Bits Bucket for October 23, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Westwood, MA Sale Prices Plunge 9% YoY On Slipping Housing Demand
http://www.zillow.com/westwood-ma/home-values/
Riverhead(Long Island), NY Sale Prices Crater 16% YoY; Housing Demand Plummets
http://www.zillow.com/riverhead-ny/home-values/
Litchfield County, CT Sale Prices Plummet 9% YoY; Price Reductions Skyrocket
http://www.zillow.com/litchfield-county-ct/home-values/
How the Fed is ripping off savers and recklessly promoting moral hazard.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-22/how-federal-reserve-purposely-attacking-savers
There’s something we ‘regular’ citizens wrestle with that the elites never seem to: a sense of moral duty.
For example, following the collapse of the housing bubble, many people struggled with mortgages they could no longer afford to pay, fearing the shame of default. Many believed defaulting was wrong somehow; that it was their moral obligation to pay their mortgages, no matter how dire their personal situation. And of course, the mortgages lenders did their utmost to reinforce this perception.
In a perfect world, we would honor our debts and obligations, every one of us. But the world is an imperfect place ,and moral obligation is something that almost never enters into the decision matrix of our society’s richest. Or the banking industry.
For them, the number one (and two, and three…) rule is that whatever is expedient and makes the most money is the right thing to do.
For the bottom 99%, it’s like playing with a stricter set of rules than your opponent: you’re not allowed to hit below the belt, and they’ve brought a baseball bat into the ring.
It’s tough to make savers dependent, hence the actions of the Federal Reserve.
It, too, is populated by NeoCon-Progressive Party members.
“In a perfect world, we would honor our debts and obligations, every one of us. But the world is an imperfect place ,and moral obligation is something that almost never enters into the decision matrix of our society’s richest.”
I don’t believe this to be true in the sense that the .1% is hardly entirely to blame.
There are millions of people up and down the social/fiscal strata who don’t believe in living up to their obligations. Millions believe that law can effectively dictate ethics and morals.
The scum of the Earth is not limited to the world’s richest, nor are the world’s richest all scum of the Earth.
As long as the .1% continue to get the lions share of all blame for that which is Not Good, we can absolve ourselves of our own failings.
Maybe the perfect world is one where no one ever follows through on their debts or obligations. That would make it more fair, right?
It’s dawning on the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate that the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a plutocratic .1% is not only angering the growing number of non-sheep among the 99%, but also posing a systemic risk of the parasite killing off its host.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/23/the-dreadful-price-of-free-money-us-bankers-fear-financial-social-or-political-instability/
One cannot continue to profit off a non-wealth generating entity indefinitely, even if one is in upper management.
Big Government = Titanic.
While “independent”, the Federal Reserve essentially is a government entity. It smells, acts and looks like one.
To me it looks, smells, acts like, and exclusively benefits a private banking elite.
LMAO. Dream on. They don’t give a f**k.
You are right, they don’t care at all.
The last five years of dollar destruction, wealth redistribution and zero indictments for crimes against the American taxpayer proves that these greedy b@stards aren’t going to ever stop.
Anyone have any suggestions on what we do now?
I mean posting on websites and sharing information works to a point but how many more comments do we need to understand that these f@ckers are intent on our financial destruction.
Read any BS article off Yahoo, Bloomberg, etc and then skip to the comments. Hundreds of comments and most everyone sees the lie.
Read the articles about Caterpillar’s “earnings” that came out today. Sales down something like 22 straight months, over 2 billion in stock buybacks for the quarter and Asian sales down over 40% YOY.
Yet we are suppose to believe that this is somehow a good thing and that the Dow going up over three hundred points, based mostly on Cats earnings, is for real.
Again, most of the comments after the story that I read show that the lie that things are improving and that we are in a recovery isn’t working any longer to placate the masses.
When are individuals going to stop talking (posting) and start acting?
When are individuals going to stop talking (posting) and start acting?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street
You’re joking, right?
Very well then, what sort of “actions” would you recommend?
For reference, “waking up” and “rising up” and “raising awareness” don’t meet the threshold for “action.”
Vote for third-party? That won’t elect your first choice, it will just lock out your second choice and stick you with your least favorite choice. Perot, Nader, and I’m Not A Witch ran the school on that one.
Run for office? Can’t do it without money. Ask that money be taken out of elections? Oh wait, that’s what Occupy was joking about and they got maced anyway.
Work within the system and use your money to buy your own politician? Sure, but the inventory is low and demand is high. Might want to save your pennies.
Your best bet is to call a Constitutional Convention and toss out the Electoral College and maybe hold a run off. Oh wait, you need to be office for that.
So, you got anything else in mind?
I have posted here before about some of the things that I have done over the last few years. I’m not suggesting that you have to do this yourself as these are just examples that you have asked for.
I started going to local Town Council meetings and speaking. Mostly against agreements that our leaders were making with developers. I was constantly asking Council members and the Mayor to prove that the decisions that they were making made economic sense. I did this before the last crash and based on what I knew, and later on from what I learned from sites like this, I predicted the crash and the affect it would have on our community.
