Bits Bucket for October 29, 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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Greenwood Village, CO (Denver) Sale Prices Plunge 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/greenwood-village-co/home-values/
“Denver home-resale prices set another all-time record high in August”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2014/10/28/another-denver-home-price-record-set-but-pace-of.html
Demand down YoY in Denver.
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/Metro.zip
“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
Everyone must check in.
Fema Center, Region X. All contained here. Good day.
IV
Is QE ending or isn’t it? Guess we’ll know soon…or not.
Waiting for a giant sucking sound…
Why would it? People confuse the ending of QE3 with the ending of QE. The policy will always be to prop it up. The question is can it continue to work?
And on a related note, if it can continue to work, why not do it?
The question is can it continue to work?
It might not work, but taking it away will have some interesting effects.
No one wants to take their medicine.
Bulletin U.S. stock markets squander Tuesday’s gains
Capitol Report
Greenspan: Fed can’t exit without turmoil
Published: Oct 29, 2014 9:48 a.m. ET
Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan sees concerns with the central bank stopping quantitative easing.
By Greg Robb
Senior economics reporter
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve won’t be able to exit from its accommodative monetary policy without some turmoil in financial markets, former U.S. central bank chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday on the eve of an interest-rate decision.
During an appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, Greenspan was asked if the Fed could engineer an exit without sparking a crisis.
Greenspan said he didn’t like the word “crisis” but that “turmoil” was a good substitute.
Then he replied, “I don’t think it is possible.”
Interest rates have been kept near zero since December 2008. Fed members say they expect to raise interest rates next year.
The former Fed chairman declined to say when the Fed should hike short-term interest rates.
The Fed on Wednesday is expected to announce it will stop buying bonds. Greenspan said that the Fed’s quantitative easing has failed in one of its goals to spur demand.
Inflation is “dead in the water” because effective demand is “dead in the water,” he said.
…
If the Fed is about keeping the market up then they will delay it for a few month, perhaps until the beginning of the next year. The fed knows the American economy is FUBAR.
October surprise!
Bulletin U.S. stock-market declines deepen after Fed statement
Market Pulse
Treasurys sink after Fed decision; U.S. dollar jumps
Published: Oct 29, 2014 2:13 p.m. ET
By Ben Eisen
Reporter
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. Treasury prices continued to fall Wednesday while the dollar jumped against its rivals after the Federal Reserve said it would formally end its bond-buying stimulus program. The 10-year Treasury note (10_YEAR, +1.74%) yield, which rises as prices fall, rose 7 basis points on the day to 2.353%, and jumping as high as 2.357%. It traded at 2.325% before the decision. The U.S. dollar rose against its rivals, with the greenback climbing to 108.68 Japanese yen, its highest on a closing basis since early October. It had traded at 108.13 yen before the decision.
Bulletin Fed formally calls end to quantitative-easing program
Who’d've thunk gold would take the end of QE the hardest?
Has it finally dawned on the gold bug brigade that QE was the main reason gold prices were so high?
How long from now will gold settle back at $800? Or will the Fed’s deflation-fighting measures make that unpossible?
Gold: Looks like QE end wasn’t baked into price after all
Frik Els | October 29, 2014
Fed chair Jane Yellen signals dark day for gold
Declines in the gold price accelerated in afternoon trade after the US Federal Reserve announced the end of its economic stimulus program and struck an upbeat tone on the state of the US economy.
In afternoon trade on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gold for December delivery was changing hands for $1,208.30 an ounce, down more than $20 or 1.7% from Tuesday’s close.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted 9 to 1 to end the third round of its quantitative easing program known as QE3 which together with similar measures in Japan and Europe pumped trillions of easy money into financial markets since the global financial crisis.
QE3 peaked at monthly asset purchases of $85 billion and since December 2008 when then Chairman Ben Bernanke first announced the stimulus, the Fed’s balance sheet has ballooned to $4.5 trillion, a nearly six-fold increase.
The US central bank on Wednesday also signaled a much more hawkish stance towards interest rates explicitly stating that rates could be hiked earlier than “currently anticipated” should the labour market improve at a faster rate and the bank’s inflation objectives be met sooner. The Fed hasn’t raised rates, which have been hovering near zero since QE1, since 2006.
Despite a horrendous 2013, the metal’s worst price performance in over three decades, and the fizzling out of this year’s rally an ounce of gold is still worth over 40% more than before QE1 when the ruling price was $837 an ounce.
…
on the news of facebook reporting a 90% increase in mobile ad revenue yesterday, let’s do an informal poll.
of those of you who own smartphones, how many of you have ever clicked on a mobile ad and bought something?
me? never.
Lots of people do things I don’t. But just look at the PE ratio for this company. All the while the CEO (cough) is frolicking around the world buying islands, pushing for illegal immigration and talking about how he isn’t focused on profits.
While we’re on stocks:
‘There are reasons behind the recent drop in the stock price of IBM, which cost Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to lose more than $1 billion on paper. Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote for the New York Times DealBook that IBM’s management had disguised its lackluster performance by buying back billions of dollars worth of stock, which made its per-share profits bigger than they deserved to be, and paying generous dividends to attract investors.’
‘Sorkin wrote that Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett was “disregarding his long-held aversion to technology companies as too challenging to forecast” when he began buying IBM stock in 2011, paying $12.62 billion for shares now worth $11.38 billion.’
‘The story said IBM CEO Virginia Rometty “has talked a good game about focusing on ‘shareholder value,’ ” but the company’s $138 billion in buybacks and dividends served mostly to prop up the stock price — until this month — and loaded the company up with debt.’
‘The buybacks and dividends “have been masking an ugly truth: IBM’s success in recent years has been tied more to financial engineering than actual performance,” Sorkin wrote.’
‘Buffett’s advice about housing is bad, Stephen Gandel wrote for Fortune magazine. Buffett said recently that a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is a good deal, protecting against inflation and higher interest rates, and he thinks more people should do it. “It is a no-brainer,” he said. “But so far, home construction pickup has been slower than I had anticipated.”
