Bits Bucket for July 12, 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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Sacramento, CA Housing Demand Craters 14% YoY; Plummets To Fresh 10 Year Low
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Sacramento-home-value/r_20288/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D8%26r%3D20288%26el%3D0
Poor Jingle Male!
Poor Jingle Male?
Sacramento values are up 19% YoY according to your source.
Rich Jingle Male? No, but I am comfortable and happy.
J._Fraud,
They could double and you’d still be underwater with no buyer in sight.
HA, HA funny. That’s why I get 3 or 4 letters every month asking if I want to sell! Lots of boyers around here.
Johnny_Fraud, When you lie one too many times and nobody will believe you, even when you’re telling the truth.
I have found that the people who brag about financial successes, especially online, typically don’t have a pot to piss in.
….nor a window to throw it out.
“I have found that the people who brag about financial successes, especially online, typically don’t have a pot to piss in.”
I see so none of the 1.8 million Americans with net worth above $2million all about their successes or post online.
If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.
Source: money.cnn.com March 2 2012
Bill In LA being one of very few exceptions that is.
Realtor Jailed for Inflating Real Estate Prices and Paying Kickbacks
http://mortgagefraudblog.com/real-estate-agent-jailed-for-inflating-real-estate-prices-and-paying-kickbacks/
“Realtor Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy”
http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/07/strongsville_realtor_sentenced.html
“Realtors Sentenced in $11 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme”
http://www.fbi.gov/kansascity/press-releases/2014/two-blue-springs-realtors-sentenced-in-11-million-mortgage-fraud-scheme
Buying a house at today’s overpriced asking prices is a pretty bad idea.
Realtor Sentenced To Prison For Tax Evasion And False Statements
http://pensacola.com/news/local-news/44591-realtor-sentenced-to-prison-for-tax-evasion-and-false-statements
“Realtor Steals $20 MM from CA Investors in Real Estate Ponzi Scheme”
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/135955-realtor-steals-20-mm-from-ca-investors-in-real-estate-ponzi-scheme
The whole real estate market (and every other Fed-blown asset bubble) is a Ponzi scheme. Can the prosecutor charge Bernanke and Yellen with being unindicted co-conspirators?
Top to bottom and east to west fraud.
My understanding is that the Fed operates with a level of discretion which is above the law.
So the answer to your question would be a decisive “no.”
I find Janet Yellen to be extremely creepy.
….and how do you find guillotine renovators?
Mexico & Guatemala Cut Deal to Allow More Illegal Immigrants to Flood Into US
BY STEVE STRAUB ON JULY 10, 2014
In a stunning development Mexican President Nieto and Guatemalan President Molina announce cooperation on getting Central American refugees through Mexico and into the US.
The Examiner reported:
On Monday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina held a joint press conference in Playas de Catazaja, Mexico, to officially announce an agreement to make it easier for those making the illegal journey to the United States from Central America, to cross into Mexico.
The Southern Border Program to Improve Passage, will provide for more border checkpoints along Mexico’s border with Guatemala, and offer more protection and even emergency medical care to those making their way north. The illegal aliens will receive a so-called Regional Visitor’s Card, according to El Universal.
Officially, the program will grant the cards to only illegal aliens from Guatemala and Belize, allowing them to remain in Mexico’s southern states for 72 hours (more than enough time to reach the U.S./Mexican border by train). While, those two countries share a border with Mexico, the program will undoubtedly benefit anyone who makes it to the border, which would explain why our Border Patrol stations are currently overflowing with illegal aliens from El Salvador and Honduras as well.
http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/…eal-to-allow-more-illegal-immigrants-to-flood-into-us - 801k -
Makes sense. A Democrat Supermajority will give Mexico and Central America a permanant overflow valve to get rid of their surplus population. The DNC gets an insurmountable votes-for-entitlements stranglehold on the political process. A win-win for the corrupt Dems as well as the equally corrupt governments to our south.
The NeoCon-Progressives are more than willing to sacrifice your freedom to get what they want.
It’s who they are.
Oligarchs for Open Borders is demanding (and will get) even more wage slaves to further pad their bottom lines. Rest assured they won’t be the ones dealing with the socioeconomic and public security consequences.
http://news.yahoo.com/buffet-gates-adelson-billionaires-prod-congress-immigration-reform-125537437.html
If we give them free benefits with no strings attached on arrival, they will come.
FEDS ASK CHURCHES TO HOUSE MIGRANT FAMILIES
DHS has asked Catholic churches in California to temporarily house and feed groups of Central American migrants until 2016
by NEIL MUNRO | DAILY CALLER | JULY 12, 2014
The Department of Homeland Security has asked Catholic churches in California to temporarily house and feed groups of Central American migrants until 2016, according to an official at the diocese of San Bernardino.
But any unpaid cooperation is legally questionable, because it may be intended to bypass Congress’ authority to fund — or to not fund — federal agencies’ new practice of distributing the flood of migrant families to homes across the country.
The department “has reached out to the diocese and the bishop, and asked us to shelter families in transition,” Maria Christina Mendez, at the Office of Hispanic Affairs, told The Daily Caller. The services would be needed for the next 18 months, “or longer,” she said.
In response, the diocese has offered to let family groups of migrants stay at its buildings for up to three days, while they are being relayed by federal immigration agencies to cities and towns where they want to live, she said.
Why should churches have to house them?
Isn’t there enough vacant government-owned, taxpayer-funded/bailed housing to put them all in?
Someone I know suggested the new immigrants should be housed in the backyards of DC politicians who support their entry to the US.
I agree. They also ought to house 5,000-10,000 in each federal department. For five years. At the cost of the federal employees. Deduct the costs out of their paychecks.
After they pay all income/state/local taxes, of course.
put 20 of them in the 5 bedroom 7 bath mCmansions..problem solved.
homes and stocks are the backbone of the american economy.
You’re underwater on that depreciating house.
fraud analyst
Yes we analyze for fraud too.
This paid message sponsored by the National Association of Realtors.
how much do u owe your bankruptcy attorney? Get to walmart and start stockn those shelves boy!
A Wal-Mart stock boy could probably get a jumbo loan in today’s Housing Bubble II.
Manufacturing and production of useful, wealth-generating things used to be the backbone of the economy (and basis for a vibrant middle class and upwardly-mobile opportunities. Now the casino economy has offshored our manufacturing base and built up an enormous debt and credit bubble to channel obscene profits to the .01%.
u got that right.
Why do I get the feeling banks are creating money out of nothing and then loaning it to consumers and making a boatload of money by collecting interest?
Because that’s exactly what the Fed is doing. Enriching the .01% while ass-raping savers, taxpayers, and ordinary consumers, i.e. the 99% and enabling its shyster Wall Street accomplices to loot what’s left of the productive economy.
I really feel like consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt and their paychecks are going to service the debt.
Bankers tank the economy then borrow for free due to printed money and then loan it to strapped consumers who were put out of work by the bankers greed.
^
You really are a poet. lol
“Bankers tank the economy then borrow for free due to printed money and then loan it to strapped consumers who were put out of work by the bankers greed.”
It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
This is called debt slavery and debt slavery is much superior to the old fashioned type of slavery in that the debt slave doesn’t need to be fed and cared for by the slave owner but nevertheless the slave owner will still end up owing everything that the debt slave works all his life to acquire.
