August 20, 2014

Bits Bucket for August 20, 2014

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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164 Comments »

Comment by Housing Analyst
Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:44:11

Your beating a dead horse with all those useless graphs and charts. U should have bought when you had the chance, now we have to listen to you whine for 10 years.

Comment by rms
2014-08-20 06:56:36

“Your [sic] beating a dead horse…”

You’re? :)

 
Comment by scdave
2014-08-20 07:06:37

Ignore him…Don’t respond…Let him post all by himself for about 6 months…He loves the banter…Don’t feed the desire…

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 17:49:44

Don’t feel the troll.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 19:21:47

Exactly. Dave doesn’t seem to listen.

 
 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 06:48:02

Wall Street Journal reports that 10.92% of all student debt is now more than 90 days delinquent, and that this delinquency rate is now three times that for mortgages or auto loans.

$1.2 trillion * 10.92% = $131 billion and change.

That’s more than the GDP of most countries.

And these delinquent amounts will only grow.

What these broke @ss kidz need are $500,000 starter homes!

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:53:11

bailout these poor kids with some printed cash. this is a no brainer.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 17:51:51

They won’t bail out the “poor kids.” They’ll bail out the banksters who extended those loans for an overpriced education that leaves them deep in debt and with few living-wage options in the Obama economy.

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Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-08-20 06:56:20

Kids need PAYE.

(But seriously, anyone with kids or nieces/nephews in college, tell them to cop PAYE.)

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2014-08-20 07:12:11

What these students with debt need now is to buy a rotting stucco box for 5 times what it’s worth!

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2014-08-20 09:10:28

Bad news is good news?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/millennials-might-become-normal-consumers-after-all-190724187.html

The homeownership rate for millennials is still declining, but that may be a contrary indicator that shows good things are happening beneath the data. It’s well-known that a record-high portion of millennials live with their parents. When they move out and rent their own place, they go from being uncounted in the government survey that determines homeownership rates, to being counted as renters, which drives down the homeownership rate. But it’s actually good news when young people move out to live on their own. And sure enough, the rate of new-household formation has been rising this year after hitting a low point at the end of 2013. Some of those people newly living on their own will go from renters to homeowners within a few years, just as young adults did in the olden days of the 1980s and ‘90s.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 19:08:27

“But it’s actually good news when young people move out to live on their own.”

Especially if they have the good judgment to rent, rather than overpaying for a rotting, rapidly-depreciating stucco box.

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Comment by "Auntie Fed, why won't you love ME?"
2014-08-20 10:21:58

The best part is that student debt is not dischargeable, so the kidz don’t have a choice. They must pay the student loan before they can sign up for a mortgage. That makes it awesome for kidz.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 17:53:52

Debt serfs for live. Of course the DNC and its Wall Street masters will see to it the banksters get paid while the kids are forced to mortgage their souls and vote straight D to have any hope of their debts being discharged (read: transferred to the R voters).

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Comment by Puggs
2014-08-20 11:27:50

Just sign ‘em up for a package deal. Put ‘em in a GSE house dump in the student loan debt and lock them into a 60 year mortgage at 4%.

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
Comment by oxide
2014-08-20 04:22:53

Thesaurus getting a workout, angelcake?

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 07:18:57

Not nearly as rigorous as your wallet Ms Craterton.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 08:26:18

r u working on your jalopy today?

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 08:42:12

And your empty pockets too.

 
Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 14:42:46

B R O K E R

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 16:21:40

And tomorrows charts are going to make your head explode.

 
Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 17:18:59

quit trolling here

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 18:13:57

That’s a good start $hithousePoet. We’re glad to see you’re turning over a new leaf.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:20:47

“Turnover All Homes” = percentages of existing homes that sold in each period?

If so, I reiterate that the cratering your graphs document is due to both the demand and supply sides of the market. People who just got special low-interest refinancing to ridiculously low mortgage payments are in no hurry to trade their ultra-low monthly in perpetuity for any of the unaffordably-priced McMansions available among today’s shrunken inventory in the purchase market.

I expect some economist with a voice in the MSM will soon point out the obvious linkage between low-rate refinancing for everybody with an underwater mortgage and the present day extreme inventory shortage and high prices in the used home market.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:41:48

I have a voice. I am a housing economist. Get off your duff and make something happen!

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 07:14:32

I just handed you a plumb. Go crow about it to the MSM and pretend you thought it up yourself.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2014-08-20 08:19:50

“I just handed you a plumb.”

Is that you Bob?

 
Comment by iftheshoefits
2014-08-20 08:22:23

True it is.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 19:10:55

He may post here occasionally, but I believe he is too busy with other commitments to post as often as I do…

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-08-20 19:38:04

He may post here occasionally, but I believe he is too busy with other commitments to post as often as I do…

How _do_ you manage it, WAB?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 19:52:03

“How _do_ you manage it, WAB?”

Generally fast and early in the day.

And I probably have fewer academic pubs than I would if I could better contain my fascination with the ongoing global housing market financial train wreck!

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 19:53:03

P.S. I have a different field than $hitHou$e poet…

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-08-20 21:24:08

And I probably have fewer academic pubs than I would if I could better contain my fascination with the ongoing global housing market financial train wreck!

I can totally relate to that; I’m certain that my professional endeavors could have been more significant if I didn’t have such a strong fascination with the global financial train wreck as well!

 
 
 
Comment by scdave
2014-08-20 07:09:59

People who just got special low-interest refinancing to ridiculously low mortgage payments are in no hurry to trade their ultra-low monthly ??

I believe their is a strong possibility that there is an impact on inventory for the forceable future because of this…

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 08:24:51

if rates go up significantly kiss this housing fantasy goodbye.

look at car loans. they had to get rates to zero and extend loan lengths to 80 months to get payments down on overpriced cars.

we need mortgage rates down to 0 % so we can get some more equity in to peoples pockets and spur spending.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 08:44:38

We? Still got that frog in your pocket?

 
 
Comment by Rental Watch
2014-08-20 17:57:41

I agree that this could be a deterrent for some folks to move. However, most folks move if they need to for a job, or they are moving to a house they like more (so they have some incentive to move other than simply the cost of their current mortgage).

A mitigating factor is the increased amount of principal reduction that goes on with lower mortgage rates.

There are two effects to be aware of:

1. If you are starting at a 4% rate, a 50% increase in interest rates (4% to 6%), all else equal, results in an increase in payment amount of about 26%.

2. With the lower interest rates, a greater amount of principal is repaid early in the life of a loan.

At a 4% rate, after 10 years of payments, principal has been reduced by 21%, nearly making up the entire increase in payment for going to a 6% rate for the new home (without borrowing more). A new mortgage at 79% of the prior principal amount results in a nearly identical payment amount.

Overall, I think there will be an impact on the margin for the effect of rising interest rates, but I think we can look to other eras of rising interest rates to see just how much of an impact there actually was. This won’t be the only time in history that interest rates have risen.

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Comment by Rental Watch
2014-08-20 18:03:57

Now, I think where there will be REAL ugliness is in the mortgage origination business. If rates were similar, people will happily refinance to “free their equity”. If the rates are higher, there is a huge disincentive for a cash-out refi of the first DOT.

HELOCs will become more and more prevalent.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 19:17:42

R._Fraud… stick with the data. And remember this universal truth…. If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:17:53

G I V E U P

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 06:31:43

One of our more prolific writers once stated “Why buy a house at these massively inflated prices when you can rent one for half the monthly cost”?

He’s right.

 
 
 
Comment by Blackhawk
2014-08-20 04:47:11

Ferguson: WSJ’s Jason Riley: Black Men Are Afraid Of Being Shot By Other Black Men, Not By Cops

“The real difficulty is not getting shot by other black people if you are a young black man in these neighborhoods and again that is something we need to talk more about. Cops are not the problem. Cops are not producing these black bodies in the morgues every weekend in Chicago, in New York and Detroit and so forth. That’s not cops. Those other black people shooting black people.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/08/18/wsjs_jason_riley_black_men_are_afraid_of_being_shot_by_other_black_men_not_by_cops.html

I think I can understand the black people’s anger and mistrust that’s very evident in the Ferguson Missouri riots. But where is the black people’s anger regarding other black people killing and hurting them?

