Bits Bucket for February 28, 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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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) Remarks at CPAC 2015
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4529581/senator-rand-paul-remarks-cpac-2015
Rand Paul. The antithesis of our very own Ru Paul.
people with mortgages can never go here because they are broke
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150228_070019_862-k4VDcuSV.jpg
Ugh, snow. I’ll take a warm couch anyday.
+1…. and a pot of coffee and dozen donuts.
I’m about to grab my second cup of joe. We have no snow to report here (it’s 49 degrees F outside — a bit too warm), but it did rain last night…
About 2 inches on the ground here with light freezing drizzle coming down. Good day to read in between dog walks. Linguisa and eggs for breakfast. My wife is taking me out for chicken fried steak later once it gets above freezing.
No ice dams to report.
Frigid February 2015: CNY says goodbye and good riddance to one for the record books
And then there was the relentless snow: nearly 5 feet of it, coming down for 23 straight days and accumulating enough to make this month the second-snowiest February. The snowpack was the deepest it’s been in 11 years, enough to cause flooding concerns.
Someday we’ll regale our grandkids with tales of how we survived February of 2015. Here are just some of the records we can tell them we lived through:
http://www.syracuse.com/weather/index.ssf/2015/02/february_2015_weather_syracuse_coldest_month_on_record_northeast.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Linguisa and eggs for breakfast ??
Nice Portuguese breakfast…
Frigid and gusting this morning windchill in the low twenties.
Tug hill webcams for the snowmobiliers
http://www.northernchateau.com/northernchateau.htm
Right in the center of DumbAss Country right there.
The measels vaccine story is telling, especially since he’s the son of a medical doctor.
Health
Christie and Paul Come Down With Measles
Feb 6, 2015 11:56 AM EST
By Margaret Carlson
We aren’t the stupid party. That was the word early this week from GOP central command. From now on, Republicans are four-square behind vaccinating children against deadly diseases. Welcome to the 19th century. Louis Pasteur is smiling down.
Sadly, Governor Chris Christie and Senator Rand Paul, leading Republican lights and likely presidential candidates, didn’t get the memo soon enough. They suffered a bout of hoof-in-mouth disease that led them to try to play nice with the activist anti-vaccine crowd (also known as: those most likely to vote in early 2016 caucuses and primaries).
As they both now know, there’s no vaccination against pandering going viral. The ensuing kerfuffle over their sympathy for those who would jeopardize the health of all to indulge a few is a lesson in the dangers of blowing a dog whistle. It is also a reminder of an older, simpler lesson: It pays to tell the truth.
You might expect sympathy for anti-vaxxers from the far right of the party. Christie, though, is supposed to be modern, with crossover appeal, and Paul is fashioning himself as a new, hipper kind of Republican who worries about drones and incarceration rates.
Even as we received news Monday that an outbreak of measles had spread across 14 states, Christie was in London, on a trade mission for his state that was supposed to do double duty as an opportunity to burnish his foreign policy cred in preparation for 2016.
Instead, he wound up having to answer questions about whether parents should have to vaccinate their children. He said his four kids were vaccinated, but that “that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”
That laissez-faire approach plays well with the keep your hands off my guns, my textbooks and my kids constituency he may need for the Iowa caucuses, as well as some New Age liberals he’ll never get, but not necessarily with the 99 percent of us who thought the disease had been eradicated in the U.S. Christie’s office was soon out with a correction, saying there was “no question kids should be vaccinated.” It was too late. The governor cancelled three news conferences and shouted at reporters as he ignored them, “what part of no questions don’t you understand?” Not quite the international statesman he had hoped to convey.
…
Nice hit piece with no substance. They must be a bit worried about Christie or Paul.
Awhile back I had to explain to my uber leftist friend who posted some leftist website link hit piece on Facebook that the bulk of the anti-vaxers are actually not right wing nutjobs.
When red states have a higher vaccination rate and Compton has a higher vaccination rate than Beverly Hills, it is clear that the crazy people are the costal liberal elites.
I have to give him credit though as after I dropped those facts, he admitted to me at a party later that he looked it up and I was right.
Leftists and their projection…. smh
This was the interesting headline:
On the domestic front, Paul revealed that in the coming weeks he would propose “the largest tax cut in American history” and that it would slash taxes for everyone “from the richest to the poorest.” In addition, he said he would unveil a spending blueprint that would balance the federal budget in “just five years,” a highly aggressive timetable.
I can’t wait to see the details.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/twenty-sixteen/at-cpac-rand-paul-says-he-will-propose-largest-tax-cut-in-american-history-20150227
No son of bush shall be president ever again.
See Rand Paul’s CPAC speech from yesterday, please God let him walk the walk and not just talk the talk
This country is f*ing doomed
SENATOR Rand Paul. Hence no walk will be walked. Now back to our regularly scheduled Lola.
I’m guessing Lola/Ru Paul violated his parole again.
Or there was a 2 for 1 special at the liquor store.
….. and blacked out in an alley with Liberace.
Too cold and snowy in DC for their back alley shenanigans. Slushy Anklepants too cold and wet.
“No son of bush shall be president ever again.”
No Bush hat trick aristocracy?
Did you mean to type “No son of Bush shall ever be president again.” ?
Capitalization is the difference between “helping your Uncle Jack off a horse” and “helping your uncle jack off a horse”.
FWIW, there are hyphenation options available that should help clear things up.
Housing is cratering.
CR8R
Amazing that the neighbor’s place is still standing.
Frisco, TX(Dallas) Sale Prices Crater 8% YoY On Plummeting Housing Demand
http://www.zillow.com/frisco-tx/home-values/
Negative inflation puts more discretionary income into people’s wallets. And this is bad for the economy because (fill in the reason)…
Obama!
Free opiates, make work government jobs or disability for everybody.
You had me at free opiates.
When you allow your economy to be 70% dependent on consumer spending the answer is obvious. If people anticipate that goods will be cheaper six months from now than today they do not buy. Jobs are lost from retail back to the little manufacturing that is going on. Now, those laid-off workers have lost their buying power. No, Obama did not make us 70% dependent on consumers but six years after he took office he has done nothing to move us to a more supply side economy which relies more on exports or at least import substitutions. Deflation in export led economies can actually be good since it can make their goods more competitive.
Remember…. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
Do people really buy more cars and appliances if they think the prices are going up?
Are people going to hoard beef cause they think the price is going up?
Do people delay purchases of gasoline and food if they think it will be cheaper next month? I don’t think so.
This may work with houses, and we’ll soon find out.
Beef no. However, large appliances and cars yes. People will wait on flat screen TVs and cars, I know I do to get the best price. Auntie Fed is waiting on a house with the expectation of deflation. Japan demonstrated the phenomenon in recent times. However, in post-civil war U.S. we had examples of this because modern manufacturing methods drove down costs so people would save money and wait. Over the longer run, I think these cash based high savings economies are better and more stable, however the transition back to one would be quite painful, particularly to Mr. Banker.
Why do Mr. Banker’s priorities drive every financial decision Uncle Sam makes?
“Why do Mr. Banker’s priorities drive every financial decision Uncle Sam makes?”
Because I own Uncle Sam’s totally incompetent ass and he will continue to do exactly what I want him to do.