“Bankers tank the economy then borrow for free due to printed money and then loan it to strapped consumers who were put out of work by the bankers greed.”
Whales gotta eat.
“I really feel like consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt and their paychecks are going to service the debt.”
Plankton dutifully feeds hungry whales.
Azdude,
“I really feel like consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt and their paychecks are going to service the debt.”
True, and perhaps more importantly, what being in debt does to the psyches and decision-making capabilities of those in debt.
There should be a sociological study on what having debt does to the average person. How many bad decisions are made because someone already is in debt. The pressures of having to service the debt….how does that screw up someone’s ability to think rationally?
All around me, every day, I see people making idiotic decisions, behave immorally, think short-term versus long-term. I wonder how many of our problems are created by too many people always stressing about how they are going to pay their bills.
People treat each other increasing poorly, people increasingly satisfied with sweeping problems under the rug. People increasingly showing little or no concern producing things of real value, and instead being satisfied with stealing the fruits of another’s labor.
“All around me, every day, I see people making idiotic decisions, behave immorally, think short-term versus long-term.”
My best customers are like that.
“… people increasingly satisfied with sweeping problems under the rug.”
Yep, that’s them.
“I really feel like consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt and their paychecks are going to service the debt.”
Of course you feel it, it’s you, Mr. Heloc for a meal.
I don’t know who really is in deep debt and who is not. I cannot tell from the car they drive. Myself, I am guilty of making the same irrational assumptions as the rest of you.
I observed however that when I worked in Los Angeles most people drive cars costing over $40,000. But in the OC in the $500k to $800k neighborhood I live in, modest cars are the rage. Why? I don’t know.
Stanley and Danko of “The Millionaire Next Door” fame claim most millionaires drive modest cars. They backed it with all sorts of studies and surveys.
It may be true that my Honda-driving neighbors have huge interest payments on houses. But I cannot make such an assumption to be honest.
In L.A. you are what you drive, I’ve been told. That always got my nerve, as I drove a Toyota and still do.
Still I cannot tell by how someone looks about their financial situation.
In my case I have a truckload of savings and no debt, but no one can tell from my appearance or from my car. That is the best way to keep your net worth, although it does not win me admiration from the nice looking women in California.
“admiration from the nice looking women in California.”
Get a cute dog.
“Why do I get the feeling banks are creating money out of nothing and then loaning it to consumers and making a boatload of money by collecting interest?”
Why do you that feeling? Because it is true, that’s why.
And here is how it is done:
Step 1: Tell them that they are smart. If you told them that they were dumb then they would stop listening to anything further you had to say.
Step 2: Tell them that because they are smart they should realize that it is in their best interest to sign dotted lines that you present before them which commits them to sending large chunks of their yet-to-be-earned money to you each and every month for many years to come.
They work, you reap.
God’s plan.
In addition to being dumb as rocks the America consumer is impulsive as hell. And these two facts make lenders, oh so very VERY rich!
It used to be, during the Dark Ages Of Consumer Spending, that if a compulsive spender wanted to buy an item he happened to run across (and compulsive spenders want to buy most every item they happen to run across) the he would look into his wallet for some Buying Power but if the wallet was bare of this Buying Power then he would somehow, in some way, have to (gasp) DO WITHOUT!
But these Dark Ages Of Consumer Spending yielded to the Age Of Enlightenment with the introduction, by The All Knowing God Of The Universe, of the …
(drum roll)
… of the CREDIT CARD!
Yes! The credit card made its appearance in the impulsive American consumer’s wallet which meant that, because of God and because of God’s Plan, the impulsive American consumer will never - NEVER - ever again be denied of what he wants and is convinced he deserves.
And am I ever glad.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Tell the impulsive American spender they are smart and at the same time hand to them a credit card and you will end up owning their souls.
Bahahahahahahahahahaha … God’s Plan in a nutshell.
Movable, hideable wealth should be at least ten percent of every American’s net worth. As for American economy, how abut automobile assembly, Boeing aircraft, transportation industry, produce, apps, iPhones, iPods, iPads, oil, wellness, fast food, software, mining, entertainment, tourism?
“Movable, hideable wealth should be at least ten percent of every American’s net worth.”
I don’t know how hideable the musical instruments I can see across the room from me are, but I would guess they are about 10% of our net worth, and I know they are moveable, as a Russian violinist I used to know smuggled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth out of the old country.
Yes I would count them as movable assets.
Next time I am in Phoenix I will look into wine storage rentals. My apartment complex would not be a place. I anticipate several cases of inventory of high end California and French wines.
(For non-sheeple only): Where to find shelter from the coming storm.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly14/shelter-storm7-14.html
Great article as always from CHS. Basically spend less… you’re going to need every last penny.
Pre-1983 copper pennies and pre-2006 nickels (I think, with real nickel content) will be the only U.S. currency that has any value by the time the Fed is finished.
And pre-1964 silver coinage, obviously.
“An honest government will eventually default on its unsustainable promises; a dishonest government (the default setting everywhere) will print money to fund the promises until its currency loses purchasing power as a result of either inflation or some other flavor of currency crisis.
In other words, the dishonest government will still issue pension checks for $2,000 a month but a cup of coffee will cost $500–if anyone will take the currency at all.”
Gee. Which is ours?
PS: Excellent post.
Speaking of pension shrinkage, have you followed the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings?
Detroit bankruptcy vote: Pensioners appear to say yes to grand bargain
Nathan Bomey & Matt Helms, Detroit Free Press Staff Writers 10:26 p.m. EDT July 11, 2014
DETROIT, Mich. (DETROIT FREE PRESS) — Detroit pensioners appear to have voted in favor of allowing the city to cut their monthly checks as part of the grand bargain to help resolve the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy, several sources familiar with the voting results told the Free Press.
Police and fire pensioners appeared to have accepted the deal by a wide margin, and while the vote was closer with civilian retirees, only an unexpected last-minute surge of “no” votes would derail the plan, according to people familiar with the voting results.
The sources weren’t authorized to speak publicly. They cautioned that many ballots were mailed in the final week of the 60-day process, so it’s possible that those late votes could still swing against the plan.
Votes were due at 5 p.m. Friday. The pension cut portion is considered a significant ingredient to Detroit’s plan of adjustment — which would slash more than $7 billion in debt and liabilities and reinvest in services. The voting results, which will be tabulated and certified by a balloting agent in California, do not have to be publicly revealed until July 21.
The city declined to comment on the results Friday.
“As voting has come to a close on the plan of adjustment, the city will now tabulate and check the results,” Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said in a statement. “Once that process is completed, the city’s vote administrator will prepare an affidavit that will be filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan attesting to the voting results by creditor classes. The city expects that affidavit to be filed on July 21, which is the date the court has stipulated that the voting results be submitted.”
If the two separate classes of pensioners vote yes, the City of Detroit would accept $195 million in upfront cash from the State of Michigan and $466 million in 20-year pledges from nonprofit foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts to help reduce pension cuts and allow the museum to spin off. The deal for pensioners and the DIA has come to be known as the grand bargain.
“If these results are accurate, it’s certainly a huge step toward a restructuring and giving them what their representatives have bargained for,” said Melissa Jacoby, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill bankruptcy law professor who has been closely tracking the case.
