Bits Bucket for February 12, 2015
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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They might as well just put FIRE sector employees on the government payroll under some sort of supergrade system. Their business wouldn’t exist without the government backstopping them.
Why Mortgage-Bond Investors Won’t Buy: They Don’t Trust Anyone
by Jody Shenn
Bloomberg.com
February 11, 2015
(Bloomberg) — Alessandro Pagani, a money manager at Loomis Sayles & Co., says he knows why investors still aren’t ready to buy new mortgage securities without government backing.
“We need to address a fundamental loss of trust,” Pagani, whose firm manages $230 billion, said at a conference in Las Vegas this week. Investors must have confidence that their money won’t be treated as a “pot of gold” to be looted by banks, the government, loan servicers and even consumers, he said.
The market for U.S. home-loan securities that lack government backing remains almost frozen for a seventh year, limiting options for borrowers and boosting risks for taxpayers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-11/why-mortgage-bond-investors-won-t-buy-they-don-t-trust-anyone
“…aren’t ready to buy new mortgage securities without government backing.”
’nuff said.
If someone was selling MBS where they were keeping 5% (or 10%) of every tranche (ie. eating their own cooking), you’d see investors show up–even without government backing.
Nothing like standing toe-to-toe with your investors to show confidence.
“Existing laws offer investors no protection from borrowers using home equity loans to later reduce their ownership stakes in properties, increasing default risks, said Hu, a BlackRock managing director.”
LOL, he’s got a point! Heck, why waste time with a realtor and broke-äßß-buyers when you can *sell* the place to the bank possibly for 25% more than the appraised value? Jingle all the way!
It’s regrettable Elizabeth Warren came out against the Fed audit. While it’s true that Congress is rife with scoundrels and buffoons, they are elected representatives and should be accountable for the country’s policies. It’s not like the Fed is a neutral, disinterested party. Not with the revolving door, not with lobbying, not with post-service employment concerns, not with captains of the FIRE sector holding top posts.
If we are going to vote away our liberties, like so many third world countries, let us at least do that - vote on them. Not slouch back into a benign or malignant dictatorship again, the condition under which humanity has existed for most of its history.
On the other hand, it is a Congress under near-complete regulatory capture. This is a conundrum, a catch-22. The FIRE sector has both escape routes covered. A Congress (scoundrels and buffoons) under regulatory capture calling the shots or central bank (mostly just scoundrels) under regulatory capture calling the shots?
Fake Indian but a real fraudster.
Chief Liewatha. A rich member of the aristocracy. Not the next savior.
Somebody said that the world isn’t at risk of another “ism”, but a “cracy”, technocracy that is.
Fauxahontus showed her true colors, despite all her populist rhetoric.
That woman has really turned out to be a phony…. like all the rest.
If we are going to vote away our liberties, like so many third world countries, let us at least do that - vote on them.
News flash: we DID vote on this. 95% of the electorate voted to trample the Constitution, toss Wall Street’s salad, and give the neo-cons unfettered control over our foreign policy through their votes for the corporate statists Obama, McCain, and Romney.
What reason did Warren give for objecting to the fed audit?
Here is what she said:
“I strongly support and continue to press for greater congressional oversight of the Fed’s regulatory and supervisory responsibilities, and I believe the Fed’s balance sheet should be regularly audited – which the law already requires,” Ms. Warren said in an emailed statement. “But I oppose the current version of this bill because it promotes congressional meddling in the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, which risks politicizing those decisions and may have dangerous implications for financial stability and the health of the global economy.”
So it’s just doublespeak horseshit. Pardon my French but it is called for here.
Thank you. I agree that this email sounds like doublespeak, but consider WPA’s point that the bill may be written as a witch hunt for brownie points.
That said, I think Liz should take what she can get. It might be their only chance.
Btw, if it’s required to audit the Fed by law, why hasn’t it happened? When was the last audit?
bill may be written as a witch hunt for brownie points.
Isn’t everything these criminals do done for brownie points or worse?
I saw David Axelrod interviewed by Jon Stewart the other day. At the first half of the conversation, Axelrod praised Obama for doing the difficult political thing, and pushing through the ACA (even though he warned O against it). He noted how Obama just wanted to do what was right, regardless of politics. And that politics didn’t come in to how he governed.
And later in the interview, he commented how Obama delayed his immigration action until after the midterm because the Democrats asked him to.
Um, what?
Obama had a lot more political capital in 2010 than in 2014. I believe he himself admitted that ACA drained most of that capital.
Its a republican ploy headed by rand paul to introduce politics where what should matter are facts
Here’s the central fact: Since the Fed’s clandestine inception o 1913, the dollar has lost 97% of its value. Since the 2008 financial crisis, caused by the Fed blowing asset bubbles, the Fed has moved $2.3 trillion in toxic-waste MBSs onto the taxpayer ledgers, and swollen its ballance sheet by another $4.5 trillion due to its deranged money printing (bond buying). The Fed is out of control and needs to be reined in, period.