‘Berkshire’s companies include a home builder, real estate agencies, building materials manufacturers and others that benefit from a strong housing market.’
‘True, Gandel wrote, a home mortgage becomes easier to pay off if your salary rises with inflation. But if you take a pay cut, paying the debt will be tougher. Renting while investing your money in stocks over 30 years would yield more money, he wrote. “If you rent and don’t save, then buying a house will have turned out to be a better choice, inflation or no,” the story said. “So if you want to worry about inflation, you’ll have company. But buying a house shouldn’t make you feel any more protected.”
Buffet doesn’t deploy a cent without a backstop. I wonder what promises were made to get him to jump neck deep in the sewer that is housing.
“Financial engineering” here means using ultra low rate debt to finance share buybacks out the wazoo?
A way to look at this (but not the only way to look at this):
The trailing dividend yield for IBM is 4.10%. If IBM (or anybody else) can borrow money for less than 4.10% then it MIGHT be a good idea for them to buy IBM stock.
It MAY especially be a good idea for IBM to buy IBM stock in this case in that IBM is the one who decides just what the dividend will be. Just how nifty is this?
It may not make sense businesswise to do this if IBM depended solely on earned money to pay the dividend but it may make sense in the Wall Street world for them to do this because lots of folks buy a stock solely because of the dividend and Wall Street often uses the dividend as a marketing tool.
Bottom line: IBM (and others) borrow money to buy stock and to pay out dividends, and some of these dividends are immediately returned to IBM because they are attached to the stock they bought. If done correctly these returned dividends can find their way onto the Income Statement where they can be counted as income - and they are counted as income then they can also be counted as earnings.
Which means borrowed money can make the dividends high and thus can help make the earnings high. And if the dividend is high and the earnings are high then this will put upward pressure on the stock price and will make the stock price high as well. And if the stock price is high then the options associated with the stock will be worth a lot, and since a lot of officers and directors get paid via stock options there is a great incentive for them to keep the stock price high.
Again, this is one way to look at this - there may be other ways that may counter this viewpoint.
This IBM situation reminds me of American Homes for Rent, which (as I see it) is - at the core - a company that consistently loses money but nevertheless pays out a dividend and makes up the difference by various forms of financial engineering.
IMO a serious question an investor should ask himself is:
“Bottom line: “Just how does this company make money?”
Sometimes the answer is: “They don’t.”
The entire “tech” industry is currently a house of cards. Get out now if you are invested in it. All those tablets and smartphones are a bad sign, not a good one. They for the most part replaced the more expensive Pcs and Laptops, but the hit for that gap in price between what people used to buy a laptop for and the tablet/phone has not been taken by the tech companies. It has been papered over with borrowing and faux growth.
The entire “tech” industry is currently a house of cards.
At the consumer level it certainly is. Notice how HP spun off its consumer products into a separate company or how IBM unloaded its consumer biz onto Lenovo.
Things are somewhat different at the Enterprise level.
Here it is again.
Producing wealth no longer matters. Preserving it and redistributing it does.
IBM is just another example.
“Just how does this company make money?”
Borrow it at low rates and spend it? Cash flow is king … for a while.
FWIW, IBM did make $16B net profit last year. Its problem isn’t a lack of profit, it’s a lack of growth, hence the stupid stock buybacks.
Producing wealth no longer matters.
To be fair to IBM, they do produce tangible things of value. They make computer hardware and software that customers actually pay money for. IBM isn’t Fakebook or Twitter. Unfortunately in our bizarro world a phoney company like Fakebook is valued much more than a company like IBM.
The “growth” problem is affecting most tech giants, which is why so many are spinning off their low/no growth divisions. That HP is spinning off its printer cash cow is telling. Printing and imaging generates huge profits for HP, but the growth in the printing and imaging group is over, so it’s time for HP to dump it (along with PCs and Laptops) and focus on Enterprise computing instead.
Even Microsoft is trying to grow in the Enterprise.
This IBM situation reminds me of American Homes for Rent, which (as I see it) is - at the core - a company that consistently loses money but nevertheless pays out a dividend and makes up the difference by various forms of financial engineering.
Except that IBM makes 16B in profit, whereas American Homes loses money.
Don’t get me wrong. I detest stock buybacks for the sole purpose of boosting stock prices. But IBM is hardly broke.
I’m a bit confused here. If a company makes $16B in profit, then didn’t they show $16B in growth? What if they used the profit to create 16000 new 10-year jobs at $100K (~75K after benefits) jobs for 10 years? Isn’t that growth? Or do I have the definition wrong?
“I’m a bit confused here.”
Just to demonstrate how ironic math actually is, IBM actually shrank significantly.
Math is ironic?
Especially when you are a stranger to it.
If a company makes $16B in profit, then didn’t they show $16B in growth?
==========
No, he means growth year over year. 10% is expected, so $16b this year should be $16 * 1.1 = $17.6b next year and $19.36b the year after that.
I’m a bit confused here. If a company makes $16B in profit, then didn’t they show $16B in growth?
Their profit is smaller than before. It’s a cash cow, but without sales and profit growth their stock will be punished. Hence the stock buy backs.
Now you might think they would invest all the profit in developing new products and stuff like that, but you’d be wrong.
Combo, a snake does not grow by swallowing its own tail.
It can if it is able to hide its middle section and convince its creditors that it is actually swallowing the tail of a second snake.
Combo, a snake does not grow by swallowing its own tail.
GREAT analogy, Blue!
“IBM (and others) borrow money to buy stock and to pay out dividends, and some of these dividends are immediately returned to IBM because they are attached to the stock they bought. If done correctly these returned dividends can find their way onto the Income Statement where they can be counted as income - and they are counted as income then they can also be counted as earnings.”
I don’t understand how.
“The Fed on Wednesday is expected to announce it will stop buying bonds. Greenspan said that the Fed’s quantitative easing has failed in one of its goals to spur demand.”
