Bits Bucket for July 16, 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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Re: Yellen’s Tuesday testimony before Congress that the Fed will continue to prop up the market vs BIS’s recommendation that its member banks “Pop this bubble now.”
“First, for anyone who thinks that the concept of intentionally crashing the stock market is the stuff of conspiracy theorists, that notion is now dead and buried. It’s extremely clear from the BIS’ language, that the concept of initiating a collapse is openly discussed as a policy measure.”
http://notquant.com/is-the-fed-going-to-attempt-a-controlled-collapse/
From the article: “The trade-off is now between the risk of bringing forward the downward leg of the cycle and that of suffering a bigger bust later on.”
Guess which side of this trade-off will be chosen.
Here’s a hint:
1. Bringing forth the downward cycle now makes the folks who are in charge of things now (or think they are in charge of things now) the bad guys.
2. Suffering a bigger bust later on makes the folks who are in charge of things later on the bad guys.
The guys in charge (or think they are in charge) did not get into these positions of power by doing the right and proper things, they got into positions of power by doing the politically correct things. And IMO there should be no expectation by anyone that they will suddenly get religion and now begin to do the right and proper things.
its a big club and u aint in it.
Inflation is hurting the bottom line. Business is trying to raise prices and thus they are losing customers.
Look at revenues, they are not growing. those are harder to lie about.
Big companies try to grow sales or revenues by opening more stores to pad the top line.
Sames stores sales is a good metric because it looks at sales of stores open at least a year.
EPS can be manipulated though accounting and other shenanigans.
Another thing people dont even look at when trying to value a company is debt. If debt is growing as fast or faster than sales beware.
As long as stock prices keep hitting new records every other day, why does any of this matter?
well when sh@t hits the fan if u r invested in a company that actually has solid fundamentals your losses will not be as great and you do have a chance for a rebound someday.
The comments were significant because they suggest that even as the unemployment rate sinks, Yellen is examining how workers flowing back into the labor market — the return of the so-called “shadow” labor supply — could reduce the need for employers to offer higher wages. That would suppress inflation and allow the Fed to keep the benchmark interest rate low.
“You can’t have sustained inflation without sustained wage growth because then people have no purchasing power and higher prices just can’t stick,” said Aneta Markowska, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale SA in New York. For Yellen, lack of wage growth is “proof of her thesis about plentiful slack in the labor market,” Markowska said.
For Yellen, lack of wage growth is “proof of her thesis about plentiful slack in the labor market,” Markowska said.
It is proof that the good high paying jobs are leaving the country and are being replaced by poorly paid service jobs.
That’s an interesting complexity I didn’t think of. I think of wage inflation as paying the same people more money for the same job. But now you’re saying that the big labor pool will pressure wages down at the same time that inflation should be pressuring wages up, resulting in stagnant wages while inflation puts upward pressure on prices until we’re all shopping at the Dollar Store.
Yes.
I am not even sure you can compare wages with home prices anymore. All these million dollar homes in my area ( Costal CA) are being bought with capital gains I think.
I ask what these people do for a living to afford these prices? Answer I always get is people are really rich around here… so what they don’t work ? they just own stuff? Capital has done very well compared to wages so its makes sense.
Inflation is a stealth tax. It reduces people’s purchasing power. So they draw back their spending. There is the fantasy that because rising employment brings inflation, that sparking inflation will bring rising employment. It’s silly.
“You can’t have sustained inflation without sustained wage growth because then people have no purchasing power and higher prices just can’t stick,” said Aneta Markowska, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale SA in New York.
Actually, you can—to a limited degree—as the ‘wants’ get squeezed out so that the budget still covers the increasing cost of the ‘needs’.
But aggregate demand drops as a result, and there is an upper bound of 100% of purchasing power going to ‘needs’; at that point, it cannot go on any longer.
“All these million dollar homes in my area ( Costal CA) are being bought with capital gains I think.”
Such as home equity gains on investment properties back in China, for example?
Such as home equity gains on investment properties back in China, for example?”
Exactly if they had to do work for money they would value it more.
2. Suffering a bigger bust later on makes the folks who are in charge of things later on the bad guys.
I thought it made the folks who are in charge of things later the heroes who “saved the economy”…
The stock market keeps going up because the banks have easy money policies for business to borrow cheap and buy back their own stock (some say). IMO, this isn’t the kind of business plan that should get approval from the banks. It doesn’t generate profits, except for the top bosses with stock options. The IMF should criticize this policy, rather than suggest new policies to counter the old.
the illusion of eps growth via stock buybacks has been keeping stocks levitating too.
Either they or George Soros did it to get Obama elected in 2008.
They don’t just initiate collapses; they also initiate expanses. Yellen can’t pop it now because that must be done at a time that is secretly planned. The BIS recommendation was not a secret.
Seattle Realtor Arrested In Massive Appraisal Fraud
http://mynorthwest.com/980/2547673/Eastside-couple-arrested-in-massive-home-appraisal-fraud
And she was a mortgage pimp.
This $hit is going on everywhere right in front of you. More evidence that most don’t have a clue what a house is worth, thus they overpay by $100k, minimum.
Realtor Burned Down Girlfriend’s House for Insurance Money: U.S. Attorney
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/07/realtor_burned_down_girlfriends_house_for_insurance_money_us_attorney.php
more of the same old news today?
News poet news!
Read it and weep, boys!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-mortgage-rates-havent-risen-as-expected-2014-07-15-101035257
Good. Now fetch my Cheetos Amy/$hithouse.
Pinellas Realtor Got License Despite Arrests For Prostitution
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2014/07/14/st-pete-beach-realtor-arrested/12647361/
Pinellas Realtor Got License Despite Arrests For Prostitution
I thought that was a license requirement, proof of competency for the position.
And crack cocaine and other things. Prior arrests over the last ten years. And the people who have her as their agent love her. They say “move on!”
Realtor Charged With Battery And Solicitation
http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2014/7/15/daytona_beach_commis.html
Got anything on the Sarasota, Florida market? Because locally, people are on Cloud 9 about about it and it would be such fun to see that bubble splatter.
I want a house on the gulf sand in Siesta Key. As long as it’s free. I want a sugar mama
Sorry, you’re in the position of sugar dada. Maybe you should check survivalist forums and land some prepper’s dumb young daughter.
(I’m just funnin’, but in truth it’s very feasible.)
