Bits Bucket for October 17, 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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Alexandria, VA Sale Prices Sink 4% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/alexandria-va/home-values/
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
Sandy!
Downtown Miami, FL Sale Prices Crater 15% YoY As Defaulted Inventory Floods Area
http://www.zillow.com/downtown-miami-fl/home-values/
Palo Alto, CA Sale Prices Crater 15% In A Month; Down 13% QoQ As Prices Declines Accelerate Statewide
http://www.zillow.com/palo-alto-ca/home-values/
Severn, MD Sale Prices Plunge 10%
http://www.zillow.com/severn-md/home-values/
Traveling thru Puerto Vallarta and I haven’t seen Mexico look this vibrant since 2007. It is interesting that many things in PV are much more expensive than US prices in the resort areas, but you get into town and it is about 50% cheaper than US prices.
Our taxi driver last night worked in the US for 7 years and saved his money to buy a nice car he uses as the taxi. He and two other brothers have done this and are very satisfied with the success of their business plan. I love Mexico!
Trying to talk them into bailing you out?
I don’t need bailing out. Just here on vacation having fun. Here is a sign: the cost of a message has dropped 50% in the last 7 years! $20 for 50 minutes right on the beach. Fantastico!
The bank wants their money back J._Fraud.
If you like your Mexico, you can keep your Mexico.
I love Mexico too. Been there lots of times all over the west coast up until 2003. But it’s become too violent for me. The U.S. policies on drugs have grown the Mexican cartels. As long as the U.S. keeps feeding the cartels power, I will stay away from Mexico.
Mexico, California and Brooklyn. 3 places to get your skull blown off your shoulders.
We went to Cozumel in 2011. Did diving and snorkeling, etc. It was pretty great. The all inclusive resorts all have their own water purification systems.
We rented a Jeep and went around the island, downtown, etc. We never felt unsafe. Of course we saw some 18 year old kids in fatigues carrying AR-15’s on a lot of street corners…
I think the mainland is a different story as far as security.
I went to Disneyland I didn’t feel threatened either.
That’s Mickey Mouse! HA!
Are we in another credit crunch? I’m trying to fathom why ten year Treasury yields dipped below 2 percent this week.
‘When volume and volatility are too high, that’s exactly when you want to trade!1 But Goldman, Credit Suisse, and UBS “told some clients to temporarily stop sending orders” to their respective dark pools yesterday as volume surged, and “a U.S. stock exchange run by Bats Global Markets Inc. had a malfunction that prompted other trading platforms to briefly stop sending orders there.” So like a B+ day for the U.S. equity markets yesterday, even aside from the Athena thing. And Wells Fargo announced that it is closing its dark pool, because (1) who needs this and (2) Wells Fargo had a dark pool?’
‘Elsewhere in equity markets, they are nuts. Here is Josh Brown: “on days like yesterday, you had to earn your equity risk premium.” And equity market volatiity may “Portend a Freeze in Deal Circles,” since you don’t want to buy a company or do an initial public offering if no one knows what companies are worth from day to day.’
‘In bond markets, the story that you’d sort of expect to happen seems to be happening: Dealers have been chastened by the Volcker Rule and increased capital requirements, so they’re less interested in making markets. In stable markets they can match up buyers and sellers on an agency basis, but in falling markets when no one else is buying, neither are the dealers: “Take junk bonds, which have lost 2 percent in the past month. Dealers, which traditionally used their own money to take bonds off clients desperate to sell during sinking markets, sold about $2 billion of the securities during the period.’
‘In other bond liquidity news: “When it comes to high-risk bonds, the asset management giant Pimco has pretty much cornered the global market,” with big positions in a lot of issuers’ debt that worry some worriers because “an accumulation of hard-to-trade, risky bonds by a small group of fund companies could turn a bond market hiccup into a broader rout, in light of how illiquid many of these securities have become.”
Junk bonds are the thin ice.
Thin ice and Pimco is blithely skating across it…
Is there at least a small chance that a handful of 800 lb gorillas playing with massive financial fire power could reek havoc in markets where they play?
