Bits Bucket for December 4, 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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Kray-tur
crater
I like easy math. 10 percent or more off peak price so far = Crater.
Shillow:
Is this from a publicly available data source, or is it your own observation?
Look at HAs zillow links for sale prices in the east valley zips. from April til now, off 10 percent in some.
craturd
Why I am not a real journalist: I don’t get the social maths that equates the strangulation of a lone unarmed man in NYC by a gang of six armed thugs in uniform with the Ferguson incident.
it’s the same social math that achieved social justice and overcame 400 years of slavery, segregation, oppression, and racism that resulted in jesse jackson’s sons being giving the largest anheuser busch distributorship in chicago.
and if you need further explaination, go to the huffington post, salon, or slate.
Yeah that cowardly acceptance by corporations of Jesse Jackson’s shakedowns should have been enough to just make me renounce my U.S. citizenship and move to Switzerland - but I have siblings in the U.S. Balking at doing that. I should get over my emotional traps and just do it.
You have Swiss citizenship? I think you might need that to move to Switzerland. They don’t hand out green cards like Halloween candy.
Gotta live here in ILLANNOY to believe this. Worse than anyone reports - the slow cancer creep of dependency and elitism are on display in the fine City of Sh*tcago!!!
Too bad people in Chicago do not have the option to do better with their life and move. #sarcastaball
What are you doing there, then? Sounds like you secretly like it.
Lolz
http://picpaste.com/mother-son-fear.jpg
Yeah, me neither.
All to collect taxes on black market cigarettes.
Yo, it’s the skin color, dAWG.
Somewhere in the back pages of some non-real journalist’s rag, you’ll find the story of a white man who lost his life after his skull was crushed with hammers near Ferguson by 4 black kids, BECAUSE the man was white. Hate crime? NOPE. Wonder what Reverend Al Racist Sharpton has to say? He has said something, hasn’t he? Al?
The race baiters are oddly silent when it comes to black-on-white crime. Black-on-black crime is also completely ignored.
It’s only white-on-black crime that matters. And any white citizen who moves out of primarily black areas to avoid becoming a crime victim is racis’.
Could the U.S. call the Saudi Arabians’ bluff and use temporary production subsidies to push oil down to $40 a barrel while sheilding our nascent fracking industry from predatory pricing tactics?
Why nor?
Not (not “nor”)
Why not? The era of cheap oil and happy motoring is over. No point in sending good money after bad, except for the FIRE industry of course.
Perhaps the era of build to the sky with borrowed money is over. The Saudis have done nothing but stand pat.
You could pay for the subsidy with a gas consumption tax to avoid converting the US fleet into gas guzzlers again.
Higher gasoline consumption taxes are un-American, you commie! Driving around aimlessly for hours a day is a basic human right!
“Driving around aimlessly for hours a day is a basic human right!”
Many homeless peeps are living in their automobiles.
“Driving around aimlessly for hours a day is a basic human right!”
There was a time in life where I used to take drives to relax and listen to music. No more. I only drive when I absolutely have to. I got turned off with the massive price increases and decided to do my best to cut my fuel consumption dramatically. I use probably half the fuel that I used to.
“Many homeless peeps are living in their automobiles.”
No gas consumption is necessary for that!
I don’t think the US has the strong hand here.
Plus, allowing or facilitating an asset price collapse as large as the one your suggesting is not the way we roll in the US of A. It might be “deflationary” and we just can’t have that.
That would interfere with the “free trade” and the “level playing field” of our new, more evolved economy.
Why does the US both export and import oil????
Am I missing something?
These 10 metro areas (as defined by the U.S. Census) have experienced the largest increases, ranging from 11.4% to 20.5%, in existing single-family home prices among cities with population of more than 250,000 for the year ending June 30. Please take a look.
http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real-estate/T010-S001-12-cities-where-home-prices-have-risen-most/index.html
I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy truck but where is the buyer at that price?
Collapsing demand. It’s on the menu.
Heh, half of them Cali markets. Then there’s Boston (predictable), Myrtle Beach, SC (meh), Las Vegas (always, sigh) and two in Michigan??
Won’t even click. Something backwards looking ending in June is worthless. No one buys a house 5 months ago, they buy it now. Next.
It’s a funny thing about on-line piece such as this Kiplinger’s article.
I have no patience whatsoever for clicking on one page at a time to discover the Top Ten whatever. Really annoying and a colossal waste of my time.
I don’t care what it is. I refuse to do the click game either!
FWIW, there’s an option to the right to display/print the article on one page. You don’t actually have to print the article to invoke the non-click version.
“Housing… the best non-investment ‘investment’ for the math-challenged.”
You can say that again.
I wonder how many so-called “Russian” oligarchs will take advantage of Putin’s offer to bring their ill-gotten gains back to Russia with no questions asked. Those London mansions would be worth a fortune in rapidly-depreciating rubles.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11272632/Vladimir-Putin-promises-harsh-measures-to-fight-ruble-traders-as-currency-tumbles.html
With an increasing dollar, you’d also think that the Chinese would be less interested in buying California houses.