Over time I found that others who were perhaps less than willing to speak publicly but still shared my views and eventually some of them joined me. I made up Email lists to organize our group which now numbers in the hundreds.
Around this time I decided to run for Mayor. I wasn’t under any illusions about my chances. However, running for office gave me a chance to speak at public meetings, without a time limit, and to discuss issues that I thought were of importance.
I filed the proper forms to look at earlier Town budgets and found, without much surprise, that the Town leaders had used savings to cover fours straight years of budget deficits. Fortunately this gave me a wedge issue that I could put to good use.
I live in an area with a strong LDS presence. I am not LDS and I am also considered an outsider (former SoCal resident). We ended up with an 89% voter turnout, the election before was at 23%. I did lose. However, it was only by about 30 votes.
Because of that exposure I was asked to become a member of the local water company. Eventually I became the President. The water company was spending more money each month than was being brought in and the belief was that we had no choice but to raise rates. I worked to get a better group of individuals on the Board and over time the expenses (company truck, credit cards and overpaid employees) were cut and we have now been bringing in surpluses each month and with infrastructure improvements the company is better than ever.
We also cut the monthly water rates by 20%, just to make the point that you don’t have to gouge the customer to stay in business.
Our Citizens group that was formed from those earlier Email groups has been successful in pretty much shutting down two developers that were working with the prior administration. We made the Sunday front pages in a couple of newspapers and the Salt Lake media came down to do a story. My wife was visiting her mother in Chicago and saw a story on our fight on the local news there.
Part of that fight exposed both an ex Council member who had become the head of the Planning Commission and the Then Mayor in a less than favorable light. Both were told, by church leaders, to step down from their positions.
I am now on the Planning commission.
One other thing that I have done is to become a County Delegate. We have a Caucus system in this State so the candidates have to get through the local system on both the County and the State level before they get on the State ballot.
The Citizens in each Town vote for two County delegates and two for the State level.
This means that I get to talk directly to my County Commissioners, there are five of them, and ask them any questions about any issues that I believe are of importance. It is amazing how attentive a politician is when they want your vote.
Although I am not part of the State delegation I still meet them at the Caucus and I get to ask them questions also. I particularly enjoyed getting into Hatch’s face and asking him how he justified his H1-B visa votes after showing him (and those around us that day) the immigration lawyer video with the attorney stating that “our job is to not find a qualified American worker”.
You people posting here are smart about the issues that we are facing today. My hope is that some of you begin to find ways to begin the process of change.
I kept asking myself when is someone going to do something about this crap. One day I decided to stop waiting and to start to try to make a difference myself.
Some of you may find out that you can make much more of a difference than you think.
Steadykat said: I kept asking myself when is someone going to do something about this crap. One day I decided to stop waiting and to start to try to make a difference myself.
Steadykat - terrific, well done. You mentioned LDS; Utah?
Yes, SoUtah.
“Mostly against agreements that our leaders were making with developers. ”
There is nothing wrong with economic development including building houses.
What are the details of these agreements? Were there envelopes changing hands? Free work at personal residence? Were actual crimes taking place or were the taxpayers put at risk?
Or are you actually looking to bottleneck housing supply like most misguided Californicators do?
Fair question. Our dear leaders put a Town manager in place. In Utah you can have an individual run the Town, a manager, or you can have a Mayor and Council.
The manager runs the Town, controls the budget and can rewrite codes and ordinances if he/she so wishes. Our Town manager did just that as he worked closely with developers. Over time it became obvious, even to our leaders, that the manager was costing the Town too much money.
Of course the loss of a job didn’t really bother the manager as he quickly went to work for one of those developers without missing a step. He did work for both entities for a while so as to “ease the transition back to the Mayor/Council setup”.
He quickly became a principal member of the development team.
Our group discovered that is development only had one road to service traffic. Unfortunately, the Towns ordinances requires three roads because of the number of properties that were planned for the development. The property was land-locked.
That road is a County road the so the legally required right of way is 88 feet. The developers only had 60 feet.
We also found that the developers and our former manager were representing BLM property that they didn’t own as under their control so that they could almost double the amount of properties (2600 units vs 1400 units) that they had a right to build.
Although one couldn’t prove it legally I appeared that the manager, now developer, and our local leaders were aware of the problems and chose to ignore them.
We did find them and the County said the road right needs to be 88 feet and that was that.
Oh, the manager lost his house, foreclosed on, and he ended up moving to another State.
I found the his foreclosure problems especially ironic as he always laughed the loudest when I talked at meetings about the coming housing bust.
Sounds like gross incompetence to me.
When are individuals going to stop talking (posting) and start acting?
What do you mean by start acting? Do you think that people should sell Caterpillar?
That’s a good place to start.
The comments to stories in the oligarch-owned media is usually far more revealing than the articles themselves. People are waking up.
