Bits Bucket for July 11, 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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“One percent’s rental nightmare: How Wall Street scheme blew up in its face”
I’ve followed the Wall Street rental scheme for some time. You know the basics by now: Big Money investors decided to buy up all the foreclosed properties their pals at the banks created during the financial crisis, and rent them out to many of the same people who lost their homes. Then, they started selling securities backed by the rental revenue, just like the mortgage-backed securities from the crisis. Profiting off their own failure: It was Wall Street’s perfect plan.
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/09/one_percents_rental_nightmare_how_wall_street_scheme_blew_up_in_its_face/
They’re proving why the smart money has long avoided SFRs. Big rental real estate investors tend to stick to apartment complexes. They’re a lot easier to maintain and manage.
Also long time renters know that maintenance is superior when renting in large apartment complexes. Many have 24 hour emergency maintenance. I had two new dishwashers installed - one in each apartment I rent and they were punctual. I once rented from a small business lady. A triplex. Critical things would break and all too often on a Friday when they were gone for the weekend. No more. I will stay renting in large apartment complexes.
Realtors Are Liars
Feel like getting ripped off today? Go talk to a Realtor.
Black Americans: The True Casualties of Amnesty
Democrats throw black voters under the bus.
One of the sleeper issues surrounding the debate on amnesty for illegal immigrants – an inconvenient one that no proponent of a widespread amnesty wishes to acknowledge – is the devastating effect so-called immigration reform will have on African Americans.
The black unemployment rate is almost 11 percent, far higher than that of any other group profiled by labor statistics. African Americans are disproportionately employed in lower-skilled jobs – the very same jobs immigrants take. As Steven Camarota asked in a recent column, why double immigration when so many people already aren’t working?
Who will be harmed most by amnesty? African-Americans.
The issue resurfaced this week when a YouTube video emerged of two young African-Americans confronting pro-illegal-immigration demonstrators in Murrieta, California. Murrieta is one of the towns in which undocumented minors are being relocated — and supporters are squaring off with protestors.
The young man argues:
If somebody brought six children to your house and you ain’t got no job, are you gonna take them in?… What are you gonna do? Are you gonna try to go out there and take care of these children AND the children you got already that you can’t take care of?… What are we going to do for the people who are here who are starving already?… We got our OWN people that are starving and hungry…. Why would we add to the problem?!
Democrats have built a brand as the party willing to stand up for black Americans, but the amnesty push shows what a false promise that was. The message to black voters is: “Yes, your ancestors endured unimaginable hardships and helped build this country, and we said we’d help you out. But now we have a new trophy wife.”
http://m.nationalreview.com/article/382338/black-americans-true-casualties-amnesty-j-delgado
And I still don’t understand why the unions would be for amnesty. Dems like it because of demographics (super majority forever?)
“We got our OWN people that are starving and hungry….”
Well, that is a little over the top.
Have you seen pictures or video of those female “immigrants” coming across the border. They are all huge whales. They are surely not starving. Compare these people to Americans in those old Depression-era photos; that is what real poor people looked like.
You do know that a great many Depression-area photos were staged, do you not?
That infamous one with the lady and her to filthy children was staged. The photographer even admitted it.
What this country needs to see again is bread lines. Hiding the problems with SNAP cards give a false sense of reality, and lessens pressure on Washington to do what is right.
Cracker Bob’s claim is that poor people in Depression-era photographs looked thin. Do you think that that thinness was staged somehow?
They didn’t need to stage it, Mike. They used the 1930’s version of photoshop, of course.
The real problem with bread lines and soup kitchens is that the US has one of the most robust food distribution systems (nearly 100% private sector) in the world. Bread lines and soup kitchens require that the government duplicate a version of that system that will distribute less food but have to cover nearly the same geographic area. In other words, it will be a horribly inefficient system sitting right next to a very efficient one. How much money are you willing to waste to embarrass poor people?
“How much money are you willing to waste to embarrass poor people?”
He clearly hasn’t thought things through; his knee was jerking too quickly (methinks he jerks a lot of things). Perhaps we can just require every grocery checker to get on the PA system when a SNAP’er comes through their line, and announce something like “leaching illegal alien scum living large on third hand clothing and other luxuries checking out on register 5!”
Have you seen pictures or video of those female “immigrants” coming across the border. They are all huge whales.
That’s what a subsistence diet of Monsanto’s NAFTA corn does to you.
All the major demographics that voted overwhelmingly for Obama (against appalling GOP alternatives like McCain and Romney, to be fair) are getting screwed royally by his policies, dictated by and for the .01%, yet they’d mindlessly vote for him if he ran again. I have no sympathy.
Mindlessly vote for him again….
Perhaps the mindset is “better the enemy you know”.
“better the enemy you know”
They really didn’t know this enemy. This enemy is hitting them with the cloward-piven strategy and following rules dedicated to Lucifer.
On the contrary, they know him very well.
We would be worse off with the “viable” alternatives.
All the major demographics that voted overwhelmingly for Obama (against appalling GOP alternatives like McCain and Romney, to be fair) are getting screwed royally by his policies, dictated by and for the .01%, yet they’d mindlessly vote for him if he ran again. I have no sympathy.
Life for the bottom half for low-income people is generally worse under Republicans.
“The low-end consumer has not benefited in this recovery at all. In fact, I think they’ve slipped back,” said Levine, citing cuts to government benefits, volatile fuel prices and high unemployment among low-wage workers.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/10/5035319/profits-drop-at-family-dollar.html
“volatile” = ever-higher
Changing face of New York real estate
NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) -
New York City has never been known for its affordability, but a new crop of mega-luxury buildings in Manhattan are redefining sky-high prices. One 57 is the 1,000-foot high building looming over Central Park where an apartment has closed for as much as $90 million.
Jonathan Miller appraises the units at One 57. He said if you were to walk by at night the skyscraper would be largely dark because a majority of the units’ owners are international and don’t live here. They are using the apartments strictly as investments.
The new mega-luxury developments are part of the changing face of New York City real estate, said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU’s Wagner School.
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/25981714/changing-face-of-new-york-real-estate
$90,000,000 for one apt? What a screwed up world we’re living in.
Strange in an environment of cratering demand and falling rental rates.
Oh Boy Subprime landlord bonds! I’m loading up.