If pensioners vote no, Detroit may pursue significant pension cuts, could be forced to consider pursuing a sale of DIA property or may choose to divert money to other creditors.
Sources familiar with the vote said that although ballots mailed at the last minute have not yet been tabulated, a high percentage of public safety pensioners — classified under the Police and Fire Retirement System class — voted yes to accept a reduction in annual pension inflation adjustments from 2.25% to 1%.
…
This hits close to home as dad is a retired Illinois State Trooper. Detroit now, Illinois and Chicago later. Then California and bunch of cities in that state.
It’s a mathematical given. The pensions are going to be reduced one way or another and I think all non-federal government pensioners have to be concerned.
It could reverse if interest rates returned to normalcy, which would (potentially) bring pension assets and liabilities back into balance. Of course this could backfire if the pension assets are all parked in high-risk assets that would crash when rates went back up.
Pensions were also based on a Thriving city not a 3rd world gang banging city.
which would (potentially) bring pension assets and liabilities back into balance
Except it would presumably drive down housing prices, and thus property tax receipts.
“Except it would presumably drive down housing prices, and thus property tax receipts.”
I believe that could be dealt with prospective adjustments to public pension plan benefits or funding.
The bigger factor facing underfunded pension plans is that current rock-bottom interest rates have swollen the net present value of accrued benefit promises to gargantuan proportions. I expect this is somewhat hidden by actuaries failing to drop the interest rates used to calculate pension liabilities into line with current market reality (e.g. Treasury bonds yielding 3%). I’ll check into this conjecture and post whatever I find to corroborate or refute it.
Here is some information on investment return assumptions actuaries currently use to estimate pension liabilities. My recollection from when I studied actuarial mathematics a couple of decades ago is that these are supposed to be geared towards the risk-free rate you can earn on safe investments like long-term Treasurys, which are currently yielding something like 3%.
7.75% doesn’t quite cut it.
That statement is incorrect. The correct statement is that unrealistically optimistic investment return assumptions currently in use by the actuarial profession run the risk of setting up massive pension losses once economic reality trumps irrationally exuberant return assumptions.
Public Pension Investments: Risky Chase for High Returns
July 7, 2014
A recent Pew report shows a systematic shift of public pension plans away from fixed-income investments towards equities and alternative investments in the last 30 years. Using investment data on public pensions from 1952 to 2012, Pew found that public plans “significantly increased their reliance on stocks” during the 1980s and 1990s.
The data reveal that fixed-income investments and cash constituted nearly 96 percent of public pension assets in 1952. The proportion decreased to 47 percent by 1992, and had dropped to 27 percent by 2012. And during the past decade, public pension funds have allocated an increasing share of their assets to alternative investments, which include private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and commodities. From 2006 to 2012, the share of pension assets in these alternatives had more than doubled, from 11 percent to 23 percent.
Unrealistically high assumed rates of return are the cause behind this shift.
Aggressive Response
From 1992 to 2012, while the average annual yield on 30-year Treasury bonds declined by 4.75 percentage points, from 7.67 percent to 2.92 percent, the medium pension fund’s assumed rate of return decreased by only 0.25 percentage points, from 8 percent to 7.75 percent during the same period. This means pension funds have to be much more aggressive than in the past to earn their assumed rates of return, hence the shift towards equities and alternative investments.
While moving away from fixed-income securities allows pension funds to keep up with the high assumed rates of return, it also entails substantial risk. Higher risk means higher volatility, which implies higher chances of incurring losses.
…
Memphis TN is contending with an epidemic of “blue flu” and “resd rash” aftertehy adjusted benefits for uniformed employees to help pay for pension shortfalls.
and memphis is getting up there to challenge detroit for the most violent city….
Thanks.
Basically - go Galt as much as possible…
Those are really great suggestions!
Great points in that article, and importantly the sense of community. You have to establish a record of doing nice things for others in a community to get their trust. It could take years perhaps before you finally earn their trust. And it has to be in a community of very immobile people. The dilemma is that you need to be able to afford a low income community of people with a culture like yours.
Mobility is very well rewarded these days. And I have even rewarded. But I don’t fit in. Too old to be among 20-something’s, but not a boring married grandpa either. Let alone, grandpa, fussing about family. That stuff my generation is interested in is boring to me. I am not social because I have valuables that I don’t want seen by others. And I have been burglarized before. Extorted before. So it’s no wonder I curled up into a ball.
So my best interest is to stay in highly populated urban areas. Keep being a stranger. For now. Until I find like minded single atheist capitalist gun enthusiasts making up a neighborhood who have had long careers in white collar jobs. Good luck with that!
“Too old to be among 20-something’s, but not a boring married grandpa either.”
I’m in the same boat (we are about the same age, in fact). My solution: Hang with the 20-somethings, anyway!
“…Control as many real resources as you can. These include water rights, energy-producing or conserving assets (solar arrays, geothermal heating/cooling systems, etc.), farmland, orchards and gardens…”
“…The easiest way to conserve energy and time is to live close to your work and to essential services/transport hubs. Those who reside in liveable city neighborhoods and towns with public transport and multiple modes of transport who can walk/bike to work, farmers markets, cafes, etc. will need far less fossil fuel than those commuting to everything via vehicle.”
C’mon. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Farms are not near the city. These sorts of lists are contradictory and silly, IMO.
Long term you need to eat whole foods to avoid serious disease. Short term could be measured in months, short enough to consume stored dry foods and canned foods. You can buy low sodium canned food and store them for months. And you can store water for months. A castle doctrine state like Arizona will allow you to use lethal force if you feel fear for your life from an attacker. I cannot think of any other country on this planet where some parts of it have such laws. For that reason moving to Chile does not appeal to me. And obviously New York and Conecticut residents who own firearms nearly unanimously removed their consent for their government by ignoring the LIEberal gun grab laws lately.
As for living out in the sticks good luck if you get infected from a major cut and no ambulance goes out there.
The record speaks for itself, when the USA always looks like its going to hell soon, the politics reverse, laws reverse, and the losers who went survivalist ended up with no pot to pee in. 1979 versus 1981 was the last example.
Also for those in SFH nabes like Orange County, most of those houses can store enough supplies for months of survival. I even have enough space in my apartment in OC to store for months.
Most urban people earning the big bucks will handily survive the so called urban unrest “surely to happen.” dumb dumbs quitting great jobs just out of reactions to fear mongers make me laugh.
Urban survival is the sensible approach.
If we ever experience an economic collapse or grid down situation (both increasingly likely, it seems) it won’t be marauding hordes you have to fear. It’ll be Officer Friendly and your local municipal “Emergency Counsel” who will confiscate and redistribute private food stocks “for the greater good.” And to ensure your dependence on whatever authorities are in charge. Katrina set the example of arbitrary confiscation of firearms by police with no regard to Constitutional rights or the breakdown of law and order.
So sell all your stuff, quit your career and move out to the woods.
Maybe I will.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/growing-up-on-a-farm-halves-risk-of-developing-inflammatory-bowel-disease-study-says-9602026.html
More crony capitalism on display from the RINO (and possibly our next president, God forbid) Chris Christie.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/christie-260m-subsidy-holtec-international-new-jersey
Obama supporters getting buyers’ remorse?
