Bits Bucket for October 5, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Got ca$h? Cash is king, if denominated in dollars.
Certainly is: personally I beat my own record I made a few years ago of the amount of cash I saved up. And I changed my tune on trying to avoid realizing gains due to taxes. Especially since I sold 2000 shares of my former company stock this year before it dropped 25%!
Asset allocation strategies mean you must insure against any stock market collapse. And you sometimes have to go on the more cautious side if your gut feeling says so. Stocks have done so well since March 2009. The experience of the last 20 years has been wild swings. I want to stay on the wave by being more financially safe and fearful.
Why did it drop 25 percent?
I think that sector peaked. It needs to drop another 50% before I get back in.
Spend the ****ing money! You are the reason economy isn’t improving. –Yellen
“Spend the ****ing money! You are the reason economy isn’t improving. –Yellen”
I remember Dubya sent me a check. Yellen?
Use the money to buy a large golden chain with a large golden dollar sign, and wear it around your neck.
Why wouldn’t a $120,000 Porsche 911 turbo accomplish the same thing?
Depreciation on the Porsche would be much higher.
ft dot com
Where were you when Bill Gross left Pimco?
By Chris Newlands
Where were you when Bill Gross quit Pimco, the world’s largest bond house?
That is the question people will ask given the impact of Mr Gross’s departure little more than a week ago from the company he founded 43 years earlier.
As it has only been a few days since the man dubbed the Bond King abdicated his throne in Newport Beach that question is still relatively easy to answer. A much more difficult problem to solve is where it all went wrong for the former navy officer.
Less than a year and half ago Mr Gross was riding high. His Total Return fund – which has just notched up its 17th straight month of outflows – had peaked in terms of assets. Almost $300bn of investors’ cash sloshed around what had become the world’s biggest bond fund and the man once chased out of Las Vegas for counting cards was untouchable.
Fast forward 18 months, and that same fund is now $100bn lighter. That fact alone might have been enough to kill Mr Gross’s career, but those losses were flanked by a very public spat with former co-chief investment officer Mohamed El-Erian and the news – just two days before Mr Gross quit – of an SEC investigation into alleged pricing irregularities at one of his funds.
It proved one irregularity too many for senior managers. Mr Gross, according to people familiar with the events, left before he was pushed. As Doug Hodge, the chief executive of Pimco, puts it: “The firm’s leadership and Bill have fundamental differences about how to take Pimco forward.”
…
Last week Barry Ritholtz posted on his blog the farewell letter that Bill Gross did not send:
Link:www(.)ritholtz(.)com/blog/2014/10/bill-grosss-farewell-letter-to-pimco/
it begins:
“Dear Friends, Colleagues and Co-workers,
For the past 43 years, Pacific Investment Management Co. has been my home, as well as my pride and joy. With great sadness, I must bid her adieu, not because I want to leave, but because I must. It is the natural order of things for all seasons to change; for the next generation must be given its chance. A new epoch is upon us. Ashes to ashes . . . .
All those reasons — plus truth be told, an imminent palace coup — meant it was time for me to go.”
Go to the Ritholtz link to read it in its entirety.
Bill Gross is 70 years old. Move over and make some room for some younger blood who are going to actually have to come up with some ideas rather than have the entire economy engineered for your generation’s benefit. Born in 1944, yeah, to me that still means you are a boomer. And the freaking worst kind, a California Boomer.
+ 1,0000
It appears that you also are tired of those who want to preserve societal wealth or redistribute it.
Those who have theirs should allow others to pursue the same rather than throw wrenches in the way.
+1
The Boomers are the most feckless, self-absorbed, waste-of-human-flesh generation ever to infest this planet. It’s a good thing for them that their kids are too dumbed down with their “everyone’s a winner” public education and distracted by iCrap to recognize the full extent of how Grandma and Grandpa screwed them over.
I am posting the one dissenting post. Being a boomer, of course I am being defensive. You are all being collectivists by lumping all boomers with a few of the examples you say are bad. You are being Marxists, in other words. Everyone is different. Some boomers and older generations still have a lot of creativity and productivity in them. Besides if we love our work and getting paid for it, WHO THE #UCK are you to say we need to get out of the way?
Besides, jobs are not a zero sum game. Those of you who claim to be anti progressive are acting just like the “progressives” by falling for the Keynesian zero sum game fallacy.
Bill, you ain’t 70. I’m talking about a 70 year old, who is rich as Croesus. Besides, you are hardly representative of the Boomers.