Cerberus, Blackstone loosen credit to landlords
NEW YORK — US property owners with just one rental house can now get cash from Wall Street to buy more.
Cerberus Capital Management, which initially targeted landlords with multimillion-dollar loans, is financing low-volume deals for small investors through its FirstKey Lending, with looser terms than for government-backed mortgages from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Randy Reiff, the business’s chief officer. Blackstone Group’s rental lending arm, B2R Finance, is making a similar push to mom-and-pop landlords.
Cerberus and Blackstone, along with Colony Capital, also are racing to package debt on homes managed by separate landlords for the first multiborrower bond sale.
This will end well…
I don’t see where it mentions subprime? It just looks like they’ll lend to someone who owns 10 properties rather than only dealing with people who own dozens or who own big multifam places.
I might actually look into this just to see what the terms are (not actually interested in borrowing). It’s actually a PITA to get financing for rental properties, which just reinforces my view that going all-cash and buying very simple places is best in the long run.
“I don’t see where it mentions subprime?”
looser terms than for government-backed mortgages from Fannie Mae and Freddie = subprime
Not necessarily.
It has typically been more difficult for a financially strong LL with good credit and high income to get a mortgage on a rental than for a 30k/yr tenuously-employed person to buy a house.
That said, I think LL’s should avoid borrowing unless they’re doing RE full-time and can really run it like a business with everything that implies. I think most of us are better sticking it out with cash because that provides the motivation to run a tight ship, find the best deals, and screen really hard before picking tenants.
What we really need to do is get rid of the 3% down BS and stop letting people take mortgages that are >2.5x annual income. I’m a lot less worried about LL’s with multiple millions in the bank getting 4% mortgages instead of 5% or being able to put 10 or 20% down instead of the higher %s they put down now.
Here’s an example. Why would I get into bed with Goldman or Blackstone to borrow money on an expensive rental when I can (and did) get this one for $80k, put in roughly 10k of work, installed new landscaping, and now rent it out for $1850/month? It’s not that hard to find good rental properties for under 100k if you’re willing to suck up to realtors and dumpster-dive a little in terms of ugly houses that can be fixed up.
http://www.picpaste.com/07e424981aad80a46f44d35ac280809f.jpg
I even left the original windows and doors, which air pretty ugly.
Wrong Liberace. They’re not $80k and require far more to make it livable.
I give u an inch and u take a mile.
Here you go, RAL, a bunch of current listings —
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/346-Gusryan-St-21224/home/10337146
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/361-Gusryan-St-21224/home/10337209
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/6821-Gough-St-21224/home/10337980
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/6904-Eastbrook-Ave-21224/home/10337827
I could do this all day, brother. But I probably won’t bc it doesn’t matter that much to me if you deny my ability to get ugly but sturdy houses @ $50/sq ft.
more more more
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/1211-Delbert-Ave-21222/home/10324059
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/6821-Gough-St-21224/home/10337980
http://www.redfin.com/MD/Baltimore/6712-Gary-Ave-21222/home/10324268
(Don’t worry, I’m not wasting time searching these out, I’m just pulling them of my redfin watch list.)
And not a single one of them cashflows positive. I caught you lying about this a month ago. Smarten up.
??? You’re crazy, RAL.
Most (if not all) of those houses will end up selling for under 80k. The ones I’ve offered on, I’ve offered at 50-60k.
“Cash flow positive”… uhhh, of course they cash flow positive when you buy with cash. Why take a mortgage on a 50k rental house?
As far as the rate of return, that is where we can have a debate. Keep in mind, you have to factor in the effect of depreciation to offset taxes, etc.
Wrong again Liberace. They’re cash flow negative.
They’re cash flow negative.
You mean you would have to PAY someone to live there???
Can you use these subprime landlord bond proceeds to invest in rental apartments in China? Because I’ve heard they have lots and lots of apartments up for sale over there.
I wonder how long QE will stay undone once it ends? I can see the stock market tanking and then they fire up the printing press again after retail investors are flushed from their positions.
Is it really helping the economy to favor people who own stocks over people who work for a living?
“Is it really helping the economy to favor people who own stocks over people who work for a living?”
Since the real economy is represented by the financial end rather than the production end then the answer to your question is “yes”.
If you are interested in helping those people who work for a living then you need go to those countries where jobs have been shipped.
“If you are interested in helping those people who work for a living then you need go to those countries where jobs have been shipped.”
+1
Else, work for the government and suck the lifeblood from productive individuals, much like leeches do.
Our society has no interest in economic growth. Those in power and older generations in general are interested in wealth preservation and wealth redistribution.
Zero percent interest rates are just one example of this societal mindset. It’s all about consumption and avoidance of productive work. All of the time.
Washington, DC, which produces very little wealth, is the wealthiest metropolitan area in the entire country. See a disconnect here?
How many more times do I have to say these things?
“How many more times do I have to say these things?”
What you should be saying is selfish hoarders should be spending instead of selfishly hoarding.
Well, Washington DC residents have proven to be the most selfish of all.
All that wealth floating around the District…yet still expecting others to pay.
Got paperclips?
The difference between my selfish hoarding and that of Washington D.C. is this. I do not adversely affect others. I create wealth and store more of my profits than most people to keep myself from being a burden to my family. Washington D.C. does NOT create wealth but steals it from people like you and me. Washington D.C. adversely affects you and me by initiating force.
Washington does not operate at a net profit.
Therefore, in order to flourish (expand, even), it must lie.
As its size grows, it must tell bigger lies more often.
And this is why it’s filled with lawyers. Lawyers decide which lies are lawful and which are not.
Ethics and morals? What are those?
Government has neither ethics nor morals. And we will have government largesse until the sheople finally wake up and realize government always takes away from life instead of enhances life.
until the sheople finally wake up and realize government always takes away from life instead of enhances life.
Why would they? Government gives folks a “legitimate” (note that I don’t agree it actually is) means of taking from others and re-distributing to themselves.
“Economic growth” is part of the problem.
That term is a big weasel word. It implies that “growth” is always good and it’s nasty underside is the implication that quantity > quality.
Both parties are foolish about slavish devotion to what the masses believe about “growth”. Most of the advances over the past 50 or so years are about doing more with less, doing it more efficiently, and standardization/higher quality. The exceptions that I can think still really aren’t growth, they’re discoveries that can’t easily be quantified.
