Bits Bucket for February 23, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Costa Mesa, CA Sale Prices Crash 9% YoY; Declines Accelerate MoM
http://www.zillow.com/costa-mesa-ca-92627/home-values/
Crater Rage: it’s what’s for breakfast
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150223_073312_261-SopQTPPg.jpg
Bonds are king?
Bonds can hold their own when rates rise
Chapel Hill, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Worried that higher interest rates will decimate your bond holdings?
You may be worried for nothing.
Just take bonds’ performance during what is widely thought to be the worst sustained period for bonds in U.S. history. I am referring, of course, to the period from 1965 through 1982, during which Treasury yields almost tripled.
Believe it or not, intermediate-term bonds held their own over this period: A portfolio of intermediate-term U.S. Treasurys, constructed to have a constant maturity of five years, gained 5.8% annualized from 1965 through 1982, according to data from Ibbotson (a division of Morningstar).
That’s almost as good as the S&P 500’s SPX, +0.61% 5.9% annualized dividend-adjusted return over the same period.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-the-income-portfolio-you-want-to-own-when-interest-rates-rise-2015-02-20
“Bonds can hold their own when rates rise.”
This is true if these bonds are held to maturity.
“A portfolio of intermediate-term U.S. Treasurys, constructed to have a constant maturity of five years, gained 5.8% annualized from 1965 through 1982, according to data from Ibbotson (a division of Morningstar).”
Another truth: If these bonds were held to maturity then you would get your money back PLUS you would receive the interest you earned for all the time you held on to the bond.
But there’s a downside: The value of the dollar at the time you purchased the bond was not going to have the same value when the bond reached maturity and was exchanged for cash.
So this article is true in one sense but it is untrue in another sense.
“This is true if these bonds are held to maturity.”
Wrong. This is a fundamental misconception which I often see financial advisors make in print. It would violate the so-called ‘no arbitrage condition’ of finance if you could somehow always guarantee against losses by holding on to an asset to maturity.
Double-digit inflation wiped out long-term bond owners in the 1970s, whether they sold or held.
“So this article is true in one sense but it is untrue in another sense.”
Agreed one cannot lose with bonds provided you ignore inflation.
“Agreed one cannot lose with bonds provided you ignore inflation.”
You could say the same thing about stocks, which outperformed bonds by only .1% over the same period.
But if you think we’re entering a deflationary period, then bonds would be your best bet. And if you’re worried about rising rates (which seem unlikely in a deflationary environment), then holding a portfolio of medium-maturity bonds allows you to follow the rates up. Medium-term bonds seem like a good hedge against both rising interest rates (which would signal inflation) and deflation.
Cascading defaults might put a kink in that.
“But if you think we’re entering a deflationary period, then bonds would be your best bet.”
That’s an easy bet to make if you are certain the Fed’s anti-deflation measures are destined to fail.
“an easy bet to make if you are certain the Fed’s anti-deflation measures are destined to fail”
It hedges either way, inflation with its higher interest rates or deflation with its lower rates. The danger of course is high inflation with low interest rates.
d“It hedges either way, inflation with its higher interest rates or deflation with its lower rates. The danger of course is high inflation with low interest rates.
Prices continue falling either way. It’s the price.
“It’s the price.”
The price gets harder to finance off a fixed income stream to the extent interest rates go higher. Given family budget constraints, the natural consequence of higher interest rates is lower purchase prices.
Commercial real estate slump hitting Russia.
http://www.businessinsider.com/moscows-flagship-12-billion-financial-district-is-a-half-empty-disaster-2015-2
How long before US taxpayers have to bail out Ukraine (again)? Their currency is sinking like a stone.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Currency/USDUAH?countrycode=US
Oil dropping again. Unemployed people don’t do much driving.
http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
More extend and pretend in Greece. Must.keep.Ponzi.going….
http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-now-faces-a-political-and-economic-mess-2015-2
Pretty funny how quickly the new Greek government folded to the bankers.
One day a party will say “If we are elected we will leave the Euro and stiff the bankers” and that party will be elected.
I’ve read that they need to gather some walking money to leave. We’ll see in 4 months.
I’ve been talking to Greek colleagues and reading around the web, trying to figure out what exactly happened. After a weekend to digest the details, it doesn’t look like a fold. See e.g.:
http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/02/greek-deal
Maybe that’s wishcasting. We’ll know better in a few months.
@comrade rio..
yesterday you exposed how fundamentally flawed your leftist thinking really is. you said..
“Writing off bad debts is an essential part of capitalism. And so is not killing the host.”
what is the ‘host’ comrade? is the host socialism/communism? you seem to think so. and as usual you have things bass ackwards. capitalism is the host to parasitic socialism/communism/marxism/facism.
We live in an age where “capital” is now the only God, but healthy capitalism realizes a balance between capital, the people and labor.
so there is ‘unhealthy’ capitalism? that’s like saying there is unhealthy pure water. your balance between capital, the people and labor doesn’t make sense because capitalism contains them all. there is no ‘balance’. i would love to see you explain this gibberish nonsense.
Can I try?
The host is the country and its people who have a capitalist economy.
Unhealthy capitalism is any form of capitalism whose practice is detrimental to the people who host it.
The host is the country and its people who have a capitalist economy.
a leftist would think this way, but ‘host’ suggests a parasite the way the comrade used the word. he was suggesting a belief system, not a geographical area.
Unhealthy capitalism is any form of capitalism whose practice is detrimental to the people who host it.
just like unhealthy pure water, it doesn’t exist.
“Capitalism” is a word. “Pure water” is a phrase. That’s the first difficulty. A logician would suggest you compare “capitalism” and “water”.
but he didn’t say just ‘capitalism’. he put in the qualifier ‘unhealthy’. so i put in ‘pure’ to make the comparison.
So the comparison should be between unhealthy capitalism and impure water.
i’m saying ‘unhealthy capitalism’ doesn’t exist anymore than ‘unhealthy water’. when you say ‘water’ it’s a given that it’s H2O. nothing else. i didn’t need to put in ‘pure’, but it made the emphasis easier to see.
if it helps, you can say ‘unhealthy pure capitalism’ and ‘unhealthy pure water’.
are you done nitpicking me yet?
Your whole argument is a nit pick, and an illogical one at that. If “capitalism” only means “pure capitalism” then we’ve never seen capitalism, and cannot discuss it, for it has never been pure, just as we’ve never seen pure communism, pure socialism, pure theocracy, or pure anarchy. Or pure people. We do however occasionally see pure BS, thanks to you.
