Bits Bucket for June 9, 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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Sure would be nice to have a political party with some power that isnt in the pocket of wall street or the chamber of commerce.
I guess you never heard of the Green Party, but they are all communists. Or the “Peace and Freedom” party but they are all communists. Or the Libertarian Party but no one wants to be free.
“I guess you never heard of the Green Party, but they are all communists.”
Americans living in dependency, roughly 47%, aren’t sure if their cheese is guaranteed with these alternative parties.
Power is purchased with campaign cash to control the minds of the great monkey mass, and wall street has all the cash.
Game Over.
Sure would be nice to have a political party with some power that isnt in the pocket of wall street or the chamber of commerce.
what do you want them to have power for? it’s nothing but power over other people. if government didn’t have so much unconstitutional power, no one would bother trying to buy any.
+1.
Progressives have a list for power. Over other people. Disgusting humans those progressives are.
List = lust.
There it is. And the motive for the power grab is actually the money grab. Case in point? ObamaCare.
That abortion has nothing to do with delivery of medical services. It has everything to do with establishing another new conduit to drain the populace dry.
it’s about power. money buys power.
why men don’t vacuum..
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=29572962
Have you heard of the Constitutional Convention that is being proposed? Vermont already voted for it. There’s a petition being passed around that you can sign.
Mr. Banker says: “People are smart” (snort).
And he isn’t just making up some wild-assed statement right off the top of his head, no, Mr. Banker offers proof:
http://www.freedominfonet.net/money-form-social-control-americans-debt-slaves/
Readers who bother to open up this link may wonder why Mr. Banker would disclose such information to HBB readers and to the public in general because these readers may fear for Mr. Banker, fear that if the word gets out then his golden goose would be cooked.
But Mr. Banker has no fear because Mr. Banker knows that people are smart and he knows that people will continue to forever do the smart thing and this smart thing is to work their tails off hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year in order to make some money and some of this money that they make - a LOT of this money that they make - will be sent to Mr. Banker so it can be placed into Mr. Banker’s personal money vault, a money vault that ranks in size and scope right up there beside the famous vault owned and controlled by Mr. Banker’s number-one idol, Scrooge McDuck.
The bottom line is:
Workers work, Mr. Banker reaps.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Mr. Banker says: “Math can be fun”. He also says it can be, oh, so profitable. Here’s an example that is taken from the link that lies just above this post:
“But a large percentage of Americans never pay off their credit cards at all. They make small payments each month, but then they just keep on adding to their balances.
“In the end, that is financial suicide.
“If you carry an “average balance” on your credit cards each month, and those credit cards have an “average” interest rate, you could end up paying millions of dollars to the credit card companies by the end of your life…
“Let’s say you are an average American household, and you carry an average balance of $15,956 in credit card debt.
“Also, as an average American household, let’s assume you pay an average current rate of 12.83%.
“Finally, let’s assume you carry this average balance for 40 years, between ages 25 and 65. How much did your credit card company make off of you and your extreme averageness?
“Answer: $2,629,618.64″
Bahahahahahahah. People are smart. Bahahahahahahahaha
You cannot lose with the stuff I use.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Slavery, really? Don’t I get to borrow more and more money from you without any consequences? Sure, i had a house foreclosed on a couple years ago, but i bought another one real quick and now it has risen in value so much I can buy a new jetski.
I have nice new furniture, take vacations to San Diego, and my family drives 2 new cars all on money you lent us at super low rates. Who is the sucker, who is the slave?
“Who is the sucker, who is the slave?”
In your case I am the sucker and I am the slave and my only wish is that you stop tormenting me.
Please do not come into my bank again and ask to borrow more money. The pain is becoming unendurable.
You need to expand, Mr. Banker!
I suggest you broaden your network of alliances and buddies. Surely you have friends in the U.S cabinet that can foist any losses you face onto the taxpayers.
The trick remains one of how to get the financially responsible to cover your losses and those of your clientele.
Have your efforts to steal 401K assets borne any fruit yet? If not, better get crackin’.
You will just keep lending me more and more money and bailing me out, so I will keep borrowing and living in a nice house with lots of toys. Soon you will write off my student loans and also provide principle reductions for some of my friends. If i cant pay, i just wont pay. Then I’ll borrow some more in a couple of years. We own you.
SCROOGE MCDUCK!
buying a house is your chance to feel part of something meaningful.
Buying a home is the only thing that gives life a purpose.
Buying a home is the only thing that gives realtards money.
Buying a home gives you extra space to throw dinner parties.
Buying a home adds girth to your manhood.
Buying a home adds girth to your manhood.
Being underwater is like ED. Being foreclosed on is like having it fall off.
Homeowners make my jaw hurt in a way that renters never will.
“Homeowners make my jaw hurt…”
What kind of ’services’ have you been rendering for them?
Fixing me a sandwich is the only thing that gives you purpose.
Why would you need a sandwich?
You get one free employee meal per shift at your job at Arby’s.
Woman, where is my beer?
I need more than one sandwich and I want it homemade anyway. Now clip clop across those hardwood floors and make me two. What kind of an open house is this anyway? You’ve done much more to close a deal than make a few sandwiches.