Oh looky! They’re “waking up.” And probably yawning adorably like kittens do. We might see some action out of them yet.
“When are individuals going to stop talking (posting) and start acting?”
The solution is quite simple. Most don’t like it because they haven’t the fortitude to adhere to it but it really is quite simple.
Don’t borrow and save your cash.
“LMAO. Dream on. They don’t give a f**k.”
+1 A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, both would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature. The fable is used to illustrate the position that no change can be made in the behaviour of the fundamentally vicious.
French voters, like the lemmings who voted for hope ‘n change, sanctioned crony-capitalist faux socialism from the thoroughly corrupt Establishment socialists. Now they are reaping what they sowed. Funny how people seem to get what they have coming to them. Take note, Obama Zombies.
http://www.businessinsider.com/french-pmi-falls-2014-10
We’re gonna legalize some folks. 34 million folks.
“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your families” — George W. Bush
Boss, I’m now legal. I want a raise.
Boss: Here’s your 1099.
You forgot…
Boss: Here’s your 1099. Now get out, I’m going to the HD parking lot to find some REAL illegals who aren’t so uppity.
Isn’t this how it happend the first time?
What’s your source for it happening like that last time? It takes a loooong time to replace millions. Last time it wasn’t 34 million or even close to it.
it’ll take a long time to process the 34 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took years to do it. And once the word that there are unfilled jobs get south of the Rio Bravo the Mexodus will resume with a vengeance
What unfilled jobs?
The ones that the suddenly legalized will be fired from.
Most of them are on welfare anyways.
And “unfilled job” is a job that is currently performed by an employee whose salary is higher than 300 ricebowls/year, who receives more than a dime in benefits, and who works in an environment where the employer paid more than a dime in worker safety. Until all jobs offer this pay package, ALL jobs are unfilled.
Legalization without border control is absolutely laughable. Our population will quickly surpass 1 billion with such policies. Habla espanol senor?
Don’t you think that’s exactly the point?
USA Today, 10/21/14
Second immigration wave lifts diversity to record high
Image: Diversity Index 1960 - 2010 - 2060
Is Wall Street over its Ebola scare by now?
Stockswatch
Ebola is a fear factor for stock market
By Matt Egan @mattmegan
October 20, 2014: 2:49 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Fear has returned to Wall Street this fall and at least some of the heightened nervousness can be pinned on Ebola.
That’s not to say the deadly virus is the number one thing keeping investors awake at night. There’s concern about the global economy, deflation in Europe, China’s slowing growth and Federal Reserve policy.
But Ebola has contributed to the negative psychology that has sent stock prices reeling this month.
Need proof? The chart below shows how the VIX volatility index has spiked since the summer. At the same time, the number of searches on Bloomberg terminals (a key resource for many investors) for news related to the Ebola outbreak has also skyrocketed. Of course, correlation doesn’t imply causality, but it’s worth noting.
Ebola is “not by itself directly responsible for everything, but it’s obviously making things work,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG.
…
1,000s of people a year die in the US from the flu. We must ban travel to all areas with the active flu virus! Ebola hysteria is misplaced anxiety for drama queens.
Flu is so passe compared to hemorrhagic fever.
Enterovirus D68 is all the rage right now. Where’s it coming from?
Economists and journalists need hysteria to make a living.
You are not a real journalist.
How long from now will the first case of Ebola to strike the Wall Street financial district be reported?
Are markets in for an Ebola-inspired ride?
Leslie Shaffer | Writer for CNBC.com
2 Hours Ago CNBC.com
The diagnosis of an Ebola case in New York sent U.S. futures into a tizzy, spurring worries Wall Street may give up recent gains even as Asian markets remained sanguine.
…
Are China’s massive investments in African impacted by Ebola?
Africa News
Ebola Fears Spark China Pullback in West Africa
Continent’s Largest Trading Partner Evacuates Workers, Compounding Region’s Economic Woes
By Peter Wonacott
Updated Oct. 21, 2014 6:13 p.m. ET
Li Ning, chief engineer at China Civil Engineering Construction Co., presides over a largely empty compound in Freetown, Sierra Leone.: Peter Wonacott/The Wall Street Journal
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone—The crane, the earthmover and several heavy trucks sit idle in the closed compound of China Civil Engineering Construction Co., a still-life portrait showing how Ebola has paralyzed Africa’s biggest investors.
“Nobody gets in,” Li Ning, the company’s chief engineer, said of his company’s self-quarantined compound. Then nodding to what he estimates is a half-year supply of bottled water stacked against an office wall, he added: “And I don’t go out.”
China’s massive commercial footprint in Africa has grown despite civil wars and military coups. Ebola is a different story. Companies from the continent’s largest trade partner have evacuated scores of workers from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa—curtailing trade, stalling crucial projects and compounding the region’s economic troubles.
Two-way trade last year between China and the hardest-hit countries—Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea—stood at $5.1 billion, roughly 10 times that of U.S. trade with the region. And while China’s economy still requires the resources Africa produces, demand for some key commodities in affected countries—such as bauxite from Guinea—have slackened during the epidemic.