And he will like it.
Go here (if you dare):
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=animal+house+assume+the+position+youtube&FORM=VIRE4#view=detail&mid=40FD3714E2CE1F316A2340FD3714E2CE1F316A23
Didn’t't burgeoning US oil production substitute for oil imports?
Yes but now Obama has devastated the industry with his war on Russia. Since he never did anything to support the industry and in fact hurt the industry by not supporting the XL pipeline, my statement above is correct, Obama has done nothing to move us away from a consumer led economy.
Obama has closed down areas to drilling that have known oil reserves while opening areas where no one knows if any oil exists. Then, he claims that he has actually increased the amount of acreage available for drilling. He loves to play political games not move beyond politics and actually adopt policies that are good for the country as a whole.
I ate jambalaya last night and then Obama gave me heartburn. But then I saw that Putin freed a baby dolphin from a net with his shirt off and I felt so much better. Isn’t the world great when you have a hero?
Oddfellow, I think this would be a good investment opportunity for you:
http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Black-dollar-scam-explained-in-Cape-court-20150226
“Isn’t the world great when you have a hero?”
It’s also convenient to have a scapegoat in high office, on whom you can heap blame and vituperation for any policy outcome that displeases you.
Excerpt:
Cape Town - Victims of the black dollar scam believed that they had the magic to turn black pieces of paper into US dollars, a court in Cape Town heard on Thursday.
Police Warrant Officer Gert Botes told the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville that the scam involved small lock-up safes, stuffed with pieces of black paper cut to the size of the dollar.
He was under cross-examination by Legal Aid defence attorney Hayley Lawrence, at the trial of Captain Siyaza Patrick Siyale, aged 51, and colleague Wilfred Mentoor - both of whom have pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, theft and defeating the ends of justice.
They appeared before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, and Siyale alone is also charged with extortion (blackmail).
READ: Recycled ID crime spikes in SA
The charge sheet tells how a Congolese investor, David Kilato, duped Nicodemus Solly Moeng into giving him R300 000. At the time, Moeng was the president of the French South African Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
As security for his investment, Moeng was to receive a number of small safes filled with black pieces of paper, which would magically turn into dollars and double his investment.
Siyale, at the time, was investigating several black dollar scams and intercepted Moeng after Moeng had received two safes from a courier.
“Black dollar scam explained in Cape court”
I’m wondering if this would be a better or a worse investment than Bitcoin swaps?
7:18 pm ET
Feb 27, 2015
Bitcoin Swaps Exchange Gets Public Listing Via Reverse Merger
By
Michael J. Casey
CONNECT
Karen Bleier/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Investors looking to bet on the future of digital currency could soon have an equity vehicle for doing so, courtesy of a penny stock reverse merger that should see bitcoin derivative trading platform Tera Exchange become a listed company.
Tera Group Inc. announced earlier Friday that it has entered into a merger agreement with MGT Capital Investments, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company that runs online gaming sites. Under the terms of the deal, Tera will take a controlling stake in MGT, which will issue common stock shares worth 70% of its pro form equity to Tera’s owners. MGT, which has a market capitalization of $5.2 million, was last quoted at $0.70, up 36% on the day.
In September, Tera became the first regulated platform for bitcoin derivatives, when the Commodities Futures Trading Commission approved its platform, which uses the proprietary TeraBit Index as a dollar/bitcoin price benchmark for managing swap contract execution. Swaps on the Tera platform are settled in dollars, which means that traders need not have direct ownership of bitcoins to participate.
The development of swaps and options trading in bitcoin is considered by many as a critical step in taming the sometimes wild volatility in the bitcoin market, as these hedging vehicles allow traders to offset risks of exchange rate losses. A smoother price is in turn seen as a necessary prerequisite for enticing more people and businesses to use and accept bitcoin as a means of payment and value transfer.
Since its launch, Tera’s platform has seen over a million “indications of interest,” or bids and offers, though only a very small number of those have resulted in executed trades, said CEO Christian Martin. That divergence, he said, reflected the price discovery process that’s inevitable in a very new marketplace with no historical references for building consensus around the valuation of differently timed swap contracts.
Mr. Martin, who has spent 25 years in emerging-market trading environments, said this was akin to the early days of the credit-default swap market. Back then, “people were starting to develop a use case and when the use case was developed then you got liquidity, and that’s where we’re at with the bitcoin community.”
Tera’s products are marketed to institutional investors. Currently, its clients include bitcoin payment processors, exchanges and insurers, along with a few hedge funds and other investment institutions.
Mr. Martin said that the company hopes to benefit reputationally from being the first bitcoin exchange with a public U.S. listing and that this status should help it raise capital for future operations. The Tera team is as yet undecided what to do about MGT’s legacy gaming operations, he said, acknowledging “there are synergies” with the bitcoin business. He added, “we’re going to review all of that together [with the MGT management] and decided whether that is an asset that has more value broken up or if it has more value in itself.”
…
I showed very similar hostility to W on similar issues illegal immigration and a naïve view that democracy works in the Middle East without a similar comment by you, very interesting.
Many here pretend to be ” a pox on all their houses” types, but are really just angry Dems or lieberals with longstanding Daddy or authority issues. You’ll never see the leftist equivalent of CPAC pilloried.
Many others pretend to be “a pox on all their houses” types and are really tiresomely repetitive shills for the GOP.
And we shall know them by their posts. Their endless partisan posts.
‘I’m wondering if this would be a better or a worse investment than Bitcoin swaps?’
The problem with bitcoin is it will not have a Euro version or Russian version or Chinese version. It will be just bitcoin. How can you trade bitcoin on forex ? Against what? Here, you could buy a Big Mac in the USA for so many bitcoins. So could a Chinese guy in China, for the same exact price, off the Peoria, IL local McDonald’s menu board. How he gets that Big Mac to him in China is his problem, but there is no middleman skimming currency fluctuations off of him. Picture bonds being denominated in bitcoin. Could it even happen?
but six years after he took office he has done nothing ??
Arn’t there 3 branches of government that legislate ??
One. Only one of my branches of government legislates.
Which one ??
Um, maybe the legislative branch?
Back to 5th grade Civics class with you…
Um, maybe the legislative branch?
So that branch passes legislation (into law) all by themselves ??
Executive orders are much more efficient ways of legislating.
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2015-02-28 10:07:49
Um, maybe the legislative branch?
Back to 5th grade Civics class with you…
Comment by scdave
2015-02-28 10:41:31
Um, maybe the legislative branch?
So that branch passes legislation (into law) all by themselves ??
Well, no response from you Prime so I guess its;
Back to 5th grade Civics class with you…
Sorry, I was offline for a bit on a hike, just now checking back.
No one “passes legislation (into law)”, as you put it.
Legislating is only done by the legislature; they and only they can “pass legislation”. This is why they are referred to as the “Legislative Branch”. They also are unable to pass _anything_ “into law”, as you appear to have tried to weasel out of your mis-speaking by conflating two different subjects.
The Preident doesn’t legislate. But he and only he can sign legislation into law after it has been passed by the Legislative Branch, meaning Congress.
So, no—back to 5th grade Civics with _you_.