If “capitalism” only means “pure capitalism” then we’ve never seen capitalism
the early USA came closest to it. and then the nitpickin’ socialists showed up.
and cannot discuss it,
yeah, right.
just as we’ve never seen pure communism
russia came very close to it. sure worked out well for them, didn’t it?
the bs has always come from the left, like you.
If “capitalism” only means “pure capitalism” then we’ve never seen capitalism
And never will because the “pure capitalism” that many market fundamentalists somehow believe is quasi-divine, is an abstraction that leaves out the human realities that go along with the man-made system of capitalism.
There is no “pure capitalism”. Wiki lists about 20 forms of capitalism. Some of those forms are more healthy than others each of those forms have varying forms of good and bad.
To think there is only one kind of capitalism flies in the face of human, historic and economic reality.
Capitalism Lola style is nothing more than communism.
Get your vocabulary straight Lola.
It’s not capitalism, or communism. It’s financialization.
To think there is only one kind of capitalism flies in the face of human, historic and economic reality.
the argument isn’t that there aren’t variations that people call capitalism. my argument is that the further you get from capitalism, the worse things get. and the closer you get to communism, the worse things get.
talk to a few people who escaped russia and ask them how life was. everyone of them that i’ve seen talk knows what’s happening to the USA. they’re familiar with it. it’s what happened to them in the country they left.
Capitalism Lola style is nothing more than communism.
Am I supposed to be shocked or offended you write that?
I can totally see how it would be possible for an perma-angry Republican with an IQ of about 90 to believe that.
Capitalism Lola style is nothing more than communism.
quite right.
Am I supposed to be shocked or offended you write that?
no! you’re supposed to pretend it doesn’t bother you at all! just like you’re doing.
It’s not capitalism, or communism. It’s financialization.
Right but Financialization has grown out of unhealthy capitalism imo.
Most Communism died a needed death way before financialization. Let’s put the blame where it now rests.
Financialization grew because our once healthy form of capitalism was hijacked by market fundamentalists. Their false religion ruined our once proud and balanced form of capitalism and is killing healthy capitalism.
The market fundamentalists think we have so many foodstamps because we are turning “socialist” whereas the reality is it’s because financialization has bastardized our once health capitalism.
Comparing to what’s happening now in the West to the Soviet Union’s system is idiotic and imbecilic.
“the early USA came closest to it” (capitalism)
“russia came very close to it” (communism)
But by your own terms, if it isn’t “pure” then it isn’t what it claims to be, whether it claims to be capitalism or communism.
Therefore, by your logic, we have never seen capitalism or communism, since we have never seen either in a “pure” form, as you’ve just admitted. We can’t really say either is better, since we’ve never seen either properly, “purely”, at work. Nor have we seen pure anarchy, theocracy, et cetera.
You’ve been getting a good schooling lately Lola.
Most Communism died a needed death way before financialization.
communism didn’t die. but many of the countries that have tried it were and still are heavily damaged. but guys like you never learn.
Let’s put the blame where it now rests.
how do you put something where it now rests? trying to sound sophisticated?
our once healthy form of capitalism was hijacked by market fundamentalists.
no, it was hijacked by the socialists.
Their false religion ruined our once proud and balanced form of capitalism and is killing healthy capitalism.
more gibberish.
The market fundamentalists think we have so many foodstamps because we are turning “socialist” whereas the reality is it’s because financialization has bastardized our once health capitalism.
no comrade, we have so many on food stamps because socialism is slowly killing the economy.
Comparing to what’s happening now in the West to the Soviet Union’s system is idiotic and imbecilic.
tell that to the people who escaped from the soviet union, comrade.
Therefore, by your logic, we have never seen capitalism or communism, since we have never seen either in a “pure” form, as you’ve just admitted. We can’t really say either is better, since we’ve never seen either properly, “purely”, at work. Nor have we seen pure anarchy, theocracy, et cetera.
oh yes we can. you can see the effects of statism or socialism for the gradual effects it has on the economies of the world.
you’ll never believe in freedom, will you odd-alpha?
You’ve been getting a good schooling lately Lola.
Sorry, I was wrong before:
I can totally see how it would be possible for a perma-angry Republican with an IQ of about
9085 to believe that.Falling prices Lola. It’s positively bullish and good for the economy.
Here…. educate yourself.
“Oil price falls again – and ‘could hit $10 a barrel’
http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/oil-price/60838/oil-price-turbulence-will-it-climb-to-100-or-drop-to-10
Oh Hi tj,
Here’s my list of responses to your responses to my posts. And I’ve put as much thought into them as yours reflect towards anyone’s. (You can mix up the order too. That’s the beauty!
1. No it’s you.
2. Nuu uhh
3. I did not!
4. Yea right.
5. Your mom’s ugly.
6. That’s not socialism
7. tryin to sound smartt?
8. Tell that to a Nazi Germany survivor!
9. Bark! Bark! Grrrrrr
Sorry, I was wrong before:
you’ve been wrong lots.
you know it kinda hurts that you’re ignoring me comrade. remember we’re a team. you said so yourself.
1. No it’s you.
2. Nuu uhh…
comrade! i’m honored you’re not ignoring me now!
i’m running out of time to be here much longer today, but maybe we could discuss what demand really is sometime in the near future?
tj Here’s my list of responses to your responses to my posts….I’ve put as much thought into them as yours reflect towards anyone’s
See watch. I can answer you just by using my list. It works!
1. No it’s you.
2. Nuu uhh
3. I did not!
4. Yea right.
5. Your mom’s ugly.
6. That’s not socialism
7. tryin to sound smartt?
8. Tell that to a Nazi Germany survivor!
9. Bark! Bark! Grrrrrr
no, it was hijacked by the socialists.
That’s not socialism
more gibberish
Nuu uhh
how do you put something where it now rests?
tryin to sound smartt?
you’re supposed to pretend it doesn’t bother you at all! just like you’re doing.
No it’s you
just like unhealthy pure water, it doesn’t exist.
Yea right.
we have so many on food stamps because socialism is slowly killing the economy
That’s not socialism
you know it kinda hurts that you’re ignoring me
I did not!
comrade is a scaredy cat.
comrade is a scaredy cat.
Yea right.
if you’re not scared, tell me what demand is.
if you’re not scared, tell me what demand is.
What’s “Demand”? Your mom tellin’ you to clean your room?
Look tj. The reason I don’t care to “debate” you is because I’m not “scared”. I’m not “sacred” of the feeble and snarling way you present your failed and warped economic theories of market fundamentalism.
If I thought you had much influence convincing peeps of your drivel, or even if you were interesting or civil, I might “debate” you. But you don’t and you’re not. And your posts debate themselves.
So go ahead and tell anyone who wants to listen what you think “Demand” is. I probably won’t care.