“Thin ice and Pimco is blithely skating across it…”
by now it shouldn’t be any mystery as to why Bill Gross bailed.
Houses are on thin ice. They’re junk too.
He didn’t “bail,” he was about to be fired and so he wisely moved on before being humiliated.
He bailed.
‘The market’s volatility is making many clients nervous, and obliging advisers to explain once again the importance of keeping a long-term view. Maryland-based adviser Ryan Wibberley says one client who usually is very quiet reached out on Wednesday to suggest selling his entire stock portfolio. Another sent a one-line email that day saying, “Dude…seriously I’m not sitting around for a 15 to 20 percent drop,” Mr. Wibberly tells The Wall Street Journal.’
‘When stocks tank, investors shouldn’t expect their junk bonds to hold up, says Doubleline Capital’s Bonnie Baha. The idea that high-yield bonds help diversify a stock-heavy portfolio is among the most common misunderstandings about bond investing, she writes on Forbes. A lot of investors also believe that dividend stocks make good bond substitutes and that bonds’ credit ratings accurately reflect their risks. They’re wrong, too.’
‘Before 2008, for example, investment banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase were the main buyers and sellers of these bonds, earning profits for themselves and making a market for their clients.’
‘Now, with banks being pressured to take fewer risks, they no longer trade or hold these securities in significant amounts. Wall Street executives worry about how the markets will react if funds start to sell off their concentrated positions. The term of art for this scenario is a liquidity mismatch, with some going so far as to call it a systemic liquidity mismatch. If, for example, there is a sustained emerging-market crisis and a fund wants to liquidate these bonds to meet redemption demands, the manager will be required to provide cash immediately even though it may take several days to sell the securities in question.’
‘Traders calculate that less than 1 percent of corporate bonds trade more than $5 million a day. “People are worried about massive liquidations in a market that is not as liquid as it used to be,” said Amy Koch, a senior trader at Standish, a Boston-based bond manager.’
‘Over the last 10 months, investors have pulled $65 billion out of Pimco — $42.8 billion from Total Return and the rest from other bond funds, according to Morningstar.’
‘If redemptions persist and bond trading conditions worsen, Pimco would be forced to unload some of its larger positions. But selling more than 40 percent of the outstanding bonds in Qatar National Bank or over 20 percent of the debt of the Hong Kong gambling company Melco Crown Entertainment could be a difficult proposition, given how little these bonds trade.’
‘The bond giant owns over $35 billion in bonds from Italy and Spain that mature from 2015 to 2017. The bet is that securities from these countries, despite their torpid growth and heavy debt load, will be bought up by the European Central Bank — an outcome that has yet to be determined.’
“We are worried about liquidity,” said Laurence D. Fink, the chief executive of Pimco’s archrival BlackRock, in a conference call with investors this week. “And the question is, do we have enough time before a true liquidity event destabilizes the market?”
(2) Wells Fargo had a dark pool?’
Dark pools should be illegal.
The whole point of an exchange is to facilitate exchange and price discovery; all participants have access to the same information, including seeing all of the other bids, asks, and trades go past.
Dark pools are anathema to markets. The whole point is to hide information from the market. In other words, the dark pool owner and participants have access to information that the market at large does not.
Dark pools should be illegal.
2% over 10 years is better than dropping 10% over 3 months…..
The exact argument to stay out of real estate.
ft dot com
October 16, 2014 7:29 pm
Market turmoil casts further doubt over Europe revival
Elaine Moore, Vivianne Rodrigues, Kerin Hope
Greek national flags fly from a makeshift display on a roadside ahead of a general strike in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. Greece headed for a cliffhanger vote on austerity measures needed to keep the bailout on track as a 48-hour general strike began and European officials squabbled over the timing of a deal to unlock rescue funds. Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg©Bloomberg
Turmoil across global financial markets and a spike in Greek borrowing costs on Thursday reignited fears about Europe’s recovery and the structural problems left over from the eurozone debt crisis.