“some prepper’s dumb young daughter”
That sounds more like marriage material than what you’ll find on a local barstool who grew up watching Sex And The City and strung out on SSRI meds
Ironically, that show has a pretty good chance of passing that Bechdel test from yersterday, where two named women have to talk to each other about something that’s not a man. I think I saw one episode of SitC. They spent 95% of the time talking to each other about men, but they did spend 5% of the time talking to each other about dieting. By that standard, SitC likes women more than Lord of the Rings.
(and even more ironically, the Lord of the Rings fanhood was a majority women — and most of them were NOT slobbering over Orlando Bloom.)
If they were like my wife, they were drooling over Strider/Aragorn…
You are going to need one, since I am expecting that free house from you any time now. With me enjoying your wealth, how else will you survive?
Here ya go. I selected it just for you. When will you move in?
http://www.dollhousecity.com/files/940865/uploaded/96KF.JPG
I don’t know if I like the neighborhood. I wouldn’t want to live among small-minded people.
Well the plumbing in the little girl’s room has a problem. Maybe this house I bought you was foreclosed on.
I wouldn’t want to live among small-minded people.
LOL—nice one.
Obama has left the building. With links to the NYT article (which is sympathetic to the weary, restless president)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-15/restless-president-weary-obligations-white-house
It’s funny that the NYT should have written that article, because I was thinking that it seems as if Obama has more or less checked out. Not that I blame him, I wouldn’t want the job myself. But if that’s the case, the least he could do is abdicate the throne.
Here’s another one checking out in the middle of a looming crisis.
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/NYC-mayor-s-plan-for-rail-strike-I-m-outta-here-5624424.php
They all had a good example in Bush.
Congress has more or less checked out, as well.
I think these politician ass-clowns really have no idea what the real duties of their positions are. I sometimes see the same thing in local politics.
This country is ripe for military takeover.
It certainly feels like post-Katrina Bush circa 2006. And I expect that if the GOP sweeps the Senate and cements its hold on the House, Speaker Boehner will declare “impeachment is off the table.” Followed by two more years under a do-nothing President and a do-nothing Congress.
Bush should have been impeached within an inch of his life, and in fact I was told by a buddy that an ex-president actually can still be impeached. But, OH NO, the medusa Pelosi and her perky “impeachment is off the table”. What a creep.
It would be impossible to impeach Obama without extensive rioting all over the country. Sad, but true. Pelosi was a wily one, I have to give her bitter props for that. She bought insurance when she took impeachment off the table for Bush. This is the price we pay.
You seem very impeachment-happy. Are there any recent presidents you wouldn’t have recommended for impeachment?
All I mentioned was Bush 2 and Obama. They’re the most recent. I wouldn’t have recommended Clinton for impeachment. Discipline, maybe, for the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Although I’d like to have a word with him for signing NAFTA.
Why the sniping?
Why the sniping?
He loves Obama. Try getting him to admit, that Federal Reserve’s policies are Obama’s policies since he appointed them.
“…that Federal Reserve’s policies are Obama’s policies since he appointed them.”
It doesn’t work that way.
But don’t let me stand in the way of your right to make ignorant comments as often as possible.
It doesn’t work that way.
Not at the micro per-decision level, clearly—but the power to appoint a Chairperson whose philosophy you agree with is definitely a strong influence into the macro-level policies of their tenure.
“Not at the micro per-decision level, clearly…”
Which, clearly, is the level of decision making referenced in ABQDan’s post.
Which, clearly, is the level of decision making referenced in ABQDan’s post.
I thought he meant at the macro policy level.
They both are treasonous globalists violating their constitutional oath, I agree that impeachment is proper.
Obama has been the best president that China could have ever had:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/16/us-markets-global-idUSKBN0FL0OP20140716
China’s GDP rose at an annual rate of 7.5%, and any talk that a large part of that is due to stimulus is garbage. China is running a budget deficit of 2.2% of its GDP. In the U.S. where if you average the two quarters, you will be lucky to have 0% growth in the GDP with a 2.8% deficit. But I guess stimulus only works in China. China’s housing crisis is due to affordability, ten percent wage increases year after year mean that even stable housing prices will cure that problem in a short time.
Speaking of garbage, saw this linked from Google News, mapping the garbage patches of the world’s oceans:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140715-ocean-plastic-debris-trash-pacific-garbage-patch/
You can take your George Soros, Tom Steyer, and Koch Brothers action figures and go battle it out in the playground sandbox, but sadly, it will not negate the irrefutable fact that infinite growth is not possible in a finite ecosystem.
The seven billion alive now are doing such a stellar job as stewards of their global ecosystem, it can only get better when their are ten, twelve, fifteen billion of them, right?
Globalization is completely depressing. One of the advantages of being a US citizen used to be the insulation from contact with the wretched refuse. I read a thread the other day by US citizen tech workers getting bogus recruitment calls from Indian recruiters. Made me sick to my stomach.
But Billy Bob, China has a handle on its population growth, the United States does not. It is not because the American public does not want ZPG or even NGP but big business and big government wants and needs population growth. Wages increase at a time of labor shortages and China once again demonstrates this fact. However, what people have not figured out is big government created two large Ponzi schemes that collapse with ZPG. Social Security and Medicare were not meant to be funded like proper pensions or health insurance, the beneficiaries do not pay what it will cost to fund their benefits. Democrats and liberal Republicans are terrified to admit the programs are nothing but Ponzi schemes since they have run on the claimed success of them for years. So they will bring in illegals despite that only making things worse in the long run since in the long run we are all dead.
P.S. W created a small Ponzi scheme in the drug benefit program showing once again he was not a conservative but a closet liberal.
No amount of “big government” is going to get all that garbage out of the ocean. Maybe 500 years from now future historians will look at the ocean garbage as a symbol of 21st century global capitalism, as this century’s most significant contribution to the world.
Stop dumping the garbage and it would vanish from view in a decade.
The problem is that the current rate of garbage in exceeds the rate of garbage out.
It was my understanding that the Chinese government’s attempts to control breeding have not worked very well. In the meanwhile, the US population is only increasing due to immigration.
It was my understanding that the Chinese government’s attempts to control breeding have not worked very well. In the meanwhile, the US population is only increasing due to immigration.