Meanwhile in Liberia, an $80 million World Bank project to rebuild the road between the capital and the border with Guinea is on hold after the state-backed Chinese contractor, China Henan International Cooperation Group, declared force majeure and pulled most of its workers from the country in August. Inguna Dobraja, the World Bank’s country manager for Liberia, said it isn’t clear when the infrastructure project—the largest there since the civil war ended in 2002—would resume.
China hasn’t announced evacuations, but the official figures indicate the numbers of Chinese living in affected countries have dropped sharply. In August, the Commerce Ministry estimated 20,000 Chinese lived in Ebola-affected countries, involved in such things as constructing roads, mining and agriculture. Today, about 10,000 Chinese live in the same area, the Foreign Ministry said.
The Chinese exodus is especially evident in Sierra Leone. The once-bustling restaurants looking out on the Atlantic Ocean are now largely empty. The squeal of sirens from ambulances carrying suspected Ebola patients has replaced the constant din of urban construction led by Chinese companies.
…
Have you hugged your cash today?
Renters for life like you don’t have any cash to hug.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/housing-inflation-hottest-since-2008-as-rental-demand-soars-2014-10-22
You sound desperate.
If you were correct, there’d be no need to try to prove it.
If buyer’s actually had cash any more, why are we lowering the downpayment requirements close to zero?
Y’all are desperate.
Amy Hoax has lots of free time to post, I’ve noticed. It’s not like she’s got an actual job to go to or income to spend.
Washington, DC Sale Prices Crater 15% YoY; Housing Demand Plummets
http://www.zillow.com/washington-dc-20008/home-values/
Just got done with my shower of Benjamins.
…. like leaves falling from the trees on a crisp autumn day.
Ship Rates Rise Most on Record as China Seen Buying Ore
By Naomi Christie Oct 21, 2014 9:26 AM PT
The cost of shipping iron ore jumped the most on record amid speculation that Chinese traders are increasing purchases of the raw material used in steel.
Daily rates for Capesize vessels hauling about 160,000 metric tons of the commodity jumped 38 percent to $12,580 today, according to the Baltic Exchange in London, a shipping bourse tracking freight rates on more than 50 routes. The advance was the biggest in percentage terms in data starting in March 1999. Costs climbed by more in dollar terms in December.
China, the world’s biggest importer of iron ore, is buying record amounts of the commodity at a time when its growth is slowing. The Asian country received an average of 77.72 million tons a month this year, customs data show. Its economy will expand by 7.3 percent this year, the slowest pace since 1990, economists’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.
“We’re seeing an increased push towards Chinese volume being shipped,” Alex Gray, chief executive officer of Clarkson Securities Ltd., a unit of the world’s biggest shipbroker, said by phone. “That’s what’s driving us upwards at the moment.”
The increase in Capesizes led gains in other ship rates. The Baltic Dry Index, the exchange’s widest measure of freight costs for dry commodities including iron ore and coal, added 12 percent to 1,090 points, the biggest one-day gain since February 2009. Rates for the biggest ships able to cross the Panama Canal rose 3.7 percent to $8,265 a day. Costs for smaller vessels slid.
Iron ore delivered to the Chinese port of Qingdao has rallied for three consecutive days, advancing 0.3 percent to $81.83 a dry metric ton today, according to data from Metal Bulletin.
Freight swaps that traders use to bet on future Capesize rates surged. October contracts for the ships climbed 6.7 percent to $12,000 a day, according to data from Clarkson Securities.
China’s economy grew by 7.3 percent in the July-September period, compared with a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Beijing. That exceeded the 7.2 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.
…
Wait til the expansion of the Panama Canal in this regard - I understand the expansion is being made to handle these huge capesize vessels. Me thinks price will have to come down due to increased efficiency of transport?
What’s up next with oil? CA gasoline under $3/gal? (A guy can hope!)
Rising supplies sink oil prices to 27-month lows
Gary Strauss, USA TODAY
6:31 p.m. EDT October 22, 2014
(Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
Crude oil prices renewed their multi-month slide Wednesday, falling to 27-month lows in a move that’s likely to continue pushing gasoline prices toward below $3 a gallon.
Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for mid-December delivery dropped 2.4% to $80.49 a barrel, a level not seen since June 2012. The slide came after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude oil supplies were at their highest levels since July. The unexpected rise in inventories comes at a time when post-summer travel demand continues to wane.
Wholesale gasoline futures for mid-November delivery fell 3% to $2.15 a gallon, a key signal for another fall in retail gas prices. Nationally, the price of regular unleaded gasoline is now $3.08 a gallon, down from $3.34 a gallon last month.
The bear market meltdown in oil prices - more than $25 a barrel from this year’s June peak - could push the national average price of gas below $3 within the next week,” says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
…
Lower oil prices push Russia toward recession
Anna Arutunyan, Special for USA TODAY
6:30 p.m. EDT October 22, 2014
(Photo: Alexei Druzhinin, AP)
MOSCOW — If sanctions, inflation and political risk weren’t enough, falling oil prices are pushing Russia’s already beleaguered economy toward recession.