We _can_ have explosive growth in terms of jobs, but they’ll be poorly paid jobs, the type we’ve been sending to China or the Walmart economy. The reality is that in every advanced country, hours worked per year have been decreasing since WW2. This has happened less in the US than other places. This is bc productivity is increasing and bc raw labor is dirt cheap elsewhere. When you factor in nasty externalities of producing cheap consumer goods (air and water pollution, toxic metals, huge amounts of trash) few people would actually want to see the US produce these things. The future is in high end services and products. Anyone who wants to compete with China or India to produce random consumer goods is being ridiculous. Let them have the junk jobs.
You say these things because your own livelihood doesn’t depend on growth.
Yours depends on your ability to siphon wealth. To redistribute it. To steal it. That’s what lawyers do. It’s how they get ahead. They take the fruit of other people’s production.
its not it’s
Leech.
And liar.
I work for clients who build big engines, run power grids, share Demand Response power systems, need to license their registered FIFRA products to generic companies, or who want to use biosolids on their farms.
Where do you get idea I’m a leech? There are good reasons there are laws concerning these things and there are good reasons that managers don’t handle these things themselves, mostly related to economies of scale and the varying talents of individuals. No big corporation does its own legal work. Not even private equity/investment banks that are run by trained lawyers like the guy you voted for President last time. The smart money hires firms because good lawyers limit risks and cut red tape. Sorry your ambulance-chaser mental image prevents you from seeing that there’s a difference between deadweight and putting in place a good deal that limits risks and complies (or evades) the law.
Leech? Yeah probably. Horrible bull$hit artist for certain.
Both parties are foolish about slavish devotion to what the masses believe about “growth”.
The best part is that government spending is part of what we’re measuring “growth” in (GDP). So they can tout growth by simply borrowing(or printing) and spending more money!
A lot of traditional conservatives/classical liberal economists have debunked the idea that Growth should be the lodestar for our economy. Look at economies where there _are_ jobs in good supply across all sorts of education and skill levels. Look at Germany, Scandinavia, and some of the former communist Eastern Euro countries (Poland, Czech Republic, for example). These are not places that are obsessed with “growth” at all, but with a working, thriving capitalist private sector with some underpinnings of a safety net and good governance.
Then look at the US, where the corporatist overlords have imported (indirectly) more than 10 million immigrants to serve as cheap labor, over just a 20 year period. Look at us with our ethos of spending tons of money on prescription drugs for Medicare recipients and trillions for the military, but doing as little as possible to create a system where we actually value the future generations of our country.
“Growth” (there’s a reason idiots can’t define it more specifically than that… just “growth”) is for brainwashed monkeys who were well trained by the overlords.
I give it two years before the economy slips back into recession and the Fed introduces QE3.1.
“Is it really helping the economy to favor people who own stocks over people who work for a living?”
Pumping tens of billions of dollars a month into making the Ownership Society members richer than Croesus would be bad enough in itself. Add higher taxes on worker incomes and porous borders and you have a perfect recipe to further destroy the Middle Class and push the US ever closer to third-world status.
What’s the harm in printing up some cash and keeping a bit for your and your friends? It’s almost criminal NOT to
40-somethings “too old to get a mortgage” in the UK market. Hmm. With Millennials too broke, indebted, and underemployed in the Obama economy to ever dream of buying a house, and Boomers downsizing, who exactly, besides Chinese embezzlers and Blackstone, is going to be buying houses at these bubble prices?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/10959516/Forty-somethings-too-old-to-get-a-mortgage.html
How about this for an answer: No one!
The government will seize houses and give them away. For free.
Wasn’t there a poster here maybe a month ago who talked about single family houses being built by government “investors” in the Orlando area that are being designed as residences for multi-families?
Barracks for the DNC’s free shit army, more like.
“…Chinese embezzlers and Blackstone…”
U.S. housing seems to be riding high on the investing activities of these two groups, plus US citizens who are willing and able to qualify for a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, USDA or other federally guaranteed mortgage.
Why would you ever need anyone else to buy?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2014/jul/11/eurozone-crisis-markets-jittery-on-portugal-fears
Shareholders finally pushing back against Plutocrats’ outrageous compensation demands.
Yessiree…… WBBR roundtable stated this morning “the current slowdown is a resumption of the 2008 decline. Its the same recession.”
Same mania. Same fallout of same mania. Buckle up and hang on because you’re in for some g-forces.
Buy a house today and your losses will be incalculable.
Hey, Albuquerque Dan, this article is for you:
Eleven examples that suggest China is anything but healthy:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-10/11-disturbing-charts-about-chinese-economy
Not to worry…help is on the way!
In order to avoid responsibility for an ugly crash of the bubble, it is necessary to keep on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING it!
China’s Stocks Rise on Signs of Loosening Property Restrictions
By Bloomberg News
Jul 11, 2014 12:57 AM PT
China’s stocks rose, paring the benchmark index’s losses for the week, on speculation local governments are loosening property curbs to prevent economic growth from slowing further.
China Vanke Co. (000002) and Poly Real Estate Group Co., the nation’s two biggest developers, climbed at least 1.4 percent after Xinhua News Agency reported that Jinan has become the latest city to scrap home purchase limits. Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co. (600418) led gains for automakers after the company said it will purchase all the assets of its parent. China Shipping Container Lines Co. and China Shipping Network Technology Co. rallied at least 9.8 percent after agreeing to build an e-commerce logistics platform with Alibaba China Technology Co.
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) advanced 0.4 percent to 2,046.96 at the close. While recent data such as manufacturing show the economy is stabilizing, strategists from Bank of America Corp. and Bocom International Holdings Co. say a decline in property prices continue to pose a risk to growth.
“Relaxing restrictions on property purchasing, reintroducing discount mortgages or even further monetary easing are likely, given the importance of the property sector in the economy and its multiplier effects,” Hao Hong, the chief China strategist at Bocom, wrote in a note today. “No one is willing to be held responsible for an ugly crash of the bubble. This is one certainty amongst the many uncertainties that the market is facing.”