Yet it allowed companies like IBM to borrow cheap and buy back stock to reward CEO’s if combo is correct.
I think it also started a multi-year commodities bubble which seems to be deflating.
Imagine what the housing market would look like now if the market had allowed to correct starting in 2006-2008.
They can say whatever they want. Too Big To Fraud.
How is that Obamacare working out for you?
“the majority of exchange customers may have to increase their personal contributions by more than 75 percent per month if they want to keep their current insurance plans”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2014/10/27/health-exchange-users-may-pay-much-more-for-their.html
Told ya.
This was all too predictable when ObamaCare first passed. ObamaCare simply is another government-sponsored scan.
Bingo. Another conduit to bleed the productive.
Here it is again (again).
Producing wealth no longer matters. Preserving it and redistributing it does.
The U.S. government is just another example.
From the article:
“Health-insurance premiums in Colorado may be largely flat, but subsidies for people buying insurance plans through Connect for Health Colorado will drop significantly next year.”
Isn’t that what you guys wanted?
“Health-insurance premiums in Colorado may be largely flat, but subsidies for people buying insurance plans through Connect for Health Colorado will drop significantly next year.
That means the majority of exchange customers may have to increase their personal contributions by more than 75 percent per month if they want to keep their current insurance plans.”
So, the personal contributions are going up because the subsidies are being reduced, not because of increased premiums.
Again, this is what you wanted, right? Right?
Are you worried about the prospect of a China crash?
Bulletin U.S. stock markets squander Tuesday’s gains
Jeff Reeves’s Strength in Numbers
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.
…
According the CIA, China electricity consumption doubled during their crazy credit expansion of the last six years. Lately, it is down by 4% YoY. Housing prices are collapsing. Any reports of “growth” are extremely suspect.
Do they keep the lights on 24/7 in empty apartment buildings in unpopulated ghost cities? If not, how do they keep vandals at bay? (Perhaps cities with almost no occupants have little problem with vandalism…)
Maybe they are employing the “broken window” strategy.
Fox News pimps the fear
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/29/dhs-increases-security-at-federal-building-over-terror-concerns/
And for all you badge lickers, remember how the PATRIOT Act was passed just a month after 9/11, with almost no Congressional opposition?
Let’s make a deal. We take away your Constitution, and you get to wear a cute little FDNY hat and put some ribbons on your car.
Let’s make a deal. We take away your Constitution, and you get to wear a cute little FDNY hat and put some ribbons on your car.
LOL… Awesome.
What percentage of DHS employees are part of a public Union? Public unions are an abomination. People who hate “badge lickers” should hate public unions 100 times more becuase that is all they do, pimp the idea that the members are infallible rescuers of women and children rather than govt employees scamming taxpayers.
All government jobs seem to be regarded as “badges” now.
People who hate “badge lickers” should hate public unions 100 times more
I used to wonder how the Nazis rose to power in Germany. On the surface it seems inconceivable. Who in their right mind would have supported that? Yet we see the Police state rising here at home, and far too many people are more than happy to lick badges and welcome it’s arrival. Snowden blows the whistle and he is derided as a traitor by both Dems and GOP.
I guess we’re gonna get what we deserve.
Got foreign citizenship?
….. because powerful European interests wanted him to have power irrespective of what the history books say.
“Yet we see the Police state rising here at home, and far too many people are more than happy to lick badges and welcome it’s arrival. ”
I think the worm will turn. I hear and see more and more complaints about this. 10 years ago as it was growing I heard almost nothing.
I think the worm will turn.
I sure hope so.
“Let’s make a deal. We take away your Constitution, and you get to wear a cute little FDNY hat and put some ribbons on your car.”
‘Merica, f* yeah!
http://picpaste.com/10003884_10152488304006482_8607149701863918547_n.jpg
I remember that.
I also remember, much more recently, the Secret Service being taken out to the woodshed and being shot in a very public way for not adequately protecting the heads of government.
I also remember, also much more recently, quite the opposite happening at the IRS and the NSA. No one at either has been taken out to the woodshed. I guess that’s because their role is to fleece the citizenry rather than protect the head of state.
Clearly, Washington’s aim is to help itself at the expense of the citizenry.
And they’re experts at it…it’s the wealthiest metropolitan area across all the land.
I’ve always wondered about this flu statistic and the reaction to September 11th:
‘Top Maine health officials say the nurse who has returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa must abide by a quarantine or the state will get a court order compelling her to do so. Her attorneys say she isn’t under quarantine and they will fight any efforts to place her in one.’
‘Arthur Caplan, founding director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, said actions taken by Maine health officials were not based on science. “This quarantine has nothing to do with Ebola,” Caplan said. “It has everything to do with fear.”
‘Caplan said Maine and other states that quarantine such patients are overreacting. “The flu kills 5,000 people per year,” he said. “If we want to freak out about something, that’s what we should be freaking out about.”
If “science” says that a quarantine isn’t necessary, then why is the US military quarqntined coming back from West Africa? Military personnel don’t quite have the same rights, but surely getting rid of the quarantine based on science could save the taxpayer the expense of sidelining soldiers for a month.
Meanwhile, Kaci Hickox may win her civil liberties battle but she will certainly lose the war. Even if she’s ebola negative (she probably is) and wins her court case, she’s shown her true colors on national TV. Who’s going to want her as a nurse, or a friend, now? Even if a science-based hospital hires her, how long will she last when dozens of patients say “get that woman away from me.”
US Nobelist in medicine comes out in support of NJ governor Christie’s mandatory quarantine.
Dr. Bruce Beutler is currently the Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas — the first U.S. city to treat an Ebola patient and also the first to watch one die from the virus. Dr. Beutler, an American medical doctor and researcher, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 2011 for his work researching the cellular subsystem of the body’s overall immune system. In an exclusive interview with NJ Advance Media, Beutler reviewed Christie’s new policy of mandatory quarantine for all health care workers exposed to Ebola, and declared: “I favor it.”