Until the black people can honestly look at what has happened to their culture, this anger and resentment will not go away.

Are the black people willing to consider that it is possible that a 6′4″ tall 300 pound teenager was attacking this policeman, causing him to react in self-defense?

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 06:21:39

The problem with poor black men shooting other poor black men is that Al Sharpton can’t make any money from it.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:24:35

“Are the black people willing to consider that it is possible that a 6′4″ tall 300 pound teenager was attacking this policeman, causing him to react in self-defense?”

According to recent poll results, the answer is NO. Apparently blacks have largely already made up their minds that it is the police who are at fault in this situation; whites are more inclined to give the police the benefit of the doubt.

And apparently there is a similar divide between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats siding with the crime suspect’s world view and Republicans with the police’s. Go figure!

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:26:19

August 18, 2014
Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting

Blacks and whites have sharply different reactions to the police shooting of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Mo., and the protests and violence that followed. Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that the shooting of Michael Brown “raises important issues about race that need to be discussed.” Wide racial differences also are evident in opinions about of whether local police went too far in the aftermath of Brown’s death, and in confidence in the investigations into the shooting.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 09:24:50

there is a similar divide between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats siding with the crime suspect’s world view and Republicans with the police

It’s just math and race relation realities. Us white-folk have it made-in-the-shade with cops compared with brown people. So we have a harder time understanding minorities’ different treatment at the hands of the cops.

“Seriously if you’re not white you’re missing out because this sh!t is thoroughly good!”
Louie CK

Louie CK “Being White” Caution: Comedy involving race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CmzT4OV-w0

Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 10:03:40

You’re just a partisan hack.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 10:09:57

You’re just a partisan hack.

LOL. Wow. Good one. (Didn’t like yesterday?)

And your momma wears combat boots!

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 14:17:32

I’m just being honest. All you ever do it toe the party line. You’re the Democrat version of Albuquerquedan.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 14:58:33

All you ever do it toe the party line. You’re the Democrat version of Albuquerquedan.

Not even close. You’re going to need to come up with something better than that. If I were only “towing-the-party-line,” a lot of my posts would be refuted by facts, history and examples but they rarely are, unless you think name-calling and logical fallacies are effective refuting. Hint: They aren’t.

Example: You well refuted Adan with facts many times. You can’t do that with me or not that I’ve seen. You’re just calling me a name.

And another thing. How is me telling you that you are conflating and confusing the issues that they are protesting “towing-the-party-line”? What the he!! is “political” about me pointing out that they are protesting an unarmed man surrendering being shot down like a dog? At its core, we’re talking about basic humanity here, not politics.

“Towing-the-party-line”? B.S.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-08-20 19:43:05

“Towing-the-party-line”? B.S.

I always thought the metaphor was to “toe” a line—e.g. line up right where they tell you to do so.

 
 
Comment by Lemming with an inntertube
2014-08-20 15:29:54

“Seriously if you’re not white you’re missing out because this sh!t is thoroughly good!”
Louie CK

unless you’re a wealthy, and world renown, white comedian.

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Comment by taxpayers
2014-08-20 07:03:20

zillow has ferguson going up 3.4% next year- get in while you can

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 07:16:00

It’s definitely going up from wherever prices are at the moment, once the current unrest is a fading memory…unless things get much worse, and the whole area goes up in flames, that is.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 17:57:56

Considering all the billions that got pumped into reconstruction after the LA riots - with most of it going to politically well connected (read: major Democrat contributors) - it stands to reason that Janet Yellen will be printing a few billion for the DNC to spread around in Ferguson. That DNC Supermajority isn’t going to come cheap and the FSA might be upping the ante in return for voting straight D.

 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2014-08-20 07:19:22

I think I can understand the black people’s anger and mistrust that’s very evident in the Ferguson Missouri riots. But where is the black people’s anger regarding other black people killing and hurting them?

It would be safe to assume to anyone who gets shot, regardless of color, gets angry about it. Bringing up the issue of “black on black crime” sounds like a tribalist argument. Some black people are accusing some white people (police) of bad behavior. The prompts an instinctive reaction among many white Americans to defend the cops or criticize blacks.

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 07:31:40

I hate badge lickers and uniform fetishists.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 13:28:44

^ Dangerous Dopes.

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Comment by Michael Viking
2014-08-20 07:37:28

prompts an instinctive reaction among many white Americans to defend the cops or criticize blacks.

Is it just many white Americans that have instinctive reactions or do other races also have instinctive reactions? Why single out “many white people”?

Are the riots an instinctive reaction or are they well thought out and rational?

Are you able to answer Blackhawk’s question (where is the black people’s anger regarding other black people killing and hurting them) or is “tribalist argument” all you got?

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 09:34:02

Are you able to answer Blackhawk’s question (where is the black people’s anger regarding other black people killing and hurting them) or is “tribalist argument” all you got?

Do a some on the far-right disregard some facts because tribalism is “all they got”?

Column: Jesse Jackson rallies to stop black-on-black carnage

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-06-12/jesse-jackson-gun-violence-marches/55527742/1

“Out with guns, in with jobs,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said to me in his trademark gravelly voice. “We’re going to march in 20 cities” hard hit by the gun violence that has made the streets of America a bigger killing field for young black men in the United States than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been for U.S. troops.

For Jackson, who turned 70 in October, ending the black-on-black carnage in this country could be his last big campaign.

….Understanding as he does the depth of this problem, Jackson has to know that it will not be solved easily — or quickly. He sees the roots of this racial fratricide as crowded neighborhoods, high unemployment, bad schools, drug abuse and a proliferation of guns. Jackson wants to use the marches as a starting point in his efforts to get the nation to respond to this problem in much the same way it has tried to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 10:00:30

“his last big campaign”

Because it was such a win for Social Justice™ when Jesse Jackson’s sons got one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributorships in Chicago.

http://www.jessejackson.org

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 17:58:59

Extortion by any other name….

 
 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2014-08-20 07:48:27

¨ prompts an instinctive reaction among many white Americans to defend the cops or criticize blacks¨

And lost in the haze is the fact that our police forces are way over-militarized, both in armaments and tactics.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-20 08:41:31

‘We are at a moment of national crisis in the way our domestic law enforcement is being conducted. The killing of an unarmed civilian by a law enforcement officer is, sadly, not unique. But the police response to the protests has provided a powerful cautionary moment for America. The militarization of local police has led to the arrival today in Ferguson of the actual military, the National Guard.’

‘This crisis comes from: 1) The erosion of a principle in federal law, Posse Comitatus, meant to restrict the use of the military in civilian law enforcement;
2) The Pentagon’s dispersal of military equipment to domestic police units, which has increased since 9/11;
3) Military-style police training reliant upon weaponry, as opposed to peace keeping, including skills development for de-escalation of violent tensions.’

‘Over the last 40 years, police have moved steadily towards increasing levels of force and militarization with little regard for the situation. Journalist Radley Balko has been documenting this phenomenon for nearly a decade, and in Rise of the Warrior Cop he explains how America has been transformed into a country where police conduct something on the order of 50,000 SWAT raids a year.’

‘Balko starts with the provocative proposition that police as we know them in modern America are unconstitutional. “The Founders and their contemporaries would probably have seen even the early-nineteenth-century police forces as a standing army, and a particularly odious one at that,” Balko writes. “Just before the American Revolution, it wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia; it was the England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement.”

‘Balko links that decision to the oft forgotten Third Amendment, which forbids the quartering of troops in Americans’ homes against their will during peacetime. Balko argues that it was included in the Bill of Rights out of a larger concern that a standing army could be used for the purposes of enforcing the law. “The actual quartering of British troops in the private homes of colonists was rare…It was the predictable fallout from positioning soldiers trained for warfare on city streets, among the civilian populace, and using them to enforce law and maintain order that enraged colonists.”