Ronald Reagan did far more with his party having narrow control of one house in his first two years than Obama did with his party having overwhelming control of both houses his first two years. In fact, Ronald Reagan could still pass compromise legislation when his party did not have control of either house. I thank God everyday how incompetent Obama really is as a President. Given the fact on where he wants to go and that he has not ethics or morals to control his means of achieving it, thank God he is incompetent.
We sure missed your political blah, blah, blah during your recent posting hiatus.
US would have been in better shape today had Ray-gun done a lot less in his tenure.
Ronald Reagan did far more with his party having narrow control of one house in his first two years than Obama did ??
But, there is one glaring disadvantage that Obama has as compared to Reagan that he cannot possibly overcome with the people in both houses…He is black…
Ronald Reagan saved this country after carter almost destroyed it we had a real recovery under him not a smoke and mirrors recovery. One year of his recovery increased GDP almost as much as three years of the Obama recovery. Most importantly he won the cold war. Removing the threat of nuclear war and allowing future presidents to cut the defense budget. I am going to work out now so this may be the last post of the day certainly of the morning.
“Ronald Reagan saved this country after carter almost destroyed it we had a real recovery under him not a smoke and mirrors recovery.”
Only a Republican president could get away with setting the nation on a debt-fueled collision course economic disaster yet get credit for creating an economic miracle.
He is black…
No, he’s stupid. That’s the main reason.
we had a real recovery under him not a smoke and mirrors recovery ??
His OMB director adamantly disagrees but, what the hell would he know as compared to you Adan;
After “being taken to the woodshed by the president” due to his candor with Atlantic Monthly’s William Greider, Stockman became concerned with the projected trend of increasingly large federal deficits and the rapidly expanding national debt. On 1 August 1985, he resigned OMB and later wrote a memoir of his experience in the Reagan Administration titled The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed, in which he specifically criticized the failure of congressional Republicans to endorse a reduction of government spending to offset large tax decreases, in order to avoid the creation of large deficits and an increasing national debt
No, he’s stupid ??
Yeah right…A “stupid” statement like that speaks for itself…
“We sure missed your political blah, blah, blah during your recent posting hiatus.”
He’s a regular old spewer. “Spewboy” seems apt.
right…A “stupid” statement like that speaks for itself…
A sycophant like you will never get it.
It’s amazing how many line up to cast the first, or second or third stone at obvious republicans or conservatives.
Only a Republican president could get away with setting the nation on a debt-fueled collision course economic disaster yet get credit for creating an economic miracle.
Reagan added 1.5 trillion to the debt, Obama will have added around 10 trillion, even adjusting for inflation he was not in the same league. As far as Stockman, he is a brilliant economist but a political idiot. As I stated earlier Reagan had to deal with a congress dominated by Democrats, he had to pick his priorities, he wanted lower taxes to spur growth and more defense spending to win the cold war, he could not have done that if he tried to balance the budget since the Democrats would never had gone along. Had he had a Republican Congress, he could have and probably would have done what Stockman wanted.
This blog is a hotbed of liebruhl agitators on a conservative witch hunt. Don’t get fooled by those who claim that they didn’t come here to argue about two party politics.
And how much of the Reagan debt was due to discretional spending and war projects
How much was due to a collapse in tax revenue from the bursting of the biggest property bubble in US history combined with mandated increased spending due to more unemployed people. Let’s throw on some war costs that were not accounted for by the predecessor as well.
To fix Carter’s inflation short term interest rates were well into the double digits during Regan’s presidency actually almost 20% for a short time, much of Reagan’s debt was incurred servicing the national debt, Obama inherited low interest rates.
A sycophant like you will never get it ??
Touched a adolescent nerve I see…When you run out of “stupid”, you resort to personal attack..Laughing at you because I am the polar opposite of what you suggest dude…
Calling stupid is slightly nobler than calling racist. Of course, you wouldn’t know that.
Carter’s inflation, yes the oil embargo had nothing to do with Carter’s inflation. If it was Carter’s inflation you should have seen government spending rise right, it sure didn’t rise to the degree Reagan’s did.
Carter hired Volker knowing that he would raise interest rates to fight inflation. Knowing it would hurt his re election chances. Reagan pulled out the credit card and spent with reckless abandon driving up the national debt.
I think this graph says it all
http://zfacts.com/national-debt-facts
Nobody has bought a depreciating computer in decades!
Do you buy the latest model when it first comes out or wait a few months for the discounts?
You just got fawking pwned.
Seems like there are plenty of lines at the apple store when new phones show up
Not everyone cares more about low prices than have the latest gadget. But plenty of buyers wait for Apple to lower prices either due to knock off competition or because it is about to issue a new model. The point is consumers are more likely to buy when they expect prices to rise significantly and more likely to wait if they think they are going to drop and finding a few exceptions does not change that valid point.
Abdan
Didn’t carter appoint paul Volker who raised interest rates.Tell us how Carter caused the inflation.
Interest rates were cut under Reagan so if anything this was another goose to the economy and yet he still had more debt due to spending.
House Price Slashers Of The Month;
San Francisco, CA Sellers Slash Prices 18% YoY; Desperation Sets In As Buyers Disappear, Inventory Billows
http://www.zillow.com/san-francisco-ca-94117/home-values/
I wanted to say something responding to a comment from someone yesterday. It is a myth that the prisons are full of people serving time for marijuana possession. Simply a myth.
Even when someone is in for pot possession it is usually because it is plea bargain for something much more serious. The police will make an arrest for aggravated assault and while searching the person during the arrest find pot. The prosecutor finds the aggravated assault case is weak, since maybe the victim becomes scared and will not testify so he or she plea bargains with the public defender to just plead guilty on the pot charge. The judge when sentencing will learn the entire situation and the criminal’s past criminal history and give the defendant the maximum for pot possession. There are two few jail cells to fill them with non-violent, criminal record clean pot smokers and very few judges would do it.
two=too
Yes, and those cases where the conviction is for pot possession are very very few.
The prosecutor finds the aggravated assault case is weak,
Frankly, I don’t think we should put people away on a case that is “weak”. Looking for some other justification, and putting them away on that (like mj possession_ when the actual case is a weak assault charge? That seems wrong to me.
It is a myth that the prisons are full of people serving time for marijuana possession.
Supporting data?
You probably made that up. If any of that sort if thing goes on, it’s probably contrary to the ethics rules that judges are supposed to follow.
they are victims of inflation.
prisons are full of people serving time for marijuana possession ??
The prison is not behind the barbed wire fence my friend…The prison, is the criminal record that follows you for the remainder of your life with easy access to the information….
“The prison, is the criminal record that follows you for the remainder of your life with easy access to the information….”
Plus 1
And because you cannot get a good paying job due to this prison record that follows you for the rest of your life you will always be subject to earning meager wages - earning poverty wages - and these poverty wages will force you to live in low income places - poverty places - and thus this will lead people who study numbers to conclude that because so many people who live in poverty have criminal records that it must be poverty that spawns crime rather than the other way around.
+100….
+ moronic.
A misdemeanor doesn’t mean jack for job prospects and to get a felony you ain’t simply possessing.
Thanks however for agreeing with my original statement that the prisons being full of mj possessors is a myth.
and to get a felony you ain’t simply possessing ??