Currency peg.
As opposed to hanging around in China until investigators come looking for their embezzled money?
Daniel Yergin said that 100 Bil has recently fled Russia…
Heard this on Kudlow on Saturday during that part of his radio show - Yergin is I believe correct on the future of the oligarch states of Russia and Venezuela esp when it comes to the price of oil. How long a lower price is sustainable is a debate I think worth having. The longer the lower price remains the harder it will be on the oligarchs and tyrants to exact their pound of flesh.
Yeah and 100 Bil is not pocket change…This kind of money will have economic impact wherever it lands…
‘Ever since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coup against the country’s elected president, Mohamed Morsi, the coup regime has become increasingly repressive, brutal and lawless. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the Obama administration has become increasingly supportive of the despot in Cairo, plying his regime with massive amounts of money and weapons and praising him (in the words of John Kerry) for “restoring democracy.” Following recent meetings with Sisi by Bill and Hillary Clinton (pictured above), and then Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, Obama himself met with the dictator in late September and “touted the longstanding relationship between the United States and Egypt as a cornerstone of American security policy in the Middle East.”
‘All of this occurs even as, in the words of a June report from Human Rights Watch, the Sisi era has included the “worst incident of mass unlawful killings in Egypt’s recent history” and “judicial authorities have handed down unprecedented large-scale death sentences and security forces have carried out mass arrests and torture that harken back to the darkest days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.” The New York Times editorialized last month that “Egypt today is in many ways more repressive than it was during the darkest periods of the reign of deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak.”
‘As heinous as it has been, the Sisi record has worsened considerably in the last week. On Friday, an Egyptian court dismissed all charges against the previous U.S.-supported Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak stemming from the murder of 239 democracy protesters in 2011. The ruling also cleared his interior minister and six other aides. It also cleared him and his two sons of corruption charges, while upholding a corruption charge that will almost certainly entail no further prison time.’
‘But while Mubarak and his cronies are immunized for their savage crimes, 188 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who participated in anti-Sisi protests that led to the deaths of 11 police officers, were handed death sentences today en masse. As the New York Times notes, it was “the third such mass sentencing in less than a year,” and was handed down despite “no effort to prove that any individual defendant personally killed any of the officers; that more than 100 of the defendants were not allowed to have lawyers; and that scores of defense witnesses were excluded from the courtroom.” The judge ordering these mass executions was the same cretinous judicial officer who, over the summer, sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to seven to ten years in prison.’
‘The implications are obvious. Reuters today reports that the Mubarak acquittal is widely seen as the final proof of the full return of the Mubarak era, as the crushing of the 2011 revolution. Political Science Professor As’ad AbuKhalil argues, convincingly, that re-imposing dictatorial rule in Egypt to mercilessly crush the Muslim Brotherhood is what the U.S., Israel and the Saudi-led Gulf monarchs have craved since the unrest in 2011. With the Gulf monarch’s rift with Brotherhood-supporting Qatar now resolved, all relevant powers are united behind full restoration of the tyranny that controlled Egypt for decades.’
‘In one sense, it would be nice for the U.S. Government to condemn all of this, and even better if they cut off support for the regime as punishment. But in another, more meaningful sense, such denunciation would be ludicrous, given what enthusiastic practitioners U.S. officials are of similar methods.
Fully protecting high-level lawbreakers – even including torturers and war criminals – is an Obama specialty, a vital aspect of his legacy. A two-tiered justice system – where the most powerful financial and political criminals are fully shielded while ordinary crimes are punished with repugnant harshness – is the very definition of the American judicial process, which imprisons more of its ordinary citizens than any other country in the world, even as it fully immunizes its most powerful actors for far more egregious crimes.’
‘Indeed, in justifying his refusal to condemn the dropping of charges against Mubarak, Sisi seemed to take a page from Obama’s own rhetorical playbook. Egypt must “look to the future” and “cannot ever go back,” he said when cynically invoking judicial independence as his reason for not condemning the pro-Mubarak ruling. The parallels to Obama’s own justifications for not prosecuting U.S. torturers and other war criminals – “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards” - are self-evident.’
‘As of today, Obama officials can officially celebrate the War on Terror’s 500th targeted killing far from any battlefield (450 of which occurred under Obama), strikes which have killed an estimated 3,674 people. As CFR’s Micah Zenko put it, “it is easy to forget that this tactic, envisioned to be rare and used exclusively for senior al-Qaeda leaders thirteen years ago, has become a completely accepted and routine foreign policy activity.”
‘It seemed like just yesterday that American media outlets were pretending to be on the side of the Tahrir Square demonstrates, all while suppressing the unpleasant fact that the dictator against which they were marching was one of the U.S. government’s longest and closest allies, a murderous tyrant about whom Hillary Clinton said: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.” It’s an extraordinary feat of propaganda that all of that has been washed away – again – and the U.S. is right back to acting as stalwart ally to a repressive and incredibly violent dictator sitting in Cairo doing its bidding.’
a repressive and incredibly violent dictator sitting in Cairo doing its bidding.’
