Bits Bucket for June 21, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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inflation is figment of your imagination.
Finally, something that you and RAL both agree on!!
Inflation is going to save our stupid asses.
Please define just who “our” is.
If you have to ask that question then there is no chance in all that you will ever understand the answer.
Certainly not those who have to actually pay for any necessities now, like college, food, etc.
You should be grateful that these things are made available for you to buy.
Another persona Amy. Yeah we get it. At this point what does it even matter.
Amy/Janet, Whomever:
Please refrain from changing your on-screen alias. Causes more work for our host Ben.
Thanks.
+100 MacBeth
You truly are stupid if you see inflation as a good thing.
From Thursday: Comment by Ben Jones
2014-06-19 06:50:50
‘Naples real estate appraiser Tim O’Neill also has heard of investors who have purchased in this area flipping homes to each other, to bring up the values of their portfolios. ‘They’re falsely inflating prices,’ he said.’
Maybe Jingle Male will care to chime in on how there’s no fraud out there.
______________________________________
Jingle Male response: I have been very busy with work and getting solar on my home, so I am just catching up on my HBB reading this morning.
The level of fraud in the market today is way below what we saw in 2005 to 2007. In those days, we had 80-20 (100%) sub-prime mortgages being used everywhere with NINJA loans (No Income, No Job, No Assets) based on FICO credit scores and stated income. I would venture to estimate in the neighborhood where I live, 80% of the purchases used sub-prime loans and were fraudulent (and 87% of the homes foreclosed). People used straw buyers and some of those people went to jail (Edwinna Firmeeza and Cynthia Suratos are both now tenants in the Dublin, CA federal correctional institute for women and Suratos will likely be deported back to the Philippines when she is released.)
In 2014, all home loans today have much stronger due diligence and the borrower must prove their ability to repay. FICO alone won’t cut it. There must be assets, income, and the ability to repay. I have not seen any fraudulent deals since 2008. The most recent fraud I have seen is the UHSP (used house sales people) conniving among themselves to pick up a foreclosure for friends and flip it. The lender was not getting fair market value.
That is not happening in my market as the level of foreclosures has dropped by 80-90%, to almost nothing today.
There is not the systemic fraud at lower levels like back then because the fraud is the system now. Every bank’s books are based on fraudulently being allowed to not recognize massive losses and bogus loans from the govt.
On the micro level there is still plenty of fraud as this article shows. The way those in power seem to be turning a blind eye to a lot of things these days, maybe we’re all idiots for not just maxing out on the fraud also.
Favelo,
You don’t understand the mortgage market. The banks do no hold those loans. They sold them off in securitized bonds. The bag holders are the pension funds and insurance companies who invested in the bonds.
The banks do provide servicing and they get a fee off the top. Much of the reason they do not foreclose right away is because they get “extra” fees for servicing loans in default. Why foreclose when the legal department in the servicing unit can bill $300/hour for gumming up the system? That is what needs to be fixed! Penalize the originating lender for bad loans, instead of rewarding them with additional cash flow!
Deliberately misrepresenting the truth about housing is something we’ve come to expect from you J._Fraud.
I understand that FASB 157 is not in effect any more. That is all you need to understand to know that my statement about bank balance sheets is correct.
As I asked yesterday, Is going back to previous days’ posts a sign of mental illness?
It is. I readily acknowledge the level of mental illness on this blog. HA!
It is a sine. I readily acknowledge the level of mental illness on this blog. HA! You know, like compulsive, repetitive posts……obsessive compulsive statements which make no cents…..misspelings…..all corts of isuessss hear.
Oops. It is a cine of mental illness. I readily acknowledge the level of mental illness on this blog. HA!
I am going to have to seek counseling……thank you Fav for helping me get out of denial. HA!
Nope. Sometimes it is just a matter of wanting to see all of the posts, including the ones that come in very late on a thread; sometimes it is a matter of not having the time to read the threads on the day that they are initially posted.
In other words, there are lots of possible reasons for reading/posting on old threads. It is interesting that you went straight to mental illness as the explanation…
Yep, Occam’s Razor.
And I forgot one very important reason: sometimes it is just a strong desire to have the LAST WORD on a subject.
The last word days later is a sign of mental illness.
Always?
Always
LOL… You walked right into that one!
Always.
I have been very busy with work and getting solar on my home ??
Lease or Buy ??
Off the grid self sustainable solar or government scam solar?
Off the grid self sustainable solar or government scam solar?
Talk about a false dichotomy! The most sustainable and sensible solar is the grid-tied net-metered solar—it is FAR cheaper because it does not need big banks of batteries, and thus FAR more efficient in net usable output per dollar spent.
+1 Prime
In effect, that arrangement uses the electric company as a giant battery, which doesn’t work out well for them.
In effect, that arrangement uses the electric company as a giant battery, which doesn’t work out well for them.
The arrangement is not so bad for the utilities either. They get a pretty predictable base supply, and it reduces the frequency with which they have to fire up their least-efficient plants.
In other words, it increases the proportion of the time that they can meet demand with only their most-efficient plants. How could that possibly be bad for them??
Utilities have costs beyond those involved in generating electricity. They also have transmission and distribution networks that have to be built and maintained. A simple way to look at it, though, is that, with net metering, the utility buys power from its customers at a certain price and then sells it back to them at the exact same price. That’s not a good deal for any business.
The last 3 months I did not have to pay for electricity since Socal Edision credited my account with some money. I don’t know the reason, but it seems like there is some sort of carbon credits or some such. Anybody else see the same thing?
So it is subsidized government scam solar. Thanks.