The reason I don’t care to “debate” you is because I’m not “scared”.
that makes a LOT of sense comrade. people refuse to debate because they’re NOT afraid to. the spinmeisters need to start taking lessons from you. all it means is that you can’t back up your spiel.
I’m not “sacred” of the feeble and snarling way you present your failed and warped economic theories of market fundamentalism.
yet you refuse to debate. i suppose that’s because all you have is feeble squeaking? can’t defend your weak ideas?
If I thought you had much influence convincing peeps of your drivel, or even if you were interesting or civil, I might “debate” you.
no you wouldn’t. you can’t stand the thought that you might be proven wrong. you might be able to fool some sheep, but you can’t fool me.
So go ahead and tell anyone who wants to listen what you think “Demand” is.
no comrade. it’s reserved just for you. we’re a team, remember?
I probably won’t care.
sure you’d care. you just don’t want to be in the hot seat.
people refuse to debate because they’re NOT afraid to.
Why would I debate you? You’re not interesting or challenging. It’s more fun yelling at the FOX news TV screen.
you can’t back up your spiel.
Against your posts, mine back themselves up. And your posts “speak for themselves”.
you can’t stand the thought that you might be proven wrong
That makes no sense. If I thought it might seem you were proving me wrong, I might respond.
can’t defend your weak ideas?
If they were weak ideas, you might say something against them that I’d have to defend.
you might be able to fool some sheep, but you can’t fool me.
Well, I guess that’s just too bahahahahahaahaaahd.
C’mon spit it out Lola…. LOL
you sure put a lot of effort into backing out, comrade.
you sure put a lot of effort into backing out, comrade.
3. I did not!
“Your whole argument is a nit pick, and an illogical one at that.”
Pointing out the obvious flaws in tj’s posts could result in 100% exhaustion of HBB bandwidth due to the intensive and extensive margins of his voluminous rebuttals.
“a leftist would think this way”
Is it beyond your mental capacity to make a reasoned argument without resorting to name calling?
is it beyond your capacity to do anything but troll?
Listen to the pot call the kettle black. Who pays you to troll here, anyway?
have you stopped beating your wife yet?
Troll warning
Unhealthy capitalism is any form of capitalism whose practice is detrimental to the people who host it.
Bingo. Therefore, the type of Capitalism USA and much of Europe is practicing now is unhealthy capitalism - when only the .5% thrive and not most the people. There is no “pure capitalism” as the far-right squawks about when it comes to governments, societies and countries. Never was, never will be.
Every successful (for most it’s people) country in the world had practiced a balanced form of capitalism that more evenly balanced the fruits of capitalistic rewards. It did not just go to the very few at the top as now.
Greece was not by definition a “Socialist” country. That’s hogwash. The people did not own the means of production. They had a lot to improve upon but they were doing OK until the West’s current brand of “Capitalism” got its hooks into them and robbed them blind.
The US, like western Europe, is in the midst of a massive failure of its brand of capitalism. There are no free markets, no price discovery, there are asset bubbles being blown with money that belongs to our grandchildren as people are thrown into despair, while others attain unparalleled riches, and the whole grossly distorted movie is fed to everyone by a well-oiled spin machine. automaticearth
Therefore, the type of Capitalism USA and much of Europe is practicing now is unhealthy capitalism - when only the .5% thrive and not most the people.
you just love to invent stuff and then spew as gospel, don’t you comrade? no such thing as unhealthy capitalism. only creeping communism.
There is no “pure capitalism” as the far-right squawks about when it comes to governments, societies and countries. Never was, never will be.
there’s always some form of socialism creeping in no matter what.
Every successful (for most it’s people) country in the world had practiced a balanced form of capitalism that more evenly balanced the fruits of capitalistic rewards.
ah yes, redistribution of wealth, right comrade? that’s not capitalism though comrade, that’s a controlling form of statism that you love so much.
It did not just go to the very few at the top as now.
thank your cronyism, comrade.
Greece was not by definition a “Socialist” country. That’s hogwash.
according to marx, socialism is by degrees. yes, greece is/was socialistic.
The people did not own the means of production. They had a lot to improve upon but they were doing OK until the West’s current brand of “Capitalism” got its hooks into them and robbed them blind.
you do what all the leftists do comrade. you just muddy the waters. we know comrade.. capitalism=bad.
there is no ‘brand’ of capitalism comrade. there just is or there isn’t capitalism.
Sounds like tj just completed his freshman lit class by reading some piece of crap by Ayn Rand. Go capitalism!
tj,
I’m no leftist, but concur with what Rio wrote. If this is somehow “gibberish” to you, maybe you need to enlighten yourself on the distinction between crony capitalism - what we have now - and a true free enterprise system.
‘crony capitalism’ is not capitalism in any way. it’s corruption.
‘crony capitalism’ is a phrase invented by leftists to defame capitalism. it has nothing to do with real capitalism. crony capitalism is immoral. capitalism is quite moral despite what leftists want us to think.
Wrong, moron. Crony capitalism is practiced by Wall Street and the corporate cartels who have used their capture of both political parties and the media to rig the casino. It is the antithesis of capitalism. Go back to watching Faux News and being a good little Wall Street fluffer.
sure crony capitalism is real to you. you’ve drunk the koolaid.
if you know so much, tell me how crony capitalism differs from corruption, moron.
Go back to watching Faux News and being a good little Wall Street fluffer.
go back to your jug of koolaid.
capitalism is quite moral despite what leftists want us to think ??
The Bush doctrine is still alive and well I see….Why is it, if someone does not see it your neocon way that they must be
LEFTIST !!
bush had leftist issues. i was no fan of his.
i was no fan of his ??
Well, that maybe so but the Faux news “Leftist” bullet point you still use…It just pigeon holes you as one of them…
The bottom line is that many who disagree with the likes of Bill Kristol, Limpy and others are far from being “Leftists”…So when someone suggests that I am leftist because I don’t see it their neocon way, it just pisses me off…
Well, that maybe so but the Faux news “Leftist” bullet point you still use…It just pigeon holes you as one of them…
i don’t need fox news to be what i am so i don’t know what bullet points you’re talking about. if they agree with me, that’s fine. if they don’t, that’s fine too.
i disagree with kristol on many things so of course i know that disagreeing with him doesn’t make one a leftist.
So when someone suggests that I am leftist because I don’t see it their neocon way, it just pisses me off…
if i cared whether i pissed you off or not, i wouldn’t be posting here.
if i cared whether i pissed you off or not ??
And there-in lays your neocon ideology….Which is why your party is dieing…Driving out the logical to pacify the radical…Go ahead, point to your gerrymandering redistricting republican wins along with all the friggen voter suppression legislation your type espouses…
Your dead in a national election…Dead…
Which is why your party is dieing…
you obviously know nothing about me. i have no party.
did you know that ‘networking’ is also a form of cronyism where the job goes to who you know, instead of the best person for the job.