If it isn’t one repressive and incredibly violent dictatorship in Cairo, it will be another. That, or chaos to be succeeded by dictatorship. The chances of a Jeffersonian democracy emerging in Egypt within a century are nil. The ‘Arab spring’ was a food riot.
+1
‘If it isn’t one repressive and incredibly violent dictatorship in Cairo, it will be another’
Annnd, with one cynical, uneducated generalization, we can brush off any criticism of US policy whatsoever. Sorry to bring it up.
uneducated generalization
Sorry, Ben, I’ve been reading in detail about Middle East history most of my life. Call me uneducated.
Then you should know better. Saying “they’re all a buncha squalid A-Rabs” is hardly fair considering the long history of Egypt or the dictators the US has hung around their necks for decades.
Weren’t many of those dictators Soviet puppets?
But, yeah; we should get out of there and mind our own business. Let the ChiComs play world cop for a change.
Cynical, yes, but I didn’t get that tresho was brushing off criticism of US policy.
We need to clean up the Washington’s act here in the USA. When that happens, things will smooth out in other parts of the world, because non-intervention will be a part of that.
How do you think these people feel, watching Hillary cozy up to yet another dictator, after the last blood soaked dictator gets off, while hundreds are sentenced to death without a trial? How do you “clean” that up?
“How do you “clean” that up?”
“Hillary” is the first clue. We can clean that up by taking out that trash right here at home.
” How do you “clean” that up?”
I guess the same way you clean up a few centuries of slavery. Not very well.
“I guess the same way you clean up a few centuries of slavery. Not very well.”
The centuries thing is getting popular isn’t it.
Bill De Blasio Responds To Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision
The Huffington Post | By Sam Levine
Posted: 12/03/2014 4:25 pm EST
“We’re not just dealing with a problem in 2014, we’re not dealing with years of racism leading up to it, or decades of racism we are dealing with centuries of racism that have brought us to this day. That is how profound the crisis is.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…l-de-blasio_n_6264368.html?utm_hp_ref=new-york&ir=New+York - 246k -
Thanks for continuing to demonstrate your expertise with racial talking points, phony. It’s perfect evidence of exactly what I was talking about. Not cleaning up the aftereffects well.
‘Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said his office is drafting a law to criminalize insulting the uprisings that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and his Islamist successor Mohammed Morsi last year.’
‘Just what would constitute an insult however was unclear, as was the timeframe for the legislation’s implementation. Such a law, however, would infringe on the freedom of expression guaranteed by the nation’s new constitution. It follows an intense, yearlong media campaign to denigrate the 2011 uprising and paint those behind it as foreign agents.;
http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-insulting-revolutions-criminalized-102035703.html
A comment:
‘The only government which can actually contain the Arab vermin is a dictatorship. The idea that they can live in a democracy is ridiculous. Just look at those countries who have a so called democracy or believe that they are governing democratically they are in shambles. Then look at those who were in a dictatorship or still are this includes royal kingdoms because a king is still a dictator by another name. The dictatorships and kingdoms work the best for these vermin they serve to contain them. Maybe it isn’t all that humane but look what happens if you wish to make them democratically free they turn around and attack everyone. It has nothing to do with religion at this point; that is only a ruse to kill and take control. It would be the same if you made prisons a democracy it would turn to anarchy in seconds. These vermin since their inception have never existed in a democracy they were never meant to be allowed to make their own decisions they have no idea of where to start. They are so full of hate that they cannot live in peace if no one is in charge. They are like wild dogs you need to kill them or lock them up, period.’
I guess the same way you clean up a few centuries of slavery. Not very well.
July 4, 1776 through December 6, 1865.
My country can really only be blamed for 89yrs of slavery.
How do the rest of us get over what happened to us before we came here 100 years ago?
“How do the rest of us get over what happened to us before we came here 100 years ago?”
Apparently better. But it might have to do with the fact that most everyone else came here voluntarily.
But it might have to do with the fact that most everyone else came here voluntarily.
I disagree. Most of us were born here rather than immigrated here.
“Most of us were born here rather than immigrated here.”
Lol, good catch.
Blacks were brought here against their will, enslaved for centuries, and then “freed” into an apartheid society for another century.
Interestingly, most blacks who emigrated a second time, that is, after they had been brought to this hemisphere as slaves first, they were later able to emigrate to the US, have done as well here as any other immigrant group. That’s the selection power of voluntary immigration.
Assuming American blacks should have overcome, in a relatively short time, everything we’ve done to them, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about from Egypt, Libya, and the rest. They can just pull themselves up from their bootstraps when we’re done with them.