Fetch woman fetch!
Amy, let’s us - you and I - make some money!
Bring to me another mark and we - you and I - will convince him to sign on a dotted line that I will be happy to supply.
Let’s do it and do it and do it and at the end of all of this doing it we (or at least one of us) will end up filthy rich!
My life’s purpose is to make the housing market crash. I accomplished it once, and now Ima do it again. Watch n learn, Hoax. Watch n learn.
Ha ha! Do you have the tee shirt to prove it? (I have two — one navy and one pink.)
Realtors are liars.
Ben Jones advised a HBB poster visiting Rio not to drink the water, LOLZ
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-07/rio-bay-won-t-be-clean-for-2016-olympic-sailing-mayor-says.html
The rest of the world appears to be on the verge of discovering just how third world Brazil remains.
Got Sao Paulo? A city of squalor.
Imagine a couple hundred thousand people with diarrhea.
Reminds me of the NPR story I heard today about India. Rough take home:
- 1 in 100 Chinese defecate outside.
- 1 in 2 Indians do.
- Toilets are a key element these days in Indian economic development.
- A toilet can help women avoid getting raped.
- People who help make toilets available to the masses are literally worshiped in India.
Let’s play Name That Crater….
In what state are are 91% of all counties experiencing collapsing housing demand year over year?
alaska?
I guess NY. It has a relatively small number of counties where there are stable, lucrative job markets. Even it’s college outpost towns (Rochester, Syracuse, Binghampton, Buff, Albany) are rotting. And the number of upstate counties that are f’ed beyond believe is big.
PA is another candidate. It has 67 counties and there are about 7 that have any kind of demand (Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware are fantastic; parts of Philadelphia County, part of Centre County, part of Allegheny County could have some demand).
Bzzzzzzzt…. Wrong Liberace.
Go west.
I’ll play. California.
BINGO!
OMG, that’s clever! Thanks for chuckle, I needed it today!
A good illustration of how 37 regional banks became 4 “too big to fail” banks in the space of a half-decade.
—————
(chart)
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Screen-Shot-2014-05-09-at-12.25.57-PM.jpg
Almost as if those 4 banks had planned a scenario to consolidate all of their competition into themselves.
Credit where credit is due: that chart was original compiled by Mother Jones magazine.
ThinkProgress (liberal site) talked about this in 2011:
———–
Ten institutions control 54 percent of deposits and the other 46 percent are divided up amidst a staggering 8,000 players…
The solution to the riddle is that until the Riegel-Neal deregulation of 1994, banks actually were regulated like liquor stores…
What’s more, the real lesson of the MoJo bank consolidation chart should be that there remains a ton of scope for further consolidation. Today’s big banks are very large, but 8,000 is still a ton of banks and the branching restriction rules were repealed relatively recently…
What’s more, the real lesson of the MoJo bank consolidation chart should be that there remains a ton of scope for further consolidation. Today’s big banks are very large, but 8,000 is still a ton of banks and the branching restriction rules were repealed relatively recently.
——————–
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/10/18/346586/bank-consolidation/
A good illustration of how 37 regional banks became 4 “too big to fail” banks in the space of a half-decade.
Interesting that one of the Banks (Banamex) isn’t a US bank.
Debt is for “progressives” and similar retards who choose slavery over responsibility.
Generation X = Generation Debt Donkey
“The group aged 35 to 44 fared badly in part because its members had taken on debt to buy real estate at just the wrong moment”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-09/lean-retirement-faces-u-s-generation-x-as-wealth-trails.html
“Debt is for “progressives” and similar retards who choose slavery over responsibility.”
This is a dumb comment. Private equity specializes in using debt and these guys are the antithesis of progressive liberals. In fact, the GOP nominated a private equity scion for President just 2 years ago.
Debt is used by a lot of people for different reasons. It’s a societal sickness, not unique to one party or the other. Would you really call Reagan or GWB progressives? They made important structural changes to the US economy that caused the national debt to mount in much the same was as Obama has basically ignored the debt.
Politicians will lie any time they can get away with it. They’ll say the debt is for such and such reason. It’s almost always B.S.
Actually, conservatives love to use debt. Other peoples’ debt though.
I think the “[label] does [action]” thing is over simplified.
If you look at how politicians behave when they’re in office on econ issues, you won’t find that many significant differences. The redistribution goes to different people, the tax benefits go to different groups, etc. Neither side wants anyone to take a critical look at what they’re doing.
Yes, that was my point.
There’s never been a better time to apply for a student loan.
Whatever state doesn’t have the jobs to support buying housing?
Jack Connor’s report yesterday on the Orlando shadow inventory was telling. Where are the jobs to support new housing in Orlando?
Meanwhile, in job-heavy DC, there isn’t much shadow inventory. Yeah, there are a few empty houses here and there, but those houses are being cleared through the judicial foreclosure process. Then someone buys them cheap and fast, does a six-month HD flip, and puts them up at market prices. And people are buying them.
Where are the jobs to support new housing in Orlando?
Not at the Happiest Place on Earth.
