Bits Bucket for July 30, 2014
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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
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Noticing a lot of commenters from the USA working in China, etc. Your actions are directly responsible for the problems in the USA. Do not try to deny it. I look at you as traitors.
Carpet baggers more like it.
Obama refugees?
You’re one of the traitors, pimp boy. Why don’t you get out of here and move to China? Hurry, please…
ABQDan is a bootstrapping American individualist who supports his man Teabilly Ted Cruz.
Not a traitor.
I’ve only ever seen one commenter, Carl Morris, discuss working in China.
There are traitors a lot closer to home than that, though. People who suck up to illegals for example, hiring them for landscaping, yard work, cleaning, etc. Or buying produce from them. Or support amnesty.
I agree with all that you say but reject that previous attack on people like Carl. Hate the game not the player. It is the governmental policies such as open borders and giving China WTO status that caused the mess. Carl cannot be blamed for attempting to hang on to his job. It is the globalists and their supporters that destroyed the US not Carl. P.S. I meant that past tense, it is over. China may not produce the prosperity we achieved for its citizens but it is China’s century now, unless we deport 11 million illegals and institute the 1920’s progressives’ policy of eugenics. I do not see that happening.
All I said was that Carl Morris was the only commenter I ever noticed who discussed working in China.
The truth is, if anyone is going to finger someone as a traitor, I sincerely hope they’ve never purchased something made in China, including driving a car with parts made in China, or typing out their comments on a computer with parts made in China.
The previous attack was from the previous commentator not you.
Equating using a product made in China with working and shipping jobs to China is a major stretch. Many, many people do NOT want a product made in China, but have no other choice. Show me ONE computer that has no Chinese parts. Ooopsie, guess I can’t use the computer anymore. Pfffft…
China’s century from China Daily:
BEIJING - China plans to help about 100 million people without urban ID records to settle in towns and cities by 2020, as part of reforms to phase out its dual-household registration system, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said on Wednesday.
It issued a circular aimed at accelerating reform of the nation’s household registration, or “hukou,” system.
The document said the government will remove the limits on hukou registration in townships and small cities, relax restrictions in medium-sized cities, and set qualifications for registration in big cities.
The rights and benefits of residents who do not have urban ID records in the city where they live should be safeguarded, the document added.
Your right, ABQShill. The game is over, so all of us should just accept it and give up. Very demoralizing comment; it is manipulative and well-rehearsed.
“…it is China’s century now, unless we deport 11 million illegals and institute the 1920’s progressives’ policy of eugenics. I do not see that happening.”
Either we adopt ABQDan’s Hitleresque eugenics policy or else the 21st century is China’s.
Gotta love black-and-white thinkers!
Add to the list firms domiciled in the good ol USA but selling their wares in China and may I remind you all - the Middle East. As an architect and due to the downturn here in the States - my bretheren have turned into the prostitutes for China just to keep people employed and their doors open here at home. I can’t argue with that desire - it is a noble thing to do - survive - but at what cost? The deal is that we now witness intellectual capital that has left our shores allowing the great horde the benefit of decades of struggle here to benefit them over there with little skin in the game. This is nothing short of criminal in my mind, amoral at best.
+1 FWIW, I enjoy hearing from the lurkers.
China is a dump and is going to crater before the vast majority of its citizens ever taste a real middle class lifestyle. Not jealous of anyone who has to work there. Would’ve even be in my top 50 non-US countries to live.
Would’ve even be in my top 50 non-US countries to live. Living in mainland China will never feel like life as we know it
Living abroad in mainland China will never feel like a real home (unless you are Chinese).
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
Fetch me some Cheetos woman!
Amy, fetch me some Chinese women.
Working in real estate will never feel like a real job.
^^ this
sh@t or get off the pot folks. 10 years sitting around worrying about home prices is not solving anything. Its time for a commitment to a house.
Why buy when you can rent for half the monthly cost? Buy later after prices crater for 65% less.
Most people today will commit to a house when their parents die…..see easy solution..free house!
Have you seen the ads for reverse mortgages? A lot of young people are going to receive a surprise.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this one. Who owns the house when it’s all done? If my understanding is right, a reverse mort. is basically structured like an annuity, so even if you’re gone within the first year or two, the whole remainder of the banana goes to the counter party, right?
Let’s ask Fred Thompson, I’m sure he’ll fill us in. Geez, to think I supported his run for prez. at one point…
My understanding that it’s just like an ever-increasing line of credit, but with the risk that the lender over-lends is squarely on the lender.
If you die after a year or two, and sell the house, after the debt is repaid, whatever is left goes to the owners of the house (the heirs).
My dad frequently warns his friends (mainly in their 60’s and 70’s) against reverse mortgage, but actually recommended it in one case. Kids in their 60’s had an elderly parent in poor health, and they were having trouble finding a way to pay for her care. The main asset was the mother’s house (free and clear). They reverse mortgaged that house to pay for in-home care for their mom. She lived a year or two additional. After she passed away, they settled with the lender (how, I don’t know) and still owned the house.
That is my understanding but I have not researched it.
I’d be curious to see the future valuation assumptions (regarding the underlying real estate asset) that the banks base their actuarial calculations on!
Something tells me their estimations are nowhere near as rosy as the official line from the PTB on the future of housing prices though.
Your point holds in either event - there are a lot of future surprises ahead, regarding the amount of recoverable equity to be inherited, after the elders pass on.
After she passed away, they settled with the lender (how, I don’t know) and still owned the house.
I imagine the devil will be in the details of the settlement. Online & media coverage of reverse mortgages hardly ever mentions details.
