Bits Bucket for October 28, 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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Region VIII
R U a Regionator?
“Apartment vacancies in metro Denver in the third quarter dropped almost a full percentage point to 3.9 percent”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2014/10/denver-apartment-vacancy-drops-below-4.html
Kray-tur
Speaking of craters, the great recession put us in a hole, are we out yet?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-27/the-great-recession-put-us-in-a-hole-are-we-out-yet-.html
It’s not a hole. It’s a step in a flight of stairs.
That’s right. Plenty of donkeys at the bottom of the stairs with busted up hooves.
10 to 1
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-see-largest-annual-jump-since-2005-2014-10-28
This claims Detroit is up 35 percent year over year. Worthless!
Cheetos!
I dunno. I could see someone bidding up a $1 house to $1.35 and still have plenty left over for squirrel food.
+1 Oxy…..in fact +2
Cause everybody wants to live in Detroit!
Economic Report
Home prices post slowest annual growth in almost two years
Published: Oct 28, 2014 10:21 a.m. ET
By Ruth Mantell
Economics reporter
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Home-price growth slowed in August, pulling back the annual pace among 20 major U.S. cities to the slowest rate in almost two years, according to data released Tuesday.
U.S. home prices nudged up 0.2% in August, slower than the 0.6% rise in July, according to S&P/Case-Shiller’s 20-city composite index released Tuesday. Among 20 tracked cities, three saw prices fall, while Detroit posted the fastest growth.
Meanwhile, annual growth slowed down, with year-over-year home prices rising 5.6% in August — the slowest pace since November 2012 — compared with annual growth of 6.7% in July.
Sellers don’t love it when prices slow down, but the trend could lure buyers. Annual price appreciation in the residential market has been tapering since November, as more sellers have placed their homes on the market. In addition, higher mortgage rates and a rough winter hit sales earlier this year.
“This report underscores the weak tone in housing market activity in recent months and the steady decline in prices is symptomatic of the erosion in housing demand,” Millan Mulraine, deputy head of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities, wrote in a research note.
…
Newscast: Home prices back at 2005 levels
Published: Oct 28, 2014 10:00 a.m. ET
By MarketWatch
Federal Reserve policymakers may wind down their easy-money policies. MarketWatch’s Ann Cates reports.
2005 prices are bubble highs in many, if not most, areas. Wow, they pumped it back up. Congrats- you fooked the country.
Sandy!
Some guy popped up in the comments section of the article on the 2 robbers on the Robesonian website saying the old man sold pills and had a lot of traffic at his house.
Would someone here go to such lengths as creating an account there to leave a comment or is this some indication instead that someone else might be losing the bet?
I thought “the bet” was stupid to begin with.
I love this blog!
Why are you a welcher too?
Sounds like you lost the bet, Mr. Phony. The truth will out, my friend, the truth will out. Let’s see, where should I have you send my winnings?
“Some guy popped up in the comments section of the article on the 2 robbers on the Robesonian website saying the old man sold pills and had a lot of traffic at his house.”
LMAO
Neighbors shocked by violent home invasion
Homeowner, two intruders shot; 1 dead
Last updated: October 22. 2014 5:24PM - 39250 Views
By Sarah Willets - swillets@civitasmedia.com
LUMBERTON —Neighbors of a man and wife severely injured during a home invasion on Monday night say they never expected Kenneth and Judy Byrd would be the victims of such a violent crime.
“They’re real friendly, help you anyway they can, do anything for you,” said a woman who has lived near the Byrds on Yedda Road for about 20 years.
——————————————————————–
I read the comment from this article and I will not copy it. Send the check to Ben Jones.
2 accused in murder try
Last updated: October 24. 2014 1:00PM - 12141 Views
By Sarah Willets - swillets@civitasmedia.com
Confirmation bias only works in your favor, eh?
Here is the link with your “proof”.
Be careful.
http://www.robesonian.com/news/home_top-news/50549272/2-accused-in-murder-try - 92k -
What was your “proof” again?
Did you read that?
More importantly did you read the post below it?
Yes. So what?
Everyone Must Check In
Region VIII checking in.
Get shorty is in play. Don’t get caught short now!
Don’t worry about short-term volatility. The stock market always goes up.