For the first time this year, Greece’s benchmark bond yields rose above 9 per cent as mounting political instability raised doubts about Athens’ ability to sustain its heavy debt burden. European countries hit hardest by the eurozone debt crisis also saw their borrowing costs jump at rates not seen for a year.
Concerns about low global growth kept Wall Street under pressure, but stocks rebounded and US Treasuries erased gains as St Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said the central bank should consider delaying the end of its asset-purchase programme.
“Inflation expectations are declining in the US,” Mr Bullard said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “That’s an important consideration for a central bank. And for that reason I think that a logical policy response at this juncture may be to delay the end of the QE.”
The S&P 500 Index, which had appeared to be on the brink of official “correction” territory on Wednesday, rebounded to close in positive territory.
Yields on a 10-year Treasury, the benchmark US borrowing rate, which dropped below 2 per cent on Wednesday for the first time since mid-2013, rose slightly to 2.16 per cent.
Across wider Europe, global investors moved to reallocate their money away from debt issued by countries at the region’s periphery into German bonds, considered the safest and most liquid debt market.
The move sent the yield on 10-year German Bunds to 0.72 per cent during the day – a historic low. Yields on equivalent Italian, Spanish and Portuguese debt rose by about 30 basis points in the morning before falling back.
In European stock markets the FTS Eurofirst 300 fell 3 per cent in the day, dropping to a 13-month low, while the UK’s FTSE 100 fell 2.2 per cent in the day and was down 10 per cent so far this month, a move that qualifies as a technical correction. Stock market volatility levels rose back to mid-2012 highs as measured by Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ the Vix.
“Today has been a wild day,” said Salman Ahmed, global fixed-income strategist at Lombard Odier Investment Manager. “And it’s clear investors are asking some significant questions about where fiscal policy is going in Europe.”
…
This might be linked to the low rate…..
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/10/i-dare-you-to-try-to-refinance-go-ahead-just-try/
Ritholz has the best comment board instructions I have read to date:
“Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.”
“Comments” sections should be renamed “Strawmen.”
It could have been expressly written for any number of the HBB’s troll poster Hall of Fame members (2bananaboy, ABQDan, EddieTard, etc etc etc).
I loved Aladinsane and he was somewhat of a troll
I was good with his posts (gold bugism and all that) because he (1) largely avoided ad hominem attacks, and (2) didn’t rub your face in his political views.
This blog has been an amazing source of entertainment for me for the last 9 years. There have been so many intelligent posters like Aladinsane, Robert Cote, Texas Chick, of course Ben Jones. Olympia Gal would write the most random things, but they made my heart soar every day. What a long, strange trip it’s been. Sorry Dead.
You’re right, he was very civil.
Olympia gal was a sweetheart, but
totally off topic.
Olympia gal was a sweetheart, but
totally off topic.
Not “totally” off topic—she could definitely hate on developers…
And by far the most entertaining poster to date, imho. Still miss her. (sniff)
sniff, sniff
frauding?
Don’t worry about recent stock market weakness. It’s just a panic attack, not a bear market.
Opinion: This is a ‘panic attack,’ not a bear market in stocks
Published: Oct 17, 2014 5:50 a.m. ET
Bear markets coincide with recessions, and we’re not close to one
By Howard Gold
Columnist
In my annual “predictions” column in early January, I wrote:
“I’m expecting the biggest correction since the 16% and 19.4% retrenchments in 2010 and 2011 … that would test investors’ faith in this almost five-year-old bull market.”
Be careful what you wish for.
The S&P 500 Index has lost as much as 9.8% from its intraday peak, the Nasdaq Composite index more than 10%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 more than 14%.
But far from feeling vindicated, I’m just as frightened as you are.
Corrections aren’t fake. They look like bear markets and act like bear markets. They scare you like bear markets do, but corrections end faster and stocks bounce back quicker.
Both are miserable experiences. But here’s how they’re different.
Most of the time, bear markets are harbingers of economic recession, while corrections are hiccups — or big burps — that usually follow complacency and overvaluation.