Here’s the central fact: Since the Fed’s clandestine inception o 1913, the dollar has lost 97% of its value.
What happened to the dollar’s value in the 102 years up to 1913?
Warren’s right. The “audit” bill stinks because it’s not an audit, it’s a politicized fishing expedition. The government already has authority to do a true audit of the Fed’s accounting. Congress’ use of the word “audit” is misleading — it’s just an excuse to stick the camel’s nose under the tent and start second-guessing the Fed’s independent decisions.
^LOLZ
Anything to avoid crushing personal financial losses.
Keep the scam going as long as I get mine, right?
It’s the American way!
Why do you hate our freedoms?
The slips of paper, or the gold nuggets, or the electronic constructs aren’t much use when you can’t buy anything with them.
Isolated Little Diomede approaches 3 weeks without food, mail deliveries
by Matthew F. Smith
KNOM
February 11, 2015
The only aircraft regularly flying to one of Alaska’s most remote communities has been down for maintenance for nearly three weeks — leaving residents of the Bering Strait community of Little Diomede with empty mailboxes, bare grocery store shelves, and no way on or off the island.
“In our store, it’s pretty bare. We do have a bunch of food here at the school, which will last for a while,” Okpealuk said. Hunters have been on the ice daily, she said, but strong winds, rough water, and poor ice conditions have made catching game difficult.
“In our home,” she said, “I think the hardest part is having milk for the babies.”
Even with the school sharing its food, Okpealuk said, for mothers with young babies, no new stock on the shelves means there are few alternatives.
“It is hard when there’s no milk,” she said.
http://www.adn.com/article/20150211/isolated-little-diomede-approaches-3-weeks-without-food-mail-deliveries
Can’t print value. Otherwise Haiti and Zimbabwe would be world powers.
Did these moms ever hear of powdered milk or provident preparations? The stupidity, it burns.
Under such conditions even a 4-6 week supply would run out.
Also, these people are probably poor or paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t afford to buy a year of food at one time. Many of the emer prep articles I read give hints on how to prep on a budget by buying in bulk at sales. These small stores likely don’t have such sales.
Maybe the state or fed gov will do an airdrop. I would rather my tax money go to these people than to some martini lunch for defense contractor bosses.
I’ve known poor Mormons who still managed to put away a year’s worth of food storage. It’s a matter of priorities. Go read about the grasshopper and the ant.
Those people have lived there for thousands of years. They should have figured out how to survive without the mail airplane for a couple of weeks.
isn’t this what a womans breasts are for?
You can’t restart that factory in just a week or two.
What if you run 3 shifts?
Flying wild alaksa…
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/flying-wild-alaska/videos/couch-sled/
IMF giving new $17.5 billion “loan” to Ukraine (US taxpayers fund more than 25% of IMF budget) - color that money gone.
http://news.yahoo.com/imf-ukraine-preliminary-deal-17-5-bln-aid-082343458.html;_ylt=AwrSyCMio9xUhkoAqJLQtDMD
IMF head DSK lived large while doling out billions of your taxpayer dollars to kleptocrats and deadbeats all over the globe.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dominique-strausskahn-organised-sex-parties-at-secret-flat-in-heart-of-paris-pimping-trial-hears-10040852.html
You can’t drop a link like that without providing some choice quotes
Pervy pigmen gonna perv
True, dat.
Mr Strauss-Kahn and 12 other people are on trial for “aggravated pimping in an organised gang”. DSK and three other people are accused of arranging sex parties with prostitutes in Brussels, Paris and Washington.
On the second day of his testimony on Wednesday, Mr Strauss-Kahn complained that he seemed to be on trial for his sexual morals and “rough” and “deviant” sexual behaviour rather than for “pimping”.
“I’m beginning to have enough of all this,” he said. “Everyone has the right to an opinion on my sexual behaviour in private but it his has nothing to do with this trial.”
“You would think that I was on trial for deviant sexual practices. But there is no longer any such law (in France).”
A former prostitute claimed yesterday – echoing a similar claim made by another ex-prostitute on Tuesday – that she had been subjected to unwilling anal sex by the former IMF chief in a Brussels hotel in 2009. DSK did not deny either incident but said that, in both cases, the sexual act was consensual.
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/CnLavX
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150212_064841_714-erZQRiGv.jpg
Did you snag two for me?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Good to the last price drop!
lolz. Check out tomorrows for some animated rage with an ending typical for enraged empty pockets.
Hardly a surprise that HSBC - the original money-launderers for the drug trade - was facilitating large-scale tax evasion for its .1% clients. Expect another slap-on-the-wrist, tax-deductable fine but no criminal prosecution, per usual.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/02/11/this-is-how-hsbc-celebrates-150-years-of-banking-crime-corruption-happy-birthday/
I’d like to begin with one of the most ignominious – and hence most forgotten – episodes of British colonial history: the Opium Wars against China.