Isn’t it about time for you to start lecturing the HBB readership again on what is or isn’t a currency?
isn’t it about time for you to start endlessly posting about bitcoin again?
Look down below for a teaser!
no thanks, i mostly skip over your posts.
So there has always been cronyism and always will be. In recent decades gone through a period of decreasing mobility. If you consider the kids of today, a large majority of those who get good jobs will be the children of parents who have good jobs.
there used to be much less cronyism than there is today. it used to be that you could get hired on your abilities more than your connections. not so much anymore.
Russian ruble is tanking. Who will default first on their foreign debt: Russia or Ukraine?
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Currency/USDRUB?countrycode=US
Curiously - American has a much higher public debt than Russia (as a % of GDP)…yet no one is calling for default here (yet)
Russia:
2014 CASH SURPLUS: 1.84 trillion - Ranked 5th.
2014 CASH SURPLUS as % of GDP: 3.3% - Ranked 9th.
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TOTAL DEBT: 5.19 trillion - Ranked 10th.
Obama America:
2014 CASH DEFICIT -1,401,093,000,000 - Ranked 98th.
2014 CASH DEFICIT as % of GDP: -9.02% - Ranked 101st.
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TOTAL DEBT: 12.26 trillion - Ranked 8th. 2 times more than Russia
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Russia/United-States/Economy/Debt#russia
“The high cost of falling prices”
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21644196-low-or-negative-inflation-spreading-around-world-more-worry
Region VIII news
Cover story of yesterday’s dead tree edition of Denver Post reports on drug addicts, freaks, panhandlers, homeless on downtown 16th Street Mall
http://www.denverpost.com/News/Local/ci_27575680/Banned-from-16th-Street:-Dozens-ordered-by-court-to-stay-away
Hamsterdam! There is such a place as Hamsterdam and it is located in Colorado!
There should be erected a statue of some sort located at the state line that says something like:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to get high.
A question: Is anyone here surprised at this?
“After the run-in with military police, Alejos was sent to live with an uncle in Michigan but got kicked out after he huffed gasoline while babysitting. He was sent to live with his grandfather but was kicked out when he sold his grandfather’s prescription Oxycontin, he said in a jail interview.”
Region VIII
“He was sent to live with his grandfather but was kicked out when he sold his grandfather’s prescription Oxycontin, he said in a jail interview.”
LOL! Reminds me of the loser son in Requiem For A Dream.
Your Pelosi permanent Democrat Supermajority votes-for-entitlements scum, in other words.
“Police made 1,603 adult arrests on the mall in 2014. The most common crime was shoplifting, followed by trespassing. There were 26 arrests for violating court-ordered bans. The numbers do not include the thousands of confrontations and trips to detox that do not result in arrests.”
Region VIII
While Boehner puts the taxpayers on the line to cover the banks losses from gambling with depositors money. But they’re white guys in suits, so that makes it alright.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to get high.
Meh … 16th street has been a magnet for bums for decades. Pretty much like any downtown area across the country.
‘Police requested and received a ban for Richard Maldonado, 36, who freaked out customers and employees at Red Robin while walking through the building hallway with a needle in his arm. He was arrested for disturbing the peace, tresspassing and having an injection device — his third arrest on the mall in a month.’
Region VIII
” 16th street has been a magnet for bums for decades.”
They say that about DC too.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to get high ??
Or, conversely, we could say;
Give me your pampered, your filthy rich, yearning to get high…
Check Wesleyan college in the news this morning…
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FUS%2FwireStory%2Fwesleyan-students-hospitalized-drug-symptoms-29144289&ei=OFnrVJjaIIfvoATRlILoDg&usg=AFQjCNEJnWjiAa7UUwM7b3wURkC80qjTHw&sig2=3y1Uef-huESmDrX0X_nB4g&bvm=bv.86475890,d.cGU
Better yet - as we note here in Region V Chicago - The Dante quote - All hope abandon ye who enter here…..
Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric mov’d:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Such characters in colour dim I mark’d
Over a portal’s lofty arch inscrib’d:
Whereat I thus: Master, these words import.
why not just segregate them like porn shops all in a certain area and they will be left alone? Denver must have some unused park areas…..people can drive by and drop off all their bottles and cans and they can make a few bucks off of it.
Put of a bunch of porta potties and make them at least feel a little safer.
More “recovery” as Baltic Dry Index slump continues to take a toll on shipping.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/shipping-drybulk-bankruptcy-idINL4N0VX0RF20150223
The financial media are trying to lure more sheeple into Wall Street’s rigged casino with a reprise of the infamous “this time it’s different!” meme.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/knocking-down-nasdaq-5000-as-us-dollar-sentiment-hits-extremes-2015-02-23?dist=beforebell
More “recovery.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/1-in-3-americans-on-verge-of-financial-ruin-2015-02-23
I saw that…amazing! Just imagine how ugly the situation would be if the Great Recession hadn’t ended…
Bombshell or not James O’Keefe may want to look into…
1970s Cars For Sale - OldCars.com Classifieds
http://www.oldcars.com/searchyear1970-1979.html - 33k -
James O’Keefe: “I Am Afraid for My Life”
Journalist set to release bombshell story
by Paul Joseph Watson | February 23, 2015
Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe is about to release a bombshell story that has the journalist fearing for his life.
“We have a story we’re going to release this coming week and I’ve never thought about this before but I am afraid for my life on this one,” O’Keefe tweeted on Saturday.
Whatever its nature, the story promises to be a big one given the impact generated by O’Keefe’s previous work.
In 2007, O’Keefe posed as a donor wanting to give money to Planned Parenthood to pay for the abortion of black and other minority babies. Workers at numerous Planned Parenthood clinics agreed to accept the donation on these terms.
O’Keefe’s biggest scalp was undoubtedly his 2009 take down of ACORN, an advocacy organization for people on low income. Hidden camera footage published by O’Keefe showed ACORN employees giving advice on how to evade detection for tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for ACORN as a result of the exposé.
In August 2014, O’Keefe demonstrated the porous state of the U.S. border when he crossed an unguarded footbridge in the upper Rio Grande while dressed as Osama Bin Laden.
anyone interested in looking for the lost dutchman mine? I will offer you 1% of the gold if u pack all mu sh@t around in the superstitiions.