It actually has worked quite well and recently they started to make exceptions to the one child policy since they are well below replacement fertility. Yes, the US population is only increasing due to immigration and the children that born as anchor babies. That is exactly my point, the American population would like to have zero population growth for environmental and closely related quality of life issues. But the .01% deny us this so their Ponzi schemes do not implode and they might have to endure paying higher wages. The return on capital is now probably lower in China than the U.S. due to higher wages. Since the Chinese government is nationalistic it is willing to accept that return. The people running our government have no nationalistic feelings, they care only about themselves and their globalists policies.
My new Chinese neighbors with kids whose screams are audible through four walls would agree with you.
Because China wages are going to quadruple in just the blink of an eye, because the biggest credit expansion on the planet will just continue on to infinity. Then (in 30 years) all the Chinese can afford a cold water flat that is more expensive than a NYC condo.
Chinese wages are growing about 10% per year and that should continue for a number of years which means a doubling in ten years. Why should people that have an average IQ higher than the U.S. get paid far less?
Sorry doubling in seven years.
I heard that was due to inflation of that Chinese money stuff, and that the United States was gearing up to shift its production into Africa.
Still waiting for Hillary to invest her money into Africa, she was talking it up when Bill was in the White House. Watch what people do not what they say. The rich know that the average IQ is sub-Sahara Africa is 75 or below, their money will never be safe there.
Google “Bill Gates”. So if Hillary doesn’t do something, then it won’t happen? How so?
Maybe you should provide a link of Bill Gates actually investing a significant amount of his money in Africa. Sure his charitable foundation spends money in Africa but that is not an investment. I am just using Hillary as an example of a hypocrite but George Soros or Warren Buffet or many other rich supporters of Obama will work just as well. Not even Oprah invests significantly in Africa.
I heard that was due to inflation of that Chinese money stuff
I am not quote sure what you are trying to say, but if you are suggesting inflation is significantly higher in China than the U.S., it is only slightly higher significantly less than 1% difference.
China’s GDP up 7.5%, home sales up 33%, links will post soon.
http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/property-sales-surge-33-june
From one link:
Home sales in China rose 33% month-on-month in June as prices cuts by developers pulled in buyers, Bloomberg reported, citing official data released on Wednesday. The value of homes sold climbed to RMB591.2 billion (US$95.2 billion) last month from RMB446.1 billion in May, according to the difference between the National Statistics Bureau’s data for the first half of the year and the first five months. That was the biggest monthly gain this year. The value of sales in the first six months fell 9.2% to RMB2.56 trillion from a year earlier, the data showed.
Steel that would have gone to home building is now being exported:
Reuters)
Updated: 2014-07-16 14:12
Counter:
China’s daily crude steel output rose 1.8 percent in June to hit a record 2.31 million tonnes, defying any seasonal downturn in demand, data from the statistics bureau showed on Wednesday.
Total output over the month reached 69.3 million tonnes, up 4.5 percent from the same month last year but dipping 1.6 percent from May’s record high.
On an annualised basis, output amounted to 828.6 million tonnes, according to Reuters calculations, which would represent a 6.3 increase on last year.
Despite soaring environmental costs, persistent overcapacity and widespread cash shortages throughout the Chinese steel sector, output has remained strong, with little indication that mills are adjusting production rates in anticipation of a summer slowdown in demand over summer.
“The rise in new export orders together with an improvement in demand have dragged production up,” analysts at the Tangshan-based consultancy ChinaTSI.com said in a note.
However, the consultancy warned that there were no obvious signs that the increase in steel demand was being reflected by price increases, and more policy support would be needed to keep the momentum going over the next few months.
Steel product inventories fell over the course of June, according to the SteelHome consultancy, with rebar stocks SH-TOT-RBARINV dropping more than 11 percent to end the month at 5.98 million tonnes. Rebar stocks had surged to as high as 9.4 million tonnes in February.
With domestic demand still relatively weak, the sector has benefited from an improvement in exports. In the first half of the year, China sold 41 million tonnes of steel products overseas, up 33.6 percent compared to the same period of 2013.
The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) warned in a research report earlier this month that apparent steel consumption in China was rising far more slowly than production, and by May had actually declined for four consecutive months.
It said 97.2 percent of additional output over the first five months of the year was diverted into exports.
Houses are wood framed structures. There isn’t any steel.
Not in China, they build these huge buildings out of steel and concrete. As Oxide would say you are mainly buying air. Since I think you can only lease land for 70 years, it makes a bit more sense than condos in the U.S.
“As Oxide would say you are mainly buying air.”
Or is it anticipated future price gains that you are buying? (Not to suggest there is much difference between these and air…)
Who would ever want to buy Chinese air?
locally timber is exported to china where it is used as wood forms for concrete. they dont care what species it is.
I once googled for single-family homes in China for sale, just to see what a Chinese suburb would look like. Would they be a traditional pagoda, or modern shipping-container box houses… western McMansions.. corrugated metal shack slums? As it turned out, I had a hard time finding any Chinese SFH at all! It was all apartments in high-rises. Architecturally they looked like inner city projects. After some harder looking I think I did find a few SFH. The closest style was the single-story Florida or Vegas bungalow. Stucco, concrete, few windows, pathetic landscape. Even the ghost cities don’t seem to have SFH. They looked like stacked row-home style condos.
I have seen pictures of SFHs in news articles. They look like peasant-style cottages to me. Something you would see in a movie placed in the middle ages.
Those are in the country. In the cities except for a few elite areas, they are multi-story concrete buildings. But the condition of the country housing is why the peasants might want to move to the ghost cities if they could afford them. With rising incomes and stable to declining prices for the units, that will soon become possible.
Only with respect to reinforcing concrete foundations and sidewalks.
As a side note, I did see a builder a few years ago that was working with steel studs for residential–first and only time…I don’t think they are doing it anymore.
Wasn’t there a whole conversation topic just yesterday on the bubbles in China, with all sorts of great news articles collected and edited by Ben,and it turned out it was the one day of the month that AQDan didn’t have time to debate? And now Dan’s back the very next day with plenty of time to post about how China is actually booming, and wouldn’t it be great if we had an even more authoritarian government like they do? And didn’t he do the exact same thing the last time there was a conversation topic on China? What’s up with that?
∆
How did you do that?
You can copy and paste anything from the Character Map in Windows.