“Even if someone is asymptomatic you cannot rely on people to report themselves if they get a fever,” said Dr. Beutler, adding, “You can’t just depend on the goodwill of people to confine the disease like that – even healthcare workers. They behave very irresponsibly.”
If you like your Big Gulps, you can keep your Big Gulps
“Cases of tuberculosis are set to accelerate worldwide unless action is taken to curb diabetes, a chronic condition that weakens the immune system and triples the risk a person will develop the lung disease, health experts warned on Wednesday.
Diabetes affected 382 million people in 2013 and will increase to a projected 592 million by 2035, according to the International Diabetes Foundation.
Most of the cases will be of Type 2 diabetes, the kind that is linked to obesity and is driven by the adoption of Western diets and more sedentary lifestyles.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/us-health-diabetes-tuberculosis-idUSKBN0II0U620141029
Funny how easily a parallel can be drawn between diabetes and the rise of technology.
For decades, technology was touted as the route to leisure. As the way to enable the masses to work many fewer hours in an expanding Shangri-La.
Now, we have leisure and many are working fewer hours. And we have the predictable rise in diabetes.
People are dumb.
What evidence is there that technology is leading to more leisure. From what I see it leads to more work, work at home, check the email, blackberry, etc.
There are fewer employed maybe, but I don’t think tech is what is leading to the obese, except the tech for cheaper tastier food and better food ads.
Agreed. Americans (at least the ones who are employed) are working more hours than ever.
Most texting, email, Blackberry, etc., is all nonsense. People who have long hours because they participate in that nonsense are idiots. The fault is your own for falling prey.
Receiving and answering hundreds of communications a day doesn’t make you smart. It doesn’t make you cool or futuristic. In fact, it makes you the opposite. It drains your energy and detracts from rational thought.
Of course tech is leading to more obesity.
Pushing a button doesn’t require a body in motion in the way that, say, pushing a lawn mower does. Or riding a bike.
Most texting, email, Blackberry, etc., is all nonsense. People who have long hours because they participate in that nonsense are idiots.
People have long hours because more work is expected of them. The Blackberry is just their electronic leash.
Could it be that more work is expected of them, in part, due to technology?
Ruminate over that for a while…an interesting question.
Is anyone here still using a BlackBerry? I miss the keyboard.
Could it be that more work is expected of them, in part, due to technology?
I believe that more is expected of them because the bottom line demands it. The tech enables it, but doesn’t drive it, otherwise people wouldn’t be working long hours, even though their productivity is way up.
“I miss the keyboard”
Droid4 for the win, baby!
A link between technology and leisure is debatable, I would agree. It’s tough to argue that there is no link between technology and large increases in sedentary behavior, though.
It leads to more (sometimes unwanted) leisure for those not consumed by it, either at work or away from work.
For those consumed by it out of “necessity”? What can I say? Enjoy the big paychecks and zero down time? Such is life in a technology-driven Shangri-La.
Such folks wanted the Star Trek Insta-World that technology promised. They got it. Now they whine about how they cannot get away from it. (They could quite easily if they weren’t so consumed by the supposed glory of it.)
People are dumb.
By leisure, you mean butt-sitting instead of hauling hay and pitching poo… or in modern times, walking to school and playing outside.
Funny how easily a parallel can be drawn between diabetes and the rise of technology.
And it’s funny how easily a parallel can be drawn between global warming and the decrease in the number of pirates.
Try again. Obesity rose in parallel (at the same time as) the widespread use of industrial seed oils, the war on saturated fat, the conversion of the wheat crop from einkorn to dwarf hybrid wheat, the invention of high fructose corn syrup, the rise of women working outside the home which necessitated convenience meals full of these baddies along with casual dining places which engineer food for overeating, and a large population of Baby Boomer who aged into their 40’s and 50’s .
You’re just mad because I’m correct about the parasite nature of Washington, D.C.
Which relates to diabetes how?
Post-war typist women and white-collar Ward Cleavers drove or bussed to work, and sat on their butts all day at a desk farm, and sat in the easy chair with the paper at home. They certainly didn’t do aerobics; yet they didn’t seem to get fat until the time of Reagan. Maybe we can draw a parallel between obesity and Reagan?
I think you watched too much TV when you were a kid Donk.
Little House On The Prairie was a Hollywood creation. Pure fiction.
Arizona Iced Tea brand Watermelon Fruit Punch, Skittles, and Promethazine with Codeine
“This radio ad, captured by a conservative blogger, has inspired outrage in the closely fought election campaign between Sen. Kay Hagen (D) and Thom Tillis, the North Carolina house speaker. In response, the conservative American Commitment PAC has even run its own ads, accusing Democrats of “race-hustling.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/10/29/was-the-stand-your-ground-law-the-cause-of-trayvon-martins-death/
“Two years after voters in Colorado and Washington State broke the ice as the first states to legalize sales of recreational marijuana to adults, residents of Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, DC, will vote next week on ballot measures patterned on those of the two pioneers. People on both sides of the issue say these initiatives could determine whether there will be a national tide of legalization.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/for-marijuana-a-second-wave-of-votes-to-legalize.html
National tide of legalization?
Yeah, right. Texas and all of the South will never legalize it, because spending $60,000 a year to incarcerate inmates for possession is what Jesus wants.
Got any Marion Barry jokes?
That was crack, not pot.
It might work out for the South. Most of the MJ users might move to friendlier pastures
Si se puede!
“More than 50 children in 23 states have had mysterious episodes of paralysis to their arms or legs, according to data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cause is not known, although some doctors suspect the cases may be linked to infection with enterovirus 68, a respiratory virus that has sickened thousands of children in recent months.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/cause-of-childrens-paralysis-remains-unclear.html
Ya gotta love it. Citizens and legal residents are grilled as if they were criminals upon entering the country, but we bend over backwards for illegals.