“Assuming American blacks should have overcome, in a relatively short time, everything we’ve done to them, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about from Egypt, Libya, and the rest. They can just pull themselves up from their bootstraps when we’re done with them.”
Who is “we?”
FWIW, the yell’a fella’s built the railroads, and have been doing the laundry ever since, and we don’t hear them bytching that “the man is holding me down”. Heck, they set the grade-curve at our best engineering schools. They’re “more better.”
Hands up - don’t shoot!!
“Hands up - don’t shoot!”
MVI_2713.AVI - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZkbtP-t_D8 - 322k -
Apologies if anyone posted this yesterday, but I got a big kick out of the letter to Jim Cramer. I found out he has his limo perfumed and his bald head sprayed with ionized lavender water by assistants. LMAO!!!!!!!! The comments are priceless. It was a bit cruel to call it (z)ionized lavender water, but it made me laugh.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-03/activist-hedge-fund-goes-postal-jim-cramer
Seriously, though, all I could think of while reading this is how Washington and Wall Street have truly become Rome, when any two-bit hustler with a few bucks starts doing this sort of thing, much like some of the over the top crap indulged in by Roman politicians and nobility.
Networth.com puts his net worth at 100 million. One of our masters.
“One of our masters.”
What did P.T. Barnum say the birth rate suckers was? Something like one a minute?
That was a long time ago. The birth rate has increased immensely since then.
So much for evolutionary progress.
Real estate, stocks, … whatever.
There are two steps to financial success:
Step 1: Dumb them down.
Step 2: Prosper.
“…his bald head sprayed with ionized lavender water…”
Gotta wonder if the local diocese blessed this water too?
Gotta wonder if the local diocese blessed this water too?
According to wikipedia Cramer is Jewish. Maybe he has a special Musuzah in his limo?
I need to draw on the construction experts here. I have 200+ sheets and 600 pages of specification needing a constructability review due by Jan 2. I’ll pay you a flat fee for the review and 10% of the dollar amount of any executed change orders based on errors or omissions you identify.
We have a few general contractors here. How about pros? Do you know the math? Good with numbers? Interested in some some office work?
http://picpaste.com/pics/70783f117cf57cf6890ccb0923820135.1417699678.jpg
Really HA, if you want any serious offers you’re going to have to throw in more than one bag of Cheez Doodles. Call Amy.
What’s the current contract value and general SOW?
$22 million. Won’t disclose SOW other than it’s 2 primes.
Well, are you under contract?
If you aren’t the prime then I want to know your piece. MEP? Concrete? What? Or are you a turnkey to a GC?
What type of contract? FF…GMP….?
2 primes, 3rd party cm. Your involvement is review of all 200 sheets.
no thanks.
No problem.
Where’s our resident contracting experts? Jingle_Fraud? Toxide? Rental_Fraud?
Did you clean your desk just for us?
US Gas station pricing at $1.99 for first in over 4 years.
Let’s all drive to Oklahoma and fill up our tanks on cheap fuel.
I filled up @ $2.58 yesterday.
In the late 90’s we drove to Indiana for Thanksgiving. I recall that we filled up in some podunk town in Kansas for 79 cents a gallon
Tater Rage \Taytur rayj\ : the quality or state of being enraged as a result of emtpy pockets and diet limited to potatos
Has anyone else noticed a sharp increase in cases since housing prices resumed falling?
I just got my natural gas bill for last month. My house consumed 15.4 MCF in 33 days. The company charges $4.158 basic/MCF, then adds service & delivery fees and taxes. Gross bill is $101.70. My average cost/MCF last month was $6.6039, not bad, especially considering a few years ago my BASIC charge /MCF hit $10.00.
You need a B·I·G wife at home stuff-n-down the ho-ho’s with the heat cranked way-up to keep that diabetic blood flowing to the extremities while the religious channel denigrates gays and Muslims. Gawd’s red states.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
“Google plans to triple its office space and potentially quintuple its number of employees in a project headed to Boulder’s planning board Thursday evening.”
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_27063628/google-build-new-boulder-campus-room-1-500
What those new Google employees need are $800,000 starter homes!
Lemme guess, 799 H1-B’s?
From what I’ve heard about Google (I know a few people at the Boulder campus) they are very picky about who they hire, and they like to hire sharp, young people with advanced degrees. From what I’ve heard not too many H1-B’s there.
Heck, even in Broomfield at Larry Ellison’s plantation H1-B’s are kind of few and far between (unlike the Santa Clara campus). I think the Indians are afraid of the winters, at least that’s what the Santa Clara crowd tells me.
The people who work there think they are all very sharp.
Colorado = the next Cali
Boulder is already the next Cali …
What those new Google employees need are $800,000 starter homes!
They’re a lot cheaper in nearby Longmont, and hey … it’s still technically Boulder County. I know that for for the google crowd that’s kind of slumming it, but there’s also Broomfield, Superior and Lousiville. Tonier than Longmont but close enough to Boulder to get a table at Frasca.