S&P 500 destined for new heights: Goldman
Published: Oct 28, 2014 10:03 a.m. ET
25% drop in oil prices result in 8% drop to EPS estimates
By Anora Mahmudova
Reporter
New York (MarketWatch) — Goldman Sachs’s chief U.S. equities strategist David Kostin reiterated his year-end forecast for U.S. equities, suggesting the benchmark index is headed toward fresh highs. Kostin’s prognostication comes even as the market endures its choppiest trading to date, marked by triple-digit losses, at times.
…
‘The pitchforks are coming’
Anti-gun billionaire: ‘We need more school shootings’
‘Sarcastic’ Facebook posting removed after backlash
Published: 12 hours ago
It didn’t take long for some progressives to exploit the tragic shooting at a Washington State high school last Friday, as they used it in an attempt to gain support for a ballot initiative requiring expanded background checks on all gun transfers in the state.
Within hours of the Oct. 24 shooting that claimed the lives of two students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, one of the billionaire backers of the Nov. 4 ballot initiative posted a link to the story on his Facebook page with the caption, “We need more school shootings!!! Vote yes on Initiative 591.”
Facebook post by Nick Hanauer
The posting by Nick Hanauer, a Seattle venture capitalist from a Democrat family, was excused as “sarcasm,” according to gun-rights advocates in Washington. I-591 would prohibit background checks and has the support of the National Rifle Association. Hanauer is one of the top financial donors to the organization pushing I-594, a competing ballot measure that would require background checks on almost all gun transfers, even short-term loans between friends and family members.
Hanauer’s comment was just the latest attempt by anti-gun forces to make political hay off of someone’s loss, said Dave Workman, a resident of North Bend, Washington, and a former NRA board member.
“It was on his Facebook page. It’s gone now. He pulled it down,” Workman said. “It’s obvious that the anti-gunners constantly look for things like this to exploit, to move their agenda forward and, of course, their agenda is stiffer gun control.”
Also this week, families of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut will travel to Washington to campaign in support of I-594. That mass shooting also would not have been stopped by an expanded background check law.
Yet Washington residents continue to be swayed by the propaganda ads being funded by Hanauer, Bill Gates and several other billionaires.
According to the most recent polling data taken in mid-October, before Friday’s school shooting, 60 percent of Washington residents said they were in favor of the I-594 background check initiative while 44 percent said they were in favor of the ban on state background checks offered by I-591.
Hanauer is 1 of 5 billionaires funding I-594
WND reported Oct. 12 that Hanauer was one of five billionaires including former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Microsoft founders Gates and Paul Allen and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who are funding a massive advertising campaign in support of I-594. The five billionaires had contributed $1 million each to the cause, and the committee supporting I-594 had outspent those supporting I-591 by eight to one.
‘The pitchforks are coming’
Hanauer provided a hint to the reason for his anti-gun stance when he penned an open letter this summer to his “fellow filthy-rich 0.01 percenters” in Politico magazine titled, “The Pitchforks are Coming for us Plutocrats.” In that article, Hanauer expressed fear that America could devolve into revolution if historic levels of income inequality are not addressed.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
“Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
“And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
“If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.”
Perhaps Hanauer’s real concern is not pitchforks flying in his direction but 9-millimeter and .40-caliber ballistics.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/anti-gun-billionaire-we-need-more-school-shootings/#gEcuLRqGoeE3VtoI.99
World Net Daily?
Sh*tty website but the article says all signs point to Go Time
Got 7.62×39?
“The pitchforks are coming”
Ummm, no, they’re not.
Craytor!
Drill, baby, drill
Denver Post - Dead babies near oil drilling sites raise questions for researchers
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26800380/dead-babies-near-oil-drilling-sites-raise-questions
More drill, baby, drill
“The BP oil spill left an oily “bathtub ring” on the sea floor that’s about the size of Rhode Island, new research shows”
http://abcnews.go.com/technology/wirestory/bp-spill-left-big-oily-bathtub-ring-seafloor-26490945
Happy Tuesday
Leave poor BP alone. They’re doing God’s work, too.
Because warmists gonna warm
“even global one-child policies and pandemic diseases wouldn’t cut population numbers enough to sustain our way of life.