The price of Brent crude oil, a global benchmark, hit a four-year low last week, plunging to below $83 per barrel from $116 in June. While it was just under $85 on Wednesday, there is considerable risk it could dip well below $80, costing Russia, whose budget gets half its revenue from oil and gas exports, billions of dollars, analysts said. Geopolitics and oil prices have already reduced Russia’s budget by an amount equal to 4% of its gross domestic product.
A loss of “$10 per barrel costs (Russia) 500-600 billion rubles a year” — equivalent to $12.2 billion to $14.6 billion, said Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank, by telephone.
Cheap oil has further devalued Russia’s currency, with the official exchange rate falling almost 20% this year to 41.34 to the dollar Wednesday. Months of economic instability largely due to Western sanctions over Russia’s incursion into Ukraine have already taken their toll, with the latest round of sanctions cutting off Russian companies from Western financing.
…
Yep…Spoke to it yesterday….Germany is next….Then, Draghi will take out the Q-bazooka…
Technology takes 9,000 more jobs down;
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEcQqQIwBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2F2014-10-22%2Flloyds-said-to-cut-9-000-jobs-amid-online-banking-shift.html&ei=hw5JVL26DoXuPIbRgfgF&usg=AFQjCNFO9KZYjuTyP976TT_ZTJ2UdHbvDQ&sig2=iNneEAGXGi6g2UhLpv3bgg&bvm=bv.77880786,d.ZWU
And collapsing demand is the end result.
I filled up in Jersey yesterday for $2.73.
now that ebola is over, infowars dot com can return to reporting on warmist warming
http://www.infowars.com/weather-channel-co-founder-efforts-to-prove-global-warming-have-failed/
Most expensive midterm election ever? That’s funny because I haven’t seen a single campaign commercial unless I’m walking through a room in public with a TeeVee on. I get about 5 pieces of campaign mail every day and they go straight in the trash.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/22/2014-will-be-the-most-expensive-midterm-election-ever/
You should get out less.
I recently visited family who watch daytime TV a lot, including the noon local news. There were doom and gloom campaign ads out the wazoo.
Come down to Phoenix and watch during the times old folks watch. There’s wall to wall ads. Maybe you live somewhere where the outcome is a foregone conclusion, so ads would be useless?
The U.S. Senate and governor’s race are still considered competitive, I just don’t watch TeeVee at home.
ditto. i was at the hospital yesterday, checking in at 5:30 AM for some outpatient surgery (I had a trigger finger repaired). The TV was on in the lounge area and even at that ungodly hour the mud slinging was in full swing.
The ungodly hours are when rates are cheap and seniors are insomniac. (which raises the question, if enough senior eyeballs are insomniac, why aren’t the rates higher?)
gov race now a tie in latest poll:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2014/10/23/hickenlooper-closes-gap-with-beauprez-in-colorado.html
Out here in Mia’s district, the TV and radio ads flow like the mountain streams during snow melt.
PRESS RELEASE: Hard Choices on Social Security: Survey Finds Most Americans Would Pay More to Fix Its Finances and Improve Benefits
Large majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents agree
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans report strong support for Social Security and are willing to pay more in taxes to stabilize the system’s finances and improve benefits, according to a new survey released today by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance.
“At a time when the nation seems deeply divided about the proper size and role of government, Americans show remarkably widespread agreement on Social Security,” said Virginia Reno, the Academy’s Vice President for Income Security Policy and co-author of the new study, Americans Make Hard Choices on Social Security: A Survey with Trade-Off Analysis.(PDF)
Large majorities of survey participants, both Republicans and Democrats, agree on ways to strengthen Social Security – without reducing benefits. Fully 69% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats agree “it is critical to preserve Social Security benefits for future generations even if it means increasing the Social Security taxes paid by working Americans.”
When asked the same question about top earners, 71% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats agree that they could pay more. Social Security taxes are paid by workers and their employers on earnings, but only up to a cap ($117,700 in 2014). About 6% of workers earn more than the cap.
Majorities oppose measures to balance Social Security’s future finances by reducing benefits. Fully 75% of respondents oppose increasing the retirement age to 70; and 76% oppose reducing the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that retirees receive.
To gauge Americans’ policy preferences, the survey used trade-off analysis — a technique that is widely used in market research to learn which product features consumers want and are willing to pay for. The trade-off exercise allowed survey participants to choose among different packages of Social Security changes. As lawmakers would do, they weighed how each policy change would affect workers, retirees, and the program’s future financing gap, and then chose among different packages of reforms.