Assuming that you have no siblings and your parents aren’t in hock.
And that Medicaid does not pursue estate recovery to pay for the nursing home.
Ox thats why you have a serious talk with your parents and transfer the house way before you need help…….most states its 5 years…..right or wrong its the law.
But it means you all have to stay solvent…..no one can file for BK because it would affect the other owners…
My sister and her husband seemed to do quite well,
Bought themselves three houses which they cannot sell.
Renting to a drug dealer on Section 8,
Landlordship is hell on earth, so glad I can’t relate!
+1 Didn’t realize you were also a poet.
GDP out at 4%, dollar has spiked, however they have not noticed the large jump in inventories which will depress growth going forward. A private measure of job creation, shows virtually all growth in the services sector. Those 29 hour, minimum wage jobs are be creating in droves.
Part time workers are not very happy;
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CBsQqQIoADAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloombergview.com%2Farticles%2F2014-07-29%2Fwhy-being-a-part-time-worker-is-miserable&ei=O_zYU-b0J6OLiwKPloGYAg&usg=AFQjCNFZ8t2-a1h1jiaHvISI-733As-2CQ&sig2=5SfFj35PLlMbhMrjtltr_A&bvm=bv.71778758,d.cGE
And look at what happened immediately today to long term Treasury rates on this news.
Just a whiff of real recovery at any point (and I’m not even sure that this GDP print is one) will cause mortgage rates to skyrocket. There is no real structural recovery ahead for housing, no matter what they manage to do with the numbers.
Region VIII checking in
http://www.infowars.com/if-ebola-hits-u-s-even-healthy-americans-will-be-quarantined/
Ebola Center Run by Americans Closed After Disturbances
“The nonprofit groups that employed two American citizens who contracted Ebola in Africa have closed a Liberia treatment center over civil disturbances, and plan to evacuate 60 people because of the disease risk.
The incident in Foya isn’t an isolated case. In Sierra Leone, relatives of patients are refusing to let medical staff treat them, making it difficult to reduce the number of new infections, Brima Kargbo, the country’s chief medical officer, said in an interview. Families have also been attacking doctors, he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-29/mom-trusting-god-for-ebola-infected-u-s-doctor-s-life.html
It’s absurd that we spend resources trying to help these people.
You have a disease with a 90% death rate, no vaccine, and a nasty way to go, and you just want to bug out and let it spread? The possibility of someone bribing his way out to a “safe” country and hopping a flight to anywhere is very high.
Ebola doesn’t exist in civilization.
Yet. Neither did HIV until it did.
“You have a disease with a 90% death rate, no vaccine, and a nasty way to go, and you just want to bug out and let it spread?”
Diseases which kill efficiently with 90% death rates have a hard time spreading, as they offer few transmission opportunities. The exception would be diseases with asymptomatic carriers. Not sure whether Ebola fits this description.
Note by way of contrast that HIV kills its host slowly and the transmission mechanism in human populations leads to rapid spread of the disease among exposed populations (gay males, IV drug users) who don’t take adequate precautions (e.g. condoms, clean needles).
VA Officials Will Get Millions of Dollars in Bonuses Under House-Senate Agreement, The Blaze
A House-Senate agreement on how to reform the broken Department of Veterans Affairs will let the VA hand out up to $360 million in bonuses to its employees each year, even though the House voted just weeks ago to strip all VA bonuses through 2016.
The compromise bill announced Monday by the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees says VA bonuses will be capped at $360 million annually for the next ten years. But that cap is just 10 percent below the $400 million in bonuses the VA has distributed in recent fiscal years, and will allow up to $3.6 billion in bonuses to be awarded over the next decade.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/29/va-officials-will-get-millions-of-dollars-in-bonuses-under-house-senate-agreement/
There is no justification for this. Is there any to stop this?
There is no justification for this. Is there any to stop this?
I agree there is no justification for bonuses or pensions paid to public employees, excepting perhaps pensions paid to retired military personnel. Make sure no incumbents win re-election. Repeat as necessary. Fat chance any of this will happen. Insiders rule!
War on coal or war on ratepayers:
CNSNews.com) - For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Before this June, the highest the average price for a KWH had ever gone was 13.7 cents, the level it hit in June, July, August and September of last year.
We have the lowest electricity prices in the country, and thanks to the lack of warmist warming this summer, I have the lowest electric bills I’ve ever had in the summer months, even with running the air-conditioning with the windows open.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/30/list-of-excuses-for-the-pause-now-up-to-29/#more-113709
As they say, if you cannot explain the pause, you cannot explain the cause.
Warmists gonna warm, Dannyboy.
All the Drudge link clicks in the world won’t stop them from warming.
Better hurry up and warm since co2 increases every year but no measurable warming is occurring. All the models are wrong at this point even the ones projecting the lowest amount of warming.
It actually make things worse. The data centers hosting hundreds of those wacky websites consume a lot of power.
running the air-conditioning with the windows open.
Please close your windows! My tomatoes are ripening 3 weeks late. It’s too cold here.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/average-price-electricity-climbs-all-time-record
Did anyone else watch PBS Frontline last night (”Losing Iraq”). I had no idea how much animosity there was between the boots on the ground commanders in Iraq and the Bush Administration. Frontline’s program is 90 minutes with lengthy interviews with Generals Keane, Franks, Odierno, Petraeus, and a bunch of others I’m forgetting, as well as other officers and of course Paul Bremer. It walks you through everything from the day Saddam was toppled to where things stand today–a good overview of the ups and downs.