The power companies charge you retail for any electricity used over your solar production. If you produce more than you use, they will pay you wholesale, which, in our case, is about 1/4 the cost of retail.
They then take your surplus power and sell it to your neighbor for retail.
Also, SDG&E is going to be charging everyone some kind of charge for access to their distribution network. It’s a way to offset some losses that result from customers getting solar panels.
Cash deal. $15,400 total cost, or $10,800 after 30% tax credit. It is a 5kW system and it will take my $100/mon electric bill to $0/mon. So my “after tax” ROI will be 11% (I don’t have to pay tax on money I don’t need to earn). $1200 / $10,800 = 11.11% ROI. It is a no brainer.
I priced a similar system in 2009 and it was $32,000. Prices have come down significantly. Panels are cheaper (and better) today and there are many companies installing systems, so skilled labor is plentiful too.
I used to work in the business. Solar panels are wayyy cheaper, conversion efficiencies slowly creep higher over time, yes. Quality? Whole ‘nother matter. Think where everything comes from these days, and remember cheap Chinese drywall…
Make sure your installer can vouch for the pedigree of what’s being installed. You want it to last for 25+ years, otherwise there’s no real benefit environmentally nor economically. Probably don’t want to go with the absolute cheapest option they can find for you.
The fraudster will be here 5 years from now whining about how the panels fail.
Believe me…. I just got done installing a new 8kw system on a new building and it was just under $100k with a 20 year warranty on the panels.
You paid way to much. $/kWh is a joke. I thought you built houses for $55/SF and you can’t get an 8k system done for 20 grand?
I didn’t pay for anything fraud. Fools like you pay me.
BTW, I’ve always wondered whether some here are a bit harsh on you, but looking at your system pricing numbers I can now see that you really talk out of your aZZ a lot.
Any system fully installed for $3/watt isn’t probably going to last much longer than the first season. Try maybe $5-6/watt before rebates. And if you’re living in a state that requires 10-year warranties, add another dollar or two per watt on the top of that.
BTW, I’ve always wondered whether some here are a bit harsh on you, but looking at your system pricing numbers I can now see that you really talk out of your aZZ a lot.
That’s what realtor types like J._Fraud do best. They just don’t know anything because they’re incapable of doing anything.
I can now see that you really talk out of your aZZ a lot.
Ahahhahahaha. Fraudsters like this are the reason that a 50 foot thick granite wall of posts calling out the Stealtors is needed here.
I am not a realtor. Don’t know where you got that idea. I got 3 bids. All very similar. Go ahead, keep paying your utility provider a lot of money. I’ll enjoy the savings and 11% cash on cash return.
You’re a fraud and everyone here understands that.
How about the name of the system and company who installed…$15,000. sounds quite reasonable…How big is the house ??
Sierra Pacific. 2800 SF. Annual eletrical usage was $1250/yr. Now, $50
Sierra Pacific. 2800 SF. Annual eletrical usage was $1250/yr. Now, $50. Gas stays at $380/yr.
“There must be assets, income, and the ability to repay.”
Agreed. There are portions of the Dodd/Frank bill that hold the mortgage companies responsible for things that they cannot control, therefore they’ll be more careful when offering a mortgage.
therefore they’ll be more careful when offering a mortgage ??
More than careful…With the threat of losing your business and going to jail for even a minor error, how would you underwrite a loan…
going to jail for even a minor error,
What world do you live in? I think there are mortgage brokers here as much as stealtors. All shills.
‘The level of fraud in the market today is way below what we saw in 2005 to 2007′
The amount of fraud isn’t exposed until the SHTF. So, you don’t know how much is going on.
I find an article with an appraiser, no two appraisers, in Florida going on the record about outright fraud and calling it a bubble. What do people here want to talk about? Racism, or some other 1950’s shit.
Given the current level of rampant housing fraud(a few on this blog publicly admit to committing recently), its accurate to say there is far more realtor and mortgage fraud today than ever before.
Let’s talk about bad loans and fraud. What if I said, hey, I’ll refinance your loan at 125% plus on your LTV. I won’t check to see if you have a job. I won’t do an appraisal. You put nothing down. Sounds kinda sketchy, right?
That’s what the government has been doing for years with HAMP/HARP! I still hear the ads all day on my radio pushing this stuff. And these are “permanent modifications” that are, surprise - ! - now re-setting.
Never fear, we’ve got Mel Watts coming in to open the spigots. The new HUD appointee is saying the same thing. Just in time to print up some fresh FB’s as prices are heading down.
There’s no fraud! This is how things have always worked, with the government backing 90% of the loans and a bunch of easy money people in charge.
Hamp/Harp is an answer to the loans done between 2006 & 2009. If you got a loan after 2009, you don’t qualify. It is not fraud. It is an answer for the people who got trapped (many innocently) in the BS market caused by fraud in 2005-09.
Nonsense J._Fraud. Hamp/harp isn’t limited to 06-09 donkeys.
Rampant mortgage and realtor fraud is something you can attest to personally. Why not start there shall we?
‘an answer to the loans’
What the heck does that even mean? An “answer to”? An answer with a loan that would have made Angelo Mozilo blush? I hear the ads all day; “were you rejected for a laon in the past? New guidelines mean you may now qualify.”
New guidelines mean lower standards. Lower standards on a loan far more subprime than any ninja loan in the past. That’s right; these loans make subprime look triple A. Have you seen the default rates? And the re-default rates?
Don’t give me that innocent crap; these people are getting reamed again. For what? So the housing market will look ever so slight less bad. So the payments come in for a few more months or years.
With these appraisers who said flippers were selling each other houses to fraudulently drive up comps; are they just defrauding each other? No, they expect to sell their multiple houses to some fool with a loan. (A loan backed by you and me, BTW). So, how many loans could that be? 10, 30, a hundred? And how many people are doing this?