…
I do not have time to play today but in one word I can address all those charts “Alibaba”. China is moving away from a heavy industry economy to a high tech economy. It is making a deliberate effort to close low margin steel plants and other heavy industries. Hence, the coal and iron ore charts. As whac’s article shows its stock market moves with the high tech companies not the steel companies these days. Finally, yes a few cities maybe lifting the restrictions on buying houses but the government is not buying houses, while it may be perfectly happy for some fool to buy two or three houses, it will be that private party that will take the loss. Come August Alibaba will have a value well north of 100 billion dollars you have to sell a lot of steel to make that kind of money. They are on to our game and beginning to play it better than us.
High tech and banks sound familiar and they are doing it better than the U.S., there banks made sure people put down forty or fifty cents on their concrete shacks, hence their profits:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/29/us-banks-rankings-china-idUSKBN0F411520140629
there=their, too much of a hurry but glad it posted so quickly.
cents=percent, no more quick posts
“Hence, the coal and iron ore charts.”
Hence:
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_3.htm
Rats! Yesterday I went all in on buying CYNK and this morning it has been announced that trading has been halted.
http://www.businessinsider.com/cynk-halted-for-trade-july-11-2014-7
Did the asleep-at-the-switch SEC finally rouse itself from it’s see-no-evil coma to halt this blatant fraud? I doubt it.
Here’s a question for anybody who knows the answer:
If somebody has shorted a stock and trading has been halted how does this affect his position? Can he somehow get out of his position?
If not then I suggest the guy who is short is screwed because (as I understand it) the guy had to borrow the stock from the broker in order to short sell it short, and because he borrowed it he has to pay interest to the broker just as if it was money he borrowed instead of stock.
But if it was money he borrowed he could easily pay back the broker and even up his position since money is money, but because it is stock he borrowed then he could only even up his position by returning to the broker the same stock that he borrowed.
But if this stock was not available for him to buy because trading was halted then there is no way for him to pay back the broker. And from what I understand the interest rate that is being charged for borrowing CYNK is an annual rate of something like 120 percent.
If the broker collects from a short seller at a 120 percent interest rate then it would be greatly in interest of the broker that the short position is never closed out.
Ha ha, if it is worked right maybe the broker could collect interest from the short seller for … for forever.
From yesterday:
RAL (yesterday)
Define “cheap to build” Liberace.
——————
For the purposes of that discussion, the only thing that matters: Buyers in nearly every market in the country would be able to get a new or nearly new house for the same or better price than they’d pay for some Boomer house built in 1982.
I believe what “Rental Watch” (who is most likely a realtor) was trying to get us to say was, oh wow, all those ‘07 foreclosure people will be out in force to buy, that will drive up housing prices. And I think we both obviously disagree with that. There aren’t going to be enough buyers to soak up all the Boomer houses over the next 20 years. Lots of them will sit underutilized and eventually deteriorate to the point where they add to community blight.
Fair enough Lib. Lets be clear though. Lot labor, materials and profit $55/sq ft irrespective of location… and yes… R, Fraud is a liar.
No, I’m not a realtor.
And I was trying to get people to think about the dynamics in the market, which yes, includes a lot of people who simply cannot participate due to the 7-year wait after foreclosure. If the number of foreclosures was 100k, then it’s not worth discussing. However, the number of foreclosures was a multiple of a single year of new for-sale home construction.
My question was whether it will matter.
Clearly you don’t think it will.
I think it will add some additional demand. The questions are “How much?” and “will it do anything to the market?”
The Boomer discussion is so early as to be laughable.
Anything to avoid the truth right R. Fraud?
The Boomer exit began in 1999 and is in full swing.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-06-20/boomer-housing-bust-ain-t-happening-yet
‘I was trying to get people to think about the dynamics in the market’
Yeah, saying stuff like foreclosures don’t reduce prices. That tells me all I need to know.
Oh no, I’ve never said foreclosures don’t reduce prices–I’d like to see where I did. Quite the contrary.
Foreclosures create non-standard buyers, and a market dynamic that drove prices down for several years.
Ask any “flipper” from foreclosure auctions and they’ll tell you that they don’t base what they’ll pay for a home on an assumption that they’ll sell at the same level as the existing comps. They expect to undercut the comps because they are built for speed (expensive money that they need to “turn” several times per year–they want to sell as quickly as they can and don’t want to be tripped up by things like competition, or uncooperative appraisers).
So, if you have a high enough proportion of sales that are actually resales of foreclosures, you end up having these second foreclosure sales showing up as comps (because they are “market”, although differently motivated sellers), which then affects what the next guy at a foreclosure auction will pay, and the market as a whole. A significant negative feedback loop.
This dynamic can serve to push prices below where they should based on rental value–and it did.
Only when foreclosures slowed did prices reverse.
Why did you think I was looking at non-current loan rate trends as a predictor for the housing market? Because I think foreclosures had no impact on the market?
And (as an add-on to a longer post I just submitted), you’ll find me several times warning against people who think places like FL or NJ/NY or IL are safe.
Those places have a huge amount of distress that is not being processed. If they ever speed up that process, the foreclosures actually hitting the market will have a negative impact on pricing.
You’ll see me saying things like that MANY times over the years.
Here ya go:
‘The operable word is “empty”. Full foreclosures don’t add supply to the market as they move through the system (people lose the house, and people need to move somewhere).’
This is just baloney. Foreclosures sell at a big discount. That drags down prices and more people walk away.
So if these foreclosures are gone, why not make banks go back to the old accounting standards for foreclosures? Why all the homeowner bill of rights laws? Why do I hear HARP/HAMP ads every time I turn on the radio? Why is the Fed still buying MBS’s? Why are the GSE’s still around? Why does my desk clearing list fill up with shadow inventory articles? Why are there squatters all over the country?
Pretty soon, you’ll be saying, ‘foreclosures are up, but it’s from a low base.’ Then, ‘the market might fall in (fill in the blank) but it will never fall here.’ Then, it’ll be “Mommy, make it stop!’
Yeah you said slot of stuff over the years.Mostly lies and falsehoods.
So, stating that full foreclosures don’t add supply to the market as they work through the system is now equivalent to saying that foreclosures don’t affect market prices?
There are two types of supply:
1. How many homes are listed on the market relative to the people in the market to buy a home that day;
2. How many homes exist in the market relative to the number of people who live in that market.
They are different measures of supply.