Yeah…Like growing a few plants…Or…You can possess cocaine and its a misdemeanor…On the other hand, you can possess crack cocaine and its a felony…Nice try…
On the other hand, you can possess crack cocaine and its a felony…Nice try
Crack cocaine, crack cocaine? So this is what you use to defend the lie that the jails are full of people locked up for possessing marijuana?
Crack cocaine is pure evil, as is meth and heroin. Even possessing user quantities of these is often bargained down to misdemeanors the first time, unless you have prior criminal history. I got no problem treating hard drugs like the poison they are.
Again, it is a MYTH that the prisons are full of pot possessors.
dont forget is was Black congressmen like Rangel who wanted tougher penalties on crack not white people!
rather than the other way around.
Those who are actually good with numbers will take care to note that they are correlated; those not so good with numbers will assume causation in one direction or the other.
If not full of people in for marijuana possession,
they include people in for possession of cocaine
they include people in for possession of heroine
they include people in for possession of meth
they include prostitutes
they include johns
they include men in for not able to pay child support
they include people in for selling loose cigarettes (or other things - victimless crimes)
- the latter type I have great empathy. What always bugs me is the so-called conservatives who hate the “progressive” laws about cigarette smoking or taxes, and then turn around and lick the boots of the LE that arrest people for violating the “progressives’” laws.
When you become a felon, the label follows you the rest of your life. You cannot rent in most apartment complexes. Businesses have a right to discriminate against you so they won’t hire you.
What’s next? You are up against the wall and you have very little to lose but keep a life of crime. The tougher penalties, instead of deterring crime actually create more of the criminal class, a larger underworld community.
+100 again…
I like Bill and many of his Libertarian voluntaryist positions, but it’s pretty clear to me that he has very very little real world experience with crime, real life criminals or law enforcement.
The NY Times just did an interesting article on the difficulty of trying to move on after acquiring a criminal record (though I definitely think there is much more to a few of the stories they detail)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/business/out-of-trouble-but-criminal-records-keep-men-out-of-work.html?_r=0
I wanted to say something responding to a comment from someone yesterday. It is a myth that the prisons are full of people serving time for marijuana possession. Simply a myth.
Then why have laws criminalizing its possession and use?
Certainly not so we can fill the prisons with them, because that hasn’t happened.
“—those who suffered a foreclosure or short sale between 2007 and 2014—are rapidly approaching, or already past, the seven-year window “conservatively” needed to repair their credit”
——————————————————————————
“conservatively” being the key word because it is happening 3 or 4 years faster than that in at least some cases.
——————————————————————————-
‘Boomerang’ Buyers Set to Surge Back Into Housing Market
Jacob Davidson @JakeD
Jan. 27, 2015
More than 7 million homeowners who suffered a foreclosure or short sale during the housing crisis are poised to become buyers again.
Over the next eight years, nearly 7.3 million Americans who lost their homes in the housing crash will become creditworthy enough to buy again, according to a new analysis.
RealtyTrac, a real estate information company and online marketplace for foreclosed properties, estimates that these “boomerang buyers”—those who suffered a foreclosure or short sale between 2007 and 2014—are rapidly approaching, or already past, the seven-year window “conservatively” needed to repair their credit
time.com/money/3683843/housing-crash-boomerang-buyers/ - 274k -
“… are rapidly approaching, or already past, the seven-year window “conservatively” needed to repair their credit.”
How about their minds? Do their minds get repaired after seven years?
No? Then I’d better get ready to brew up some coffee and wait for the lines to form.
Safe to say that Putin is a megalomaniac and Russia is a gang-state? Putin says Nemtsov’s murder bears all the marks of a contract killing (wink, wink). He quickly takes control of the investigation. Note the rapid global dissemination of the photo of Nemtsov lying dead on the street by Russian media. Message received Mr. Putin, message received.
“Note the rapid global dissemination of the photo of Nemtsov lying dead on the street by Russian media.”
He probably wasn’t dead quite yet. Twitter!
LOL, Putin probably had the camera crew positioned on the bridge beforehand…
CIA killed this man. Putin could have jailed him for no reason for years so Putin has no reason kill tbh. Follow the money….who benefits from this man’s death?
Good interview by CIA operative Anthony Bourdain of the recently assassinated Russian opposition leader, shot down by the Kremlin’s walls on his way to a peaceful protest. Bourdain gives a quick rundown of the many political enemies of Putin that the CIA have conveniently killed for him.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/27/europe/russian-politician-killed/
Can you prove it? That is the standard used by the left on all the Obama scandals. Motive and opportunity would certainly never be enough. Even when combined with strong circumstantial evidence as in the IRS scandals it is not enough to think President for Life Obama did anything wrong. P.S. I think Putin or his close allies most likely had a role but many businessman both pro and anti-Putin have Russian mafia ties so it may have had nothing to do with him and was just a mob hit.
BTW, if Putin ever believed that someone was working with the CIA to undermine Russia they would have a short life expectancy.
If Putin thinks someone is successfully working to undermine his rule they will have a short life expectancy.
‘China’s central bank cut interest rates on Saturday, just days before the annual meeting of the country’s parliament, in the latest effort to support the world’s second-largest economy as its momentum slows and deflation risks rise. The move came four weeks after the bank had lowered the level of cash banks must set aside as reserves, known as the reserve requirement ratio or RRR, leading some to believe the PBOC was growing increasingly worried about deflationary risk.’
‘An article in the central bank’s official newspaper on Feb. 25 had warned that deflationary risks were higher than many thought. “The rate cut happened in the first week after the Lunar New Year holiday, underscoring the government’s hope to boost corporate confidence,” said Li Huiyong, an economist at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities in Shanghai. “Deflation is the top enemy. Only through continuous easing (rate and RRR cuts), we can ease the vicious cycle of economic contraction.”
‘Globally around 20 central banks have eased policy this year to counter deflationary pressures driven in part by the plunge in oil prices.’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-cut-benchmark-interest-rates-105244379.html
It’s a race to the bottom and some call it recovery. LOL
“Globally around 20 central banks have eased policy this year to counter deflationary pressures driven in part by the plunge in oil prices.”
Bahahahahaha … so the same bunch of people that were right there deeply immersed in creating the problem are supposed to fix it?
Bahahahahahahahaha … I love it: A blog that supplies to me a joke or two each and every day.
The global financial system stands on the brink of second credit crisis
The world financial system stands on the brink of a second credit crisis as interbank lending shows increasing risk
Weather: record 110,000 lightning bolts strike during ’superstorms’
The second credit crisis is already unfolding in China
Photo: ALAMY
By John Ficenec
6:57AM GMT 09 Feb 2015
The world economy stands on the brink of a second credit crisis as the vital transmission systems for lending between banks begin to seize up and the debt markets fall over. The latest round of quantitative easing from the European Central Bank will buy some time but it looks like too little too late.
It was the collapse of US house prices back in 2007 that resulted in the seizure of the credit markets and banking crisis of 2008. And it would be easy to lay the blame for the 2008 financial crisis at the doorstep of American home owners, easy but wrong. The collapse of the US housing market was not the cause of the crisis, it was merely a symptom of the more insidious ills of cheap credit, low risk and the promise of another bailout round the corner.