A year ago I found a report of some “investors” purposefully paying over asking in the Inland Empire in order to drive up comps for all the houses they had in the area. About the same time I found a report of an “institutional investor” paying over asking for a Florida house - and no one else was bidding!
How many loans have been made since then based on these transactions? Hundreds, thousands? Tens of thousands, more? You don’t know and I don’t know, but we’re gonna find out.
‘an answer to the loans’
I can explain what that means, Ben.
It is the “answer” to old/bad bubble loans, only in the sense that it satisfies the policy goal of socializing the losses.
In other words, every refi of a privately-issued loan into a new federally-guaranteed loan shifts the losses where they “belong”—on taxpayers backs.
It’s simple, really.
These are GSE loans. It’s already a taxpayer loss. The goal is what I said it is; so the housing market will look ever so slight less bad. So the payments come in for a few more months or years.
Let me add, so today’s buyer pays too much. And people here post and marvel; “I made a hundred grand on the Phoenix house I bought in 2010.” Chicken feed. A 23 YO woman made that on a Houston flip in 3 months; I saw it on TV! Bernanke makes three times that on a 15 minute speech. Meanwhile, the economy is going down the toilet. Talk about fraud.
So the payments come in for a few more months or years.
Even if the old note is also a GSE loans, if the payment gets reduced by enough due to the lower rate, that the FB is able to make the payments, then these refis may reduce the total number of defaults and subsequent foreclosures.
Not saying that I agree with the policy (due to the moral hazard), but I see that there could be a policy motivation beyond pretending that the market is less bad than it is.
Your scenario only works for the borrower if they eventually sell with equity or pay the loan off. With default rates of 30-40% within a year, what percentage do you think will pull this off? 10%, or 3%, or almost none? I know people with these things. They say, ‘I miss my car payment several times a year’, etc. They are limping along, without any real plan except that these loans kept them from foreclosure, once or three times. They would have been better off walking away years ago.
socializing the losses
No, they socialize the fraud because the entire market now is a big fraud on taxpayers and anyone wanting to buy a house at nonfraud prices. That was my original point. It’s all ball bearings (fraud) these days.
They say, ‘I miss my car payment several times a year’, etc.
You are totally correct that it will not help people who are really living on the edge. For some folks who would have walked, though, who are perhaps not quite so close to insolvency, they may be able to last a lot longer with a 3.5% mortgage than a 7% mortgage.
They would have been better off walking away years ago.
Totally true—and that is the advice that I have given many who did not take it. They would have been far better off walking away a long time ago, either to a rental, or even with a buy-then-walk. But it’s better for the banks that they stayed.
Secret trade agreement covering 68 percent of world services
published by WikiLeaks
Published time: June 19, 2014 15:55
The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks on Thursday as the transparency group’s editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press.
In a statement published by the group alongside the leaked draft this week, WikiLeaks said “proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets,” and have participated in “a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre” by working secretly on a deal that covers more than 68 percent of world trade in services, according to the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research.
Touting the deal earlier this year, the United States Chamber of Commerce said a successful TISA agreement would benefit America’s services industry and its 96 million, or 84 percent, of the nation’s private sector workers. “As its chief goals, the TISA should expand access to foreign markets for US service industries and ensure they receive national and most-favored nation treatment,” the chamber said of the deal in February. “It should also lift foreign governments’ sectoral limits on investment in services,” “eliminate regulatory inconsistencies that at times loom as trade barriers” and “prohibit restrictions on legitimate cross‐border information flows and bar local infrastructure mandates relating to data storage.”
WikiLeaks warns that this largely important trade deal has been hardly discussed in public, however, notwithstanding evidence showing that the policy makers involved want to establish rules that would pertain to services used by billions worldwide.
“The draft Financial Services Annex sets rules which would assist the expansion of financial multi-nationals – mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt – into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers,” WikiLeaks said in a statement. “The leaked draft also shows that the US is particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow, which would allow uninhibited exchange of personal and financial data.”
Additionally, the current draft also includes language inferring that, upon the finishing of negotiations, the document will be kept classified for five full years.
rt.com/usa/167088-wikileaks-tisa-secret-trade/ - 55k -
most-favored nation treatment
In other words somebody’s buddies and relatives get a monopoly on something.
How is it that a trade agreement like this is only 19 pages, yet any bill written by congress these days is thousands?!
This is only one portion.
Hmmmmm … I remember some past posts by Fixer who complained that U.S. based aircraft were being shipped off to cheaper places than the U.S. for servicing - servicing as in maintenance - and I believe the same thing is happening to such things as ships.
Which means that not only will the production of goods get globalized whenever possible but also the servicing of goods will get globalized whenever possible.
Which means if you are a young person looking for a life-long career then it would be best for you to choose a career in a specialty that cannot be done in some other country because it is a sure thing that if your job can be done somewhere else then eventually it will be done somewhere else.
I uses to think of globalization in terms of production but now I understand that I was limiting my thinking.
If you Wiki-up “General Agreement on trade and Services” you will come across this:
“This definition defines virtually any public service as being “provided on a commercial basis” and is already extending into such areas as police, the military, prisons, the justice system, public administration, and government. Over a fairly short time perspective, this could open up for the privatisation or marketisation of large parts, and possibly all, of what today are considered public services currently available for the whole population of a country as a social entitlement, to be restructured, marketised, contracted out to for-profit providers, and eventually fully privatised and available only to those who can pay for them. This process is currently far advanced in most countries, usually (and intentionally) without properly informing or consulting the public as to whether or not this is what they desire.”