#1 is a short term measure that brokers care about. #2 is what I care about as someone looking at the potential need for new housing in a market.
I’m looking at this from a big picture perspective related to homebuilding…whenever I speak of supply, I’m thinking about how many physical homes are in a market relative to the population. In that regard, VACANT homes being held off the market matter (like the huge number of vacant homes in Vegas–why I thought that’s where you might be moving). FULL homes do not–if someone is displaced due to a foreclosure, they need to find another place to live–causing no real effect on the supply/demand balance of the market.
If there are lots of empty homes that are held off the market because of a long foreclosure process, it masks the true amount of supply (my measure #2), putting land investments and homebuilding projects in those market at risk. However, if all of the homes that are being foreclosed are full, then while a large volume of foreclosure occurring will push down the market due to my dynamic noted above, that dynamic is transitory–once the foreclosures are done, supply/demand takes over again (with the second measure of supply being important).
Again, this is why we focused on land investments in CA–this second measure of supply vs. demand is way out of balance here (too many people, too few homes)…while foreclosures pushed down pricing, it was a temporary effect. Once the non-current loan rate fell, foreclosures dried up, and prices moved back up.
Let’s be clear:
1. Lots of foreclosures running through the system, even if the market vacancy is low (few zombie foreclosures) will impact pricing. But, that affect will be temporary given the inherent supply/demand balance if there are few empty housing units.
2. Few foreclosures running through the system (because they are being held up in a process), but lots of those foreclosures being empty, won’t affect the market in the near term–because not enough of them are selling to create the negative feedback loop I note. BUT when the empty homes do come to market, it’s like adding more homes to the market…adding new supply without a displaced a family that needs to find a place to live. That increases the practical vacancy rate in the market, which is a negative for pricing.
Last point.
You have 2 markets:
Market A:
Total of 1,000 homes, and 975 families occupying them, but 20% of the homes are set to be foreclosed on over the next 24 months. Of those 200 to be foreclosed homes, the same proportion are empty as the overall population.
Market B:
Total of 1,000 homes, and 900 families occupying them, but 20% of the homes are set to be foreclosed on over the next 60 months. Of those 200 foreclosed homes, 75 are empty and effectively taken off the market for those 5 years they are in limbo.
What market is more interesting to you?
I like Market A: While the significant number of foreclosures over a relatively short period of time will push prices down, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the market from an overall supply/demand standpoint.
Market B may have the appearance of things being OK since so many homes are empty that are off the market, but once they come through, you will have a 10% vacant market–which is a lot of vacancy.
You’re blathering again R._Fraud.
25 million excess, empty and defaulted houses, 4.4 million of which are in California is the data point.
Start there and please spare us the blather.
Your “data point” is completely made up.
I’ll ask again. What is your source?
No. It’s reality. You just don’t like it because it doesn’t line up with your wallet or your narrative.
Proceed.
Teabilly congressman who supports abstinence-only sex ed just announced his 17 yr old daughter is going to give birth next month.
You can’t make this stuff up.
—————————————–
WASHINGTON — The Bill Cassidy Senate campaign announced Thursday that the candidate’s unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant as she prepares for her senior year at a Baton Rouge high school.
Cassidy, a Republican congressman from Baton Rouge, said in a statement provided NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune that his daughter faces “a more challenging future” and that she has his and his wife Laura’s unconditional support. The baby is expected later this summer.
Much like Sarah Palin, who announced that her own unmarried 17-year-old daughter was expecting just before she addressed the Republican National Convention as John McCain’s surprise 2008 vice presidential selection, the Cassidy campaign chose to pre-emptively disclose the information about their daughter’s pregnancy.
The Cassidy campaign didn’t provide additional information.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/07/bill_cassidy_senate_campaign_r.html
http://maplight.org/us-congress/bill/113-hr-718/1117041/history
j-j-j-joe here’s a repost from earlier this week you may have missed. WT teabilles modify their trucks to make them spew black smoke at Prius drivers:
http://www.businessinsider.com/conservatives-purposely-making-cars-spew-black-smoke-2014-7
And for the rugged individualist, American exceptionalists, a pic I took yesterday of the largest flag I have seen in recent memory. This thing had to be at least 50 feet long, it is billowing across three lanes of traffic:
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140710_125326_216-Kbjtbf4W.jpg
I bet those pickup truck customizations will be a hit in certain markets. They should only be allowed to put those on diesels, though. (But even today’s diesels are clean compared to those of yesteryear.) What will these pick up drivers do to normal hybrids like a hybrid Ford Escape? Do they actually get mad that people think about fuel costs when purchasing a car?
I see clown car SUV drivers getting MAF every day that they’re traffic gridlocked and I go zooming by. It’s one of those tiny little pleasures of life.
As for the flag, clearly (Japanese) car dealerships are going for the Ft. McHenry in summer of 1812 look. That flag stands as a beacon of independence for sure. Independence that dies a little each time some sucker signs up for 6 yrs of payments on a rapidly depreciating SUV.
“a pic I took yesterday of the largest flag I have seen in recent memory”
I love the fact that the only thing in sight besides that flag is a Nissan dealership.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/07/11/how-foreign-chinese-buyers-impact-us-home-prices-and-what-the-devalued-dollar-has-to-do-with-it/
There’s magic in the housing market. Especially at the upper end, and especially in California’s coastal areas, such as San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where prices have become ludicrous.
We already understand that the median price of single family homes has been pushed up by private equity firms, REITS, and other institutional investors in the US that have within the last couple of years scooped up 386,000 vacant homes across the country specifically in order to drive up prices, and secondarily to rent them out.
According to my source at one of the GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprise), they did it by constantly laddering their purchases in certain markets. In Las Vegas, for example, they achieved price increases of 100%. These price increases on 386,000 homes impacted the prices of 23 million homes via the “multiplier effect” [for more on this, read... How Wall Street Manipulates The Buy-to-Rent Housing Racket].
“According to my source at one of the GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprise), they did it by constantly laddering their purchases in certain markets.”
Let me get this straight: The zombie agencies which were forcibly rescued by U.S. tax payers have used the proceeds of their bailouts to push up home prices to levels which U.S. families can’t afford?
Despicable…
And they singlehandedly collapsed demand by doing so.
They helped? They harmed.
What is the opposite of multiplication?