The Keynesian pump priming that has taken place on a colossal scale across the world is failing. The Chinese economy was growing at 12pc in 2010, but that slowed to 7.7pc in 2013 and 7.4pc last year — its weakest in 24 years. Economists expect Chinese growth to slow to 7pc this year. It is the once booming property sector that has turned into a bust, and is now dragging down the wider economy as the bubble deflates.
The second global credit crisis is now already unfolding in China some 6,800 miles away from the epicentre of the first in the US. The bonds of Chinese real estate companies are now falling like dominoes. Kaisa, a Shenzhen-based, Hong Kong-listed developer that raised $2.5bn on international markets had to be bailed out by rival group Sunac last week after it defaulted onits debts. The bonds of other Chinese real estate groups such as Glorious Property and Fantasia have also sold off heavily as the contagion spreads.
Chinese authorities have responded to try and contain the situation. The People’s Bank of China introduced a surprise 50-point cut in the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) from 20pc to 19.5pc. But this misses the point, the credit system in China is completely unsustainable unless new money is printed every year to refinance the old, simply tinkering to ease liquidity won’t cut it.
The strain in its banking system is highlighted by the elevated levels of the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR), which shows Chinese banks are worried about lending to each other.
There is no schadenfreude in watching China unravel. The idea that this is an isolated incident is laughable, remember the very same was said of US subprime. The problem is that banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC have both rapidly increased their lending operations in Asia since 2008.
Loans are very easy to make, it is getting the money back that is tricky. If loans go bad in Asia they will ultimately have to be recognised on the very same group balance sheet from which finance is extended here in the UK. So, the contagion can quickly spread from the Chinese property market to a poorly funded UK bank that has never set foot in Asia. That is because UK banks borrow billions in short term funding from each other. Loan losses in China can very quickly become a UK problem.
The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a guide to how worried UK banks are about lending to each other, has been steadily rising during the past nine months. Part of this process is all a healthy return to normal pricing of risk after six years of extraordinary monetary stimulus. However, as the essential transmission systems of lending between banks begin to take the strain it is quite possible that six years of reliance on central banks for funds has left the credit system unable to cope.
It seems nothing has been learned. The response to the underlying causes of the first global financial collapse, namely cheap debt, low risk and bailouts, has simply been a heroic effort to create cheaper credit, lower risk and even larger bailouts. It hasn’t worked.
A new study reveals the staggering scale of the problem as global debt has ballooned by $57 trillion since 2007 to reach about $200 trillion, according to McKinsey & Co. The main culprits of monetary expansion has been China, which launched a 4 trillion yuan (£386bn) stimulus package, the US Federal Reserve has launched three rounds of QE adding $3.7 trillion worth of assets to its holdings, the Bank of England has spent about £375bn and Japan has increased its asset buying programme to 80 trillion yen (£454bn) a year, up from the previous rate of 60-70 trillion yen.
…
“Loans are very easy to make, …”
I’ll say!
“… it is getting the money back that is tricky.”
That’s why we play Kick The Can.
“It seems nothing has been learned.”
And that’s the beauty of it all.
Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
Bailouts also do nicely when loan repayment is not an option.
Does anyone collect an “origination fee” for a bailout?
Pending home sales jumped to their highest level since August 2013,according to the National Association of Realtors. The group’s Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on contract signings, rose from 102.5 in December to 104.2 in January. That’s well above January 2014’s 96.1 level.
January may have been a weak month for home sales, but it was a strong month for contract signings.
http://m.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/news-wire/2015/02/27/pending-home-sales-at-highest-level-since-2013.html
From the UHS link at this page:
‘Yun also points to more favorable conditions for traditional buyers entering the market. All-cash sales and sales to investors are both down from a year ago, creating less competition and some relief for buyers who still face the challenge of limited homes available for sale.’
“All indications point to modest sales gains as we head into the spring buying season,” says Yun. “However, the pace will greatly depend on how much upward pressure the impact of low inventory will have on home prices. Appreciation anywhere near double-digits isn’t healthy or sustainable in the current economic environment.”
This is the same organization that lied about collapsing demand every month for 4 years straight.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/existing-home-sales-debacle-larry-baghdad-bob-yun-confirms-overstatement
Arizona utility slaps a flat $50 per month tax on new residential solar installations
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/srp-board-votes-to-increase-charges-on-solar-owners/369377/
IMHO the utility (Salt River Project) just slit their own throat. SRP’s theory is that solar owners don’t pay their fair share of operating the grid — there is some truth to that but $50/month seems both too high and arbitrary. Anyway, all this $50/month tax will do is create an incentive for homeowners to go completely off-grid and SRP will then get zero revenue. Currently it’s difficult to go completely off grid but demand is the mother of invention. Watch as industry develops new products to make going off grid more feasible. Disruptive technology, gotta love it!
Six states have feed in tariffs, which make your neighbors pay for your economic foolishness. Arizona does not. Solar systems are profitable, but not for the fools who bought them.
SRP’s theory is that solar owners don’t pay their fair share of operating the grid — there is some truth to that but $50/month seems both too high and arbitrary.
It strikes me as reasonable to want every who is grid-tied to pay a fair share of the costs of grid maintenance.
However, an arbitrary fee on only a portion of the customer base is manifestly unfair; a more reasonable way to go would be to slap a flat fee on EVERY customer. In other words, separate out the cost of energy that flows over the grid from the cost of maintain a grid-tie. That would be a sensible and fair way to go about it.
+1 Exactly. Had such an analysis been made, it would be an odd number, such as $17.38 per customer or something. $50 per month is a round number, which suggests they just made the number up. Seems punitive.
“Seems punitive.”
Indeed. Where’s the public utilities commission?
My bill is broken into the cost grid connection and generation per kilowatt used.
The surcharge on solar users could equally be applied to those who don’t use enough electricity.
Thus the poor college student in a one bedroom should have to pay a 50 dollar a month fee as well.
We should go further and add a tax to purchasing efficient appliances as well and give the proceeds to the utility.
Let’s just take the next step and assume that all people use electricity in one way or another and have them tax each individual for being alive and send that money to the utility.
Same goes for gas food and water. People who have gardens should be taxed. And when is the air utility going to get their fair share.
Every residential address M-U-S-T purchase garbage service even the snow-birds while in another state. Seems like the county could just add the expense to the property taxes and eliminate the garbage company’s billing department?
Cotango hoarding is quickly exhausting itself as an arbitrage strategy.
One problem the hoarders face is that the more successful they are at taking supply off the market in order to hoard it, the more they drive up the price, which has the dual effect of narrowing the gap between the future price and the spot price, plus stimulating more production. And a production increase in the face of collapsed demand increases the rate at which the supply glut increases. Pretty soon you run out of closets to hoard the stuff!
Oil Markets
Oil Storage Sinks as Price Bobs
Storing oil in tanker ships is becoming less profitable amid heightened volatility
An oil tanker berths at a storage terminal on Jurong Island in Singapore on March 1, 2012. Photo: Bloomberg News
By Eric Yep
Feb. 26, 2015 11:51 p.m. ET
SINGAPORE—Fewer oil tankers are being used to store crude than traders and shipbrokers had expected at the start of the year, as a recent run-up in oil prices upended a popular trading strategy.