In the mid 19th century the British economy was close to bankruptcy, thanks mainly to its massive trade deficit with China. Put simply, the British couldn’t stop drinking Chinese-produced tea while the Chinese government had no interest in importing anything from Britain. The Manchu emperors believed that the Middle Kingdom already possessed everything worth having, and hence needed no barbarian manufactures. All they wanted was silver, of which the British were fast running out.
What the British did, through its East India Company, one of the world’s largest-ever monopolies, was to flood the Chinese market with the one product the Chinese couldn’t resist and which just happened to be cultivated across vast swaths of British-ruled India: opium. So doing, the British East India Company became the largest-ever drug trafficker in recorded history.
When opium addiction became a national pastime in China, the government tried to ban consumption of the drug, but to no avail. Demand just kept growing, and with it supply. Eventually the Chinese began targeting the trade at its source, seizing shipments from British ships as they docked in ports such as Canton. The British response was to hit back with the full force of its world-leading navy. So began the Opium Wars and China’s Century of Humiliation.
Let’s see how Greece’s new rulers do at collecting taxes, since their attitude of stiffing Greece’s creditors and explaining away their financial obligations seems to have rubbed off on the population at large.
http://news.yahoo.com/greece-suffered-1-billion-euro-tax-revenue-shortfall-123323137–sector.html
BOE concerned about deflation;
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCMQqQIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffinance%2Fbank-of-england%2F11406953%2FBank-of-England-to-hold-interest-rates-as-UK-heads-for-falling-prices.html&ei=pancVJ7zMMOMNvizhKgO&usg=AFQjCNFiAxSHRPuGUh-twKuXnDd9nlnchw&sig2=dPaMhDM9CLSm2-LAP8Y9TQ
I’m concerned it’s not happening quick enough.
Remember…Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
And now the economic power house of Germany is entering it also..
FXStreet (Mumbai) - EUR/GBP remained in red during the early European session, unmoved by the German prices pressures print which revealed euro area’s economic powerhouse CPI turned negative in January, for the first time since September 2009.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQqQIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fxstreet.com%2Fnews%2Fforex-news%2Farticle.aspx%3Fstoryid%3Dfb9b75a5-90b6-49b3-9990-2236ae90f0a4&ei=HrHcVOKaE4KMNu-AgfgK&usg=AFQjCNGS-e085AyziJSIAqfJ__jjvUl1sg&sig2=11kAmWOqOPeveFDprrL0CA&bvm=bv.85761416,d.eXY
In Europe, unlike the United States, disillusioned voters are rejecting establishment political parties that have been captured by the 1% and are backing upstart alternatives, to the horror of the political and financial elites who have led them to ruin. Learn something, Obama Zombies, McCain Mutants, and Romney Retards.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/12/spain-podemos-party-leads-electoral-pack.html
Podemos has labeled the members of the ruling class — politicians, bankers, business leaders and magistrates — “the caste,” a disparaging term that has its equivalent in “the 1 percent” in the United States. It is frequently used by party leader Pablo Iglesias, a 36-year-old ponytailed political scientist whose charisma is seen as key to Podemos’ success.
“the caste,” a disparaging term that has its equivalent in “the 1 percent” in the United States ??
Is that kind of anger going to get to critical mass here is the question…
Is that kind of anger going to get to critical mass here is the question…
Nope, because most of them believe they’ll be “rich” someday. And they all know some guy who makes bank without working, so they believe they can do it too.
Is that kind of anger going to get to critical mass here is the question…
Not until after the collapse, when the sheeple finally wake up.
The link at the top left of the Drudge Report is titled “Government spending up 8.3% over last year” under a picture of Obama with a bunch of dollar bills in the air
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150211/us–budget_deficit-503db25ece.html
This is the same Drudge Report that links to Fox News, Breitbart, Weekly Standard, Washington Times, World Net Daily, all of which are lustily advocating a two front war in Ukraine and Iraq/Syria
A two front war to be paid for by
“Someone else”
F*ing hypocrites
Per todays CraterCast®, the forecast calls for pain.
http://youtu.be/Hz_ZLvIvYMc
Weekly Standard - Hillary Urged to Attend Netanyahu Address to Congress
Weekly Standard - Kristol Podcast: On Obama, Israel and Netanyahu
Weekly Standard - Power: ‘Ground Troops Are Necessary’ to Defeat ISIS
Weekly Standard - Boehner: Obama’s ISIS War Authorization Doesn’t Go Far Enough
All to be paid for by
“Someone Else”
They want Hillary to attend so they can show the video in negative campaign advertising, and everyone knows it. AFAIK, she’s private citizen and doesn’t belong there anyway.
“They” are winning the narrative
The people who believe that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs like horses and who grew up having sex with their siblings now refer to Bibi on a first name basis
American foreign policy is now determined by people who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, I hope all the Grover Norquists fluffers who want to “shrink the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub” are happy with who they elected
You’ll enjoy this one.
Walker, in London, declines to talk about world affairs, evolution
In a speech short on policy and long on restraint, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker addressed Great Britain’s most prominent think tank Wednesday, avoiding questions on foreign affairs and evolution while emphasizing the “special relationship” between the two English-speaking countries.