Probably not FL because there are plenty of retirees and equity locusts to generate at least some baseline demand.
More likely to be a state that might have a large urban job center but also has a lot of upstate counties languishing bc of lack of jobs (particularly jobs that went overseas). That would get you to the 90% counties part of RAL’s question because to the extent there are jobs and demand, it will be clustered and will not be in rural areas.
I watch a particular neighborhood in the Phoenix area. I am seeing price reductions of increasing amounts in used houses, despite also seeing building worse than anytime in the last few years going on all around.
As an example, I saw a house bought in Oct 13 for $282,000. It was put on the market in May and now has a pending sale. Original asking price $314,000. Pending price $304,000. AND it is an obvious flip with upgrades to floors, countertops, etc. which certainly cost at least $10,000.
So this one flipper has decided to get out without a profit and drop the price by $10,000 in one month because he sees that prices are cratering.
HA: how much does a standard HD flip cost? I mean: stock cabinet kitchen with granite, 2 cheap bath re-do, new carpet/pergo, paint, clean up the yard and plunk down some $10 azaleas and mulch.
I’ve seen several houses which are fix-n-flipped for $70-100K over purchase. These have to be fraudy flops. The realtor purposely “fails” to sell the house, offers to buy it himself at a very low price (bank eats the loss) and then flips the living heck out of it.
Doesn’t matter considering demand is cratering in DonkeyCentral too.
DC….. DonkeyCentral…… I like it.
realtoRs can’t buy their own listings from banks. And Favela isn’t HA.
The flipper flopper doesn’t do it directly. He employs a buddy to make the transacation.
I know Favela isn’t HA, but HA has the expertise to know what this stuff costs, if he would bother to share it.
You have a denial issue Junkie.
FWIW the typical flipper markup where I live in Northern Calif. is right about $100K…that gets you cheesy fixtures and granite, cheap appliances, a quicky paint job, and LOTS of bark strewn everywhere. The market is definitely beginning to stall here, lots of places unsold.
How do you know that there isn’t much shadow inventory? Are you doing something to track this?
If there is no inventory in DC, but lots of cheap, cheap houses elsewhere, then what is to stop a person from leaving DC? Jobs are plentiful all over the country. The pay rates in DC are very low when compared to the cost of living. Most people would be better off elsewhere.
Doesn’t this worry you jut a little? Massive shadow inventory building up nearby, sending prices plummeting by gigantic percentages, should make people leave the overcrowded, impoverished city that is Washington, DC.
Furthermore, you said the other day that inventory has doubled in your neighborhood over the past six weeks.
Well, I guess I was talking about my nabe. One of the Zillow data fields is “pre-foreclosure,” which they define as a bank starting official foreclosure proceedings. I think this is a good definition for shadow inventory.
In my nabe, there are currently more houses for sale than there are pre-foreclosures, and there are no new pre-foreclosures in the past 90 days. I suspect that they were houses which were outdated to begin with, then bought as illegals’ flophouses where they were further trashed. These houses are going through the courts and then the flipper pipe.
“Jobs are plentiful all over the country.”
That might be a stretch.
CNN article: Finally! Job market returns to 2008 peak.
No one has to tolerate overpriced, overcrowded conditions in one city. They can go somewhere else.
From the article,
Yet, this isn’t the moment to break out the champagne. Given population growth over the last four years, the economy still needs more jobs to truly return to a healthy place. How many more? A whopping 7 million, calculates Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
“CNN article: Finally! Job market returns to 2008 peak.”
Well, there’s ‘job market’ and there’s JOB MARKET. If you go where the other good jobs are, you’ll find some expensive cost of living to rival DC. On the other hand…..
I drove a guy to the airport today who delivers RVs across the country. As in, drives one from Minnesota to Davis, Ca where a buyer waits for it to arrive. He makes $1500 for 3 days driving. I asked him who the hell could buy these 200K monstrosities in this economy, but he says they’re going like hotcakes. The 50-70 year old demographic is huge and growing, for the time being, and they’re the target demo for this type of product. I like my airport shuttle gig, but this would be my next choice.
Jobs are plentiful all over the country.
Not good jobs. In flyover, $10/hr is a “good job”. If you want a 100K or near 100K job, the choices of locales are few and mostly located on the coasts.
It’s Monday. Finally getting summer here in Maine.
Banks don’t want to give much in interest to savers. They don’t have to when they can get loans from older brother and sister banks cheaply. Employers might have jobs to offer but the pay is falling against cost of living. Seems that a person would be on the path of taking their money and trying to create their own line of work nowadays based on this stagnation. Funny thing is, I feel the same ambivalence about the workplace like I always have, but being older and experiencing some ups and downs, it is more ironed out in my mind that business can always figure out what it needs.
Last week I read an article that said banks are going to start charging us for deposits, kind of like a negative interest charge. I looked but couldn’t find the article, but I’ll keep looking.
Which is why much of your cash should be in your brokerage, T-bills and credit union. Keep very little in bank deposit.