It’s too bad George Harrison is dead, because he could have made an album to save them, instead all you’re left with is Bono
“Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and South Sudan led a ranking of countries facing extreme risks as a result of climate change, exacerbating the chances of civil conflict, according to a study by U.K. researcher Maplecroft.
The climate risk combined with food insecurity act as “threat multipliers” escalating the danger of civil conflict, it said.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/bangladesh-leads-32-nations-hit-by-extreme-climate-risk.html
Happy warmist Wednesday
And now for the best news of the day
“Showing that the housing market is still far from normal, U.S. homeownership dropped to the lowest rate in two decades, with declines across the country and income spectrum, according to government data released Tuesday.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/homeownership-drops-to-two-decade-low-2014-10-29
Reminders for HBB posters and lurkers:
I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it
And Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
Cratering demand.
What good is a grossly inflated price when there are no buyers at that price?
And the homeownership rate will go even lower when the interest rates start to spike upward. The student debt crisis is going to go on for several more years. So there will be many more years that this home ownership rate will be low. then when the chickens come home to roost, either the income taxes will go way up or interest rates will go way up to pay for the endless wars. That will prolong the low home ownership rate. The higher the taxes, the less money people will have to pay for a mortgage. Of course the higher the interest rates, the higher the mortgage payments.
Borrowing to buy a house is for loosers.
“And the homeownership rate will go even lower when the interest rates start to spike upward.”
Which is why the Fed will take all possible measures to avoid an upward spike in interest rates.
Which is why the Fed will take all possible measures to avoid an upward spike in interest rates.
Which means prices of precious metals will remain low as stocks and bonds are more favorable with continued low interest rates. These are great years to accumulate gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion.
The problem is the day of reckoning will have to come, and it will. The longer it’s put off, the harsher it will be for those who are not squirreling away shiny metal with a 5,000 year history of value.
“Which means prices of precious metals will remain low as stocks and bonds are more favorable with continued low interest rates.”
Higher bond interest rates and comparable inflation to current levels will lead to still lower PM prices. (Maybe the realization of this point explains why gold dropped 1.5% today?)
Higher bond interest rates and comparable inflation to current levels will lead to still lower PM prices. (Maybe the realization of this point explains why gold dropped 1.5% today?)
Nope!
The institutional investors hold the most bonds with rates going up significantly. They will be selling off the bonds. And institutional stock owners will be selling stocks on high interest rates as well. Real Estate will also suffer.
The main alternatives are cash and precious metals.
On that topic:
I suppose he’s going back to where he was in the 60s in “Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal.”
“Mr. Greenspan said gold is a good place to put money these days given its value as a currency outside of the policies conducted by governments.”
http://online.wsj.com/articles/former-fed-chief-greenspan-worried-about-future-of-monetary-policy-1414597627
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday that the Fed’s bond-buying program, which aimed to lower unemployment and spur stronger economic growth, fell short of its goals.
Mr. Greenspan’s comments to the Council on Foreign Relations came as Fed officials were meeting in Washington, D.C., and expected to announce within hours an end to the bond purchases.
He said the bond-buying program was ultimately a mixed bag. He said that the purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities did help lift asset prices and lower borrowing costs. But it didn’t do much for the real economy.
“Effective demand is dead in the water” and the effort to boost it via bond buying “has not worked,” said Mr. Greenspan. Boosting asset prices, however, has been “a terrific success.”
Mr. Greenspan, who ran the Fed from 1987 to 2006, was generally downbeat on the economy and the state of central bank policy around the world. Once lauded as the “The Maestro” for his stewardship of central bank policy, he has come in for criticism for his handling of monetary policy during the housing market bubble that burst and was followed by the most severe financial crisis and economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Asked whether he regrets not doing more with Fed policy to stop the financial-market bubbles that preceded the crisis, Mr. Greenspan said “no.”
He observed that history shows central banks can only prick bubbles at great economic cost. “It’s only by bringing the economy down can you burst the bubble,” and that was a step he wasn’t willing to take while helming the Fed, he said.
The Fed has held its benchmark short-term interest rate near zero since the crisis in an effort to spur economic activity. Many investors believe the central bank will start raising rates in the middle of next year, a view some top officials have encouraged.
The question of when officials should begin raising interest rates is “one of those questions I cannot answer,” Mr. Greenspan said.
He also said, “I don’t think it’s possible” for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner.
“We’ve never had any experience with anything like this, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you exactly how it’s going to come out,” Mr. Greenspan said. But he noted that markets often react to changes in central bank policy unpredictably and not entirely rationally. Recent episodes in which Fed officials hinted at a shift toward higher interest rates have unleashed significant volatility in markets, so there is no reason to suspect that the actual process of boosting rates would be any different, Mr. Greenspan said.
He said the Fed may not even have that much power over the timing of interest-rate increases. The problem as he sees it is an interest rate the Fed pays on the money banks park at the central bank, called reserves. Fed officials plan to use this tool as their primary lever for raising interest rates when the time comes. If bankers decide to put this money to work, creating inflation risks, the Fed may be forced to raise rates, even if the economy isn’t ready for it, he warned.
“I think that real pressure is going to occur not by the initiation by the Federal Reserve, but by the markets themselves,” Mr. Greenspan he said.
Mr. Greenspan said gold is a good place to put money these days given its value as a currency outside of the policies conducted by governments.
He was also downbeat about Europe and said the only way the euro can survive over the long run is through full political integration of the 18-country area that shares the currency. Anything short of that will allow imbalances to fester and build, eventually leading to a collapse of the currency, he said.
“The main alternatives are cash and precious metals.”
Don’t forget about short-term government bonds…
I may be missing it entirely, but it looks to me like gold is in a slow crash which started when gold hit its most recent peak in 2011 above $1800/oz. Since then it has dropped back by over 25% to a trading range between $1200 and $1400. But the end of QE takes away another pillar that propped up gold, which was interest rate suppression. Since gold’s return is limited to price appreciation relative to the dollar, and that basically has gone into reverse for three years running already, it is hard to see a reason that gold’s slow burn might not play out for another 20 or so years, similar to the 1980-2000 period.