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/11/Black-American-from-Baltimore-Where-Can-I-Get-Asylum
Please don’t post those kind of links. It was a full page ad which locks up the browser.
Sorry, didn’t do that for me. Try downloading Ad Blocker.
Corporate welfare gets a boost from the Democrats. Someone remind me again: what’s the difference between the two parties?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporate_welfare_gets_a_boost_from_democrats_20140711
Tracy Morgan is suing Wal-Mart for the crash caused by one of their asleep-at-the-wheel truckers no doubt exhausted from a profits-over-people work schedule. I hope Mr. Tracy takes them to the cleaners and sends a message to other corporate behemoths. Of course, this is why the oligarchs want to replace American workers with docile illegals who will uncomplainingly accept slave wages and killer labor conditions.
http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/tracy-morgan-sues-wal-mart-for-crash-that-killed-1-1
I wouldn’t assume that Walmart has done much wrong, other than having a whole bunch of trucks out there.
The Federal bureaucracy is really cracking down on the truckers and a company the size of Walmart probably has a good idea how many hours their drivers are driving.
Yuck. I have to be driving next weekend on the death interstate to Phoenix because of jury duty. Think I will just use vacation days for jury duty. They pay better.
Californians being Californians as the drought worsens. How much did you want for that house?
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/07/11/drought-shaming-pitting-neighbors-against-neighbors-on-social-media/
I hadn’t thought of this, but what if the drought conditions in CA get so severe that a mass migration to wetter environs plays out? In that case it would really suck to be the deeply-indebted recent purchaser of a $500,000+ CA McMansion.
The FBs will just walk away, like they did in 2007. The Fed and Treasury will take the bankster liabilities and transfer them to the taxpayers, like they did in 2008 with TARP and the Fed taking $2.3 trillion in toxic mortgage-based securities off the banksters’ hands and putting taxpayers on the hook instead. And the Fed will print away all Wall Street losses and liabilities, robbing the 99% through inflation and debasement of the currency. Same as it ever was.
It works like clockwork, doesn’t it? And nary an apology from the FOMC to the American citizenry for financially raping and pillaging them.
The 99% tighten their belts further while the .01% binge on the Fed’s free gambling money. Maybe the sheeple need to pay more attention to who and what they’re voting for.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/07/11/gallup-slams-lid-on-hopes-for-economy/
Should this couple (family) be considered part of the free chit Army ??
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhost.madison.com%2Fct%2Fnews%2Fopinion%2Fcolumn%2Fdarlena-cunha-the-day-i-drove-my-mercedes-to-pick%2Farticle_90b1f783-d883-54b9-a7ab-9e337746392a.html&ei=6DrBU7e_Goj2oATOjIHwDw&usg=AFQjCNFZzCksy0jsm7c8u4×51B0TRDt31Q&sig2=f8coE1PzCi5g8mFDC1XljQ
http://tinyurl.com/
http://tinyurl.com/mtroumg
Student loan “forgiveness” may be coming in the near future, say, right before the November elections? And what happens to those “forgiven” loans? Taxpayers and savers get reamed and the dollar is further debased as Yellen & Company crank up the printing presses to hypersonic and hand the banksters their principal plus generous interest to keep those asset bubbles inflating. And the DNC’s free shit army grows by a few million more election-bending voters.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101809706
Last I heard, Yellen & Company are ending QE3 by this October.
Of course, they could always find cook up some other government program under a new alphabet soup heading to fund the student loan debt jubilee, or just quietly carry out a bailout with very little notice in the press about the magnitude of the largess.
Related question: Has anyone computed how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in net present value of bail was summarily handed to homeowners through taxpayer-funded interest rate reduction programs over the past several years?
Has anyone computed how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in net present value of bail was summarily handed to homeowners through taxpayer-funded interest rate reduction programs over the past several years?
I generally try not to think about it, lest I get all stabby.
I’m not exactly clear how one would do the calculation, though here is a rough idea.
Say, for instance, that someone signed the dotted line back in 2007 for a 30-year mortgage to buy a $500,000 California starter home, at a mortgage rate of 6%. If my math is right, the monthly would have been $2,997.75.
Seven years later, after mortgage interest rates have dropped to 4%, the present value of the remaining 23 years of monthly payments would have grown to $1,353,893.85, even though the full principle still owed on the loan would have been reduced to $448,196.93 (i.e. after seven years of debt slavery, the owner paid down only $52K of principle) — great for the creditors who funded the mortgage but not so good for the homeowner.
However, if a mortgage interest reduction bailout enabled the owner to refinance at 4%, the monthly would drop to $2,486.37
for the remaining 23 years. This reduces their monthly payment by $511.38 over the remaining period of the loan. The present value of this payment reduction valued at 4% is $92,181.66 — a pretty hefty welfare check for Ownership Society members who qualify!
Does that seem about right?
oops…I forgot to correct one figure:
$1,353,893.85$448,196.93 is the remaining principle subject to bailout refinancing.
I encourage any kids who are interested to check my calculations. You might be surprised to learn that bailout math can be fun, and is not rocket science!
If anyone is sufficiently inclined and insightful, I would be interested to see an expansion of my single-household bailout example above across all U.S. homeowner households that were bailed out by mortgage write downs.
Even better would be a plausible estimate of the reverse-Robin Hood wealth transfer from relatively less wealth non-homeowner U.S. households to wealthier homeowner households.
Of course, they could always find cook up some other government program under a new alphabet soup heading to fund the student loan debt jubilee, or just quietly carry out a bailout with very little notice in the press about the magnitude of the largess.
Exactly and it is not a possibility it is what is planned if you read between the lines. They have only promised to end the program called QE, they have not said they would stop buying bonds and adding to the Fed balance sheet. They also said they would continue to keep interest rates down which guarantees they will have to buy more bonds.
I’ve learned through the years that one way Uncle Sam keeps programs going which are supposed to end is to simply tweak a few minor features then unveil a supposedly new (though materially identical) program under a new name.
The bailout money didn’t go to the FBs. It went to the banksters who recklessly lent them money.
I rest my case.
Who paid for $100Ks in mortgage interest writedowns?
I note that these are equivalent in present value terms to cramdowns, except there is no explicit writedown of principle involved.
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan
The deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11 was caused by a spontaneous uprising sparked by an obscure anti-Muslim YouTube video.
Not even a smidgen of corruption, the dog ate Lois Lerner’s emails.
“Our border is not open to illegal immigration,” he said. “Our message to those who come illegally is we will send you back.”
Homeland secretary visits immigrant holding center
By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press | July 11, 2014
ARTESIA, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited a New Mexico detention facility housing 400 Central American women and children Friday and warned immigrants that “we will send you back” if they try entering the country illegally.
Johnson said the agency is working rapidly to open new detention facilities to house and more quickly deport the influx of immigrants fleeing violence, poverty and extortion in Central America.
On a tour Friday of a temporary center at a border patrol training facility in southeastern New Mexico, Johnson said more housing is needed so the administration can send a strong message back to Central America, where he said smugglers are telling families that if they make it to the United States they will get a free pass.
“Our border is not open to illegal immigration,” he said. “Our message to those who come illegally is we will send you back.”
After touring the recently opened center, he said staff told him that some of the immigrants told them they were surprised to be detained.