I think we’re in the latter. In fact, it looks like a classic correction, a 10%-20% decline in share prices from their peak. Ed Yardeni said it best: “Corrections are panic attacks that aren’t validated by the fundamentals.”
What better describes this market? Panic about Europe, panic about the Federal Reserve, panic about everything.
But the biggest panic of all is the one over the Ebola virus, a horrible human catastrophe in West Africa but which so far has infected two — that’s right, two — nurses in the United States. And as Jon Stewart virtually shouted the other night, they were handling bodily fluids of a dying man who was infected in Liberia.
So this is what’s causing stocks to tumble and the VIX volatility index to shoot up into the mid-20s, the highest it’s been since Spain and Italy looked like they were going to follow Greece into default in 2012?
…
What is worse: A bear market, or a financial panic?
Old Howard Gold is an optimist (10%~20% Decline in share prices from their peak). It has become obvious that TPTB are not going to allow any sort of correction, period.
Therefore, instead of an ugly landing with our wheels up and all engines on fire it’s going to be nose down straight into the ground with all engines running at full power.
The Banker squints,
As the metal glints,
The hand heavy with weight steadies,
A sweaty brow,
As the gun goes POW,
Then another Banker the crowd readies.
Nice poem. Is it yours?
I helped my son write this ditty last night for a science project on Avogadro’s number:
(Sung to the tune of Offenbach’s Can Can):
Avagadro’s number is a mole of carbon atoms
In 12.01 grams of the substance and though
Atoms are invisible
There are many more in one mole
Than you or I could ever count.
Thanks for the heads up on Avagadro’s number. I looked it up, very interesting.
I played with poetry as a kid and my wife is encouraging me to do more. However, she seems a bit confused as to why most of my poems end with a Banker either dead or dismembered.
The most interesting thing I learned this week about Avogadro’s number while helping my son out with his high school chemistry project: Avogadro didn’t discover the number (6.022 X 10^23) or even know what it was during his life time.
What “weakness?” I see a furious rally happening.
Stocks are hard to read right now. We could have a real correction ahead of us, but the Fed just fired more silver bullets yesterday.
Happy Friday
http://nypost.com/2014/10/16/alarm-after-vomiting-passenger-dies-on-flight-from-nigeria-to-jfk/
The CDC went on the plane, examined the dead body and said the person from Lagos, Nigeria did not have Ebola he just vomited himself to death. “More flight restrictions will only make it more difficult for life-saving aid and medical professionals to reach West Africa.”
“He was vomiting in his seat and died sometime before the plane landed around 6 a.m., the source said. The crew contacted the CDC, whose officials boarded the plane as about 145 worried passengers remained on board, a federal law enforcement source said.”
“The door [to the terminal] was left open, which a lot of the first responders found alarming,” said the source.
“The CDC went on the plane, examined the dead body and said the person did not have Ebola,” King told The Post. “It was, what I was told, a cursory examination. The Port Authority cops and personnel from Customs and Border Protection were there . . . Their concern was, how could you tell so quickly? And what adds to the concern is how wrong the CDC has been over the past few weeks.”
The CDC declined to comment on the passenger.
‘he just vomited himself to death’
That almost happened to a friend of mine after a night of drinking those big multi- liquor things in New Orleans.
Hurricanes?
I guess he got what we call the “hurricane gut” or the “screamin’ meemie’s”.
http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/havefun/hrricane.asp
Yeah, it was this place. I don’t remember it being just rum.
Maybe it was this one:
http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/images/drinks/Skylab.jpg
The Skylab - 1/2 oz Rum, 1/2 oz Vodka, 1/2 oz Apricot Brandy, 1/2 oz Blue Curacao 1 oz Pineapple Juice, 1 oz Orange Juice, 1 oz Collins Mix Garnish with a cherry
Sounds like Liberia needs some real journalists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/17/the-major-liberian-newspaper-churning-out-ebola-conspiracy-after-conspiracy/
New York Giants receive Ebola warning ahead of Dallas trip
by Alastair Davidson Senior Writer
Published16 hours ago
The New York Giants are heading down to Texas to take on the Dallas Cowboys this weekend knowing they face a fight on the gridiron against the surprise package of the 2014 NFL season so far.