ʄʊɔʞ
♫♫♪♪♫♪♫♪♫♪
See? Even a donkey can do it!
k. how do u get the map?
Oчень хорошо!
Unlike you I am not paid to post and I am not able to post numerous days. Ben or anyone is free to make reference to anything discussed yesterday. However, I do not respond to posts from the day before. The information I posted is new information from today but it demonstrates the correctness of my previous arguments. China is developing just like I claimed it would. BTW Rio, did you see the paragraph in my post yesterday where it said Brazil’s development has come to a halt. That is what a low IQ population and socialism will do to a country.
Igor=Lola?
ponzi
Igor=poet?
He gores Joe.
Living the mania. The “Chinese” that you refer to having high IQs are probably Americans. I wouldn’t give a nod to any self administered intelligence surveys of the population of China. Thanks for letting us know China isn’t socialist.
What I said China is moving away from socialism while we are moving toward it. In terms of entitlements they have less than we have and no big Ponzi schemes. However, they still have plenty of SOEs so it is open to debate which country is more socialist at this point, but the directions of both economies is not.
“unlike you I am not paid to post”
Says the guy who usually posts every day all day, sometimes just to add a comma or change an “its” to an “it’s” in a previous post, to the guy who posts about once a month, usually when I’m tired of your ceaseless defense of Putin, the Chinese government, or one of our homegrown oligarchs. Dan the Oligarch Man, defender of the strong against the weak.
defender of the strong against the weak.
Igor/Lola a weak minded defender of the weak minded policies of Obama.
Lola,
Why the multiple usernames?
After you and I beat him senseless when he posts his garbage, he hides under a few other names so we cannot laugh at him.
China is a communist country.
Is that breaking news? They are becoming a capitalist country.
No, they are not.
Facts supporting that please?
http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/node_2825.htm
Constitution of the People’s Republic of China
-Preamble
-Chapter 1
That says nothing about the growth of capitalism in China. More and more of the economy is controlled by private companies and not SOEs and the SOEs are being cut back right now, it is the SOEs that produce the steel and concrete, it is the Alibabas that are the future of China and it is in private hands.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2014-04/11/content_17425928.htm
The Constitution specifically excludes capitalism as a possibility.
As of 2004 (i.e., the current rev), their preamble says this:
…
…
This is the PREAMBLE. That’s, like, the main line of thinking.
I sure it proclaims free speech in there some where too, I am not interested in what their constitution says, when they are not following it. I am interested in what they are doing which is allowing private companies and they are growing which is moving China toward a free enterprise system.
http://www.cato.org/policy-report/januaryfebruary-2013/how-china-became-capitalist
Are you telling me that you have not read their Constitution? In that case, you have no business going around acting like some sort of authority on the place.
“The information I posted is new information from today but it demonstrates the correctness of my previous arguments.”
Your posts seem increasingly fixated on supporting the correctness of your previous posts.
Brings to mind when you were assuring us of a Romney victory in 2012, based on the Rasmussen poll numbers, and claiming the Iowa Electronic Markets Election Futures were wrong. (Reminder: they weren’t — you were!).
“…and it turned out it was the one day of the month that AQDan didn’t have time to debate? And now Dan’s back the very next day with plenty of time to post about how China is actually booming, and wouldn’t it be great if we had an even more authoritarian government like they do?”
His posts remind me of my ninth grade English teacher’s redefinitions of the acronyms for academic degrees:
BS = BullSh!t
MS = More of the Same
PhD = Pile it higher and Deeper
Real journalists from the Associated Press pimp the scamnesty
Denver Post - Schools a haven for kids who crossed border alone
“America’s schools are one of the few government institutions where the children and teens coming unaccompanied across the border are guaranteed services, from science instruction to eye exams.
In school, they frequently require special resources like English language and mental health services that are already strained because of budget cuts.
In Miami, the school board voted to seek federal aid after Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said 300 foreign-born students, many from Honduras and traveling alone, enrolled toward the end of the school year. He said the district has both a “moral and legal requirement” to educate the students, some illiterate in both English and Spanish. The cost is about $1,950 more per student than it gets from the state, he said.
“They need to be fed. They need to be clothed. They need to be cared for and then taught,” Carvalho said.
“They need to be fed. They need to be clothed. They need to be cared for and then taught,” IMHO, they should get all that in Honduras or wherever.
Racist.
do you think yellen should buy some more bonds so we can feed these folks?
She is godlike, walks on water. she cares about you.
It doesn’t seem to be in your very own opinion. From what I’ve read, the near unamimous consensus is the same opinion: that this children’s crusade is an invasion. Escaping violence and bad conditions? …. by that reasoning the US should be taking in most of the Middle East and Africa, half of India and China, and the entire population of North Korea.
I’m pretty certain that Obama’s mealy-mouthed suggestions that “don’t send your kids they can’t stay here” is just going to make things worse. If there is even 1 in a 1000 chance that the kid will be one of the lucky ones to stay legally, then they will keep coming. If there is a slight chance that the kid can disappear into the US and not show up for a court date, they will keep coming. And even if every single one of the kids are are fed and medicated and then sent back within a month, then they will still keep coming, just for the one month of food and safety, and it will be advertised as such. This is going to sound ugly, but the only way this will stop is if every single one of them is thrown right back over the fence, with a significant mortality rate. That’s how far it has to go before the Central Americans will think it is better in Honduras than in the US detention centers.
This is going to sound ugly, but the only way this will stop is if every single one of them is thrown right back over the fence, with a significant mortality rate. That’s how far it has to go before the Central Americans will think it is better in Honduras than in the US detention centers.
That is ugly and is more than we need to do. However, we do not release them unless a relative outside the country claims them and then we send them to that relative not a relative within our country. Also, we arrest the parent for reckless endangerment of a child for bringing them to this country and crossing the border. They not only do not get citizenship or an anchor child in the country, they get felony convictions and time in our prison system. The flow of children would end very quickly.
P.S. to me this analogy applies. We are in a life raft that only can hold ten people and we have ten people in the raft already. I do not hate that eleventh person that wants to get in the raft, but under no circumstances do I allow the eleventh person on board particularly if I have family on board. End of the discussion, the border needs to be closed for the good of all Americans of every race.
We would arrest an American parent in a heart beat for putting his or her child on the top of a cargo train. Why should we treat illegals any differently? The first lesson every immigrant legal or illegal should understand, is if you live in this country you abide by our standards not your home countries. Whether it is genital mutilation or honor killing, we will not tolerate it even if it is the norm in your country.