‘Balko calls this “more robust expression of the threat that standing armies pose to free societies” the “Symbolic Third Amendment.” He spends the vast majority of the book documenting how that concern has been whittled away by overeager cops, deferential judges, and politicians seeking to bolster their law and order credentials.’

This may be one of those time when we ask ourselves, how did we get to this place? IMO, it’s the inevitable result of ignoring the rule of law.

For instance, why was deadly force used? Had this man attacked a police officer, there would have been serious charges. Why does the crowd feel compelled to riot, when there is a process for determining if a police officer unjustly kills someone. If the likelihood of a policeman being charged for killing someone is very low, doesn’t that make it easier to pull the trigger? And if crimes aren’t pursued vigorously enough, aren’t mobs more likely to take “justice” into their own hands?

This has all been a long time in the making, and can be seen in various ways of how our governments, and the individuals in them behave. We have a process for making laws. Some now claim that presidents can make law alone. That’s a stunning assertion really. But it hardly gets any attention. How far is it from a policeman deciding he has the right to execute someone from saying, congress, the citizens, are all subject to one mans interpretation of the law.

We have a process for using our military abroad too. Here again, the rule of law has been abandoned. Recently, we started bombing in Iraq, again. No congressional authorization. Just one man can decide this. This is another startling assertion.

It’s one thing to have these things come to pass. The reaction is another. Will someone’s dead brother cause them to lash out toward a US citizen someday because of today’s bomb run? Will some protestor throw a rock and cause harm. And doesn’t violence have a way of escalating unpredictably?

If you hand a man a gun, and say, you are part of the state. You have a superior right to the use of violence amongst the rest, it’s not too hard to imagine bad things can result. If you have determined that this country alone has the right to kill and destroy all over the world, often decided by one man, expect the disregard for the rule of law to have consequences. And like these riots show, when you have gone down that road, the state will respond to defiance, rightly or wrongly, with even more violence.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 09:44:07

The militarization of local police has led to the arrival today in Ferguson of the actual military, the National Guard.

The National Guard should ask the cops if they can borrow some of the cops’ better equipment.

“The (policeman) on the left has more body armor/weaponry than I did when invading Iraq.”

http://images.dailykos.com/images/99804/large/Screen_Shot_2014-08-14_at_7.54.21_AM.png?1408025211

 
 
Comment by reedalberger
2014-08-20 20:19:13

“And lost in the haze is the fact that our police forces are way over-militarized, both in armaments and tactics.”

That is true to an extent, but police do have to adapt to changing demographics and attitudes towards keeping the peace. We will never get qualified individuals at any salary if on the job it becomes impossible for officers to negotiate the minefield between self defense and virtual suicide.

Let our justice system work, fire and jail bad cops, that’s how we do it in the country. How many of you want to give the cops a month off in your neighborhood? Yeah, none. Why? Because the Mad Max and ISIS types would be there in short order.

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Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 20:40:01

but police do have to adapt to changing demographics and attitudes towards keeping the peace

One of the hundreds of military cops in Ferguson got his toe stubbed on a tear-gas canister that was thrown back at him by a black dude with saggy pants.

 
 
 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 10:20:53

The problem with the Ferguson situation is that black people are rallying behind the wrong person; a thug who just robbed a mini-mart while roughing up the owner. If there are so many injustices against their race, surely they could easily find someone worthy of rallying behind, not someone caught on camera committing a violent felony moments before his death. But it doesn’t matter to them and their entitlement/victim mentality.

The African American community in this country has a problem. They’re constantly telling each other they’re victims, whining and complaining and looking for gifts for past wrongdoings, whether real or perceived, rather than proactively seeking to strengthen their families and values, and promoting education to improve their economic standings.

If there are issues locally with the police, they could peacefully assemble during daylight hours, and have coherent conversations about such injustices, not midnight sessions of burning and looting by punks with pants hanging below their @ss cracks. This whole situation is a joke.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-20 11:15:55

‘If there are issues locally with the police, they could peacefully assemble during daylight hours, and have coherent conversations about such injustices’

IMO, the root issue is being overlooked. The writers at antiwar.com do a good job explaining how war abroad erodes civil liberties at home. Think of the internment of the Japanese in the 1940’s. War suspends individual rights, grants the state extraordinary powers, in the name of emergency. Look at how this militarization of the police began; the War on Drugs. Evoking war, we now have Homeland Security. The state will always grant its actors broad power to use violence and protection from judgement in doing so. Proponents of the state (like neocons) embrace war because it always enlarges the state, weakens individuals and gives it power to act more broadly. (The income tax was first created in the US to fund war).

I am suggesting that without these wars, the police wouldn’t behave the way they do. They wouldn’t have the equipment and believe that they can act like soldiers. This young man would likely be alive today if it weren’t for the wars that preceded his death.

Above all, this path is incremental. Each action is met with reaction, reinforcing the next. Somewhere today, I’d bet someone is making the case that police need to be armed and equipped this way more than ever; just look at that mob they are up against! They need more powerful weapons, they should be more aggressive without fear of prosecution, more money. Similarly, when we create terrorists by using violence abroad, the call will go out to expand and empower that realm of the state.

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Comment by Lionel
2014-08-20 13:15:01

I also imagine that this system of increasing militarization occurs via the recruitment of people who have spent time aboard, subjecting people through force. It’s what they’re been trained to do. Why would we expect them to act any differently?

 
Comment by cactus
2014-08-20 13:31:24

Proponents of the state (like neocons) embrace war because it always enlarges the state, weakens individuals and gives it power to act more broadly. (The income tax was first created in the US to fund war).’

Yes exactly!!

Kingdom of fear

 
Comment by oxide
2014-08-20 13:32:05

They wouldn’t have the equipment and believe that they can act like soldiers. This young man would likely be alive today if it weren’t for the wars that preceded his death.

What is so new about six gunshots? Jesse James could do that. Or white cops having “attitudes” toward black men? They got that reputation decades ago — in fact decades ago it was worse. Riot gear and shooting at protestors isn’t new either; cf Kent State in 1970.

We can’t blame every event on the wars and drones. Nor could this have been prevented by “more civil liberties” or “less government,” or by a President Paul.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 14:28:38

I agree with you about the wars. I have been against this meddling in the middle east since the beginning. We should get the heck out of there and not go back. However, we’ve always had an armed police force, and this officer used a handgun to kill the suspect. If we didn’t have wars, we’d still have armed police, and this kid would probably still be dead. The kid had just pulled off a strongarm robbery, and he was obviously non-compliant and violent with the cop and ended up getting killed over it. I don’t believe for a moment that this cop just flat out blew this kid away for nothing. I just don’t buy it.

That said, the show of force after the demonstrations started was clearly excessive. Weapons pointed at people, militarized vehicles used by police, etc. I don’t like that, and I don’t agree with it. I hate the NSA, the Patriot Act, and all of the crap that’s been shoved down our throats since 9/11, and we need to do away with it. But this situation with this Brown character is way overblown. Sometimes we’ve got to look at things for what they really are: A violent robber who was killed by the police after he fought them.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 15:07:12

I don’t believe for a moment that this cop just flat out blew this kid away for nothing

Maybe you’re right. But up to now, where are the witnesses? I hope more come forward.

Sometimes we’ve got to look at things for what they really are: A violent robber who was killed by the police after he fought them.

Then why do you keep leaving out the main part of what witness have said, and what people are so pissed-off about?

“A violent robber who was killed by the police WITH HIS HANDS UP IN THE AIR, UNARMED AND SURRENDERING after he fought them.”

Now this might not be exactly what happened, but it’s what they were told happened by witnesses. AND that kind of stuff happens a lot to Black people. And there is not much “political” about that.

 
Comment by SUGuy
2014-08-20 15:52:00

Blood for gas: Why Bibi is punishing Gaza

That Bibi is able to get away with this is all the Arab street – and most of the Global South – needs to know about America’s battleship/aircraft carrier in the Middle East.

What most people don’t know about is those 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, worth at least $4 billion, discovered 14 years ago off the Gaza coast.

It’s easy to forget that at the time of Israel’s previous invasion of Gaza – Operation Cast Lead – gas fields in Palestine were outright confiscated by Israel.