Curbing resources and population control are the only ways to provide a more secure future for humanity”
http://www.businessinsider.com/growth-of-humanity-to-keep-rising-2014-10
To protect and perve (brought to you by your local police union).
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_26793089/warrant-chp-officer-says-stealing-nude-photos-from
“We expect the highest levels of integrity and moral strength from everyone in the California Highway Patrol, and there is no place in our organization for such behavior.”
Our finest must walk it like they talk it.
They are corrupt…The only question is to what degree….
Corrupt like realtors, mortgage salesmen and appraisers.
On another website I caught flack for complaining about “badge lickers”. A tsunami of people rushed in to condemn me for not … badge licking.
We’re doomed. Got foreign citizenship?
You’re busy
We’re doomed. Got foreign citizenship ??
Puerto Rico…..
Everythings geared to make people feel afraid and needy.
“On another website I caught flack for complaining about “badge lickers”. A tsunami of people rushed in to condemn me for not … badge licking.”
That’s whatcha get for posting on City Data, LOL!
Next time just tell folks you’re not a holster-humper.
You’re right, though. When you look at sites open to the gen pub and read the postings, it’s enuf to make one reach for the bottle. Even on sites that seem to be raging against the machine, you find a bunch of crude, bitter, defeatist clowns. I am thankful for the times Ben has deleted some of my more indelicate comments. They really add nothing.
That’s why I like this site and have been here as long as I have. Although we have our differences, it has been a pleasure to be part of an online community of intelligent, thoughtful people of varying backgrounds.
Who knows? One day perhaps some of us will make a difference.
Wouldn’t mind seeing more solution-oriented postings, like what Bila brings to the table.
‘more solution-oriented postings’
quoting the immortal words of poet, mystic, and drunk jim morrison, ‘i just wanna get my kicks before the whole sh1thouse goes up in flames’
That’s whatcha get for posting on City Data, LOL!
Nah, it wasn’t there.
We’re doomed. Got foreign citizenship ??
Puerto Rico…..
Last time I checked Puerto Ricans had US Passports and are American citizens.
And for the curious, I have citizenship in 3 different countries.
That’s why I like this site and have been here as long as I have. Although we have our differences, it has been a pleasure to be part of an online community of intelligent, thoughtful people of varying backgrounds.
+1000
intelligent, thoughtful people of varying backgrounds
You’re kidding, right?
If the HBB sucks so bad for you, why not just drag yer ass. If you can’t drag it, pick it up and carry it.
Maybe Mike is sick of all us yokels. I can fix it up for you so even if you changed your mind, you couldn’t. Wanta try that Mike? Done!
Oh, Drudge
Here’s some Hope and Change for a Tuesday morning
http://m.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/curtis-kalin/exclusive-st-louis-businesses-warned-civil-unrest-after-grand-jury-decision
Ferguson got nothin’ on Chicago!!
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/27/4-Dead-32-Shot-in-Chicago-Weekend-Violence
Drudge link disses the Amnesty, dumps on the Permanent Democrat Supermajority
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/27/Exclusive-Priebus-Rallies-Base-GOP-Will-Stop-Obama-s-Un-American-Amnesty-If-We-Win-Senate
Forward
What a complete joke. No, they don’t want Obama to enact an executive scamnasty. What they want is to be able to enact the scamnasty themselves by Republican-passed Congressional legislation.
JEB! is now in play. And anyone with half a brain knows he wants scamnasty and will insist on it.
BTW, it dawned on me why Mitty lost when he should have won. The Republican campaign “consultants” did him in, making a bundle of cash in the process. I dunno if Mitty knew this, but he was never meant to win, because if he had become Prez, it would have been a cold day in hell before JEB! ever occupied the White House.
Mitty wuz played.
Jeb’s Achilles heal is his last name…His brother is a war criminal…Have you ever heard Jeb say one negative word about his brother ?? He will need to answer questions about his brothers policies & actions…
So is Obama.
The faithful won’t question the last name. As for the “undecided” dubya was 8 years ago and is but a distant memory. Sure, mud will be slung, but it’s not like uncharismatic Hillary’s closet is skeleton free.
Your likely right but there is no question that Jeb will have to answer regarding what brother george did with the wars…
Faithful = ignorant
Jeb won’t have to answer for his brother’s wars, his base still supports the wars. Heck, they want to go back in with ground troops. His major, really his only problem is his support of amnesty. And that’s a big one.