But whilst the Giants-Cowboys contest at the AT&T Stadium Sunday afternoon is sure to grab many people’s attention for a few hours, the city of Dallas has been in the headlines this week for a far more serious matter.
The New York Post’s Paul Schwartz revealed that the franchise has handed out information about the disease to both playing and coaching staff in the run up to their trip to the lone star state.
“Our athletic trainers and team physicians have been briefed on the scope of the Ebola-virus disease,” said Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon. “We have distributed a fact sheet to our employees and distributed similar information to our players electronically.”
http://www.givemesport.com/…44-new-york-giants-receive-ebola-warning-ahead-of-dallas-trip - 60k -
“But whilst the Giants-Cowboys contest at the AT&T Stadium Sunday afternoon”
“whilst”
There’s a word that doesn’t get enough air time.
I was reading a book on the seven hour flight whilst the Ebola victim next to me vomited into a bag.
“I was reading a book on the seven hour flight whilst the Ebola victim next to me vomited into a bag.”
LOL
In the USA you don’t hear “whilst” a lot except from people trying to impress you with their rich vocabulary. If it’s not in the idiom, it seems ridiculous to use the word. Get with it: Use phrases such as “home boys,” start off sentences with the word “so,” end sentences with a higher pitch as if they are questions rather than sentences…
bill, are you still planning to shelter in place in an urban environment in the event of a shtf scenario from ebola?
i don’t keep a ‘bugout bag’, my entire truck is now rigged as a bugout vehicle, ready to go at a moment’s notice and stocked with food, water filter and iodine tabs, stove and extra fuel canisters, clothing and blankets, and 100s of rounds of ammunition.
this sh1t is getting really real, really fast
I’m not really worried about ebola. I’m far more worried about big government and that would drive me to the “bug out” situation.
We are walking a tightrope now and I think it’s going to be a few more years of walking the tightrope. Believe it or not.
I saw this same attitude in 1978-1979 - the American public is both too trusting of the American pro war policy yet their level of trust in government is at an all time low. It’s kind of a schizophrenic situation by JQP.
This year alone, Saudi Arabia beheaded 59 people. Yet the USA is a staunch ally of Saudi Arabia and the American public says nothing about the beheadings, but get their panties in knots about people in ISIS beheading 4 people, and wanting bombs and WWIII because of it!
I’m wondering which side of American opinion will win out the next couple of years: Imperialism or libertarianism?
I am in Dallas not far from where the Ebola patients were treated. So far this morning I have seen three Black Hawk helicopters fly over…that seems kinda weird.
Know someone who was on both flights, to Cleveland and back to Dallas. CDC told her she wasn’t close to the nurse but she is self quarantined anyway.
“I have seen three Black Hawk helicopters fly over…that seems kinda weird.”
They need the Black Hawks for when they tell people how much Ebola has spread from patient 0 and the herd starts to move.
If you can trust real journalists, you can definitely trust real scientists
http://online.wsj.com/articles/scientists-say-ebolas-transmission-route-unlikely-to-have-changed-1413475957
Two more weeks of this and they’ll be able to “postpone” the elections.
barack obama would let a million americans die from ebola if he thought it would keep the democrat party in power
barack obama would let a million americans die from ebola if he thought it would keep the barack obama in power
Fixed it fer ya.
Real journalists assure us that a travel ban won’t work
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/travel-ban-flights-ebola-111961.html?hp=f3
Patrick Buchanan is not a real journalist
http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/10/ebola-political-correctness-could-kill-a-lot-of-us/
Former speechwriter for Nixon - would he know how to craft a fib?
Speaking of Fibs:
Have you ever seen a bigger bunch of political hack liars in your life? This band of politically correct black liberation theologists and marxists in the white house, and all levels of government for that matter, are an embarrassment and are extremely dangerous to our young country and the world. Everything is political to them, they care not a wit about our lives our liberty and our pursuit of happiness.