Again, I go mostly for 52-week T-bills and I have arranged it so that I balance it out over 13 parts of the year so that I have bills maturing every four weeks. This makes it seem like I have 4 week t-bills but in theory my interest is a notch higher than the shorter term. Now that I’m building up more cash I am starting to move into 2-year notes and out of T-bills. Notes have a higher interest, which is still not mucking futch but I will have notes maturing every four or five weeks. The hope is to have two years of living expenses saved that way. But I also have to have extra cash for stock market crashes and have to keep a stash of $20,000 to $50,000 in a brokerage for scooping up shares after the next 30% or more crash.
‘ Keep very little in bank deposit.’
I wonder time to time that is why they limited the amount of I-bonds you could buy per a calendar year. Likely alternative to measly CD rates was buying an inflation bond ladder and every 5 years deciding how to re-allocate. You could of at one time bought a lot of I-bonds and went about your business and forgot about rates.
Lately, well, since the longest time actually, it just seems cash is trash to some degree. I had this conundrum back in the 1990’s. Not too experienced with the market and thinking that all the stories were good stories, stocks seemed like a no-brainer until 2000. Funny thing was, you could find 7% CD rates w/o too much trouble and precious metals were unloved. So here we are in 2014 and cash is unloved by the banks. Well, they want your money and they will charge you to hold it too. That is why I think there has to be some underpinnings of people getting more stir crazy, less complacent and willing to start their own businesses as they got plenty of time and if they have some cash, nobody will give you diddly squat return on it w/o spectre of it going down, down, down in principal.
willing to start their own businesses as they got plenty of time and if they have some cash
You left out whether or not future paying customers are a possibility.
‘You left out whether or not future paying customers are a possibility.’
That is the catch. You need a business model that can attract customers.
AbsoluteBeginner, if you still are online, note the purchase limit for I bonds has been raised in 2012 to $10,000 worth per year. You could even make it to $15,000 if you overpay your federal taxes by at least $5,000 and ask for a $5,000 paper I bond as part of the refund. That is the only way to get paper I bonds and the only way to get to $15,000 worth.
I only buy $2,000 worth in a period when the fixed rate is 0.2% or so. Probably would buy $3,000 when the fixed rate is 0.4% and max out when the fixed rate is above 2%. Then consider overpaying purposely my taxes to get the paper I bonds and total $15,000 when the fixed rate is above 3%.
I don’t know what’s in me but really caught the selling bug this year. Sold more shares last week. Sold some again today. This batch of 62 shares gave me a 530% gain on stuff I bought slightly over 2 years ago.
Easy street. Build up cash folks. 2015 will be the correction. And it will be a doozy of more than 25%.
The DJIA is nearly within 3K of 20K as I type!
Short-sellers are all over this market, and that’s good news for bulls
June 9, 2014, 6:33 AM ET
Every time we run an alarmist headline on this blog, I get flooded with the same question: “Well, what should we do about it … jerk?”
So, our call of the day is here to help, and he goes beyond just “buy gold and raise cash”.
But before you circle the wagons and take that defensive posture to gird against the looming unknown, you might consider how the shorts are taking a strong liking to this market again.
Bearish bets against the S&P SPX +0.10% have risen to levels not seen since 2012, according to Bloomberg. On top of that, bearish wagers against the PowerShares QQQ tech ETF QQQ -0.10% are well above the 12-month average.
And what happens when shorts start feeling randy about this market? They get gored. At least that’s been the trend of late. Don’t dismiss the potential for more short tragedies just because stocks may seem bloated and ripe for a meltdown.
There’s been plenty of pain. The smallest 500 stocks in the Russell 3000 have dropped almost 15% since the beginning of March, according to Pension Partners. The smallest 1000 have shed 8%. No wonder shorts are licking their chops.
Bulls can take heart in the fact that this has been an absolutely merciless market for those betting against it. Plus, there’s no real reason to believe that it should be different this time around, other than the fact that one side can’t be right forever.
“The bull market is going to extend for a lot longer than anybody thinks,” Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, told the Wall Street Journal. He added that the rally could be derailed by “a policy mistake in D.C., or inflation ramping up [substantially], but I don’t think any of those things are going to happen.”
…
The general market won’t likely correct in an election year. I’m basically cashing in on my sector - staffing stocks. I noticed Kelly (KELYA) back in January was picked by analysts as a hot buy. Then it dropped over several months by 30%. Something is going on in staffing. And I think the market cycle is ending. So I don’t mind getting out and raising cash.
there are probably other sectors that will do awesome this year. But once the election is over with there will be no incentive for the Fed to prime the market. They might really put on the brakes in mid November of this year.
Still going the course on my Roth IRA in VFIAX. Its balance is in the six figures. Dividends are great in a Roth. 1.98% yield.
If people are calling this guy a jerk for warning about overpriced stocks, then it’s a bubble and it’s gonna pop. The jerk-callers always get most upset toward the top.
Yeah — like Cramer foaming at the mouth, for instance.
David Weidner’s Writing on the Wall Archives
June 3, 2014, 6:01 a.m. EDT
Tim Geithner seeks a bailout for his reputation
Opinion: Former Treasury Secretary still doesn’t own up to missteps in housing
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Timothy Geithner wants you to believe that during the financial crisis he did everything he could to rescue an economy on the brink and the prospect of millions of Americans losing their homes.