Seven out of 10 participants prefer a package that would eliminate Social Security’s long-term financing gap without cutting benefits. The preferred package would:
Gradually, over 10 years, eliminate the cap on earnings taxed for Social Security. With this change, the 6% of workers who earn more than the cap would pay into Social Security all year, as other workers do. In return, they would get somewhat higher benefits./li>
Gradually, over 20 years, raise the Social Security tax rate that workers and employers each pay from 6.2% of earnings to 7.2%. A worker earning $50,000 a year would pay about 50 cents a week more each year, matched by the employer.
Increase Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment to reflect the inflation experienced by seniors.
Raise Social Security’s minimum benefit so that a worker who pays into Social Security for 30 years or more can retire at 62 or later and have benefits above the federal poverty line.
http://www.nasi.org/press/releases/2014/10/press-release-hard-choices-social-security-survey-finds-m
Means test and raise retirement age to 70 v. Tax others more and make my benefits better.
Better yet, shut down the ponzi scheme and send me my money they take without my permission.
And remember who wanted to privatize it;
Where it started: Back in his 2005 State of the Union address, George W. Bush declared that Social Security was “headed for bankruptcy.” As a remedy, he outlined a proposal for younger workers to divert some of their payroll tax contributions to the program into private accounts, where people could invest in a “conservative mix of bonds and stock funds.” He argued that these personal accounts could deliver a higher rate of return than what Social Security offers.
In the ensuing months, several Republicans in Congress sponsored legislation to allow younger workers to steer a portion of their payroll tax contributions to Social Security into private accounts. The bill sponsored by Paul Ryan and Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) would have allowed workers under the age of 55 to take around half of their payroll tax contributions and place it in a private account, if they so chose.
I choose to remember that AND those who want to further socialize it.
Republicans in Congress have become adjuncts of the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate. The “privatization” of Social Security would give the banksters free rein to loot with impunity that largest as-yet untapped asset pool still out of their clutches: retirement accounts.
The survery was conducted online, so critics can’t claim that the results were skewed by only calling landlines.
Another interesting result is that the repondants generally opposed means testing.
“generally opposed means testing”
Everybody wants “theirs”. That was the genius of it. If it was only for poor people, it would be long gone.
“At a time when the nation seems deeply divided about the proper size and role of government, Americans show remarkably widespread agreement on Social Security,”
Not surprising, as most know it will be their only source of income when they are too old to work.
as most know it will be their only source of income when they are too old to work ??
Yep…
Social Security is easy to fix.
Simpson Bowles had a plan that was quite sensible (strengthened the safety net, gave those who were better off slightly less, and increased the cap on salary more rapidly than now, etc.).
A few tweaks made the program solvent and stronger.
That’s the easy one.
Show me how to fix Medicare, where we pay out a multiple of what is paid in for any given person, and you win the prize.
You would think that with the Snowden whistle blowing a couple years ago the spooks would back off of their spying on social media. LinkedIn reports the opposite:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/09/24/linkedins-transparency-report-for-the-first-half-of-2014/
“The number of government requests for member data increased just over 60% between the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014. While that’s a significant increase, it’s not as significant as the increase in the number of member accounts these requests encompassed. We saw a 150% spike in the number of accounts subject to government requests in this reporting period, compared to the total number of accounts subject to government requests in the last five reporting periods combined (July 2011 through December 2013). We are concerned by this trend, and we will continue to object to data demands that are not narrowly focused.”
Although this appears shocking and there is no excuse for it, the increase is not dramatic given that the actual number of members targeted was only under 1200. And data was provided for 150 accounts.
Platinum price relative to gold looks like a great deal. Usually platinum costs much higher. Both precious metals have different reasons of valuation. Platinum is more a commodity than a currency. Gold is more of a currency.
At least for me, since I can buy more than a couple of very nice new cars with my metal.
Concur. Platinum is ten times scarcer than gold and has far more industial applications, hence, demand. Looks like a no-brainer at this price point.
You have it nailed for the next biggest credit expansion ever. Don’t let a slight pause in growth disturb you. Don’t let a looming contraction of credit and leverage distract you.
I got my quota of metals around $1210 spot a few days ago. So my buying window is gone.
My next window is in 2015, and I’m thinking it will be 50% platinum, 50% gold for the amount I DCA.
Oil bubble ?
What distinguishes this U.S. energy boom from the way the industry operated in the past is the involvement of outside investors. In 1994, drillers funded 42 percent of their own capital spending, according to an Independent Petroleum Association of America member survey. Today, shale companies are outspending their cash flow by 50 percent thanks to borrowed money, according to the IPAA. They’re selling more than twice as much equity to the public as they did 10 years ago, according to Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., a Houston-based investment bank.
“After the tech bubble and then the real estate bubble, Wall Street had to put its money somewhere, and it looks like they put a lot of it into domestic onshore oil and gas production,” said Michael Webber, the deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, who advises private investors.
QUOTE OF THE DAY from the Ritholz site - via Doug Adams - I think he is the guy who wrote the “Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy” no?
“This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” -Douglas Adams
My quote of the day:
“I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it” — unknown renter proverb
Has the cooling rate of US home price appreciation laid to rest your housing bubble fears?