Born in 1944, yeah, to me that still means you are a boomer. And the freaking worst kind, a California Boomer.
You are all being collectivists by lumping all boomers with a few of the examples you say are bad. You are being Marxists, in other words.
The quote above is nonsense, but it’s the opposite of Marxism. I think that Marx actually warned against that sort of thing, dividing people by race, religion, generation, etc.
I trust Mikey when it comes to Marx.
Bill, you ain’t 70. I’m talking about a 70 year old, who is rich as Croesus.
Your age-ism is showing.
If a 70-year-old is productively engaged in doing something useful for society and also good for them, why should they be dissuaded from continuing?
Your age-ism is showing.
I admit, I appear ageist, yes. Because my experience has been that these people are sorely deluding themselves as to their ability to continue to perform. Instead they are high salaried dead weight that others carry.
Instead they are high salaried dead weight that others carry.
That’s a different matter—no different than other performance vs comp issues. But I think you are better off addressing that without painting all older people with the same brush.
I guess people here are for the free market in real estate where the natural price levels will take hold. But they are ageists, which is certainly opposite of market economics. Once again, jobs are not a zero sum game. My earlier post on that was ignored conveniently. Look up “zero sum game.” So why the #uck should young people be blindly picking ng on ALL 70 year olds as if they CAN NEVER be productive over 70?
What a bunch of collectivists you ageists are. Disgusting.
Allowing 70 year olds to hide behind claims of ageism is collectivist. They’d be long gone in a free market.
Frankly I’m fed up with supporting their dead asses. Their self entitlement is outrageous.
Allowing 70 year olds to hide behind claims of ageism is collectivist. They’d be long gone in a free market.
So bring on the free market. That’s what I’m saying. I am betting there will be people OF ALL AGES working in a real free market. So will you use government to force all 70 year olds to retire?
Boomers were born after 1945. Gross, born in 44 is pre-boom.
It’s not that simple. Being born then is close enough in time to have benefitted massively from their wave. Massively.
Note also that by reigning as “Bond King” during the period from the early 1980s through the early 2010s, Gross rode what had to be one of the greatest waves of fundamental support for bond investing in U.S. history, as long-term Treasury yields dropped over the period from 14%+ down to ~3%.
Now that the wave has washed to shore, it is a good time to stop surfing.
Boomers born to ww2 vets during ww2 years aren’t boomers?
Interesting.
“And the freaking worst kind, a California Boomer.”
The only thing worse than a baby boomer is a California baby boomer?
And now here I am torn. I cannot decide if a Southern California Boomer is worse than a Bay Area Ca Boomer. It’s like different textures of sand on your sandwich or different kinds of ants at your picnic.
And now here I am torn. I cannot decide if a Southern California Boomer is worse than a Bay Area Ca Boomer.
FWIW, I’m a San Francisco Bay Area late boomer who “missed the wave.” Born any earlier I’d have likely been killed in the Tet Offensive. Bad luck has been a constant neighbor, but fortunately I’m powered with fuel cells that don’t quit.
Not to worry, President Obola has it all figured out.
Good thing you can keep your doctor.
Banning Air Travel Is The Wrong Response To The Ebola Outbreak
Doug Mataconis · Friday, October 3, 2014
Some politicians, such as Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have already begun raising these concerns, with Paul going so far as to suggest that flights from Ebola stricken countries be halted until the outbreak is controlled. The White House meanwhile has said that there are no plans to impose such a ban, in no small part because Ebola is only contagious when people are symptomatic, so it should be relatively easy to quarantine people who pose a danger to travelers.
On some level, of course, banning flights from the nations affected by Ebola seems like it might be a good idea. After all, it would seem to be the best way to make absolutely sure that the disease doesn’t spread beyond the nations where it is running rampant. As The Washington Post’s Abby Philip notes, however, such a blanket ban would be an extreme overreaction and would potentially do great harm to stopping Ebola at its source, which is the real key to stopping the disease:
Ebola can only be contracted through direct contact with a sick person’s bodily fluids. That means saliva, feces, urine, blood, vomit or semen. It isn’t transmitted through the air, so you are more likely to catch a cold on a flight than Ebola.
“It is not an optimal measure for controlling the import of Ebola virus disease,” said chief United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. “The measure does not reflect what is known about the way in which the virus passes between people.”
The U.S. has similarly spurned travel restrictions in the face of a more infectious, though less deadly, disease like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) for similar reasons, even when sick passengers were coming to the U.S.