Is it a contrarian signal if an octogenarian banker says to buy gold?
Alan Greenspan: QE Failed To Help The Economy, The Unwind Will Be Painful, “Buy Gold”
Tyler Durden’s picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/29/2014 13:22 -0400
…
Which is why the Fed will take all possible measures to avoid an upward spike in interest rates.
The real reason interest rates globally will remain low, inflation be damned, is because if they rise, there will be a global sovereign debt default.
But mortgages are also a big factor. Imagine a world were every government is an Argentina. And few countries have fixed rate mortgages, so throw in massive defaults and foreclosures around the globe as borrowers can’t service their loans.
There is going to be a lot of can kicking.
Thanks for tipping your hand Janet.
Historically, the homeownership rate has been between 62% and 65%.
Reversion to the long-term rate band is what’s happening.
USA! USA! USA!
http://www.vdare.com/posts/dispatch-from-the-cant-do-nation-unmanned-nasa-rocket-explodes-after-liftoff
The Antares rocket (which is the lifter that exploded) is one of those infallible “private sector” rockets. It’s designed and manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation.
Like most man-made objects that fail these days, it was probably overdesigned.
Simple products that work well is always the way to go.
Using 50 year old Soviet engines….
I am sure glad obama cancelled America’s heavy lift and manned space programs.
It leaves more money NASA’s muslim outreach and buying more votes of the FSA…
FWIW, the Russians and United Launch Alliance have had great success with those engines.
But I’m confused. Are you saying that we should have stuck with the old school NASA/gubmint approach and built the expensive and often criticized ARES launchers instead of letting the free market do its thing?
Don’t tell me you also support Obamacare?
Nothing’s infallible. That’s why we need rigorous checks and balances. They’ve all but disappeared, not only between government and industry, but between government and the press, and within government itself.
We need a reformation. Neither of the parties is the least bit interested in this.
I say let’s start by bringing back anti-trust and demolish TBTF, put a huge leash on the Fed, curtail the public unions, and pull back from all of our military escapades. A little bit of something for everyone, maybe except for the Krugman acolytes.
Nothing’s infallible.
I think you missed my point.
Plenty of people are saying that NASA should get out of the way and even get out of the space biz and let the private sector do it because it’s so much more competent.
The implication from the vdare article was that this launch failure was NASA’s and hence the government’s fault, when in fact it was a private sector launch.
The real reason that this rocket failed is probably because it is a new design and the haven’t got all the bugs out of it yet. The Soyuz rockets have been around for a while. IIRC, they haven’t had a Soyuz failure since the 70’s. They’re antiquated, but they are reliable.
That said, I think SpaceX is the future.
I get your point, I just get tired of the “big bidness” vs. “big gubmint” point scoring, regardless of which direction it’s coming from. I think that once one pulls back from their reflexive political left-vs-right reaction (and yes, I have mine like everyone else) the problem simply is “big”. As in too big to fail or too big to rein in out-of-control operations, be they businesses or government agencies or unions.
I’m not aware of the specifics of the launches using the Soyuz rockets, but I would imagine that the controls have been re-worked, perhaps numerous times, since the ’70s. You simply can no longer get much of the old components any longer. Certainly that’s the case in private industry - maybe government stockpiled the old parts, but even that mode of operation has expiration dates. The rocket mechanics itself may be bullet-proof, but maybe the newer controls and sensors aren’t completely proven yet.
That’s a great article, especially where they point out that the guy in charge of NASA is a black guy. One important piece of information is that there no injuries. During the history of NASA there have been many accidents, some of which resulted in death, all under white presidents and white NASA directors.
Who cares?
USA! USA! USA!
“One important piece of information is that there no injuries.”
Tough to get injuries from an unmanned rocket shot off an island although I guess it could have flown North and hit New York City. Thank God we had a Black man at the helm huh Mighty.
But while were running down white presidents and white NASA directors let us not forget the Nazi contribution to NASA.
Wernher von Braun
From Wikipedia,
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being one of the “Fathers of Rocket Science”.
In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in the Nazis’ rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the V-2 combat rocket during World War II. After the war, he and some select members of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the then-secret Operation Paperclip. Von Braun worked on the United States Army intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated by NASA. Under NASA, he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.[1] According to one NASA source, he is “without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history”.[2] His crowning achievement was to lead the development of the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in July 1969.[3] In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science.
Tough to get injuries from an unmanned rocket shot off an island although I guess it could have flown North and hit New York City. Thank God we had a Black man at the helm huh Mighty.
Thank God we had a Black man at the helm huh Mighty.
But while were running down white presidents and white NASA directors let us not forget the Nazi contribution to NASA.
Well, a more likely event would have been injuries to people working at the launch site. I didn’t introduce race into this discussion. It was in the VDARE article that Palmetto linked to, along with a photograph, which I’m sure RMS enjoyed. I’m sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities, but my point was not to denigrate white people. The article seemed to imply that having the color of the NASA director was somehow related to the accident. I merely pointed out that worse accidents occurred under white directors and presidents.
Last night you were telling us how dumb we are, and now you are the self appointed racist finger wagger. As they say in Brownsville, see how you are?
That was a little three word joke last night. I didn’t mean to say that everyone who participates here is dumb.
Regarding the other issue, someone posted a link to an article on another website. I thought that that article contained some offensive nonsense, so I wrote that. I don’t see what the problem is there. If someone disagrees with my point of view, he or she can go ahead and express that disagreement.
“I didn’t mean to say that everyone who participates here is dumb.”
Then why did you?
I think the point is more what is the mission that this guy has been assigned:
“When I became the NASA administrator, [President Obama] charged me with three things. One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.”
So, he’s been charged with being an educator, a diplomat and a fluffer. And it seems to me like he has a pretty good understanding of what the prez expects of him.