The Republican governor sought to bolster his foreign policy credentials ahead of his likely presidential run even as he evaded question after question on international affairs. In his last response, Walker ducked a question and follow-up from his interviewer about whether he believed in evolution, saying politicians were better off steering clear of that issue.
“I’m going to punt on that one as well,” Walker said. “I’m here to talk about trade, not to pontificate about other things.”
The event’s moderator, Justin Webb of BBC Radio 4, responded by saying he believed any British politician would answer by readily accepting evolution.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-addresses-london-think-tank-wednesday-on-global-trade-b99443152z1-291532721.html
The event’s moderator, Justin Webb of BBC Radio 4, responded by saying he believed any British politician would answer by readily accepting evolution.
British politicians don’t have to win the vote in Dixie.
Washington Times - Obama confounds Congress with vague Islamic State war powers request
Washington Times - 73 percent say White House does not have clear strategy for defeating Islamic State: poll
Breitbart - Krauthammer: Yemen Will ‘Become an Ally of Iran’
Breitbart - Iran Suggests Israeli Embassy in Uruguay Bombed Itself
Breitbart - Axelrod: Obama Feels ‘Unrestrained’ On Israel
Breitbart - Albright: I Hope Obama ‘Does See the Value’ of Arming Ukraine
Breitbart - Cruz: Iran ‘Gravest Threat
Fox News - US paratroopers to Ukraine to train troops
Fox News - Intel officials admit tracking American militant fighters in US is difficult
World Net Daily - Iranian Forces Advance Toward Israel
World Net Daily - Cruz blasts Obama’s defense of terrorists
World Net Daily - It’s time to resist creeping Sharia!
Because $80 billion a year for food stamps creates what Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is a “hammock” and not a safety net
But when it’s time to spend over $1.6 trillion to launch a two front war, Scott Walker has no problem putting “boots on the ground”
Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb bomb bomb Iran!
When did you graduate from Rockstar to All-Star?
That’s Superstar, pal!
A boomer favorite: Tumbling
DicePricehttp://youtu.be/6U8JlcB_BzA
I read Keith’s autobiography “Life”
So much strong strong dope at Villa Nellcote when they were recording Exile I’m surprised anyone made it out of their alive
As I had noted a couple of weeks ago regarding the Stones - listen to an HD version of Exile and you hear all these groupies in the background talking while that album was being cut. They all sound like they are out of their minds!!!
Looking at Keith, Jagger and Watts - you gotta wonder how their bodies have withstood the self inflicted abuse!! They look mumified.
Man o man - others would have keeled over a long time ago.
There’s a film on netflix about it.
They’re like the living
deaddebt.Keith Richards estimated net worth = $340 million
How far negative does he go when the shanties are liquidated?
$340 million
I think I could get by on that.
What I wants ta know is, did the driver shout “Allahu Akbar!” before he plowed into that Mercedes? Betcha he did.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/speed-factor-bob-simon-livery-cab-crash-cops-article-1.2112327
Not that I care, particularly.
Bad month for media starz.
That’s not funny
But on the subject of “real journalists” if Craig Stephen Hicks was a Tea Party supporter and not an atheist, the “real journalists” would be running his story like he just assassinated JFK
It wasn’t meant to be funny. And unless Simon was being an elitist jerk and urging the guy to go faster because he was late for a dinner party or some such thing, driving at a high rate of speed in NYC is a red flag. Unless the gas pedal got stuck. I think there’s more to come on this story.
When the driver heard the tick-tock sound coming from the passenger, he just panicked thinking it was a bomb.
Well for one thing, Mr. Simon apparently wasn’t wearing his seat belt.
OTOH, looking at the wreckage, I doubt that it would have mattered much.
driving at a high rate of speed in NYC is a red flag
Seinfeld routine about NYC cabbies
It’s true. Also, if there are seat belts in back (probably, never looked), no one uses them.
Whew, those chickens sure are coming home to roost. Beating the drums for war, war, war.
Obama administration won’t release IRS targeting documents
By Bob Cusack - 02/10/15 06:00 AM EST
The Obama administration is refusing to publicly release more than 500 documents on the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups.
Twenty months after the IRS scandal broke, there are still many unanswered questions about who was spearheading the agency’s scrutiny of conservative-leaning organizations.
The Hill sought access to government documents that might provide a glimpse of the decision-making through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The Hill asked for 2013 emails and other correspondence between the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The request specifically sought emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner and Treasury officials, including Secretary Jack Lew, while the inspector general was working on its explosive May 2013 report that the IRS used “inappropriate criteria” to review the political activities of tax-exempt groups.
TIGTA opted not to release any of the 512 documents covered by the request, citing various exemptions in the law. The Hill recently appealed the FOIA decision, but TIGTA denied the appeal. TIGTA also declined to comment for this article.