The State Department has warned U.S. citizens against non-essential travel to Liberia and Sierra Leone, but there are currently no plans to alter the travel warning in the wake of diagnosis, a State Department official told The Post on Wednesday.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/…/ - 78k -
“The White House meanwhile has said that there are no plans to impose such a ban, in no small part because Ebola is only contagious when people are symptomatic, so it should be relatively easy to quarantine people who pose a danger to travelers.”
An American patient treated for Ebola in Nebraska then released is now in isolation in a hospital in Massachusetts
by CNN | October 5, 2014
An American patient treated for Ebola in Nebraska then released is now in isolation in a hospital in Massachusetts. And an Ebola patient in Dallas has slipped into critical condition.
Dr. Richard Sacra, who had been previously treated for Ebola, went to an emergency room early Saturday in Boston with a cough and fever, said missionary organization Serving in Mission. He was afraid he might have pneumonia.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, is now in critical condition, a Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman said Saturday.
Does Eric have Ebola or pneumonia?
I mean Richard.
I don’t know. News reports of a few people walking around NYC and DC with Ebola will do wonders for the housing market.
At least I got Halloween finally figured out this year.
Notice how we don’t blink at the seemingly arbitrary reactions of the state. So what if you aren’t a citizen. Go ahead, fly back and forth from Ebola country. But by golly we’re going to listen to your phone the whole time. Everybody’s phone. Emails too. We’ll monitor this blog in case you say something that might indicate you are a “threat”.
Now if this guy had attended a wedding in Yemen, the government would reserve the right to kill him and all of the 100 people around him. And when the ambulance showed up to gather the bodies, they might drone that too.
Respectful, hesitant to over-react here. Blind, murderous violence there. No contradictions. All snugly sandwiched between ads for pro sports games and house flipping shows.
• Non-citizens can’t vote.
• They’re probably somewhat more constrained in giving money too.
Then how did they manage to gain so many rights in this country? The right to spread Ebola; the right to work under the table and receive welfare benefits; the right to drive without a license or insurance. And lastly, don’t forget about the right to go back home if their actions ever start to cause problems for them here.
Auntie you are forgetting your “progressive” principles.
I don’t think the progressives would have me.
Notice how we don’t blink at the seemingly arbitrary reactions of the state.
Just in the Dallas news this am, you can Google for it. A homeless person rode in the possibly-Ebola contaminated ambulance after the very ill Patient Zero got his 2nd ride to the ER last week. Dallas authorities tracked him down & took his temp yesterday (Saturday). Today they would like to keep him under surveillance, but no can do — he’s gone wherever the Dallas homeless go. So they went on TV & appealed for him to turn himself in so that they can provide a temporary home for him while he is monitored. But, they refused to release his name.
Not even a picture, dude.
I just found an article from one minute ago. They found him, and now there’s a picture of him. He’s being monitored, but not contained???
“So what if you aren’t a citizen. Go ahead, fly back and forth from Ebola country.”
I see it every day in an unnamed inner city. Illegals and those visiting get extreme wide latitude with everything. If you’re a US citizen, you’re guilty until proven innocent.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/03/us-ebola-outbreak-extraordinarli
Remain calm. All is well.
Ebola-
Remember when WHO did a “pandemic” scare campaign on the Avian Flu, and it was going to kill millions? The big shots and their TV press conferences with their fear mongering. This reminds me of that shenanigans, 10-12 years ago.
You are onto it.
Still Ebola free in Region VIII.
“Still Ebola free in Region VIII.”
The CDC recommends that you keep the phone number of a reputable pressure cleaning company that is equipped with hazmat baseball caps and sneakers just in case.
Oh, be careful when you are stepping over that Ebola vomit runoff in your sandals while Bob’s pressure cleaning is taking care of the toxic cleanup.
Dallas: Workers Spray Ebola Patients’ Vomit Off of Sidewalk with Pressure Washer and No Protective Clothing (Photos and Video)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/…t-sidewalk-pressure-washer-protective-clothing-photo.html - 97k -
need link help again
Dallas: Workers Spray Ebola Patients’ Vomit Off of Sidewalk with Pressure Washer and No Protective Clothing (Photos and Video)
i always cook my fruit bats to at least 185f so i don’t have these problems
Using a meat thermometer to make sure your fruit bats are safe to eat is all well and good but you must also make sure your dog is on a leash otherwise you could have another problem.