“This facility … represents proof that indeed we will send people back.”
http://www.chron.com/…/DHS-secretary-to-visit-NM-migrant-detention-center-5614251.php - 216k
He will be FIRED within a week……
“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
Hey $hitHouse Poet… I thought of a great title for a book for you.
“Ripped Off On Real Estate: An American Creation”
I am the shithouse poet and u can never take that away from me.
Defraud anymore investors this week?
For the weekend warriors:
The Joshua Tree Extension (for Firefox) is now hosted on Mozilla.org. The new version (2.3) should be a little bit faster than previous versions, and if you install it I believe Firefox will automatically tell you when new versions are available.
Here’s the link
crater
mcfraud
You’re angry today Poet.
And for the (apparently 42) users of the JT Extension — please throw a fiver Ben’s way on my behalf.
I don’t charge for the software (it’s open source in fact), but presumably you find value in using it. I’d appreciate it if you’d share your appreciation with Ben so he can keep this blog up and running.
For all the people on this board that are just eager to invest in Chinese real estate:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-07/03/content_17638507.htm
How ironic for them to seek American investor bagholders at the very same time American real estate owners are selling residential properties to Chinese investor bagholders at 50% premiums to fundamental value.
I wouldn’t. Personal firearms are illegal in China.
Even if the LIEberals made my firearms illegal I would still keep them and the ammo. Cat is out of the bag already in America, thanks to the 2A.
Seriously here is the Chinese view on what will happen this year. Ten per cent income growth does make a difference:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-07/12/content_17740187.htm
For Goon:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/12/coldest-antarctic-june-ever-recorded/#more-112826
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 19:46 EST, 20 January 2013
Leonardo DiCaprio is taking a ‘long, long break’ from acting.
He said: ‘I would like to improve the world a bit. I will fly around the world doing good for the environment. My roof is covered with solar panels.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…plans-long-long-break-acting-filming-leading-roles-years.html -
Pffffft!
Fly around spewing exhaust. That sure helps clean the air because it is LIEberal exhaust.
Are you stuck in a home which your life circumstances dictate you should leave, thanks to a super-low interest rate mortgage?
This problem will blow over, as the folks who are hanging on their homes due to ultra-low interest mortgages are thereby driving up home prices that will stimulate new construction and lower future home prices when this new supply hits the market. Ultimately the low-rate mortgage owners will see their equity sink when a flood of new construction hits the market, but there will soon enough be plenty of home supply available.
Seeing lots of new construction as I type in North County San Diego, for instance…
No sale by owner: Americans with lower mortgage rates hold tightly onto homes
Published July 11, 2014
WASHINGTON – Would-be home sellers across the country are grappling with a once-in-a-lifetime problem: They have mortgage rates so absurdly low it would hurt them financially to sell.
Doing so would mean giving up an irresistible rate in exchange for a new mortgage carrying a rate up to a percentage point higher. Their monthly payments would be larger even for a house of the same price. That’s discouraging some people from selling, thereby limiting the supply of available homes and contributing to slower home sales.
It’s a significant shift from the way the U.S. housing market has worked for the past 30 years. For most of that time, whenever a homeowner decided to trade up to a better home, mortgage rates usually were lower than the last time they had bought. That helped make a new purchase seem more attractive.
But that is changing. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell below 4 percent in late 2011 and reached a record low level of 3.3 percent in November 2012. It didn’t top 4 percent again until mid-2013. Homeowners took advantage of the lower rates and a refinancing boom ensued.
More than one-third of homes with a mortgage now have rates below 4 percent, real estate data provider CoreLogic estimates. Yet mortgage rates now average 4.2 percent. That is still low by historical standards but up about three-quarters of a point from a year and a half ago. And should mortgage rates rise later this year and next, as many economists expect, even more homeowners will be affected.
As a result, many homeowners with low rates are staying put. Others are moving and buying new homes, but keeping their old ones and renting them. Both choices mean that fewer homes are listed for sale, which drives up prices. Higher prices and limited selection have put the brakes on a housing recovery that began in 2012.
And slower home sales, in turn, drag down economic growth. Fewer sales mean lower commissions for real estate agents. Sales of furniture, appliances and garden supplies also take a hit.
Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, estimates that as many as 3.6 million homeowners are unlikely to sell this year because they would have to give up a lower rate.
…
Did market forces hammer the value of your risk assets last week?
July 12, 2014, 10:59 a.m. EDT
10 biggest market-moving events this week
A bank default in Portugal, more M&A deals and worries about overheated stocks led the news
By Philip van Doorn, MarketWatch
MarketWatch rounded up the 10 most important news events of the past week. We focused on market-related issues, but we’ve included other subjects of great interest to readers.
Woe is Portugal
The biggest shock of the week came Wednesday, when Banque Privee Espírito Santo SA of Portugal said its parent company, Espírito Santo International SA, would delay repayment of short-term notes that had been sold to private-banking clients through a Swiss subsidiary.
The parent company, which is privately held, announced in May it was in an “extremely negative financial position” because it had under-reserved for credit risk and had incorrectly valued assets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down well over 100 points in early trading Thursday, but ended with a rather modest decline of less than 71 points, or 0.4%, to 16,915.07, despite headlines screaming of rising interest rates for Portuguese government bonds. But the worries were overblown, and when considering all the turmoil over the past several years, yields of less than 4.0% for 10-year Portugal bonds just aren’t that high.
But European markets rebounded Friday, and yields on Portuguese 10-year bonds declined 8 basis points to 3.87%.
William Watts dug deeper into various aspects of Eurozone risk in 5 things to know about Banco Espirito Santo and Europe. Diana Furchtgott-Roth said the crisis may be the tip of the iceberg.
Dow 17,000
After the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its historic 17,000 milestone, David Weidner spelled out the reasons why this bull market is different from previous ones, in an article that drew over 400 comments from readers.
The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented policies of greatly expanding its balance sheet to hold long-term interest rates down, while keeping short-term rates near zero since late 2008, has worked. Asset prices continue to recover, and we’ve all gotten away with something, because the official inflation rate has remained roughly 2%.
But Weidner pointed out that most investors haven’t been buying stocks, and U.S. GDP growth is nowhere near where it was during the previous bull market.
The Dow was down 1% for the week to close Friday at 16,943.81.
…
The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented policies of greatly expanding its balance sheet to hold long-term interest rates down, while keeping short-term rates near zero since late 2008, has worked. Asset prices continue to recover, and we’ve all gotten away with something, because the official inflation rate has remained roughly 2%.
It’s hard to say something ‘worked’ without stating the goals, and enumerating all of the effects. So, asset prices are up (well, for many stocks at least). Purchasing power of dollars has eroded, so savers and pensioners are worse off. And a manipulated CPI number has remained 2%, which still means prices are going up/dollars are worth less.
Seems like a negative outcome to many folks so….it worked based on what goals? And for whom?
(these are rhetorical questions. We all know the answers).
Never mind that the Federal Reserve does not actually have discretionary income redistribution as part of its operating mandate.
Citizens of Coastal California, just remember: Nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to screw yourself with an overpriced mortgage.
Markets More: Housing Affordability Zillow Maps Cities
Here Are The Cities Where Middle-Class Homebuyers Are Screwed
Andy Kiersz
Jul. 12, 2014, 7:12 AM
It’s really hard for a middle class family to buy a house along the California coast.