I agree with oxide on this one. This is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen happen in the US. Unfortunately it has to be countered with hard-hearted actions, because that’s the only thing that will work.
One wants to be compassionate, but at the same time, one has to realize that these “children” are being used for underhanded purposes. Some of them are ticking biological bombs. Wait’ll school gets cranked up in August/September.
Oh, and BTW, there is already some sort of weird upper respiratory/flu thing on the loose here in Florida, something that’s not usually seen until the fall. After having spoken to enough people who’ve been felled by this thing, myself included, you start to wonder why the MSM is so quiet about it. Not so much as a peep, just a sensational story about a guy who picked up a prairie dog plague in Colorado.
After reading something like that, one begins to wonder if that story will be used as cover for the illnesses that are being unleashed. Blame the prairie dogs!
I like the one internet pundit (Mickey Kaus) who calls Obama “El Coyote”. Priceless.
I knew we start seeing stories like this, thanks Obama:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/07/16/Exclusive-Released-Alien-from-Border-Crisis-Arrested-For-Alleged-Murder-Kidnapping-in-Texas
Excerpt, is it Obama’s Willie Horton’s moment?
A U.S. Border Patrol source who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity provided Breitbart Texas with the alien registration number for the man, and the event number for the man’s apprehension. He was processed in the McAllen station of the U.S. Border Patrol. The alien’s registration number is 202027386. The event number for his apprehension is MCS14061487. The “MCS” designates the McAllen station, the “1406” designates that the man was apprehended in June of 2014. A separate Border Patrol source confirmed that the man was apprehended on June 26, 2014 with two children he claimed were his own. He told U.S. authorities he had family in Metairie, Louisiana.
The AP identified the illegal alien as a “suburban New Orleans man” who faces a second-degree murder charge after his girlfriend was found bludgeoned to death in a bathtub in Louisiana. The man was arrested in a Katy, Texas trailer park with three children. It is unclear if the are his or if they are the same children he used to get U.S. authorities to release him with a Notice to Appear.
The AP did not inform their readers that the man was an illegal alien.
Mexican cartels, hard at work in the US.
http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/f127ad9b105244549b6d9f9781e5da38/US–Kidnapping-Rescue-Drugs
The vic is identified as a “South Carolina man”. Whenever I see this in such a story, I just know he’s probably from somewhere outside the US. Human vomit. Wish they’d gotten him.
‘ That’s how far it has to go before the Central Americans will think it is better in Honduras than in the US detention centers.’
Can’t we just buy Honduras with crowd-funding sources? Turn the country into a tourist mecca with the ever-expanding real estate maw theory. Everyone wants to live in Central America.
http://www.remax-caribbeanislands.com/all-properties-in-honduras?_vsrefdom=p.2561&gclid=CIjc0vLUyr8CFSYV7AodZyYA6Q
This is why I laugh when globalists admonish the US for having “high illiteracy”. The illiterates are almost exclusively foreign-born, and mostly illegal. But don’t worry, we can and will teach the world to read (and sing, and we will feed the children, and police the world, and no one else in the world will help us, but everyone’s problems are all our fault).
Some good news from MarketWatch, they report that revenue for tattoo removals has surged 440% over the last decade.
LOLZ to all the circus freak loosers with full sleeves. You are pushing 35, your punk band never made it big, and you work in a call center. Maybe if you can cough up $20,000 to remove the tattoos that cost $1,000, you’ll get a real job someday.
And to the ladies with full-back murals and tattooed thighs, there’s a reason you’re not married, and why guys stop returning your texts after they sleep with you once
I see these old women all tatted up and just laugh.
Some of these dudes out there even got a tramp stamp.
hows the market in denver? make any offers lately?
The other day I saw what looked like a grandmother (could’ve been the meth) sporting green hair, and a dude well past middle age cruising along on a skateboard.
What an infantile people we are becoming, as debauched as our currency.
What an infantile people we are becoming, as debauched as our currency.
What a judgemental people we are becoming, as well—or maybe we always have been.
I have friends who still skateboard; come to think of it, riding bicycles used to be just for kids too, at least in the US.
Oh wait, soccer too—totally a kids sport in the US, now suddenly of interest to a larger fraction of the population as an adult sport.
Where is the harm in letting our expectations of adulthood vs childhood activities evolve over time?
I have friends who still skateboard; come to think of it, riding bicycles used to be just for kids too, at least in the US.
I do too, actually. A few of them live right over near you
A few of them live right over near you
“LOLZ to all the circus freak loosers with full sleeves.”
Otherwise known as the ‘pool of first time home buyers’…
BINGO!
That’s been my observation since 2007.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=30k%20millionaire
I’ve noticed long time ago the young $30k millionaires around the Newport Coast (in California) driving their Boxsters.
there’s a reason you’re not married, and why guys stop returning your texts after they sleep with you once
So…. you’re ok with sleeping with them, tattoos and all, but will then use the tattoo as an excuse not to actually get involved with them?
How convenient for you.
They’re all yours to involve yourself with.
Sorry this generation thinks it has changed everything but it has not changed human behavior one bit. The saying “why buy the cow when the milk is free” is just applicable today as it was when we were waging WWI.
Why marry a large male child when you can support yourself in style with much less fuss?
I find that women like large males. They are willing to overlook a lot of political opinions if you are one.
“I find that women like large males. They are willing to overlook a lot of political opinions if you are one.”
If you are talking about weight / muscular, I think you are right. It’s part of the idea that many women are very heavyset these days and they don’t like it if a man weighs less than them. I think a lot of women don’t want men under 190 lbs for that reason.
At my heaviest I was 195 lbs and these days I’m down to 165 lbs at 5′10″. I like having a narrow body like a swimmer / road biker. It’s about efficiency. In my 20s I wanted to be big like Arnold. Got to where I was curling 100 lbs. Tore up my forearms. Evolved out of that to just wanting to be able to run circles around the big lumbering oafs.
I was being even more sarcastic than that.
However, I think you are right about your point. When I was younger I had a much slimmer body since I was a runner. Now, I spend more time in the gym and have a more muscular body and women like it much more. I felt healthy both ways but there is no question which body type most woman prefer.