“The White House and congressional Democrats are teaming up to form an “Immigration Strike Team” to serve as a better-organized rapid response force to counter whatever Republicans do or say about immigration reform in the coming months.
The goal, according to several congressional aides familiar with the plans, is to ensure that lawmakers and administration officials are more closely coordinating talking points and media appearances and using all outlets at their disposal to highlight incendiary comments or controversial legislation introduced by Republicans.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/04/white-house-democrats-teaming-up-on-immigration-strike-team/?tid=HP_politics?tid=HP_politics
This is another fight that is basically over, like gay marriage and legal marijuana. Now it is just a matter of crafting a strategy where you can defend doing nothing and throw all the blame on the other guy or the American people.
“This is another fight that is basically over,”
—————————————————————
Take a Dive
“To throw a fight. To intentionally pretend to get knocked out by a light punch, thus intentionally losing the fight. A fixed fight with an unlawful prearranged outcome.”
—————————————————————-
Republicans confront own worst enemy on immigration
By Robert Costa November 20
Just two weeks ago, Republicans handed President Obama a humiliating defeat at the polls, winning full control of Congress. But already, party leaders fear that the conservative uproar over the president’s immigration actions will doom any hopes for a stable period of GOP governance.
The moves announced Thursday night by Obama — which will protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation — have sparked an immediate and widening rebellion among tea party lawmakers that top Republicans are struggling to contain.
“It is the first real challenge for Boehner and McConnell together,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a Boehner ally. “They’d like to wipe the slate clean for when they start up next year, with this situation behind us.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/11/20/9b885c06-70d2-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html -
Wall Street Journal - Baby Bust Threatens Growth
Economists Say the Recession Ended in 2009, but Nobody Told American Women
“The U.S. economy, already struggling with stagnant wages and lackluster spending, faces another obstacle to growth: missing babies.
The nation’s fertility rate edged down last year to a record low, the latest notch in a long decline made worse by the recent recession. For every 1,000 women of childbearing age, there were just 62.5 births, down from 63 births in 2012″
http://m.wsj.com/articles/baby-bust-threatens-growth-1417669261?mobile=y
jeebus, do people really think that overpopulating the planet with a bunch of numbskulls is the path to prosperity? Crikey. The more crowded, the less free, the less prosperous.
The article makes no mention of this, but 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and 70% of those divorces are initiated by women. Every day, more and more men wake up and realize that it’s not worth the risk of getting divorce raped and paying decades of child support.
And because the HBB needs reminded again, Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
Harold Hamm - man is he getting reemed!!
See also:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/12/04/The-Sexodus-Part-1-The-Men-Giving-Up-On-Women-And-Checking-Out-Of-Society/
I think women are realizing that having babies is not worth the risk of needing to get divorced from that jerk, and then ending up with a pittance in inconsistent child-support payments, or the lose-lose system of joint custody. The court system is biased in favor of men, and women realize this. They are better off with jobs than babies.
The court system is biased in favor of men, and women realize this.
LOLZ
The nation’s fertility rate edged down last year to a record low ??
And what is the fertility rate of college educated women…My guess is that it has collapsed…In other words, take out the higher birth rates of some minorities, particularly the hispanics, and my guess is you will find “shocking” numbers….
I will just take a small group of people that surround my three children and that I have known since toddlers, all in their mid to late 30’s;
15 of them including my children….5 are married and two are engaged…Three of the married couples have no children yet…The other 2 have two children each…Thats it…
And what is the fertility rate of college educated women…
Well, the Mormons in my (tech) office are surely doing their part.
I have no interest in the responsibility and cost of a child, so I’m glad they’re stepping in and picking up my slack!
I don’t know how to break this to my wife, but the handwriting is on the wall: we won’t be grandparents.
She can’t read the handwriting herself?
Hope springs eternal.
Time to move to Queens, LOLZ
“Brooklyn, New York, where a resident would need to devote 98 percent of the median income to afford the payment on a median-priced home of $615,000, was the least-affordable market, followed by San Francisco and Manhattan.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-04/brooklyn-worst-in-u-s-for-home-affordability.html
warmist warming thursday
2014 is likely to be the hottest year ever
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-03/2014-is-likely-to-be-the-earth-s-hottest-year-ever-why-it-doesn-t-matter-.html
carbon capture and storage process to avert global warming projected to cost $17.6 trillion worldwide
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-04/this-process-averts-climate-change-now-the-bad-news.html
and now back to your regularly scheduled drudge report links
Global Warming Causes Global Spending: Follow the Money [video]
Added by Ben Gaul on January 17, 2014.
Saved under Global warming, Political Right, Politics
Tags: Global Warming Causes
Global warming causes, when you follow the money, are shown to be nothing but political excuses to waste trillions in unnecessary global spending. Billions of those tax dollars are taken from an unsuspecting public, then given – tax-free – to the global warming gurus who keep the lie going; so it really should come as no surprise that those very gurus do all they can to keep their cash-cow alive and kicking. Some estimates put the spending on global warming causes at one billion dollars a day.
Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/global-warming-causes-global-spending-follow-the-money-video/#6cAwElvjlKQ578SW.99
The myth of the 97% climate change consensus
By Joseph Bast and Roy Spencer
May 30, 2014
- See more at: http://www.cfact.org/2014/05/30/the-myth-of-the-97-climate-change-consensus/#sthash.pLIhvarc.dpuf
The count is not 18 years and 2 months since the planet stopped warming.
How is it that every year is the warmest yet?
Your data are wrong?
President Obama Delivers a Statement on the Grand Jury Decision in the Death of Eric Garner
“This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem. And it’s my job as President to help solve it.”
Unless of course, you are on our enemies list.
Feds balk at releasing docs showing IRS sharing tax returns with White House
By Paul Bedard | December 3, 2014 | 6:13 pm
Less than a week after ’fessing up that it found some 2,500 documents potentially showing that the IRS shared taxpayer returns with the White House, the Obama administration has reversed course and won’t release the trove to a group suing for access.
In an abrupt decision, the Treasury inspector general’s office said that the documents are covered by privacy and disclosure laws and can’t be provided to Cause of Action, despite a promise last week to hand over some 2,500.
The decision coincides with publication by the Washington Examiner this week of “Watchdogs, lapdogs and attack dogs,” a four-part series examining the successes and failures of the inspectors-general system, including multiple instances in which IGs provided cover for agency managers seeking to avoid more rigorous evaluations.
“All of the 2,043 pages of documents we have determined to be responsive were collected by the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the determination of possible liability under Title 26 of the United States Code. These pages consist of return information protected by 26 U.S.C. § 6103 and may not be disclosed absent an express statutory exception,” said the office in a letter dated Dec. 1.
What’s more, Treasury, which oversees the IRS, is still considering what to do with another 466 documents and said that they will provide a “response regarding” them.
Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, said Treasury was using “sophisticated” lawyering to weasel out of providing the documents. And he noted that their letter said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is now looking into “potential liability” that his tax aides broke laws in sharing taxpayer information with the White House.
Epstein said that either Treasury was “stonewalling” his group, or that Lew “is incompetent” for just now looking at potential lawbreaking by his team on the case that is two years old.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/…/article/2556890 - 108k -
Had a 24 hour brain flatulence episode the other day. The great biking in Irvine (just got into it) was making me love Irvine more. Then I got to thinking how can I move to California permanently? I’d have to switch my magazines from 30 rounds to 10 rounds for my AR-15 to bring it here. And sell my glock.
But then this morning on the commute I guess the coffee soaked into my brain and made me think again, my own rule of surviving a career in Southern California: Always rent. And always travel light. Because a higher paying opportunity, maybe in “the valley,” 90 miles north, could happen.
I need to post the note on my fridge why renting during a career is always better than buying. You move to your higher paying job opportunities. It saves you enough time to be able to do 80 minute workouts. Forget trying to be more community-oriented. That is not economic sense. Short commutes save wear and tear on the car too.
If I bought a house in OC and got a job 90 miles north, I would be back to where I am now, paying for two places.
I may as well keep my Arizona residence, keep my 30 round mags, my Glock, my Castle Doctrine (California does not have) and my CCW. I have 12 years to real retirement and I don’t know what state I will end up. But I’m going to have only one place to rent or own.
When california has an emergency at least you’ll have a place to run to!
dope-smoking haven Mendocino is not a bad area. I like the rainy weather, fresh air, big trees, wine country and so forth up that way.
I may as well keep my Arizona residence, keep my 30 round mags, my Glock, my Castle Doctrine
What the heck does it accomplish to keep “castle doctrine” in a state your’e not actively living in?
If you’re spending much of your time in CA, the fact AZ has castle doctrine doesn’t help you at all. If that’s important to you, you really should spend all/most of your time somewhere with reasonable gun laws.
A month ago I might have argued for WA, given how red the state is outside of Seattle. But the passage of 594 just made gun ownership a cluster*f* here. As of today I can’t legally hand over an unloaded gun to my girlfriend in order to teach her how to handle a gun, in case of an emergency situation where I’m unable to handle/unload/safety them.
You bring up a good question. My response is complicated. I don’t know how long I will be in California. It made economic sense up until July of 2013 to have a separate residence in a lower tax state, though I worked mostly in California. Now it makes no economic sense. But I’m unsure of how long I will be working in California.
The jobs in software in Phoenix are focused mostly in defense or are Java / SQL based. And I’m not into either of those areas. I’m not sure if, in the future there will be linux / commercial cryptography jobs galore, like California has.
I can switch my 30 round mags for a 10-round mag for the AR-15 and make it legal to own in Cali. Still need to be convinced a bit.