Choosing Jeb is like choosing Palin all over again. Can the GOP ever do anything right?
We really need a third party of 50 yr old women with children. They wont sell us out for short term gains ( I hope)
Avocado said: We really need a third party of 50 yr old women with children. They wont sell us out for short term gains ( I hope)
+100
Agreed. Both parties want an amnesty and for the Mexodus to resume.
So why hasn’t amnesty passed yet?
Obama says he wants it and will sign it.
The democrat controlled senate has already passed their version of it.
Hmmm - maybe there is a difference in parties…
So why hasn’t amnesty passed yet?
Because they know the electorate will get pissed. Remember when dubya tried to slip one past us and the political firestorm that ensued?
It’s for this reason why I don’t think Obama will do it via executive order. He’d like to do it, but he knows there would be a huge price to pay, like maybe a filibuster proof GOP controlled Senate. Don’t forget, he has no spine.
“Don’t forget, he has no spine.”
But an a**hole that’s a mile wide from bending over for Wall St. the past 6 years.
Better known as Bend Over Barrack.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in this country ever doing the right thing, but if Jeb Bush is elected I will officially give up on it.
All this Jeb talk is wishful thinking from haters. It will never happen. Too much family baggage too recently. Pay it no mind.
15 Signs That We Live During A Time Of Rampant Government Paranoia
By Michael Snyder, on October 27th, 2014
endoftheamericandream.com/…at-we-live-during-a-time-of-rampant-government-paranoia - 108k -
Linky no worky
15 Signs That We Live During A Time Of Rampant Government Paranoia
Still a great time to sell individual stocks and realize hundreds percent gains. Cash is king!
I need another mattress. Current one is full of cash and too much extra lying around, ready to be put into a new mattress.
Directly as a result of staying out of debt and renting for half the monthly cost.
With so much money left over from renting, I have to think about taking unpaid vacation and spend it on blond bimbos perhaps.
’spend it on blond bimbos’
bill, you might appreciate this story that’s been circulating on reddit.
in summary, girl dates guy for 10 months, guy lives very very frugally, she dumps him because she thinks he has no ambition, he shrugs, pushes her out the door, and cuts off all contact. later she learns he is sitting on a fat oil inheritance, and lolz abound.
http://www.redditlog.com/snapshots/1207481
Thanks! Great story! Though I heard of guys who inherited fortunes and then spent it all on bimbos in no time. The guy in the story is smart. I’ll have to check the snapshot link later as I’m on my office computer.
“Sometimes we’d even still hook up.”
F*?
“Sometimes we’d even still hook up.”
F*?
AKA “ex sex”
Contemporary dating is “interesting”
I know of a guy, a young widower. A female friend of his deceased wife offered him a “friends with benefits” arrangement once he was done mourning. Did that for a few years, then he upgraded her to girlfriend, then live in girlfriend. I’m expecting them to announce their engagement soon.
Thanks for the laugh! This is the kind of woman to RUN AWAY FROM:
“I have Facebook and am on it every day, usually when work is slow. Lately my newsfeed has been filled with my peers getting married, buying houses, having babies, and other various accolades. I can’t help but feel jealous by this; it seems like everyone but me is making significant gains in their lives and relationships.”
Hmm…I read the letter by the girl. And I’m laughing. The guy his name Will? Seems to be a very smart guy. Down to earth. She was an idiot to dump a guy who was not materialistic and pretentious. I guess that is what she wanted. There are many people, I am sure women included, who don’t care if they drive a POS car, rent, etc.
In my case, what i value very much recreationally is free. It’s my interest in weather phenomenon and wilderness. Last time I checked you don’t need a Ferrari to get to Whitney Portal or June Lakes.
The guy Will is a free man. And freedom is probably his favorite value. To be young, frugal, and free is a blessing. He’s enjoying life. His ex GF isn’t.
It’s the debt fueled hyperconsumerism that keeps the elites in power. If focused and deliberate personal financial management were the trend, they’d have no power. They’d be kaput.
Yeah I liked the one quote “Here’s a thought, why instead of breaking up with him, did you not have a sit down and talk to him about what was bothering you?