“… police, the military, prisons, the justice system …”
Interesting stuff.
The Privatization Movement is not just about cutting off access to services, they want to privatize public services and public assets (like state/national parks, public oil reserves, mines, etc.).
As for privatizing public services, if, for example, you privatize a fire department, instead of paying firefighters for their services, you’ll pay a corporation. The costs won’t be lower, though; even the right-wing think tanks haven’t been able to show that privatization results in less costly, or better goods or services. But the owners and executives of that company will be able to make millions while the people who do the actual work will be making peanuts.
This is the reason we’re seeing all of the attacks on unions, public pensions, tenure, etc. They are trying to eliminate the ONLY barrier to a corporate takeover of our public assets and cash flows — unions are the only thing standing in their way.
This is the reason we’re seeing all of the attacks on unions, public pensions, tenure, etc.
I think you’re oversimplifying here.
This may be *one* of the reasons, but there are plenty of other reasons for attacking. Their protecting of poor/inept workers, demanding more and more while holding our childrens’ educations hostage, etc….simple unsustainability…
There are plenty of reasons to attack them
I think you’re oversimplifying here.
Agreed—it is a dramatic oversimplification.
Another critical reason that public unions are bad: there is no natural force that prevents them growing out of control.
In the private sector, there is a natural force that constrains them; if they become too powerful, the jobs move merely somewhere with a different political system, either to another state with right-to-work, or to another country. This puts a natural check on the power of a union, and helps find an appropriate equilibrium.
Public employee jobs are essentially impossible to move, and thus this natural check on the power of their unions does not exist.
I’m talking about the drumbeat from the MSM about public unions. The ONLY reason we’re hearing these attacks from the Privatization Movement (and movement controlled by corporations, mega-millionaires, and billionaires who are seeking to profit from this privatization) is because unions are the only thing standing in their way.
This is not an over-simplification. This is a fact.
Whoops, typo: “a” movement, not “and” movement
Our old geezers are getting shipped off to Thiland and other 3rd world shit holes for repair and maintenance, too.
I am up in Marin County visiting a sister this weekend. Nice quiet change from my part of Orange County. Morning is pleasantly cool.
Expensive county.
She has rented a small house for four years but a week ago her landlords announced they will be moving in (in a few months) and she will have to leave. It upset her, as it is hard to find places that have not gone up much in rent. And the communities up here are small. So there are fewer places available. She commutes to Oakland. An hour each way.
I say just be happy you got choice. And she earns in the six figures. She could save ten percent of her income if she had the the discipline.
If you are “Uncle Bill” you better be enjoying your nieces or nephews. If not, why on earth is she commuting an hour? With no kids in the picture, a small box close to work beats 2 hours of CA traffic hell a day.
In California, man choices are made according to “lifestyle”. People there pay a pretty penny to live among the correct crowd.
Image is everything. Financial responsibility is largely nothing.
People there pay a pretty penny to live among the correct crowd ?
Yeah, I would agree with that but for some its also about the beauty of it all…Sausalito comes to mind…
Beauty you’d rarely have time to enjoy commuting 2 hours a day in CA traffic.
Oakland vs Marin. You must kidding. It is a clear choice. Have you ever been to these places. A cummute is a pleasure compared to being murdered!
In California the cost of a house has very little to do with the labor or materials in the house, it is all land speculation. What the Fed does not seem to understand is when people pay high prices for houses they have high mortgage payments and California is exhibit A. These high mortgage payments keep people from being able to afford other goods and services. Thus, any gain from boosting housing prices is lost very quickly over time. Throw in the fact that the same printing of money that keeps house prices elevated raises food and energy prices and as far as the real economy is concerned QE is a drag on the economy not a stimulus. But it does help the banks, so there you go we know the priority of Obama’s Fed.
“What the Fed does not seem to understand is when people pay high prices for houses they have high mortgage payments and California is exhibit A. These high mortgage payments keep people from being able to afford other goods and services.”
But if they can forever cash out the ever-rising equity from the ever-rising value of their houses then they can take this endless supply of cashed-out money and spend it - and they can even use part of this cashed out money make their mortgage payments.
See? It’s all good.
If they are underwater, the rising prices do not allow them to cash out home equity it just makes the bank’s loss less when it forecloses. But you are right it is all good for the banks. For the few that have equity, they can all more debt just prior to the house losing value and making them upside down, but once again it is good for the banks.
“If they are underwater, the rising prices do not allow them to cash out home equity it just makes the bank’s loss less when it forecloses.”
But if the prices are rising then they will be given hope that they will not remain forever underwater and this hope will give them the incentive for them to hang on to the house by any means necessary and this includes somehow keeping up with the mortgage payments or maybe somehow making up for missed mortgage payments.
And if they are keeping up with the mortgage payments or are making up for missed mortgage payments then there is no reason for the bank to want to foreclose.
Good for the banker, but the homeowner has the problem that when wages are going up 2% home prices cannot continue to rise and in fact need to drop in price.
“Good for the banker, but the homeowner has the problem that when wages are going up 2% home prices cannot continue to rise and in fact need to drop in price.”
But wages are limited to what is earned today but mortgages are not; Mortgage money is only limited to the imagination as to what money may be earned tomorrow.
And it is mortgage money that drives the housing market.
Of course, that is where Janet comes in with the inflation, inflate away government’s debt and inflate wages higher, of course if you do not understand what the does to the average person, you have not studied history. So study the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe.
“Mortgage money is only limited to the imagination as to what money may be earned tomorrow.”
I need to add in student loan money:
The desire to take on student loan money is only limited to the imagination as to what money may be earned tomorrow.