Real estate research and marketplace site Zillow routinely calculates an index of housing affordability. First, they use a proprietary statistical model to estimate housing values in a metropolitan area. Then, they calculate the monthly mortgage payment for a median price house in each metro area. Finally, they calculate the percentage of the median monthly income for each metro area needed to pay that mortgage payment.
For example, Zillow’s estimate for the median home price in Abilene, TX during the first quarter of 2014 was $98,600. After a 20% down payment, a homebuyer would need to take out a $78,880 mortgage. Assuming a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at a 4.3% annual interest rate, this would lead to a monthly payment of about $390, which we calculated using Bankrate’s mortgage calculator. Zillow’s estimate for the median annual income in Abilene is $43,058, or a monthly income of about $3,588. Finally, by dividing, we see that the $390 mortgage payment is about 11% of that monthly income.
Here’s a map showing Zillow’s Q1 2014 housing affordability estimates in 285 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Darker regions indicate larger proportions of a median income needed to pay a mortgage on a median value house. The four California cities in which a median mortgage payment is at least 40% of a median income are also indicated by name:
Zillow Housing Affordability Q1 2014 map
The ten least affordable metro areas are all in California. This table shows the percent of median income needed to pay a mortgage on a median house for the ten least affordable areas:
City Affordability
Santa Cruz, CA 45%
Los Angeles ,CA 41%
San Francisco, CA 41%
Santa Maria/Santa Barbara, CA 40%
San Luis Obispo, CA 39%
San Jose, CA 38%
Santa Rosa, CA 36%
San Diego, CA 34%
Salinas, CA 33%
Napa, CA 33%
…
In all cases, I betcha the Red Chinese are doing the buying.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/#
While most people focus on the stated debt, the really interesting numbers are the unfunded liabilities for the Ponzi schemes such as Social Security and Medicare. While the average American does not know it, just due to federal liabilities they are over 1 million dollars in debt per capita. Meanwhile per capita assets are just over 300,000 dollars per capita. That is truly national bankruptcy. One of the reasons the PTB want to draw in young immigrants is preciously to keep the Ponzi schemes going. Of course, these unskilled, low intelligence immigrants will only make the problem worse over the long term. BTW, China does not have any similar Ponzi schemes. So the next time a liberal brags about how liberals created Medicare and Social Security truly thank them since they created generational theft, that will cause you much pain.
Gotta admit I have been on email list of white house (Obama), DNC, and RNC for a few years. Two months ago I unsubscribed from the Ds. Today I got a RNC email selling “I miss W” tshirts.
Almzzsost made me vomit.
George Carlin on the corporate statists’ Republicrat duopoly. Ever wonder why nothing changes despite the campaign rhetoric?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4SSvVbhLw
its a big club and u aint in it!!
It’s a sad state of affairs when comedians (and an intrepid handful of bloggers like Ben) are the only ones telling it like it is - the Emperor has no clothes - and the sheep graze on.
At least some of the Republican rank and file are starting to wake up and reject the crony capitalist K Street whores that comprise the “leadership” of the establishment GOP.
http://www.republicreport.org/2014/dave-brat-cantor/
“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.”
That isn’t a quote from an Occupy Wall Street protester or Senator Elizabeth Warren. That’s a common campaign slogan repeated by Dave Brat, the Virginia college professor who scored one of the biggest political upsets in over a century by defeating Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary last night.
The national media is buzzing about Brat’s victory, but for all of the wrong reasons.
Did the Tea Party swoop in and help Brat, as many in the Democratic Party are suggesting? Actually, the Wall Street Journal reports no major Tea Party or anti-establishment GOP group spent funds to defeat Cantor. Did Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, lose because of his religion, as some have suggested? There’s no evidence so far of anti-Semitism during the campaign. Was Cantor caught flatfooted? Nope; Cantor’s campaign spent close to $1 million on the race and several outside advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, the National Realtors Association and the American Chemistry Council (a chemical industry lobbying association) came in and poured money into the district to defeat Brat. The New York Times claims that Brat focused his campaign primarily on immigration reform. Brat certainly made immigration a visible topic in his race, but Republic Report listened to several hours of Brat stump speeches and radio appearances, and that issue came up far less than what Brat called the main problem in government: corruption and cronyism.
Brat told Internet radio host Flint Engelman that the “number one plank” in his campaign is “free markets.” Brat went on to explain, “Eric Cantor and the Republican leadership do not know what a free market is at all, and the clearest evidence of that is the financial crisis … When I say free markets, I mean no favoritism to K Street lobbyists.” Banks like Goldman Sachs were not fined for their role in the financial crisis — rather, they were rewarded with bailouts, Brat has said.
Two months ago I unsubscribed from the Ds. Today I got a RNC email selling “I miss W” tshirts.
As a lapsed Republican, I still get mailers from the National Senate Republican Committee with “polls” full of inflammatory “do you support Barak Beelzebub Obama’s attempts to…(fill in nefarious scheme here).” Of course, they then tell the yahoos to send the largest donation possible, right now, so they can foil the Obama agenda, blah blah blah. They don’t seem to have any platform of their own besides fracking/drilling everywhere, “stronger national security,” less corporate regulation, and lower taxes (for the 1% that is).
I used to respond with a polite letter informing the NSRC that I don’t support crony capitalism or neo-con adventurism, and therefore refuse to support the establishment GOP. Now I simply take a Sharpie and write “F**k You” on the fundraising pitch and mail it back (no postage required). If tens of thousands of other current or former Republicans started doing the same, the NSRC might get the message.
It is like eating arsenic versus eating arsenic diluted with spinach. Either way you are still screwed.
It’s more like something one would experience in a prison shower.
The German public - who of all people should realize full well what out-of-control money-printing leads to - are starting to get agitated over the ECB’s limitless, endless “quantitative easing.”
Oops, forgot the link.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/12/ecb-policymakers-idUSL6N0PN0B820140712
The cities where middle-class homebuyers are screwed (soon to be the entire United States).
http://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-housing-affordability-map-2014-7
While the rigged stock market casino is still rolling along (albeit with record low volumes), thanks to the Fed and HFT algos, the establishment’s answer to the loss of productive jobs - gambling casinos! - is starting to feel the effects of the economic decline of the 99%.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-12/trump-plaza-close-september-atlantic-city-implosion-claims-fourth-casino
they just opened a new casino near me. they always seem busy around here.
They probably took out too much debt and paid there people too much.
Let me guess, shareholders get caught holding the bag again?
The vulture funds led by Paul Singer who bought up Argentine debt for pennies on the dollar, and now expect full payment of said debt, seem to be annoyed that Argentina, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that they had to pay up, seems in no particular hurry to do so. That debt, by the way, goes into default on July 31st, following a 30-day extension when they missed a payment on June 30th.
http://rt.com/business/172196-argentina-not-negotiating-holdout-creditor/
My very recent conversations with various businesses in Syracuse NY
DSW shoe store manager “sales are worse than last year”.
Advance Auto Parts “Customers are doing barely as everything else cost more and our paychecks have not gone up”. The customers are becoming do it yourself but they wait until it must be fixed. He gave an example of pads hitting the rotors as an example.
PF Chang bartender “ less people going out to eat as it cost more”.