But what does that have to do with NASA? I see this a lot these days. You’ve got the head of Homeland Security running humanitarian missions, the AG in charge of race relations, the Secretary of State waging war and I’m still not sure what Sibelius thought her mission was, but she looked good, anyway.
It’s a lot of confusion. And when people are confused, stuff happens.
Then why did you?
As I wrote above, HA, it was a little joke.
But, you know, there are worse accusations that can be made than calling someone dumb. For example, you asked me yesterday if I was a liar. Was that a sneaky way of accusing me of being a liar?
Even if you take the racial point out, I still think that the writer is really reaching there. He sees the story about rocket blowing up, remember the quote about reaching out to Muslims, and ties the two things together. NASA and its contractor are probably just starting an investigation now that may take months, but this writer knows what caused that accident in Virginia.
It was a little joke.
See how that works?
As posted on Bits Buckets this morning - this is worth a read if you don’t want to be as many here call ‘em Debt Donks!!
http://www.hoisingtonmgt.com/pdf/HIM2014Q3NP.pdf
Something from yesterday:
Avocado: [2014-10-28 11:25:59 ]
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?
Here’s a counterpoint: Real incomes for all but the wealthiest have been dropping during QE. And this directly coincided with the start of QE. QE has been known as a “Reverse Robin Hood” or “Trickle Up” policy as it benefits existing asset holders and Wall Street primarily.
Summary and links:
1) For the bottom 80%, real household income in 2013 dollars has been falling since 2008, specifically coinciding with the start of QE. See also, definition of ‘current dollars’, a term used in the file.
2) For the bottom 80%, share of aggregate income and actual income have fallen, in 2013 dollars (but, to be fair, the income share of this group has been falling since the late 70s).
Overall link: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/
Link to Excel files:
1) Table H-1: Income limits for each fifth: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/2013/h01AR.xls
2) Table H-2: Share of aggregate income for each fifth: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/2013/h02AR.xls
As far as unemployment goes, it is true there has been a broad decrease in unemployment. U6 is down to where it was back in 1994 - but higher than the intervening 20 years: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/U6RATE
I’m sure the Fed wishes to take credit for the unemployment drop; but doesn’t want to take credit for the debt crisis.
I’m sure the Fed wishes to take credit for the unemployment drop; but doesn’t wish to take credit for the real wage drop for all but the wealthiest.
HBBers, I need your help! I’m looking for ONE single article/analysis/post that can explain in simple, non-finance-industry terms why buying a house right now is a bad idea.
I’m researching as well, but your recommendations would be much appreciated. I was hoping to find a single article that mentions - again, in simple terms - interest rates at historic lows, home ownership at historic lows, demand at historic lows, prices at historic highs, and how this does not bode well for future resale.
Background: Someone I know is about to buy an expensive house in a bad neighborhood, expecting it to appreciate (a bit) in 5 years (realtor and bank are telling them it will). Their new mortgage will be the same as their old rent, so per month it’s a wash. Landlord is about to raise their rent, thus the move to buy. The house they’re buying is basically a flip, price is twice what current owner paid in 2008. English is not their first language, and the realtor gave them no info about price history, price per sq ft, comps, rent comps or anything else, and they didn’t know to ask. I’m printing out all of this info for them, but also want to include a “big picture” article about why prices have increased so rapidly in the last 3 years and are unlikely to increase further.
We see hundreds of articles a week on here with pieces of the puzzle, but finding one overall summary is difficult. Thanks in advance!
Email them a link to the hbb.
https://twitter.com/loganmohtashami/status/527442715685175297
See that dotted orange line on the graph? That’s why.
Also, if it IS a flip their mortgage will NOT be the same as their rent. Even with an increased rent price they will still pay less per month, assuming they will fix up their flip. (Home Depot and Lowes are huge money suckers for owners)
“Their new mortgage will be the same as their old rent”
Is this including Property Taxes, Insurance, Normal Upkeep Costs and Unexpected Repairs? (Hopefully no HOA in this bad neighborhood but who knows.)
Moving into a worse neighborhood then current, so factor in degraded quality of living from various factors: stress/fear/crime.
Try this one:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-28/housing-echo-bubble-popping
It doesn’t have everything you ask, but it’s got some of it.
For more, search on Charles Hugh Smith (oftwominds blog) and Tyler Durden (zerohedge blog). They are pretty good housing bears.
I’m disappointed Oxide. Where’s the rent buy calculator?
Tell em’ to buy two. We need knife-catchers. And after all that has gone on, these people sound like idiots anyway.
Right now is not a good time to buy. Not in general. There might be specialized situations where buying would work, but this is NOT one of them. Paying twice what a bottom feeder paid in 2008 is basically a 2005 bubble price all over again, which didn’t pencil out ANYwhere, not even DC. Hopefully Ella will print out the Zillow price history showing the flip. And if Zillow scrubs the price history, the tax records will show price history too.
To be honest I totally forgot about the rent-buy calculator. But it won’t help Ella here. Like all models, garbage in garbage out. The results are based on an input for appreciation, and if these buyers put in a wishful thinking appreciation, the calculator will tell them exactly what they want to hear.
If they are planning on staying there only five years, that’s not long enough to pencil out the purchase.
You seem to misrepresent and distort the truth using duration in a number of ways. In this particular case, you’re merely repeating a realtor sales technique albeit a very worn out one.
Why not expound on your claim and explain to everyone here what duration has to do with anything?
Mortgage purchase applications plunge to 19-year lows.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-29/mortgage-purchase-applications-plunge-19-year-lows
One debt donkey charade after another.
Yes, I’ve seen some beautiful houses in bad neighborhoods around Baltimore city. They are a siren song. Curiously inexpensive for their size, beauty and amenities. A quick look at police crime statistics will show the number of murders, rapes, burglaries, assaults and sex offenders living in the area.
Also, schools are probably deteriorating in the area, and the area is probably suburban so it’s not cheap or “hip” enough for young professionals.
So, in summary: police crime reports, and sales price history of nearby houses, which should be available online I’d think.