“There were around 25 to 30 large tankers taken last month, but only around 10 of these are being used for oil storage now,” a Singapore-based shipbroker said, citing industry data.
Many market watchers had expected big commodity-trading firms to capitalize on the price gap between different oil-futures contracts by buying physical barrels, storing them on ships and locking in profits by selling futures contracts for delivery further out in the future. When the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, sank below $50 a barrel in mid-January, its price for delivery in January 2016 was more than $60 a barrel.
But this month’s rally—Brent crude is up around 16% so far in February and is 32% higher than its 2015-low in mid-January—has made the bet less attractive. The difference between current prices and the price of Brent for delivery in about a year has narrowed from more than $10 to around $6 a barrel.
“Demand for oil tankers [for storage] is now minimal compared to the flurry we saw a few weeks ago,” the Singapore shipbroker said. “The evidence is that a number of shipowners are pushing to get their ships chartered for storage but there are no takers.”
The diminishing profitability of a highly touted trading tactic highlights the challenges traders face at time of heightened volatility in the oil market.
Traders looking to reap profits from the strategy first turn to tanks on land to store oil, because the costs to store there are cheaper. Leasing tankers is more expensive and can be justified only when the price gap is relatively wide and tanker rates are low, Mark Keenan, head of Asian commodities research at Société Générale, said in a recent report.
“To justify the more expensive floating storage, the economics need to work out,” Mr. Keenan said.
Many of the ships that oil traders had leased for several months are back on the market or are already sailing at sea, shipbrokers said.
However, traders said they are now looking out for another opportunity to lay down wagers that involve storing oil. Some traders say they expect oil prices in the front month to fall again in the second quarter, due to the persistent oil glut in global markets, causing the price gap between near-term and long-term contracts to widen again.
“We could be looking at a dead-cat bounce in oil,” a trader said, referring to a market pattern in which prices briefly recover after a sharp drop before resuming their downward slide.
In recent trade, Brent crude was up 79 cents, or 1.3%, at $60.84 a barrel, supported by an outage at a Libyan oil field. U.S. crude oil was recently 1.4% higher at $48.85 a barrel.
Crude-oil storage capacity in developed countries, where storage data are more transparent, was already around 80% full at the end of December, according to SocGen’s estimates.
“Demand for tanker-based storage is going to be there,” a trader said. “But you can lose a lot of money if you don’t play it right.”
…
You do realize that your present posts are both contrary to your weeks of posts and internally inconsistent? You have insisted for weeks that the increasing oil prices were due to hoarding. However, one of your present posts states:
“There were around 25 to 30 large tankers taken last month, but only around 10 of these are being used for oil storage now,” a Singapore-based shipbroker said, citing industry data.”
Thus, it is clear due to the rising prices and the decrease in contango more oil is not going into storage. The reason oil is going up is that there never was a glut only a small surplus. This was largely wiped out due to instability in Libya (thanks Obama and Hillary). The increase in crude stocks in the U.S. is due to a refinery strike and largely offset by decreasing products in storage. The gap between WTI and Brent grows everyday. It will close as soon as the refinery strike ends. It will close more due to rising WTI than dropping Brent due to 80% of oil demand now being outside the U.S. The increased product exports from the U.S. will only cause a small drop in Brent prices.
You completely missed the point of my post and distorted it to boot. Par for the course, I suppose.
I told you your posts had internal inconsistency, I know you wanted to use them to argue that contango would soon end but the paragraph I cited showed that the post contradicted that assertion. Moreover, they lack key facts so storage is 80% full what was it two months ago, 78% full? I would think that 80% full would not be too far from the norm, why build excess capacity much above that, it ties up land and increases your property taxes and is expensive to build?
As long as oil price stays down, you are screwed and the rest of us are not.
It is not staying down and that is working out quite well for me. Actually, if BHI gets above 72.5 before January 2016, the extra money will go to the option holders any way (some options at 67.5) so $80 a barrel is more than I need. I have picked up some SU after the crash so I will still make some money with a bigger move but not nearly as much as I make on BHI.
“The increase in crude stocks in the U.S. is due to a refinery strike and largely offset by decreasing products in storage.”
“refinery strike”
Interestingly (and a bit off topic) there was a recent work slowdown at the ports brought about by a dispute between longshoremen and port authorities and this dispute happened at the time of a ..
… of a slowdown, a slowdown in business activity, just as the refinery strike is associated with a slowdown in business activity, and this makes my conspiracy-around-every-corner-mind think of …
Conspiracy!
Q. Are there many strikes and slowdowns during boom times or do most of them happen after the boom comes to an end?
My rapidly-fading memory of history recalls few boom-time strikes but lots of bust-time strikes. Which makes sense because who wants to be out of work on a strike during a boom when there is so much money to be made? But if there is a work slowdown THEN if might be beneficial to some PTB people to have the workers walk out on their own (as in call a strike) rather than being forced out.
Anyway … food for thought.
There is an old Russian saying about having war only in the wintertime. There’s too much work to do on the farm in the summer.
My tin foil hat theory is that the strikes are being organized by the gov and used to drive up prices and drive down demand to keep a lid on oil prices. This to further pressure Russia and Iran.
“My tin foil hat theory is that the strikes are being organized by the gov and used to drive up prices and drive down demand to keep a lid on oil prices.”
Yep. Obama clearly is spiking oil prices.
Comment by MightyMike
2015-02-27 16:32:32
President Obama’s failed “Stimulus”
That’s a good one. A group of professors in the nation’s top economics departments were asked this question:
Because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate was lower at the end of 2010 than it would have been without the stimulus bill.
Ninety-eight percent said that they either agreed or strongly agreed with that assertion.
http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_5bfARfqluG9VYrP
——————————————————————————-
Checked just one name from the ruling elite group of professors in the nation’s top economics departments of which 98% Strongly Agree that benefits of the Porkulus Plan will end up exceeding its costs and big surprise, it is one of two key Obama health-care advisers—David Cutler of Harvard.
He and Jonathan Gruber “call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever” of MIT—proposed that Obama privatize the Medicare program as part of the negotiations surrounding the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission in 2010.
————————————————————————
Question B: Taking into account all of the ARRA’s economic consequences — including the economic costs of raising taxes to pay for the spending, its effects on future spending, and any other likely future effects — the benefits of the stimulus will end up exceeding its costs.
David Cutler Harvard Strongly Agree
——————————————————————————
Top Obama Advisers Proposed Voucherizing Medicare Way Back in…2010?
Avik Roy , Forbes Staff
9/13/2012 @ 1:38AM 4,559 views
Meghan McCarthy of National Journal obtained internal White House emails documenting that two key Obama health-care advisers—David Cutler of Harvard and Jonathan Gruber of MIT—proposed that Obama privatize the Medicare program as part of the negotiations surrounding the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission in 2010, in ways that were well to the right of what Mitt Romney has proposed.
http://www.forbes.com/…/ - 129k - Cached - Similar pages
Sep 13, 2012
Obama’s stimulus faltered because out of $840 billion only $105 billion went to physical infrastructure construction. The stimulus was too small and it had the wrong mix of funding categories. If you want to restore this country to greatness in the long run we need to go big and invest heavily in aging infrastructure — dams, airports, bridges, water treatment, sewage treatment, internet fiber to the home, replacing decrepit schools. Price tag: $3 trillion and climbing.