Damn Hundred Dollar Bill….. I haven’t been 195lbs in 20 years. I think I better lay off the Cheetos.
Hey there is a call center across the hall from my company’s office. Probably some of those gals in there have the tramp stamps…
Spend some time in NYC. In particular Queens and Crooklyn. If she isn’t stamped, she she’s older than 90.
do u have a tramp stamp?
Amy/$hithousePoet… Cheetos. MOVE.
You need to stop being so selfish and go “man up” and marry one of them, preferably one with 4 kidz by 4 different babydaddies.
Celebrate diversity and find one that has children of all colors.
Not sure. A couple of them are bull dozer-sized. There is one or two normal sized (height commensurate with waist - whatever the frick happened to that type of bragging right?)
The tattooed 50-year-olds are all married. To tattooed losers.
On this board the correct spelling is loosers.
I’ll bet this has more to do with people having a bit more money than people suddenly feeling regret for a bad tattoo (or any tattoo for that matter).
If they interviewed the folks getting tattoo’s removed, I wonder what they would say about the TIMING of the removal (why now?).
Corporate America continues its M&A binge - gotta bump up that executive compensation and “shareholder value” at the expense of countless lost living-wage jobs and more “efficiencies” (translation: exhausted workers forced to do more work for eroding pay and purchasing power in the corporatocracy’s “economic recovery.” So with all the lost jobs and job insecurity going forward, who exactly is going to be buying homes?
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/07/16/how-todays-ma-frenzy-paves-the-way-for-a-jobs-crisis/
Meanwhile, in Europe, markets seem to be discounting the possibility that the Ukraine crisis could escalate to dangerous levels. Ukraine also has massive foreign debts and a looted treasury (thanks to its larcenous oligarchs that have run the place into the ground).
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/16/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0FL0K020140716
ca adopts 500.00 water wasters fee and criminal charges for those who waste water.
But is does everything it is power to encourage illegals into this country. Droughts come and go, but the increased population of California due to illegals will overtax the water supply forever.
Ah, but it’s the Democrat supermajority that matters above all else, depleted resources and overpopulation be damned.
I don’t know how you guys can stand it out there. We had three inches of rain in the DC area yesterday.
Actually, NM has been getting ample rain for weeks now. A drought is just too many sunny days in row. It is not as hard to take as you might imagine although we do appreciate the recent rains.
Everyone submit your crater-tater recipes.
- Pies
- Pastas
- Salads
- Casseroles
- Drinks
- Ice creams
- Sauces
- You name it
Bonus points for dishes that are served in bags.
BWAHAHAHA!
Realtor® ramen thirty days a month for debt donkey loanowners.
And on the day after they pay the minimums on their maxed-out credit cards, a family trip to Applebee’s. Which contrary to the National Association of Realtors-sponsored posts on this blog, there is no wait time for a table.
Donkcicle Recipe
Ingredients:
One part crater taters
One part honey-do
One part realtuRd
One box of stupid
Equipment:
One money extractor
Supplies:
Several money bags
Sticks
1) Use box of stupid to power money extractor.
2) Use money extractor to siphon money from bags. Send to Mr. Banker.
3) Mix crater taters, honey-do, and realturd together.
4) Pour mixture into empty bags.
5) Place sticks into Donkcicle mixture and freeze, ensuring that Donk mixture is firmly stuck.
6) Encourage Donks to consume Donkcicles by hanging them near mortgage contracts and dangling pens.
Since we have a few posters from Montana:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/15/how-can-you-tell/#more-113022
Excerpt:
However, until today I’ve never in my life seen a cattleguard at a freeway entrance … must be cowboy country. However, the best guide to whether it’s cowboy country or not are the want ads … here were some clues from today’s local newspaper:
• The first three sections in the want ad of the local paper are “Horses”, “Livestock”, and “Pets”. Don’t want to waste time going through ads for furniture to get to the good stuff, I guess.
• The largest section in the want ads is “Farm and Ranch Equipment” … followed closely by “Guns”.
• The first two ads in the “Miscellaneous For Sale” section of the local paper are for sausage stuffing machines … definitely cowboy country.
• There are advertisements like “LIFE SIZE Tom Mountain Lion Mounted on a Rock $550″.
• The “Homes For Sale” section of the want ads includes trailers.
• You can be sure that you’re in cowboy country when the “Antiques” section of your newspaper offers you the unparalleled opportunity to buy an “Antique Manure Spreader, Built Early 1900″, for only $800 …
“Antique Manure Spreader”
It’s an old printout of a Drudge link.
“until today I’ve never in my life seen a cattleguard at a freeway entrance … must be cowboy country”
Imagine if Wal-Mart put a cattle guard in the entrances of their stores.
They’d lose a lot of business wouldn’t ya think?
They would just ride one of those electric scooters that stores seem to be giving out so fat people can get around the stores. I pity someone who has a genuine disability since they all seem to be taken by the over 400 pound crowd.
“However, until today I’ve never in my life seen a cattleguard at a freeway entrance … must be cowboy country.”
A co-worker was riding his motorcycle to work close to midnight for the grave-shift, and he struck a cow; dark, never saw it. Killed the cow, and he had broken his pelvis. Then a drunken driver ran over him while he lay injured in the roadway breaking his back and legs and dragging him a short distance. His one-piece ballistic riding suit kept his limbs intact, likely saved his life.
A farm worker had forgotten to close a swinging gate.
After New Yorker magazine offered a fawning depiction of Janet Yellen as a benevolent champion of the common man, the blogosphere is afire with citizen-journalists (who can still tell the truth) calling out Yellen for what she is: a larcenous toady for Wall Street and the .01%.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/yellen-tells-whoppers.html
attention: Investor seeks bird dog for the prime sacramento market
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/reo/4548016641.html
+1 Have to steal that image. Funny.
TBP: Applications for mortgages to purchase a house are 17% below last years level. They are 30% below levels in 2009/2010 during the depths of the recession. They are 12% below the level of 2012 when national home prices bottomed out.
Can Bubbles Yellen explain this?
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/07/16/can-bubbles-yellen-explain-this/
I love headline manipulation:
“June Sales Volume Lowest Since 2008″
(unspoken–non-distressed transactions are the highest since 2007)
–Property sales down 5.2% year on year
(unspoken–non-distressed sales are up 10% year on year)
https://www.propertyradar.com/reports/real-property-report-california-june-2014
Is the monthly data good? Or bad?