What’s neat about being able to get borrowed money is money that can be borrowed from tomorrow can be added to money that is earned today and this addition of today’s earned money to tomorrow’s yet-to-be-earned money greatly expands one’s buying power - meaning one can live an extravagant life without earning the money!
Or at least not earning the money right away; Someday - sometime tomorrow - he will have to earn the money needed to pay back what he is spending today but this day is not today, not the present day at least (and if we do not live in the present day then in just what day are we living?).
And in order to do all this borrowing of money from tomorrow so we can spend it today one will have to locate a person who is in a position to facilitate this … this magic, this miracle … and this is where I come into the picture, because (for a fee) I can MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Mr. Banker, the Miracle Man!
And the best part …
I do not have to convince people to do this magic, I do not have to spend any time or effort or money in convincing people to borrow from tomorrow in order to spend money today because there is in place something I like to think of as The Great American Dream Machine that does all the work for me.
People such as Amy power up this Great American Dream Machine and after it is fully powered up this Great American Dream Machine converts ordinary people into schmucks filled with dreams and then these dream-filled schmucks come to me so as to sign a dotted line or two so they can WILLINGLY convert their yet unearned money into future income that I may get to enjoy receiving for many many years extending into … into decades.
Bahahahahahaha … Rod Serling used to be considered clever because he used to present IMAGES to us of The Twilight Zone, a place where time had no restraints, while I, Mr. Banker, get to do the same thing but I get to do this FOR REAL, and I do this each and every day as a matter of routine.
What I do is bring tomorrow’s dollar into the realm of today. And when I do this I have two dollars occupying the place that only one dollar should be occupying.
A dollar from today added to a dollar brought forward to today from the future adds up to two dollars being available for spending today.
Isn’t this great? Isn’t this magical? It should be no wonder as to why people love me so much.
Q. But, Mr. Banker, aren’t you understating the situation just a bit?
A. Yes, I am, but I did this so as not to obscure my point.
The real situation is that just not one dollar is brought from tomorrow to be added to today for today’s spending but thousands of dollars - hundreds of thousands of dollars - can be brought forward from tomorrow to be added to an individual’s spending for today.
And the stronger the economy seems to be the more future money that is allowed to be brought forward and spent, and the more money that is spent the stronger the economy seems to be.
Pure F’ing Magic.
And there are certain times when it is not necessary for one to have lots of earned money to team up with borrowed money in order to do some hefty, industrial strength spending; No, there are times when one doesn’t have to have any earnings at all to borrow tomorrow’s dollar, or hundreds of thousands of tomorrow’s dollars, in order to go crazy with today’s spending.
These times occur during manias and during manias the basic rules that were taught to economists when they took Econ 101 go flying out the window and NINJA loans and NINJA loans’ first and second cousins move to take their place.
Bahahahahahahaha and after the sanity returns the folks that got sucked into the whole mess go around endlessly boo hooing and crying up a storm which just goes to prove that some people - a whole lot of people - just cannot take a joke.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Is posting 5 replies to yourself a sign of mental illness?
In California, man choices are made according to “lifestyle”. People there pay a pretty penny to live among the correct crowd.
Image is everything. Financial responsibility is largely nothing.
That’s very broad statement. The population of California must be up to 35 million at this point. It’s probably a pretty small portion who conform to your description.
California includes Fresno, Lancaster, Moreno Valley, Santa Ana, etc.
Every Which Way But Loose is set in California. Nuff said. Right turn, Clyde.
I say just be happy you got choice ??
It also can be reversed…She has “no” choice…She has to leave…
She has plenty of choice - she’s willing to commute an hour each way to work - that’s a rather big radius of geography from which to choose, don’t you think?
She’s just whining. Fair enough. But she has plenty of choice, especially on a six-figure income.
But she has plenty of choice ??
Her “first” choice is to stay put where she has been for four years…Now she is faced with a move she does not want to make and, based on Bill’s statement, probably exposed to a much higher rent…Not what she is choosing to do…Its what she is being forced to do…
‘Its what she is being forced to do’
Uh, why are the landlords moving into their rental? Because they’re selling their own house. Now why would they reduce their holdings when house prices only grow to the sky?
“probably exposed to a much higher rent…”
Yet still half the price of buying the same sq footage.
How bout that.
Landlords want to move out of their large house so they could rent to a family. It’s very safe in this area. The air is clean and climate is nice. Very quiet too.
Not my cup of tea. The nanny statism and anti gun agenda destroys the advantages. I prefer the hot Arizona desert where I can enjoy my gun collection and go to ranges. And i will be working in Phoenix in a couple of years and enjoy the 3.4% state income tax rate. California takes 10%.
Tell sis to stop whining. If she wants to live in her idyllic spot, and it costs big money to do so, then she gets to pay the big money.
She makes in the six figures, drives an hour each way to work, and THEN complains about the cost of rent? Something’s amiss. Maybe it’s her tiara.
Maybe it’s her tiara
+1. Thanks for the laugh
It does suck to get kicked out of a rental you like, though. One definite risk/downside to renting vs owning. Then again, it’s easier to remove yourself from a situation you don’t like, also.
Two sides to the same coin.
Macbeth you deserve the award. Yes she has expensive tastes so it is partly her choice. She likes the area. There are lofts in Oakland that I think are cool, but she does not want to live in Oakland.
We all make our own choices. I am paying $1000 per month extra in order to own some great firearms and lots of ammo. Most people would think that is dumb. I call that indulgence. I think smoking is dumb. But others like smoking. But in my cas I can still save $18,000 per year after my taxes and expenses. And my current assets are earning me income and dividends, so I don’t have reason to complain.