This “operation” was already an energy war, as Nafeez Ahmed analyzed here.

Then there is the Bigger Picture - the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas plus the potential 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin spread over the territorial waters of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and – of course – Gaza.

These waters are as incandescently disputed as rocks and shoals in the South China Sea. Needless to say, Tel Aviv wants it all.

And to complement the picture, Israel faces an upcoming energy security nightmare, detailed here.

Even Tony Blair, the Phantom of the Opera, is involved. As the (failed) Quartet Middle East envoy, Blair came up with the brilliant plan of “developing” the Gaza gas fields via an agreement between British Gas and the Palestinian Authority, totally excluding Hamas and the people of Gaza.

The way Gaza is kept as a concentration camp, subjected to non-stop collective punishment, may be revolting enough. But then it must be added the key economic component: by all available means Gazans must be prevented from accessing the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas fields.

These will be gobbled up by Israel. From every angle, and for all practical purposes, Israel lords over all Palestinian natural resources – land, water and energy.
So here’s the “secret” of Operation Protect the Zionists, sorry, Protective Edge: without smashing Hamas, which controls Gaza, Israel cannot drill off the Gaza coast. For Bibi as well as the Knesset, the possibility that the Palestinians could have access to their own gas-generated wealth is an absolute red line.

And the EU may be on it as well. No one in Brussels will admit it, but it’s easy to conceive “strategists” regarding this takeover of Palestinian gas fields opening the door in the future for the EU being less dependent on Gazprom, and a substantial importer of (stolen) Israeli gas.

http://rt.com/op-edge/172524-bibi-punishing-gaza-ethnic-cleansing/

 
Comment by Blackhawk
2014-08-20 16:40:44

SU Guy,

So the fact that Hamas has been shooting rockets, building tunnels and planning a mass attack on Israel has nothing to do with it?

Wake up sister. Hamas wants this so they can get more aid and ammunition from your ilk.

BH

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-20 18:10:22

‘With Barack I’s ascension to the throne, American imperialism was allowed for the first time to wear blackface – and, in spite of his campaign promises, it helped empower the President to embark on an ambitious campaign of conquest and mass murder that made George W. Bush look like a piker. Libya, Syria, Somalia, Ukraine, and now the stunning turnabout into Iraq – who would’ve thought the “liberal” “peace” candidate, who excoriated Hillary Clinton for her vote in favor of the Iraq war, would launch such a wide-ranging series of military and “soft power” interventions?’

‘When one of the provinces rebel – be it in Donetsk or Nevada – the Empire’s response is identical. The MRAPs assemble in military formation, the Long Range Acoustic Devices are set off, and the helmeted camie-wearing troops advance toward the crowd, guns pointed at the rebel rabble.’

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 19:57:14

“War suspends individual rights, grants the state extraordinary powers, in the name of emergency.”

It dawned on me a while back that this could help explain why so many presidents seem willing to go to war on slight provocation. What could be better than to gain power in the name of protecting the citizenry?

 
Comment by reedalberger
2014-08-21 04:25:04

“This young man would likely be alive today if it weren’t for the wars that preceded his death.”

If anyone actually believes this ridiculous assertion, we are finished as a country. My god, what do the wars have to do with a cop getting his head bashed in and allegedly firing in self defense? What do the wars have to do with the thug kid stealing from the store and assaulting the clerk? Even if the cop woke up that day and went out hunting black youths, what would that have to do with the wars?

#OMG

 
Comment by Northeastener
2014-08-21 06:34:39

It’s called a nightstick or taser. It’s called non-lethal force. The whole idea is that you hand police military style equipment and uniforms, you allow a level of escalation of force that is unwarranted, amd you emd up with dead, unarmed civilians.

What is this all about? Intimidation. Punch a cop in the face and get shot dead. Not tazed, not beaten, shot… dead.

As a civilian, if I am assaulted and shoot my attacker in self-defense, I will be charged with murder if the attacker was unarmed. Why? Because the law views my life differently that a cop’s life.

In the army, we were issued a RoE, rules of engagement, that set the explicit circumstances with which we could use deadly force. Break them and you could be brought up on charges. And no, we couldn’t just point our weapons at unarmed civilians, even if we thought they might be a “threat”. Weapon at the ready, muzzle pointed down. Not so much with the roid-rage brigade we see in Ferguson.

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 12:33:52

The problem with the Ferguson situation is that black people are rallying behind the wrong person;

Who cares? Their point is not “we’re mad because cops shot an angel boy who never did anything wrong”. Their point is cops gunned down and unarmed man with his hands up surrendering - and there is a long history of this in America. Now I’m not sure that’s what happened in the incident, but that’s the main point.

1. What part of “Witnesses say he was stationary, with his hands up saying “don’t shoot when he was shot 6 times” don’t you get? And so far, I’ve heard no eyewitnesses come forward saying Michael Brown was charging the cop. I actually hope I do because it would justify the shooting and ease tensions.

Your line of thinking goes something like this, and it’s based on emotion and it makes little logical sense:

“It’s not a big deal to gun down an unarmed, surrendering Black guy if he’s committed a crime, and Black people shouldn’t get irate that this happens because Blacks have not done enough to better themselves. And to get irate that an unarmed, surrendering Black guy was shot down like a dog just shows the Black peoples’ entitlement/victim mentality

You are conflating and confusing issues unrelated to what is being protested which is: “Another incident of an unarmed, surrendering man being gunned down like a dog.”

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Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 19:13:54

Wow. Talk about a massive straw man argument. It’s pointless to even engage with you.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 19:26:06

Oh, and like I said yesterday, if the suspect had just raped and killed a child, there would be NO demonstration whatsoever, which pretty much pokes holes in your entire premise. The demonstrators excuse violence on behalf of the subject, but complain about violent cops. It’s nothing but an example of the angry black man syndrome, which is so tired and long in the tooth it’s become nauseating. I saw some guy on the news say “they’re letting white people walk in the street.” Meanwhile I saw some white guys under arrest at a different location for whatever. Then a black gal chimed in “they just walked right by the burning restaurant, and didn’t even put the fire out. It’s their fault it burned down.” Huh? The blacks that set the fire are not responsible for it burning down, but rather the police and firemen are for not putting it out?

It’s been 150 years since slavery, and it’s time for the black community to stop blaming other skin colors for their problems. I’m white, but my family was in Norway when all of that crap was taking place. We only moved her in the early 1900’s. That doesn’t stop black people from directing their hatred towards me. It’s pretty sad that they can’t move on.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 20:07:38

It’s pointless to even engage with you……Oh, and like I said yesterday…

That sequence is funny.

Talk about a massive straw man argument….if the suspect had just raped and killed a child, there would be NO demonstration…

That sequence is even funnier. I prove point-by-point your argument is off base, then you falsely mislabel it a “strawman” and come up with that totally off-base huge strawman like that? “If he’d just raped and killed a child“? How about if he just nuked Omaha?

The demonstrators excuse violence on behalf of the subject, but complain about violent cops.

There’s a big difference between the expected comportment of an armed, licensed-to-kill-sworn-to-protect-and-uphold-his-duty cop and a regular unarmed, surrendering citizen. Why is this complicated?

I saw some white guys under arrest at a different location for whatever. Then a black gal….

Whatever, “white guy this” “black guy that” Botom line:
They are protesting because they think a guy with his hands up surrendering, was gunned down like a dog. Is this that complicated Guillotine Renovator?

You should read and think about what you write. You’re actually comparing an allegedly murdered, surrendering criminal with a sworn to protect and serve law enforcement officer who is alleged to have killed that man in cold-blood. Really?

I’m white, but my family was in Norway when all of that crap was taking place.

Who cares? You move to a country, and you become part of the history and dynamics of that country. That’s part of the price. If you don’t want to pay that price, don’t move there. What? You’re entitled to bypass the history and legacy of a country because you’re white and new? Listen. Nothing’s free. Trust me. I know better than you about this point.

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 21:43:15

“Falsely mislabled a straw man?” Here’s your massive straw man, scarecrow. You’re pathological.