Report: Dogs Eating Dead Bodies Of Ebola Victims On Liberian Streets
August 27, 2014 11:55 AM
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta/AP) — Dogs in one community in Liberia are reportedly eating the remains of dead Ebola victims lying on the streets.
The New Dawn reports that the Liberian government buried bodies of those suspected to have died from Ebola a few weeks ago in Johnsonville Township, outside of Monrovia. A number of dogs were reportedly seen pulling the bodies out of the graves and eating the remains.
Alfred Wiah tells The New Dawn that the government’s Health Ministry was called about the incident but that officials did not do anything about it.
atlanta.cbslocal.com/…/ - 135k
Not to worry, as dogs don’t get Ebola. Unless a member of one of those wild packs of dogs bites somebody after dining on the body of an Ebola victim, the disease will not be transmitted.
What are the current CDC recommendations for decontaminating home meat thermometers used in cooking fruit bats at home?
When will the first Craigslist ad for Ebola souvenirs appear?
How about Ebola eating dogs showing up at U.S. pet shelters?
It wasn’t water. It was a bleach solution.
WWwwwwwoooooowwww. What are these people thinking? The problem is not that people on the plane might catch Ebola. The problem is that the Ebola-infected person will become symptomatic after they get off the plane, and then be sent home with antibiotics from the hospital, and then come back to the hospital in an ambulance that is driven around for two days befor the driver is informed of the Ebola incident, and also that person will puke in the parking lot of their apartment complex.
Ebola will not become a pandemic in the United States, but it is usually fatal. Why invite it?
Banning Air Travel Is The Wrong Response To The Ebola Outbreak
How many direct flights are there from places like Liberia? I’m guessing zero and suspect that someone traveling from an affected area would probably be changing airplanes in Europe.
They still know which flights are going through Liberia, though. Those flights should not pick people up without identifying them so they can be quarantined.
I was talking about this with a relative who is more liberal than I am. We both agree that the airports in West Africa should be the ones shut down to prevent the virus from leaving.
I wonder what would have happened if this guy had stayed in Belgium?
How will U.S. politicians monger fear on our soil if they don’t allow Ebola victims to travel here?
I have mentioned this on several occasions…There could be long term effects of these ultra low interest rate mortgages on future turnover..
The low supply of entry-level resale homes will continue in large part, he said, because many homeowners have refinanced into ultra-low mortgage rates of around 3 percent to 4 percent that they are reluctant to leave.
“They may not love their house, but they love that mortgage,” Shea said.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/10/05/6760832/average-earners-getting-squeezed.html#storylink=cpy
It will get way more interesting when rates return to long-term norms, due to a dearth of buyers able to ‘afford’ what the low-interest mortgagees believe their homes to be ‘worth’.
If rate return to long term normal the government will be bankrupt. Also all those whose bread is buttered by borrowing at low interest rates. Therefore this will not be allowed to happen.
“The low supply of entry-level resale homes” That might make sense if 30 percent of the supply was not held by flippers and infestors. Or if a massive wave of Boomers were not getting out. And interest rates are still historically low right now. There is no low supply.
This is just RE scumbaggery lies just like Benranke’s whopper the other day about not being able to refi.
If rate return to long term normal the government will be bankrupt.
And not just ours. Pretty much every government in the world would default.
I will not allow the interest rate on my credit-card debt to rise either.
I will not allow the interest rate on my credit-card debt to rise either.
Well, you know the saying: If you owe Mr. Banker a few thousand bucks he has you over a barrel, if you owe him a few billion you have him over a barrel.
What if you owe Mr. Banker a few trillion?
due to a dearth of buyers able to ‘afford’ what the low-interest mortgagees believe their homes to be ‘worth’ ??
Thats part of the conundrum…They may not love their house, nor love the fact that someone will only give them X because interest rates are higher, but they LOVE the 3% mortgage that they have…
If they sell, they go where ??
Rent ?? Possibly at a higher monthly cost than their current mortgage assuming they can find a rental of equal living standard or in the same school district ??
Buy ?? at the new higher 6% interest rate ??
Will see…But in Sacramento’s case, we could be seeing the emergence of what may be the new normal…Low inventory available in the entry level category…
Low inventory? Not with the flippers bailing
“If they sell, they go where ??”
Retirement communities (and btw, my parents are selling in early 2015 for this very reason).
Blasphemy. Everybody wants to keep the house because mortgage is so low. The life events cease to stop when mortgages are so low. Thank you Central Planners!
If inventory is low, then more houses will be built. Plenty of space available.