It actually is freedom. I live in an energy efficient house and drive energy efficient cars. However, I have a real problem with people that try to force my lifestyle on other people. I think its fiscally dumb to waste energy but if Al Gore wants to waste the money that he fleeced from other people, it is his choice.
I am paying $1000 per month extra in order to own some great firearms and lots of ammo. Most people would think that is dumb.
That does seem surprising, Bill—I won’t say “dumb”, but it doesn’t match my financial disposition in the least.
Personally, I would probably have waited the 5-10 extra years to buy the guns in the first place, so that I wouldn’t have to spend $12K/yr just to maintain them.
Now that you have a job that is full-time in a single location, I don’t think you should be reaping any tax benefit from living in AZ/working CA.
Yeah I agree. But I don’t intend to stay as a direct hire in Cali for more than four years. I either will become a direct hire in Phoenix in 2017 or I will be a consultant with Linux and c, c++ on the west coast again.
But I don’t intend to stay as a direct hire in Cali for more than four years.
Just think how many more guns you could buy with the $48K that you will be spending over a four year period just to have a place to store your guns!
Yeah. I know. But I could get laid off anytime so that would make me go contracting again. I still have great recruiting contacts and maintain them. But I am focusing on adding skill sets that are in high demand in California so that I can limit all my flights to 90 minutes between Phoenix and California.
The key thing is that I have a lot of freedom. I am commitment-phobe.
“A house is a moneypit that never pays you back. It takes from your wallet year after year.”
-Realtor in VA diner, 2014
Why are you building houses when you say none sell at any price?
Two houses on my street are pending BTW; so your “none are selling” meme is dead wrong. I actually wish you would listen better and see I am but a humble reporter of what I see. I don’t sell or pimp houses nor am I painting a rosy picture about astronomical asking (and getting) prices in this here “echo bubble”. If it even exists in your mind that means housing prices have been going up recently.
and I agree with the assertion you make that falling prices would be good for the economy.
I am not a housing shill or pimp, not playing a victim, I’ve put myself back together and into a viable lifestyle where earning money is how I eat and rent a domicile. Try outsourcing eating. If food gets more expensive I make more money! I would rather spend $100 on a case of apples than $30. Cuz my margin is static I make more money on more spendy product. Yay for me!
I rent my residence and own the commercial property(outright) where I do business. And its mixed use so I could build myself a shack on or above the existing premises (for $55 sq ft.!!!)
Sold $1600 worth of veggies today. Doubled my money minus some labor expenses cuz I cant be in the store and out in the field simultaneously(like you prolly could)
Super tired. You?
You’re a fool that doesn’t know the value of a dollar. And there are millions of others just like you.
Housing? Housing demand is at 19 year lows and falling. It’s a reality so get over it and get on with your life.
You’re a fool that doesn’t know the value of a dollar.
By directly engaging in selling goods to customer day in and day out, I would suspect that he has an excellent understanding of the value of a dollar.
And neither do you.
From Al Jazeera today:
Sunni rebels have captured Iraq’s biggest oil refinery after overnight clashes with Iraqi security forces, according to local sources, but a military spokesman denied it.
A journalist in Saladin province told Al Jazeera that Sunni rebels, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), had seized the refinery at Baiji, 43km north of Tikrit, on Saturday.
An unknown number of soldiers had been taken prisoner by the rebels after the fall of the facility, the journalist said.
The oil ministry did not comment on the report, and referred all enquiries to the defence ministry.
Rebels had withdrawn from the refinery on Friday after heavy clashes and retreated to Baiji’s main town, which they already control.
State TV reported that Iraqi forces, backed by combat aircraft, had repelled four attacks on the refinery by ISIL fighters.
Iraqi security forces have largely halted the initial rapid advance by ISIL-led fighters, but the rebels continue to make gains.
On Friday, Sunni fighters captured the Qaim border crossing with Syria, 320km west of Baghdad, after a day of clashes that killed about 30 Iraqi soldiers.
IN A RELATED MATTER while Obama has not altered the situation he has sent over Jay Carney so the Iraqi government can more effectively lie about the real situation, he makes Baghdad Bob look like George Washington. All the practice lying about Obamacare is coming in handy.
As usual, chickenhawk conservatives are clamoring for President Obama to send in the troops. Its funny how they always have the courage to send American soldiers off to every little conflict in the world, but they never have the time to fight the wars they want themselves.
LOL, yeah Jay Carney really got the chance to “practice” lying while he worked for the Prez but I’m not sure how many people believed him.
The U.S. “invested” $25 billion in the Iraqi security forces, which mostly turned tail and ran, leaving behind their arms and equipment, when attacked by a few hundred insurgents. Bush’s neo-con fiasco, compounded by Obama’s dithering and ineptitude, have cost American taxpayers and unborn generations more than a trillion dollars so far, not to mention 4,500 dead and 30,000 maimed for life. The “cake-walk” that Wolfowitz and Cheney promised would pay for itself is going to go down, as General Odom said, as the costliest strategic blunder in US history. We unleashed a sectarian conflict that now threatens to engulf the entire region, with catastrophic consequences.
Yellen can print trillions of fiat dollars to enrich the Wall Street grifters, but the Fed can’t print oil. Crony capitalism and its unfettered looting, along with the Fed’s asset bubbles, are going to face a severe shock if geopolitical black swans in Ukraine and Iraq, not to mention the possibility of Argentina stiffing Paul Singer’s vulture fund (which recently donated $1 million to a Karl Rove-backed astroturf PAC to elect more corrupt establishment GOP operatives) means things could be turning very Barnum & Bailey as our rigged and overleveraged markets run into a liquidity crunch.