Bad. The sales are the lowest since 2008. I do not know why this is even a difficult question. The fact that there are fewer distressed sales is not really important in sales volume, it might have some importance in sales price but not in a bullish way. You would expect housing prices to be up since they are no longer being depressed by distressed sales, the fact that in some areas the prices are down even with few distressed sales is rather ominous in my opinion.
Wait, isn’t fewer foreclosures/short sales a good thing?
This is CA data, and home prices per Zillow are up year-on-year in every metro? Is the data still ominous to you?
So, if volumes being down year-on-year (being a combination of non-distressed up 10% and distressed down 43%) is bad, is the opposite good? (volumes being up year-on-year with non-distressed down 10%, and distressed up 43%)
Or can the market ONLY be considered “good” (improving) if both distressed AND non-distressed sales are up combined?
Funny thing is, if these trends continue (non-distressed sales being up year on year, and distressed sales flattening out month-to-month), sales volumes will be up overall year on year by year-end…will the market then be “good”/improving (even though it is a continuation of a trend that has been going on since at least mid-2013)?
Should be a statement of fact regarding home prices…Zillow reports them UP year on year in every CA metro.
Sorry R._Fraud.
Zillow: Monterey County CA Housing Demand Plunges 20% YoY As Prices Resume Cratering Down 5%
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Monterey-County-home-value/r_2444/#metric=mt%3D18%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D2444%26el%3D0
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Monterey-County-home-value/r_2444/#metric=mt%3D34%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D2444%26el%3D0
Median list price doesn’t factor in the change in mix, nor does it reflect what similar homes sold for a year ago.
Zillow estimates like-homes have increased in value almost 20% year on year.
A “Zillow estimate” isn’t a market parameter. list price is.
1. List price is the most irrelevant
2. Their estimate is based on sales of like homes
3. Here is the median of sold homes (which I think is second worst, but still better than list)
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Monterey-County-home-value/r_2444/#metric=mt%3D19%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D2444%26el%3D0
1. Wrong- “Zestimates” and “values” are the most irrelevant.
2. Invoking “values” diminishes what little credibility you have on the subject.
3. List price is the best indicator of the direction of prices. And right now, list prices are falling.
Here are list prices falling YoY
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Monterey-County-home-value/r_2444/#metric=mt%3D18%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D2444%26el%3D0
By the way, not that you would care, but I don’t consider this report “good”, but I don’t consider it “bad”. I think it’s “OK” generally and shows foreclosures continuing to be cleared through the system in CA.
It’s called collapsing demand R._Fraud.
The only number that is collapsing is the number of distressed transactions.
California Housing Demand Plunges 12% YoY; Now At 10 Year Lows And Falling
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-home-value/r_9/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D14%26r%3D9%26el%3D0
Sorry R.Fraud.
http://effectivedemand.typepad.com/ed/2014/07/explaining-effective-demand-with-productive-capacity.html
“Real GDP is now very close to the effective demand limit.
Footnote: Loose monetary policy is trying to push firms to utilize labor & capital beyond the natural effective demand limit, but they really can’t go there according to the explanation above.”
Monterey County CA Housing Demand Plunges 20% YoY As Prices Resume Cratering Down 5%
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Monterey-County-home-value/r_2444/#metric=mt%3D18%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D2444%26el%3D0
Keep slashing junkies. Lets see which one of you can get ahead of the declines first.
Contra Costa County, CA Housing Demand Nosedives 17% YoY; Prices Sink 3% As Sellers Panic And Slash Prices
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Contra-Costa-County-home-value/r_3159/#metric=mt%3D18%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D3159%252C51518%252C16780%252C26751%26el%3D0
f r a u d
This makes you angry huh $hitHousePoet.
http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/listed-loans.aspx?post=242c5280-99ac-48fe-a53d-a5234017c56b
Florida foreclosures are rising.
Region VIII checking in.
Roger, your drone confirms your location.
STEVE MILLER BAND LYRICS (sort of)
“Living In The U.S.A.”
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in Region IV
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in Region IV
Where are you goin’ to
What are you gonna do
Do you think that it will be easy
Do you think that it will be pleasin’, hey
Living in Region IV
Come on Bammy, Owwww
I see a yellow man, a brown man
A white man, a red man
Lookin’ for Uncle Sam
To give you a helpin’ hand
But everybody’s kickin’ sand
Even politicians
We’re living in Pilosi land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in Region IV
Don’t worry ’bout me, NSA
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in Region IV
Living in Region IV
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the Region IV
I got to be free
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in Region IV
Come on try it, you can buy it, you can leave it next week, yeah
Somebody give me a cheeseburger
Living in the U.S.A- Steve Miller Band - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHRmNhGHbyQ - 166k -
Region X checking in.
HOUSE DEM LEADER PELOSI FLIP FLOPS ON DEPORTATIONS
Democrat withdrew support after Republicans balked at huge funding request
by INFOWARS.COM | JULY 16, 2014
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat leader of the House of Representatives, on Wednesday said she now backs an unlimited influx of illegal child immigrants into the United States from Central America.
Pelosi had earlier said she would support changes to a Bush-era law expediting the deportation of children in exchange for Republican backing of Obama’s emergency $3.7 billion request for a government response to the unprecedented flood of underaged immigrants. The law was initially designed to address sex trafficking.
The California Democrat withdrew support after Republicans balked at the huge funding request. House Republicans characterized the funding as a “blank check” without any change in policy.
“I do think the bill that was introduced is exactly the wrong way to go,” Pelosi said. “Is the only immigration bill we’re going to have one that hurts children?”
She said the Congressional Hispanic Caucus stands against changing the law and the House Democrat caucus will follow their lead.
“This crisis is an opportunity to demonstrate who we are as a country,” Ms. Pelosi added.
Long Island fishmonger defrauds Feds of $116,000, goes to prison. Wall Street defrauds taxpayers of trillions, gets obscene bonuses and golden parachutes while Holder explains prosecuting the TBTF banks might risk “systemic” damage to our [fraudulent] financial system.
http://news.yahoo.com/n-y-fish-dealer-pleads-guilty-underreporting-fluke-221641999.html
AEP seems to think Old Yellen intends to stop debasing the dollar. I disagree, as sound money as never been a priority to the Fed. Unless, of course, having convinced the retail muppets to “buy stawks” in a reach for yield under ZIRP, the proles can now be led to the slaughter as Goldman Sachs, et al. do a 180 and short this Ponzi market right into the ground.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10972348/Fed-kicks-off-global-dollar-squeeze-as-Janet-Yellen-turns-hawkish.html
isnt the FEDs main objective to keep the banks and pretend to care about the serfs?