And get this: He thinks he was mostly successful.
He adds, with a dose of humility, that as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and, later, as U.S. Treasury secretary, he made “mistakes.”
“We missed a lot and didn’t do enough in advance,” he said.
But even if he did, criticism of his efforts and motivations are “wrong.”
Geithner is in the midst of a speaking tour promoting his new book, “Stress Test: Reflections on the Financial Crisis.” I caught up with him in Santa Clara, Calif., where the housing crisis hit a very soft bottom — the median sales price is $650,000, three times higher than the U.S. median of $175,000 and just 4% of homes are vacant versus 12% nationally, according to research firm RealtyTrac.
Compared to some truly suffering markets such as Detroit, where one of every four homes is vacant, or Orlando, Fla., where foreclosures, at 5%, are occurring well above the national pace of 1.2%, Santa Clara wasn’t exactly ground zero of the housing crisis. Moreover, if you wanted to see Geithner, you had to pay $25, or $45 if you wanted to the book and priority seating — close enough to throw the book at him.
So if you want to give Geithner credit for being visible and fielding questions, consider that he’s not exactly showing up in blighted neighborhoods ruined by U.S. housing and banking policy to face angry mobs.
…
When your goal is to preserve wealth rather than generate it, the last thing you’d do is visit those you shafted.
Says the Junkie…..
In the meantime, DC demand continues to sink lower while prices head south and inventory balloons.
The cost of home improvements to prepare your home for living in retirement could be $70,000 to $100,000. My latest MarketWatch article explains how to prepare for living in your home many years into retirement. One strategy to guarantee cash flow is a reverse mortgage.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-financial-costs-of-aging-in-place-2014-06-09
A good strategy is to sell before your neighborhood turns into a slum. Most people live inland. Just about anywhere 10 or more miles away from the coast or ski resorts is not mucking futch and a good candidate for subsidized slums.
Renting is freedom.
Mortgage is slavery. Or you better learn to love your ghetto neighbors.
A good strategy is to sell before your neighborhood turns into a slum.
Another good strategy is to only buy stocks that later go up in price. If they don’t go up in the future, do not buy them in the present. Easy-peasy.
But if someone owns a home in retirement, they’re wealthy beyond all measure! They don’t need to worry with this.
If owning a house makes you wealthy, why do most baby boomers have no cash to fund their retirements?
Because they don’t own their houses. They still have like three mortgages. Every time the value goes up, they mortgage again.
Sandwiches NOW! Since they are free, I want two.
Is there any value to a realtor other than getting you the lowest price possible when buying a house (and making sandwiches)?
Fetch. Cheetos. MOOOOOVE!
A dear friend reverse mortgaged her house and wound up losing it in a foreclosure.
‘ Roger Roemmich, chief investment officer of ROKA Wealth Strategists and author of the book “Don’t Eat Dog Food When You’re Old.” ‘
Are the 230,000 kids coming in from Central America this year and next going to be self sustaining? Will they do the jobs Americans won’t do?
They’ve already had to double the estimates of the amount expected in once. Will it double again now that the border is open? Does anyone really believe there are young kids making the journey and coming in unaccompanied?
How many poor kids will die as more and more make that journey?
The obvious solution is that the limousine libtards and chamber of commerce rethuglicans should each adopt one of the children and raise them as their own.
Shut up and open your wallet.
Free health care (better than the VA), free housing (next to you) and free education (next to your kids).
If you complain - you are a racist.
In a few years they will be of voting age.
Why do you think one party in pushing for amnesty?
Why do we even elect a congress and senate?
————–
Obama to issue order easing student loan debt pressures
Reuters - 6/9/2014
President Barack Obama will issue an executive action on Monday aimed at making it easier for young people to avoid trouble repaying student loans, a White House official said on Sunday.
The president will sign an order directing the secretary of education to ensure that more students who borrowed federal direct loans be allowed to cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their monthly incomes, the official said.
The administration says this action will help up to 5 million more borrowers, although it will not be available until December 2015.
“Many student loan borrowers are working and trying to responsibly make their monthly payments, but are nonetheless struggling with burdensome debt,” the White House official said.
Faced with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives that makes legislation out of reach for most of his policy proposals, Obama has turned to issuing executive orders to accomplish his agenda.
The US House and Senate are obsolete bodies. All Hail Caesar!
I paid off my student loans 10 years ago…boy do I feel like a sucker.
Executive orders are not laws.
A difference without a distinction.
A difference that is completely different, actually. Look it up.
Do you want a job or to live under socialist/union overlords?
I guess it depends if you are a member of the FSA…
————————————
Right-to-Work States Dominating In Job Growth
Capitol Confidential | 6/8/2014 | Jarrett Skorup
Since 1990, nearly all of the top 10 states for job growth are right-to-work states, while nearly all of the 10 states with the least amount of job growth are non-right-to-work states.
More broadly, 18 out of the 25 states with the fastest employment growth are right-to-work states while 19 of the 25 states with the slowest growth are non-right-to-work states, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For the past nearly quarter of a century, right-to-work states have averaged job growth at about twice the rate of non-right-to-work states.