Are your stock market investments suffering due to Europe worries, Middle East worries or China worries?
Europe Stocks Little Changed, Head for Weekly Plunge
By Jonathan Morgan Jul 11, 2014 6:10 AM PT
European stocks were little changed, after a five-day slump, amid increased takeover activity and as investors bet the financial troubles of Banco Espirito Santo SA won’t spiral into an euro-area banking crisis.
…
Israel Stocks Sink to 4-Month Low as Military Strikes Gaza Strip
By Yaacov Benmeleh and Shoshanna Solomon
Jul 8, 2014 8:28 AM PT
Israeli shares sank to the lowest level in almost two months as the country’s military struck 50 targets by air and sea in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip following overnight rocket attacks.
The benchmark TA-25 Index (TA-25) declined 1 percent to 1,366.02 at the close in Tel Aviv, the lowest level since March 9. Israeli troops have amassed along the Gaza border and the cabinet approved the call-up of 40,000 reservists for a possible ground operation following a barrage of Palestinian rocket fire into its territory.
“There is a lot of uncertainty in the market and people don’t know if the events will escalate in the next coming days,” Yaniv Pagot, the chief strategist at Ramat Gan, Israel-based Ayalon Group Ltd., said by telephone today. “If the escalation continues then there are concerns of a hit to the economy, as reservists won’t come to their office jobs and the local tourist industry will suffer.”
…
According to Keynesian shill Paul Krugman, wars are bullish for economies. All the reconstruction and all.
Broken window economics is great for giving academics something to blather about.
China Stocks Drop Most in 3 Weeks on ‘New Economy’ Share Losses
By Bloomberg News
Jul 9, 2014 12:48 AM PT
China’s stocks fell the most in almost three weeks, as technology and health-care companies slumped amid concern earnings growth will disappoint investors.
…
Plosser is a clueless moron.
And strange they wheel out a “commentary” by Swonk immediately after to cement Plossers clueless yammering.
Wake up people.
fraud
you’re enraged.
WFM is on my watch list. It’s 40% lower than its 52 week high but the general market will take it down lower. That’s where I go for my produce. Not eager to get into stocks that are not precious metals though.
It’s $37.78 and I’m going to put an order in at $32
“Gold is the only financial asset that is not someone else’s liability” - Doug Casey.
How about silver and PGMs?
Rare violins
Art
Vintage autos
The list goes on…
How did your Treasury bond holdings do this week?
July 11, 2014, 10:38 a.m. EDT
Benchmark Treasurys set for best week since March
By Ben Eisen, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices inched higher Friday, putting benchmark government debt on track for its best week in four months.
The 10-year Treasury note (10_YEAR -0.59%) yield, which falls as prices rise, was down 1 basis point at 2.523%, according to Tradeweb. The yield is set to fall for its fifth consecutive session, marking a 10 basis point weekly drop. That’s the biggest fall since mid-March, according to FactSet.
Treasury prices continued to drift higher Friday morning, despite an easing of fears related to Portugal’s largest bank, Banco Espirito Santo, which had sent global tremors through markets on Thursday.
The rise was attributed in part to reports of large overnight buyers out of Asia, geopolitical conflict, and expectations that the Federal Reserve would continue to keep its key lending rates low, strategists said.
Data showed that primary dealers sold $29.5 billion of Treasurys in the week ended last Wednesday, matching the largest selling on record, according to CRT Capital Group.
The 30-year bond (30_YEAR -0.68%) yield fell 1.5 basis points to 3.349% and the 5-year note (5_YEAR -0.18%) yield was unchanged at 1.650%.
…
I haven’t yet seen this suggested in the MSM, but is it possible that ending QE3 will actually be bad for stocks and good for flight-to-quality investments (gold and Treasury bonds), due to the reversal of reckless gambling that QE3 encouraged?
No, nothing can be bad for stocks except for pessimism. You need to change your attitude before you ruin it for the rich people, whack.
The next ten years should be great ones for dollar cost averaging your way into stocks!
July 11, 2014, 1:14 p.m. EDT
U.S. stocks will be ‘very disappointing’ for 10 years
Opinion: Equities have been overvalued for some time, six gauges show
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
U.S. stocks are overvalued — and have been for months. That is what six well-known measures of valuation show.
While that doesn’t mean a bear market is imminent, there is a high probability that investment returns over the next decade will be below average, according to Yale University economics professor and Nobel laureate Robert Shiller.
Investors shouldn’t expect that what has worked for them over the past five years will continue to work in the future.
One way to gauge the market’s valuation is to compare it to past bull-market peaks. There have been 35 since 1900, according to Ned Davis Research, a quantitative-research firm.
…
crater
That sounds about right.
ft dot com
July 11, 2014 1:43 pm
Wells Fargo shows mortgage market strains
By Camilla Hall in New York
The Wells Fargo corporate headquarters stands in San Francisco, California©Bloomberg
Wells Fargo broke a streak of record profits over nearly four years to report net income of $5.7bn in the second quarter, as mortgage lending slowed at the bank which is seen as a bellwether for the US housing market.
…
Mortgage banking fees were $1.7bn, down 39 per cent from a year ago while originations were at $47bn, down 58 per cent from the same period of 2013.
…it was harder for the bank to make money on mortgages. The gain on sale margin – the profit on mortgages sold in the secondary market – fell in the second quarter. The measure was down 80 basis points from a year ago and down 20 basis points from the previous quarter.
…
so sad
Wells Fargo’s numbers were very bullish.
It’s the new normal
“Some of them have had gray hair and they’re telling you that they’re 17 years old and they have no documentation,”
Adult Illegal Immigrants Posing as Children To Enroll in High School
A Massachusetts city‘s packed school system is being forced to accept illegal-alien adults.
By Ryan Lovelace
JULY 11, 2014 12:39 PMAdult illegal immigrants posing as unaccompanied alien children appear to be attempting to enroll at public high schools, city officials in Lynn, Mass., tell National Review Online.
“Some of them have had gray hair and they’re telling you that they’re 17 years old and they have no documentation,” Jamie Cerulli, the Lynn mayor’s chief of staff, tells NRO. “If my children went to the public schools, I’d be very uncomfortable with all of these unaccompanied minors [that] are placed in the ninth grade.”