Nnnnope.
Rental rates are near half the cost of carrying all the costs of a house. Like it or not, that’s the reality.
And as far as Sacramento goes, inventory continues to balloon. Remember…. there are 4.4 million excess, empty and defaulted houses in CA.
Since these people will not be selling, they are likely to also not be BUYING. Realtor math is weird.
It’s time to send a high level congressional delegation to Liberia for a visit.
McCain and Graham to the head of the line.
After losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis, boomerang buyers are back
By Michele Lerner August 21
Chris Noblejas, a former real estate agent, got hit by a double whammy during the housing crisis. His income declined drastically, and so did the value of the Gaithersburg, Md., townhouse he bought for $480,000 in 2006. He ended up selling the townhouse in a “short sale” in 2010 for $320,000. A short sale occurs when a lender agrees to accept a sales price for a home that is less than the amount owed on the property.
But Noblejas was able to buy a single-family house in Silver Spring this year. He is part of a wave of “boomerang buyers” — people who are reentering the housing market after a foreclosure or short sale.
“I wanted to buy a house again, but I was still nervous because I made such a bad mistake before,” Noblejas says. “Even renting was hard when I first lost my house. I didn’t even know if I could buy again, but I talked to a loan officer and was able to qualify for an FHA [Federal Housing Administration] loan. I plan to refinance that loan into a conventional loan as soon as I can to get rid of the mortgage insurance payments.”
Boomerang buyers who lost a home to a foreclosure or short sale between 2007 and 2013 are projected to make about 10 percent of all U.S. home purchases in 2014, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting (JBREC). The Washington area is among those regions that are expected to have even higher levels of activity involving boomerang buyers. JBREC expects boomerang buyers to make 17.5 percent of the region’s existing- and new-home purchases this year. According to JBREC, the number of boomerang buyers will increase in 2015 and 2016 as more former owners become eligible for new loans.
How quickly someone can bounce back from a foreclosure or a short sale depends on the reasons for the past financial problems and on the person’s current credit score. A would-be borrower who had good credit history before a job loss, for instance, is more likely to qualify for a new mortgage than one who had bad credit and continues to demonstrate poor financial habits.
Ashley Lawrence and her husband, Joel, bought a house near Orlando in July 2007 for $200,000 with a zero-down-payment loan. Then, in October 2008, Joel was laid off by CarMax, along with about 600 other employees. After struggling to modify their mortgage, the couple negotiated a short sale in 2010 for $77,400.
“We always wanted to buy again, so we rented for a while and moved in with family for a year to save money,”Ashley Lawrence says. “We rebuilt our credit, and my husband got a good job in Virginia now, but we’ve moved every year since we lost our first house, which has been tough on our kids, who are now 7 and 4. ”
The Lawrences recently qualified for an FHA loan and bought a home in Spotsylvania County with the help of Jami Harich, a real estate agent with Avery-Hess Realtors in Fredericksburg, Va.
“Most buyers I work with now, especially if they lost a home in the past, don’t want to get in over their heads,” Harich says. “They start with a monthly payment that they want to stick to, and then I show them what they can find on the market that fits in that budget.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/08/21/1a6f7092-18ca-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html -
After losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis, boomerang buyers are back
They’re late to the party. Oh well, they can just buy at the peak and get foreclosed a second time.
That’s what I was thinking.
That’s what I was thinking.
+1; two-time losers.
Why Does the US News Media Suck So Badly?
By Blurtman Follow Sun, 5 Oct 2014, 8:26am 26 views 2 comments
Watch (1) Share Quote Permalink Like Dislike
Is it because they really do understand their market?
Case in point - the recent unemployment data. Perfectly coiffed and painted news readers out my way glowingly announced the 5.9% unemployment rate and the monthly jobs added. I almost fell out of my chair when one news reader added that wages were not rising. But no news readers had described the record low labor force participation rate.
So the question is why?
Is the local TV news that this guy is talking about? The answer is probably that they only wanted to spend one minute on the unemployment rate. They had to get back to local crime and weather news. If this guy is interested in the latest participation rate, he should look elsewhere for that news.
“Is the local TV news that this guy is talking about?”
Unemployment falls below 6% for first time since 2008
By Tami Luhby @Luhby October 3, 2014: 11:02 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The nation’s unemployment rate fell below 6% in September for the first time in six years.
The rate came in at 5.9%, while employers added 248,000 jobs last month.
