by cactus
2014-06-03 08:56:13

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hedge-fund-worlds-one-man-223000799.html

“Mr. Abrams also is among the small group of investors that has taken a big bet on government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, wagering that the Obama administration’s plan to wind down and replace the entities will fail, according to investor documents.”

Comment by cactus
2014-06-03 12:28:57

on the other hand

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn acquired about $51 million in the common shares of mortgage financiers Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) from mutual fund manager Fairholme Funds Inc in March, a court filing showed on Tuesday.

Icahn, a billionaire investor known for taking big stakes in companies and pushing for management change, bought 6.8 million common shares of Fannie Mae and 5.7 million common shares of Freddie Mac from Fairholme, according to the filing with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington.

Icahn is the latest high-profile investor to bet on the companies, which are operating under conservatorship while Congress considers an overhaul of the mortgage finance system. The companies own or guarantee about 60 percent of all U.S. home loans.

 
 
Comment by tresho
2014-06-03 09:01:55

Rising RE taxes may price Austinites out of their own homes
On a recent evening, more than 300 homeowners who are worried about their rising property tax bills filled First Unitarian Universalist Church in North Austin for a town hall meeting. If something doesn’t change, many said, they will soon be priced out of their homes.

Two nights later, a similar discussion played out in South Austin, where homeowners gathered at Grace United Methodist Church in Travis Heights to talk about what can be done to slow escalating residential tax values.

“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.

“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. ”
whoda thunk that voting for things is related to paying for things?
—-
Propelled by job and population growth and a robust housing market, the market value of homes in Travis County jumped 12.6 percent on average for 2014, to $320,032.

“Our appraisals are reflecting what we see in the market,” Crigler [chief appraiser Travis Central Appraisal District] said. “The Austin market is really, really strong.”

Comment by Housing CEO
2014-06-03 09:07:22

whoda thunk that voting for things is related to paying for things?

Not me.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-06-03 09:29:38

Property taxes are high in Texas.

I do wonder how much that downtown bungalow would fetch. Maybe ol’ Gretchen should sell now that prices are high and either rent or move to a cheaper nabe.

Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 09:48:08

Correct, no state income tax but higher property taxes.

And re the no state income tax — state income taxes are deductions for your federal taxes. So paying no state tax means you pay a little more fed income tax, all things being equal.

Comment by ibbots
2014-06-03 10:40:56

Taxpayers in no income tax states get to deduct sales tax which is computed by formula based on AGI. Sales tax in Dallas County is 8.25%, so it is likely very close to what a state income tax deduction would look like.

Those higher property taxes are deductible too. My prop taxes are only about 2%. A lot of people throw out 3% for some reason.

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Comment by oxide
2014-06-03 12:29:47

The article says that two houses on Gretchen’s street sold for a million bucks. I checked her nabe — all $600-$700K houses, and her highly desireable “1930’s bungalow” (Craftsman) is almost certain to be in that price range. So yeah, she’s sitting on a pile o’ potential cash.

That said, I’m surprised there isn’t some provision to keep taxes low for people who have paid off their mortgages.

 
 
Comment by VinceInWaukesha
2014-06-03 10:17:00

Sounds fishy. Where I live, I pay $5K less per year and all I don’t have is the light rail, which is probably an advantage rather than a loss. Perhaps the bungalow is actually on the same land as an apartment building, or something like that.

One key difference is prop tax where I live is (your assessed value) / (total assessed value of all property in the city) * (total city budget). Raising everyones assessed value will do nothing for revenue so there’s little motivation for corruption. Apparently a lot of people live in places where the tax bill is a flat percentage like 5% of property value or whatever. That must totally suck.

Comment by tresho
2014-06-03 11:13:03

Apparently a lot of people live in places where the tax bill is a flat percentage like 5% of property value or whatever. That must totally suck. Especially if they voted for the flat percentage figure.

 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 11:53:33

I believe that’s called Constant Yield taxation. That method of property taxation isn’t all that uncommon. My question would be, how often does this impose fiscal discipline on the municipality?

Our city budget is flat and prop tax revenues are up. So the tax rate should go down slightly next year. Now our mayor is asking city council to allow her to keep the property tax rate the same. I’m not sure how this will turn out. The justifications are the usual things: bring in a bigger class to the police academy, keep more officers on the streets, etc.

Comment by tresho
2014-06-04 06:56:11

That method of property taxation isn’t all that uncommon.
As we have learned here on the HBB, mass stupidity isn’t all that uncommon, either.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 16:11:00

It was built in the 1930s, meaning it’s a heap. She should be happy to sell it and go rent something for a while. She could rent for 50 years at $1,000/mo if she makes $600k on the deal. The house itself will not even be around in 50 years.

Comment by MightyMike
2014-06-03 18:08:52

How do you know that it’s a heap?

Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 18:38:50

Because 80-something-year-old houses are heaps.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-06-03 18:43:26

“Because 80-something-year-old houses are heaps.”

Tinderbox death traps.

 
 
 
 
Comment by localandlord
2014-06-03 19:42:03

One good thing that the Localand state legislature did back in its saner days was decree that property taxes could not rise due to increased property values alone.

Yes there are reassesments but if your property goes up in value the same % as the whole community your taxes stay the same. Higher valuations = lower tax rate as millage. The city or county have to vote to raise the rate, it doesn’t happen automatically due to inflation.

 
 
Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2014-06-03 10:19:16

Another good day to realize another $2500 in gains - locked in!