Monday link list (United States taxpayers edition)
Breitbart - Ambassador John Bolton: ‘Obama worse than Neville Chamberlain’
Weekly Standard - The Israeli Referendum
Washington Times - Islamic State expands beyond Syria, Iraq as recruits create global network of terror cells
World Net Daily - ISIS Following ‘End-of-Days Scenario’
Not much “shrinking the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub” being promoted here, LOLZ
The average Breitbart reader probably thinks that Neville Chamberlain was another guy in Chicago that Obama knew when he was palling around with Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky.
John McCain is “ashamed” at the lack of support for World War III
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-im-ashamed-of-my-country-2015-2
Forward
‘Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) didn’t mince words when he was asked about America’s approach to Ukraine on Sunday. “This is a shameful chapter. I’m ashamed of my country. I’m ashamed of my president. And I’m ashamed of myself,” McCain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today
America to John McStain: We’re ashamed of you, too.
Sing it George….. (or Ben, I’ll take what I can get).
George Jones - He Stopped Loving Her Today
Soon to be a recurring headline:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/existing-home-sales-fall-more-than-forecast-in-january-2015-02-23?link=MW_home_latest_news
This doesn’t look like “green shoots.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/existing-home-sales-plunge-and-dont-blame-weather
With homebuilder sentiment slipping, blamed on the weather (despite improvement in the Northeast), Architecture billings down, and lumber prices down, it should not be totally surprising that existing home sales collapsed in January, which they just did tumbling -4.9% against expectations of -1.8% to a worse than expected 4.82 million SAAR (4.95 expected). This was the biggest January drop since 2010, and is the lowest existing home sales since April.
Oh - and before the talking heads blame the weather - the biggest drop in home sales was in The West (with its warm, dry, sunny home-buying climate). Considering that existing home sales most recent peak in 2014 failed to take out the previous government-sponsored peak in 2013 and remains 30% or more below the 2005 peak, and claims that the housing recovery is in tact are greatly exaggerated.
I’m a bit confused about this thing:
‘Does former Mayor Giuliani not listen to Obama’s speeches? The president has consistently expressed love of country and extolled the virtues of the United States in many speeches’
‘Here are a few examples from Obama: “I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy; our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ That is the true genius of America.” –July 27, 2004′
“These people are a part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.” -March 18, 2008′
First of all, love seems kinda strong. I’ve heard people say, “I love Taco Bell.” But they didn’t really love it, they very much like it. How do you love a country? Does that mean the Post Office? The government in general? If that’s it the opinion polls suggest a lack of love on the part of many. Is it this greatness thing? Does it love me back? Or is it the constitution, the basis of our system, that’s getting trashed left and right? Where’s the love Mr President?
Rudy let this get by: “I’m not condemning his patriotism — patriots can criticize. They’re allowed to criticize. I don’t hear from him what I heard from Harry Truman, what I heard from Bill Clinton, what I heard from Jimmy Carter, which is these wonderful words about what a great country we are, what an exceptional country we are. When he called us an exceptional country, he said we’re an exceptional country, but so is Greece.”
I smell a rat. I’m supposed to love this exceptional-ism? I don’t love any ism. No Rudy, what I think you’re getting at is state worship. You are demanding a prayer, at the idol of the state, it’s mission to control the world; its Empire.
You do what you want Rudy. Some here commented recently about a social contract between peoples and their government. I’ve never seen that contract. I do know what I learned about the role the government and the people have with each other. But I see the nation as a group of individuals. Some of those individuals I might love, some I don’t really care for. The government; it’s more like a Taco Bell of services.
When it comes to the country itself, its like those online questionnaires you see. Are you extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied, neutral, you get the idea. And my response would vary depending on what you were asking me about. The Post Office, the military, the governor, the people of Flagstaff or Phoenix or Texas? My neighbors?
No Rudy, I’m not going to love your Empire or swear allegiance to it. Just get the mail delivered, pick up the trash on Friday, keep the costs down and stay out of my business. And for the Empire; put me down as extremely dissatisfied.
+1
Funny - I don’t even remember a yawn from the press when obama called Bush the UN-P word…
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
obama - July 3, 2008
How much are the new wars in Iraq/Syria, Iran, and Ukraine gonna cost?
And is there a taxpayers’ buy-two-get-one-free special on this?
Forward
It’s unpatriotic.”
obama - July 3, 2008 ??
Really 2-fruit ?? Is that the best you can come up with as a comparison to the frontal assault on Obama for the past 6+ years…
Same goes for Scott Walker (”I don’t know if Obama loves his country” and “I don’t know if Obama is a Christian”). It’s just a variation of the Obama-is-a-Kenyan-Muslim garbage.
The odd thing is why it’s flaring again now. It might have made sense during the 2008 campaign when Obama was introducing himself to American people. At this point he’s been in the White House for six years. There should plenty of things that he’s done in office that can be criticized.
Maybe it’s part of a long term strategy. Get people all riled up about the Muslim Kenyan Socialist nonsense. Then tie Hillary to Obama. Maybe Obama and Hillary are having an affair and he converted her to Islam.
I think the old geezer just wants attention. When he’s not saying something stupid, nobody cares what he has to say. He’s the new Dick Cheney.
I’m not really interested in some pissing match between Rudy and Obama, but as to love of country, yes, it is possible to love a country, and sometime to realize it too late.
I, for example, do love the US, yet despise the occupation government in DC. I love the US, because I have realized, too late, what a great life I have had here and the opportunities afforded me and the space the country has given me. I see much of that as in the past, however. It has been my own subjective experience.
Do I love what I see now? Yes, in the way that one could still love someone who has been a victim of rape and torture, or some horrible disfiguring accident. Or the love that one might have for a dear friend who is dying and being powerless to stop the process. That’s the kind of love I feel for the US at this point in time.
I don’t think either Barack or Rudy feel this way, although perhaps at one time Rudy might have had a bit of that spark and did apply it to improving NYC to the extent that he could. He became more deformed of spirit, as many did, after 9/11, but yes, I do think he did once feel something for the US.
I won’t go there with Barack, except to say that he’s a phony who is all smiles with fists full of vaseline.
This. All of this.
‘I have realized, too late, what a great life I have had here and the opportunities afforded me and the space the country has given me.’
The smart money’s on Harlow, and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breakin’ all the laws
And you’re east of East St. Louis, and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
And Napoleon is weepin’ in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee’s in the mirror
And the band is goin’ home, it’s rainin’ hammers, it’s rainin’ nails
And it’s true, there’s nothin’ left for him down here
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time that you love
And it’s time, time, time
And they all pretend they’re orphans, and their memory’s like a train
You can see it gettin’ smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can’t forget
That history puts a saint in every dream
Well, she said she’d stick around until the bandages came off
But these mama’s boys just don’t know when to quit
And Matilda asks the sailors, ‘Are those dreams or are those prayers?’