The unemployment rate fell last month because more people were getting jobs, not because they were dropping out of the labor force as they have at times during the economic recovery. The share of people in the workforce was essentially unchanged.
money.cnn.com/…/news/economy/september-jobs-report-unemployment-below-6-percent/ - 42k - Cached - Similar pages
2 days ago .
This stuff broadcast on tv is laughable. They make Pravda and Tass look authentic.
The unemployment rate JUST reached the top level that would start to put upward pressure on wages. It needs to stay here or go lower for a while before wages rise.
Hi Long time since I have read and posted. Prices here Boston (Both the city and suburbs) are up up up. Prices look to be about 20% higher than two years ago. Some of the prices seem just mind boggling. There is tons of stuff on the market more than I have ever seen. And it seems to be selling. Don’t get it.
Also how do people live? One thing keeping me from buy is sky high property taxes. I follow real estate in many markets. My cousins live in Milwaukee. Very nice even though a bit rust belt Univ Wisc. there. Nice college town. Beautiful housing stock. Wonderful old well built craftsmen, or tudors, or new lofts in converted warehouses. But the property taxes! Almost as high as the northeast - maybe higher on the mil rate. Almost and a grand a month!
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5000-N-Cumberland-Blvd_Whitefish-Bay_WI_53217_M71563-40386?row=96
Welcome back. Enjoy the plunge. Prices have turned negative again. Crater.
Hello Shillow:
The other day, we said something about growing grass in Phoenix. I think the water rates are high enough to discourage the lucky duckies from wasting too much water on lush grass, but I see lots of wasted water in commercial and upper-crust lawns. I also see lots of people from eastern states who consider water to be in endless supply, and they waste it on purpose to assert their rights. They are offended by thought of needing to conserve.
I have a medium-sized patch of grass in my back yard. Why do people move to the desert if they want to be completely surrounded by water-loving greenery?
I think people move down not realizing the effect all that desert and lack of greenery is going to have on them.
There is plenty though, if you know where to look.
Sounds like the bubble may offer local governments considerable assistance with raising revenues, as bubble valued property prices throw off higher local taxes.
bubble valued property prices throw off higher local taxes.
Just the opposite has been happening here in NE OH. County assessments have been slowly falling since about 2008.
Nnnnnnope.
Boston, MA Housing Demand Plummets 17% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/City/City_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
Why are there so many Open House signs everywhere?
Open Craters everywhere.
And the only visitors to these empty craters are empty pockets. They’re scraping from the bottom of the $hitPot.
While I understand and sympathize with the plight of illegals fleeing Central American hellholes to seek sanctuary in the US, who is going to bear the costs of all these future DNC entitlement voters? (Rhetorical question - I know full well who will bear the costs).
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/mexicos-train-of-death-entry-into-the-land-of-the-free-isnt-merely-unlikely–its-potentially-lethal-9769963.html
I sympathize with the plights of people who live in nasty places. I would encourage those people to change the way their governments are fundamentally run, so as to improve conditions there. Of course they never will because they love the way their governments run. They think the United States is wrong. They don’t like free speech, religion, or press. They hate open court systems. They consider corruption to be a perfectly acceptable way to get ahead in life.
The political class is a reflection of the population. Morally bankrupt populations (and sheep) elect and tolerate corrupt politicians.
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
― Mark Twain
He was saying this a hundred years ago.
I guarantee that I can cure you of Ebola. If I can’t, then I will pay for your funeral at my own expense!
If I can’t, then I will pay for your funeral at my own expense!
Write a check for that amount, payable to the deceased & put it in his coffin.
Hilarious parody video lampooning the City of London bankster-owned Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBumQHPAeU
Reality check on Iraq.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-seige-of-kobani-obamas-syrian-fiasco-at-work/
It appears the Obama Zombies are experiencing a very belated buyers’ remorse. (Which, however, will not stop these same idiots from voting for Hillary in ‘16).
http://washingtonexaminer.com/gallup-voter-opposition-to-obama-at-16-year-high-worse-than-bush-clinton/article/2554404
How long will people be willing to pay grossly inflated prices for CA real estate if the drought continues to erode the quality of life and agricultural economy?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-05/nobody-has-any-idea-how-disastrous-its-going-be-warns-california-water-expert
Newly released images created from NASA satellite data illustrate the staggering effect the California drought has had on groundwater supply in the state. As Mashable’s Patrick Kulp explains, the images show the amount of water lost over the past 12 years, with different colors indicating severity over time. “Nobody has any idea how disastrous it’s going to be,” Mike Wade of California Farm Water Coalition told the Associated Press, as RT reports a growing number of communities in central and northern California could end up without water in 60 days due to the Golden state’s prolonged drought. While California is bearing the brunt, experts note “We’re seeing it happening all over the world, in most of the major aquifers in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world.”