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
#AfricanMarxism
If I had a son, he’d look like Thomas Eric Duncan
http://www.businessinsider.com/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa-2014-10
Unfortunately, conditions don’t seem to be improving. The WHO report said Ebola transmission at the epicenter of the outbreak continues to be “widespread and persistent.”
“It is clear,” the report goes on, “that the situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is deteriorating.”
‘this sucker could go down’ — george w bush, 2008
Airport screening would still let 93% of people with Ebola slip through the cracks
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ebola-airport-screenings-are-a-total-waste-2014-10
Same basic rationale can be applied to the TSA screening going on for the last 10+ years. It is just security theater.
Maybe this is all a long con for a new big jobs program for unionized TSA employees.
Don’t listen to real nurses, listen to real journalists instead
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/us/controls-poor-at-hospital-nurse-says.html?_r=0&referrer=
85% of nurses say they haven’t been provided with the proper instruction on how to use protective clothing, according to a national survey of 2,300 registered nurses at facilities in 46 states
http://www.businessinsider.com/nurses-say-us-not-ready-for-ebola-2014-10
Nurses (and their union) calling for better safety equipment, training, and procedures, getting over-ruled by their hospital execs. And then the nurses are proven right. Doesn’t make our for-profit health care system look so great.
The CDC look like keystone cops too.
Social justice warriors try to build the permanent democrat supermajority
http://www.infowars.com/video-students-sign-petition-to-bring-ebola-into-u-s/
At least the passenger didn’t get off at JFK.
I guess the Ebola outbreak in the Midwest must be getting pretty bad by now?
Southwestern College Student Recants Story After Evacuation
Part of the campus was evacuated after the student triggered an Ebola scare
By R. Stickney and Andie Adams
A health scare at Southwestern College today, as about 50-students were isolated by campus police after a student reported her sister was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. The reaction by the campus was swift, all because of the heightened concern over Ebola. NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda has more.
Thursday, Oct 16, 2014 • Updated at 8:36 PM PDT
A Southern California community college evacuated part of its campus after a student told an instructor she and her family had been quarantined for possible exposure to Ebola — a story she made up so she would not be dropped for missing class, school officials say.
Students at Southwestern College in Chula Vista were evacuated Thursday morning after the student contacted her instructor to report why she had been absent. She told her professor she wasn’t feeling well and her sister was hospitalized after a trip to the Midwest.
…
my friends in cleveland and akron tell me that ebola is all that anyone talks about this week, people are getting pretty freaked out about it
Kind of takes your mind off of deteriorating inner city cores and rusting belts.
The absolute worst thing people can do is panic
http://www.ohio.com/news/stay-calm-when-explaining-ebola-to-children-akron-pediatrician-and-psychiatrist-says-1.532001
matt drudge knows something the real journalists won’t tell you
http://www.infowars.com/matt-drudge-tweets-dire-warning-self-quarantine/
Yes you are right; he know it is more profitable just to copy other people’s stories and just paste it on his website. The actual journalists who do a little research and then actually type something into a machine are just losers. Why he doesn’t even have to pay anybody for it.
Thankfully, I see no reason I should ever have to board another plane in my future.
‘Alli McCracken is the National Coordinator for the peace group CODEPINK, based in Washington DC. She is passionate about intersectional politics and she is fed up with neoliberal bullshit.’
‘Despite Panetta’s reputation for being a relatively “liberal” Democrat, his legacy is now associated with the expansion of President Obama’s killer drone program – covertly bombing countries that the US wasn’t, and still isn’t, at war with, killing countless civilians with total impunity.’
‘Without acknowledging America’s role in creating ISIL, or how counterproductive and economically draining over a decade of war has been, Panetta has generated national attention recently for bashing President Obama for not going hard enough on ISIL.’