… sorry, meant to be a reply to phony scandals
There is no utilization and you’re quoting ASCE.
Fail.
“If you want to restore this country to greatness in the long run we need to go big and invest heavily in aging infrastructure — dams, airports, bridges, water treatment, sewage treatment, internet fiber to the home, replacing decrepit schools.”
And these much-needed capital expenditures will employee a lot of people but as soon as these employed people get their paychecks they will flood into stores and buy up everything in sight and if everything in sight is manufactured somewhere else then the money these newly-employed people earn will end up landing in the land of Somewhere Else which means - in the long run - the people who will benefit the most will be the people that live in the land of Somewhere Else.
In order to get the money to stay here the stuff people buy needs to be manufactured here. Which is something that uses to happen but then this Globalization thingy sprung into being.
Won’t the robots soon take care of the things being manufactured here problem?
“Won’t the robots soon take care of the things being manufactured here problem?”
Speaking of robots, from China Daily:
China will have more robots operating in its production plants by 2017 than any other country as it cranks up automation of its car and electronics factories, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) said on Thursday.
Already the biggest market in the $9.5 billion global robot trade — or $29 billion including associated software, peripherals and systems engineering — China lags far behind its more industrialised peers in terms of robot density.
China has just 30 robots per 10,000 workers employed in manufacturing industries, compared with 437 in South Korea, 323 in Japan, 282 in Germany and 152 in the United States.
But a race by carmakers to build plants in China along with wage inflation that has eroded the competitiveness of Chinese labour will push the operational stock of industrial robots to more than double to 428,000 by 2017, the IFR estimates.
“Companies are forced to invest ever more in robots to be more productive and raise quality,” said Gudrun Litzenberger, general secretary of the Frankfurt-based IFR.
“In the current phase it’s the auto industry, but in the next two or three years it will be driven by the electronics industry,” she said.
Japanese robot makers still have the lion’s share of the market, with about 60 percent, but Chinese suppliers are growing fast, with about a quarter of the market. Most of the rest are supplied by European and US manufacturers.
Four foreign robot makers — Switzerland’s ABB, Germany’s Kuka, and Japan’s Yaskawa and Fanuc — already have production sites in China and more are expected to follow.
“The automation of China’s production plants has just started,” said Per Vegard Nerseth, Managing Director of ABB Robotics. “We have witnessed swift, almost explosive growth over the last two or three years, surpassing even our expectations.”
The automotive industry is by far the largest customer for robots in China, accounting for about 40 percent of robots in operation, as China is both the world’s biggest car market and its biggest production site.
European carmakers such as Volkswagen and Daimler which have invested heavily in China are bringing their robotics suppliers with them, Litzenberger said.
The electronics industry is expected to follow.
Manufacturing giant Foxconn, which makes Apple iPhones and iPads among other products, is already making its own Foxbot robots as well as using robots bought from other suppliers.
Hard to see how the rise of robotics benefits the most populous country on earth.
Hard to see how the rise of robotics benefits the most populous country on earth.
Really, it allows them to raise wages and stay competitive with India.
If you want to restore this country to greatness in the long run we need to go big and invest heavily in aging infrastructure — dams, airports, bridges, water treatment, sewage treatment, internet fiber to the home, replacing decrepit schools.”
Read your quote not one word of encouraging manufacturing directly such as lower corporate taxes. While what it is suggesting is better than food stamps and Obama phones if you don’t encourage manufacturing here directly the money earned building these items will be spent on Chinese goods and we will have even more government debt without an income stream from the businesses. Yes, we will have the infrastructure businesses need but not the tax structure. Have you notice that China is doing both, they are cutting taxes and creating infrastructure but not creating massive entitlement plans which are just transferring money from one person to another. The EITC may be one of the better ones but it is still wrong. If businesses cannot generate adequate wages to pay their workers it is due to two reasons (1) too much labor (2) too little profit per worker to generate money to pay adequate wages
Thus, close the border and end EITC, SNAP for the able bodied, and lower corporate taxes.
adequate value added not adequate wages
In short, repeal all the great society programs and spend all the money on infrastructure, it would be consistent with the U.S. Constitution and good economics.
Yes let’s get those 80 year olds off their lazy buts taking social security and set them to work building dams great idea.
Social Security was not a Great Society program. Moreover, both Social Security and Medicare were sold to Americans as insurance with people paying “premiums”, thus they are not like the Great Society programs which do not require any contribution by the person receiving the benefits. There is a good argument to allow people to opt out of the systems and to phase them out for future generations but equity does not favor changing the rules after people have been contributing for decades.
I see a lot of freeloaders around here trying to claim they cant work.
They can work but they dont have any skills except laboring.
Medicare was part of the Great Society. Some of the federal student loan programs were also part of the Great Society.
“They can work but they dont have any skills except laboring.”
That’s it right there! Unfortunately labor is highly portable and globally universal, so regulations and unions aside it is a competitive world out there.
“Obama’s stimulus faltered because out of $840 billion only $105 billion went to physical infrastructure construction.”
Obama’s donors after his stimulus passed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn1PvUz4zk4 - 292k -
Comrades for Net Neutrality
by John Fund February 26, 2015 1:00 PM
The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet
Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body.
“Net neutrality’s goal is to empower the federal government to ration and apportion Internet bandwidth as it sees fit, and to thereby control the Internet’s content,” says Phil Kerpen, an anti-net-neutrality activist from the group American Commitment.
The courts have previously ruled the FCC’s efforts to impose “net neutrality” out of bounds, so the battle isn’t over. But for now, the FCC has granted itself enormous power to micromanage the largely unrestrained Internet.
Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration teamed up with Internet pioneers to promote a hands-off approach to the new industry and keep it free from discriminatory taxation. Many still prefer that policy. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab and the charity One Laptop Per Child, says that net neutrality “doesn’t make sense” because “the truth is, not all bits [of data] are created equal.”
Will Marshall, head of the Progressive Policy Institute (which was once a favorite think tank of Clinton Democrats), issued a statement that net neutrality “endorses a backward-looking policy that would apply the brakes to the most dynamic sector of America’s economy.”
But such voices have been drowned out by left-wing activists who want to manage the Internet to achieve their political objectives. The most influential of these congregate around the deceptively named Free Press, a liberal lobby co-founded in 2002 by Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor.
His goals have always been clear. “At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies,” he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. “But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.” Earlier in 2000, he told the Marxist magazine Monthly Review: “Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism.” When I interviewed him in 2010, he admitted he is a socialist and said he was “hesitant to say I’m not a Marxist.”
In essence, what McChesney and his followers want is an Unfree Press — a media world that promotes their values. “To cast things in neo-Marxist terms that they could appreciate, they want to take control of the information means of production,” says Adam Therier of the blog TechLiberation.
Certainly McChesney seems blind to the dangers of media control on the left. In 2007, he co-authored a remarkable survey of the media under Hugo Chávez’s already clearly thuggish regime in Venezuela: “Aggressive, unqualified political dissent is alive and well in the Venezuelan mainstream media, in a manner few other democratic nations have ever known, including our own.”