UNO’s employees at the local mall have been told that if things don’t pick up the store will close in 3 years. The wait staff is getting more hours at the Quaker state restaurant.
Glass repair and replacement company having been in business for 38 years same type of story as above.
Chase bank and First Niagara bank manager’s indicating that the local economy scuks . Chase manager is predicting buyouts at the bank.
Local Gym is offering buy 1 year membership and get 2 year free. The amount per month and you won’t believe this is $10 per month with nothing down.
Lastly I have not seen bill boards advertising which I am seeing now for the first time by Roofing Companies, Japanese stake house, the unusual ones you never saw before.
Locally downtown industrial office buildings being convert into apartments. We don’t have enough bars for when the new residents will arrive. Lots of new Chinese, Middle eastern, African and other third world nation people moving around in Syracuse NY.
MOST WHITE HR MANAGERS WOULD NOT HIRE THESE PEOPLE AS THEY CAN NOT SPEAK ENGLISH AND ON TOP OF THAT THERE ARE NO JOBS.
Welcome to Amerika
Just my 2 cents. PEACE
I’m seeing more and more scooter riders, as in some Third World country, and every intersection has some beggar on it asking for money. I’m also running into sharp people, who seem like former professionals, working low end jobs. Recovery my a$$.
There has been a recovery in stock prices for the 1%. They might hire some people to clean their houses and mow their lawns?
Why do think they’re importing destitute Central Americans?
more servants? I guess whitey dont want to work?
There is a recovery in precious metals and mining stocks.
And the impoverished natives declare in unision, “Thank you for the beating sir…. we like it! We love it! We want more of it! Make it hurt more! Hooray!”
Well the charter bus business on the Southern Border is booming.
I know the licensed electrician working in the electric department at the local home depot. We were chatting and he mentioned that Home Depot had let the part time employees go and were cutting back the hours of full time employees. Home depot expects to do more with less people. He also mentioned that every couple of weeks his job is to change the prices and raise them by a dollar or so for the lightning fixtures.
Oxnard, CA Housing Prices Plunge 61% YoY; Inventory Balloons 160% As Underwater Sellers Panic
http://www.movoto.com/oxnard-ca/market-trends/
In CA basically they have tried to prop up home prices by giving out money if you are upside down on your house. they have been running commercials on TV.
If you are looking to buy you basically have to overpay for a shack because they wont let the market sort things out.
So in a decent neighborhood you are looking at 300+ for a shack.
a 300k house @4.5% for 30 years is 1520.06/ month
1520.06*360 months = $547,329.00 overall price
New buyers are forced to overpay.
The policy can be summarized as “reward old buyers, screw new ones.”
Meanwhile, the drought deepens, as does the dystopia of Pelosi’s People’s Republic.
The solution is simple; Rent for half the monthly cost. :shrug:
And that way, if the drought gets so severe that it precipitates a mass exodus of Californians towards wetter parts of the U.S., you won’t have the problem of selling an underwater home out in the middle of Droughtsville, CA.
“a mass exodus of Californians towards wetter parts of the U.S”
Well, then maybe we’ll have enough water!
Corvallis, OR Housing Prices Crater 32% YoY; Demand Dives To 2011 Levels
http://www.movoto.com/corvallis-or/market-trends/
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/OR-Corvallis-home-value/r_4216/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D8%26r%3D4216%26el%3D0
ILLEGALS RELEASED IN U.S. GIVEN THREE YEARS UNTIL COURT DATE
Court dates will only increase further into the future
by KIT DANIELS | INFOWARS.COM | JULY 12, 2014
Overwhelmed U.S. courts are giving illegal aliens up to three years to show up for immigration hearings after they’ve been released in the U.S. and the court dates will only increase further into the future.
The courts are buried under a massive backlog due to the sharp increase in illegal immigration according to the AP and considering that the 90% of illegals who miss their court dates are rarely prosecuted anyway, the U.S. has effectively established a de facto amnesty program which will only ensure that more illegal immigrants cross into America.
“For many immigrants, the delays in the court system work in their favor because they know they have so long before their cases are resolved,” reported the AP.
This situation “is and will continue to be something of a magnitude unlike anything we have ever seen,” according to Justice Department official Lauren Alder Reid who spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have been crossing America’s southern border in the past few months are purposely surrendering to Border Patrol because they know they will be sheltered, fed, transported deeper into the U.S. and ultimately released with a court date so far into the future that it doesn’t really matter.
“They know they are going to be processed and released and they are free to go wherever they want to go in the United States and the likelihood of them ever showing up for their court date is slim to none,” Stu Harris of the National Border Patrol Council Local 1929 told Infowars. “Even if they did show up to their court date, what we’re going to start seeing is what we call the ‘anchor babies’ because these court dates are being set from what I understand so far down the road that these people are going to come here, settle in, some of them are going to have children, and those citizens are now United States citizens.”
“How is a judge going to deport these people if they have a United States citizen as a child?”
The Obama administration has encouraged illegal immigrants to flood America, and the number of immigrant youth since October alone has surged to 14 times as many who crossed the border illegally in entire year of 2011.
The White House recently offered Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents in California paid temporary leave and similarly in the past told the Border Patrol to stand down from enforcing immigration laws as well as ordering the Department of Homeland Security to use “discretion” in prosecuting illegals.
All of this has definitely raised concerns that the Obama administration is deploying a Cloward and Piven strategy to overwhelm federal departments with the orchestrated influx of illegals, including the aforementioned U.S. court system, to pressure Congress into enacting illegal alien amnesty by law and other draconian measures.
HOMELAND SECURITY, FEDS SWARM SMALL TOWN IN BIZARRE UNANNOUNCED SHOW OF FORCE
School field besieged by Black Hawk chopper, SWAT vehicles
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | JULY 11, 2014
Residents of Livingston, IL., population 850, were shocked to see agents from Homeland Security, the US Customs and Border Patrol and local police agencies swarm a field belonging to a grade school yesterday, with one local telling news channel KTVI, “When all the armored trucks started showing up and everything it made me kind of nervous.”
One child said he thought the spectacle was “pretty cool” and that agents invited the local children to check out the choppers up close, despite the presence of weapons inside the helicopters.
The school superintendent said he was not given any information about the operation beforehand, despite authorities using school land as a staging ground. The U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to release any information on the purpose behind the operation.
KTVI labeled the presence of the feds a “mystery,” although it subsequently emerged that the school was being used as a staging ground for a raid on a house three miles away. Authorities refused to divulge the purpose behind the raid or if anyone was taken into custody.
Reporter Roche Madden said he learned that ten police cars showed up at the house to conduct the raid, suggesting that the Black Hawk and the armored vehicles were merely on standby.
The sheer number of feds present, in addition to multiple armored vehicles, military-style choppers and other vehicles, in order to conduct a raid on a single house clearly suggests overkill and will prompt more concerns as to the increasing militarization of U.S. law enforcement.
http://www.infowars.com/…/ - 70k -
We can only hope the dogs of Livingston, IL. all survived the staging ground and the raid. You never know when a vicious 2-year old Black Lab named Arfie may threaten the life of a “no more hesitation” police officer.
Cop Shoots, Kills ‘Vicious Dog’ Locked Inside Parked Car
Written on 07/10/2014 by Brandy Arnold
A Coeur d’Alene, Idaho police officer fatally shot what he described as a “vicious pit bull” yesterday morning.