‘So what does Panetta have to gain from attacking President Obama, a fellow Democrat, with so much time left until the next Presidential election? Some media outlets think it’s no coincidence that he’s on a book tour at the same time as Hillary Clinton, touting the same hawkish foreign policies that will appeal to independent-leaning Republicans in 2016. As one right-wing outlet put it, “he’s flying the same exact anti-Obama flag that the hawkish Clinton wing of the party has been flying all year trying to position themselves for the next stage in their own political careers by stepping on President Obama’s neck.”
‘Whether it’s Leon Panetta, or Hillary Clinton. I’m horrified at the prospect of Clinton being the more “liberal” Presidential choice in 2016. If President Obama campaigned for hope and change, but ultimately enshrined some of Bush’s most egregious foreign policies, what are we in store for next from explicitly pro-war candidates?’
‘Many young people are sick of these warmongers running the United States (and I know plenty of older folks who are too!). Over the summer of 2014, the youth wing of CODEPINK launched a Youth Manifesto to declare that there is No Future in War. Using that as a resource, we’ve launched a youth outreach campaign to help support student groups organize and mobilize. In a very short amount of time we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from students who are sick of being robbed of their futures. It’s time for the old, worn out politicians, who have dragged us into more war just to get elected and fatten their wallets, to step aside. We deserve better than the broken two-party system that routinely forces us to choose the “lesser of two evils.”
Yawn - and they will vote the straight democrat ticket in every election…
Who is more likely to vote straight ticket, you or Alli McCracken?
I might adopt part of that:
Ben Jones runs the HBB and is fed up with neoliberal, neoconservative and neoKeynesian bullshit.
Well said Ben!
Works for me.
I’m right with you. I am sick of these partisan hacks who are infesting every single comment section of every single site on the web. Why can’t we have a party for the reasonable people?
“Why can’t we have a party for the reasonable people?”
You could call it…
The party for reasonable people.
What is “neoKeynesian?” Is that the one where they only do the fun half of Keynesian economics process and then claim the whole process doesn’t work?
You know, the space aliens and stuff.
‘OH HELL NO!’ Outrage meets Obama plan to send Natl. Guard to Liberia to fight Ebola
October 16, 2014 by Joe Saunders 40 Comments
The president who’s made executive orders a hallmark of his governing style is about to do it again.
This time to send the citizen soldiers of the National Guard overseas to fight an enemy they’ll never see: The Ebola virus.
NBC News reported President Barack Obama is preparing an executive order to send National Guard active duty and reserve engineers and logistical specialists to Liberia build Ebola treatment centers there.
And word that the White House plans yet another foreign duty for a military corps built and intended for use to help Americans deal with crises and disasters on American soil was not being welcomed on the home front.
Check out some of the reaction here. (But expect some strong language.)
Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/10/16/oh-hell-no-outrage-meets-obama-plan-to-send-natl-guard-to-liberia-to-fight-ebola-152793#ixzz3GPX7A5V9
Ebola attacked us because Ebola hates our freedoms, LOLZ
Did the Liberian authorities ask the U.S. Government for help?
My question exactly. More imperialism? Imperialism need not involve the military.
Will the national Guard have to do maintenance and repairs at all the hospitals it builds ?
“Nurses at hospitals in these countries are “lightly trained and minimally protected” and Ebola patients are dying “surrounded by pools of infectious waste,” according to a report in The New York Times.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa-2014-10#ixzz3GPqewaEm
Why should we risk the lives of young Americans in Liberia when we can easily get them killed in Iraq or Afghanistan fighting for the rights of Islamic people who absolutely hate our guts?
Tight Dallas-area housing market will continue to keep prices rising, sales down.
“After two years of fast-paced selling, Dallas’ housing market shows no sign that supply is catching up with demand.
The inventory of preowned homes on the market is at a two-month supply or less in about half of the area neighborhoods The Dallas Morning News tracks.”
“Never, never, never have I seen inventory this tight,” said Mary Frances Burleson, CEO of Dallas’ Ebby Halliday Realtors. “We have major companies moving in and there is a need for housing.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/residential-real-estate/20141016-tight-dallas-area-housing-market-will-continue-to-keep-prices-rising-sales-down.ece
Yet price declines are showing up all over D/FW.