Despite his astonishingly radical goals, McChesney’s Free Press group was able to leverage foundation cash and academic “research” into an influential force behind net neutrality. Julius Genachowski, President Obama’s first FCC chairman, hired Free Press’s Jen Howard as his press secretary. The FCC’s chief diversity officer, Mark Lloyd, has co-authored a Free Press report demanding regulation of political talk radio. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan cited research from Free Press and other left-wing groups backing net neutrality more than 50 times.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414483/comrades-net-neutrality-john-fund
radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet.
Yes it would be much better if Comcast could control things. Say they have a housing blog they want to get off the ground and don’t like Ben’s message. They start there blog and then slow Ben’s service or they charge him so much he can’t compete. It’s no different than allowing a corporation to tax road travel. Say Sam’s store is making a lot of money. Suddenly there is large toll road to get to Sams and the road quality goes to hell. Meanwhile Rex owner of the road company builds a new shiny building selling everything that Sam did right before you get to the toll road. Now it doesn’t matter if Sam ran a better business or offered a superior product his company is going to go out of business.
This statement is just ridiculous.
“Net neutrality’s goal is to empower the federal government to ration and apportion Internet bandwidth as it sees fit, and to thereby control the Internet’s content,” says Phil Kerpen, an anti-net-neutrality activist from the group American Commitment
As far as I know net neutrality says a few monopolistic companies can’t apportion internet bandwidth as they see fit for their profit. It puts all content providers on an even playing field. The fact that anyone would be against it’s general premise is mind boggling.
“As far as I know net neutrality says a few monopolistic companies can’t apportion internet bandwidth as they see fit for their profit.”
Did you get to read the 332 page internet regulations?
FCC still refuses to release 332 page internet regulations before adopting them Thursday
The FCC, under the leadership of former lobbyist Tom Wheeler (appointed by Obama after he donated a whopping $38,500 to Obama’s campaigns), is poised to adopt a government takeover of the internet, cleverly named “net neutrality.” The new regulations would, according to the one person out there who has read them and is speaking publicly, subject the internet to heavy taxation and place severe limits on competition and 1st Amendment rights.
Remember how this worked out with Obamacare? Obama told the American people, “If you like your plan you can keep it.” That turned out to be one of the biggest lies in American political history. How can we expect much less from the FCC if they aren’t even accountable to the voters?
The FCC is scheduled to vote on the regulations on Thursday and has no plans to release them to the public before doing so. It’s time for action.
poorrichardsnews.com/…/111963494038/fcc-still-refuses-to-release-332-page-internet - 130k -
I already know I’m getting F’d by the broadband providers.
Allowing them to create fast and slow lanes is worse than a tax.It will squash competition and destroy innovation and turn the internet into Cable. You can purchase this package and view this set of sites for free. If you go outside of this you will pay a big fine or get broken slow internet speeds.
It’s clear that they have made massive profits yet we have piss poor service and internet speeds compared to many other countries that pay far less than we do. We rank near the bottom
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24528383
You are supporting a system of monopolies that operate behind closed doors stripping you of your wealth and wishing to deprive you of choice and opportunity.
You worry about a bill that hasn’t been passed no being published. Yet you want these corporations in charge that have no freedom of information act and operate in secret to a much higher degree.
“You worry about a bill that hasn’t been passed no being published. Yet you want these corporations in charge that have no freedom of information act and operate in secret to a much higher degree.”
It was passed without 332 pages of regulations being released. How’s that for freedom of information and where have we seen that before.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-net-neutrality-fcc-ajit-pai-tom-wheeler-20150210-story.html
8 pages of the 332 are the rules regarding net neutrality.
It’s standard practice to release the notes after they are voted on. Not saying I agree with it, but it’s no conspiracy.
Bottom line - Without net neutrality rules we have more expensive and worse service than most of the other developed countries and telecoms were gearing up to put in toll roads so only established companies could compete.
Mission accomplished for the Fed. Stock markets and speculative bubbles pushed higher, thanks to the provision of $3 trillion in free gambling money for the .1%, while the real economy is in a terminal nose dive.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2015/02-overflow/20150227_macro_1.jpg
are people simply buying these overpriced assets to hand off to the next guy?
What’s US Macro?
Do you think realtors are liars?
At first it seems mind boggling to think of all the permutational effects of what is wrong with the economy until you think - debt.
Debt has encouraged gambling which has created bubbles (nobody really wants to sell for less than they paid - but they are quite willing to overpay to get “it”).
Taxing capital gains at full rates would get rid of most of these gamblers.
A new gambler has emerged - the one who is chancing that he will sell just as the bubble turns down - and he is the one who is holding the stock bubble up. He knows it will break, but he figures he can move faster than the market can.
I sure miss Robin Williams…
Robin Williams! Destroys President Bush
Europe
Fear Envelops Russia After Killing of Putin Critic Boris Nemtsov
By ANDREW E. KRAMERFEB. 28, 2015
A Russian woman visited the spot where Boris Y. Nemtsov, a critic of the Kremlin, was shot to death in Moscow.
Credit Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
MOSCOW — About two weeks before he was shot and killed in the highest-profile political assassination in Russia in a decade, Boris Y. Nemtsov met with an old friend to discuss his latest research into what he said was dissembling and misdeeds in the Kremlin.
He was, as always, pugilistic and excited, saying he wanted to publish the research in a pamphlet to be called “Putin and the War,” about President Vladimir V. Putin and Russian involvement in the Ukraine conflict, recalled Yevgenia Albats, the editor of New Times magazine. Both knew the stakes.
Mr. Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, knew his work was dangerous but tried to convince her that, as a former high official in the Kremlin, he enjoyed immunity, Ms. Albats said.
“He was afraid of being killed,” Ms. Albats said. “And he was trying to convince himself, and me, they wouldn’t touch him because he was a member of the Russian government, a vice premier, and they wouldn’t want to create a precedent. Because as he said, one time the power will change hands in Russia again, and those who served Putin wouldn’t want to create this precedent.”
Russians created a memorial to opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov on Saturday at the site of his death in central Moscow. A number of theories have begun to circulate on how he was killed. Credit Sergei Ilnitsky/European Pressphoto Agency
On Saturday, it was still not clear who was responsible for killing Mr. Nemtsov. Some critics of the Kremlin accused the security services of responsibility, while others floated the idea of rogue Russian nationalists on the loose in Moscow.
The authorities said they were investigating several theories about the crime, some immediately scorned as improbable, including the possibility that fellow members of the opposition had killed Mr. Nemtsov to create a martyr. Mr. Putin, for his part, vowed in a letter to Mr. Nemtsov’s mother to bring to justice those responsible.
As supporters of Mr. Nemtsov laid flowers on the sidewalk where he was shot and killed late Friday, a shiver of fear moved through the political opposition in Moscow.
The worry was that the killing would become a pivot point toward a revival of lethal violence among the leadership elite in Moscow and an intensified climate of fear in Russian domestic politics.
“Another terrible page has been turned in our history,” Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the exiled former political prisoner, wrote in a statement about the killing.
“For more than a year now, the television screens have been flooded with pure hate for us,” he wrote of the opposition to Mr. Putin. “And now everyone from the blogger at his apartment desk to President Putin, himself, is searching for enemies, accusing one another of provocation. What is wrong with us?”
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phony scandals
More phony scandals