Did you ever check to see what his “future” entailed? Did he ever hint towards having actual money problems?
I’m sure he’s angry because you didn’t even give him the benefit of the doubt. Instead, you dumped him after making assumptions. I can see why he would be upset.
Also, did you ever consider that him spending a lot of time with you, taking you out to go hiking, walking, little dates, was enough for him because he enjoyed your company and thought you would be content with that as well? I think you simply want/need more luxury in your life, or else it would have been a non-issue, even after 10 months.”
I met an incredibly beautiful Chinese-American woman a few years ago. She spoke English well enough for me to think she understood culture well. She was an accountant or worked at an accounting firm. She recently dumped her former boyfriend and I hooked up with her. We hit it off very well. A few days of heaven for me (!). Then I basically spilled the beans and said I’m a consultant and could get fired any time. She then took it literally and after a great night and then driving from her place in Glendale Scottsdale I got a cell phone call from her. “I don’t think we should see each other.” And the reason was because my job can end. Believe it or not. I then told her “thanks and goodbye” - regretted that the same day but then in retrospect I said the right thing.
There are a lot of guys, in great shape, low body fat, non smokers, who drive POS cars and those materialist bimbos overlook. There are a few homely ones who do spend it all on cars. I know of a guy who bought a bride back from China (he’s from Hong Kong) and married her and got her pregnant because it’s the asian culture and he was in his 40s, so his biological clock was running out (and he’s diabetic, double whammy). The guy only saves cash and never buys stocks. He spends it on expensive cars but that’s about it.
The guy named Will was thinking with his brain, not the smaller head. The asian guy I know thought with the reverse. Our common buddy says his wife will take her and the kid in a few years when she gets legal status. She’s prolly learning fast - they are in California, a state where marriage is poison for most men.
“I’m sure he’s angry because you didn’t even give him the benefit of the doubt. Instead, you dumped him after making assumptions. I can see why he would be upset.”
If she was vindictive she would have f* his best friends too.
good point rms. That is how a vindictive one would go about it.
And the reason was because my job can end.
Sounds like you dodged a bullet there, Bill!
Seriously, doesn’t she realize that in every at-will state, any of our jobs can end at any time?
Good to catch her true colors early, though, eh?
Case-Shiller: Dallas among top home price gainers in August. Nationwide home prices rose by 5.5 percent in August.
http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/case-shiller-dallas-one-of-the-top-home-price-gain-markets-in-august.html/
And fell for the fourth month straight. This time next year prices will be negative year on year nationally.
Cut your losses and dump that shack if you can find a buyer.
tomorrow, tomorrow, they’re gonna drop tomorrow….it is always a day away…..
They’re already falling my friend. And they’ll continue falling until they reach early 1990’s levels. Enjoy the trip down.
listing prices are falling.
closed sale prices are still up in CA for the year
I too, missed the bus in 2012, i want a crash so I can buy one. Same with stocks. I want UPS at $80.
nope. Cosed sale prices are down MoM, YoY and QoQ. You didn’t miss anything.
This time next year prices will be negative year on year nationally.
I very much hope that you are correct in that statement.
But haven’t you been saying that for about a year now?
They’re already negative YoY in tons of areas.
I’m still waiting for any of the repeated-sales-pairs methodology indexes (e.g. Case-Shiller or other similar) to show a true drop in any of those categories… Then I’ll be happy to agree that things have _finally_ started to head down fer realz.
Yep - and we wonder why it is that they end up where they do…..
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/27/Dem-Rep-Bustos-Staff-Urban-Voters-Spend-Time-More-in-Jail-Than-in-Church
Occasionally a bought politician is impolitically candid.
“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”
– Spencer Bachus
Heh.
Too Big to Tax: Settlements Are Tax Write-Offs for Banks
By Lynnley Browning / October 27, 2014 11:16 AM EDT
Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/giant-penalties-are-giant-tax-write-offs-wall-street-279993.html
Thought-provoking article about the Deep State.
Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State
February 21, 2014
by Mike Lofgren
It is not too much to say that Wall Street may be the ultimate owner of the Deep State and its strategies, if for no other reason than that it has the money to reward government operatives with a second career that is lucrative beyond the dreams of avarice — certainly beyond the dreams of a salaried government employee.