The thing I really took away from it was how divorced from reality the people in the WH were, particularly in the Bush admin but also in the Obama admin. With the Bush admin, it was almost like they were intent on overruling the boots on the ground people. I never knew that Tommy Franks basically said “fuck this” and walked away, turning down Rumsfeld’s and W’s pleas to stay and carry out their orders. Also never knew that Bremer identified the sectarian problems early on and was forced into a bunch of idiotic decisions by his puppermasters in DC–laying off the entire Iraqi army, imprisoning large numbers of male Iraqis at a notorious Saddam Hussein torture prison which radicalized many of them (Abu Ghraib), forcing Sunnis out of “government jobs” even if their jobs were as teachers, cops, professors, nurses, and “transitioning power” to al Malaqi (sp?) who was an obscure Shia politician at the time. The WH also demanded the State Dept draw down during this time as well, so 10,000 state dept employees left and were replaced by contractors (no idea what that was supposed to achieve?). There’s a lot of footage about the hell that broke loose in Fallujah around that time.
One last thought that drove me nuts–I had no idea that Petraeus achieved relative “peace” in the ‘08 timeframe by paying huge sums of money to Sunni insurgents. In the Frontline doc, you see US officers meeting with insurgents who had been killing/maiming servicemen just days prior, and counting out huge stacks of bills. Hundreds of thousands, millions in some cases. It’s in the video at length and Petraeus defends it at some length.
As far as Obama, OK he didn’t want to be in Iraq to begin with, but it seems like he let his disgust with al Malaki carry over into his decisions. He decided “we’re getting out of there” and he carried it out, but I think many reasonable people would’ve been OK with withdrawing a little more slowly. Withdrawing more slowly doesn’t mean you supported the war or the Bush policies and it could’ve kept al Malaki from using his power to make the sectarian issues worse.
We’re not gonna read all that Liberace.
TL;DR version: US started mucking up Iraq starting with the day Iraq fell. WH aggressively overruled the generals and colonels on the ground. WH rushed to “transition power” even though everyone actually in Iraq told them that al Malaqi was incapable and had sectarian tendendies. US simultaneously alienated/radicalized sunnis and shias at alternate times, and ended up funding them. In 2008, the US was handing over boxes full of tightly-bound $100 US bills to Sunni militants in order to buy them off. They had given tens of millions to Shia cleric al Sadr previously. Where we ended up now can be traced to a lot of ham-handed stupidity that came straight out of the WH and DC establishment shortly after Baghdad fell.
I can recall the cash planes. C-17s arriving at Ballad full of pallets of cash being delivered to a hangar. It was crazy in Iraq.
I remember them disappearing with a billion dollars at a time going somewhere.
However China thanks us for our efforts:
Bloomberg reports:
Chinese companies remain undeterred by recent violence and will keep investing in Iraq’s energy sector, China’s Middle East envoy said today.
Iraqi leaders told China they welcomed its investment and will step up security for Chinese companies, Ambassador Wu Sike said at a Beijing briefing that followed a visit to the country
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/daily-brief/china-vows-maintain-iraq-investments-violence-continues-12774/
“I remember them disappearing with a billion dollars at a time going somewhere.”
+1 That’s why we were issued newer modern currency.
Where we ended up now is the result of a C*F* from the word “go”. The only remotely decent outcome might have been from establishing a several decade-long US-managed imperium to raise a couple of generations of Iraqis who might turn out to be amenable to running a country with rule-of-law, government-by-consent-of-the governed, etc., along with the inevitable multi-billion$ outlays (much in excess of what has so far been wasted) and the loss of a squad or more of US troops per month into the indefinite future. NOBODY wanted that, certainly not the US electorate, not that they ever really thought about it that much.
http://www.cracked.com/article_21303_8-things-i-learned-as-american-ruling-iraqi-province.html
One last thought that drove me nuts–I had no idea that Petraeus achieved relative “peace” in the ‘08 timeframe by paying huge sums of money to Sunni insurgents. In the Frontline doc, you see US officers meeting with insurgents who had been killing/maiming servicemen just days prior, and counting out huge stacks of bills. Hundreds of thousands, millions in some cases. It’s in the video at length and Petraeus defends it at some length.
But Joe that always was the key and I made that point on this blog. When we first went in we refused to work with the Sunni tribal leaders since we wanted to impose “democracy” and they were part of the undemocratic system. Only when we wised up and followed their system where you pay the tribal leaders for their loyalty did we achieve success. The efforts saved a lot of American lives so I am not offended by the payments, it is how it works over there.
BTW, if you go back and read my posts during the Egyptian uprising I explained what happen in Iraq and Iran and I said the “best” outcome that could reasonably happen in Egypt was for a repressive military government to take over from Mubarak. I said that the Muslim Brotherhood would be a disaster for both the secular Egyptians and the United States. Took some heat for those comments too, it was not the consensus of the board but a few people knew I was right.
Only when we wised up and followed their system where you pay the tribal leaders for their loyalty did we achieve success. The efforts saved a lot of American lives so I am not offended by the payments, it is how it works over there.
———–
For one thing, it’s not just that we paid, it’s the amount we paid. Tens of millions to both the Shiites and Sunnis, at alternating times. (Wouldn’t have needed to pay these bribes if they hadn’t caused such high unemployment by mandating firings of most Sunnis.) It’s also how hellbent the White House was on “proving” that Iraq was ready for democracy. They indiscriminately wanted lots of Sunnis laid off and replaced with Shia to even things out. They rushed to find a leader and picked a bad one. They rushed to hold elections and ended up with Shias dominating.