So close your eyes, son, and this won’t hurt a bit
Oh, it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time that you love
And it’s time, time, time
Well, things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street
And when they’re on a roll, she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off till I come back again
Oh, it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time that you love
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time
And it’s time, time, time that you love
And it’s time, time, time
Written by: Tom Waits
“Tom Waits”
I need lives, lives for the master!
What’s he building in there?
Closing Time is one of the best blues albums ever made. After that ol’ Tom went off the deep end.
Alan Greenspan predicts there will be some sort of significant event…
…and buy gold
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-22/alan-greenspan-warns-there-will-be-%E2%80%9Csignificant-market-event-something-big-going-hap
More government backed $700,000 subprime loans to strawberry pickers are needed now!!!!
————-
Existing Home Sales Plunge (and Don’t Blame The Weather)
Tyler Durden - 02/23/2015 - ZeroHedge
With homebuilder sentiment slipping, blamed on the weather (despite improvement in the Northeast), Architecture billings down, and lumber prices down, it should not be totally surprising that existing home sales collapsed in January, which they just did tumbling -4.9% against expectations of -1.8% to a worse than expected 4.82 million SAAR (4.95 expected). This was the biggest January drop since 2010, and is the lowest existing home sales since April.
Oh - and before the talking heads blame the weather - the biggest drop in home sales was in The West (with its warm, dry, sunny home-buying climate). Considering that existing home sales most recent peak in 2014 failed to take out the previous government-sponsored peak in 2013 and remains 30% or more below the 2005 peak, and claims that the housing recovery is in tact are greatly exaggerated.
“Realtors are reporting that low rates are attracting potential buyers, but the lack of new and affordable listings is leading some to delay decisions.”
As reported by real journalists at the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-making-of-hillary-50-marketing-wizards-help-reimagine-clinton-brand/2015/02/21/bfb01120-b919-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html
It’s gonna be Hillary vs Jeb, and it’s gonna get really really ugly
$5 billion of political TeeVee ads coming your way soon
$5B to sell exactly the same product. Makes no sense to me.
Farmland prices flashing RED!
The bell is ringing…
———————-
Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy
Reuters - Jo Winterbottom and P.J. Huffstutter - Feb 23, 2015
Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed.
Some grain farmers already see the burden as too big. They are taking an extreme step, one not widely seen since the 1980s: breaching lease contracts, reducing how much land they will sow this spring and risking years-long legal battles with landlords.
The tensions add to other signs the agricultural boom that the U.S. grain farming sector has enjoyed for a decade is over. On Friday, tractor maker John Deere cut its profit forecast citing falling sales caused by lower farm income and grain prices.
Many rent payments – which vary from a few thousand dollars for a tiny farm to millions for a major operation – are due on March 1, just weeks after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated net farm income, which peaked at $129 billion in 2013, could slide by almost a third this year to $74 billion.
The costs of inputs, such as fertilizer and seeds, are remaining stubbornly high, the strong dollar is souring exports and grain prices are expected to stay low.
landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed.
Kinda like:
Banks determined to sustain debt payments against Greeks worried about making debt payments because their revenues are squeezed.
The Greeks should just go all “farmer” on the banks. And the banks should realize they’re going to have to write off some bad-debt.
It’s part of healthy capitalism unlike our current unhealthy capitalism. You make bad loans, you take some losses.
Isn’t “unhealthy capitalism” merely a succinct description of how investment banks make a bundle of money through unleashing financial havoc on the masses?
Case in point: Subprime mortgage lending crisis
Investment-bank paid prostitutes need not reply.
Unhealthy Capitalism = When nothing is allowed to fail.
Imagine what a better country we would be if:
We had let the investment banks fail in 2008
We had let the UAW fail in the GM bankruptcy
We had let GM and Chrysler fail and had a real bankruptcy
We would allow cities/counties/states to fail and throw off their insane public union contracts
+++1
What’s your walkscore?
“Panasonic chose from 22 different cities, and eventually the choice came down to either Dallas or Denver, Doyle said.
What sold them? The earnest collaboration between all parties involved and the access to transit”
http://m.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2015/02/dia20-development-plentiful-along-the-rail-line-to.html?page=all&r=full
If I had to be in Dallas, I’d rent in University Park. I’m sure its walkability is in the 90s.
Dang! My street in Zona Sul Rio:
Walk Score:
“96″
“Walker’s Paradise”
“Daily errands do not require a car.” walkscore dot com
(A street one block away got a 99!)
Does it really matter which of those two corners you stand on?
“If I had to be in Dallas, I’d rent in University Park”
University Park, TX Sale Prices Crash 24% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/university-park-tx/home-values/
Denver vs Dallas choice to me seems to be a no-brainer…
Can a Bitcoin-style virtual currency solve the Greek financial crisis?
Paul Mason
Introducing a parallel currency would create money and delay Greece’s inevitable financial default. But the strategy will only work if investors believe the country won’t collapse
Markets create money, and the state’s role is to make sure it’s not fake or diluted. Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images
Sunday 22 February 2015 15.00 EST
Last modified on Monday 23 February 2015 03.12 EST
There’s almost no upside to a eurocrisis. You become part of a rolling maul of politicians, journalists and economists ripping and gouging at each other, both in private and on Twitter. The only advantage of being there is that it forces you to think laterally about money. Soon – if the Greek crisis is not resolved – one of the most audacious pieces of lateral thinking ever could get a try-out: a parallel digital currency, issued by the Greek government, modelled on Bitcoin, but with a crucial difference.
In orthodox economics, money barely figures. It’s just there, acting as a lubricant to supply and demand. The assumption is: markets create money, and the state’s role is to make sure it’s not fake or diluted.
Bitcoin is an audacious attempt to create money beyond the control of any state. It is a digital currency, in the form of a limited number of tokens. It is championed by people who would, if they could, return to a gold standard – where states are obliged to limit the amount of money in the economy. What these money fundamentalists worry about is states creating so much money that booms and busts become inevitable and inflation erodes wealth. In this sense, Bitcoin’s aim is to function as “digital gold”.
…
‘the state’s role is to make sure it’s not fake or diluted’
Extremely dissatisfied.
Is Bitcoin really a currency?
Maybe they can mint a 1-trillion drachma coin.
“[Bitcoin] is championed by people who would, if they could, return to a gold standard”
LOL and SMH at that image — Bitcoin and gold standard. Like using a quad core CPU and a digital control system to operate a steam locomotive. Why anyone would want to go back to an archaic stone age practice of exchanging goods and services for lumps of yellow metal is beyond me.
Have fun using bitcoin to buy food, or possibly your own freedom or safe passage when “Go Time” happens
Got 7.62×39?
Got 5.56?
Oh wait - obama has banned it.