Domestically, whatever they might privately believe about essentially diversionary social issues such as abortion or gay marriage, they almost invariably believe in the “Washington Consensus”: financialization, outsourcing, privatization, deregulation and the commodifying of labor.
It may be that deep economic and social currents create the framework of history, but those currents can be channeled, eddied, or even reversed by circumstance, chance and human agency. We have only to reflect upon defunct glacial despotisms such as the USSR or East Germany to realize that nothing is forever.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
Good work if you can get it..
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles County Fire Department will begin tracking the hiring of relatives and is drafting an anti-nepotism policy after a newspaper investigation found that its hiring process favors family members.
A Los Angeles Times investigation released Sunday analyzed records and found that at least 183 sons of current or former firefighters have been hired since the start of 2012.
In the last seven years, more than 12,600 people have applied and nearly 95 percent have been turned away.
At that rate, the newspaper says, an improbable number of more than 3,000 sons would have had to apply to make up 183 hired firefighters.
Fire officials could not explain how so many family members were able to land jobs with the department.
the newspaper outlined the case of firefighter Ryan Tripp, who was one of 10 firefighters in a 2010 academy class where relatives made up a quarter of the recruits.
Tripp’s father is John Tripp, then the department’s head of emergency operations. Tripp failed 13 of 14 quizzes on emergency medical treatment, and John Tripp was alerted of his son’s problems by Assistant Chief Anthony Whittle. He later informed the father that his son would need to score a minimum of 83 on a cumulative exam to graduate. The son did so, according to records examined by the newspaper.
Not even a smidgen of corruption…
Don’t worry - public unions support democrats 99-1 so this too will be swept under the rug.
These guys are heros and it is for the children…
2banana said: These guys are heros
I used to own a pub, bar and grill-ish place and we used to cringe when we had firemen came in. Add a few drinks, and their sense of entitlement grew. I actually had one tell me he shouldn’t have to pay because he might save my life one day. They were not our favorite customers, though we never said it. Not a popular opinion after 9/11.
Re: QE-
Here’s what has actually happened since Bernanke made the case for the Fed’s expanded effort in August 2010:
— The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.9 percent, the lowest level since July 2008. Back in August 2010, it was 9.6 percent.
— The stock market has soared. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has returned 101 percent, powered by a stronger economy, higher spending and record corporate profits.
— The dollar has held up against most major currencies. One widely used measure, the dollar index, is 3 percent higher.
— Inflation has remained tame, despite all the warnings. Over the past year, overall prices have climbed a modest 1.7 percent, still below the 2 percent annual increase that the Fed targets.
To be sure, the Fed’s efforts merely contributed to all the good things listed above. But none of the predicted disasters came true. So how did the loudest critics get it so wrong?
Awe…
Curious that an additional 12 million or so more simply do not have jobs.
Curious that food prices have doubled while wages have slumped.
Curious that house prices have gone back up to bubble highs and retirement savings earn no interest.
Curious that the debt of the nation has exploded and bankers are the ones being enriched.
All these good things…Thanks a Lot!
P.S. The next chapter is opening.
Curious that an additional 12 million or so more simply do not have jobs.
Curious that food prices have doubled while wages have slumped.
You’re claiming that these have happened since August 2010? That sounds unlikely.
Awe Mike…
You could correct me on the timeframe, but I am pretty sure you will not look into it. Your point is that the Fed is good and we are all OK.
Your point is that the Fed is good and we are all OK.
I can’t see how you could come to that conclusion based on what I wrote. If I have the time later, I can look up some statistics. I can do a quick estimate in my head, though, regarding food prices. Even if food inflation were twice the rate of CPI inflation, it would take over 10 years for food prices to double.
It turned out that it wasn’t too hard to find the data. Food prices roughly doubled between January, 1989 and September of this year.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CPIFABSL
Mike. Are you a liar?
Food prices roughly doubled between January, 1989 and September of this year.
Except that their methodology is a big-fat-lie based upon hedonics.
Your food-prices doubled over that much-longer period–IF and ONLY IF you stopped eating steaks entirely and switched to some other protein substitute, stopped buying ground beef entirely in favor of ground turkey…and then found an even worse ground substitute when turkey became too expensive, etc etc etc.