Saw something today predicting that after back to back years of double digit increases in metro Denver that it will cool to 4% next year.
linky says 3.8 percent next year:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2014/10/home-value-appreciation-has-peaked-says-zillow.html
No. Why do you think they’re relaxing all the lending standards now?
All I’m sayin’ is, if the government weren’t there to buy up nearly all the mortgages that are made today, no one would be making mortgages of these sizes. People would still be buying and selling houses - debt is lucrative. But it wouldn’t be quite as lucrative as it is now, with government supporting the entire market.
Stocks only go up.
and stockings only go down. Your mileage may vary.
How come we don’t have any ISIS recruiters on this blog?
Colorado teens reportedly back home after trying to join ISIS in Syria
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 22 October 2014 07:18 PM
Updated: 22 October 2014 07:19 PM
Three teenage girls have returned to Colorado after they reportedly tried to join ISIS forces in Syria.
The three, who are facing investigation, were victims of an “online predator” who encouraged them, a school official said Wednesday, as U.S. officials tried to determine how they made it to Europe without anyone knowing and whether terrorists’ appeal is deepening among vulnerable youth.
Social media has played a very significant role in the recruitment of young people,” said FBI spokesman Kyle Loven in Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali community in the U.S. Authorities there have been concerned about terror recruiting of the young for years.
http://www.dallasnews.com/…ns-reportedly-back-home-after-trying-to-join-isis-in-syria.ece - 76k
They are too busy recruiting Canadian jihadists.
Is This the ISIS Backlash We’ve Been Waiting For?
By Joshua Keating
Flowers are left in memorial for Cpl. Nathan Cirillo of the Canadian Army Reserves on October 23, 2014 in Ottawa, Canada.
Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images
We’re quickly learning more about Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the suspected killer of a soldier in Ottawa on Wednesday, who was himself shot dead after a rampage through the Canadian National War Memorial and Parliament.
Zehaf-Bibeau is described by the Globe and Mail as a “laborer and small-time criminal—a man who had had a religious awakening and seemed to have become mentally unstable.” His father, a “Quebec businessman … appears to have fought in 2011 in Libya.”
…
“Retirement is not part of my vocabulary,” she says.
“I will never live long enough to pay off my loan.”
US seniors face student loan debt
By Thomas Sparrow
22 October 2014 Last updated at 20:29 ET
Janet Lee Dupree is 72 years old and has a financial burden that will not leave her in peace: she owes $16,000 (£9,957) in student loans she acquired in 1971 and 1972.
Dupree, who lives in Citra, Florida, admits she forgot for many years that she had borrowed the money - originally $3,000 - in order to complete her undergraduate studies in Spanish.
“I am an alcoholic and I have HIV,” she tells the BBC. “That’s under control, but at that time I was sick and I didn’t worry about paying back the debt.”
Dupree defaulted on her loan, and since she turned 65 she has had money withheld from her Social Security benefits.
“Just recently I received a notification that they are going to garnish my wages because I am still working,” says Dupree, who works 30 hours a week as a substance abuse counsellor.
Continue reading the main story
In 2005, older adults owed $2.8bn (£1.61bn) in federal student debt. By 2013, that figure that had ballooned to $18.2bn, according to a report released last month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
These seniors account for 706,000 households in the United States - small compared to the 22 million households with non-seniors who hold student load debt, but a growing problem. People over 65 also defaulted on their student loan debt at a much higher rate than other segments of the population, says Charles Jeszeck, author of the GAO report.
Students in the US often take out loans, both privately funded and financed by the US Department of Education, to pay their school fees. While other loans, such as a home mortgage, can be forgiven if a borrower files for bankruptcy, student loans cannot.
According to the GAO study, the number of individuals whose Social Security benefits were offset to pay student loan debt increased from about 31,000 to 155,000 between 2002-13. Jeszeck tells the BBC that this situation can cause considerable problems for older adults who, like Dupree, may have to extend their working life well beyond retirement age.
“They face the potential of reduced social security benefits and a lower standard of living, possibly a poverty-level standard of living in retirement,” Jeszeck says.
Rosemary Anderson, 57, says she is fortunate not to have defaulted on her student loan, but she already knows she will grow old with a debt “hanging over her head”.
Between 1991-2000 she borrowed $64,000 in order to complete both her undergraduate and her graduate studies in organisational behaviour and development.
Soon after, though, she began what she calls a “steep decline into financial hell”.
She says she divorced her husband of 24 years, had health issues that prevented her from working full time, and had her salary reduced when the financial crisis hit.
line
Graduation cap and money
Student debt in the United States
• Outstanding student loan debt in the US amounts to $1tr
• 3% of households headed by individuals 65 or over carry student debt (706,000 households)
• 24% of households headed by individuals 64 or under carry student debt (22 million households)
• The outstanding federal debt for older adults grew from $2.8bn in 2005 to $18.2bn in 2013
• 27% of federal student loans held by individuals aged 65 to 74 are in default, compared to 12% of loans to people between the ages of 25 and 49
Anderson, who works as a member of the emergency management team at the University of California, Santa Cruz, couldn’t afford her monthly loan payments, so she entered into a series of deferment options with the Department of Education.