However, the dog’s owner says his dog, 2-year old Arfie, is neither a pit bull or vicious. He’s a well-mannered gentle Black Lab. What’s more, the dog was contained inside his owner’s vehicle, behind closed doors, when the officer shot the dog through the driver’s side window.
“If my dog is barking and wondering who’s peering through the windows he doesn’t care if you’re a cop, an attorney, or President Bush. He doesn’t know any difference,” Arfie’s owner, Craig Jones told KREM2 News.
The officer was responding to a call about a suspicious van. Earlier reports of someone watching young children from inside a white van prompted owners of a coffee shop to call police. When the officer approached the van, gun drawn, Arfie began barking and lunging toward the window. That’s when the officer fired a single shot, through the window, hitting Arfie in the chest.
Jones was inside the coffee shop when his dog was shot.
The suspected child predator is still on the loose.
dogingtonpost.com/cop-shoots-kills-vicious-dog-locked-inside-parked-car/ - 74k -
Big Brother teams up with Big Pharma as the bankster-owned UK Tories frog-march the depressed and anxious, i.e. people who have a normal human response to living in a bankster’s paradise, in for their mandatory meds.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10964125/Tories-discuss-stripping-benefits-claimants-who-refuse-treatment-for-depression.html
From Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”:
I don’t need no arms around me
And I dont need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don’t think I need anything at all.
No! Don’t think I’ll need anything at all.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.
Now the trouble in munis has spread to Germany, the big pole holding up the shaky Eurozone tent.
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/07/10/german-municipals-in-trouble/
Goldman Sachs trying to lure more retail-investor muppets to the slaughter.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-12/goldman-admits-market-40-overvalued-economy-slowing-so-time-boost-sp-target-2050-190
did they go short?
Only they know. They have a long, sordid history of telling the muppets one thing, while secretly betting against their own recommendations.
America, met your future: the .01% bask in their ill-gotten gains from crony capitalism, while the 99%, reduced to serfdom, eke out a precarious existence serving the master class.
http://news.msn.com/us/workers-struggle-in-hamptons-playground-for-rich
Why is it that LIEerals are willing to go to any lengths, even criminal, to censor the truth?
U cant handle the truth!
how many people did you swindle this week?
This sponsored message brought to you by the National Association of Realtors.
HE, don’t be a moron and buy into the “liberal” and “conservative” false narrative. Either you are for crony capitalism and corporate statism, or you are for liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and the Republic. Don’t be a toolbox and play the silly fucking games the Ds and Rs use to maintain the fiction that they are somehow different.
Bingo. Youre dead on however I was prompted to write that after reading some old posts by Lola, Liberace and that nutjob Darryl.
Hoarding for my retirement goal: spending 4 summer months a year in California wine country and 8 months a year in Phoenix. Hoarding cash, precious metals, ammo, quality wines.
You know, some Liberarian bloggers have a conspiracy theory about the government being able to trace your fiat money transactions with the blue money. The problem is, govern ent CANNOT. Trace your fiat spending. Theoretically if each person you give fiat will put fiat in a bank, and if you got the fiat directly from a bank, your transaction can be traced. But that hardly happens. Let’s assume you only get paper money from a bank. Now you take $100 to a grocer, spend $80 and walk out. The grocer has four twenties in his cash drawer. Next customer writes a check for $50 more than she spent on groceries. Two of your twenties are given to her and a $10 is given to her and she walks out. So that lady spends $50 at another store.
This is the common theme. I call BS on financial transaction tracing.
Still piling up cash with no worry - under the mattress.
If you are involved in huge transactions on the scale of drug dealing then yes, government has successfully traced transactions, which is why dealers launder money. But this is very unlikely to trace the common person.
what kind of wine you hoarding? that a good idea buddy.
The Bordeaux ones from France. I also am into California Cabernet Sauvignon. I like Oregon Pinot Noirs. But I don’t invest in Pinot Noirs. In fact I am on my second glass of Duck Pond. Kept it at a colder than normal temp for a month, half a bottle. Surprisingly still quality. I use the vacuum device to get rid of the air. Haven’t been home in Phoenix in a month. Half hour after warming up some it is nicer.
For nvestment grade go for those $90 and up. My wine snob colleagues use Cellar Tracker for ratings. cellar Tracker does seem to be more hnest on reviews. Drinkable: the consensus says drink after 2017 they mean it. Otherwise you might have to pop open a bottle for three hours before it has great taste.
A colleague has wine storage in Redondo Beach and also in San Francisco. Another one has storage in Carson. That one ruined a $1000 bottle. Win some, lose some.
I had great tasting wines from $8 bottle Bordeaux. And from $90 and $20 Cabernet Sauvignns. I swear I had great tasting cabs from $2.49 Charles Shaws as well.
The fun part is that some people have different tastes than you do. The $20 bottle of Bordeaux my friend bought in the 80s he sold for $400. And he did not like the wine. His buyer did.
Earlier this year I was flying back to orange county. Talked with a woman around my age. Turned out she is a neighbor in OC. Converted a garage to a wine cellar years ago. Buys and sells wines. Her inventory she claims is 21,000 bottles. That means several $millions. She started out investing in wines in her 20s.
I like Oregon Pinot Noirs.
I’m with you there. Willamette Valley Pinots are my fave, though I did have the first California Pinot that I enjoyed the other night.
Cali certainly has the better cabs, though I have to say Washington does pretty well. Just wrapped up a dinner party with friends - california sparkling, napa fume blanc, washington cab (100% cab), washington ruby port.
My problem is I can’t “hoard” wine. It’s a struggle to lay any wine down - I end up drinking it all
WTF is “blue money”?
Ask your bank for a $100 bill every now and then. Chances are you will get the blue dye money
This article puts a human face on Central American migrants, who are pawns to the oligarchs who regard them solely in terms of “units of economic value” - the slave labor they can provide to pad the bottom line.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/12/rio-grande-border-us-united-states-children-migrants
So why the hell wasn’t I ever “victimized” by hot teachers as a lad? I feel so…cheated. All my female teachers looked like Ben Franklin.
This NEA hottie must be retarded, thinking the two seniors who banged her like a cheap gong would actually keep mum about it.
http://news.yahoo.com/hot-english-teacher-victimizes-two-18-old-males-232008224.html
Details, details…those eighteen year old adult boys sure do sound like they were innocent victims to me. Never mind that it takes two to screw.
Rest easy, California public employees. Your pension fund is in good hands and you will reap your just reward when you retire.
http://news.yahoo.com/ex-california-pension-fund-ceo-pleads-guilty-federal-220329040–sector.html
Well, now, this is an interesting development. The Fed’s Keynesian dogma and central planning intervention in the markets is about to run up against something called “consequences.” I will love seeing the chickens finally come home to roost.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-12/jpmorgan-blows-feds-we-can-control-crash-reverse-repo-plan
Honk if I’m paying your mortgage.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/07/12/honk-if-im-paying-your-mortgage/
Well, in all fairness, worthy homeowners rightfully deserve to have others pay their mortgages for them, because they deserve it. They followed the National Association of Realtors™ guidance to buy a home, because there never was a better time to buy. So they deserve to be rewarded for their financially prudential decisions by transferring monies from non-homeowner, taxpayer households to their households.