In other words, rising costs are being hidden by reducing quality.
come in
If you plan to shop at Lowe’s (LOW) Orchard Supply Hardware store in San Jose California next month, you might find your sales associate replaced by a five-foot tall, taking robot.
These robotic shopping assistants, or OSHbots, will be the first of their kind in the country. They will greet customers, ask them if they need help and show them through the store to the customers’ desired products. The robot will also feature screens on its front and back which will display ads for products as well as allow customers the option to videoconference with an in-store sales associate.
Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Aaron Task said it is “amazing” technology, but also points out the implications of adding OSHbots to stores. “The downside is you don’t need a human begin on the floor of your store now if you can do this…” and while there will still be a person in the store assisting via video conference, this means “one human being with a job but there are a lot of human beings who used to be on the floor and now don’t have jobs.”
I wonder how these things will react to being told to Eff-off, or to being tipped.
Automation is destroying jobs at a rapid pace, and nobody is talking about it. We have a jobs crisis.
Encinitas, CA Sale Prices Nosedive 9% YoY As Underwater Homeowners Slash Prices
http://www.zillow.com/encinitas-ca/home-values/
Tuesday, 09/02/2014 - 09:53 am EST
Al Gore Predicted The Arctic Ice Cap Would Be Gone By Now…
Written by Daisy
If I have a choice between Al McManBearPig the Liar and a bunch of satellite images of actual data to show me whether or not the summer ice cap is disappearing? I’m going to go with the satellite images every time.
In this case, the satellite images show that the “summer ice cap is thicker and covers 1.7 million square kilometers MORE than two years ago, DESPITE Al Gore’s prediction (that) it would be ICE-FREE by now.”
So. Very. Inconveeeeeeeeeenient.
This comes seven years after Al McManBearPig warned of apocalyptic doom and gloom. You see, the Arctic ice cap has “expanded for a second year in a row, and an area twice the size of Alaska opened up two years ago and is now covered in ice.”
Here are those satellite images:
chicksontheright.com/…95-al-gore-predicted-the-arctic-ice-cap-would-be-gone-by-now - 223k -
Al Gore’s revised prediction
10/28/14
The globe will warm up tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
It will warm
Just thinkin’ about tomorrow
All the melting Ice Caps and the sorrow when there’s none
Tomorrow, tomorrow I love you tomorrow
You’re always a day away …
Want to pay your taxes by the gallon or by the mile?
Government plan to track & trace drivers being pushed as economic
by Kerry Tomlinson | KMTR | October 28, 2014
That electric car could save you a lot of money at the pump. But when you buy less gas, you also pay less in gas taxes, which help pay for road repair.
“As we have more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road, less and less funding to maintain roads, and it just spells disaster, ultimately, for our transportation system,” said Michelle Godfrey with the Oregon Department of Transportation, “So, we have to find an alternative.”
The alternative, Godfrey said, is a pilot program starting next year, where 5,000 volunteers can pay their road repair taxes per mile, rather than per gallon of gas.
“This is what the legislature kind of landed on, after 12 years of research,” she said. “You pay for what you use. So, the number of miles you drive is really the best gauge of the impact that you’re having on the roads and how much you are contributing to deterioration.”
statistics: http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/93105-Santa_Barbara/
Sounds like bath salts motivated
Were Sledgehammer Attacks Racially-Motivated?
Crime may fit pattern of downplayed black on white crime
by Infowars.com | October 28, 2014
Las Vegas resident Damien Robins, 31, faces six attempted murder charges and one count of assault with a deadly weapon after he launched a series of random assaults last Friday on drivers in Boulder City, carrying out multiple sledgehammer attacks on nearly 10 people within the course of an hour.
[Henderson Police Department spokesperson Keith] Paul said the incident started in Boulder City around 8 p.m. Friday when Robins is accused of attacking a woman in a car with a one-handed sledgehammer in a convenience store parking lot. He then attacked two elderly people in the parking lot of a Boulder City auto parts store, according to Paul.
Next, police said Robins ran a driver off the road on U.S. 93 and hit the male driver several times with the hammer. Authorities said after that attack, Robins drove off and ran another driver off the roadway and attacked that driver with the hammer.
Attack victim Nicole Thompson (pictured below) told CBS affiliate 8 News Now she pleaded for her life as Robins smashed out her windows and proceeded to hit her in the head.