Why do you think that is?
Nice to meet you, I am Debbie Downer, your ERA/Ebola Realty associate.
Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8 - 488k -
U.S. stocks surged on Friday as investors bet on further stimulus from central banks and corporations including General Electric and Morgan Stanley reporting profits that topped expectations.’
QE300
Queue infinity.
Queue_louie
QE_Crater
Just now listening to Rush on WLS here in the land of Rahm.
He notes that this political hack just hired by bummer to be the ebola czar has a long checkered history in the dem party including being one of the point men in Solyndra.
Anybody out there in HBB land know anything about this guy just made czar?
“Just now listening to Rush”
Do you mean Rush Limbaugh, the drug addict from Palm Beach? At least you get your information from a reliable source.
I bet It’s Sean in the afternoon and Savage at bed time. Then you grind you teeth all night waiting for another horrible day to begin in this hell-hole created by Obama.
The country was perfect when ruled by the Bush family.
“Do you mean Rush Limbaugh”
Second highest paid radio personality ever, after Howard Stern
Mock them all you want, but Savage’s educational credentials put anybody from the CDC to blame . . .
I listen to NPR in the morning and Savage before bed, so I get broad-spectrum propaganda!
I listened to the radio once this week too. NOAA radio on channel 2. They told me the wind was 25 mph out of the south with waves 3 feet. It was a fine ride!
He is good at getting out the message, but has no intention of protecting the spread of vomit, feces, saliva and blood!
“Jamie, Lloyd, dance for me.” — Janet “Let ‘em eat cake” Yellen
Mexico fails to grant access to cruise ship carrying Texas health worker
By Lindsey Bever, Fred Barbash and Elahe Izadi October 17 at 2:35 PM
Updated and corrected
The cruise ship carrying a Texas health-care worker who “may have” handled lab specimens from Dallas Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan is headed back to the United States after Mexican authorities failed to grant permission for the ship to dock off the coast of Cozumel, according to a Carnival spokeswoman.
The Carnival Magic had been waiting off the Mexican coast since Friday morning for its scheduled port visit. Mexican authorities still hadn’t given clearance by noon, so the ship continued to its home port of Galveston, Tex., where it was due back on Sunday, according to Carnival.
The health worker, a lab supervisor who has not been named, has shown no symptoms of the disease but remains on board and in voluntary isolation, according to Carnival. “We greatly regret that this situation, which was completely beyond our control, precluded the ship from making its scheduled visit to Cozumel and the resulting disappointment it has caused our guests,” read a statement from Carnival.
The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and a partner boarded the ship Oct. 12 in Galveston before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the requirement for active monitoring, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. Although the worker is healthy, the U.S. government had said it was working with the cruise line to get the ship back to America “out of an abundance of caution.”
The employee did not come into direct contact with Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States. However, she may have been exposed to his clinical specimens, the State Department said.
Carnival said it would provide $200 credits to guests aboard the ship and 50 percent discounts on a future cruise.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/ -
This one goes out to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and partner in voluntary isolation on the Carnival Magic.
Paul McCartney & Wings ‘Band on the Run’ (Lyric Video) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzhrO5K02c - 467k -
Got my ballot for early voting in the mail today, will be voting for the Libertarian candidates for U.S. Senate, U.S. Representative, Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General, no on Amendment 67 (personhood initiative for fetuses), no on Amendment 68 (tax increases for public schools), and yes on Proposition 105 (requiring labeling of genetically modified food), and leaving the rest of the ballot (D vs. R choice only) blank.
I never realized Sloopy was so talented.
MaCoys - Hang on sloopy.mpg - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlTKhPkZSJo - 187k -
From this morning’s Washington Journal, the money quote is where this real journalist almost says “take them into custody” referring to Ebola patients within the United States:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?322156-3/washington-journal-theresa-cardinal-brown-screening-ebola-airports
EboLola?
Sloopy got skills.