ATF Seeks To Ban Common SS109/M855 5.56 Ammunition
http://bearingarms.com/goodbye-greentip-atf-seeks-ban-common-ss109m855-5-56-ammunition/
Region VIII is a political laboratory that will not be easily pigeonholed into the false red state vs blue state dichotomy
When the grabbers ban 30 round magazines, we boot some of them out of the state legislature
We legalize weed (see also above Denver Post article)
I voted for Republican Bob Beauprez for governor last year, but I didn’t vote for any Republican candidates for federal office who want to launch World War III
Forward
Have fun using bitcoin to buy food, or possibly your own freedom or safe passage when “Go Time” happens
If you have some precious on you, you’ll probably be able to bribe the border guards (especially on the southern border) to grant you entry. Offer them some of your Bitcoins and they’ll say “Que?”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rent-walkouts-point-strains-u-farm-economy-062853054–sector.html
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed.”
In case you feel like throwing up inside your mouth today
‘This is a strange, contradictory moment for feminism. On one hand, there’s never been so much demand for feminist voices … ’stories about race and gender bias draw huge audiences, making identity politics a reliable profit center in a media industry beset by insecurity’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/online-feminists-increasingly-ask-are-the-psychic-costs-too-much-to-bear/2015/02/19/3dc4ca6c-b7dd-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html
Enjoy the lonely decades with your cats and boxed wine, ladies
well, this should help housing prices…
————-
Texas Business Leaders Say It All: ‘Oil At $50 Per Barrel Is Painful’
BI | 2-23-2015 | Myles Udland
Manufacturing activity in Texas is plunging and the crash in oil prices is to blame.
The Dallas Fed’s February manufacturing index fell to -11.2, down from -4.4 in January and well below the -4 reading that was expected.
One business executive in the primary metal manufacturing sector said that, “There has been a rapid decline in orders over the past 30 days, primarily in energy-related work. Overall, business has declined by 30 percent in the past month, and our forecasts, based on customer feedback and order volumes, indicate further decline in overall business.”
“Oil at $50 per barrel is painful. We laid off 25 percent of our workforce to match labor with demand. The current thinking is if we can get through the first half of 2015 unscathed, we will be okay in the second half. We’re optimistic that things will be better in the second half of the year in the offshore energy market.”
It’s fun to watch our communists who claim to be capitalist $hit all over themselves backpedalling when their price fixing BS is exposed.
Fun indeed.
Hey Boots:
How was the viewing up on Loveland Pass yesterday following your poop chute relief at the local Mc.D’s out there - was the avalanche worth the cost?
“worth the cost?”
http://www.picpaste.com/tmp_IMG_20150222_120138_5461650284645-FBhPuvev.jpg
YES
And here we go!
Name all the time bombs in this article…
——————-
Here’s the budget of a 27-year-old who owns 2 houses
Business Insider - 2/23/2015
After graduating college in 2009, Brian Maida lived with his parents for about two years in order to save the money to buy his first home.
He bought a second one in 2013.
Maida, 27, lives in New Jersey and works in business development and sales. He says it only took about $14,000 to buy that first place, which he now rents out for supplemental income.
“I was able to refinance that loan within a year and show them that I had 20% equity based on their appraisal, and that lowered my payment by almost 20%,” Maida explains. “You can get pretty good deals on real estate if you look hard and negotiate.”
In fact, Maida devotes the bulk of his monthly budget to his properties, and plans to buy a third property in March of this year. “I liquidated my 401(K) and Roth IRA,” he explains. “I no longer believe in investing in the stock market — I follow it too much. I would rather buy real estate and leverage my money. Right now I own about $250,000 in real estate, and I put in maybe $40,000.”
Maida works in business development and sales. “IN.” That’s code for cleaning the toilets in the sales offices. Or he sends push-texts on his phone while sipping his venti soy froufroucino at Sbux.
“I was able to refinance that loan within a year and show them that I had 20% equity based on their appraisal, and that lowered my payment by almost 20%,” Maida explains.
Equity for nothin’ and your chicks for free.
Tipping the Scales in Housing Court
By MATTHEW DESMOND
Published: November 29, 2012
Our legal system extends the right to a state-appointed attorney to someone facing months or years of prison but not to someone facing months or years of homelessness. In recent years, the poor have watched their incomes flat-line or drop, while housing costs have soared and federal spending on low-income housing assistance has plummeted. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, only one in four families who qualify for housing assistance get it. The rest devote huge chunks of their income — sometimes 80 or 90 percent — to rent. For these families, missing a rent payment is less the result of irresponsibility than of inevitability.
I’ve spent the last several years studying eviction. I lived for more than a year in some of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods, shadowing evicted families and their landlords. Along the way, I saw hardworking landlords let some tenants slide when they missed payments or reluctantly evict families who had fallen behind. But I also saw landlords carry out retaliatory evictions against tenants who had reported housing problems, and watched some lie in court about what tenants had paid them. I met one landlord who hired heavies from outside the neighborhood to evict families and another who liked to remove the doors of tenants who hadn’t paid up.
Providing lawyers to tenants facing eviction would help curb these abuses and prevent families from being wrongly evicted. And it works. A recent randomized experiment in Quincy, Mass., involving 129 participants showed that two-thirds of tenants offered full representation avoided eviction, compared with one-third who were offered limited assistance like instructional clinics.
Renting blah
On Monday, Heiney and fourteen other people who took out loans to attend Corinthian announced that they are going on a “debt strike,” and will stop repaying their loans.
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/student-debt-revolt-begins
OK i agree if you got royally ripped off as opposed to getting a valid college degree..
Bankers laugh.
Bankers will garnish thier social security checks 40 years from now to collect if there is one debt dollar to collect…
This debt never goes away.
Only bigger and bigger government can fix this…
Ron Paul: U.S., EU Behind Ukraine Coup
by Kit Daniels | Infowars.com | February 23, 2015
The overthrow of the legally elected government of Ukraine was “was not only supported by U.S. and EU governments — much of it was actually planned by them,” former congressman Dr. Ron Paul said.
In his weekly column posted Sunday, Dr. Paul blamed western interventionism for the death and destruction in Ukraine’s ongoing civil war.
“Looking back at the events that led to the overthrow it is clear that without foreign intervention Ukraine would not be in its current, seemingly hopeless situation,” he wrote. “By the end of 2013 [before the coup], Ukraine’s economy was in ruins. The government was desperate for an economic bailout and then-president Yanukovych first looked west to the U.S. and EU before deciding to accept an offer of help from Russia.”
That led to division within the country, but as Dr. Paul points out, if it wasn’t for western intervention, the problem may have solved itself eventually instead of escalating into a full-blown civil war.