Excluding Michigan and Indiana (which became right-to-work in 2013 and 2012, respectively) would mean that 21 out of the 25 states with the slowest employment growth are forced unionization states. And that all of the 10 states with the least amount of job growth for the past quarter century are non-right-to-work states.
“This confirms previous research that shows that economic performance when measured by job growth, unemployment rates, income growth, or new business creation is generally higher in right-to-work states than in forced unionism states,” Perry said. “When thousands of firms make decisions on the expansion of their existing operations, opening businesses or factories in new locations, and possibly relocating their businesses, labor costs and labor flexibility are primary considerations. Compared to forced unionism states, right-to-work states offer U.S. and U.S. based companies a more business friendly environment, lower labor costs and greater workplace flexibility, and it makes sense that right-to-work states have demonstrated a clear ‘job growth advantage’ over their forced unionism counterparts since 1990.”
The 10 states with the greatest overall employment growth (right-to-work in bold): Nevada, Utah, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho, Texas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota.
The top 10 states with the least employment growth: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Michigan (became a right-to-work state in 2013), New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maine and Massachusetts.
So, um, the Federal Government is now saying that the drop and release program of illegal immigrants into Texas, Arizona, and California is permanent. This is how the Federal Government will deal with illegals from now on. I wonder who’s paying them to do this.
We seriously need to ship these people to Washington, DC.
2banana’s Law:
Conservatives are more than happy to live under the laws/rules they want for everyone else.
Liberals/Democrats expect to be exempted from the rules they want for everyone else.
Conservatives love the cheap labor illegals provide, as long as someone else (the taxpayers) foots the bill for the social costs.
Conservatives love the cheap labor illegals provide, as long as someone else (the taxpayers) foots the bill for the social costs.
you description of conservatives isn’t accurate. i don’t want taxpayers footing the bill for any of that.
Then you don’t deserve to call yourself a conservative.
you don’t know what a conservative is.
You think that the definition of conservative is “just like tj”. The true definition can be found in the way that the conservatives in office act. The ones who call themselves conservative (and were elected by conservative voters) don’t act anything like your definition of the term.
Sure, they talk a big talk about minimizing access to birth control, and preventing women from earning equal pay for equal work, and trying to make sure that no man is ever punished for committing assault against a woman, but they in no way treat MONEY or THE ECONOMY the way you might think.
So why do you vote for them, then? Which of their policies do you like?
The ones who call themselves conservative (and were elected by conservative voters) don’t act anything like your definition of the term.
you don’t have my definition.
Sure, they talk a big talk about minimizing access to birth control, and preventing women from earning equal pay for equal work, and trying to make sure that no man is ever punished for committing assault against a woman, but they in no way treat MONEY or THE ECONOMY the way you might think.
they do none of that. but your sexism is showing again.
So why do you vote for them, then? Which of their policies do you like?
since you don’t know what a conservative is, i can’t answer those questions.
tj:
Do you ever read the news?
Do you ever read the news?
non sequitur
Start reading the news, and then get back to me on what the conservative officials (elected by conservatives) actually do. Not what you think they should do, but what they do.
If you would read the news, then you would not deny the blatant misogyny that conservatives have used to hide what’s going on behind the curtain. Don’t watch the jobs going offshore. Look over there - It’s a slut who wants birth control to be covered by insurance. Look in the other direction. That woman should be in the kitchen, not STEALING wages from her male counterparts. And in the other corner, we have all these ladies who are wasting taxpayer money by expecting the justice system to prosecute rapes! Doesn’t everyone know that a woman can’t get pregnant from rape (especially in the military)? That is what your conservatives have been up to.
BTW, I got your definition of conservative by reading your comments over time.
That is what your conservatives have been up to.
that’s why i said you don’t know what a conservative is.
BTW, I got your definition of conservative by reading your comments over time.
really? what’s my definition of a conservative?
what’s yours?
tj:
I already state your definition. My definition is described above. The way they act.
I already state your definition.
no you didn’t. you’re playing games.
My definition is described above. The way they act.
as i thought, you have no definition.
‘the way “they” act’ is not a definition.
I wonder who’s paying them to do this.
The Chamber of Commerce?
“The Chamber of Commerce?”
The Chamber of Commerce membership are just serving as useful idiots in a larger scheme.
This is coming from the Global Progressive Movement. The word has gone out to all the third world hell holes, “The gates are open, go to America now to qualify for amnesty.”
You know Obama and his merry band of post American Progressives/Marxists will declare all Illegal Immigrants currently within our borders US citizens via executive order.
This is not a move rooted in compassion…no, this is rooted in destruction of west as we’ve all know it by flooding our systems in order to bring about their eventual collapse, and completely changing the voting demographics.
This is a global effort, for years the progressives have set up systems to flood America, Western Europe and the UK with poor and uneducated Africans, Middle Easterners, South Americans, Central Americans and Mexicans. The effort to bring in millions more is obviously underway.