Andrew Bacevich (Col, ret) lost a son in Iraq and has been blistering in his critiques of how (and why) the war was fought. His thoughts on the most recent developments are worth noting, and the willful delusions and fecklessness of the neo-cons and their corporate media cheerleaders.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2014/06/moyers-andrew-bacevich-on-duplicity-of.html
Interesting discussion. Thanks!
Macbeth,
The Greenwald book on Snowden gets juicier as I read. It is basically saying the NSA is allied with progressive and neo conservative statist’s and big business. And it is all making sense. Diane Feinstein heads the senate committee on intelligence oversight. And she coddles the NSA. There is no oversight. Her House counterpart is a republican from from Florida who does the same lack of oversight. Feinsteins husband is a defense contractor guy.
The agency is big on getting industrial secrets from other nations and giving it to big American business and department of commerce.
This book is really making the big crony capitalism/progressive/neoconservative alliance more believable that it all is staged sparring against each other, but they are all pals. They like he little people to spar about liberal versus conservative. Because it keeps the little people distracted from the crimes the establishment are committing against them. Violations of the fourth amendment for example.
allied with progressive and neo conservative statist’s and big business.
In other word, everybody.
No. IOW everyone in power. Government with the guns and big corporations. It is them against us. And the only real freedom we can have is by having dual citizenship. One of them in a second or third tier country - the book explains the tiers.
No. IOW everyone in power.
Come on, Bill, you know that the little people are easily divided and in the end they don’t matter.
I now fully understand and appreciate John cougar mellencamps old rock video “I fight Authority and Authority always wins.”
Come on, Bill, you know that the little people are easily divided and in the end they don’t matter.
That’s true most of the time. Though there are periods when the little people work together to get things done.
Agenda 21: Global conspiracy or climate savior?
by David Morris @FortuneMagazine
June 18, 2014, 5:00 AM EDT
fortune.com/2014/06/18/agenda-21/ - 46k -
White House’s Valerie Jarrett dines with Rupert Murdoch to plot immigration strategy
By Susan Crabtree | June 20, 2014 | 11:06 am
President Obama’s longtime senior adviser Valerie Jarrett confessed to breaking bread this week with conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch, a new White House frenemy of sorts on immigration reform.
The two dined at the posh Blue Duck Tavern on Tuesday night in Washington’s Foggy Bottom, and Jarrett described the evening as “very enjoyable.”
“Good policy sometimes makes strange bedfellows,” she told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor Friday, adding that she was impressed by Murdoch’s passion for passing comprehensive immigration reform.
washingtonexaminer.com/…/article/2549994 - 56k -
I Wikied-up “immigration reform” and ran across this tidbit:
“Studies have estimated that immigration reform that includes legalization of unauthorized immigrants would add at least $1.5.trillion in cumulative U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 10 years, and increasing wages for all workers. An increase of personal income would generate consumer spending to support 750,000 to 900,000 jobs. Also it would generate and estimate of $5.4 billion in tax revenues.
“… increasing wages for all workers.”
And these increasing wages for all workers would come about because …?
And these increasing wages for all workers would come about because …?
Didn’t the Wikipedia article explain? If it didn’t, they often have footnotes at the bottom with links to their source material.
The President came to Phoenix a few months ago and told us these new citizens would make house prices go up. And Bernanke told us higher house prices would bring jobs.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/06/reports-of-cdgs-commander-cherrys.html
Look what else they might bring.
“President Obama’s longtime senior adviser Valerie Jarrett confessed to breaking bread this week with conservative media titan Rupert Murdoch,”
Did he drool on her? Or is he just looking for a new squeeze to replace Wendy Deng?
A few month ago someone posted on this blog a claim that she is an Iranian witch.
Valerie Bowman Jarrett (born November 14, 1956) is a Senior Advisor to the President of the United States and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration. She is a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader. Prior to that she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.[
Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, to African American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz in 1956, as part of a program where American physicians and agricultural experts sought to help communitize developing countries' health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, later moving to Chicago in 1963.
Career[edit]
Chicago municipal politics[edit]Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington[9] as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development.[10]
Jarrett continued to work in the mayor’s office in the 1990s. She was Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from a private law firm. Jarrett served as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995, and she was Chair of the Chicago Transit Board from 1995 to 2005.[10]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett - 107k
Vladimir Putin orders Russian troops onto ‘combat alert’ as Ukraine fighting spills across border
By Roland Oliphant, Moscow
12:00PM BST 21 Jun 2014
Vladimir Putin has ordered troops in central Russia onto “combat alert” in snap military drills a day after confirming the country is beefing up its presence on the Ukrainian border.
The move, which will not affect troops stationed on the Ukrainian border, follows a series of reports of fighting in eastern Ukraine spilling over the frontier into Russia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…to-combat-alert-as-Ukraine-fighting-spills-across-border.html -
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/21/separatists-attackukraineceasefire.html
The Ukraine situation is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to the messy breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
America’s expanding police state
The notion of privacy is all but dead and gone
by Tammy Bruce | The Washington Times | June 21, 2014
With so much happening internationally and the number of scandals, crises and general screw-ups of the Obama administration here at home, it’s worth noting a disturbing development here on the domestic front: a rapidly expanding police state.
On my radio program last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Chumley, a reporter for The Washington Times, about her new book, “Police State USA: How George Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming our Reality.” The title says it all, and aptly describes the shocking transformation of what had been our free society.