“Your line of thinking goes something like this, and it’s based on emotion and it makes little logical sense:

“It’s not a big deal to gun down an unarmed, surrendering Black guy if he’s committed a crime, and Black people shouldn’t get irate that this happens because Blacks have not done enough to better themselves. And to get irate that an unarmed, surrendering Black guy was shot down like a dog just shows the Black peoples’ entitlement/victim mentality””

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 22:19:15

“Falsely mislabled a straw man?” Here’s your massive straw man

You seem agitated but earnest. But wrong. (Look up “straw man”)

OK. Show me with your own words that you used the past 2 days where anything about the gist below is a “strawman”. Line by line if you want. Show me by the words you used and an explanation. Maybe you are not totally wrong but just express yourself poorly. I’ll respond tomorrow.

The gist of your illogical position the past 2 days:
“Your line of thinking goes something like this, and it’s based on emotion and it makes little logical sense:
“It’s not a big deal to gun down an unarmed, surrendering Black guy if he’s committed a crime, and Black people shouldn’t get irate that this happens because Blacks have not done enough to better themselves. And to get irate that an unarmed, surrendering Black guy was shot down like a dog just shows the Black peoples’ entitlement/victim mentality””

 
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 23:36:22

This may help you:

A straw man is a common type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on the misrepresentation of an opponent’s argument. [1] To be successful, a straw man argument requires that the audience be ignorant or uninformed of the original argument.

The so-called typical “attacking a straw man” argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent’s proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., “stand up a straw man”) and then to refute or defeat that false argument (”knock down a straw man”) instead of the original proposition.

You have done that perfectly right here, though you try to deny it. None of the following are my words:

“The gist of your illogical position the past 2 days:
“Your line of thinking goes something like this, and it’s based on emotion and it makes little logical sense:
“It’s not a big deal to gun down an unarmed, surrendering Black guy if he’s committed a crime, and Black people shouldn’t get irate that this happens because Blacks have not done enough to better themselves. And to get irate that an unarmed, surrendering Black guy was shot down like a dog just shows the Black peoples’ entitlement/victim mentality””

The above is a gross misrepresentation of my posts. You are nothing but a scarecrow.

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-21 07:17:58

The above is a gross misrepresentation of my posts

Sorry Charlie. “The above” was a perfect distillation of your anti-black, self-entitled, illogical, and overly emotionally two day boring screed. The reason you can’t see it is the same reason you can’t comprehend the differences between the following 2 sentences and all that the differences entail. Is that reason intelligence level or emotion?

1. They are protesting because a cop did a bad thing.

2. They are protesting because a witness said a cop did a bad thing that cops have been doing for ages.

I know you feel like a victim of black rage but your victim/entitlement mentality is not healthy for your advancement.

 
 
 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 09:12:54

Black Men Are Afraid Of Being Shot By Other Black Men, Not By Cops Jason Riley

There are outright lies and trickery in that title and that article. I’m sure inner city Blacks are afraid of getting shot by other Blacks but the author Jason Riley (“The right’s favorite new race guru”) is totally and profoundly Full of Cr@p about black men not being afraid of cops - especially in places like Ferguson. This article also the real estate/segregation aspect of St. Louis.

Why the Fires in Ferguson Won’t End Soon

The tensions have been building for a long time, and even justice for Michael Brown won’t change that.

ERGUSON, Missouri—Talk to anyone in Ferguson and you’ll hear a story about the police. “One of my friends had a son killed by the Ferguson Police Department, about 10 years ago,” said Carl Walker, a Vietnam veteran and former parole officer who came to show his support for demonstrators in Ferguson. “They wouldn’t release the name of the officer who killed him. Why wouldn’t you release the name?”

….“The cops said he shot at them—case closed,” said Al Cole, referring to a cousin who was killed by Ferguson police in 2000. “Even as a teenager, 13 or 14 years old, I’ve been slammed on police cars … now I try to avoid riding through Ferguson.

…..Everyone—or at least, every black person—can recall an incident. Everyone can attest to friends and relatives who have been harassed, assaulted, or worse by the police…

…..The events in Ferguson—from the shooting to the police response and everything since—are a product of familiar forces and stem from a familiar history. Put another way, the area’s long-bottled racial tension has burst, and it’s difficult to know if it can be resolved, much less contained.

Like many American cities, St. Louis can’t be untangled from segregation. In 1916, it became one of the first places to formalize racial segregation by designating particular “Negro blocks” where blacks would be concentrated and legally forbidden from leaving.

….n 1923, the St. Louis Real Estate Exchange created zones in the city’s black neighborhoods to limit the extent of black housing. Real estate agents could sell to black families inside the zones, but would lose their licenses if they sold homes outside the zones.

…..“Both the City’s Real Estate Exchange and the Missouri Real Estate Commission routinely and openly interpreted sales to blacks in white areas as a form of professional misconduct,”

……..With broad housing inequality and entrenched segregation, it shouldn’t be a shock to learn that banks targeted North County—and other predominantly black areas nationwide—with subprime loans. The result was a community hit hard by the 2008 recession.

Comment by Dguy
2014-08-20 12:50:34

Is it possible that cops should maybe be held to a higher standard than other people? That maybe being a cop isn’t a license to kill any black man who isn’t sufficiently submissive? Instead of treating the shooting as worthy of investigation, like any good police department would do, the department rallied around the cop like he could do no wrong. That Captain should be fired, and that department thoroughly cleaned out of the toy soldier types that were pointing assault weapons at peaceful protesters.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 20:01:28

Who knows whether the facts will ever emerge on the exchange between the cop and the shooting victim, but if the footage from the convenience store robbery is any indication, I’m guessing submissive behavior was not on display.

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Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-20 21:57:37

Exactly. But Rio will have none of it. He’d rather pretend that the cop was just some renegade gunslinger dispatching of a gentle human being like a “dog” (his word, not mine- I love dogs, and I really don’t understand the line of thought).

 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 22:33:05

Rio will have none of it. He’d rather pretend that the cop was just some renegade gunslinger dispatching of a gentle human being like a “dog”

LOL. Wrong again. Concentrate.

For the 10th time:
I’m not saying that what the protesters heard happened actually happened. I’m just saying that the protesters are going by what witnesses have told them, which is that a surrendering Black man was gunned down like a dog, and that pattern is a sad and common part of American history. Thus the protests.

You really can’t understand the nuance, reality and history? Really? ?

 
 
 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2014-08-20 17:28:26

I have no idea about the veracity of this, but it seems like it could be legitimate. A cell phone video purportedly of the Brown shooting aftermath captures an individual talking in the background. The individual seems to say that it was in fact Brown who was acting aggressively towards the cops:

(NSFW links, mature content): http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e94_1408294281

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 18:01:03

The individual seems to say that it was in fact Brown who was acting aggressively towards the cops:

I posted that yesterday too. And if true, That witness needs to come forward now if he already already hasn’t.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 04:51:28

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

–Thomas Jefferson

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 05:20:35

One of Occupy Wall Street’s initial “demands” was for a transaction tax on high-frequency trading (before they got bogged down in a laundry list of other “progressive” nonsense).

This was unacceptable to the bankster pigmen who own this country and purchase our elections, so therefore a narrative was framed (filth, disease, drugs, rape, et cetera) and through a coordinated effort between mayors and Obama’s thug army DHS, Occupy was summarily crushed.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:46:27

your broker will leave you broker!

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 15:02:05

+1000

 
 
 
Comment by Shillow
2014-08-20 05:30:44

Seen on Zillow

Agent note:
Posted on 05/21/2014
The Zestimate is too low. This property was recently appraised at a value of $340,000. Anyone serious about this can view it.

After 9 months on the market, a couple of price drops and a couple of agents, the listing was recently pulled.
hahahaha

Comment by iftheshoefits
2014-08-20 08:32:16

When a see an agent note like that, I always think to myself, “appraised by who”?