The progressives have been calculating and planning the demise of the West for over 100 years, now they feel they are so close and they are pulling out all of the stops…all the years of infiltrating the schools, universities, military, intelligence services, police departments and all levels of civilian government have finally paid off. This is just the beginning of the push across the finish line, we will not recognize this country in 10 years.
On a humorous note: All of you willing participants in the progressive movement, your lives will become just as much of a living hell as the rest of us, unless you are one of the super rich elite. Your children will suffer the consequences of your deranged ideology.
You cannot possibly believe that the Chamber of Commerce anywhere is a puppet of the “progressives”. So, is progressive the new curse-word for liberal, which is code for Democrat? The Chambers of Commerce are Republican, reed. They are not doing this because they think it’s a form of progressively increasing the social burden on individuals as their income increases. They are doing this because they want the middle class to go away and become slaves. It is regressive, not progressive.
“You cannot possibly believe that the Chamber of Commerce anywhere is a puppet of the “progressives”.”
They support establishment progressive republicans, but I don’t care what party they support. They are facilitating the destruction of our country with their insane stance on immigration and low wage labor, hence making them useful idiots for the global progressive movement.
“They are doing this because they want the middle class to go away and become slaves. It is regressive, not progressive.”
If by “They” you mean the so called progressives (really Marxists), you have reaffirmed my point Auntie Fed…there is nothing progressive about progressives.
CAN YOU PROVIDE ONE POSITIVE OUTCOME FOR THE UNITED STATES AS A WHOLE AND THE MIDDLE CLASS WHEN WE IMPORT TENS OF MILLIONS OF UNEDUCATED AND POOR FROM AROUND THE WORLD?
Close to 100% of Democrats and the majority of Progressive Republicans support amnesty. Why?
Close to 100% of Democrats and the majority of Progressive Republicans support amnesty. Why?
Dems want the future voters, the GOP wants the cheap labor. Both are traitors.
The 0.1% feel sorry for themselves and can rationalize anything…
———————–
‘We came out of the White House dead broke and in debt’
dailymail.co.uk | 6/9/14 | Francesca Chambers
Former First Lady Hillary Clinton isn’t ashamed of the massive amount of money she and husband Bill Clinton have earned over the last decade through high-paying speaking gigs.
Hitting the speaking circuit was a necessity in order to maintain their lifestyle after Bill’s term as the 42nd President of the United States ended, Clinton told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in a sit-down interview ahead of the release of her book Hard Choices.
http://www.infowars.com/for-the-first-time-ever-more-than-half-the-members-of-congress-are-millionaires/
Being a millionaire isn’t much anymore. What can you buy for that?
It’s a lot considering these people live in DC making only like $150k/yr. DC area = high housing costs, high consumer prices, and high taxes (DC sales tax = 10% for example).
You don’t get to be a millionaire in DC area with a 150k salary. You have to have a spouse with a very hooked-up job (consultant, lobbyist, lawyer, head of NGO), do paid side-gigs, or have some very good investment advice.
Keep in mind, insider trading laws specifically exempt members of congress. It’s no secret they all trade on information they hear about in committee meetings where they talk to CEOs and regulators. And they play golf/tennis with insiders all the time. Washington is much more cloistered than it was 20-30 years ago. Back then, companies had small footprints in DC. Now every significant company has a huge DC operation, every law firm has a DC office (even if they’re a CA or NY firm) to solicit work, etc. etc. DC used to be pretty boring and limited to politics. Now a ton of business happens behind doors in DC, like a mini-NYC.
Ex Prez’s get a 200K annual pension. Sure, that won’t provide a lifestyles of the rich and famous standard of living, but it’s far more than most Americans will see in their lifetime.
+ any ex US president can rack up millions a year in speaking fees and consulting deals while having an office and security provided at taxpayer expense.
Call me crazy, but I think any post-Presidency benefits provided at taxpayer cost should be rather limited and not extend to paid gigs, especially paid gigs outside the U.S.
If people are willing to pay them for speaking engagements, then why shouldn’t they take the job? I would. I thought 2brony was a conservative who believes in the free market. Right to work and all that.
Post term paid gigs are just promises cashed in from deals made during term years.IMHO getting elected president should net you a cool billion so you are outside the reach of easy bribery. If we can afford 80 billion per month for financial stability, surely we can afford 1 billion every 4-8 years for “presidential stability”.
Similar thing with congress. You get 50 million when you leave office, but you don’t get it until you leave. 100M for senators..
We just print it anyway.. not worth pretending it actually needs to come out of taxpayer funds.
I mentioned last week that I don’t understand why student loans are a burden on anyone. Why would anyone not just put them on PAYE or I BR?
Well, today Obama is announcing that he’s extending PAYE (Pay As You Earn) to all student loan borrowers (previously you had to take the loans after 2007).
Here’s a CNN link on it: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/08/pf/college/obama-student-loans/
Under PAYE, your monthly payments are set at 10% of expendable income (basically your Adjusted Gross Income minus about 20k). You pay for 20 years and the remaining balance is forgiven.
As an example, if you make 50k per year, your loans would be based on about 30k expendable income. 10% of that is 3k/yr or $250/month.
This holds true whether your student loan balance is 10,000 or 100,000.