Today, she owes $128,000 and is hoping to get additional help from the government in reducing that amount.
The vast majority of older borrowers took out their loans in order to pay for their own studies, although a small percentage used the loans for their spouses, children or grandchildren.
Many borrowed money to pay for mid- or late-career retraining, or may have acquired loans with a very long repayment term. Others defaulted at a younger age, were unable to dig themselves out of the problem and carried it through into retirement.
The Department of Education says it is “committed to working with older borrowers to help them understand and manage debt”, as William Leith, chief business officer for federal student aid, explained in a recent Senate hearing where different measures were discussed.
A department spokesperson told the BBC that there are “many repayment options available, including those based on income, as well as forgiveness programmes”.
Meanwhile, Rosemary Anderson is worried. She says never imagined that she would have this problem at her age.
She feels fortunate to have a job but recognises that she will have to continue working as long as she is physically able to.
“Retirement is not part of my vocabulary,” she says.
“I will never live long enough to pay off my loan.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29730227 - 100k -
Dupree is the poster child for the ideal Democrat lifetime-entitlements-for-lifetime-votes supermajority voter. Comrade Pelosi and the DNC must be thrilled to be building an unassailable majority with such fine specimens of citizenry.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-23/meet-janet-dupree72-alcoholic-hiv-positive-16000-student-debt-i-wont-live-long-enoug
Janis Joplin- Try (just a little bit harder)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU9Dsl89UGo
Traffic - Berkshire Poppies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdq2UXbh83M
the Grateful Dead - New Potato Caboose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQoYkL6nTW4
Neil Young - Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPkmY6HwuI
Dr James Lawrenzi
From Marketwatch:
SHANGHAI–The average price of new homes in 70 Chinese cities fell year over year in September for the first time in nearly two years, as property developers continue to cut prices to lure home buyers. The drop is yet another signal of a flagging property market, which poses one of the biggest risks to China’s slowing economy.
The average price of new homes declined 1.1% in September compared with a 0.5% gain in August. The reading marks the first drop since December 2012 when prices fell 0.1%. On a month over month basis, prices in September continued to fall for the fifth straight month, down 1.0% compared with a 1.1% fall in August, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal.
Many economists and investors are concerned that a worsening slump in the property market could cause a sharper-than-expected slowdown in the world’s second largest economy. Analysts estimate that real estate accounts for nearly one-quarter of gross domestic product, factoring in construction, cement, steel, chemicals, furniture and other related industries. China’s economy grew 7.3% in the third quarter this year, its slowest pace in five years.
For those who don’t know if precious metals will win big in the long run or treasuries, how about Series I bonds? Prediction is that the I-bond yield for those purchased between November 1 and April 30 will yield 1.48 variable. Better than a one year CD.
I did very well in the early 2000s by buying metals and I bonds. Though back then the fixed rate of I bonds was a steal. Nowadays the fixed rate is “meh!”
“Though back then the fixed rate of I bonds was a steal.”
Luckily for my dad, he apparently had an investment adviser who spotted that opportunity, as he is rolling in I-bonds bought in the early-2000s at an interest rate which probably won’t be available for another decade or so.
Prediction is that the I-bond yield for those purchased between November 1 and April 30 will yield 1.48 variable.
Who makes this prediction?
With the first reported Ebola case to hit NYC plus ISIS recruiting new caliphate members to the north, I’m guessing the Plunge Protection Team will heavily intervene in the market tomorrow. Look for a massive Wall Street rally to close out the week!
Market Pulse
U.S. stocks futures point to losses after N.Y. Ebola news
Published: Oct 23, 2014 9:41 p.m. ET
By Michael Kitchen
Asia editor
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to losses at the Friday open, and Asian shares lost ground in morning trade, with the moves coinciding with reports of a new Ebola case in New York City. Thursday night, roughly 12 hours ahead of the open, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average suggested a 0.6% loss, while the Nasdaq 100 futures implied a 0.8% drop, and those for the S&P 500 showed a 0.7% decline.
…
China’s economic growth may slow further, data show
Published: Oct 23, 2014 11:32 p.m. ET
Reuters
By Michael Kitchen
Asia editor
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — September data suggest China’s economic growth may well slow further, the Conference Board said late Thursday, citing its Leading Economic Index.
The index rose 0.9% in September, after a 0.7% gain in August, but a 1.3% rise in July, the association said.
“The six-month growth rate of the Leading Economic Index has eased steadily throughout the third quarter, indicating increased downside risks to economic growth in the months ahead,” Conference Board China Center resident economist Andrew Polk said.
“While activity in the property sector stabilized a bit, sharp weakening in demand for both bank credit and real estate point to sluggish private investment in the last quarter of 2014. Recent developments, therefore, confirm our long-term view of a soft fall of the economy,” Polk said.
…