We all know about the scope of National Security Agency (NSA) spying. It’s fair to say at this point in our lives that the notion of privacy is all but dead and gone. However, it didn’t start there. In her book, Mrs. Chumley takes us on a ride through history, reminding us of the original intentions of the Founding Fathers versus the assault on the original design by “21st century realities.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/20/bruceraising-a-police-state-army/ - 91k -
The NSA, CIA, FBI are all in cahoots with big business. They feather each others nests. The average US citizen is expendable and knocking heads of innocent people are all fine with the big business/police state coalition of progressives and neoconservatives.
The voters are all very important for authority to give it legitimacy. The voters are all duped into believing that if their candidate (furnished by the DNC or RNC of course) wins, their lives would improve. But government continually erodes our individual liberties.
I refuse to sanction this.
Pants on fire
The IRS Had a Contract With an Email Backup Company
Peter Suderman|Jun. 20, 2014 2:33 pm
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it can’t provide emails sent between 2009 and 2011 that were requested by congressional investigators because of hard drive crashes.
The agency said that emails stored on dead drives were lost forever because its email backup tapes were recycled every six months, and employees were responsible for keeping their own long-term archives.
The IRS had a contract with email backup service vendor Sonasoft starting in 2005, according to FedSpending.org, which lists the contract as being for “automatic data processing services.” Sonasoft’s motto is “email archiving done right,” and the company lists the IRS as a customer.
In 2009, Sonasoft even sent out a Tweet advertising its work for the IRS.
The extent and exact details of the service that Sonasoft provided to the IRS aren’t clear. But the company advertises its email archiving solution as “ideal for small and medium businesses, government agencies, school districts, nonprofit organizations using Microsoft’s Exchange Server.” And a document posted on its website describing its services says that its system “archives all email content and so reduces the risk of non-compliance with legal, regulatory and other obligations to preserve critical business content.”
Sonasoft connection and IRS contract details first noted on Morgenr’s Twitter account.
reason.com/blog/2014/06/20/the-irs-had-a-contract-with-an-email-bac - 174k -
mountain p0rn
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140621_091826_943-4YEODL6Y.jpg
goats on the continental divide
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140621_082608_213-rDMfkgd7.jpg
Oreamnos americanus
Fears of EPA ‘land grab’ create groundswell against water rule
The Hill ^ | June 21, 2014 | Timothy Cama
Lawmakers are up in arms over an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal that they fear could give federal officials expansive new powers over private property and farmland.
The EPA is seeking to redefine what bodies of water fall under the agency’s jurisdiction for controlling pollution. The scope of the final Clean Water Act (CWA) rule is of critical importance, as any area covered would require a federal permit for certain activities.
The rule is facing a groundswell of opposition from lawmakers, who fear the EPA is engaged in a “land grab” that could stop farmers and others from building fences, digging ditches or draining ponds.
The EPA says the new rule — dubbed “Waters of the United States,” or “WOTUS” — would not massively expand its authority, nor would it create powers over back yards, wet spots or puddles.
“It would reduce the scope of waters covered under the Clean Water Act compared to the existing regulations on the book,” EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe recently told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “It would not assert jurisdiction over any type of waters not previously protected over the past 40 years.”
Those assurances haven’t won over lawmakers, who say the rule is exceptionally broad.
“The rule would place features such as ditches, ephemeral drainages, ponds (natural or man-made, prairie potholes, seeps, flood plains, and other occasionally or seasonally wet areas under federal control,” the House lawmakers wrote in their letter.
The Senate also has a significant faction fighting the EPA’s action. Thirty Republican senators signed onto a bill introduced this week that would prevent the EPA and the Army Corps from moving forward.
“After already calling on the EPA and Army Corps to withdraw the proposed rule, I want to make sure that the expansion of regulatory jurisdiction over ‘Waters of the United States’ is shelved for good,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the bill’s main sponsor.
“This straightforward legislation prohibits the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the secretary of the Army from finalizing the rule or trying a similar regulation in the future.”
At least four other Republican senators have directly asked the Obama administration to drop the rule.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3170623/posts - 25k -
“The EPA says the new rule — dubbed “Waters of the United States,” or “WOTUS” — would not massively expand its authority, nor would it create powers over back yards, wet spots or puddles.”
BS, they need more areas so they can hire more bureaucrats and tax more land owners.
This area is one area where you renters got it good. If the government raises their taxes too high, you can just move along.
Iraq: ISIS Seizes Saddam Weapons Stockpile As Regional Actors Comment On US Involvement - Breitbart
The Iraq study group 2004 report on the weapons site said: “Two wars, sanctions and Unscom oversight reduced Iraqi’s premier production facility to a stockpile of old damaged and contaminated chemical munitions (sealed in bunkers), a wasteland full of destroyed chemical munitions, razed structures, and unusable war-ravaged facilities,”
Meanwhile, some called for a shakeup within the ranks of the Iraqi governing structure.
Iraq’s chief Shia spiritual leader, Ayatollah Sistani, called for a new “effective” government Friday, which some see as calling upon Prime Minister Maliki to resign.
Ok, now if I’m not mistaken, isn’t this something that Bush was supposed to have lied about? (Like a politician never lies). Right here is says that ISIS has taken over the area where Saddam was producing his chemical weapons. What’s up with that?
I’m sure our hashtag diplomacy will bring about a satisfactory solution to the Iraq imbroglio.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2014/06/20/ISIS-mocks-Michelle-Obama-with-bringbackourhumvee-Twitter-hashtag.html
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/06/19/video-of-the-day-end-the-fed-rallies-are-exploding-throughout-germany/
“End the Fed” rallies sweeping across…Germany. While Americans slumber on and crony capitalism continues to run amok.
http://rt.com/news/167532-uk-anti-austerity-march/
Oddly enough, I didn’t see a single item about this anti-austerity march in London in any corporate-owned media outlet.
crater