Anyone with kids of their own or friends in this situation — spread the word.
I guess the universities will have to start charging different rates for different classes, then. Or will it just be up to the taxpayer to foot the bill for the English Literature graduates? What about drop-outs?
he should just wipe out the debt so these people can invest in houses and stocks.
+1 AZ, you got the “right stuff” to be part of the Obama Team. Don’t forget the new 4-dr pickup truck to go along with that nothing-down house!
I guess the universities will have to start charging different rates for different classes
So already do. CU Boulder charges by major.
yet another reason for universities to raise tuition… Students won’t ever even have to pay it… Also a good reason to find creative ways to never earn personal income.
This is a correct interpretation. It’s promoting moral hazard, IMO.
It rewards things like 1 spouse staying home with kids. Why? Because their student loan payments are now calculated on the one income and if you personally have zero income, your payments are set to zero, but that still counts as far as passage of time.
The amount considered “discretionary income” also goes down as you have children. In other words, if 2 people with the same exact income, the one who has children will get more of a benefit as far as lowering their PAYE payment amount.
I suspect that they knew about the one-income benefit, but allowed it anyway. Some other family gets to fill the job left open by the stay-at-home spouse. Meanwhile, the stay-at-home spends just as much money on kids and minivans. And 1-income households would go a long way toward decreasing unemployment.
So, I am going under for some minor outpatient surgery in Thursday… hospital calls to get all of stuff up front. Makes sense, as I will be in pain/drugged up afterward…
Anywho, the CC info wasn’t just for a hold, it already posted. Lovely.
You have problem with corporate crony capitalism, comrade?
Do you have to be MoviPrep clean?
I had minor outpatient surgery a week ago. Funny how serious they are. They monitor your BP several times during the procedure and I was under a light anesthetic through my left arm. Saw some fantastic colors of course because I had eye surgery. Even though I felt normal I was wheeled out in a wheel chair to my sister’s vehicle. And they instructed me not to lift over ten lbs for a few days but I could walk. Funny how they make such a fuss. So I do walk. Have my second follow up visit tomorrow with the ophthalmologist.
crater
pop
I have so much money left over after “throwing money away on rent” that I don’t know where to throw it anymore.
On a $2 dinner of chicken flavor™ ramen, steamed broccoli, and baked chicken perhaps?
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140607_191053_179-nIwSIdvp.jpg
I prefer two double quarter pounders with cheese, a bag of cheetos, a supersized fry and coke and two pies for a dollar.
However;
The proper method for your broccoli(you’re close);
-Fresh washed florets cut down to 0.75″ diameter, de-stemmed and warmed to room temp.
-2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in .25 cup water
-1 clove garlic, slice or minced
-olive oil
Get a wide flat pan blistering hot. Hit it with the oil. Cover the floor of the pan with the florets. Don’t stack them and keep the heat blazing. You’ll have to add more oil. After you see the water vapor come off the florets, dump the bouillon and garlic in. Keep the heat blazing to drive off most of the bouillion solution. Once the stem portion can be penetrated with a fork. Pull’em off the heat. And if your garlic is burned(any shade of brown), open the trash can and dump the whole $hittin’ mess and start over.
What else can be said?
Realtors are liars.
Broccoli is not food.
Broccoli is the center of my universe.
Eat to live. You will feel above average and guiltless all day. Have an off day every two weeks where part of one meal is a treat. For me that is steak.
I have so much money left over after rent, I buy broccoli whenever I want and prepay for medical care.
Cash and carry. Good move.
Your medical condition is probably because of the broccoli. It sits in your appendix and festers. True fact.
Venezuelan Prostitutes Earn More Selling Dollars Than Sex
By Anatoly Kurmanaev Jun 9, 2014 8:44 AM PT
Photographer: Vladimir Marcano/Bloomberg
A prostitute in her room at a brothel in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, on May 28, 2014.
The arrival of a Liberian-flagged freighter with Ukrainian, Arab and Filipino sailors spells one thing for Elena — dollars. And greenbacks are king in Venezuela, the 32-year-old prostitute says.
Within hours of hearing of the ship’s imminent arrival, she has packed her bags and is heading to the crumbling city of Puerto Cabello. It is a 450-kilometer (280-mile) journey from her home in the Western state of Zulia that Elena finds herself doing more often now as Venezuela’s economy contracts, the bolivar slumps and prices soar.
Prostitutes more than double their earnings by moonlighting as currency traders in Puerto Cabello. They are the foreign exchange counter for sailors in a country where buying and selling dollars in the streets is a crime — and prostitution isn’t. Greenbacks in the black market are worth 11 times more than the official rate as dollars become more scarce in an economy that imports 70 percent of the goods it consumes.
“The dollar is king these days, but having them comes at a price,” Elena, who uses an alias to protect her identity, said late last month in a room she rents in a Puerto Cabello brothel. “Yes, we got dollars to afford the things our families need, but we have to sell our bodies for it.”
The benefits of the trade are stacked around Elena’s room in the Blue House brothel — bags of rice, flour, sugar and cooking oil — products that other Venezuelans have to line up for hours to buy at regulated prices in shops, if they can find them at all.
…