But I have close to $400,000 in Roths and well over $200,000 additional in Arizona municipal bonds that can be switched to California municipals. And my savings bonds gains and treasuries will not be taxed by California. In all, close to half my net worth can be quickly arranged so that the income and gains are not taxable by California.
I do like the idea of settling down in retirement in Mendocino on the north coast…
I do like the idea of settling down in retirement in Mendocino on the north coast…
You mean you won’t retire in low tax Wyoming or Oklahoma?
If its an “emergency,” do laws like that matter?
If its an “emergency,” do laws like that matter?
At the time of emergency, no (as the law is written). However, in a non-emergency (now) I can’t train her how to handle a gun safely. So in the emergency, she’s not going to be willing to touch/handle it, or will with increased risk of making a fatal mistake.
594 is one of those laws that will do absolutely nothing to stop crime, since like all gun laws, will be ignored by criminals.
But the liberals in Seattle will feel good about themselves for “doing something”, even if that something means putting innocent people in jail for committing the “crime” of letting their friend shoot off a few rounds with their gun at a range.
even if that something means putting innocent people in jail for committing the “crime” of letting their friend shoot off a few rounds with their gun at a range.
Agreed, but it’s far worse than that (eg my girlfriend, who lives with me, cannot handle the guns in our house without it being a criminal violation).
Moreover, fewer people will learn how to handle guns safely, so while they’ll believe they’ve made it harder for the “bad guys” to get guns, there will be a higher likelihood of firearms related accidents in the home/at the range.
Irvine - the traffic and the Asian / Persian population in south OC would make me nuts.
Soooooooo many better places to live. If you have to be in the OC, try Laguna, CDM or Newport and never get on The 5.
The asian population in Irvine means it’s low crime.
Then why is Westminster bad? I dont think it is Asian, it is economics.
I grew up down there when Irvine was Lion Country Safari.
This is worth the 5 mins to read -
As a note to Mr. Stockman’s piece below - I have been working my way through a book called “The Lords of Finance - How 4 bankers broke the world.” It is a history lesson on the formation of big Central Banking at the turn of last Century led by the likes of the American, Strong, the Brit, Norman, the German, Schacht and the Frenchie, Montagu. Well worth a read and very presicient given the article outline below - In a sentence - this does not end well.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/financial-terrorists-on-the-road-krugman-and-rogoff-peddling-toxic-advise/
“this does not end well.”
For the math challenged, you’re correct. For those who enjoy dramatically lower and more affordable prices of everything, it’s a net positive.
And if ones reads history - esp that in the run up to WW2 - that is what I was referring to in “this does not end well.”
And if one reads all the history, you’ll understand that it was the Feds that prolonged it with junk like Works Progress Administration.
and then ….. pick your poison - The great society programs, food stamps….to name a few!!
Agree with you HA - and love your posts - crazy as they are at times. The zillow crater ones are the best.
As a fiscal conservative, I like food stamps to stimulate the economy and keep zombies out of $50k a year prison cells.
$144 a mo, think of it as Farm Aid.
Do you think the bear pit is ready for another bull market in houses?
Right after they’re done falling again. Check out these falling housing prices….
San Diego, CA Sale Prices Plummet 16% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92130/home-values/
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/03/real_estate/housing-costs/index.html
And there you have it…lots of people are paying too much of their income for shelter.
What a recovering housing market really looks like.
http://sr.photos2.fotosearch.com/bthumb/CSP/CSP500/k5008724.jpg
How come I have owned houses and I did not lose money?
cause you r smart like jingle male. Any other bulls in the bear pit today?
Cheer up Poet. Falling housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish.
What is wrong with buying a home when you are 35 yrs old, paying off the mortgage at 65 and retiring with a home that is paid off vs renting one?
We all need shelter.
Why buy it when you can rent it at half the monthly cost?
Rent goes up every year. YOUR PI is locked, plus the I write off.
at age 65 house pd off or rent keeps going to the grave and you get to move A LOT as your landord is your lord.
Yet rental rates are still half the cost of buying.
rent is the same in my nice, desirable town as buying with 20% down.
A 2 bdrm condo here rents for $1800. This is not Kansas.
You’re smart, Zillow it.
Prove it.
use your Zillow.
Do it.
Maybe. You’ll pay half a million more than me over 30 years if you buy with 20% down, I expect, and maybe likely even for a smaller place. It’s a huge life issue, half a million after taxes. Well, maybe not an issue for you.
i have so much money left after ‘throwing money away on rent’ every month that i don’t know where to throw it
maybe i’ll throw some away here tonight
http://fallingrocktaphouse.com/
Awesome StrawMan, Analyst
Cheers!
The problem is that houses are dramatically overpriced.
I pay $2300 PITI. I could rent my house for $2000.
Given my mortgage is at a ridiculously low rate - under 3% fixed for 10 years - I am paying off close to $1000 a month of principal out of that $2300. And my tax deduction is about $5K a year, so $400/mo give or take. And that $1000 increases every month as the principal gets smaller every month.