The generals were basically ignored and PO’d except for Casey, who became a general somehow without every commanding troops on a battlefield at any point of his career. I think even Casey was tired of being a WH puppet. I can’t remember, though, perhaps you should watch and see for yourself.
Larry Lindsey, then-director of the president’s National Economic Council, estimated before the Iraq war began that its total cost would be $100 billion to $200 billion.
The estimates were dismissed by other administration officials as too high, and Lindsey was fired shortly afterward.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/26/nation/na-budget26
‘I had no idea that Petraeus achieved relative “peace” in the ‘08 timeframe by paying huge sums of money to Sunni insurgents’
Yeah, and I bet you consider yourself very informed. How many people watched that show last night? Jeebus, this was reported when it was going on.
I think about the apathy and ignorance of the people in the country often. “Oh, Wall Street is full of crooks and they’re buying our politicians!” How many decades has that been the case? “Inequality is growing, real pay is down!” Well yeah, since the 70’s at least.
People in the US are getting dumber. How else could you explain this constant “we’re all gonna die if we don’t bomb somebody” crap, while at the same time we’ve lost 40% of the weapons we took into Afghanistan? Over 10,000 missiles went missing after our Libya “no fly zone” adventure. We’re arming Al-Qaeda! Hell, the CIA created it. They’ve got us taking off our shoes at the airport, while they fly thousands of illegals across the country.
“People in the US are getting dumber”
I actually find living in the early phases of Idiocracy to be quite enjoyable.
Funbags anyone?
How else could you explain this constant “we’re all gonna die if we don’t bomb somebody” crap ??
Yep….
Ben, I knew they were paying but I did _not_ realize we were talking millions and tens of millions in some cases. I did not picture what I saw on the video– US military officers sitting in rooms with fresh US bills piled high on tables, counting it and handing it over to militants.
The numbers given for Muqtada al Sadr’s group alone (a shia group) were like $30 mil. This payout was right after they had started IED-ing and having shootouts with US forces.
And, of course, money only bought peace for a relatively short time. Both sides started blowing up each other’s civilians and mosques in order to provoke a civil war.
Put it this way… median family income in the US is ~$45k or something.
Watch the parts of the Front Line special. The officers are counting out tables and boxes full of US $100 bills and handing them to militant leaders. They’re handing them far more money than the avg American worker makes in a year.
For some reason (call me ignorant) I would’ve thought these militants could be bought off for $10,000 apiece or something like that.
In any case, paying this amount of money will only “save lives” for a fairly short period of time, at the potential risk of having an entire region plunged into war which will cost the US more lives and money in the future. Just look at how we’re now selling Hellfire missile systems to Iraq now. To help the Shia-dominated gov’t fight the Sunni menace that we funded. And look how much we pay to prop up the other gov’ts in that region… to say nothing of Israel.
I knew they were paying but I did _not_ realize we were talking millions and tens of millions in some cases. I did not picture what I saw on the video– US military officers sitting in rooms with fresh US bills piled high on tables, counting it and handing it over to militants.
That was all well-known from the get-go, but it was not covered much in the newspapers or television nightly newscasts. You would have to screen the news on the internet from 2003 onward on a regular basis. The semi-truck trailers packed floor-to-ceiling and front-to-back being driven away from Iraqi airfields were known even then. I didn’t see video, but at the time read many online accounts of the money being handed out by US officers. It was a C*F* from the word “go”.
Bush = Worst President of the United States Hands Down….
Cheney = United States equivalent of Hitler…
Iraq War is certainly in the running for the dumbest thing a US President has ever done. Certainly the dumbest thing in my lifetime.
The PBS thing was pretty scathing towards Obama too. Like, OK he didn’t make the mess, but he probably should’ve devoted more of his time and his administration’s focus to mopping it up a little better. It was a tough spot to be in bc Bush signed a 3 yr agreement with al Malaqi (sp??) shortly before leaving office. Bush was personally friendly with the guy, so it was hard for him to see his flaws. But Obama got frustrated by the guy being inept and sectarian. Like, people on the ground in Iraq would report back that he was using the military to suppress the Sunnis and it was causing problems. Obama could’ve at least tried to step on that before it got out of control. It might have cost him politically, to change the withdrawal timetable that was in place, so Obama seemed to be like “fuck that, we’re out of here, we never should’ve been here”. Which was politically popular but seems to ignore that you need to clean up problems, even if you didn’t make them.
mind your language, j-j-j-joe. there are children reading this blog.
You need to watch your language.
‘Obama got frustrated’
No he didn’t. He tried to bribe Maliki into letting the army stay, and was turned down. When did the US pull out? At the last minute before they lost legal protection.
If you take the official line on any of this stuff it doesn’t make sense. It’s not fighting terrorism or nation building. The goal is empire. It doesn’t matter who has been president or what party is in power.
The goal is
empireall benefits going to the oligarchy. It doesn’t matter who has been president or what party is in power. Americans don’t know what empire really amounts to. What the US did in Iraq from 2003 onward was only a baby step toward building an empire. If you want to understand empire-building, look at what Hulagu Khan did to Baghdad in 1258.Obama has been working tirelessly trying not to be outdone by W. and Iraq. Unfortunately for him, I don’t think he can pull it off with a single event but he is racking up many smaller successes that may tip the balance in his favor.
Look at it this way, he still has 2 years left, the opportunities are endless.