December 2007: Ron Paul has a primary campaign “money bomb” fundraising event on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and raises $6 million in a single day
February 2009: CNBC reporter Rick Santelli has a rant on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade calling for a “Tea Party” that goes viral
November 2010: Republicans retake Congress in a wave of “Tea Party” support
February 2015: not one, not a single one of the Republicans or Tea Party supporters in elected office or running for president in 2016 says anything about how America can not afford to pay for a two front war in Ukraine and Iraq/Syria
Tea Party = War Party = Big Fat Hypocrites
So I assume you agree with using the IRS to target political enemies, even if the people who voted to retake Congress in a wave of “Tea Party” support probably did not support or want to pay for a a two front war in Ukraine and Iraq/Syria.
When Ron Paul had a primary campaign “money bomb” fundraising event on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and raised $6 million in a single day, did he mention a two front war in Ukraine and Iraq/Syria? (I know Victoria Nuland had not even said f#ck the eu yet) Did he mention supporting a war anywhere?
I thought the Tea Party candidates were sold as small government less spending, but I could be wrong.
You let me know.
This FOIA request will only scratch the surface of the Obama administration
Someday, maybe someday, there will be an Assange / Snowden document dump that reveals all the lies
Not that anyone in America cares or can remember anything five minutes older than the last celebrity tweet they re-tweeted
And now back to your regularly scheduled two front war
Paid for by
“Someone else”
what is the word of the day for the algos?
Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Hardcover – May 27, 2014
by Philip Hamburger (Author)
18 customer reviews
http://www.amazon.com/Administrative-Law-Unlawful-Philip-Hamburger/dp/022611659X - 417k -
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith sat down with President Barack Obama. Twenty-two minutes, eighteen questions.
posted on Feb. 11, 2015, at 12:13 a.m.
If I can move on to the Affordable Care Act. We reported yesterday that the office supply store Staples is — I’m sure this is an issue you’ve heard about before — is telling its workers that it will fire them if they work more than 25 hours a week. A manager had told a worker we talked to that “Obama’s responsible for this policy,” and they’re putting these notices on the wall of their break room saying that. I wonder what you’d say to the CEO of Staples, Ronald Sargent, about that policy?
Obama: What I would say is that millions of people are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Satisfaction is high. The typical premium is less than 100 bucks.
But this is a specific consequence…
Obama: No, I’m gonna answer the question. And that there is no reason for an employer who is not currently providing health care to their workers to discourage them from either getting health insurance on the job or being able to avail themselves of the Affordable Care Act. I haven’t looked at Staples stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is, but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security, and if they can’t, then they should be willing to allow those workers to get the Affordable Care Act without cutting wages. This is the same argument that I’ve made with respect to something like paid sick leave. We have 43 million Americans who, if they get sick or their child gets sick, are looking at either losing their paycheck or going to the job sick or leaving their child at home sick. It’s one thing when you’ve got a mom-and-pop store who can’t afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers — even though a large percentage of those small businesses do it because they know it’s the right thing to do — but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/…/full-transcript-of-buzzfeed-news-interview-with-president - 530k -
Obamao - a word for you….a fool is wise in his own eyes.
What a lying POS this guy is.
Obamao
I find this moniker amusing, as the guy has done nothing but what corporate America has told him to do. I guess there’s no way to morph his name into something that sounds like Rockefeller or some other robber baron’s name.
+1
“there’s no way to morph his name”
No need. History may use his unique name as a synonym for puppet king.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-12 08:36:28
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith sat down with President Barack Obama. Twenty-two minutes, eighteen questions.
buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/full-transcript-of-buzzfeed-news-interview-with-president#.ah35m4GjVm
Jeb Bush is the golden child, the anointed one
New York Times - The Tough Path Facing Chris Christie and Marco Rubio
Washington Post - As Scott Walker mulls White House bid, questions linger over college exit
Jeb = Hillary and Hillary = Jeb
Got $5 billion of TeeVee commercials?
Nothing says ‘Banana Republic’ more than having the same last names in power, decade after decade.
Nothing says “IDIOCRACY” like imbeciles voting for candidates who pursue exactly the same corporate-statist, crony-capitalist, neo-con positions - Bush clones, all - while falling for vapid slogans like “hope and change.”
So as to not lose track of oil…I pulled this from Art Cashin’s morning memo today:
Crude Storage Capacity – Trading desks and Wall Street watering holes are abuzz with chatter about how fast
crude oil storage capacity is being used up. My good friend and fellow trading veteran, Dennis Gartman has an
excellent review in his letter this morning. Two days ago, another good friend and fellow trading veteran, Jim
Brown, of Option Investor, also wrote on the topic. Here’s a bit of what he wrote:
Oil inventories are at 80 year highs and global storage is filling up fast. Once available storage is at
capacity the impact to oil prices is going to be dramatic. Crude inventories in the U.S. have risen over
30 million barrels in the last four weeks to 413 million barrels. That is an 8% rise in inventories in just
four weeks and this can’t continue forever. According to the EIA the U.S. has 373 million barrels of
storage capacity in various tank farms plus 70 million barrels at the Cushing Oklahoma futures delivery
hub. Refineries have another 148 million barrels of capacity.