 
Comment by Kristopher
2014-06-03 10:35:46

I just had a very good friend phone me this morning about his recent trip to Vegas for a class on real estate investment. This friend is in his early 30′s and has a new family, so a small mom and pop potential investor. He mentioned that they are preaching the use of OPM (Other People’s Money) and using 5/1 ARMS with minimal down payments to purchase several homes at a time for the potential appreciation.

We’re both in the same field of work and have known each other for years. I advised him to watch out for people peddling investment strategies to the public, and especially to avoid leveraging himself to purchase properties out of state on what is essentially a gamble. He’s a pretty smart guy, so i’m hoping he heeds my advice. It looks like the scum are back to their old tricks once again unfortunately. Meanwhile I have been stockpiling a nice cash position for when this house of cards all inevitable comes crashing down once again.

Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-06-03 11:59:43

I can see how people would get sucked in to the idea that LL = easy guaranteed cash. People who think this should have to manage tenants/properties for at least 2-3 years, do the yard work at least 10 times, and handle a trash-out for a tenant who leaves nearly everything behind. Reading about it on mrlandlord dot com is not enough, but the successful guys over there have everything down to a system from making decades of mistakes.

Advocating for ARMs is ridiculous, as if people learned nothing from the last decade.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-06-03 12:33:29

As Liberace can attest, cap rates are negative at current asking prices.

Right La-La-La-Liberace?

 
 
Comment by Sean
2014-06-03 13:11:43

I never understood these seminars. Let’s say I found out a great secret formula to, say, buying and selling boats. Why in the world would I waste my time teaching other people at $500 a pop when I could be out making much, much more per day? It’s amazing what people will spend their money on.

Comment by redmondjp
2014-06-03 14:30:42

Because the secret to their formula is getting other suckers to sign up for their seminars and buy their handouts.

Same way that one the successful Amway peope do - by selling the tools and collecting $xx/person for the seminars. THAT’S where the $$$ is at (Step 1: Rent hotel ballroom for Saturday afternoon. Step 2: Get all your downlines to attend. Step 3: PROFIT!!!)

Comment by azdude
2014-06-03 16:40:33

all you need to do is recruit as many sheep as you can.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 15:36:48

I agree. Await the crater.

 
 
Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-06-03 17:01:22

Let us go then, you and I,
When the price is spiked up to the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of realtoRs in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of the seller’s intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question. . . 10
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the posers come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow cheeto dust that rubs its back upon the window-panes
The yellow crater that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 20
And seeing that it was a soft October night
Swallowed at once the entire house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the mortgage broker that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create global financial crises,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a signature on a dotted line; 30
Time for you and time for me to buy a house,
And time yet for a hundred car payments
And for a hundred visions and revisions of political history
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the brokers come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the apartment stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— 40
[They will say: "He must be doing poorly"]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: "But how his bank account must be thin!"]
Do I dare
To rent a dwelling when my friends have bought?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which dotted line will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all;
Have known the interest rates, prices, and inventory trends, 50
I have measured out my wages with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the musical chairs from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my working days and renting ways? 60
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
realtoR arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with gorilla-like hair!]
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or offer me researched housing choices.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
. . . . .

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets 70
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of rentier men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? . . .

I should have been a pair of ragged hooves
Scuttling across the hardwood floors of Washington DC.
. . . . .

And the afternoon, the evening, mocks the homemoaner neighbors with their Mariachi band!
Prodded by pointed fingers,
Asleep . . . tired . . . or the stench malingers,
Stretched on the presumed market floor in pricing, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? 80
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my retirement (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet–and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of some bubbles flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while, 90
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say, “I will not rent at all.
I will not, not at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while, 100
After the signing and the escrow and the patching of the roof,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the short skirts of realtoRs that clip-clop along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I earn!
But as if a crystal ball threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“We are underwater now,
We are bankrupt and foreclosed.” 110
. . . . .

No! I am not the Wolf of Wall Street, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant tenant, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two
Advise the internet; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obese;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Greater Fool, BUT NOT QUITE.

I grow old . . . I grow old . . . 120
I shall wear my money roll.

Shall I part myself from my money? Do I dare to eat a cheeto?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the loaners moaning, each to each.

I do not think they will groan to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water up, then back.

We have lingered in the chambers of the mainstream media
By reporters wreathed with press passes and salaries from Rupert Murdoch 130
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Comment by jane
2014-06-03 22:28:50

Feddie, a tour de force! Congrats!

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-06-03 17:09:34

Never Say “I Kill White People Like You” When Asked To Turn Off Your Phone Post-Takeoff

June 3, 2014

Following takeoff from Nashville Sunday afternoon, a United Airlines passenger warned a fellow flyer that, “I kill white people like you” when she was asked to turn off her cell phone, investigators allege.

The disruption on Flight 4205, which was bound for Houston, resulted in the Embraer 135’s return to Nashville’s airport, where Lashonda Lee Williams was arrested for assault.

The 43-year-old Williams, seen at right, was asked by another female passenger to “turn off her cell phone due to the aircraft being in flight,” according to a court affidavit. In reply, Williams allegedly said, “I kill white people like you.”

Investigators noted that Williams told the other passenger, K. Colleen Coult, 50, that she would follow her upon reaching Houston “and find out where she lived.” The comments “created fear in Coult for her safety,” the affidavit notes.

A United flight attendant told cops that Williams’s statements “were causing anxiety and fear throughout the cabin.”

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/in-flight-cell-phone-threat-674312 - 27k -

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-06-04 03:29:21

Run that biatches DNA through the database and see if she’s lying. I bet she’s never killed a white person in her life.

 
 
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