History certainly has a tendency to rhyme… In the late stages of the decline of the Roman Empire, Rome increasingly debased it’s coinage, relied upon mercenaries to fight it’s wars, and paid off any warlord who managed to threaten Rome’s gates. All that remains is to split the remnants of the empire apart…
I am often amazed by the similarities. Corrupt Senators, bread and circuses to the masses, the sacking of the borders, screwing over the military, etc.
And the one thing that I so hope comes out of this was the punishment meted out by the invaders to the political traitors, such as the one senator who got caught by a barbarian leader extracting money from a Roman salt mining operation.
I think the political traitors expect to be rewarded for their many betrayals. One thing that history teaches is that such people are usually punished or eliminated.
The main lesson I got from studying history is that humans avoid learning from it to the greatest extent possible.
Debating whether Obama or shrub was the worse president is like debating whether Stalin or Hitler killed more people.
And where would you rank the current Obamao in that pantheon of villians?
He would love to be Lenin or Mao (biggest killer btw) but as a president he is as incompetent as Carter and as big a globalist traitor as either Bush.
So his incompetence must be a good thing then.
Yes Lola, and I have said numerous times on this blog we are lucky he is so incompetent and lazy. He needs to play another round of golf, no president beats him in the number of rounds, he is number one.
rio and mike are not the same person, not even close. While I rarely agree with either one of them, I don’t think it’s fair to lump them together.
yeah, Rio and Mike are clearly not the same person.
The actions of the Bush admin in Iraq make anything done by any other US president in my lifetime look like minor things. Like, any single policy of any other US president during the last several decades completely pales compared to the decision to invade Iraq and then try to “nation-build” there. There are lots of other mistakes, but the Iraq adventure takes the cake by far.
Ben, you’re right about the withdrawal. The Frontline show discussed Obama and the generals trying to extend the US’s immunity agreement with Iraq when Bush’s agreement was expiring. It shows the discussions falling apart because the Obama admin didn’t have a good relationship with al Malaqi (sp?), whose support they’d have needed to get the agreement approved by Iraqi parliament.
I’d have to go back and watch, or look up elsewhere, how many troops Obama might have left in Iraq if that agreement had passed. It does seem pretty clear that he was never going to cozy up to the Iraqi leadership–there’s a statement in the documentary about al Malaqi actually missing President Bush bc they had become pals and Bush was his lifeline to money and support.
My prediction will come true Ohbewanna will be judged the worst president and his legacy will be the Death of political correctness.
There is too much disgusting brain dead policies and actions being done today to be tip toeing around peoples perceived sensitivities, its over…
The gloves will be coming off, and it will be a great day for America….this is the wussie generation and i am not a part of it.
you see US officers meeting with insurgents who had been killing/maiming servicemen just days prior, and counting out huge stacks of bills. Hundreds of thousands, millions in some cases.”
So they can outbid the Chinese and buy million dollar home’s in Westlake Village CA.
“So they can outbid the Chinese and buy million dollar home’s in Westlake Village CA.”
Gawd, I hope not.
“For a third straight month, Denver-area home-resale prices set a new all-time high in May, with average prices up 8.2 percent from a year earlier.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2014/07/denver-home-prices-hit-record-high-for-3rd-month.html?page=all
Biz journal they are always whores for real estate. Isn’t that what we are suppose to do, attack the source not the accuracy of the data?
What those weed plant trimmers making $12/hour and all these homeless stoners need are $500,000 starter homes:
http://news.yahoo.com/pot-seen-reason-rise-denver-homeless-175115981.html
It is for this very reason I have slowed my search in the Columbine State - (oh forgot after the school shooting I guess they don’t call it that anymore). Anyway - I saw a few of your posts in the last couple of weeks and agree that wages and house prices are really screwed up out there. a 500 k starter home - really? And then I read in the Denver Compost that due to the pot law more and more young people are now on the street? Who woulda thunk that eh?
We don’t live in Kansas anymore eh Toto?
152.0 since year 2000 - Have salaries grown that much out there?
Stagflation: it’s what’s for breakfast
“Inflation as measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred price index surged in the second quarter to the highest annual rate in three years”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-inflation-accelerates-sharply-in-second-quarter-2014-07-30
A surge up to 2.3%. Yeah, it’s the 1970s all over again.
MikeyMite loves believing statistics reported by statists.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Goon, go look at article that you linked to. It starts off with “Inflation as measured by the Federal Reserve’s preferred price index…”
I read some criticisms of that shadow stats guy’s methodology. I’ll have to go track them down. The one that was amusing, though not really significant, is that he hasn’t raised the cost of a subscription to his data in 7 years.
If we measured inflation in the same manner it probably would be.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Well Goon, I guess we are familiar with same website. You must have it saved.
The goon is the Panopticon, Dannyboy. All seeing, all knowing, and gifted by Sky Wizard with the greatest ability of critical analysis of American media that this blog has ever seen.
…..and not a buyer in sight.
P O N Z I
C R A T E R
Ron Paul: Stocks are in a Bubble and Will Crash
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101876532
Ron Paul is the better Paul, that’s for sure. And he’s right on the money in this case.
Even Ru Paul is better than the current idiot.
Probably looks better than Obama in drag too.
Ron Paul is the far better Paul. Too bad that younger generations sometimes are not improvements but devolvements.
I think that I read somewhere that Rand said that he agrees with nearly all of his father’s positions. The difference is mostly a matter of presentation.
Ron Paul: http://marketsanity.com/ron-paul-blame-neoconservatives/
“I’ll tell you what, the American people are listening more now than ever before…Nonintervention is the wave of the future. It happened to be the way we started off – the Founders taught it.”