I now look closely at county tax appraisals, in spite of their notorious and well known shortcomings, as they’re the only appraisal that means anything at all any more. One has to calibrate their thinking about the appraisals based upon the jurisdiction, but normally you can come up with a working ratio between current market selling prices and tax appraised value, and IMO it seems to hold pretty well, give or take 10-12%. I’m sure in some counties or cities it’s next to useless, but not in the areas I’ve been looking (VA/NC piedmont).

Sure beats a Zestimate, which is absolutely worthless. Their Z trend graphs over a few year period speak for themselves.

Comment by oxide
2014-08-20 13:09:08

A sale is an ‘appraisal’ that means something too. Whether it’s a good appraisal or a blooming idiot appraisal is up for debate. But it’s a concrete number that can be attached to a property.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 14:40:34

a property is worth what a willing buyer is willing to pay.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-21 04:11:21

No Poet…. A house is worth input costs less depreciation.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-08-20 06:12:06

Just for some laughs… Apparently the Notorious BIG’s son is gay and juts proposed to his white boyfriend after they graduated HS.

LOL, you can’t make this stuff up.

———————-

The son of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. is engaged to be married to his longtime boyfriend Jason Wertz. According to a source connected to the family, Christopher Wallace Jr., who goes by CJ, dropped to one knee in front of friends and family and asked Wertz to be his husband.

The couple first met freshman year of high school and have been inseparable ever since. CJ first revealed their relationship after his high school graduation earlier this year. The rap legend’s son posted a photograph on the social network Instagram, which showed himself and Wertz locked tight in a warm embrace.

The source says everyone is extremely supportive of CJ and his decision to take the next step in his life.

http://www.thenewsnerd.com/music/notorious-bigs-son-proposes-to-boyfriend/

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 06:18:54

Where you been j-j-j-joe?

Lost in a haze of amyl nitrate and molly in the sand dunes on Fire Island?

Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-08-20 07:04:36

I was busying myself at the playa last week, then returned to an inbox full of emails from co-workers clearly suffering from Asperger’s** who had an entire week to nitpick the work I circulated before I left. My vacay was heaven (no poz loads behind the dunes on Fire Island, though, sorry).

** If you’ve ever seen the documentary “Stress: the Silent Killer” (which you should–it’s v good) you’ll know the type of people I mean. I think that whole documentary is avail on Youtube. If not, I know for a fact it’s on NFLIX.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 06:28:15

Liberace!

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:29:25

Is it “go time” again for the “risk off” crowd?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:33:20

Brett Arends’s ROI
Uh-oh: Stock buybacks are on the decline
Published: Aug 20, 2014 6:01 a.m. ET
By Brett Arends
Columnist

Everyone knows the stock market has skyrocketed in the past few years, but far too few understand why.

No, it hasn’t been magic. It hasn’t been levitation. It hasn’t been the natural state of affairs.

It’s been supply and demand.

U.S. corporations have been spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year buying in their own stock, simultaneously increasing the demand for the stock and reducing the supply.

And this matters right now because…er…they just stopped.

The amount spent on share buybacks plunged by more than 20% last quarter, strategists at SG Securities calculate. Even though stock prices in the Standard & Poor’s 500 were on average 25% higher than they were a year ago, the amount spent on share buybacks actually fell.

As SG notes, “US corporates (have) been the major net buyer of US equity in recent years, purchasing over $500 billion of stock last year alone.” But, notes the bank, this happy trend may be drawing to a close.

There are two reasons.

The first is that the federal deficit is falling. Without getting too technical, economists note that there is an historical and mathematical connection between federal deficits and corporate profits. The booming deficits around the financial crisis were followed by booming corporate profits. And corporations used a lot of that money to buy up stock. As deficits decline as a share of the economy, so, it is likely, will corporate profits.

The second reason has to do with the winding down of the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” policy. From 2009 through 2013, the Fed effectively printed money and used it to buy up long-term government bonds. Bonds work like seesaws: When the price rises, the yield falls. The Fed’s actions drove up the price of Treasury bonds, and drove down the yield — or interest rate.

As the interest rate on Treasury bonds fell, the interest rate that investors demanded on long-term corporate bonds also fell. It became cheaper and cheaper for corporations to borrow money. The average yield on Moody’s-rated BAA corporate bonds — meaning those at the bottom rung of investment grade — is now below 5%, levels not seen for any length of time since before the Vietnam War.

Drop hamburger on the kitchen floor and your golden retriever will eat it.

Drop free money on the bond market and corporations will behave about the same. And so they have.

U.S. corporations have been borrowing like billy-o. According to the Federal Reserve, corporate debt has risen 27% over the past five years to $9.6 trillion.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 08:19:56

I wonder how much of home depots great q2 was due to buybacks?

I hope they can keep stocks going up or sh@t will literately hit the fan with all this leverage built up.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 06:38:03

Everything you wanted to know about the Fed’s exit plan but were afraid to ask
August 20, 2014, 6:36 AM ET

Much more time has been spent discussing the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate hike than on how the central bank intends to do so.

In part this could be due to the complex nature of the task.

After six years of bond-buying, the Fed can no longer engineer a standard simple fed funds target rate hike, the policy instrument of choice since 1990.

With so much liquidity from the asset purchase, banks don’t need interbank loans as much and experts think the fed funds rate would no longer send signals across the yield curve.

Put another way, the Fed “cannot go home again,” according to a field guide for how the Fed may exit, prepared by Vincent Reinhart, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley and his team.

The Fed is working on its exit strategy. At her press conference in June, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said the central bank would release a revised exit strategy later this year. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart suggested in an interview with Bloomberg last month that the strategy could be ready by the Fed’s next meeting on Sept. 16-17.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 06:50:47

The FEDS plan:

Print a sh@tlaod of money to inflate home and stock prices. How hard is this to understand?

Can these assets hold their value without constant manipulation?

Will their be constant manipulation to prop up asset values?

Comment by iftheshoefits
2014-08-20 08:33:33

Do you do anything besides troll these days?

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Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 09:33:36

F R E E L O A D E R

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 07:02:07

Bloomberg - Eight-Year Car Loans Fuel Canada Sales Over Debt Warnings

“The average term of a light-vehicle loan in Canada is 69 months, close to a peak of 72 months set in the third quarter of 2013″

Comment by taxpayers
2014-08-20 07:06:27

and you can refi a used car- tx Mr Banker

 
 
Comment by Overbanked
2014-08-20 07:27:38

“Fed is tapering too early, needs to wait for next recession.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fed-tapering-is-too-early–schatz-114323009.html

 
Comment by j-j-j-joe
2014-08-20 11:05:01

Updates from the HBB social media scene:

RAL has been having a lengthy series of tweet conversations with himself on twitter.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi challenged his fellow social conservative 2banana to the “ice bucket challenge” after 2banana left fawning comments on some of his ISIS videos on Youtube.

2banana also connected w/ AqDan on grindr based on their unfailing support for the “red team” in US politics. Hey, if Larry Craig and Lindsay Graham can be GOP stalwarts, why not these guys?

Rio pinned some Che Guevara themed room makeovers on Pinterest and Houzz.

Polly schooled NYCdj pretty good on snapchat.

Slithers’ instagram has some shots of himself taking Diogenes’ poz loads. Hmmm, so that’s what they’ve been up to…

goon swiped right on everything in sight on Tinder and has been doing two-a-day sessions in a pay-by-the-hour hotel outside Durango, CO.

j-j-j-joe had his home raided and computer confiscated after FBI discovered his business of selling Liberace memorabilia on eBay was just a way to launder money raised by selling guns on Silk Road 2.0 (all guns are illegal in DC).

Comment by goon squad
2014-08-20 13:30:12

ABQ Dan left the building while you were on vacation, j-j-j-joe.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-08-20 13:33:26

Liberace….. you’re an imbecile.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 15:05:17

I miss DAN.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 15:17:59

I miss DAN.

In a nutshell:

“China will grow 7.5% forever. There’s no global warming because the “models are off”. Asians are smarter than Whites who are smarter than Blacks who have every opportunity and results Whites have if they have the same IQ. And on this fuzzy and compressed 150 year graph with very few date marks you can see that the Fed’s balance sheet only started to explode under Obama (a flat-out lie) Obama is awful and I think Guillotine Renovator is actually Rio.”