“He got out, holding something, a hammer in his hand,” Thompson said. “So, I was saying ‘Please, you have the wrong person, please, please, please,’ and he started hitting the car. I just started telling him you know, I don’t want to die, I have a child at home, and he just started hitting me in the face.”
“He was just crazed,” she said. “I don’t know, he was just going and just hitting me.”
http://www.infowars.com/were-sledgehammer-attacks-racially-motivated/ - 85k -
“He achieved national prominence in the early 1990s when he claimed that Jews financed the slave trade, used the movie industry to hurt black people, and that whites are “ice people” while Africans are “sun people”. Jeffries was discharged from his position as chairman of the black studies department at CUNY, leading to a lengthy legal battle.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Jeffries
So I bet this attack victim sitting in the car, who thought she could reason with her attacker and point out he had the “wrong person” (i.e. her and not some other random victim), and then was shocked when police instantly failed to materialize to stop the crazed attacker, might rethink the reflexive aversion her gender seems to have to gun ownership or the right to self-defense with a handgun.
Yeah I’m sure that’s that what she’s doing - pondering her gender’s reflexive aversions.
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer HD (1080p) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0×7T4Q - 579k -
the Kinks - Got To Be Free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_M0jDbmPTc
the Animals - It’s My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KlOmrqdyY
the Rolling Stones - Stupid Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbIdKlPWBhk
the Beatles - She Said She Said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34mL7eEhfK8
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Self-titled album (full album)
“It’s getting to the point
Where I am
No fun anymore”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT_H-Cz3v8Y
Rut-roh - new home prices plunging. Molon Latte, Amy (Come and take it - my Starbucks order, that is).
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/28/september-worst-plunge-ever-in-new-home-prices/
Take your mortgage to the grave, older FBs told.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/11194160/Take-your-mortgage-to-the-grave-older-borrowers-told.html
Bursting bubbles dead ahead?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-28/has-never-happened-without-massive-bubble-bursting
US homeownership drops to 1983 levels.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-28/us-homeownership-rate-drops-1983-levels-heres-why
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-28/california-leads-housing-slowdown-case-shiller-home-prices-decline-4-months-row
Following misses in yesterday’s Markit Service PMI, Existing Home Sales and the Dallas Fed report, and today’s Durable Goods numbers, we just made it a pentafecta for misses in US econ data, when the just released August Case-Shiller data for August confirmed once again that US housing is rapidly slowing down, when the Top 20 Composite Index (Seasonally Adjusted) posted another decline in August, its fourth in a row, declining by -0.15% and missing expectations of a modest 0.2% rebound (following last month’s -0.5%) decline. The best summary of the situation came from S&P’s David Blitzer: “The deceleration in home prices continues… The Sun Belt region reported its worst annual returns since 2012, led by weakness in all three California cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.” But who cares what the birth (and death) place of every housing bubble is doing, right?
So the Dumbocrats are going to lose the senate. I can’t wait to hear all the enragement and tales of woe from LIEberals. And it will takes about 6 months for the grimaces to appear on the faces of creepservatives when they realize they were bamboozled.
Yes but don’t forget Republicans McCain, Graham, and Boehner and cronies are pro military industrial complex and will continue to redistribute your wealth, mostly to the big corporations and especially big defense companies.
Opinion: The biggest risk for U.S. investors is a China crash
Published: Oct 28, 2014 5:50 a.m. ET
A weak global economy is weighing on the world’s most populous nation
By Jeff Reeves
Columnist
Bloomberg
In the Qinghe district of Beijing, looser mortgage-lending standards haven’t revived the property market, which accounts for 15% of gross domestic product.
There’s a lot of talk about how the U.S. stock market and the American economy will fare now that the Federal Reserve plans to end its bond-buying program.
But the bigger risks are from overseas, namely a European slowdown and the threat of terrorism from ISIS in the Middle East. And the biggest risk for the next year is from China.
Here’s why:
China growth is falling fast: Last week, we learned that China’s gross domestic product growth rate for the third quarter was 7.3%, the slowest in five years. That’s down sharply from a peak of 11.9% in 2010 and below the 7.5% pace Beijing has been targeting. In fact, China has posted growth of 7.6% or higher dating back to 2000.
…