“The protests at the end of 2013 grew more dramatic and violent and soon a steady stream of U.S. and EU politicians were openly participating, as protesters called for the overthrow of the Ukrainian government,” Dr. Paul added. “Senator John McCain made several visits to Kiev and even addressed the crowd to encourage them.”
“Imagine if a foreign leader like Putin or Assad came to Washington to encourage protesters to overthrow the Obama administration!”
The protests, which were funded by billionaire activist George Soros, ultimately led to the overthrow of the government and the installation of politicians handpicked by the U.S. State Department.
Soros, who actively influences the politics of Russia-linked countries through various front groups, admitted his involvement in Ukraine during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
“First on Ukraine, one of the things that many people recognized about you was that you during the revolutions of 1989 funded a lot of dissident activities, civil society groups in eastern Europe and Poland, the Czech Republic. Are you doing similar things in Ukraine?” Zakaria asked Soros.
“Well, I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia, and the foundation has been functioning ever since and played an important part in events now,” Soros responded.
Why does Sharyl Attkisson’s computer turn itself off and on again by itself when she is not home?
Forward
Greece
They apparently owe $342 billion. If all of that were written off the ECB would go into negative equity.
Contrary to popular belief, the Greeks are a hardworking people - see Wikipedia for other interesting “facts” in Greece’s favour.
Greece received about $190 in bailout but really only got $15 billion. The rest stayed in Europe to pay interest and loan payments.
They didn’t get a 50% reduction but a $50 billion reduction - less.
If they follow austerity they will be no better off in 2020 than they were in 2006.
It is impossible for Greece’s GDP to improve as it’s austerity “profit” is being given to Europe.
Etc.
I don’t know how much truth there is to all of the above, but this seems clear - Greek unemployment is terrible and a large percentage eat at soup kitchens.
Although European banks own the Greek debts it appears that vulture funds (who buy debt at 25% or less) really are the debt owners. The two year debt is paying 176% interest. I can only surmise that these banks have already sold their debt to these funds.
We don’t seem to be following Greece’s demands too well. They have always wanted the extension since their election. And Europe gave it, so why are we saying that Greece folded to Europe’s demands?
Greece didn’t out spend the rest of Europe to get into this mess. In some ways they outperformed several European countries (Wikipedia).
What is surprising is that Greece will need a $300 billion dollar discount and a drachma all its own to be able to concentrate it’s very limited resources into shipping and tourism - and that amount alone has the potential to paralyze Europe. Then Moral Hazard will make it an impossible situation.
It can be done simply by Greece saying “this is what we will do”.
I don’t see Europe having much leverage.
Look, Europeans realize that they have put the boots to Greece in all of their negotiations wanting pie in the sky austerity to produce payments probably destined for vulture funds - but guaranteed by the banks and the ECB. Echo from the 30s.
I know I am just parroting what various economists are saying, but surely someone can come up with a solution ie new bond series repayable in drachmas over a 100 year period without interest !
Could this be the shot that sinks the global economy?
A new mass movement in Spain is rejecting the bankster-owned political elites and co-opted establishment parties…hmmm.
http://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-podemos-and-its-founder-pablo-iglesias-2015-2
A new mass movement in Spain is rejecting the bankster-owned political elites and co-opted establishment parties…hmmm.
From that article watching posted way above here today.
Reading The Greek Deal Correctly
…Alexis Tsipras stated it correctly. Greece won a battle – perhaps a skirmish – and the war continues. But the political sea-change that SYRIZA’s victory has sparked goes on. From a psychological standpoint, Greece has already changed; there is a spirit and dignity in Athens that was not there six months ago. Soon enough, new fronts will open in Spain, then perhaps Ireland, and later Portugal, all of which have elections coming. It is not likely that the government in Greece will collapse, or yield, in the talks ahead, and over time the scope of maneuver gained in this first skirmish will become more clear. In a year the political landscape of Europe may be quite different from what it appears to be today.
Well, let’s see how they do. That paragraph is pretty rah-rah, the analysis of the agreement has more meat in it. I expect it’s going to come down to their ability to implement meaningful reforms — bringing down the hammer on tax evasion, eliminating government-teat enterprises from no-bid construction companies to state-owned media, eliminating protection for sinecure jobs, etc. I’ve heard Varoufakis talk about the first two repeatedly, and apparently the third is seriously on the table.
Of course, four months to bring in meaningful tax receipts is not a lot of time. A greek colleague today told me that they’ve frozen 17 accounts of individuals whose greek/swiss bank holdings don’t square up with their tax filings. Hope they can pick up the pace.
The link again: http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/02/greek-deal
Does anyone besides me find the timing of tj’s reemergence right on the heels of AlbqDan’s disappearance rather curious?
I found this humorous
The question Monday from Republican state Rep. Vito Barbieri came as the House State Affairs Committee heard nearly three hours of testimony on a bill that would ban doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine.
*****
Dr. Julie Madsen, a physician who said she has provided various telemedicine services in Idaho, was testifying in opposition to the bill. She said some colonoscopy patients may swallow a small device to give doctors a closer look at parts of their colon.
“Can this same procedure then be done in a pregnancy? Swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine what the situation is?” Barbieri asked.
Madsen replied that would be impossible because swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina
Republicans say
We don’t need no sex education - Apparently they do
It’s good to know that these are the guys determining what’s best for women.
After paying through the nose for gasoline for years, it is hard to bring myself to shed any tears for OPEC nations which are currently taking it between the legs.
ft.com > Markets >
February 23, 2015 6:20 pm
Oil slide could trigger Opec emergency meeting
Anjli Raval, Oil and Gas Correspondent
Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke talks with media before the start of the 162nd meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) conference on December 12, 2012 in Vienna. OPEC holds a meeting to decide on the cartel’s oil output levels and to choose a new secretary-general, ahead of a predicted slowing of world energy demand growth that may dent high crude prices. AFP PHOTO/SAMUEL KUBANI (Photo credit should read SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP/Getty Images)©AFP
Members of Opec have discussed holding an emergency meeting if crude continues to slide, according to Nigeria’s oil minister, in a sign of their growing alarm over the impact of a lower oil price on their economies.
The comments by Diezani Alison-Madueke come three months after the cartel’s decision to hold production at 30m barrels a day, even as the oil price has plunged since mid-June.
That move, driven by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, marked a sharp deviation from Opec’s traditional strategy of adjusting production to keep prices high. The group’s main objective is now to defend market share, despite dramatically reduced revenues.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Lied About Iran With Infamous “Clear Red Line” Threat, Mossad Leak Reveals
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-23/israels-netanyahu-lied-about-iran-infamous-clear-red-line-threat-mossad-leak-reveals