In theory that is 591 million barrels of storage capacity except that you can’t fill everything to capacity.
Operators like to keep 15-20% of space available for operations. They need to have space available for
new oil coming in while old oil in other tanks is flowing out. Some of these tank farms blend crude by
combining heavier crude with lighter crude to match refinery input specifications. That requires
available capacity to provide the blending tasks of moving oil around. In reality the threshold level is
probably in the 475 million barrel range and we are at 413 million today. Inventories normally rise until
early May so there may be some trouble ahead. Crude oil declined -4% today to $50.78. Cashin’s Comments February 12, 2015
Page 3 of 4
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released their monthly report today and warned that excess oil
supplies will raise global storage to a record 2.83 billion barrels by the end of June. The IEA warning
means lower prices ahead but they do expect the supply/demand ratio to be back in balance by the end
of 2015. Currently production is 1.5 mbpd over demand and that oil has to be stored somewhere.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said its production expectations for 2015 and 2016
were virtually unchanged from the prior month. They believe new oil coming online from new projects
will offset any temporary decline in shale production.
The world’s largest oil trading company Vitol said they expect a “dramatic build in oil inventories over
the next few months.” If oil builds as we expect we could see a dramatic drop in prices. Most oil
analysts believe the +20% spike in crude over the last two weeks was short covering and a new move
lower is ahead.
Once land storage and tanker storage nears capacity, oil prices could turn ultra-volatile. Stay tuned
Who pays for all the IMF orgies? Are the other central banks hosting orgies?
I saw Janet Yellen’s airport TSA scans and it made me hungry for mashed potatoes
LOL!
Angry US middle classes feel the squeeze
By Prof Mechele Dickerson University of Texas at Austin
8 February 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31121518 - 117k -
They may be angry, but in 2016 they’ll manifest the clinical definition of insanity once again by voting for the Republicrat duopoly’s Wall Street-annointed candidate, HillaryJeb.
I do miss them and their tales of woe, demands of a free house and claims of being forced to cash out refi or buy 3 Miami condos in 2005.
Delinquent Homeowners
Many Americans have stopped paying their mortgages and remain in their homes
by: Carole Fleck,
September 1, 2011
Not paying can give troubled borrowers a chance to get back on solid financial ground. “I say take advantage and save $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 or more in order to go live somewhere else, or buy a house outright,” says Stopa, whose law offices are in Tampa. He says that despite homeowners’ clamoring for help, many banks never provided any. Now, he says, “homeowners are doing what is in their own best interest.”
Delinquent borrowers say they have few options. They cite job loss, collapsed real estate values and subprime mortgages that reset to unaffordable heights.
Martinez, 58, says he would happily trade places with a working, paying homeowner. “I don’t like how I’m living. It’s embarrassing to me,” says Martinez, who lost his job six years ago and fell behind on his mortgage. The bank demanded a $7,000 payment. He offered $3,500; the bank wanted the entire amount.
“What was I supposed to do? If I could strike a deal with my lender, I would,” says Martinez. “People who feel it’s unfair, they’re entitled to their opinion, but they should make sure they have the facts before they make a judgment.”
The Segals, in their 50s, have no plans to move out. They can’t sell and pay off the mortgage. They owe about $519,000, but the property is worth about $270,000. Their foreclosure case is pending.
Light, 80, faces a similar quandary. The $6,000 he was paying for mortgages for both houses exhausted his savings. Yet he doesn’t want to sell because he owes much more than the homes are worth. In March, he won the foreclosure case against one of his homes — the lender’s paperwork was ruled deficient. The lender can seek foreclosure again, but the process would start all over.
“I retired comfortably in 2000 and felt I had plenty of assets to sustain me,” Light says. “The real estate crash devastated me. I’m determined to stay in my house and maintain it rather than let it deteriorate like hundreds of others around here.”
“I don’t rest easy about this,” he says, “but I don’t have anyplace to go.”
http://www.aarp.org/…/info-09-2011/foreclosed-and-paying-no-mortgage.html - 393k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-12 10:26:42
Delinquent Homeowners
aarp.org/money/credit-loans-debt/info-09-2011/foreclosed-and-paying-no-mortgage.html
“The True Story of the Bilderberg Group” and What They May Be Planning Now
A Review of Daniel Estulin’s book
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, May 25, 2014
Global Research 1 June 2009
– establishing a Global Treasury Department and Global Central Bank, possibly partnered with or as part of the IMF;
– a global currency;
– destruction of the dollar through what longtime market analyst Bob Chapman calls “a stealth default on (US) debt by continuing to issue massive amounts of money and credit and in the process devaluing the dollar,” a process he calls “fraud;”
– a global legal system;
http://www.globalresearch.ca/…/13808 -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-02-12 11:07:43
“The True Story of the Bilderberg Group” and What They May Be Planning Now
globalresearch.ca/the-true-story-of-the-bilderberg-group-and-what-they-may-be-planning-now/13808
Are Grexit fears overblown? All signs point to it happening, and traders seem oblivious or indifferent.