Your house value goes to zero when you got no agua a deber.
no agua a BEBER.
Beber = to drink
deber = a must do (hard to translate that accurately)
Amidst the opulence of the oligarch playground and looting repository of the Big Apple, unease is percolating under the surface.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/10/04/uneasy-in-nyc/
It is clear that NYC, on the surface, is a thriving metropolis, with a tremendous amount of frantic commercial activity. But it is all built on a foundation of sand, which will be washed away during the coming storms. If the inhabitants of NYC thought Hurricane Sandy was bad, wait until the great debt tsunami come crashing down on their little paradise of crony capitalism and excessive materialism. The appearance of a healthy thriving city masks the cancer growing within.
The entire teetering edifice of greed, avarice, excessiveness, and consumerism is dependent upon a gluttonous, corrupt, amoral financial industry, led by sociopathic billionaire bankers and their hordes of wealth driven Ivy League MBAs. What you notice, if you choose to, is that NYC produces absolutely nothing. Wall Street is nothing more than a giant siphon, using fraudulent financial derivatives and their control of the nation’s monetary system to drain the remaining wealth from the bank accounts of the once thriving middle class. These highly educated wizards of finance add no value to the country and are responsible for the regular financial crises that destroy the lives of honest hard working Americans.
Sunday funnies from TBP:
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/10/05/sunday-funnies-31/
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-10-04 09:21:47
[...]
And on a related note, is there any upper limit on the size of a central bank’s balance sheet?
Their only limit is political in nature…
So if there is no cost other than political to increase the Fed’s balance sheet without bound, and considerable cost to unwinding it, why not just use a PR campaign to legitimize the policy of expanding the balance sheet as needed to optimally manage the U.S. economy, and be done with it?
What (if any) would be the practical advantage of unwinding the balance sheet?
Why The Fed Doesn’t Have to “Unwind” QE
By Cullen Roche · Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
One of the more common questions I get is about QE and the Fed’s “exit strategy”. Many people seem to think the Fed has to unwind its balance sheet before the Fed can raise rates or tighten policy. So, the concern is that the Fed has a $4.5T balance sheet and when inflation starts to rise they’ll have to hastily unwind the balance sheet which will put pressure on financial markets and the broader economy. But this concern is unfounded. The Fed doesn’t have to unwind the balance sheet…
To prevent wages from increasing.
To avoid being blamed whenever inflation next rears its head (or at least, does so in the manipulated statistics that are issued).
California, meet your future.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/10/you-f-with-me-so-i-will-have-pleasure.html
The Big Apple - oligarch playground and repositiory of ill-gotten loot - it getting more rotten under the surface.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2014/10/04/uneasy-in-nyc/
It is clear that NYC, on the surface, is a thriving metropolis, with a tremendous amount of frantic commercial activity. But it is all built on a foundation of sand, which will be washed away during the coming storms. If the inhabitants of NYC thought Hurricane Sandy was bad, wait until the great debt tsunami come crashing down on their little paradise of crony capitalism and excessive materialism. The appearance of a healthy thriving city masks the cancer growing within.
The entire teetering edifice of greed, avarice, excessiveness, and consumerism is dependent upon a gluttonous, corrupt, amoral financial industry, led by sociopathic billionaire bankers and their hordes of wealth driven Ivy League MBAs. What you notice, if you choose to, is that NYC produces absolutely nothing. Wall Street is nothing more than a giant siphon, using fraudulent financial derivatives and their control of the nation’s monetary system to drain the remaining wealth from the bank accounts of the once thriving middle class. These highly educated wizards of finance add no value to the country and are responsible for the regular financial crises that destroy the lives of honest hard working Americans.