Admission of all foreign students — illegal immigrants, refugees, and foreign nationals — has increased by more than 500 students since the 2010–2011 school year, Catherine Latham, the city’s superintendent of schools, tells NRO. Last school year, nearly 250 students arrived from Guatemala, including 126 enrolled in the ninth grade.
The majority of unaccompanied Guatemalan children arriving in the city hail from the city of San Marcos, Latham says, and are drawn by Lynn’s large Guatemalan population.
NRO has obtained Department of Health and Human Services documents and images of two unaccompanied aliens living in Lynn that appear to challenge the notion that the age information listened for these “children” on their documents is accurate.
Isai, pictured above (his full name has been withheld), was released from an HHS shelter to a person identified as a “family friend,” living in Lynn, according to his “Verification of Release Form” from HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. According to the information provided on the form, HHS approved Isai’s release less than a month before the date of his 18th birthday.
Candelaria (full name also withheld), pictured above, was released from a shelter in El Paso, Texas, to her sister Amelia who lives in Lynn, according to her Verification of Release Form. Candelaria’s record also claims she was 17 years old at the time of her release.
Isai and Candelaria are enrolled in the ninth grade and are expected to arrive in class this fall, Latham confirmed to NRO. When potential age discrepancies arise, Latham says city officials visit the residences of the “minors” to attempt to verify the age of the individuals in question. On one occasion that she’s aware of, Latham says a relative at one such residence identified an illegal immigrant “child” as between the ages of 30 and 35.
The school system has turned away a handful of people who appeared too old, Latham says, but she’s suspicious of a quite a few other cases.
http://www.nationalreview.com/…mmigrants-posing-children-enroll-high-school-ryan-lovelace - 87k
Wait till Obama and the DNC’s NEA stalwarts get a load of their new fellow Democrats-for-Life. It’ll be priceless to see our “everyone’s a winner” public school indoctrinators - what these mediocrities are doing can’t be called education - reaction when it dawns on them that those public union pensions they were promised get gobbled up by the DNC’s ultimate masters, the Wall Street looting syndicate.
I was in the South of Spain for the last five days. I got a first hand look at the crashing real estate market in the Costa del Sol. There is absolutely nobody buying down there right now so I think it might be a buyer’s market for insiders. I met a fellow who said you could buy beachfront condos for 85000 Euros. That’s a steal compared to the 420000 you would have paid for the same thing in 05. I noticed the cheapest think I could find with my casual inspection was 135,000 Euros for the same thing so real estate offices are still looking for foreign losers with more money than brains.
I stand by my investment with DB. I presently own 190 shares so I’m not completely altruistic with this advice. If Germany wins the World Cup it will soar on Monday.
Any foreign “investor” who buys illiquid Spanish assets (i.e. real estate) is going to be a prime death-by-taxation target for that broke, corrupt Goldman Sachs satrapy.
Well real estate never goes to zero, and they’re not making any more ocean.
In Spain, you can lose your shirt on RE. Same as in Costa Rica, but for different reasons. In Costa Rica, the same property is sold multiple times, the last time to the dumb foreigner. It is profitable for the country to have sh*t for title laws. When the Costa Rican squatter - who the US dumb*ass tries to evict when they come down periodically - goes to what passes for the local “court”, the “court” invariably finds in favor of Jose. Tough luck, dumb*ss gringo.
Same thing in Spain. A foreigner never actually get a robust “title” to any property he buys. When the local yokel decides he wants to annex the property so that he can build onto his own and bring in Mama and Tia, the local “judge” finds in favor of the local. Same thing happens on a much wider scale. There doesn’t have to be a reason for property taking under their equivalent of eminent domain. Local “judge” gets paid off, local and next higher level “judges” acquire entire developments for the benefit of the local castellan.
Pretty much, look up the Corruption Index. The only foreign places you want to buy property are in Northern Europe (Spain does not qualify - I’m talking the cold countries: Scandinavia and Finland, Germany, France), the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
I’ve been following the title fights through the foreign papers - Guardian/whatever, Le Monde, Der Spiegel - for years. They write about it because their citizens are the ones who are getting ripped off.
I deduce that Americans, being the world’s patsys, are getting ripped off at the same rate. However, because it is not politically correct to call a spade a spade, we will never hear about it from the mainstream media, and none of the writers in the alternative media are wealthy enough to have experienced the ripoff either first or second hand.
The stupid and incredibly selfish Stephen Spielberg killed a dinosaur - just because he could!
Thousands of sensitive and truly caring people are outraged, and justifiably so!
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/07/11/steven-spielberg-killed-a-dinosaur-internet-explodes-with-rage
And our world is diminished tonight by the sad loss of a hedonistic plutocrat whose soulless “escort” OD’ed him aboard his yacht….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2686826/Did-kill-Call-girl-26-poisoned-client-heroin-wrote-online-love-killing-sprees-investigated-death.html?ito=video_player_click
It’s a natural consequence of the flood of Wall Street and VC monies flowing into fundamentally worthless companies like Googoo, Farcebook and Crumbs.com.
Correction, sir. That wasn’t Wall Street or VC money. It came straight off the Fed’s printing press, with the resultant debasement and malinvestment borne by savers, taxpayers, and future generations who will never get out from under those unpayable debts.
Didn’t it get loaned out by the Fed to investment banks and VC firms at near-zero percent interest rates before entering the fantasyland economy of Sillycon Valley?
“Some of them have had gray hair and they’re telling you that they’re 17 years old and they have no documentation,”
JULY 11, 2014 12:39 PM
Adult Illegal Immigrants Posing as Children To Enroll in High School
A Massachusetts city‘s packed school system is being forced to accept illegal-alien adults.
By Ryan Lovelace
Adult illegal immigrants posing as unaccompanied alien children appear to be attempting to enroll at public high schools, city officials in Lynn, Mass., tell National Review Online.
“Some of them have had gray hair and they’re telling you that they’re 17 years old and they have no documentation,” Jamie Cerulli, the Lynn mayor’s chief of staff, tells NRO. “If my children went to the public schools, I’d be very uncomfortable with all of these unaccompanied minors [that] are placed in the ninth grade.”
Admission of all foreign students — illegal immigrants, refugees, and foreign nationals — has increased by more than 500 students since the 2010–2011 school year, Catherine Latham, the city’s superintendent of schools, tells NRO. Last school year, nearly 250 students arrived from Guatemala, including 126 enrolled in the ninth grade.