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/march/27/non-intervention-is-non-negotiable!.aspx
Rand Paul:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-World-Rand-Pauls-support-for-Israel-351417
Major difference. Any “stand with Israel” thing is interventionist because it is taking sides.
Because the Lucky Ducky future is now
“There’s just not enough money deployed by American families to keep all the discount chains in business … While middle-class shoppers have enjoyed economic recovery, America’s poorest consumers have not”
http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-poorest-shoppers-challenged-2014-7
An anarchist family versus a miltant statist family
http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/7/29/an-anarchist-style-family-versus-a-militant-statist-family.html#6461
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-much-did-subprime-loans-fuel-the-gdp-boom-2014-07-30?link=MW_story_latest_news
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — It’d be tempting to think that the days of subprime loans fueling the economy were a product of the era of the aged or departed Ace Greenberg, Alan Greenspan and Angelo Mozilo.
Except when you break down the growth in GDP, it’s clear that car and light truck purchases played a major role. And subprime loans, in turn, are financing those transactions.
In the second quarter, motor vehicle and parts spending grew an annual 17.5%. Put another way, cars made up 3.7% of all consumer spending, the highest rate since the first quarter of 2008.
Subprime loans make up about a third of new car-sales and two-thirds of used cars, according to data from Experian Automotive, at the end of last year. The New York Times, in a story about the subprime loan sector , pointed out that growth has climbed more than 130% in the five years since the crisis.
No prizes, by the way, for guessing which sector was cut out of regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in an amendment tacked onto the Dodd-Frank bank reform law.
Put another way, cars made up 3.7% of all consumer spending, the highest rate since the first quarter of 2008.
An omen?
try buying a used car-w refi etc the prices are ridiculous.
The liberal Democratic governor of Vermont, wants so badly to host the “children” but cannot. It is so sad:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/2014/07/29/shumlin-vt-unable-host-immigrant-kids/13322195/
Are you getting pings on your CraterRadar? If it’s operational you should be.
No rent increase on lease renewal is a valid indicator.
Especially in light of the NAR-controlled media’s constant pimping of Colorado as some kind of utopia for millenials, that X,000 of them are moving here every week, et cetera.
China is the biggest producer of wind power, still small percentage of overall output:
(China Knowledge)
Updated: 2014-07-30 09:05
Counter:
China, the world’s largest wind power producer, saw its wind power output grow 8.8% year on year to 76.7 terawatt hours (TW-h) in the first half of this year, according to the latest statistics released by the National Energy Administration.
From Jan to Jun 2014, the wind power output accounted for about 2.9% of the country’s total on-grid electricity.
North China’s wind power output hit 28.46 TW-h in the first six months, and northeast China’s wind power output reached 17.15 TW-h in the period.
As at the end of Jun 2014, the country’s on-grid wind power capacity had increased to 82.77 gigawatt hours (GW-h), 23% more than a year ago.
Using LaviD’s server, which goes back consistently for longer than a year, I get 0 results on comments that contain the word tariff or tariffs from ABQShill in 2012. Google caches stuff after a year. I dunno, maybe they started extending the amount of time that they keep some stuff. The last time I tried to Google an HBB comment, it only went back one year.
it only went back one year. Check this out: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://thehousingbubbleblog.com
Whether you can find anything is irrelevant to what I said in 2012 about china and global warming. It is difficult to find old posts, it seems like at one time Ben had a way to search.
You were the one who told me to go fetch one of your comments.
Check out my Jan. 8, 2013 comments on age used word tax not tariff but clearly was a tariff
Your comment was not even in the context of tariffs. At that time, you were spinning for the coolists, so you made some off-hand comment about how it would be OK to tax pollution, but just not carbon. In the context of your comment, the same tax would apply to any company, not just Chinese imports.
Are you serious? It is a tax on goods from China. That is very definition of a tariff, you are losing what little credibility you had. I said yesterday that it was tied to the AGW arguments and pollution.
Definition of tariff is a tax on imported goods:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tariff.asp
BTW, doesn’t your McDonalds shift start soon?
P.S.
I believe that we should impose a tax on Chinese goods for the pollution they send to the West Coast including the mercury from their coal plants.
How can you say this would apply to every company not just Chinese companies? Now, a carbon tax could apply to goods wherever the goods are produced but I am against carbon taxes.
Agw
Time 14.01.39
I am back on a laptop so:
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-01-08 14:01:39
That appears to be a party admission that GW is just an excuse for other policies. I believe that we should impose a tax on Chinese goods for the pollution they send to the West Coast including the mercury from their coal plants. However, I do not support a carbon tax to support the U.N. based on a fiction. I will not support that you lie to your citizens to get policies you want. Make your case on real pollution and don’t confuse a beneficial gas with pollution.
By the way, from a Drudge link, what was I saying yesterday about the CDC clearly talking beyond its expertise?
Patrick Sawyer was supposed to be at his kids’ birthday party in a few weeks—but he died of the virus before he could board a flight to Minneapolis. His wife on the epidemic’s toll.Nigeria felt a chill from the hot zone when a 40-year-old man collapsed and died from the dread Ebola virus after flying there from Liberia.That hot zone chill now reaches America, with word that the same man was scheduled to fly to Minneapolis in time for an August 16 party celebrating the birthdays of two of his three young daughters. - See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/30/minnesota-widow-on-her-husband-he-could-have-brought-ebola-here.html#sthash.URH9xSdK.dpuf
Ebolists gonna ebola, Dannyboy.