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 20:03:20

Give him a call and get yourselves a room.

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Comment by tresho
2014-08-20 11:17:41

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked Nobel laureate economists why their discipline got so much so wrong in recent years. And she challenged them to come up with new measures of well-being.
For the fifth time, winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics have come together to discuss current issues in their field. The conference is held every three years in Lindau.

Protests

“Austerity blasts Europe”, “Economic growth versus sustainability”, “Is ethical thinking foreign to economics?” - provocative placards in garish colors were hung along the streets leading to the convention center. Representatives of NGOs like Attac, which is critical of economic globalization, have been holding demonstrations in Lindau. Many are dissatisfied with the policy prescriptions of leading mainstream economists. They see them as responsible for out-of-control financial markets and high unemployment.

There were more journalists accredited for this year’s meeting than for any of the previous ones, and the tone of dispute and controversy has rarely been so marked.

This year’s meeting was also the first which Chancellor Angela Merkel attended. She had questions as well:

“Why were the economic sciences in the past several years of crisis so badly off the mark in terms of predicting or describing economic reality? Were the underlying economic theories wrong, or were we listening to the wrong people?” she asked the meeting’s Nobelists and young researchers.

Angela Merkel noted that she was herself trained as an academic scientist - she has a doctorate in physical chemistry. She knows, she said, that there are no perfect answers. Especially not in politics, which has to focus on the interests of the citizenry, rather than on economic theories. She said that “Homo economicus” could not consist simply of economic expertise, and made a pitch for her political approach.

“For us, it’s about understanding the expectations and ideas of the citizens about what a good life is,” she said. That’s what her priority is, and she wants economists to address this as well. She wants new economic welfare indicators developed that are different from traditional measures like gross domestic product (GDP) or unemployment rates.

A rebel from Indiana

Among those listening to the discussion with satisfaction was Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobelist who was chief economist of the World Bank from 1997-2000. He’s one of the few prominent economists who is not considered to be conservative. He has been called “the rebel from Indiana,” in part because he questions whether markets are always efficient. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Stiglitz said that his analyses have nearly become mainstream.
A topic that has consistently preoccupied him is the widening divide between the rich and the poor.

Widening inequality

“For almost fifty years, nobody talked about inequality. Now there’s a broad consensus, even among economists, and certainly among our society, that inequality is an important issue,” he said, and cited figures from the US.

“95 percent of the income gains earned nationally during the past several years in America went to the top 1 percent. Median incomes, adjusted for inflation, are lower than they were 25 years ago.”
The American Dream
Stiglitz noted that in the US, it really is the case that the rich are getting ever richer, and the poor poorer. In his view, that will have enormous economic consequences. One key factor is that not enough was being invested in the education and training of the broad population. The American Dream - an iconic story of starting as a dishwasher and rising to the status of a millionaire through hard work - has long since become an almost unattainable myth.
A Europe for the rich
Asked about his views on Europe’s economy, Stiglitz admitted that income distributions are less unequal there than in the US. In Germany or Scandinavia, there is a strong middle-income class. But in Europe, too, the incomes of the wealthy have risen disproportionately to those of the rest of the population.

Economists without answers

Alvin Roth, another professor of economics and Nobelist, told DW that he can understand the intensity of the discussion about social inequality. He said rising unemployment among the young was especially troubling.

At the same time, he asked non-economists to understand that economists don’t always have solutions to economic or social problems.
“Economics is a very young science, we’re still learning, the environments change, the challenges change,” he said.

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-08-20 14:40:35

“The American Dream - an iconic story of starting as a dishwasher and rising to the status of a millionaire through hard work - has long since become an almost unattainable myth.”

Not unattainable. Just to make the math easy, let’s say I’ve earned $50K per year, in today’s dollars and after tax, after college for the past 40 years. That’s $2 million. What did I do with the money? I raised four kids, and supported them through college and a couple of expensive divorces. That’s almost a million bucks right there! I bought lots of houses and cars and toys along the way too. If I had wanted to be a millionaire, it would have been pretty simple. The way I’ve lived for the past 10 years, I’d have saved over a million easy, without any smart investments.

Comment by rms
2014-08-20 17:29:26

“I raised four kids, and supported them through college and a couple of expensive divorces.”

Wow, sounds like hell on earth.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:05:37

The American Dream used to also mean you could start as a millionaire and end up a dishwasher, if you got too greedy and made poor investment decisions. Now, thanks to the Fed, if you’re in the .1% your losses will be made whole by taxpayers and you’ll be given limitless leveraged gambling money to play with, while the regulators and compliance officers are either criminally negligent or actively complicit.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 18:28:06

I like that.

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Comment by tresho
2014-08-20 11:32:17

Getting Americans to eat more bugs
Startups Pitch Cricket Flour As The Best Protein You Could Eat

That could become the next foraging trend if several edible insect companies can convince consumers that pulverized crickets are the next “it” protein.

“Insects are probably the most sustainable form of protein we have on Earth,” Bitty Foods founder Megan Miller, who spoke passionately about eating bugs at a TEDx Manhattan event earlier this year, tells The Salt. “The only real barrier to Americans eating insects is a cultural taboo.”

For $20, Bitty is peddling a blend of powdered crickets and gluten-free starches for baking, as well as cookies made with the flour. It joins Exo, a company with a line of cacao and peanut butter-and-jelly flavored protein bars made with cricket powder, and Six Foods, which has baked chips made with cricket flour in the works, in the new marketplace of insect-fortified food products.

Lots of people are excited about the potential of edible insects.

Please, no comments from those who like the taste of arthropods from salt water, such as shrimp or lobster.

 
Comment by cactus
2014-08-20 13:11:47

Countrywide Financial Corporation founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo is sworn in to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Capitol Hill in Washington March 7, 2008.

The Feds are planning on suing former Countrywide CEO, Angelo Mozilo, according to Bloomberg.

Mortgage insurer Countrywide became a focus of the financial crisis as regualtors, bankers, and politicians alike were shocked by the number of toxic assets on its balance sheets and the measures the company took to hide them.

Until now, Bank of America has paid the most of the price for this. The bank bought Countrywide in 2008 — pretty much the year everything went to hell — while Mozilo retired with the $535 million from 1999 to 2008 (and then some).

To this day Mozilo has gotten off relatively scott-free, aside from the $67.5 million fine he paid the SEC for misleading investors about Countrywide’s assets.

And what is that even, really?

Peanuts.

Prosecutors are going after Mozilo thanks to the ten year statute of limitations provided by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act — a law passed during the Savings and Loans Crisis back in 1980s. Bloomberg’s sources say, however, that a lawsuit could be months away.

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 15:06:56

angello is a victim of barney frank and mr dodd.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:07:06

Agent Orange will up his bribery payments to the Republicrats and this case will quietly go away after the usual slap-on-the-wrist fine.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 15:03:41

Worse “recovery” ever (except for banksters).

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-20/worst-recovery-ever-except-bankers

Comment by azdude
2014-08-20 15:11:34

angello was just following orders.Give those people a dam loan. unfortunately they bought at market highs and got hosed.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 15:06:49

Argentina just flipped off the vulture funds and international financiers. Already the financial press is running the most unflattering photographs of the Argentine President they can find as the MSM’s demonization campaign begins in earnest.

http://www.businessinsider.com/argentine-swap-law-is-unprecedented-2014-8

Comment by rms
2014-08-20 20:04:13

“Already the financial press is running the most unflattering photographs of the Argentine President they can find as the MSM’s demonization campaign begins in earnest.”