Collecting interest on printed cash is hard work.
the UK Subs - I Live In A Car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FxwEORDeng
the Clash - The Clash (entire album)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussg70G61wU
The Specials - “Ghost Town.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI
the Who - Let’s See Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yGLB9fvu3w
This isn’t about New York or Chicago, it’s about asking yourself if you really are where you want to be in your life.
Think about it for a little while…
The inflation (soon to be hyperinflation) that Yellen refuses to acknowledge, especially for essentials, is accelerating.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/if-this-keeps-up-they-will-have-to-start-putting-armed-guards-on-food-trucks
FREE LUXURY RESORT FOR ILLEGALS HAS $1000+ ROOMS FOR RENT
Obama administration funds hotel for undocumented immigrants
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | JULY 16, 2014
UPDATE: Plans for $50 million resort for illegals canceled
A luxury Texas resort hotel set to be transformed into a facility to house illegal immigrants as a result of a $50 million dollar contract awarded by the Obama administration also has rooms to rent for over $1000 dollars a day.
“The Palm Aire Hotel and Suites is set to be sold to Baptist Child & Family Services (BCFS) operating under a federal contract, pending local government approval, according to reports from Weslaco, Texas where the hotel is located. Weslaco is a few miles north of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County,” reports Gateway Pundit.
The hotel will be transformed into a 600 bed facility for juvenile illegal immigrants by October 1st, with the standard of accommodation for such a purpose being described as the “first in the nation.”
The resort includes an Olympic size swimming pool, free cable and wi-fi, tennis courts, jacuzzis, sauna, steam room, two racquetball courts, and a large fitness center.
The hotel’s website also offers meeting rooms to rent for over $1000 dollars a day. The resort has a 93% approval rating on Expedia.
BCFS will employ 650 people to run the newly transformed facility, which will also serve as a hospital emergency room.
Meanwhile, the drought in the western US continues to intensify. Bullish for housing, right?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-16/20-signs-terrible-drought-western-us-starting-become-catastrophic
Bah! Arizona beats California no droughts!
This was written in 2012.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/20120719us-drought-arizona-endures-15th-year.html
Make that 17th year of drought in AZ.
Yet people still moving to AZ. I moved there 19 years ago.
“#3 In a desperate attempt to conserve water, the state of California is considering banning watering lawns and washing cars. Once implemented, violators will be slapped with a $500 fine for each offense.”
Would they shutdown the big drive-through car-wash outfits?
Would they shutdown the big drive-through car-wash outfits?
Oh, of course not—those outfits are probably lobbying for the ban, with an exception for themselves, to drive business their direction.
Kudos to people who have the knowledge and temerity to say what needs to be said when it needs saying.
“Sell your biggest stock gains and move proceeds to your brokerage”
How’s that?
- I forgot who to credit that quote to
This guy is a breath of fresh air in a world full of academic prostitutes.
Subsidizing Mortgage Debt Does More Harm Than Good
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
July 15, 2014
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh is the director of the Center for Real Estate Finance Research at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Housing policy in the United States strongly favors homeownership, and it does so by subsidizing mortgage debt. Programs like the mortgage interest rate deduction and guarantees on mortgages bought and securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae cost the taxpayer about $200 billion in lost tax revenues each year. These policies are highly regressive, benefiting the rich with expensive houses much more than those with average homes, and amplifying inequality in society. The financial crisis illustrated the risks of policies subsidizing mortgage debt, with many households taking on mortgages they could only service as long as house prices continued to go up and they stayed employed.
Surely there are benefits to home ownership. Some proponents cite the “forced savings” aspect that comes with building wealth in a home. That is not only a paternalistic perspective, but also one that is belied by historical price appreciation rates on homes far lower than those on other risky assets, and by the 31.7 percent collapse between 2007 and 2012 in American repeat home sale prices during the Great Recession. Others cite social benefits such as more civic engagement found in areas with higher home ownership. But correlation is not causation. The problem with studying the relationship between home ownership and, say, school quality is that most areas with good schools not only have high homeownership rates but also residents with better education and higher income. This makes it impossible to infer whether it is ownership rather than high income or parental education that causes the better school quality.
Absent a dictator who randomly decides who becomes an owner and who becomes a renter, we lack a clean experiment that varies homeownership without varying household and building characteristics. The unfavorable cost-benefit tradeoff of stimulating homeownership via mortgage subsidies is born out in an international comparison. The U.S. does not score better in terms of homeownership rates, mortgage rates or housing market stability, despite having a bigger governmental footprint in housing than any other developed nation.
Given the evidence, U.S. society would benefit from a more balanced housing policy that puts equal weight on rental and home ownership assistance programs. On the ownership side, we need a policy that stimulates the accumulation of home equity, for example through down payment assistance, rather than mortgage debt. We should cut the benefits for the rich by lowering the limit below which Fannie and Freddie can purchase mortgages (or phase out these government-sponsored enterprises altogether as I have argued in “Guaranteed To Fail“), by capping the mortgage interest rate deductibility, and by focusing efforts on first-time buyers.
…
“Given the evidence, U.S. society would benefit from a more balanced housing policy that puts equal weight on rental and home ownership assistance programs.”
On second thought, how about scrapping U.S. housing assistance programs, PERIOD?
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/26032943/hiddencash-to-pay-for-park-trampled-by-money-hunt
‘Now Jason Buzi, the Bay Area real estate investor behind the cash giveaways, says he will pay for the damage.’
July 16, 2014, 4:03 p.m. EDT
U.S. stocks gain; Dow sets 15th record of the year
Biotech, small-cap stocks under selling pressure
By Anora Mahmudova and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
[Editor’s note: A prior version of this story contained an incorrect Tuesday close for the Dow industrials, and also gave an incorrect reporting day for Citigroup Inc.]
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record level on Wednesday for the 15th time this year, as better-than-expected corporate earnings and deal talk lifted broader markets.
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which said that economic conditions and labor markets showed improvement across the country into early July, gave stocks a late lift.
…