Which means my net cost today is $2300 - $1000 - 400 = $900 a month.
Add another $100 for maintenance/repairs. Hell add $200 to be on the conservative side. Although the only real repair I’ve had in 3+ years of owning this house is $600 to fix the A/C. But like I said, I’ll go on the conservative side and say $200/mo.
And my grand net cost is $1100 a month vs $2000 I’d be paying in rent.
And yet somehow I’m worse off than renting supposedly.
Slithers Slithers Slithers….
Coming soon to a theatre near you….
1. Reintroduce Glass-Steagall Act
2. RICO charges for AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America for massive and on going mortgage and securities fraud.
3. Fully Audit the Federal Reserve.
4. Clawback of Banker Bonuses that were funded with taxpayer dollars
5. Allow Student Loans to be discharged during bankruptcy proceedings.
6. Overturn Citizens United vs. FEC
7. Repeal Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000
8. Repatriate Overseas Corporate Profits and tax at the current rate
9. Treat all Capital Gains as income for tax purposes
10. Ban High Frequency Trading and Quote Stuffing
11. Remove FICA tax cap
12. Reinstate FASB 157
“Allow Student Loans to be discharged during bankruptcy proceedings.”
-1 No way.
Exactly! Fuhg-edd-boud-it.
-1,0000
I’m very concerned the bear pit cant withstand another bull market in houses. After 10 years of talking down home prices and missing opportunities left and right, I think these bears might turn bulls and learn to worship central bankers and their ability to create wealth out of promissory notes.
All of you bears should pray that yellen does the right thing when the new doves come on the board in 2015.
Here’s an interesting data point.
Salem, OR Sale Prices Dive 7% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/or-97303/home-values/
What if….
too many people on the planet, planet heats up, we get more storms ( cat 5) and Ebola, civil wars, then less people…. return to balance?
Gaia theory?
Possible. Make sure you live near a large, deep and replenishing aquifer
Good thing we are letting so many illegal immigrants into the U.S., as the U.S. birth rate isn’t going to cut it for stimulating future housing demand.
Only homeowners should have babies, because Ownership Society membership confers special privileges.
House prices and birth rates: The impact of the real estate market on the decision to have a baby
Author Info
Dettling, Lisa J.
Kearney, Melissa S.
Abstract
This project investigates how changes in Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)-level house prices affect household fertility decisions. Recognizing that housing is a major cost associated with child rearing, and assuming that children are normal goods, we hypothesize that an increase in house prices will have a negative price effect on current period fertility. This applies to both potential first-time homeowners and current homeowners who might upgrade to a bigger house with the addition of a child. On the other hand, for current homeowners, an increase in MSA-level house prices will increase home equity, leading to a positive effect on birth rates. Our results suggest that indeed, short-term increases in house prices lead to a decline in births among non-owners and a net increase among owners. The estimates imply that a $10,000 increase leads to a 5% increase in fertility rates among owners and a 2.4% decrease among non-owners. At the mean U.S. home ownership rate, these estimates imply that the net effect of a $10,000 increase in house prices is a 0.8% increase in current period fertility rates. Given underlying differences in home ownership rates, the predicted net effect of house price changes varies across demographic groups. In addition, we find that changes in house prices exert a larger effect on current period birth rates than do changes in unemployment rates.
…
The baby bust: U.S. births at record low
Toddlers eat lunch at the federally funded Head Start school in Woodbourne, New York.
(John Moore/Getty Images)
by Adam Allington
Thursday, December 4, 2014 - 14:00
In terms of things to worry about, the U.S. economy already has its share of concerns. Well, add one more to that list: not enough babies.
The U.S. fertility rate is at an all-time low and doesn’t show signs of rebounding any time soon. In fact, women have never had so few children in the history of the U.S. The tipping point is contained within the term “replacement level fertility” — demographer-speak for the number necessary to replace you and your partner. That would be two babies.
And for the longest time that rate was sitting comfortably at about 2.1.
“That’s kind of the magic number, and over the past several years we’ve actually dipped below that 2.1. We’re now at around 1.9 births per woman,” says Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau.
Many young people might still be feeling the pinch of the Great Recession and have just stopped having children, Mather says.
Another factor holding down birth rates could be the simple fact that many more women are primary bread-winners, and are unwilling to pay the opportunity cost of dropping out to have children. “As more and more women are entering the workforce, we’d expect fertility rates to stay at pretty low levels, and I don’t see any signs of that slowing down in the future,” Mather says.
An aging work force, a drop-off in consumer spending that spans from Onesies to college tuition — these just a few negative economic impacts of the baby bust.
…
“You know, Germany is doing quite well right now economically, relatively speaking, with a lower fertility rate than we have,” he says.
Just wait ’till those Islamic Turks outnumber ‘em.
One way to increase the birth rate: Stop forcing taxpaying U.S. citizen families to hand over a share of their wealth to pay benefits for illegal immigrants who don’t even pay taxes.
phony scandals