+1 Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has lots of fugly under that make-up.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:10:03

It’s good to be a looter on Wall Street. You can steal all you want with impunity.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-goldman-sachs-to-raise-junior-banker-pay-by-20-percent–ny-post-2014-8

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:13:51

Now you’ve gone and done it, Cristina. The monyed vultures are going to make an example out of her and Argentina.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/20/argentina-cut-hedge-funds-lenders

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:21:37

Well this is interesting. Chicago’s deeply corrupt Democratic Party machine is seeing a split between the Rahm Emanuel faction - tasked with implementing austerity to feed the insatiable appetites of the Wall Street looting syndicate - and the forces responsible for the destruction of our pubic education, namely, the teachers’ union. This kind of intensifying squabble over diminishing spoils is bound to escalate within the DNC as public unions get thrown under the bus so Wall Street’s blood funnel can continue to suck out all the economic value out of DNC urban dystopias like Chicago.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/08/19/potential-mayoral-candidates-gauging-interest/

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:34:43

I haven’t seen a crack this wide since the last visit from my plumber.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:27:39

Old Yellen gearing up to flood Wall Street with more printing-press QE (further debasing the dollar and destroying the purchasing power of Americans on fixed incomes).

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-20/jackson-hole-tremendous-downside-risks-if-yellen-doesnt-go-full-dovish

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 20:05:39

Dang…and just when I finally talked my eighty-something parents to divest of most of their high-risk stock mutual fund investments. SOL for us…

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:33:28

Eric Holder assures the baying mobs of Ferguson that DoJ prosecutors and investigators are on the case. Since his office hasn’t prosecuted a single banker in connection with the massive swindles and fraud conducted with impunity since 2008, they should in theory have plenty of resources available to devote to Ferguson.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/08/watching-troubled-us-suburb-201482022942411399.html

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-20 18:52:58
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 20:08:42

It slashed its 2014 forecast for construction starts for single-family homes to 642,000 units, down 8% from its July forecast of 696,000. But it has been slashing its forecasts all along: in January, it had still seen 768,000 single-family housing starts for the year. And in August last year, it had forecast 876,000 starts for 2014. It has now chopped 27% off that forecast.

Same thing with home sales.

Keep up that kind of truth-telling and we will have to start calling you guys ‘Freddie Krueger Mac.’

 
 
Comment by tresho
2014-08-20 18:44:47

Davenport University offers free classes to some grads who can’t find a job
A Grand Rapids-based university with locations across the state will give free additional education to graduates who can’t find a job.

Davenport University announced the plan this morning.

Students who graduate with a 3.0 GPA average in their major and overall, complete an internship, are eligible for legal employment in the U.S. and have conducted a job search but can’t find employment in their field of study within six months are eligible for the program.

Those who meet the requirements, but can’t find a job can get three additional semesters — worth up to $30,000 — of classes. That’s enough time for most students to pick up a second major.

“This program isn’t a gimmick,” said Davenport President Richard Pappas in a news release. “All of our degrees should lead to career fields with available jobs,” Papas said. “If they don’t, we should not be offering that program and taking students’ money. A DU degree in the hands of a serious, disciplined student should lead to a job, plain and simple.”

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-08-20 19:26:46

‘Two years ago, in August 2012, the U.S. Treasury Department issued its so-called “sweep” rule forcing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to surrender all future dividends. Shareholders were angered. Some sued the government. Their displeasure now has a measure of vindication. Near the end of July, an unnamed source leaked a confidential Treasury document (see pdf) to the public, dated June 13, 2011, revealing the department was willing to go to bat on behalf of investors, particularly The Blackstone Group, to facilitate purchases of equity stakes in the companies. At the time, companies were rebounding from a deep slump. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac management, under federal conservatorship since September 2008, have had their hands tied. The new revelations may strengthen shareholder legal claims, and more broadly, property rights.’

 
Comment by rms
2014-08-20 19:47:50

FWIW, heads are going to roll.

“China’s Top Graft Buster Probing Thousands”
Anti-Corruption Drive Headed by a Heavy-Handed Communist Party Loyalist

http://online.wsj.com/articles/chinas-top-graft-buster-probing-thousands-1408588202

NANCHANG, China—When Wang Qishan, China’s top graft-buster, dispatched a dozen investigators to this south China river town last summer, his message was clear: The investigators should inspire “shock and awe” among local officials, according to an account posted on a government website.

Mr. Wang’s inspectors told local media they had settled in at a government-owned hotel. Within days, hundreds of residents lined up to give evidence about what they viewed as wrongdoing by corrupt local officials. Complaints also flooded in via the Internet, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.

Yang Peng, a restaurateur, says he told investigators he was jailed and tortured because of his association with an enemy of an important local mandarin who was accused of rigging the sale of a steel mill in exchange for kickbacks.

“Those were seven hellish months in my life,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. A year later, the official he identified was fired and put under investigation by Mr. Wang’s team for graft.

more…

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-08-20 20:11:44

“China’s Top Graft Buster Probing Thousands”

Enjoy those prostate exams!

 
Comment by Rich
2014-08-20 22:19:39

Yikes! I would hate to get probed by Mr. Wang..

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2014-08-20 20:19:44

TURNING AMERICA INTO A WAR ZONE, WHERE ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ ARE THE ENEMY
We live in a state of undeclared martial law.

Turning America Into a War Zone, Where ‘We the People’ Are the Enemy

by JOHN WHITEHEAD | TENTH AMENDMENT CENTER | AUGUST 20, 2014

“If you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?” —Sunil Dutta, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for 17 years

Life in the American police state is an endless series of don’ts delivered at the end of a loaded gun: don’t talk back to police officers, don’t even think about defending yourself against a SWAT team raid (of which there are 80,000 every year), don’t run when a cop is nearby lest you be mistaken for a fleeing criminal, don’t carry a cane lest it be mistaken for a gun, don’t expect privacy in public, don’t let your kids walk to the playground alone, don’t engage in nonviolent protest near where a government official might pass, don’t try to grow vegetables in your front yard, don’t play music for tips in a metro station, don’t feed whales, and on and on.

For those who resist, who dare to act independently, think for themselves, march to the beat of a different drummer, the consequences are invariably a one-way trip to the local jail or death.

What Americans must understand, what we have chosen to ignore, what we have fearfully turned a blind eye to lest the reality prove too jarring is the fact that we no longer live in the “city on the hill,” a beacon of freedom for all the world.

Far from being a shining example of democracy at work, we have become a lesson for the world in how quickly freedom turns to tyranny, how slippery the slope by which a once-freedom-loving people can be branded, shackled and fooled into believing that their prisons walls are, in fact, for their own protection.

Having spent more than half a century exporting war to foreign lands, profiting from war, and creating a national economy seemingly dependent on the spoils of war, we failed to protest when the war hawks turned their profit-driven appetites on us, bringing home the spoils of war—the military tanks, grenade launchers, Kevlar helmets, assault rifles, gas masks, ammunition, battering rams, night vision binoculars, etc.—to be distributed for free to local police agencies and used to secure the homeland against “we the people.”

It’s not just the Defense Department that is passing out free military equipment to local police. Since the early 1990s, the Justice Department has worked with the Pentagon to fund military technology for police departments. And then there are the billions of dollars’ worth of federal grants distributed by the Department of Homeland Security, enabling police departments to go on a veritable buying spree for highly questionable military-grade supplies better suited to the battlefield.

Is it any wonder that we now find ourselves in the midst of a war zone?

We live in a state of undeclared martial law. We have become the enemy.

 
 
Comment by inchbyinch
2014-08-20 20:27:33

déjà vu
I was in Moorpark (So Ca) and I knocked on the door of our former residence, which we bought new in 1984. Our hardscape and landscape job grew into beautiful front and backyards. Wow, even I was impressed. The owner has sold it and has 10 days until the COE. She was the 3rd owner, living there 12 years. What a neat lady. She is a widow (prior to her buying it), so I offered to get her boxes, and help her anyway I can. (Random acts of kindness.)

We hit it off, and she caught me up on the street stories (aka gossip) and we hope to become friends. Going back was weird. It stirred up some strange memories. But I’ll tell you, she’s a doll.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2014-08-20 20:30:15

Nice story. I moved to SoCal after college in the Midwest in 86.

“You can check out any time you like…………”

Comment by inchbyinch
2014-08-20 23:03:47

Rio
My husband moved to So Ca from Kansas to get his EE Degree. I grew up in So Ca. California isn’t California anymore. So sad.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-08-21 04:37:30

America isn’t America any more, either. Beyond sad.

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