And: tell them there’s a reason it’s cheap. And it’s not because of their extraordinary searching ability since all this information is online.
Region VIII
May the odds be ever in your favor Region VIII
Make the check payable to Ben Jones
NC grandpa shoots 3 intruders after they beat his wife, attempt to gang rape granddaughter (VIDEO)
10/25/14 | by Jennifer Cruz
Neighbors say they’ve seen Stephens around the house before, and Byrd’s wife is close to his brother. One neighbor said she believes the family was targeted, most likely for cash and prescription drugs, but authorities did not confirm what, if anything, was taken from the home.
Authorities believe the three suspects may have been involved in other recent burglaries in the area.
“They got what they deserved,” Pittman said of the suspects. “They kicked the wrong door in.”
newsbusters.org/…/10/28/not-network-news-when-grandpa-shoots-three-home-invaders - 43k -
Released Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox Works For CDC…Her Lawyer Is A White House Visitor
8:50 PM 10/27/2014
Ebola health care worker Kaci Hickox, who was released from quarantine with the support of the White House, is a Centers For Disease Control and Prevention employee, records reveal. The lawyer who helped earn her release is a recent White House state dinner guest.
Hickox was released from Ebola quarantine in Newark, N.J., Monday afternoon after the White House pressured New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to release the nurse that was working in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders. Hickox’s case for release was also bolstered by New York civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, who took on Hickox’s case.
“I feel like my basic human rights have been violated,” Hickox said before she was evaluated by CDC and transported back to her home in Maine.
Here’s an overlooked factor that could have contributed to her White House-backed release: Hickox is an official CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer who performed work for the CDC in recent months.
Hickox was a Class of 2012 member of CDC’s two-year EIS officer training program, according to the official program for CDC’s 2014 EIS Conference (p. 98), which was held from April 28 to May 1, 2014. Hickox was featured in a photograph in the program.
Hickox was listed as an “EIS officer” for the CDC in program materials for a CDC course she taught in July 2014. She was specifically listed as an active “EIS officer” as recently as July 18, 2014, according to CDC documents.
Hickox was a presenter at the CDC conference this spring, according to the program’s list of presenters (p. 103).
Hickox taught an April 29 session called “Contact Investigation of Health Care Personnel Exposed to Maternal and Neonatal Tuberculosis—Clark County, Nevada, 2013″ at the conference (p. 3).
“During the 2-year training program, EIS officers are employees of the CDC and receive a salary and benefits. Salaries range from $65,000 to 90,000 per year, based on qualifications and experience,” according to CDC’s website.
Hickox’s lawyer Norman Siegel, meanwhile, was an official guest at the White House State Dinner on Feb. 11, 2014, accompanying Jackie Robinson’s widow Rachel Robinson, who supported Siegel’s failed 2009 run for New York City Public Advocate. Siegel is the former director of the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Siegel previously partnered with Al Sharpton to fight against a New York state proposal to keep a DNA database of felons.
Siegel did not return a request for comment.
dailycaller.com/…/ - 61k -
Realtor, mortgage and housing fraud everywhere.
Over 214,000 Doctors Opt Out of Obamacare Exchanges
By Call it Crazy Follow Wed, 29 Oct 2014, 9:29am
If you Like Your Doctor, You Can Keep Your Doctor. Period.
Over 214,000 doctors won’t participate in the new plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA,) analysis of a new survey by Medical Group Management Association shows. That number of 214,524, estimated by American Action Forum, is through May 2014, but appears to be growing due to plans that force doctors to take on burdensome costs. It’s also about a quarter of the total number of 893,851 active professional physicians reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In January, an estimated 70% of California’s physicians were not participating in Covered California plans.
Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Reimbursements under Obamacare are at bottom-dollar - they are even lower than Medicare reimbursements, which are already significantly below market rates.
2. Doctors are expected to take on more patients to make up for the lost revenue, but that’s not happening, because primary care doctors already have more patients than they can handle.
3. An MGMA study indicates that 75% of ACA patients that had seen doctors had chosen plans with high deductibles. Given that most of the patients are low-income, doctors are concerned that the patients cannot meet the deductibles and they will get stuck with the bill.
4. HHS requires that insurers cover customers for an additional 90 days after they have stopped paying their premiums: the insurer covers the first 30 - but, it’s up to the doctor to recoup payment for the last 60 days. This is the number one reason providers are opting to not participate in the exchange plans.
Currently, about a million people have failed to pay their premiums and had their plans canceled.
So, Obamacare is asking doctors to take on sicker patients for less money, with the risk of not getting paid at all? No wonder doctors are running from these plans!
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/barbara-boland/over-214000-doctors-opt-out-obamacare-exchanges
Do you want me to read the card?
No!
But wipe that smirk off your face and get into character.
Complete with flashing Everyone Must Check In sign @ 3:05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxRmyG59a1U - 407k -
Complete with flashing Everyone Must Check In sign @ 3:05
Awesome. I had been wondering where that meme had come from…
Has the Fed declared a truce in its War on Savers?
U.S. Dollar Surges after QE End
Posted 1 hour ago
The dollar climbed to a four-week high after the Federal Reserve judged the U.S. economy strong enough to end its asset-purchase program. Industrial metals and oil fell with Hong Kong stocks.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.1 percent by 12 p.m. in Tokyo, with the U.K. pound weakening 0.2 percent and South Korea’s won leading emerging-market currencies lower. Nickel retreated 1.4 percent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil slid 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.3 percent after its biggest two-day rally in seven months. The NZX 50 Index advanced to a record in Wellington while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed.
The Fed cited job gains in its decision to wind up the unprecedented bond-buying program, which has suppressed U.S. yields and fueled capital inflows into emerging-market assets. Officials retained a commitment to keep key interest rates low for a “considerable time.” An update on third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is due today, and euro-area confidence data is scheduled before inflation tomorrow, when the Bank of Japan will report on monetary policy.
Bloomberg