Who knows? If the traders are all indifferent, the fears may be underblown.
Maybe an unannounced bailout is in the works, alleviating Grexit fears?
‘Grexit’ would be no easy ride for austerity-weary Greeks
By Jeremy Gaunt
ATHENS Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:53am EST
People read newspaper headlines in central Athens, February 12, 2015. REUTERS/ Alkis Konstantinidis
(Reuters) - “Grexit” would be sudden, sharp and probably conducted in the dark of night; if Greece were to quit the euro, it would also mark the beginning of a long, hard road - for some harder still than the one already traveled.
The new leftist government wants to keep the country in the currency union, as do its euro zone counterparts. But if they fail to agree a deal to replace or extend a bailout program that expires on Feb. 28, Greece faces the risk of a euro exit - “Grexit” in market shorthand - forced by bankruptcy and default.
…
If you get somebody in politics who is not totally bought off, unexpected things will happen.
Meanwhile back in Chicago ILLANNOY - yep - if you are caught cheatin’ then you are a racist. Jesse and Al and Farakhan and the rest of these race baiting idiots are amping it up!!
http://news.yahoo.com/video/jackie-robinson-west-supporters-racism-230500657.html
Valentines Day in Region VIII
http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/02/11/marijuana-flowers-bud-bouquets-weddings-valentines-colorado-washington/29477/
Reading the posts here and other venues as I do - the bottom line that I have come to - and maybe others can chime in - It is all broken, from something as simple as receiving a bill in the mail from the local cable provider to the Post Office to Medical Care, to banking, the housing market, food, pot holes, laws and on and on - it is all just utterly broken. What was supposed to be and sold as making life simpler has made it infinitely more complex and discoverable. I for one am just fed up.
Are we beyond putting Humpty Dumpty back together again? I think we are. What say you out there?
Maybe you have the winter blues. Is there any chance that you can take a week off and spend it in a warmer, sunnier place?
Nothing is ever broken when you’re a 0.1%er
Cheer up! This is just the intermission.
Am reading “The Self-Sufficient Life” by John Seymour. Look forward to a post-retirement life off the grid growing most of my own food, being as self-sufficient as possible, and doing what I can to protect myself and my family from the consequences of millions of stupid people casting votes.
Me thinks Sheryl Atkinson better start watching her back……
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/02/11/60-minutes-correspondent-bob-simon-dies-in-car-crash-at-73/
Oh please. Simon was part and parcel of the controlled media and a reliable Establishment mouthpiece. Sometimes a crash is just a crash.
he was a good dude I think. U cant brand everyone a puppet. I actually enjoyed his reporting. I thought he was genuine.
Dude, quit mellowin’ his harsh.
I think he was a good dude too, but don’t think for a minute he would have ever insisted on journalistic integrity and speaking truth to power over his cushy secure job as a highly-paid MSM media star.
Just had lunch with some Bat Area colleagues who are in town. The talk invariably drifted to million dollar crap shacks near the Santa Clara campus.
The bay area folks are convinced that those prices won’t come down. They insist that “fundamentals” do not apply and that the streets are paved with gold. They also believe that the foreign investor money is inexhaustible.
Some of us challenged them on why prices are so high, especially since their salaries aren’t much higher than ours. They really believe that Silly Valley is “special” and worth the insane prices, not to mention the gridlock and higher prices for everything else (utilities, food, etc.), plus higher taxes (income and property).
For the life of me, I don’t know how they make ends meet. The only conclusion I can come to is that they don’t make ends meet and they use HELOCs to pay for their fancy cars and vacations.
The Land of Fruits and Nuts
The farms and orchards were plowed under decades ago. It’s now the land of shopping malls and subdivisions.
Did you let them know that prices there are falling again?
They don’t believe it. They claim that the naysayers have been predicting price collapse for decades, but that it hasn’t happened. They really believe that prices can only go up. Of course, the Denver crowd also believes that too, but to a lesser degree.
What is interesting is that the new hires don’t want to come to Colorado, they want to be in Silly Valley for the job opportunities, even though they have to share a room with a roommate to save on rent. We were told that at a nearby (to the Santa Clara campus), higher end apartment complex that a 2 bedroom apartment rents for $6000 a month.
Sounds like a bunch of liars work for the firm.
r u still posing as a contractor?
Don’t like reality Poet?
Article for all the alleged “conservative” Republican voters
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-11/adelson-welcomes-romney-now-that-he-s-not-running-for-president
Think your primary votes will matter?
They won’t, because your nominee has already been paid for by
“Someone else”
Who is my ” nominee ” ?
Obama set to announce executive order on cybersecurity threat data
Tech companies hesitant to support cybersecurity information sharing without surveillance reforms
by Joseph Menn | Thomson Reuters Foundation | February 12, 2015
President Barack Obama is expected to announce an executive order directing the government and companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats in response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment.