There are approximately 300,000 workers in the financial services industry, down from 345,000 in 2008. They collect half of the wages paid in NYC, despite holding less than one sixth of the jobs in Manhattan. The entire state of New York is dependent upon the taxes collected from Wall Street’s excessive profits. The Comptroller tracks the bonus payouts quarterly to assess the “health” of their budgets. Government bureaucrats and union bosses are thrilled when they see that Wall Street doled out $26.7 billion in bonuses in 2013 for a pillaging well done. While real median household income lingers at 1994 levels, Wall Street bonuses should surpass their all-time high in 2014. This is called winning in our warped, corrupt, debased culture of debt based wealth. Regulators, politicians, and government prosecutors will never hold Wall Street accountable for their crimes because they would be killing the golden calf that sustains their opulent lifestyles.
some mountain p0rn from yesterday, featuring momo the great pyrenees at 12,000′
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20141004_115843_389-doVfQVaB.jpg
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20141004_123245_512-8J7oPIOR.jpg
Neil Young - Tonight’s The Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6LVIi7pzZI
How far to the closest FEMA camp?
the Fat Boys - All You Can Eat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDPk6OQkpeI
Grandmaster & Melle Mel - White Lines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z49bfaXGX78
We’ve rounded up some punishing links to data for tomorrow sure to drive realtors back into the basement. Tune in.
Are you suggesting Realtors™ will have to move back into their parents’ basements due to the dearth of home sales?
The pool of households that can afford $500K starter homes is small and shrinking.
Incomes are much lower than you think
October 2, 2014, 10:31 AM ET
By Alicia H. Munnell
The recently released Census Bureau publication Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013 confirmed the dismal picture presented in the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances that median household income has not recovered from the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The publication also contains fascinating information on the level and distribution of income. The numbers go to the heart of conversations about the “middle class” and the “rich.”
The headline news associated with the release of the new Census data was that poverty had declined. Indeed, the decline in the poverty rate was statistically significant and occurred primarily among children. Not to rain on that parade, but the poverty rate remained 2.0 percentage points higher than in 2007.
…
That’s quite the leap from 50 to 80 percentile, which is likely due to the college degree. Have to wonder how many of those at or below the median are also two service workers without health insurance?
Encore
A blog about living in and planning for retirement
Dismal Fed data on retirement saving
September 18, 2014, 2:14 PM ET
By Alicia H. Munnell
The Fed depicts gloomy times for boomers with 401(k)s and IRAs.
The Federal Reserve has just released the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a triennial survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. households, which collects detailed data on their assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics. It is considered the gold standard of information on income and wealth.
Overall, this year’s report is very discouraging. For American households, both median income and median wealth have declined since 2010.
But retirement is our game, so we turned immediately to combined 401(k)/IRA balances – particularly for those approaching retirement. The great advantage of the SCF is that it provides information not only on 401(k) balances, much of which is available from financial-services firms, but also on household holdings in IRAs. While 401(k) plans serve as the gateway for retirement saving, more than half of the money collected now resides in IRAs. The relevant question is how much do households hold in these two sources combined.
Candidly, I had already drafted an Issue Brief on the assumption that the positive developments of the last few years – a recovering economy, strong stock performance, and the continuing maturation of the 401(k) system – would have pushed combined 401(k)/IRA holdings considerably higher than the $120,000 reported for 2010. (This figure differs from the value of “retirement accounts” presented by the Fed because it pertains only to those households that are working and have a 401(k) plan; those that are not working or only have an IRA are excluded.)
The new numbers are both surprising and discouraging – particularly for those approaching retirement (as my completed Issue Brief reflects). The SCF shows for households age 55-64 a surprising decline in 401(k)/IRA balances, from a median of $120,000 in 2010 to $111,000 in 2013. Savings of $111,000 will only provide roughly $500 per month in income; and since that amount is not indexed for inflation, its purchasing power will decline over time. The only bright spot in the numbers is a significant increase in holdings for households age 45-54.
As indicated above, the decline in balances for those approaching retirement was totally unexpected. One way to try to figure out what is going on is to compare the aggegate retirement wealth with 401(k)/IRA balances reported by the Investment Company Institute. This check shows that the aggregate 2010 SCF number—which, remember, is drawn from survey responses rather than from account data– exceeded the ICI total by 13%, while the two totals virtually matched in 2013. One hypothesis is that 2010 SCF respondents were in denial about the impact of the financial crisis on their balances. Thus, it appears that the 2013 values may well be correct.
Not to pile on, but the SCF also reports on participation in any type of retirement plan, including defined benefit plans. The data show a steady decline from 2007 to 2010 to 2013 in the participation of households in the bottom half of the income distribution; participation among those between the 50th and 90th percentiles has not yet rebounded to 2007 levels; participation among the top 10% has held steady. In terms of retirement accounts – that is, excluding defined benefit plans – participation is sharply lower than 2007 levels in all but the top 10% of households.
…