Uncle Fed:
In continuation of our conversation yesterday, I asked a guy in our office who specialized in multifamily for a couple decades about vacancy rates (he worked for a major apartment owner). His opinion on the difference between a “landlord’s” and “tenant’s” market is at about the 7% vacancy rate number. When pushed, he said that maybe the number was 6%. Above 10%, and they used to wonder what they were doing wrong (revamping marketing efforts, lowering rents, offering concessions, etc.). Below 5%, and they were raising rents like crazy.
Below 5%, clearly a landlord’s market.
Above 10%, clearly a tenant’s market.
He didn’t object to the likely differentiating point as being somewhere between 6% and 7%.
The other point that he raised is that there are always 2-3 points of vacancy that are not rentable. So, if the “headline” vacancy in a market is 7%, the actual vacancy is probably closer to 4-5%. The 2-3 points are units where carpet is being replaced/cleaned, repairs are being done, etc., but they still show up as vacant.
Buncha spin. The numbers you gave yesterday weren’t just for multifamily, were they? Over 5% vacant in multifamily would be bad for landlords and good for tenants. SFH usually has a higher vacancy rate than multi. Your office buddy just turned an inflection point into an inflection range, and goosed the numbers to make himself look better. He probably has a high vacancy rate in the portfolio that he manages, so he’s spinning stuff.
As you can see above she will not admit when she is wrong even if it is absolutely clear. You would think with the experience she has with being wrong she would be better at admitting it.
She isn’t wrong. And what does vacancy rate matter when there are 25 million excess empty houses and rising?
While Rome burns nothing is being done and social security is going broke
:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-things-know-social-security-175120222.html
LOIS LERNER COMPLAINED ABOUT ‘WHACKO WING OF THE GOP’ IN EMAIL
“Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility”
Lois Lerner Complained About ‘Whacko Wing of the GOP’ in Email
by READ MOREWASHINGTON FREE BEACON | JULY 30, 2014
Former IRS official Lois Lerner did not think highly of conservatives and called them “assholes,” according to a batch of emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday.
The Blaze reports:
The committee released an email Lerner received in November 2012 complaining about the “whacko wing of the GOP.” The person wrote Lerner that there are “too many foreigners sucking the teat,” and that the “right wing radio shows are scary to listen to.”
Lerner replied, “Great. Maybe we are through if there are that many assholes.”
The other person then wrote, “And I’m talking about the hosts of the shows. The callers are rabid.”
Lerner replied, “So we don’t need to worry about alien terrorists. It’s our own crazies that will take us down.”
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp (R., Mich.) said the email “shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives.”
Los Angeles to join New York and 50 other U.S. cities with ban on feeding homeless people
Clare Kim
MSNBC
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 10:08 CSTMap Print
As the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County continues to rise, the City Council is weighing a ban on feeding homeless people in public areas.
City Council members Tom LaBonge and Mitch O’Farrell, both Democrats, introduced the resolution after complaints from Los Angeles residents. Arguing that meal lines should be moved indoors, the legislators said the proposal would benefit both the homeless and residential neighborhoods.
Actor Alexander Polinsky is one Los Angeles resident who complained about the number of homeless people crowding his neighborhood.
“If you give out free food on the street with no other services to deal with the collateral damage, you get hundreds of people beginning to squat,” Polinsky told The New York Times. “They are living in my bushes and they are living in my next door neighbor’s crawl spaces. We have a neighborhood which now seems like a mental ward.”
“This has overwhelmed what is a residential neighborhood,” Council member LaBonge said. “When dinner is served, everybody comes and it’s kind of a free-for-all.”
But advocates for the homeless say public officials are attempting to legislate the poor into invisibility instead of helping those in need.
“It’s a common but misguided tactic to drive homeless people out of downtown areas,” Jerry Jones, the executive director of the National Coalition of the Homeless, said to The New York Times.
“This is an attempt to make difficult problems disappear,” said Jones. “It’s both callous and ineffective.”
http://www.sott.net/…-New-York-and-50-other-US-cities-with-ban-on-feeding-homeless-people - 88k -
——————————————————————————
HOTEL CALIFORNIA: L.A. OFFICIALS TO SEND HOMELESS TO INTERNMENT CAMPS
Law enforcement teams will soon be rounding up homeless individuals on the streets, checking them into the facilities, and detaining them indefinitely..
by MAC SLAVO | SHTFPLAN.COM | JULY 29, 2014
Share on Facebook258Tweet about this on Twitter54Share on Google+0Email this to someonePrint this page
An anonymous source claiming to work inside of the Los Angeles Department of Health Services recently dropped a bombshell that could set a dangerous new precedent in how the government deals with those they find to be a burden or threat to a stable society.
In a report penned by Paul Joseph Watson, the whistleblower says that Los Angeles County is preparing to round up and forcibly house homeless citizens in detention facilities referred to internally by department employees as “FEMA Camps,” though the source says that they have been instructed to refer to the detention areas as “low cost housing” facilities.
According to the source, law enforcement teams will soon be rounding up homeless individuals on the streets, checking them into the facilities, and detaining them indefinitely for “their own health and safety.” What may be even more alarming, however, is that the government is reportedly planning on embedding these individuals with RFID chips presumably to track their whereabouts.
The program is focused around removing or relocating homeless people from the streets of downtown L.A., starting with Skid Row.
“We will approach them on the street asking if they need or want help usually offering food to get their direct attention, if they come into the office it makes our jobs twice as efficient,” said the supervisor.
“In most cases the decision is already made for them unless they become combative or belligerent in which case we send them in for a 72 hour psych evaluation and then transfer them while under sedation or heavy medication to the “facility.”