The majority of unaccompanied Guatemalan children arriving in the city hail from the city of San Marcos, Latham says, and are drawn by Lynn’s large Guatemalan population.
NRO has obtained Department of Health and Human Services documents and images of two unaccompanied aliens living in Lynn that appear to challenge the notion that the age information listened for these “children” on their documents is accurate.
Isai, pictured above (his full name has been withheld), was released from an HHS shelter to a person identified as a “family friend,” living in Lynn, according to his “Verification of Release Form” from HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. According to the information provided on the form, HHS approved Isai’s release less than a month before the date of his 18th birthday.
Candelaria (full name also withheld), pictured above, was released from a shelter in El Paso, Texas, to her sister Amelia who lives in Lynn, according to her Verification of Release Form. Candelaria’s record also claims she was 17 years old at the time of her release.
Isai and Candelaria are enrolled in the ninth grade and are expected to arrive in class this fall, Latham confirmed to NRO. When potential age discrepancies arise, Latham says city officials visit the residences of the “minors” to attempt to verify the age of the individuals in question. On one occasion that she’s aware of, Latham says a relative at one such residence identified an illegal immigrant “child” as between the ages of 30 and 35.
The school system has turned away a handful of people who appeared too old, Latham says, but she’s suspicious of a quite a few other cases.
http://www.nationalreview.com/…mmigrants-posing-children-enroll-high-school-ryan-lovelace - 87k
DC offers down payment assistance to those making up to 123K in income. One of the candidates for Maryland governor is a real estate agent. The former head of the FHA is now the head of the Mortgage Bankers Association (David Stevens). The schemes these people come up with funnel tax money to the FIRE sector are truly becoming more and more inventive / absurd.
Help available for first-time homebuyers
Barry Glassman
WTOP Financial Contributor
While a saving for a down payment that could be in the tens-of-thousands may seem daunting, there are many ways to save, and you may need to be creative to meet your savings goal.
Save more: Consider cutting back on your everyday expenses. Decide what you can live without until you have enough saved.
Generate more income: Even if a second job is temporary to meet this goal, if it’s possible (and often isn’t), this will help you reach the goal sooner. Once you have enough saved, you can say so long to your second employer.
Sell something: Maybe you can do without a car (or second car) or have other valuables, like jewelry or collectibles that you can live without. [ed. note: Or a kidney, I hear those can fetch a pretty penny. I jest but desperate "house-mad" buyers just might consider it.]
Borrow it: You may be fortunate enough to have a relative or friend who is willing to lend you the money. [ed. note: If someone is house-mad enough, approaching friends and relatives to borrow large sums might start looking like a reasonable option.]
DC Open Doors: Provides down payment assistance to homeowners who may exceed the income levels of other assistance programs. Individuals earning up to $123,395/year are eligible
http://wtop.com/1226/3661053/Buying-a-first-home-Theres-more-help-than-you-think
If you want to know who your “representative” really represents, look at their campaign donors. Senator Bennet (D-Colorado), for example, appears to owe a debt of gratitude to a who’s who of Wall Street grifters. And he voted for TARP, out of kindness, I suppose.
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2014&cid=N00030608&type=I
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-10/london-seeks-new-spenders-as-russians-skip-719-champagne.html
Russian oligarchs cutting back on lavish expat lifestyles as sanctions bite. But what will prop up our bubbles??!
LMAO. CYNK introduces a hapless “investor” to the pitfalls of a rigged game.
http://finance.yahoo.com/mbview/threadview/?&bn=5b71ea27-3f5a-41e2-af74-bee207534dc0&tid=1405082963787-c5110c57-3174-4ad1-9f2f-19ac2f4a20d0&tls=la%2Cd%2C3%2C3
NYC oligarch (well protected by personal security detail) rails on Colorado voters for rejecting his gun-grab attempts:
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/07/10/former-nyc-mayor-michael-bloomberg-calls-colorado-a-rural-and-roadless-backwater-for-challenging-his-gun-control-agenda/
A new DNC voting pool! Resettle them in Detroit! All hail the DNC Supermajority!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-syria-crisis-refugees-idUSKBN0FG1BA20140711?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
As the bumper sticker says “Please God, Just One More Bubble”. In this case, a George Constanza do-the-opposite move might have some results too:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/economics/2156463-anyone-else-hoping-another-recession.html
The contrarian in me asks what is keeping things in play right now. Almost as if we might get suckered punch or “No one could see that one coming” event in the works economically.
BTW, dug up these lyrics. Used to think the song meant something else until I actually looked at them:
It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shopwindows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long-distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry
It was a dry wind
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth
And the dead sand
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long-distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in the corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry
It’s a turnaround jump shot
It’s everybody jumpstart
It’s every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
Medicine is magical and magical is art
Thinking of the Boy in the Bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle
Lasers in the jungle somewhere
Staccato signals of constant information
a loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires, and baby
These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long-distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry, don’t cry
How come only Democrats can manage to produce budget surpluses?
Sat, 12 Jul 2014 11:06 AM
California Budget Ends With Surplus
Sonora Regional Medical Center
State Controller John Chiang Photo Icon Enlarge
07/10/2014 1:45 pm PST
Sonora, CA — It’s been a rarity over the past decade, but California ended the past fiscal year with a surplus of revenue.
The new budget took effect on July 1st, and California still had nearly $2 billion unspent.
“This hasn’t happened since 2007,” says State Controller John Chiang. “If you remember back in 2009 I had to hold back tax refunds, and issue IOU’s, so that the state didn’t default on its debt. So, it’s nice not having to operate on borrowed money. We’re making progress.”
California still has billions of dollars in bond related debts and unfunded liabilities.
Oh…
US Records $71 Billion Budget Surplus in June
WASHINGTON — Jul 11, 2014, 2:28 PM ET
By JOSH BOAK AP Economics Writer
Associated Press
The U.S. government ran a monthly budget surplus in June, putting it on course to record the lowest annual deficit since 2008.
The Treasury Department said Friday that its June surplus totaled $71 billion, following a $130 billion deficit in May. The government also ran a surplus in June 2013, bolstered by dividends from Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant under federal conservatorship for the past six years.
…