As in other policy areas where Obama has been unable to get legislation through the now Republican-controlled Congress, the White House is turning to more limited administrative actions to advance its agenda as much as it can.
The announcement could be tonight or tomorrow, when the U.S. president speaks at a daylong conference on cybersecurity at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley, according to three participants in the conference.
The move comes as big Silicon Valley companies prove hesitant to fully support more mandated cybersecurity information sharing without reforms to government surveillance practices exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
“We are certainly hearing that an executive order may be announced,” Nuala O’Connor, president of the technology lobbying group Center for Democracy & Technology, said as she boarded a plane en route to the event.
Why Obama Wants to Regulate the Internet
Government gains power through the ignorance, rather than the consent, of those governed
by Kit Daniels | Infowars.com | February 12, 2015
The mainstream media’s declining influence is motivating the federal government to regulate the Internet because controlling information is the most powerful way to control the public.
The U.S. mainstream media, which is predominantly owned by six corporations with close ties to the government, is used by the establishment to control public opinion, but for the past several years it has lost influence as the public seeks alternative sources of information.
“Just a handful of global news corporations can, in one day, make billions of people around the world simultaneously aware of something that was completely unknown the day before,” Joseph Plummer wrote in Tragedy & Hope 101. “With this kind of power, the Network [the establishment] can choose to spread any lie, or withhold any truth, that it chooses.”
“At the end of the day, if people aren’t looking beyond the Network’s instruments for their information, they cannot expect to know what the Network doesn’t want them to know.”
And that’s why the government is targeting Internet-based independent press: to reduce the mainstream media’s competition.
The establishment media’s decline has been nothing short of legendary.
From Nov. 2012 to Nov. 2013, for example, the ratings for CNN and MSNBC in the 25 to 54-year-old demographic dropped 59% and 52% respectively, and in 2013 the combined median prime-time viewership of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC dropped 11%.
“Mainstream media executives appear to be optimistic they can reverse these declines at some point, but they simply don’t realize there has been a fundamental paradigm shift when it comes to the news media in the United States,” social commentator Michael Snyder wrote. “The general population has lost a tremendous amount of faith in the mainstream media.”
“They are increasingly becoming aware it is deeply controlled by the establishment.”
This has raised concerns among establishment insiders, who gain power through the ignorance, rather than the consent, of those governed, and recently the federal government announced its plan to explore ways to regulate free speech on the Internet.
“A key Democrat on the Federal Election Commission called for burdensome new rules on Internet-based campaigning, prompting the Republican chairman to warn that Democrats want to regulate online political sites and even news media like the Drudge Report,” Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reported. “Democratic FEC Vice Chair Ann M. Ravel announced plans to begin the process to win regulations on Internet-based campaigns and videos, currently free from most of the FEC’s rules.”
Simply put, this is a power grab designed to destroy individual rights in favor of subordination to the ruling elite, which is exactly what the Meiji oligarchy did in 1889 when it returned to power in Japan.
“Like all ruling classes, the Meiji maintained control by indoctrinating the masses in an ideology that served the oligarchs’ interests,” Joseph Plummer also wrote. “Specifically, they propagated the Shinto ideology, which called for subordination to the emperor.”
“The Japanese people accepted this Shinto ideology, and as a result the Meiji oligarchy was able to ruthlessly exploit them in the emperor’s name.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102419892
I think ADan may have written this article…
the saudis want that pipeline through syria to compete with vlad!
Foreclosures surge in Southern California, but for how long?
By Tim Logan
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
Foreclosures in Southern California hit their highest level in two years in January, according to new data out Thursday. But market-watchers say it’s more a matter of lenders clearing their books than a new wave of bad loans.
The number of homes repossessed by banks in Los Angeles County nearly tripled from December to the highest level since December 2012, according to data firm RealtyTrac. Similar patterns were seen in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino
Nationally, foreclosure activity grew 5% from December to January.
Banks are finally adjusting to California’s year-old Homeowners Bill of Rights, which offers new protections for mortgage holders and prolongs the foreclosure process, experts at RealtyTrac say. And that’s pushing a wave of repossessions through the pipeline right now. The number of notices of default - which start the foreclosure process - remains roughly at the level it’s been for the last six months.
“This is really a final push to clear the decks of a still disproportionate amount of distressed homes and finally bring the market back to more stability,” Mark Hughes, CEO at First Team Real Estate in Irvine, told RealtyTrac.
Even this new quicker pace of repossessions remains well behind the levels seen at the height of the foreclosure crisis. There were 1,231 homes taken by banks in Los Angeles County in January, according to RealtyTrac. That number peaked in
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-foreclosures-surge-20150212-story.html
do u serfs need a mobile in the hamptons for a cool mill ?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/dollar1-million-trailer-home-for-sale-in-the-hamptons/vi-AA9gZGG
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/12/alabama-charges-india.html
Oddly enough, our MSM appears to have overlooked this story of thuggish excessive force by those sworn to “protect and serve.”
phony scandals