The supervisor stressed that the program would be “humane,” that it would help clean up the streets, and that the citizens being processed into the housing units would receive medical treatment, an RFID chip, room and board, but that “they cannot leave.”
The supervisor elaborated that the facility was not a prison, but that its population would be kept there “for their own health and safety.”
The whistleblower points to a page on the Department of Health Services official website which details how “roving teams” will help “provide short-term housing with health oversight to homeless DHS patients who are recovering from an acute illness or injury or have conditions that would be exacerbated by living on the street or in shelters.”
Many Americans will no doubt support these facilities because it’ll “clean up” their neighborhoods, making them safer and eliminating an eyesore. They won’t even blink about people being forcibly rounded up, drugged, detained and tracked like animals, so long as it happens out of view of their Utopia.
The government will, no doubt, hail the successes of such a program and will likely look to expand it to other cities and perhaps even to larger segments of the population.
One hypothetical scenario that could be imagined is that as more and more dangerous individuals are added to domestic terror watchlists, the government will look to intern suspected terrorists and their associates in such facilities, for their own health and safety of course.
The White House recently approved a substantial expansion of terrorist watchlists, which already boasts a threat list that includes hundreds of thousands of Americans. Under the recently declassified guidelines, being added to a watchlist requires no “concrete facts” or “irrefutable evidence.” The guidelines go so far as to grant broad powers to White House administration officials to unilaterally add not only individuals, but entire “categories of people” to the lists.
One possible future envisions a scenario where specific “categories” of people are identified as dangerous to the public and, like the homeless, are rounded up for internment.
The dangers of such facilities and the means by which they will be populated if this is the actual plan in Los Angeles are a blaring warning sign that should be heeded by all Americans.
To paraphrase the poem by Martin Niemöller about the cowardice of Germans in the face of mass roundups – when they came for the homelesss, I did not speak out because I was not homeless…
http://www.infowars.com/…/ - 72k -
Why not send them to abandoned military bases….you have all the facilities and security….hospitals, yo could put church groups, soup kitchens on the base…….and no one would have to deal with them on the street.
Throw some scrap metal cans around the place have a recycling center that will give them something to do during the day..
US banks braced for large deposit outflows
US banks are steeling themselves for the possibility of losing as much as $1tn in deposits as the Federal Reserve reverses its emergency economic policies and raises interest rates.
JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank by deposits, has estimated that money funds may withdraw $100bn in deposits in the second half of next year as the Fed uses a new tool to help wind down its asset purchase programme and normalise rates.
Other banks including Citigroup, Bank of New York Mellon and PNC Financial Services have also said they are trying to gauge the potential effect of the Fed’s exit on institutional or retail depositors who might choose to switch to higher interest accounts or investments.
An outflow of deposits would be a reversal of a five-year trend that has seen significant amounts of extra cash poured into banks thanks to the Fed flooding the financial system with liquidity. These deposits, which act as a cheaper source of funding, have helped banks weather the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Now the worry is that such deposit funding may prove fleeting as the Fed retreats. Banks might have to pay higher rates on deposits to retain customers – potentially hitting their profits and sparking a price war for client funds.
“US banks braced for large deposit outflows”
Not a bank run!
“Banks might have to pay higher rates on deposits to retain customers – potentially hitting their profits and sparking a price war for client funds.”
Well d’oh…
College graduates, there is hope:
http://images.christianpost.com/full/73234/walmart-williston-north-dakota.jpg
“Convert to Islam or Die”
“Israel should be wiped from the face of the earth”
Are those the words of freedom fighters?
#UnitedForSanity
Honestly don’t give a chit about Islam or Judaism.
How are your Argentina bonds holding up?
July 30, 2014, 9:27 p.m. EDT
Argentina, creditors fail to reach deal
By Nicole Hong, Taos Turner and Matt Day
A man holds up a sign that during a demonstration in support of Argentina’s government in Buenos Aires ahead of the collapse of debt talks.
Talks aimed at a last-minute settlement between Argentina and holdout creditors collapsed late Wednesday, and a court-appointed mediator said the country would “imminently” be in default.
At a news conference after talks with the mediator ended, Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicillof, who had led the country’s delegation to New York, said “we won´t sign an agreement that would compromise Argentina´s future.” A spokeswoman later said negotiations would continue, without giving a timetable.
The likely default would be Argentina’s second in 13 years. Analysts said the setback would rock Argentine markets Thursday, as the country’s stocks and bonds had rallied this week on hopes that the two sides would reach a deal and avert default.
The development is the latest twist in a yearslong battle between Argentina and a small group of hedge funds demanding full payment for bonds the country defaulted on in 2001. Argentina has exhausted its legal options after the U.S. Supreme Court declined last month to hear its appeal of a ruling requiring that the holdouts get paid.
Wednesday marked the end of a 30-day grace period for Argentina to make a $539 million interest payment to the holders of the country’s restructured bonds that was due on June 30. Unlike in 2001, Argentina’s economy isn’t in crisis, though it is seen as vulnerable. However, a ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa prevents Argentina from paying restructured bondholders until the holdouts are compensated.
“Default is not a mere ‘technical’ condition, but rather a real and painful event that will hurt real people,” said court-appointed mediator Daniel Pollack in a statement late Wednesday. He added, “The full consequences of default are not predictable, but they certainly are not positive.”
Earlier Wednesday, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services declared Argentina in default on some of its bonds.
…
“How are your Argentina bonds holding up?”
Cristina was a no-show; nobody could see it coming.